AllenLowe

hey steve, we start at 3 pm at IBEAM on sunday; two sets of solo piano, then a quartet + with me and Ava Mendoza, Shayna Dulberger, Lewis Porter and Paul Austerlitz; quartet next with me, Kevin Ray, Ursula Oppens and Ken Peplowski; quartet next with me, Lisa Parroy, Mike Matsuki, Ray, and more; and then a sextet with Kirk Knuffke and other all stars. (the last doesn't start until 7:30; plenty of time to travel - why do I feel invisible?

Jim - as for sonics - that recording Larry posted is exactly the way I remember Davis sounding back in the '70s - I never saw a jazz pianist hit an instrument as hard - so it may not be Mapleshade so much as Davis' very sharp touch.

larry, you are going to make me go back and listen to him again; I heard Davis a few times in NYC in the '70s; hardest touch, used to put pianos out of tune; he was strangely unsatisfying to me at times, had an off-hand manner combined with brilliant flashes, but maybe I was not quite ready. Time to take another listen. Do you know the recordings he made with Dr. John? Some real junko masterpieces.

well, let's bump this one last time and see who salutes.

very good question; we will have to see who shows up.

last time I will disturb the board with this announcement; tix are $10, which works out to about 50 cents per musician; a bargain? You decide; however, I guarantee that this concert/recording session is way more entertaining than anything you did or did not see at Winter (Snooze) Fest last January; also, you will actually be able to hear the music: Allen Lowe Presents: An Evening of Talent Deserving Wider Recognition 3-10 PM October 18, 2015 IBEAM 168 7th Street Brooklyn, NY 11215 http://ibeambrooklyn.com/directions/ Admission: $10 Allen Lowe, alto sax and all compositions with: 3 PM: Loren Schoenberg solo piano; Micro-Cosmics: a post-Frank Melrose/Hoagy Carmichael fusion of ersatz modernity in the post-post-modern age of jazz 3: 45 PM Kelly Green solo piano; She Loved Him; imaginary variations on Mary Lou Williams’ 1954 solo piece I Love Him 4:30 PM: Shayna Dulberger bass, Ava Mendoza guitar, Allen Lowe alto, Miki Matsuki, on drums, Paul Austerlitz, clarinet. Lewis Porter piano: part of the Mary Lou Williams Suite, Commentary by Gladys Bentley: working title: I Am A Woman Again 5:30 PM Pianist Ursula Oppens in a quartet with Allen Lowe, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, and bassist Kevin Ray; She Loved Him: imaginary variations on a theme by Mary Lou Williams 6: 30 PM: Whores is Funky: A quartet of Allen Lowe on electronics and; Ray Suhy on guitar and banjo; Lisa Parrott on baritone saxophone; Larry Feldman on violin, Kevin Ray on bass. This is our Americana segment built on pre-war blues and hillbilly song forms. 7: 30 PM: sextet – Allen Lowe, alto; Kirk Knuffke trumpet, Paul Austerlitz clarinet, Kevin Ray bass, Lewis Porter piano; Jeremy Carlstedt, drums. The post-bop world and other landscapes. 8:30 PM: A nine-piece band, with: Lou Grassi, Allen Lowe, Kevin Ray, Hayes Greenfield, Paul Austerlitz, Randy Sandke, Bobby Zankel, Christopher Meeder, Lewis Porter – an ADHD version of a big band. Working Title: The Five Stages of Grief/Meditations on Disintegration (or: The Spectacle of the Spectacle of Death).

whoops, should have been a little more accurate - will do 5 for $37.50 during the introductory period - all the preorders should be out by tomorrow; I hope we filled everything correctly, as it got a little bit confusing; please let me know and I will fix any errors; going to NYC on Wednesday, back the 19th; though of course will have access to email.

not surprised; Kelly has an account of a very late concert Monk did in Central Park, that I was at, at which he was practically comatose. Quoting others, Kelly says how great he played; definitely not true.

sorry we're out of stock - NOT - thanks, I'll pack 'em in.

thanks; if things go as I hope, everything should be in the mail by Monday -

sending Lewis Porter the link.

I'm not gonna pay extra for this one. Prediction: it'll be on Netflix by October 15. You heard it here.

thanks; I want to mention that of all these, the one which will probably sell the least is perhaps one of the most interesting - Where a Cigarette is Smoked by Ten Men. The clarinetist Zoe Christiansen is a real discovery. And the drummer on this, Miki Matsuki, has become one of my favorites; swings but can play very freely.

