Guy Berger

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

Conception Vessel is very good, Tribute is great; I thought Dance was a disappointment. I'm not crazy about Psalm - this group had an overly "mushy" sound initially though it tightened up quite a bit by the time they recorded Misterioso on Soul Note.

I recently saw him play at the Vanguard with Bill McHenry, another saxophone player with a Hispanic name, a bassist with a Scandinavian name, and pianist Russ Lossing. It was a good gig if not as good as his "regular" groups. I'd recommend the Winter & Winter album "Sound of Love" (recorded at the mid 90s) as a starter - it's a good cross-section of his work. Out of what I've heard, I think the trio with Lovano and Frisell was his best group. Guy

That happened to me as well (actually, I started with fusion and worked my way backward). I would guess it is in fact typical of most new jazz listeners today. Guy

This is a good box: box

The 1975 Weather Report concert is a great one, as are the July 1964 Miles Davis concerts with Sam Rivers.

Was watching CNBC the other day cause I was curious about what the financial hucksters had to say about unrest in the Middle East and its effect on oil. The general takeaway was that the United States gets relatively little -- about 10% -- of its oil from Saudi Arabia, and virtually none from Libya. Europe is another question. I think they are much more dependent on the Middle East. But most oil imported into the United States is from Canada, followed by South America and Russia, apparently. No uprisings reported in Canada. But the real stunner (to me) was that with some huge oil find up in Montana and improvements in the technology needed to extract it (oil shale, or oil sands, or something), these financial gurus were saying that this country could be a net exporter of oil. (Let that thought roll around in the old noggin' for a minute). That we're basically awash in oil now, and that we are not dependent on Middle East supplies anywhere close to what we were in the '70s. Take the whole thing with a grain of salt, but much of the price increases is probably due to hedging and speculation, I'd guess. Glad I have my Prius, though. It doesn't matter very much where we get the oil from - a major oil producer going offline will raise energy prices worldwide even if we don't directly import from that country. And likewise, Europe can import from elsewhere if Libyan oil is no longer available. This country also has tons of shale gas that has become economically feasible to extract. That said, tar sand oil extraction is notoriously bad for the environment and shale gas extraction has issues as well. My final thought is that in a world where emerging economies are growing very fast, a failure to increase energy supply will result in rising energy prices. That's true regardless of what happens in Libya. Barring alternate sources of energy or improved efficiency (both of which will eventually occur), ever-higher energy prices are in our future. Guy

My girlfriend and I have been doing a chronological journey through his films - I'd only seen about half-a-dozen prior. Take the Money and Run is indeed funny, as is Bananas. (Play It Again Sam is next on my queue.) Of ones further down the itinerary, I really liked Manhattan but have never warmed to Annie Hall. Guy

Given that jazz is no longer a popular music in America and is to a large degree disconnected from other forms of popular music, I would assume it is a "second language" for pretty much every musician.

Dave Liebman's commentary on this band's music has also been interesting. I wouldn't mind if he decided to write a book on its music.

Tingen keeps referring to "zen", "holons", "beginner's mind", etc. I haven't read the book in a while and can't pull the quotes off the top of my head. Guy I'd also add that Bob Belden's commentary on this period is generally worth reading and offers a nice complement to Tingen.