Nate Dorward

Great list. Pity it's missing David Liebman--that's one I always stumble over. Is it Leeb or Libe?

Ben Webster & Sweets Edison, with Hank Jones leading the rhythm section, on Columbia. Nice stuff, & one of the best "My Romance"s on record.

Plenty of good rec's here, catching most of the discs I'd care to name. (Except I don't think anyone mentioned Trio-X?) -- Let me mention one that recently came to my attention, Geof Bradfield's Rule of Three, which is IMHO is one of the best jazz releases of this year. Here's what I wrote on it (forthcoming shortly in Cadence):

There's a hell of a lot of stuff on the Philology label, I'm not sure the provenance--the "Bird's Eyes" series.

I was a little surprised to see Sonny Rollins' Solo Album pop up here--I've not heard it but I've rarely heard anyone say it was that good. The classic Rollins solo stuff I know is the one-off tracks on otherwise full-group albums. There's examples on his Verve disc (I forget the title--Sonny Plus Brass or something)--a reading of "Body & Soul". & one on The Sound of Sonny. Lee Konitz has a few solo discs. Lone-Lee is pretty remarkable, as it's very long essays on just "Cherokee" & "The Song Is You"--one of them 40 minutes long (in the unedited form on the CD reissue). There's one called Unaccompanied in Yokohama which I haven't heard. There's also Self-Portrait on Philology, which is a mix of solo stuff & overdubbed pieces. The overdubbed pieces are a bit of a mixed bag & could have been produced with more intelligence by Philology (start with the volume VERY low, as they don't EQ it with each successive layer: this means that by the time it's 4 layers of sax it's 4 times as loud!). But it has a 15-minute "Self-Portrait in Blues" which is one of my favourite Konitz tracks on record. Did Dolphy ever record any other unaccompanied alto solos than "Tenderly"? Everything else I've heard has been bass clarinet (the "God Bless the Child" features). Yeah Evan Parker, McPhee, Braxton, Lacy are the champs among living players. David Murray has also recorded solo discs though I haven't heard them. John Butcher is another player working the free end of the spectrum you should know. I gather Fixations is the one to plump for though actually I haven't heard it (I have 13 Friendly Numbers & Invisible Ear both of which I'd recommend too, though the latter is fairly extreme stuff, using amplified sax). The adventurous might also enjoy Berlin Reeds, on Absinth, which is mostly pretty extreme stuff, by 4 different German players, though the Rudi Mahall segment is straightforward free jazz. I recall that Joe Lovano released a solo disc, not on a regular label but as part of an instructional CD/book set. I don't have it. He also has one or two solo tracks on Rush Hour. Joe Henderson did "Lush Life" of course on the album of that title. Charlie Parker recorded, very early on, one solo piece (I think it was 1940-41). It's in rough shape but it survives--I have it on a Stash compilation of rare Bird records.

"a bit longer"? Looks to me like 95% of the list was done in the past 4 years. That said, I recall the sound on the Konitz/Mehldau/Haden disc, for instance, as being entirely acceptable, though a tad dark.

Rudd is indeed a remarkable player but actually, I'd not been at all impressed by the first volume of the Unheard Herbie Nichols set & got rid of it. I don't remember it very clearly now, except that it was a bit disappointing if you actually wanted to hear the tunes played "straight": two were taken as unaccompanied solos, the lead-off tune was devoted to a drum solo, & I recall that the disc was dominated by an OK but very, very long reading of "Jamaica". Anyone have a more recent take on the disc(s)?

Thanks for the recommendations. Yes one reason why I was a bit cautious in investigating this area is that my impression was that a number of these labels were willing to release albums which, even though recently recorded, had fairly gruesome sound.... Hadn't quite decided what I make of Mosca from the appearances of his I have on disc--I'd always found him rather dour, though sometimes the circumstances of the sessions don't help (e.g. Spirits with Konitz features a rather dark-sounding & out-of-tune piano). There's quite a contrast with Ball's rather brighter & (true to his name) bouncier take on Tristano's piano style. Yes Gary Foster--I remember his duet album with Alan Broadbent as being very fine. He's also a good partner on Warne Marsh's Ne Plus Ultra, which Hat Art/ology really ought to see about reinstating in their catalogue (even better if they dug up more stuff from the live session--only one track from this on the disc, which is tantalizing).

Yes, in fact I wrote a bit on him here: http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine...nov_text.html#7 He's very much worth your attention. As for other Andrew Hill-influenced pianists I'd name Jason Moran & Noah Rosen.

