Pim

Thanks guys, that's more Rivers on the wishlist.

I just can't get enough of River's live trio works from the '70's. So I've got this one, 'Streams' and the stuff on NoBuisness of course. Should I get Hues as well?

Yeah I’ve got the 2LP set of that same labels. Sounds amazing

Hope for the best then with the Cowell. If it sounds even a little better than the Black Lion I would definitely buy it. Anyone who’s willing to try it out? I read bad things about the sound quality of the Dogon A.D. reissue but that might be an exception.

And now... the end is near... Well not yet of course but I am only two albums away from the end of Mal's discography as a leader (from the year 1965). But there's another 20 sideman albums to review so were not done yet This week had 4 of the Maturity volumes. I really love that artwork and the music is goes anywhere from good to excellent. Mal's duets with his daughter Mala are surprisingly good. I tend to like her singing, though she does not sing on all of the tracks. It's mostly a piano duet with her father and de whole setting is pretty intimate. Nothing special but a pretty satisfying session. There's more duets with Takeo Moriyama and again it's an excellent recording. 40+ minutes of telepathic interplay with one of Japan's top drummers. Love his subdued yet very percussive style. White Road, Black Rain is probably my favorite post 1965 vocal album by Mal with lovely contributions by Jeanne Lee. Hearing her sing a standard like Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child or the impressive Japanese poem White Road gives me goosebumps. The whole recording is a little short in time unfortunately. The Elusiveness of Mt. Fuji is the closing volume of the series. It's an enjoyable solo recording that consists mainly of standards. Nothing mind-blowing but Mal's playing is lovely and well balanced here. Cozy music. The other solo disc on 3361*Black, the self titled Mal Waldron is not as good: it lacks creativity and originality. These 3361*Black discs really sound great and most of the music on it is a nice reflection of Mal's last years. But the big downside of them is that they are so hard to find. I bought all my copies trough Proxy shopping sites trough which I was able to get them from Japanese stores. Closing of this week with duets. The duo's with Judi Silvano are just really not my cup of tea. It's old-fashioned in style, Judi's vocal skills are okay but I really have a dislike for scatting vocals (or it has to be Ella Fitzgerald). The duets with David Murray are really more my thing. It's a five star album in my opinion. It's a diverse encounter full of twists and turns, tension and sincere beauty. Their styles blend excellent and I love Mal's humble playing in this final stage of his life. It's full of pure and raw beauty. https://snake-out.blogspot.com All reviews by rating All Reviews in Chronological Order

Yeah please do tell!

Don’t know the singer. She’s okay. Tenor player sounds a lot like Shepp and this is quite his style. I think it’s him. Overall okay song! Soul Eyes of course. Don’t know this. Nice ballad, lovely tenor playing. Nothing very special but very pleasant music. Oh Abdullah Ibrahim my man. I love the guy and I love this record. So happy I have seen him live a couple of years ago. What a guy! Yes I know this one! Lazy Afternoon by Pete LaRoca with the great Joe Henderson on tenor. Steve Kuhn is great too here. A pleasant break on the excellent Basra album. I don’t know this but I like it very, very much. Fascinating composition, excellent piano playing and great trumpeter. I love this and need to get to know it! Edit: now that I am listening closer to the piano player, is that Horace Tapscott? Interesting vibes player. Don’t know it. Music with lots of space. Cant say I really dig it. Khan Jamal? Walt Dickerson? No idea. Not my cup of tea Also not really my kind of thing though she definitely could sing. She has a nice voice to listen to. Cant identify her. Well that’s Sunny. Guitar player makes me think of Wes Montgomery? But I should have known this one then so it’s probably not him. Not enough thumb too. Love the bass player by the way. Great choice and I am curious who it is. Don’t know it but I should! Great music. Sounds like a ‘60’s steaming Postbop Blue Note Session. Tenor player reminds me a little of Sam Rivers but I don’t think it’s him. That’s Oscar Peterson. I have this but can’t remember the album. An MPS date with Sam Jones and Bobby Durham? I remember! It’s volume six Travelin On. Love this period. Never understood all the hatred against him. He doesn’t deserve it. That sounds like a highly creative piano player from the 1950’s. Could be Elmo Hope or Herbie Nichols? I know most of Hopes work so it’s probably not him Don’t know it and don’t really like it. Oh wait I could here it now. That’s Cecil Taylor. Must be an early date I guess, still sounds a little boppish. Thanks for this. Really enjoyed this BFT! Excellent en original choices.

