ep1str0phy

AMG doesn't have listings for half the stuff I purchase nowadays. Sooner or later, hopefully, someone will put together a workable, readily available discography on these guys.

Braxton marketed on youtube? Damn. Digging the music, though. Wallet having phantom pains.

Man, I looove that one. 60's-style Sunny had just the right measure of anarchy, intelligence, and groove. (Coursil, among other quite formidable faces, is always welcome.)

Either would be a good start. I'd almost suggest Brotherhood as the better place, but I'm very, very fond of that first one too. Can't say how the reissues sound, but the original LPs are well-recorded. The early CD issue of the 1st Brotherhood album sounds perfectly fine (I'm satisfied with it, anyway). Unless the remastering has succeeded in making the Miller/Moholo rhythm team even more badass on those first few seconds of "MRA", then I'll stick with what I've got. The more I listen to it, the more I'm beginning to think that Brotherhood is the superior album--more for variety than for value (as discussed in the SA thread). None of that's to say that the self-titled is lacking for ambition ("Night Poem"), aggression, or skill, of course. My opinion could change tomorrow, and together those first two albums are some of the best studio output that that axis of musicians (South African and European alike) ever produced.

I saw this one in the shops--wasn't aware that it dates to that (fine) vintage. I don't think I've yet picked up on the "wonder" of Oxley's solo percussion material, but it's certainly interesting to me (theoretically and historically). This should be a fun one.

Most folks who've really "digested" the Russell book (I've found) tend to equate it to either a mystical tome or a nice, discursive study. I don't think I've yet met an individual who has (directly) derived a cohesive musical vocabulary from the Russell book, but (again) the ideas are interesting enough. I've met far too many "academic" musicians in my time to get dragged down into the [theory > sound] ditch (which is a bitch when you're trying to get people, especially the "younger" cats I'm often around, out of the box--ironically). To Russell's credit on the (later) electric material, I'm not sure I can target a peer in that category, anyhow (some Gil Evans? *gulp* Zappa?). He'll always have points for originality in my book.

I have a copy of For Eva and that first, proto-Embryo "Japo" album. I enjoy both, but For Eva is far more "jazz oriented" (there's a striking resemblance to Walt Dickerson in spots) than the later recordings with the full-fledged Embryo group.

With you again, ubu--Beethoven Hall is another favorite of mine--puts Cherry in a pretty good light, although the context is unconventional for him (modal, yes, but far "boppier" in nature). Some nice playing by the otherwise unknown (to me) horns--Bertil Lovgren, Brian Trentham, Ray Pitts (although they apparently get around European circles, and Trentham was also on--of all things--Relativity Suite). The album is apparently available again--and affordable--on Universal (CD). Ezz-thetics destroys my ass. Nate sent me a copy of 80th Birthday Concert a while ago and it, along with the other Living Time Orchestra sides I have, are mixed affairs for me. Russell certainly knows what to do with electronics, although that doesn't always translate to the most palatable "electric" sound. I know they don't come from the same places, but Russell's Living Time stuff just smacks of knottier "jazz funk" to me. A master, though... I have and am and will spend time with the Lydian Chromatic Concept... book, although many of it's more readily applicable ideas (in the "jazz" context) have already been condensed into summary, much-diluted form. I have yet to take something practically unique out of it, but it reads beautifully to me (in the same manner that Braxton does).

Listening to Down South now, and--being a tremendous Moholo fan, used to hearing him as the drummer in these contexts--Bennink does a terrific job. I think it's just the right measure of Dutch unruliness to transform an already creative mbaqanga groove into something truly off-the-wall. Bennink isn't just a drummer--he's a true percussionist (and it's a testament to the power of the SAs that the "international community" on these Miller recordings sounds so whole, so organic).

Message to folks--Downtown Music Gallery has supposedly "last copies" of the Harry Miller box, sans slipcase, on sale for the fairly high price of $65. Mine arrived in the mail, and it's well worth it (as an indulgence, yes, but I'm loving every minute of it).

Jesus. I saw that Tern listing, too, and I'd be content enough with the CD issue... speaks volumes about the after market power of the Ogun catalog, though.

I was just listening to Brotherhood today--beautiful, beautiful stuff. It's one of those albums that my mind refuses to tire to. (It could act as a cross section of this camp of musicians--a mbaqanga tune, a blowout piece in free time, a knotty post-bop piece, a melee in triple meter, a breakneck march--everything's here, everyone is featured in some capacity.) And I finally got my hands on the Harry Miller box (it's in the mail). I'm excited, to say the least.

Bill Dixon's been discussed on this board before, but I haven't heard too much on Odyssey (most likely as it's so damn expensive). Any Ratty opinions on the box?

Hawk's solo work on We Insist! in particular is some of the most pained, chilling stuff I've heard out of the older generations in the 60's. What a giant...

Hey, thanks for showing up! I have tremendous respect (and envy) for those among us who managed to get in with Kippie somehow. I'd like to hear more of your recollections... (especially as you were there right to the year of the Soweto student strikes--things got worse, no?)

