Elvin Jones

[Rooster_Ties]

39 minutes ago, felser said:

I agree, would have preferred the Morgan session released alone with new artwork.

Definitely!! To my way of thinking, it’s one of the very best Elvin BN leader-dates out of them all — or at least most ‘valuable’ because Lee’s on it.

[mjzee]

Just as a reminder, there's a trove of live Elvin from this era available on this Gene Perla site:

https://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/archives/gene-perla/index.php

 

[Late]

53 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Just as a reminder, there's a trove of live Elvin from this era available on this Gene Perla site:

https://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/archives/gene-perla/index.php

Wow! Thanks for sharing that link. I'd never heard Azar Lawrence with Elvin's working band before. He fits right in. I imagine, if he hadn't been with McCoy, Elvin would've hired him.

2 hours ago, felser said:

The upcoming release is 2 CDs, and the original 2LP vinyl set would have fit onto one CD, so maybe they did use the unedited takes and/or bonus cuts?

I hope so, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese market put out a straight reissue of the original set, as is. The edits, to my knowledge, trim about 10-12 seconds from just a few songs. One edit (the track "The Prime Element"), however, does trim over 2 minutes. It would be nice if the three "bonus" tracks mentioned above could be placed on this new 2-disc set. Fingers crossed!

 

=============================

April 1, 1973 • "New Moon"
Steve Grossman: tenor saxophone
Azar Lawrence: soprano saxophone
Gene Perla: bass
Elvin Jones: drums
Famous Ballroom • Baltimore, Maryland

==============================

Holy sh*t—I've never heard Grossman play quite like this. Really, really fine.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Late
coffee

[Late]

Received a parcel from CD Japan this week that contained three of the above-mentioned Elvin Jones titles. The sound on two of the three is really, really good—which leads me to believe/guess that these are new remasters. Those two titles are The Prime Element and Merry Go Round. These new Japanese reissues, to my ears, sound better than their Mosaic counterparts. The title that doesn't sound like it's received a new remaster is Mr. Jones. Great album, but this Japanese reissue not only uses all the paper inserts of a previous (TOCJ) reissue, its sound is fairly boxed in. For this title, the Mosaic sounds better to me.

Merry Go Round has a fairly wide stereo spread, and the saxophones sound great. I've always loved this album for its first three tracks. (Jan Hammer and Chick Corea go at it on "Lungs." Hammer holds his own.) And Frank Foster, on the last track, lays down what has got to be one of the best alto clarinet solos in jazz (if only perhaps because there are so few). Very happy to have this album on a single disc in great sound.

[Mark Stryker]

On 9/17/2022 at 5:59 PM, JSngry said:

That would seem like bad production then. You book the time, you book the players, you should have an expectation about what you're going to have.

Maybe there were complications the day of the date, but still... Maybe it was Elvin's call. But it just seems weird 

Closing the circle on this: Per Liebman's liner notes to the Elvin set on Mosaic, Perla had a third composition ready to go on the date that was part of planned trilogy with his other two pieces, but for some reason the producer cut the date short -- Liebman doesn't name him but it was George Butler. Definitely odd and mars what is otherwise a very rewarding record.