ep1str0phy

...and as a fairly young "student" of these older idioms, I don't think we need a Wynton of anything. It is possible to teach jazz history--theoretical, social, whatever--without parochialized, exclusivist punditry, and it's similarly possible to transfer the lessons and repertoire of the past without obstructing progress. The AACM, of course, showed us that ancient and future could co-exist. Inasfar as the "avant-garde" (60's free jazz? AACM/BAG? Thirsty Ear stuff?) has become an institution in and of itself, there's no reason that we can't teach these lessons--and the rhetoric of aggressive freedom and aesthetic progress--from an historical perspective. It's just dangerous, I feel, to parade the "avant-garde" as the "avant-garde" when the burgeoning new guard (wherever they may be, if they exist at all--and sometimes I feel like a "lone watchman", on that level) may be coming from an alternate musical perspective (the video of "Keeping Time" that JS posted a day or so ago representing one example). In other words, we run the risk of cutting the future off at the knees when half-a-century-old philosophies continue to act as the "advanced" guard. Ornette is my Bird just like Bird was Ornette's Bird, but I'm fairly convinced that the music of the future will not be what we have come to know as free jazz, although it may certainly draw from that well. Edit: mindful of C's comment, not looking to start another firespitting contest--only that education in the modern perspective (w/reference to the younger generations, Matana's included) might be germane here.

--the one with the extended, occasionally plodding Ayler dedication(?) I'm generally responsive to larger UK-free workouts, but I'm not sure that that one comes off that well in toto. Still, when the voices kick in above that martial cadence, it's mesmerizing. -edit to make an interrogative...

Yeah, I have a strong feeling that the quality of the headphones is having some effect on the test...

LP Reproduction.

Steve Winwood Ginger Baker Fela Kuti (real sly response, rachel...)

Marty McFly The Time Traveller Time Bandits

Then again, I am just recovering from a pretty severe cold. So my results may not be accurate...

My results are the roughly the same as yours (18000 Hz is already faint for me), and I just got out of college. Uh-oh...

It's a gray area, but that album (Vista, right?) was part of the thematics of his Impulse run. At the very least, those more "commercial" sounding Impulse sides maintained a sense of openness and creativity that was aesthetically head and shoulders above the straight disco shit that a lot of the former free crowd was putting together (the same reason why I'll never write off Rahsaan's pseudo-ironic--but always creatively earnest--work in soul and soul-pop). I always got the sense that Marion wanted to go there. As for mellow: well, I've always sensed a sort of quietude about Marion's work (Georgia Faun, the stuff with Hampel, the duets with Leo Smith...).

Let me say it again... Haven't heard it, but after all I've heard I think I've been sold on a copy. (and another disc falls into the "always on the lookout" pile...)

Yeah, I saw this on cable a while back. Interesting joint.

(in response to clifford's post above) Tru. It's just that much more severe that the commercial and commercial-ish zeitgeist-jumping that many of his peers in the progressive music community registered (e.g.--and to varying degrees--Robin Kenyatta, Bennie Maupin, Byard Lancaster, Norman Connors, Gary Bartz, Pharoah...) never really struck hard with Curson. There are the folks whose popularity/status has largely rescued them from the commercialism game, then those whose apparent reluctance toward "make a buck" deals left them sorta high and dry in the end (Curson is one, Marion Brown and Grachan being a couple others).

My understanding is that a lot of it had to do with Curson not "playing ball" with the record company idea men in the fusion/post-fusion/disco era. I'm not sure that he's any more anonymous than the many other tremendously talented instrumentalists who've come up in history largely as Mingus sidemen, but he sure as hell merits more recognition than he has (especially for keeping his music straight).

Paul Haines William Burroughs Oscar Brown Jr.

RIP (?! Someone was going to do it...)

Thanks for sharing that, Man.

The Gallo film? If so, I'm not sure that's a feather...

OMG - if that isn't the second coming of Vanilla Ice, nothing is! How did the recording engineer/tech whatever not lose his lunch and keep a straight face I don't know... I can't even laugh at it. It's just... it's just an orgy of mediocrity.

Gotta give credit to MEV--one of the most open-minded, stylistically diplomatic of the early EA ensembles.

You've heard him with Lacy, tho, right? It's a pretty strong 180 from a lot of Few's earlier work (due in part, perhaps, to the complexity of Lacy's arrangements), but I would under no conditions call that "overplaying". At the same time, I think the Wright material might demand the florid, "impressionistic" approach, but then I'd have to hear the Wright quartet with a different pianist (which I have not). ...(and on the other thing) I said it before and I'll say it again: boycott.

Heads up, folks: all of Afrodisiaca is available online "somewhere". You know where to look. -On first spin, it's a mighty listen. Perhaps I'm just listening a little to light, but there's a strong sense of the "Dutch sound" here (Breuker is on the record), and there are moments where I might mistake this for a Kollektief record. I might chalk it up to a shared sense of wild eclecticism, though; I always knew that Tchicai had a sense for stylistic diversity, but the sheer variety of styles on display here is dizzying. This one is epic, no doubt.

Hell yes. -_-

Yeah, that one's been getting some good buzz. I'm looking into picking this one up, although (Robinson and, to a lesser extent, Greene notwithstanding) I haven't heard to much from the members of this group. I've heard some folks praise Eisenbeil's CIMP work, tho...

I think you're right, .:.. There's at least some pretty obvious post-production going on, which at least acts in service of the music. I'll have to listen again for specific effects (anything you have in mind?). Also--yeah, reading riverrat's earlier post, you're right. I'll second the recommendations for A Monastic Trio, which is very free-groovy in the best possible way. Alice gets some meaty hits in there like I've heard nowhere else.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Man, this thread reads like gold.