okierambler

Here's my baker's dozen of jazz favorites for 2010 (alphabetical order): Mulatu Astatke - Steps Ahead Brandon Bernstein, Aaron Shragge, & Matt Otto - Innocent When You Dream Claudia Quintet - Royal Toast Dave Douglas - Spark of Being Expanded John Ellis - Puppet Mischief Bill Frisell - Beautiful Dreamer Ben Goldberg - Go Home Vijay Iyer - Solo Keith Jarrett & Charlie Haden - Jasmine Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - Portrait in Seven Shades Marc Ribot - Silent Movies Liam Sillery - Phenomenology Tomasz Stanko Quintet - Dark Eyes

August downloads: Laurie Anderson - The Ugly One with the Jewels ***** Brandon Bernstein, etc. - Innocent When You Dream **** Cosa Brava (Fred Frith) - Ragged Atlas **** Dave Douglas - Spark of Being: Expand **** Jimmy Giuffre - Western Suite **** Ideal Bread - The Ideal Bread ***** Clifford Jordan - Night of the Mark VII **** Ali Akbar Khan - Peerless **** Max Roach - Speak, Brother, Speak **** Sonny Rollins - Plays for Bird **** Richard Thompson - Dream Attic ***** Mal Waldron - Waldron-Haslam *****

July downloads: A small, but eclectic mix (with top-of-the-head ratings): Art Bears Hopes & Dreams (1978) **** Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove, & Han Bennink FMP130 (1973) **** Cream Royal Albert Hall, London (2005) **** Sonny Criss Sonny's Dream: Birth of the New Cool (1968) ***** Alejandro Escovado Street Songs of Love (2010) *** Ben Goldberg Go Home (2010) *****

June downloads with top-of-the-head ratings: Paul Bley About Time **** Paul Bley Barrage *** Peter Brotzmann Balls ***** James Carter In Carterian Fashion **** John Coltrane The Complete 1962 Birdland Broadcasts **** Contact Five on One **** Convergence Quartet Song/Dance **** Steve Lacy with Mal Waldron Comminique ***** Steve Lacy The Flame ** Steve Lacy Revenue **** Sun Ra College Tour Vol. 1: The Complete Nothing Is **** Alexander Von Schlippenbach Vesuvius **** Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy At the Bimhuis 1982 ***** Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet ONJQ Live in Lisbon ***

More good news. I've been lusting after the Konitz title since I ran across it. The Sun Ra title is one of my favorites by him. Does anyone know if the new edition will include the LP tracks that were left off the previous CD release? Also, just got my shipment from Berkshire. Joe McPhee's Oleo is delightful. Anyone know why Hat hasn't reissued more of McPhee's early material on CD?

May downloads with top-of-the-head ratings: Absolute Ensemble Absolute Zawinul **** Mulatu Astatke Mulatu Steps Ahead ***** Derek Bailey & Evan Parker Arch Duo **** Kenny Dorham The Flamboyan, Queens, NY, 1963 ***** Philly Joe Jones Dameronia Look, Stop & Listen ***** Kronos Quartet Piazzolla / Five Tango Sensations ***** Steve Lacy The Straight Horn of... ***** Steve Lacy Octet Vespers **** Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth Deluxe **** Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Steve Lacy Company 5 ****

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society has a ton of gigs available for free download at http://www.secretsocietymusic.org/darcy_james_argues_secret/ You can find a lot of free live material from the Zappa-friendly Ed Palermo Big Band at http://www.palermobigband.com/ Bill Frisell has a live download series for sale, including a terrific John Lennon tribute set (#005) at http://www.billfrisell.com/ Dave Holland has started selling downloads of live sets (one so far) and other recordings on his Dare2 label at http://www.daveholland.com/

I missed out on Too Many Salty Swift..., but I did pick up some nice stuff there including Myra Melford's Even the Sounds Shine and Theo Jorgensmann's To Ornette - Hybrid Identity for $7.98 each. Great prices, but be prepared for a challenging search through their lists to find the stuff you want. I just devote some time every few weeks to searching 'jazz' by genre, making sure to check CDs so it doesn't get cluttered with DVDs. It usually turns up around 500 items. You can also search by label. Oh, and I've discovered that the Cecil Taylor set only goes for 14.98 at JazzLoft, half what most outlets who do stock it are asking. Thanks, I hadn't priced Salty Swifty at JazzLoft. I have a "burned" copy of the single CD version and have been looking forward to hearing the "full" version. I just ordered it from the Loft... along with Marc Copland's Haunted Heart and Other Ballads.

