Jump to content

Steve Reynolds

Members
  • Posts

    4,260
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 

Everything posted by Steve Reynolds

  1. Steve Reynolds

    Mat Maneri

    Not going to see him here in the great southwest - so (among others) Capricorn Climber will have to do. Mat is still working on getting his own label started - if that happens then everyone will get to hear *his* music
  2. Steve Reynolds

    Mat Maneri

    See my recent comments over the past few years regarding seeing him a whole lot live over the past 2 years. To my ears among the best 3 or 4 improvisers on the planet The quintet with Oscar Noriega and Randy Peterson needs to be recorded With either Kris Davis or Craig Taborn on the piano and it would be great if Ed Schuller is on bass. The duo CD with Lucien Ban is nice Capricorn Climber does NOT capture that band and especially does NOT capture what Mat is like live with that band. A damn shame that Mat Maneri isn't served well on recent recordings. Then again I'm blessed to be able to see him often usually within 10 feet where I can hear and feel his genius. And the memories of seeing him with his Dad a few times with the classic quartet will always resonate with me. Last time this year with Randy and Ed was especially intense. But he may have played even better with Kris and the trio with Ches Smith and Craig Taborn was the best 2 sets of music I've heard this year.
  3. my thoughts on last night at The Stone in NYC which was: 8 pm Horn Guys Michael Moore (sax, clarinet) Ray Anderson (trombone) Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby (tenor saxes) 10 pm Michael Moore plays Available Jelly Michael Moore (sax, clarinet) Ray Anderson (trombone) Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby (tenor saxes) Marcus Rojas (tuba) Gerry Hemingway (drums) it's getting a bit hot in the infamous little room between sets despite the "newish" air conditioner working at full bore. And it's not even that hot out - maybe 70 degrees with showers and high humidity - but *nothing* like the place must have been 2 weeks ago whent he temperatures were in the mid to high 90's - and Tony told me before that 2 sets he played with Louie Belegonis during that time were beyond insane - but he did say it was great - so Mr. Malaby's solution is a roll of Bounty paper towels from across the street....so I am wondering why on this earth am I in NYC on a Sunday night in a humid hot little room after a first set which was nice but nowhere near why I go see live music - fine chamber jazz for four horns - arranged and played wonderfully and all, but little to no improvisation - and I'm DYING to hear these guys play their DAMN horns! so they seem to casually seem to start at 10:15 when I KNOW it needs to start right after 10:00 - just because, I need to get my fill.... when it is about 10 til 11:00 and Marcus Rojas gets out of the chair unbeknownst to me as he was sitting throughout and now he was up and it had been a very nice set - I heard a couple of the great Available Jelly concoctions/compositions/creations or whatever the hell Michael and that history of great Dutch musicians has invented over the past 30 years - and I'm pretty damn happy with what is happening. but Marcus Rojas got up out of his chair at some point and I think they were into the last tune - something called Show something or other and it was a tune I didn't know - or maybe they were finishing up the second to last tune that had about 3 or 4 different lives - and I have NO FUCKING IDEA how these guys are playing this music they NEVER played before.... and within a few minutes Marcus, Ray and Gerry are playing this Ornettish rumbling swinging groove that has my heart coming out my chest and I'm thinking and feeling that somehow that I forget a few things about the *great* Ray Anderson - lordy fucking lordy - a few mutes never knowing or caring really when he did or didn't use 'em - he played the blues and the sweet and lovely - from the distant past into right now in an instant - and then..... well - indescribable to me as I think about such things - is there anyone who can? really describe it? well at least I got to experience *it* and then....it got/became really really special - *it* almost ended 4 or 8 times - Hemingway unexpectedly did within the structures of the composition - his insane "most powerful intense drummer who ever lived" thing - within the music - yes - within the music - powerhouse over the top without being over the top - and people were screaming when it finally ended at 11:15 - few got up right away despite the heat - hard to move after that. Michael beaming despite really no saxophone solos by any of the three world class reed masters - not that is wasn't filled with improvisation - it really is nothing like anything else that I know in jazz - it really just *is* jazz - and all three smiling knowing, loving what this music is - it *is* Sunday night in a dank, hot little place with about 40 lucky people - people who heard the genius of jazz, the genius and history of Available Jelly - despite the fact that only the brilliant Michael Moore was there from the current band or the one that I know from the their 2 great recordings in a some little club over there from a few years back and silence on the way home save for the sound of the rain.... for Ernst Glerum, Toby Delius, Eric Boeren, Wolter Wierbos and Michael Vatcher - they did you proud - one day I see all of you in a dank, hot little club - maybe there - but one day maybe here Always a Pleasure
