John B

through track 11 now. The KRS One track was better than I expected. My memory of his tracks that I have heard was that the Edutainment focused too much on the message to the detriment of the music. This track wasn't bad, though.

I've made it through 8 tracks of "the Bright Side" disc and have really been digging it so far! I recognized Mos Def (although I was initially clued off by them saying his name over and over again) and the Beastie Boys track. I'm really looking forward to hearing the rest of it. I couldn't help cracking up at the "ass so big you can see it from the front" line. Am I correct in guessing that most of the Bright Side disc is from the '80's into the early '90's? The tracks I've listened to so far all have that feel to my ears.

Some discussion with the owner of Utech over on I hate music. I asked him about the discs going oop, and it sounds like he wants to keep reissuing them, if possible. I ordered the Lasse Marhaug and Jazzkammer discs today.

Get this one next, and let "Easy Mo Bee" show you the "quintessential" Miles: According to AMG this album is * Stylish * Confident * Knotty * Street-Smart * Freewheeling * Atmospheric * Slick * Light * Nocturnal * Summery * Restrained * Relaxed * Ambitious * Swaggering

I don't have may discs with Kidd Jordan in my collection, but I would definitely recommend all of these: Two Days in April (Eremite) - Kidd with Fred Anderson, William Parker and Hamid Drake, recorded live in Massachusetts over, you guessed it, two days in April, 1999. New Orleans Festival Suite (Silkheart) - Kidd with Joel Futterman, William Parker and Alvin Fielder, recorded live in New Orleans in 1999. and, as a sideman: Dennis Gonzalez - Debenge-Debenge (Silkheart) Kidd with Dennis Gonzalez, Marlon Jordan, Charles Brackeen, Malachi Favors, Henry Franklin, Alvin Fielder and W. A. Richardson. Kidd's tune Zydeco Red is worth the price of the disc alone.

← I've finally received this disc and had a chance to listen to it. Great music! I agree with Chaney, this one is a keeper. (Mine is #80 out of 113, so there should still be a few copies available.)

I'll highly recommend his recent album Cavern With Nightlife, released on his own Weight of Wax label. It is credited to Butcher and Toshimaru Nakamura, but Toshi only appears on the last track. The other four tracks are solo tenor or soprano recordings, all performed at the Oya Stone Museum in Utsunomiya City, Japan. The museum is "a mountain of soft lava hollowed out by 70 years of quarrying, The huge mining space is 60 m underground...and has an extraordinary acoustic resonance and atmosphere. The track with Toshi is really nice, as well. I am not a huge fan of the no-input mixing board but it works well here, on a live duo recording from 2002. I enjoy each of his two recordings on Erstwhile, Requests and Antisongs, with Phil Durrant processing Butcher's saxophone sounds in realtime and Polwechsel / Fennesz - Wrapped Islands quite a bit, although Wrapped Islands has never quite connected with me as much as I expected it to, given the outstanding lineup of musicians on the disc. (Butcher, Fennesz, Werner Dafeldecker, Burkhard Stangl and Michael Moser.)

Thanks for posting this! I just heard back from John and I am first in line on the standby list. "Have you heard Joost Buis's Astronotes?" Yes, it is a wonderful album. It is the disc that started me exploring the Dutch "scene" again.

Personally, I've always been proud of my bright, shiny pelt.

I've been listening to Conic Sections for the first time today and have really been enjoying it. I'm not sure if this disc is still in print, but I would highly recommend tracking down a copy if you can. I'll throw out another plug for The Snake Decides, which, for those who can't get enough of Evan's solo discs, is very much worth hearing.

? Anything more detailed for us yet?

I listened to The Rocks Crumble at work today. On first pass I'm leaning more toward Chaney's point of view than Dave's. This one didn't really click with me. It seemed pretty unfocused and shambolic, even by Jandek's standards. Not horrible, by any means, but, still, nothing special, either. I'm going to keep this one around for tomorrow, and give it another spin.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=16054 any cd for $5.99, you get charged for a minimum one per month, even if you have none in your queue.

Another fantastic dutch album that I recommend very highly: Bite the Gnatze - Wilde dans in een afgelegen berghut Nate Dorward started his blindfold test with track #1 from this disc and reviews the disc nicely on his web site. I was impressed enough to track down a copy. Paul Pallesen - guitar, banjo, voice Alan Purves - drums and percussion Michael Duijves - clarinet, bass clarinet Jorrit Dijkstra - saxophones Joost Buis - trombone and lapsteel Jasper Le Clercq - violin Maurice Horsthuis - viola Meinrad Kneer - double bass The album sounds something like a cross between not quite so "wacky" dutch free improv, European folk music, and U.S. old-time country. Very, very good playing and interesting tunes. Not quite like any other album I have heard.

What about a group like the Roots, who, to my ears, meld the two quite nicely. They play the instruments as well as rap over the music. By the way, I'd love to hear a mix that you put together. If you were serious with that offer I'll pm you my address.

$39 for six discs? That's as cheap as yourmusic.com. (and a no-brainer.)

Done!

I was able to get this one, as well as Evan parker's Conic Sections, from Gino. Hopefully I'll have a chance to listen to both today. I'll post my thoughts if I do.

