relyles

Who's Marty Krystal?

Found Woyzeck's Death on Amazon and ordered it.

I don't think any list of anything can be complete such that it satisfies everyones' individual tastes and preferences. There are no absolute truths.

Thanks. I have been looking. Woyzeck's Death may be hard to come by, but I will keep searching.

Hmmm. Pretty serious company you are putting Allen Lowe in. I am going to have to pull out my copies of At The Moment of Impact ... and New Tango '92 and give them a close listen. If you can recommend something else which you think is more representative of what Mr. Lowe can do when he has time to practice, I would be very interested to hear it.

There are two things that this discussion thus far has motivated me to do. First, this morning I ordered Mr. Kart's book. I look forward to reading his "honest assessment" of Murray as well as the remainder of the book. I am sure it will be thought provoking. Second, over the past day I have started to give some thought as to what it is about David Murray that appeals to me so much. Murray was one of those artists I gravitated to when I first started appreciating jazz in the late eighties. I think the initial attraction was his sound and intensity of his playing. He was one of the first saxophonists that I was exposed to during my investigation of the music who I felt had a truly distinctive sound on the instrument that was not overly derivative of Coltrane. As best I can remember, other than my early obsession with Coltrane the other tenor saxophonists I was exposed to early on were musicians like, Michael Brecker, Branford Marsalis and other "young lions" of the time who all sounded the same to me. I think if you consider who I had heard at the time, it should be easy to see why I thought Murray had a distinctive sound. I also appreciated the intensity and/or passion of Murray's playing. It is possible that Murray missed notes and/or could not get his rhythm together as it has been mentioned, but to be honest I would not have noticed. To my ears, the passion of his playing was something different than most of the academically trained musicians that I had been exposed to at that point. I think I have already mentioned it, but I have also enjoyed Murray’s writing. No, he is not the best composer in jazz, or even my personal favorite, but I do think he has displayed a distinctive style that suits his abilities. Once again, I think the best format to hear his writing is the octet. It’s a combination of the instrumentation and the fact that his octet usually has featured exceptional musicians. The octet is my favorite among Murray’s groups. Over the years I have had the opportunity to hear Murray live approximately ten times in a variety of groups (including a quartet date with John Hicks, Ray Drummond and Ed Blackwell on which Mr. Blackwell did not appear to have any problems with Murray's playing ). I left every Murray live performance feeling like he had given me everything he had at that time and that I had experienced something special. Also, when you include recordings as a leader, sideman and all the unissued live recordings I have obtained, I easily have over one hundred recordings featuring David Murray. I would be silly to try to pretend that everything I have heard is a five star recording, but IMO Mr. Murray has consistently made compelling music for the nearly twenty years I have been a fan. Since my initial introduction to Mr. Murray I have been introduced to countless musicians who I think occupy a similar space as Murray – including several on Allen Lowe’s list. I don’t try to make qualitative distinctions between any of them and admittedly I am not the David Murray “fanatic” that I once was. Nonetheless I have heard nothing that has diminished my overall appreciation of Murray’s music and in fact everything I have heard has only enhanced my opinion that David Murray is one of the most compelling voices of his generation in the music. I apologize for the somewhat long post and if it appears over the top. I was simply trying to answer the question of why I enjoy David Murray without an excessive amount of hyperbole.

Its not very much unlike how the rest of Hill's recording career has been. Long periods of silence.

I plan to read Mr. Kart's book eventually.

It may be an "honest assessment", but ultimately we are talking about subjective opinions and each listener is entitled to react differently. Right? For example, my reaction as a listener with no musical background and no understanding of the technical aspects or theory of the music is bound to be significantly different than Mr. Lowe's or Mr. Karts, both of whom have the understanding on a technical level of the music and would more readily be able to detect some of the noted short comings in Mr. Murray's playing.

Murray's Octet recordings may be my favorite of his recordings. I think that group is the best exhibition of Murray's talents as a writer. I am pretty certain the Grimes is available from Cadence as well as Jazz Loft.

Agreed!

Eloe Omoe - nice picture.

I own it. I think Jim's comparison of this one to the rest of Barron's recorded output is appropriate, but this is one of the few chances you get to hear Barron stretch out in a live situation. While listening I heard more of the Dexter Gordon influence in his sound than I have heard in anything else he ever recorded, which I thought was interesting. Overall, a welcome addition to Barron's discography and something I think most will enjoy.

I really wanted to try to get into NYC to see them Saturday night, but my wife spent the money I planned to use on tickets to see Dave Chapelle that same night. One of these days I need to start communicating with her a little better. I would have much preferred to see Tolliver.

Thought I would bring this back up for air because the last couple of days I have been listening to hisSoul Note releases, Shadows And Relections and Door Of The Cage. Two highly recommended recordings with terrific writing. One of the things I really noticed this time around is just how much out the "tradition" Carroll's trumpet playing is. On these recordings he has an edge, but not too far out.

I do have it, but I can just as easily give you the link to his site, which has the email address at the bottom. http://www.velocity.net/~bb10k/. His sessionographies are pretty thorough and it is possible that the sessions in your collection are already included.

I have not heard any of those, but I do own the hat art trio release, Nutty, which I thought was very good. I have also heard Coe as a sideman on several recordings and he always impressed.

Nate, How did you like the second hewitt disc? I preferred Hayes' drumming, but I am undecided on which disc I like the most overall.

In light of all the comment about the price I felt obligated to attempt to possibly bring the thread back to a discussion of the music. I received the disc yesterday and gave it an initial listen while cleaning after getting the kids to bed. What I did hear when able to focus on the music was good and I am looking forward to a more attentive listen. Anyone else actually purchase the disc and had a chance to hear the music?

I received an email from Mosaic this morning. Can't read it from work, but assuming it is a notice that mine will ship I should get it within one day of shipping since I live in CT.

I have this CD I enjoyed it. My favorite tracks are those with Bryan Carrott, one of my favorite vibes players. He should be more well known and I think he has certainly eared a date as a leader. Rivers sounds great on this release.

That is a great group.

I also say include everything. I know for a fact that people like Rick Lopez who maintains the very informative sessionographies for Sam Rivers, Marilyn Crispell, David S. Ware and William Parker also includes any known videos/DVDs.

A friend whose tastes I trust also spoke favorably about this release. I will have to add it to the want list and pick it up at some point.

Thanks for the heads up that it was now available at that price. I ordered it this morning.