  4. Leaving in a couple of hours for what could be or should be a great 2 sets: Moore, Malaby, Eskelin and Anderson: "Horn Guys" Then add Marcus Rojas and the great Gerry Hemingway and they play Available Jelly Will be stuffy but its only in the high 70's
  5. The Dresser band is strong - very good at 2012 Vision Festival
  6. Not part of your crowd is he? No - I like many of the musicians that he plays with (maybe especially Michael Bisio who is the bassist in his trio with Whit Dickey), but alas, not all downtowners are created alike - thank jah I have ears and I gotta listen..... hard to forget his rumbling playing during the first half hour of what could ahve been a great quartet set with Paul Dunmall at last year's Vision Fest. When he finally gave the great tenorman a chance to really play when Shipp *finally* stopped or even reduced his playing to something listenable, the set finished in fine form. He sounded like a bad version of Chris MacGregor - and the great South African *never* played to excess like Shipp is prine to do.
  7. Would love to hear the trio. Jason with Peter a couple of years back was quite good
  8. Another good trumpeter who plays post boppish stuff is Eric Boeren with Available Jelly and other Dutch ensembles. Magnus Broo is another fine youngish powerful trumpeter who is exciting to these ears Almost went to see him in Jeff Watts big band on Saturday but alas I saw Tony Malaby again.... Next time..... Now you, sir, must start work on trying to catch others and not just Malaby again and again Next show for me in NYC will be probably more mainstreamish as I promised my wife a show at The Jazz Standard or the Vanguard. Then again it's gonna be hard to miss Malaby with William Parker and Nasheet Waits on 7/31 but I am missing it..... Plus I'm gonna miss a great show next Sunday at The Stone as I refuse to withstand the heat despite it looking like one of the best shows of the year... Hard for me to miss Hemingway, Rojas, Eskelin, Malaby ( yes him again), Michael Moore and Ray Anderson. Gonna be great but unless it drops to under 70 degrees, I doubt I go.
  9. Almost went to see him in Jeff Watts big band on Saturday but alas I saw Tony Malaby again.... Next time.....
  10. This might be hard to explain and I am certainly not the best listener/poster to try to explain these thoughts. I always hope that some of the more regular attendees of many of the musicians that I see most often would comment here or elsewhere about the music being performed these days that might fall under the broad parameters that might be known as downtown NYC/avant-garde yet jazz based music. What I AM hearing is that the overall vibe of much of this music has certainly moved towards a more abstract vibrational quality while at the same time it is often still very compositionally orientated. I sure wish I was able to see even more of the musicians that I am less familiar with like Sylvie Courvoisier, Zeena Parkins, and others. The last three shows I have seen (Kris Davis Quintet, Maneri-Taborn-Smith and then last Saturday - Tony Malaby's quartet with Ben Monder, Eivind Opsvik and Ches Smith) 2 of the 3 shows were based on compositions (Kris' and then Tony's) but the improvisations that came out of these structures to my ears have become increasingly adventurous and spontaneous. Both bassists on those bands were extraoridnary with the bow - Hebert with Davis more traditional - and then Saturday Opsvik was a revelation to me. Compared to a show with the same band (with Nasheet in the drummer's chair), the music developed into drones and interplay with guitar and long intense and controlled tones on the bass that were very new to my ears. I know some of these musicians spent quite some time with Paul Motian - and they even did a Motian tune Saturday (by far the most traditional playing of the night by all), so maybe his open-minded spirit has been moved to these fine young musicians. the common bond IS the imput of the 30 somethings - Ches Smith, Kris Davis - and I think the ongoing unknown influence of what I refer to as 'Maneri Music' which, of course, is being carried on and developed by the *great* Mat Maneri - who I have to say - among all these musicians - really helps the bands he is in the take the music towards these new horizons. and the middle show which was July 7th with the trio of Ches Smith, Mat Maneri and Craig Taborn - has resonated with me for the 2 weeks since I experienced it - and without a doubt was one of those musical experiences that will not and cannot be replicated. I think the open-minded approach of these guys allowed them to play some music that night that did indeed invent new music - I have been thinking of it as doom metal free jazz improvisation - my wife who one would think wouldn't like the more 'out' music - said it was among the best musical performances she's seen with me - ranking with Hamid Drake with In Order to Survive and ICP with Han Bennink - which is quite a statement - being the music of the trio contained new recognible groove, melody or anyhting other than spontaneous creation or combustion as she said, it was a rock band and Mat, Craig and Ches were rock stars, save for the glory - only the power and the brilliance. thoughts welcome
