ep1str0phy

Well, if you put it that way...

I think that these are two of my favorite ESPs. Probably won't happen, but I do hope there's something to amend to that Charles Tyler album... what's there is fantastic. I go back and forth between Vietnam and The People's Republic, but I think the former may have more "gravitas" (whatever that means).

Damn, you're right... Higgins did record with Coltrane (albeit not in the "classic" quartet context that I had originally been thinking of). Richard Davis's recorded legacy definitely stops just outside of the mainstream; I think he's one of those voices who would be really effective in a more idiomatically free context (like, for example, playing with Brotzmann), but for whatever reason just hasn't gone in that direction too fervently. I am always surprised, however, when I consider he recorded with AACM guys in the Creative Construction Company. Not on record, but didn't Richard Davis very temporarily hold the bass chair in Miles's 2nd quintet? For that matter, wasn't he in Coltrane's group at some point (in lieu of Garrison)?

That would make sense--but could you think of someone other than Cherry who's as dominant in that area of creative music? It's actually kind of weird. For example: as far as drummers are concerned, I think the only one to have recorded with Cecil, Ornette, and Coltrane is Elvin Jones. Maybe it's because the role of the rhythm section became so specialized at the advent of free jazz; the "genre" was so dispersed that it was more difficult for personnel to transfer (I can think of a few rhythm section players, like Henry Grimes, who are sort-of exceptions to that rule, though).

Ballard played with Coltrane, too! Very impressive. I hadn't really thought of Duvivier, but for sheer volume, he's on a lot of sessions, playing with a lot of people.

As far as I can tell, Don Cherry was the only person to work on record with Ornette, Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, and Albert Ayler. He also played with (leaving a lot out): Muhal Richard Abrams, Billy Bang, Gato Barbieri, Han Bennink, Tim Berne, Arthur Blythe, Lester Bowie, Peter Brotzmann, Carla Bley, Paul Bley, Willem Breuker, Tom Cora, Johnny Dyani, Chico Freeman, Fred Frith, Gunter Hampel, Al Heath, Fred Van Hove, Bobby Hutcherson, Abdullah Ibrahim, Leroy Jenkins, Steve Lacy, Oliver Lake, Prince Lasha, Yusef Lateef, George Lewis, Jaki Liebezeit, Charles Moffett, Tete Montoliu, J.C. Moses, Famoudou Don Moye, Sunny Murray, Gary Peacock, Buschi Niebergall, Makaya Ntshoko, Jim Pepper, Dudu Pukwana, Dewey Redman, Lou Reed, Sonny Rollins, Aldo Romano, Charlie Rouse, Roswell Rudd, George Russell, Phaorah Sanders, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Manfred Schoof, Archie Shepp, Sonny Simmons, John Stevens, John Tchicai, Okay Temiz, Trevor Watts, Eberhard Weber, Norma Winstone, Frank Zappa, John Zorn I don't think he actually played on the Penderecki piece on Actions, correct me if I'm wrong. I left a lot out and probably missed quite a few, but this might be the most impressive cross-section of "creative music" pioneers any one person has played with, post-1960 to like the 80's, that I can think of. Between Cherry, Haden, and Higgins, I think you have most avenues of jazz-derived improv flat out covered: most hard bop/post-bop pioneers, almost all of the initial waves of free jazz, members of the AACM, BAG, UGMAA, CBA... all the way up to avant-rock and Haden appearing on Odelay. Can anyone think of anyone who has played with this many "big" people? Who was Cherry's equivalent in preceding generations? I can also imagine in, say, rock or free improv avenues, Fred Frith or Derek Bailey may have as impressive a resume.

I'll throw Message to Our Folks and Jackson in there, too. Anyone notice how the basic rhythmic figure used in "Rock Out" is the same as the "refrain"/end verse tag in "Theme De Yoyo"?

Christ, has it been that long since these were released? I think there's one credentialed "Classic" in the AEC releases, and that's Phase One. You could take or leave the other two for me; Certain Blacks is just fun, whereas the w/Fontella Bass album is detailed and rich in early AEC fashion but without the majesty and drama of some of their other long-form sound pieces (I'm thinking of People In Sorrow or the long pieces on the Nessa box). I think at some point that Phase One emerged as my favorite--one of their most brilliant "little instrument" pieces (the Albert Ayler dedication) paired with what is for me the definitive version of "Ohnedaruth"... much slower than in later years, but with a very deliberate, focused construction, ferociously swinging, and featuring maybe the best sustained freebop showcase for the band as a collective of soloists. With the Nessa box, Sophie, and People In Sorrow, I think you have pretty much the band's most eye-opening, startling work (though I might include some later essays with "best" and, honorarily, Sound for mindfucks--but that's Roscoe's album).

