Underrated non-BN dates from 1965 thru early 70's

[ghost of miles]

Stanley Cowell, BRILLIANT CIRCLES.

And amen to Sonny Criss on Prestige!

[Pete C]

Mountain in the Clouds and Infinite Search are the same album. They're both one great album!

[7/4]

And Derek Bailey and Dave Holland on ECM. I've never heard it, to rave about it.

[catesta]

And amen to Sonny Criss on Prestige!

I've just now started picking up some Sonny Criss, don't ask me why I've waited so long.

[Д.Д.]

John Handy's works

ESP catalog

[ralphie_boy]

Stanley Cowell, BRILLIANT CIRCLES.

Great session! It's a shame that the sound sucks.

Edited May 28, 2004 by ralphie_boy

[AfricaBrass]

I love this album from 1970 by Alice Coltrane

[AfricaBrass]

Here are a couple Pharoah Sanders albums I dig from this period (1969).

Jewels of Thought

[AfricaBrass]

Izipho Zam

[AfricaBrass]

I also dig some of the late sixties Freddie Hubbard albums on Atlantic.

[AfricaBrass]

Here's one Verve put out on CD a while back that I dig.

Randy Weston - Monterey '66

[AfricaBrass]

I know I'm stretching the time limit of this topic, but another great Weston album IMO is:

Tanjah (from 1973)

[AfricaBrass]

Since I've broken the rules already.

I have to mention Pat Martino - Consciousness (from 1974). I dig his Prestige stuff from the late sixties, but this album is my favorite by him.

[charlesp]

A couple more -

Thelonious Monk - UNDERGROUND only on the wonderful remaster on Sony/Columbia

Sonny Rollins - EAST BROADWAY RUNDOWN and ALFIE on Impluse!

[Brandon Burke]

Anthony Ortega - New Dance! (Revelation)

Henry Grimes - The Call (ESP)

Jacques Coursil - Way Ahead (BYG)

Arthur Jones - Scorpio (BYG)

Quincy Jones - The Lost Man (UNI)

Elvin Jones & Jimmy Garrison - Illumination (Impulse)

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Certain Blacks (America)

Brigitte Fontaine w/ Art Ensemble of Chicago - Comme al la Radio

Sirone - Artistry (Of the Cosmos)

Frank Wright - Your Prayer (ESP)

[brownie]

Quincy Jones - The Lost Man (UNI)

Brandon, interesting selection but what's that one?

Any jazz interest?

[king ubu]

Here's one Verve put out on CD a while back that I dig.

Randy Weston - Monterey '66

HELLYEAH!

And there's a Koch reissue of some Atlantic album featuring the same band (minus Booker), that's very good, too.

[king ubu]

I know I'm stretching the time limit of this topic, but another great Weston album IMO is:

Tanjah (from 1973)

And HELLYEAH again!

[Brandon Burke]

Quincy Jones - The Lost Man (UNI)

Brandon, interesting selection but what's that one?

Any jazz interest?

Score to a 1969 film of the same name starring Sidney Poiteir. My AMG review may (or may not be) helpful to check out. To be honest, it has more of a blaxploitation soundtrack feel that that of a "jazz" album. Somewhere between the score to Across 110th Street, Sun Ra's Lanquidity, and the jump-blues tunes off of Mary Lou Williams Black Christ of the Andes (like "Anima Christi", for example).

I really love this album. Highly coveted by hop hop producers for some of the breakbeats so, depending where you look, it can be pricey. Conversely, it's just as often taking up space in your local shop's dollar bin so you never know.....

[ghost of miles]

I also dig some of the late sixties Freddie Hubbard albums on Atlantic.

Oh yeah!

Last year I got to interview the drummer on that date, Killer Ray Appleton. He's from Indianapolis, as is James Spaulding, who's on the album as well. Considering one or two tracks from it for an Indiana jazz anthology.

[ghost of miles]

Stanley Cowell, BRILLIANT CIRCLES.

Great session! It's a shame that the sound sucks.

Yeah, I keep hoping that it will be re-issued with some sonic improvement. I have the Black Lion version, which I picked up as a cutout several years ago.

