Aggie87

up for Jim... Have "big heads" become passe'? How about a "Colossal Head"?

Live Three Ways Update: I noticed on CD Universe's website that this item was now in "backordered" status. So I emailed them asking about it, and mentioned that I had not seen any notice of it anywhere else on the internet, including Blue Note's site. They responded and said that is is currently not available, and that they think the release date was postponed by the manufacturer. So I'm not sure when it's coming out, if at all. I doubt it was ever really coming out, if CD Universe was the only ones who had ever mentioned it. And I still don't know if it was a re-release of the video, or an actual CD. Oh well, at least I can enjoy "Up All Night", which is a really fun disc!

Agree with Rooster's comments. I'd give this one an "OK" rating also. It certainly doesn't have much fire, or the enthusiasm that I've come to expect from most of Sco's work. The lineup is stellar, which makes it all the more a shame. I wish he'd road-tested this band for a while before going into the studio, though I can imagine it would've been cost-prohibitive. It might've gotten the tunes into a groove that they lack. I saw Sco live just before this album came out, and he played a few of the songs with his überjam band, and they sounded great! It might be interesting if Sco worked up some more "traditional" styled music, and took the überjam band into the studio to record it.

Thanks for all of the replies! I went ahead and picked up Romance with the Unseen, and have it in my "on-deck" pile. Will probably go back and pick up You are #6 next (along with Jason Moran's Facing Left which zweitausendeins has, and I've never actually seen anywhere else). I already have Caine's Toys; thanks for the reminder on that one. I'm gonna have to go back and have a re-listen to that one, with emphasis on Byron's contributions.

Not too bad choices there. I ordered the following: Dave Douglas - Infinite, Freak In, A Thousand Evenings Stefon Harris - Grand Unification Theory Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Domino Joe Lovano -52nd St. Themes Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream Wes Montgomery/Milt Jackson - Bags Meets Wes Horace Silver - The Jody Grind Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire Bjork - Greatest Hits (don't know any of her stuff, but if both Osby & Moran can cover her, there must be something worth exploring) Average price of this purchase was $6.23, If I had ordered a few more, it would've gone down below $6 per disc, including shipping & handling!

Heads up on a few newish things at BMG: ScoLoHoFo - ScoLoHoFo Stefon Harris - Grand Unification Theory Wayne Shorter - Alegria The Essential Dave Brubeck Ahmed Abdul-Malik - Jazz Sounds of Africa Hampton Hawes - Northern Windows Plus Bobby Timmons - Prestige Trio Sessions Ben Webster - Soulville My current sale is Buy 1, Get unlimited $1.99. This one's a good deal if you're stocking up on a number of items - they get pretty cheap if you order around 10

I saw Yes in concert on Friday night, with Wakeman back in the fold. They put on a great show, and seemed to have a great deal of rock-n-roll energy for guys who have to be getting up near 60. The concert was moved from an open-air stage to an indoor hall nearby for some reason, but I think that actually helped visually, since it's currently staying light here until almost 10:30 pm. The setlist was: Firebird Suite intro Siberian Khatru Magnification/Don't Kill The Whale In The Presence Of We Have Heaven South Side Of The Sky And You And I Howe solo: In The Course Of The Day / To Be Over Anderson solo: Show Me Wakeman solo: Journey to the Center of Catherine Parr, or something like that Heart Of The Sunrise Long Distance Runaround Squire/White duet: Whitefish/Tempus Fugit/Silent Wings of Freedom Awaken Roundabout Yours Is No Disgrace Interesting for me was to see how Wakeman played "Magnification" and "In the Presence Of", which weren't written with keyboard in mind, but orchestrally. I thought he accounted for himself nicely, and didn't overkill anything. And reviewing the setlist today, it's interesting to note that they played almost all of Fragile. I would've enjoyed hearing something from Topographic, or perhaps "Close to the Edge", but it would be hard to cut any of the setlist to make room. The concert lasted about 2.5 hours. Overall, I'd give it a solid "B" grade, losing out to the symphonic tour last year, which earned a solid "A" from me.

