Nate Dorward

Er, really? I have a reissue from that period in the 1990s when a German label put all the ESP catalogue back in print. It sounds better than Machine Gun but that's about all I can say in its favour. Famously, the recording engineer didn't even record the first track in stereo because he thought they were just practicing. Whatever the case it's wonderful music. I also like Spirits Rejoice a lot. The only others I have are Vibrations & the Impulse Greenwich Village 2fer; Vibrations never quite grabbed me (again, I may have a version with a poor CD transfer--the drums aren't caught very well) but the Impulse is great. It really is high time all the ESP stuff was collected in one spot & remastered properly. * Paul Plimley & Lisle Ellis are terrific, yes; one hopes Hat Art's reissue program catches up soon to Kaleidoscopes, their marvellous album of Ornette tunes. My one complaint about them is that they can get stuck into familiar routines on their own sometimes--e.g. I've seen Plimley do his "Stomping at the Savoy" partypiece 3 times now in various concerts over the years, & it got a little stale. But that's a minor complaint. Catch Ellis on the new Enedi/Brotz/Ellis/Krall disc too--a great disc. * np: Ochs/Jeanrenaud/Masaoka, Fly Fly Fly. Which is really nice stuff--one of my favourites so far this year. The cello & koto get a little cross-cultural synthesis going--the cello sounding rather "Asian", the koto often like a harp or the strummed inside of a piano. The first two tracks would please fans of the Tilbury/Morton Feldman school of tonal, minimalist improv; but the last two tracks are a lot more various & sometimes prickly. I like both sides of the disc about equally.

This one looks interesting - let us know about it. I like this one a lot.

Boom is very good, yes: maybe not a year's-best but no-one who hears it will be disappointed. Haven't heard Orange. You get to hear Malaby play two saxes simultaneously on a couple tracks, among other things!

Nuthin' so far. Oh well.

Isn't Chinampas just Taylor's poetry (no piano at all)?

There are rumours that much more material exists from these sessions--they were recorded over 3 days--but I guess with all the questionable issues & confusion it's anybody's guess who's got the original tapes or if a "proper" issue will ever be made. I have only the Iron Man session, on West Wind (another dodgy label). It's wonderful stuff. Much of the material is familiar from the Vintage Dolphy live stuff with Armour, but all the titles are different.

I remember Filiano's Subvenire as pretty good actually. One of the champ solo discs is Barry Guy's Fizzles, very much worth geting if you haven't got it already. I'm told Barry's most recent solo disc (which has a couple covers on it!) is not as good. Simon Fell's Max, only on cassette, is worth hearing too.

Yeah I ain't got this one either! I do have Bye-Ya & The Holy La by this trio, both very fine (the nod going to Bye-Ya).

Steve, good to see you here. Could you post details on the personnel? Unless I missed it you only named the drummer.

Actually I've never seen a handsome SteepleChase cover.... But Bley's terrific. Haven't heard this one but the Bebop album on the same label is tremendous stuff... SteepleChase seem to get him into more "mainstream"ish situtations than the more abstract stuff on say ECM--nice to hear him do standards.

Chuck--thanks for the info. I gotta chunk of reviewer's credit coming my way from Cadence at year's end so I'll get Serenade then (plus that Air disc)...but might come looking for that Bomba reissue...

The FME? Dullsville, I thought; but then, I'm not a fan of Vandermark in any guise (though have more patience with other formations where he's not the sole horn). I don't have it anymore to check it (gave it to a friend) but the piece I wrote on it is here: http://www.ndorward.com/music/fme.htm The guy I gave it to seemed to like it, though. He even liked the other thing I sent him (Braxton's 2-CD set of string orchestra music from Ljubljana), so draw your own conclusion.....

John, I don't know it, but it looks intersting. Are you sure it's on Okka? Okka website does not list it (and it does mention its OOP releases): http://okkadisk.com/ Yes it's Okka: http://www.okkadisk.com/releases/odl10003.html one of their ultra-limited editions (I've reviewed one of those, the first FME disk, & it was 760 copies if memory serves). I haven't heard it.

I don't have this one, from other 3-4 Bergman CDs I've heard, I've found his playing to be consistently boring. Yup - I never heard him, so I can't really say ANYthing about him. Other opinions? Got the new Björk disc, sounds interesting. Will listen over the weekend. ubu I had this & gave it away to a friend. Besides the fact that I don't much like Bergman's playing, the sound quality is pretty drab.

Thanks for the info on the Atlantic/Koch. By the way, is the encounter with Yusef Lateef (I think just called Tenors, on Lateef's YAL label) worth a listen? The pairing sounds intriguing.

Wasn't it Sir Thomas Beecham who dressed down a female cellist: "You have the most sensitive instrument known to man between your legs and all you do is sit there and scratch it" --?