I've encountered the behavior Allen's mentioned among some members of my age group. At the same time, some of the most professional people I've ever met were/are acting like adults in their early-mid 20's. Is no one so immature in their youth? I'd like to think, and experience partly confirms it, that no one who isn't acceptably serious about the profession, whether or not he/she subsists on music alone, ultimately leaves/gets weeded out. At the same time, I've experienced a lot of very immature, very unprofessional behavior from some "high level" musicians. I can't speak to the apparent, widespread failure of my generation to treat people with civility, since I'm already, by nature, a misanthrope and will take anything the wrong way. Notably, those situations in which I've found musicians in general (younger ones particularly) least "in the game" about the music have been, precisely, low-paying, low-profile gigs. I think that, in some ways, I've grown up with the "as serious as your life" mantra and regret the contempt that I viscerally feel in those situations wherein folks don't treat the grunt work of the profession with some degree of initiative. I think that anybody is so, so, so lucky to be playing music, or (as is often the case in the Bay) doing music-related stuff like teaching and gigging for a living. (I recall Derek Bailey calling bullshit on people who would rather work in a factory than play commercial music or something to that effect... (paraphrasing) "...then you haven't worked in a factory.")

Jack Wilson also did a version of "The Sphinx" that I'm partial to, and there was also Hutcherson's boppish take on "Una Muy Bonita," which is fantastic in its own way. A lot of "mainstream" folks took to Ornette's themes like fish to water (did I just mangle that idiom?).

That's what I thought... Another random "what if" moment, but it would have been cool to have seen Trane operate more explicitly in/with non-Western tuning systems and metrical organization, if Maneri could have had something to do with that. I guess the way that Trane grappled with the latter, at least, was with his extensive use of uneven subdivisions in his phrasing, the improvised superimposition of meters with Elvin (or "time feel" in general with Rasheid)... I would imagine though, that after where the story ended, the next step would be to get "bigger" (orchestral) and/or reorganize (alternative instrumentation, new types of song/improv structure, etc). Also interesting to imagine Maneri sitting in/getting to know the late Coltrane, who for a period seemed to be the saint of black cultural nationalism in the jazz community; it would totally complicate the historiography of Trane's part of the revolution as a "black thing."

Thanks, Steve. I actually did just hear Dahabenzapple for the first time the other day, and I'm trying to figure out what there is not to get. (It's been a long time since I tried to tackle this music, but I guess my temperament changed). Very, very interesting hearing McBee in this context--he fits in swimmingly, even though I'd always thought of him as more of an explicitly idiomatic player (Moncur III's Some Other Stuff should have told me otherwise, but there you go). (Kind of a tangent, but interesting comparison to how the McBee/Cyrille duo was flowing in for Horace Tapscott's Dark Tree gig--not the regular bass/drums combo by any means, but it works well. Was McBee a regular part of this group, or an idea for the just the session/of the producer's?) I'm having trouble figuring out who the "big guy" is, honestly. Who died at 41? Bud Powell?

It's actually the title sequence track, which I'm assuming went a long way toward introducing random moviegoers to Maneri's music (probably Pekar's doing). Completely tangential, but having done some Ayler research a while back, I came across some of Pekar's old reviews... agree with much of his taste, if not with the way he articulates(ed) his enthusiasm/lack thereof (a lukewarm review of Spirits Rejoice, IIRC, is kind of embarrassing to read now). Listening more to his music in the past couple days, I think I find it easier to connect to Maneri on a visceral, rather than intellectual level. On that note, I think P.L.M is right on in that a lot of the music isn't really more "difficult" than a Roscoe solo album. If you can get past (or, maybe, get deep into) the formal abstraction, the music is very pungent and human.

Yes, birthdays definitely better than deaths. Cheers to one of the greats.

Sonny is my hero, straight up. The two pillars of his recordings for me are Ask the Ages and Black Woman--the former maybe the most flawlessly epic "trad" free jazz album of the 90's, the latter one of the most jagged and brutal "free" or "guitar" albums period. Sonny is one of the few musicians I've ever heard from whom I've liked pretty much everything (even, to a lesser degree, the very poppy Highlife). I do recall, though, Sonny somehwere putting down Paradise, and I agree with a vengeance--it runs the gamut from pap to shit, with all of ten minutes across the album of genuinely cool stuff. Wish there was more of Sonny's early, pre-distortion, semi-hollow, walking on glass phase in circulation. There was that one Sonny/Sunny Murray duet track circulating a while ago that sounded fantastic. I'm happy, I guess, with his occasional emergence on other peoples' albums and his handful of leader dates from the late 60's.

Actually just got a copy of Peace Concert, based on clifford's rec. It's absolutely ahead of it's time, as far as "jazz improvisation" goes--though, as the liners make clear, Joe wasn't necessarily apart of the whole free jazz thing.

From the same period, Peace Concert on Atavistic is real nice. Thanks--hadn't heard of this one... I'll check it out.

