Guy Berger

Jimmy Garrison, "Pursuance" and "Ascent"

Richard Davis on Eric Dolphy's "Hat and Beard" [not straight-ahead, though]

Ray Brown on "The Touch of Your Lips" (Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson)

I would disagree about Fiddler on the Roof being inessential - it's one of Cannonball's best non-live albums. Some great playing and arrangements on that one. Guy

Dream Weaver is the best of the lot (for the quartet with Jarrett), Soundtrack the weakest. I don't think that band shows the best Lloyd is/was capable of.

Sometimes Lloyd can be painfully diffuse as a player. Sometimes he isn't. I feel like, as a player, he peaked in the late 80s through mid 90s. Guy

Isn't all their stuff in print?

This pretty much sums it up for me too. I'd also add that "most people" have never had discerning ear or tastes, they just want something that "sounds like" what they want/need to hear at any given moment becuase let's face it - "most people" have more pressing issues in their lives than mulling over whether Eric Clapton is a real player, an erratic marginality, or pretty much worthless. They just ain't got time to go there, if you know what I mean. And really, why should they? Between raising a family (really raising it, not just being in the house & showing up at certain events), paying bills, keeping your relationship together, not getting fucked over on your job, fighting various illnesses, etc etc etc, why the fuck should anybody feel a mandate to figure out Eric Clapton's rightful place in the world? The literal downsizing of the players & and of the media itself is in perfect sync with what "most people" like to use music for - a lifestyle accessory. Nothing more, nothing less. For people like "us", well, that's hard to fathom, but...we do it too. It's just that our lifestyle hings more on digging deeper. I know a lot of people say that they'd rather be dead than live without their music, but....really? I agree with everything said by mjzee and JSngry and will add that our lifestyle hinges more on digging deeper... in music. I bet in many other aspects of our lives we treat things like lifestyle accessory - in a way that a snob of those aspects would surely decry, much like people are doing in this thread. Records sales <> music consumption

Just to clarify - this is not a "truth in advertising issue", it's a "truth in identity" issue. Guy

Thanks Chuck - that was interesting. In principle I'm sympathetic - I hate phony reviews - but I don't see how it is enforceable in practice. In the end you've got to hope that genuine reviewers drown out the phonies, and that's difficult with niche products. Guy

<Shrug> Can't blame others for your blind spot. or my own personal taste, you mean?? Well, your characterization of "Caroline No" suggests you are not very familiar with that song or much of their work.

<Shrug> Can't blame others for your blind spot.

Now that's something I can't object to - "Caroline No" is an amazing tune; Lloyd has a way with ballads and this could be really great.

Spoken word? Uggh.

I thought this one was pretty cheesy. Guy

While I might give the sextet with Yusef a slightly higher overall grade based on YL's playing, Cannonball, Joe and Nat were much more interesting/exciting players at this point. Plus, Joe was entering his peak as a composer around this period - the breadth of his work, from shamelessly populist to utterly experimental and everything in between, is impressive.

The 1969 Cannonball recordings from Europe are awesome. Guy

He also played the Hammersmith Odeon in 1969, and then the Royal Festival Hall in 1971. I didn't realize he played London in 1967 - too bad it wasn't recorded. Guy

Over the past few years I've engaged in a semi-demented quest to acquire all officially-released Monk recordings. That said, as far as live recordings I have the 1957 Carnegie Hall, the 1958 Five Spots, the It Club, the Jazz Workshop, the two big band releases, and the Tokyo. Basically there are a few I haven't picked up yet. Are these worth getting, or are they "more of the same"? Monk at the Blackhawk Monk in Italy Monk in France Newport 1958/1963

Hey all, I was trying to burn an audio CD using itunes 9 and all of a sudden my burner started creating coasters after no problems previously. The initial error I kept getting was "4251". I tried several fixes - rebooting, reinstalling itunes, slowing my burning speed, I also tried installing an alternate program and burning with it (cdburnerxp). None of them worked - I'm still generating coasters (though the errors have changed somewhat - most recently I got a 4260). I assume this is a hardware problem - I've been using my burner a lot recently, and maybe it just crapped out (though for goodness sake - this computer is less than 2 years old!). If this IS a hardware problem - should I send the computer for a replacement burner drive, or buy an external? Thanks for any and all advice. Guy

Thanks guys. This has been another great birthday... sleeping a lot and vegging by the pool. In a few hours I'll be going to get cajun food with friends.

Why can't you blame him? He's been the failure the last two years, not them. Anyway, one more reason to root against the city of Miami.

Any thoughts about this guy? I heard a few clips on youtube a while back and enjoyed them - seems like he inhabits the area between post-bop, free, and jazz-rock. He also recently recorded some music with Robert Fripp. Seems worth investigating.

For what it's worth - it gets all of these guys out of the way. So we're not going to get to collectively groan again for Branford and Wynton separately.