SEK

I think that when a reviewer tries to identify the influences and inspirations of an artist, one often finds out more about the reviewer's reference points and stereotypes than about the musician in question. The task becomes more difficult and complex with a musician like Stenson who has been blazing his own evolving path for almost 40 years (ie. "Serenity" bears few resemblances to "Witchi-Tai-To", except in the range of its material; "Serenity" contains a broad spectrum of music, from Wayne Shorter's "Swee Pea" to compositions by Hanns Eisler, from Silvio Rodriguez's "El Mayor" to the title track by Charles Ives). A Google search turned up these useful links and more: Bobo Stenson Interview Europe Jazz Network Stenson Overview Touche Music Stenson article "Serenity" Review

I'm not much of a Laker's fan anymore, though I loved the Lakers when I was a kid growing up in L.A.. The Lakers, for me, lost their magic when Magic stopped playing and when Phil became coach. I agree that this year will be a test of the Lakers' professionalism. I've been a Pistons fan since the Bad Boys, but one thing I can say that should appeal to all true NBA fans everywhere is that it's sure great to have pro hoops on tv again (though Laimbeer's Shock did a great job of keeping me from jonesing too much this offseason). Go Pistons! And I hope that the Lakers can continue to excell. Their fickle fans depend on it

Bobo Stenson- "War Orphans", "Serenity" Jan Garbarek/Bobo Stenson Quartet- "Witchi-Tai-To" Rena Rama- "Landscapes", "Inside-Outside" Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind- "Chila-Chila", "Live at Balver Höhle", "Live in Bremen" Wayne Shorter- "Adam's Apple" Markus Stockhausen- "Karta" Barre Phillips- "Mountainscapes" Jimi Hendrix- "Electric Ladyland"

"Lickin' Stick", "I've Got A Bag Of My Own", and "I Got Ants In My Pants"

I've ordered several CDs and LPs from Berkshire Record Outlet over the years, dirt cheap. Before their website, I used to order from their catalog. A few years ago, they helped satisfy a Brazilian enthusiasm that I had with some Villa-Lobos CDs. I've taken advantage of their Black Lion and Freedom offerings (Randy Weston, Andrew Hill, Abdullah Ibrahim, Monk, ...). This year, I've purchased some of their $5.99 ECM CDs, including multiple copies of Bobo Stenson's "War Orphans" (they have become popular gifts), Susanne Abbuehl's "April" (a captivating vocal disk that king ubu suggested a couple of times in his posts), and Markus Stockhausen's "Karta" (which was a marvelous surprise to me). BTW, those ECMs (and more) were there last time I checked, and I check once or twice a month. I'll have to check out which Leo Records they have and maybe that Henze trumpet-piano concerto.

"Air Time" is a great choice for Album of the Week. Air was a wonderful/wondrous trio whose music still sounds fresh, and I think that "Air Time" was one of their best recordings. It's also "in print" and readily available. So, to echo Jim Sangrey, "Check'em out."

I saw Chicago a couple of times back in the late '60s, when they opened for Hendrix. They were okay, but I had been grooving on "Miles In the Sky" and the Sons of Champlin's "Loosen Up Naturally". I remember taping parts of "Chicago Transit Authority" and "Chicago 2" (on reel-to-reel) but did not hold onto that tape too long.

Johnny Dyani's "Witchdoctor's Son" has made thousands of miles zoom by for me.

I've been eyeing "The Hal Russell Story" for a while. I now have a compelling impetus for orderding it, and it should arrive in plenty of time for me to listen to it well before October 25! In the meantime, I hope you have a fine holiday, Ubu Roi.

Are you sure you don't mean "Offering/looking for" section?

I have a consumer Pioneer CD Recorder too, a PDR-609. It's connected to my 2-channel music system in the living room, which makes it very convenient to record directly from any source. I just wish these machines had been available and affordable a few years earlier. My experience has been similar to Bev's. I always record from analog sources (tapes, LPs) in manual mode. The resulting recordings from my Pioneer sound much better than from the tape cassette recorders (I've had various Nakamichis) or consumer reel-to-reel tape recorders I had used over many years. That analog warmth is retained, for the most part (unlike with a friend's Phillips CD recorder), but so are all those analog artifacts - groove noises and distortions and those snaps, crackles, and pops. But if I had continued to play those LPs, they would have surely sounded significantly worse by now. And I'm sure that many will never be reissued on any medium.

"Canto" is my favorite Charles Lloyd recording of recent years, and Bobo Stenson contributes a lot to the success of that wonderful program. The magic starts for me with that first cut, "Tales of Rumi", which rather seductively draws me in. I enjoy the dry, woody sound that Stenson's longtime colleague on double bass, Anders Jormin, has developed over the years. This and the dynamic and sensitive drumming of Billy Hart also deserve a lot of credit. Lloyd generally gives the folks he plays with a lot of room for expression. The version of "Witchi-Tai-To" on this Album Of The Week is, for me, the most satisfying version of that Jim Pepper tune. It's part of an eclectic program that, I think, bears a strong Don Cherry influence, or, at least, demonstrates the simpatico environment that Don Cherry found for his poly-cultural explorations among the emerging generation of Scandinavian musicians of the 1970s. "Witchi-Tai-To" begins with a soaring, well-fleshed out version of A.I.R. (All India Radio), which had been a feature for Don Cherry in Carla Bleys sprawling opus, "Escalator Over The Hill". Also there is a marvelous, extended rendition of Don Cherry's "Desireless". Carlos Puebla's "Hasta Siempre" is the kind of Spanish (actually Cuban) revolutionary song that fueled Charlie Haden's Liberation Orchestra projects, and is given a passionate, often tango-like rendition, with everyone in the quartet firing on all cylinders (as is the case on most of this session). While I am not generally a Jan Garbarek enthusiast, his playing on this recording is about the most energetic and passionate of his career. He's still identifiable, but Coltrane's muse is often also at work here; Gato Barbieri also comes to mind. I much prefer Garbarek's playing with Bobo Stenson to his work at around the same time with Keith Jarrett.

