David Ayers

I find myself with Roscoe mainly listening through the albums to try and draw out interesting things, and I don't often feel that the shape of those works/albums is that successful. Even though I don't think Far Side is a classic I find it more plausible from that point of view than some other of the albums. Maybe the one I most warm to is that album of duets with Braxton. Somehow for me that hits the mark a lot (and often those duet albums seem to thin to me). I guess Roscoe is often trying different things, and I find myself listening to what he is trying to do rather than really living in and beleiving in the works - finding patches where it more or less works, and occasionally coming on a very successful and memorable passage.

And that's Prof. Mitchell, btw. Keep up!

I don't think this is difficult music - it is mostly fairly gratifying, if only occasionally in 4/4 time. One issue on Roscoe performances has, I think, been finding kinetic elements to go alongside the sound-in-space bits (which get wearing in longer doses). Those records with funky passages seem to me to take a wrong turn. This one I like for keeping up the momentum without going that way. It's got a voice of its own among the Roscoe albums I've heard.

I've been trying to discuss this one on the ECM thread but no-one there apart from me has heard it. Has ANYBODY heard it? It seems support for Roscoe has dropped to nil around these parts - I am quite surprised. FWIW it has quite grown on me. Roscoe Mitchell The Note Factory Far Side Roscoe Mitchell saxophones, flutes Corey Wilkes trumpet, flugelhorn Craig Taborn piano Vijay Iyer piano Harrison Bankhead cello, double-bass Jaribu Shahid double-bass Tanni Tabbal drums Vincent Davis drums Far Side/Cards/Far Side Quintet 2007 A For Eight Trio Four For Eight Ex Flover Five Recorded March 2007 ECM 2087 A live album from Roscoe Mitchell and his exceptional Note Factory band, “Far Side” features bracingly adventurous music from a performance at the Burghausen Jazz Festival in southern Germany in 2007. The Note Factory offers an uncompromising exploration of the levels and degrees of sound inside Roscoe Mitchell’s panoptic compositions, and the constantly-changing music harnesses great energies inside its broad structures. “Far Side” is the second ECM disc from Mitchell’s Note Factory ensemble. Roscoe described the first, 1999’s “Nine To Get Ready” as “the coming together of a dream I had many years ago of putting together an ensemble of improvising musicians with an orchestral range.” The dream now a solid reality, Mitchell has continued not only to blur demarcation lines between composition and improvisation in this group - as he has in other bands before it - but also to inspire a generation of players. “Far side” features a particularly gifted cast of young trailblazers. Trumpeter Corey Wilkes, and pianists Craig Taborn and Vijay Iyer are meanwhile all established as bandleaders in their own right, and playing with Mitchell has been a priority for each of them. Craig Taborn explained why in an interview with Nate Chinen: “The kind of things that Roscoe works with [in the Note Factory] have to do with developing your ideas within a certain space, to make it as three-dimensional as possible. To make it full of activity and different currents so that it's a really deep structure, as opposed to being a one-dimensional structure. He likes a lot of depth. The meaning stems from the multiplicity of ideas. But coming out of that, the possibilities of sound change, because you're forced to evolve your sound, your ideas and everything on your own in that context... It really forces you to listen to everything almost with more clarity. You become really aware of the texture. Instead of focusing on one idea or one line of improvisation, you're focusing on this unified space in which all this stuff's occurring. Playing with Roscoe has made me hear that kind of space differently.” (To facilitate soloist identification amid the flow of things on the present recording: Vijay Iyer, Jaribu Shahid and Tani Tabbal incline to the left side of the stereo panorama, and Craig Taborn, Harrison Bankhead and Vincent Davis to the right.) Born in Chicago in 1940, Roscoe Mitchell is one of the innovators in creative music of the post-Coltrane, post-Ayler era, and one of the outstanding composer-leaders to have emerged from the ranks of the AACM. He founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago (originally the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble), whose ECM legacy includes the critically-lauded albums “Nice Guys”, “Full Force”, “Urban Bushmen” and “Tribute To Lester”. More recently Mitchell has co-led the Transatlantic Art Ensemble with fellow saxophonist Evan Parker. Roscoe’s album with this conglomeration, “Composition/Improvisation Nos 1, 2 & 3”, won an Album-of-the-Year Award (Choc de l’année) from France’s Jazzman magazine – one of many honours bestowed upon Mitchell. In addition to his touring and performing activities, Roscoe Mitchell currently holds the position of Distinguished Milhaud Professor of Music at California’s Mills College. “Far Side” is issued shortly after his 70th birthday. Craig Taborn can currently be heard on Michael Formanek’s new album “The Rub & Spare Change”, and he’s just recorded a solo piano disc due for 2011 release on ECM. In 2005 he played on David Torn’s album “Prezens” and with Roscoe appears on the aforementioned “Nine To Get Ready” and the two Transatlantic Art Ensemble discs – as do bassist Jaribu Shahid and drummer Tani Tabbal, who have been part of Mitchell’s music for more than 30 years. Dynamic young trumpeter Corey Wilkes has also recorded for ECM with the Transatlantic Art Ensemble and filled Lester Bowie’s vacant seat in the Art Ensemble of Chicago since 2003. He is widely regarded as an important player for the future of jazz and funk and hybrid forms in between. Vijay Iyer, Harrison Bankhead and Vincent Davis all make ECM debuts on “Far Side”. Iyer, very much an improviser of the moment, was recently voted Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Bassist/cellist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Vincent Davis have toured together with the Roscoe Mitchell Trio. Perhaps best known for his work with the late Fred Anderson, Bankhead has played with Oliver Lake and Joshua Redman, as well as the groups 8 Bold Souls, Frequency and the Indigo Trio. Vincent Davis, previously a member of the trio of Malachi Favors Maghostut, has also played in groups led by Craig Taborn and Billy Brimfield.

