ep1str0phy

(Hi, again, folks, by the way-) Got word by a few involved and some intimates that there's something shady about the Fledg'ling issues/reissues, financially. Maxine McGregor is getting paid, but it doesn't seem as if anyone else is getting money out of it. It's an issue I admittedly don't know much about, but at least some people are miffed about this (including Moholo-Moholo, who voiced his dissatisfaction with the matter for the record a few months back...). On the matter of Up to Earth--I, for one, am interested in the music, but there seems to be bad blood in the air about the session in general. From my talks with them, I recall Moholo-Moholo and Parker saying that they didn't get paid for their work. I'd be interested to see if any of the other (extant) musicians who participated in this session hold it in any high regard. I think the music has some fantastic, furiously charged moments, but it seems to be borne out of seriously clusterfucky and unfortunate circumstances. That the sides are reappearing, after all these years (and with so many test pressings circulating over the interval between recording and issue), can't be met with the most exalted feelings--not all around, at least. It's interesting seeing folks in the creative music community address the issue of issues/reissues/distribution in the age of information abundance/gluttony, what with some among the AACM's number speaking [quietly] about furtive distribution of suppressed recordings. It's a subjective valuation whether Up to Earth (or, for that matter, a lot of the recent SA jazz issues) really merits acclamation (or even, at least, the light of day), but I don't know if posthumous, holy grail endeavors are really worth upsetting all the skeletons, if you dig.

'bout time.

The a capella recordings on Free Fall always struck me as a bit of their own piece, and maybe more strident than what Giuffre was doing within the Bley/Swallow trio context at that time. There's of course some sort of intellectual continuity between the output of the trio--from the far more conventional Verves onto the small group tracks on Free Fall--and Giuffre's solo excursions on the Columbia album, but I get the feeling that he's left himself open to a more reckless, more emotional impulse when he's all by his lonesome. I still hear a "cool", or at least lukewarm sensibility about the G/Swallow/Bley trio's output, even at its most heated, but the solo clarinet on Free Fall--maybe less "refined", if technically together--is engaging to me with a sort of gauche tenderness. -which is different from Lacy, who to me gets out his more emotional side in the group context. Lacy's solo music is a wonder of essentialist construction--and maybe cold because of that, because there seems to be so much discretion behind his note choice, rhythmic sensibility, timbral variation, etc. I can hear the superficialities between Lacy and Giuffre, but the manner in which I engage with one is not the same as that with which I engage the other--it's like hearing with your mind and your gut, respectively.

I really want to see Barrage again, too. ...and I highly doubt that the Lacy will come out better this time than on previous reissues; I have no idea how they'll be able to correct the poor recording balance on that one.

Harper's been selling his MPS album through his fan club, though if you're just agreeing--it is, indeed, the ****. I'm not even familiar with that album! Anyone have a link for the fan club, where I can get the CD? thx. Search through www.billyharper.com--it will take you to the fan club (see image on the bottom of the page). They show it in the discography, but don't have a link to buy it like they do with most of his titles. Do we know for sure if this has been out on CD? It's the only title by him I don't own with the exception of the Live in Poland DVD, which scares me because of the choral stuff, orchestra, etc. I own a CD copy and it has a little watermark address for the Billy Harper fan club. Billy actually talks to his audience during gigs (I mean, from the stage) and I asked him about the fact that "Trying to Make Heaven My Home" was, at the time, not on the website; like a week later it popped up on there. Maybe they sold out? It's certainly one of his best albums...

Harper's been selling his MPS album through his fan club, though if you're just agreeing--it is, indeed, the ****. I'm not even familiar with that album! Anyone have a link for the fan club, where I can get the CD? thx. Search through www.billyharper.com--it will take you to the fan club (see image on the bottom of the page).

Harper's been selling his MPS album through his fan club, though if you're just agreeing--it is, indeed, the ****.

