corto maltese

I played Joe Daley Trio At Newport '63 last night and I fully endorse this nomination.

Last night : Sun Ra Live in Paris et the Gibus (French Atlantic): I'm not an expert, neither a completist, but this a favourite. Joe Daley At Newport '63 (RCA, UK mono): According to the sleeve notes, it's the complete afternoon concert filled out wiith a recording of the soundcheck, but I also read (here?) that some of the tracks are studio recordings. Anyway, it's a great set and the mono sound is very sweet. George Russell Sextet In K.C. (Brunswick): I have the original Decca, but with a water damaged cover. Now I've found a beautiful German mono pressing. I like this one very much. One oddity is that the "Lunacy" track is credited to trombonist Dave Baker, while it's a composition by a very young Carla Bley who was Russell's student at that time.

I've once been very much into the UK industrial scene. Looking back, it was probably my most important stepping stone to the experimental/free improv/avant-garde/whatever... music I'm still listening to (and very much enjoying) today. And Stapleton's United Dairies label was crucial. I mean, the first release (An Afflicted Man's Musica Box; another compilation) introduced me to Jacques Berrocal, AMM ànd Anima. Not to mention the notorious Nurse With Wound list... I've kept one or two shelves with records from this area including precisely "Hoisting the black flag". I cherish them although I seldom play them. As for Whitehouse (who feature on Hoisting...): they're virtually unlistenable, of course, but they were very much part of that scene.

Memories, sweet memories... but can you still enjoy, say, Whitehouse ?

I've seldom been as disappointed as I was by "The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield". I remember an online review (Popmatters IIRC) about a match made in heaven turning into a disaster, exactly expressing my feeling about the project. Since then I'm a little more cautious with William Parker's new releases.

The German issue is actually quite common and generally not expensive. The Austrian (and I think original) issue is a bit harder to find. I probably like the music more than HFTF does, despite some inevitable longueurs typical for a concert recording. As far as I remember, the recording quality is decent.

Last night (headphone): Karin Krog & Bengt Hallberg A Song for You (Overseas, Japan): I had the Phontastic issue, but now found this Japanese release, also from 1978 and with a nicer cover. Listening to it again after a long time, I still think it's not her most exciting album, but there are some beautiful moments ("A child is born"...); Neighbours Great Neighbours Music vol. 1 (private pressing): Austrian piano trio. They cut a record with Fred Anderson and Bill Brimfield and another one with Anthony Braxton, but this is a self-released recording by the trio on its own. Title is correct: great music. Takashi Kazamaki & Danny Davis Atmosphere - Live At The Strange Fruit (Fool): free improv duet. A classic.

I'm tempted, but, alas, I don't own a loft.

Thank you, Clifford, this seems just what I was looking for.

I only have his "Long Night" album, with George Coleman and Pat Patrick, and I quite like it. A Vee-Jay thread is OK, but please no Beatles.

Difficult to go wrong with Palm - great label... Do you have Maté's duo record with Daniel Vallancien on Saravah ? Not really jazz, I suppose, but a terrific record.

Can you or other members recommend a publication focussing in depth on this scene (BAG, Human Arts Ensemble, Committe for Universal Justice, the Universal Justice label...) ? I love the music, as well as the "look" and the "feel" of those records, and I'd really like to learn more about the socio-political and cultural context.

Welcome, Ombudsman! The movie you're referring to is actually called "A Quiet Place in the Country" (Un tranquillo posto di campagna). According to Dusty Groove the soundtrack was "a rare collaboration" between Morricone and the Gruppo... (not making this up; check their website).

For collecting Blue Note LP's on a budget, when you can live with these Frech DMM pressing, this opens a whole new world full of possibilities.

Right. Didn't remember it was mentioned on the back cover. I'm still wondering why they selected a performance without Ali as documentation. Around the same time, Ali was releasing records on his own Survival label.; fine duos with Leroy Jenkins and Frank Lowe, but no Cyrille or Graves...

Such a great record. I've read that they usually performed as a trio with Rashied Ali. I wonder if that was maybe too much of a good thing...

In the liner notes of John Zorn's Morricone tribute album (The Big Gundown), there's something about the avant garde guitar scraping and screaming that might even make Morricone nervous. I've always found that funny.

I've checked my copy of the "Anthem Suite". It's got two inserts, one about the label (I've learned from it that daagnim stands for "Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo-Impressionistic Music"... neo-impressionistic??) and one about the musicians . One Zoran Pistotnik writes: "Each of his successive records has also inevitably been at the time of release his best record, but we know that it could have been even better [...] Perhaps this lack of perfection might be tolerated with regard to the not-well-enough-known musicians from Dallas who play with Gonzalez."

I think I understand about Area. I never cared much for the progressive jazz-rock Area, but I do like the free improv freakout Area. A lot. Try "Event '76", a live album with Steve Lacy and Paul Lytton. As for the Demetrio Stratos solo albums, well it's simple, you need to hear them. They're unique, in the real sense of being incomparable to almost anything else.

That's a funny little disc, but I like it. They also appear on one of the Area records ( "Maledetti" IIRC). There's a much older 7" EP on a Spanish label, but that one's not in my collection.

Recent reissues of some of their soundtracks seem to market them as a proto-krautrock or even avant-funk band, but that's only a minor part of the story. Also, their name ("Nuovo Consonanza") might be misleading, because their music has nothing whatsoever to do with more recent "new consonant" or "new simplicity" trends in classical music. For me their mix of avant-garde composition techniques and free improvisation made them one of the most interesting ànd successfull exponents of the incredibly fertile Italian new music scene of the 1960s. I'm a big fan, obviously. "The private sea of dreams" is actually a reissue of their untitled first album, issued a couple of years earlier -much more attractively packaged!- in Italy.

Actually the Arista-Freedom predates the Durium reissue (late 70's and eminently avoidable because of the cover art). The original "Hamba Khale!", credited to the "Gato Barbieri Dollar Brand Jazz Duo", has a beautifully designed cover and was released in 1969 on the Togetherness label, which is indeed quite obscure (I don't know any other release). To make things complicated "Togetherness" is also the title of a (very fine) recording by the Gato Barbieri-Don Cherry quintet which was originally issued in 1966 on the... Durium label. The rhythm section on that album are Jean-François Jenny-Clarke and Aldo Romano and maybe that's the reason why it's sometimes mixed up with "Obsession", a trio session from 1967 which only saw the light of day in 1978 on the Affinity label. Sorry about the disgression, but these Italian recordings of the 1960's are really very worthwile and the discographical mess might be one of the reasons they're often neglected.

Very sad indeed. I can only repeat what others members have said and express my gratitude for the wonderful music.

80 and still going strong, playing over here with the "Now This" trio. Wonderful. When I started buying jazz records and exploring beyond the (free jazz) classics, I was often led by bass players and drummers. Gary Peacock was among them. Happy birthday.

Go for the French Atlantic mono. Good pressing and a nice alternative cover.