B. Clugston

There's some interesting Steve Lacy discs being teased: Steve Lacy • Shots with Masa Kwate & Irene Aebi [reissue of Musica 3024] 700 Steve Lacy Trio • Lugano 1984 Live The Willisau Braxton is kind of like Lucy's football gag on Charlie Brown--it keeps getting put out there tantalizingly and then pulled back. I have seen it promised as split into two volumes before--it actually makes more sense as I much prefer the studio sides to the concert. Splitting Santa Cruz in half is odd, though.

Both those string quartets are endlessly fascinating music. A reminder that I need to check out his three other string quartets.

Thanks! George Grant is the cousin in question--he was owner from about 1992 to 2003. I think he came out to a family reunion once, but not sure if I met him as it's a huge family.

Bernd Alois Zimmerman (Wergo). This is great stuff. Photoptosis is amazing. Ronnie Ball, All About Ronnie (London Savoy). Picked this up the other day, mostly for Brown's contributions. Ted Brown and Willie Dennis are a great pair.

Am I reading this correctly, a Don Cherry-led group with James Clay playing Canada in 1957? Yes, Cherry came up to Vancouver several times in the 1950s. Local jazz fans knew him before Ornette.

There's more photos of Ornette (and others) in Vancouver on this page and some suggestion that that photo was taken in New York: http://theoriginalcellarjazzclub.blogspot.ca/

Track 6 is "Mother of the Future," the opening track on Norman Connors' Slewfoot. It was written by Carlos Garnett.

I really enjoyed your Blindfold Test. Lots of interesting tracks. Track 3 is Freddie Hubbard's "Arietsis," or in this case "Aries" from The Body & the Soul.

That was quite the finish--my voice is still hoarse from shouting during the called-back kick return. Hamilton was very undisciplined--too many stupid penalties. I was surprised Calgary only managed 20 points. I took my daughter to the game--it was her first ever football game and she enjoyed, despite the dull start and the endless TV timeouts. Thank you for organizing this! It's a fun annual contest. We were cheering for Hamilton (a relative on my wife's side once co-owned the team), but it was a nice silver lining winning this contest.

Picked up tickets today--I'm going to my first Grey Cup.

Bill Dixon, November 1981

Yes, you do need it--it's a great one. Waisvisz is a perfect partner--you can imagine what he does with "The New Duck."

Steve Lacy, Lumps (ICP). Jimmy Giuffre, Piece For Clarinet and String Orchestra/Mobiles (Verve).

I have a copy of it somewhere, but haven't listened to it in years. I recall it's entertaining enough, but much different from subsequent creative music orchestra works and more like a big band version of his earlier work with Leo Smith and Leroy Jenkins. At times, it sounds comparable to a Kagel or Stockhausen piece. For example, there's a passage for 100 balloons. Joachim Kuhn is on piano.

Forces in Motion is an excellent book and a great way to learn about Braxton's music and where he is coming from. Regarding the box sets, both are great, but I'd give the edge to the Mosaic.

This is from the Braxton Yahoo group recounting a lunch talk Braxton gave in 2007: "He (Braxton) told how Bill Cosby, one of the gatekeepers, had emailed his agent to ask him to participate as a session musician in a band Cosby had organized for the Playboy Jazz Festival). He described how bitter he was towards Cosby's use of his name in his TV show. He said that on the show, the son Teo, was looking for drugs and the pusher was named Anthony Braxton. He (like anyone else) took great offense to this."

Calgary 35

Sign me up.

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Momente (DG). I actually prefer the 1965 version, half of which shows up on Side 6.

Ethan Iverson posted this on his blog a few years back: HH wrote in about another mystery, Carl Brown, the bassist on the Lacy/Cherry Evidence. "I asked Billy Higgins about Carl Brown. I was assuming it was a stage name. He said that was his real name and something like, 'He came to NY, did what he had to do and he split.'" http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2011/04/we-see.html

Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), African Space Program (Enja). Great album with a large ensemble. Sadly my copy is worn--sounds like the previous owner played it a lot on granny's old stereo console with the thrashed needle. Don Ellis At Fillmore (Columbia). I'd give this one 3 3/4 stars, or 1 and 7/8 thumbs up.

Duke Ellington, Black, Brown and Beige, The 1944-1946 Recordings (Bluebird) Art Ensemble of Chicago, Fanfare for the Warriors (Atlantic)

Put me down as a big fan of the Village Vanguard recordings, though perhaps heretically, I listen to Living Time with George Russell more often.

Anima (Pilz). German improv from Limpe and Paul Fuchs, with Austrians Friedrich Gulda and J.A. Rettenbacher sitting in.

Someone (JSngry?) posted this Don Ellis video from 1978 in another thread recently. At the end of the first video Ellis introduces a young Ted Nash fresh out of high school. His solo spot is in the following video. http://youtu.be/XUJL-7rOvDc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhNbhiREDU