adam hill

RE: Jazz Times critics poll... Terrance Blanchard: Flow--this is one of the worst records of the year. Occasionally you can hear some good things, but it's mostly dreck, with some smooth jazz and neo-World beat stuff swirled in as if Blanchard couldn't make up his mind as to what kind of music he wants to make. Blame Herbie Hancock's production too. Just a bad, bad record.

That would be the wonderful Rudresh Mahanthappa, who has a couple of records under his own name that are very strong (Vijay Iyer is on them too). These two cats are the best thing to happen to jazz in a very long time.

CRAIG HARRIS: Souls Within the Veil This is a wonderful record, a musical homage to Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk. Quite a line-up of players--highlighted, imo, by the solos of Steve Coleman and Don Byron. Hasn't gotten much press. Truly deserves to.

Many of you know the magazine The Big Takeover, out of NYC, celebrating its 25th year. They have a new blog, which includes the discussion of jazz and improvised music as well as rock and pop. http://www.bigtakeover.com/

i use the boltz wall units,which are great. fwiw, i have yet to replace jewel cases with the plastic sleeves. what i don't like about the plastic sleeves is they lay flat against each other and you can't see the spines very well. maybe it's aesthetics too, but i just don't like them. i wish slimline jewel cases would become the norm.

okay, i've listened through all 3 a few times now. disc two, with Hamid Drake on the drums, is stunning, the stand-out, and worth the overall price. Disc two is a nice reading of their Freedom Suite record, disc one, which is the one recorded in 1998, is not always successful.

I saw that. I'm guessing he's already been listening to it as he's been a strong advocate of Ware's. I hope he'll write about it (for Jazz Times, I suppose).

Sal, the first one, with Ibarra, is from 1998 and recorded in Switzerland the second one with Drake, and the third one with Brown, are both from 2003, and they're both from Italy. The one with Brown is a performance of the Freedom Suite. Most of the other discs' tracks are from previous records, though I have yet to check to see if any are new ones. $17.50 seems like a great price for 3 discs of music, about 3.5 hours of it. Street date is Feb 22, so says the press release. I'm still making my way through it, but the sound quality is excellent, and there's a lot a great interplay. This showcases Ware's virtuosity quite well.

another vote for Our Man In jazz, which divides some critics, but is an important record, one that made a lot people think Sonny was headed out to a more free territory.

I just interviewed Ware this morning for a piece that'll appear at One Final Note. Not an easy interview, but I have such enormous respect for him as a musician, and these 3 performances are amazing (have only gotten in one listen so far). The one with Hamid Drake, which is the first time we have a recording of Hamid in the Quartet, will alone makes this tantalizing. If you have any dounbts about what Gary Giddins wrote in one of his columns, about the Ware Quartet being the best small band working in jazz, this release will dispell them.

okay, then, i've made a few posts. sort of new to here, have mostly lurked.

a 3cds live with David S Ware's Quartet, coming soon on Thirsty Ear. 3 different drummers: Susie Ibarra, Gulliermo Brown, and Hamid Drake. more info coming......

It's a pretty lovely box, with some nicely subtle variations of some of the standards. what recommends it most is how well they play together. maybe not essential listening, but pretty damn fine stuff to have on while you're burning your day.

the Carmell Jones, which is totally new to me, and that i'm loving.

some subtractions but also some significant additions (especially non jazz)