ep1str0phy

His work with the BAG guys is baaaaad. Wadud is not just funk--he's menace... As noted above, his work with Julius Hemphill is tremendous. They brought out the best, most aggressive playing in one another.

...Chappaqua Suite is kind of Ornette with strings, but that's the trio's gig all the way through. Denardo and Barre Phillips kick ass on this. Too bad that trio didn't go on to do other things.

Honestly, it's just his piano playing that runs hot and cold with me. I'd take Karl Berger now over Hutch now any day of the week, if only because I don't get the feeling that Karl gave up on trying "new" things (if not the new thing) somewhere down the line. Re: multiple Dons--the top hits on many-a-famous search engine are not the Don we know and love, but rather Don's Clem. Almost as bad as that "Leroy Jenkins" debacle that clogged up youtube a while back.

Romano sounds right for the vintage, but without a link on espdisk.com (just a little teaser), there's no way of knowing for sure. Pharoah was with Don around '67, although those were stateside gigs/sessions, IIRC. In other words, there's a lot floating around which should tell us what this band probably is (and certainly what it probably sounds like), but with so little of Don's late-60's European output readily available, this could be something to watch. On a whole other note, I like Karl Berger--there's a cuspate quality to his sound that I quite enjoy. It's certainly a lot "smaller" than the Hutcherson approach, and perhaps less weirdly idiosyncratic than what many other forefathers of "avant" vibes (e.g., Walt Dickerson) achieved, but it's got its own virtues. Berger has a sort of melodic directness that I really, really admire (I reviewed a recent duet album with John Lindberg recently--it just shines when Berger is doing what he does best...).

The sidebar on the esp-disk website lists Don Cherry, Live at Montmartre 1967 as "coming soon". Has anyone heard this? I'm assuming that these aren't the '66 recordings (w/Karl Berger, Barbieri, et al.), granted the '67 tag.

Wow, that "seller has an illness" thing is the bullshit of bullshits. That's bush league bullshit. So, so sad. Some of these after market antics make me really, really sick.

Yeah, he's definitely got a bit of that old R&B honk in there--but made wacky by harmolodics/Ornetticisms. I love it. Granted that the whole Rhino thing has been reissuing Ornette's later Atlantics, it's probably a matter of time before we get the early catalogue remastered. Whatever the case, just a year or so ago, I still remember Ornette On Tenor being the one that always clogged up the used shelves--I don't know why, it just was.

To my mind, with Ornette the unlicensed recordings are a big part of the story (as with many major jazz artists). If I were you, I certainly wouldn't miss this. In fact, even though I have the vinyls I'll probably pick one up myself when it appears. BTW, with reference to the original discussion, Get Back is Italian, not Spanish. Yes, I won't miss it. There's mention of the Get Back label on this thread? It's Gambit that's releasing the Hillcrest recordings. Of course, if the Siberia label Jhunip released the recordings, I'd buy it from them. I've resisted purchasing the slew of Ornette bootlegs that have recently been dumped onto the market, although a fought a pretty hard battle for a CD copy of The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet on ebay a while back (not that expensive in the end). As much as I want to hear the rest of the sessions, if it's on one of the "sordid" labels, I don't think I'm going to be picking it up (as if there weren't enough to listen to as it is). Come to think of it, I don't know of any CD releases of the rest of the Hillcrest material (that is, outside of the stuff on Fabulous)...

It was the first Charles Tyler ESP, IIRC. He also seems to play xylophone on the Golden Circle sides ("Morning Song")... though that could just be tinny vibes (haven't heard the sides in a while).

I remember bringing some stuff up to the counter at Amoeba, and the cashier asked, "how can you afford all this?" (I had been coming in three or so times a week) My reply: "I'm a student. I don't eat." It was true--I've since improved...

I couldn't really get into this one at first--probably because it isn't as aggressive as Tyler's first ESP--but I think some of its nuances have started to emerge to me. The strings/sax mix works really well, and Baker is a large part of that.

Redman on tenor has a big, rounded tone, a sort of timbral fluidity, that approaches Ornette's facility on alto--it's a total contrast to the way Ornette plays on that last Atlantic side, which, virtuosic as it is, can probably "best" be described as rough or grainy--a rolling/tumbling sort of thing. Also, although Redman's phrasing has more of a modal/scalular character a lot of the time, he sometimes pushes into Ornette's squarer, diatonic territory (although sometimes I hear this as Dewey doing an Ornette thing, versus Dewey doing a Dewey thing). Rhythmically, though, and in the way of phrase "shapes", Redman and Ornette are in completely different departments. Ornette has a way of getting into the rhythm of whatever is going on around him--even in rubato time--whereas Dewey has a tendency to wash over the rhythm. I guess Mingus's equating Ornette with a whole lot of bongos has some truth to it; Ornette strings his phrases together with a very clear rhythmic momentum--heavily accented--and Dewey just tends to hit the highs and lows (that "careening" sound). Inspired by the Chappaqua talk, I'm listening to the second disc right now--and Pharoah (for what little time he pops up) has sort of a Dewey Thing going on--just swaying over the rhythm. Ornette's ability to dig into wacky syncopation (something that Pharoah doesn't really do, and that Dewey seldom got into) was part of what made the 60's trio so good--Moffett is really an adventurous bebop drummer, pulling some Klook stuff, and he knows how to push his hits like few other "free" guys.

