ep1str0phy

I may have to look into it now--never had a problem with Wilkes, and I'm curious as to where the controversy stems from. On a (lighter) side note--it's nice to see the dumbfounded reaction on the health nuts's faces when you talk about the AEC/Odwalla connection. My girlfriend just stares at me every time.

Moondog: The Viking of Sixth Avenue Elmo Hope Ensemble: Sounds from Rikers Island Dexter Gordon: Sophisticated Giant Alice Coltrane: Universal Consciousness --and-- (after hearing so much enthusiasm on this board and elsewhere): Can: Tago Mago

Portions of LA's San Fernando Valley are blacked out. Many, many power grids (including may family's) are out. The power company can't keep up (there's probably a class action suit just over the horizon). We've had to rent a secondary residence (read: hotel) to sleep through the night.

I dunno--I've been more impressed by the Paris material I've heard (slightly 'rougher' in approach) than the Half Note sides. There's no doubt that the HN material is consummately played--and these are top notch musicians--but there are times when the improvisations feel just a little too logical, the lines a little too finely hewn (bordering, at worst, on facile). Next to the HN sides, Paris feels like a tightrope walk--hard, imperfect, and risky. I think Wes is at his best when he starts to think outside of his time-worn--if virtuosic--patterns (e.g., 'Impressions'--geez! Nice when the changes are a little more oblique...).

Bill Laswell Sirone Charnett Moffett

Oddly enough--I think that tune may be instrumental in turning my girl over to avant jazz. A fine treatment, no doubt.

I've certainly never listened to it more than a couple of times, but--for what it is (what it is being straightforward, stridently commercial, jazz-informed pop)--it ain't that bad. I'd take Bobby slumming over some hack at 100% any day of the week.

...and that's a man whose unbridled enthusiasm and championing (ala Watson) are legend. If nothing else (to follow Allen's point, as the conversation has debated), we're left with an instructive case regarding how not to conduct oneself in the realm of music criticism/history. And his perspective is (arguably) not without merit--the 'Black Nationalism...' book assembles some strong contentions regarding industry/trade prejudices. And he's sorta bottom barrel... ...now, do extra-musical factors even exist? The debate rages...

Malachi Thompson John Hicks Hilton Ruiz

WC is burning. Had to nix a trip to 29 Palms with my sweetheart 'cause the heat is in the triple digits--oh, and shit is getting struck by lightnin'.

I have a copy for review (actual review forthcoming). The summary: fine, pungent Wheeler in a romantic mode (an obvious ancestor is Miles with Gil, but the harmonic language here is 100% KW). Not as dry and forbidding as some of the recent ECMs--quick and light--but there's certainly some depth.

Damn it--I think I bought the Hutcherson for two dollars more than the DG price. Bastards! Another thought: Expansions got a pretty decent CD issue with BN (years back)--how many of these were also released by the original labels?

Yeah. Improvised music is so easy to play, and experience. Thank God I get my challenges from television. On yet another note--if this is, indeed, Goold speaking, then I am again reminded of just how widely--and secretly--read this board must be. Who the hell is too frightened to join in the dialogue? And why the fuck do all the malcontents gravitate toward this end of the spectrum? (must be more of that revolving around each other in individual orbit thang...)

In my tired and slightly addled state, I daresay this is among my favorite posts since joining this board.

Hey, good news regardless.

