ep1str0phy

Up to say that if any Bay Area board goers were holding out on that one box at the Berkeley Amoeba, it's gone. And my speakers are now in a very, very good mood.

I spent Trane's B-Day proselytizing. HB, JC.

I stand corrected (first disc of the UA sessions was the string session, I mean...). Anyway, up to praise Makanda for his contributions to Unit Structures--between his 'freer' sides and the more inside UA and SC albums, there's a wide, wide spectrum of terrific, diverse music.

I seem to be in the minority here, but the first album of the UA sessions (Way Way Out) has to be one of my all time favorites. The strings provide a terrific uplift that elevates what could have been a fairly rote hard boppish session; McIntyre just flies over those arrangements, and the accompaniment grooves like mad... and those string arrangements--prototypically advanced-sounding, perhaps, but swinging as hell in an angular, Dolphian manner (wide, dissonant intervals, careening harmonies, a bubbling, effervescent sense of rhythm). Only the Andrew Hill string quartet sessions, IMO, are as strong a marriage of avant-garde/post-bop jazz.

It's actually refreshing that, after the whole Dave Douglas/Bad Plus ballyhoo over 70's/80's recordings that's been going about the blogs, people are exercising a fervent interest over an oft-neglected historical period. Some favorites that (perhaps) haven't been mentioned: Brotherhood of Breath: Brotherhood of Breath and Brotherhood Louis Moholo: Spirits Rejoice Johnny Dyani: Witchdoctor's Son Dudu Pukwana: In the Townships Dewey Redman: Coincide Charles Tolliver: Impact Don Cherry: Brown Rice Frank Lowe: Black Beings Billy Harper: In Europe and Trying to Make Heaven My Home Cecil Taylor: 3 Phasis Frank Wright/Noah Howard: Church Number Nine and Uhuru Na Umoja Pharoah Sanders: Black Unity AEC: Nice Guys Andrew Hill: Hommage Anthony Braxton: Five Pieces (becoming one, anyway) Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land: San Francisco Billy Bang: Sweet Space Julius Hemphill: Dogon A.D. -I guess you could pick any ten of those (they'd change on another day...) -This doesn't even include more free improvish sides, like Derek Bailey's solo work, Topography of the Lungs, the 70's Globe Unity Orchestra Material, The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie, etc. -Double on Soapsuds, Soapsuds

As much as I love Alice's work--including the more out of her more out excursions (World Galaxy comes to mind)--she can be a hit and miss these days. I saw her at UCLA a while back--Ravi on sax, Reggie Workman (who seems to get these unfortunate gigs here and there), and a drummer whose name I don't recall (a relative little-known, if not unknown--subbing for Jeff Tain Watts). Say what you will about Ravi, but he kept the show as interesting as he could (well-versed in a lot of the late-Coltrane gestures, if not the complete technique or feel). The band didn't lock up for a second, and I had/have a feeling that it has something to do with Mrs. Coltrane's lack of dynamic range--she's taking it even slower now than before, and the ensemble wanted to go places that she couldn't or refused to. The whole effect was terrifically inorganic and forced--like a bunch of balloons tied to a table, grasping for the air. I respect her to no end, but I certainly hope that my night was an exception to the rule (looks like Haynes was killin, which is good news).

I love this album to death--straight call on the 'fun vibes' thing, although I don't take the better part of this album to be any more frivolous than a lot of the non-spiritual free jazz/free bop of the period. At the same time, there is a sense of playfulness and youthful joy about the proceedings--it's certainly one of the less exigent or apocalpytic albums put out by the extended Ornette crew. I enjoy the amateurish element (as with The Empty Foxhole, etc.) as a piece with the whole to the extent that I never thought twice about it. Matter of fact (having not really listened to the album for a year or two) I always supposed that Codaryl was doing the tempo muffing--nothing too suprising for me, anyway. Anyhow, props to the elder Moffett on this one--showing that he did have the chops to fulfill multiple roles in the Ornette bands (first as trumpet, I believe?...). And good for Wilbur Ware... always nice to hear him in more 'out' contexts.

The Big O Wing Zero Optimus Prime

Lots and lots of Archie Shepp falls into this category--and the man had and has a feel for the rhythm that extends beyond his more 'outside' moments. His stuff post-60's, in particular, is rife with Latin grooves (e.g., the late Impulse! period). For some early fire music with a clave (haven't listened to it in a while, so...) dig Shepp's version of "The Girl from Ipanema." A lot of Mingus might fall into this category, too...

I'm frankly surprised that there isn't one already--but we could all benefit from whomever makes the effort...

