B. Clugston

Steve Lacy, Ballets (Hat Art). RIP Jean-Jacques Avenel.

Same here-the one time I saw Lacy in concert, JJ really stood out. Sad news.

Sad news. Very funny man. Years ago, when he was filiming Jumanji, he used to show up unannounced and perform at improv clubs. Was lucky to see him once.

Oliv is great. Wish I knew about the Lacy before I won a crazy bidding war on Ballets recently. Looks like a must have.

Steve Lacy, Moon (Affinity). Picked this up during a recent trip to Winnipeg. It's Lacy slowly transitioning away from his free period, near the end of his Rome days. Interesting soprano-clarinet-trombone front line.

Not sure if this is referenced in the links above, but he's all over vol. 3 of The New Music compilation on RCA Victrola from 1968: http://www.discogs.com/Nono-Fukushima-Berio-Lehmann-Rome-Symphony-Orchestra-Bruno-Maderna-The-New-Music-Volume-3/release/2930372

I really like that version of Momente. It has a liveliness to it that I find lacking in the "Europa Version 1972".

Anthony Braxton, For Four Orchestras (Arista). Because three orchestras just isn't enough.

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll check it out. I gave that one a spin yesterday as well. One of my favourites. I also like the duet record he did with Greg Goodman around the same time. You probably know but I'll just throw it out here, that the "Vaincu. Va! Live at the Western Front" was recorded within a week of "Finger Palace," i.e., Parker is playing at the same high level on both. That is a nice one, too. I was at the album release concert where Parker performed in the same venue. Hope that one gets released some day. I sat right next to Mr.Clugston at this show and agree it was a fantastic show We had front row seats, which made for some interesting psychoacoustic phenomena. Plus he briefly covered a Monk tune! Deep Purple, Live in London. I love Burn-era Deep Purple. Too bad they couldn't build on it. Steve Lacy/Evan Parker, Chirps (FMP). In honour of Lacy's birthday yesterday.

He should change the name of the label to Hoarder.

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll check it out. I gave that one a spin yesterday as well. One of my favourites. I also like the duet record he did with Greg Goodman around the same time. You probably know but I'll just throw it out here, that the "Vaincu. Va! Live at the Western Front" was recorded within a week of "Finger Palace," i.e., Parker is playing at the same high level on both. That is a nice one, too. I was at the album release concert where Parker performed in the same venue. Hope that one gets released some day.

Agree on all counts. The Braxton is one of his best (though he conducts and doesn't play on it)--some amazing big band music.

I gave that one a spin yesterday as well. One of my favourites. I also like the duet record he did with Greg Goodman around the same time.

He's a fine actor. Wonder how he got involved?

Here's Ted Gioia's take: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/25/did-led-zeppelin-steal-stairway-to-heaven.html My 2¢: Led Zeppelin's least obvious example "borrowing." But factor in Zeppelin's history of claiming other people's songs as their own plus the touring with Spirit connection, there is a case. The plus side is I hope more people will check out Spirit, which was a really interesting band filled with different personalities (jazz drummer, pop singer, guitar hero, etc.), but was plagued by bad luck and poor decision-making (lack of support for "1984" single, skipping Woodstock, the Randy California-Neil Young blow-up, infighting, etc.)

Sergei Kuryokhin/Popular Mechanics, Insect Culture (Ark)

From Waxidermy: John Bult wants to set the record straight. His one and only LP, Julie’s Sixteenth Birthday should have been his calling card to country music stardom. Instead the album has been singled out as the best of the worst – not for Bult’s singing abilities, but for its unfortunate cover art. “It still chaps me real bad,” he said. “The whole thing still makes me mad, even after all of these years.” http://waxidermy.com/john-bult-julies-sixteenth-birthday/

Is that the Yoshi's disc? Restructures.net calls it Twelve Compositions: Live at Yoshi's in Oakland, July 1993. One of the Braxton House discs has differing titles on cover and spine: New York (Tentet) 1996 vs. Composition 193.

Right - but the Arista is the only one w/ Oppens? I'd thought there was another one but... Rzewski, Oppens (on organ) and Braxton all appear together on one song on a Folkways LP. Otherwise, that's it. "For Two Pianos" is a good one.

According to the Albert Ayler site, the alternate Spirits is not part of it. http://www.ayler.co.uk/html/what_s_new.html: "Speaking of which, ESP do have one 'unreleased' track, courtesy of Martin Davidson. It's the alternate 'Spirits' which did appear on some early editions of Spiritual Unity. There's more information about it on the Spiritual Unity page, but apparently ESP didn't have a copy of the fifth track until recently, when Martin Davidson (of the Emanem label) sent them one, and ESP told him that their next issue of Spiritual Unity will contain all five tracks from the session...."

Interesting player. Good to see he's back. I enjoyed Comp. 249 with Braxton and the Solo/Midtown NYC 2001 is a nice one. Yes. There were some issues with ordering from Parallactic in its waning days, though some folks got refunds.

Great records. African Portraits is the Ibrahim album I spin the most. It has a photo of him all bundled up in the Toronto winter.

Sam Rivers, Sizzle (Impulse). Definitely in the top 10 of records inexplicably never reissued on CD.

Giorgio Gaslini, Gaslini Plays Monk (Soul Note).

Freddie Gambrell, who did a couple of Pacific Jazz albums (one with Chico Hamilton) in the 1950s. Really interesting player.