AfricaBrass

WOW! I've been sick for the last 5 days and I missed this. Wow! I always miss the fun. I have to applaud Jim Sangrey's reply to Musicboy. I am a Christian myself, but I don't expect anyone else to have my beliefs and behave the way I choose too. I believe God himself gave us free will, Musicboy. You're doing no service to your faith by bringing it into this argument. So a couple people asked some silly questions on your Norah shrine. Maybe if you spent some time focusing on the object of your faith, you would be so uptight if one of your IDOLs (Norah Jones) got a little bit of teasing. It disgusts me that a fellow Christian would resort to threats. What's the big deal? You seem to be dealing with the problem by banning the "troublemakers" - I've had my moments of frustration on this board hearing negative things about Christianity. But am I going to change people's view of Christians by being a jerk about it. I choose to visit this board. I like the people here. If you have a problem with it, crawl back under your Norah Jones shaped rock. It's people like you that give Christianity a bad name.

The Album of the Week for May 18-24 as picked by pryan is: Sonny Rollins - Sonny Meets Hawk! (click to buy) The Album of the Week works this way, the person who picks the cd for this week will nominate the person who will pick the cd for next week. pryan picked this week's title and nominated Red to pick the album for May 25-31 (he's already picked it and it will be: The Quintet at Massey Hall). ___________________________________ Past albums of the week: May 11 - 17: John Coltrane - Olé May 4 - 10: Andrew Hill - Grass Roots April 26 - May 3: Weather Report - Black Market April 13 - 26: Lee Morgan - Live at the Lighthouse April 6 - 12: Charles Mingus - Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus March 30 - April 5: Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye March 23 -29: Donald Byrd - Byrd in Hand

I'm with you guys, Sal and Scott. The Dead's studio albums (except Workingman's Dead and American Beauty) don't match the live stuff for me either. I do enjoy them, though, because the studio versions are interesting when compared to the live versions. It's too bad they were never able to capture in the studio what they had live. I guess I also like the studio versions because they are all I had for a long time when I was a Dead newbie. This was long before they started opening the vaults, and tape trading was only for those in the know. It's amazing that I can download hundreds of shows off the internet at any time. If any of you out there are interested in live shows. Check out www.gdlive.com or www.furthurnet.org. These are great resources for downloading live shows. If you're not familiar with the .shn format, you should be. This is a lossless compression format. Basically you convert your .wav files to .shn and they are about half the size. The best part is that unlike .mp3, the file quality hasn't been lost in any way when you convert it back to a .wav file for cd burning. This would be a great format for trading jazz also. I hope some of you will give the downloading method a chance. I've got hundreds of Dead shows now. :rsmile:

I still like the stuff before Heavy Weather better too. I'm trying to be as open minded as possible, but that album doesn't really grab me. I do think it's cool that a lot of us are trying hard to open up ourselves to stuff we wouldn't normally have given a chance to. I've learned a lot just since this board started. :rsmile:

Cool! Eric, I feel the same way. I've gotten very hooked on this place. Glad you're here! :rsmile:

Here's another Babe for you. Paul Bunyon's friend: Babe the blue ox.

Jazzbo, I forgot about Althea, it is a good song. I wish I liked the rest of the album as much. :rsmile:

Red, I'm glad you were nominated. I've had this album for years but I've never really given it the attention it deserves. This will be a fine album of the week. :rsmile:

At the risk of getting flamed, it might be a good idea to list some Grateful Dead albums NOT to start with. If I was just getting into the group, I would avoid: Go to Heaven - I like Alabama Getaway, but that's about it. Built to Last - There's a lot I like about In the Dark (the album before this one), but I've never been able to get into Built to Last. Others that I wouldn't put high on my list, but some might be fans of: Steal Your Face - you're better off downloading live recordings from those same shows for free. There has always been a very negative buzz about this album, so I never bothered with it. Shakedown Street & Terrapin Station - I know I'll get blasted for this, but I just can't get into the production of this and Terrapin Station. There are great songs on both of these albums, but the live versions are MUCH better, to me. I'm not saying not to get these eventually, but as first purchases, you could do better. I'll put my asbestos coat on. Flame away! :rsmile:

I was going to make a joke about the alias. I was going to mention that George Lane fellow and how much Eric Dolphy ripped off his style.

Cool! It would be a desert island choice for me too. I really loved Garcia's pedal steel playing. I've tried to find every album that he played steel on. It's too bad he gave it up. :rsmile:

Speaking of Don Cherry. I saw a movie once called the Holy Mountain by a director with the name, Jodorowski. I guess Don Cherry did the score for it, and I really dug it. Do any of you know if the music is available? :rsmile:

That's a great observation! I'll have to do that during the next storm. I can just picture the storm building up with the music.

