can anyone recommend these new prestiges?

[Guest akanalog]

woulda thought on this board people would be talking about this new earland disc-"funk fantastique". is it any good? i personally don't really care for organ jazz trying to be a bit funky (a la earland's "black talk" and "black drops"-that is boring and tired to me-i do like it a lot when the music is slightly darker and more exploratory-such as earland's "intensity") would i like this new one? i can't tell from the lineup which way the music will go...

also how is this bartz? i have mixed feelings about the ntu troop stuff i have heard. i have the live montreux set and i like most of it though i am not overall crazy about the music. i have "slingerella" on vinyl which i like a lot and i don't think i am crazy about the first bartz ntu two-fer which came out years ago though i haven't given it a great chance. is this new stuff any better than the montreux set for instance? (well i like the montreux-what is it called?-"i've known rivers"-but i would have preferred they had stuck to the groovy soulful jazz than move into the more obvious funk beats of some songs and there is one song which is a little free for me and some of the lyrics are hokey though i guess "of the time")

[JSngry]

Overall, the Earland is a mixed bag, but the title cut (previously unreleased, btw) has one of the all-time great Billy Harper solos.

If you don't like funky organ jazz, well, there's a fair amount of that here, but there's also some burning straight-ahead modal stuff too. Myself, I'd recommend it just to get that Harper solo.

Personally, I think the two HARLEM BUSH MUSIC albums are amongst Bartz' finest work. Sax, voice (Andy Bey, a perennial favorite), bass, drumms, and percussion. No keys or guitar, wide open spaces for spirited blowing. I'm told that they left a tune off for timing reasons, though. so LPs are the way to go if you want both albums in toto. The bastards at Dusty Groove usually have "new reissue" copies in stock.

[Guest akanalog]

thanks for the advice.

well maybe i will be checking out the bartz-since i asked this question i heard some sound samples and it sounded good besides one song which was perhaps a cheesy poetry recitation with a slightly african vibe to it?

that song "celestial blues" which i already knew-kicks butt though. i forgot how great it is.

and i don't mean to sound like a jerk about the earland-you know what i mean though. there is only so much legends of acid jazz style prestige stuff one can hear before it loses its freshness.

billy harper on sax means to me though that some of this stuff must have that edge i am looking for.

[jazzbo]

I need to think about getting the Bartz's. . . I only have one Troup lp and that is a SHAME!

[RDK]

I'm looking forward to the Bartz. I've been on a real ntu troop kick since I "discovered" him a year or so ago. Hoping to see Bartz this weekend here in L.A...

[JSngry]

you know what i mean though. there is only so much legends of acid jazz style prestige stuff one can hear before it loses its freshness.

billy harper on sax means to me though that some of this stuff must have that edge i am looking for.

Let me put it this way - as far as the funky stuff goes, there's better examples of Earland doing it afaic. But for the straight-ahead stuff, it's as good as the similar type things on LEAVING THIS PLANET. And on one tune, the soloing styles of the latter get done over the grooves of the former, and that's a groove.

All that I really care about is that Billy Harper sounds great on every cut that he's featured, period. That was the sale for me right there.

[JSngry]

Oh yeah, there's a previously unreleased alternate of "Speedball" on that Earland side, one with Billy & Lee Morgan.

For those who are completists, you need to know that, right?

[bertrand]

Jim,

How many cuts have Lee Morgan? Someone at Fantasy told me that there were several tracks with Lee, even though the Intensity CD from a few years back was supposed to be a complete Morgan/Earland disc. Obviously, the alternate to 'Speedball' is one, but there are one or two others, apparently.

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[JSngry]

What I've heard has been a copy w/o liners provided by a friend for "auditioning" purposes to see if I wanted to buy the real deal. I did. My "real" copy is on order and hasn't arrived yet. So here's what I hear:

"Speedball" I'm sure that Lee's on, obviously, and I'm pretty sure he plays on that smoking title track as well. I think Hubert Laws is on there too (on piccolo, if my ears are working right, playing lots of mid-60s Trane-isms!), and he's on fire too, something that's always good to hear. Think I hear Lee on "Grab 'Hole A Dish" as well, but not for anything "significant".

[BFrank]

That Gary Bartz disk is great. I always loved those 2 albums.

You might want to track down the BGP import of this, because the Milestone release left off one tune.

I got mine from Dusty Groove and they still list it, but also that it's "Out of Stock".

Edited September 3, 2004 by BFrank

[J.A.W.]

That Gary Bartz disk is great. I always loved those 2 albums.

You might want to track down the BGP import of this, because the Milestone release left off one tune.

I got mine from Dusty Groove and they still list it, but also that it's "Out of Stock".

It's available from Amazon UK.

[SEK]

I've never heard the Earland, but I've had Gary Bartz's "Uhuru" since soon after it came out on LP long ago, and I've dug it mightily. It's my favorite work by Gary Bartz, though I also enjoy his playing with McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis.

When, a couple of years ago, Dusty Groove started carrying the UK release of the CD containing "Taifa", which I had somehow never acquired, along with "Uhuru", I had to get it. My old vinyl grooves were ailing, and it's great to hear the companion Ntu Troop records together. They flow together with great soul and electricity - and great fonk too, even though it's virtually all acoustic. "Talk To The Heavenly Bodies", indeed! It's nice to see (most of?!) it released domestically.

I remember that when "I've Known Rivers..." came out, with it's electronics and/but without Andy Bey, it still had some appeal (especially the title track), but, overall, I thought it was quite a letdown, compared to its acoustic Ntu Troop predecessors. A rehearing of its recent re-release has not changed my opinion much.

I've also enjoyed very much my copy of Gary Bartz's "Another Earth", since back in the early '70s. It's currently available on CD, paired with most of Gary Bartz's lovely "Libra", and I can recommend that more "mainstream" CD as well.