Another one flies away to the great Birdland in the sky. There's a lot Herbie that just ain't my cup of java, but I do dig his Bethlehem dates, particularly PLAYS and QUINTET (w/ Sam Most). The arrangements on those sides are pretty cool. (nice & breezy, but not souffle light) and make gorgeous use of Joe Puma's guitar. The spooky echoey atmospherics on "The Purple Grotto" are classic. And Herbie deserves props for not only employing Sonny Sharrock, but allowing the guitarist some leeway in playing the way he wanted. Like Lacy, Herbie found his vehicle of expression & stuck with it through thick & thin. That's quite a nice fur 'coat' he's wearing on the cover to PUSH PUSH.

Can't say I ever got into the little I've heard of Mann. Didn't I give you a disc a couple years back, D? Everything I've read about him always pointed him to be a genuine and warm person. I did learn something from the Push Push jacket cover (yikes!), back when I first saw it at a record store:

that all fad-inspired images, at their own unique points in history, will be "hot" in popular culture.

RIP, Mr. Mann.

Yessiree Al, you sure did. GREAT IDEAS OF WESTERN MANN from 57’- pretty swell record & unique in the Mann-o-log as it finds him sheathing his flute & sticking solely to bass clarinet (he’s not half bad on the heavy reed).

The cover of PUSH PUSH just might rank up there with WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS in terms of pure unadulterated sex appeal.

The live stuff with Sharrock from the Whiskey A-Go-Go is absolutely worth checking out. Miroslav Vitous also got his start with Mann, as did Roy Ayers. Add drummer Bruno Carr and you have a pretty nice little band in the vein of another late-60's "pop-jazz" band on Atlantic, The Charles Lloyd Quartet.

One of the great things about the cover to PUSH PUSH is that, if you squint to just the precise degree and angle your head just so, Herbie's torso resembles the figure in Munch's "The Scream".

Memphis Underground was the first jazz record I ever loved. My dad brought it home when I was seven or eight. As a child, I listened to it endlessly. I was so enamoured of it, flute became my first instrument (it didn't take). I recently found an old beat-up LP copy of MU at a flea market. It holds up remarkably well. Far from being slick, it's soulful and spontaneous, with a bit of a southern twang that made it unique among early fusion albums. Herbie should get credit for being something of a visionary. If I'm not mistaken, drummer Geoff Mann is Herbie's son. Condolences to him.

Cool, Chris. I'll have to look for that one, as I see that Coryell and Sonny Sharrock are aboard.