The Class A amp was just made for ECM recordings (I have one or two of them ;-) ).
The percussion on this album is shown to have more subtlety than I'd heard before - of course the acoustic and textures are great, but I keep hearing little inflections that make all the difference. There's a rightness to the sound that is just wonderful.
Not to want to go on too much about the Green Goddess, but heck I'm the admin around here, so I can :-) i've always thought the 'with Ry Cooder' billing was significant because Cooder played a definite back seat to the Malian master. Now, I'm hearing much more of Cooder's slide than before. He's notblending into the backing musicians.
If you're a jazz fan and don't have this, you need to rectify it immediately! Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Roy Haynes, Nelson himself and baritone saxophonist George Barrow. It has something of the atmosphere of Miles' Kind of Blue, but I think I may like this more.
John Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali just shortly before Coltrane's death. It's Coltrane's final masterpiece. I like to think it's Coltrane's summary of everything he'd discovered about playing the saxophone and, more generally, music itself.
He's stripped away all superfluous musicians and just plays with a drummer - Coltrane always had an affinity with drummers, especially Ali's predecessor, Elvin Jones.
It's difficult stuff, but enormously rewarding. It would be, wouldn't it?
It took me years before I felt relaxed enough with the music to fully enjoy it, but sitting here with a glass of cider brandy, Interstellar Space is exactly what I need now.
Have I created a Saturday night Ben-style ramble, I wonder?
Duke Ellington with Charles Mingus and Max Roach - Money Jungle
I've never been 100% convinced by this album by the inter-generational jazz dream team. But today, for some reason, I'm enjoying it. Maybe I'm finally getting into Ellington as a pianist.
Comments
Brilliant first half of break-beat mixes with some good vocal performances.
Second half an odd (failed?) experiment of internationalistic hip-hop.