Nate Dorward

Re: new albums: the ones I've found myself most excited about were the new Bruise disc, the Convergence Quartet, ZMF Trio. Oddly enough many of the best things have just emerged in the past couple of months & I've barely had a chance to listen--for instance I've only spun the new Steve Lehman once but it seemed very strong, maybe I'll have a firmer sense of it after another couple of spins. Ditto the new Sunny Murray album (The Gearbox Explodes). -- Anyway here's a list of things I liked this year. Of the discs on Kaplan's list, the only one I've heard is the Mingus (which made my list, needless to say). Probably the only one I'd actually be interested in picking up is the Bley solo set, maybe the Motian trio disc too.

Re: "historical" issues/reissues--don't forget-- Graham Collier, Hoarded Dreams Iskra 1903, Chapter Two: 1981-3 Paul Rutherford, Solo in Berlin 1975 Introducing Kenny Cox Andrew Hill, Change

Call Sherlock Holmes!

He's also on Two Rivers, a very good new disc from Amir ElSaffar mixing jazz & Iraqi musical traditions.

I remember the live album with Buddy Miller, Spyboy, as being OK. Haven't listened to Emmylou Harris for ages. I suppose I should check out West--I mostly hated Essence (currently in my "sell" pile) so was giving this new one a pass...

Happy birthday, Jim!

OK got this today, just spinning it now..... 1) an organ group doing--is it "Country Gardens"? A very enjoyable track! 2) I know people who adore these guys--somehow they've never really clicked with me in a big way but it's good fun. They do have one of the coolest band names in the universe. Outside this band I usually hear the saxophonist doing fairly rarefied improv rather than this burly post-Vandermark stuff. 3) Unmistakably Mr EP, not sure of the pianist--initially thought maybe the studio album with Tracey (I only have the excellent live date) but I don't think so. ... OK time to send the little one to bed, will pick away at this in the next day or so.

All the solos discs are recommendable--I've heard the new one, it's excellent--as well as the earlier trio with Durrant & Russell, the quintet News from the Shed, the discs with Polwechsel.... the trio with Durrant & Lee, the duos with Bailey & Davies (Vortices & Angels), there's probably lots more I'm forgetting. The only avoidable ones I know of are Equation (Toronto visit) & the duo with Gerry Hemingway. If you like The Geometry of Sentiment make sure to get Cavern with Nightlife on Weight of Wax too, it's got more from the same session from the Japanese quarry.

Don Messina just sent along this link: http://www.sonnysinstantpiano.com/gal_students_detail_40.php It's Sal Mosca, Jimmy Halperin & Messina live at Birdland last January. The visuals are terrible, so just listen to the music!

Thanks for pulling that up again--been a while since I looked at it, & it actually reads better than I remember--I mostly remember how hard it was transcribing the whole thing & editing it down. Dan Warburton did a great job pulling it into shape. & Harris seems to be popping up everywhere lately. & most of it sounds pretty great.

Lots of anti-Torme sentiment on this board, so watch out! Try Swings Shubert Alley, though.

I was pleased to discover these videos of the ill-fated pianist Chris Gage (Canadian pianist who committed suicide in his 30s, shortly after these ) on the Vancouver jazz forum: With Barney Kessel doing "Love for Sale": http://vancouverjazz.com/2007/08/vancouver...essel-trio.html With his trio doing "A Touch of Honey": http://vancouverjazz.com/2007/07/vancouver...-gage-trio.html With Kenny Colman, "Bye Bye Blackbird": http://vancouverjazz.com/2007/10/vancouver...nny-colman.html (the singer's not to my taste, but wait for the piano solo!) Enjoy!

Was rather shocked to see this thread, & depressed about it. I'd like to thank Jim & Organissimo ENORMOUSLY for hosting the site for so many years. I can't say I don't understand the decision, but can't say the decision doesn't hurt, either. The board's been a valuable resource & sounding-board to me, & I really have no idea where else to go online at this point (I've always disliked the AAJ site, & the Jazzcorner site is no longer much use either). & it comes at a bad time--the online site I've been most involved in (Paris Transatlantic) more or less shut its doors this year, for instance. I guess there are places to migrate--much online discussion seems to have moved to blogs & their comments threads--but I guess I liked this particular online community, on balance, most of all.

