Hoppy T. Frog

I was there! Roscoe Mitchell tested positive for COVID the day the AEOC was to play, and Shabaka Hutchings stepped in. It was a smaller band than the greatly expanded one that has been performing for many years, a lot of unfamiliar material this time. The rest of the festival was great, like Big Ears, but pared down to just contemporary classical and avant-jazz/improv. Threadgill did not perform, but it was great finally seeing a seminal Threadgill band I had never seen live. A very well run and manageably-sized festival, all venues were very close together bar one. I found it superior to Big Ears in every way.

Someone on Discogs commented that they asked Joe Fonda in person about this and that no such recording took place.

I find Gramophone valuable, but I guess I missed its glory years. I do think BBC Music is a livelier read, and the CDs have introduced me to music I would not have sough out otherwise. With regard to a jazz magazine of similar quality, Jazzwise I think is close (But no CDs).

Love "Composer of the Week".

can't find a thread for Gunter "Baby" Sommer but is anyone going to his 80th birthday bash in Dresden? I'll miss it by one week...

Saw him at Blues Alley a few months ago with his own quintet (must have been Tankersley on the piano, then). Loved his sci-fi-ish leather (?) duster, looked like he was an extra in one of the Star Wars spin offs.

ICP's music is so important to me, saw him several times with them, including at the Vortex a week after Misha Mengelberg died, he and the ICP performed a Charles Ives song in tribute, Honsinger sang lead. The song was a tribute to Ives' deceased dog, but it was both poignant and funny and so so right for those tricksters.

They continued to tour together into this century, they were fun.

Chris Elliott content: This thread is good again. re Jazz Times: I will only say the May issue will revolutionize your expectations of what a "jazz" magazine can be. Or a "magazine" for that matter. Or "writing".

You folks really owe it to yourself to flip through a copy of the May issue at a library or Barnes & Noble and see how coocoo bananas it is. If you thought it was bad before...

I know that we are all competing to say how long Jazz Times sucked but for me it was worth the $17 a year (if you caught a promotion) just for Mark Stryker's column and the reviews at least kept me abreast of releases I might not have known about otherwise.

It was last week, but just saw that Hyperion Records was purchased by Universal. The article in Gramophone didn't say if they would start streaming, or if past catalogue would be streaming, but I hope so.

I love Kagel, but the radio plays are rough sledding for those of us who aren't fluent in German...

I was there, in the front. I definitely think she was playing at one point. The ending was great, what a rug pull.

Never knew about that Timmons album!

Count me as a fan too.

You column is/was a monthly highlight for me. Would be great if you could continue (then have embedded links to the tracks youu referemce). All I know is on a another forum I frequent the online obituary on JT for Wayne Shorter was posted in the rolling "bad music writing" thread and most agreed it was a possible all-time winner of that category.

All I have is a promo sweatshirt, LOL. I don't think there is any recording, sadly, unless the other performance (in Texas?) was recorded. It was quite moving when Wayne came out in his wheelchair during the bows to a rapturous reception.

It was indeed finished, and played at the Kennedy Center two years ago https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/jazz/2021-2022/iphigenia/

what's this I hear about JT being sold and all the editorial staff laid off

I'm listening to the de Saram/Schroeder Hat[now]art "Patterns in a Chromatic Field" right now, got a bunch of the Hat from Berkshire Record Outliet for cheap. Is this a good one? I have no basis for comparison.

I was at a concert last Sunday of Troubadour music from the 1100s and I think much of the crowd at the concert was alive then.

Regretting not signing up for this year, now, but I was glad to go to last year's Vision Fest to get my Wadada Leo Smith fix. I am disappointed that Mary Halvorson won't be doing Amaryllis and Belladonna anywhere else in the US soon.

A 2022 release of a 2017 concert of a 1985 tune on a label revived for the umpteenth time!

Yeah the English version of the Wilson book is now available at the Bastids--is it worth getting (its pretty exoensive for the size--$33, and only B&W photos)?