CJ Shearn

perhaps Kartoffel there is a connection that Redman has to Pat's playing here, but I'm thinking of certain stuff Josh plays on that record, like during his solo, phrasing out of late period Trane that has become a trade mark of Mike's playing as well: short of hoarse, ( I would imagine) false fingered lines that sorta sound like: "dugga dugga doo bee doo" etc.........

I'll get "Spring" in a few weeks, I gotta cool the cash burning till my next check. I always say "one more", but that's never it ;-) I would agree that there should be more stuff released from "Tokyo Live", which I have a burn of since it's OOP and I missed my chance to get it, if a real copy turns up I'll grab one. I think the 80's quintet had promise, judging from "Tokyo Live", I really enjoy Bill Pierce's contributions to the record, his soprano sound is very fresh, very clarinet like to my ears. Another thing I might add about "Life Time" is that, the compositions are "real" as opposed to the young guys out today who have written tunes that sound like homework exercises on the records. That's one of the things I've paid attention to on the 2 Joshua Redman discs I have "Spirit of the Moment", and "Wish". A few things sound like what I described above with the Berklee mentality, but similarly there are traces of ideas wanting to get out. BTW, does anyone notice on "Wish" that maybe b/c of Pat Metheny's presence on the record, that Redman goes for a lot of Brecker licks?

"Mode For Joe" is outstanding. I just got it in the mail today, first time hearing the date and I definitely agree with everyone re: "Carribean Fire Dance". I ordered "Our Thing" tonight in addition to "Unity" which I've been meaning to grab.

I picked this up a few days ago, another purchase that was always meant to, but never got around to it till now, but first time I played this, it was a big shock (been through it twice now). A shock in a good way, Tony playing free stuff at 18 posessing this amazing fluency in that idiom, and good compositions to boot. I think "Memory" is the most challenging listen on the album, but what a good experience. Also RVG (as far as I can tell from my cheap little surround set up here in the dorm) did a very nice remastering job, the K's are very well defined.

cool, I'm definitely buying.

Joe, yes that tune is very weird. I just moved into my dorm again so it definitely tests the limits of the small surround speakers I have. What time sig is that in? sounds like 6 or 7 something to me. Live and Unreleased is my first WR purchase and I dig what I hear, gotta get the studio stuff and I decided to wait until I have more $$ to blow before getting "Live in Tokyo", probably till my next check.

Jim, I picked up "Live and Unreleased" yesterday, I've heard a lot of stuff from seasoned WR fans that it is not considered to be their best, I think it's very nice, especially "Where the Moon Goes" and Jaco's feature. I think I may order Live in Tokyo in a few mins. CDUniverse has it for $21.89. Money that I need for school stuff, goin down the drain

just a few extra tracks, an alternate of Plum Nellie, "Cherokee", "Blue Moon", "First Night Blues" and "The Third Day"

well, since I'm the TA and Mike is the teacher it's entirely up to him what's done but I am sure he'll definitely want my input. Since he intends on using GB, Jazztimes, Jazziz as sources of readings, I think that is an excellent and easy to understand way to access historical type essays, historical reconsiderations of artists (e.g. Grant Green being in the top 10 in JT's guitar issue last year) that were undervalued during their time and also the social issues surrounding periods. There needs to be more articles selected like "Reconsidering the Jazz Tradition" by Scott Deveaux which was read last semester in Keeping Time, a nice anthology, but I sold it when classes were over. There needs to be IMO, a focus on articles like the Deveaux because, they shy away from the Marsalis neoclassicism argument, and it shows that styles of fusion, soul jazz, etc are indeed valid. Also since Mike is a Metheny fan, I hope we could touch on a point later on is that his music was different from fusion in the 70's, fusion in the sense of styles mixing but different because of the melodic openess, the time keeping on the ride opposed to backbeats (although you find backbeats on almost every cut of the first PMG album) and that even though some pieces may not be "jazz" in the traditional sense, he draws on the tradition definitely. Also if the class is on Blackboard, a o/l class message board there should be links to this site, jazzcorner and AAJ to show how us passionate fans discuss jazz. I don't think discussions about RVG would interest folks but certainly other types might.

cool, Rooster. I'll keep that in mind and will discuss it with Mike, Erin and Marcus (the other TA's) whenever we discuss class material. thanks

sank you. any tips? we will cover everything from New Orleans Jazz to bop, hard bop, modal, free, fusion, and today. of course most of my recordings that could be used in class, are hard bop, fusion, some stuff out now, I will have to buy more stuff if things in the class are played that I dig.

the class I took for fun last semester. It's being taught by a guy named Mike Carbone a teacher I've known since middle school and is a person who really finds my knowledge of tremendous value, so he offered me the TA gig the other day in addition to the 2 TA's that were involved in it last semester. Mike is a great teacher in Johnson City and does a bang up job with their bands and also Binghamton University's jazz band so it should be nice. My professor for the class last semester, David Brackett was almost certainly going to offer me a TA spot if he knew that class was being offered this year but at the time BU's jazz program took a dive due to budget cuts. Later by a stroke of luck it was reinstated and the class is being offered again. The way Mike is teaching it will be cool, he plans on using a lot more audiovisual media compared to Brackett, having more in class performances and local players discussion their roles on their instruments, as well as what myself and the other TA's have in their collections.. I think this will promote more critical listening, a skill Brackett was trying to get the class to develop but didn't work. I was the person who heard the most of what he was getting at when he tried to demonstrate a musical point. I will be offered 2 undergraduate teaching credits to boot!