I don't have any specific examples because I don't have any recordings of his at present in the collection (or sideman recordings either)--mostly just basing comments on seeing him live, & hearing the odd thing (either borrowing CDs from the library, or things I bought & later sold off, like one of the discs with Dave Douglas). To me in ordinary jazz situations it's like he's always jumping out of the musical context--or making me jump out of the musical context--& not in a good way (a la Dolphy): I find myself thinking "is this guy just pushing buttons?" "does this really suit the mood of the piece?" and so on. His tendency to slip easily into and out of histrionics (distortion, freak notes &c) in particular bothers me--it's like it's purely ornamental. I'm sure this isn't always the case--I tend to have similar reservations about other players of roughly the same generation (e.g. Tony Malaby) where there's a gestural palette that I find impossible to hear without mentally putting everything in quote-marks--but every so often they seem to be in the right context & then things work for me. As with Potter & the group with Taborn.

Saw the group with Taborn a few years ago--yes, it's by far the most interesting context I've heard for Potter. I thought the slightly mechanical excitement of his playing (the way his "hot" playing usually makes me feel "this is a guy stepping on the gas" rather than "this is really exciting") fitted in well with the grinding Tim Berneish jazz-rock vibe. I've always found him vaguely irksome in other situations.

*BUMP* Any answers?

Yes it's Thomas - I wanted to present some players in this context you wouldn't expect there. Glad to hear I nailed that one -- I really barely know Thomas (only from the very low-key sideman appearance on Osby's The Invisible Hand & a few spots on Sam Rivers' big band dates) but he has an unmissable sound on the tenor, a half-swallowed Shorter tone. Can't access AMG at work but maybe at home I can determine the exact source of the track from Thomas's sideman listing.... I certainly would like to hear that one! It's on Classic Electric, on X-OR, the label Hijmans co-ran with the late Paul Termos. Aside from the Monk tune it's all contemporary composition, including Steve Reich (I forget the name of the piece but it's the one that Pat Metheny recorded), Theo Loevendie, Christian Wolff, & a terrific sort-of-blues by Termos.

OK, finally getting to this one, which arrived late. Some comments: 1) A really nice "Night & Day"; even the scat solo does it for me, & I basically hate scat singing. I always like the contrast in this kind of music between the laconic, off-beat bass playing & the denser rhythmic layers on top. Good horn chart, too. 2) I was anticipating that I wouldn't know anything on this BFT, & here's already a familiar track. This is ES's disc on Herbie Mann's short-lived Kokopelli label--I think I picked it up in a trade w/ John Felser (thanks John for recommending it!). The unmistakable MT on sax--it's almost nostalgic to hear him here sounding a lot more expressive & less airlessly "smart" than a few years later. You don't get a lot of the leader here, but the unexpectedly staged three-way dialogue between him & bass & the percussion is quite effective. (AMG link) 3) Lovely groove here--everything here seems to fit together, the percussion with the piano & bass. 4) A more nervous modern feel, with a great post-Monk use of out-of-sync rhythmic/melodic layers. Not sure who any of these guys are though I'll guess Gary Thomas for the tenor on the basis of his distinctive tone, even though this isn't the context I'd expect to find him in. 5) I was wondering how on earth this quiet Hank Jones-style piano was going to work its way to a Latin feel.... but it does! Surely an older player--has flash & the licks fall nicely under the fingers, but has a take-your-time vibe that I think most young players just can't manage. Nice drummer, quietly in dialogue with the bass & piano. 6) OK, so this is the first track where I think "this is a Latin piano player, not a jazz piano player in a Latin context". I think this is good but, it's not as "multi-dimensional" for me as a track like #5 or #2. 7) Where's "one"? Postmodern cafe music! Maybe a little repetitious/long, but I like the ingredients in the mix. Reminds me a bit of the stuff on the El Gallo Rojo label. 8) OK, we're back on "jazz" territory here. No idea who it is--thought of Oliver Lake for a few moments on the alto solo but it seems not quite as incandescent as I'd expect from him. Not terribly taken by the trumpeter--he's fine, just I think I've heard this stuff before. This is a good track but seems more familiar territory for me than the other tracks here. 9) The opening led me to expect something a little more unusual than this fairly straightforward Latinized blues, but that's good too. The alto player has a sense of humour, throwing in a passage of klezmer licks! & the sheer bravura looseness & freedom of the pianist is a pleasure to hear. 10) Though the most obvious stress in this BFT is the percussion, it occurs to me there's just as much stress on piano too. -- The percussion accompaniment sounds very carefully worked out, evolving in several directions with each section of the arrangement. 11) Oddly this reminded me of a track by Joost Buis's Astronotes which uses the same dreamy pileup of harmonies over a quiet dance rhythm. (Haven't got the album to hand but if anyone here has the album they'll know the one I mean.) But it's not them, some more mainstream guys. 12) A great texture, & then I'm left wondering why it doesn't go anywhere. Oh well. 13) God knows what this is! Definitely the oddest medley with "Round Midnight" I've encountered since Wiek Hijmans did it in conjunction with a piece by Sweelinck. 14) I found the latin section in the middle more appealing than the opening "straight" section, which I don't find really all that swinging (& the lyrics are, uh, limited). Nice Gil Evans touches in the harmonies (the voicings made me think of some passages on Porgy & Bess).