[Adam]

also have you heard the german group embryo? mal waldron played on a few albums with them in the late 60s-early 70s. personally i do not love these albums, mostly because of the sound of the drums and also the voilin, but

embryo-rocksession

embryo-steig aus

both have waldron on electric piano and are pretty cool.

just post waldron,

embryo-father, son and holy ghosts

is a lot better i think, production-wise and has better compositions. the "father" in the title is mal waldron.

an incredible, possibly my favorite album, is

mal waldron-the call on japo from 1971.

this album has eberhard weber, waldron on electric piano, this dude jimmy jackson who played organ in embryo alongside waldron's electric piano, and fred braceful on drums. it is great.

why doesnt ecm release some japo stuff. it is mostly awesome. also lets see more MPS stuff more readily available! well the less straight-ahead stuff anyway (peterson, alexander, grapelli, etc)

Wow, I've got to find those Waldron albums

[Guy Berger]

This is a great thread. Here are my choices.

1) Eric Kloss and the Rhythm Section -- A two-on-one from Prestige/Fantasy. Some intense alto and tenor playing, backed by Miles Davis's best rhythm section and (on the second half) Pat Martino. They do an absolutely smokin' version of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman". (I kid you not.)

2) The Jaki Byard Experience -- Again on Prestige. Jaki, Roland Kirk (pre-Rahsaan?), Richard Davis and Alan Dawson. Opens with a blockbuster version of "Parisian Thoroughfare". A beautiful Byard-Kirk duet on "Memories of You".

3) Joe Henderson, Power to the People -- On Milestone. A quintet record with Herbie, Ron Carter, Jack DJ in the rhythm section. Plenty of powerful playing by Joe and nice Fender Rhodes work by Herbie. Easily goes head to head with the best of Joe's Blue Note work.

4) Prince Lasha/Sonny Simmons, Firebirds -- On Contemporary/Fantasy. Two freebop altoists are joined by Bobby Hutcherson, Buster Williams and Charles Moffett. This is right up there with Out to Lunch and the other better-known inside-outside dates on Blue Note. There's a nice variety of tunes from the more melodic end of avant-garde jazz. "Psalms of Solomon" is a personal favorite.

5) Live at Monterey, John Handy -- For whatever reason, Charles Lloyd made it big and these guys never did. No superstars came out of this group, but the unique lineup (alto/guitar/violin/bass drums) and interesting compositions stand out. Handy is an intense inside/outside altoist.

6) The 2nd John Handy Album -- I think this album is a notch below the Monterey recording because of the lengthy avant-garde chamber piece that closes the album. But the rest of the tune are great.

7) Miles Davis, Filles de Kilimanjaro -- Not sure if you can seriously call ANY Miles Davis album truly underrated, but considering that this is one of the best jazz albums ever recorded and yet barely a blip in most assessments of Miles's career, I'll put this on the list.

Bonus BN) McCoy's Extensions is on BN but definitely an underrated masterpiece. Though to be fair, you have to work very hard to make a bad album when your band features Wayne Shorter AND Gary Bartz in the front line.

Bonus BN) The quartet tracks from Chick Corea's Complete Is Sessions. My comments about Chick/Dave/Jack fully apply here.

-----

Conference of the Birds is a wonderful album but it's acknowledged a masterpiece of the 70s avant-garde frequently enough that I don't know if it belongs on an "underrated classics" list.

[BruceH]

And amen to Sonny Criss on Prestige!

I've just now started picking up some Sonny Criss, don't ask me why I've waited so long.

Why HAVE you waited so long?

[JSngry]

Underrated? How about virtually unknown?

Don Friedman - METAMORPHOSIS (Prestige, 1966)

Besides Friedman (playing a LOT more open here than on his Riverside dates, and definitely more open than his relative conservative work of today), you got your Atilla Zoller, your Richard Davis, and your Joe Chambers, and some open-ended explorations of some open-ended tunes by Friedman, Zollar, and Jimmy Giuffre's "Drive". If this had been on Blue Note, it would be regarded as "essential" today. But it was on Prestige, so I had to stumble across it in the cutout bin at Treasure City back in the day and never hear or see of it for another 25+ years until it got OJCed, and it's STILL unknown, or seems to be.

That's just wrong.