interesting point Hans. I think according to what you and others say regarding TOCJ's, and the sound of them, (I don't have much experience with TOCJ's cuz I cannot afford imports often) the few imports I do have, have a warmer sound that is more pleasing, and not as treble heavy, more of a midrange. At the BNBB I remember Lon elaborating on the pressing differences in US/Japan plants as a possible reason for this. Whereas a lot of the US issues, though they sound better than previous incarnations have unnecessary treble boost and a bass response that's too heavy. Rudy is still a masterful engineer, but I would lean towards the camp of him having high frequency hearing loss, with just a little bit of the tastes in US music production, bright, compressed sound, factored in.

yes Jim, it is a good thing you are not familiar with that.... actually the tune is called "Shower You With My Love" just imagine a lame bassline, a quiet storm drum loop, horrid 80's production, lame but not as bad as you know who soprano playing, a singer with blue eyes and a mullet singing cliche stuff like ::slight roar in voice:: "I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU ::insert melisma here::"

Jim, while your at it, play "Mr Magic" and the George Howard tune "Shower You With Love" ::barf:: what crap, I saw that video on BET On Jazz passing thru, what the hell is that lame ass shit?

Shrdlu, I don't think Rudy would have any one assist him with sonic adjustments, from what I've heard he goes as far as covering the mic labels with tape so no one can see what brand they are. He's very secretive about his techniques in an almost manic way.

Pablo was a label I grew up with for a few records, there are some stuff IMO, especially recorded at Montreux that ranks as the label's best work and some inspired work from those at that time in their careers, some albums I dig are: Count Basie: On The Road, when it hit CD I was very happy. Great solos on this date by Eric Dixon, Kenny Hing, John Clayton and Booty Wood. Basie:Jam Session at Montreux '75: w/ Eldridge, Griffin, and Bags. Fun stuff. Basie: Montreux '77 Jam Milt Jackson/Ray Brown: Montreux '77 Jazz At the Santa Monica Civic '72 Freddie Hubbard: Born to Be Blue, At the Northsea Jazz Festival one thing that always bothered me and still does is Pablo's dry studio sound. Maybe it was meant for a "live" in your face kind of feel, I also heard that Norman had low production values, but the sound on other dry recordings doesn't bug me nearly as much as these.

never heard of this cat either, sounds interesting. I think that if this was revealed to anyone that maybe a lesser known player was dabbling in innovations that a more famous player is credited for it may be controversial, similar to how Jimmy Smith on the organ, has been cited by Joey Defrancesco, and others as doing some of the modal type and sheets of sound stuff Trane was doing.

thanks Jazzmoose, if there are any liners on Pat records they are usually like "I decided to use this guitar because no one has explored harmonic material in this way before" or "Lyle and I wanted something acoustic in nature" or "we are addressing a very particular area of music here hopefully successfully adding our stylistic touches" lol.

What they've done since the last batch of RVG's is change the original serial numbers in the logos or in the typography which is something I don't know why they've done. As I have complained before, it takes away the original retro feel of the series.

This is usually from every time I go out to the Lost Dog to enjoy local gigs played by cats I know. they play these tunes almost every week: All Blues Stella By Starlight (the guitarist Taze always calls this) You Don't Know What Love Is (they always have fun with this though) a funked up Footprints Softly As in A Morning Sunrise Tenor Madness. These are all from the Real Book the way they do them, so even non musicians like myself are getting very familiar w/ these Real Book treatments of tunes. I agree with those that said it's not the tune that's boring, it's just the nature of the improv on it that makes it so.

true. It's just amazing to me how some of the RVG's have this analog warmth and some are overly bright (but still better than McMasters to my ears) you've recorded in RVG's studio? wow, you can send me a PM if you'd like the details. I've always wondered who ya are too, you can PM that as well, b/c it'd be real cool if I was talking to a name cat, especially since I wanna enter the industry as a writer/critic someday.

Maybe this should be posted in audio talk, but maybe it'd get more reads here. With what I read on the Blue Train SACD thread in regards to the excessive treble and Rudy's supposed hearing loss, yes I think a lot of the RVG's are bright, but the ones that sound absolutely beautiful like "Indestructible!" the Monks, the Jimmy Smith's, and the "Love Supreme" deluxe edition, I've read that Maureen Sickler is his assistant, do you think maybe the reason for the really great remasters is RVG just being "on" or maybe she is assistant him with what sounds better level wise? I want some opinions so that I can maybe understand some of the reasonings behind this.

I think what is special about Ron is his tone (after the CTI's I've heard his tone goes completely bass direct) his taste, and his elastic ability to play around with time, and play really odd sounding things that sound just right, like his signature "boinging rubber band" lick that he does. I think Ron's tone when DI'ed totally ruins something for me. I saw him on BET on Jazz playing "Loose Change", from the 70's, his tone was AWFUL, and the solo was just incredibly boring, as great as he is, this solo was filled with an inappropriate number of masturbatory trills, and other bass gymnastics that in that setting, didn't work.