Nate Dorward

No, haven't heard any other of his albums--but I did see Janssen live in the early 1990s & was quite impressed & bemused at the same time. He opened for Elliott Sharp & Zeena Parkins, if memory served, & was far more interesting than the main act. A little like Simon Nabatov, if memory serves, in the delicate subversiveness of his piano-trio music.

Yeah the Buis is pretty wonderful--touches of Mingus & Sun Ra & even 1970s Miles Davis (check out Cor Fuhler's groovy electric organ!). One of my faves from this year. The Sound-Lee! disc I have mixed feelings about--it's a bit longwinded & Janssen's pingpong approach to the keyboard bugs me (this is going on memory: I gave the disc to a friend), & there are some sloppy moments. The review I did at the time runs as follows: I like Dijkstra a lot--he's on that Bite the Gnatze disc which I excerpted on BFT14. I think he's resident in the States now.

I have it because it turned up in a recent batch of stuff from a journal I write for but I haven't even given it a spin yet. I'll put it in the player in the next few days & see what I make of it. A good & usually reliable friend of mine thought it was boring, & the one time I saw Kraabel live I thought she wasn't terribly good, so it hasn't been top priority..... I've never heard of Hargreaves. Pity if the disc isn't any good considering the liner notes are kinda interesting. But I'm jumping to conclusions.....!

Hm, I'm pretty sure "Left Alone" & "All Alone" are different tunes. Both of them turn up on Left Alone '86 on Evidence (which I have). "Quiet Temple" is listed twice in this discography: http://www.jazzdisco.org/mal/dis/c/ for sessions from 1963 & 1989 (& for the first one "All Alone" is listed as an alt. title). But the personnel listings for those sessions don't seem quite right for the version I heard. (But I'm going on memory, not having purchased the CD.) I can't find any trace of "Quiet Alone" in that discography. I suspect it's just a mistaken conflation.

Yes I've usually come across it as "All Alone" on Mal's albums (it's given a devastating reading on his last disc One More Time). Any idea what the version with the touch of exoticism is on the Collectables compilation, though?

Anyone heard this? I haven't got it but my interest was piqued by turning up a Collectables hodgepodge in Around Again yesterday, though I didn't buy it: The Third World by Donald Byrd & Booker Little. After scouring the web I've determined that the Byrd/Little tracks are taken from The Soul of Jazz Percussion (Warwick W 5003 ST), but they left off much of the original album (which included some Bill Evans tracks) & spatchcocked in some Mal Waldron tracks ("Quiet Temple", aka "All Alone", but with a little "exotic" percussion added--like tuned woodblocks?) & some Byrd/Adams tracks. Anyway, what I heard of the Byrd/Little (I gather Marcus Belgrave is also in there but he wasn't credited by Collectables) was excellent, so I was wondering if I should be hunting the full album out. I gather it was reissued by Fresh Sound but I'm not sure if it's still in print.

I'll want a report on that! The released concert by the CT/BD/TO band from Victoriaville is pretty disappointing, but maybe the band's gelled subsequently. No idea what Braxton's quintet is though. Perhaps some form of the 23 Standards band with an extra instrument? A guess.

Jim--I've seen him play twice (some years ago in Halifax, NS). Pretty good concerts, both of them, though for one of them the bassist was experimenting with some kind of annoying miniature/travel bass (halfway through he gave up & went to the back & dug out a real bass). Papasoff's based in Montreal; haven't heard much of him lately. (You don't mention his instrument explicitly in your post, but it's baritone sax.)

Well I think the comparison was to other Braxton discs not to Bird's original recordings...

Well, it's not that bad, it's just that, yet again, too much has been released and not enough editing, and at times a re-take, has been done, in my opinion. Sprinkled, though perhaps all too sporadically, are quite good solos by all involved. The sense of sloppiness is most noticeable in the ensemble sections, the heads in particular - both in terms of cleanly nailing the actual melodies and as well as when/where to enter. Again, however, there are more than a few solos by Braxton, Smoker, Brown, and Mengelberg that I'm rather fond of - not to mention the lively interplay throughout disc 1. Yeah, I like the Parker set for all the fluffs & messy bits. It's a lot of fun. More so than the Tristano/Marsh disc which I find just too clutzy & hectic. But if you see the Charlie Parker disc, get it anyway--if you don't like it it won't be hard to find someone to buy it, as it's O/P & desirable. JC's Captain Hate (Steve Griffiths) is a big fan of Ori Kaplan; he sent me a CDR compilation of tracks off a number of his CDs, which seemed pretty good though maybe not outstanding. Aside from the Knit.Fact. stuff I think there's at least one CIMP. Been listening to Contre-Plongee, Six Cuts for String Quartet on Creative Sources--good stuff for insect-music addicts. & to John Butcher's new one on his own label Weight of Wax--it's called Cavern with Nightlife (half solo, half duo with Toshimaru Nakamura). Haven't even got to the duo yet but the solo stuff is great. It's in a strange, evocative acoustic: inside a mountain. John's comments:

Saw them once--on balance, pretty good, I thought. But I'd be very sad if the band's success meant that Iverson didn't do any more of his more "mainstream" stuff--check out The Minor Passions on Frest Sound New Talent, a superb trio disc with Reid Anderson & Billy Hart, doing some interesting originals & a few standards like "Body & Soul".

