Late

Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Tintinnabulate

Bud Powell: Tom Waits

This one came out in 2005. I just picked it up yesterday, and all I have to say is . Rather than being just another Patton compilation, Richard Nevins went back to his (and others') 78s, and created new remasters for all of the tracks — some, significantly, with pitch correction. (And, there's even one unissued tune — an alternate of "Elder Green Blues.") This is the best sounding Patton disc I've heard. Highly recommended for Delta Blues enthusiasts.

Such as: Jackie McLean: Designation: Out! Jimmy Smith: Master of His Organ Horace Silver: Song for My Father-in-Law Freddie Hubbard: Flub-tones Others?

Sidewinder's tight with Mr. Moore. While I do have Echo, somehow I still don't feel cool enough. Anyone feel like putting their neck out and creating their own "Top Ten" list?

The track "Karen on Monday" from this album is just gorgeous. The bass line, curiously enough, follows most (though not all) of the vamp from "Footprints" — though Carter's composition is a ballad. Interesting touch.

Tongue-in-cheek understood. I just thought maybe being a doofus would get me closer to hearing that Colbeck rekkid.

I'm a doofus with a credit card. (Though I recently cut most of mine up.)

Nice article. Thanks for posting it. I didn't know that Alice studied with Bud — in Paris. On record, what's a good example of Coltrane's (Alice) bebop playing?

Dang, no Pharoah Live at The East? Nice listing, Vitus.

Hey Audio Nerd — nice set-up! Actually, that nearly replicates my own system (though my B&W's are bookshelf — and your system surely has a greater dynamic capability.) I also have a Rotel amp. I should probably have purchased a NAD cd player, but I went with a Rotel. It's a fine cd player, but its lifespan is dwindling after seven years. If you don't have Gil Evans And Ten — the hybrid SACD version, that is — take a long coffee break and find it somewhere. Not only is it the only version in true stereo, but the sound is very fine, very rich. I love the music already, but the production on that one makes me love it even more. Clifford Jordan's OJC two-fer Mosaic is another great-sounding disc (on my system, and I suppose yours as well). The session with Kenny Dorham puts the horn section right on your sofa with you. There are a ton more, of course, but I'll leave it at two for now.

Oops. I switched names ... or switched instruments? As they say on TV: "My bad." (They never say what's bad, though.)

Oh yeah — no laughing allowed.

Agree. Disagree. Converse.