I'm familiar with Tristano's work & with that of Konitz & Marsh. What I was curious about & thought folks here might have opinions on, was about the merits of records by other players from the 1st & 2nd generations of the Tristano School--there's a pile of records on specialist labels like Jazz Records, New Artists, Zinnia, &c. E.g. Sal Mosca, Ronnie Ball, Peter Ind, Ted Brown, Billy Lester, Connie Crothers, Liz Gorrill, Lenny Popkin, Susan Chen, Richard Tabnik &c. Anyone dug into this corner of the field? I don't know the younger players in this bunch at all, & players like Mosca, Ball, & Brown I've encountered only glancingly. I do quite like Ronnie Ball's disc on Savoy, which I picked up from a cutout bin: it's notable for having a lot of Willie Dennis's absolutely stunning trombone work on it, the only record I've heard where he gets a lot of solos (he's on a couple Mingus discs but isn't really featured).

Thanks for the heads-up on the new one. I very much liked Password & The Secret Handshake. Hm, while I'd hate to go without either, I'd certainly speak up for Password too: just the gorgeous "Light Rain" would be enough to recommend it. One oddity of it is that it has a rerecording of "Prairie Lullaby"--same arrangement as on Pottery Pie, but I think the later version maybe a little better. Yes, the Ry Cooder version of "In a Mist" is quite nice. & let's not forget that Secret Handshake has a great version of a Don Pullen tune on there! It's Guralnick BTW.

Konitz, yes--but you guys missed the lovely Plays French Impressionist Music, with the Axis String Quartet, on Palmetto. It's superb. I rather like Joe Lovano's Rush Hour. There are two or three dull Lovano/Silvano duos as interludes, but those are easily ignorable: the full-orchestra tracks are lovely. Though Coltrane didn't do a with-strings album per se, I seem to recall that Alice Coltrane did overdub strings & harp onto a posthumously released John Coltrane album. Moving off into singer+strings albums, those June Christy/Pete Rugolo albums are fine, fine things. There's also a rather nifty track on Patricia Barber's Verse (only one strings track on the album, though).

Re: questions of Blue Note's keeping stuff in the vaults: my recollection was that in the liner notes to the Mosaic Cuscuna in fact states plainly that he thought it was unfortunate that it was left in the vaults as it was Young's best post-Unity Blue Note session. He blames its suppression on the fact that the heads are not always very neatly stated (some very obvious bum notes for instance) & that Alfred Lion hated sloppy heads. I'll have to pull it out. I recall thinking it was quite good, not great, but a nice change from the downwards spiral of his previous three Blue Note discs.

A few belated responses: 1) I had (no longer have) the belatedly issued CD that pairs up a bunch of Pony Poindexter material with the incomplete album of Larry Young, Booker Ervin & Jimmie Smith (the drummer). It's OK if you're curious but not nearly as good as you'd imagine from Ervin & Young being together. There's one Young original (miscredited on the sleeve to Poindexter as "Absotively Posalutely"--if I remember rightly it's "Back-Up", which turns up later on the disc with Sam Rivers), & a few standards, mostly rather low key (including two takes of "Old Folks"). The drummer isn't anything to write home about, & Ervin & Young don't really mesh--in fact Young mostly just plays the head & takes a solo, then Ervin comes in much later, plays a solo then bows out. 2) I have the Mosaic set. Basically there's a good reason the material from after Unity hasn't been rereleased: it's all middling to downright bad, & is virtually unidentifiable as the work of the guy who made Unity, the albusm with Green & Into Something. The one good one is Mother Ship with Lee Morgan, Young's late Blue Note disc; it's not his best, but it's certainly worth hearing. But there are three albums in between which are best left untouched--his free-jazz effort Of Love and Peace (which has its moments admittedly), & his two efforts at more commercial stuff, Contrasts & Heaven on Earth (with his wife Althea doing the vocals--"Wild Is the Wind" & "My Funny Valentine", both excruciating--& George Benson on the latter disc). The one notable track is "Major Affair" on Contrasts, an organ-drums duo which compares well with "Monk's Dream" from Unity. It was at one point available separately on The Art of Larry Young compilation along with one piece from Of Love and Peace. Has anyone heard the late duo album with Joe Chambers? Now that's one I'm curious about....

Yeah, I like Walter's review on Bagatellen. The Jurek is a complete fraud. There's room for debate on whether the disc is merely underwhelming or downright awful (my vote is for the latter) but Jurek's review is perfectly insane. For what it's worth here's my zap of the disc-- www.squidco.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=259 & here's Dan Warburton's pan of the disc-- www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2003/10oct_text.html#8 Incidentally I gather that Jurek's pre-publication review was excerpted & incorporated into the packaging of Threads--suggests an awfully cozy relation between Jurek & Thirsty Ear.... On the other hand Tim Berne's The Sublime And is a darn good date, even if a bit relentless.

