ep1str0phy

Saw the Threadgill show at Herbst last night. Sadly underattended, but the audience that was there showed up to listen. I sure as hell hope that this doesn't bode poorly for booking more adventurous acts at SF Jazz, the latter of which is notorious around here for the general conservatism of its lineups and tendency to avoid local acts. Moving tickets is important, yes, but I'm glad the institution took some chances this year and brought Threadgill to an audience that has been STARVED for star power of the so-called "free jazz" variety. It was a fine concert. Highlights: (1) I'll second Philly's statements in that we need a current recording of this group, if only because the new cello player is killing it. And not a weak link in the band. (2) They're an even stronger performing unit live than on recording, although the band was very, very poorly served by the hall. The mic'ing helped, but didn't fix things. The sound was overwhelmingly bass-y and tended to swallow up the higher frequencies of the less trebly instruments (i.e., flute, bass). (3) The first of only a handful of alto pieces was arguably the strongest performance of the night and maybe one of single most amazing alto performances I've seen in my life. The whole band did a fine job, but Threadgill was amazing on that one. I recall the Penguin guide discussing Miles's "knife fighter" restraint, and Threadgill had that in spades here. I also remember discussion about Miles's ability to "bring the band" to himself, which is clearly a skill that Threadgill has mastered. His playing on alto is so detailed, so dynamic (both in terms of volume and conceptual flow)... the closest thing I've heard to Dolphy's solo on "Mendacity"--something brutal, tough, and true, kind of lugubrious but fluid and unstoppable. Like mud (in a good way). Some Sonny Criss in there, Benny Carter, even a bit of Ayler. Just ecstatically powerful. (4) Kavee. I'm not sure how much direction Threadgill gives the band in terms of groove or rhythmic approach--and I do think that it is a strength of this ensemble precisely how countable/rhythmically lucid it all is, and how harmonically clear it can be, in spite of all the detail--but Kavee is kind of the living dictate to "groove" in this band. The way he displaces accents, turns the beat all around, and propels with stasis is very similar to the way a skilled laptop producer can turn a regular beat into something really malleable and alive. The difference is that he's doing it live and his sound is the thing of a jazz drummer. Regarding the debate above... this is improvised music in nature, so I feel like whether or not you could make the same sounds by composing is kind of a non-issue. Zooid is very science-y in quality and unfinished in a way that none of Threadgill's bands seem to have been in the past. Whatever the case, part of the crux of this music seems to be how and that it can happen in this kind of improvised situation. The band sounds as large as an orchestra with as much timbral detail as a chamber ensemble--and can push with the dynamism of a jazz band--moving between extremes with something that sounds really spontaneous. You can't write that feeling out--I do hesitate to call it magic, but it's "jazz." These improbable, spontaneous unison downbeats, crescendos/decrescendos, transformations in time feel, sound completely technically right but improvised and alive in a way that relates much more closely to, say, the Jazz Messengers than anything else. (Also, you can't have the "rhythm section" working like this and keep it closer to the realm of composition. It just won't work. It would take ages to write it out in just the right way, and you'd have to get a jazz drummer, or at least a classical percussionist with extensive jazz experience, to play it right. That's a lot of ifs.)

RIP. There's something special in all of it, though the quartet music with Frank Wright holds a special place for me. I'd venture to say that it's in the top tier of energy music.

I looove his playing in the company of reedists of comparable weight (any number of groups with Mike Osborne and John Surman, the Brotherhood). He's such a precise and at times relentless player that it helps to have something a little rough or grainy to mix in. I went nuts when I saw the lineup for Once Upon A Time, but I have to admit to being a little disappointed upon listening. The album has the overall sonority and character of the 2nd Miles Quintet (with analogous instrumentation), but the ensemble lacks the chattery looseness of the Miles band. Beautiful music, but a little steely in a way that's failed to engage me on an emotional level. I honestly find this to be the case with many of the albums that have come under the Vocalion banner (which does more or less encompass a school or community of UK jazz players), and I've done a substantial amount of listening (and continue to do so) to alter this assessment... (Speaking a bit to the above, although a little off-topic) I do feel to an extent that, in broader terms, the most really "alive" improvised music to come out of the 60's/70's UK tended to embrace the aforementioned austerity and either take it to its logical extreme (Derek Bailey's serial-sounding free music, which seems at times to aspire to such iciness that it winds up in some weird, beautiful, craggy middle ground--or Evan Parker's music, which is so exact and mechanically powerful that it gets a little emotionally overwhelming) or introduce rogue elements (the infusion of South African players who are, in sound and predilection, almost the polar opposite of folks like Surman, Skidmore, etc.--and because of that maybe the best suited collaborators).

Heard about this a little late, but best wishes to all and, of course, many, many thanks for this site. Coming to terms with the realities of band logistics, geography, etc., is an unreal pain, but such is the life--the music makes up for it...

I'm not sure about the provenance or even if my memory is a little clouded, but I feel pretty certain that I saw a CD copy of Step By Step in the LA Amoeba several years back. It could have been an import, if the artificially high used CD price was any indication.

