Alexander Hawkins

Thought I'd jump this thread up. I'm just enjoying my first few listens to this. Reflectativity has really caught my attention. Anthony Davis is fantastic. A lot of things I've seen about him highlight his 'classical' leanings (although it's all music, right?)...What strikes me about his playing here, though, is his knowledge of the jazz tradition. Before listening to this, I'd been listening to 'Procession of the Great Ancestry' as well (which I'd strongly, strongly recommend as well). It's slowly dawning on me why Braxton speaks so highly of Smith (since his profile, sadly, is surely nowhere near the press Braxton gives him!)

Many thanks for the input. I look forwards to listening to a few of these suggestions! It occurs to me that the title of this thread makes a rather nice (if undoubtedly temporary) partner to 'Funny Rat'.

Picked this up the other week from Dusty Groove. 3 long tracks - players including Lester Bowie, Joseph Bowie, Luther Thomas, J.D. Parran, Charles 'Bobo' Shaw. Anyway, this is really great! Free funk type feel (Theme de Yoyo ballpark...) on the first and third tracks, whilst the middle piece is almost a free bossa... Is anyone else familiar with this? It's in Atavistic's Unheard Music Series imprint. Are there an other titles on this to seek out? Or similar albums to Funky Donkey? Did the 'Human Arts Ensemble' record other things? Thanks in advance!

I just ordered my 1st Braxton Black Saint, Five Compositions (Quartet). This is going to be one expensive discographical exploration! ← That's a good'un! And you're right - as I'm discovering to my cost (pun intended) - it is a mighty expensive business. But the payoff!!!

I did a brief search but didn't turn up anything substantial here about Borah Bergman. I just heard an excerpt from the album of Ornette tunes, which interested me enough to buy it - but does anyone else here have any specific recommendations? Thanks in advance, as always.

A spot of Tal Farlow! CD 1. His tune selection reminds me of Sonny Rollins sometimes. They'd have been great together c.1957.

On a good day, I agree. But other times, she's very affected as far as I'm concerned. For example, she jammed with James Brown on a chat show over here in the UK and was excellent. But her performance at Live 8? The less said...

Oh, sure - I certainly agree about the fundamental influence thing rather than drawing on the style. I think people trying to sound like Monk is ALL wrong! I certainly wouldn't want to hear people do that. Shorter couldn't do it, he'd be right not to try, and why would we want him to?!? What I was querying was whether Wayne has that fundamental influence...I mean, Rollins, for example, clearly does (likewise e.g. Bud Powell, Lacy, etc), but I just don't know about Wayne... I'll look out for those Steve Duke/Joseph Pinzarrone duets, for sure!

In a similar way - and this'll either bring home my point or show my ignorance - I wouldn't want Herbie Hancock anywhere near a Monk album.

I guess because Shorter strikes me as more elliptical and airy than Monk, who was so direct and, I want to say, firmly planted, albeit in his idiosyncratic, eccentric way. Shorter strikes me as more ethereal and spacy, especially now, while Monk, as far out as he could go, has the solid, earthy, homely funkiness and rootedness of a hand-assembled stone fence. ← I was thinking along these lines as well. I agree with Rosco that Shorter back in 1959 might have been a better bet, but even then... I don't really hear how Shorter playing Monk would be different (say) to 'Shorter plays Gershwin', 'plays Berlin', 'plays Arlen', or whatever 'songbook'-type album...I think that playing Monk takes some type of affinity, and I think of Shorter as far too conventional a player. I don't know whether he has the right rhythmic sense, humour, or melodic method. Obviously, it's not to say he doesn't have some of these qualities - just not, to my ears, in a way cognate to Monk... I think great Monk interpreters are freed by the structure of his songs, whereas, because of their idiosyncrasy, those who don't have the affinity are radically constricted by them.

I think "Too Damn Hot" is his best work that's available. The "Turban" and "Dr." are a part of jazz that's been lost to the Berkely School of Music world of jazz we live in today....it's called excitement, originality and fun. ← And that damn 'Duke' Ellington bloke...

I wonder how a Shorter Monk tribute would sound? Strikes me it wouldn't necessarily suit him..? I don't know...

Ah - sorry - I was confused by the mention to Leo. My mistake. I was listening to the piano quartets on the Music and Arts label at the time, and forgot that there were some on Leo! I don't know the Leo piano quartets. My first reaction to the Music and Arts recordings (done Live at Yoshi's) were consternation. But since that time, I've come to like them A LOT. A lot of it still gets past me (e.g. Cherokee), but by the same token, I get a lot out of the recordings. I especially like his way with the ballads. Whereas up tempo there is a lot of work with clusters and block chords, at the slower speeds he occasionally picks out fascinating single lines. Reminds me of Monk, and more than anyone, Elmo Hope. Again, don't know about the Leo discs, but these are disc-length performances, with the individual standards bridged by free passages, essentially. Apart from in these moments, the bass and drums are pretty 'functional' - not in a pejorative sense, but just that they don't 'do' much other than stay out of the way (although I occasionally get the impression that their straight playing is expressly to get in the way, to try to keep Braxton 'on the planet' - he goes FAR AWAY on some pieces!). Ehrlich I haven't really gotten into on these recordings...And I don't know enough of his other stuff to know whether this is me not liking his style in general, whether it's him having a bad day, or what!

