Best album of 1967 (ha ha ha)?

[Ilash]

1967 was, well, a rather impressive year for popular music so much so that only 10 options is entirely laughable. So here's a list of (most?) of the albums released that year and just try and pick a favourite. I'm not even going to try and post a poll for this one so I'll tally the results when this thread starts to wind down. Of course, you may all just pick Sgt Peppers or Magical Mystery Tour but I actually kind of doubt it.

Here's the link to a good list http://www.oldielyrics.com/1967.html that I pretty much took from that 1975 best albums poll...

Here's a list of the albums that I own and I decided to rate them (out of five stars) as well with short comments too:

Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
One of Dylan's best albums. Great songs, great atmosphere, great singing but far too shrill harmonica. (*****)

Cream - Disraeli Gears
Psychadelic semi-classic. A number of brilliant songs but I actually prefer Cream off the Strange Brew greatest hits comp, which includes many of these songs, for some reason. (***.5)

Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Just bought this (the issue with all those excellent singles from the time). Not all of the songs blow me away exactly but how can anyone not be impressed by this. Oh yeah but the production stinks and lowers my rating a bit.
(****.5)

Moody Blues - Days of Future's Past
Don't like the orchestration around the songs but I love the songs themselves. Beautiful pop music at its best based around a simple but fairly effective concept(****)

Procol Harum - Procol Harum (Whiter Shade of Pale)
A really solid debut album but is bettered a year or two later with A Salty Dog. (***.5)

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
One of the most perfect albums ever. Okay so maybe side A isn't quite perfect (it's close though) but side B is possibly the most incredible side of music ever. (*******)

The Beatles - Sgt Peppers
Okay, so it is a wee bit overrated but it is much better than the anti-hype suggests. Sure, quite a few of the songs in the middle are lightweight but they're pretty damn excellent nonetheless. And those classics are, well, WOW! (*****)

The Doors - The Doors
I actually think this is a bit overrated especially because I actually think Light My Fire and The End overstay their welcome. Break on Through must be one of the most astonishing debut songs ever though. (***.5)

The Doors - Strange Days
Better, actually. More consistent, People Are Strange is one of the ultimate alienation songs (Creep my arse!) and I for one freaking LOVE When the Music's Over. I still don't quite love this band as much as I used to so I can't give them more than (****)

The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
The Stones' most underrated album. Pretty much pop perfection that's only slightly worse than what the Beatles were doing that same year. (*****)

The Rolling Stones - Flowers
Their pop masterpiece and really little worse than what the Beatles were coming up with. It's a devious rip off though because if you own Aftermath and BTB and a good greatest hits package, you're left with twenty or so minutes of new music. But to hell with it... (*****)

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic's Majesty's Request
Some of the tracks are a bit too weird for weird's sake but it really is a very good album. I mean hey, it has She's A Rainbow and 2000 Lightyears from Home on it. How bad could it be? (****)

The Small Faces - First Immediate Album + There Are But Four Small Faces
This CD I have has the English tracklisting mixed with There Are But Four's unique tracks thrown in for good measure. Somewhat difficult English psychadelic music from a bloody good band that's worth the effort. (****)

The Who - The Who Sell Out
I actually don't like this one as much as many other people do but it's a goody nonetheless. Even if not every track here is a masterpiece, they're all rock solid and some are even quite brilliant. (****)

Oh and three guesses as to what my favourite album from 1967 is.

[zombie]

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico.

That wasn't too difficult at all.

[Adam Crocker]

Oh and three guesses as to what my favourite album from 1967 is.

Is it this? :)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002G7C.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Or this? (Even though its only the second best album of that year...)

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drf600/f621/f62150prbmv.jpg

Odd to think that the year that the hippies were taking over popular consciousness, the two biggest ripostes to that sub culture were released.

[Ilash]

Is it this? :)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002G7C.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Or this? (Even though its only the second best album of that year...)

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drf600/f621/f62150prbmv.jpg

Odd to think that the year that the hippies were taking over popular consciousness, the two biggest ripostes to that sub culture were released.