LOL

Man, you're pulling away like a bullet train! Whoosh!!! During the last week, I felt like I was the guy checking his rearview mirrors as the faster traffic caught him. It was fun while it lasted. I tried the edit thing, it didn't work for me. :rsmile:

Sal, I'm the same way about jazz and the Dead. I usually listen to some Dead everyday. I just love the stuff. I've gone nuts downloading live shows over the last couple years. The J.J. Johnson is a neat set. I think the most pleasant surprise about it was Bobby Jasper. I was unfamiliar with him before I got the set and I really enjoy his playing on it. Johnson's no slouch either. I agree with Ghost, I too am surprised it's still around. One thing, it's a whole lot of trombone. :rsmile:

After reading this thread, I was starting to wonder if I had made a bad choice. I hadn't actually listened to this album in a couple years and I was going on how much I remembered liking it. So, three days into this album of the week, I finally put it on. I LOVED IT! I'm not going to write a detailed review of it right now, but I really love when Coltrane takes me away to another land like he does on Ole. I forgot how much I dug Dolphy's flute playing and I even like Hubbard. I love the brashness of his early playing. I thought these guys kept up just fine. Ah, the joys of Tyner's chords. I loved that style. I'm a big fan of east indian music and I really dig the drones and feel of this first track. The twin basses are very cool and Elvin. What can I say about Elvin? Dahomey Dance. I didn't really remember this track as much as Ole. I thought it was just fine. I dig Dolphy's AnGuLar solo. Hubbard is having a fine time. Coltrane's great as usual. There's something about Coltrane's playing that I don't get from anyone else. I love it that much! Tyner's solo is nice, but I just love his comping. Aisha. I like this it's nice. Overall, I think this is a fine date. For me ALL of Coltrane's Atlantic's are GREAT. I really enjoy this period of his development. I've always thought Dolphy was a great foil for Coltrane. :rsmile:

Well it looks like I've been passed and Rooster Ties is pulling away.

I went with Horace too. It's funny, he seems to always slip under my radar. I'll be looking for something to listen to and usually pass over the Horace Parlan titles, but when I do stop and listen to his music, my reaction ALWAYS is "Why don't I listen to this more often - THIS IS GREAT!" :rsmile:

Yeah Sal, I dig the Mud Love Buddy Jam too! impossible, I must have been typing my last post when you were typing yours. You have some great suggestions. Weir's Ace really is a lost Dead album. The track list from this album sounds like your average 1973 show. Reckoning is also a great recommendation. Those acoustic sets from 1980 were one of the biggest highlights of that decade. I used to watch the video from those shows all the time as a Dead newbie. A couple Dead related albums that I love are David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name and Paul Kantner/Grace Slick's Blows Against the Empire. These were recorded in 1970 around the same time and have many of the same revolving musicians form the Dead, Airplane, CSN. There is some great playing by Garcia and the boys on these albums. At gdlive.com, they have outtakes from the sessions available for download (they're called the P.E.R.R.O. sessions, short for Planet Earth Rock n' Roll Orchestra). The track Mud Love Buddy Jam that Sal mentions is actually the changes from another Paul Kanter song that Garcia appeared on called Mind Left Body. Hence the similar sounding titles. It's nice to see so many Deadheads around here. I was afraid of bringing them up for fear of hearing crickets or or worse. :rsmile:

Sal is right. There was some good stuff happening in the late eighties/early nineties. It seemed like they were having fun again for a little while. I thought 1989 was a really good year for them. Pretty much 1988-1992 has a lot of worthwhile stuff for me. If you like Without a Net, check out Dozin' At the Knick. This is a triple cd set from 1990. I really enjoyed the shows when Hornsby and Welnick were both playing. Hornsby really seemed to help Garcia get the fire in his belly again. Also, they seemed to light up when Branford Marsalis appeared as a guest. I never meant to completely ignore the later period, but whenever I'm talking to someone who doesn't like the Dead, it seems as if they're talking about the group in the eighties and nineties. They can't believe the group was ever as innovative as they were from 66-77. To me the early shows were often uniformally good while in the later years, they were more hit-and-miss. :rsmile:

Welcome to the board Sal! I've only got the Blue Mitchell, but the Hodges and Turrentine are must-buys for me. I have albums that are on the sets and I know how much I like them. I think you'll be very happy with your sets. When you've had some time with them, please tell us how you like them. As for shipping time. I'm in California, and I usually have my sets within a week of ordering them. :rsmile:

Thanks again, Rooster! I haven't really explored Ives' piano music. I'll pick up some of those Vox sets. I've got some of their other releases and they are fine. Cheap cds are a good thing! I'm a fan of his symphonies too. I really like his first one. I know it's not as advanced as his later ones, but I just love hearing it. Yeah, the marching band thing did it for me too. I loved dissonance, but Ives took it to a whole new level for me. My teacher told us a story about when Ives was a boy. In his town they would have band contests, but when the different bands were riding into town on their wagons. They would be playing. From the town, Ives could here the different bands playing different tunes, and my professor said that is how he came up with that approach. :rsmile:

Thanks Rooster Ties! I have a few of the composers on your list. I agree with your statement about Ives. I've been a huge fan of his since I first heard his Three Places in New England (I think that's the title) back when I was in college. It's neat that you mention Howard Hanson. I've got a bunch of those Mercury Living Presence reissues. I've got all the Hanson's in the series. They are some of my favorites. One favorite of mine from that series is the first volume of Music for Quiet Listening. I'll put your suggestions down for future purchases. Thanks! :rsmile:

Thanks Mr. Jazz! I'll check them out. Matthew, I think you'll be very happy about the Dick's Pick! Sorry about your wallet. :rsmile: