misha mengelberg

[Guest akanalog]

i have a CD of "dutch masters" and it seems reading the liner notes, the CD has the sides reversed. is this true? should the disc start with "kneebus" rather than "dutch masters"?

[Kalo]

I've never had anything but the CD, so I wouldn't know, but looking at the liner notes, you've definitely got a point.

Great music, though, which always sounded fine to me in the CD order.

[Kalo]

I've never seen an LP myself, but akanalog is right: the liner notes discuss the tunes starting with "Kneebus," The fourth tune on the disc, and explicitly refer to "Reef' (the third tune) as the "closer."

Odd.

[Guest akanalog]

try the album in the order suggested by the liner notes and see if you think it sounds more right. i think "reef" sounds like a logical closer. and "kneebus" would be a weird opener, but not really.

[clifford_thornton]

I am pretty sure that came out on LP as well as CD. Soul Note was producing their titles on vinyl up to around 1990, maybe later, and many you can still get with ease.

[Guest akanalog]

there must have been at least a review LP because the reviewer speaks of the album as having sides, i think.

[Kalo]

Okay, I just discovered that this is even more messed up than I thought. I've listened to some of my other Mengelberg recordings, and it seems as though on Dutch Masters the titles of the tunes "Reef" and "Kneebus" have been mixed up. On the other two discs I have that include both tunes, "Reef" is the slow, moody tune and "Kneebus" the uptempo swinger. And on both albums they are played one after the other in that order, slow to fast: "Reef" preceding "Kneebus." On the 2005 trio disc Senne Sing Song (Tzadik) the two are even played as a single track medley entitled "Reef and Kneebus." On Dutch Masters the titles are in this order, but the tunes are reversed!

Something went seriously wrong with the program notes and track listing of Dutch Masters.

(Last year, the excellent Boston-based pianist Pandelis Karayorgis pointed out to me that "Kneebus" is based on the beginning of "Just You, Just Me," as a Mengelbergian homage to Monk and his elaboration of the same tune as "Evidence.")