I actually haven't gotten round to them yet. I decided to try their third album first because it's apparently their most accessible but the store I ordered it from are taking their sweet time to get it and it's too expensive anywhere else. Also, isn't White Light/ White Heat not all that good. I hear there's a track that's like half an hour of nothing but annoying feedback noises.

[Adam Crocker]

I actually haven't gotten round to them yet. I decided to try their third album first because it's apparently their most accessible but the store I ordered it from are taking their sweet time to get it and it's too expensive anywhere else.

Really? It's always been said that their fourth album Loaded was their most accessible. I admit to not having heard their third album Velvet Underground though.

(Though I mostly asked "Is it this?" out of pure cheek.)

Personally I started with Velvet Underground & Nico and was drawn right in. Certainly they are not the most accessible band in the world and certainly White Light/White Heat is their least accessible album. (At least to anyone very accustomed to more conventional rock and pop.) The Velvets were going against the cultural policy of the time by playing primitive rock'n'roll infected with free jazz and avante-garde minimalist composition and approaching the dark side of life with degree of frankness too much for the mainstream at the time and still striking over thirty years after its release.

So you probably are taking the right route by getting into one of their more accessible efforts, though that didn't stop me. (But then again I got into music through Hawkwind, and my favourite song prior to hearing the Sex Pistols was the Soft Machine's completely bizarre "Why Are We Sleeping" so maybe I have an innate taste for the odd. Hell the first VU track to grab me was "Heroin.")

Also, isn't White Light/ White Heat not all that good.

Nonsense. It's all hallmark in the development of the use of white noise in popular music. It does ten years earlier what the Sex Pistols did -- offer a virtual assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety. It is the Doors done right.

I hear there's a track that's like half an hour of nothing but annoying feedback noises.

No it isn't. "Sister Ray" isn't a half-hour. It's 17 minutes and 27 seconds long.

Second, it's not annoying feedback noises, it's Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, and John Cale on guitar, guitar and organ respectively trying to drown each other out or make each other go deaf by playing primtive rock'n'roll that is blown up my massive amounts of feed back while Lou Reed shouts the following Dylan-esque poetry into the mic (so that he could be heard) about good-wholesome fun:

Cecil's got his new piece
He cocks and shoots it bang between three & four
He aims it at the Sailor
Shoots him down dead on the floor
Aw, you shouldn't do that
Don't you know you'll stain the carpet
Now don't you know you'll stain the carpet
And by the way have you got a dollar
Oh, no man, I haven't got the time-time
She's busy sucking on a ding-dong
He's busy sucking on my ding-dong
just like Sister Ray said
I'm searching for my mainline
I said I c-c-c-couldn't hit it sideways
I said I c-c-c-couldn't hit it sideways
just like Sister Ray says

"Sister Ray" maybe long, noisy, and generally inaccessible, but its definately rock'n'roll - played over and over again with lots and lots of feedback.

Now if want annoying feedback noises you need Lou Reed's Metal Machine music...and NOW we're talkin'!

[JeffreyWKramer]

Easily THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO. Without any question whatsoever.

SGT. PEPPERS a close second.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced

...

Oh yeah but the production stinks and lowers my rating a bit.
I have no idea what to say to this and still stay within the bounds of decorum. I suppose a simple "I disagree" will have to do.


Here are a few more options to add to the list:

The Kinks' Something Else by the Kinks
The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile
The Grateful Dead's The Grateful Dead
Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Love's Da Capo & Forever Changes
Buffalo Springfield's Buffalo Springfield Again
The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday
The Left Banke's Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
The Temptations' With a Lot o' Soul
The Four Tops' Reach Out
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' Make It Happen
Otis Redding and Carla Thomas's King & Queen
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's United
Moby Grape's Moby Grape
Harry Nilsson's Pandemonium Shadow Show
Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow
Van Morrison's Blowin' Your Mind!
The Yardbirds' Blow-Up
Tim Buckley's Goodbye and Hello
James Brown's Cold Sweat
Sly and the Family Stone's Whole New Thing
The Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Vanilla Fudge's Vanilla Fudge
Miles Davis' Nefertiti
Thelonious Monk's Underground
Sam & Dave's Soul Men
Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe
Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Turtles' Happy Together
Booker T and the MGs' Hip Hug-Her
Frank Zappa's Absolutely Free and Lumpy Gravy


My pick?

