B. Clugston

Here's a photo of the original two-bass group (with Charles Moffett on drums) http://www.espdisk.com/photos/esp25.html

The Who have been on a downward spiral for three decades. "Who Are You" was a good album, but a several notches below their glory days. Losing Moon didn't help. Led Zeppelin knew they couldn't go on without Bonham; The Who have become a 70s rock answer to the Beach Boys. Even the Stones and Deep Purple occasionally come up with something new; The Who should just tour as a Townsend/Daltrey oldies act.

Hite -- beer from South Korea. Not bad.

102, Trillium R and part of the Washington set are not GTM, but the rest are. My favouries are Tentet, a rollicking, fast-paced GTM theme, and the double-disc Sextet, which has more of a chamberish take on GTM. Trombonist Roland Dahinden, accordionist Ted Reichman, bassist Joe Fonda and percussionist Kevin Norton are in fine form on both. (Jason Hwang is the sixth man on Sextet.) Pick these up--you will not be disappointed. As for the rest, it will depend on what degree of Braxton completism you subscribe to. The quartet disc features Braxton's first GTM recordings with the rhythm section from above. Also good. I've never really taken to 187 and 188. They are to me a lot less dynamic than Tentet and Sextet. Some nice moments, but they tend to lumber along. The Washington discs are part retrospective, part GTM. They feature an incredible version of Comp. 70 with a fantastic Braxton solo. Braxton conducts another earlier piece and there's a GTM duet for violin piano. Both good. Disc 2 is lengthy GTM piece for large ensemble which has never been a highlight for me (but I know a few people in the Braxton Yahoo group quite like it). Again, I find it kind of lumbering. As for the others, Trillium R is four CDs of Braxtonian opera with some impressive musicians (see restructures.net for the names). It's historically important and bound to be a collector's item, but most would find it hard going. I enjoyed the opera reading on the recent Leo CD much more. Comp. 102 is for puppet theatre and would have worked better as a DVD as it sounds more like accompaniment music. Still, there's something kind of beguiling about this piece.

Out to Lunch and Unity are favourites. Also True Blue, Song for My Father, The Turnaround, Groovin at Small's Paradise and Dorham's Round About Midnight. Someone should start another poll. I went for Back to the Chicken Shack on this one. Love that photo!

It’s the fun, humour and joy that has always appealed to me in this album. Listening to early Brotzmann (come to think of it, any Brotzmann) can be a bludgeoning experience. While Ayler was about “Spirits” and “Spiritual Unity,” Brotzmann gave us “Machine Gun.” But this one has its rewards. I love the juxtaposition of more traditional grooves with the rounds of noise the three saxophonists blast out. Pianist Fred van Hove helps set this one apart. Piano wasn’t always integrated particularly well in the early free blowouts of the mid-1960s (loads of exceptions, though), but van Hove has a place in the music. A classic. There’s a live version of “Machine Gun” with Gerd Dudek added on sax which appears on the excellent “Fuck de Boere” on Atavistic. This thread also prompted me to relisten to “Nipples.” Another classic.

There are some bassists who loathed amplfification. David Izenson comes to mind.

High Frequency The Rajah Any of Chick Corea's Circle stuff. The rest of Jimmy Smith's Sermon session Rollin' with Leo Parker I'd like to see some or all of the Gil Melle stuff make a reappearance as I neglected to pick them up last time round.

Nice to see Old and New Gospel coming back. I've always liked that date. Won't bother upgrading, though. Besides Compulsion, nice to see the Art Taylor disc.

I really feel for the family. 10 years without justice or closure and now this.

He explains that in Graham Lock's book "Forces and Motion." Don't have it in front of me, but I think it was something to do with tranquilizers.

This one didn't seem right from the get-go. A sad example of incompetent investigators. Maybe they'll link him to 9/11 plots next.

Here's an obit: http://calyx.club.fr/mus/pyle_pip.html Pip Pyle played with Gong in 1971 plus some later incarnations in the 1990s.

The ones I have are the Feb. 5, 1968 concert on Moon and a Rome concert on Nippon Crown. The set list for the latter (as it appears on the CD cover) is "Lonely Woman," "Mousieur Le Prince," "Forgotten Children" and "Buddah Blues." My CD says the latter is from 1967, but I believe it was recorded Feb. 8, 1968. Both were re-released as The Love Revolution.

The version of "New York" was played by the quartet plus one at the Carnegie Hall concert in June. For a sample, go to http://destination-out.com/ and scroll way down....

There's two boots - one poorly recorded with the "Dancing in Your Head" theme ("Tutti); the other in much better sound and includes "Lonely Woman" and a track where Ornette plays a double reed instrument (Yusef Lateef he ain't). Both were recently reissued as a 2 CD set on one of those hazy European labels. Interestingly, Ornette's new group has revived a song that appeared on the same boot as "Tutti," a song called "New York."

Lonehill is releasing the Complete Pluto, but it doesn't include Charon.

ugh, right, blocked that one out of my head. it's two CDs, one CD of sextet collaboration, one CD with the two trio sets from FOTC. it was released against Keith Rowe's wishes, FWIW. How is it? I seem to recall there wasn't a lot of positive buzz about it.

In case it hasn't been mentioned, there's also a more recent AMM meets MEV CD.

I went with low expectations (due to the hype), but actually enjoyed it. A lot of people are making this out to be a masterpiece. I suppose it is if you thought Under Siege was high art. It's very entertaining, but nothing profound.

Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky (sometimes spelled Gayvoronsky) is a great trumpeter from Russia. He plays a rotary trumpet and is best known for duos with bassist Vladimir Volkov and more recently the accordionist Evelyn Petrova. And then there's Kenny Wheeler.

I only have Spacecraft/Unfied Patchwork Theory. The former is from the early days and it hurts listening to Ivan Vandor squalling on the alto sax. The latter is from 1990 or so and includes Steve Lacy and Garrett List and is quite good. Allan Bryant has released some archival stuff, but I haven't heard it. There's a couple of BYGs: The Sound Pool and Leave the City. Alvin Curran on Leave the City (quoted in The Wire): "Oh my god, that's a false MEV. Those are some French kids who robbed the name. They were once with us, they were a bunch of hippies from Paris, they took the name and turned this thing out. It was horrible. It's a bunch of hippies playing flutes. Sorry about that.

Really? I thought Miles dug Jimi. Me too. I thought the "hillbilly" tag was more affectionate than a put down.

A great song from an underappreciated album. That was Chick's first solo with the quintet. Dave Holland also debuted. They also recorded Frelon Brun at the session.

Long-range sensors have picked up an upcoming Leo Records release in September. It consists of four compositions from last year's Ulrichsberg concerts. My guess is it's from the big ensemble concert.