Guy Berger

The Miles is of course a great concert though the group's concerts from October/November are even stronger.

My understanding is this is simply a catch-all name for the groups Jack led in the late 70s and early 80s. (I haven't heard New Directions - the group with John Abercrombie and Lester Bowie.) I've heard three of their albums Special Edition - the best of the three, one of the best ECM recordings I've heard - Arthur Blythe and David Murray are a fantastic pairing. Tin Can Alley - good but my least favorite Album Album - a tad more commercial than the earlier too, but my second-favorite. Great tunes on this one, and it's nice to have Murray back Any thoughts on their other work? I'm convinced Inflation Blues is a must once/if it is reissued. I know they did some more fusiony stuff on other labels later on. I'm not averse to well-done fusion so if others endorse it, I may seek them out. (Are any still in print or easy to find on disc?) Guy

There's the Feb 1970 gig at Ann Arbor with McLaughlin and Airto onboard. An interesting lineup though my recollection is the music is disappointing.

Bertrand's analysis seems on the dot. Losin says that the December '68 Jazz Workshop performances were Tony's last live gigs with the band, and that Jack joined permanently in late Feb. There might have been an interim drummer in the interim?

The lost quintet was the group Miles performed with from March 1969 (or earlier) through November 1969 (or slightly later). I wouldn't classify the Fillmore 3/70 performances as the lost quintet, they have a different vibe - though it was good marketing for Columbia. Guy

Every time someone gets anointed as "America's team" I want to puke - hence I'll be rooting for the Colts, and hopefully by a crushing margin.

What do people think of the recently released David Murray + Waldron duets? Seems like a potentially very promising combo.

The Seagulls of Kristiansund is a fantastic album - highly recommended. I recently picked up Git Go from Soul Note but have not listened to it yet. Be sure to check out his duos with Steve Lacy as well.

Titled "Lost in a Dream". The tracklist looks like mostly Motian originals.

Isn't this OOP?

Thank god I moved down south!!

Isn't this stuff in the 3-disc Never No Lament set? It's essential in whatever format.

I just listened to downloads of "Manifestation" and "Reverend King" today - wow, these are great performances. Are they in print on CD? Guy

Another plug for Summit Conference. Probably the best album including Andrew I've heard that post-dates the early 70s. Guy

Yeah def. I just don't understand how someone can listen to Sun Ship and deny that McCoy is totally in tune with this music.

I was reading a review by someone whose tastes I respect regarding several 1965 live Trane recordings in which he sharply criticized McCoy Tyner's playing. I guess I would concede that in some of the recordings, particularly those recorded late in 1965 with added horns, McCoy sounds a little out of place. But on the quartet recordings - all the way through Sun Ship, which pretty much pushed the quartet into full-blown free blowing territory, and McCoy plays GREAT here. Furthermore, a fair amount of McCoy's solo work on Milestone picks up where the 1965 quartet stopped. So to me this seems like a fundamental misunderstanding. Any other opinions? I feel like we may have discussed this in the past, but couldn't find anything to confirm.

Personally I've never given three craps about the "buy American" movement (especially in cars) - but Ford's cars get pretty good reviews these days. Guy

I don't know if I'd call it racist... but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. It's a shame, because the beginning of the piece was Brooks at his best. Maybe it's my failing as an economist, but I tend to be skeptical of "culture" explanations. Culture doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's also an explanation that's often used to mask racist/quasi-racist arguments. And most importantly, it's been used as an explanation for differential economic performances in so many situations that were ex-post falsified by experience that its track record is quite poor. My knowledge of both countries' history is pretty meager, but scanning through Wikipedia it seems they had a very different history since the 1820s. Haiti has experienced a much larger number of coups than the Dominican Republic. Both countries had their share of nasty dictators, but in the Dominican Republic these kleptocrats realized they could squeeze more $$ out of an economic success and in Haiti (for whatever reason) they didn't. In general Wheel's arguments seem right to me. Back to culture - I certainly don't object to any investment in a program that teaches kids to value education, other people, their families, the value of hard work, etc. But I find it hard to believe that THIS policy would be any more effective than macro-aid or micro-aid. The country's problems are massive. You can teach people the value of hard work or education, but if there's none to be had it won't matter at all. I think medjuck is being overly harsh.

This is not true - I survived the strong 1989 earthquake in northern California (7.1) and the overwhelming majority of structures survived. That said, in most poor countries even earthquakes much weaker than 7.0 will be catastrophic - and Haiti is among the poorest of the poor. Guy

There's not much to destroy except human lives at this point... it's a dirt-poor island. It won't take much in terms of resources to restore the island from its current super-miserable state to its normal just-miserable existence.

I'm not really interested in the argument, but I do think it's a little silly to judge the quality of anybody's music by how "in" or "out" of "the tradition" (or any tradition) they are. I also think the initiator of this thread might have been trolling.

Yes... a stupid article on a topic that could have been interesting.

That's what caught my eye. Is there a recording without Miles where Coltrane performs this tune? I'm sure Montgomery would have been able to hang with the band, but it would be fascinating to listen to. "Impression" evolved from "So What" gradually during Coltrane's performances of 1960-61. The songs' structures are identical.

Yeah, but Trane was also a guy who let go of musicians who didn't fit his conception fairly quickly - and Wes didn't spend much time with the group. That said, Wes might have had an affinity for this kind of music that he didn't show elsewhere - we won't know until the recording emerges. Guy

Without a doubt. Wes was the all time master on the guitar. I can't imagine him having any problems keeping up with the band. Everything I've heard from the guy suggests he was a fairly conservative bebop player - I can't really see him playing in an edgy post-bebop/free jazz format a la the Coltrane Village Vanguard recordings.