Guy Berger

Listening to this for the first time. It really highlights Hawk's influence on the early 50s R&B saxophonists.

Chewy, thank you! That's a hilarious story. Pete Townsend has good taste.

Amazing that there was a time that the sales of an experimental, avant-garde jazz album could have been measured in the tens of thousands. Didn't Pharoah Sanders's Karma sell something like 50K? And of course Bitches Brew and A Love Supreme were huge sellers.

I'm a dilettante in this subject. I do love Beethoven's solo piano music - particularly the final 5 sonatas and the Diabelli Variations. Scriabin is brilliant as well - my faves are the last 2 sonatas. And Debussy's solo piano music is brilliant. On the other hand, Chopin doesn't really excite me. In general I greatly prefer solo piano music to piano concertos.

I've generally slotted this into the "historically important, but not especially good" category. I love much of Ornette's music, and have nothing against this particular "format" - Ornette did it a lot better on "Happy House" over a decade later, and I think Don Cherry's Symphony for Improvisers is great. But while I respect it for taking a big first step, I think it is primarily of historical interest. (I would pass similar judgment on Ascension, but for different reasons.) Opinions? Guy

Does Cam already have these in stock? I might actually order all 4 - I'm not at the maturity level where I want all that Braxton, but I definitely want his duos with Roach.

I'll get the Konitz.

Listening to Blue Skies on Concord... I think I like this one better than the admittedly great Serenity and Anniversary. Some absolutely gorgeous music. Seems to anticipate the Lloyd ECM recordings, which might turn some people off. I also introduced myself to the Laurindo Almeida collaboration for the first time. Very nice! Guy

Agreed, this is a great box - I've never had similar interest in, for example, the non-album portions of the Bitches Brew box (though I've heard much of its contents via Big Fun and other sources, and don't feel like I am missing much). And it's interesting that what went in (the "unedited-ish") is so different from what came out, and was presented as Miles/Teo's vision. Guy

Has anyone else seen his duo of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with the Taiwanese Susan Boyle? Also - I like his Sarah Palin covers. Guy

I think some of the pieces that work best and were his most popular---like The Clown or Scenes from the City---have narration so they really do function as a kind of aural cinema. I don't know if they're so strong that they'd work as well as stand-alone instrumentals. Also the bluesier and gospel type pieces like Better Get it in Your Soul, Nostalgia in Times Square, Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, Porkpie Hat, etc. have the strongest melodies and the earthiest feeling, and are the most direct so they get played most. He doesn't have that many memorable melodies IMO---and, let's face it, if you can't whistle it you may not want to hear it again." Respectfully speaking - I can't understand how anybody would conclude that Mingus didn't write many memorable melodies. Besides the pieces mentioned here we have Duke Ellington's Sound of Love, Orange Was the Color, Meditations, Haitian Fight Song, Eh's Flat Ah's Flat Too, Fables of Faubus, Moanin', Jelly Roll, Diane... That's an impressive body of work, to say the least, and in a wide range of idioms (he wasn't a one-trick pony). More generally to this topic, I think ejp's comment (#5) on this thread nails it, along with valerie (#2) and jsngry (#14). It's not just being overlooked - even if the desire is there, the resources frequently are not. These aren't the kinds of tunes that a bunch of guys can just get together and blow on. You need lots of ability and imagination from the players as well as lots of rehearsal and chemistry - something that isn't all that common, because we're usually listening to one-offs and pick-up groups. As ejp says, with Ellington you don't hear many recordings of the more intricate, "orchestral" works - A Tone Parallel to Harlem, Tourist Point of View, etc. And as far as Monk - there are endless performances of Straight No Chaser, Round Midnight and Blue Monk but far fewer of Gallop's Gallop or Brilliant Corners. Guy

I love Miles's open horn playing on "Honky Tonk".

Listening to this for the first time. Very good album. Guy

re: Chambers, I thought his discussion of this album was interesting - despite his severe blind spot on the electric music (particularly that recorded after Bitches Brew), he grudgingly admits "Rated X" is brilliant. Paul Tingen's discussion of these recordings is interesting and insightful. I also seem to recall that in Stuart Nicholson's "Jazz Rock" book he cites Columbia's ad slogan for this album "Another Bitch, Another Brew: Get Up With It". I always thought that was funny.

I love Rated X, no questions asked. (Though I actually think the Bill Laswell remix is superior.) I like much of the other stuff, but not my favorite Miles. I think he was much better live during this period.

Definitely worth hearing - there aren't a lot of recordings of Trane's working group pre-11/61. Guy

Paul Motian's trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano

I'll definitely be picking up the Murray and Konitz. Leaning toward getting the Lacy as well, especially since it doesn't include Potts or Aebi. The Braxton I'm a little iffy on. In retrospect I regret scrabbling for some of the standalone discs - I have two of the Lacys, two of the Murrays, two of the Threadgills, and three of the Motians. Guy

A movie or miniseries of the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn. With George Lucas as far away as possible, preferably.

The Giant is Awakened. It would indeed be nice to have by itself, but it does appear in whole on West Coast Hot along with one of the Carter/Bradford Flying Dutchmans, which is shorn one track. Magnificent album(s). isn't WCH out of print?

What about the Horace Tapscott / Arthur Blythe album from the Late 60s on Flying Dutchman - I don't remember the title. Guy

My experience is that any attempt to construct a definition of jazz will inevitably exclude large swathes of jazz music and include at least some non-jazz music.

So the conclusion is that this product will be identical in quality to the OJC? If so I'm fine with keeping it.

I ordered an OJC CD through amazon marketplace and got what is apparently the JHS version. Is there any reason I should return it? (It's Stan Getz, "Quartets".) Guy

I suggest picking up the late '80s Getz quartet (with Barron) live stuff, all of which I find excellent: ANNIVERSARY (EmArcy), SERENITY (EmArcy), SOUL EYES (Concord) and YOURS AND MINE (Concord). Getz's playing as well as Barron's are superb on these albums as well. I listen more to these sets because I prefer the presence of a rhythm section, but I too enjoy the 2-CD PEOPLE TIME set as well. I recently listened to Serenity and Anniversary for the first time - I was surprised to hear Getz pull out some avant-gardisms, didn't realize he had those in his bag. Anyway, some great intense bebop playing on those as well as his balladeering. Guy