I missed out on Too Many Salty Swift..., but I did pick up some nice stuff there including Myra Melford's Even the Sounds Shine and Theo Jorgensmann's To Ornette - Hybrid Identity for $7.98 each. Great prices, but be prepared for a challenging search through their lists to find the stuff you want.

Recently, a fellow collector was kind enough to burn several out-of-print Hats for me, including some of the Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton sets. Since then, I've been purchasing a few Hat titles from Jazz Loft every month or two. So much wonderful material! And yes, I'll probably buy new copies of the dubs I have when they become available. And, I'll definitely pick up the latest Marc Copland reissue when it goes on sale at Jazz Loft. I'd be interested to hear the group's thoughts on the Lacy Pool. Thanks to everyone who posts here, reading your comments is an education in itself.

Here's an idea: when we post our latest downloads, let's tack on a rating for the one's we've actually heard enough to form an opinion. I suggest using one to five stars (hate it to love it), since that's the system used by emusic. Anthony Braxton Eugene (1989) Peter Brotzmann, etc. Up and Down the Lion-Revised **** Hamiet Bluiett Young Warrior, Old Warrior **** Marc Copland Night Whispers **** Ellery Eskelin Jazz Trash Herbie Hancock Mwandishi ***** Gerry Hemingway The Whimbler Steve Lacy Soprano Sax ***** Daniel Levin Quartet Live at Roulette **** Misha Mengelberg Solo Marial Solal w/ Dave Douglas Rue De Seine John Tichicai Grandpa's Spells ** Ken Vandermark, etc. c.o.d.e. Mal Waldron The Memorial Album ****

Latest downloads Barry Altschul You Can't Name Your Own Tune Kenny Barron Live (in Tokyo) Anthony Braxton Trio & Duet Agusti Fernandez Lonely Woman Georg Graewe Continuum Tom Harrell Roman Nights Frank Kimbrough Rumors Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Portraits in Seven Shades Kronos Quartet Music of Central Asia Vol. 8: Rainbow Alison Miller Boom Tic Boom The New York Repertory Jazz Orchestra Le Jazz Hot Chris Wiesendanger Urban Village

First concert was Mountain with Black Oak Arkansas at the Oklahoma City Civic Center in 1970 or 1971. My ears rang for a week. My first jazz-ish concert was John McLaughlin with one of the later versions of Mahavishnu Orchestra opening for Boz Scaggs (pre-Silk Degrees) and the Guess Who at the OKC Fairgrounds arena in 1974(?). McLaughlin's amp blew about 30 seconds into the set and Jean-Luc Ponty had to cover most of the solos. John just stood there and vamped with a very embarrassed look on his face. I'd guess that 90-percent of the audience was not paying attention to McLaughlin's set anyway. The same with Boz Scaggs, who had a smoking band that night. My friends and I were standing right in front of the stage during both sets, but when the Guess Who came on we turned around and saw a sea of 12-year-olds and their moms surging forward. Needless to say we beat a hasty retreat. Unless you count Zappa or Santana during his "Love, Devotion, and Surrender" phase, my first "pure" jazz concert was either Sam Rivers and Dave Holland or Jack DeJohnette's New Directions. Both were pretty sweet.

Nice! Kenny's one of my favorites.

