What vinyl are you spinning right now??

[Homefromtheforest]

HEAVY SPIRITS - Oliver Lake - Arista Freedom LP. A very good album that does not seem to have obtained much status. Joseph Bowie does a nice track here too.

The fate of most Arista/Freedom LPs it seems.

Alas, I think you are right. I was just looking at a list of Arista Freedom LPs, and -- should I admit this?-- I think I have all of them except "New York Mary" (which I have passed on a dozen times). I suspect that if some of these titles were issued on Incus, or FMP, or some other difficult label to find, people would happily be paying big money for them. Maybe we should have an Arista Freedom "what are you listening to?" festival.

I have almost all of them. They damn near flooded the cutout bins at one time. Wondering how many newer listeners who find copies today are finding them with cutout scars.

I have most of them too except for New York Mary and a select few others...I know I passed on the Paul Bley 2LP many, many times simply because I thought the cover art was atrocious! Probably some good music on that, but I already have at least 40 Paul Bley lps/cds so more then enough to listen to already...

[JSngry]

There's some great music on the Bley, but it's available elsewhere now.

Can't argue about the cover art, though...people rag on the Blue Note LT-series covers, but they had a sly, coded panache going on (or, at least, one could project that on to them and not meet intellectual resistance tot he notion). The AF covers too often seemed just a little...unpurposeful to me. A unified sense of design, absolutely, but the art itself? Hmmmmmmmmm......??????? The design and the art seemed at odds with each other too much, maybe that's what it was.

No matter, a lot of great music on that label/in that series. A lot.

[Homefromtheforest]

Circle "the Paris concert" (ECM, Germany). Sad to say this is the first time in the 20 years I've owned this that I've played it from start to finish! Incredible music! If the night was younger I'd pull out "gathering" and "in concert" too

[B. Clugston]

Open Sky, with Dave Liebman, Frank Tusa and Bob Moses (PM Records). Interesting trio recordings from two 1972 sessions which straddle Liebman's first session with Miles Davis on On the Corner. Liebman sure covers a lot of musical ground.

[Clunky]

Grant Green-------Am I blue-------( BN Toshiba)

Sleepy session for a slow start to the weekend. It's not bad but it's a bit on the dull side. Surprising that Lion released it.

[mjazzg]

Damn you!

finally decided it was time to jump for a copy. Fabulous record

[sidewinder]

Grant Green-------Am I blue-------( BN Toshiba)

Sleepy session for a slow start to the weekend. It's not bad but it's a bit on the dull side. Surprising that Lion released it.

Hmm - I quite like it. Time to dig it out..

Kenny Wheeler 'Song For Someone' (Incus)

[tomatamot]

Thad Jones Sextet - Motor City Scene (France stereo vinyl )

[sidewinder]

Lovely ! - Can't beat the old flipback jacket.

[sidewinder]

Miles Davis 'Blue Haze' (Esquire mono, RVG)

[Homefromtheforest]

Sonny Clark "Leapin and Lopin" (Blue Note, NY USA stereo) My favorite Sonny Clark album...

Damn you!

finally decided it was time to jump for a copy. Fabulous record

Ugh I used to own a mint copy of that...found it for $4 back in the mid-90s! Around that time I didn't have that much money to spend on records so could not resist flipping it for a few hundred back then to spend on other records

[porcy62]

Grant Green-------Am I blue-------( BN Toshiba)

Sleepy session for a slow start to the weekend. It's not bad but it's a bit on the dull side. Surprising that Lion released it.

Just played my copy and yes, I agree, too "relaxed" for my taste, nice playing, but the choice of the tunes is definitely on the dull side.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Now spinning vinyl on my new VPI Scout SE turntable that my wife got me for Christmas.

Gerry Rafferty - City To City

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Grant Green-------Am I blue-------( BN Toshiba)

Sleepy session for a slow start to the weekend. It's not bad but it's a bit on the dull side. Surprising that Lion released it.

Just played my copy and yes, I agree, too "relaxed" for my taste, nice playing, but the choice of the tunes is definitely on the dull side.

I remember being all excited to hear this date when I finally found a copy and how disappointed I was when I finally played it. Snoozer is right.

[JSngry]

Am I Blue is perhaps better appreciated when one begins to be tired without expectations of impending youthful uber-revivification.

That used to not be me, but now I am becoming that. Perhaps not coincidentally, I find the record sounding better and better to me.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Kenny Dorham - Jazz Contemporary (Time). Nice original pressing that I found in a bin for $6 today.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Ornette Coleman - The Empty Foxhole (Blue Note). Connoisseur LP. I knew I wouldn't really dig this but I found it in the used bins today. I wanted to hear it, now I have. It'll be going to someone else now.