Just listened to this once so far but it's really lovely stuff. Now I gotta go back & get the Nessa release.... Has his Atlantic disc ever been released on CD? I have one track (I think the title was "White Sand") on an LP compilation, that's it.

Cobb's on Toronto pianist Mark Eisenman (my old piano teacher)'s new disc too.

Also I think that's Ben Webster coughing at 0:25 on "All The Things..."!

Incidentally is it just my ears or doesn't Tatum actually hit a few bum notes on "Gone with the Wind" (circa 1:01)? Oh well, can't blame him--the wonder is that he so rarely hit any wrong notes. & he was only months from his death.

I always had just "Have You Met Miss Jones" on a one-disc Pablo compilation so I'm very glad to have spotted the reissue of the album cheaply in Sonic Temple (my local record shop). Only gave it a spin the other night without looking at track titles so didn't notice any screwup in trhe listings! Great to hear Tatum tackling "All the Things You Are" in particular, & it's surprising how effective the partnership is. Of John B's list I've only heard one of the Gonzalezes & the two Erstwhiles. I liked Dennis's disc but not quite enough to put it on the list--I ended up sending my review copy to a friend to write up for Paris Transatlantic along with an Eskelin disc (he's a huge E.E. fan), so I'll be curious what he says. Hm, the Ersts.... I liked Live at the LU; the other one I respect but it's a difficult listen. Maybe just not fun enough for me to list them in a personal best-of-. The discs on the list I posted are the ones I don't think twice about putting in the CD changer...

Oh, might as well post the rough draft of the top-ten. I should say this is one of my less balanced ones because this year (1) I've not had much pocket money to toss around (& when I do so it's rarely contemporary discs I purchase: most recent buy was Art Tatum's disc with Ben Webster, e.g.); (2) I haven't been lately getting many discs for review from Coda which was my main source of more "mainstream" fare from labels like Blue Note. That's not so bad perhaps because I always like plugging small labels' product anyway. Here's things that caught the ear enough so far that I'll be giving them a consider at the end of the year. Participants in the BFT I did will recognize a few familiar friends at the start. Dead Cat Bounce, Home Speaks to the Wandering, Innova Joe Hunt, The Joe Hunt Trio, Dreambox Media Bite the Gnatze, Wilde dans in een afgelegen Berghut, Trytone André Nendza, Wild Open Rooms, Crecycle Frank Hewitt, We Loved You, Smalls Records Peter Brötzmann, Lisle Ellis, Marco Eneidi, Jackson Krall, Live at Spruce Street Forum, Botticelli Bik Bent Braam, Growing Pains, Bik Bent Braam Harris Eisenstadt, Jalolu, CIMP Von Freeman, The Great Divide, Premonition John Hagen, Segments, Cadence James Finn, Opening the Gates, Cadence Less of Five, Acrobati Folli e Innamorati, Nine Winds James Finn, Faith in a Seed, CIMP Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang, Tales Out of Time, Hatology Cecil Taylor/Mat Maneri, Algonquin, Bridge Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Broomriding, Psi Stéphane Rives, Fibres, Potlatch +minus, First Meeting, Trente Oiseaux Geoff Goodman, Naked Eye, Tutu Orkestrova, An Alligator in Your Wallet, EWE + leftovers from Cadence (these are discs I would have put in my Cadence top ten for 2003 but were excluded by their house rules; they're eligible this year though): Geof Bradfield, Rule of Three, Liberated Zone Marty Ehrlich, Line on Love, Palmetto Jimmy Lyons, The Box Set, Ayler Records Keith Rowe/John Tilbury, Duos for Doris, Erstwhile Toss in the Warne Marsh reissue from Nessa, too. If I land an Ayler Holy Ghost box by the time the deadline comes for Coda I'd be very surprised if it didn't get on the list too...

I'd be interested to hear reports on The Bishop's Move itself--might seem rather different on disc than live in concert. Been listening to Broetzmann/Eneidi/Ellis/Krall, Live at Spruce Street Forum on Botticelli, & it should be top priority for enthusiasts of hardcore blowing--loud & squalling & lots of fun. Makes an odd pair with the other small-group Broetzmann disc released this year, Tales Out of Time, which isn't exactly peaceful but was intended as a "ballads session". & James Finn's Faith in a Seed (CIMP) is the real McCoy, an excellent followup to Opening the Gates.

Cadence, Verge & AMG all carry Victo. I was at the concert released on the disc. I had conflicting feelings about it at the time: here's the extract from the festival review I did: Will be interested to hear how it comes across on disc. Probably makes a welcome change from Parker's generally more quiescent recent records.

That's interesting--so LaBarbara decided to double the speed to get it back to the originally planned tempo (& to CD length)? I wonder what it would be like at the "right" speed. (It's not exactly a quick-moving performance even in the recorded version.)