ep1str0phy

Damn, you know Aram's stuff? I see him now and again (degree of separation); he's one of the saxophonists in my drummer's other band (our band is Host Family; the other one is called the Wiener Kids, who in its duo configuration--and I say this as temperately as I can--performed some of the best sets I've ever seen)--tremendous with reeds and electronics. I saw him do a trio set Watts/Guy/Stevens style with Damon Smith and Kjell Nordeson like a year ago, and it was easily one of the most energetic concerts I've seen here in a while (IIRC, I had to follow that one. Shit.). If we're taking it down to that level, though I know Aram gets around more than most, then I agree that there are a lot of people to whom we can pay attention now. I say this of course from the perspective of one of the younger crowd, but I guess we can see it both ways; there's a lot of bullshit and regurgitation right now, also a lot of unique ideas. On the one hand, it always severely depresses me that the former guitar/drums incarnation of the Wiener Kids never got on the scene more than they did, because they truly were a phenomenal band. To illustrate another point, though- During one of Roscoe Mitchell's more inspiring speechifying moments, I remember him saying, "get your shit together. Because you get your shit together, you'll be better than most of what's out there. Because ain't nobody doing shit right now." A bit harsh, maybe, but the people who put in the work and actualize ideas in a thoughtful manner are a minority. I think, as per Clifford's comment, we have to cherish the folks that are in that small group. Taking it back to Giuseppi--if not for Giuseppi himself, whose status is up in the air a bit (on a side note, the latter-day youtube clip gives me the impression that his ESP concert already happened?), then at least Giuseppi as an example needs a place on the scene. Roscoe knows it, Dixon knows it, etc.--that the important thing is when the individual voice can pump out the ideas in a strong and convicted manner. That's what I hope doesn't get lost in the/a hype machine when the time comes, because that's what makes the best music of that vintage so special. On that level, at least, Giuseppi can teach us a thing or two.

Oh, and maybe I'm behind the curve on this. I just found this thread on freejazz.org: Thread on Giuseppi Logan Parsing through the rants, a couple interesting pieces of information: "I saw him play with Milford Graves in Baltimore in 2001 or 2002 or something like that. Now what happened to him after that I don't know." (Forbes Graham) "Giuseppe Logan is or was living in an abandoned hotel on the southeast corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue. Ironically, this is just across the street from where Ornette Coleman's Harmolodic Studios were located up until about a year ago." (musicmargaret)

I'm pretty sure that at least half of the Bay Area experimental music scene happens in people's houses. I actually caught Paul Rutherford in a converted basement/garage in Oakland not long before he passed away. This is of course not a knock on home concerts... I mean, in an ideal world, Rutherford would have commanded high fees in concert halls; these small venues at least provided an occasion for intimate listening, strong and appreciative audiences, and maybe some scratch without the middle man.

Who else in free jazz was writing pieces in 7/8 in 1964? (Dixon maybe? Andrew Hill was working in odd meters now and again, but he wasn't apart of that crowd.) Odd metered-rhythms and regular grooves, non-western instruments, clearly discernable chord structures--all that and extended techniques, atonality mixed with discernable melodic improvisation, rhythm section independence... As ragged as the music sounds--even on the first quartet album, which is, again, probably the best total document to hear him in--you can't say that it's "winging it" like, say, Byron Allen. It's probably more heavily structured (that is, pre-determined) than Ayler, Ornette, or even late Coltrane, although structure does not equate to logic and the "impression of form" in this instance. I think part of what makes Giuseppi's music so ineffable is that, for all the thought that clearly went into it, it feels even less "together" a lot of the time than completely improvised music of a similar vintage and place. The early ESPs have this quality to me of dropping space in-between the musicians--like how clear Peacock is on Spiritual Unity, or how distant Sunny Murray sounds--but that first Logan ESP, I swear, sounds more compartmentalized and disjunct (acoustically and, then, "psychoacoustically") than almost anything I've hear from that era. If I were going to play bad, bad armchair analyst, I'd say that maybe it's a reflection of Giuseppi's alleged lunacy, but that's always reductive and something makes me think twice. 1/2 of it is that he worked with Bostic and studied at the NEC (I'd be really interested in knowing what he studied there and, for that matter, when/whether or not he finished), the other is that Dixon clearly holds him in high regard. Whatever it is, it's different. As far as technique is concerned, Logan's wind playing is totally naif-like--but so much so that it goes past sounding fraudulent to me and into the realm of intentional extremeness. He's super sharp and his tone is harsh--like lack of control harsh. His flute playing is an overblowing nightmare to the extreme. (I'd love for a wind player to chime in here and take a look at how hard it is to execute some of Giuseppi's phrases, at least in terms of dexterity and stamina.) At the same time, it's so consistent, controlled, and weirdly songllike that there's something there; it's anti-Arthur Doyle--similarly "primitive" sounding, but completely unblustery and contained. As far as Giuseppi's "help"... I really hope he can get back on his feet well enough to get a career going fast. I'd hate to count on this story disappearing because people realize he isn't Chet Baker or something, then have him recede into the shadows again. Maybe he can, maybe he can't cut like the young cats, and there are people now with skills and, sometimes, ideas to match. Still, I think Giuseppi's a resource because of (1) the history and (2) the fact that his ideas are probably still way over many-a-modern head. Hopefully this won't be taken as a token thing, hopefully he can still do something crazy and out of nowhere, and hopefully the scene is big enough--it better be big enough, because I am so fucking bored sometimes.