That's a phenomenal lineup... I've heard a tape of that ensemble, maybe not the same concert, but it definitely riled up the energies of old.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your statement, Bev, but Yarde has recorded with Moholo. If you mean he hasn't recorded solo (which may be the case, from what I can figure out), then yeah--about time.

Heads up, y'all--just got a copy of Eclipse at Dawn. Mongezi is indeed absent, but a gloss at the liner notes suggests that no one knows why. There you go...

I do recall that the info that ubu supplies is what has been circulating with the tape; it just seems strange that Mongezi would be missing from the lineup at that time. Cuneiform has a way of clearing up discographical confusion, so I'm sure this matter will be sorted out when the album streets (the Cuneiform website does not list release-specific personnel, it seems). The allmusic guide entry for Eclipse at Dawn does not list Mongezi, but it also doesn't list Harry Miller, so...

Thanks, B--I'll have another listen at the talking on my copy. And thanks, CT--Chuck Mangione almost made it into my thesis... (where was Mongezi on that date?)

Great set--deserves to be up and out there like the other Cuneiform releases. I think this is the one that has some confusion on the trumpet personnel--I'd like to see that cleared up.

Also--J.H., you're a lucky bastard for having a copy of the Mbizo book in your library. It's impossible to track down and the order page online refuses to get back to me. I've read excerpts from the Dyani book online and it seems like a fun read at the least. There's so little on the Blue Notes that pretty much everything you can catch qualifies as informative. The McGregor book is very valuable, but it reads more like a family biography than music history. There's a hell of a lot of insight into Chris McGregor's personal life there, but you'll have to look elsewhere to find extensive detail squared specifically on the Blue Notes or Brotherhood as ensembles.

Hi, folks... I've been in contact with the Cadillac people, but, strangely enough, this is the first place I've seen mention of the box. That's gonna be a helluva lot of cash, but I may be in England at that time and I'll chalk it up as a research expense... I'm working on Blue Notes research right now, as a matter of fact. I received a mini-grant for UK travel later in the year, so that work should yield some fruit in the next couple of months. If everything--interviews, musicology stuff, etc.--pans out like it should, y'all will be the first to know... Just a note that I'm extremely glad that the Ogun people have found a way to offer up this material to the CD audience. It's a shame but sort of a truth that this music is (presently) most regarded by a niche audience, and the later quartet (-) Blue Notes sides require a lot of emotional and time investment. I recall something Clifford said about Blue Notes of Mongezi being intense but difficult to return to (?), and I completely agree in that it's probably the most difficult to digest, if still among the most energetic and powerful, of Blue Notes albums. That's 2CD's worth of hurt. I will assert, and I don't think the most impassioned of fans would disagree, that the Blue Notes lost something major when Feza made an exit. That's both an emotional thing, relating to Feza as a personality/brother/person (and the dimensions of which none of us could comprehend as much as those closest he had to leave behind), and a musical thing. The Blue Notes could have operated in a two-horn format without sacrificing too much in terms of harmony and coloration--so co-ordinated and larger-than-life were Pukwana and Feza--but without the trumpet's added energetic foil you can detect a dimension or two missing from the music. It's weird, but with Pukwana shouldering the front-line burden on the quartet sides, the alto never really sounds like a soloist--it plays more like Jimmy Lyons in the Cecil Taylor Units--positing melodic shadings, contradictions, and punctuations, but not really arching over the music. I go back and forth on this, because the Blue Notes recordings have a very specific identity post-Feza, but the latter-day Blue Notes come across more like a chamber ensemble--and not even a piano quartet--than the soloistic post-bop group you can hear on Very Urgent. This box comprises a large proportion of the Blue Notes material that I have not yet been exposed to, which makes it a boon for study--at least, I'm looking forward to getting even more in-over-my-head than before... I think the phrase "hard core" was invented for stuff like this (in more ways than one)... Also, I just heard Hum Dono all the way through recently and, sparing for the moment my general disappointment with the post-Abstract Harriott music, it's a nice groove-oriented session that only sometimes lapses into ennui-inducing cheese. It's strange, but I think the impressionistic impulses that produced Harriott's most innovative work are very present in the rest of his discography--only in less in prescient iterations.

