CJ Shearn

I gotta pick both volumes up. When I approached Woody Shaw III with the idea of doing a podcast when the first volume hit, he wasn't that keen on the idea.

I have all his Blue Note releases and am a fan of him as well, the new album is VERY dark, it's a territory I also associate with Christian Scott, it's music that has a social relevance. I gotta listen to "Rift' again, but I just ordered the Blue Note All Stars "Our Point of View" based on the strength of "Second Light" and "Masquelero". Though "View" seems a bit short to be a double CD but I guess with it being a double LP as well, they want to mimic the double album thing I guess.

Only time the applause really bothered me was on "The Carnegie Hall Concert", otherwise it seems like they want to capture the feel of being there.

http://bit.ly/2x1YCBF

Ok, I'll bite. Jimmy Smith: Sit On It. This album just sucks. I don't think it was bad for JOS to try synths, but he sounds so anonymous on them, and Herbie Hancock and Lenny White do nothing to raise the album even though they are on it. Some of that LA slickness didn't quite work for Jimmy. It's not good funk even. None of his Mercury albums are worth having for me except "It's Necessary". It's a classic in jazz-funk circles, but I wonder how many of those people know his groundbreaking work? Pat Metheny: A Map Of The World. I don't hate this album, the main theme is one of the most gorgeous he's ever written, but there's not enough thematic variation. This is where I think "The Falcon And The Snowman". Again, I donn't hate itt, it's just one I listened to less, Pat's output has a consistency across all of it, and this does too, but as far as the soundtrack work goes it's the weakest as a whole album. Joe Henderson: Black Miracle. Out of all the sessions in the Milestone box that are remarkably consistent, this one isn't as bad as people make it out to be, but not Joe's best. To me it's like an attempt to get Joe into the emerging GRP/LA sound (when they were an Arista subsidiary) and it sounds as if hee just came into overdub his parts and solos over the classic LA rhythm section. Herbie Hancock: Feets Don't Fail Me Now. I don't think ANY words need to be said about this, "Sunlight" is great, but this? Easily the worst Columbia album he made, even the Laswell trilogy has redeeming qualities as long as you get your ears towards that kind of music. Ron Carter Meets Bach: YUCK............. Billy Cobham: Power Play. This one isn't even close to his best Atlantic work and an effort that pushes him into typical GRP blandness. This one accidentally (yes, really) came into my possession in a box of CD's accidentally taken from my father's house that belonged to my deceased uncle Kevin who liked jazz. While he did like good jazz, he had an awful lot of smooth jazz in his collection (maybe cause he liked R&B too) and a sizable amount of GRP (maybe b/c he was semi audiophile) so I gave this one to a friend who loves collecting GRP albums and even he thought it sucked. Chick Corea: Light Years. While there are a few good tunes on the album, and I know the Elektric Band is NOT popular here, this album comes the closest to fitting into the typical GRP mold. Flamingo is kitschy as hell like a mid 80's porn soundtrack, and I love that track b/c it's so kitschy, but "Eye Of The Beholder" and "Live In Tokyo 1987" are much better EB albums

I might do a part 2 targeting a video I forgot about, "Sequencer" by Al Dimeola, which sort of is a Fairlight demo song, the YT comments are hilarious, people love it. Horrible, only thing cool is about is Al Leong. Then there were two post "Rockit"" Herbie vids that are pretty bad, one where he's a Metro North conductor, it's for one of the "Perfect Machine" singles, I think. I ended up editing parts of the article, got it out there fast. Miles videos sucked too, "Doo Bop" was '93 I think? Vince Wilburn posted on FB that a Kool Mo Bee sequel to Doo Bop is coming. It was great that Miles was into that thing at the end of his life, but not all of that works. I think Miles would have sounded better doing the early drum n bass thing out of England, the things that Erik Truffaz was doing, later in the 90's. The interesting thing about the Stanley Jordan video was that it contains a different solo from the album version, which DiMeola produced that album IIRC. What else sucked? Branford and Buckshot LeFonque's vid for "Breakfast At Denny's" whih visually tried to make a social statement, and I think those albums are some of the more interesting early jazz-hip hop concoctions. That didn't really go mainstream IMO until "Black Radio", where you had popular rappers like Snoop and Common guesting as opposed to just underground cats. I remember having a cop of Steve Coleman's "A Tale of Three Cities" when it came out, as a 13 year old those rhythmic concepts didn't make sense yet, and I was a total hard bop, straight ahead snob at that point. Jim, what is that Roberts vid?

Funny article I wrote yesterday http://bit.ly/2f4B7op

Cool! I don't have any of the material though I've considered getting the Dragon Stockholm 1960 set many times.

Enjoy! http://bit.ly/2eTnQ23

RIP. Sad.