John Coltrane - Soultrane Nguyen Le - Purple Paul Motian - On Broadway Vol I Jaco Pastorius - Heavy n' Jazz Charlie Parker - The Washington Concerts Peter Gabriel - Long Walk Home Van Morrison - Best of Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans

I'd like to take a second and make a recommendation on a contemporary "prog" group, Porcupine Tree. If you like prog, and want to hear something that's in that vein, but isn't exactly a derivative of the "noodly" 70's stuff, check them out. Porcupine Tree started out as a one man band, Steve Wilson back in the early 90's. Gradually turned into a real band, as they went from a small indie label to a larger one, and now finally on Atlantic. The music has evolved significantly as well. The early albums were very interesting and promising, but not really fleshed out. There are some moments where they clearly sound like Pink Floyd in style (best example is the album "Sky Moves Sideways" from 1995). There are some wonderful vocal harmonies, as well as some intricate instrumentals. Their newest album is from last year, and is called "In Absentia". This one is their heaviest (and darkest) album, and may be similar in spirit to music like Tool. Very interesting album. It's not my favorite though. That would be "Lightbulb Sun" from 2000. For me this is their peak, and is the single best album to try them out.

I haven't seen much discussion about Don Byron around here, or at the BNBB. I'd like to hear some opinions about him and his music. Which of his releases are recommended? I'm eyeing Romance with the Unseen, which is on sale at zweitausendeins at the moment, along with his other BN releases. This one caught my eye mainly due to the presence of Bill Frisell. Is this a good one to start with?

These may be more "nice" finds than "greatest", but I picked up a few nice things yesterday on the way home from one of my local used shops: Miles Davis - Four & More Japanese Master Sound (is there a name for Japanese Columbias, ala BN's TOCJs ?) v/a - Piano Moods - Cleopatra's Dream - TOCJ 66053 Michael Brecker - Time is of the Essence - interesting set with Metheny, Goldings, & Elvin Total price for all three discs was €10!

I love the fact that he tried to spell out "Konitz", but just couldn't get it.

Art Blakey - Caravan Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue Miles Davis - Friday Night at the Blackhawk Grant Green - Matador Bill Frisell - Nashville Bireli Lagrene/Jaco Pastorius - Stuttgart Aria John Scofield - Up All Night Los Lobos - Mas Y Mas Disc 3

I've spun Up All Night a few times this week now, and think it's great! It's definitely in the groove camp though, so if you like your Sco straightahead (like Works for Me and Scolohofo), then this ain't it. I'll give this one 4 out of 5 stars. Personally I like this album better than überjam, which ain't too shabby either. Scofield sounds great in this setting with a rhythm guitarist, which he hasn't done too much (if any?) of in the past. His past work with other guitarists has mainly been with "costars", like Frisell, Metheny, Abercrombie, etc. I'm not sure if I'm really saying that right, since I realize even those guys take turns in the spotlight versus playing in a support mode. Highlights so far include "Watch out for Po Po", with some fun audience singalong, and "Freakin' Disco", with it's "chucka chucka" guitar (not sure what that's really called, just what I've called it for 20+ years). Also a nice cover of the R&B hit, "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get". Joe - BMG seems to sell stuff like this about 3-4 months after it is originally released. Hope you can wait that long! Also, that Live Three Ways appears to be a cd release, not a DVD/video. It's probably the music from the video. But it's listed in the "music' section of CD Universe, and lists for $11.98, with a sale price of $8.39. It's due to be released next Tuesday, 6/24. Perhaps Alan can confirm that this is a music cd?

This is kinda fun. After a few more passes through Babelfish, into Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and a few others: "The citizen where the famous customer where is that is correct newly approximately here that factory where in order to respect, his free level of member 7 year from four points unintermitting she finishes accurately in order, wages namely the uniform clay/tone of your increase after that, your and his et cetera " " crowdedly which is always executed the lithium of this family which has these ingualmente which are seen "

I was playing around with Babelfish earlier, and decided to see how it translates some things. I took this phrase from the Gettysburg Address and converted it back & forth into French, German, and Italian. Babelfish seems to create a whole new language unto itself... Original Phrase: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal" Babelfish Version: Four customers and are approximately seven years our family here, which the members, which, which they dedicate themselves you to the topic are, which is carried for this new unintermitting nation later in one, project in liberty and, which "all same men" arise

I'd like to see the complete "Soap" on DVD. Anyone remember that one? Billy Crystal, Robert Guillaume, Katherine Helmond... One of the funniest shows of its time. Also, while on the subject of DVDs, has anyone picked up "Once Upon A Time in America" yet? I'm on the fence on this one, but it is apparently the longer, international version, which is supposed to be more coherent. Looks like it might be good, but I wanted to get some confirmation of that first.