Sad-sounding, but potentially true...

I'd like to year what you could do in another environment, too! Ha! You and Freud gots me... I like his stuff with Bley, and it seems to be the freest he gets nowadays. It's strange, though, how abruptly he seemed to have "cut off" the energy side of things after Ayler. Maybe he got turned off to it somewhere down the line... I recall a Downbeat interview with Carla Bley--a master organizer of progressive improv, right?--going nuts about how awful Peters Brotzmann and Kowald were (having toured with them--modern improvisers in a completely different, decidedly freer bag). So many capable players turned around on the free scene after the music dropped into the post-Aylerian deep-end.

I like Sam Brown on Liberation Music Orchestra (almost wrote Libation...). He's only really a "presence", though, on a few recordings. Re: 4tet discs--not a fan of Jarrett myself, but I enjoy Fort Yawuh for the fine Dewey Redman and some excellent rhythm support (Jarrett isn't quite so "cheesy" on that one--actually a little menacing). That's probably as "free" as the group got, granted that (due in large part to Jarrett's square-as-hell-peg comping/arrangements) even their "open" music sounds rather tightly organized. Silence (a comp?) has some good, freewheeling music on it, but somehow the ECM reverb seems to trail Jarrett wherever he goes... Now, the ECM American 4tet albums have some extremely bright moments, but mainly because they seem to purchase into the KJ mystique/romanticism and try to run from there. The Survivor's Suite has some terrific playing on it by all involved, and even Eyes of the Heart (as fetishized by the Do the Math blog) has its moments--mainly because of some sanguine, passionate playing by Dewey, who somehow made out well with the bloated emotionalism of Jarrett's compositions.

I don't think that I've heard Peacock in enough unique "out" contexts (what--Ayler, the Tony Williams BN dates, some ECM stuff, with a few others...) to really get a hold on what I could do in other environments. I agree that the Ayler groups were somewhere at the limit of American free jazz, though, and the only one who came out of those early ensembles with the beginnings of an entirely new syntax (Ayler excluded, of course) was Don Cherry. After Ayler, it's almost as if the equipoise to musical conservatism is only gradients of freedom... Sunny Murray, for example, has probably done his most interesting post-Ayler (and, for that matter, post-Taylor) work in a largely Aylerian/Taylorian idiom. Those more "inside", post-bop/modal albums are kind of boring to me, honestly.

Welcome to the club... (To chime in...) Borbetomagus is well worth the price of admission--it's virtually a one-note affair, but a good one-note. Hardcore, guitar-laden, ultra-altissimo noise skronk--like a less "spiritual" Last Exit (I find myself using that adjective with reservation, but there's surely something to the ceremony and violent ecstasy of that latter group). B. was a seminal group, and often formidable (for that sorta thing...). Believe it or not, tonight is the first night I spun For Adolphe Sax/Morning Glory. After hearing about this one for so long, I'm happy to hear that it isn't a historically inflated Aylerian bashfest. The similarities are certainly there, but there's absolutely nothing tentative about the ensemble (Brotzmann in particular). What it lacks in polish and mastery it compensates for in force, militant fervor. I like these "there's a riot going on" free music albums. (A completely different note: I'd be thrilled to hear Brotzmann with the Peacock/Murray rhythm team--especially, in a "what if?" sorta scenario, at this vintage).

Look at Henry go!

I hadn't heard about it, and other sources (like Penguin, for example) don't seem to have picked up on it. I'd think that there'd be cooperation from someone (e.g., someone with access to tapes), granted the fact that Shapes contains previously unreleased material. Too bad, as the situation with at least pseudo-legitimate labels reissuing without permission only compounds the royalty hazards ingrained in the CDR trade (e.g., with DMG).

As someone who was introduced to Monk through his Columbia recordings, I have a few favorites of that later vintage... the "master" solo takes of Ruby, My Dear and Round Midnight are a big reason why I'm in this music. Also, count me as a fan of Live at the It Club and Underground. And then there's Straight, No Chaser, which few people seem to like, but which I feel contains some of his strongest studio work in later years (his comping/articulation behind Charlie Rouse on "Locomotive" is unbelievable).

More an ensemble session, but I like News from the Shed--early-ish EAI in a fashion one might expect, but the playing here is so galvanizing that I'd tend to ignore that these same sounds have since become de rigueur among numerous less interesting musicians. Then again, I'm a fan of the more sanguine of EAI contexts, and there's as much fire as you can get from Butcher and anarchic guitarist John Russell (who's always struck me as a harsher Derek Bailey) here. Then there's Radu Malfatti in almost-ultra-minimalist mode, which is as enjoyable (to me), in its own way, as gutbucket Radu...

http://nopunctum.blogspot.com/search?q=Ogun+Records This seemingly defunct blog has a pretty nice overview of the Ogun catalog, including the numerous OOP pieces.