Guy Berger

No. The opposite is probably true, this is a minority opinion.

Thanks guys! I'm getting on in years!

OK, I finally listened to this for the first time! (Gradually working my way through a huge backlog.) Wow, this is fantastic!!! Highly recommended.

I saw Magma at a ProgFest festival in the mid-90s. I remember that this was quite an event among progheads - they hadn't played in the US for a long time, maybe ever. I also had (have?) a few of their albums. I remember thinking they were OK. The mythology/vocals were a little too silly for my tastes. Haven't heard any of the other zeuhl bands except for Happy Family (the self-titled album): http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/happyfamily.html . Fun thrashy first track, the rest of the album is eh.

I thought shake shack was pretty average, though I suppose compared to McDonald's it's a delicacy.

I guess I missed this thread the first time around, but I think BBF is a good one. It was actually a little more straight-ahead then I expected - closer to freebop than skronkfest.

:o :o This is something you should rectify quickly! I like this one too.

Yup. "The Voyage" is classic. His experimentation definitely lifted the band's albums beyond the routine, though I'd also add that he wasn't the band's best songwriter and perhaps a more Pinder-dominated band would have been more boring.

Lee Konitz + Brad Mehldau Trio - Brad Mehdau

Herbie Hancock did in the early 70s (you can hear it on Crossings, Sextant and Jewel in the Lotus), as has John Medeski.

WHAT? Wind & Wuthering is a brilliant album. Beautiful writing and lyricism on that record. Ditto for And Then There Were Three... And Duke is probably the most underrated Genesis album of all time (and their last true prog record). Genesis was still making good prog into the early 80s. W&W has some great stuff on it and also some less than great stuff (middle of the album). I think the album is overpowered with keyboards, and that And Then There Were Three suffers from that problem even more (as well as the problem of fairly average writing). I agree that Abacab and Duke are very good albums (prog or not; also, lots of fantastic non-album tracks from this period - "You Might Recall", "Paperlate"), particularly as Phil's growing participation gave what was fairly zombified songwriting a shot in the arm. But I think almost all of these fine British prog bands were on a general downslope after 1975, if not sooner.

No doubt. My comment was based entirely on an utterly absurd hypothetical scenario where Lion was a philanthropist was constrained in time and recording costs, but indifferent to album sales.

There's an interview with trumpeter Ron Horton where he says I think that kind of applies to Hank, too. Both of these guys were fairly consistent - I have all (or almost all) of HM's BN albums from 1955 through 1967, and I can't think of a weak one in the bunch - but I sometimes wonder whether I should have allocated some of my music-buying (and listening time) resources to another artist. That's my opinion about Alfred Lion's decision to record him so much too - it was a pretty good use of studio time and money, but I wouldn't have minded at least some of it getting reallocated to other, underrecorded artists of the time.

I liked it, but not quite as some others - definitely lost focus near the end. Later shows (THE WIRE, MAD MEN) probably improved on the highbrow-cable-drama thing, but "standing on the shoulders of giants", etc

I think this one is pretty boring though it has its moments. I say this as someone who likes much of KJ's music and also a lot of freely improved music.

I've been enjoying this album a lot - it's truly awesome - but it's fun to play the 1st track back to back with "Yesternow" from disc 4 of the MD Cellar Door box. After Gary Bartz, this was probably the next step!

Mostly different. The ECM box includes these four albums: 1. Conception Vessel (1972, ECM - mixed ensembles) 2. Tribute (1974, ECM) 3. Dance (1977, ECM - trio with Brackeen and Izenzon) 4. Le Voyage (1979, ECM - trio with Brackeen and Jenny Clark) Then the group with Frisell and Lovano gets started, albums dispersed on both labels: 5. Psalm (1981, ECM, add Billy Drewes and Ed Schuller) 6. The Story of Maryam (1983, Soul Note, with Jim Pepper and Schuller) 7. Jack of Clubs (1984, Soul Note, with Pepper and Schuller) 8. It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago (1985, ECM, trio only) 9. Misterioso (1986, Soul Note, with Pepper and Schuller) 10. One Time Out (1987, Soul Note, trio only) 1-4 sound quite distinct from the later albums due to different personnel. Within 5-10, the different production values of ECM and Soul Note give the albums a different vibe. Anyway, I also recently picked up the ECM box. I've had four of the albums in this box (1, 2, 3, 5) but wanted 4 & 6 (I've heard a few tracks apiece from these two). Of the ones I've heard separately, Tribute is definitely my favorite. Dance was a bit of a disappointment, quite restrained. And Psalm is a fun listen but the Soul Note quintet albums are better IMHO.

OK, so I got around to reading the initial post and I'd add "...with a hefty dose of pseudo-intellectual wankery."

I somehow missed the initial "controversy", but this seems to boil down to "(jealous/bitter?) idiot says something idiotic."

I recall reading an interview (with Motian?) where it was mentioned that Keith J was shocked at how much Motian swung on that date given that much of his 70s playing with Keith didn't swing, at least in a traditional sort of way. (Though "Shades of Jazz" swings pretty hard...) As far as the trio, I have over a dozen of their discs. I like them (not as much as the 70s groups) but am not sure if I need to hear any more of them. Generally I prefer their bebop playing so Whisper Not is my fave whereas I am lukewarm on Still Live.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Red Wedding!

I just recently listened to Flux & Change, the duo album with Paul Motian. I had never heard EP before and was very pleasantly surprised - I was expecting a wimpy Bill Evans disciple but he's a lot gritter than that!

I think I can recommend The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts. I'm about halfway through right now; a real page-turner; can't wait to see how it comes out. Bruce's snark aside, I agree with him, it's a very good book.

I find them both (Seger, Miller) to be pleasant and harmless. Scott's description seems on target to me. Though I have to emphatically disagree with him on 70s Miles, a personal fave.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Court of the Red Tsar Manias Panics and Crashes, Charles P. Kindleberger Richard Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany Mark Kishlansky's history of Stuart-era Britain An interesting one I read recently (annotated edition recommended) is Edward Levefre's thinly disguised biography of Jesse Livermore, Reminscences of a Stock Operator And I am currently enjoying Ira Katznelson's Fear Itself (a history of Congressional politics during the New Deal & WW2 era)