Nate Dorward

Incidentally Shepp is a featured musician & keynote speaker at this year's Guelph Jazz Festival. I don't know his work well & don't have a great inclination to do so--I remember liking Four for Trane, which I used to have on cassette, but I recently picked up the Impulse! Live in San Francisco/Three for a Quarter One for a Dime reissue & found it very poor.

OK: even though some discs are still in the mail--in particular, the ones sent by relay will likely take a few extra days--I've had enough responses from recipients that I thought I'd start things going. I should say that people shouldn't feel obliged to rush in with responses right away, if they've just got the discs & feel they need to let them sink in. I've tried to make things tricky enough that the BFT won't be easily nailed within a day or two, so this may unfold a little more slowly. A general comment (perhaps unnecessary--ignore it if you like). This BFT is a little different from the last few ones. There's one very famous player among these tracks; but as for the rest I don't expect a lot of i.d.s (though I suspect you guys will pleasantly surprise me with some bullseyes nonetheless....). As with JSngry's BFT (my favourite one so far!), the main point of the compilation is to elicit discussion of the music itself rather than to test knowledge of well-known musicians' stylistic signatures. Have fun! --N

Tooter--thanks for the info--& thanks to Gary (who passed the disc on). Yes, it's been a little hard to tell who's received discs because of the board's hiatus over the weekend. Anyway, when folks have their copies they can drop me a line either by posting on this thread or sending me a PM (or emailing ndorward at sprint dot ca).

They did perform together, on the soundtrack to Altman's Kansas City. James Zollar, the trumpeter on You Are #6, is also on there, if I remember rightly. Yes it was.....seems like ages ago.

Good LORD...! I just received a mass dump of about 50 private message notifications & personal emails via Organissimo (dating from the past week or so). I take it that whatever was broken is now fixed. Anyway, this explains why some participants were having trouble getting me a message.....

Actually I've always found Sankt Gerold rather hard going: it's a bit frosty. I think Time Will Tell, the previous disc by this group, was much better because it knocks Bley & Parker both off their perches a bit. It's afflicted with a particularly grotesque amount of ECM reverb but otherwise it's pretty good. (Sankt Gerold has natural echo for a change, having been recording in a church.) A few Paul Bley recommendations from those I own (spotty collection, but Bley recordings are legion): the early Footloose on Savoy, which includes Bley's first readings of several Carla Bley compositions including "Turns" the recent, wonderful Not Two Not One with Peacock & Motian on ECM--perhaps the best entry-point in fact for new listeners Bebop on Steeplechase--what it says, & a great way to hear Bley tackle standard repertoire

Strange Paul Bley track--I suppose I was reluctant to i.d. it as Bley simply because it's rather weak for PB. The album Partners on the same label by Bley & Peacock is much stronger than that.

It's a tremendously welcome reissue--not sure I have much to add to what I said here but I'll reproduce it below:

John Oswald's a free-improv alto saxophonist in Toronto; the plunderphonics stuff was originally a sideline to entertain himself & musician friends that became much more celebrated than his alto playing. He's pretty good as a free improvisor, though he has a narrow range (my impression is that he really can't play anything more idiomatic). The earlier O'Rourke/Kaiser/Kimura/Oswald disc on Victo is worth hearing. He also works with CCMC with Michael Snow & Paul Dutton, a Toronto institution of sorts: I'm never gotten terribly excited about it, though some concerts I've seen have been OK. They have a disc out on Victo, too. Having heard three Bergman discs & one live gig (the duo with Chapin later released on CD) I think my patience with him is exhausted--he's always seemed kinda dull, though actually the early work for Chiaroscuro is worth hearing.

Most of the Arista twofer LP of Braxton live from the 1970s (quartet with Kenny Wheeler & George Lewis as the horns on each date) was issued as a single CD simply called Live a little while back--it's o/p now but shouldn't be impossible to find, & it's as good a place to start as any. Wish I still had my copy: a drummer I knew absconded with my copy because he couldn't get enough of Barry Altschul's performance on it. Another good place to start is not in fact a Braxton disc: try Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds. -- Basically, virtually any of Braxton's quartet albums from the 1970s & 1980s are worth picking up. The Monk album from the 1980s is pretty good too, though I prefer the ballads on it to the fast pieces.

The brevity of the tracks, the use of 1940s film themes, & the focus on colouring-in themes rather than using them as launching-pads for solos are all typical Blake. It's a very good album with among other things an excellent "I Should Care" (intended as a gloss on Monk's famous solo reading). I like short albums, so don't mind the 38-minute running time. Listening to Harris Eisenstadt's Jalolu, one of the best of CIMP's recent releases. An odd release indeed: the composing is influenced by Eisenstadt's visit to West Africa, but he plays with a thumping backbeat throughout, & the lineup is three trumpets (Paul Smoker, Taylor Ho Bynum, Roy Campbell) & Andy Laster on baritone & clarinet, who are given odd hocketting themes to play (rapid volleys of single notes). It's good stuff.

