What vinyl are you spinning right now??

[BillF]

Gil Evans - There Comes a Time (RCA). If anyone out there doesn't like this, I totally get it. It's dense, noisy, "dated," and all over the place. It came out in 1976, and I didn't think it was anything I would want to hear. But a couple of years later, I was reading European jazz magazines in my college library, and this showed up on the 1976 top ten list of the jazz writer I admire above all others, Max Harrison. That got my attention, and I bought a copy soon afterwards. In the years since, this album has been one of those bodies of music which, like King Oliver's 1923 recordings, keep revealing more and more on repeated listenings - there are layers on top of layers here, and on any one listening, you can shift your attention from one layer to another, and keep finding amazing things.

It must have been a nightmare to mix.

There has been a CD reissue with extra material, overdubs (layers) removed, and edits restored. I like that one too, but I prefer the original. In addition to the multi-layered complexity of the music, you get amazing solos by Billy Harper, George Adams, Lew Soloff (uncredited as a soloist), and Dave Sanborn - his stunningly intense playing on "King Porter Stomp" is the only solo by him I would take to a desert island.

Mine is probably a minority opinion, but this is as good as anything Gil Evans ever did.

I'm lucky that the only time I saw Gil Evans, this was the band.

[Leeway]

[alankin]

David Weiss and Point of Departure – Snuck In (Sunnyside)

— With J.D. Allen, Nir Felder, Matt Clohesy, Jamire Williams

[Leeway]

NEW DIRECTIONS - Jack DeJohnette (d, p), John Abercrombie (g, mandolin), Lester Bowie (tp), Eddie Gomez (d). ECM LP. The best album moments are Bowie's. Wonder what Bowie was saying to the other guys in the cover photo?

[jeffcrom]

NEW DIRECTIONS - Jack DeJohnette (d, p), John Abercrombie (g, mandolin), Lester Bowie (tp), Eddie Gomez (d). ECM LP. The best album moments are Bowie's. Wonder what Bowie was saying to the other guys in the cover photo?

I've always loved that one.

[mjazzg]

Jack Dejohnette feat. Lseter Bowie - Zebra [MCA]

coincidental Bowie playing....I like to think that this session is a long lost antecednet of Chicago Underground Duo. They don't even sound similar but something about the beats/synths and trumpet.

Love Lester's playing on this and although Dejohnette's instrumentation sounds dated there's something quite appealing there

[B. Clugston]

Johnny Dyani, African Bass

Ile Maurice (Ocora)

[jeffcrom]

David Murray - Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, Volume 1 (India Navigation). I hadn't spun this one in years, but Amir's David Murray sale prompted me to slap it on the turntable. I can't help thinking that there are three fabulous musicians here, along with one who is just okay. But the Fred Hopkins/Philip Wilson rhythm section is pretty great, and Lester Bowie's solo on "Obe" remains one of my handful of favorites by him - one of those musical statements that touches me deeply every time I hear it.

[clifford_thornton]

New Acoustic Swing Duo - Sendai Sjors and Sendai Sjimme - (Jazz & NOW, JP)

[jeffcrom]

Arthur Blythe - Bush Baby (Adelphi). The Murray India Navigation album, mixed pleasure though it was, put me in the mood for more 1970s "loft jazz" - the stuff that was exciting and state-of-the-art in my college days. I'm really enjoyed this one, with its very spare alto/tuba/conga instrumentation. Never on CD, as far as I can tell.

Edited June 3, 2014 by jeffcrom

[Homefromtheforest]

New Acoustic Swing Duo - Sendai Sjors and Sendai Sjimme - (Jazz & NOW, JP)

Nice one. Had it years ago and sold it, and then a few years later had seller's regret and bought it again!

[paul secor]

Neil Young: Unplugged (Warner Bros.)

[jeffcrom]

Rev. Johnny L. "Hurricane" Jones - I Came to Preach a Sermon (Jewel). Rev. Jones' sermon is based on two texts: John, Chapter 9, and Ray Charles' "I Don't Need No Doctor."

[Leeway]

Just picked this one up, but I had seen the cover before and had always lazily assumed that it had to do with A=Altschul, C=Corea and R= uh, well, it doesn't work after all. Turns out, reading Chick's word pyramid on the back cover, that it is a Scientology emblem, and Chick gives Scientology a big plug. Strange reading. There is this nugget, about how we are all seeking understanding, "Event the guy who's beating his wife, in his non-survival way, is just trying to understand." Umm, right. I wonder if that word pyramid got dropped on later issues/CD versions?

[Leeway]

FOR THE PEOPLE - Jerome Cooper with Oliver Lake - hat Hut LP.

[paul secor]

FOR THE PEOPLE - Jerome Cooper with Oliver Lake - hat Hut LP.

Haven't played it in a while, but I remember it as a good one.