Just plunked down for the Marsh, Braxton, and New Dance.

Yeah, that thought kind of crossed my mind. There's a strong difference between an ethic of giving, shared often among evangelicals, and giving as a mechanism of proselytizing. I know squat about Logan in his prime and cannot offer any real understanding of his situation now, but I think it's easy to take the video as condescending toward the man (and it really isn't supposed to serve the purpose, I think, of showing why Giuseppi is so great; it's a pseudo-commercial for the works of Bill Jones). I hope Giuseppi is there enough to put forth some good music. He still sounds like himself, but the information right now, those videos included, is pretty dimensionless (kind of the idealized "lost and found" genius scenario in the mold of what happened with Henry Grimes recently). If everything pans out for the best, Giuseppi will be out and really testifying often and well. I've been spinning the first ESP quartet and Roswell Rudd's Everywhere in his honor. It's weird not only knowing a musician is an enigma but hearing the mystery as well. His playing is just so technically incomprehensible and "complete" at the same time; it's like listening to an alternate universe.

I couldn't find any other threads about either Giuseppi or his reappearance, so I thought I'd post this here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/01/lost...eppi-logan.html The article and embedded videos note that Giuseppi was indeed institutionalized and homeless for a period; to quote: "According to musician Matt Lavelle, Logan is currently living in a shelter in Brooklyn. The latest news is that on February 17, Logan will performing at the Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery, Manhattan) as part of a running series of "ESP-Disk Live" evenings. Giuseppi Logan lives. And plays. Blessedly." ...and he's found Jesus--or, maybe, Jesus found him--as the interview with pastor Dr. Bill Jones (in one of the hypertext links on the WFMU blog page) shows. Good to see that Giuseppi is still playing in one way or another. His recorded legacy is of course beyond scant, but that first ESP disc is one of the more original albums issued out of the first couple waves of NY free jazz--beyond strange in terms of "playing" and instrumental technique, but much, much more fully realized melodically or compositionally--as an "ethos"--than a lot of the post-Ornette/post-Coltrane/post-Ayler stuff that floats around. Hope he's getting his royalties from that one, finally.

Has anyone actually got a disc 6 that isn't defective? I recently ordered one of the boxes released in the UK and it seems to have the distortion described at the revenant website. It's possible that I'm hearing something different to the fault described but that seems unlikely. I've tried emailing both Revenant and ESP but to no avail. Thanks Denis Anyone? How about those who have bought it recently? Thanks Denis Bought the set when it first came out and listened to it all eventually. I don't recall there being a problem with any of the discs. I'm in the same boat. Allowing for some shoddy fidelity here and there, which is both expected and understandable, nothing pops out to me as unusual "problem"-like. Sad to hear that this single disc is being taken out of print as I'm actually pretty fond of it. I recall that my mom was in a Canadian record shop at the time, breaking from a business trip; called me up and asked if I wanted a copy... I recall both sessions, even with the par to subpar sound, being really enjoyable on a musical level.

