Yes, I saw it on line somewhere. R.I.P. Sonny Murray. NP Ron Carter presents Eric Gale In A Jazz Tradition (Emarcy) Japanese lp. Picked this up today after listened ng to the opening track at the store. As the title states, this is straight ahead jazz, not the r&b influenced Stuff playing he is more associated with. He has a good band with him and it makes for a very pleasant listen. EG - g Ron Carter - b Dr. Lonnie Smith - o Grady Tate - d Houston Person - ts
One of Cedar's best! What a band too. I saw the later incarnation of the band with David Williams on bass and Ralph Moore on tenor sax a few times at Yoshi's back in the day.
One from my '70s listening that I hadn't heard in a long long time, Andrew Cyrille's 1978 Metamusicians' Stomp....really good album, and David S. Ware's playing is just great.
Yes , Blu Blu Blu is wonderful he covers so much music and at the same time it is very unique . One of my favourite Black Saint titles
All three of those albums in a row in the late '80s and early '90 -- Hearinga Suite, Blu Blu Blu and Family Talk -- they all cover a whole range of Abrams' interests and each has strong connections back to the various traditions.. I think that was a great era for the man. Hearinga Suite is maybe my favorite of the three, but all of 'em are super. They've gotten a lot of play around my house over the last 25 years.
I was fortunate to be able to spend a couple of days with him when he came to the Guelph Jazz festival a few years ago . I was his host / driver , he was a very humble , kind and gracious man . It was great to hear him talk about the power of music , and his need to keep writing
Maybe Sonny wanted that in the interview. I doubt that he minded. He has at times been outspoken about the environment & racism.
Miroslav Vitous- Mountain in the clouds, 1969 You probably know this one as "infinite search", but I prefer this album cover (although I don't have this version). Usually I skip " freedom jazz dance", which is probably the most famous one - prefer the others. How was he able to get all those cats in the studio with him to record a debut album?! Big bitches-brew smell on that recording session. Vitous writing is lovely and adventurous. Read somewhere that he was a Lafaro's fan. I can see a lote of "Jade visions" in that album.
May I ask a dumb question? Is pure blu ray sort of an upgrade to DVD-A? I assume you have to "listen" to these discs in a home theatre environment?
Yeah, it's certainly a no-brainer to ask a guy who wrote the first major piece by a major jazz artist to response to the civil rights movement in 1958, how he thinks things have changed since, in an interview looking back on a guy's career. Also, I think, generally, it's pretty much impossible to talk about art without talking about religion, politics, social conditions, social mores, human relationships, etc. Art is culture and culture is both a product of and a response to it's time. There are certainly some artists who conspicuously try to keep their art detached and apart from the political and social issues of their time (not that they're necessarily always successful at that, or that that alone isn't a sort of political or social response). But religion, spirituality and social stuff -- those kinds of things we're not supposed to talk about here -- are parts of Rollins' artistic life. We can't delve too deeply into those things here according to forum rules, which is OK, I guess, though I think, depending on the work, avoiding all politics and religion when we're talking about music can be a bit like talking about the taste of food and only talking about how more or less salty it is. But I certainly don't expect a interviewer from a general interest publication interviewing an artist looking back on his career not to ask about the artist in the context of his political and social times. FWIW, the interview left me feeling very sad -- imagine Sonny Rollins feeling like he never played up to the level of his own expectations or intentions; and now, because he can't play anymore, still fingering his horn.
Basically just Hi-Res in Blu-Ray format. Most titles are stereo (or also feature a stereo track) so you don't need a surround setup, just a blu-ray playing device.
NP Don Friedman Trio - My Favorite Things (88's) BSCD2 Somehow I missed this guy's music for many years though I started seeing his Circle Waltz album posted on the board for some time which is what finally got me to check him out. He seemed to have interest in many facets of jazz and played with a lot of people.
The Black Friday 50% off AP 2x45's have arrived! Well, they arrived Thursday, but just now getting to enjoy them. The Wynton Kelly Trio / Wes Montgomery exceeded my expectation. The recording is simply stunning in this format and the gatefold jack was a surprise. WP: Wynton Kelly Trio / Wes Montgomery - Smokin' At The Half Note NP: Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder I have had this Lee Morgan title on my MM want list for a while. I'm glad I held out for the AP 2x45. I can't imagine this recording sounding any better than this. At $25 it was a no-brainer!
Gigi Gryce and Donald Byrd - New Formulas From The Jazz Lab (RCA/Sony) Japanese cd Gigi Gryce doesn't get a lot of attention these days but he was an excellent writer and arranger on top of being a solid player.
Sonny is a serious man. One time when I sat with him, he wanted to talk about Martin Luther King. Another time when we were together, he wanted to talk about the beauty of stained glass windows.
You know me, I post about Sonny just about every month. He once told me that he just decided while we were talking, and that I would be the first to know, that he would do another solo unaccompanied tenor sax concert. He got caught up in my excitement about the first one. But it never happened. 87 years on 9-7-17
Continuiung with recent AP 2x45 arrivals... another stunner - amazing SQ and packaged in a gatefold sleeve. The inners are poly-lined paper sleeves. Different from the QRP sleeves used in the other AP releases. This copy was also a numbered copy in the mid-100s. Color me surprised for $25! NP: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Art Blakey!!!!! Jazz Messengers!!!!! Some of my favorites in this band... Blakey, Fuller, Merritt, Morgan, Shorter, Timmons.
Great minds! Picked this up from the sale as well. Compares equally with my MM blakeys, the packaging and gatefold was great and I love the impulse label overall.
So Morgan is NOT one of your favorites? I picked the SACD up during the sale. I've always wanted to like this album more than I do . . . it just seems a bit lackluster . . . but hell it's Blakey and crew!
Actually, oddly enough, the back cover of this one shows that it has both a Stereo 24/96 lossless track, and a 5.0 DTS HD Master Audio track. . . . Which is odd as I don't remember this material sounding particularly great, good, but not great. It's not a US region Blu-reay so you would need a player that is region-free if you're an American listener (at least that is what amazon says in the product description).
Miles Davis - Sorcerer Vinyl Me, Please Record of the Month Pressed at GZ on pink vinyl (supposedly purple to match the text on the album cover, but it's really bright pink). Very nice heavy duty laminated cover with booklet of new liner notes and period-appropriate photos of Miles. The mastering here by Mark Wilder and Steve Berkowitz is really nice. There's a ton of mid-range clarity, and at times Ron Carter's bass and Tony William's drums sound like an afterthought, but at other times they sound very sweet. If you need a copy of this album on vinyl and you don't want to shell out for the MOFI or an original, then this is a reasonable and worthy alternative. If this were available in stores on black vinyl as a Sony/Legacy edition for $20, I think people would rave about it for the price. It's easily on the level of the RSD mono titles. I'm going to spin the MOFI next to see how it compares, but I'm expecting more Ron and Tony. I will likely end up selling the Vinyl Me, Please pressing.
I always thought I was the only one who loved that Sonny Rollins solo in the MOMA sculpture garden album.
