B. Clugston

Gilmour played bass on the studio recordings of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" and "Sheep" (not sure about "Dogs" - but I seem to remember that was all Roger). Apologies that I don't have time at this very moment to provide citations, but I'm pretty sure these are both fairly well established, from everything I've seen on-line. That is correct. There's a quote from Gilmour here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep_%28song%29 Snowy White would play bass on "Sheep" and "Pigs" in live concerts, while Waters played rhythm guitar.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. Feeling a little creakier today.

Brazil played flute on Om. He wasn't on Ascension.

No need to apologize. It was worth it for: "Man, she is a lady with all these thoughts. And she sings those thoughts... just like, like she's talking to you. Like you ain't never heard such thoughts. And the whole time, there are so many words and you have this person saying things to you, saying things to your ear, but they are coming straight from her brain. Those words, you just gotta listen man. You gotta listen in your ear."

Also worth checking out is the earlier Nan Madol on ECM (or Japo) and Heavy Life, recorded in the U.S. of A with James Spaulding, Howard Johnson, Reggie Workman, Chico Freeman, J. D. Parran, Tomasz Stańko, Bob Stewart and Joe Daley.

He turns up on a few Ira Sullivan albums, including Nicky's Tune on Delmark. Happened to find it last week and have been really enjoying.

Yes, it's on Material's One Down LP, with that song also issued as a 12" single. Not bad. Though IIRC it's a Robert Wyatt song. Pretty sure "Memories" is a Hopper song, though Wyatt sang it a lot. First shows up on the Soft Machine demos from 1967.

I highly recommend Steve Lacy's Hooky, a recording of a 1976 solo concert in Montreal. It's my favourite Lacy solo record. Derek Bailey's LACE is among his best solo improv dates. (Of all of them, I think I only like Aida more.) Agree with above recommendation of Steve Lacy's Saxophone Special. The CD also includes part of The Crust. School Days is indeed a classic, though I know it from its HatArt incarnation.

From a French TV documentary show called A L'affiche Du Monde. Here's some info on the director: http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-greek-filmmaker-and-poet-robert-manthoulis-do

The Onzy Matthews Mosaic Select.

I have a VHS tape of this gig, which I recorded off the TV when it was broadcast at the time. It's pretty good, musically. For Sam, it was just another gig; at one point, during someone else's solo, you can see him in the background yawning very deeply. I was wondering about the band with Rivers, Braxton, Holland and Joe Daley. I heard the band broke up because Beatrice Rivers had an argument with Braxton...called him a control freak. Any thoughts folks? I think that was a one-off, a concert in 1978. Rivers and Braxton played together in Holland's group in 1972 and 1974. "That group played some concerts together, but the contrasting approaches of Braxton and Rivers proved incompatible." See http://www.bb10k.com/RIVERS.disc.html#76.00.00

Yes, that is a classic. Along that line: •Conspiracy. Excellent four CD box set on Leo of a Zurich festival featuring many of those documented on Document. •Sergey Kuryokhin. Absolutely Great! (Leo). Seven CDs documenting Kuryokhin's trip to the Bay Area, mostly featuring solo piano and Pop Mechanics-style performances with U.S. musicians. •The four Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz 4-CD sets, while partly a shelf-clearing exercise, contain some fabulous music.

Jazz tie-in: Sadik Hakim once recorded a song called “Grey Cup Caper.”

Sorry to see that. I have one of his daxophone albums--he made quite an extaordinary number of sounds from them. I didn't realize he designed typefaces as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FF_Dax

B.C. 35. Go Lions!

The 4-CD Soviet sets are wonderful stuff. In particular, the Homo Liber, Guyvoronsky/Volkov duo, Orkestrion and Chekasin big band sides are incredible. There are a few duds here and there, but overall a great series.

I've got the Jazz Door. Fantastic concert, but both sets have several minutes edited out. Does the vinyl version have the complete concert?

That would be interesting, indeed. Of those dates, I only have Montreux and Paris. Do the others circulate? There is also the dynamite show from Tokyo on June 19 that would be worth considering. Rainbow is a good show musically. Sound isn't bad, but the drums are loud. There's also a wealth of recordings from a European tour later that year.

Wolter Wierbos' XCaliber is a nice one. He's done quite a few solo discs. The George Lewis Solo Trombone Record is a great one.

all information from Graham Lock (via personal e-mail, Apr-2005); he explains: "In the summer of 1985 Braxton recorded approx 14 LPs worth of solo music for Stil Editions. The recording was done in a church in Paris. (There's info re this in Forces in Motion on pages 136 and 384.) As far as I know, none of this material has ever been issued EXCEPT for one track on a special CD+catalogue issue that Stil released to celebrate their 25th anniversary. It's hard to say what the CD is called - the cover has the following info: 'Stil audio numerique / Un Quart de Siecle / 25 annees d'urgence et de creation / Bonjour, Monsieur BEUYS!' while the disc itself has 'Stil audio numerique / Neuf titres pour 1/4 de siecle, 1971-1996'. The catalogue number is 2103 SAN 97 and the disc was issued in 1997. All the tracks on it except the Braxton are from discs Stil had already released. There's no info re date or place of recording of the Braxton track (but he did tell me in 1985 it was Paris in the summer!). The Braxton track is simply listed as 'Saxo-improvisation, saxo alto', with a timing of 6' 39". I'm certain it's actually a version of 'You Go To My Head' (though, curiously, in the track listing that Braxton gave me for the 14 LPs back in 1985 - see Forces in Motion [p.384] - there's no mention of 'You Go To My Head'!)"

I like it. I'd call it his masterpiece. Plus it's got Big John Patton on "Erotico." The only disappointment is "Svegliatti and Uccidi" from the 2000 edition.

Other than Discs 14 through 18 of the Miles at Montreux set, I've listened to everything I own. Don't think I'll ever get to those.

Trillium E will be released next week on Braxton House: http://tricentricfoundation.org/label/albums/68

Back on topic, I found 'Coon Bid'ness in a record store yesterday. "Hard Blues" -- what a great track and icing on the cake for the Dogon A.D. reissue. Dogon A.D. was probably my favourite jazz album yet to see CD issue. Glad that's changed.

RIP. I enjoyed his work with Kevin Ayers and Lol Coxhill. Looks like he had a fascinating musical life.