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I saw him live a couple of times with Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) and enjoyed their recorded duets - will put one on now. Great drummer. Real shame.

Complete Remastered Charlie Haden on Black Saint & Soul Note 5CDs currently Old and New Dreams. Charlie's just great throughout this

For those worried about Grooves Inc order, my Haden box just arrived today. All fine, just a matter of days after despatch notification (29/3) so the within europe timescale seems very efficient. Placed my order 24/3 so more than happy with the service. Thanks again Romauldo for highlighting this source. As for the sleevenotes? You'll need one helluva magnifying glass to read them on some of the repro sleeves. On others the font size is just readable without.

This is good news. I have a couple of titles on Braxton House, but missed a bunch of them when they first came out. Maybe he'll consider reprinting the back catalog as there is a lot of great music there. All 8 CDs are still in stock at Downtown Music Gallery. Really??? Aren't these as rare as hen's teeth nowadays? I purchased Sextet (Istanbul) 1996 from DMG a couple of months ago. Price seemd very fair and in no way over-inflated considering limited availability - not a "hen's teeth' price. Definitely advise you check them out if you are interested in the Braxton Houses

FWIW I wholeheartedly agree. I'd struggled to 'connect' with previous GTM (my problem, not the music's) but gave it one more try with 4 Comps (GTM) 2006 and was bowled over. I think too maybe because there is less "obvious repitition". It was the presence of Siegel that probably tipped the scales for me as I'd enjoyed his work with Memorize the Sky so much. AB's playing is marvellous throughout and the band have a cohesion and understanding reminiscent to me of the Crispell etc quartet. Four discs is a lot of anyone's music but this is music to immerse oneself in.

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band at hammersmith Odeon, London. October 1977. On the journey to the gig we read in the evening paper of the airplane crash that killed members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I remember a poignant recognition of this from the stage. Great gig. Haven't listened to his mucic in years now

Romauldo, thanks for the tip on Grooves-Inc,. Not heard of them before but just decided to put them to the test with the Haden set. A very fair price so if they deliver I suspect I'll be back for the Threadgill

short interview with Mr Motian here http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2010/03/10/segments/151425 not the most penetrating but....

Thanks for the review Ubu. I'm seeing them in London on wednesday. I hope they do for me what they did for you! I saw Iyer play solo last year and that was a fascinating evening's music so really looking for to the duo

Stefan, thanks for these impressions - feel this is becoming a 'must buy'

Bol, glad it worked for you. If you're particular interest is Lazro then you may like to know about this label http://www.emouvance.com/ another musician-led label, I believe, that again I've successfully ordered from

adding this with a spoiler alert as the link takes you to a very interesting article which I think is also included in the booklet so if you want to have it fresh and new from your booklet don't read this http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD27/PoD27Muntu.html but if you're just interested to know more....

this looks such an intriguing release. I'd love to hear your impressions of the music when you've listened some more, Stefan. I'm also interested to know about the quality of the live recordings - i'm no audiophile so as long as the music comes through that's more important to me. The sampled soundclips sound good enough

Well, I saw there are some vinyl copies of X-75 floating about for $25 or so. However, you might want to hold off for the Mosaic, which apparently will also have the unreleased X-75 (vol 2):Threadgill Mosaic. I'm a bit on the fence. I wasn't at all interested in the Braxton set, but this potentially has more appeal to me. I'll have to listen to the clips when they are available. More discussion here (Threadgill thread) Thanks ejp. I've got nearly all of the threadgill slated for that box so X-75 is the missing piece of the jigsaw. May be worth the $ but postage to UK and possible import tax will take it nearer to $45 so will wait and see. I have now heard it via a blog and it is an intriguing set. FWIW there's some very good music in the Threadgill box and may well be worth coming off the fence for if you're into his idiosyncratic soundworld

in the good old days of cassettes it was easy but now? possibly naive of me but how does one save such a session now(IT dinosaur alert!) ? I'd dearly love to be able to revisit this session many times

Looks like it's Sunday at Pizza Express - very tempting Sun-21-Feb (6:30pm): Keith & Julie Tippett: ‘Couple in Spirit’ Show Time 8:00pm / Doors Open 6:30pm

Bev, do try Blueprint again. It is a marvellous example of quietly presented improvisation, marvellous interraction between the musicians throughout. Do beware a frightening block chord from KT on one of the tracks that comes amidst a very quiet passage - it'll make you spill those rice krispies! I too thought it was a very interesting programme and that KT proved a fascinating and rather modest interviewee. I'm off to try and track down some solo recordings - a gap in my collection

I've just finished listening to this excellent session - congrats to Alex and the ensemble for such an intriguing, challenging yet accessible set of performances. It was good to hear some of the tunes from the album played anew with new perspectives revealed. This Ensemble really does, to my ears, have a unique sound - the combination of strings with the piano and pans moves the focus back and forth between the lead and 'accompanying' instruments. There seems a rigorous integrity to the playing throughout that doesn't make the music in the least studied but seems to open the way for composition and improvisation to work together to provide both a depth and lightness to the tunes - it's got toe-tapping, head-nodding groove throughout. Kazoo magic! I was pleased to hear mention of Henry Threadgill in the interesting chat before the session - some of my immediate reactions to the album had been to think of that Threagill 'wonky march' time but also the use of cello to underpin the ensemble in his Sextett (I'm off to hunt down Threadgill's X-75 after its mention - expensive I suspect). I've also been listening a lot to the Anthony Davis/Jame Newton/Abdul Wadud axis of groups and there seems a link to these here too. Time to listen-again, again. Alex, please persuade the beeb to release the tapes to the public now - a week's not long enough

Hi Bol, I purchased from them a few months ago and the service was fine. I received email responses to a question about the line-up of a disc and they subsequently adjusted my order with no trouble. They tolerated my very poor French and i think we ended the correspondence in English. hope it works out for you

also Wadada's the cover star(!) and feature interview in current issue (feb) of Wire. Magazine details, not interview here http://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/current/

Hidden voices - Anthony Davis/James Newton Quartet (India Navigation) special guest George Lewis is indeed special on the first cut, side 2

heavens Bev, you'll have Alex throwing knives into his Hammond a la Keith Emerson soon. Now that was a stage show to avoid (and music to avoid too IMHO) now the harpsichord album? would john edwards be playing thereobo on that one. a sort of early music/baroque/improv session...

Bill Dixon/Aaron Siegel/Ben Hall - Weight/Counterweight. Brokenresearch records beautifully presented and recorded trio session. Only arrived this morning so on first listen-through but sounding like a must for any fans of Mr Dixon

Yes, I'd agree this has been a really fruitful thread. I'd like to add Momentum by Dave Burrell 3 (Micheal Formanek, Guillermo E.Brown) on High Two (thru AUM)http://www.aumfidelity.com/home.htm endlessly inventive and percussive. Great recording too

Indeed! This one is pretty incredible - Favre/Kowald/Schweizer from '68 Also a lot of love in these parts for the Howard Riley trios of the late '60s and early '70s. wow, didn't know about that one, looks very interesting. I'd like to throw into the mix the recordings of Triptych Myth, Cooper-Moore, Tom Abbs and Chad Taylor on AUM Fidelity and maybe more obscurely on Hopscotch.