More McFarland recommendations

[Shrdlu]

I don't have time to post much detail, but I got these recently and want to recommend them:

"Point of Departure" - Japanese Impulse. Very interesting, with Willie Dennis, Richie Kamuca (oboe as well as tenor), Jimmy Raney, Steve Swallow and Mel Lewis. Mel and Willie were already on my mind from the Mulligan band albums.

"Does The Sun Really Shine On The Moon" - DCC compact classic reissue of the Skye LP. Some really enjoyable arrangements and soloing, and a couple of tracks in the "Soft Samba" style. There's a really good 3/4 item that cooks.

"America The Beautiful" - DCC compact classic reissue of the Skye LP. Very interesting large group (jazz instruments, strings etc.) with fine arrangements.

The DCCs can be picked up for a song via constant eBay listings by "amyscds" - a guy called Tom Port sends the emails - I don't know whether there really is an Amy. The remastering is A-1.

[jlhoots]

Glad to hear that Point Of Departure is around.

I'll look for it.

[Shrdlu]

It really is good, and I hope you can get one. I would never have tried to get it back in the 60s, but it's very interesting, and I'm glad to have caught up with it now.

The CD is probably not in print, and any copies in stores will be remainders from when it was around. Its availability window is 1998-2000.

I suspect that those 20 bit Japanese Impulse CDs will be repeated in their more recent mini LP 24 bit format. Just how the sounds of the two series compare, I do not know.

The DCC CDs are also well worth getting and are considerably cheaper, of course, and also sound just as good.

[jlhoots]

Is "How To Succeed In Business" any good?

Also seem to recall a Verve LP with Bill Evans on piano. Is that right?

Has it ever been on CD?

[Shrdlu]

I have never heard the "Succeed" album, though the word is that it's very good, and I don't doubt it. I nearly got it on eBay a few days ago, but the bidding went higher than I was prepared to go. It was a CD reissue that also contained a Bob Brookmeyer album.

I have the album with Bill Evans, as part of the Evans Verve box set. It is a superb session, I think, with a very good cast of sidemen. There is presently a mono LP of it on eBay, with no bids so far. You could probably grab that. I'm not going to bid, as I have it on CD. If you are unable to find the personnel, I can list that for you. (I made a custom CD of that session, also taking advantage of Nero's facility to "pan in" the stereo, which was too widely panned for my liking, especially on headphones. The result is a very clear-sounding CD, even though it is probably only 16 bit.)

[Larry Kart]

"How To Succeed" may be a shade less personal than some other McFarland projects, but the writing is full of inventive touches and the playing, by the band and featured soloists, is top-drawer for that era in NY. Two others with some of the same players that have always struck me as being well above the "merely professional" norm of that era are Oliver Nelson's "Afro-American Sketches" and Bill Potts' "Porgy and Bess."

[Shrdlu]

A Mosaic of Gary's work would be a good idea. There is a unity to the things that I have heard, even though there is much variety. Some might consider such things as "Soft Samba" to be too "light", but I am very taken with the arrangements and the feel of these tracks, and I have played them many times. I would challenge anyone else to try to make an album like that and pull it off successfully. (My favorites on that album are the two tracks with Jobim as distinguished guest on guitar. You can tell it's him from the first chord, and his presence there is precious.)

The list of people who have played on McFarland's various albums is most impressive.