king ubu

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Posts posted by king ubu

  4. Posted

    Whoah, just stumbled over this, not being active here any more regularly. That's quite a story Allen - great to hear that you keep pulling through and are back to playing again. Crossing my fingers for whatever is still coming up and hoping for a good recovery!

  5. Posted

    What's funny, too, is that the Arbenz brothers' (Michael on piano, Florian on drums) later outfit VEIN (trio w/Thomas Lähns on bass) actually also made a couple of albums with Dave Liebman (and I was sent two of those as well, but only gave the one with Maupin a spin so far - received the package on Monday).

  6. Posted · Edited by king ubu

    Huh, Bennie M.?

    Gave the compilation a first listen and enjoyed it as a whole ... thanks for inviting me over :tup

    Seriously now, this is hilarious, if just because of the timing! I bought the CD from F. Arbenz and just received it a few days ago - about the same time I finally dl-ed your BFT! (I hope placing a link is ok!). Started buying some of Arbenz' recent/new productions during the pandemic and eventually asked him what old(er) ones he still had, so he dug up one of this for me - beautiful package, edition of 500, numbered ... and a great piano player, too!

    Kairos is what they call this, right?

    Now I'd love to pin down the twin-singers on #4 but my first thoughts proved wrong (I think), but I didn't find the time to really search yet.

  11. Posted

    Anyone got the CD already? EMI quality control was acquired by Universal (or soaked up by Zev F. – the recent Evan's has some minor mistakes, too), my copies' booklet jumps from back of front cover (prob. p.2 but it's not numbered) to p.5 (thus in the back I don't get a track list etc.). Should I even try the hassle of a return with Mr. Space Penetrators empire?

  13. Posted

    On 15.11.2021 at 2:44 PM, John L said:

    Nice that Jupiter Variation is being reissued.   That is the only collection that includes "Peace on Earth" without Alices's overdubbing.   I didn't even realize that it was on CD before.  

    My understanding is that piano/bass are overdubbed already, but the strings aren't there yet. Alas "Coltrane Reference" doesn't get very specific on it, but I understand it supports my assumption (which is also coherent with the info given on the record sleeve).

  14. Posted · Edited by king ubu

    Got "Jupiter Variation" ... for the (former) "Expression" bonus track, and for the earlier version of "Peace on Earth". I understand we already hear Haden and and Alice overdubbed instead of Garrison and Tyner on this version, but no strings yet. Gave the disc a spin already but didn't pay attention to any mastering details. I can look it up by the weekend only, as I'm on holiday until Friday.

    Would really love to see any comprehensive release of the February/March 1967 sessions some day ... maybe Ravi will find some tapes eventually, who knows ...

  15. Posted

    Taking some time off and finally making my way through all of this ... I was in Wels for the final three nights, and what I heard there is amongst the very best concerts I've experienced so far. Glad to report that almost all of the Wels material is included (not "Bemsha Swing" and "Unforgettable", alas).

    I put together the playlists of all the sets, fixed some mistakes in the sources (a attributed title here, a switch of sequence there), spotted the mistakes in the booklet (tracks assigned to wrong dates) and marked the tracks that had been shortened.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqa4rebqnbo46of/AnthonyBraxton-Quartet-Standards2020.pdf?dl=0

    So, the tracks shortened are (chronologically, as performed; dates and CD/Track nos. in brackets):

    - Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darlin' (Theme from "High Noon") (Jan 15 / 4-5)
    - Take Ten (Jan 15 / 3-2)
    - Minority (Jan 21 / 1-1)
    - Too Marvelous for Words (Jan 23 / 2-2)
    - I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together (Jan 23 / 2-4)
    - Jinkrisha (Jan 25 / 8-1)
    - I'll Never Smile Again (Jan 25 / 13-1)

    Wrong dates (the ones in brackets here, I've added CD numbers to quickly find them; check the PDF above for correct sequence) are given for the following titles: "Desafinado", "Why Shouldn't I" (both Jan 17, CD 1); "Invitation" (Jan 19, CD 3); , "Out of Nowhere" (Jan 21, CD 1), "Lullaby in Rhythm", "Impressions", "The 59th Street Bridge Song", "Prelude to a Kiss" (all Jan 21, CD 5).

