Rabshakeh

Trio Transition with Special Guest Oliver Lake (DIW, 1988) What a record.

Herbie Mann - Great Ideas of Western Man At least he kept his top on.

Marvin Hannibal Peterson - The Light

I had, possibly mistakenly, understood that much of the adoption of bossa was led by record companies pushing artists to release an album that might allow them to cash in on Getz and co's success. With good, great or terrible results...

It was just one of those things. Some guy in a suit on one continent decides that a cut price tie in with a coffee chain or something is a good way to shift product. Three years later, on another continent, a spotty kid in unfashionable clothes looks at a record rack and sees something on offer for a price he can afford. Meanwhile, everyone else in his peer group does the same thing. The other 90s discount phenomenon that I remember was the bizarre Frank Zappa comp Cheap Thrills, which I recall being everywhere. Twenty years before, I think that Virgin Records' Faust Tapes was the big one (before my time). Flood the discount bins and see what you get!

For sure. Although cack-handed grassroots teenaged imitation is also how I suspect a lot of musical innovation first occurs. The difference is that the US bossa explosion of the 60s was by no means a grass roots event driven by the kids.

One of the first jazz CDs I and every jazz fan of roughly my age that I know bought. For some reason, record shops in 90s London were awash with this one at a discount price.

I recall that there was a bossa thread elsewhere on this forum, which included a good post that suggested that some of the most successful jazz bossa records from the 60s boom were precisely those that contained the smallest trace ingredients of "authentic" samba. I'll try to dig it out later, after work, but I thought that the argument in favour of ersatz North American bossa as a freestanding example of cultural hybridity was interesting. Some people prefer chicory coffee to the real thing.

I just want the Roscoe Mitchell ones, to be honest. They definitely do have power.

I really like this one, but the cover artwork in particular has always struck me. Farmer just looks so crisp.

We Thought About Duke (HatArt, 1994) by Franz Koglmann and Lee Konitz

"These glasses have no power".

Just got round to listening to it. Thank you for the post.

Randy Weston - Spirits of our Ancestors

Just finished: John Zorn - Cobra (HatHut, 1987) Now on to: Anatomy of a Groove by M Base Collective

Well done. A really incredible album that I’ve et to find in the wild.

That At Storyville record is so beautiful. For sure. Completely essential. But what I was hoping for was Konitz actually there and moving. It is surprising that for a guy with such a long and storied career there seems to be little archival footage of any quality available.

Ha! I hadn’t realised that Prestige had changed its logo so many times. Shows me up as a vinyl lover but no real record collector. Subconscious-Lee is such a killer album. It’s the one that really got me into Konitz the first time.

Errol Garner - Concert By The Sea A family favourite. Now on: Masayuki Takayanagi - 850113 A great disk. I'd love to own it on vinyl if it didn't go for silly money.

Oh! I actually own Sweet Space. That's a very good record. I hadn't realised it was on Anima.

I love that one. I'm not sure why I left it off my initial list.

Afro/American Sketches by Oliver Nelson (Prestige, 1962)

Dave Pike's Doors of Perception I listen to this one every couple of years, and then generally remember quite quickly why, despite its good bits, it isn't really a favourite.

Thanks for all the above recommendations. On another point, does anyone know of any good videos of interviews with Konitz or of Konitz playing live? He seems very poorly served by YouTube when compared with other jazz musicians. (Edit: Konitz, not Kibitz!!!)

I don’t know the Animas at all. Are there any you’d recommend in particular? the idea of a Tyler / Bang meet up sounds pretty intriguing.