  11. I think Billy Drummond is one of the great ones - one of the few drummers I really like that seems to move seamlessly into the forms of modern music that I am most interested in (from time to time) from more traditional more swinging type music, and that night was an especially good night, I think for specifically Drummond and Alessi. Tony was quite inconsistent that night, especially during the seocnd set when they played one long, long Bechet tunes that i think Malaby got carried away with incorparating a few too many modern or avantish elements into the traditional composition.
  12. Add Ralph Alessi to the list. on a couple of occasions that I've seen him live with my wife, my wife thinks he's terrific....I thought he was especially good in Tony Malaby's Reading band that featured the *great* Billy Drummond. Very easy on the ears as he nevers wears on the ears and yet his playing is filled with lyrical inventive ideas.
  13. Second set more abstract with sounds discovered this morning. Bass with how taken to new levels. Tony's high long tones also new for me for their strength and power. Immense music
  14. First set 45 minutes straight through was from another dimension.
  15. About an hour until the great Tony Malaby and friends take the stage
  16. Debating with my wife as she LOVES the Jazz Standard vibe which for Saturday is Jeff Watts Big Band which would be nice if not down my alley. Me - I want to go to my spot Cornelia Street Cafe to see this: Saturday, Jul 20 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM PALOMA RECIO Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone; Ben Monder, guitar; Eivind Opsvik, bass; Ches Smith, drums New music dedicated to an angel flying over the Iberian Peninsula by a quartet of omni-directionally improvising masters of ecstatic lyrical elasticity.
  17. A reminder to those who may care: Mad Dogs is the strongest recording of the year for me Best of the best from Barry Guy's New Orchestra in small groups Best sound as well
  18. Yes - and I saw them with Ellery Eskelin and Ray Anderson added to the trio Still nothing touches a 2001 or 2002 trio with Dunmall, Rogers and Kevin Norton at the Knit Among the greatest tenor saxophone and bass performances I've ever witnessed. Plus Paul had his custom bass with him. Plus Dunmall had the bagpipes!!! The show reached otherworldly heights for me. Almost as great as Mat Maneri, Craig Taborn and Ches Smith last week!!
  19. Barry and Paul are pretty infrequent visitors to these shores unfortunately...but John is very much a regular. By the way - I concur - John in an absolute monster. A real master. Well they almost never come to these shores - Paul was here in 2006 with Dunmall and Levin while Barry was last here maybe in 2000.
  20. Too many better musicians or pianists to my ears than Keith to care too much about how big of a douchebag he may or may not be. Craig Taborn is one them and he also comes across as a nice guy to boot. And what he played last Sunday night was more invigorating and original than anything I've heard from Keith Jarrett. And I think Jarrett is a fine musician and pianist Point is all this hand wringing and what about the musicians today who kick ass and take risks in all sorts of musical situations and still deal with young, old, new partners in their music. Not just play in one format with the same musicians for going on or past 20 years?? Zzzzzzzzzzzz
  21. One day I will visit The Vortex One day when John Edwards, Barry Guy or Paul Rogers are playing I've never seen the former, once for Guy and three times for Rogers For my ears, the three greatest free improvising bassists alive Then Cafe Oto to hear Alan Wilkinson, Simon H Fell and Paul Hession Or Steve Noble One day I see a few more of the great improvisers of our time live and in person
  22. Getting ready to get some rest as I have work tomorrow but I will say this: My wife says that Craig Taborn must be the best pianist there is. I told her he might be but she hasn't seen Cecil Taylor. Two totally improvised sets of music and as I mentioned above the little place was packed, maybe because of the pianist being in the band. I may try to describe what sort of music this was later if I can get a handle on it but I will say this - the first set was pretty damn great with the last 25 minute piece being from a place I wasn't very familiar with. It ended up being somewhat groove based and consisted of some strong looping repeated figures by Taborn culminating with Maneri playing some bass lines and drones on the lowest register of his viola unlike anything I've ever heard him play. The crowd went a bit nuts, especially for this place which is sometimes a bit subdued as a good portion of the crowd are regulars who have really seen and heard it all. The lesson is dont leave before the second set. Three amazing pieces with the second being a masterpiece of doom metal free jazz improvisation with these masters inventing something they didn't know existed in them. It ended almost better with a searching unexpected Smith solo completing the best set of music I've heard this year. Still Coming Down the Mountain
×
×
  • Create New...