Jacob Sacks - Fishes (Clean Feed)

[HutchFan]

I just found out about this CD (released on September 28, 2018), so I haven't had a chance to hear it yet. That said, I was lucky enough to see this group perform in NYC at the Cornelia Street Cafe last year.  It was an AMAZING show, so I'm happy they made a recording. The line-up:

• Jacob Sacks - piano
• Ellery Eskelin - tenor saxophone
• Tony Malaby - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
• Michael Formanek - bass
• Dan Weiss - drums

Has anyone had a chance to hear this?  I expect that I'll be ordering it soon. 

 

[jlhoots]

I have the CD. Very nice!!

[Steve Reynolds]

17 hours ago, HutchFan said:

I just found out about this CD (released on September 28, 2018), so I haven't had a chance to hear it yet. That said, I was lucky enough to see this group perform in NYC at the Cornelia Street Cafe last year.  It was an AMAZING show, so I'm happy they made a recording. The line-up:

• Jacob Sacks - piano
• Ellery Eskelin - tenor saxophone
• Tony Malaby - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
• Michael Formanek - bass
• Dan Weiss - drums

Has anyone had a chance to hear this?  I expect that I'll be ordering it soon. 

 

I’m kinda irritated I missed the show last year. I would have loved to have seen the band and most importantly it would have been very cool to meet you.

as many here know, I’m not the biggest fan of the Clean Feed label as the sound quality is variable at best for some unknown reason compared to the higher end labels such as Not Two, No Business, Firehouse 12, PSI or Nessa 

 

[mjazzg]

52 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

sound quality is variable at best for some unknown reason

My understanding, maybe incorrect, is that most of the Clean Feed releases are the musician's recordings and are not recorded for or by the label.  The label agrees to provide artwork, distribution under its name etc.  This would account for quality control variance and also the sheer number of releases (often live) they manage to release.  Others on the board may know more or differently. 

Sadly my memory fails me as to the source of this info

Edited December 4, 2018 by mjazzg

[clifford_thornton]

correct.

[Steve Reynolds]

9 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

My understanding, maybe incorrect, is that most of the Clean Feed releases are the musician's recordings and are not recorded for or by the label.  The label agrees to provide artwork, distribution under its name etc.  This would account for quality control variance and also the sheer number of releases (often live) they manage to release.  Others on the board may know more or differently. 

Sadly my memory fails me as to the source of this info

This is the aspect that confuses me. I see the recording studios listed which seem to be well respected and many of the discs I have sound good (Joe McPhee with Jamie Saft, Joe Morris & Charles Downs - Ticonderoga, John Butcher with the Red Trio - Summer Skyshift, Tony Malaby’s Scorpion Eater or his last Tamarindo recording - Somoa Agua & one of the Martin Kuchen Angles CD’s come to mind as examples). These performances are good to great (Ticonderoga & Summer Skyshift are great performances to my ears). 

However compared to 95% of the releases on the labels I mentioned earlier, the sound is simply not an accurate representation of the music. The one that stands out are the Malaby recordings as I’ve seen these bands and they are explosive in person. Labels like Not Two & Nessa especially capture this depth and power of sound on their releases pretty much on every release. In the old days (90’s through maybe early 2000’s) it was Hat Art and some of the Black Saint & Soul Note releases that were beyond the standard fare as well as Eremite, AUM which also still release fantastically produced great sounding recordings. 

A few years back I bought 2 Trio CD’s from Avram Fefer at a show at The Stone. This was probably at least 5-6 years ago before I even familiar with Not Two Records. One of the releases was on Not Two (Eliyahu which must have been released shortly before the show as it was released in 2011) and the other was on Clean Feed. I remember listening to both of them shortly after the show and being astounded at the difference in the depth of sound and especially the sound of the drums & bass.

So with SO many better sounding newly released CD’s available I only buy Clean Feed CD’s 

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, the studios might be good but the mastering might've been done elsewhere or not at all. I think I have purged almost every Clean Feed release over the years apart from a few of the early Lisbon-specific albums and a couple others I did notes for (the Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Quartet being one standout). The sound and packaging just don't hold any weight for me overall, even if the performances are decent. 

[HutchFan]

23 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

I’m kinda irritated I missed the show last year. I would have loved to have seen the band and most importantly it would have been very cool to meet you.

 

23 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

as many here know, I’m not the biggest fan of the Clean Feed label as the sound quality is variable at best for some unknown reason compared to the higher end labels such as Not Two, No Business, Firehouse 12, PSI or Nessa 

That's a bummer.  IIRC, I only have one Clean Feed release -- Malaby's Tamarindo.  Obviously, that wasn't enough for me to detect any sort of pattern. 

I may roll the dice regardless . . . who knows.  

[clifford_thornton]

Isn't it Psi rather than PSI? I don't think it is an acronym.

[mjazzg]

"Parker's Sonic Imagination" anyone?

[Steve Reynolds]

43 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

Isn't it Psi rather than PSI? I don't think it is an acronym.

I think it might be psi all small letters 

[clifford_thornton]

well, I guess you could do whatever you want with it as it's a Greek letter.

[HutchFan]

pounds per square inch.  

[Д.Д.]

6 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

I think it might be psi all small letters 

 

6 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Isn't it Psi rather than PSI? I don't think it is an acronym.

As per psi website:  I called it psi for all the associations with irrational numbers, golden ratios etc but above all for the Psi phenomena which I am convinced are at the heart of improvised music making. 

I remember reading Evan Parker's interview where he said that the label has essentially folded. And it has its share of bad-sounding (and plain bad) releases - Thomas / Strid / Thomas "wazifa", for example.  

Clean Feed definitely did some record production / mastering themselves at the beginning, not sure about now. I actually like their current album artwork quite a bit. The sound of the newer releases is mostly good. There are too many releases on the label, I haven't been catching up lately, but among the newish ones I really liked Gerry Hemingway's "Riptide" (also with Eskelin) a lot.   

I am listening to Sacks's album on Spotify right now, I'm on track 2, sounds OK so far with my regular reservations about Malaby's playing reconfirmed.