TOP TEN FREE JAZZ UNDERGROUND 1. DAVE BURRELL - Echo (BYG 529.320/Actuel Volume 20) In the fall of 1969 Free Jazz was reaching a kind of nadir/nexus. Within the industry it was controversial. Classic traditionalists (beboppers included) were outraged by men in dashikis and sandals jumping on stage and just BLOWING their guts out creating screaming torrents of action. Most musicians involved with this crying anarchy could get no bookings beyond the New York loft set. The French lovers of the avant-garde embraced this African-American scene wholly. This recording is one of many in a series of LP's with consistent design. BYG released classic Free Jazz documents by Archie Shepp (at his wildest), Clifford Thornton, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Grachan Moncur III, Sunny Murray, Alan Silva, Arthur Jones, Dewey Redman and many others. A lot of these cats are present on this recording where from the first groove it sounds like an acoustic tidal wave exploding into shards of dynamite. If you can locate Alan Silva's "Lunar Surface" LP (BYG 529.312/Actuel Vol. 12) you'll find a world even that much more OUT. 2. MILFORD GRAVES & DON PULLEN - Nommo (S.R.P. LP-290) Milford may be one of the most important players in the Free Jazz underground. He enforces the sense of community as a primary exponent of his freely improvised music. His drumkit is home-made and he rarely performs outside of his neighborhood. When he does perform he plays his kit like no other. Wild, slapping, bashing, tribal freak-outs interplexed with silence, serenity and enlightened meditation. This LP was manufactured by the artists in 1967 and is recorded live at Yale University. The interplay between Milford and Don (piano) is remarkable and very free. There's a second volume which also is as rare as hen's teeth. 3. ARTHUR DOYLE Plus 4 - Alabama Feeling (AK-BA AK-1030) Arthur is a strange cat. Not too many people know where he's from (Alabama is a good guess). He resided in New York City in the 70's and showed up in loftspaces spitting out incredible post-Aylerisms. Mystic music which took on the air of chasing ghosts and spirits through halls of mirrors (!). He hooked up with noise/action guitarist Rudolph Grey who was making the current No-Wave scene and with Beaver Harris (drums) they played gigs in front of unsuspecting art creeps apparently not "hip" enough to dig, let alone document, the history blasting their brains. Arthur did release this lo-fi masterpiece and it's a spiraling cry of freedom and fury. AKBA Records released a number of classic NYC loft-jazz sessions, most notably those of label boss Charles Tyler, a screaming tenor player who also blew with Rudolph in the late 70's/early 80's. Arthur continues to play/teach etc. in Binghamton, N.Y. and recently released in 1993 "More Alabama Feeling" on yours truly's Ecstatic Peace label (available from Forced Exposure/POB 9102/Waltham, MA 02254) 4. SONNY MURRAY - Sonny's Time Now (Jihad 663) Sonny was the drummer considered to be the first to realize and recognize and perform, on drums, pure FREE jazz. He played behind and along with Ayler early on and Cecil Taylor. He constructed groups which always flew and raged with spiritual abandon. He took time as an abstract and turned it into free motion. This recording is super-lo-fi and is awesome. On it play Ayler(tenor) and Don Cherry (trumpet) as well as Leroi Jones (now known as Amiri Baraka) reading a killer poem called "Black Art". This music is very Ayler but more fractured and odd. Like a lot of these records there is only a front cover with the back of the jacket blank. Whether this was done for economic or artistic reasons is unclear. Jihad was a concern of Leroi Jones and anything released on this label is utterly obscure. The only other title I've seen is one just called "BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL" from the mid-60's which is Leroi and friends sitting on the stoops of Harlem chanting, beating drums and celebrating Leroi's "poems" ("The white man/at best/is..corny!") There was an ad for Jihad in an old issue of Jazz & Pop magazine which announced a Don Ayler (Albert's amazing trumpet-playing bro) LP but I've yet to meet anyone who's actually seen this. "Sonny's Time Now" was reissued a few years ago in Japan (DIW-25002) on CD and LP (with an enclosed 7" of two extra scratchy tracks!) but even that is near impossible to locate. Recorded in 1965. 5. THE RIC COLBECK QUARTET - The Sun Is Coming Up (Fontana 6383 001) Issued in the UK only in 1970. Ric was an interesting white cat who came to the U.S. to blow some free e-motion with NYC loft dwellers. He's most well known for his amazing playing on the great Noah Howard's first ESP-Disk release (ESP 1031). The whole 1000 series of ESP is critical & crucial to anybody wanting to explore this era of Free Jazz featuring recordings by Ayler, Ornette, Sonny Simmons, Sun Ra, Henry Grimes, Steve Lacy, Sunny Murray, Marzette Watts, Patty Waters, et al. I'm not including any of these in this list as they're all available on CD now (from Forced Exposure, address above). The picture of Ric on the Noah Howard LP shows a man with race-car shades and a "cool" haircut playing his horn while a ciggie burns nonchalantly from his relaxed grip. A very hip dude. And very FREE. His only solo recording is this Fontana LP which he recorded while cruising through Europe. He connected with South African drummer Selwyn Lissack (whatever happened to...) and the UK's famous avant-altoist Mike Osborne and bassist J.F. 