How true, but who does or ever did? For example, when I saw Jimi Hendrix at the Forum in 1970, that was definitely the best I ever heard Hendrix play, before or since, but all that came from that evening was a very lousy bootleg. Zappa's "Roxy and Elsewhere" does not hold a candle to the performance that I saw at the Santa Monica Civic at around the same time. Don Pullen played at the local university during what would turn out to be his final tour. He and his band played magical and intense; the live recording released after that was from the year before and barely hints at the majesty, intensity, and urgency that was such a transforming experience for all who attended the performance that I witnessed... So I usually assume that even the live recordings that I treasure are inferior to other performances that were not recorded during the same period.

Bobo Stenson - Witchi-Tai-To (click here to buy) My intention is to highlight the work of pianist Bobo Stenson, a jazz musician whose music has influences and inspirations from most of the planet. My first thought was to make the Album of the Week one of his much more recent trio recordings, "War Orphans," that has frequently been in my cd player since it came out a few years ago. But I soon recalled this fine recording that the "Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet" made back in 1973, which, I think, still stands as a passionate milestone in both of their careers and has remained an atypical ECM staple over the intervening years. I've been a fan of Bobo Stenson, starting back in the '70s with his mostly-Scandinavian collective, Rena Rama, and his participation in Turkish master percussionist Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind. Stenson's current trio has been together and has continued to develop their distinctive voices since the '80s. Bobo Stenson also had important tenures with Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stanko, and several others and has participated in what I think are some of their finest recordings. So, while the Album of the Week for October 5 - 11 is officially "Witchi-Tai-To" by the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet, I want this to also serve as a kind of temporary "Bobo Stenson Corner" where one may discuss any musical project that Bobo Stenson has been involved in.

Where I live, one must use bottled water in order to have decent-tasting coffee and to greatly reduce the need for removing the crud.

That sounds good to me.

8 Bold Souls- "8 Bold Souls" (Sessoms/Open Minds), "Last Option" (Thrill Jockey) Griot Galaxy- "Opus Krampus" (Sound Aspects) Faruq Z. Bey and the Northwoods Improvisers- "Ashirai Pattern" (entropy stereo) The Northwoods Improvisers- "Branches" (entropy stereo) Roscoe Mitchell- "Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancing Shoes" (Nessa)

The Abbuehl CD came to me in the mail the other day. I'm enjoying it very much. I agree with ubu (Beautiful stuff, highly recommended!). "April" is a wonderful alternative/addition to the usual type of "jazz vocal" release. I most often prefer instrumental versions of standards, and I feel that most new vocal versions of songs from what's sometimes referred to as "The Great American Songbook" have been done better long ago by Billie, Sarah, Carmen, etc. When lyrics are added to jazz tunes, it can be interesting, but usually confines or conflicts with my interpretations of the music. But that's not a problem for me; good, expressive music tends to override any inadequate lyrics that may be imposed on it.

I bought "Basra" several weeks ago from Dusty Groove's website. I don't know for sure if it's a true TOCJ, but on the disk it has the TOCJ number and says that it's made in Japan. It sounds fine, better than my old LP.

Billy Bang's version on his Soul Note album, "Invitation", is my favorite version.

Wow!! Thanks, Chaney! They are quite substantial tastes, indeed!

I had one of those for a bit. I found that, to get the flavor I wanted, I had to use a lot more coffee than with a normal coffee maker. Yeah, and I found the coffee was not as hot as I liked.

"O'Neal's Porch" was one of my favorite music purchases of last year, and "Scrapbook" is a favorite recent purchase. As for Parker and Drake's place in music history, I dunno that I'd hype them as much as some folks. They certainly are great musicians and play very well together, and they seem to earn a relatively large amount of exposure making notable music during these lean days, but Ellington and Strayhorn, Diz and Bird, Miles and Trane, ... , or Mingus and Richmond, or even Favors and Moye, or ... - back in those days, there were many more musicians on the scene trying to say something. The scene was much broader, deeper, and more competitive than now... Time will tell - I suppose ...

That's what I fear, and at a time when redbook is sounding more consistently nice.

I've enjoyed this marvelous record since around 1970. It was my bridge into Shepp's other '60s sessions on Impulse, as well as his previous work with Tchicai in the New York Contemporary 5 and on Shepp's Fontana recording, "Rufus" (then onto Tchicai's own recordings many years later after I felt that Shepp had lost it). This is the Archie Shepp record that I play the most these days, when I'm not in a "Magic of Juju" mood. As the cover and title indicates, this is a tribute to Trane, but Shepp is definitely doing the talking. His distinctive fonky solos seem more restrained and structured than in his previous work, or what was often the case in the Impulse albums that followed. Likewise, the ensemble sound is a relatively more contained template for the kinds of rangy backing that Shepp would employ in future Impulse sessions. Perhaps that's what makes this album more consistently satisfying for me than "Fire Music", for example (though I love that record too). It's a stone classic of great beauty that still moves me.