David Ayers

I only know the three Naked City titles originally issued by Nonesuch (The Tzadik site says there was one 'domestic' but I have three...). Two now run cold on me, but not The Big Gundown which still warms my cockles. It is a reworking of Ennio Morricone spaghetti western music and a fantastic tribute. If you have any liking for the Leone/Morricone collaborations, I can recommend this one to you as a place to start. Even if you don't care for Zorn but you like the Morricone music I'd say keep an eye open for this one. EDITED FOR RAMPANT INACCURACY Uhh - take it all back. It seems the Morricone music is not by Naked City but under Zorn's name. Still, I keep in the recommendation for The Big Gundown! By the way John Patton is on one track of Gundown and also features on Spillane. And do you know the News For Lulu disks? Covers of Blue Note hard bop classics with George Lewis and Bill Frisell. Nice!

I see that hopscotch have a website. The listing I got seems to reflect the fact that Sound 323 have just taken a delivery. I hadn't heard of this label, and I had never heard Tsahar, which is why these leapt out at me. I am listening to the clips - I'm not overwhelmed yet...

Hopscotch seems to be reissuing these. They also list these titles: COOPER-MOORE & ASSIF TSAHAR - TELLS UNTOLD [hopscotch] £11.99 *cooper-moore: harp, ashimba, drums, flute, deedly-bo, mouth-bow, twiner, shofar, synth & the bell *assif tsahar: tenor sax, bass clarinet, acoustic guitar, muzmar & thumb piano COOPER-MOORE & ASSIF TSAHAR - AMERICA [hopscotch] £11.99 *cooper-moore: piano, diddly-bo, banjo, mouth-bow, drum-skins & cymbal *assif tsahar: tenor sax, bass clarinet, classical guitar - rec. 2003 COOPER-MOORE, TOM ABBS & CHAD TAYLOR - TRIPTYCH MYTH [hopscotch] £11.99 *cooper-moore: piano *tom abbs: bass *chad taylor: drums - rec. 2003

My regular email from Sound 323 listed all these Tsahar releases on hopscotch. Does anyone know anything about them (or about the label?). Some may have been mentioned on Funny Rat but I lose track... ASSIF TSAHAR & TATSUYA NAKATANI - COME SUNDAY [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: tenor sax & bass clarinet *tatsuya nakatani: drums & percussion - rec. 2003 ASSIF TSAHAR, PETER KOWALD & SUNNY MURRAY - MA: LIVE AT THE FUNDACIO JUAN MIRO [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: reeds *peter kowald: bass *sunny murray: drums - rec. 2002 ASSIF TSAHAR, MAT MANERI & JIM BLACK - JAM [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: tenor sax & bass clarinet *mat maneri: electric 5-string violin *jim black: drums & percussion - rec. 2003 ASSIF TSAHAR, PETER KOWALD & RASHIED ALI - DEALS, IDEAS & IDEALS [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: tenor sax & bass clarinet *peter kowald: bass *rashied ali: drums - rec. 2000 ASSIF TSAHAR - SOLO: AYN LE-ANY [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: reeds ASSIF TSAHAR & THE ZOANTHROPIC ORCHESTRA - EMBRACING THE VOID [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: tenor sax & conduction *curtis huselbring, steve swell & reut regev: trombones *antoine brye & taylor baynum ho: trumpets *oscar nuriega: bass clarinet, alto sax *ori kaplan: alto sax *aaron stewart: tenor sax *alex harding: baritone sax *craig taborn: piano *tom abbs: bass *andrew barker: drums - rec. 2001 ASSIF TSAHAR'S BRASS REEDS ENSEMBLE - THE HOLLOW WORLD [hopscotch] £11.99 *assif tsahar: tenor sax *herb robertson & cuong vu: trumpets *vincent chancey: french horn *joe daley: tuba *chris jonas: soprano sax *rob brown: alto sax *susie ibarra: drums - rec. 1999 ASSIF TSAHAR CONDUCTS THE NEW YORK UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA - THE LABYRINTH [hopscotch] £11.99 *melinda rice, jean cook & katie pawluk: violins *stephanie griffin & jessica pavone: violas *okkyung lee & jonah sacks: cellos *terrence murren, byrne kley & todd nicholson: basses *sabine arnaut & muriel vergnaud: flutes *matt lavelle, nate wooley & marianne giosa: trumpets *reut regev: trombone *charles waters: clarinet *oscar noriega: bass clarinet *tatsuya nakatani: percussion - rec. 2002

All these Taylors are classics, though! (I haven't heard the MPS, but have and like/love/appreciate all the others to some degree). I don't think the Enja is second rate compared to the others, drummer Mark Edwards brought in some new stylings after Ronald Shannon Jackson, and the absence of bass (though not an all too rare feat for Taylor groups) makes for another change in sound. The CD restores the full 60+ minutes of that concert, from which the LP was taken. ubu I should have said - I like those sessions! I was just recalling that reviewers were iffy about them at the time and they weren't a massive career boost for Malik.

Sounds like a Christian Marclay installation... That's what it looked like too!

Malik appears on five Taylor recordings that I know of: the Enja, the two New Worlds, Black Forest (MPS) , and One Too Many... (Hat) As I remember, the Enja was badly reviewed and the New World's never got much acclaim. That is possibly because people found Mailik hard to take compared to memories of Dixon, and because people were at that time used to the trio/quartet based around Lyons and couldn't quite get the feel of the new voice. The presence of Ware and Edwards on Dark To Themsleves also made this seem like an imperfect offering.

