John B

That sounds like a reasonable plan to me.

As of yesterday, discs have been mailed to everyone who has signed up so far. There is still time to sign up, so please feel free to send me a PM if you are interested in joining in and have not yet contacted me. I figure I'll open discussions on Wednesday, as most people should have received their discs by then.

I've listened to this one once so far and enjoyed it. It didn't connect with me as quickly as Aftermath did, but I would recommend it to fans of the first disc.

Tetuzi Akiyama and Günter Müller during the recording of Points and Slashes:

According to Jon, on another board, the homage is to Lucio Fontana.

This one sounds good, I'll add it to my list for the next time I place an order.

I'm guessing he won't care where the sales come from, as long as the discs sell. Seeing Jon's post reminded me that there will be two new discs releases on Erstwhile in six days. A duo of Tetuzi Akiyama and Günter Müller as well as a disc by Julien Ottavi and Dion Workman. I'm a huge fan of Günter Müller, and have enjoyed all of the Akiyama I have heard so far. I am much less familiar with Ottavi and Workman, other than greatly enjoying Workman's solo disc Ching. Great cover art for the first one, titled Points and Slashes:

U.S. discs will go out in the mail on Saturday, but there is still time to sign up, if you have not done so already. I'm hoping to start discussion in a week or so, once the U.S. discs start arriving.

I just received an email from the label Potlach that they are having a sale for the month of June.: "SPECIAL SALE on POTLATCH website. All back catalogue CDs : 12 euros (double CD : 15 euros) New release (Trio Sowari / P105) : 15 euros Shipping is free. Any country in the world." The only disc on this label that I have heard is Keith Rowe / Evan Parker - Dark Rags, which I highly recommend.

The laughter of the children, the cool breeze coming off of the lake, the strong, musky scent of rutting bison, and the $5.99, all-you-can-eat special down at the Bob's Big Boy off of the interstate.

I'm only familiar with Denman Maroney from one of the earliest discs on Erstwhile, Fire Song. This discs is half solo tracks and half duets with alto player Earl Howard. I've never been too impressed with this disc, but I was listening to it as a disc on Erstwhile, perhaps hoping to hear some top notch eai, which it is not, rather than judging it on its own merits.

I've started mailing out the non-US discs so that everyone is able to have a chance to hear the disc before discussion starts. I'll start mailing out US copies next week, but will hold off on starting discussion until Rooster Ties has a chance to post the answers to his test.

After one listen I give Cause & Reflect a big thumbs up. Great playing by Berne and Roberts. I will enjoy spending more time with this one.

That reminds me: the Derek Trucks band does a great version of Afro Blue. I think it has been released on both live and studio albums.

As soon as the cd I am listening to ends I will put it on. I'll let you know what I think.

I have read that there is a recording of this floating around and, while the sound quality is fine, there isn't that much Braxton in the mix. "wolf eyes came to the stage, and braxton came with them from the start. like hair police, they started rumbly and slow, soupy squelches and splurts, with braxton playing swirly melodic fragments and flares, at some point even playing a bit of a sax duo with olson. i lost track of how long this tension developed, and then like the hp they eventually brought the noise, piling on layer after layer and letting braxton sneak his swirls in the upper register where the wall of scree was thinnest."

Are any of you familiar with Tim Berne's duo cd with cellist Hank Roberts Cause & Reflect? It was released on "Level Green" records, who I am not familiar with, in 1998. I just won a cheap used copy of this on ebay and will be listening for the first time today. The AMG review is rapturous but, given the reviewer, I am hesitant to take it at face value.

Off the top of my head, the only rock covers of jazz tunes I can think of are by Phish. I know they covered many Miles, Herbie and Sonny Rollins songs live over the years.