Thanks for the answers & the BFT Tom. Most interesting to me here is the ID of Byard Lancaster--I don't know the guy's work really, & the one thing I'd heard before, The Out Cry (a self-released disc with Crockett & a different drummer) was extremely poor. Interesting to encounter the Hersch/Bey track outside the context of that album & knowledge of who the musicians are--though it's still a pretty moving track even without those details. I think I got DeJohnette on disc 2 track 5 simply by virtue of not spotting Hancock (& thus jumping to conclusions)!

Many of the Ghost Trance discs are all-horn groups.

Whoops that should have been this page, no period. Yes, Dan was having some serious computer problems but managed to squeeze out the issue on time nonetheless!

There's my take on the Hatology release at www.paris.transatlantic.com by the way (in the latest issue).

Yeah Live at Spruce Street Forum is great! Yep, lots of racket--nice to know Peter's not mellowed hopelessly. Most of the other albums & concerts I've heard of his lately with Drake, Parker &c have been rather too dignified. Tales Out of Time is interesting but a bit mixed perhaps. It does however have one completely magnificent track, the tribute to Fred Hopkins.

Re: standards: try the Trio/Duo disc on Sackville--limited edition reissue. It has one of the classic Braxton standards performances, of "Embraceable You". I don't own this disc but I used to spin it a lot when I DJ'd & remember it vividly. Ted O'Reilly & John Norris picked this track to represent Braxton when they assembled their marvellous history of jazz for radio broadcast a few years back. -- I'm not a huge fan of AB's latterday standards records. The Charlie Parker set (now o/p) is rather good despite a lot of sloppiness: worth hearing. The same goes for the Monk album. I'm told the new 4CD set of standards is pretty good despite (again) some sloppy tracks. In terms of recent Brax I'm quite fond of the recent Delmark disc Four Compositions (GTM) 2000. It's kinda funky in spots....

Yeah the Schuller tracks on Vintage Dolphy are a bit dull; not nearly as good as the versions with Ornette. There's a messy but entertaining encore on there too, a jam on "Donna Lee" which has Dolphy & Don Ellis sparring--worth hearing. But really, the only remarkable music on Vintage Dolphy are the three live tracks with Ed Armour. I think the Gillespie-plays-Waldron album was called The Cool World. It was a film score I believe. Lee Konitz's career is full of oddities, of course--e.g. he's on albums with Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Elvis Costello & Anthony Braxton (the Bruback disc which turned up on BFT17); there's that excellent French Impressionist disc; &c. I'm actually rather fond of Once, the Company album with Konitz, Bailey, Teitelbaum, Barre Phillips, &c.--the sound is rather hissy & documentary but the performances are quite effective. It even has an episode of Konitz playing drums. One oddity I like a lot--One Night in Washington with the Band with Charlie Parker as featured guest. Also the album of Django Reinhardt sitting in with a US army band. Incidentally, I have always been warned that Bill Evans' 1970s big band collabs (a return bout with George Russell, & the one called if memory serves Symbiosis) were pretty awful. Anyone heard these & care to report back? Jackie McLean's New & Old Gospel perhaps deserves a mention--surely the only album with Ornette Coleman as a sideman exclusively on trumpet? That Birth of the 3rd Stream reissue is terrific, but I wish they'd not dropped tracks. I've never heard the Milton Babbitt piece, for instance. But it's a great disc if for nothing else having such an unusual Mingus track, some of Miles's least typical work, & the great "All About Rosie" (nowadays probably a less familiar track than the Gerry Mulligan reading).

Presumably the other 10% is on soprano not tenor. Evan Parker's remarkable, even though I've found his most recent work a bit dull for the most part (with some notable exceptions--the duo with Joe McPhee is dark, intense, ornery music). If you haven't heard it the duet album with Anthony Braxton from 1993 is worth picking up, as is the 2CD 50th Brithday Concert. All the solo albums I've heard have been excellent except for the boring Lines Burnt on Light, which probably sounds great if you have never heard an EP solo album before but otherwise sounds like a rehash.