Well, my favorite pop album ever is Between the Buttons, followed closely by Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina and Something Else. (Why doesn't anyone make pop records featuring Dixieland, samba, country, cocktail jazz, hard rock, and chamber music all in the same album anymore?)

But for sheer listening pleasure, I'm gonna play against type and say Underground. That is one hell of a piano album.

[Ayo]

1967...Don't know enough to talk.

[Punchy]

Wasn't Hendrix's Axix: Bold as Love released in 1967 as well? Also Lumpy Gravy by Zappa.

And what's with only rock records? Miles Davis's Nefertiti and John Coltranes Stellar Regions were both from 1967 as well.

[howyadoin]

Hendrix takes it by a fucking mile. Doesn't even matter which album we're talkin' about.

[Ilash]

Really? It's always been said that their fourth album Loaded was their most accessible. I admit to not having heard their third album Velvet Underground though.

(Though I mostly asked "Is it this?" out of pure cheek.)

Personally I started with Velvet Underground & Nico and was drawn right in. Certainly they are not the most accessible band in the world and certainly White Light/White Heat is their least accessible album. (At least to anyone very accustomed to more conventional rock and pop.) The Velvets were going against the cultural policy of the time by playing primitive rock'n'roll infected with free jazz and avante-garde minimalist composition and approaching the dark side of life with degree of frankness too much for the mainstream at the time and still striking over thirty years after its release.

So you probably are taking the right route by getting into one of their more accessible efforts, though that didn't stop me. (But then again I got into music through Hawkwind, and my favourite song prior to hearing the Sex Pistols was the Soft Machine's completely bizarre "Why Are We Sleeping" so maybe I have an innate taste for the odd. Hell the first VU track to grab me was "Heroin.")



Nonsense. It's all hallmark in the development of the use of white noise in popular music. It does ten years earlier what the Sex Pistols did -- offer a virtual assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety. It is the Doors done right.



No it isn't. "Sister Ray" isn't a half-hour. It's 17 minutes and 27 seconds long.

Second, it's not annoying feedback noises, it's Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, and John Cale on guitar, guitar and organ respectively trying to drown each other out or make each other go deaf by playing primtive rock'n'roll that is blown up my massive amounts of feed back while Lou Reed shouts the following Dylan-esque poetry into the mic (so that he could be heard) about good-wholesome fun:

Cecil's got his new piece
He cocks and shoots it bang between three & four
He aims it at the Sailor
Shoots him down dead on the floor
Aw, you shouldn't do that
Don't you know you'll stain the carpet
Now don't you know you'll stain the carpet
And by the way have you got a dollar
Oh, no man, I haven't got the time-time
She's busy sucking on a ding-dong
He's busy sucking on my ding-dong
just like Sister Ray said
I'm searching for my mainline
I said I c-c-c-couldn't hit it sideways
I said I c-c-c-couldn't hit it sideways
just like Sister Ray says

"Sister Ray" maybe long, noisy, and generally inaccessible, but its definately rock'n'roll - played over and over again with lots and lots of feedback.

Now if want annoying feedback noises you need Lou Reed's Metal Machine music...and NOW we're talkin'!


Ah well, I guess the difference between you and me is that you got into music with Hawkwind whereas I got into it with the Beatles so while I can take a decent amount of experimentalism in my music, it takes me a while to get into the more "noisy" rock. I mean hey, I personally hate the Sex Pistols (though I do rather like the Clash and the Ramones). Don't get me wrong, I will get to them soon enough. And yeah, Metal Machine Music is one notorious album and one that I would never even dream of buying. Hell, I do don't even think Lou Reed's wants anyone to buy it that much.

[Ilash]

I have no idea what to say to this and still stay within the bounds of decorum. I suppose a simple "I disagree" will have to do.


