Nate Dorward

Wow, that's fast. The real test will be the US packets; my experience is that airmail from Canada to Europe is fast, airmail to the States is very slow.

I have VicissEtudes. It's excellent. I can send you a CDR dub if you like. The disappearance of the Random Acoustics & Sound Aspects catalogues is a major tragedy if you ask me. The one I want to hear is the Butch Morris w/ Zorn & Lowe.

OK: everything's in the mail now. So folks can just post here when they get their packet. If there's any problem with the CDRs, tell me as soon as possible so I can arrange for a replacement.

Unfortunately the only time I saw Chapin was right near the end in duo with Borah Bergman; it was OK but I find Bergman rather unfathomable, & I would really have liked to catch Chapin in a more "inside" setting. (The concert was later released, I think on Boxholder; maybe it sounds better with the passage of time, I don't know.) Never heard the Arabesques; by all reports they're his most mainstream discs, as the personnel would suggest (Tom Harrell's on one).

Yeah, Chapin's great! -- Do you have the recently released Ride? Could have used a little more love at the mastering stage, maybe, but damn it's hot. The first three tracks on there in particular.

OK: have finalized the BFT. It's just one CD; removed a few tracks to make it focus on recent releases, which brought it down to 78 minutes, 11 tracks that I can live with. Everything from mainstream jazz to left-field big band to one brief track that will probably drive 90% of participants up the wall. I'll be interested to see what Mike Weil has to say about the drumming on the opening track ....

Great--have had a few other responses too, & have updated the list above accordingly. Now I just have to finalize the track selection...... have already yanked a few & added a few, after spinning a few CDs yesterday which I decided just had to make the cut.

Bump.

I can assure you that's not my yardstick for measuring jazz.

Actually as it happens I recently picked up Keystone (in part because my daughter's an aficionado of silent film comedy). Hmmm..... not a big fan: nice electric/electronic textures but Douglas's playing isn't nearly as interesting as on something like In Our Lifetime. Oh well. Don't get much out of the saxophonist either.

Just updated the list of participants. A pretty small handful--c'mon folks, it'll be an interesting BFT, & not epic-length like some of the past ones! I'll start mailing out CDRs late next week to whoever's signed up.

Wow, didn't know she was still around. R.I.P. Truthfully, I recently revisited A Wrinkle in Time (that's one of the pleasures of having a kid: you get to reread all the books you read as a kid) & didn't think it stood up at all well. Oh well, sometimes it's best to let memories of a book lie.

Hm, so far it looks like the tide's turning towards a single CDR? Seems fair to me....! The other solution would be to have two volumes but do an ECM: have each one about 45 minutes long. I know that lots of people hate it when record labels release two-CD sets that barely have more than a single CD's worth of material, but I've always liked the sense of having a bit of a breather between halves.........

Yeah... try the duo albums with Eye if you want Zorn at his worst.....!

Thought I'd get moving on this relatively early, because (due to a combo of technical limitations on this end plus my own preferences) I'll be doing this via mailed CDRs rather than uploaded MP3s. My experience of airmail from Canada to the States has been that two weeks should be allowed for it (airmail overseas tends to be faster). And also, I had a question: do people here prefer a single- or double-CDR BFT? I ask because it seems to me that sometimes it's asking a lot of folks for them to listen to so much stuff, absorb it, & produce intelligent comments about it. On the other hand, so far the potential participants I've asked have largely said, basically, the more music the better, so maybe my reservations are not widely shared. Anyway, I'd be glad to hear your thoughts. I have drafted playlists of both a one-CD and two-CD version of the BFT, so I'm prepared in either case. As for the music: this will resemble my previous BFT, in that it will focus on recent CD releases that range from the jazz mainstream to the left-of-field. I've removed a couple tracks by Simon Nabatov & Michiel Braam, as they turned up on Gokhan's recent BFT, & have replaced them with tracks I'm pretty sure Gokhan won't know......... Anyway, send me your mailing address via PM, & either in PM or in this thread a vote on the single vs double issue. [update: have decided on a one-CD BFT; most people seemed to think this was more appealing than a longer one] * Current list of participants: * = packet received] *Big Al *blind-blake Bright Moments *catesta *couw *Daniel A Durium *dutchmanx Eloe Omoe *fent99 *gnhrtg *John B *JSngry *king ubu Man with the Golden Arm *mikeweil *NIS *Red *RDK *relyles *Sand *sidewinder Stefan Wood *Stereojack *Tom Storer *White Lightning

Quick note--"off-the-peg"--it means "prefabricated", as in clothing (the distinction is between clothes tailored specifically for a customer & clothes that are "off the peg", i.e. already made & ready to wear). No idea what the sound problems are but they are very extensive on the CDRs I have--I'll be interested to hear if Evan has the same problems.....

