Muskrat Ramble

The 40CD Ellington box on History/TIM certainly improves on the audio quality where the material from the '90 Blanton-Webster Band set on RCA/Bluebird is concerned. (Not great, but better overall.) Perhaps they were working from the recent re-release of that material by RCA or from Classics? Or maybe they did some of their own remastering? Who knows for sure. Keep in mind that there are European labels, like JSP, that take (fair) advantage of the copyright discrepancy and indeed do their own remastering--by some of the best guys in the business, too.

Big discussion of this issue here. You'll need to skip a few pages to get to the relevant parts.

Another vote for Mode for Joe under the reissue category. Outstanding album, but that should come as no surprise, considering who's involved: Henderson, Morgan, Fuller, Hutcherson, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, and Joe Chambers. "Caribbean Fire Dance" is one of the hardest-swinging jazz performances I've ever heard. It almost set my speakers on fire.

Black Stars by Moran. Review and discussion. Black Dahlia sounds great in theory but at times too close to moody elevator music in practice. (The Penguin Guide wonders if it's ultimately "brainy easy-listening.") The stripped-down parts with the lonely trumpet solos and so forth work great, but the full orchestral writing can get really schmaltzy for my tastes. I'd rather listen to the L.A. Confidential soundtrack, any day. (Awesome, awesome film, btw.)

I'll probably jinx myself here but I think I've only had one wrong CD sent to me by BMG over the years. They usually seem to have their act together.

Make sure you check out Sophisticated Swing (the double CD set) by Cannonball & Nat Adderley and The Eminent JJ Johnson vols. 1 and 2. These are nearly perfect examples of that era's jazz, imo. Of the Johnson discs, the Penguin Guide says it well: "The first volume of the Blue Note set is one of the central documents of post-war jazz and should on no account be missed."

I haven't heard his music (yet), but I absolutely love the Dave Douglas cover you mentioned.

Very slow for me today.

You might want to check with your attorney if you feel the mag is misrepresenting your work and damaging your professional reputation. I bought one issue of Jazz Improv, and it was my last. A lot of the writing ranged from boring to embarassingly amateurish. "The Webster Dictionary defines record review as writing about records and boy this one is a swingin one! The Duke he sure could play jazz and comppose too! So be sure to swing along to this one because it swnigs! The End.."

With any luck "Hope I die before I get old." When you lose interest in rock, you've taken a big step towards becoming a boring old fogey.

Well, examining music in mathematical terms, composing on mathematical principles, and/or using numerological symbolism in music goes back millenia, at least to Pythagoras. Music used to be taught in the Middle Ages as part of the "Quadrivium" together with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. These were seen as interconnected bodies of theory and knowledge. (The related "Trivium" consisted of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.) Today there's actually a genre known as "math rock," where tunes shift through or superimpose time signatures (hemiola, I suppose) according to mathematical formulae. Bands like Mudvayne, Meshuggah, Tool, etc. get lumped into this category, rightly or wrongly.

The various Amazon branches (.com, .de, .co.uk., .fr, etc.) ship worldwide.

Yeah, it's a shame they've been hyped so much because more than a few hardcore jazz fans have a sort of reflexive aversion to anything popular. But those cats can really play and compose damn well. I'm really looking forward to checking out their side projects, too: both AMG and the Penguin Guide rave over most of those discs.

Lots of places offer some sort of free shipping deal, either flat out or if you order $25 or whatever of merchandise: Amazon.com, bn.com (Barnes & Noble), Buy.com, etc.

I wouldn't bother with "upgrading" unless it really were in fact an upgrade: vastly better sound quality, new tracks, etc. Buying a new release of a disc that's already been released and bought five times just because of minute sound-quality differences or new artwork seems like obsessive-compulsive disorder, or at least a waste of money that could be spent on albums one doesn't already have. It certainly plays into the hands of the record labels, who undoubtedly laugh all the way to the bank. I love a lot of old (and new) BN sessions, but I'm sure as hell no uncritical fanatic.

Our local classical/news NPR station lost me years ago for similar reasons: their idea of classical music (at least during the day--at nights, they'd play syndicated live concerts or hosted shows of miscellany) is putting on the blandest, most innocuous stuff they can find. Plus, they'll often just play one movement of a multi-movement work (akin to playing just one minute of a five-minute jazz tune). So, as a serious fan, I found their approach lamentable, boring, and even offensive for chopping up great works of art and turning wonderfully rich, diverse, powerful music into something for the doctors' offices of the world They make classical music sound like sonic wallpaper for nursing homes; it's an enormous disservice to a great art form. Sort of like a "jazz" station just playing Kenny G and Co.--what a false impression that leaves of the music. What I want to hear on public radio is a blend of provocative, unusual talk/interview shows (not news since I get that off the Net, and there's such an overabundance of news outlets in every medium), hardcore straight-ahead jazz of all styles and eras, and serious classical music of all styles and eras, with pieces played in full. Beethoven knows more than programming directors; don't play just part of the ninth symphony!

