VSOP: A Tribute to Miles(Qwest)

[mikeweil]

Don't know what Wallace is up to now Mike. Was that encore "Chameleon"? that's what it is on the DVD, Darrell Diaz solos on what was Herbie's Arp Soloist spot on the original, and then of course IMO, (haven't heard too many versions of "Chameleon" by Herbie) he nails a solo on acoustic that *nearly* comes close to the original in the heat factor, and that is very hard to do. When I was listening to disc 1 of Tokyo Live the other night, I was thinking the JM parallel too, although the music was pretty advanced compared to that Blakey groove. Didn't Tony actually release a rock album in the 90's called "The Mask"? Before he died he was discussing starting a rock band.

Yes it was Chameleon if I remember correctly, Darrel Diaz, couldn't recall his name. Herbie played his great rhythmic stuff that I admire so much. Have to get me this DVD.

Tony did two rock albums for Columbia calling his band "The New Tony Williams Lifetime", with Allan Holdsworth and Allan Pasqua. The first "Believe It" is great, the second is marred by bombastic Jack Nitzsche arrangements - maybe that was a key experience leading to his compositional studies

But is the one you're talking about the 1993 Atlantic album "Unmasked"? Never heard that one - how is it?

[Rooster_Ties]

I've got the Qwest "Tribute To Miles" disc with Roney, and I've always found it a touch boring too.

But somewhere (in who-knows what box), I've got a 2-hour video-tape of this band, recorded live in Italy I think -- and they TOTALLY cook. 10 times better than the comcercial release on CD.

Or at least that's what I remember of it, since I haven't looked at it in well over 5 years. But I remember thinking it was totally kick-ass at the time. Wonder what my reaction would be now???

I'll see if I can dig it out, and give it a "spin". (Can you "spin" video-tapes?? )

[CJ Shearn]

Mike, yes, I was referring to Tony's '93 Atlantic album, unfortunately I haven't heard it. On a second spin of "Tribute to Miles", the pedestrian nature of the music is setting in a little bit, which maybe I was sort of expecting because of the opinions expressed here, and it also got me thinking about the nature of acoustic jazz albums in the 90's being a little on the bland side. I used to listen to WSQX 91.5 the local jazz station here in Binghamton back in the mid 90's when it started and a lot of the recordings they played were pretty conservativve-- though there were some curves like Metheny's "Stranger in Town", and with men the caliber of Shorter, Hancock, Carter and Williams, men who more often than not were capable of stretching the boundaries, even compared to the early VSOP forays, it's a shame that they stayed a bit in the box for the "Tribute" disc, but still something nice to have in the collection. I've traded discs in before and wound up missing shit even though I'd never buy something again. As for that rhythm section, next step is the Plugged Nickel box when I have more $$ to burn, and how is Ron Carter's "Third Plane"?

[JSngry]

how is Ron Carter's "Third Plane"?

Not bad. Keep in mind that the days of this kind of music being "new" for these guys was long gone even then, but staleness had yet to set in. It's a work of "refinement" rather than "discovery", but refinement holds many delights of its own.

[CJ Shearn]

thanks Jim. I know that by then when those guys were playing in the inside-outside style by 1977 it wasn't anything revolutionary but within a tradition so I think for the VSOP records that where the enjoyment of them lie in that they play within a tradition maybe not as heavy on the consistent elasticity as 10 years before but with enough oomph that it was still fairly fresh. Another album I enjoy is Herbie Hancock Trio '81. Again,nothing revolutionary but things swing very hard, and hey it's Herbie in a trio something he's not featured enough with on record.

[mikeweil]

Again,nothing revolutionary but things swing very hard, and hey it's Herbie in a trio something he's not featured enough with on record.

German TV broadcast Herbie's performance on the Berlin Jazz Festival several years ago, with Buster and Tony Williams, and Herbie and Tony played very long rhythmic phrases in unison, like they were readin' each other's minds - terrific! Wish that was on DVD! The German stations have hundreds of treasures like this in the vaults!

[CJ Shearn]

speaking of Herbie in a trio: there are two DVD's that I presume are the same performance with Ron Carter and Billy Cobham: Hurricane! and World of Rhythm Live. Are these both the same or does one have more performances than the other? And is one better quality