Sometimes I wonder if it isn't just a ballooned chicken and egg argument--that is, that people won't listen to X because X doesn't get exposure OR that X won't get exposure because people won't listen to or fail to gravitate toward X. Agreed on the point above, as with jazzypaul's sentiments (etc.), but it's hard to lay the blame on any particular factor when the whole equation is so ingrained. I think it's precisely because everyone here comes across as correct that it's so difficult to dissect this question into the trouble components--George W. Bush world: yes, but it's also difficult not to listen to Ben Watson's Adorno rantings sometimes.

Timelesness is really the operational word here.

Has anyone undertaken the enterprise of putting together a thoroughgoing Dewey Redman sessionography or discography? I can't seem to locate one that doesn't just gloss over the details.

Martin Sheen Michael Douglas John Travolta

Herbie's organ is functional in the way of coloration (dynamic and timbral)--again, not that much to it. It's the same basic effect as on his electric Miles appearances. I think it fits in wonderfully with the entire off-kilter vibe of the second side.

Billy Harper Hannibal Marvin Peterson Howard Johnson

To be fair, the better bulk of Impulses have been reissued on CD... in Japan. I'm still surprised by what turns up in the import/used bins.

I think, on the Cream end of things, that the studio portion of Wheels of Fire is some of the finest British Blues-rock ever produced. More consistent, on repeated listens, than the substantially more dated Disraeli Gears (although the moments are there) and the accomplished, albeit tentative Fresh Cream. Goodbye has always been a hodgepodge to me, but it's fine for what's there (the live material is a whole other ballgame, and I'd have to throw in the Grande Ballroom and Fillmore stuff just for posterity...).

Whoa, whoa, whoa--hold the blues, mailman... Coporate backing? That's a step or two further than I (and I'm sure a lot of us) would have dared to tread--simply trying to make sense of a befuddling process (just how and from where names came into the mix is a question, beyond presumptions--and I would be the LAST to believe that Braxton or Ornette (etc.) got their names in through backroom dealings--just postulating that someone--don't know whom, least of all the musicans--could be pulling up the candidates with an interest). And the optimist's perspective is a given. But there are lot of could-have-beens, might-have-beens, and for speed's sake should bes that could/could have make/made a world of difference. Just take a look at the piss-poor state of the LA Jazz scene for an example of an opportunity--and not just a dollar bonus--missed (we love you, Horace).

I'll be listening to this one soon, too... ...and--not to derail the topic--but the mentions of Wheeler, John Taylor, and Tony Oxley remind me of an album I just got--Once Upon A Time, by the Alan Skidmore Quintet. It veers between extremely tasteful post-bop in the vein of the 2nd Miles Quintet and fairly striking British free jazz--a keeper, no doubt.

I still like Blind Faith--on the whole--as much as, if not more than the lesser Cream and Traffic albums.

So we are talking about the same Reginald Robinson, then?

Although I honestly have no opinion on the Dylan, I'll jump in on the Beck--if only to say that his earlier, independent label folk/experimental stuff (and now I sound the elitist) is quite different from the hopped up techno/disco/space pop gloss that he's been working with the past few years (and I actually happen to enjoy a lot of that, if only because I literally grew up with Beck's early career--sentimentalism is as poor an argument as any, to be sure--and I somewhat am and most certainly was not as well versed in the hip-hop that Beck so publicly parodied as I should like). Regardless, I'd take that earlier material to be of a different breed--lo-fi, alternativish folk, to give it a genre, but in its own way a great deal more sincere and affecting than the major label stuff. And I wouldn't fault that guy on sources--beyond broad stylistic rips, of course, of which there are several...

I've been hesitant in working through Evan's more recent material (i.e., the past decade or so--and I'm talking the EAI stuff, mainly). Perhaps there's something that just didn't connect, but more than likely--given the fact that I've only returned to Evan after running through all the early free improv guys--I need to do some listening (again). A lot of his earlier material (e.g., the pseudo-electric stuff with Paul Lytton) is extremely similar on a pretty facile sonic level... and I enjoy that one a lot, so I'd be interested in hearing some recs.

Clifford's right--no application, anonymous and confidential voting. Which leaves the question--how do the names come up? Granted, particularly, the relatively esoteric cultural nook of modern improvisation/free jazz, I'd be interested to know whether or not, on the one hand, the cognoscenti at the MacArthur Fellowship hold more 'contemporary' improvisers in higher regard (perhaps through some nebulous, facile kinship with the 20th century avant-garde crowd?), or rather that there's just more pull--through backroom lobbying or whatever--on behalf of the musicians awarded. The names can't be plucked out of personal consciousness or universal ether--I'd be surprised to see Braxton come up on a college classroom (yet to happen outside of the few improv classes I've taken), let alone a high-profile grant process. More likely Kenny G... And regardless of who 'gets it,' 'winning' the award is not necessarily commensurate with musical merit or skill. No animosity against Regina here--beyond personal musical taste, of course, and the notion that, even if she could make out well with the cash, there are dozens of other, perhaps more interesting candidates who've been passed over...