Glad to be reminded of Houle, Moore, Sclavis, and Rahsaan, in particular! Also, entrenched as I am in the Bay Area scene, I'd be a little remiss if I didn't mention local clarinet powerhouse Ben Goldberg. He has a fantastically strong tone and a real understanding of the inside/outside paradigm... and his experiments in "out" klezmer music allegedly inspired Zorn to take up the Masada concept (and probably bettered the latter on more than one occasion).

Welcome--and, also, good call on Tardy. I think that last Hill album is a gem.

Great call on Collette. For my part, I'll say John Carter, George Lewis, Bechet, Giuffre, Pee Wee Russell, Perry Robertson, and Don Byron among the younger set. I'd mention strong doublers like Dolphy and any number of AACM guys, but clarinet for these folks is often part and parcel with a larger reed conception in a way that it isn't with the aforementioned.

Yes, Marion Brown. I also thought of Trevor Watts, who kills it on John Stevens's No Fear, but I think his soprano sax playing is even more exceptional. (Bare Essentials is probably my favorite album of that school of improv, like a super minimal Interstellar Space),

I can't believe I forgot Threadgill and Criss. Sonny's Dream alone is sufficient legacy for the latter. Threadgill, as far as I'm concerned, registers one of the few truly original and simultaneously current musical conceptions of anyone in jazz. Zooid's output has been some of the only real "blow your mind" improvised music I've heard in the past few years. Speaking of composer/altos--good ones, but not necessarily favorites--I have been struck by Steve Lehman's octet music. I know that he hasn't gotten the best reception in these and related circles (I recall Allen not liking it), but I'm surprised there hasn't been at least some real discussion, positive or negative, on this music--considering its prominence in some of the mainstream jazz discourse (as of late). I could take or leave the brute theory of integrating spectral analysis into jazz composition, but somehow the prominence of these components in his music draws the explicit jazz aspects (harmonies, "sectional" groupings, the melodic and rhythmic content of the solos) into starker relief. It can get somewhat monotonous, but like Threadgill's music it offers a way out of the neocon/free dyad/morass that is totally constructive in character (which I endorse 100%). Oh--and I can't stress enough that, if I'm in the right mood, I can take Dudu and blow everything else to hell. It's that powerful.

Ornette, Dolphy, Dudu Pukwana, Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Mike Osborne, Jimmy Lyons, Jackie McLean, Bird, Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe. I just realized that that's a really acute modernist/postmodernist bent but, hey, whatever... I think there's another list for altos who have intermittently blown my mind but not in any sort of career spanning way (Ernie Henry, Michael Sessions, Hodges, Cannonball, Konitz, etc.) Oh--and say what you will about James Spaulding--he kills it with Charles Tolliver and on the handful of prime Blue Notes (Solid, Components) that suit his vocalistic modal bent.

Ugh. Death is killing me. Breuker was a master at his own table.

Very sad to hear this. I always loved his playing with the Brotherhood and its derivative groups. His tone was a round, bursting, burnished thing--powerful and instantly recognizable. He had this sort of internal gravity that rearranged and made better every sound around him. His playing on Mike Osborne's Outback, for one, is some of my very favorite trumpet playing ever.

I wonder if there are players who are better as a sideman than leader? As if the player thinks "It's not my name on it -- it won't 'cost' me anything to take chances..." When it comes to his own name, he plays it safe: "Don't want to scare anyone away..." As an aside on this topic, I've often thought the reverse, that in many cases a sideman/woman will reserve his/her best ideas for his/her own record. I find the cases where the sideperson stands out to be a minority, and often notable for that reason. Yes I thought someone would say that. You rightly infer that I never heard that stuff - it's about all of his that I don't actually own. I guess I'll buy in those Steeplechase LPs - I seem to remember Jim recommmending Montmartre. About ten years ago. Damn. This is a bit of a digression from the thread concept, but there have always been folks who tend to knock me out more as "sidepeople" than when they're in the "lead" role. Bill Frisell is the name that immediately springs to mind here. I *love* his playing, have thoroughly enjoyed most of the live performances I've witnessed, but many of his own recordings tend to leave me unmoved. In fact, my favorite is still Rambler on ECM, which was a long, long time ago... I'm somewhat of this mindset. Fred Frith (a master of sound production on the guitar, of all types) hipped me to Frisell a while ago; I'd taken him to be kind of drossy up until then, only now and again popping up (as on the much-maligned Fragments, which I actually quite like) as a force to be reckoned with. He is, of course, mired in this Americana thing these days, which I've come to appreciate as very accomplished on a technical level (within its own parameters)... but then a friend gave me a copy of Paul Motian's The Story of Maryam, and it completely blew my mind. That type of playing, in a free jazz-type idiom, is stone free in the best possible way--a realization of the guitar as a dynamic, timbrally flexible frontline instrument. I'm not the hugest fan of his aesthetic, necessarily, but in terms of sheer technical prowess, Frisell is the MF of all MFs. That level of sound production/pedal mastery is totally limitless. His volume pedal technique is flawless, and his extremely well-elided, seamlessly integrated pedal work operates at a very high level. More than that, it's easy to forget just how difficult it is to control the nuances of a solid body electric guitar with jacked up treble (especially on the Telecasters that Frisell seems to favor), but he does it very, very well. Something that has impressed me about Frisell (and Frith, too, for that matter) is just how little erratic noise there is in their playing--all the little clicks, blips, and squeaks that jazz guitarists often hazard are almost totally absent in their playing--and a lot of that is good volume pedal technique. ...so I regard Frisell as a virtuoso in his own right--not often (or even half of the time) the kind of listening that I'll go to (as a leader), but something I'll always appreciate and love to hear when the fire is lit.