Latest downloads: Geri Allen Flying Toward the Sound Globe Unity Orchestra Globe Unity 67 & 70 John Hebert Byzantine Monkey Ahmad Jamal Chicago Rvisited: Live At Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase Mike Ledonne The Groover Fats Navarro Nostalga Bud Powell Blue Note Cafe, Paris, 1961 Enrico Rava, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz Play Rava Alexander Von Schlippenbach Globe Unity - 40 Years Aki Takasa / Rudi Mahall Evergreen Aki Takasa / Alexander Von Schlippenbach Iron Wedding Horace Tapscott aiee! The Phantom Tin Hat Foreign Legion Mal Waldron Hard Talk

Here are my February downloads: Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown Varmint Anthony Braxton Six Compositions (quartet) 1984 Anthony Braxton Six Monk's Compositions (1987) Sylvie Courvoiser, Ikue Mori, Lotte Anker Alien Huddle Bill Dixon Tapestries for Small Orchestra Curtis Fuller Blues-Ette Barry Guy Phases of the night Ahmad Jamal l'Olympia 2000 Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Al Hibler A Meeting of the Times Steve Lacy The Beat Suite Myra Melford's Be Bread The Whole Tree Gone Mostly Other People Do the Killing Shamokin!!! Evan Parker Birmingham Concert Respect Sextet Plays the Music of Sun Ra & Karlheinz Stckhausen Malachi Thompson & Africa Brass Buddy Bolden's Rag Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet Tabligh Aki Takaske Plays Fats Waller Aki Takaske St. Louis Blues Cecil Taylor Jumpin' Punkins Trio 3 Berne Concert Trio 3 + Geri Allen At This Time Mal Waldron with Steve Lacy Sempe Amore This is two download cycles, by the way.

"Green Grass," the lead track on Varmint, the latest release from Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown (Cuneiform).

I finally gave up and canceled my membership. I've "mined" the site for as much ECM, Blue Note, and Verve as I need. Was a nice run. I'll check back with 'em in a year or so to see if things have change.

Apparently some quasi-legal European reissue house, probably out of Italy or some other country where copyright laws are very... shall we say... lenient.

My cue is almost empty and I'm not seeing a lot of "new" titles being added. Unless a significant slice of ECM, Verve and/or Blue Note tiles drop soon, I'll be out of there in the next month or so.

That's easy, its ME! Luckily no recordings are in circulation.

Sent Intakt an e-mail this week asking when more of their catalog would be available for download. Here's the reply: "thanks a lot for your interest in our downloadable albums. we will make our backcatalog available as download step by step. "we have a list of all available albums with direct links to several stores: http://www.intaktrec.ch/download-a.htm "the next 2-3 weeks there will be added some more albums. which will be: Lonelyville (Sylvie Courvoisier) The Compass, Log and Lead (Fred Firth) 11 Songs – Aus Teutschen Landen (Zentralquartett) Cutter Heads (Fred Frith & Chris Brown) DIE ENTTÄUSCHUNG (self-titled... 2007 release) First Choice - Piano Solo KKL Luzern (Irène Schweizer) Loops, Holes & Angels (Co Streiff Sextet) Quartette (Ulrich Gumpert) Solo Willisau (Anthony Braxton) Tales from 30 Unintentional Nights (Koch Schütz Studer) Urumchi (Saadet Türköz) Wisdom in Time (Wadada Leo Smith & Günter Baby Sommer) "Kind regards George Bauer, Intaktrecords-Staff" These are 2006 & 2007 releases. Amazon says they'll be available on February third. I'm especially interested in the Die Enttauschung title. I'm sure I won't be disappointed (pun intended). And I can't wait to start wading through the rest of that back catalog. I've been lusting for a copy of Alexander von Schlippenbach's epic "Monk's Casino," its not in this batch... so I may just have to shell out some bucks for a hard copy.

Thank you so much for this suggestion. I downloaded it from eMusic yesterday and used it for my wake up album this morning. Wonderful, peaceful, inventive music.

Alexander von Schlippenbach Plays Monk is an amazing homage to the master.

This has been a good year for new releases, but if I have to list just ten then these are the ones: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Infernal Machines Andy Sheppard - Movements In Colour Jon Hassell - Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street John Hollenbeck - Eternal Interlude Stefano Bolliani Trio - Stone in the Water John Surman - Brewster's Rooster John Zorn / The Dreamers - O'o Diego Barber - Calima Masada Quintet w/ Joe Lovano - Stolas: Book of Angels Vol. 12 Christophe Pays - Ellipse