Sure, sign me up.

For some reason Smoke seems perennially unobtainable--it's always out of stock from distributors I've tried. I guess I'll try again. I wonder if there's some story here..... People's thoughts on Twelve Tone Tales vols 1 + 2? Been spinning it lately. On the whole, however admirable I find the project, maybe 2 CDs is too much for me.... I think one CD would have been fine, with the tonal material (the Monk & Dolphy covers) interleaved with the rest. Still, pretty fascinating project.

The Hewitts (esp the first two trio discs); Neal Caine's Backstabber's Ball; Chris Byars' discs; the live 1990s dates by Omer Avital. I like the first Ned Goold disc The Flows (it's a "mix-tape" of live stuff, sometimes with loud crowd noise, but it's still plenty absorbing); the 2nd is disappointing. I'm fond of Sacha Perry's first trio disc Eretik; haven't heard the 2nd one, & by this point I don't really need more of him as a sideman (he's on half the Smalls releases) as he tends to play the same solo over & over. Writes great tunes, though, & Eretik has plenty of those. The Davis has a great band--Tardo Hammer in particular--but his playing needs allowances for wear & tear. YMMV, as they say.

Shelly Manne, on Live at the Black Hawk (it's either vol 1 or 2, I forget which). Not a ballad reading but instead a fast swinger.

I actually don't know Delbecq very well--the only other album I have is the recent trio w/ Evan Parker & François Houle, which I haven't really absorbed yet (seemed OK from a first listen but didn't bowl me over). Ethan Iverson at DTM has occasionally boosted Delbecq, I note. As you can see, Brian Lynch is indeed here, just not on the track you named him on (in the Discussion thread)! Will take down the in-progress flags shortly, just have been waiting to find enough time to revisit some tracks & flesh out the comments on a few of the discs.

Help. I cringe every time I see Cassidy's claims given credence. Go here for a useful dissection of the book: http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/gra..._irish_scholar/

No problem about not getting to the BFT--I knew that not everyone would manage to write up comments. Really, it's just nice to spread some of this stuff around: I'm a firm believer that the most original jazz being made nowadays is on small labels & that much of it receives only a fraction of the attention it deserves. There are just too many competing albums out there, & it's easy for some exceptional music-making to get lost in the sea of music now available, especially when the musician isn't a really pushy hustling type. Mike, thanks for the kind words, & I'd certainly be game for doing another BFT in the future, a couple years down the road. You can pencil me in if you like. -- My attempts to rein in the BFT to a fairly concentrated area of music (basically, current releases on small labels) was in part because I wanted something that would appeal to a relatively wide spectrum of listeners (not all of whom want confrontational avantgarde stuff!), but actually I think the deciding factor was the problem of audio quality: there was no way to include a wide range of stuff without including huge variations in volume level, dynamics, surface noise, balance, &c. I don't have professional audio software for correcting such things, & my experience with the "volume equalizer" functions on ordinary CDR-burning software has not been happy (they introduce bad distortion or compression). I wanted a disc that would be nice to listen to as an entire experience, rather than feeling too bumpy a ride! -- The irony of all this is that it's far easier, in my experience, to compensate for such problems when dubbing off old vinyl...!