I've gotta post the thread I linked to. The more I read it, the more I start laughing... I don't think there's any way this could be anyone other than Aric. I can see him sitting there entranced by "Three's Company" back to back with "Perfect Strangers"...

...if anyone is wondering what happened to Aric Effron, I've got a good hunch he's posting on AAJ as "Duophonic". Check this thread out: what the hell is up w/ 1st 60 seconds of OUT TO LUNCH lp being in that commercial?!? ...and the clincher would appear to be that his profile states he is a "MOBEFAN"...

I think you'd be impressed with any of the Gabriel led albums, beginning with Nursery Crime up through Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Also check out the two mentioned above with Collins, but before Hackett left. I think you would be pleasantly surprised at any of them. Also, Gabriel's solo stuff is well worth exploring. It's all been recently released in remastered form. If you are only judging it from "Sledgehammer" and "In Your Eyes" (both of which were overplayed to death), you're missing out on alot of good music. The first four albums are great, and the remaster of Us is fantastic! The soundtrack work he's done is also very interesting, and not as well known as his rock material, so that might be up your alley as well.

I wish I had been into Yes when Tales & Relayer first came out (got into Yes music in 1979 or so, at age 14). I can imagine the anticipation of hearing Moraz in Wakeman's place. (or Wakeman replacing Kaye earlier, for that matter). I still think Gates compares to anything off of Tales, though, and is a powerful epic. And I also think "Awaken" off of GFTO is quite impressive as well, and I don't hear it as a "cobbled together" or disjointed piece. I'm expecting it will get played next Friday night when they play Stuttgart. I can see if synths in general turned you off during this period, that you might have a problem with Wakeman over Kaye though. I thought Kaye was a great Hammond player, and his creative peak was on "The Yes Album". I'm not sure Yes would've produced Fragile, CTTE, or the subsequent albums with Kaye still in the fold. Or at the very least they sure wouldn't have sounded like they do. It also seems that after Kaye rejoined the band in the '80s, that most of the keyboard work was done by Trevor Rabin. I saw them a couple of times with that lineup, and Kaye didn't add much live, to either the newer material or the 70s stuff. In fact Talk is probably more of a Rabin solo album, with Anderson singing, than a true Yes album.

If I look at this album with my jazz hat on, then I see it like alot of others in this thread do. It's nice, just nice. Most of the songs sound very similar to one another. Nice, pleasant cocktail party music, but not much to challenge my ears. But without that hat on, I compare the album to it's real competition, the rest of contemporary pop music. Then I start thinking that this is a fantastic album, and a debut no less. I like Norah's voice, and think she's got a ton of potential. The album is fairly mature for someone her age, and doesn't have that generic Britney/Christina/Pink/Timberlake/next teen pop star sound. It's not jazz, but if it helps elevate the quality of pop music just a little, then that's not a bad thing.

Sonny Clark - Sonny's Crib Bill Frisell - Gone, Just Like a Train Keith Jarrett - The Melody at Night, With You Bud Powell - Bud! Terje Rypdal - Waves Stanley Turrentine & Three Sounds - Blue Hour John Zorn - Spillane Neil Young - Decade

Jumping off from this as a tangent point - alot of people say they prefer the Gabriel era to the Collins era of Genesis. I believe most people who say this really are saying they prefer the "prog" Genesis to the "pop" Genesis. The reason I make this differentiation is due to the two post-Gabriel studio albums that they put out, Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering. These albums, though Collins sang on them, were every bit as prog as what came before, and IMO as good as the Gabriel-led stuff. The change that occurred to set them off down the "pop" path was the departure of Steve Hackett at this point. The group was then down to it's pop lineup of Collins/Banks/Rutherford. "Follow You Follow Me" became the blueprint for all of what came after - shorter, poppier songs with fewer instrumental passages. There were a couple of good moments on Duke and Abacab, but still not like what came before. I still haven't heard the album they did without Collins, Calling All Stations, so I don't know if it's more prog or pop. But for me the delineation for Genesis is Hackett/post-Hackett, instead of Gabriel/Collins.

I've purchased a number of these ZYX boxes recently at my local zweitausendeins outlet. Two of them came without slipcases or booklets - the Evans Riverside and the Monk Riverside. The jewel cases were just banded together. When I asked whether they had the rest of the stuff in the back, they stated that they had received them that way from wherever they get them. And the clerk also commented something about "for that price, how can you complain?" I guess I have to agree with him, but it would've been nice to have the slipcase/booklet. Either way, couw's booklets are fantastic, and do the trick for me. -Erik