corto maltese

Aha, more weirdness ? Good stuff. Fine label.

The blue background for "the Blues" is a stroke of designer's genius, so I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to these stones than we, unsophistacated souls, can imagine.

Hey, a large part of my collection is music of this persuasion... To call them pretty similar, isn't that a bit "all Chinese look alike" from the other side of the Atlantic?

If you like this, you should hear Duologue, a 1970 studio session. On side 1 they play standards - very attractively done, but the sidelong duo improvisation on side 2 is what makes this record really special.

Well, it's on my wantlist too, but obviously nowhere near that price. In general (rare) free jazz seems to be doing very well on Ebay these days. Earlier this month, the Khan Jamal on Dogtown finished at $1700+.

Track 6 is Paul Bley with Gary Peacock and Franz Koglmann from the "Annette" CD (Hat Art), all improvisations on (old) tunes by Annette Peacock. I think this one is "Cartoon". "Annette" and its twin, Marilyn Crispell's "Nothing Ever Was, Anyway" (also Annette Peacock songs and Gary Peacock on bass) are two of my very favourite CD's. Heartbreakingly beautiful music.

It's been reissued on vinyl too (easily available but I can't vouch for the quality). The original on French Polydor is a fine recording and good pressing. I like it, but I can imagine some listeners getting tired of the conga drumming. Karyobin and Ric Colbeck are of course highly recommended

Wrong breakfast, presumably. No, it's true: the recording is far from ideal. But I love the band.

Thank you for the music, Mr. Bley. "Private memorial services will be held ... wherever you play a Paul Bley record." There will be many.

Well, "okay" or "decent" just isn't enough, is it ? Not when there's so much good, great and brilliant around.

Those Think! reissues are CD's, aren't they? Both albums have just been reissued on vinyl by HMV Japan. "Matrix" is fine (maybe a bit conservative), but "Electrum", I don't know... I've tried several times because I felt I should like it a lot (time, context, players), but I gave up and didn't keep it. "Blackstone Legacy" is an old favourite; I think it was one of the first straight jazz records I bought.

This reminds me of first hearing a Japanese CD-set of Miles' Blackhawk recordings with Hank Mobley and noticing that some of the (very long) solos had been heavily edited on the original LP's. I won't tell whose...

You might have been unlucky with some copies you got, Clifford, because generally speaking those German records you mention, including the private label issues, are really top-notch recordings ànd pressings.

A bit late, but thanks for this enjoyable BFT. One thing that strikes me with the reveal is that different tracks feature Japanese musicians with whom I'm familiar in a more "outside" context ( Masahiko Sato and Masahiko Togashi especially).

Not surprisingly (surely I'm not the only one here?), this is the composition of which I own the largest number of recordings (LP and CD). The sound on this Denon is gorgeous and I really like this version. I have another recording by Takahisha, split over two LP's on the great Swedish Fylkingen label. Those records are 50 years old and mono, but they sound great and Takahisha's interpretation might even be superior to the later one.

I'm still recovering from not readily identifying the Springboard track (such a great record!). Anyway, a small step towards rehabilitation: track 8 is "Admire, But Detest" by the Masabumi Kikuchi Quintet (End For The Beginning, 1973).

Track 10 sounds like Marshall Allen with Konstrukt doing their Sun Ra tribute.

Track 4 is "Beatrice" by Sam Rivers, from one of his Nato label CD's with Tony Hymas.

You mean Waldron's unreleased "Candy Girl" album with members of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band ? I didn't know Mal didn't play on it. Still would love to find a copy (there are promo's). At that time, the Calumet label was distributed by Discodis, not by Jaubert's Musidisc (see the back cover of "Church Number Nine"). On the other hand, music from the same session (a track also called "Church number nine") was released on Noah Howard's "Space Dimension", which was released some time earlier on the America label (part of Musidisc) and produced by Jaubert. It's always a bit complex in France...

No need to duplicate. I'll add for now: Mal Waldron Free At Last (ECM) Sven Finnerud Trio (Norsk Jazzforum) Gordon Beck Gyroscope (Morgan) Bob Degen Celebrations (Calig) Siegfried Kessler Live at the Gill's Club (Futura) So many more... Re: Irène Schweizer. For our friends with a distaste for anything free, it may come as a surprise that her very first recording (a 1962 trio) was a cover of Junior Mance's "Jubilation". Is the jury still out on Jim's question about strictly piano-bass-drums ?

I don't have much by him: "Alive and well in Paris" On Pathé, "The day after" with the Rolf Kühn Group, the "Sorcellerie..." soundtrack with Michel Portal and Eddie Louiss... RIP

This will be a first for me, but I would like to try.

Excellent choice. Many treasures to be found on the Hungaraton label in the 1970s and 1980s, especially by composers of the Budapest New Music Studio (Jeney and Sary were both founding members). I've yet to find a dud on that label. Zsolt Durko is another favourite. Do you have any other recommendations? Hungaraton also did that amazing edition of Bartok's works. Sorry for replying late and I don't have my records here, but I would recommend really almost anything by the New Music Studio composers (I'm particularly fond of Zoltan Jeney). Hungaroton also released a string of excellent electronic/electroacoustic records by Hungarian composers. And there's Kurtág, of course... (I'm not an expert on "straight" classical music, but given the high quality of so much contemporary/avant-garde releases on the label, I would imagine their standards to be pretty high there too. The Bartok edition you mentioned is a case in point.)

Excellent choice. Many treasures to be found on the Hungaraton label in the 1970s and 1980s, especially by composers of the Budapest New Music Studio (Jeney and Sary were both founding members).

"Man On The Moon"/"Growing Up" was only issued in France. There are, however, white label promo copies on US Impulse (I've seen them offered without picture sleeve or with the French sleeve). Don Cherry definitely plays on "Man On The Moon". (The musicians of the quintet are not credited, but I have no reason to believe they're not OC, DC, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell, plus electronic music composer Emmanuel Ghent.)