mjzee

I generally don't complain about older artists - everyone has to make a buck, old age isn't for sissies, and I recall Hugh Hopper's health woes. The real problem is that new music kinda sucks. If there was a healthy crop of new music coming out, we wouldn't be so obsessed with reliving our pasts.

My favorite edition of the band was the quartet who recorded SM 6 & 7. It was nice to see Karl Jenkins participate in the King's Coronation ceremony - he wrote a piece for it. To me, Mike Ratledge was the heart of the band. I lost interest after he left. In a way, Soft Machine is emblematic of the Grandfather's Axe paradox: is it still grandfather's axe when the handle's been replaced 3 times and the head's been replaced 4 times?

"Cow-Cow Boogie" was written by Benny Carter (along with Raye and De Paul). Must have provided him a nice income stream throughout his life. You can hear it sung by Jon Hendricks on this:

Decca - The Mono Years, disc 27. Also includes:

Perlman DG box, disc 25 (last).

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 38. Also contains RV 548 and RV 516 from this:

The Hannibal disc.

Great reveal. I happened to be listening to a Berne record (You've Been Watching Me) right before I heard your BFT, so there you go. Regarding the Philly Joe date, I've long thought that run of Galaxy LPs from the late '70's has been criminally neglected. In a way, they were victim to Miles Davis's dictum that liner notes are superfluous. So they usually had bare minimum info on the back cover, when they should have tried harder to sell the albums: play up the strengths, the often unusual and surprising combinations of musicians, and just tell people why they should buy it. Even now, a great Mosaic box would be to compile many of these Galaxy dates. "Le Rex" was definitely interesting and eye-opening. Very talented musicians.

I bought 3 recent Criss Cross releases, and they're all really good! Alex Sipiagin - Mel's Vision, Michael Feinberg - Blues Variant, and Noah Preminger - Sky Continuous. All of them were produced by the son (Jerry Teekins). I think the label is in good hands.

Listening to this now. I'm really enjoying it - shall I say I'm B-3 Groovin' to it? Excellent writing, arranging and playing. I especially like the groove; there's a laid-back yet tensile strength to it. Listen and you'll know what I mean.

Has anyone else noticed the O Boards have been very slow to load lately? I see it on both my desktop and phone. I wonder what's up.

Larry, thanks for the heads-up about McKusick. He wasn't at all on my radar screen, but based on your recommendation, I picked up the two Avid twofers, comprising 7 albums in total. What an interesting musical mind! It also seems like he was part of a group of musicians and composers/arrangers at a very heady time in the music. Unselfconscious, very musical, but striving for something different. I really enjoyed these albums.

You'll enjoy it.

You sure it's Condom?

Perlman DG box, disc 24.

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 37.

Our own Ken Dryden has reviewed Funky Nothingness for All About Jazz: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/funky-nothingness-frank-zappa-zappa-records

Disc 4, with George Szell.

Decca - The Mono Years, discs 25 & 26 (Bloch string quartets #1-4).

I missed my chance to see him. This was about 20 years ago, and Dizzy's Jazz Club at Lincoln Center had a double-bill of Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron opening for Brotzmann. I went with my wife. Trouble was, the club's A/C was broken, and it was really hot and stuffy in there. We stayed for Lacy and Waldron and then split. Ah well. My tolerance for noise has diminished as I get older; still, it would have been interesting to experience the full Brotzmann live. RIP.

Perlman DG box, disc 23.

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 36.