ep1str0phy

The group is listed on the Vision Festival website as "Louis Moholo Quartet", so we might be looking at a small group. So--an American/SA ensemble? Will some of the British crew (Evan Parker, Beresford) make the trip? Zim Ngqawana? I can't wait to see the lineup...

I think Humphrey adds some pretty crucial color to Lee's last date (also w/Harper), but I'd venture--with no offense intended--that she was the weak link (like JS said, "improvisation"-wise) in that group.

Consider it an achievement that you shelled out for it. I have no doubt that quite a bit of what's included on those records is very good--but talk about steep. I find it ironic that the box is still the cheapest way to hear a lot of those albums. One of my favorite LA record shops was carrying an Ictus for $50 (unfortunately for me, it was the last one--the shop owner said a "couple of Japanese guys came in and bought up all the weird jazz--dropped about $300.").

It's a good 'ne. The one I'm dying to here, though, is Procession, which regularly commands far-above-my-price-range figures on e-bay. I love the light, punchy arrangement of "Sonia" that pops up w/Pukwana and Feza, but the Brotherhood version is a thing of beauty, no doubt--a masterful example of that group's affinity to staggered line constructions and cyclicism (listen to the version on In the Townships and compare it to Bremen to Bridgwater--now that's a killer (re?)-working).

He's scheduled to close this year's Vision Fest on Sunday, June 24. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/10482 I AM THERE.

Thanks for sharing the news, clifford. Hope it gets together... Re: brownie--good band. I'm a big fan of Thollot in more open-ended contexts--what's the flavor of this one?

I just got a copy of District Six's To Be Free. Frankly, I didn't even know that this one existed; my understanding is that it's not Chris McGregor's band, although he features prominently on the recording (doesn't compose for the group, though). There's some good playing here, especially by reedman Harrison Smith (his sax solo on the "Songs for Winnie Mandela" suite is hard, tough, and measured in the John Gilmore tradition), but all in all it feels like a tamer Very Urgent. It's certainly nice to hear McGregor play a little more "open" so late in the game, though.

The John Carter Quintet: Night Fire -Being one of the few early Carter/Bradford albums I've heard, I'm very much impressed. There are elements here that surpass Dauwhe, although they're very much in the same atmosphere. I think the big difference is the smaller ensemble; some among the group, including Roberto Miranda and William Jeffrey (who have continued to play with Bradford, and in fine fashion), are much better served by the reduced environs. Fine writing, powerful, aggressive playing all around--and so much detail.

Nice video!

That's really strange, because I'm spinning Tauhid right now (not as nice as your copy, but synchronicity, geez...).

I've heard Trible perform that one live a few times. The dynamics he gets out of his voice (and that tune) are unbelieveable.

I found a copy of the Roulette Uhuru Afrika/Highlife twofer not too long ago. These are all-star sides (the Uhuru Afrika large group, for example, features--impossibly--Clark Terry, Benny Bailey, Richard Williams, and Freddie Hubbard), and the playing is generally stellar--even if nothing pans out as the all-star melee that opportunity would suggest. The pan-African overtones are very strong on both sides, although the music really teeters between crafty hard bop and timely rhetoric in the Max Roach mode (he appears on here). It's very worthwhile for fans of Weston and the Candid clique, although it may be difficult to find.

I haven't heard the duet recordings, but I'm becoming increasingly fond of his work. I enjoy his contributions to the blogosphere--it's nice that there's a hub of improvisers industrious enough for regular reporting to the community. Bynum did a nice bit on the Olu Dara/Phillip Wilson hat duo on Destination: out a while ago.

Red: I didn't even know that they had recorded on that tour. That must be killer. Interesting that, when I saw him, Rutherford had the better part of his recent catalog in tow; I purchased a copy of Chicago 2002 myself. Funny--he had a pretty "in jokey" sweater on: it said something like "Great White Honky Music" (a nice nod to the Americans...). I like Ho Bynum, too--a phenomenal player, and there's no doubt that he's mastered a lot of the vocabulary. I had sort of a mixed reaction to True Events (a recent duo w/Tomas Fujiwara, who's a great player as well)--one of the rare brass/drum duos. Bynum and Fujiwara get along well, although I feel as if the album mines obvious territory a little too much in spaces. Regardless, Ho Bynum is a total scholar, and it's nice to see someone who's really studied and sought to apply the "often talked about but seldom confronted" lessons of the past couple of decades.

Damn, Red. Sounds like things are moving along for you... Somthing else: I heard Eisenstadt with Paul Rutherford and Torsten Muller something like a year ago (I sprung for Sam Rivers's Vista not long afterward). He's an interesting percussionist, to say the least--not overpowering, but very propulsive. He's got a balance of transparency and power that remind me of Louis Moholo-Moholo a bit.

The Rastacan website really doesn't offer that much information. A packed release, to be sure--but I'm always up for seeing the Braxton ensembles in action. For that matter: I'm a total neophyte in the way of Ghost Trance Music, but I'm digging into Four Compositions (GTM) 2000 (on Delmark) right now. What the ensemble lacks in "tightness" (a necessary element of the music, as the group really wasn't familiar with the compositions in advance) it compensates for in the way of aplomb and daring. I can think of few other musicians so given to the struggle against complacency and predictability, and it's certainly recognizable in the theory of this performance context. Now, I still think it's possible to split the difference (e.g., the Crispell/Dresser/Hemingway group), but those groups are once in a blue moon. I think it's just as fun, if not more fun, to hear musicians struggle to think through a performance (as with GTM (2000)). These days, anyway, I'll gladly trade riskless craftsmanship and calculation for a shambles of an experiment...

Marion Brown's Le Temps Fou is in digital circulation! The wonders of the blogosphere never cease to amaze.

Count me among the fans. What a powerful, personal voice. (A shame his stuff is so difficult to track down; I picked up the box on a lark--it changed some things for me.)

Hey, it's Ornette's 77th today. Break out those copies of Science Fiction and Soapsuds, Soapsuds.

Didn't know that about PR. In a similar vein, I always find it remarkable to hear Phil Minton's stuff with Westbrook! I heard him play in Oakland a few months back (really unlikely that you'd see one of the masters of European improv playing in a garage in California, but we were lucky that day... class act, and a total gentleman), and it really drives the point home. To know who came out of those groups--John Surman, Mike Osborne, Harry Miller, Nisar Ahmed Khan, Kenny Wheeler, Barre Phillips, Harry Beckett--what a time it must have been to musically grow up in the UK!

I kept waiting for something to buy--long enough, so I just put some in. It won't be the last time.

Just put some in the pot--not much, but I hope it helps...

Rutherford, too--he was with the Westbrook camp (remarkably, granted his penchant for total and nigh-total abstraction in later years). As far as weird radio tapes--talk about free improv: there's a Pukwana/Brotzmann concert in circulation, and it's pretty hard core (not that horrible-sounding, with maybe enough time for a release). With intermittent excursions into the radio tape realm--as well as access to FMP material--I'd say that UMS is (regardless of what you'll say/have with Corbett) a pretty great hope for future reissues in this music. Balancing criticisms and positive elements, it's like the RVG series of European Free Improv.

Knowing how dour Bruce can get, that clip really kicks my ass.

Agreed on Mangelsdorff. I think he's pretty important as both an early voice of "modernism" over there (and as precedent for his more patricidal peers). I have yet to hear his earliest dates in the free-ish/modal mode (again, an availability issue), though his presence in later decades is certainly felt.