Guy Berger

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.

I've never seen this recording circulating. The lineup seems impressive on paper but I'm not sure Montgomery could hang in this company...

I recently picked up Yusef Lateef's Eastern Sounds, which is a very nice album but seems to me to fit more into the "superficially exotic-sounding jazz" category than real fusion of jazz with third-world music. I'd also put some of Ellington's stuff in this category. With Coltrane, I'm less sure - there seems to be an effort to engage with the source music. And when you get to something like Shakti - well, these guys aren't faking it. Anyway, I'd be interested in opening up a general discussion of this subject. I'm tired and will post more thoughts tomorrow - my personal feeling is that there's nothing wrong with "superficially exotic sounding" as long as the music itself is good. Authenticity is no guarantee of quality music either. BUT - in general I would prefer some sort of real engagement with the "outside" music.

For what it's worth, I agree with most of the previous reviews - the plot is unremarkable, but not enough to ruin what is truly an amazing visual experience. I still wonder whether a better script and director (Ridley Scott? Peter Jackson?) could have improved it.

Highly recommended, though the recordings are unlikely to be from 1967-68 - my guess based on the material is 1965-66 for the quintet stuff and 1964-65 for the sextet stuff.

We ended up seeing regular 3D which was more than fine.

Hey all - What's better, regular 3D or IMAX 3D? My gf and I are going but I don't know which to pick. Guy

Randy - glad to hear you are recovering. Welcome back.

$3.98 was the norm, IIRC. Maybe $4.98 for stereo. Or maybe at one (earlier) point, a dollar less both ways. I bought my first LP in 1968, and that's what prices were then. How many pints of beer could you buy then for the price of an LP? And how many can you buy now for the price of a (new) CD? MG Ha ha - MG, I bet you got an A+ in economics! Is there any reason why I *shouldn't* pick up the 1957 Lateef box? I picked up the one Savoy 2CD set as well as "Other Sounds", but it seems like picking up any more of the OJCs would be a mistake since the Fresh Sounds box offers a more complete package. Guy

I'd be all over that! I only have the first two and the "Lost Trident" (which indeed is not the great relevation some had hoped it would be). I think there's be one more album to have, but that one only came out in an old stinkin' version, right? (I'm thinking of "Between Nothingness and Eternity") BNAE is an AMAZING album. You have to have it (and I don't say that often here). I think it's head and shoulders above Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire. It rocks, it thunders. I was at one of those concerts that weekend (including the one that produced "Dream" for the album), and I can attest that's what they sounded like live. They rock! Check out McLaughlin's breaking into "Sunshine of Your Love" during "Dream." I would love to have an expanded version of this album. I think "Lost Trident" is just the studio version of the material that went into BNAE; it was probably nixed because they thought the live versions were superior. Yes, BNAE is much better than Lost Trident. It has just the amount of intensity you'd expect from this edition of the band, though I think the compositions are not as impressive and that some of the boots are superior in that regard. I am not crazy about the 2nd edition with JL Ponty, though Visions of the Emerald Beyond has its moments. Inner Worlds mostly sucked. I always liked this amazon review of BNAE:

For what it's worth, many Japanese cars are made in the US, so if you want to "buy American" you may want to consider those as well.