Here are a few more options to add to the list:

The Kinks' Something Else by the Kinks
The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile
The Grateful Dead's The Grateful Dead
Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Love's Da Capo & Forever Changes
Buffalo Springfield's Buffalo Springfield Again
The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday
The Left Banke's Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
The Temptations' With a Lot o' Soul
The Four Tops' Reach Out
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' Make It Happen
Otis Redding and Carla Thomas's King & Queen
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's United
Moby Grape's Moby Grape
Harry Nilsson's Pandemonium Shadow Show
Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow
Van Morrison's Blowin' Your Mind!
The Yardbirds' Blow-Up
Tim Buckley's Goodbye and Hello
James Brown's Cold Sweat
Sly and the Family Stone's Whole New Thing
The Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Vanilla Fudge's Vanilla Fudge
Miles Davis' Nefertiti
Thelonious Monk's Underground
Sam & Dave's Soul Men
Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe
Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Turtles' Happy Together
Booker T and the MGs' Hip Hug-Her
Frank Zappa's Absolutely Free and Lumpy Gravy


My pick?

Well, my favorite pop album ever is Between the Buttons, followed closely by Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina and Something Else. (Why doesn't anyone make pop records featuring Dixieland, samba, country, cocktail jazz, hard rock, and chamber music all in the same album anymore?)

But for sheer listening pleasure, I'm gonna play against type and say Underground. That is one hell of a piano album.

Oh yeah, I actually do own Younger than Yesterday by the Byrds. Decent album but really rather dated. I also didn't list those simply because I was just listing the albums that I personally own. I do still intend to get a whole lot of those.

As for the production on the Hendrix album, what can I tell you, I just don't think it's all that great. Just listen to the drumming, which is fantastic but it sounds like the man is playing on a tin can. I can only imagine what it would have sounded like with the more crystal clear production of, say, Led Zeppelin 1.

[MicBK]

White Light/White Heat. Lots of good ones that year but this one takes the cake for me.

[ZombieHavoc]

i'm not a dates expert, but i believe david bowie's space oddity and the first t. rex (then tyrannasaurus (sp?) rex) album came out in 67. dont quote me though.

VU's self titled record isnt spectacular. VU & nico is my personal favorite.

[zombie]

i'm not a dates expert, but i believe david bowie's space oddity and the first t. rex (then tyrannasaurus (sp?) rex) album came out in 67. dont quote me though.

Only Bowie in '67 was his self-titled. And the first Tyrannosaurus Rex album looks to have come out in '68.

[Slam_Bradley]

Miles Davis' Nefertiti. That was easy.

[SlightlyMad]

A good selection of albums. Personally, Pink Floyd's Piper At the Gates of Dawn just about wins it for me (narrowly beating Absolutely Free by Frank Zappa/the Mothers of Invention).

[Hiromi]

Hendrix takes it by a fucking mile. Doesn't even matter which album we're talkin' about.

Ditto what he said

[Jonathan Bogart]

As for the production on the Hendrix album, what can I tell you, I just don't think it's all that great. Just listen to the drumming, which is fantastic but it sounds like the man is playing on a tin can. I can only imagine what it would have sounded like with the more crystal clear production of, say, Led Zeppelin 1.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the production Hendrix wanted was the production Hendrix got. Never underrate the tin can sound; it sounds more real a lot of times than the over-mic'ed Bonham/Moon sound.

[Dreadstar]

Sgt. Pepper, for me.

[Jonathan Bogart]

And what's with only rock records? Miles Davis's Nefertiti and John Coltranes Stellar Regions were both from 1967 as well.
Yes, but Stellar Regions wasn't released until the '90s. I was going with albums actually released that year. (And I included Nefertiti. But there's probably a whole lot of other great jazz that I missed.)

[Dreadstar]

If we go away from rock, then we have to bring in Barry Gordy and the Temps for 1967s Lot O Soul.

And of course, Jacqueline Du Pre's ELGAR - Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, widely considered to be one of the finest cello works in existence.

Luckily, there weren't any Dave Seville and the Chipmunks records in '67.

[Adam Crocker]

Wasn't Hendrix's Axix: Bold as Love released in 1967 as well? Also Lumpy Gravy by Zappa.

