John B

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that BFT #14 will show up in today's mail. I'm looking forward to hearing it!

I'm listening to the Jemeel Moondoc Trio live at Fire in the Valley in 1996. One 40 minute track and a 1:28 min encore. Nice playing by Moondoc, Cook and Voigt. Not the most essential Moondoc, but definitely worth checking out.

Woohoo! I just found out that Fred Anderson will be coming to Vermont in December with William Parker and Hamid Drake! I am really, really excited about this. A friend of mine books some shows at a small community college north of here and he just made the announcement. If anyone feels like taking a road trip let me know and I'll supply directions and the first round of the night will be on me.

ubu, have you had a chance to hear this one by chance? I am very curious. I think Wertmueller is a perfect drummer for Broetzmann, and having an added distorted GUITARRRRRRRRRRR in the mix... what could be better? If either of you has a chance to hear this please post a review. This sounds like it could be really good.

I received my copy (no autograph) and these discs smoke! Great musicianship, great energy, and I really like the RRK and Wayne Shorter covers.

I've really been enjoying Things Fall Apart recently. I have also been listening to Phrenology, which, imo, isn't quite up to the same level as TFA.

Great interviews! Thank you both for posting those.

Taking this thread completely off topic now, if you get around to exploring Neu!, and are interested in hearing some more essential krautrock, I would highly recommend exploring Can. Their albums Monster Movie, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi and Future Days are all fantastic! It looks like I think more highly of Neu!2 and Neu!75 than most here, but I do agree with Brandon and J Larsen that the first Neu! album is all you "need." The other two are enjoyable, imo, but not essential.

yeah, if you mean in a "Wildflowers NYC Loft Sessions" sort of way.

AMG doesn't have a lot t say about these. How would you describe the music? The earliest Bang I've heard is Bangception, live in '82, but I can't imagine these will have all that much in common with the duo set.

I would definitely recommend checking out Neu!, Neu!2 and Neu! '75, but only after you have heard some earlier Stereolab. The krautrock influence really seems to have dropped off quite a bit by the time you get to the later Stereolab albums.

7 cds - $150

The cost of the Charley Patton set leads me to believe this will not be a cheap set. There was no licensing to be done with that one, either, was there?

That set looks really, really nice and really, really expensive.

If you ever run across a used copy of his boxset on KnitWorks, Alive, grab it! It is now oop and contains most of his albums as a leader, plus a live disc that is, I believe, unreleased elsewhere. The box was fairly inexpensive when it was still available through retail, but I have no idea how much money it runs these days.

That lineup sounds wonderful. No info on AMG on these sessions. Has anyone here heard the original release?

Have you heard any of his albums as a leader? Great stuff!

Agreed. I'm working my way through my Moondoc, culminating with Revolt.

Nix works mostly in a support role. He adds color and texture to the ensemble while helping to provide a base for the soloists to take off from. This disc doesn't seem to get any mention around these parts: Christopher Cauley - FINland Cauley is on alto, William Parker is on bass, Greg Bendian is on percussion and Steve Swell plays trombone on four tracks. Other than this disc I am completely unfamiliar with Cauley's work. I picked FINland up based on the rest of the lineup and was not disappointed. The playing is solid and the tunes are nice but, for some reason, this one has yet to really stick with me. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this disc to anyone on this thread, but I would also not say it would need to be anyone's first purchase on Eremite, either.

That sounds like a good idea. Thanks. I haven't really tried Emusic so far. I was a member for a while and had no complaints. Browse through their selection one day. They have quite a few good labels available. (Atavistic, Delmark, Palmetto, Prestige/OJC, etc...) They also have the new Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra disc, which you should check out. If you dig Antibalas there was a band called the Daktaris that put out one album back in the day. They eventually became (for the most part) Antibalas. their one disc is a really funky, Fela-worshipping blast of afrobeat. emusic has two other mixes I have heard: Afrobeat ...No Go Die and Nu Afrobeat Experience. Neither one is essential, by any means, but they are both fun if you are a fan of this music.

I have never heard of Ghana Soundz. I'll have to check that one out. Another collection you might enjoy is this one: More on the James Brown influence side of things than Nigeria 70, but a really solid set of obscure tracks.

I have heard quite a few of these (Ethiopiques) and they are all very good. Emusic had all of them the last time I looked. If you have a fast connection that would be a good route to use to sample / obtain the various volumes.

Listened. Amazing. This one will certainly become one of the most often listened-to discs of the following year. If I were a bassist I would listen to it standing on my knees. What D.D. said. Fantastic album!

ok, another day, another Jemeel Moondoc disc: Jemeel Moondoc & the Jus Grew Orchestra - Spirit House (Eremite) This disc is definitely very raw and unpolished, with some great writing, fiery playing, and a wonderful sense of excitement and vitality. I think this would have translated better live than on disc, but I still really dig this album. The orchestra consists of Moondoc on alto, Lewis Barnes on trumpet, Roy Campbell, Jr. on trumpet, pocket trumpet and flugelhorn, Tyrone Hill on trombone, Michael Marcus on baritone sax, Zane Massey on tenor sax, Codaryl Moffett on drums, Bern Nix on guitar, Steve Swell on trombone, and Jon Voigt on bass. I'm guessing that one of the problems with a band of this size would be lack of opportunities to play live together, resulting in less familiarity with the tunes, with each other and with the dynamics of the big band. This is too bad, as I would really like to hear more from this group. For all of its flaws, this is still a great disc.

Jan Strom of Ayler records posted some more info on the Henry Grimes / Murray / Drake disc he will be releasing: "We are looking for a release at the "Perspectives 2004 - Festival for Creative Music". Curated by Mats Gustafsson, 21 - 24 October, Vasteras, Sweden. The music on the Vol. 1 is not decided yet. In addition to the Kerava recording, we also have recordings from Italy and Austria."