mjzee

That last period was not his finest hour. Lotta editing required, I think. But it's cause his chops were in the shitter. Branford Marsalis was trash-talking Miles from that period on his old wild-and-crazy website and I got bugged and called him on it b/c I felt it was disrespectful to a guy that helped launch him early on. (just like Miles himself calling Bird a greedly MF---it's just not classy to me) 'He didn't want cats to hear him", he said, meaning he was hiding behind the Harmon, etc. I gotta admit in retrospect Bran was right. Miles just was weak, musically and chops-wise. Trumpet is brutal after a layoff. I thought Star People was the strongest. It's a good blues record. He definitely got it together for that one. Enough dissin late Miles! OK--Please listen to the track, Ursula, from that record "The Man With The Horn" and tell me Miles wasn't still with some of his charms... Don't get me wrong - I'm totally with you! I was fortunate enough to have an 8th row seat to Miles' comeback concert at Avery Fisher (part of We Want Miles), and it was great. He was really on, and had a great band too. But Star People kinda bored me, and when I last saw him, at the Pier in NYC sometime in the mid-80's, I just found nothing compelling about the music or the performance. But I still come back to We Want Miles with great pleasure.

And then I'll want a second one done.

I do like Nickel Creek, have one of their albums, and I like that they sound like fresh-faced kids. Another fave is Alison Krause, who I think produced the Nickel Creek album.

In the course of posting the Financial Times review of the recent Jan Garbarek/Hilliard Ensemble concert, I came across this book. If this hasn't been mentioned elsewhere, some might find it interesting: Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM

St Paul’s was fuller than Christmas Day, and scarcely less reverential. Joint appearances in London for the Norwegian saxophonist and the crystalline vocal quartet are rare; this was only their third visit to St Paul’s since the 1994 release of their best-seller Officium. The mood was set with a moment of silence and a prayer from a deacon. The ensemble entered from the back of the cathedral singing a Latin introit. Black-suited with shirts in descending monochromes, they might have been priests themselves. More here: Garbarek

Amen. Well written. And I'll add something: if it weren't for the revenues from Keith Jarrett releases, ECM wouldn't have the money to release these.

Wal-Mart still seems to have it: On The Corner box

I agree. Listen to "On The Corner." If this is supposed to be a funk album, what's with that one percussionist resolutely playing off time? What's with the mix, not only being murky but bringing exactly the wrong instruments to the fore? Hell, where are the words? "Ooh, baby, I want to funk with you," etc. It was when I heard "The Man With The Horn": "He's the man, he's the man, he's the man, he's the man with the horrrrrrnnn..." that I went "uh oh."

No, really, great work! Thanks!

So I was trying to find a bluegrass bulletin board without real success, but then Google revealed a bluegrass thread on All About Jazz, and I recognized many of the posters, so I thought I'd resurrect this thread. My post, alas, is about an obscure album by an obscure band (I know, that's red meat to you guys!). It's a promo copy I got in 1972. It's on Raccoon, the band is High Country, and the name of the album is "Dreams." It's something I could not put into any sort of context way back when, but now I'm pretty familiar with the structure and sound of the form, if not with some of the "why's." Anyway, this is a pretty good, straight ahead bluegrass album, performed by a bunch of long haired hippies. The names of some of the people in the band sound familiar, and I was wondering if anyone knew what some of these guys went on to do. Butch Waller Chris Boutwell Ed Neff Bruce Nemerov Elon Feiner Album was produced and recorded by Banana. I did recognize one other name: the credits state "Thanks to Sneed Hearn for 2nd fiddle on Virginia Waltz." I think he played on a Little Feat album. The songs were written by the usual suspects: Monroe, Haggard, and the ubiquitous Trad. One cool songwriting credit is McCoury; guess he was making waves way back then. Anyway, if anyone can contribute any info, it would be appreciated. And feel free to extend this into a general bluegrass thread.

OK, here's my Michael Jackson story: I was working at an entertainment superstore in the early '90's that sold a lot of records. Every so often an artist would visit, and would be shown to the owner's office for a chat and a photo. I often took the pictures. One day Michael Jackson was there. I was about to take the picture when he called me aside and said, in that whispery voice of his, "When you take the picture, make sure that you get me from here" (the top of his head) "to here" (his belt buckle). Only after I left did I realize the meaning of his request: he didn't want me to take a closeup of his face. His face was pretty creepy. It reminded me of one of those grinning skulls. And he had a band-aid across the bridge of his nose, perhaps the result of some recent whittling. Ah, show biz will make you crazy. Rest in peace, Michael. Oh, one more thing: I still remember my brother remarking to me, in 1969, "the only thing weirder than Michael Jackson singing 'I Want You Back' is Mary Hopkin singing 'Those Were The Days.'"

