Face of the Bass

For anybody interested in the more "experimental" side of things, some of the Erstwhiles he has available, particularly Lidingo and A View From The Window, are quite good and a steal at those prices.

Hopefully the oppressed masses of the Earth will now invade her new castle and carry all its occupants off to the guillotine. Class warfare is good.

Thanks....looks like the online discography I linked to is probably wrong. After listening to the discs, I can't discern any difference in the bass between the different tracks, and there are certainly no Paul Chambers idiosyncracies (such as bowed solos, etc.) on display.

I've found a discographical discrepancy that I was hoping somebody could solve for me. The liner notes for Jimmy Cleveland's 1957 recording on Emarcy say that the bassist for all seven tunes on the album is Eddie Jones. However, the online discography here, at www.jazzdisco.org, indicates that there are two bassists on the album. For the December 12, 1957 session, which includes three tunes on the album, the bassist listed is Paul Chambers. For the Dec. 13th session, the listed bassist is Eddie Jones. Anybody know which is right? Thanks in advance!

Ugh. We had our heater die on us at a very inopportune moment two years ago and it set us back a few thousand dollars. Took us a while to regain our footing after that. My sympathies.

I just finished Szwed's excellent biography of Miles Davis, which I would say is not quite as good as the Sun Ra biography but still one of the best I've ever read. I'm definitely going to check out the Lomax bio now, as I'm beginning to realize that Szwed is easily my favorite music historian/biographer working today.

Actually the box set I really want this Christmas is the Vandermark Resonance set, but I'm kind of doubting anyone gets me that.

I've already been informed that I'm getting the Coleman Hawkins set, which will be exciting when it comes out next month (hopefully). It's the first Mosaic I've really been excited about in a couple of years, at least.

Well, it would be wonderful if it happened. A year ago I toyed with the idea of starting to do research on a Paul Chambers biography, but other projects got in the way and it never took off. IMO, though, the European Free Improvisation scene of the last 40 years really needs an authoritative account in English. Heffley's Northern Sun, Southern Moon is interesting in parts, although I don't agree with much of his analysis and think the book is more an intellectual exercise than a proper history of the EFI movement. I agree with this. And of course writing a book on a deceased figure is a different kind of project than writing one on a musician who is still very much active and evolving.

Evan Parker Peter Brotzmann Paul Chambers

Oddly enough, Coltrane's Village Vanguard box. I got it for Christmas one year and played it nonstop. Ever since I've always associated the music with winter and the holidays.

Up...price reduction on the Lee/Christy Mosaic and the Cardew biography, and also implementing a sale: buy three CDs, get a fourth free. (Fourth CD of equal or lesser value)... Thanks for looking.

I agree with this. I found the italicization of so many words so irritating that it actually caused me to put down the book. Really unnecessary intervention on the part of the author.

Do you have Ornette Coleman's Beauty is a Rare Thing? To me that would be one place to start.

There are many wonderful albums on ECM, but the problem is that, when it comes to jazz, the label now seems to have an almost factory mentality whereby every release is in the same general area, with the same brooding dark covers, with the same smoothed out sound. The music strikes my ears as being far too deep into the tepid waters of Baby Boomer New Age narcissism. And I can't help but notice that some artists who record for the label (Marilyn Crispell comes immediately to mind) did their best, edgiest work before falling into the ECM stable and disappearing into the musical equivalent of a scented candle shop.

Yes! I had forgotten about this one, but it is excellent stuff.

Didn't even know about this one. (This was actually my entire (selfish) motive for starting this thread, hoping that someone would reference something I'd never heard of.) I just got into Soviet jazz through the Leo Records sale, and have been really turned onto the music.

I've got most of the Cecil FMPs on individual disc, but unfortunately didn't come to the music until the box set had long been out of print. Just scanning around for it today, I see that the lowest price at the moment appears to be $600. Insane.

Two things I love are avant garde jazz and the box set. Avant garde jazz is the closest thing I've ever found in this world to the kind of beauty I can understand and connect to, while the format of the box set feeds my desire for a sense of narrative in the music I listen to. While this is not an exhaustive list, here are some of my favorite box sets covering avant garde jazz....I'd be curious to hear what others like most. For my list I'm focusing mostly on post-Coltrane/Ornette/Ayler free jazz... 1. Jimmy Lyons - The Box Set (Ayler Records) --Love the first couple discs especially on this one. 2. Anthony Braxton - Complete Arista Recordings (Mosaic) -- This set seemed to be an urban legend for several years and when it finally appeared it more than lived up to all the hype. 3. Bill Dixon - Odyssey (Self Released) -- This might be a more idiosyncratic choice...but I love solo trumpet music and no one was better at making it than Dixon. 4. 1967/68: The Art Ensemble (Nessa)-- It has been too long since I last listened to this one, but it is a wonderful document of a critical time period in the development of the Chicago school of free jazz... 5. Cecil Taylor -- Two Ts For A Lovely T (Condanza) --been too long since I heard this one too... What say you?

Somebody once said that the Beatles were dying in their order of coolness, but if that were the case Harrison would have been shot instead of Lennon, and Paul McCartney could expect to live to be 112 years old.

Update, with many new listings, including some box sets and a book as well.

But this seems entirely generational. The majority of Millennials do not care about physical artifacts and actually prefer not to have those bulky CDs laying around, so I do think the end is in sight, even if it doesn't come in 2012. But you know -- 2012 It's starting to make sense... I don't know if it's entirely generational. I'm 34 and pretty much hate MP3s, except when I'm traveling and want my music with me. But when I'm at home, the physical object matters. The fact that I have yet to see a convincing model of the MP3 whereby you can hear the music and have all the liner notes, personnel listing, etc. with the music has been the biggest disappointment. Everybody keeps acting like music is better than it's ever been from the perspective of a listener, and I think that's only the case if you don't care about sound quality and don't care about having basic information of the recording when you listen to music. If you do care about those things, then MP3s are a tremendous loss when compared to the CD era.

I think these predictions are premature. Yes, the major labels are clearly moving away from CDs, but I suspect small labels will be releasing CDs well past 2012. We are human beings, and the physical artifact will always retain some importance. At least I hope so.

I placed my order the previous week, on November 6 or thereabouts, and still nothing. I know he shipped it but I'm just worried that it is tied up in customs or something like that, and will never see the light of day again.

Just a bump to see if anyone who ordered these discs from the U.S. has received their orders yet. The first order that I placed was over two weeks ago and I haven't received anything yet.