Green Dolphin

Don't give up on Ornette Jazzmoose,may I suggest starting backwards with him and lending an ear to his "latest","Colours",a live duo set with pianist Joachim Kuhn from 96.For the record "Change Of The Century" is probably the most accessible of the Atlantics. I can see ,however, that some people just can't connect with him and the sound grates(Tim Berne's an alto player who goes against my grain)

Sideman wise there's an excellent batch with David Murray on DIW and Red Baron.And seconding JohnS do check out those Keystone Trios,particularly the Rollins tribute Newklear Music...beautiful.Picked up Power Trio s/hand myself easily not so long ago,dream trio.

From a European perspective Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko did a couple of stunning quartet sets on ECM with Bobo Stenson,Anders Jormin and Tony Oxley-Matka Joanna and Leosia.The same group "warmed up" for these sessions with Bossanossa on Polish label Gowi(probably still available from those excellent folks at Cadence) .A recent US recommendation would be Dave Douglas' Moving Portrait on DIW.

Certainly a return to the approach of Songbook,if you liked that, this should do the trick...another "nice" Kenny Garrett set.Read somewhere that some of it comes from the Happy People sessions,no recording date specified,but same studio and engineer.The great Joe Ferla recorded some tracks at Avatar too.Don't know if Chris Dave's worthy of the Tony comparison yet but he sure is busy,Charnett Moffett as huge as ever.Yeah,nice record,sunny day music and we need plenty of that in these dark days,cheers Kenny.

Not as startling as Black Action Figure,but overall I like this set,overcooked tho' it is in places. (I never take a lot of notice of liner notes,especially in the fiddly booklet CD age).Why did Blue Note sit on this for so long,Kindred wasn't exactly pushed either(it never came out in the UK).

Recommendations would probably be best served in relation to what you like listening to now.Also what sounded "free" in the late 50's can sound pretty tame these days.If you mean from the early days then best start with Ornette's Atlantics(or indeed the two Contemporary's),Cecil Taylor's Looking Ahead and the Candids moving onto the more difficult Unit Structures and Conquistador.Then of course Coltrane post Love Supreme(First Meditations would be a good toe in the water if it's still available as a single disc)before immersing yourself in such things as Ascension.Art Ensemble(and Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound"),Archie Shepp and plenty more treats will follow. I must admit I'm no authority on today's splintered free scene but check out Ken Vandermark,Joe Morris,Peter Brotzmann(save 68's Machine Gun for a while!).I'm sure there's other board members who'll fill you(and me!) in with contemporary must haves.I'm not one really for sub-genres,it's either good or bad,as the Duke said. By way of an edit how could I have forgotten Ayler-Spiritual Unity knocked me sideways when I first heard it("What the hell is this?").And forgot Ware too,any of the DIW's are worth having,Godspellized is awesome but the two Columbias would be a good start,backwards probably...Surrendered first then Go See The World.

Wayne Shorter-Alegria Mat Maneri-Sustain Brad Shepik-Short Trip Horace Tapscott-The Dark Tree John Taylor-Rosslyn

1.Paul Bley 2.Keith Jarrett 3.Andrew Hill 4.Brad Mehldau 5.Uri Caine Three legends and 2 relative newcomers-as a piano nut there's too many to choose from.It wouldn't be so dificult to pick out,say, tenor players or guitarists, but drummers are another lot I'd find it hard to squeeze out five favourites. Great board by the way,and glad to be aboard.