Yes, it plays in an ordinary CD player. Got an advance copy from Artists House last month. It seems to me in many ways an advance over Panoptic Modes. A new drummer, who somehow makes the complex time signatures & subdivisions sound a lot looser. Though it's very much a continuation of the previous album, there's more rock & pop in the music, including a nifty cover/rewrite of "Hey Joe" (with a new line written over it which strongly reminds me of The Inner Mounting Flame). It's initially a little less immediately in-yer-face than Panoptic Modes, in part because of the nicer, deep-set studio sound, but if anything it gets more intense as the album reaches its conclusion (the Hendrix cover is just before the end). A darn good disc all told: I was quite impressed.

"Babble On" is an original but it's not Mayhew's--it's by Steve Swallow. I thought Phantoms was fine but it didn't enormously excite me. Ingrid Jensen is certainly a better player than Mayhew, & I found myself listening with more interest to the trumpet solos.

It's a very pretty album, but is frankly unexciting to the point of dullness. It's the sound of someone resting on his laurels--can't blame him, but I can't say that's what I like to listen to. There's yet another jazz version of the 2nd movement of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez", if that turns your crank. There's a placid version of "Autumn Leaves" too, on which Carter is fairly unrecognizable as the work of the man who was there when Miles performed some of his most tempestuous readings of that tune.

I like Criss's playing a lot; I keep meaning to get Sonny's Dream which I'm told is the best of the Prestige sides. Of those I have I prefer This Is Criss, which is consistently fine. Portrait of... is nice but for me "Wee" is ruined by the incredible amount of reed-squeaks, & Walter Davis's originals don't do much for me; it's the ballads that are best. Pity both albums are so short--barely over 30 minutes (Prestige wasn't big on retakes or other expensive stuff, which I guess explains the lack of extra session material on the CD reissues & also the lack of a retake of "Wee"). The Beat Goes On is surprisingly good, considering the material--the title track is quite effective. I find myself enormously admiring Criss's playing while thinking the albums themselves could be a bit routine for one reason or another. Out of Nowhere is again nice enough, despite a grade-B rhythm section that's none too subtle--there's a good "Brother Can You Spare a Dime", of all things. "Late masterpiece" is stretching it a bit. Mr Blues Pour Flirter is slightly odd in that I gather there's a second album of material from these sessions (breiefly mentioned in the liner notes) which includes the title-track, which isn't present on the recent reissue I have. It's nice, if again not a world-beater, with a lovely "Day Dream" which suggests how much he learned from Johnny Hodges. Arvanitas sounds good on it, too.

I was just sent Third Eye. Can't say that so far (having listened to two tracks) is sounds like more than OKish. It's vaguely Latinish, if that's your thing. There's a version of "Body & Soul" in 15/4, which is mildly interesting.

If I remember rightly the point of the anecdote in connection with King of America was that Costello & Burnett were wondering aloud how the rhythm section & Ella were so tight on those discs.....without cluing in to the fact that Ray Brown & Ella were married at the time. Re: the thread topic: Rhodri Davies with Charlotte Church & the Cinematic Orchestra. Evan Parker has racked up a few pop appearances with Robert Wyatt, Scott Walker & others, too.

Hm...the reviews are fine but the "CD List 12" (apparently for 2003) seems to be added to only incrementally (like one or two a month) & they're still chewing through releases from 2001 for some reason. What gives?

I've only made it through two or three tracks on it each spin before flipping it off. Pretty crummy, if you ask me.

I'm surprised it's taken this long to reach a mention of Spellbound, one of Jordan's earliest but most impressive recordings. The long version of "Au Privave" at the end is one of my favourite tracks of the period. Jordan's talents as a composer have been rather strangely underrated. Anthony Braxton was spot on to single out "Toy" as a remarkable composition (it also caught the ear of Cannonball Adderley, who recorded it on an album with Bill Evans). I'm also quite taken by the title composition on Bearcat. -- Bearcat is an excellent album, yes, though I find the rhythm section performance a bit odd--Teddy Smith plays in 2 for virtually the entire album, & JC Moses has a peculiarly bumping, rattly time-feel which I feel works better in the avantgarde contexts he usually playerd in rather than a more conventional context. But I still like the album & play it often--the version of Tom McIntosh's "Malice Towards None" for instance is lovely.

Well, I'm sure the album is riddled with borrowings, literary & musical, so I'm not terribly surprised. There's a line in one song which is pinched verbatim from The Great Gatsby for instance ("Can't repeat the past? of course you can!"). I should also add that I think it's an absolutely stunning album.