Nate Dorward

Yeah, I thought it weird he dissed those tracks--I like them a lot! Ah well. At least it got a prominent & largely positive review.

At the risk of inviting a torrent of polemic from, er, certain parties, here's a link to Francis Davis's review of the Evening Star releases: http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0528,davis1,65756,22.html

It's usually called a "break" (cf "The Famous Alto Break"). I'll listen again.

Yeah, feeling guilty about those--they're all fascinating discs, & the writeup is coming.....! The one I feel most "comfortable" with is the Erstlive 005; still thinking about the other two...

Yes it's an extremely resonant acoustic for Conic Sections.

The augmented edition of a previous CD published on ACTA (addition of 2 tunes recorded in studio). Essential music, essential JOHN STEVENS The live part has been recorded few months (Weeks?) before the too early Death of STEVENS. What's so extraordinary, here, it's that it shows the incredible evolution of the drummer who goes enter, in this record, the world of "microtonal" impro. Stunning. To clarify: (1) the additional material is a combination of excerpts from an interview plus two short tracks with a quartet (Neil Metcalfe on flute)--lots of insight into Stevens' methods here. (2) the live concert is actually from half a year before Stevens' death. (3) it's indeed a great album, & the sound on "Stig" is noticeably better than on the Acta CD (Martin Davidson professed surprise at this to me, saying he didn't remember doing much more than bumping up the volume, but after auditioning both versions I still think there's more to it than that). Not 1972, 1992. Great music, again. "Another"? He's done some great albums (including with his Iskra groups). But this certainly isn't one of them--though I found it more palatable if you skipped the opening track. For dedicated fans of horn+electronics albums only. Yes this is a great one. It's a bit tougher to get into than their debut Wing Vane but is equally fine.

I remember Mars Song as a really tough go--got rid of it some time ago. Lines Burnt on Light is pretty impressive if you've never heard Parker solo before but I found it disappointing--very little advance to show on Conic Sections from over a decade before. I still like the solo piece on Atlanta best of all the solo E.P. I've heard. The new duo album with Stan Tracey is terrific by the way (the 2nd one--I haven't heard the 1st). It's fairly jazz-oriented too--downright groovy on the title track "Crevulation".

One of my "little knowledge is a dangerous thing" moments, obviously.... Will have to relisten though the BFT is buried here among the chaos at the moment. I seem to recall that earlier editions of The Penguin Guide had an entry for the Oliver Nelson album, but it's dropped out of more recent editions. So what tracks from the album did you leave off this BFT, Jim ? It certainly sounds like a winner.

Aha, Clarence "C" Sharpe. I gather that Luke Kaven's got some tapes of some of his performances from his last years & plans to issue them in some form on Smalls Records--I look forward to hearing the results.....

FWIW-- http://www.onefinalnote.com/reviews/g/grea...tumn-leaves.asp I have one of the Inner City releases of the "original" GJ3 & I like it a lot.

The Duck Baker disc is really nice by the way. Baker's best known as a critic--he has a regular column for Coda for instance.

I have the 2nd Herbie Nichols Project disc--I thought it was pretty nice, though I've never got much out of Frank Kimbrough alas (I say this because he's such a nice guy in the shark-infested waters of the Jazz Corner board that I wish I was more excited about his music). -- I remember that Change of Season with Mengelberg, Lacy &c was another good Nichols tribute album with a few previously unheard tunes. I've never heard vol. 2 of the Rudd Nichols set but vol. 1 was so disappointing I dumped it rapidly (despite its having Rudd signature on the cover!).

Ugh, you really like Slightly Latin? With the Quincy Jones material at the end of the set it's the only dud stuff on the Mercury box, I think. It's worth pointing out that the recent reissues of Domino has stuff not on the boxed set; but I gather the reissue of the Copenhagen set omits some of the material added to the Mercury set. If you dig around you can find a weird 1960s TV program with John Cage & Roland Kirk (live at Ronnie Scott's & in London zoo) juxtaposed. They don't actually meet, but it's kind of nice to have them in the same show. Kirk is playing with Stan Tracey there.

