That was Disc Two- Now disc one-
"Pride and JOY" (his first hit), "Can I Get A Witness", "How Sweet It Is (to Be
loved By You)", "Aint That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
and others. Good stuff. Several duets with Tammmie Terrell- "Aint No
Mountain High Enough" (not the megaproduced Diana Ross version I love), "Your
Precious Love", "Aint Nothing LIke the
Real Thing". Gaye was a tragic character. Fought drug addiction, and
an on-going battle with his father throughtout his life, who finally
shot and killed him.

Old 97's - Fight Songs blew me away on first listen. A command of a great
variety of styles and yet all very much Old 97s. I was especially blown
away, I think, becuase I had mainly head "19" up to that point, which did
not overly impress. Its the album as a whole that makes a big impression on
me. Since then I Satellite Rides is also wonderful. I am anxious to hear "Too far to Care"
which allmusic rates highest.

June Tabor and Martin Simpson- A Cut Above. I'm not sure how Martin got billing
on this. Maybe he was a (relatively) hot property just then. He is the
accompanying acoustic guitar player. All vocals are handled by June.
Simpson is wonderful, but several cuts are built around the accompaniment
of the piano player, Dave Bristow. In any case, June shines here, as
always, but further, its probably her earliest album to show her full
capabilities beyond traditional English folk styles (from 1980).

I was listening in a disappointed way to a new acquisition, Ronald Shannon
Jackson's Pulse. I was MISLEAD by allmusic.com on this one- here is what
was stated- "Furious, classic jazz-rock in the absolute sense of the term,
plus some free and R&B influences filtered through the compositions as
well. Drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson has played with Ornette Coleman and
Cecil Taylor and led his own Decoding Society band. His music rips and
roars, while seamlessly moving through multiple idioms, sometimes blurring
and combining them as he goes along." * Ron Wynn. It seems the "review" was
just a general assessment of Jackson, and not at all about this particular
CD. I should have paid attention to the list of musicians- "Onaje Allan
Gumbs - Percussion Ronald Shannon Jackson - Percussion, Drums, Vocals
Michael Harper - Vocals". It is a complete list. Mostly a solo drum album.
And the vocals are really readings (on one cut mixed with some wild
howlings and screechings by Jackson to provide spooky counterpoint to the
words of Shakespeare and Poe.) Once I get over the feeling of being
mislead, and my expectations, it may take an occasional place in my
listening, after I give it a fair assessment..

Joe Henry - Scar. An appropriate title, great late night listening- a moody,
mellow, torchy album. Yet the songs aren't all about lost love, but other
of life's heartaches. For instance, the public's lack of understanding of
Richard Prior's insights, and Nico's tragedies (an instrumental track- so
its about her tragedy in my mind based on the mood, the chaotic sound of it..)
The catchiest (not necessarily best) song is actually about how good his lovelife is (but
showing fear of losing it)- "Stop"..Helped out by an almost sensitive
Ornette Coleman (he's still a TOUCH wild for these songs), and the
wonderfully adept Marc Ribot on guitar. Great poetry, IMO, delivered nicely
by Henry, in nicely moody settings.

. ---------------
Miles Davis' Complete "In A Silent Way" Sessions Normally I look askance at compilations like this- they are normally full of rehearsals and multiple takes of the same tunes, of interest mainly to musical academia, historians and the terminally obsessed. But this one is different. Columbia Records took his remarkable output from this very creative six month period, and scattered it over several albums for the next several YEARS. There are tracks that appeared previously on other albums as well that should have been released with "In A Silent way" - (other than the Filles de Kilimanjaro tracks which came out earlier)- tracks from Circle in the Round, Water Babies, and Directions, plus some unreleased material. Plus the producer Teo Macero chopped and pieced back together the master tapes to create the original "In A Silent Way" album, even repeating certain segments. It made something, perhaps, on the surface, more structured, but in the process lost something vital, IMO. The original album was a very lovely thing, but lost some feeling and something about it had always annoyed me. Now I know what. Plus, this compilation only repeats the tracks from the "In A Silent Way" album a couple of times , the majority of the titles appearing only once, and this is over the course of three CDs worth of music. And the repeats are NOT really repeats- you have the uncut masters, and you have the finished product (perfect word for it) plus a rehearsal version of the title track, perhaps the least necessary track onthe compilation). Its ALL very much worth hearing,though. the recording quality is excellent- noticably better than on prior releases, and the development of Miles' music (and the musical understandings and abilities of the other players) is fascinating to witness. The liner notes are extensive and make it easy to see this development. What I really love on these tracks is the very musical, sensitive and driving drumming of Tony Williams, and the crisp ideas present in Wayne Shorter's sax playing. There are ideaas in the development across all these tracks, a process of discovery. I think its fair to say, this is already one of my favorite albums. More reviews
See also a review of Bill Frisell's "Gone, Just Like A Train"
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