JohnS

I'm not a great fan, especially of his less straight ahead recordings like the Tiny Bell Trio, "Witness" and the string bands for example. However there is some fine playing on"In Our Lifetime", Soul On Soul" and "Stargazer" as well as two quartet dates with Chris Potter "Magic Triangle" and "Leap of Faith". Also "Moving Portraits" is worth having. You should try at least one of the "Masada" discs too.

Fortune is pretty tasty. I have the Konnex "Monk" date. It's certainly as good as the similar Blue Note cd. He's certainly an good interpreter of Monk. However I wasn't that thrilled by "From Now On". I have the Horizon's tucked away somewhere as well as his Strata East album. I have good memories of these and it's probably time they got a dust off.

Playing all thirteen tracks straight off is probably too much of a good thing. This isn't my favourite Wes date but there's a lot of good music here. Nice to have an opportunity to hear James Clay, he's a good flutist but a some more of his tenor would have gone down well with me. Not sure that the bass guitar adds too much to the record, more of a curiosity than anything else imo. It would have been wiser I think to have played the originally issued takes in lp sequence. I'll give it a try and reconsider.

David Murray; Live in Cracow Gerry Mulligan; Complete Verve CJB; Mosaic Curtis Amy; Mosaic Select Sonny Criss; Sonny's Dream

Both the cds by Chris Lightcap received good reviews. Nothing wrong with them but I didn't feel they had a permanent place in my collection.

That was a great band Joe. I saw them in London and it was one of the most memorable concerts I've ever attended. Great tunes great playing from a group that realy communicated.

I saw the Messengers with Gilmore in the UK. My memory of the concert is a bit hazy. Was it John Hicks and Jymie Merritt?

Missed John Coltrane in London in the early 60s. I saw a poster for the concert the day after it took place. I also regret not getting to see Gerry Mulligan.

A nice album. I don't think it's great but it's very enjoyable all the way through. "Move" is usually an exciting number and Lou makes a good job of it. The spirit of Parker is strong on "..Masquerade..". Herman Foster isn't for me, too many block chords. An afterthought. The sound on my Japanese vinyl is superb. I doubt that a cd would sound better.

February 1958. Dave Brubeck Quartet in London, support, the Jazz Couriers.

I like the way this band can slip between a latin and a jazz groove with ease. I'm not a great latin fan but this band is always worth paying some attention too.

This one is fine with me. Flurin, it is out on ZYX.

I'm sorry to say that "Mingus Moves" and "Changes" come well down my list of preferred Mingus titles. Not that there's much wrong with them, they lack a bit of the real Mingus exitement perhaps, it's just that the earlier things are more to my taste.

I'm not an expert and I haven't compared my Sennheiser HD 455 with anything else but they seem perfectly adeqaute for my occasional needs.

It was a long time ago now but I can remember a 10" by Humphrey Lyttleton That was probably the first lp. In the effort to discover more, other early purchases were Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert and Dave Brubeck's "Jazz Goes To Junior College".

I have a vague memory of hearing the Gerry Mulligan Quartet on the radio when I was in my early teens and thinking how different and interesting it sounded. Not long after I heard "Pennies From Heaven" by Stan Getz- a friends father had some jazz 78s. It was a year or so before I really got into jazz after a brief flirtation with r&b and the pop of the day.

Adrian, thanks for the overview, and your PM. John

Adrian, Colin Steele, can you tell us something about his cd? Seems to have slipped out unnoticed. Hard to believe that this is the best there is though!

The 28th August 1967 Antwerp concert is also on Jazzman JM 11742. It's subtitled "His greatest concert ever". The sound is acceptable.

I have "Richie" on it's Jazzz label incarnation. A fabulous disc, one for the desert island.

Sorry, I didn't care for it either, a couple of plays were enough. Same went for Eddie Henderson's recent Miles tribute.

For me Bolivar Blues is THE track. Lovely angular Ernie Henry to open. Rollins nudges a few phrases around to start and plays in his best blues manner. Hard to say why some find this solo pedestrian. Monk is on great form too with some lovely rolling chords. Max is just perfect too. The remainder of the disc is fine but it doesn't grab me like "Bolivar". The tympani later in the disc doesn't add very much for me either.

Hey guys I'm just playing "Reaching Out". A fine relaxed non BN date with the added bonus of some very nice playing by the rarely heard Frank Haynes. Dont overlook this one.

I think I found "Earth and Heart" bit noisy and unstructured for my taste, whereas the Silkheart discs are within the mainstream, melodic but still adventurous.

This is a nice date. Not up to the original recordings but some of the old magic is still evident.