Yeah I think Karyobin is o/p. Which sucks. It's a very approachable album & would be a good introduction to the SME or to Bailey & Parker.

Yeah Monoceros is a great solo disc to start with. For the group music, 50th Birthday Concert is a useful primer. & the very recent America 2003 is not too shabby. The 1970s stuff like Pakistani Pomade, The London Concert, Live at Unity Theatre is wonderful stuff indeed but might sound pretty harsh to a newcomer! But if you don't mind a tough listen, then....

Yeah, that's a really nice one. Man, can those guys swing hard without any drummer at all. Hey, I'm not going to issue an apologia for the CIMP sound--I frankly don't care about audiophile stuff one way or the other, & there indeed have been CIMPs where I found the sound unsatisfactory (sorry Bob), or just didn't like the music much even if the sound was OK. But I think all the discs I named above should be at least acceptable even if you don't buy into the CIMP statement of purpose. The Dresser/Anderson is I think the one where the recording style really does pay off. Been listening to the Barry Guy disc Dakryon (a mix of 17th-century material & Guy originals--worth checking out) & the BGNO Oort-Entropy, which I found kind of all-right-but-not-stimulating. Hard not to compare it to the LJCO, & think of the warmth & passion that players like Trevor Watts, Paul Dunamall & Simon Picard brought. (Mats Gustafsson & Agusti Fernandez may make an impressive racket but they're a bit cold, to my ear.)

You kept the Rudd discs for the music? I dunno--I found vol. 1 incredibly frustrating: two long & dull solo pieces at the end & a promising tune at the beginning thrown away on a not-terribly-interesting drum solo. I guess I got the disc largely because I wanted to hear new Nichols tunes &was disappointed that many of them was delivered in such a way one really got little idea of what they "ought" to sound like. The guitarist & drummer seem to have sunk back into obscurity after that session, for whatever reason.

I don't like the sound on the first CIMP discs I heard (the Rudd & Evan Parker), but you should try again with some of the better recent dates, where the sound is just fine: try Mark Dresser/Ray Anderson's Nine Songs Together, Adam Lane's Fo(u)r Being(s) & Zero Degree Music, James Finn's Faith in a Seed & Harris Eisenstadt's Jalolu for instances of CIMP dates where the recording is good & in some cases superb (the Dresser/Anderson in particular). & they're all really good music too.

Yeah Frank Butler's great--I mostly know him from his work with Art Pepper (including a reunion of Pepper, Butler & Dolo Coker from Intensity on the 1970s release California Hard which has a 15-minute drum feature on it called "4FB"--check it out!)

I should add that my 7-year-old is addicted to The Yellow Shark (one of the few Zappa discs that hasn't got off-colour lyrics). That's one of his "classical" ventures, & it's pretty strong. There's a surprisingly beautiful &, er, moving piece on there written for a documentary on the environmental effects of the Exxon Valdez oilspill.

Hey, Braxton's great--on the right day, with the right material, with the right players. Doesn't always happen, of course, given his prodigious & often virtually unedited output (I still can't fathom why 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003 was released as a 4-CD set rather than 2 CDs) but I think the disc with Bauder's definitely on the credit side of the ledger.

I think you mean Psi not Leo? It's a reissue of an Incus LP with extra material. & yeah, it's one of the best reissues this year--great stuff. I haven't heard the other two duet albums they did but I'm told but those who have that this is the best of the three. What do you think of the Braxton/Bauder? I liked it a lot but I know people who were less excited about it for some reason.

Maybe something happened to the stereo tapes?

Thanks for the comments & the link. I think the only Hanna in my current collection is James Newton's African Flower. Will hunt out a few more recordings...

Yeah I like Weasels too.... but I wouldn't recommend it as a good place to start! But "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama", "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque" & the really heavy cover of "Directly from My Heart to You" are great stuff. I never quite fathom the love for Joe's Garage, which I find bloated, though I guess if you're looking for just the guitar solos it's a good one to go to.