I've always been curious about that Dizzy Gillespie album with JJ Johnson charts which I gather is much further "out" than anything else Diz did. Available briefly as a Verve limited edition. Maybe someone can describe it further & whether it fits into the remit here. The album with Mal Waldron tunes also sounds kinda interesting & improbable. Derek Bailey's Ballads & Mirakle might be good "avant" choices (the first has gobbets of old standards on it, the other a harmolodic funk band) Georg Graewe's Monk album (which despite a little heavyhanded drumming by Michael Vatcher is pretty great). For some reason lots of people seem to hate Bill Evans' Interplay, his least typical session for Riverside (there's also the companion Loose Blues, which was a problem-ridden session but is also worth hearing). Me, I like Interplay a lot. Scofield's collab with Mark Anthony Turnage--Scorched I believe is the name. Frisell & Evan Parker on Gavin Bryars' After the Requiem.

Ah, there we go--p 1485 of the 6th edition. Nice coincidence that both George Lewises get crowned!

No: it was the avantgarde trombonist George Lewis they gave a crown to (for Homage to Charles Parker) not the clarinettist, at least in all the editions I've seen (including the 6th).

Gertrude Stein, actually. I forget what town it was she was talking about (I think her hometown).

Working on this one--will add more later. 1: Mingus, this tune is on Changes, though this is clearly a live version by the Adams/Walrath/Pullen version of the band. Nice to have the rest of the band drop away leaving Adam & Richmond for one episode. Pity about the fuzzy sound on the piano, but nice to hear DP going inside the instrument! Interesting Walrath solo too. A really nice track; in many ways better than the rather restrained version of this on the original studio album. 2: So far the theme seems to be “excellent but poorly recorded live gigs”. Odd to hear this done with such a piping tone, keeping to the simple flavour of the original tune, rather than just reverting to hard bop. The saxophonist keeps tightly to the chords, though when the bass inserts some substitute changes at one point he’s is right on them. No idea who this is, especially the drummer responsible for that very unusual solo. 3: more live stuff, ugh a rather clotted statement of this Monk theme. I think this is an honest to goodness bass guitar rather than just a horribly amplified acoustic bass. I’m finding it hard to care too much about this track during the piano solo; I get a little more interested in the guitar solo. The drummer & vibist sound familiar. Hmmmm.... I would guess Gary Burton on vibes but what’s he doing in this messy blues jam? Swallow on bass. I can’t figure this track out. 4: ugh, the worst sound yet on the comp. Alto, drums and somewhere in there a bassist I guess. “Bye Bye Blackbird” with some quotes of other things like “When Lights Are Low” & “Naima” & Bird licks & whatnot. I can’t even begin to guess who this is. A floating vibe to the alto that oddly reminds me of Konitz (or maybe Benny Carter, considering the “WLAL” quote). Whereas on the previous tracks the shortcomings of the recordings didn’t interfere with my enjoyment, here it does, but even so I just don’t like this at all: very longwinded & somehow despite the changes of pace & direction it comes off as unvaried. 5: geez, some decent sound for once, a nice change. A little percussion then a drum solo. Oh right, this is a Hancock tune, “One Finger Snap”. I really am not getting much out of this pianist who doesn’t seem to know how to shut up & whose solos come in tiny stuttering, endlessly repeated BITS. Maybe DeJohnette on the drums. Probably my least favourite track on either disc of the compilation. Hm, maybe Marc Johnson on bass. Nah not deJohnette. No idea about the pianist. 6: “Speak Low” opening on the bass with piano chords out of Debussy’s “Sunken Cathedral”. Then a fast tune in a 1960s Shaw/Hubbard vein. Maybe Bobby Watson’s Horizon, with BW on soprano for a change? Naaah. The trumpeter gets the 1st (long) solo & it sounds like he’s in charge..... Sounds like hardhitting pastiche of 1960s trumpet, so clean & whipcracking I think it’s a Young Lion rather than a 1960s veteran. Noisy accompaniment, esp. about 4 minutes in. This is basically a kind of jazz I respect but generally avoid: hard, glossy, self-absorbed. Soprano solo, so what. The pianist I like a bit more as he introduces a sense of relaxation into what’s otherwise a pretty ear-bashing track. Good lord that drum solo is noisy. I think my least favourite tracks on this 2-CD comp are the last three. Oh well. Most of the rest I liked. Thanks for putting it together Tom, & for the emergency airlift of the BFT when the 1st one didn't show up.