Holy shit it was! In which case it's a two-way tie for me between the Axis and the VU. I like Are You Experienced? but Axis is my all-time favourite Hendrix album and sheer guitar perfection.

[leonaozaki]

I think hell just froze over: I'm going to agree with Ilash and claim that JOHN WESLEY HARDING is/was the best album of 1967.

One caveat: if Bob and the Band had actually -released- the material that made up the Basement Tapes (they recorded it in 1967) I would count -that- as the greatest album of 1967, of the 60's, and maybe ever. Or at least one of the greatest.

Runners-up would include:

1) ARE YOU EXPERIENCED and AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE
2) THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO
3) BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD AGAIN
4) BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN
5) SURREALISTIC PILLOW
6) BETWEEN THE BUTTONS and FLOWERS


ps. Is NEFERTITI really good? I've been wondering about what Miles album to get next.

rob

[Slam_Bradley]

Ips. Is NEFERTITI really good? I've been wondering about what Miles album to get next.

rob


Which ones do you already have? But, yes, Nefertiti is very very good. Most of the tracks were written by either Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock and it is very much the link between the hard bop sound that the second quintet is best known for and the fusion sound of In A Silent Way. Depending on what albums you have, I might recommend something else, but it is a fabulous album.

[leonaozaki]

Is it this? :)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002G7C.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Or this? (Even though its only the second best album of that year...)

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drf600/f621/f62150prbmv.jpg

Odd to think that the year that the hippies were taking over popular consciousness, the two biggest ripostes to that sub culture were released.

I thought WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT came out in 1968-- at least that's why RS album guide says. Great album, though.

rob

[leonaozaki]

Which ones do you already have? But, yes, Nefertiti is very very good. Most of the tracks were written by either Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock and it is very much the link between the hard bop sound that the second quintet is best known for and the fusion sound of In A Silent Way. Depending on what albums you have, I might recommend something else, but it is a fabulous album.

I have:

BIRTH OF THE COOL
MILESTONES
PORGY AND BESS
KIND OF BLUE
SKETCHES OF SPAIN
IN A SILENT WAY
BITCHES BREW
JACK JOHNSON

So, yeah, I've been wondering where to go from there.

rob

[Jonathan Bogart]

I think hell just froze over: I'm going to agree with Ilash and claim that JOHN WESLEY HARDING is/was the best album of 1967.
Psst. Count the stars again. He picked Magical Mystery Tour.

[Reptisaurus!]

Which ones do you already have? But, yes, Nefertiti is very very good. Most of the tracks were written by either Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock and it is very much the link between the hard bop sound that the second quintet is best known for and the fusion sound of In A Silent Way. Depending on what albums you have, I might recommend something else, but it is a fabulous album.

I really like Nefertiti. It's definitely my favorite Post-1960 Not-Live Miles Davis album (..Pause for Breath..)

But, overall, I dunno if I could rate it as better than "Are You Experienced."

AYE is kind of like THE rock album. Nefertiti is just A Rock Album.

To Jon: I haven't heard it, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone say anything nice about Underground, ever. Strange.

[Adam Crocker]

I thought WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT came out in 1968-- at least that's why RS album guide says. Great album, though.

rob

It seems you would be right. AMG listed the release date as Nov. 1967 (which I was willing to believe partly because the first album was recorded in 1966 and going to be released then until they got tied in the courts for using a photo of the band without the permission of the photographer - which killed any momentum the band was building towards getting some notice in spite of critical and radio indifference--plenty of time to ditch Nico and record a new album) but my copy of the album says it was originally released January 1968.

Fug, and their reviews says it was released in 1968 as well. I then withdraw WL/WH as one my choices for '67 then.

[Jonathan Bogart]

To Jon: I haven't heard it, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone say anything nice about Underground, ever. Strange.
Well, like the old saying goes, I may not know much about art, but I know what I like. But substitute "jazz" for art.

To my ears, it almost sounds like jazz-punk. Very limited chordal sequences, lots of repetition, stripped-down arrangements, spare instrumentation. It sounds like the kind of music Robert Quine or Arto Lindsay would find inspiring. Only played on a piano.