'Jenny' Clark (student of 20th century compositionists Lucian Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen) to create this exceptional and complex masterpiece 6. JOHN TCHICAI AND CADENTIA NOVA DANICA - Afrodisiaca (MPS CRM711) Tchicai is a 6'6" Danish/Congolese tenor sax player who, in the early 60's, started blowing minds all across the Netherlands with his radical "music for the future". Archie Shepp encouraged him to come to NYC and join like-minded souls of avant-guardia. Tchicai came over and kicked everybodys ass. Leroi Jones shouted his name and talent loudly as Tchicai hooked up with Shepp and Don Cherry for the New York Contemporary Five and later an even heavier ensemble with Milford Graves and Roswell Rudd called the New York Art Quartet. The NYAQ recorded one of the most crucial sessions for ESP-Disk (esp1004) which had Leroi reciting his infamous BLACK DADA NIHILISMUS (available on CD from Forced Exposure). AFRODISIACA was released in Germany (and in other re-release configurations...supposedly) and is Tchicai gathered with 25 other local-Euro musicians playing a hurricane of a piece by trumpet/composer Hugh Steinmetz. This music gets way way out and has the real ability to take you "there". The echo effect on some of this shit is quite ill in a very analog way. And the way the shit gets that dirty-needled distortion at the end of side one (all 25 cats GOING AT IT!) is beautiful, baby, BEAUTIFUL!! 7. RASHIED ALI and FRANK LOWE - Duo Exchange (Survival SR101) Frank Lowe has been studying and playing a consistently developing tenor sax style for a few decades now. At present he's been swinging through a Lester Young trip which can be heard majestically on his Ecstatic Peace recording (E#19..from Forced Exp.) In the early 70's, however, he was a firebrande who snarled and blew hot lava skronk from loft to loft. He played with Alice Coltrane on some of her more out sessions. Rashied Ali was the free-yet-disciplined drummer whom Coltrane enlisted to play alongside Elvin Jones and Pharaoh Sanders (and Alice) in his last mind-bending, space-maniacal recordings (check out surely the Coltrane/Ali duet CD Interstellar Space). Elvin quit the group cuz Rashied was too hardcore. Those were the fuckin' days. And Rashied had his own club downtown NYC called Ali's Alley! Duo Exchange is Rashied and Frank completely going at it and just burning notes and chords where ever they can find 'em. Totally sick. Survival was Rashied's record label which had cool b&w matte sleeves and some crucial releases mostly with his quartet/quintet and a duo session with violinist LeRoy Jenkins. 8. THE PETER BRÖTZMANN SEXTET/QUARTET - Nipples (Calig - CAL30604) The influence of Free Jazz-era Coltrane, Ayler, Esp-disk, Shepp, etc. on hard drinking, knuckle-biting European white cats is formidable. These guys didn't care so much about plaing "jazz" as just totally ripping their guts out with high-energy, brain-plowing NOISE. Brotzmann (sax, German), Evan Parker (sax, UK), Derek Bailey (guitar, UK), and Han Bennink (drums, Dutch) are a few of the spearheaders of this Free-Euro scene and are caught on this insanely rare early document. The b&w cover has a fold-out accordion post card set of personal images of the musicians glued and paperclipped to its front. Brotzmann went on to help further the critical documentation of the Euro-Free-Jazz scene with FMP (Free Music Productions) Records which still exists to this day. There are over a 100 releases on this label of pure Euro-improv and they all offer remarkable moments. Derek Bailey went on to create his own categorically similar Incus Records in the UK which is also still extant. As is the Han Bennink associated I.C.P. (Instant Composers Pool) Records. The most mind-blasting of these recordings may be MACHINE GUN (FMP 24 CD available from NorthCountry Distr./Cadence Bldg./Redwood, NY 13679) where Brotzmann leads an octet through a smashing clanging wonderland of noise. Improvisation and classic western musics are seriously tended to by a large Euro community and it's all pretty fascinating. Check out the works of Alexander von Schlippenbach, Barry Guy & The London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Misha Mengleberg, Peter Kowald, Andre Jaume, Andrea Centazzo, Lol Coxhill and just about anybody who plays with them. 9. THE MARZETTE WATTS ENSEMBLE - (Savoy MG-12193) Marzette was a serious black art cat who resided in downtown NYC when Free Jazz as a NEW cultural revolution was in full gear. He painted and composed wonderful music where some of the coolest locals could flow their flavor. One of the heaviest ESP-disk recordings is Marzette's MARZETTE AND COMPANY (On CD from Forced Exposure) which has the incredible talents of saxist Byard Lancaster (who released an early indie b&w Free Jazz classic out of Philly called LIVE AT MCALLISTER COLLEGE - find it and send it to me..) and guitarist Sonny Sharrock (check his wild influence on Pharaoh Sanders' TAUHID Impulse CD and his own obscure noise guitar masterpiece BLACK WOMAN on Vortex) and cornetist Clifford Thornton (academic NEW MUSIC/Free Jazz "teacher" who released a few crucial sides such as COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK on Third World and THE PANTHER AND THE LASH on America) and the amazing free vocalist Patty Waters (who recorded two infamous hair-raising platters on ESP-Disc). This recording on Savoy was one of a series produced by Bill Dixon, an early associate of Archie Shepp's, who was an incredible composer in his own right. I've heard tapes of Dixon leading Free-Jazz orchestras into sonic symphonic heavens. Very hardcore. This recording I list because of all its obvious loaded references but it's also quite happening and anything with Marzette, Dixon (especially INTENTS AND PURPOSES on RCA Victor), Byard (careful, there's some clinkers) and Clifford is extremely worthwhile. 