I just got an email from Rhino Handmade: Rhino Handmade is happy to announce that Hommage A Nesuhi, available as a limited-edition boxed set at Rhinohandmade.com, can now be purchased as a download from iTunes. The digital collection includes 61 renowned jazz recordings and a PDF booklet featuring notes by Joel Dorn, tributes by Sue Mingus, Dr. John, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, David Ritz, a history of Atlantic Records and more. It looks like a nice overview of Atlantic Jazz in the sixties.

My 3 favorites of hers were Hejira, Blue and Clouds. DJRD seemed like Hejira Vol. 2, but more unfocussed. One sensed she was losing self-control; a tipoff was her "pissing a tequila anaconda the length of the parking lot" (a startling turn of phrase to be sure, but one I wished she didn't share), but it does make me wonder about the nature of the white lines of the freeway she was a prisoner to. I just never got into HOSC, it just never connected to me. I once owned it in Quad! Through the box set "What It Is!", I got an interesting insight into the appearance of Cheech and Chong on Twisted. Tommy Chong was a bass player for a band in Canada; I'll bet they knew each other way back when.

The last shot... Lester Young - Pres Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk Relaxes Coleman Hawkins with the Red Garland Trio: Swingville Coleman Hawkins All Stars Featuring Joe Thomas And Vic Dickenson: Swingville Coleman Hawkins - Bean and the Boys Jimmy Raney - The Master Jimmy Raney - But Beautiful Rosemary Clooney - Sings the music of Harold Arlen Rosemary Clooney - Sings the music of Jimmy Van Heusen Stan Getz - The Dolphin Art Pepper - Landscape Warne Marsh & Lee Konitz - Live at Montmartre Vol. 3 Sarah Vaughan - Duke Ellington Songbook vol 2 Bye, guys!

Yes, they released some of the Jazz In Paris stuff as a distinct series. I remember the Clifford Brown. Overall, Inner City did have an ambitious release schedule for a small label with limited resources and no major backing.

I had a few discs where one side was pressed off-center. Boy, did that destroy the music; gave me vertigo!

Does anyone else here love this album? I've just transferred my poppy, warped vinyl copy to mp3. There is such a sound, a mood to this record. The lyrics are insightful, and the playing is just beautiful. In my memory, I thought Jaco dominated the album, and was surprised to see he's only on about half the album. Also surprisingly, the unsung hero (besides Mitchell's guitar playing) is Larry Carlton; he may have done smooth jazz in other contexts, but here he drops perfect little pearls of guitar. Also Bobbye Hall on percussion! So tasteful. I also got a kick when I realized the rhythm section of Hot Rats, Max Bennett and John Guerin, do an obviously different job on two tracks here. All in all, just a masterpiece.

Maybe we should start a thread about vocalists who sound like Norah Jones. I just came across this one on Amazon: Diane Birch As the first reviewer notes, "Diane Birch is reminiscent of Norah Jones and Ella Fitzgerald in a way that works without trying too hard." Of course, that could just be her mother writing.

Rosemary Clooney Abbey Lincoln Emily Remler Mary Lou Williams Stacey Kent Alberta Hunter Annie Ross Blossom Dearie Jeri Southern Karrin Allyson And the obvious ones (Billie, Ella, Sarah).

Try here: http://www.gokudo.co.jp/Record/10inRec/ If that doesn't work, maybe empty your cache?

See http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Brian/BrianDL.htm

With the old download manager, there were tracks that failed to download. At the end of each session, I had to scroll to review if there were tracks like that, then resumed their downloading. The one session I've had with the new d'l manager, it connects with iTunes and automatically puts the tracks there. I reviewed each album in iTunes, and, sure enough, one track in one album didn't download. I downloaded the track again and it was fine. I haven't experienced the different file with strange symbols.

This is wonderful; thanks to you both. The Prestige 10"...wow.

Also see my post in the Jazz In Print forum.

One of the perks of running London's Southbank Centre is getting to choose who will curate the cross-genre linkings, tributes and one-off events that make up the annual Meltdown festival . The venue's director Glenn Max is still mildly astonished to have found himself sitting on the sofa of his great hero, Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt, discussing the ten-day programme, soon after taking the job in 2001. This year, his invitation went to Ornette Coleman, the saxophonist, composer and eminence gris of free jazz. The iconoclastic and genre- bending American dovetails perfectly with Meltdown's emphasis on the bespoke and on the cutting edge, and harks back to the festival's early years - the first curator, in 1993, was contemporary classical composer George Benjamin, whereas the last two festivals were stewarded by British pop artists Jarvis Cocker and Massive Attack respectively. More here: Financial Times