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The Monday morning spin is Piano Improvisations, Vol. 2, by Chick Corea.

I want to get deep into Chick’s life at some point.

This is obviously the second of two solo piano albums Chick did for ECM, right after his work on Bitches Brew with Miles and right before his new band Return to Forever would take off.

There’s a lot of holdover from the Miles era. Lots of free stuff, and you can hear on tracks like “Departure from Planet Earth” that virtually he’s throwing his whole body at the piano to compensate for the missing electric band. His take on the Monk tune “Trinkle Tinkle” pushes bop into that chaotic space the same way.

The closing medley goes the opposite direction and it’s beautiful. Soft and melodic the whole way.

I got more to say on this dude and this album. Chick’s got more range in his discography than virtually everyone and is a fascinating dude generally.

For now: great album here.

I happened to be out of town and got some downtime to venture out to some new spots. I don’t really pay much mind to the RSD Official Releases or whatever (not being judgy; just not what I’m looking for) but I like to dig on RSD when it’s more lively.

Good time. Good people. I got a great little haul out of the trip too

Plus bonus Prince cassette.

The morning spin is Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

I saw one of us scored a Ramones yesterday and want to see some more RSD stories. Here’s mine.

I’ve been traveling to visit family and this year saw the trip on the horizon for RSD. I’m not the audience for RSD releases. There’s never much on the list that grabs me. But I like to go because it’s the rare time my shop feels full and I get to be around people who love records.

So I’m good to not going out. I missed last year I think. But then I end up having to drop some people off somewhere and have two hours to kill. So it’s “Siri: Record stores near me” Ten minutes? In the mall? Oh hell yeah. “Yes directions.”

Shout out to the Rock Shop in the Hamilton Mall for doing it right. They had their RSD crates way off to the side, some dude was spinning Funkadelic, and this place was stacked. I walked out with a used jazz pile that included this: the Impulse repress of Black Saint. Mint with a dent. 40% off. Incredible score! I checked off a few other titles on the wantlist too. An Ahmad Jamal. Chick Corea. I got a Prince tape. I left a ton of stuff behind I regret now, but that’s the game.

Rock Shop. Stacked. The employees were cool as hell. Great punk section I didn’t dig much into, too.

Now I’m in a mall killing time so I grab a pretzel and open this app. It’s all sob stories. Or if not that it’s straight-up anger. Everyone is telling stories about what they didn’t buy. “I waited four hours and got nothing on my list!” “All that was left from my list was one single!” Fuckin’ bummer.

I try to be pretty live-and-let-live about records but this always trips me up. In a store of 100,000 titles, if the one title they wanted wasn’t in one of the four milk crates with “RSD” written next to it, people think they’ve failed. Instead of turning around and saying “Well shit I’ll dig up a better deal than the $80 Bill Evans” they go home. Crazy shit.

So remember that RSD alone is a loss to the stores. They stay afloat through the used shit. Let RSD force you out of the house, but make yourself dig while you’re out too. That’s where you find real gems, like a Prince tape you’ll play Tuesday, or this dented copy of Charles Mingus’ Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

It’s gonna need a re-spin.

Great album.

The morning spin is uncharacteristically modern for me: it’s The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band.

I like a lot of modern R&B and soul, especially the holdover of the Neo-soul stuff. This isn’t that though. This is Daptone instrumental, revitalizing the cinematic soul sounds from the 70s. Think Shaft. Or Superfly. The organ is killer on it and the combo of the big organ chords and brass punches always makes me think Isaac Hayes is about to jump in.

Great album.

The morning spin is Time Further Out. I can get tired of Brubeck easily but this is one of his that holds me.

It’s all over the place but sort of by design. Time and time signature is all over the place, and that’s all thanks to drummer Joe Morello. Each track ramps up so we start on a waltz and close on 9/8. On this listen it’s definitely Joe’s album, as far as I’m concerned. Just listen to “Far More Drums.”

Great album.

The morning spin is Quiet Nights. This is the last of the Miles/Gil collaborations.

Quick side note: the entire time Miles is doing these albums with Gil, he’s trading off releases between Gil projects and quintet projects. This album is released months after a quintet album, Seven Steps to Heaven, which introduced the lineup of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. So when we talk about the end of the Gil Evans projects, it’s also the beginning of this next great era.

Anyway, Quiet Nights.

This album doesn’t touch the others and for good reason. At the time these sessions started, Sketches of Spain had blown up and then bossa nova blew up in America. Columbia decided to push for singles in that vein and got them. Tracks like “Corcovado,” which, while good enough, don’t move your ears. It’s straightahead stuff. Gil was rushed to write those and it shows. The songs are shorter. They feel clipped. The highlight is probably “Wait Til You See Her” and it’s entirely out of place here. It’s the closest we get to a return to the Miles Ahead sound. It’s airy and cinematic and the final note is thoughtful.

The way these sessions get written about you can tell it’s falling apart. There was long stretches between them, and eventually, after years, all that’s available is 20 minutes of usable stuff, including the singles, “Corcovado” and “Aos pés de la cruz,” two decent attempts at the bossa invasion that didn’t catch on, neither of which would chart at all.

So, producer Teo Macero took the 20 minutes, slapped an unused track from Seven Steps to Heaven on the end (“Summer Night”) and pushed it out the door. One reviewer trashed the album and used the same review to praise “Summer Night” and the quintet instead. Brutal stuff.

Miles was pissed. It was an unfinished album he didn’t give the blessing to. He wouldn’t work with Teo or the quintet again until Miles Smiles like three years later. The albums that follow that one are my personal favorites. The post-bop and funky Nefertiti, Sorcerer, In A Silent Way.

And that’s the end of that story.