Han Solo Lieutenant Sulu Oskar Sala Liam Neeson Ben Kingsley Ralph Fiennes

This one has, over time, become one of my favorite Coltranes. There's a sense of power and sheer ecstasy here that is, in my opinion, unsurpassed in the later Quartet recordings--matched, perhaps, by certain other 'later' albums (e.g., Transition, First Meditations), but hardly transcended. Coltrane here is already playing in the late Quintet mode--intensive and virtuosic use of harmonics, blurred riffs, and angular, rapid-fire attack... it's all there--but there's an added sense of tension here. It's interesting, as, although Trane just kept on improving (albeit on the same set of techniques) well into his final year, the decidedly 'freer' Quintet sides seldom reach this level of intensity. It has a lot to do, on the one hand, with the efforts of the rhythm section, which is doing its best to wrangle with the freer rhythmic and harmonic parameters of the music (as Late noted above, Jones is playing quite free on this session--sustaining a spacious, obscure feel on a lot of these later sides; Tyner registers some interesting work trying to match the leader's attack, although there's still a sense of discord when the soloists switch; Garrison, as best as he can, lays back and tries to feed the pulse). At the same time, there's a strong sense of motion--basic, elemental 'jazz' swing--to a lot of this music, and this quartet can't take it completely, out-and-out free; Jones was, at base, an extremely accomplished polyrhythmic 'time' drummer, and Tyner's approach has always favored more acid, 'open' lines anyway (none of the denser approach of your prototypal free jazz pianists--Cecil, for example). Garrison, at least, was an extremely adaptable voice (with a striking sense of dynamics) who could suit his approach to his rhythm mates. Even at this stage, the quartet is thinking within fixed metric parameters--they're there, once the improvisations get off the ground--and that's not something that Jones and Tyner, and Garrison with them, could abandon. The rhythm section throws in everything they can and--everything short, justshort of taking out the time. The summary approach is harder and more rhythmically dense then the earlier Quartet sides--which is not to say that the group is always playing a lot (e.g., increasing the 'impulse density,' to use one of Ekkehard Jost's terms), but rather increasing the superimposition of meters and feels--overall, upping the simultaneity of rhythms over a fixed metric base. The final quintet is marked by a decidedly more 'transparent' attack--not because the multiple rhythms are gone, but because there's no definitive 'metrical' center to revolve around. In all honesty, barring a couple of later Quintet sides (including the hotly recorded Olatunji concert and some other live sets), I find these final Quartet albums to be far more kinetic and, often times, more fun to listen to. But then there's Meditations, Interstellar Space... Final note--I was turned off to this album first time I heard it, and a big, big part of it was how distant Tyner sounds. Still sounds that way, although the best moments outweigh the technical problems. Is this just me?

Hell--what happened to Civil Rights? The welfare state? Protections for the working poor? -and we miss you, Trane.

Maybe Little's best album--the band is sick, the performances are wonderful, and the charts are beyond belief--hope you dig it!

RIP, Malachi. I'll be spinning some of my Delmarks later on. Thanks for the joy.

Dr. Spock Shock Jock Jackie Robinson Paul Robeson Paul McCartney Paul Lovens

Just saw it in the shop. I'm quite surprised that this configuration is recording under the AE moniker--especially with Lester and Malachi gone.

John Butcher: News from the Shed Prince Lasha: Inside Story Keith Jarrett: Fort Yawuh Braxton/Parker/Rutherford: Trio (London) 1993

It's quite possible that the declining youth interest in records stores has something to do with the phenomenon of genre adaptability (which is a whole other can of worms, no doubt). Speaking from the perspective of an individual who did grow up in the the past couple of decades, I can testify to the fact that today's younger fans often gravitate toward that music most ideally suited to new technological media (efficiency/practicality/effort is a factor on the level of, or complicit with, marketing techniques). It's easy to get frustrated here--and, knowing the dedication, passion, and fervor of the folks on these boards, there's no doubt that there are few individuals in the world as wholly committed to the music as we are (our community is--and that's musicians, critics, etc., too--and, on another level, who the hell are those anonymous guys reading this board, anyway?). But I have little doubt that this music (jazz, modern improv--not just the well-marketed shit, but cats like Horace Tapscott, too--for example) has the capacity to reach the younger set--at least on a facile, 'purchasing' level (the college set, anyway, is rife with dabblers--even in more 'popular' forms). These difficulties are tied into larger questions of finance, distribution, and the capacity (not necess talking intelligence or willingness, here--I mean means)of the industry to adjust to the demands and excesses of the younger generations. That being said--this whole 'updating' music shop thing--with the comic books and shit--can't be helping the cause. We're left with dilution, marginalization. If the interests of the average 'contemporary' buyer have shifted so drastically, who's to say that music buying isn't so much an industry as novelty--on the level of bobbleheads and collector's market action figures? Who is this customer--and does he/she give a shit that there are obscure LPs in the back? Prove it to us--that the one-stop detritus emporium won't drive music prices through the roof (as per the wont of 'novelty' sops), won't completely destroy the rare album market.

I'll bite: -Tho Undercurrent was the first thing I thought of--so beautiful.