10. MARION BROWN - In Sommerhausen (Calig 30 605) BLACK ARTISTS GROUP - In Paris, Aries 1973 (BAG 324 000) FRANK WRIGHT QUARTET - Uhuru Na Umoja (America 30 AM 6104) DR. UMEZU-SEIKATSU KOJYO IINKAI - (SKI NO. 1) CECIL TAYLOR - Indent, part 2 (Unit Core 30555) Five way tie for last? Well, seeing as there's no "beginning" or "end" to this shit I have to list as many items as possible just to reiterate the fact that there was (indeed) a ton o' groovy artifactual evidence to support the reality of the existence of FREE MUSIC. Dig? There's used record stores all over the country (the world!) and they all have the potential to be hiding some of these curios amongst the bins and most peeps just ain't sure of their worth and sometimes you can find 'em really cheap. It's definitely a marketplace of the rarefied so when peeps are "hip" to it expect this shit to be way pricey. Marion Brown was/is an alto player who made an incredible LP with Tony Oxley and Maarten Altena called "Porto Novo" that just twists and burns start to finish. Marion could really get on OUT as well as just play straight up. Shepp dug him and got him to do some great LP's on Impulse. He had a septet at one point that was especially remarkable featuring Beaver Harris (drums), Dave Burrell (piano), Grachan Moncur III (bone), and Alan Shorter (trumpet). Alan being Wayne Shorter's (Miles Davis sideman/classicist) brother. Where Wayne was fairly contemporary (though eclectic as a muh'fuck) Alan was strictly ill and has two obscuro LP's worth hunting down: "Orgasm" (Verve V6 8768) and "Tes Estat" (America AM 6118). "In Sommerhausen" is Marion in late 60's exploratory fashion and is quite freaky with the vocal whoops of Jeanne Lee. There's another LP from this period called "Gesprachsfetzen" (Calig CAL 30601) which really lays down the scorch. The Black Artists Group was an unit not unlike that of The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Except they only recorded this one document and it only came out in France on a label named after the group. This is squeaky, spindly stuff and very OPEN and a good indication of what was happening in the early 70's with members Oliver Lake (later of the infamous World Saxophone Quartet) and Joseph Bowie (Art Ensemble's Lester Bowie's bro, later to start Defunkt). Tenor saxist Frank Wright may be (previous to Charles Gayle's current reign) the heir apparent to both Trane and Ayler. Unfortunately he had a heart attack a few years back while rockin' the bandstand. All his recordings are more than worthwhile especially his BYG outing "One For John" (529.336/Actuel Vol. 36), his two ESP sessions (on CD from Forced Exposure) and his Center-of-the-World series of trio recordings with Alan Silva (bass) and Muhammed Ali (drums - Rashied's brother, not the pugilist) on the French label Sun. This LP "Uhuru.." is nothing short of killer with the great Noah Howard (alto), Bobby Few (pianist of Steve Lacy fame) and Art Taylor (heavy old-school drummer in free mode) going OUT and AT IT in stunning reverie. FREE JAZZ of course made a strong impression on the more existential-sensitive populace of Japan. Some real masters came out of the Japanese scene and were influential to some of the more renowned noise artists of today (Boredoms, Haino Keiji). One such Jap-cat is alt-saxist Dr. Umezu who has mixed it up with NYC loft-dwellers on more than one occasion. On this completely obscure, underground release he unleashed some pretty free shit with the likes of William Parker (bass), Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet), and Rashid Shinan (drums). Parker is possibly one of the most important FREE musicians working in NYC. He's got his own constant writing/performing schedule as well as gigs with anyone from Cecil Taylor to Charles Gayle. He recorded one solo LP in the 70's called "Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace" (Centering Records 1001) which is, as you might've guessed, "good". I suppose we should wind things up with the king of FREE MUSIC then and now: Cecil Taylor. Cecil started experimenting with sound, new concepts of "swing", open rhythms and room dynamics very early on. He furthered his adventure with music-conservatory studies and applied a master's technique to his fleeting, furious, highly-sensitive pianistic ACTIONS. Today he's almost shaman-like in his mystic noise transploits. He hates record business weasels after years of scorn and neglect (club owners had been know to beat him up after gigs claiming he damaged their pianos) and records now for the aforementioned artist's label FMP. In the early 70's he had his own label called Unit Core and released two crucial LP's: the one listed above and one titled "Spring of Two Blue J's" (Unit Core 30551). This is when his group included two critical figures on the FREE scene. Alt-saxist Jimmy Lyons (now deceased) was a consistent improviser and a perfect player alongside Cecil as was veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille who recorded his own solo (and duos with the likes of Milford Graves and Peter Brotzmann) LP's on various small labels (BYG, FMP, Ictus). So..that's it...and that's not it. If you're at all intrigued by this personal primer do yourself a favor and seek some of this shit out and free yr fucking mind and yr ass will surely scream and SHOUT. later...............thurston

