Three of my favorites are from the '70s, "Dinner Music," "European Tour" and esp. "Musique Mechanique," which has one of my favorite big-band pieces by anybody, "440." Just sparkling compositions and arrangements, and some of my favorite players. Roswell Rudd and Bob Stewart are on all three, Terry Adams (of NRBQ infamy) and Gary Windo are on "European Tour" and "Musique Mecanique." "European Tour also has Andrew Cyrille, and "Musique Mecanique" has Eugene Chadbourne, Steve Swallow and Charlie Haden. And "Musique Mecanique" features not one but two french horns .(I wonder if Gary Clark and John Clark are brothers from some kind of french horn dynasty? Looking up Gary Clark on allmusic.com, one finds he has also written songs for Natalie Imbruglia and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys. I love allmusic.com, but it gets pretty funny when two musicians have the same name). I also esp. like "The Very Big Carla Bley Band," from 1991 (here's a great song title -- "Strange Arrangement"), and "Songs with Legs," a 1995 live-in-Europe trio release w/ Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard, which has an interesting, bluesy version of Monk's "Misterioso." Steer away from "Night Glo," which is way too smooth and background-y. One of those "what were they thinking?" albums.