Yes, also on Atavistic's Unheard Music Series: "Sir Luther returns with a soulful blast from his crucial St. Louis era... an entire album previously unreleased! Two master tapes from an unreleased session were discovered during the remastering of FUNKY DONKEY, the 1973 Human Arts Ensemble record reissued by Unheard Music Series (UMS/ALP215CD, 2001). These recordings had been mislabeled and looked almost identical to the FUNKY DONKEY tapes, but in fact they turned out to be a lost session from roughly the same time. The group‚s personnel was subsequently identified by Luther Thomas: Thomas- alto saxophone, piano, slide whistle, finger chimes; James Marshall- alto, tenor & soprano saxophones, flutes, small instruments; Abdullah Yakub- alto horn, small instruments; Carol Marshall- voice, accordion, small instruments; Charles Bobo Shaw- drums. Clearly intended for release as an LP, perhaps , the tapes included verbally slated track titles. The entire session is presented here, including an outtake of one track. Consequently, if you dug FUNKY DONKEY, you need BANANA.. From LUTHER THOMAS' liner notes: "In the early Œ70s, Bobo Shaw came up with the idea of Human Arts. BAG had lost some of its funding and some of the wind was coming out of it. It was the Black Artists Group, but now we had a lot of different ethnic groups working with us, white folks like James Marshall, his wonderful wife Carol, John Zorn, Marty Ehrlich. We had it all, St. Louis. Music is everything, it‚s all colors, it ain‚t no color, it‚s music. We came up with Human Arts Ensemble, made everybody feel more comfortable, and the music started to explode even more... Played, taught music, slept it, ate it. Mmm, we got so close. It was a communal situation... Oliver Lake had the BAG Ensemble then, living in Paris. We had the music on all sides of the globe. We did some things up in Oregon with the great musicians up there, Alice Coltrane, Sonny Simmons, Sonny King and his wife Nancy, Dave Friesen. It was a family thing! When we came back from out West, we just turned the machines on. We had all the music."" If I recall correctly I prefer Funky Donkey, but both are great.

I'd never heard of him before readinf this on the Chondritic Sound website: "07/31/05 - 1961 - 2005. Koji Tano died on 31 July 2005 at the age of 44. M.S.B.R. (Molten Salt Breeder Reactor), aka Koji Tano, is one of the most respected noise artists to emerge from Tokyo's vibrant noise/experimental music scene of the 90's. He has played with countless other musician's and has toured 4 continents (Asia, Europe, North America and Australia). Much of his material is self-released on his own labels, one of which is dedicated to the production of limited edition cassette releases. MSBR's crushing wall of noise, like Merzbow's, manages to tap into a post-human territory of pure absolute volume that seems to have more in common with the unstoppable forces of nature than any form of music. M.S.B.R.'s noise was highly influential to my own, especially in the early days. His label is one I've respected & admired for years thanks to the quality and originality of the noise and packaging. There would be no Chondritic Sound without the MSBR label. It's a sad day to see that Koji is gone. He will be sorely missed. Rest in peace."

You wouldn't have a image of that cover? I would like to see it. ← see Brownie's post above. "The album was already discussed last year (and probably the year before):"

I've ordered a copy of the Nabatov / Bennink. I'll let you know how it compares to Groet when it arrives. I'm listening to Groet again right now. Such a great album!

Just a wild stab in the dark based on both violin and harmonica appearing on the album and the length of the track matching.

"He passes to the man, he shoots, and boom goes the dynamite!"

I think I did a little better guessing on disc #2. Fantastic tune selection! I enjoyed this one even more than disc #1. Disc 2 1. Very nice tango / hard bop number. This sounds like something an Italian group like the Instabile guys would come up with. A fairly recent recording, I'm guessing. I’d love to hear the rest of this album! 2. The first thing that jumps out at me is the drummer. He is on fire! The pianist is very influenced by Herbie Hancock. I don’t recognize this track, but would love to hear the album it is taken from. Very nice. 3. Interesting, based on how the two tenors started out I wasn’t expecting the latin percussion. Not a bad tune. The electric bass doesn’t work for me here. I wish they had gone with an acoustic instead. 4. Nice tune. No clue who this is. Fairly straight-ahead track with nothing too crazy going on. I’d like to hear a little more fire from the soloists. 5. This tune sounds very familiar. The band is cooking, but the track sounds too clean and safe to my ears. Technically they are very proficient, but I’m not feeling any soul here. 6. The tenors aren’t bad, but the guitar really doesn’t work for me. The track as a whole seems disjointed, as if the guitar and horns are not hearing each other at all. 7. Very nice piano trio track. I’ll guess Mehldau, but I have no idea which tune this is. 8. Kind of latin, kind of African, I’m not sure where this track is coming from. I alternate between really enjoying it and finding it a bit over the top and cheesy. Right now I’m digging it. I’m looking forward to finding out who this is. 9. I’m not familiar with jazz violin apart from Billy Bang, and this doesn’t really sound like him. Ok, now some harmonica. Really odd instrumentation. I did a quick search based on the violin/harmonica combination and came up with track 8 on this. I’ve never heard this album, but will be tracking down a copy now. 10. A raucous tune that verges on going out of control at times. The song goes by too quickly for me to really get a handle on it. 11. The percussion initially reminds me of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, but the track quickly veers away from that territory. No clue who this is. I would have liked to hear a little more fire and stretching out from the soloists. The percussion is great. 12. The tenor sounds like David Murray. I’m not aware of that many albums he did with an organist and this guy isn’t usually thought of as an organist, if I am guessing correctly. I don't know if he recorded any other all organ albums. Track #2 off of this one. A fantastic band. It’s a shame this disc is oop. 13. Very nice track. A melancholy vibe permeates this one. I’m unable to identify anyone, but like this quite a bit.