ATR

From the composition Homeostasis on Subject to Change, Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time Records. Recitation by Pheeroan ak Laff.

The possible elaborations are indeed infinite and without end.

Today I listened to the small orchestra versions followed by the original trio improvisations in this order: They Rode for Them Parts 1&2, I'll See You Out There, Splatter, Cracked Roses, Ride the Wind, RUB, Frenzy House, Shards and Lemons, Who Dat. I read the liner notes to get more of an idea of the orchestration process. These aren't what I would call transcriptions or arrangements, although the process included transcription and orchestration. The principle contact points are the titles of the pieces. As you know, the pieces are even radically different in length from the improvised to 'composed' version. I did hear some echoes of the improvisations in the larger ensemble versions, but as I said I found them more different than alike. What comes across most strongly is the sense that whatever Roscoe Mitchell is doing is worth hearing and that there is a community of musicians who have the ability and desire to translate his music into other settings and situations. The orchestral arrangements for both Discussions and Ride the Wind were created by the same working group, although each album has its own distinct sound and identity. Some of this is due to the fact that these are performed by two different musical groups with different instrumentation and also that the recorded sound on the Wide Hive release Discussions seems more warm and reverberant. That's not necessarily better. Prospective listeners need to know that neither disc contains exclusively orchestrations of the compositions from Conversations I and II, and that there are further orchestrations that remain to be recorded. What was most rewarding to me personally was taking the opportunity to listen more carefully to all four of these recordings. There are no duplications, and as I said there are still more orchestrations waiting to be recorded from what I read. In addition, both discs have additional tracks that are not derived from the Conversations I & II albums.

Probably from me, sadly. I'll try to come up with a new one but this one always works. And if not from me, I'll swear that every word of my version actually happened. This brings me to a story I heard about Cecil Taylor and Sonny Rollins I heard about the time of CT's birthday last month. Sonny went to see him in a club. Afterwards Sonny told him that he didn't understand what Cecil was doing but he knew enough to know that Cecil did and so he should just keep on doing it.

I took a version of this class taught by Willie Ruff. At the time I was dismissive of what Miles was playing, early 70's, which I deeply regret now. Miles had the Agharta band in town and I didn't go. Ruff showed a movie in the class of Tony Williams playing trap set in the middle of a clearing somewhere in Africa. He explained to us that music is a form of communication and in Africa drummers play the news of their village to the next village like a telegraph. He told us that following Tony's performance surrounding villages answered. The message back was 'We don't exactly understand what you said but we dug it'. I got a good grade in the class even though I cut the Miles Davis performance. I did catch Weather Report, Larry Coryell, and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Cut to many years later and my nephew Will is at Bard and tells me he's taking the intro jazz history class there, which I'm figuring must be taught by some mouldy fig. Turns out it was Thurman Barker. Damn.

I did a half way job of it. Put all four discs in the player and let it rip. I'm not sure it's possible even programming the player to A/B the specific improvisation followed by its analogous composition that you would hear anything near what you expect. Which is maybe what the point of doing these orchestral projects was. I'm going to try A/B'ing and stopping short of going nuts. I think it's best done in small doses. Maybe reverse the order of creation and listen to the composed version first, since that's kind of a blow up diagram of the improvisation.

Have any reviewers listened sequentially to the improvisations on Wide Hive followed by the orchestral arrangements on Discussions and Ride the Wind, and discussed the arrangements with that in mind? All this reviewer does is define what would be for him a successful attempt at this project and then simply dismisses it as unsuccessful. To his credit, he does drop the names of a few significant twentieth century classical composers.

What? The SACD is MoFi's remastering. I presume that MoFi remastered from a correct speed tape. I can't recall exactly how the speed was corrected for the '97 release, whether it involved running the tape at a different speed or using a safety copy that was correct speed. There are two different considerations here. One is what the source tape was and the second is whether a new master was created from the source tape. In the case of the MoFi release the answer is that a new master was created from the source tape.

The Mofi disc is remastered. I would assume that it is speed corrected but cannot confirm. https://www.discogs.com/Miles-Davis-Kind-Of-Blue/release/7113132

I have the box and the Bootleg Series Volume 4 Live 1996 "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. I don't have any of these vinyl. Are people making the mistake of confusing the Royal Albert Hall Concert in the box with that of The Bootleg Series Volume 4, which is actually the Manchester show? It should be easy to tell the difference. Both are good performances, Manchester just a bit edgier. I think the intention was to record a live album at Royal Albert Hall, so Manchester was sort of a rehearsal. Watch, I'll get it wrong and Manchester was after on the tour. I didn't check the dates on the box. I think the sound quality of both shows is very good although there are several shows in the box that weren't professional quality. If you're a rabid Dylan fan the box makes sense as the price per disc is very good. I think it's Dylan's best songwriting and best band, although he's had a lot of great bands, but I could be happy simply with Bootleg Series Volume 4, Live 1966.

Coincidentally my Ipod Classic began needing much more frequent resets on a drive to and from the NY area this past weekend. I've never been able to have it go longer than about 200 tracks before it freezes, but only when it's restarted. This weekend it was freezing after tracks while playing, and at least 10 times in a 5 hour drive. I was thinking I need to replace it but I know when I bought it that Apple was discontinuing the product, which I think I've confirmed by shopping online. Are you folks saying you're going to buy one from a private seller? I think that otherwise your product choice is the Ipod Touch. Less memory, but a solid state hard drive that lasts longer.

That's interesting. I have a multichannel/stereo edition SACD of Kind of Blue that isn't a hybrid, but I know that a hybrid was released. Of course non-hybrid simply means it has no redbook layer. I checked discogs as completely as I could but couldn't find a multichannel only SACD of the album. There are stereo only versions of Kind of Blue in SACD. It's a simple enough matter to switch any SACD player between multichannel and stereo in my experience provided the disc has both mixes, which this one certainly must. Come to think of it, I can't recall any of my SACD's being multichannel only. A prize to the person who can name one, and if it's Kind of Blue, well, I'll eat my hat.

Something was happenin' and I didn't know what it was until I found out there was a Jackson in my house. Say hallelujah and give me that old time religion. Thanks for another great Roscoe Mitchell album, Nessa.

I got to see him at The Lilypad in Cambridge, Ma last December. The Vandermark 5 was one of the premier bands of this generation, now Rempis is out there carving a bit of a reputation for himself. His percussion ensemble recordings are something to behold. Non-stop energy. He's also in The Chicago Reed Quartet's Western Automatic and Keefe Jackson's Likely So ensembles. I recommend all of them.

It's About Time.