everything is here, 5 new releases as described below: $12 each shipped in the USA, $9 each for all 5, $10 each for 4; $11 each for 3; $10.50 each for 2 my paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com all prior orders will be shipped within 5 days; here's the Press Release: New from Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora “Allen Lowe has re-invented free jazz” – Larry Gushee “Lowe's CD has become my go-to album when I can't decide if I am in the mood for the Art Ensemble, the Minutemen or Blind Willie Johnson" – Internet comment Saxophonist/composer/historian Allen Lowe is releasing 5 new CDs this Fall, most as part of his new In the Diaspora of the Diaspora series, and all on his label imprint Constant Sorrow. The first is Matthew Shipp Plays the Music of Allen Lowe (not part of the Diaspora series) in which pianist Shipp plays a number of solo piano pieces of Lowe’s work as well as in a larger group with Lowe on alto sax, Chris Klaxton on trumpet, Kevin Ray on bass, Eliot Cardinaux on second piano, Peter McLaughlin on drums, Ryan Blotnick on guitar, and special guest Michael Gregory Jackson on guitar. The In the Diaspora of the Diaspora series is described by Lowe as “representing my work with American song forms from the blues, pre-blues, country, hillbilly, and gospel, to bebop, post-bop, standard American song form, extended song and solo form, free jazz, new music, electronic music and sampling. It is intended as an offshoot of some of the historical work I have done, which has led me to conclude that the United States is made up of varying Diasporas within Diasporas, of communities and subcultures which have branched themselves off from the African and African American Diaspora, with an emphasis on American.” Guest musicians include baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who recorded Lowe’s compositions for a CD called We Will Gather When We Gather, which features, in addition to Bluiett and Lowe, Matt Lavelle, Ava Mendoza, Ras Moshe Burnett, Kevin Ray, Jake Millett, and Lou Grassi. Another in the series is a soundtrack album called Man With Guitar: Where’s Robert Johnson? The music was written to accompany a play Lowe wrote about the bluesman Johnson, and includes special guest alto saxophonist Gary Bartz, as well as DJ Logic and Jake Millett on turntables, electronics, and electronic drums. Brian Simontacchi is on trombone, Lewis Porter on piano, and Jeff Fuller on bass. Next in the In the Diaspora of the Diaspora series is Ballad For Albert, named for the saxophonist Albert Ayler, and which features Matthew Shipp on piano, Lowe on alto saxophone, Kevin Ray on bass, and Jake Millett on turntables and electronics. It is a mix of neo-standards and open improvisation, all composed by Lowe. Last in the series, Where a Cigarette is Smoked By Ten Men features clarinetist Zoe Christiansen, drummer Miki Matsuki, bassist Kris Day, and Lowe, in a program of blues and ballads shaped over chord forms, standard tunes, and free improvisation. Of special note is a group tribute to Pee Wee Russell, called Beneath the Blues. Lowe plays both alto and tenor saxophones.

for me Blake was a gateway musician - extremely important in opening certain musical doors that I was, maybe, a little hesitant to open. He's enormously patient; just lets the song happen whenever it's ready. I don't have that kind of patience, but it is often very necessary.

Ran Blake is one of those musicians whose playing, to me, is filled with possibilities, but primarily possibilities - but that being said, he should be listened to, and this is one of his more interesting recordings.

ohhh that arrangement make me want to exit the room. Too much like Public TV Pledge Week.

yeah I Beam goofed on their newsletter, but the calendar has been corrected -

it will be interesting to see what turns up for masters.

probably none of this would have come out if Martha Glaser was alive. She was evil.

want to say that reading Larry and Karl's comments is rejuvenating to me as, at the very least, I see posts like the ones on this page and I feel like a drowning man who just got his head pulled above water. Part of this is my own near-desperate circumstance, but another is wrestling with something for so many years - the aesthetic needs of creation versus the political hell of African American life and the way in which these two things interact in ways so completely foreign to my initial intellectual training, which leans toward Gilman/Beckett/Robe Grillet and which tends to regard political content in art as vulgar - and yet there I was at age 15, swept away by Mingus' politically charged and driven anger and passion, 10 feet away from me in Slugs - and remembering this years later even as I read Beckett, of 'he has nothing to say, only a way of saying it.' Knowing Beckett was right but than so was Mingus. And then finally reading Szwed about the complex relationship of change in African American art forms to stasis and repetition - and realizing that black music creates it own frame of reference (which by the way Gilman, in his remarks about Eldridge Cleaver, I think it was, did recognize in relation to literary traditions). All this by way of me realizing that there's a reason you cannot separate the aesthetic and the political in black music, and that's because you cannot separate the aesthetic and the political in black music - just like you have to realize it is no accident that black music is both, aesthetically speaking, revolutionary yet deeply conservative - a very African attitude, according to Szwed, in that tradition is seen as accomodating to change and even revolution. And I say this as I sit on the cusp of not only escaping these dark woods but also trying to figure out what to do next. So thanks. This has been very helpful.

Teasing - I have written a fairly 'straight' lyric, meant to evoke, I would say, a late '40s ballad. Maybe I'll post it at some point.

I am determined, before I die, to have one major singer sing one of my neo-standards. And - I just got a nice email from Cecile McLorin Salvant; sending her a lead sheet. More later.......

just ordered the 6 cd'er. As my grandma used to say to me, 'it's all over now, baby, nu?'