RIP. I'm glad so much of his music was recorded, as of late; he leaves a fine legacy and a lot, yet, to learn from.

Thanks, B.

Just like to mention that I picked up Weight/Counterweight yesterday. It has to be the best new(er) release I've heard in a long, long time. Sparse, completely unforced, simultaneously dynamic and subdued... in some weird way, it captures the special "vibe" of Get Up With It-era Miles with 100% more flexibility. Ambient free jazz might be the best way to put it--a completely different idiom--even more so than the Soul Note group recordings (which I love). It's a testament to the man's continued development...

I didn't and still don't know his music in and out--he certainly feels like the most elusive of the first wave "free" innovators. Even listening to a minute of his music, it's certainly hard to ignore the sense that his was a dark, complex, beautiful energy. Sad that he's gone, but his music is a gift that keeps giving... I think he'll be listened to for a long time to come, and it's likely (speaking for myself) that I'll never get to the end of how deep that music was/is.

Although I enjoy both Coltrane and post-Coltrane phases of Tyner, I find the former to be muscular and precise while the latter to be almost icily virtuosic, maybe a little blustery. He has always had a sort of distant, diamond-hard quality (especially compared to Trane's vocalistic passion), but it's almost too tough post-Blue Note--amazing to hear, but difficult to "warm" to, if that makes sense.

The Expression version of Coltrane's "Ogunde." I never understood the simple elegance of it until now.

Point taken, but I still don't want to buy the Mosaic just to find out the music doesn't really speak to me. I think even the recent 4 CD set might be too much. I am a bit more interested in the John Carter Select. I do have Castles of Ghana and a few others, but I still don't reach for them that often. I am trying to re-prioritize and maybe having hundreds of CDs on the shelves that I never listen to isn't the way I should play out the second half of my life. I have one bookcase of the most important CDs (maybe 300) and I could sell all the rest off and probably never notice the difference. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, especially as the second hand CD market looks set to collapse as well. Castles of Ghana--or, really, any of those later Gramavision albums--are actually pretty different from Carter's earlier (pre-90's efforts). Even the earlier Dauwhe, which is from the same "series" of albums, comes across as slightly more organic, warmer, and musically self-contained (the programmatic qualities of the "Roots and Folklore" cycle seem to grow in prominence with the later albums). While it's fascinating to hear Carter delve into this actually pretty unique language--nothing really sounds like those Gramavision albums--his earlier sides with Bradford (from the duos on Emanem to the material that will be included on the box) are certainly somewhat "tastier" and maybe easier to digest on a casual basis. Instrumentation-wise there is, of course, a strong post-Ornette component, but both Carter and Bradford come from such unique harmonic bags that the similarities are really only facile; the music sounds changes-less but develops with its own sense of logic (that is--if you're attuned to Atlantic Ornette at all, it's not really the same thing). On a completely different level, Carter was a great sax player but an even more virtuosic clarinetist. His sax work on the earliest sides with Bradford, anyway, is nothing to be embarrassed about--it does any number of Ornette (or Coltrane, for that matter) clones to shame. But his clarinet stuff is unparalleled in this context. (Bradford told me how Carter had been playing with a collapsed lung in the final stages of his life; apparently, it took a doctor's visit for him to even realize that he'd be blowing with a crippling respiratory problem for some time...)

Can't say that I am--good stuff? Some, yeah. Some real remixes, using all sorts of tools and sources, and some mashups. Not all of it works, but when it is good, it is good. Here's a mashup - not perfect, but almost: http://www.youtube.c...feature=related Whoa--the missing Em-A7 in the first line is a real harmonic mindf**k. I mean it resolves, but--for a second--it's kind of floating there. The "stroke of genius" for me is the guitar solo. For real. And oh yeah - that bridge is nice too. Real nice. Amazing. All the subtle time manipulations and the reharmonizations--beautiful. Superimposing that guitar solo into a new context--I almost don't notice that it's flown in from somewhere else.

Can't say that I am--good stuff? Some, yeah. Some real remixes, using all sorts of tools and sources, and some mashups. Not all of it works, but when it is good, it is good. Here's a mashup - not perfect, but almost: Whoa--the missing Em-A7 in the first line is a real harmonic mindf**k. I mean it resolves, but--for a second--it's kind of floating there.

Can't say that I am--good stuff? This is interesting, at least: You Never Give Me Your Money

I had no idea Ornette stuff was a part of the Orchestrion project--maybe I should pay closer attention this time. Agreed on Song X, by the way. That duo track never fails to blow my mind. I think Metheny may come after only Cherry and Redman as a frontline player capable of meeting Ornette on his own melodic terms.