John B

I just noticed that Atavistic is reissuing Last Exit's Live in Koln album this month. If you don't already own this one I highly recommend checking it out. Last Exit was Peter Brötzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Bill Laswell. They created some very very heavy noise. In my opinion this was a great group for Brötzmann, and not soemthing you'll likely ever hear from him again. Is anyone here familiar with Giorgio Gaslini? He has a new solo piano album coming out on Soul Note called Gaslini Plays Sun Ra. His two other solo piano albums, Gaslini Plays Monk and Ayler's Wings, both sound very interesting, as well.

Geoff, I've heard two of those. The ONJQ is really very good. The same group has recorded Dolphy's entireOut to Lunch album, which I am really looking forward to hearing. They cover "Hat and Beard" on the disc you bought. Organic Resonance is the other disc in that group I have heard. I have only heard it once, so I am not as familiar with it, but I really enjoyed it on first listen.

One of my favorite stouts.

Every beer I've had by McNeill's (in Brattleboro, VT) has ranged from good to great. They make even smaller batches than the bottles shown, with hand-drawn and attached labels.

a really good American weizen, with label by Ralph Steadman.

I love hefeweizen in summer, and this is a great one.

Agreed. It is a very, very good disc. I'll have to give it a listen again tomorrow, as I have not had a hance to listen to it in quite a while.

I doubt it - I doubt even whether Yaremchuk has a bank account. I will try to see him in October in Moscow, so I am taking orders. CDRs are $5. ← Let me know which ones you would highly recommend and I will most definitely take you up on that offer. Great story, by the way! I've been outside doing yardwork all day, no time for music, unfortunately. I'll have to catch up on the rest of the discussions tomorrow.

I heard another Paul Dunmall disc today that I would definitely recommend: Great Divide. It is credited to the Paul Dunmall Octet, but it features larger groups on several tracks. Players on this disc include Keith Tippett, Paul Rogers, Tony Levin, Paul Rutherford, John Adams, Evan Parker and Elton Dean, among others. Somewhat remniscent of the sound of the Broetzmann Tentet, but, to my ears, more interesting than a lot of the Tentet's output. Only one listen, so far, but I don't hesitate to recommend it to all of the Dunmall fans here.

There's a quick review of these up over at Bagatellen. I'm lookingforward to sampling them next month. by the way, I was watching Word Wars last weekend and saw your name pop up in sixth place at the Nationals. No action shots of you in action, however.

I checked and I don't have a copy of this one. Sorry that I can't contribute to the discussion. I'll give Demon Chaser and Special Detail listens in its honor.

Jazkamer (or Jazzkammer, I've seen it spelled both ways) is a duo from Norway (John Hegre and Lasse Marhaug) whose work I would characterize as "noise." Marhaug is fantastic, but most definitely not for all tastes.

I'm going to revise my earlier assessment of this disc a bit. I still enjoy it, but wouldn't rate it quite as highly as I did. It is accessible, and would make an easy intoduction to Jandek, but I'm not sure it would make a good introduction. I think there are other, stronger albums that are just as accessible as this one that I would recommend first. That being said, I dig the VU / surf-style guitar. The drums are getting to be more palatable to my ears as I get more experience with Jandek's discography, but I'm still not crazy about them and think they appear on more tracks than they should. I'd definitely recommend You Walk Alone, but I don't know that I would call it "essential." I'll have to come back to this one, as I'm a bit mixed on my estimation for it right now.

I agree with Chaney 100% here. This album is most definitely a keeper. The sound levels are a bit off here and there and the drumming needs to be removed from those tracks but, other than that, I give this one a thumbs up. It is a very quiet, intimate album (although I never thought of the "bedroom voice" Chaney heard... ) meant for late night, solitary listening with a drink in hand. (Not that any Jandek album is really meant for lively, festive gatherings of friends and family, unless your circle of aquaintances is a lot nuttier than mine.

The last two copies I saw sell on ebay went for $55 and $60.

if only it, and the rest of the Hats, was still in print.... hopefully the rumors about a box set are true. I can't remember if I have a copy of this one or not. If I do I'll post my thoughts later on this week.

I recently bought a live cd by a band called The Respect Sextet, out of Rochester, NY, based on Nate Dorward's rave review over on JC. I have been very, very impressed by this disc. Covers of Fred Anderson and Misha Mengelberg interspersed with original tunes, all played with a great deal of humor and talent. I would highly recommend all of you give this disc a try. There is a nice review of this disc posted on Paris Transatlantic. MP3 sound samples are available on their website.

I just placed an order with Jazzos for four discs on Splasc(h) that I know nothing about. They were so inexpensive I decided it was worth taking a chance. Has anyone here heard any of these? Apuzzo Antonio - Electric Dream (Splasc(h) H343) Euro 5,16 (Discount 60,00%) Quantity: 1 Romano Furio - Danza delle streghe (Splasc(h) H318) Euro 5,16 (Discount 60,00%) Quantity: 1 Ceriani Carlo - Bakeriana (Splasc(h) H408) Euro 5,16 (Discount 60,00%) Quantity: 1 Mezzapelle Nino - Franci (Splasc(h) H445) Euro 6,45 (Discount 50,00%) Quantity: 1