At last got this this morning. So I'll post responses & then rewind & see what you guys said: I imagine by now that the bones have been more or less scraped clean. * 1: elegant opening. Oh, “My Favorite Things”. Nice to hear that done NOT in the Coltrane style. Very nice, thoughtful stuff; no idea who it is, though. 2: “At the Jazz Band Ball”. I’m always spotty on early jazz; probably I should recognize these guys, but I don’t. The trumpeter (or should that be cornetist) is particularly striking here. 1950s or 1960s traditional jazz revival; I’m not sure if it’s old guys or younger revivalists or a mix. A nice track. 3: OK, a strutting piano blues. Horns come in & they sound very familiar, hm. Hm, the tenor: Stanley Turrentine? He has some of the sound I associate with Clifford Jordan. Yeah I think it’s Jordan, especially because the bridge sounds like something he might write. Lee Morgan on trumpet surely. The rhythm section all sound familiar. Tyner on piano? Or someone like Harold Mabern using Tyner licks maybe? Jones on drums: I could only confirm that with the final barrage. Now the track’s over & I haven’t guessed the bassist... oh well, let’s move on. Good track, surely Blue Note in the 1960s, probably a Morgan album. 4: Nice opening. “It’s Only a Paper Moon”. Hm, only piano + drums? Maybe it’s that Bill Carrothers disc? Nice to hear the pianist really take advantage of the absent of the bass by freeing up the harmony a bit. Good track. No idea who it is: the drummer sounds more familiar than the pianist. 5: “It Might as Well Be Spring”. Strange tight vocalized sound on the horn – is it french horn? 1950s or early 1960s. I wish that the recording engineer has made it sound less like horn + rhythm: the piano in particular is WAY back. I’m not wild about the solo, but that’s in part because I find the exclusive focus on the horn oppressive: couldn’t the pianist have got a half-chorus? Maybe Hank Jones on piano; it’s impossible to tell the bassist & drummer from this. Eeeh, this is the first track on the compilation I don’t like much, though it’s alright. 6: Don’t recognize the singer or the verse. Jeez, what’s the last time you heard “whom” in the lyrics of a song? OK, “Something to Live For”. Nice to hear the singer doing this quietly & with a lot of understatement, letting the vibrato & pacing & a few extra touches do the work. Don’t know the singer; the pianist sounds more familiar but I can’t place him. 7: Kenny Garrett. The tune sounds kinda familiar. Boring opening. It remains pretty boring for the duration of the tune. I liked his Triology but this is just dull, with all the musicians given a pretty soporific remit (the guitarist probably is someone famous but how could you tell from this?). People have warned me away from his softer-edged recent work & if this is at all typical I’ll consider myself warned. 8: Greg Osby surely. Not sure who the pianist is though: the natural guess would be Jason Moran but it’s DEFINITELY not him. The tone is a little more intimate, less biting & impassive, than I associate with Osby, maybe this is a little earlier than his Blue Note work, or maybe it’s just miked differently. No idea who the pianist is, but I have a hunch it’s probably someone a little older. It’s an OK track, nothing that grabs me. A few phrases at the end suggest “Isfahan”. 9: The tenor sounds vaguely familiar, other than that I don’t know. He does some unexpected things that keep me interested even though it’s not the kind of jazz that speaks to me strongly. The tune has a Shorterish vibe. No guess as to any of these guys. 10: Solo “Them There Eyes”! Nice way to open. Whoever he is he’s completely memorized Lester Young’s solo on this tune. Hm, maybe those Getz/Barron duets from late in his life? Um, nah, once the pianist gets to solo then it’s clear it can’t be Barron. No idea really who it is, but it’s nice. Two veterans, surely. 11: Yikes that clarinet really leaps out of the speakers: ouch! The alto sax is interestingly scatterbrained. The track seems to speed up at the trumpet solo (splice?). Piano’s OK. The tenor – hm, I think it’s the Hawk, not just a Hawkins imitator. 1930s or 1940s. Too full of caffeine, I wish they’d slowed down a touch & had the chance to stretch out, but I guess this was before LPs. 12: “All the Things” with an odd bashing piano introduction. God, the period sound is wretched on this, esp the too-loud drums, ugly piano sound & ugly bass. Konitz in the 1970s. Not one of his better solos. Not sure who the pianist is, maybe Lou Levy. Bach quotes, eh? Don’t really like his solo either. Ohmigod, Anthony Braxton’s here too. You know: he sounds BETTER than everyone else here. Take that, Lee (Lee’s repeatedly said ugly things about Mr Braxton in public). The double solos plus trading with drums is a bit messy. Just awful. Maybe I’d have a fractionally better response if the track were remixed. This is probably that Dave Brubeck album on Atlantic: the pianist is certainly heavyhanded enough to suggest Brubeck. Anthony takes the honours here: the 1970s WERE his decade. 13: More Prez stuff! No idea who it is but I always like solo sax. A little too much reverb: is this a studio or a friggin’ church? Some young gun. A little too inyerface for my taste. It’s an OK track, but showoffy.