niels

Has been a long time ago since I went to a show, but tonight I'm going to see the fantastic Han Bennink/ Ernst Glerum/ Michael Moor trio in Brebl Nijmegen.

Joëlle Léandre/ Benoit Delbecq, François Houle - 14 Rue Paul Fort, Paris [2015, Leo] RED Trio / Gerard Lebik / Piotr Damasiewicz - Mineral [2015, Bocian, vinyl] Daunik Lazro/ Benjamin Duboc/ Didier Lasserre - Pourtant Les Cimes Des Arbres [2011, Dark Tree]

Nexus 70 - De terugkeer van Europa (The Return of Europe) This is a bundle of essays collected by the Nexus institute. This institute tries to keep the values of European humanism alive in these days and age of neo-liberalism, capitalism, declining moral values, and an almost "religious belief" that everything has to be measured by economic (or politic) value. The fantastic essays deal with the questions of what Europe really is (because it is not the EU/Brussel), what makes one a European, what are (or rather were) the European values, how did we lost it (or didn't we?) and is there a way to get back on the right track again. Most of the essays are by thinkers/philosophers/intellectuals etc. of today (Robert Skidelsky, Adam Zagajewski, Adam Zamoyski, Javier Marias, Aykan Erdemir a.o), but throughout the book (like the thread of Ariadne) also ten classic essays have been published from people like: Winston Churchill, Karl Jaspers, Joseph Roth, Stefan Zweig and Robert Musil. I think this book should be essential stuff for everybody who feels himself deeply European and/or connected to the European tradition, but feels very sad when they look at the way things are heading right now with conservatism (and I see this with the Right and the Left) nationalism and post-fascism growing all across Europe.

That's just 3% above our LOWEST tax rate . Highest tax rate here (above €66.000,- gross income a year) is 52%

Thanks! The Cairo Trilogy where the books on my "want" list, but maybe I should try to tackle some of his earlier books before that.

No music, but many great books: - Proust - In search of lost time (Vol.1, 4 and 5) - Milan Kundera - The Art of the Novel (essay) - Honoré de Balzac - Lost Illusions - Fjodor Dostojewski - The Dream, White Nights, the Meek One - Fjodor Dostojewski - The House of the Dead

I'm interested to know what you will think of Mahfouz. He is very high on my "writers I want to investigate list" but haven't had the chance to read anything from him yet.

Spanish Masters at the Hermitage in Amsterdam yesterday. With works of El Greco, Ribera, Velázquez, Goya, and others. This was quite spectacular as these paintings are not often showed in the Netherlands.

Toergenjev (or Turgenev, as he is called in English I think) - Collected works, Vol.01 (Dutch edition) This volume consist of his novels; Rudin, Home of the Gentry, On the Eve and Fathers and Sons. I only read Fathers and Sons before, so this is just a pure joy to read the other novels for the first time finally.

RED Trio + John Butcher - Empire (2011, NoBusiness) First listen, and as expected this is one powerful album. John Butcher really matches great with the RED Trio

I ordered it directly from the label on Bandcamp, and including shipping it only cost me €35,- (very reasonable for a 4CD set I think).

Well, what I find rather intersting is that it is all so extremely American centered. Now I don't know how well Jazz from the rest of the world get exposed in America but this is the first thing I notice about the list. It's nice Chris Lightcap's record on the Portugese Clean Feed label made it for instance, but of all the amazing output on CF this year this whas definately not between the best of them (my personal opinion of course).

Agreed, when looking at my collection I think less than 1/4 has any extensive liner notes. Reading the Point of Departure blog would be a good place to start if you want to learn about the music. The Freejazz blog (only album reviews) is especially nice as it has a new review on a daily basis.

Also a stunning year for me! I want to make a division in the records I liked most from 2015 and some records I bought that are somewhat older, but are not the obvious old classics I finally bought (I think it is less interesting to mention those). As always there is the disclaimer that I fully realize that I have only listened to a fraction of all the records that seemed interesting to me, so these records are just picks from my own collection of records that have been bought. 2015: * Chamber 4 - s/t [FMR] * Shofar - Gold of Malkinia [Kilogram Records] * Rodrigo Amado / Joe McPhee / Kent Kessler / Cris Corsano - This is Our Language [Not Two] * Sant'Anna Arresi Quintet By Evan Parker - Filu 'E Ferru [Not On Label] * Augusti Fernandez - River Tiger Fire [Fundacja Słuchaj!] * Benjamin Duboc / Alexandra Grimal - Le Retour D'Ulysse (Promenade) [Improvising Beings] * RED Trio - Live in Munich [Astral Spirits] * Matthew Shipp, Sabir Mateen, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver - Our Lady Of The Flowers [Rogueart] * Olie Brice / Tobias Delius / Mark Sanders - Somersaults [Two Rivers Records] * Switchback ‎– s/t [Multikulti Project] Older: * Daunik Lazro / Joëlle Léandre - Hasparren [NoBusiness Records] * Joe McPhee / Michael Zerang - Creole Gardens (A New Orleans Suite) [NoBusiness Records] * Other Dimensions In Music - Now! [AUM Fidelity] * X Trio* - Live In Vilnius [NoBusiness Records] * Eve Risser / Benjamin Duboc / Edward Perraud - En Corps [Dark Tree] * Nuts (6) - Symphony For Old And New Dimensions [Ayler Records] * Luis Vicente, Rodrigo Pinheiro, Hernani Faustino, Marco Franco - Clocks And Clouds [FMR] * Lotte Anker / Craig Taborn / Gerald Cleaver - Floating Islands [ILK Music] * RED Trio + Nate Wooley - Stem [Clean Feed] * David S. Ware / Cooper-Moore / William Parker / Muhammad Ali - Planetary Unknown: Live at Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2011 [AUM Fidelity]