I dusted off my copies of 21st Century Texts (FMP) and The Short Form (eremite) last night. I found these interviews with Malik today, at AAJ and Opprobrium. I don't know if there is much love for Malik-led sessions on this board (I searched and found a smattering of references pro and con). I find him enjoyable but finite, by which I mean I like him but his playing only expresses certain things and the players he appears with are fluent but too frequently border on bombast. Other opinions?

Only UK posters will appreciate this. I was in a specialist 78 shop in Edinburgh. This guy had everything and the stock was all over the floor. The shop opened twice a week, on Wednesday afternoon and Saturday. The LPs were in the back room in a bargain box - he didn't care a fig for 33s and sold them all off cheap if ever he got any. So anyway, you had to tiptoe through the piles of 78s on tables and all over the floor to get to the back room. As I tiptoed through one time I heard the unmistakable sound of a 78 snapping under my foot. I looked down and it was the Ying Tong song by the Goons. I acted like nothing had happened but I am pretty sure the guy knew what I had done! Could have been worse, I suppose. Hell, if it was worth anything why was it on the floor?!

Well, though I admit I am too familiar with it to feel thrilled any more, I'm surprised you didn't get much out of Regeneration. As for the Collective Quartet, it's true I sold my copy as part of my rationalisation program, but in effect this is a NY Art Quartet tribute group and IMO has its good points. Worth a try, unlike many other Leo's which are totally skippable.

OK I have read enough about playing vinyl carefully etc. Now I want to hear about vinyl you have trashed. Everyone here has ruined a great pressing or valued original. One of my worse was putting a stylus scratch right through my favorite solo on a hard-found original of Science Fiction (that's long before any reissue). I'm sure I've done others too. Let's hear about yours!

I think I heard this too, possibly in Banana Republic. The count-in came in that recognisable voice, followed by the backing track. I didn't get it and didn't really think about it any more at the time. Are we sure it is Jamie? I think there is more to this than meets the eye...

I think The Complete 1941 - 1954 Small Group Sessions Vols 3-5 cover much if not all of this material.

No Jim. I was tempted to order from this site but never did. They have a few supposed 'collectables' which it turns out are still in print! (assuming ths site is up to date...)

Quite evidently a fake reply. You expect us to believe this?

Ohhh - OK, now I get it.

Didn't we establish that Universal in Europe print their own CDs and boxes entirely independently of Mosaic? Which does not mean that no Mosaic made sets can be imported into Europe.

Too much on and too many music nights out recently. I feel like I must have missed a good one...

The original liner notes for Rufus and Mohawk (but curiously not Consequences) can be found at the link I posted to Tchicai's site.

I have. The one on Timeless (La Placita) with a guitarist is disappointing - mostly for the guitarist whose sound is not gratifying in the context of the recording. Also, although I am proud to own an original of Budd's Pavilion of Dreams, I have to confess that the music is a little too dissipated even for this enthusiastic Brown-ite.

He has a home page, you might care to look at. I love the three Fontanas - Rufus, Consequences, Mohawk. The last two are among my favorite albums ever. The Delmarks are also essential, though the CD issue loses a track, and the ESP is of course fine. I haven't heard the America release, which I see is due for CD issue and I am very much looking forward to it. I dig Willi the Pig (even though the CD is dubbed from an LP...), but other than that I have avoided other releases due to the changes in direction Chuck mentioned. That said, I am sure I have missed some good stuff, and I'd quite like to know about later offerings that are musically comparable to the early stuff.

The Warner Classics offer on Teldec and Erato full price titles at jpc.de is a phenomenon - at least, if you are greedy and click-happy, as I am. 4.99 EUR for single disks, many 2/3 CD operas for 9.99 EUR. I thought I had got out of the accumulating habit but sadly no. Any other classical fans take advantage of this offer?

too SMALL!! but they are TINY!!!!

Here is the Times review of Monday night: First Night reviews October 29, 2004 Jazz Mingus Big Band Clive Davis ath Ronnie Scott's, W1 AT ITS best — that is to say, most of the time — the Mingus Big Band is an irresistible force of nature. When the elements do not all fall into place, on the other hand, the New York orchestra can resemble a mighty Saturn V rocket that stubbornly refuses to leave the launch-pad. Sparks fly, the ground shakes, our ears ring, but when the smoke clears our eyes are still fixed on the ground. This was one of those sets. By the end of the week normal service will probably have been resumed. (If you want to add your handclaps to posterity, the band plans to record a live album in the club towards the end of its stay.) But even allowing for the fact that the musicians are in the business of celebrating the workshop aspect of Mingus’s legacy — none of his compositions is ever set in stone — this performance had the air of an occasionally meandering rehearsal, with one or two of the players looking less than fully engaged with the job at hand. That said, even a substandard display is preferable to some of the ultra-tight but lifeless big bands that ply the circuit. This ghost band is certainly made of flesh and blood. And amid the good-humoured turmoil it is quite possible to spend most of the evening simply admiring the thunderous but effortlessly precise double-bass playing of Boris Koslov. His loping phrases set proceedings off at full tilt on the opening version of Pedal Point Blues, Donald Edward’s cymbal ringing like an alarm bell as Ronnie Cuber’s baritone saxophone nudged the horn section onwards. Tensions proved just as exhilarating, once Koslov had finished delivering lengthy instructions on how to negotiate his arrangement. There was less to be said for the rambling Pinky, and it was a mistake to make room for two slow-burning songs from the trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy, the band’s eccentric-in-chief. His wayward, guttural singing extracted ample humour from an old favourite, Oh, Lord, Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me. But it was difficult to see that Paris in Blue, supposedly a parody of a Broadway musical romance, was worth salvaging. The audience enjoyed the burlesque, however. The best is yet to come.