A lot of needle drops here, & the amount of static suggests some much-loved vinyl. I love the sound of vinyl, but as you'll see I couldn't take some of the more staticky tracks. Disc 1. 1: Hm, the question about this one (once the overblowing starts) is whether this is Rahsaan or simply someone influenced by him. I find this too smooth & mainstream to be Rahsaan, & the choice of tune ("Nardis") is not one I'd associate with him either, but then I don't know his 1970s work that well; maybe he's guesting? Anyway, it's an excellent track, & makes me wonder what the rest of the album's like. 2: C-jamming away, though it ain't Duke. Solid if rather glib piano work, prone to drive a lick home in Oscar Peterson fashion (i.e. obviously). A moment that made me think of Jerry Lee Lewis! I liked this track though the pianist would grate over album length. 3: Jessica Williams, unmistakably--one of the more immediately identifiable mainstream pianists from her distinctive phrasing, accenting & time feel, which always seem to be pushing you ahead a little too quickly. Pity about the truly terrible LP static, which is so thick I find it hard to judge the track--it manages to totally obscure or distort all 3 musicians at points. From what I can make out it seems like a solid track though I can't say it strikes me as anything out of the ordinary for Jessica. She does sometimes get baffling fancies, & the extreme opposition of smoothed-out left & prickly right hand here is a bit irritating--fortunately she eventually drops it. No idea who's in the rhythm section. 4: Sorry, too distorted to enjoy this, even when it's this short. 5: Sorry, WAY too distorted to stand listening to 12 minutes of this. Skipped to the next track after a minute. 6: "Blue Bossa", with a pianist who really needs a better sense of time to pull off a solo piano version of this. Pass. 7: "I Didn't Know What Time It Was". Loose at the seams, both in how the strings mesh with the trio, & also the trio itself, esp. the double-time with the piano where he/she isn't with the rhythm section. No. 8: Nice to hear some PHONY static for once..... S'OK, can't think of much to say. I liked some touches in the arrangement, like the little goosing sounds just before the restatement of the head at the end--are they percussion? Piano solo doesn't do much for me. 9: "Love for Sale" changes, no idea who the guitarist is, but man he/she's got some chops. Straightforward heat all the way, & I like it--no flab in the solo despite the insane pace of it, & it swings. Excellent pianist too (pity there's yet another gap/skip in the middle of his solo). 10: Rather slavishly Blue Noteish, with a Shorter-style tenor. I'm pretty sure it ain't Wayne & if so this guy should be paying him royalties for all the licks & turns of phrase he's stolen. I don't think these are older guys, just young guys who've spent way too much time spinning Speak No Evil. 11: Messengersish stuff, though it's surely not the real thing given the prosaic drumming. I've always hated this style of piledriving-triplet piano, but YMMV. Cutesy trumpet may well be Marsalis. Alto sounds familiar, maybe John Handy. The last phrase has an octave jump of the kind that Bobby Watson favoured, in which case of course this IS a Messengers date from circa 1979 (an era I don't really know). I sincerely hope not, as the drumming seems blah for Blakey. Disc 2. A lot of problems with gaps here--I don't think it's just my copy as I actually got two copies & both were defective! -- I should confess that while there are tracks that strike me as OK on this volume, mostly I really didn't like the stuff on this disc; in fact the only track I thought was especially good was the first one. 1: Solid piano trio track, presumably not too old despite being on vinyl. Tuneful but not too sweet. 2: Low-key, longwinded piano trio, with the long coda a particular thumb-twiddler. It's not bad, but it's not got anything that makes it stand out either. 3: "Ask Me Now" with a bassist whose arco technique leaves something to be desired & who nonetheless insists on using it A LOT. Pianist is a little too conventionally lush on this tune for my tastes, but is the player I find most appealing. 4: After all that build-up with the fancy guitarwork & the wordless vocals we get..... some tinny sub-Miles musings. Feh. The alto player has little to say but isn't as actively annoying as the trumpeter, at least. 5: Grating 1970s fusion, overlong at just 2 minutes. A prominent role for that instrument that sounds like a woman imitating a chimpanzee that always annoys me when Airto Moreira uses it. 6: A blues waltz. The initial drum solo goes a long way to nip any potential enthusiasm in the bud for me. Tenor solo is so-what... lots of off-the-peg licks. 7: Odd to hear dark Mal Waldronish mannerisms here in an otherwise florid style by a player who likes obvious effects--octaves, tremolos, &c--& repeats them over & over. I'm already tired of this guy even though I've only heard one track. The bassist is worth hearing, though, & I wonder if he/she's making a sly comment on the pianist near the end of the solo--that downwards tumble, imitating a favourite lick of the pianist. 8: The static is really terrible on this one. Skip. 9: Kenny Garrett on alto, no idea who the rest are. It's all right, but somehow never gets as hot as it promises, though the strutting coda is nice in spots. 10: Tyneresque piano trio with lots of extra percussion, no idea who this is. Basically OK, just doesn't connect with me especially, & it just goes on too long. 11: Wynton Kelly style trio doing "Get Out of Town". Suppose it could BE Kelly/Chambers/Cobb from their latterday period where they were reduced to doing "Light My Fire"...... Nah, this guy's got different pet licks. It's nice enough, though not a lot of fresh meat here. 12: A rather unsteady groove on this one, which I could perhaps tolerate if it weren't that the percussion & bass are the standouts in the mix. Pass. * Sorry to be so negative about much of this one. I suppose I'd better be ready for some potshots in the next BFT!