[Leeway]

FIRST VISIT - Dave Liebman, Richie Bierach, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette. West 54 LP. 1980. Recorded in Japan.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Leeway

[colinmce]

There's some great music on the Bley, but it's available elsewhere now.

Can't argue about the cover art, though...people rag on the Blue Note LT-series covers, but they had a sly, coded panache going on (or, at least, one could project that on to them and not meet intellectual resistance tot he notion). The AF covers too often seemed just a little...unpurposeful to me. A unified sense of design, absolutely, but the art itself? Hmmmmmmmmm......??????? The design and the art seemed at odds with each other too much, maybe that's what it was.

No matter, a lot of great music on that label/in that series. A lot.

I have practically never seen one of these that wasn't a cut-out, no. I think first-run sales for some titles must have run in the dozens, or even less. It's also rare to find copies of the first two Braxton Aristas that aren't promos.

[Homefromtheforest]

Ornette Coleman - The Empty Foxhole (Blue Note). Connoisseur LP. I knew I wouldn't really dig this but I found it in the used bins today. I wanted to hear it, now I have. It'll be going to someone else now.

Ive tried enjoying this a few times with no success. And Ornette was one of my first early loves...I played his Atlantic and Contemporary stuff to death back when I got into jazz over 20 years ago.

Right now on a rainy afternoon:

Mal Waldron "The Call" (Globe, Japan)...I have the JAPO issue as well but found this nice Japanese issue for cheap some years ago so why not have 2 different issues of such a great session? Gotta love those vintage keyboard sounds and always a pleasure to hear Fred Braceful's unique drumming.

[JSngry]

There's some great music on the Bley, but it's available elsewhere now.

Can't argue about the cover art, though...people rag on the Blue Note LT-series covers, but they had a sly, coded panache going on (or, at least, one could project that on to them and not meet intellectual resistance tot he notion). The AF covers too often seemed just a little...unpurposeful to me. A unified sense of design, absolutely, but the art itself? Hmmmmmmmmm......??????? The design and the art seemed at odds with each other too much, maybe that's what it was.

No matter, a lot of great music on that label/in that series. A lot.

I have practically never seen one of these that wasn't a cut-out, no. I think first-run sales for some titles must have run in the dozens, or even less. It's also rare to find copies of the first two Braxton Aristas that aren't promos.

It took me three tries to get a copy of Ayler's Vibrations that didn't have Side One pressed on both sides, and then it was only by finding an non-Arista UK Freedom copy.

[colinmce]

Hm, wow. I'm almost certain my copy is an A/B, but I should probably go check!

[JSngry]

fwiw, the first two were promo copies that ended up in two different Stan's Record Stores. A lot of promos ended up in those stores (especially Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone stuff for some reason...considering that Paul Serrano placed some things with both Paula & Prestige, I wonder if that was a/the connection?), I always looked forward to going into Shreveport because there were always Stan's to hit, and there would always be good stuff to get at prices too good to refuse.

Stan Lewis...that's a name for record geeks to be familiar with, not just as producer, but as merchant. I got one of his last catalogs a decade or two ago, one from his distribution company, and the things that were offered in there were things you'd not really find anywhere else. Tons of 3rd tier Blaxploitation films on VHS, and big boodles of regional Gospel & "Chitlin' Circuit" Soul of recent vintage. Stan Lewis was a guy who covered many bases, but his meat-and-potatoes was the regional African-American market, East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, not too much beyond that...but there's a lot of market there, if you know what I mean. Lots of rural/semi-rural/not-even rural communities and solo flyers who listened to the radio and played the jukeboxes when they came into town. And hit the local furniture store, drug store, or even record store. And when cassettes took off, forget about it. Every, damn near every store that sold damn near anything would have one of those little carousel things at the register that held a small number of tapes, and Stan Lewis had inventory in all of them. There was a market to be serviced, and Stan Lewis serviced it. Perhaps forcibly, perhaps not. There are stories, but how true they all are, I'd not begin to venture.

He's in the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame for good reason, but that catalog was a window into a world that if you didn't know it was there, you'd not even think to look for it. Fascinating.

[jazzbo]

[Leeway]

THERE'S A TRUMPET IN MY SOUL - Archie Shepp. Arista Freedom LP. NOT a cutout, promo, etc. But I had to pay the princely sum of $2.99 for it.

I checked my copy of VIBRATIONS - it's properly A/B. That was another $2.99 deal but it does have a CC.