John B

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. Hopefully I can track down a reasonably priced copy of this one. It sounds amazing! Dave Holland was a monster on the bass when we saw him in January. I got it for 2300 yen ($21.1) plus very reasonable shipping from Hiroshi Tanno. Not bad, I think. I'm going to email Hiroshi Tanno today and make this disc (and possibly one other Japanese disc) my last purchase for a while. Did he tell you that he is no longer able to obtain any copies of the Pharoah Sanders disc?

I have none of those. I really should pick up Little Birds Have Fast Hearts 1 & 2 as those seem to be favorites of many a Funny Rat poster. You'll love them. If you decide to order them go through Verge. They have the best prices for FMP if you are ordering from the U.S.

Other than the other DLAD discs? I'm assuming you've heard Little Birds Have Fast Hearts 1 & 2, Aoyama Crows, and the self-titled DLAD disc on FMP, right? If not, start there. He is also on Brotzmann's Marz Combo disc, which is quite nice. I just checked AMG and I would also recommend Brotz' Stone/Water, William Parker's Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace, on Eremite, and Bill Laswell's Charged Live.

This happens to me quite a bit when I play AMM or quieter eai albums. As the music fades out the ambient noises around me "fade in" and I don't notice the transition.

disc 2 of the Rashied Ali / Arthur Rhames set is just as good, if not better, than disc 1. Definitely one of my top releases for 2004.

I love Rushmore and The Royal Tennenbaums. Can't wait to see this one now! I'm hoping these reviews aren't over-hyping this one and it actually is as good as they say.

I agree. I find though that for me, We Did It... is most effective while I'm in my car listening and driving as opposed to sitting studiously in front of my sound system. That in itself probably isn't a complement but there you are... It's a bit like Bitches Brew in that way. Maybe if I were the type to get off my arse and dance? As I'm not, hurtling down the highway is my feeble substitute. That is a reasonable description. I don't mind having all three discs but Tononi could probably have cut it back to two discs and had a stronger release.

exactly. in a few months they'll be touting their new "8-track" and "wax cylinder" technologies as their next hopes.

You know what, I thik I will order some more Italian jazz as well. Just as a sign of my solidarity with you. If I keep reading Funny Rat for too long it will be a solidarity in poverty! It has all been worth it, but it might be time for me to stop buying music for a month or two...

Does Rhames really sound very much like Train (a comment I've repeatedly read eleswhere)? Yes, he is obviously heavily influenced by Trane on this disc. He also plays some decent piano. Right now I'm listening to the version of "Mr. P. C." from this set and it took me a minute to figure out who I was hearing on piano. He is not bad at all. One Final Note has a good review of this disc on their site.

Also, the Rashied Ali / Arthur Rhames disc on Ayler that I mentioned earlier, The Dynamic Duo Remember Trane and Bird, is great! Once you get past the seventeen minutes of spoken introduction Rhames and Ali really start to burn. Nice propulsion from Ali and Rhames is on fire! Not the best sound ever (considering it was recorded live 23 years ago) but not bad enough to worry about.

and most of it is quite expensive to obtain over here. I have never heard of Negri. Any album in particular that you recommend? If you like clever funk, go for So Funky!, if you want an excellent duo with a drumer go for Squarci (sells for €6.20 at jazzos). I just ordered Double Mirror and both Negri discss from Jazzos. Not too expensive, even with shipping included. I'll post my thoughts once they get here.

Good thing about the Festival disc is that it it is not really and IIO (except for a couple of pieces), but different combinations of musicians form the Orchestra - solos (Eugenio Colombo is the man!!), duos, trios, etc., allowing individual musicians to display their talents and concepts better than within IIO framework. Oh, and I remember one more that absolutelys has to be obtained by evrybody on The Rat: Stefano Maltese (reeds) Evan Parker (honorable Italian, reeds) Keith Tippett (equally honorable Italian, piano) Antonio Moncada (percussion) Double Mirror (Splasc(H)). That one sounds great, based on the AMG review. It has now been added to "the list." I was surprised to see them use the word "placid" to describe a disc with Evan Parker on it.

and most of it is quite expensive to obtain over here. I have never heard of Negri. Any album in particular that you recommend?