There just seems something rather wilful & clenched about a lot of his own-name projects, sometimes downright inexplicable--e.g. the weirdly monotonous You Are #6. He plays very well on the Fo'Tet's Ornettology, yes (the only one of those discs I've got).

Hate to pile in but yeah, I don't get it about Don Byron, & can't say I'm too enthused about this particular project on the face of it.

Altschul's indeed as superb as ever--that Adam Lane Fo(u)r Being(s) from CIMP with Smoker, Altschul & Tchicai is wonderful stuff, & seems to have gotten Altschul back on the map (he's in cracking form throughout, fully as good as his 1970s work). Anyone heard that FAB group? (Fonda-Altschul-Bang). Was wondering whether to pick it up--a good lineup, for certain. I have Flexible Flyer on LP, let me dig out the record player. I don't remember much about it. For good Sheila Jordan try Lost & Found or Portrait of Sheila.

One chapter of the Twardzik book will be in the next Coda. I gather it's a pretty long book--boggles the mind really, considering how brief the guy's life was!

OK, looks like we're in business here. A few things are already in the post, & I'll get the rest of the mailout done Monday. When participants get their copy then they should drop me a line so I know when enough people have copies so we can start discussion. A general comment (I'll move this to the discussion thread perhaps once it's started but thought I'd put it here for now): this BFT is a little different from the last few ones. There's one very famous player among these tracks; but as for the rest I don't expect a lot of i.d.s (though I suspect you guys will pleasantly surprise me with some bullseyes nonetheless....). As with JSngry's BFT, the main point of the compilation is to elicit discussion of the music itself rather than to test your knowledge of the stylistic signatures of well-known musicians. -- These comments may be unnecessary--ignore if you like!

Eehhh, Cyrille's My Friend Louis is a good drummer-led session--truthfully, I've never found it much more than that, though there are some nice things on it (notably Oliver Lake's reading of "The Prophet"). I think the Bailey/Braxton Moment Precieux is unjustly maligned, actually: it's a pretty interesting disc. -- I can't say I'm eager to hear the session with Borah Bergman & Peter Broetzmann--sounds like a recipe for disaster.....

When Braxton went to London in the 1970s & played a concert with Derek Bailey apparently there was quite the disagreement about how to proceed during the rehearsal session: he brought a stack of sheet music with him, which Bailey wouldn't have any of. If I remember rightly, the compromise they worked out was to divide the concert into agreed-upon "territories". Evan Parker did play with Braxton again on that Victoriaville disc, where he's working within Braxton's compositional structures. I haven't listened to that CD for a while--great band but I remember the disc as OK, but not great. The Braxton/Bailey on Victo, though, is a rather interesting disc.

Bump. Jeez, just 22 names? I wonder if BFT fatigue's setting in.....

There's also a later solo called "Dali", which I haven't heard. It seems to have been issued on a disc of that title from Stash. Re: my comments on the solo: independent confirmation, I suppose, of Scott DeVeaux' thesis in The Birth of Bebop? (It places great emphasis on Hawkins' role in laying the groundwork for bebop.)

Yes, the sound's merely adequate. But the music is pretty remarkable--Evan Parker often sounds best nowadays when he's got someone like Braxton or Joe McPhee as a partner who really tests him & can't be disposed of with a few squid-ink clouds of circular breathing.

Sorry to get to this one so late--now I can go back to the start of the thread & so what goofs I made. 1: hm, this sounds familiar. Jelly Roll Morton? Fun stuff anyway, though the clarinet’s a bit repetitive by the end. Probably not Morton simply because the clarinettist is presumably the leader. 2: this opens like a Joplin rag! But it turns out to be “Body & Soul”. This has got to be Paul Gonsalves on sax. Can’t i.d. the trumpet from the obliggato, though he’s got some bop mannerisms to him. Hang on, there’s a guitar here now! Truthfully, a pretty uninteresting guitar solo. The pianist seems to be amusing himself during the guitar solo.... Not sure about the rhythm section: hard to tell really when they’re on such a short tether, though maybe it’s Connie Kay on drums? The pianist gets even more quirky under the trumpeter; I’d initially assumed it was Hank Jones but somehow I don’t associate this kind of comping with him. Not sure who the trumpeter is though he sounds familiar. Rather odd that after holding back so long the back breaks into doubletime right before the end – wonder why they didn’t do that earlier. Jeez, Gonsalves doesn’t even return at the end. Obviously one of those getup’n’blow studio sessions (mid-1960s?), & it’s a pity that there wasn’t a more preplanning. The Gonsalves solo is wonderful, the rest is kind of dull, & this goes on too long. 3: The pianist sounds familiar but I can’t place him. I don’t know, this has a big full sound & lot of stuff going on & yet nothing much happens. Not unpleasant, but it’s kinda so-what. I find the mix between the upfront modern piano-trio with lots of percussion & electric bass, & the horn charts right out of Blues & the Abstract Truth a little odd. 4: Slightly puzzled by this one. I’d wondered if it was one of those Coleman Hawkins solos: been a long while since I heard “Picasso”, & know there’s a few other recorded examples. But there’s some traces of bebop here: e.g. the bit at 1:15 which is a favourite Charlie Parker lick. An odd transition at 2:18 which almost sounds like a splice. The jumps starting at 3:05 obviously had an impact on Dolphy’s “Tenderly”. The fast passage at 3:27 sounds mistakably Hawkinsish! Anyway, this is surely Hawkins but it took a while for me to settle on that. 5: These guys all sound very familiar. Gary Bartz on the alto? A little less lemony than I’d expect from him, though. What’s this tune? I take it a fancy rearrangement of a standard. Good band – I was glad when the stop-start arrangement dropped out & they just went for it, as they sound great zipping along. John Hicks on piano. Nice track. 6: “Woody’n You”, odd to hear it with just trumpet, piano, bass. Actually this DOES sound like Diz. Strange situation. Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson? Probably one of those 1970s concert things. Not a classic track but it’s nice stuff. Did they do a whole album without a drummer or is it just this one track? 7: There’ no hope for me if I don’t spot Ornette. Jeez that’s a good opening bass solo: Izenzon? Late 1960s, early 1970s? Not a period of Ornette I know much. Is this the album Crisis, which I don’t think ever made it to CD? Pity you don’t get more of the band – after a brief Ornette solo, there’s more bass, which is too much of a good thing – but it’s still nice to hear this stuff. 8: Nice improvisation over “Sweet Georgia Brown”. No, I can’t i.d. anyone here, but I liked the track. The sly, darting-in-and-out trumpet is the knockout here: listen in paticular to his work on the out-chorus. Oh, I don’t know, I’ll guess Eldridge & hope I get lucky for once. 9: Kind of boxy-sounding piano the pianist’s given but he makes nice, slightly loopy music on it: I like the touches of Monkian wholetone licks & what sounds like traces of other tunes (e.g. “It’s Only a Paper Moon” crops up a few times). Ugh, I’m terrible at distinguishing between Hawkins’ successors, but whoever it is is great. Nice talking-trombone solo. Really nice track all round, in fact. 10: Oh, I know this tune via Paul Bley’s Footloose, so it's his tune or Carla's I forget. Odd direction it goes in after the head’s stated. I guess this is Bley, but somehow it doesn’t quite sound like the great man to me – it’s just too static for him, and the division between the two hands’ activity is much more clear-cut than Bley. I guess I’ll i.d. this as an untypical Paul Bley track, though, rather than someone else. 11: This is a bit over-the-top isn’t it? Darn odd soprano solo. Don’t really like this one much, though I can tell it’s supposed to make me feel jolly.

The Canadian dollar actually isn't all that strong right now--admittedly it's climbed against the US$ (it's now worth 73-1/2 cents in US money), but I can't think the last time I saw a pound worth $2.48 Cdn! Probably a nightmare for poor Daniel Kernohan at Verge, but in any case I do recommend Verge as they're quite reliable & usually the prices are pretty good. Does anyone take the reports & reviews in the DMG newsletter seriously? Keep meaning to pick up that Altschul disc (a copy in my local record shop): may do so next time I'm in, god knows it's been sitting there for ages. Anyone heard The Free Slave by Roy Brooks, perchance? It's also there, & looks possibly interesting.

Hm, interesting problem: not wanting to rush people vs. not wanting to make the folks further down on the BFT list wait even longer. Anyway, I'll get the stuff out to the volunteer distributors (esp overseas) now, but will try to avoid stepping on the toes of EKE BBB's test--I want that to play out unimpeded, & a lot of people haven't chimed in on it yet. I haven't even got to disc 2 of it yet myself. I can say, anyway, that this one shouldn't be too arduous because it's only a single disc.

Close call: my CD-creating program started to whine about my CDR driver for some reason, but I seem to have hacked around the problem.... just listening to my first copy of the BFT, & assuming all's OK I'll get copies off tomorrow to some of the folks who volunteered to distribute.