That's a good one--actually the first place I heard Derek Bailey. It's insane that this album even got reissued.

Highlighting choice finds: I finally tracked down a copy of Horace Tapscott's The Dark Tree (Volume 2), which is wonderful. I may still prefer the earlier treatments of many of these compositions, especially on the simmeringly furious The Giant Is Awakened, but these later sides have a special, concentrated sort of intensity. Also: John Carter's Variations on Selected Themes for Jazz Quintet (which I didn't even know had made it to CD). It's an unusual bass-less format, and Carter's eerie orchestration is resplendent in the unconventional "front-line" interaction (Carter on clarinet, Bobby Bradford on trumpet, and James Newton on flute). Interesting to note how Bob Stewart's tuba provides more of a liminal melodic role than rhythmic support (ala Joseph Daley in the Sam Rivers trios)--that job is capably handled by Phillip Wilson. The program here has a quiet, insular character that sits nicely with me against Carter's more epic forays. Also: finally figured out that Joe Chambers's Double Exposure is still sort-of available on LP. I expected a whole album like the explosive "Monk's Dream" duet on Unity, but the character of this record is decidedly softcore. Larry Young plays a largely supportive role, spotlighting Chambers's piano work. It's a nice coda to the Young legacy--rumbling with passion, but mysterious and oblique.

Musical compatibility is overrated. Musical tolerance--tolerance as in "understanding difference"--can be a pretty wonderful thing.

A couple years back, Volume 1 was no more difficult to find than the Black Lion CDs or the "red" Charly reissues. I got mine at a discount chain, and I would imagine that copies still circulate at used joints and the like.

Thought someone here would appreciate it, but last night attended this concert: Chris Brown (piano, electronics) India Cooke (violin, etc.) Fred Frith (guitar) Roscoe Mitchell (reeds) Pauline Oliveros (accordion, electronics) Zeena Parkins (electric harp, etc.) William Winant (misc percussion) One of the most surreal nights of my life. Studying directly with Ms. Parkins and Mr. Mitchell right now, and it's a real experience.

Considering the credits also list Abdullah Ibrahim and Charles Victor Moore (who died in 1992) as producers, my guess is that, in typical AMG fashion, these are just mangled credits for samples--Rudy included. Blue Note and Abdullah are ripe for the beats, after all...

I think I bought this one on the steam of the guests, but it's quite good for the Brubeck moments--and a lot more meat there than I was expecting. Alan Dawson worked really well against Brubeck, being a precision drummer with a flair for what one might otherwise consider hazardous flourishes. Re: clifford's post on the first page--inappropriate, but I'll be damned if I can't agree somehow. ( )

A quick scan of this thread convinced me to listen to some of Concha's stuff, and, well--I like what I hear. In a more abstract sense, I appreciate it when board folks initiate discussion about "discoveries" like this, because many folks would otherwise miss the boat (myself included)...

Good going, papsrus. I'm a former student of Myra's, and I'm hoping to catch one of the release concerts for that one...

Goddamnit, DMG frustrates me to no end. If you ever walk into the shop, it's nigh-impossible to figure out what is and what isn't a legitimate issue--BUT it's one of the most convenient spots (mail order or otherwise) for many legitimate issues. I thought for a while that the blog craze would cut into the whole bootlegging bit, but DMG just keeps trucking along (outlasting some of the more active elements on the blogosphere, apparently). -A strange and tangentially associated issue: Chris McGregor pops up on Nick Drake's Bryter Layter--well-recorded and distinctive as ever, but all the Brotherhood and solo recordings in the world making you think Chris could do a lot more than unload fills on a track that might have been better off sans frills.