AllenLowe

yeah slugs was pretty incredible - another night I saw Jean Genet -

one nice thing about organizing my collection is discovering I've got doubles of certain things, including this - it open but looks un-played - will sell for $12 plus $3 shipping USA, $6 to Europe - prefer paypal - alowe5@maine.rr.com

that stuff's too new - we want the REAL old stuff -

it's been many years, but the band I saw was Ornette/Redman/Hayden/Higgins, so a hybrid of sorts - I just remember that they reminded me, sound-wise, of the NY is Now group. But it's been 40 + years, so who knows? It was an incredible experience, on the same level of when I saw Muddy Waters at Newport - visceral and intellectually complex. We were young, loved the music, but did not quite understand it - and then, between sets, Charlie Haden, who clearly had noticed us (we were the youngest ones in the club) sat down with us and explained, basically, what he did musically in the band. Interesting night -

I like NY is Now because that's the basic group I saw at Slugs (though Charlie Haden was on bass), that was how the group sounded, and it's the closest thing I can get to being 15 again. does anyone know if NY is Now has had a later remastering? The only version I see is a 1989 issue.

try this: http://shanleyonmusic.blogspot.com/

Thinking about it further, and having had some private messages, there is a pattern of the way this label treats living people who work for it that would incline me toward seeking out used copies, if any.

nice review from Mike Shanley's blog: by Mike Shanley Allen Lowe Blues and the Empirical Truth (Music and Arts) http://www.musicandarts.com/ Ah, music critics. Ask them a yes or no question about an album and you'll get an oratory. Ask for a compilation and you might get... a nine-disc anthology. That's just what Allen Lowe compiled in the recent past. The descriptively-titled American Pop: An Audio History - From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1946 contained nine discs. Then he outdid himself with That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History 1895-1950, which contained a whopping 36 pieces of plastic. And you probably don't believe that much music was even recorded during that period. In addition to compiling the music, Lowe also wrote extensive texts to go along with each of these productions. Some might call it crazy, but it makes Lowe a man after my own heart. In addition to being an extensive musical commentator ("critic" seems like a limiting word here) Lowe is also a musician himself, another trait to which I can relate and admire. To add a personal note on that subject before I take myself out of this story, I feel a certain a kinship in his alto saxophone playing because his tone reminds me of what I aspired to sound like years ago when I thought I had a future on the horn: a clean tone with raw edges, and a searching quality that's equally ready to blow straight or scream at a moment's notice. (Personally I never got past the aspiration part to the actual execution of such a sound, but that's another story.) Lowe the musician is gifted on the alto, but also picks up the C-melody and tenor horns, in addition to being extremely fluent on guitar. For his own music project Blues and the Empirical Truth (a witty play on Oliver Nelson's Blues and the Abstract Truth) he has produced no less that three discs of music. One volume lasts 66 minutes while the other two creep close to 80 minutes each. True to his other calling, Lowe offers track by track analysis. Some of this comes in quick phrases or a few sentences. One goes on for a whole paragraph - or is it sentence - which includes a parenthetical statement that on its own could be a short paragraph in itself. The set-up reminds me of philosophy tomes that I read in college. The comparison makes sense since the subject is empirical truth. Besides, music is a more interesting subject that existentialism anyway. Three discs is a pretty serious listening commitment and speaks to an artist's confidence in his output, but truth be told there's very little filler on this whole set, save for the occasional track that noodles a little with multiple solos happening at once. Lowe is joined by a pretty heavy group of friends including veteran trombonist Roswell Rudd, guitarist Marc Ribot, pianist Matthew Shipp (who also plays Farfisa!) and pianist Lewis Porter, among others. The blues can be a limiting structure, but this is nothing like an attempt to chronicle all the various styles of blues and present them for consumption. Sometimes it feels like a blues set, other times it's a jazz set, and with his references to Richard Hell and the Velvet Underground in his notes, inspirations comes to Lowe from beyond even these immediate sources. Titles like "(Bull Connor Sees) Darkies on the Delta" and "Pauli Murray, at the Back of the Bus, Suddenly Realize She Has the Blues" prove that Lowe also has a handle on the social issues that informed a lot of the music from its earliest days. Out of context - meaning right here - the titles might seem glib, but don't believe it. They come out of empathy or understanding. More so than my previous description, Lowe's alto playing sounds a bit like Ornette Coleman if the latter had straightened up and flown right. Clear and sometimes plaintive, it also has a combative quality somewhat like Archie Shepp on "Blues and Transfiguration" which has a Mingus mood in the composition. Anyone who can hold his own in a wild exchanges with Rudd really knows his stuff anyway, and "Entrance, No Exit" and the several installments of "Ras Speaks" prove that. They also show Shipp in a very subdued state, holding down chords on an organ with a tone that seems to thin for a heavyweight like him, while the two horns have all the fun. (Although Shipp's volume changes in one gets a little trippy.) Guitarist Ray Suhy appears frequently throughout the set, with a skillful approach that varies his sound from straight blues to something a little wilder, depending on the setting. Ribot is his usual spiky self, and speaking of that adjective, a gentleman named Spike Sikes also plays alto, which gives Lowe a chance to play his other instruments. His guitar recalls Black Flag's Greg Ginn, a remote comparison true, but both have a tendency to get so manic during a solo that tempo gets overlooked in favor of passion. Maybe it's just my limited blues knowledge showing, but he also plays with the adventurous scope of Zoot Horn Rollo's best moments with Captain Beefheart. (Now there's someone to draft for the next session.) The only odd element to the whole set is Jake Millet's use of electronic drums. On the first disc, they sound appropriate - sounding like little more than a battered ride cymbal that holds things together. As time goes on, it almost feels like Sunny Murray has dropped by, agreeing not to do his usual thing, but never completely settling into a straight tempo. The decaying sound of the cymbal sounds fun, like a delay pedal was accidentally bumped. But by the last disc, the thin sound has one wondering why a real trap kit wasn't used. If there's any justice in this world Blues and the Empirical Truth should win an award for its packaging alone. Along with all the music, the three-panel cover includes a booklet not only of Lowe's thoughts (which are equally deep, fiery and humorous), but an introductory essay by Village Voice columnist Francis Davis. Hopefully Lowe doesn't take that as an oversight of the music (like Mingus did when he won Best Liner Notes for Let My Children Hear Music). But there I go, dropping music trivia like a music scribe who knows too much. This isn't an item designed just for the likes of Lowe and Davis and lower-totem-pole music geek/scribes like me. This is music for people who still get excited about music, and relish the size of packages like this.

