randyhersom

Prayer from Death and the Flower (featuring just Haden and Jarrett) is an all time favorite. No question that I'm going to grab this when it comes out.

For pure fire breathing, check out Cecil Taylor - Dark To Themselves, one of Ware's first recordings back in the mid 70's. I haven't listened to many of his recordings as a leader, but I do have and return to Surrendered.

Wow there is a Ralph Towner thread and I haven't pitched in. One of my favorites. Solstice is indeed gorgeous and was a great bridge for a prog rock fan like me back in the day. On the whole I love the sound of his twelve string most of all, but my single favorite cut, Oregon's Yet To Be doesn't feature 12 string at all, Ralph is on piano. The solo versions of the "Hits" on Diary are to die for, Icarus and Silence of a Candle. A melodist and composer first and an improviser second, his projects denied easy genre classification. One could view him as a pioneer paving the way for increased prominence for both New Age and World Music.

Delius (am I thinking of On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring?), Sibelius (Swan of Tuonela) and Aho (Quintet)

I'm liking both discs so far. John Lindberg simply wails on the first track on CD2. I did enjoy both Yo Miles! and much of the Miles electric era.

Got this from eMusic and it's good, in a Paul Bley or Ran Blake sort of way. Lyrical, somewhere between thoughtful and ponderous, and a little chromatic. I find myself not really being sure what came out this year when the Best Of lists for the year appear, so I made a special effort to hear something new soon after it came out.

I'm grabbing this from eMusic as soon as I get home. In addition to the leader, Michael Gregory appears on CD2 and I've followed him since Clarity. AAJ has a writeup which indicates this is both freer and funkier than other recent projects by the leadeer. Anyone heard it yet?

Presumably not the former Penn State and pro linebacker who gave up football for music?

The Van Morrison back catalog is pretty much a no-show. (I have almost everything on CD anyway, but I was curious.) Recently I've grabbed the new solo Marc Copland, Gary Burton Alone at Last, World Saxophone Quartet - Rhythm and Blues, Shorty Rogers - Martians Come Back and the two missing tracks from the Bill Evans Fantasy box I downloaded during my club 2K days.

It can be previewed on a site called bluebeat.com

Back in the 70s, the late and beloved Harrison Ridley Jr. cited Wayman Carver's solo on Devil's Holiday as the first jazz flute solo. This fascinating site indicates that there were a few earlier instances http://www.flutehistory.com/Playing/Jazz.php3 1927 Alberto Socarras solos with Clarence Williams band on 'Shootin' the Pistol' 1931 Wayman Carver solos with Dave Nelson band on 'Loveless Love' 1933 Wayman Carver solos with Spike Hughes band on 'How Come You Do Me Like You Do?', and 'Sweet Sue, Just You' 1933 Wayman Carver solos with Benny Carter band on 'Devils' Holiday'

I tried passing on this info to Ned Judy, the page's author, but it looks like I would have to join MySpace to do so. If anyone's already on MySpace, maybe they could drop him a note.

I was googling for the answer to the question posed by the title and came up with this link: http://nedjudy.com/jpt/ suggesting that the first was: December 18, 1944. Eroll Garner records with bassist John Simmons, and drummer Harold "Doc" West, establishing a new standard format for the jazz piano trio. Wow, that seems late. I would have guessed Teddy Wilson but the onling Discographies I have fouind are pretty weak.

I was talkin' bout Trane!

It's on eMusic, though that's not the bargain it used to be.

Thoughts with Rufus, Martha, Anna, and Loudon (despite his failings as a family man). A great loss.

Trane didn't mean to take it with him. He left it for all of us.

Good recordings with Acoustic Piano, Electric Bass and Drums. Off the top of my head I can think of three: Mary Lou Williams - Zoning with Bob Cranshaw Steve Kuhn - Trance with Steve Swallow Brian Melvin - Standards Zone with Jaco Pastorius and Jon Davis The first two do feature other combinations on a few tracks. Any others? Oops, mods I decided Recommendations was better than Artists and somehow ended up here. Move if you like.

I like his playing on the Curtis Amy sessions reissued on Mosaic Select.

Monoceros is solo tenor, and I played Chicago Solo last night also. I definitely hear the trance aspect on both of his instruments. In Boustrophedon I do hear Parker accomodating the tradition in some of its finest moments. It's both noticeable and enjoyable that he's playing particularly "jazzy" at those moments but I definitely feel him stepping out of his usual bag to go there. True, the solo recordings are probably the purest expressions of his trance aspect. My wife did come by my den and ask what that squealing was during Monoceros. I'll admit he's not for everyone.

Evan Parker rarely fails to move me, and I'm listening to the beginnning of Monoceros for the first time right now and digging it. But Ayler isn't the right reference point, or even late Trane. Trane and Bird and the tradition were mined for technical innovation to support what is essentially a trance music concept. For jazz precedents try the percussive, repetitive side of Mal Waldron, or Horace Tapscott's The Dark Tree. Outside of jazz, the extended live Allman Brothers jams and the Grateful Dead are in the neighborhood. The classical minimalists like Reich and Riley are in the neighborhood too. If you want your Evan Parker on the jazzy side, there's some great moments in Boustrophedon and if you're looking for avant blowout, the Birmingham Concert is a good choice. But for me, maximizing the hypnotic appeal of Parker's sound world and getting Parker means starting with the pianoless (and laptopless) dates. Even if he's using the same technique as Ayler or Trane, he's doing it for quite a different reason and the results reflect that. His control of the horn is unmatched, he distills the ecstatic peaks of most saxophonists and repeats them until a groove happens and works slow variations on that groove over time.

I haven't heard Rotondi, but Jeremy Pelt is well worth checking out.

I had no clue so I had to google this. Jeez. You seem to have absorbed your Clementine and Allen Lowe.

Reported on the eMusic message board, referencing Nightwatcher's House of Rock blog. http://nightwatchershouseofrock.blogspot.com/

What pulled me in was a Verve Clifford Brown Jazz Master compilation where they put Clifford's What's New with strings right next to is collaboration with Helen on the same song. That's still my favorite Helen Merrill song but it has lots of company.