Well, they're not working for Ornette--so it's a valid question.

Bey has performed well in some more advanced contexts. His appearance on Members Don't Get Weary comes to mind.

Oh, and Late--all of that album is just really deep to me (I did this as an AOTW?). It's a shame that Ornette's most regular years on the trumpet and violin were the formative ones--he really developed, especially on the former horn, after the 60's. "Some Day" is gorgeous.

Gonna have to disagree with you a bit, chewy. Ornette has recalled his alto sound on some of his later tenor outings (like the thing Late and I have been discussing), but there's something about his articulation on Ornette On Tenor which is really specific to that instrument. His tone on the bigger horn feels a lot darker, sorta husky where Ornette's alto is nasal--at times, it reaches a sort of Rollins/Ayler-esque rasp, and if Ornette was never really intent on "smoothing out" his multiphonics it's really evident here. There's surely something about the "honk" of the tenor that just roughens out the edges of Ornette's phrasing, magnifying the angularity of his lines. Also, maybe it's just because the album was recorded earlier in Ornette's development, but the transposition to the bigger instrument cuts up Ornette's "pet" motifs in a really interesting way. That this isn't evident on Soapsuds, Soapsuds makes me believe that a lot of the sound on the earlier albums has to do with a self-conscious decision to play out of the alto's "idiom" (and into the tenor, as per Ornette's liner notes on the original Atlantic release). In some ways, I think Dewey Redman feels like a more direct translation of Ornette's alto to tenor than the playing on Ornette On Tenor.

I agree, too, but at this point I'll take anything, and novelty is a part of that. I think the recent "Ornette explosion" has spurred a mad-dash to documentation, but things feel a little uneven when a few great bands have just disappeared from below. Did you happen to catch the Ornette/Charnett/Denardo trio? I mean, I love Geri Allen, but that trio was hard--in its own way, a challenge to the (dare I say it) 60's trio.

Derek Bailey: Aida Bill Dixon: November 1981 Both really, really, really good. I haven't really "absorbed" the Dixon side yet, but the Bailey is clearly one of the most direct, focused solo albums he ever assembled.

DAAAAAAAMN! Thank God, Thank God we live in the reissue/digital era. 'Cause I would never have gotten to hear that one...

Maybe it's just a difference in listener perspectives. Freddie certainly didn't limit himself, but I just feel as if the peaks come a lot rarer on his solo discs--versus his sideman work with, for example, the Miles crowd, which is almost uniformly brilliant (from my perspective). As for Breaking Point--that's a contentious issue, and it's certainly the least "straight-ahead" of all of Freddie's Blue Notes. Part of what interests me is that it doesn't always feel like Freddie's album--maybe more like a run-through for a never-happened Joe Chambers side. Perhaps Messengers-level hard bop was Freddie's strong suit (when he was at his strongest, that is), but I've always loved it when he struggled into alien contexts. (Case in point: Dialogue.) Honestly, though, nothing gets to me like the Breaking Point version of "Mirrors" and, for that part of Hub-Tones I like, "You're My Everything". Again, as for Open Sesame--the whole band, and (like y'all have said)--Tina Brooks. He's one of the legendary "might-have-beens" in the music who's really worth getting to know.

Another question: what should a good condition, first-run copy of Paul Bley's Barrage go for? I've seen prices all over the place.

Well, with the way Chappaqua Suite was recorded, it might as well be Ornette, Moffett, and Izenzon via stairwell. Honestly, though, I'd be interested in hearing Ornette's approach to group music with musicians (such as AACM members) whose ideas are far more "in tune" with other group musics. Case in point: Ornette + Jackie on New and Old Gospel. Case against? : Ornette + Garrison/Elvin (on a lot of) New York Is Now and Love Call, although it's certainly an interesting collaboration on numerous levels.

-On the whole Open Sesame is just OK thing--Hubbard didn't have the most consistent run as a leader on Blue Note (one or two near-classics sprinkled in--Breaking Point, I think--with some very classic sideman appearances), and set next to some of the more (inexplicably) celebrated sides, like Hub-Tones (which, IMO, gets pretty boring after the first couple of tracks), it's really great. And, for what this music is, that band really is killer.

If we're talking Ornette albums in limbo, then we should at least get to The Great London Concert first--that might represent some of the trio's best material, overall. And then there's Who's Crazy, Crisis... And honestly, I'd be even more excited if Ornette started releasing new records semi-regularly again.

Anyone find out what happened to that copy of the Marzette Watts Ensemble Savoy mentioned on the "Nothing Is" blog a couple weeks ago? The seller's name (on ebay) was 04elissa.