I caught the tail end of Aron's--I recall a general pricey-ness for new items and terrific overall selection. Amoeba just sort of sucked all the air out of the room. I grew up in the SF Valley and I remember as recently as the early 2000's double or triple the number of music shops up and going. Moby Disc? Gone. Penny Lane? Gone. (Though I think there's still one in Pasadena somewhere). Tower Records--*sniff*, for all those beautiful Blue Note discounts--gone. I'd venture to say that there was this huge bell curve in LA these past few years, killing all the small chains, leaving the big vendors and a couple small outliers. CD Trader on Ventura is, god bless them, still very much alive--cheap and with a terrific selection (I remember that's where I got my copies of Happenings and One Step Beyond. back when they were impossible to find). There's another shop in the Burbank area--called either Raygun or 8 Ball (I always forget the name) that boasts a nice CD selection and terrific used vinyl. Though I'm always worried that the more enterprising and "hip" CD shops will diversify into comic books and select action figures any day now... Total tangent, but I'll have conversations with seven, nine, fourteen year old guitar students that never had CD players.

Damn--well, I think the Tuba Trio stuff is out of print (please someone correct me because that never seems to be the case or not the case for long, status always changing and whatnot). The closest thing available is Waves: -with Dave Holland, Joe Daley, and Thurman Barker. The ensemble sound is in general less raw and a deal muddier than the Tuba Trio stuff, simply because of the cramped bottom end (Holland and Daley being equally muscley on this recording). Good individual contributions, though. And for that matter--early Braxton fits in here, sharing a lot of personnel with the Sam Rivers of this period. The Mosaic box is the place to find a lot of the best of this material, hell it is to plunk down for. Also along these lines (hard freebop) is the music of the Mike Osborne/Harry Miller/Louis Moholo trio, of which Border Crossing is presently the best thing available. Here's a "one final note" on the album: <Border Crossing + Joe Harriott> This is very aggressive but eminently accessible music in an extended modal/post-bop context. For whatever reason my mind is all over this right now, if you'll forgive the run-on post. But featuring Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams and performing some very exploratory originals in what is ultimately an amalgamated free/modal vein is Woody Shaw's The Iron Men, last easily domestically available (I think) on the Two More Pieces of the Puzzle 32-Jazz twofer. It's available as a single on Japanese import now, but I would highly, highly recommend tracking down the twofer for the Concert Ensemble recording it's paired with (something I'm actually a little partial to).

When someone says "inside/outside" with respect to jazz, I usually think of Rivers. Maybe not "free" in the total sense, but "Crystals" is dense and harmonically adventurous enough to classify, I think, as much more outside than inside. I don't think I'd say the same about his more recent big band dates (Inspiration and Culmination) as those arrangements are as a whole less dissonant and, maybe due to the treatment of rhythm and the electric bass, a lot funkier--and probably more accessible--than the Impulse stuff. I think Sam's small group music is on the whole easier to digest than stuff like Crystals--but it goes both ways. The Tuba Trio stuff sounds like a cross between Ornette-style pianoless freebop and, for lack of a better comparison, burnout... but thanks to Sam's solo contributions, that stuff is pretty aggressively out there. On the other hand, his discs on ECM (Contrasts and Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds) and largely more reined-in technically, less sprawling, and somewhat easier to follow. But then you look at something like Portrait (solo, on FMP), which is at times as dissonant as the harshest energy music and at others as cerebral and pointillistic as the most abstract European improvisation, and the Tuba Trio music comes across as a lot less mystifying. Recently I've come to engage more with free improvisation as an element/device among or in the music of artists with strong compositional identities--and not so much as a procedural imperative (although the most thoughtful and "hard-won" music born out of this conception is almost uniformly brilliant--Derek Bailey for example)--and much, much less as a "genre" or "type" of music. I think Rivers is a perfect example of that--but hell, so are the Blue Notes, Roscoe Mitchell, Andrew Hill, Horace Tapscott, and even unrepentantly "outside" figures like Masayuki Takayanagi, Kaoru Abe, (later) Tetuzi Akiyama (who have all engaged in music with strong fixed elements).

Yeah--the playing is maybe a little too tasteful on the date ubu mentioned. I remember being disappointed that there wasn't a little more aggression on the trio disc, although I don't think any of the men involved could be considered bashers, really.

Having been away from the initial discussion of Ratliff's bio, I think I came to some of the basic conclusions that lots of other folks here did. I think in all its reductiveness it managed to kill the beautiful leitmotif of the the Porter book (which was that Coltrane spent look periods honing his craft; that ascension to glory or whatnot had a lot to do with sitting down and dealing with the nuts and bolts of the art). Ratliff's focus on Coltrane-as-iconography makes the second half of the book useful, as it deals with musical and critical responses to Trane's music... the first half, though, teeters in the middle of reader's digest mini-bio, insubstantial musical analysis, and some misinformation that could have been easily avoided with an elaborating paragraph or simple fact-checking. Digressing, but--in scholarly circles, actually, I've been told that many African-American scholars actually prefer the J.C. Thomas bio to the Porter. The Thomas bio is easily the most overtly poetic of the Coltrane books and for all its hagiography actually kind of pretty--and I think it complements the second half of the Ratliff bio nicely.