Guy, if you've ever heard this band and enjoyed them ... you'll like this one. Once again, the rhythm section is something else. When the drummer, Tom Williamson, couldn't find enough work in Los Angeles at that time, he put away his kit and became a tennis coach. The music's loss. Try to track down West Coast Hot, too. These two discs are the best entry into both Carter's and Bradford's work, in my opinion. WCH really deserves a "crown" (if those things matter at all). (Yep. Love Blythe on The Giant Is Awakened. He also kicks Le Ass on Azar Lawrence's Bridge Into The New Age — though of course that's not on Flying Dutchman.)

Al — Detroit makes sense. My "West Coast" mind was in operation when making that guess.

Man, I'd love to see some kind of Dutchman Mosaic Select. Carter/Bradford, Horace Tapscott, who else? Did Arthur Blythe record for them in the early 70's?

This one is back in-print! Don't let it fly under your radar. I'd actually call it essential.

What would work? What Clarke-Boland material could/should Mosaic get their hands on?

That's a good question. Off the top of my head ... I can't think of anything. (Give me another cup of coffee, and I'll try to get the synapses firing.) Hmmm, "post hard-bop" ... I'd personally like to see a Pharoah Sanders Impulse! Mosaic, but I think that's fairly doubtful, especially as most of the material has already seen compact disc reissue. I'm still bugging Cuscuna from time to time about a Tchicai/Rudd set, but that would have to be a Select. Nothing on Muse could likely be Mosaic-ed ... Apparently, as Charles Tolliver now has a relationship with Blue Note again, there's a possibility of something from the Strata East vaults.

