Alexander Hawkins

I must admit, I tried to buy a box from these people at the $11 price. It was the Leo Smith Kabell set. I figured it might be for real, given that you do see them pretty cheap from time to time. Anyway, all I got back from them was an email saying 'sorry, this item is not available' or something similar. Good job I didn't spring for the Ayler 'Holy Ghost' or Braxton '23 Standards' boxes which were also at this markdown..!

I think Paul McCartney's drummer at the moment is COOL!

I like the way Derek Bailey plays it on his 'Ballads' album (Tzadik).

Not two at once, but Clark Terry when I saw him had his trumpet and flugel held a little like that, and play a chase chorus with himself. Only one winner in that situation!

I don't happen to own any of his own dates. I really enjoy listening to him as an accompanist for Rollins, though. I remember hearing an interview with him on the BBC a few years back when he told quite a nice story about when Coltrane gave him the changes for 'Steps' a few days in advance of the session, and his assumption (soon to be rudely overturned at the session!) that (because of the changes) it was a ballad.

Can I veer this conversation onto Braxton on piano? I 've just listened to the first disc of the Piano Quartet (Yoshi's) 1994, and find him quite an interesting player. I think his ballad concept is the most 'accessible' bit of his playing. It seems to me to come out of a Monk/Elmo Hope lineage, as much as anything.

There's some discussion of this here I believe... I'm looking forwards to hearing it, for sure!

Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. I have just heard Joe Harriott for the first time. I am VERY ashamed to say this, as a musician from the UK. I'm also ashamed to admit that the only way I got round to hearing him was after Braxton mentioned him in an interview he did for the BBC after his London gig, and, being in the grips of Braxton-philia, I thought I'd better check this guy out. But my goodness. In the space of the one track on Gilles Peterson 'Impressed: Vol. 1', I was sold. And on all the other musicians. Damn it if I'm now not going to go back to the start to try to understand the musical heritage of my own country! Garrick, Harriott, Tracey, Rendell/Carr... There's work to be done.

What are the pieces? I'm curious!

Just picked up that issue of The Wire, and it's an interesting - and really quite long - article. I'm also interested by the Trillium opera, but think that I probably have other Braxton I should get through before listening to this one. I still can't get enough of the quartets. David Rosenboom (sp?) is a really interesting player, I think - on the strength of Five Compositions (1986).

I have to say, I had never really registered the 'fastest horn in the west' meaning in the cover. Obvious, now you mention it, and pretty cool!

Oops! Sorry. Feel free to delete this thread. How curious that WM should be mentioned

I too really enjoy 'Feelin' the Spirit', not least because of Herbie, whom I'm usually not wild about.

SS, that photo reminded me of one of the Francis Wolffs - perhaps Jack McDuff? - turning round from the console and looking focussed!

In that sense, I agree. And I should probably have thought harder about my offhand remark, because on reflection, seeing the GTM performed in London made very explicit what was going on - hand signals and so forth between the performers. There are these fantastic moments in the quartet music where it suddenly locks into, or at least hints at, a much more traditional groove. Continuing our visual imagery, I suppose this is the proverbial man in the clouds.

Oops. Not, of course, that I listen to kaleidoscopes, but you know what I mean...

One thing that's striking about the quartet stuff - this is, after about a solid half day with it - is that it's actually quite accessible. Not nearly as foreboding as the GTM, for instance. But wonderful. I'm reminded of some classical piece extremely strongly by the first composition on disc 1 of Birmingham (1985). I can't think what it is - Tchaikovsky? Maybe it's just in the nature of this stuff that you hear something different each time. It's a bit like a kaleidoscope.

This discussion is welcome, actually - I was just thinking a couple of days ago how much I enjoyed his playing on 'Snurdy...' - especially 'Sing/Song'.

A trumpet playing robot... So, whose will be the most frequently mentioned name in connection with this rather cool curiosity? I wonder...

One which hasn't been mentioned yet, but the standard album from the RCA box is fabulous. Some of the playing is absolutely transcendental - on Autumn Nocturne, Three Little Words and Travellin' Light, for instance, he goes so far out he's somewhere else entirely. An amazing experience.

Wow. I have just started this morning on the quartet musics. Birmingham 1985 has been the first of a slew of orders I can't really afford (well I guess it works as an incentive to play more gigs) to arrive, and this is extraordinary. 38 year head start? 19 year head start? At this rate, it's going to be a pleasure playing catch up. If a challenge!

I definitely second the recommendation for the Szwed book. Seems to be very well researched, and I think it's nicely written, too.

Those two avatars one beneath the other are brilliant! A B-3 summit meeting if ever there was one.