70's direct-input bass sound FTW.

By the way, this fits with the topic: http://www.myspace.com/freeformfunkyfreqs It's a trio of Vernon Reid, Calvin Weston, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Sometimes the "free form" is hard to detect, but I guess it really is more of a formal thing (versus a technical or melodic or harmonic thing). I think this sits a few steps above funky "jam" music; this is some of the best Tacuma I've heard in a while--maybe because it's a cooperative and the concept is so specific (thus minimal chance of commercial BS).

Whoa--solid research. I'm still holding out hope that some of the PAPA stuff that is in the UCLA vaults will see release; the recordings don't have open access, although (if I recall correctly) it's possible to get in and see the scores. The reputable side of Stanley Crouch has it that no one was playing like the UGMAA out on the East Coast. As it is, a lot of the UGMAA guys who did get out to NY wound up either conforming to already-going trends there. Barring Butch Morris, I think most of those guys made it more as instrumentalists than conceptualists--Arthur Blythe, for example, who was and is a total terror, but not so often a card-carrying radical (though I think his work with tuba or cello and some of his funkier sides, like Lenox Avenue Breakdown, are unprecedented in their own way(s)). Azar Lawrence was a total badass from a young age and has done some original things with the Coltrane concept, but hasn't really produced out of that mold since--not necessarily a bad thing, but it is what it is. On the other hand, I think a lot of the UGMAA folks that stayed in LA produced really interesting work--and not because LA is in a vacuum per-se, but maybe just on the strength of ideas. Horace was a stone LA man to the end and there is still nothing out there that sounds quite like him. I think the same could be said of, say, Jesse Sharps, who developed an approach to circular breathing that sounds nothing like Roscoe Mitchell or Rahsaan Roland Kirk--more a direct line from Coltrane. And, though they weren't UGMAA, similar could be said for Bobby Bradford and John Carter.

Wow--I see that album around and I had no idea that Ron Wilson was with the Tapscott people. A quick glance at "The Dark Tree" doesn't seem to yield his name. (Though by "quick glance" I think I mean just looking at the index.) I think some of the UGMAA's music can fit into this category. The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra's music is consistently harmonically complex, polyphonic, and stratified, but it's often underpinned by very regular--I guess you could say funky--rhythms. One of the really attractive things about many of Tapscott's compositions are their reliance on low-register ostinati, which makes them cyclical in an Afro-American way rather than just an African or pan-African way. That's the other "dark" part of the Dark Tree, I guess--those heavy, churning rhythms... "The Giant Is Awakened" is funky in a really pulsing, penetrating way, for example--just really heavy, danceable--edgy--rhythms. The point is made in "The Dark Tree" that Tapscott is similar in respects to Fela Kuti, and I can totally understand this--musically, and not just politically; both Fela and Horace made music that simultaneously conveyed unfettered energy and encouraged unfettered asses. (Free your mind and your ass will follow...) And if anyone has the Isoardi ("The Dark Tree") book, some of the recordings on the accompanying CD are as good as anything that got wide® release. There's this excerpt from an Eternal Egypt Suite that superimposes pretty high-energy free solos over (I haven't listened to this in a bit, so I may be thinking of something else) a dirty 6/8 vamp. This is heavy shit--like Black Beings Frank Lowe heavy, or slightly less-burnished 70's quartet Charles Tolliver heavy--and weirdly danceable.

The one with the vampy tuba line--"Tranquility"? I haven't heard that one in a long time.