I have no idea how it fits into Monk's career, where jazz was at that point in time, or whether any of what I think about it is accurate or not. I'm a novice when it comes to post-bop; I just know names and (if I'm lucky) instruments.

[leonaozaki]

Psst. Count the stars again. He picked Magical Mystery Tour.

Indeed you are correct, sir.

Ha ha! I guess I don't have to agree with him after all, because JOHN WESLEY HARDING is still my pick for best of '67.

rob

[Ilash]

Indeed you are correct, sir.

Ha ha! I guess I don't have to agree with him after all, because JOHN WESLEY HARDING is still my pick for best of '67.

rob

Yup, looks like hell is going to have to remain warm for just a while longer but yeah, even if it ain't my pick, I adore it so much that it may as well be.

[leonaozaki]

Yup, looks like hell is going to have to remain warm for just a while longer but yeah, even if it ain't my pick, I adore it so much that it may as well be.

Well, at least we can agree on that. I love the audacity of the whole album! Releasing a country-folk album at the height of flower-power! Claiming "John Wesley Harding was a friend to the poor!" No he wasn't!

And then of course there's "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest:"

"and don't go mistakin' paradise for a home across the road."

ha ha ha! Fabulous!

rob

[Punchy]

Yes, but Stellar Regions wasn't released until the '90s. I was going with albums actually released that year. (And I included Nefertiti. But there's probably a whole lot of other great jazz that I missed.)


You sure? I think it was released back then but wasn't released on CD until the 90s.

[Neil]

Yes, "Loaded" is easily the most accessible Velvet Underground album.

Even though there is much to recommend on their self-titled third album - it may be my favorite overall - it does have "The Murder Mystery", which even though it's half the length of "Sister Ray", is likely their most inaccessable song as a whole.

"White Light/White Heat" has its jewels to plunder, but is definitely their least accessible entire album.

Oh, yeah, best album of 1967? I'm guessing "John Wesley Harding" would be the one to beat, as my thinking goes right now.

[Punchy]

I have:

BIRTH OF THE COOL
MILESTONES
PORGY AND BESS
KIND OF BLUE
SKETCHES OF SPAIN
IN A SILENT WAY
BITCHES BREW
JACK JOHNSON

So, yeah, I've been wondering where to go from there.

rob

You have a broad range of Miles records which is good but you are sorely missing something from the Miles Davis Quintet of the 60s (Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams). I suggest (in this order):

Miles Smiles
Seven Steps To Heaven
E.S.P.
My Funny Valentine+Four and More (live)

[Punchy]

To Jon: I haven't heard it, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone say anything nice about Underground, ever. Strange.

That's odd. Wonder why that is. Maybe because the recording quality isn't so hot?

To my ears, it almost sounds like jazz-punk. Very limited chordal sequences, lots of repetition, stripped-down arrangements, spare instrumentation. It sounds like the kind of music Robert Quine or Arto Lindsay would find inspiring. Only played on a piano.

I have no idea how it fits into Monk's career, where jazz was at that point in time, or whether any of what I think about it is accurate or not. I'm a novice when it comes to post-bop; I just know names and (if I'm lucky) instruments.


Well, what you hear is what you hear. "Accurate" doesn't really mean much as far as opinion. I will say that many of the tunes on the record have pretty complex chord structures. And it is a trio record and Monk worked primarily in trio and quartet settings.

But his arrangements are all pretty stripped down. Intro-melody-solos-and out. That's pretty much all you'll ever hear Monk do. And Monk's playing stayed pretty consistent throughout his life.

[Slam_Bradley]

You have a broad range of Miles records which is good but you are sorely missing something from the Miles Davis Quintet of the 60s (Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams). I suggest (in this order):

Miles Smiles
Seven Steps To Heaven
E.S.P.
My Funny Valentine+Four and More (live)


I can't argue with Punch. Miles Smiles would definitely have been my recommendation.

If you want to look at something a little different, try to find Joe Henderson's "So Near, So Far: Musing for Miles." Henderson teams with John Scofield on guitar, Dave Holland on bass and Al Foster on drums to cover 10 Miles Davis tunes. It's one of my top ten favorite albums.