think of it this way - if this was Moe Levy I'd insulted I'd have to hire a body guard and have someone start my car for me -

is true - but I agree with Chris - they do good work; their have long been problems related to the owner of the label, but it's a labor of love, I'm sure he's not making any money, and these musicians deserve to be remembered and listened to - though I appreciate the solidarity. let me add that, as we see here, reasonable people disagree with me about the sound quality, Short of inviting you all over to my studio and doing some A-B comparisons, we will have to live with that - also - think about all the recordings we buy of music and musicians for which other record labels have done much worse things than insult me.

just want to add something that I have to say, though it will piss off Sunnnnenblick again; I spent the last 30 minutes listening back through my reference speakers, just to make sure I hadn't done an injustice- now, to me, the Christian sounds even worse - it has that weird near-distortion you get when you chop off the high end digitally and then try to restore it through equalization by boosting the upper frequencies - it sounds as though someone has stretched the treble, it crackles a little, because there's little left to boost, and though it's listenable (though not to me, really) I can tell that, carefully handled, it could have sounded 10 times better - for a sense of what I mean about the Goodman material, listen to Flying Home in particular; it's got that weird under-water thing going. this stuff is really, unfortunately, botched.

possibly.....but I think he's so pissed off at this that he's not seeing straight - the Goodman tracks just have this weird bloat, for lack of a better word - the problem is that, unless you hear them alternately, you probably won't know what's been lost, though I think it's significant. As for the Uptown catalog - I wouldn't write it off. He's done some great stuff; I like his Dupree Bolton; also the Dodo Marmarosa; Allen Eager; there's other very good stuff, I know he's sitting on some incredible early and unreleased Jaki Byard (from the 1950s); also some James P. Johnson which he told me about years ago; though I worry, now, what it will sound like, as once you digitally chop this stuff, there's no real restoration possible. Still, I would love to hear the Jaki stuff, especially as I anticipate finishing my '50s jazz book in the next year. I don't suppose he'll send me a sampler...... it's not good that he went off the deep end, but I understand how proprietary one can feel about these things; interestingly, he didn't say a word about Driggs' notes, which are bizarrely bad....

I don't know that, though I do like a lot of the Kenton things that are disdained by the "serious" jazz world.

in my own weird way it makes me nervous - as long as no one recognizes anything you do on an official level you can do whatever the hell you want - now I'm afraid I'll have to meet some objective standard - maybe I'll decline the money - ****************************************** *************************what? are you effin crazy?

I've come to like Richards - the bombast works for me. There's just, in these transfers, a little air missing, but such is the problem with the new tech; engineers (myself included) get what I call "listening fatigue" and sometimes you just have to put it down and come back at a later date. I've tried maybe 10 de-hiss programs. They can be very effective at making things listenable, but you have to stop at a certain point.

the Lownstein thing is because I spelled his name wrong - gave it an extra "N" - I don't think it's an ethnic slur, however, he's not the sharpest guy; by repeating it constantly in some succeeding emails (he and I have been going back and forth; he just called me a "failed tenor player") it starts to take on the character of an epithet; I'm trying to respond with some restraint, but I'm not used to this; I usually like to remain BELOW the fray.

sorry I can't make it. Sounds like fun.

well. I've seen some of the Chuckie movies -

well, the funny thing about Sunenblick turning an attack on me into an attack on Organissimo in general is that he doesn't realize that half the members here think I'm psychotic, and the other half block my posts -

it's yours -

ok, this one I will strongly recommend - with reservations (guilty with an explanation?) - great music; I've been up and down over the years with Richards; he overdoes everything, but sometimes taste isn't everything - some problems with sound - on the Birdland broadasts Sunnnenblick's engineer (same guy who did the Christian) -is leaning too heavily on the de-hiss; one can hear that tell-tale deadness, some breathing, loss of resonance - so it's acceptable but could have been better, oh well. this one I can live with - and it has Davey Schildkraut on the last three cuts, and Davey takes some brilliant solos - this is a keeper -

please note that I never said people should not buy the CD - as a matter of fact, over in "offerings" I have, in the interests of the public good, put my own copy up for sale.

woke up this morning to this charming little email from Uptown: "Hey asshole, send the CD back and I'll refund your money. The total know-it-all asshole strikes again with his chat room chuckies. There is no gurgling in the Goodman tracks. And Bill Welham is quite a good engineer and doesn't deserve your jaded and "knowledgabvle" comments!! And my name is not Sunnenblick, Lownstein. Bob Sunenblick" and in a follow-up email, strangely enough, Sunenblick, in case anyone is wondering, gave me permission to post that email. I don't care what he calls me, but I hope you guys realize you've been called "chuckies." Must be some kind of Canadian insult.

just bought this and it's mint - the 10-12 minutes of Christian jamming are nice, and the Goodman tracks botched, sound wise. Not worth holding onto for me. $8 shipped USA - my paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com

I can't argue with that -