Scott Dolan

Excellent! Yeah, India just opened the floodgates for me. It led me to my enormous Coltrane collection, Dolphy, Ornette, Cecil, then eventually to the William Parker circle of friends, and even more recently to European style free improvisation. Admittedly I don't listen to it nearly as much as I did years ago when it was pretty much the only form I listened to, but it still remains one of the most important points in my music listening history. Matter of fact, I was just listening to the second India on disc 4 of the Vanguard box set. That is far and away my favorite version, with Bushell playing that awesome Oboe intro!

Really?! I had no idea! That's really cool. What are the chances?

Very cool! I was in my mid 20's when I went through my experience with India. It's interesting how my transformation happened in real time, whereas yours happen by way of seperation. But thankfully, it happened. The whys and timeframes are inconsequential. Did you continue down the Free Jazz road afterwards?

You nailed with your last sentence. Because you said so! It was semi-annoying when people were trying to parse the definition of album earlier in the thread. I really don't care if it's a bargin bin best of, if it's one of your favorites, it's one of your favorites! Great list, BTW.

Larry, just wanted to mention that I have spent some quality headphone time with Way Out West finally, and have to say I completely understand why you hold it in such high regard. I now do as well. It's really startling that those three had never played together before that date. It also wasn't until this album that I truly realized what monsters Manne and Brown were. Brown, in particular, plays some bad, bad shit on this one!

The first Jazz that truly fascinated the hell out of me was a single tune: India. I had already been listening to Jazz, mostly Miles and Monk albums. I mentioned before that I had been on a year long Zappa kick, and after reading The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play I was very intrigued to hear some things by two of the Jazz artists mentioned multiple times in the book: John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. Conveniently, I happened to be a BMG (good god! Remember that?!) member, and they had a big Jazz sale going on. I saw Coltrane's complete Village Vanguard box set on sale for $19.99 and figured hey, two birds/one stone. And if I didn't like it, not a whole lot of money wasted. The day it came in I opened it and read the liner notes, a practice I did with every Jazz album. It all seemed fascinating, so I put in the first disc, and the crew launched into India. The head was weird, but not too extreme. Then the fireworks started. So I'm listening to this thinking, "this is truly just an awful, noisy mess!" But, about halfway through I started to..."hear" something, I guess? Three quarters of the way through I thought, "this is the most abstract thing I think I've ever heard, but I believe there is something interesting going on". And by the time the song was over, all I knew is that I HAD to immediately listen to it again. I then proceeded to listen to it something like four times in a row. I couldn't really believe or comprehend what I was hearing on an intellectual level, but it touched me very deeply on an emotional level. This was my introduction to the wonderful world of Free Jazz, and a tune that seemingly unlocked a part of my brain that had never been accessed before that day. Opening my ears up to possibilities I never knew existed.

Ah, too busy now, but I definitely want to comment later.

And started by the same poster, which is somewhat confusing.

I'd say I've been using them since somewhere around 2000. I guess if you're not happy with the product, get your money back and spend it elsewhere.

??? What are your problems with it? Other than site layout/construction, I've seen no major differences since I started using it many years ago.

I'll have to pay attention to colors next time I'm out. I haven't noted a dramatic shift to grey around here.

Al! Great to see you drop by!

I thought Heath quietly stole the show on Venus.

YEAH! Now THAT I can get behind! Not even stoned staid, that was just fantastic shit. Too bad they didn't explore that path a little more. They were onto something excellent there. Venus was far more outside their comfort zone, but both were quite surprising. Thanks for posting those tunes. Definitely gives me a different perspective of what MJQ was capablee of.

Mingus At Antibes! Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting! Perhaps Dolphy's best solo ever! There's no denying the talent. They were just too...staid, for my tastes.

OK, just got home. The name of the 2CD set is Modern Jazz Quartet In Concert. It is on the Jazz Life label. There was no booklet with it, but on the back it says it was recorded in Ljubljana on May 27th, 1960.

My first MJQ was a double live CD I can't recall the name of off the top of my head. Local record store had it for something like $9. I figured how could I go wrong getting a double CD for $9? Got it, really enjoyed it. But I will admit I'm not a huge MJQ fan.

Hi, Page! Did you dump your cookies? Might be some kind of corrupt file.

After what Cubs fans did to Bartman, and having personally visited the shithole they play in, I have absolutely zero love or respect for them. I hope the Indians absolutely crush them. Three more shutouts would be fine and dandy.

No, I don't have a subscription.

I have it on CD. It came in the Miles Davis box The Blue Note and Capital Recordings. I was actually quite blown away by it when I heard it for the first time. I thought it was very Miles of Mr. Davis to simply refer to it as a "nice album" in his "autobiography".

That's odd. I run AdBlock, but have no issues with All Music.

Somethin' Else! Very pleasantly surprised to see that one show up.

Add me to the list as well. I subscribed to HBO specially BECAUSE of Westworld. Picked up a new show, and I'm bailing on another. Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead was it for me. They are out of ideas and will now rely on shock and gore. No thanks.

I almost posted something similar when I agreed with DAN!