The ones I have are the concerts from Birmingham, London and Coventry, each recorded in 1985 during Braxton's tour (and brilliantly documented in Graham Lock's book 'Forces in Motion', IMHO). I'm a huge fan of all of these, but - as at the moment I'm prefacing any post I make about Braxton - I'm in awe of the guy and has music, so maybe not entirely impartial. As far as I'm concerned, there's some great playing all round. Braxton sticks to the smaller horns (alto upwards, mostly, although I forget whether there mightn't be some C-melody sax on there) - I imagine this is for ease of touring. Marilyn Crispell plays wonderfully, although I don't know her work outside of this quartet so couldn't offer any comparison. The bass and drums are great as well. Mark Dresser's bass in particular was a revelation to me - very inventive playing. They are each 2-cd sets, and each disc is an entire set of the concert (the Coventry disc has the nice bonus feature of some interviews with Braxton - although the material almost all finds its way into Lock's (the interviewer) book in any case). It's collage structure music, so a continuous performance, integrating various of Braxton's compositions. I was a little worried before starting this music that the concept was a little academic, and the music might sound obtuse, but not a bit of it. There's a great flow to the music, and it develops very organically: it doesn't sound (as is technically the case at some moments) that there are 4 players each playing a different composition. But perhaps because of the amount of 'set' material, and the collage idea, it's a really interesting study in group dynamics. I think these quartet music are also an object lesson in 'freedom from' versus 'freedom to': to my ears, the fact that there are written compositions integrated with free improvisation etc. increases choice, and freedom, rather than restricts it, as some caricature composition as doing. Couldn't pick a favourite out of the discs. London, I think, has substantially longer sets, but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. Of the quartets, I also enjoyed the Black Saint albums from 1984 and 1986.

I quite like it. Interesting choice of tunes, and it swings like crazy in places. Less several-horns-simultaneously than on some stuff, as far as I remember... In fact, I think this illustrates quite nicely that Roland Kirk would have been a great player even if he'd only ever picked up one horn. I'm not really that familiar with Jack McDuff's playing, so there are others who could answer more accurately with respect to his playing! I enjoy it a lot though, here.

Listening to 'Nine to Get Ready' all of today. This is an incredible album. In fact, I've been listening to three Mitchell albums a lot lately: Snurdy..., This Dance..., and Nine..., and thinking how well they all work as albums. They seem to be far more planned than being a collection of discrete tunes. The opener of Nine to Get Ready is a really dark, dark piece, for sure. The tune Lester B. is beautiful... And the one following it has some a circular-breathed Mitchell solo which is positive fire-breathing... Anyway, not in too much of a position to comment constructively about this album. It'll all be ridiculously positive gushing. But, if you're at a loss as to what to stick on tonight...

This is a really interesting, and welcome, thread - I was listening to the Charles Tyler ESP last night, and enjoying a lot. It's the only Tyler I have, and was wanting some suggestions as to where next!

I'm a big fan of the all-flute album - also on the box - 'I talk with the spirits'

My advice: don't. Had it and sold it. ← I picked it up the other day, and quite enjoy it, so far!

I'm quite fond of that version of 'It's a Raggy Waltz'. It clearly inspires mixed opinions, however. Nate once around linked a review at Bagatellen in which the reviewer expressly singled out the tune for criticism... I have to say, surely it's a good thing that we can find Braxton's standards controversial in some way? There's so many people churning out generic stuff over these tunes, that at least it's a change!

I played a gig in a restaurant (for my sins) at the end of last year. They asked for an 'inoffensive' CD for us to stick on between sets, so I took along one of the Bill Evans trio sides, I think. Unfortunately, I'd had a few CDs lying around that morning, and had accidentally put Ornette's 'Free Jazz' into the Bill Evans case. We decided that we were so tired of 'good' music being talked over, and played at a ridiculously low level anyway, just to see what would happen. And sure enough, eveyone sipped their cocktails to 'Free Jazz'. Not an eyelid was batted in anger. Surreal, but kind of sad

Ingenious organising concept!

FWIW, here's a review of the first evening's performances.

P.s. no question...Muhal with Roscoe Mitchell???? Has to be!

FWIW. while working on the cd reissue of Young at Heart I played a 30 minute first take of the solo piece. Many more references to earlier styles - boogie, stride, etc. Sadly, no room on the cd for it. Maybe in the next format. ← Wow. Can I have your job please? Is listening to these unreleased takes as exciting as it sounds, or if you're used to being involved in the recording process, does the novelty wear thin? Mind you, at the risk of answering my own question, the novelty doesn't wear thin with the chosen takes we all live with... I wish Muhal would travel to this country...I've only seen him once, and as a 17-year old who liked the idea of 'new jazz' more than the music itself, I don't think I really appreciated what I was seeing