I'll be reviewing this, I like it so far. I did note the Steve Coleman esque influence too, and now that you mention it, the Hill. ECM's New York recordings balance the cinematic presentation with intensity perfectly. I really liked the Iyer/Wadada "A Cosmic Rhythm In Each Stroke" last year, beautiful and on edge. I'll put it out again.

I am glad. My heart goes out to them because I'm disabled. I donated to an org that will help disabled people in this disaster.

Oh man.........................................

Really sad. I love the different tones, textures, he was able to come up with to redefine his sound. Like the textures on the opening of "Boat Song" from "M". I think after his first three quartet albums he switched to a more Hendrix inspired distorted sound. "Arcade" is such a great album, and I was just listening to him on Lonnie Smith's "Afro Blue" the other day. My review of the Abercrombie Quartet box from 2015. http://bit.ly/1k70VMK

Love that photo of her with Horace. Being a friend to many and enemy of a few is so very hard, I aim for that myself. But unlike a few people who made tons of enemies on the board, Valerie was always very kind.

RIP Valerie. Very strange they changed her so much on the character based on her for the Tina Turner movie but not surprising being Hollywood. I recall Valerie saying somewhere in the forums she had left that organization a long time ago. Incidentally, the Buddhist sect I am a part of, Shinnyo-en gets mistaken many times for the group Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tina Turner belong to.

Oh wow. Sucks I missed the Beacon theater gig, sounds great.

I think so. If you were to use a precedent in Herbie's catalog, would you say it's closer to the sonic explorations of Mwandishi?

Would have loved to see him in NYC August 6th. I believe a lot of that live music is a preview of his new album which will feature among others Thundercat, Robert Glasper, Snoop Dogg and others. Even with the hindsight we have Complete Columbia Album Collection, who knew from "Sextant" where Herbie would go in electronic music? There were signs but he's pushing the envelope, and truly into mainstream hip hop collaboration. "Rockit" and "Future Shock" did have an impact on hip hop, but not in the truly integrated way Herbie is approaching now. Great to see a balanced view of the music. Getting that box set really made me look at his music differently than I had before, I always favored the acoustic and early electric periods.

Oh man................. sad

In September, he'll be on an album of microtonal jazz with Phillipp Gerschlauer on alto, Dave Fiuczynski on guitar and Matt Garrison. It's really a trip, to my knowledge it's the first fully microtonal album Jack's participated in. On RareNoise.

Happy birthday to one of my all time favorites. "Hudson" is killer. I was talking with Antonio Sanchez the other day, once years ago he went to Jack's house for a night and they had a jam with Jack on acoustic bass! He said he did his best Charlie Haden impression.

This was GREAT!! Thanks for sharing.

Garcia definitively banished Broner's relevancy as a contender. Garcia was my pick to win, and his boxing and discipline, never getting out of position to counter and getting Broner to fight in his lulls making him uncomfortable, was masterful. AB was so much better as a 130-135 pounder when he'd walk guys down and let his hands go................ the transition to Mayweather-lite was horrendous for him, he doesn't have the IQ to pull it off. I had Garcia winning 117-110, only gave AB rounds 1 and 9. Once Mikey let his hands go round 2 on he was too much. Broner's antics outside of the ring are disturbing to say the least, he needs help, if he's legitimately threatened to take his own life, on social media twice. The political divides should be brokeen so Garcia can fight Loma and Crawford. I think he beats Lomachenko in a very good, close fight, but not sure if he beats Terrance Crawford, he is something special. GGG-Alvarez is the fight I will most likely order but right now, I am saving everything for Japan in November. My pick is GGG if he moves and boxes, Canelo has trouble with movement, but Canelo is GGG stands in front of him. The Jacobs fight (which I ordered) showed GGG showing his age a bit My take on Mayweather-McGregor is here: Garcia definitively banished Broner's relevancy as a contender. Garcia was my pick to win, and his boxing and discipline, never getting out of position to counter and getting Broner to fight in his lulls making him uncomfortable, was masterful. AB was so much better as a 130-135 pounder when he'd walk guys down and let his hands go................ the transition to Mayweather-lite was horrendous for him, he doesn't have the IQ to pull it off. I had Garcia winning 117-110, only gave AB rounds 1 and 9. Once Mikey let his hands go round 2 on he was too much. Broner's antics outside of the ring are disturbing to say the least, he needs help, if he's legitimately threatened to take his own life, on social media twice. The political divides should be brokeen so Garcia can fight Loma and Crawford. I think he beats Lomachenko in a very good, close fight, but not sure if he beats Terrance Crawford, he is something special. GGG-Alvarez is the fight I will most likely order but right now, I am saving everything for Japan in November. My pick is GGG if he moves and boxes, Canelo has trouble with movement, but Canelo is GGG stands in front of him. The Jacobs fight (which I ordered) showed GGG showing his age a bit My take on Mayweather-McGregor is here: https://youtu.be/2Z26-d-8ScQ