John B

Great disc! Any time I get a chance to hear Hamid Drake stretch out I am happy. I've been meaning to give that one and Emancipation Proclamation with Joe McPhee a listen sometime soon.

Charles Mingus - Mingus Three Charles "Baron" Mingus - West Coast 1945-49 Roland Kirk - I, Eye, Aye Romano, Sclavis, Texier - Suite Africaine Isis - The Red Sea

I just received Snurdy in the mail and I am loving this album.

another new purchase and, again, very highly recommended. This is an incredibly alive and joyful album. It took me a while to warm up to the first track, in partiular, but I have listened to Snurdy a few times since it arrived and I am loving this music.

You must rectify that asap. Vietnam... is a fantastic disc! Very highly recommended.

This one also arrived this weekend...I love these Hat midprice sales! I have no idea why AMG would describe this set as a "full frontal attack on the senses." I found it to be surprisingly lyrical, for a violin / drums duet. Between this disc and Vietnam: the Aftermath, I am increasingly impressed with Billy Bang's work.

I just got this one in the mail on Saturday. What a great performance! Cecil and Jimmy Lyons are both on fire.

I started with Riding the Nuclear Tiger and loved it immediately. I have enjoyed all of his albums that I have heard bu RTNT is still my favorite.

I also finally listened to this one, and I found it quite nice. Nothing groundbreaking -tunefull energetic "classic" free jazz, but stiull a nice sincere music, and a lot of fun. That is an accurate description of this one, imo. Very solid. I have Back Together Again pre-ordered, so I will hopefully be able to comment on it this week.

streetsinger - as a fan of unwound you really need to hear Husker Du immediately. I think you will really enjoy a lot of their work. I am a huge fand of theirs and really wish I could have seen them live while they were still active. As far as where to start, dave9199 gave some good recommendations but I would order them differently: start with The Living End, which compiles live tracks from a tour in 1987. You get the highlights from most of their albums up to that point, including a blistering version of Data Control off of Landspee Record. There is also an unusual cover of Sheena is a Punk Roker thrown in. Great songs, great recording quality and fantastic energy. I'd rather listen to the version of New Day Rising that starts off this disc than the track from the album of the same name. Zen Arcade is widely considered to be their masterpiece and it deserves all of the accolades that it gets. It is all over the place in terms of material, going from their earlier punk roots and delving into "free jazz"-ish explorations. Ghost - I believe Get in the Van is Henry Rollins' diaries from his days in Black Flag. I believe the book you described above is called Our Band Could Be Your Life, by Michael Azzerad. Great book.

over the weekend: Roland Kirk - Here Comes the Whistleman Roland Kirk - The Infalted Tear Roland Kirk - Rip, Rig and Panic / Don't Cry Beautiful Edith Roland Kirk - Bright Moments Cecil Taylor - Indent Billy Bang / Denis Charles - Bangception Wadada Leo Smith - Kabell Box disc 4 Jimi Hendrix - At Winterland Jimi Hendrix - BBC Sessions Meat Puppets - Too High to Die Tool - Laeteralus

Roscoe Mitchell - Snurdy McGurdy and Her Danicn' Shoes Warne Marsh - All Music Wild Tchoupitalas - s/t The Gladiators - Trenchtown Mix-up Man or Astroman - Experiment Zero Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You

I own two of the Collective 4tet discs and they didn't click with me on first listen. I'll have to revisit them again this weekend and see what I think of them now.

That 'Live In London' record does indeed consist of their Peel Sessions set, and it is a KILLER. Get it while you still can. I bought it a couple of years ago when it was released (less than legitimately, I'm sure) by a label here in Texas. It's since been made available again as an import, I believe. If you like "Side Effects of Being Tired", the version of that song on this record will literally knock ya down - it's incredible. THOSE DRUMS!!! I know someone who is selling his copy for $4 and it should be here any day now. I have read a few interviews with the band and they seem to have no problem with the records release. I think there is some restriction imposed by the BBC on its "official" release. Have you ever heard the Replikants, with Justin and Brandt? I've been meaning to check them out, but still haven't gotten around to it. The singles collection is pretty fantastic, too. I keep forgetting to mention that disc. I'd be happy if the full demo that Crab Nebula was taken from ever gets released, or if the long-rumored live album comes out some day.