I found Paniots Nine, though I know it's not really representitive of the larger body of Maneri's work, to be really accessible. It seems like everyone is doing vampy, mixed meter (sometimes klezmerish) jazz these days... prescient music. I do often feel as if a structurally coherent, pantonal or pan-rhythmic/metrical approach has more to do with where creative music is going than idiomatic free improvisation (but then free improvisation as praxis is ageless and useful in any medium, so yeah...). I've honestly not not enjoyed and Maneri I've heard. I recall being nonplussed at Going to Church when I first heard it, but I don't think I've ever had any issues over where J Maneri's music was/has been coming from. Maybe I'm just not deep enough in it to formulate a more critical opinion... RIP to a man who stuck to his guns.

Unreal--quartet? That lineup sounds great. I'm listening to Original Phalanx right now. Great, very original band. I'm warmed up for my gig earlier this evening by playing along with Touchin' On Trane--totally wiped me out... but hey, my chops were in order for the show.

Also, that Rashied Ali Quintet album with early James "Blood" Ulmer on guitar is a stone favorite of mine. That's probably my favorite Ulmer, and Rashied's solos on that one are killin'.... Funny--I remember thinking earlier yesterday about what my favorite albums were, coming to the conclusion that, yeah, Interstellar Space would have to be at the very very top. I had no idea that Muhammad Ali was still alive, and, if so, I'd love to hear what he sounds like today. Talented family with some important, beautiful talent.

I just learned about this at a gig late yesterday--literally--this and Les Paul's passing, right before we hit. Got to see Rashied with Sonny Fortune at the old LA Jazz Bakery a few years back... played one tune a set (Giant Steps and Satellite?)--45 minutes, nonstop, Interstellar Space style. I was enraptured. Fck you, Death. Fck you.

I'd just like to the point out that I obtained a copy of the Bradford/Stevens disc yesterday, and the sound is phenomenal. I hadn't heard these sessions, but I am familiar with other recordings by iterations of this band, and this is clearly the only time I think I've ever really heard the sonic "impact" of the group. Julie Tippetts and Ron Herman are, here, lucid and animate in a way that I had not anticipated; I recall a review of the RVG of Dolphy's Out to Lunch that referred to the sound of Richard Davis's bass as "holographic," and that certainly applies to the voice and bass on this recording. Better still is that, especially in comparison to some of the musically fantastic but sonically dreadful Stevens/Watts reissues that have cropped up out of FMR, the drums have a more noticeable punch and dynamism. I didn't think it was possible for a remastering job to so totally affect the way that I hear a group of musicians, but just on first impressions I may prop this up next to No Fear and the first Amalgam disc as my favorite "aggressive" John Stevens album.

I didn't know where else to post this information, but, for those in the Bay Area, but I'm holding my thesis concert on Saturday, May 9, at 7:30pm in the Mills College Concert Hall (5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613). This project seems to have been consuming my time recently and, well, I figured I'd let people know about it: 1. Solo 2. Duet: Grex (me: guitar, vox; Rei Scampavia: p, fl, acc, vox) [potato dirges] 2. Trio: Me: guitar, Christopher M. Skebo: tpt, Luigi Marino: zarb 4. Quartet: Host Family (me: guitar, Andrew Conklin: guitar, Jason Hoopes: bass, Jordan Glenn: drums) [moon songs] Fred Frith said that we sounded good in rehearsal, for whatever it's worth. My myspace, for sound purposes: www.myspace.com/karladevangelista -Regarding Host Family, for name recognition purposes--Glenn leads the trio Wiener Kids with Aram Shelton and Cory Wright, Conklin the band Quinn, and Hoopes is in the Atomic Bomb Audition (which also features, members of Fred Frith's Cosa Brava and Mute Socialite). It's a Mills thing. I'm in the middle, also, of completing an epic 100+ page MFA thesis on the Blue Notes/Brotherhood of Breath, to be finished within the next hour. I'm pretty excited to share it here...

I really don't know what to say about the show. I came up to Fred afterward, and all he could say was--"Well, you were there." It makes music feel really, really small and really, really big and the same time--putting credit where credit is due, knowing that people from backgrounds as diverse as Fred, Roscoe, (etc.) can all share in and appreciate fine music. What I can say is that the vitality of the two principals is indeed awesome. Roscoe played a sopranino solo that night that compares with or surpasses anything I've heard him do on record--a mixture of bent/microtonal pure tones and shrieking harmonics, circular breathed. (Cut askew from the same cloth as Evan Parker's essays on the larger soprano--only Roscoe's playing is an extension of the same phrase shapes and patterns one might detect in, say the Art Ensemble--not some monolithic something else.) And somewhere in my mind I'm wondering if the words fit, but I would call Muhal's contributions--which often served to harmonically "ground" the duet portions, providing a more tonal counterbalance to Roscoe's more angular, linear improvising--tasteful, elegant, and concise--as elegant as anything I've ever witnessed live (in any idiom). In other words: patience, ideas, work, and friendship. That's pretty much it. If we're lucky, the set might someday get released on record.