Here is a review for another disc of Battaglia's that I have not yet heard, taken from Nate Dorward's site. This one is at the top of my "to buy" list. "The other quintet disc here is no less interesting but at a considerable stylistic remove from the orthodox contemporary jazz of To Include. Atem (again, part of the “Contemporary Series”) was recorded in France, and the band comprises two Italian and three French musicians; the core of the group seems to be the duo of pianist Stefano Battaglia and percussionist Michele Rabbia, who have worked together since 1999. It’s an album with a fascinating instrumentation (violin, cello, tuba, piano, percussion), one which lends itself equally to intimate free-improv encounters and to gorgeous chamber-music textures that can recall Messiaen (“Lamentation des Anges”) or minimalism (“Sonet”). The album is divided into two unequal halves. At its centre is a series of free improvisations – miniatures often less than two minutes long – which mostly feature the band in small subsections. The results are appealingly varied and colourful, ranging from the harsh scrabbling of “Misture” and “Carte du Tendre” to the mysterious “Dileguando,” on which Battaglia’s piano chording is worthy of John Taylor. Sometimes the pieces are almost epigrammatic, setting forth a simple texture and then making a graceful exit. On other occasions – such as the controlled tumult of “Hommage a Emil Zatopek,” by Pifarély, Battaglia and Godard – the effect of the improvisation’s brevity is more like that of a controlled explosion. These twenty improvisations are bookended by two compositions by Battaglia, both of which borrow from the language of minimalism: indeed, “Sonet” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Gavin Bryars’ After the Requiem. All is not always what it seems: over the 11 minutes of “Atem” the placidly consonant piano arpeggios gradually darken as the strings become almost alarmingly plangent. An exceptional album. A special word of praise is in order for the knockout tuba-player Michel Godard: I’ve often heard far less melodic and supple playing from trombonists."

As mentioned, this track might leave an impression of a mindless virtuoso type of muscian, but the whole disc is much more diverse than this with a lot of great ideas, melody and unmatched skill. This disc, like the Tononi, was difficult to choose from, as any one selection would give such a small sample, and potential false impression, of the work as a whole. Again, this track is uncharacteristic of the bulk of the content of this set. But then no one track would - there is a lot (too much, I'd say) of extremely diverse stuff here. I agree that this set could have easily been edited down to two discs. It is a lot to get through and it was difficult to limit myself to one selection. I should mention that the 3cd set is not too expensive, so people should not be daunted by 3 discs costing as much as you might think. I think this is the only trakc with prepared piano (which confused me a bit ). Battaglia has a huge discography (although he is still a young guy, not even 40, I guess), and is a truly unique voice on piano, who can (and does) play everything from bebop to Bill Evans tributes to some fairly wild stuff - all in his own original style. I'm really looking forward to exploring more of Battaglia's work. I've received a few recommendations from another poster and will try to get around to ordering them soon. ← I'll second the recommendation for Jazzos. They are fast, professional, and easy to order from. They also have many discs on sale for quite reasonable prices. I just checked and they have quite a few discs on Splasc(h) for between 5 and 7 euros.

The Living End I was prepared to hate this album after reading the previous reviews here. Instead, I found this one to be fairly charming. I think of it as "Jandek-lite," in a way. TLE is accessible, compared to most Jandek albums. It is the bluesiest of the albums I have heard so far, with a touch of sixties garage-band rock mixed in. Nancy is too far down in the mix and some of the tracks on the second half of the album sound unfinished, and very roughly edited. On the other hand, all of these comments could also place TLE as a "for completists only" disc. This is a very un-Jandeklike album. I sort of imagine a group of amateur musicians in Houston getting together, deciding they want to perform some straight up blues / garage rock tunes, and having Jandek show up with twelve of his most recent compositions for them to play. This isn't an album I'll turn to if I'm looking for the essential Jandek sound, but I'm calling this one a keeper, as I found it to be a lot of fun.

I'm not really sure how to review "I Woke Up." There are things I like about this disc but there is definitely a lot I did not care for, too. My main problem, to continue with Dave's naming convention, is "Mike." I don't care for his poetry or for his voice, and don't think that he adds anything positive to Jandek's discography. Perhaps this is why he only appears on this one disc. Part of the problem might be that I didn't hear anything memorable, other than Mike's contributions, which annoyed me right from the start. I'll come back to this disc and give it another chance, but it is definitely not essential jandek. I would list this one at the high end of "For Completists Only" or the low end of "Personal Opinion."

I have never heard of this one. Please let me know what you think of it when you have a chance to listen to it!

I'll try to add my comments as the day goes along. I'll start out of order, with track #9, which many people felt disrupted the flow of the disc. We Did It, We Did It! is a 3cd set which is mainly a tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The group tackles tracks by Archie Shepp, Mingus and Bob Marley among others, too. My first inclination was to choose "The Inflated Tear, " by Kirk, butI went with the Shepp to throw people off of the (to my mind) too obvious "Italian jazz" theme. Also, I enjoy this track a lot more than most people seemed to. It gets really nice and funky, which isn't something I've come across all too often in Italian (or European) jazz.

10. Gianluigi Trovesi Otteto – “Ramble” Fugace (ECM) Gianluigi Trovesi, alto saxophone, piccolo, alto clarinets Beppe Caruso, trombone Massimo Greco, trumpet, electronics Marco Remondini, violoncello, electronics Roberto Bonati, double-bass Marco Micheli, double-bass, electric bass Fulvio Maras, percussion, electronics Vittorio Marinoni, drums. 11. Steffano Battaglia / Tony Oxley – “RTA” Explore (Splasc(h)) Steffano Battaglia – piano, percussion, prepared piano Tony Oxley - drums