Aside from Bik Bent Braam & the trio, he's also got a terrific collaboration with Frans Vermeersen called All Ears. They have one (double) album, Foamy Wife Hum/Line, and it's very much worth getting hold of. -- The best of Bik Bent Braam is probably their most recent one, Growing Pains, though I haven't heard the album of covers, 13. The Shelly Manne, if I'm not mistaken, is or was also available under the title My Son the Jazz Drummer.

Ah right, been a while since I spun this album. It's one of the saddest casualties of the Hat Art back catalogue's disappearance. It's also sad that the label never did the 2nd album of Zappa tunes that was promised in the liner notes. Garzone's one of those names I keep hearing (there was a rather heated discussion of his influence on younger players on one blog I've seen...). & then I hear this track, & it's easily the one I liked least on the whole collection. So maybe I'll continue to live in blissful ignorance.... This one I've sort of heard. I had a review copy pass through my hands--it had a manufacturing defect, & it skipped badly, & so I asked the promoter to send a good copy; he sent a 2nd one, & it had an even more obvious defect (you can see it if you looked at the bottom surface), & it skipped too, & at that point I lost heart & just gave up trying to review it. It's "Taylor" not "Tyler" b.t.w. Nice album, though I don't think either of these tracks really makes it for me. I reviewed this one for Paris Transatlantic in a bulk review of Rogue Art discs, haven't spun it since. Review's here: http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine...dec_text.html#5 -- scroll down a bit. I may have tried to thrust this particular review out of my mind for unrelated reasons (a passing remark in the Rob Brown review netted a year's worth of very public abuse from a certain bassist/guitarist). I suppose this is the point at which to say I basically don't like about 90% of Solal's work at all. Though there was a version of "Poinciana" on an early BFT which I thought was very good. Ah, yes, Grossman. Some of his work I find a bit impenetrable, but he was certainly an original voice & it's sad so little of his music survives. I wonder what his early work was like--everything that I've heard dated from the end of his life. Thanks for the music!

Talk to Phil Minton. He told me about his (I think it was, i.e. first-hand) encounter some years ago with the doctor who misdiagnosed Dolphy (who was racked with guilt for this mistake ever afterwards). I'm relying on memories of a conversation from 2002 at Freedom of the City so I may be a little blurry on this, but if anyone happens to run into Minton he may be able to fill in the details.

Bebop with Cranshaw & Copeland. Not the world's greatest rhythm section but it's great to hear Bley insouciantly skate over a clutch of bebop tunes (my favourite moment being the mangled interlude at the end of the head in "Night in Tunisia").

I wouldn't take anything Yanow says about this one too seriously. It is not, as they say, pitched at his demographic. It is a pretty remarkable album, though I wish it was available in a remastered Tzadik edition (I assume that like "Two-Lane Highway" -- another one desperately in need of a remastered CD -- it's still only available on Elektra/Nonesuch?). Very tinny digital sound. But I used to play this one all the time & even now I like it more than most of Zorn's Naked City output. The tracks I like most are "Ecars" and "Mob Job" on side B.

The reason for my qualification is that I know a lot of people who like McPhee but who don't like Duval or Rosen. -- I've liked some of what I've heard, but on the whole the best of McPhee is the Hat Art stuff (mostly o/p, alas).

Aha! Will do.

Marcus--given the time constraints & how long it took for the packet to arrive, maybe it'd be better to just do vol 1 via online MP3s? Give me a shout via p.m. & we'll work something out.