1. - no clue. sounds fairly prog-rockish. very "angular" guitar interesting. not warming to it very much, but I'm intested enough to want to listen to it again and (possibly) explore the album it came from. 2. no clue, nice enough piano trio. Nothing really jumping out at me here. 3. Nice groove. This almost sounds like a jazz / hip hop hybrid with some nice latin percussion, maybe something from the Blue Series on Thirsty Ear. This one never really “takes off” to my ears, but I wouldn’t mind hearing more of it. 4. Bossa Nova, but not too exciting to my ears. The horns don’t mesh well with the rhythm section, to my ears. Solidly “ok,” but not essential. 5. Short solo piano piece, this sounds like a cover of a treacly 1970’s pop song. Too saccharine for my tastes. This is either burned off of vinyl or whoever mastered this had some issues, as the sound of the piano seems to distort just around 2:30. 6. Nice atmosphere. I’m not hearing much I can grab onto to try and identify anyone, but I enjoy what they are doing. Nothing flashy, no one hogging the spotlight, just a nice, relaxed mood being created by some solid musicians. 7. Is that a drum machine? I hope that isn’t a human sounding so metronomic and boring. I’m not hearing much to redeem the track from the other players either. The drums are FAR too loud in the mix and dominate, much to the track’s detriment. 8. Just in time for my Stevie-fest this week. A nice fiery cover version. Not sure who this is. This doesn’t sound too “out,” more like someone coming from the r&b / gutbucket tradition who is reacting to the “new thing” players of the late 1960’s. I’m not too impressed with the rhythm section, mostly the drummer, who isn’t doing anything interesting at all. Not a bad track, given the limitations of the backing band. 9. Very rocking drummer, nice organ / horn front line. Other than that I am pretty much clueless. I recognize the tune, but can’t quite place what it is. 10. Again, I recognize the song, but can’t place it. Nice track, this sounds live to me. No clue who this is. I’m not often in the mood for organ but, when I am, this would hit the spot perfectly. 11. Miles homage by a big band. Very Bitches Brew, this must be “Spanish Key.” The horn sounds too distorted to be Miles himself, so I’ll guess this a fairly recent tribute. Nice energy, good groove, not copying the original too severely…everything I would look for in a successful cover of a Miles classic. This doesn’t sound like the “Yo Miles!” project to me, so I am clueless. I dig this track a lot. I’m looking forward to finding out who this is. 12. This one sounds like solo Jarret, maybe something more recent. Not sure other than that. Not bad. I’d like to find out who this is and check out the rest of the album. 13. Another track from a live recording. The audience is really into this. The track starts off slowly and the really develops some steam. Odd mellow section in the middle. This almost sounds like Phish at this point. No clue who this is. All in all a lot of fun to listen to. Not all tracks are to my taste, but I enjoyed hearing them all, and I am really looking forward to finding out who some of these are by. Thanks again, Tom!

speaking of "not-typical Braxton," he just jammed at Victo with Michigan noise-band Wolf Eyes. I didn't believe this at first, but have now seen this confirmed repeatedly. From Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth): "victo fest - friday - braxton has intense press conference in hotel - after spending 20 minutes on each question where he goes way off on tri-axioms and jazz history metatheoretics. coley asks last question: "is it true you cleaned out the wolf eyes merch table at a swedish festival last year?" -- braxton leaps up and says wolf eyes are the new universe and he decided right then and there to move to stockholm and become a cook so he could be closer to this music. then he learns they are from michigan and his worldview is shifted and he realizes that there is hope for america with new angels of art existing here like wolf eyes. he claims his friends now refer to him as anthony "wolf eyes" braxton. no shit. so wolfs and hair po show up and we hit the hotel bar hard and braxton appears after his duo gig with fred frith and connects with wolfs and nate asks braxton if he would like to smoke a joint. "I would be honored to smoke marijuana with the wolf eyes". Again, no shit. Next day braxton is at gig (3 pm) and nate asks braxton if he wants to jam w/ the wolfs and braxton says yes, just let me know when and nate says play the whole gig dude. So after more weed blowing they hit the stage. the audience is all seated at round tables in a huge theatre called the Colisee. Hair police already decimated this crowd, they were awesome. But now we're tripping. this is too unreal. Braxton swoops in and out of the jams, at one point doing killer long sax tone duets w/ olson. Nate announces stabbed in the face. and then olson asks braxton what jam they should do next. "Black Vomit" sez Braxton. seriously, no shit. unbelievable sickness."