Ah I see thanks!

Same thing with the Hipnosis session isn't it? Or have I missed a cd release?

It was for me the reason to get the 2LP set. Side C and D are really, really good. I am a bit surprised it has not been issued on cd yet in any form (except for the Mosaic of course). Larry Willis is really, really good on these sessions. Managed to find a NM copy of the 1975 LP set that really is NM

A pretty intersting batch of records for this week if you ask me. Lot's of duo's again. Monday's duet with Max Roach is fairly unknown. It was released on George Haslam's SLAM label. The concert was given in honor of Mal's 70th birthday and some of the documentary material was recorded at that concert. It's a great duet by the two old masters and it reflects so much mutual understanding of music. The whole record is based on communication between these two legends. I did not expect this, but I do like the duets with Takeo Moriyama better. The Sangoma Everett disc really is one huge disappointment. That group had so much potential with Mal, Chico Freeman and Cecil McBee. But the compositions are really dull sometimes a little silly even. None of the guys have the opportunity to really shine here, it lacks nice interplay and feeling. Black Spirits Are Here Again on DIW with Roberto Ottaviano is really a different story. It must have been difficult for Ottaviano to play in the shadows of Steve Lacy as he sticks to soprano only. But Ottaviano just goes his own way and it really works out well. He has a pretty subdued tone but it results in some very pleasant and beautiful music. Great and accessible stuff. Both of the works with the underrated Romanian reed player: Art of The Duo: The Big Rochade and Misterioso: Live in Zurich are easily recommended. Mal has the same kind of thing with Simion as he had with Jim Pepper. There's chemistry between them, interplay and lots of exciting turns and twists in the music. There's more contemporary stuff like Monk's compositions, but also compositions by Simion that have a more 'Balkan' kind of feel. I love his powerful and robust tone on tenor. Soul Eyes on BMG/RCA Victor is mostly interesting from a historical point of view as it was Mal's last real group recording. Big names present there: Jeanne Lee, Steve Coleman, Joe Henderson, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille. Can't say it really meets up to expectations yet it remains a pretty good record. Big highlights are the stunning version of Soul Eyes with Jeanne Lee's lovely warm vocals and the killer version of the Git Go with Joe Henderson. Today a start with the 'Maturity series': Vol.1: Klassics contains classical compositions only by composers like Brahms, Chopin, Grieg and Bartok. Most of the titles were clearly chosen with Mal's style in mind: they all have that dark lyricism that fits well with Mal's playing. The addition of a vibes player and bassist doesn't really work out very well as both of them aren't very intersting players. The solo pieces are great.

Really? I feel ashamed. For thirty years I have thought that 4 speakers was the ideal combination....

Guys, first of all forgive me for my ignorance. My knowledge of audio an hi fi is quite limited. From my fathers house I’ve always learned that stereo meant: 4 speakers. but while I was orienting on some new equipment, I noticed speakers are always sold in pairs and not as quartets. That’s where the doubt started. Then I read some writing by someone who was laughing about someone who used 4 speakers on his stereo receiver. but when I look at my new Denon stereo receiver: it has four entrances for speakers.... question: when I use a stereo amplifier: do I connect 2 or 4 speakers?

Great, I’ll start participating listening again too

I could take September?

What I am wondering about in the US: is the success with vaccinating nationwide or a there big differences between states?

You Americans and Britons are doing so much better with the vaccination policy and strategy. Glad for you guys you’re protected now!

Finally, my mom and dad got their invitation too now. They are both 70 years old. Though I am well aware COVID could be dangerous for everyone of any age, it was my parents that I was most worried about from the beginning.

