Moderately Acclaimed 3 (MA3) - Round 1.10

[Brad]

Round 1.10
Vote for your favorite in each matchup.
Remember, anyone can vote as long as they've heard both albums!
Deadline = May 14th 10am EST

1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece vs. Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2
2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years vs. Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
3. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch vs. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
4. Funkadelic - Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow vs. Terry Callier - What Color Is Love

Stand and Deliver!

[Stephan]

Incredible week, particularly for jazz. No album in the next 6 weeks is going to take the Best Loser Trophy away from Van, and to place Bert Jansch at #5 (and, more importantly since these little top 8s have no value, not vote for him) pains me. The last two weeks he would have been #2, the next two #1! It also pains me a little to vote against the Funk, but this my least favorite album of theirs I've heard and Terry Callier is a great find (particularly Dancing Girl, wow!). He even is somewhat funky at times (although not as funky as Funkadelic, obviously) and, despite what the 6th place would suggest, one of my favorite discoveries of the tournament.

1. Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - Vol. 2
2. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
3. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece (Best Loser Trophy)
4. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
5. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch
6. Terry Callier - What Color Is Love
7. Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
8. Funkadelic - Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow

[sonofsamiam]

Wow, QUALITY week! I like all of these to one degree or another.

Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2
Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane (Bert Jansch is lovely, but even Trane's lesser-known stuff obliterates most)
Terry Callier - What Color Is Love (yes, I voted against Funkadelic! What Color Is Love is an oft-forgotten masterpiece)

[antonius]

1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
This is one of my top 3 all time albums. I like everything about it, even the sleeve. After all these years, I still don't know what "Veedon" means. It's the most playable Van record. We still play it on Sunday mornings every month or so. The sound of the bass, and the piano kicking in, when "Fair Play" begins. His voice has never sounded better. The way the second song "Linden Arden" runs over into the third song, has never been bettered on any record. The violins and flute on "Streets of Arklow", the guitars on "You don't pull no punches", one of the most beautiful lovesongs ever written, "Come here my love", and the unsettlingy beautiful finale "Country Fair". This is what I look for when I listen to any new CD.

Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2
Monk is my favorite jazz pianist. All his other records from the fifties and sixties are better known, sound better, are in stereo, are more "normal". He kept playing the same songs over and over during these years, and a lot of them came frome these sessions for Blue Note, in mono. All the songs are short, and most of them are fast, which makes his quirky piano style even more remarkable. The melodies and the rhythms of the songs are perfect, that must have been quite an atmosphere when playing these strange arrangements for the first time.
Unfortunately I must vote against it, although this is an all-time top 100 record for me.

[Jirin]

10/1

Van Morisson - Veedon Fleece 8/10
Thelonius Monk - The Genius of Modern Music Vol 2 7/10

10/2

Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years (#87)
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene 9/10

Abstaining from this one. My instinct says vote Waits, but I feel like I might not vote for him if I hadn't heard Frank's Wild Years several times and Oxygene only once. Wouldn't be sad to see either of these gems advance.

10/3

Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (#53)
John Coltrane - Ole Coltrane 9/10

Is it me or does every single one of my nominations have a hideously bad draw? It seems they're all against either Serge Gainsbourg or John Coltrane.

Anyway, I first heard Bert Jansch opening for Neil Young, and then it took me a long time to find his album. I can't get enough idiosyncratic folk rock lately. It just seems to have so much emotional rawness to it it's irrestible.

Ole Coltrane is awesome too.

10/4

Funkadelic - Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow 9/10
Terry Callier - What Color Is Love 9/10

Two very strong old school albums, and a very close vote. It's a little annoying that Dancing Girl is specifically darked out on Spotify, cause that's the best song on the album IMO.

[VanillaFire1000]

1. Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2
3. Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
4. Funkadelic - Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow

I'll try to listen to the #3 ones during the week.

[Michel]

2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
3. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane

[Greg]

1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
3. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch
4. Terry Callier - What Color Is Love

[Brad]

I'm going to ignore that last message as it appears to be spam. (not yours, Greg)

[Stephan]

Yeah, deleted it and banned the user.

[Honorio]

Wow, fantastic week, every album is outstanding (yes, even "Oxygène") with special mention to "Veedon Fleece" and "What Color Is Love".

1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
2. Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years
3. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch
4. Terry Callier - What Color Is Love

[Kingoftonga]

Winners in red!

1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece vs. Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2

Both Morrison and Monk are artists I respect more than love, but I find Veedon Fleece more personal, which ultimately makes it more interesting.

2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years vs. Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene

This was a tough one. Frank's Wild Years has a lot of good stuff ("Hang On St. Christopher," "Way Down in the Hole") but also a lot of stuff that borders on self-parody ("I'll Take New York"). Oxygene manages to thrill me and keep me interested even while being confined to a single timbre.

[Brad]

1. Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2 over Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
I knew there was a solid period of Van's canon that I needed to explore, and I think I've found it. For now, I'm going tried and true with Thelonious. Super-tough call!
2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years over Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Surprised at how good the J-MJ disc is! Very close call.
3. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch vs. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
Sadly, my Bert Jansch disc has not arrived in time to spin it... I can't even pull up half the album on youtube. Looking forward to it's arrival, but must abstain in the meantime.
4. Funkadelic - Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow over Terry Callier - What Color Is Love
Agree about the strength of "Dancing Girl". Going with the uneven but "gets me going more" Funkadelic.

Thanks!

[antonius]

1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece over Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2
as noted before

2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
A "lesser" Tom Waits record, after "Swordfishtrombones" and "Rain Dogs", a very weird record at the time as I remember. I've got this on vinyl. Now it sounds "normal". "Cold cold ground", "Way down in the hole" (theme song for the unmatched TV series "The Wire"), "Hang on St. Christopher", "Train Song", "Blow Wind blow", "Yesterday is here" are standouts. One thing that strikes me in this record is that in some songs, he sounds as if he about to cry ("Train Song", Blow Wind Blow"). A sometimes sad but great record.

Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
I used to love this when I was young, the single was in the top 40 in Belgium. It's simple and catchy.

3. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch
Ok singer songwriter.

John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
Didn't know this one before. Love the double bass playing.

4.Funkadelic - Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow
The title track is priceless, together with "Funky Dollar Bill". Great album title.

Terry Callier - What Color Is Love
This doesn't beat Al Green's records. A little too soft for my taste.

[Kingoftonga]

3. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch vs. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane

Another tough choice. Both are excellent albums, but I have to give the edge to Coltrane. The instrumentation on Ole Coltrane makes it seem that much more original.

[Brad]

about 13 hours left to vote for this round!

[Henrik]

Oxygene beats Frank Sobotka's wild years.

[Henrik]

And Terry Callier - What Color Is Love wins too.

[Brad]

Frank Sobotka's

Sly!

[Brad]

Round 1.10 has ended.
11 total voters:
antonius
Brad
Greg
Henrik
Honorio
Jirin
KingofTonga
Michel
sonofsamiam
Stephan
VanillaFire1000

Results:
1. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece over Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music - vol 2 5-4
2. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years over Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene 7-3
3. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane over Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch 5-3
4. Terry Callier - What Color Is Love over Funkadelic - Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow 6-3

Round 1.11 up soon!