Great topic for a show. I wish even more Gilmore existed outside of The Ark.

Not all Portland, but I copy-and-pasted this information from the "Jazz Society of Oregon" website: Wednesday, November 1 Abou Karim Restaurant (221 SW Pine): "Portland Jazz Singers Showcase", 7:30-10:30pm Benson Hotel: Neil Masson Trio 8:30-11:30pm Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Seattle: Sado Watanabe/Peter Erskine Trio Hilton Hotel, Alexander's Lounge, (23rd floor): Ron Steen Jam, 8pm-midnight, no cover, no smoking, parking validated with dinner, two drink minimum Jax Bar: KMHD/Jax Jazz Jam, hosted by the Hank Hirsh Quintet, 7:30-11pm, no cover, all ages Jimmy Mak's (221 NW 10th): Mel Brown Quartet, $5, 8pm Thursday, November 2 Abou Karim Restaurant (221 SW Pine): Anson Wright Trio Benson Hotel: Jean Ronne/Lee Wuthenow Duo, 8:30-11:30pm Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Seattle: Keiko Matsui Heathman Hotel: Johnny Martin Trio, 7-10:30, all ages Hilton Hotel, Alexander's Lounge, (23rd floor): Ron Steen Jam, 8pm-midnight, no cover, no smoking, parking validated with dinner, two drink minimum Jax Bar: Pam Jordon Duo, 8:30-11:30pm, no cover, all ages Jimmy Mak's (221 NW 10th): Mel Brown B-3 Organ Band, $5, 8pm Friday, November 3 Benson Hotel: Jean Ronne Quartet with Lee Wuthenow, 8:30pm-12:30am Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Seattle: Keiko Matsui Hilton Hotel, Alexander's Lounge, (23rd floor): Ron Steen Trio, 8pm-midnight, $5 cover, no smoking, parking validated with dinner Jax Bar: Hank Hirsh Quintet, 8:30-11:30pm, no cover, all ages Jimmy Mak's (221 NW 10th): Dan Faehnle LV's Uptown Jazz Club: Dave Frishberg & Rebecca Kilgore Salty's on the Columbia: Mel Brown/Tim Gilson/Jof Lee Saturday, November 4 Benson Hotel: Jean Ronne Quartet with Lee Wuthenow, 8:30pm-12:30am Cannon Beach: "Stormy Weather Festival", Sandy Dennison and Her Trio (Vincent Frates, Andre St. James), for info, email chamber@cannonbeach.org Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Seattle: Keiko Matsui Hilton Hotel, Alexander's Lounge, (23rd floor): Ron Steen Trio, 8pm-midnight, $5 cover, no smoking, parking validated with dinner Jax Bar: West Coast Jazz Ensemble, 8:30-11:30pm, no cover, all ages Jimmy Mak's (221 NW 10th): Dr. Lonnie Smith, with Mel Brown & Dan Faehnle, tickets at TicketsWest LV's Uptown Jazz Club: Dave Frishberg & Rebecca Kilgore McMenamins Grand Lodge, Forest Grove: Ron Hughes, (solo acoustic baritone guitar, vocals), 7-10pm Oregon Coast Aquarium: "Oyster Cloyster", Patty & Brian Egan, Pieces of Eight, info at 541-574-7131 Salty's on the Columbia: Mel Brown/Ed Bennett/Jof Lee

I don't know who books at Sam Bond's. They've always been very friendly on the phone, however. I don't think Sam is associated with the club. The space is actually a converted mechanic's garage. Sam was the original owner ... and mechanic. Now it's a little pub that serves microbrews. The club's full name was (or still is) Sam Bond's Garage. When Charles Gayle played there, it was body-to-body. When Ben Goldberg played there (with Junk Genius), there were five people in the audience. When Nels Cline played there, people were literally sitting on the "stage".

The Mingus (with bonus tracks) is also a fine disc. Nice offering, Hank!