Great description of this music! I would add "joyful" to what you said. All of these albums are extremely vibrant, and full of joy. I have the Tononi, the Fazio and the Battaglia / Oxley. All three are great albums. Everyone on this board should check out the Tononi 3CD set. From all of the Italian Instabile discs I have heard my favorite is Litania Sibilante. I have never heard the live Festival disc. Gianluigi Trovesi is another favorite of mine. Fugace is a great disc, but I need to hear From G to G, which I have been told is his best work so far. I would also recommend Aldo Romano's Canzoni, which is a very romantic and subdued disc. Great for late night listening.

I think many of these musicians recorded wit Don Cherry whne he was living in Sweden. There is a nice disc on some Swedish label called Brotherhood Suite... and probably some others as well. And Don Cherry - what a musician!!! I'll have to track that one down, it sounds great! Are any of you fans of Italian jazz? I am now listening to Pino Minafra's Sudori, which I very highly recommend. It is a fantastic disc! I had heard him as a sideman on other albums, but never as a leader before.

something like Kenny G or John Tesh, so that death wouldn't seem so bad after all.

Another fantastic album on Ayler I heard this weekend is Mongezi Feza - Free Jam. Mongezi Feza tp, Bernt Rosengren, as, ts, fl, p, Tommy Koverhult, ts, fl, euphonium, Torbjörn Hultcranz, b, Leif Wennerström, dr, Okay Temiz, percussion. I was not familiar with anyone on this disc before hearing this and I was very impressed. The first disc starts off a bit slowly, as if the musicians were testing the waters and trying to figure out what they were going to do, but it quickly picks up and some great jamming ensues. There are some flubs and weak spots here and there but, overall, this is a fantastic album. It was recorded in 1972, but could easily pass for something much more current. At points on the second disc Feza sounds quite a bit like Toshinori Kondo, in the way he distorts the sounds coming from his trumpet. A very nice mix of African and European free jazz sensibilities.

I've had this disc on my list for a while. Mark posts over on Jazz Corner and seems to eb a really nice guy. I have heard many good things about this disc and will most likely buy it sometime soon.

OK, I litened to this one again, and I like it a lot. I feel there is bit too much emphasis on beat sometimes (I would prefer it to be more abstract in rhythmical sense), but in any case it's a beautiful, mesmerizing work. Will be listening to more Erstwhile stuff today: "Fire Song" by Earl Howard / Denman Maroney and "Do" by Toshimaru Nakamura / Sachiko M. Funny thing, but I find myself spending more and more time listening to "natural environment" sounds. At this very moment they include very nice bird singing (several different birds), children playing in the yard, occasional passing car or train far at the background, very slight (but constant) buzz of a fan somewhere and flying airplanes once in a while. Not something particularly original for sure, but somehow last couple of weeks I tend to find it all fascinating enough to listen to attentively for quite long periods of time. Moroever, yestrerday it reached a certain extreme: I was listening to all these natural environment sounds and then decided to put Mingus' "Black Saint.."... started listening and in 10 minutes realized the music is somehow redundant (Mingus!!! "Black Saint..."!!!), turned it off and went back to listening (with great interest) to natural environment sounds. If it progresses like this, I might have all my CD collection for sales soon, he-he... I have not yet worked up the courage to listen to Do. Let me know what you think of Fire Song. In my opinion it is the least successful disc I have heard on Erstwhile. It never seemd to click for me.

This Mujician disc is fantastic! One of best albums I have heard in a long time. Even the track with the bagpipes works really well. I am very impressed. Speaking of the Universal Japan "Hardcore Jazz" series, has anyone here heard the Cecil Taylor Live in the Black Forest disc?

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. Hopefully I can track down a reasonably priced copy of this one. It sounds amazing! Dave Holland was a monster on the bass when we saw him in January. I got it for 2300 yen ($21.1) plus very reasonable shipping from Hiroshi Tanno. Not bad, I think. That does sound fairly reasonable. Hmmmm.... I am now listening to this disc: Mujician - Colours Fulfilled featuring Tony Levin, Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall and Paul Rogers. Fantastic music! Not as fiery and furious as I had expected. There are some wild moments but, so far (track #2) I have a great sense of a huge power barely kept restrained, as if they are ready to explode at a moments notice. Very interesting music and great playing.

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. Hopefully I can track down a reasonably priced copy of this one. It sounds amazing! Dave Holland was a monster on the bass when we saw him in January.

There is a good review of the V5 / Atomic show in Minneapolis over at Bagatellan: http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/frontpa...00558.html#more