belsha

Double Double You is my favorite Kenny Wheeler record. Yes, Brecker's sax is "shiny", but that adds a nice contrast to the rather dark compositions. And the rythm section is just amazing, and so are the melodies:long, lyrical, melancholic and weeping lines. In comparison I find "Music for Large and Small Ensembles" contrived and conventional, it's too "pretty" in a lethargic sort of way. I guess it's De Johnette's (and maybe alos Brecker's) folly that is missing here. Also, Wheeler's orchestration lacks variety and dynamics to my ears: he always writes thick chords in a medium dynamic range. Sounds more like a brass piano than a big band to me.

i think it's a tie between BLACK MARKET and TALE SPINNIN', with MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER a close contender. Heavy Weather is not a bad record, as a matter of fact it's a great record. But everything here is catchier, slicker, more immediately effective, in a word more pop-like and thus less original and haunting in the long run than on it's predecessors. IMHO, the reason the pre-Heavy Weather bands were better is the rythm section. It's a paradox: Jaco Pastorious is most certainly the last great jazz genius and innovator, and in my opinion Peter Erskine is the most sensitive and versatile jazz drummer around to day. But they can't play as raunchy, as groovy, as heard hitting as Chester Thomposon or Ndugu Chancler with Alphonso Johnson. I think it's the combination of those earthy grooves with the more ethearal and intellectual world of Zawinul and Wayne that makes those records so great.

ATLANTIS The most innovative and accomplished Wayne Shorter compositions. Not many people realize thise nowadays, but they will. Form this list: SPEAK NO EVIL. But this period still is very much tributary to Horace Silver.

There's a very good record called "Nightline NewYork", or "Skyline Newyork", or somehing of that sort. It has dual tenors with Mike Brecker and Bob Mintzer, Eddie Gomez and Billy Hart. Highly recommended.

I played piano with Guy Lafitte on numerous occasions in my early twenties. I lived in the south of France, and a pretty bad drummer organized gigs for Guy in the region. Guy was an absolutely astonishing human being, besides being a great player.For a a while, he stopped playing music and became a farmer in his home region, la Gascogne. He was also very active politically there, holding responsibilities for the french socialist party. He was an outgoing, dionysiac person, that at the same time was very aware of his failures and shortcomings, and those of the world in general. He was incredibly human.He spoke a haunting southwestern accent with rolling R's and a dark smoky voice- something quite near to his saxophone sound. At the time Guy died, I was out of the jazz scene, I learned about his death in the newspaper, and I hadn't seen him for a while. A couple of years ago, I met Pierre Boussaguet, who told me that they often talked with Guy about me, wondering what I had become. This saddened me even more, and I sort of felt ashamed for having disappeared like that. I very much miss him. He really was of a breed of jazz musicians that has completely died out- the attitude, the approach, the way of life.