My two Impulse! favorites by Sanders

We are getting closer and closer to the end.... But we have still a lot of enjoyable records to go. Mal was very productive, also in his last years. This week was generally pretty satisfying. Some vocal albums, some duos but also the first recordings of his excellent second TUTU quartet with Nicolas Simion. Monday's album with Judy Niemack: Mingus, Mal & Monk is a nice album. It will never become my kind of thing but Judy has a very pleasant voice and her interpretation of Seagull's is excellent. The following album with Italian singer Danila Satragno is again a bit of a failure. Like more of the Italian singers Mal have worked with: she just isn't much of a singer. She has no technique, subpar timing and just sounds unexperienced. Part from that the sound quality isn't very good either. Fortunately there are the two TUTU's with Nicolas Simion, Ed Schuller and Victor Jones: Mal, Verve, Black & Blue and Remembering the Moment. Simion really is one underrated saxophone player: full of power and passion, a lovely robust sound and a great technique. I love the guy's playing and he was a worthy successor to the great Jim Pepper. Really guys, these TUTU discs are all great. It's intense club jazz at it's best: full of joy and energy. Both Ed Schuller as Victor Jones are also in great shape.The second duo with George Haslam is nice but not as good as their first album together. There's a little less chemistry to be found here but Mal's solo effort Sakura is among his most beautiful records. Also present this week are some of the records that we're made on Mal's 70th birthday tour in Japan. His second wife Hiromi arranged that his whole family would accompany him on that tour including his ex wife Elaine and his two daughters with her: Lori and Mala. Also present were Hiromi herself and her 5 children with Mal: Naru, Marianne, Malcolm Jr. and the twins Michael and Sara. According to Jeanne Lee, who was also joining the companionship, sometimes there were more Waldron's on the train than Japanese people. Lee is present at the recording with Japanese flautist Toru Tenda: Travelin' in Soul-Time: an excellent album on BVHaast. Most of the music was played in remembrance of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Especially 'White Rain' is a very impressive composition, based on a poem that was written by a survivor. The closing album of this week is one of the hidden pearls in Mal's discography. Bit, with the excellent Japanese drummer Takeo Moriyama is pure magic if you ask me. An engaging encounter of 50+ minutes that keeps your attention from the start till the end. Lot's of chemistry and interplay and the enormous variety in playing styles is great. It's a pity it's so damn hard to find these days for a decent price. Some of the other records from the tour (the duet with Mala Waldron, the second duet with Moriyama, another encounter with Jeanne Lee and Toru Tenda) will be reviewed as part of the awesome Maturity series. Closing now with the Japanese poem that was written by Syo Ito: White Road: A white road A white road in Hiroshima Mother walked that scorching road Barefoot Working clothes all torn And I, who had been born Just 40 days before Held in those arms Gazed up with eyes of innocence To where the deep blue sky Stretched wide, she said The white mushroom cloud Moved like a sea slug Growing wide, and wider still Mid-summer phantoms And these hateful things That happened long ago Are so infinitely sad The image of that single Long white road Lies in the corner of my mother’s Heart and mine And does not even try to die The road stretches on and on An endless road White dust-covered and soiled by grief The road began that moment The road without and end The road we’ve walked without a pause For fourteen years Mother is tired And I am tired And when beset by waves Of sadness and exhaustion She lay a while to rest Her tears fell on my face And left their patterns in the dust A white road The white road of Hiroshima https://snake-out.blogspot.com All Reviews in Chronological Order All Reviews by Rating

Mosaic wasn’t really my introduction to Tina. To me it was also the line-ups that attracted me, and they also already had quite a reputation on the internet. I was convinced from his very first note on True Blue and bought the other albums within a couple of months of that introduction.

To be honest: I don’t. Now that I am a more experienced listener is strikes me that most of those ‘top 100 albums’ are not among my favorites. In fact it’s the other way around in a lot of cases and I still find music that is so incredibly good but never to be found in a list. I like the Rateyourmusic feature where you could compose a top list with high votes but not a lot of voters.

Of course lists are always subjective but they could still be inspiring. The unfortunate thing with this one is the ability to vote which leads to a top 100 of the usual suspects.

I hope it’s not true but it probably is. Sonny was a giant. A unique saxophone player with a beautiful sound.

Mulligan and Harper in one band. That’s definitely interesting!