bluesForBartok

I'm listening to an album I grabbed from e-music a while back: Africa: Piano Music of William Grant Still Really beautiful stuff in the 20th Century mold and I'm surprised I haven't heard more about him with regard to jazz players acknowledging his influence on them. Some of it reminds me of the stuff Herbie Hancock attempts in his more avant-garde explorations. Anyone else aware of this composer? Any thoughts opinions?

Thanks for all the great feedback! Can't wait to check it out.

I ordered this from amazon and I am very excited to hear it. Is it as great as everyone says? Would like to hear comments / opinions from those who've spent time with this recording.

yes that was hysterical. thank god for the people who take the time to do twisted stuff like this.

GI Joe Mock PSA's

Did these ever come out on CD? Charlie Drop Me Off In Harlem Richie Anyone know where I can get copies of these?

What I want to know is what sort of mouthpiece is that? I've never seen anything like that before.

It's interesting to hear how far they went with some of those standards. I'll say. If Wayne Shorter never recorded anything other than the PN stuff, he would have still cemented himself in jazz history as one of the most brilliant musicians to ever play the music. His command of the horn is simply astounding.

Congrats! That's a great price!!! I just picked up a used copy for $50 which in the scheme of things is still a steal for this set.

West End Blues | Koko (Parker '45) | Lester Leaps In

A fine record. Certainly one of the greatest of the 60s Blue Notes and an important one for all the players involved. Like many of you I was immediately hooked by the tunes and the elasticity in which the players render them. I think Tony at this stage sounds very similar to his mentor Alan Dawson (Booker Ervin's Freedom Book & Space Book). I think some of you are on to something with regard to the "Boston thing." There's no question that geography plays a certain part in how a player develops and with regard to the Boston players there seems to be the hard edged blues / r&b influence that was apparent in all of the northern cities (Detroit, Chicago, Philly etc.) but with an intellectual, almost "avant-garde" approach for lack of a better term. Certainly the academic nature of a city like Boston must have had everything to do with that. I mean, Sam attended Boston Conservatory and then you had Gigi Gryce, Cecil Taylor and Andy McGhee at the New England Conservatory and Herb Pomeroy and Charlie Mariano at the Schillinger House (Berklee). On top of that you had Serge's mother Madame Chaloff teaching a lot of these guys including Dick Twardzick who displayed a very modern classical approach to improvisation. I've had a chance to speak at great length to Herb, Andy McGhee, Ray Santisi and a few others about the scene back then and all of them describe it as a very heavy and heady time. Herb discussed with me his big band which at various times included Serge, Jaki, Mariano, Sam, Joe Gordon so you can just imagine what a think tank that must have been and Ray Santisi has a lot of stories about playing with Tony at Connelly's in the South End and also Pete LaRoca who also resided in Boston for a while. Oh to be a fly on the wall...

I agree with you. The trio record was a hard one top. I think with Kenny it's all about seeing him live. I catch him every time he is in New York and he never fails to astonish. He seems like he's really trying to extend Coltrane's Love Supreme era approach on the alto.

Kenny Garret Triology Unless I'm mistaken I've not seen this one mentioned. I became a Garrett convert after hearing this one.

Fable of Mabel is a great record! Great tunes on there. I studied w/ Herb Pomeroy and had a chance to interview him a few years ago for a small publication in Boston. When I asked him about the session, he remembered it fondly and said Serge was on a borrowed bari. Apparently he pawned his or something. His soloing is rough around the edges but he plays with so much intensity. Blue Serge is also a classic as King Ubu stated. If you can I would recommend searching out the oop mosaic which includes both of these recordings and then some.

ah but the baby is wiser then he looks.

Anyone have one for sale or am I just completely out of touch with reality?

The transfer is done pretty quickly w/ Windows using Music Match which was the file management software that came w/ mine. I would say 1 Album/CD takes less than a minute to dump onto the iPod. That's using a firewire connection which has a faster transfer rate then USB. If you get one and go the USB route it will definitely take longer although I'm not sure how long exactly

Thanks for the welcome Apple has this funny way of releasing the next upgrade w/ little advanced announcement (which I assume will be the 50 - 60 gb model) but once they do, the 10, 15 and 20 gb should go down in price somewhat. I mean even the 10 is a hearty little machine. That's a lot of music!

I have the 20gb version for Windows and I gotta tell ya, it's just a great little contraption. I've got almost all my Mosaic sets, the entire Coltrane Prestige, tons of Blue Note stuff etc. I hook this thing up to my computer speakers at work and I'm good to go all day. I only have about 1.5 gb left so now I'm starting to get stingy about what I put on there and considering an upgrade but I want to wait until they introduce a 60 gb version or an 80 which would just be incredible. At any rate if you don't have one I recommend it highly. If you do have one I'd love to hear your opinion(s).

Here it is for $449.94 at alldirect.com

Hey thanks for remembering. I have a cdr of disc one but no track info. Unfortunately no one has ever submitted the info to cddb. At any rate enjoy the set and thanks for the info. Don't know if it's acceptable to swap cdr's of out of print stuff w/ people in this community but if so I would love to get the remainder of that set in some sort of trade. If not I totally understand. Don't want the metallicops banging down my door. Thanks again Walter

Is this one worth getting? I'm on the fence w/ a lot of the later 60s BN stuff but my gut feeling tells me that if Mosaic put it out that it must be top quality stuff all the way around. I don't know, something about Jan Hammer's presence on some of this stuff scares me.

I would reccomend getting yourself a copy of soundforge for the editing. Looks like the new version is a little pricey but it's worth every penny.

I agree about taking the bite. I often don't like to pay import prices but it's pretty spectacular music. BTW, looks like Jack Chambers' book is making progress. I found a nice extended excerpt. Really looking forward to this one.

Thanks for the tips. I've looked all over NYC and have had no luck finding this one at a reasonable price. It seems criminal that this music is not available domestically. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet.