CJ Shearn

I checked the disc on my shelf, it times in at 10:14 on disc 2.

What did you think of "Beyond the Wall"? I think its Kenny's strongest studio date after "Standard of Language", however its a shame like the latest, the mastering is so, so bad.

This version of "Directions" is on disc 2 of "It's About that Time". Way to mislead casual fans/buyers Because the only way this compilation is interesting to us is if some people prefer and absolutely have to have the tracks on vinyl, but I think the Mosaic LP sets had all this material anyway sans the "Fillmore East March 7, 1970" set.

The mastering is horrible on the album I think also. It takes a bit to get into the music on this records because the last 2 studio albums have had such a high, intense energy level.

Mack Avenue is definitely letting Kenny do what he wants because he's making the records through his own production company and leasing them to the label, at least was the case with "Sketches of MD". My link

I reserved a copy at B&N as its on sale FWIW. I heard it on Rhapsody and I think on one listen it's better than "Sketches of MD", but I don't think it's on the same level as "Pursuance", "Triology", "Songbook", "Beyond the Wall" or "Standard of Language". If Warner had released live things say from Sweet Basil in 1995 or the Knitting Factory in 1996, all Kenny Garrett studio releases would have a LOT to live up to. "Seeds" will be my 9th Garrett CD in my collection. Hoping the mastering isn't messed up, there was distortion on Rhapsody.

What label is releasing this?

I just replaced my RVG "Out to Lunch" with the McMaster. One of the few I'm glad I did!

Agreed. This is more successful than Blue Note having Us3 besides "Cantaloop" being a single. They went nowhere in American popular visibility after that.

Thanks for that Jim. I remember you made a reference to NY Jazz and Tain Watts "Detained" record a number of years ago, but I've always been a fan of that particular NY "thing" as much as a good ballad or whatever else.

Thanks for the heads up on a neww Garrett record. Flew right under my radar and I've been checking for a while to see if he released anything since "Sketches of MD".

very nice! Thank you!!

Get well Clark!!!

This is good for people of my generation, because for a hip hop-jazz project, Glasper is doing it RIGHT. What's right about it is he has a true connection to the hip hop scene, and the names on the recording are all well known, whereas in the past hip hop and jazz projects (I think back to Steve Coleman a Tale of Three Cities) have had names that are pretty underground, and "Black Radio" will get my generation and kids exposed to jazz, Blue Note, etc. A few people from those segments will get truly interested in jazz beyond "looking for beats", and that's the goal of this project I think. It helps Blue Note because, although its not what *we* think of as Blue Note, its a global brand at this point and that select few will check out the storied history we like. Also Glasper is commended for not bending into misogynist, mainstram top 40 "rap" on this release.

That's ridiculous! Definitely hear the Cook-Henderson connection in phrasing and rhythm you mention and Michael Carvin is a real interesting player, he has some very unique solo drum stuff. Is this from the Jazz Icons Mosaic DVD?

Didn't agree with his MMA description as I'm also a fan.

The words he speaks on the heavyweight division could not be better said in that video. The current crop of American heavies is sad, did you happen to see Bryant Jennings on the Zab Judah undercard saturday night on NBC Sports Network? very athletic guy, but not excited to see him fight and he definitely cannot take Vitali or Wlad. We need the bigger fights to happen in the smaller weight divisions,too. It's just a shame the casual fight fan can only grasp Pacquiao and Mayweather and not be bothered to check out James Kirkland, Sergio Martinez, exciting but probably not world champ level fighters like Hank Lundy (who has a great fight on ESPN this week) Every fight fan knows that with the exception of some picking him to win, Miguel Cotto has no shot against Mayweather. Its not anything approaching the interest of the big 4 in the 80's, or the heavyweight division in the 90's when I was a teenager. I was watching a DVD of the Tyson-Spinks PPV the other night and it was so interesting because all involved on the card, Buster Douglas, Carl Williams, Trevor Berbick, it was the Mike Tyson sweepstakes. Back to the heavyweights, even that generation of so called "Lost heavyweights" (Douglas, Tucker, Smith, Biggs, Bruno, Witherspoon, Thomas) while not quite as competitive as the Holyfield-Lewis-Bowe era (the Golota fights destroyed him so much along with his work ethic, sad) of the 90's had more depth than this heavyweight picture now.

Once we get beyond the concept in the abstract, just what do you think the contours of a class-based look at jazz would be? Do you see class distinctions, apart from race, as central to the trajectory of jazz history? I can't say for sure, but I think it's possible. One thing that you see in jazz history--and this is probably an oversimplification--but it seems like the music moves from the streets, and, as it becomes more accepted as an art form, into the academy. At the same time, jazz at its peak was not entirely a working or poor man's music. Miles came from the middle class, etc. And many white jazz musicians came from poor backgrounds or broken homes. So there's something there as well. And then you also have the long-standing reality that many jazz musicians were black but that the audience for the music becomes increasingly white. This would involve a significant class dynamic in and of itself, since during the postwar era the average black person was significantly poorer than the average white person. There's also a strong argument to be made for a gendered analysis of jazz history, not just because the instrumentalists are overwhelmingly men, but also because of the kind of masculinity they project--especially within the black community. Obviously, the discourses on race, class, and gender all intersect in various ways. And as should be clear from this response I haven't myself fully thought through how these dynamics play themselves out in the history of jazz. But I wish someone would do that, instead of regurgitating the tired arguments about jazz as a black music, about the forgotten white contributions to jazz, etc. That seems like a field that has been played out and I don't think I've heard anything original on jazz and race in a long time. I agree with all of this completely. As jazz got increasingly more complex, the black audience (this can be seen in my own family to a degree, as well as others I've spoken to) moved to soul/R&B, and records like ones made by Grover Washington eventually birthed the smooth jazz genre. I wonder how many members of the black community did buy Blue Note for example after a certain point, such as Wayne Shorter's records, Jackie McLean's records, Bobby Hutcherson, etc. Or was it mostly white jazz fans into those artists? Miles tried to reclaim the black audience, but was that audience buying albums like "Dark Magus" or "Miles Davis in Concert at Philharmonic Hall"? it seems he lost touch with the audience, and Eddie Henderson's notes in the Blackhawk set make mention of that. Hip hop is the primary form of social expression for the black community, even there you have to look past the mainstream to get content that socially is saying something. I've wondered a lot myself and reading Nicholas Payton's blogs, how can the young black community get interested in jazz again? I think Robert Glasper, Chris Dave are definitely a good start connecting hip hop to jazz. But this raises the larger question how to get my generation and younger into jazz period. I'm unusual in that I grew up with jazz my whole life and took an interest in it when I was a child almost immediately. Do you think 1980's Miles Davis reconnected somewhat to a Black audience? Even if it wasn't a youthful one. I recently read that Miles Davis said some disparaging things about John Scofield. Scofield in response had a bit of a dig at Davis by saying that Miles Davis was obsessed with getting a 'hit', the inference being that it was more important to Miles to be popular, than the actual music he made. In light of what you are saying, could it be thought that perhaps the significance of having a hit record meant more to Miles than just mainstream success. I know my dad was somewhat reconnected with Miles as far as the music he made in the 80's but for the community in general, I am not sure. I'm mixed race but both sides of my family really love music. I know that my uncle (who's white) on my mom's side probably lost touch with Miles after Bitches Brew because he never got that, he says the album is "ok". He was much more into the prog scene and fusion like RTF and Mahavishnu. I think talking to people in the black community my age, they seem to be aware of jazz as their parents' music but have little to no connection, which is expected I guess. Jazz functions to me as a living, breathing thing so I never see it as "outdated". I asked a guy if his parents had Lee Morgan records, Miles records, CTI records, etc but he had no idea; he posted a Bob James thing on FB incidentally so that began a conversation on my part about that. Most of this generation have no idea about records unless they heard it as a sample. He posted a Bob James thing on FB incidentally so that began a conversation on my part about that and what that scene was in the 70's as far as the black community. Amongst the older generation, my dad and that side included, the cut off for jazz with more "adventurous" records seems to be the early 70's I found. My dad's brother, my other uncle listens to a wide variety of music, all jazz, including smooth, but as for Miles I don't know if he got all that into the Second Quintet stuff. From there it seems there were heavier rotations of Grover Washington, the Clarke/Duke band, funkier things like that, Weather Report, in what they bought/listened to for records on that side of the family. I totally agree that point about Miles also, the merits of that 80's music not really showing itself unless heard live or on the live records. Miles worried a lot of what people thought of him, I think and it led to his direction. I think even that '73-5 period, which truthfully I really need to dive into myself, he totally lost touch with the audience completely and that really extended into his final period. Although the choice of songs, covering pop hits was really at least to me, no different than what he did in the 50's. Now, we can definitely say that perhaps "Perfect Way" is not in the same league as "All of You", "I Could Write a Book", "My Funny Valentine", but the practice of taking popular material was the same. It's sort of funny, as an aside how so many jazz fans like to diss pop covers when really many of the fav records we have from the 50's, 60's have pop tunes. I think really, when jazz fans complain about pop tunes, they really are describing a preference that musically, content wise sone pop tunes from the 80's till now don't hold up for them.

RIP. As a boxing fan, always enjoyed his views on boxing history and today's fight game. He was a frequent guest on ESPN's Friday Night Fights in recent years.

Once we get beyond the concept in the abstract, just what do you think the contours of a class-based look at jazz would be? Do you see class distinctions, apart from race, as central to the trajectory of jazz history? I can't say for sure, but I think it's possible. One thing that you see in jazz history--and this is probably an oversimplification--but it seems like the music moves from the streets, and, as it becomes more accepted as an art form, into the academy. At the same time, jazz at its peak was not entirely a working or poor man's music. Miles came from the middle class, etc. And many white jazz musicians came from poor backgrounds or broken homes. So there's something there as well. And then you also have the long-standing reality that many jazz musicians were black but that the audience for the music becomes increasingly white. This would involve a significant class dynamic in and of itself, since during the postwar era the average black person was significantly poorer than the average white person. There's also a strong argument to be made for a gendered analysis of jazz history, not just because the instrumentalists are overwhelmingly men, but also because of the kind of masculinity they project--especially within the black community. Obviously, the discourses on race, class, and gender all intersect in various ways. And as should be clear from this response I haven't myself fully thought through how these dynamics play themselves out in the history of jazz. But I wish someone would do that, instead of regurgitating the tired arguments about jazz as a black music, about the forgotten white contributions to jazz, etc. That seems like a field that has been played out and I don't think I've heard anything original on jazz and race in a long time. I agree with all of this completely. As jazz got increasingly more complex, the black audience (this can be seen in my own family to a degree, as well as others I've spoken to) moved to soul/R&B, and records like ones made by Grover Washington eventually birthed the smooth jazz genre. I wonder how many members of the black community did buy Blue Note for example after a certain point, such as Wayne Shorter's records, Jackie McLean's records, Bobby Hutcherson, etc. Or was it mostly white jazz fans into those artists? Miles tried to reclaim the black audience, but was that audience buying albums like "Dark Magus" or "Miles Davis in Concert at Philharmonic Hall"? it seems he lost touch with the audience, and Eddie Henderson's notes in the Blackhawk set make mention of that. Hip hop is the primary form of social expression for the black community, even there you have to look past the mainstream to get content that socially is saying something. I've wondered a lot myself and reading Nicholas Payton's blogs, how can the young black community get interested in jazz again? I think Robert Glasper, Chris Dave are definitely a good start connecting hip hop to jazz. But this raises the larger question how to get my generation and younger into jazz period. I'm unusual in that I grew up with jazz my whole life and took an interest in it when I was a child almost immediately.

No offense, and I don't mean to single you out---but it just hit me how inbred this thread is. What jazz nerds we are. If we wonder why people shut out jazz, I submit that perhaps it is because we shut out people. Just a thought.... You've got a point. I mean, aside from my listening I can say that my interest in jazz history and its societal impact is academic, always has been starting with when I'd read the liner notes learning about the artists on records. The average person does not think about these things when they listen to music. We're a special breed

Roy is the definition of hip, and I actually wonder why not many hip hop fans know who he is cuz he's got that swagger, it's great.

George Cables is another one I think where he made a solid transition to Rhodes.

Yes, it does. Thank you This situation with the Newport albums is worse than like, who owns what for CTI (another big clusterf*ck) Does Denon have any US distributors? the only Savoy/Denoy release I have is the purple spine series edition of Blakey/JM's "Midnight Session" which IIRC a more complete version was issued a few years back.

Damn this is messy, and the recordings don't fall under the public domain yet in Europe or do they? cuz hasn't a lot of Muse stuff reverted to High Note? Joey D, Woody, Houston Person, Roney all recorded for Muse and have releases on High Note that if Muse was around, they'd be Muse releases.HN practically is Muse. Then Savoy has reissued Muse stuff for digital download. So if there was an official Newport in NY '72 release it'd be High Note I'd think.