Rabshakeh

RIP. Those solo records are great, alongside his more famous sideman stuff.

Jessie Allen Cooper - Soft Wave This is fun. New age blissed out smooth stuff.

I mean, it is clearly because his vision for what he wanted involved him soloing less on those records, from Weather Report onwards. He's not the only one. Pharaoh Sanders for example sat out on his own records all the time, then came in at the points he needed to. But Shorter's music is completely different to Sanders', and, whereas I am generally happy to listen to whatever musicians were in Sanders' band at the time vamp away, I do find that I miss Shorter's solos. Not so much on the Weather Report records, where there's plenty happening, as on the VSOP and 'Footprints' records. Hopefully with time some of those live gigs you're all referring to above will start to surface as recordings. I'd love to hear that. Particularly for the later group (the so called Footprints group).

I don’t know what the anti Weather Report stuff is on here. Early Weather Report delivered on the promise of In A Silent Way more than any other group or artist I can think of. Late Weather Report (A Sporting Life?) is its own weird thing. Whatever it is, it’s great stuff. In between, some awesome jazz records. But, to my taste, the only down side is that Shorter quietened down from around 1972 onwards, no matter whose albums he was playing on. I don’t know the “old argument” referred to here. But surely anyone who followed Shorter’s career has come to the view that he did not play as much as we would have wanted on his own records. That’s true even of those great 90s/00s records.

The reissues are weirdly expensive too, considering how little Frank Wright reissues go for.

He seemed to sit out a lot of the time on Weather Report's records.

How is this? A friend of mine was in a teenage black metal band and took the "nom de guerre" Mystagogue. I've always liked the word.

Ramsey Lewis Trio – Bach To The Blues Listening to this one for the first time. Expecting some Loussier nonsense and instead it is a great record. Any other lesser known Ramsey Lewis trio records anyone wants to push on me?

Okay. I shall.

Oh man. Clearly one of the greatest of all time. That's terrible news.

It's a fusion record from the 1990s, with Cobham in his more stolid mid tempo later style. The leads are guitarist Larry Carlton (perhaps too shreddingly fusion for my taste) and smooth jazz great Najee, who is really really good here in a less smooth context. Some jazz tunes on this too as well as fusion.

Now on: Najee is a lot of fun on this one.

Humair / Jeanneau / Texier – Akagera (JMS, 1982) Really enjoyed my first listen to this.

That’s the one. I can’t say that I cared for it. It seemed very much treacle pop, with settings and arrangements that did not suit either singer.

Well. That's one of the posts that led me to start this thread. Just listened to this one. Not all Eckstine is equal, it turns out.

Congratulations! I was listening to him recently and really enjoying his playing on Your Prayer by the Rev Frank Lloyd. Jones' career is weird - seemingly entirely in the "Paris period" captured by BYG. So many good records from that period. Then almost nothing, unless I am missing some records (which I hope I am). As for the spiritual jazz brigade, my guess is that no Strata East and no Impulse! equals no spiritual jazz revival cache. Great record. I have that reissue too

From 2023 it strikes me as one of the most esoteric things out there. Who came up with this stuff?

I like this record a fair bit.

I thought that the Walrus version was strong and interesting, but the rest of the album did not stand up to that level.

The Surfmen – The Sounds Of Exotic Island

Martin Denny – The Enchanted Sea

Thank you

@HutchFan - I don't really know Schnitter. Where would you start?

Aren't the original Mario Overworld and Underworld themes taken from Lee Ritenour and The Square records? Overworld: https://youtu.be/-2la3MlJx3s Underworld: https://youtu.be/ZX5ef_KAZlY Best video game jazz record of course has to be the F-Zero soundtracks. There's a jazz fusion one and a more speed metal (but also basically fusion) one. I should add that I have not watched the video so I apologise if I am repeating what the guy says.

You've named some great composer/ arrangers but I hardly think that they are Easy Listening. Mod stuff and funk with strings (including so many soundtracks) obviously do create some really good records.