These are the Vistas by the Bad Plus is an outstanding album that I highly recommend to anyone remotely interested in contemporary jazz--or just great music, for that matter. (Fwiw, critics seem to agree.) The album has hard-driving ballsy rock energy and deep grooves--a "power trio" album to be sure--but refined playing and subtle group interplay that put many other jazz albums I've heard to shame. Some people blow them off because of the (justified) hype or the fact they've covered rock tunes (an inane, childish reason to slag a jazz group), but these guys seriously have the goods. Here's a cool free streaming concert/interview New album comes out this March, btw.

An unjustly obscure but wonderful disc: The Mount Everest Trio's Waves from Albert Ayler (Atavistic). Awesome balls-out Swedish free jazz from the 70's, with a few vaguely conventional bluesy numbers and pretty ballads. Much of this music falls somewhere between classic Ornette and Ayler (i.e., just the right spot!), with tons of energy and lots of subtlety too. Their bassist, Kjell Jansson, has a HUGE tone and can barrel along like a locomotive or play with delicate, refined grace. He's really one of the best bassists I've heard. Alto and tenor sax man Gilbert Holmström's tone and style often call to mind Trane with bits of Ayler, but he has his own thing going on, too, and he has a soft touch on ballads. Conny Sjökvist beats the hell out of the skins on this one--in a nice way You can hear a sample here: http://www.epitonic.com/artists/mounteveresttrio.html AMG Review These guys show the great potential of free jazz played by disciplined, highly skilled players

The soundtrack album mentioned on the first page: Nothing spectacular, but a solid album with some catchy tunes. Along with Blakey and Wilen, it features Lee Morgan, Duke Jordan, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt, and a few other cats on Latin percussion.

The BMG Club has it too.

There are people who'd buy a piece of poop if it said "Blue Note" on the side.

Hey Jazzmoose, good to be here. Btw, for those who dig the great Art Blakey, I strongly recommend searching out the unjustly obscure Hard Drive. Here's part of what I wrote about it elsewhere: If someone ever asks you what "hard bop" is, just hand them this album. This captures it all: soulful, bluesy, just a bit unpredictable, and seriously hard swinging. This one features the second major edition of the Jazz Messengers with Bill Hardman (t), Johnny Griffin (ts), Spanky de Brest (B), and Sam Dockery (p), though Junior Mance (known for his work with the Adderley brothers around that time--check out their awesome Sophisticated Swing double CD) sits in for Dockery on all but one tune. This disc boasts some cool tunes by Jimmy Heath, Griffin, and Hardman and features great sound quality, to boot. Hardman has some really nice moments, but Griffin steals the show. This is the first time I've really listened carefully to him--man, that cat can flat-out play. In nearly every solo, he does something interesting and imaginative. The dude has some wicked chops--he can blast through the changes as fast as the rocket on the cover of the album--and possesses the soul to match them. Another really neat thing about this album is the reprint of the original liner notes, which include Blakey's surprisingly frank comments about his bandmates, noting Dockery and de Brest's shortcomings (it really is a good thing that Mance sits in for most of the album) and the way so many jazzers can't or won't play the blues, which Art sees as the root and heart of jazz. Because of the simple changes, the blues really expose a player and show what he's made of, says Art. "It's the same thing over and over again, so you have to think to make them come alive. And the guys hate to think; they'd rather just run changes on their horns."

Here's some post-bop in the finest tradition. This disc features Jimmy Greene (ts), Xavier Davis (p), Ugonna Okegwo (B), Quincy Davis (d). These guys are all good, though Greene resorts to overblowing at some inopportune times--he seems a bit infatuated with the techniqe, like "Look what I just discovered! Cool!" Harrell's trumpet sound is dry and a bit brittle (think along the lines of Miles); some might even think it too flaccid and unfocused at times. But even if his tone won't be to everone's liking (I dig it), he more than makes up for it in other ways. Lots of cats can play jazz well, but what I love about this disc is that between his compositions and playing, Harrell creates his own unique, personal sound-world. His tunes create a dreamy, exotic, melancholy vibe while still swinging hard, which is no mean feat, and they feature some truly beautiful melodies--not to mention intriguing harmonic and rhythmic ideas. Two of the many standouts include "Asia Minor," which sounds a bit like a long-lost foreign cousin of McCoy Tyner's "Passion Dance," and "Where the Rain Begins," with its gentle and haunting theme. Harrell isn't merely a great composer, but he's a damn fine soloist, too, with a distinctive rhythmic conception and colorful sense of harmony. He also passes two of the greatest tests of a musician with flying colors: he can play a slow ballad with real feeling (without instinctively resorting to the old double-time crutch), and he knows when not to play, letting the music breathe. Knowing when to shut up is a mark of a mature musician. Overall, a great disc--well recorded and a generous 70-minute running time, too. Another good one by Harrell: his big band disc Time's Mirror.

Africaine is a wonderful Blakey disc. Snap it up if you have any interest in the principals or just good hard bop.

Regarding I, Eye, Aye, it's worth it just for the blazing ten-minute version of "Volunteered Slavery"--those cats cut a groove as deep as the Grand Canyon. Exactly--see the above track Rahsaan was uneven, to say the least, but his musical personality was so huge that even his mediocre stuff glowed. And when he was really on, he was like some kind of musical supernova. Bright moments, indeed