too good not to quote: "Hi everyone. I was also at the the Jandek gig last night. What follows are my comments, just additional thoughts, further to James's excellent review. We were told beforehand to expect something 'pretty meditative', which is defintiely what we got. When Jandek walked on (looking tall, lean and cool in blue), there were a few headscratching, where's-the-guitar? looks from the audience, but by the end of the first (instrumental) song, it was obvious we were watching something unique even by Jandek's weird standards. The music was melodic, the piano playing very delicate, very gentle. The band (two young guys, one on double bass, one on percussion) were excellent. The percussion especially was indispensable- he actually bowed the rims of the snare and floor tom to create a whining feedback type noise which perfectly offset the surprising politeness of the rest of the music. He rarely sat still throughout, introducing all sorts of other percussion instruments. It would have been a very different show had that guy not played such a blinder. The first real spine-tingling moment came when Jandek started to sing. The voice is incredible, and make no mistake, he was actually singing. The words were in places heart-stoppingly evocative, and reminded me at times of Wallace Stevens, or John Berryman- little fragments of meaning, tiny glimpses of realisation. I wish I'd brought a notebook to jot some of them down, but I suppose the full effect is lost without that voice. Particularly memorable was one song (he played seven or eight separate songs) which ended 'These urges/So basic/I will never/Forget this'. The last song had the cracking lines 'Whither this music?/Yonder...' Other snatches of lyric included '... I crashed/And burned', and even one reference to his 'video'- I think I'm right about that last bit. Overall, the sound at times reminded me of Lambchop at their most super-quiet, but even in writing that comparison down it strikes me as being reductive. And definitely do not worry about this show being recorded- you will be grateful when you see it. It will not capture the atmosphere in the small, hot room- the tension was incredible at parts- but the music that was recorded there was fragile and coherent, a landmark moment. The ovation at the end saw genuine warmth and appreciation tumbling towards him, and as he left the stage last, he seemed to be walking slowly, almost wanting to smile, almost wanting to stay, but aware that anything more would hazard the perfection of what he had just done."

http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/forums/v...opic.php?t=1821 "Right, so, I'm just back from seeing JANDEK, and I can safely say that it was the most powerfully moving concert I've ever been to. Jandek on BABY GRAND PIANO, backed by a bassist and drummer. This was real music tonight. Not how Jandek is usually real music. It was cohesive and actually seemed to be a sort of concept album, maybe? All the songs revolved around the line "What do I have?", and while they were mostly quite similar sonically, they followed different trains of thought. Some had the man, who started out singing in a whisper, ended up singing properly-ish by the end of the set, answering the question with "nothing" in a voice so desolate, you could believe that it was a man resigned to death, maybe even ready for death. Later, he answered the same question at the end of the set with "possibilities", sounding as if he was ready to go out into the world. By the 90 minute set's end, about half of the audience was actually in tears, their minds having been blown by what they were whitnessing. It was pretty unfair to put him on first, because most everyone in the room felt unable to hear any more from anyone by the sets end, and a fair amount, myself included, just left. This was a musically in-tune, reading from sheet music, soul on the mic in a discernable way, Jandek. This is perhaps the most absolutely massive musical step he has ever, ever taken, and I'm beyond excited for the film/ cd to come out. Yes, it was taped and recorded. As he walked off stage, staring ahead of him, not acknowleging the audience, he walked past me. As he gathered a standing ovation from the entire room, I got about two feet from him and just said "Thank you so much" That was all there was. This night will never, ever leave me."

Send me an email or a PM with your address and you are in. I'm trying to get non-US discs out early, which should alleviate any delays for you.

I'll have to relisten to Ghostly Thoughts. I wouldn't describe Mujician as "violent," so perhaps you would enjoy them more. I'll let you know what I think after relistening to GT.

I just read over on JC that this is actually coming to pass. Eremite will be releasing a 2cd set, featuring the complete show I saw in December. Great, great news, as the show was one of the best I have seen in a long time.