[paul secor]

Alberta Hunter: Amtrak Blues (Columbia)

[Leeway]

FOR THE PEOPLE - Jerome Cooper with Oliver Lake - hat Hut LP.

Haven't played it in a while, but I remember it as a good one.

Every once in a while I play it, like it, but never feel really moved by it. Best is when Oliver Lake gets on the alto. It's a live recording, and it seems from the hesitant applause, that the audience didn't really know how to respond to it either. That in itself doesn't always mean much, but it reflected my own reaction.

[paul secor]

Charlie Parker (Queen Disc)

There's a fiery version of "Dance with the Infidels" with some wild Bud on this LP.

[jeffcrom]

Sacred Harp Singing with Dinner on the Ground (Sacred Harp Publishing). The fourth of six LPs of Sacred Harp singing recorded and issued by Sacred Harp Publishing in the 1960s and 1970s. I've also got the third LP, Sacred Harp Singing at the Old Country Church. That one is in mono; this one is stereo, and it's stunning. Sacred Harp music is full of haunting melodies and strange, open harmonies (with no third in the chord). The singers were apparently chosen from the best Sacred Harp singers in Alabama and surrounding states, and they're both "authentic" and extremely accomplished. No picture on the web of this obscure album.

Later: just found a picture:

Apparently, if you want a copy of this record, you can get one from an Amazon vendor for $149.

This again. Still stunning.

[paul secor]

MJQ: European Concert Volume 1

I'm reading a Haruki Murakami novel and, at one point, the main character imagines himself in a bar listening to the MJQ playing "Vendome". So I decided to give this a spin. It worked better for that character than it did for me. Though I do have to say that for not being an MJQ fan, it sounded better than I expected,

[paul secor]

Sacred Harp Singing with Dinner on the Ground (Sacred Harp Publishing). The fourth of six LPs of Sacred Harp singing recorded and issued by Sacred Harp Publishing in the 1960s and 1970s. I've also got the third LP, Sacred Harp Singing at the Old Country Church. That one is in mono; this one is stereo, and it's stunning. Sacred Harp music is full of haunting melodies and strange, open harmonies (with no third in the chord). The singers were apparently chosen from the best Sacred Harp singers in Alabama and surrounding states, and they're both "authentic" and extremely accomplished. No picture on the web of this obscure album.

Later: just found a picture:

Apparently, if you want a copy of this record, you can get one from an Amazon vendor for $149.

This again. Still stunning.

Sounds like truly great stuff. When I listen to the one Sacred Harp recording I have, it seems as if the sky is going to open up.

[Clunky]

Graham Collier--------Deep Dark Blue Centre-------(Deram)

[clifford_thornton]

FOR THE PEOPLE - Jerome Cooper with Oliver Lake - hat Hut LP.

Haven't played it in a while, but I remember it as a good one.

Every once in a while I play it, like it, but never feel really moved by it. Best is when Oliver Lake gets on the alto. It's a live recording, and it seems from the hesitant applause, that the audience didn't really know how to respond to it either. That in itself doesn't always mean much, but it reflected my own reaction.

Jerome Cooper is a wonderful musician, albeit not always reflected by recordings. His solo LP on About Time, The Unpredictability of Predictability, is incredible and the solo LP on Anima is pretty strong too. I've always had a soft spot for Positions 3-6-9 on Kharma, with Kalaparusha and Frank Lowe, which almost sounds like ethnographic field recordings from a New York loft! The Revolutionary Ensemble were cool though I'm not sure that the records always captured what it was they were doing. Some of them sound a little dry, though in my estimation The Psyche is absurdly great... one of THE records of the era.

[Leeway]

FOR THE PEOPLE - Jerome Cooper with Oliver Lake - hat Hut LP.

Haven't played it in a while, but I remember it as a good one.

Every once in a while I play it, like it, but never feel really moved by it. Best is when Oliver Lake gets on the alto. It's a live recording, and it seems from the hesitant applause, that the audience didn't really know how to respond to it either. That in itself doesn't always mean much, but it reflected my own reaction.

Jerome Cooper is a wonderful musician, albeit not always reflected by recordings. His solo LP on About Time, The Unpredictability of Predictability, is incredible and the solo LP on Anima is pretty strong too. I've always had a soft spot for Positions 3-6-9 on Kharma, with Kalaparusha and Frank Lowe, which almost sounds like ethnographic field recordings from a New York loft! The Revolutionary Ensemble were cool though I'm not sure that the records always captured what it was they were doing. Some of them sound a little dry, though in my estimation The Psyche is absurdly great... one of THE records of the era.

Have not heard the other recordings you mention but would certainly like to. There's enough spark on For the People to make me interested in further listening certainly, but the album itself seems to me only a partial success. I feel like I should like it more, but not happening yet.