Kevin Bresnahan

Renee Rosnes - Kinds Of Love (Smoke Sessions Records). Renee's latest release. As usual, some great compositions played by a great band, with Chris Potter on sax, flute & clarinet, Christian McBride on bass, Carl Allen on drums & Rogerio Boccato on percussian. Unusual to hear her on the Fender Rhodes on a couple of tunes. I can't remember her playing one on any of her other CDs.

I gave him a pass... wrong word. I believed him when he said that he was drugged out of his mind when he said those things. Is that a pass? Maybe. I did not defend that racist BS, that's for sure. Maybe I shouldn't have allowed his marketing crew to fool me, but he seemed sincere and went out of his way to avoid saying stuff like that again so I thought, "Maybe he was just stoned out of his mind". Now this latest shit comes out and he's sober as hell. Now I have to wonder if his "I was stoned" defense from years past was just a coverup. He's just an idiot.

According to this: https://downbeat.com/news/detail/maria-schneider-fight-the-power, "By consensus, the piano chair will go to the orchestra’s longtime accordionist, Gary Versace — a “magnificent piano player,” she said, who “knows the aesthetic of the band.”

It'll be weird without Frank Kimbrough, but Maria Schneider's orchestra should not be missed.

When I first played this, I thought it was a Coltrane tribute album. I mean clearly, "Impressions" is a tribute to Coltrane, but he certainly sounds a lot like Coltrane playing an alto on several other numbers. Man, Bartz is on fire on this CD. I had forgotten how fiercely he plays here.

The resolution of the music has less to do with how it sounds than how it was mastered. If someone remasters a recording and crushes the dynamic range by compressing the heck out of it, it won't matter if it was uploaded as a 16/44, DSD or 24/96 file - it will still sound like crap. If there are multiple versions, I would recommend listening to each version and hearing if one sounds better than the other. Just don't worry about the resolution. It means a lot less to the overall sound than you might think.

I'm really starting to have trouble listening to music by this guy these days. He's probably always been an idiot and I gave him a pass for that racist tirade years ago but his most recent BS on stage has really soured me on his music. He's certainly not getting any more of my money, that's for sure.

I saw him a few times but I believe that I had him sign this CD after a show at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA.

I was lucky enough to Charlie to sign that for me.

Makes me wonder if it was just the mailer that somehow managed to affect these LPs? I figured that once I ripped off the cellophane, I'd be OK but even the LPs inside (of the 3 I opened) have had the same musty smell.

Looks like I'm not the only one who bought some LPs from that last Tommy's Jazz sale. Have you found any of your records to have a musty smell? I've never had sealed records have that before this. It is very odd.

I just picked up this CD. It is great stuff.

I wonder if Smoke is ever going to reopen. They closed for COVID and have yet to schedule anything. I hope they manage to reopen as it was a great venue the times I went. I was hoping to get another chance to go there in the future.

I'm going to skip that one as I really like the sound of the SACD. Plus, as I've said elsewhere, my days of hearing a gnat fart from across the room are well behind me, so I doubt that I'd hear any difference between the two versions. Now playing: David 'Fathead' Newman - Resurgence! (Muse). I picked this up in the recent sale. Sealed and yet still has a slight musty, basement-y smell - weird. I'm not really digging this one a lot. The recording sounds off, particularly on the piano. Oh well, you miss on some.

I listen to it on a CD. The complete sessions have been released on a single CD several times. I don't think I even have this on LP.

I would have bought this SACD if AP had added the additional material from the sessions that produced this great record. It just didn't seem right to me to buy an SACD that matched the LP version now that all of this material has been released on a single CD several times. Any digital reissue of this music should include all of that material or it's just applying LP's time limitations for no reason.

Does anyone know who mastered/cut this LP? I find that to be pretty important these days. I'm having trouble getting this post to look right. My words keep getting inserted into the quoted post even though I'm not typing inside the quote box.

I have both and you are correct that they are both very good. FYI - I fixed your link.

Gary Bartz/Sonny Fortune - Alto Memories (Verve). Killer band; Bartz & Fortune with Kenny Barron, Buster Williams & Jack DeJohnette. Having said this, it almost feels rote in places. I wonder why Verve never released this in the US?

Charles is 82 years old so he probably needs to limit his touring these days. His website shows that he is playing at the Bern Switzerland Jazz Festival at the end of this month: https://charlesmcpherson.com/event/bern-switzerland-international-jazz-festival/2022-05-24/ You could always fly there.

This YouTube video has the saw solo in full:

Denny Zeitlin - The Name Of This Terrain (Now-Again Records). It's a bit weird but Denny's description interested me. The vocals are definitely the weakest link here (as he says).Denny's Facebook post: Hi Everybody, I feel a little strange about announcing a “new” album recorded in 1969 whose release I resisted for many years. There’s quite a story behind it: Back in 1969, I was immersed in an electro-acoustic integration of jazz, rock, avant garde classical, funk, and free-form music. My long-time close friend, Bill Young, suggested we co-produce a project where I would write new music and lyrics, and my trio, with George Marsh and Mel Graves, would perform and sing the lyrics as a demo. Bill would try to interest a label in completing the album with professional singers, and supporting a tour. The project was completed in November,1969, and a custom run of demo LPs created, but no labels were interested, and my trio returned to instrumental explorations in concerts and recordings. “The Name Of This Terrain” remained on the shelf until 2003, when Bill Young’s death somehow led to a stack of demo LPs ending up in a thrift store, setting off a gradual low-level international buzz. I began receiving inquiries from fans, collectors, and record labels, wanting to hear, purchase, or release this album. I was taken aback at the prospect. Although I felt the music and lyrics were strong, none of us trio members had ever done any singing, and this demo album was never intended for release. I destroyed my copies, and for years successfully fended off inquiries. But every few years, Eothen Alapatt of Now-Again Records would circle back, enthusiastically proclaiming the album’s musical importance and the passion and emotional immediacy of the trio’s untrained vocal cords. In 2020, I was prompted to give the project a relisten, and to my surprise, was struck by the freshness of the concept, passion of performance, and spirit of adventure on the album, and felt “The Name Of This Terrain” was worthy of release, as long as the demo nature was made clear. Thinking back on that recording session over 50 years ago, I remember how much fun it was. The rapport with George and Mel was terrific, and there was plenty room for improvisation amidst my complex tunes and arrangements. There are totally free sections, including an utterly wacky “Free Piece,” where we first recorded a free improvisation leaving a lot of space, and then, each getting a head phone feed of the music, free associated to phrases from a dozen books opened to random pages. The instrumentation: Denny Zeitlin: Acoustic Piano, Hohner Clavinet, Farfisa Organ, Custom Sound Generating and Altering Devices, Tambourine, Melodica, African Thumb Piano, Lead Vocals; George Marsh: Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals; Mel Graves: Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass, Custom Sound Generating Device, Backing Vocals The album can be heard in its entirety on You Tube (ad free): www.dennyzeitlinterrain.com And here’s link to a 10 page booklet with photos, lyrics, and liner notes: https://tinyurl.com/terrainbooklet The street date for the LP and CD was May 6. If you’d like hard copy: https://tinyurl.com/2br4wvhe I hope you’ll give this music a listen.

Michael Cuscuna has no idea why Bob may have mixed down that saw solo nor does he know who played it.

I thought I read somewhere that Bob Belden mixed it out because he hated it... or was it because Lee hated it? Belden seemed like a pretty straight shooter with regards to the artists' intentions, so it's not like him to do something that the artist didn't want.

Given Mingus' reputation, it seems weird that he would allow that to happen.