PM Sent re:
Kris Davis/Ingrid Laubrock/Tyshawn Sorey - Paradoxical Frog - (Clean Feed) 7 p/ts/d trio
Flow Trio (Belogenis/Morris/Downs) - Set Theory - (Ayler) 6 excellent tenor-bass-drums action, spare copy, no jewel box but it doesn't look like it's intended to have one
John Hebert Trio - Spiritual Lover - (Clean Feed) 7 piano trio w/ Benoit Delbecq, Gerald Cleaver
Tonight - Gebhard Ullmann/Steve Swell Quartet at Firehouse 12 in New Haven. Last Night - New Directions Ensemble @ Trinity College in Hartford.
Earl MacDonald - Musical Director, Composer-in-Residence, piano
Kris Allen - Artistic Director, alto sax
Wayne Escoffery - tenor sax
Lauren Sevian - bari sax
Tony Kadleck - trumpet
Josh Evans - trumpet
John Clark - French horn
Sara Jacovino - trombone
Alexandra Eckhardt - string bass
Jimmy Macbride - drums
The label is still actively releasing new recordings. By coincidence just this week I received the new Chris Byars Octet recording, Lucky Strikes Again, which features Lucky Thompson compositions. I agree the website is frustrating.
PM sent re:
George Adams/Don Pullen - Don't Lose Control (Soul Note) w/C.Brown, D.Richmond $7
Fancois Houle 5 - In the Vernacular. The Music of John Carter (Songlines) w/D.Douglas, M.Dresser, P.Lee, D.v.d.Schyff $5
The Bobby Watson tribute, Faith In Action, is excellent. I also really enjoy the Tarbaby CDs. Looking forward to receiving the big band disc on Posi-Tone.
I subscribe to it and find it to be a useful reference. I find some of the formatting to be a little confusing at times, but otherwise I do not have any complaints.
PM sent re:
Ken Filiano Quantum Entanglements - Dreams from a Clown Car - (Clean Feed) 8 4tet w/ Malaby and Attias
Tony Malaby - Tamarindo Live - (Clean Feed) 8 Parker/Waits/Wadada
Adam Pieronczyk - Komeda: The Innocent Sorcerer - (Jazzwerkstatt) 8 SLD saxes/g/b/d 5tet doing Komeda pieces
I have it and listened to it a couple of times when I first purchased it. I enjoyed it - although I can't remember anything more specific about it at the moment.
PM sent re:
The Brian Landrus Quartet - Traverse (Blueland) $8
Rudresh Mahanthappa - Black Water (Red GIant) $9
Robert Mazurek - Playground (Delmark) $6
Jason Roebke - Rapid Croche (482) $9
Frans Vermeerssen Quintet - One for Rashaan (music of Roland Kirk) A Records $10
That same group will be performing at UMASS on 3/26. Unless I have a conflict with the middle school play that my daughter is in the stage crew for, I plan to be there. In September Cobb performed in Hartford with a group that included Jackson, Richard Wyands and Nat Reeves. For $15 dollars it was a very enjoyable 100 minutes of music.
PM sent re:
Eivind Opsvik - Overseas II (Fresh Sound New Talent) w/L.Stillman, T. Malaby, C.Taborn, K. Wollesen and others $5
Dom Minasi - The Vampire's Revenge (CMD), 2 discs, $5, slight wear on digipak (crease/bend mark on spine)
I purchased the disc. The trumpeter and saxophonists are both products of my local scene. I think Josh Evans (trumpet) and Jovan Alexandre (tenor) are definately young musicians to follow going forward, but as yet they have yet to quite find their distinctive voice - Alexandre in particular who is still a student at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford. Evans is easitly has the most developed voice of the two. Bianchi is impressive in a Larry Young mode. I would not say anything "new" is added to these performances and in fact they are played pretty close to how they were originally played. In any event it is nice to hear these compositions played again in this format. The couple of originals made less of an impression on me the first time I listened to the disc. I still want to listen to it more closely in the near future, but overall I thought it was a solid recording.
Right now I am listening to a copy of a radio broadcast of a performance of Marc Ribot's Spiritual Unity with Grimes and Chad Taylor from 2008 in Italy. Can't say Grimes' individual contribution is making a significant impression either way right now, but I am enjoying the performance as a whole. So, to the extent the performance is a sum of all the individual contributions, Grimes is working for me in this context.
I think I am going to have to pick up that Brotherhood of Breath recording. I have generally liked everything by them I have heard - notwithstanding my less than enthusiastic response to track 15. Thanks Flurin - great stuff! I will be looking forward to the reveal.