What Cliff has been listening to lately -- January 2002

Alas, our wonderful jazz station, KNTU 88.1 FM has stopped playing vinyl on the air. This means that a tremendous amount of wonderful music will probably never be heard in their broadcasts again. They sold off their vinyl in the fall, and now about 50 albums that used to be part of their collection are now part of mine. Here are the highlights, after listening to everything approximately once:

The Pat Metheny Group: Live in Concert
This was the amazing find of the whole KNTU sale for me. I didn't even know this recording existed. It's a promo-only ECM release with the songs "Phase Dancer", "Watercolors", "San Lorenzo", and "Wrong is Right" (a Gary Burton / Lary Coryell composition). (And yes, it's listed as "Phase Dancer", not "Phase Dance", as it later became known.) These are very early versions of "Phase Dance" and "San Lorenzo", since this was released before the Group's "white album" that features the studio versions of those songs. These definitely are different versions than the live ones on Travels. Pat Metheny is my all-time favourie musical artist, so I feel really lucky to have stumbled across this recording.

Max Roach: Survivors, Chattahoochee Red, Long as You're Living
In the early days of bebop, Max Roach pretty much invented jazz drumming as we know it. He's one of my favourite drummers, and at the 2001 New Orleans Jazz Festival, proved that at 77 he still has what it takes. I picked up a ton of Max albums at the KNTU sale, the three listed here are the ones that stood out the most on the first listen.

Gary Burton: The New Quartet
Gary Burton is, in my opinion, the greatest vibraphonist the world has ever seen. I picked up a bunch of Gary's albums at the KNTU sale; this one stood out the most on the first listen. It's got a bit of an early-'70's electric fusion feel to it.

Cal Tjader: Amazonas
Cal Tjader is another of my favourite vibraphonists, and I picked up a bunch of his albums at the sale too. This one really stood out, partly because of the Brazilian influence---it features Egberto Gismonti and the eccentric musical genius Hermeto Pascoal, and was produced by Airto. There are some great synthesizer sounds on here, which is atypical for a Cal album.

Keith Jarrett: Back Hand
This is the same line-up as on Jarrett's Death and the Flower, and parts of it sound similar.

McCoy Tyner: Together
A great McCoy album with an all-star lineup.

Annette Peacock: The Perfect Release
My first encounter with Annette Peacock was on Bill Bruford's Feels Good to Me album. At the time, I hated the album just because of her vocals. Within the last year or so, I got the album out again and listened to it, and really liked it, partly because of her vocals. She reminds me of a jazzy version of Laurie Anderson (and was probably an influence on Laurie's vocal style). This album features her in the lead, and provides a nice helping of trippy vocals.

Michael Shrieve: Stiletto
This album features David Torn, Andy Summers, and Mark Isham. If you like Cloud About Mercury, you'll like this.

What I've been listening to not-so-lately