Just finished Kamel Daoud's - The Meursault Investigation. A brilliant novel, in which Moussa (the killed Arab in Camus' masterpiece The Stanger) finally gets a name and an existence through the words of his brother Haroen.

Just ordered the new 4CDBox set from Agusti Fernández yesterday on bandcamp, which I think is very interesting and deserves some attention (as I don't see it being widely available). In 2014 Agusti Fernández was invited to the Ad Libitum Festival in Warsaw to play four concerts. Each concert sees Agusti in a (very) different setting, so I think this box set gives a very good impression of the wide capacities of the great pianist. https://sluchaj.bandcamp.com/ CD01: River, Tiger, Fire Agustí Fernández - piano, conductor Wacław Zimpel - alto clarinet, ukrainian trombita, khaen (laotian bamboo mouth organ) Ray Dickaty - soprano & tenor saxophone Gerard Lebik - tenor saxophone Artur Majewski - trumpet Dominik Strycharski - soprano, alto & bass recorders / blockflutes Patryk Zakrocki - violin Marcin Olak - electric, acoustic guitats Rafał Mazur - acoustic bass guitar Ksawery Wójciński - double bass Hubert Zemler - drums CD02: Thunder Agustí Fernández - piano Frances Marie Uitti - cello Joel Ryan - live electronics CD03: Mnemosyne's Labyrinth Agustí Fernández - piano CD04: Live in Warsaw Agustí Fernández - piano Barry Guy - bass Ramón López - drums

I'm not one who catches that many concerts, but five that stood out for me where: - Louis Moholo Moholo Quartet @ Bimhuis Amsterdam - John Dikeman / William Parker / Hamid Drake @ Bimhuis Amsterdam - Goncalo Almeida / Tobias Klein / Martin van Duijnhoven @ Brebl Nijmegen - Ab Baars / Ig Henneman @ Brebl Nijmegen - Kaja Draksler / Onno Govaert / Matiss Čudars @ Musis Sacrum Arnhem

That's a nice package of records Steve! That David S Ware is a record I also want to buy soon. For me it's a modest holiday purchase. Got one vinyl and one album that where both long on the wishlist. RED Trio + John Butcher ‎– Empire [2011, NoBusiness, vinyl] Sam Rivers - Contours [Blue Note, SHM edition]

Still need to get that one!

I also still haven't listened to the album (don't know if I will), but friends of mine are suddenly askin me questions about Jazz because they heard this new phenomenon (their words) and they totally love it. Just for that reason alone I really can't hate on him, because the fact is that he is getting people around me interested in Jazz, which I am all for. A few weeks ago he played in the Netherlands at the Le Gues Who festival (festival with mostly hipster bands), and the newspaper the Volkskrant, which is one of the biggest newspapers here even covered it (which is extremely rare for Jazz) and made a video document of Kamasi with footage of his very well attended concert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiNpPl0HQ1M

Did you also stayed for the Morris/Maneri/Lightcap/Cleaver set? I really wanted to go to this concert, but unfortunately I couldn't make it.

Ahhh, I live in one of those lovely old city houses. Build in 1906, it has loads of character and apeal (personately I definately wouldn't want to live in a newly build house, this stage of my life), but it is indeed very poorly isolated sound wise. Living on the ground floor, we have neigbours on the left, right, and two above us. When I went looking for my hi-fi equipment, producing a detailed sound at not so high levels was one of my main concerns. During daytime I have my levels up at a (what I consider) normal level, and after 21:30 we agreed with all the neigbours we keep our volume of stereo's/TV's etc low, which means for me I always listen to my music on headphones in the evening.

Listened to it twice today, and I truly love it! Fantastic playing by everyone, and boy this does swing hard at moments.

If you liked My Name is Red, I can also recommend The Black Book by him. Otherwise maybe some Haruki Murakami or Paul Auster?

Mine is also underway from Alexander Hawkins, really looking forward to it!