Pete C

Mr. Bean Blackadder Rowan Atkinson

For me Herbie was at his best and most exploratory as a pianist when he got to stretch out on live Miles gigs, especially the 1967 tour.

Boris Rose Charlie Rose Bozo the Clown

What may seem "amusing" on the surface is really pernicious at the core. Yeah, prisoners in the U.S. are really pampered. They're really whooping it up about this at the tea party.

I can do without the vocals on Ayler's New Grass, but if he had gotten Little Richard to sing New Generation that would have been a brilliant coup (the tune is essentially Jenny Jenny).

Oh, I'll bet people have been fucking with it for years.

Quit dissing Wynton Marsalis.

Roger Bannister Kip Keino Carl Lewis

My first two Sonnys, not sure the order, were the Everest and the Prestige twofer. I bought oodles of those twofers. Some were just repackagings of two individual lps (all the Miles and Coltrane sets, for the most part), but I think the Rollins was a compilation drawn from multiple albums. Next Album was the first Rollins music I bought on first release, and then I saw just about every concert he did for New Audiences in NYC in the '70s. In the '80s he started doing dates at The Bottom Line as well as concert halls.

Now playing. Thanks!

I always thought the final Evans trio recordings were so intense and edgy because they were cocaine fueled (though Joe LaBarbera was surely a factor too). I suspect You Must Believe in Spring, OTOH, was the result of some other substance.

In 2 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7DscCT2BYg&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGHmqE4ft8E&feature=relmfu

& my favorite McCoy recordings are the Milestones with Azar Lawrence, Sonny Fortune and George Adams. He also perfected his very individualistic compositional style during that period, IMO.

There's also a reissue with the original Period cover. I too had it on the Everest series. As a teenager I had oodles of those, both jazz and blues. And you shall.

Fun, but nothing for the ages. Giardullo & McPhee were excellent, but the surprise "winner" was Roberto Ottaviano. Colin, I'll be in Lafayette in a bit for the Festival Internationale. PM me if you'd like to try to hook up.

I saw Joe McPhee last night as part of a Steve Lacy tribute, and watching him I was reminded how much I like his album Nation Time and its mix of all-out energy blowing with a funky rhythmic and ensemble texture, and maybe a backbeat, that differs from the freer context players like McPhee would more often appear in. What else fits into this little hybrid subgenre? Maybe some of Pharoah Sanders, maybe late Ayler on Impulse, some of Shepp on Impulse, Evan Parker's playing with Moholo or Brotherhood of Breath. Also, that rhythmic quality comes across in many dates featuring Steve Reid on drums (with Charles Tyler & Arthur Blythe). Other ideas? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR8Isg0-Shw

There was another very similar story within the last year or two, either a sports figure or an actor who became a prom angel for a handicapped teen. I can't remember the details.

Molly Pitcher Molly Picon Pico Iyer

Did Tyner redeem himself for you with Expansions and the Milestone recordings?

Daddy Warbucks Dan Warburton William Makepeace Thackeray

Non-existent Ayler DVD gets 5* review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albert-Ayler-Maeght-Foundation-DVD/dp/B00069MOLS

Interesting take. I think an alternative model can be drawn from Shepp's '60 live recordings (Donaueschingen & San Francisco), which modulate all-out free blowing with melodic balladry. While I'm sure the live experience was at another level, the recordings have never disappointed after years of listening. Even Ayler, at Fondation Maeght, was leaning somewhat in this direction.

I'd say that it makes sense to review a disappointing effort by an artist you usually like, as you'd have a good working perspective. But I agree that if you just don't connect with an artist it makes sense to leave the reviewing to those who can meet the music on its own terms.

I don't know about shows, but one of the best affordable restaurants in Rome is Piccolo Abruzzo. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d1008109-Reviews-Piccolo_Abruzzo-Rome_Lazio.html

Maybe Headhunters made more sense to a kid familiar with rock & funk? For all Mahavishnu's debt to power rock, the music, I think, is coming more from an advanced jazz sensibility, if that makes sense.