Guy Berger

Listened to this for the first time this morning. WOW. Highly recommended to fans of early 70s Miles, early Weather Report, Priester's Love Love, etc.

Whatever else you do, don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.

I've been doing a lot of reading on the train. One book I just finished and loved is Simon Sebag Montefiore's "Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar": I guess I am in an inter-war mood - I am currently about halfway through Kafka's "The Trial", and after that I have Richard Evans's "Rise of the Third Reich" on deck. I love the kindle!

Digging through my massive backlog of never-listened-to CDs and got to this one over the past week. I like it, and Konitz's playing on it. But Haden is so low in the mix, it's ridiculous. Mehldau doesn't bother me on this as much as he bothers others on this thread, though I agree that another pianist would probably have been better.

Jon, can you clarify - amazon says they have none in stock right now. Do you mean you just sent them some and they should have it in stock soon? Guy

STOOPID question. I sat on my butt and haven't purchased this yet? Are all 1,500 copies sold already?!?! Which vendors still have it in stock?

For what it's worth, there are 2 sets of this quintet from Paris (11/3/69) that have some of the best music they ever made. Worth seeking out. Guy

Our puppy, Henry, got bitten by another dog this AM while my girlfriend was walking him. She took Henry to get stitches on his ear and I am sure he'll be alright, but it's a little upsetting. This makes me re-evaluate bringing Henry to the local dog park. (Even though he wasn't bitten there.) We started taking him there and some of the dogs can be a little rough. About a week ago he was attacked by a boxer who fortunately didn't puncture any skin. Otherwise Henry is doing great. He's a generally well-behaved pup who likes to play with other dogs (though he is very particular about who he wants to play with) and loves saying hello to people. He found his first experience with snow to be extremely excited but is still scared of large objects (such as the floor lamp we installed yesterday) and large plastic bags. Guy

I found this great interview with Robin Kelley in which he addresses this topic:

Someone on this board once noted Jackie's debt to Dexter as a player - that was a major epiphany to me as a listener.

I need to check those out for sure. Guy

I wasn't expecting too much from this album based on the other pre-Dewey KJ albums I've heard, but this one is by far the best I've heard. The combo of Jarrett, Burton, and Sam Brown is great! Really strong compositions too. The Burton album it's coupled with, Throb, is also really good. What a pleasant surprise. I really need to check out more Burton on the basis of this one. Guy

Nica's Tempo has the Monk-Gryce session with Gallop's Gallop, Brake's Sake and Shuffle Boil - this is absolutely essential for Monk fans, absolutely essential. Guy

Anybody able to answer this question? Is "Rotation" identical to the Impulse box or did they restore the LP version?

I don't share Dan's feelings about Jackie's "adult" phase, but I did smile at his analogy. Guy

This looks great. Is there a reason why the session with Monk is not on the set?

I really liked this book. A lot of it DID go over my head, but large chunks of it didn't and it definitely increased my appreciation and understanding of the music. In particular, his discussion of how the quintet tackled form was extremely insightful to me. I also really liked the discussion of the 1968 recordings - these seem to get short shrift in the bios I've read, aside from their importance as transitions between post-bop and jazz-rock. It's too bad he didn't continue the book into 1969 because a lot of interesting analysis could have been done on that too.

Reading this now. I like it. It's a little too detail-oriented for my taste about Monk's early life, but I'm glad that info is there. Looking forward to later chapters. One part that made me chuckle was Monk's high school essay on improvements in stove technology. "Oh, happy survivors."

Just picked up the Kindle edition. Looking forward to reading this, hope it won't be completely over my head.

Along with the horrible murder spree at the rock quarry, not a good day for Cupertino. Guy

Up! Now listening to Dance of the Drunken Master. A fun album to listen to - nothing too heavy. I'm not even sure it isn't smooth jazz.

I'm 5 years late to the party and have listened to only #3 so far, but have to say it has exceeded my expectations. I realize the Oct 67 session is a bit of a mess but the musicians involved are so good it fails only in comparison to what could have been. Honestly, I like it better than "Change" (but may eventually re-evaluate. Guy

It was an LP featuring Sonny Rollins - I don't remember which - and the liner notes were by Ira Gitler. Guy

This is an interesting topic! I'm way too lazy, but would be fun to actually write down a set of categories and then list the tenorists you would put in each one.

Wasn't he also an arranger for (and performer on) some of the early Atlantic hits?