Days Of Wine And Roses

Rahsaan Roland Kirk's nearly one-dozen long-players on the Mercury Records family of labels – including the Smash and Limelight subsidiaries – are gathered on this massive ten-disc compilation. Actually, it is 11 discs if you count the surprise bonus CD. Additionally, Rahsaan: The Complete Mercury Recordings of Roland Kirk lives up to its name by augmenting those albums with more than two-dozen previously unissued sides.

Jaco Pastorius was a meteor who blazed on to the scene in the 1970s, only to flame out tragically in the 1980s. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made his fretless electric bass leap out from the depths of the rhythm section into the front line with fluid machine-gun-like passages that demanded attention. He also sported a strutting, dancing, flamboyant performing style and posed a further triple-threat as a talented composer, arranger and producer. He and Stanley Clarke were the towering influences on their instrument in the 1970s. Collection includes 'Broadway Blues' & 'Teresa', 'Heavy'n Jazz' & 'Stuttgart Aria', 'Live In Italy' & 'Honestly'.

Bill Evans Trio - Turn Out The Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings, June 1980 {6CD Box Set Warner 9 45925-2 rel 1996}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.87 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 954 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 158 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1980, 1996 Warner Bros. | 9 45925-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Piano

Just three months before his death, pianist BIll Evans was extensively recorded at the Village Vanguard. Originally, one or two LPs were to be released featuring his brilliant new trio (with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera), but after the innovative pianist's death, the project was stalled for over 15 years. Finally, when Warner Bros. got around to it, a definitive six-CD box set was released (although unfortunately in limited-edition form). Evans sounded quite energized during his last year, Johnson was developing quickly as both an accompanist and a soloist, and the interplay by the trio members (with subtle support from LaBarbera) sometimes bordered on the telepathic. The playing throughout these consistently inventive performances ranks up there with the Evans-Scott LaFaro-Paul Motian trio of 20 years earlier.

Bill Evans Trio - Consecration, The Last Complete Collection (1980) {8CD Set Alfa Japan OOR2-61~68 rel 1989}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.10 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.00 Gb
Artwork @ 300 dpi -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1980, 1989 Alfa Records Japan | OOR2-61~68
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Piano

I had assumed that these recordings fit into the category of “he plays well under the circumstances.” Forget the qualifiers. Listening to this set and the previously released The Last Waltz is a bit like sharing the experience of the wild-eyed poet who has returned from feasting on the milk of paradise in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.” After tasting such nectar, nothing henceforward can satisfy the palette. So if the two sets (16 discs) comprising Evans’ last stand seem extravagant in quantity and price, consider the possibility that they represent the musical equivalent of Keats’ Grecian Urn, offering “all ye know and need to know.”