    As the AUD versions obviously have applause, I didn't bother to pin the exact amount of music cut for each of the tunes. That "Marvelous" has a cut somewhere in the released part I'd not previously noticed - I think it's the only such edit present, the others seem to just quickly fade at some point (sometimes noticeable, sometimes barely so). That they chose to not include any applause ... well, not sure what to make of it, but it certainly does not spoil the listening experience for me).

    Either way, while my initial impression has been confirmed that the band grew considerably, got into much freer stylings and grew pretty tight with its leader during those nine nights, and still considering the final nights in Wels the high point here, I love all of what's on this box (okay, maybe not "Who's Afraid of the Big Band Wolf", but that's a minor quibble). I'm not sure it had to be rearranged as it was, also not sure the cuts were necessary (the biggest one was performed on "Too Marvelous for Words", which lasted nearly a quarter of an hour but got cut to 6:30 minutes - what's interesting there is that a portion of Braxton's own solo was cut, too - the bits from around the 6 minute mark only happen around 8:30/9 minutes in the uncut version).

    --

    (And yeah, all well here, just too busy elsewhere to drop by here regularly :) )

  19. Posted

    Would love for option 3 to be true, but Switzerland's handling of Covid is a disgrace. So far, they're slowly starting to vaccinate +75. I'm not expecting to be in line before May or June, and that only will happen if the vaccination campaigns* gain a lot of speed.

    As it is: I will get a shot (or two or four or whatever it takes until my turn comes), but I have no clue how it will work, where I can get it done, when I'll be able to get it done, if I'll be informed about any of this or will have to trawl again and again websites that look like we still have the 1990's ...

    --

    *) plural is right, it's organized regionally, which has been a huge part of the entire problem of the response since last June.

  23. Posted

    16 hours ago, gmonahan said:

    I've been on something of a crusade to round up all the available pre-war airchecks lately. They're spread out all over the place. Recently got the Chatterbox things, but the sound is pretty bad on those. The Savory material is absolutely essential, IMHO.

    I'm far from complete on all the 30s live/aircheck material, but yes, there's great stuff there! Chatterbox is the pre-Freddie Green ones, with Claude "Fiddler" Williams (who does actually play some violin, though it sounds atrocious due to the bad quality of the recordings).

    Another outstanding one is the Famous Door, which is a reason to get the "America's #1 Band" 4-CD-set, as it's included on the fourth disc (along with other live recordings, incl. the one with Billie Holiday).

    R-6686559-1470504956-6907.jpeg.jpg

    The box also contains the entire output of the 1950/51 small group, which Basie led after he had to dissolve his big band. And it has good liner notes/comments and is nicely presented. Nonetheless I still resent Sony for not doing a full Basie restrospective in 2004 (or let Mosaic do that*), when his double jubilee (1904-1984). 

     

    *) on the other hand, the Basie/Young 4-Disc set really is perfect, it's almost excluviely cream of the crop (though not the full cream I'd say, the "#1 Band" set has a few of the finest post-Pres tracks, but still not enough for me)

  25. Posted

    Well, Collectables did lots of Atlantic and some Columbia material that wasn't that well-served by the labels' own outlets (Eddie Harris on both, for one, I also have a bunch of Ray Bryant discs on the label). At least later ones (prob. from around 2000 on?) were properly licensed (or at least stated so on the booklets), they also used original liner notes most of the time, but were always a bit shoddy on info).

    I'm not sure if there's really all that much of a mystery to uncover there - maybe in the early days there is, but somehow this never bothered me, to me, from when I got involved (mid/late 90s) they always seemed to be a somewhat cheapo/weird but official outlet, at least with respect to the stuff I was interested in ... this also includes Slide Hampton and Art Farmer's Atlantic albums, plenty of Mose Allison (Atlantic and Warner, I think), the Atlantics by Hank Crawford, Ellingtons two "All Star Road Bands" (great stuff!), at least some of Bill Evans on Warner ...