Not meaning to steer this completely off topic, but...it's not everyday that I find another Unwound fan. I took a while for me to get into 'Leaves...', too. Some of the songs grabbed me immediately ("December", "Demons Sing Love Songs", "October All Over") while others took longer...and some still haven't. Overall, though, it's a very impressive piece of work. The album that I still haven't managed to wrap my ears around, so to speak, is 'Challenge For a Civilized Society'. There's a couple of songs I really like ("Sonata For Loudspeakers", the instrumental track, comes to mind) but overall...well, it's not a bad record - as far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as a bad Unwound record...but, it's the one that I've played the least. By a wiiiiiiiiide margin. The one that I've played the most? A toss up between 'New Plastic Ideas' and 'The Future of What'. What an incredible band they were... New Plastic Ideas gets played the most by me, by a wide margin. as far as I recall, my favorite track off of Challenge... is"The Side Effects of Being Tired," with Vern singing. I just found out that a "semi-legit" record exists of them live in London (I think it is traks fro their Peel session) and I should have a copy fairly soon.

Ah yes, the Derek Taylor pre-release review. Sounds good to me - maybe with the exception of Drake's chant on the closing track. There were a few DT posts about this set on JC too (he's a regular poster over there). I thought the "not so positive" comments in that review were about another Fred Anderson disc? My favorite "review" of this so far was posted over on JC and read: Oh. My. Oh my yes. or something to that effect. Can't wait to hear this one!

I have wanted to pick up that set for a while but just can't justify the price right now. Perhaps some day...

You will love Remember to Forget. Leave your wallet somewhere out of reach when reading this discussion. It can get to be very expensive, indeed.

What would you consider to be "essential" Cecil Taylor? I only started exploring his work recently and have been primarily focusing on his solo albums. All that I have heard so far: Silent Tongues, Double Holy House, Tree of Life, Indent, Air Above Mountains and Trance have all been fantastic. My recent order included Looking (Berlin) Solo, Incarnation, Erzulie Maketh Scent, Nailed, Leaf Palm Hand and Remembrance. (catching up on his FMP output.) I'll probably pick up the RVG of Conquistador soon after it comes out, too.

after selling some old cds I no longer listen to I placed an order for this one, along with a few other Cecil's on FMP that I have been desiring for a while, from Cadence. I am really looking forward to hearing this set. I have heard a lot of praise for the role Franky Douglas plays in the music from a few people who have heard this disc.

Amazon.co.uk confirmed the availablity of Monoceros. Looking forward to hearing it. Good news! Let us know what you think.

Reign in Blood is their "classic," but I would recommend starting with Seasons in the Abyss first. There are some great songs on SITA and it is more in line with what a fan of Megadeth would enjoy imo.

Frode Gjerstad / William Parker / Hamid Drake - Remember to Forget Recorded live in October of 1997. Some great playing by all involved. Highly recommended!

Ramon Lopez - Eleven Drum Songs This one gets a conditional from me. I wasn't really enjoying the first few tracks..it seemed as if Lopez didn't know what he wanted to do and wasn't saying anything interesting as a consequence. The disc started to pick up after that and I really enjoyed it more as it went along. That being said, I certainly do not consider this one to be essential, by any means, but, for $3, I'll recommend it. This reminds me that I still have a few more Leo Labs discs from Berkshire to make my way through....

Murray Street is their best release in quite some time, imo. The first five tracks are fantastic, then I lose interest pretty quickly. The last time I saw them was probably around '96 and I think Helium opened up the show. The highlight was definitely the Diamond Sea...such a great song. Going off track a bit, I'm still really disappointed that Unwound broke up. I first saw them opening up for Fugazi and have loved them ever since. It took a while for their last album, Leaves Turn Inside You, to click with me but it finally has. They still are one of my favorite bands, too.