So it's funny coming back and looking at this thread because two years out I think I'm better able to comprehend Goold's dominant chord tirades (enough to come to terms with the fact that these comments, not to mention his oh-so-cool Schoenberg name dropping a little ways up the thread, are pure bullshit). Probably fighting words from someone who is just now coming to terms with Schoenbergian analysis and in all realistic-ness would have a hard time cutting Goold at what he does (performance-wise), but these sentiments square with what I understand as a pseudo-academic (ala pseudo-science) trend of employing theoretical buzz words to mask reactionary tendencies. (And I don't buy the argument that calling yourself "inside-out" automatically means that you've done the work on the music you dismiss. Because, really, saying that you have black friends doesn't mean you're not racist.) Here's one for Goold--Schoenberg's understanding of tonal harmony was based in the notion that modulation does not occur; rather, tonal music operates in regional "shifts" whereby the central tonality will borrow from outlying tonalities. The sonic quality of much music that can be analyzed in this manner suggests multiple tonalities, though Schoenberg wouldn't write it that way. The first logical connection one can make to free jazz is with Ornette Coleman's emphasis on improvisation on a tonal center and--transcribe the solos, sit down with the music and a pitch pipe--spontaneous and temporary motion to outlying keys (and I say temporary because, due to the largely theme-based approach of his work, he almost always returns to the "home" tonality in his solos). Now, I can't tell whether Ornette sat down with some Schoenberg before waxing "The Shape of Jazz to Come", but I'm damn sure that his ideas operate--and operate logically--within the parameters of Schoenberg's analytical system. OK, now--Marco Eneidi showed Cecil Taylor Brahms's Opus 117 (this was years back). Cecil's response was, "Yeah, I know that piece. That's a great piece!" (paraphrase). Cecil has done his homework on pre-20th century music, and you can bet his people have, too. Lots of improvising musicians extending out of the jazz tradition have. (Tangent: Keith Rowe was singing Brahms's praises to me a few weeks back.) Don't drop bullshit if you don't know bullshit, Goold.

Just got the box (direct from Cadillac). Nicely packaged with slip-out digipacks of the four albums + a nice liner booklet; if I have an issue here it's that the packaging is really unassuming--sort of a brown bag of wonder (literally)--but I guess the streamlining is classy. Obviously I haven't listened to everything yet, but the mastering is pretty clear. It looks like a nice companion piece to the Harry Miller box, if a lot more dense. (Looking forward to spinning Blue Notes for Mongezi.) I'll chime in when I've had time to digest everything.

Sweet Space is phenomenal--"A Pebble is a Small Rock" is a mini-masterpiece. The contrast between Lowe and Luther Thomas on that one is astounding; the latter's solo is almost entirely apeshit altissimo register scribbles, which just punctuates, when the tenor digs in, how rhythmic and patient Lowe's playing could be. Excellent all around.

This is a good album. I could live without the recitations, but they're not too intrusive. As I recall, Harrison's solos are the most interesting. An album in this vein (without recitations) that I think is much better is Henry Franklin's The Skipper. Some great tenor solos from Charles Owens (who I haven't heard outside of this LP) and equally fine trumpet solos from Oscar Brasheer. Honestly, I find this one a step below the reissued Ranelin albums, which are for me still the gold standard in the Tribe catalog. Nice playing, the recitation is, probably intentionally, a little disturbing in spots, but the overall it seems less focused and emotionally/energetically direct than the sides under Ranelin's leadership.

Oh. And I move that the forum spam the shit out of Saturn records. Too rash?

Total shot in the dark, and it likely won't happen, but would it be possible to ask for a refund transfer to be made before making the return? A similar situation happened with me and an ebay guy a while ago. He was selling what I thought were LP copies of a lot of OOP South African and Euro jazz albums. I made the order for what appeared to be an LP copy of Blue Notes for Mongezi, and I thought that it read "bonus CDR rip included with purchase" + free bonus CD (I don't know what it was--another (real) copy of Mu or something). Turns out, and I realized this a little too late, being an idiot, that he would sell the "legit" CD as the actual product, and include as a "bonus CDR rip" a copy of the OOP album. It was an easy way to look legit; you sell a CD that no one actually wants to buy and the customer pays for the bonus CDR rip. No LP included. I mercifully got the order canceled and my money back. These schemes make me sick. On the upside, that guy got (I think) banned from ebay.

I was just thinking the other day about how nice it might be to hear Dejohnette's New Directions band with a little less reverb, if just for the reverb-less clarity. The edge in Bowie's attack gets a little swallowed up in In Europe, for example, although I don't think the fittingly toneless Abercrombie would benefit too much from a rougher sound. Great music, nonetheless, so at the end of the day I can sleep easy. I think it goes both ways, in terms of the ECM sound and the specifically European aesthetic of the music; a lot of the "American led" albums on the label might benefit from a drier sound. But then, there are parts of the AECO's Full Force that probably wouldn't sound right without all the muddle. Afternoon of a Georgia Faun and Jewel in the Lotus wouldn't be the same without some of those eerie touches.