rustypants speaks

there are some albums i have on vinyl that have still not been released on CD and this both breaks my heart and makes me smile smugly.

i’ve been an on-again-off-again fan of chick corea since my high school years. corea is one of the most innovative jazz pianists out there – a chameleon of sorts who has changed his style often and leaves me breathless or scratching my head, depending on the album.

back in the early days of my jazz love affair (read: high school) i would frequent several used record shops in the cincinnati area (woodstock, moles, wizards, and ozarka’s all come to mind in the clifton area near UC) and look for new tunes every couple of weeks as the $$ allowed. i found corea’s Return to Forever / Romantic Warrior album on one of these trips and was amazed at the speed and precision that this jazz fusion group could execute. i had also been floored by corea’s crystal silence album with gary burton on vibes – there’s not a more relaxing jazz album i’ve ever heard than this one.
not long after this, i found the griffith park collection. it had many of the return to forever members on it (corea, lenny white, stanley clarke) along with freddie hubbard and joe henderson. reading the liner notes, i saw that this was a mostly unrehearsed album – charts were passed around and the songs were recorded in one take to preserve the spontaneity and improvisational nature of the music. i took this baby home and fired it up – whoa! it became one of my favorite jazz albums on the spot and has never fallen out of grace.

with the advent of cd’s, i have long hoped for this album to be released digitally but it hasn’t happened yet. i recorded it on my record player through my computer several years ago and recently came across the resulting cd as i was rooting through some boxes at the house – i wondered where it had gone and there was a noticeable hole in my ipod without this loaded. all the magic is still there. what a great ensemble of musicians! to hear this thing remixed and remastered for digital? that’d be some awesome stuff.
so, my wish list of LP’s yet to be released on CD:

• the griffith park collection (duh)
• time fades away by neil young (one of the few albums of his not on CD – thankfully i own this LP, too – it’s a classic if you like the off-kilter, depressed neil of the early 70′s. this sucker’s so huge that it’s got it’s own wikipedia page!)
• invitation to openness by les mccann
• live ’71 by buddy miles
• chick donald walter and woodrow by the woody herman big band

who do i have to sleep with to get these things released digitally??