Guy Berger

I've been working my way through Blythe's Columbia albums via the 2 BGO reissues. LENOX AVENUE BREAKDOWN is easily the best of the 5 albums I've heard so far, though they're all worthy. One question: the track that opens ILLUSIONS, "Bush Baby", sounds a heck of a lot like the music Miles Davis was making in the mid-1970s with the Pete Cosey band. Is this a case of influence, or convergent evolution?

underrated album!

Some gross stuff spilling out into the open within this thread

Perfectly stated.

yeah. though once you look past shock value, i'd say that some of the most awful offenses described in the piece are described by people who didn't agree to be interviewed

More generally I loved the interview...

Zoom in on a map and there are always new, interesting geographical details to be discovered, but you probably won't find new continents

Let me reword my question - If you were going to invest record company $$$ in more WR reissues with an eye to maximize ROI, is this box set what it would look like? Is there still a lot of demand for recordings from the MR GONE or NIGHT PASSAGE period? I have no idea, but one thing for sure, that demand has shrunk a lot more than demand for recordings from the SWEETNIGHTER or BODY ELECTRIC periods (though given a higher base, maybe there's still more hunger for live versions of "Young and Fine").

So I'm not sure I would make this argument in those words. But yes, I think people who are pretty deep into one corner of something will tend to overestimate how meaningful variation/details within that corner are to the world at large.

So here's a serious question. 35 years ago, maybe even as recently as 20 years ago, the audience of people defined by "I like Weather Report" preferred the group's Jaco Pastorius period. People that preferred earlier work were almost certainly a minority. A WR archival release program, if it had been around then, would have thought the 1978-81 "legendary live tapes" to be a no-brainer. As the group fades into history, is that still be the case? Or does whoever is in charge of the WR reissue program have a misconceived notion of what the fanbase looks like? Maybe the fanbase has atrophied/matured into "music geeks who like esoteric, retro music + people who like flashy bass players"

We should rebrand energy music as "the old thing"

100% agreed

So sure. But I think you could say this for pretty much every style. I think it's pretty clear that Wynton Marsalis for instance, was also exploring directions in which the art form can/will go. Even mature art forms - whether straight-ahead or free or whatever - aren't necessarily creatively exhausted.

RIP. A giant. I discovered a lot of his music over the past two years.

This is the show released officially as BLACK BEAUTY

There are 2 recordings from March 1970 (1 released officially) 4 recordings from April 1970 (1 released official) 4 recordings from June 1970 (all released officially) 3 recordings from October 1970 (none released officially) 1 recording from May 1971 (not released officially)

@HutchFan, thanks for the recommendation on the UsFive stuff. I haven't picked up any Lovano-led stuff that post-dates JOYOUS ENCOUNTER (Jones/Mraz/Motian) but maybe time to reopen the wallet. As I stated during many years ago up-thread, I like the guy's playing a lot though I am not a Lovano nut. He tends to be an asset to most recordings where he is present, especially ones where the other musicians would otherwise be too "sweet" or "slick"

I agree they weren't rehashing, but there was a strong "retro" intention to Ware's music that it shares with Marsalis's music.

What do folks think about the album with Bunky Green? A little relentless but I found myself enjoying it a lot.

100% agreed with the gist of this

I suspect if you told a recently-converted jazz fan that there were intensely polarizing “Wynton Wars” 35 years ago (or even 20 years ago), you’d provoke some confusion over why someone with ultimately minor significance generated so much heat. (That is, if the fan even knew who he was...)

RIP

Gotta pick some of these and the Cookers’ up

This is an odd way to characterize sexual assault and rape

My sense is that organizations, independent of political affiliation, are becoming less tolerant of this kind of thing which is a positive development. Weinstein, the Fox News folks, President Trump, Uber, Cosby... it's good this is all getting exposed. Hopefully in the future accountability will happen sooner.