I've heard the Eick - it's a bit pretty for my tastes. Quite old-school ECM...

By the way I am puzzled nobody came out in favor of Roscoe's Far Side. I thought he had supporters around here. Has anybody except me even heard it? It's pretty good as these things go, and the Taborn/Iyer combination is not to be sniffed at. I guess whether you decide to like it or not depends how you respond to the first track which is long and impressionistic with a very protracted build-up. The other items are rather good though in different ways. I guess it's not a classic but it is worth living with for a while. Oh and I've been listening to Avenging Angel, not all the way through it yet though...

but why th do they reissue them after those cheap Miles, Evans and Monk boxes from Italy? and why no Montgomery? Well who knows! But I dare say the US and Euro office operate separately. I reckon they will probably produce short runs and make a little easy-ish money. Probably the Montgomery was never a great seller -?

Some people want those sets, there is stored demand, and the unit cost is low as long as they assess they can sell enough. I guess they figured they don't have to do any extra work so why not give it a go. Let's not forget those sets were core purchases for a long time. As GAR says some of these are likely to appear at non-fancy prices.

Do you mean he's willing to bend? Taborn is already on several ECM records - three by Roscoe and one each by Parker and Formanek. Is it necessary to sneer at him?

Will buy the Taborn as soon as the donwload appears on amazon over here... Edited to add: did I say donwload? I meant dnowlaod.

Relax, Greg - we ALL got 0007. They're just humoring us.

Ok so, uh, ditch the Blackberry...

So. I am using a Blackberry Storm 9500. When I reply to an email, a fresh copy of the email I replied to appears in my inbox - on the handlheld but not on the server. I see one or two people asked about this on Blackberry forums and got ignored (go figure). Anyone else have this problem? I'm gonna get an iphone.

I'm not sure this query is in the right forum.

Toot toot! :party:

Shawn - sorry to hear this - be well.

HB2U!

Go Bev - the World is your Matrix.

:party: :party: :party:

IE is a slow browser, but a little more secure than others. So you could try using Google Chrome, which is faster, but use IE for banking etc where an extra ounce of security might be welcome. Try Chrome though and I think you'll see a difference. Oh and Chrome also spell checks your posts!

And one that applies in England - not even in Scotland: http://www.maxfarquar.com/2011/05/front-page-of-the-sunday-herald/

The beauty of the super-injunction is that you aren't allowed to mention that it exists... spooky... Here's the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_British_super-injunction_controversy

Guys, when I look at this US -based page the name of the 'footballer' is blanked out: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/uk-court-subpoenas-twitter-for-names-of-super-injunction-tweeters/10123 Is this being done in the UK or can't you guys in the US read the name on the page either? Obviously I wasn't trying to find out the name but for anyone who is curious the wikipedia entry on superinjunctions clears up any mysteries. What I don't get is how the hell these injunctions work. Let's say I can read. So I read on pages outside UK about this guy. So then I mention it online. But though I know the name of someone how do I in fact know there is a superinjunction (because the injunctions are anonymous)? So it's only when I repeat a claim known to anyone who can read that the law then emerges and says uh sorry there's a super-injunction against you mentioning that. But how do I know? So for example there may be a super-injunction against me mentioning that Ryan Giggs is a possible successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. If there is, I can be sued, right? How do I know until I say it? Very puzzling.