Simon8

From Ethan Iverson's blog: "Another rarity: Frank Wright’s Uhura Na Umoja with Noah Howard, Bobby Few, and…Art Taylor! A.T. plays the New Black Music! He sounds amazing. Now I have to get all those circa 1970 Paris free jazz records too. While I’m pretty sure the drumming community generally sleeps on this transgressive moment, some people already know. When I told Billy Hart that Art Taylor was a great free player he said, “Of course.”

Same here. My top 5 would include that album/compilation: in large part because of the (immortal) Milt/Monk quartet tracks. I later got the the BN Genius of... but this remained the key "album" for me.

Loved it as well. Beautifully written.

Reissued by NYRB, coming out next week. Haven't read it yet: how is it ?

Recently found this funny Paul Bley business card anecdote: http://mattpavolka.com/paul-bley,-a-remembrance.html A number of years ago (at least ten, maybe more like fifteen) the great Argentine pianist Ernesto Jodos, who was staying with my wife and me in New York at the time, went to Birdland to see Paul Bley. I believe the band was Paul's trio with Paul Motian and Gary Peacock. I don't recall that I was able to attend that night but I did see that group on other occasions and there were always at least moments of incredible beauty and power that only they could attain. Truly one of the great piano trios in music. Anyway, after the show Ernesto approached Bley (a not un-intimidating man) to ask him about taking a lesson. Paul was very friendly. He gave him a card and explained that he would be in New York for a while and that he should give him a call. My friend put the card in his wallet and headed back to Brooklyn, excited at the prospect of studying with one of his idols. Upon arriving back at our place he got out Bley's card to show to me. it was a corporate-looking business card with flourescent trees embossed on a white background. The text printed on it was: "Paul Bley, Innovative Travel Concepts". That was all, nothing else. No phone number, nothing.

Mark Levinson's post following Peter Hum's article (http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/music/jazzblog/r-i-p-paul-bley): "Hard to believe Paul Bley has passed. Paul gave me a gig as his bass player (with drummer Barry Altschul) when I first came to NY at age 18 in 1965. A few weeks later he offered me a gig going to Europe on tour for 9 months! It was an amazing and life changing experience and education to know, travel and play with Paul for a few years. He was one of the most inventive and innovative musicians of all time as his recordings show. He could also be the biggest curmudgeon, meshugana and pain in the ass! After the turbulent years with Annette, it was good to hear that he settled down and found stabilty and happiness with Carol et al. Paul Bley and Bill Evans were the two main root inspirations for jazz pianists from the 1960's onwards. There is big chunk of Paul in Vanessa for sure. Vanessa, your dad's love is in your heart and with you always."

A last salute to my hometown hero. Ben Ratliff summed it up quite well: "In the final reckoning, PAUL BLEY's influence over the last 50 years of jazz - and it continues - will be enormous.... Deeply original and aesthetically agressive, Mr. Bley long ago found a way to express his long, elegant, voluminous thoughts in a manner that implies complete autonomy from its given setting but isn't quite free jazz. The music runs on a mixture of deep historical knowledge and its own inviolable principles."

Jaki Byard (Here's Jaki, Hi-Fly)

I'll make The Hunters my next Salter read. Light Years was a somewhat frustrating read: brilliant, often gorgeous writing at the service of insufferably bourgeois characters and settings. But beautiful, nevertheless.

Long time since I read it, but I recall it as one of the best of the Greenes I just started, but there's from the get-go that understated scene and character-setting mastery that really impressed me in The End of the Affair (the only other Greene novel I read).

Le Mépris (Moravia/Godard)

The End (bis)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc5xXYzEKAs From Charlie Haden's Montreal Tapes, with Paul Bley & Paul Motian (1989). Bley's clarion call release (3:08-3:15) after a wicked crescendo (from 2:38) makes me wanna shout for joy every time.