Rabshakeh

Now on: One of my favourite Lee Konitz records.

Art Ensemble Of Chicago – Message To Our Folks Cheaper option Affinity pressing. I actually prefer to cover to the BYG original, and it sounds reasonable.

Has anyone had a listen to this yet? I generally enjoy Brian Blade releases, because you know you're going to get something with interesting shifting rhythms.

Just read this. Required reading indeed. So scungy.

This is a good one. Abercrombie on electric mandolin.

Just listening to the 11th disk, and I notice that all of the tracks are 11 minutes long. Not exactly, but between 11:00 and 11:59 minutes. Are there any other quirks like that which anyone has noticed?

I hadn't realized that Sahara was such an important point for Tyner. It is probably the jazz record I loved the most as a younger jazz fan. I had assumed that his career was fairly steady, with the Blue Notes slightly more prominent than the Milestones, and that my enjoyment of Sahara was just a personal thing.

Got it.

I saw this on Jazz Wax recently. How is it?

Which records are those?

I don't know them. But he's good on Hill on the 2020 records. Two more Braxton sets to add to the list...

I like them. I have the second one. Still young and the thrill of discovery, even if the discovery is sometimes different kinds of saxophones. What is the the CIMP release? Sorry. Being dense.

The Leos I mean are the 3x4CD sets from 2003. 12 CDs of the stuff. They have similar modern artworks as covers. I think that they are pretty wretched. It's Braxton playing mostly GAS type standards with a Tristano-type guitar trio behind him. His playing seems to me to be very sloppy / clumsy, and he keeps repeatedly tearing off on saxophone squiggles that don't relate to the tune and get boring very fast. The poor band is basically nailed in place. The 2020 set is quite different. The tunes are more interesting - as you say. Arguably many are not really 'standards'. It's more 'Braxton plays other people's tunes'. And the playing is consistently excellent, even emotional, from everyone involved. I initially only skimmed this set, partly because I was sick of the heavy Braxton splurge of releases at the time, and partly because of my dislike of the Leo CDs. Are the Steeplechase the In The Tradition ones? I like those, although some of the horn choices are a little gimmicky. Also the Charlie Parker Project and Tristano sets are good, I think. They're more obviously provocative.

I actually don't think I know the records he produced with it. What are good places to start?

Anthony Braxton – Quartet (Standards) 2020 Something's bitten me recently and I have found myself going through several large box sets of standards by major artists, despite really hating the format. Revisiting this for the first time since lockdown. Has anyone else gone back to it yet? I really think it is towards the top of Braxton's more recent output. I normally blow tepid on most of Braxton's standards records. In particular, I think that the previous 12 CD splurge on Leo (which I have also revisited this August) was one of the weakest things he has done. This set is seems much stronger overall. That is partly because the band is stronger (not least our very own Alexander Hawkins) but I also think Braxton's own playing is more inventive here.

I've had a listen to the first volume of the Carl Fontana and Arno Marsh record, and this series seems to be the motherload for Vegas jazz, in an informal small group setting. Clearly a small circle that jammed together frequently. Do you rate any of them in particular?

I guess there is a question over whether the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra could be considered a ghost band or not.

I'd also put Old and New Dreams in the category of "spin off" rather than ghost band. Not least because they weren't trying to use the Ornette name.

Agharta is one of the first MD records with which I really connected. Also the first album I heard on vinyl.

What is the film?

How do you find it?

I think that's all pretty likely, as you tell it. What surprised me is how little it was like Hot Rays though. Or it is all like track 2 of Hot Rats. Agreed. I was disappointed with Dunbar, who I like a lot on Chunga, but who only really turns up here on one track.

Frank Zappa – Funky Nothingness Just finished my second listen to the core album. I find it hard to understand what to make of it. It is being billed as Hot Rats II or Chunga's Revenge the Prequel, but it is really heavy on blues tunes. I guess Zappa did blues tunes from time to time (Trouble Every Day and Willie The Pimp) but the sheer amount of blues and blues rock on here is not something I associate with Zappa. What do other Zappa enjoyers make of it? It being the core album, rather than the outtakes and b sides packaged with the record. (I know many on this forum dislike him and his music for reasons that seem pretty understandable to me, but I have deep seated tribal loyalties in this one case, even if it mostly adds up to early Mothers purism these days.)

Thanks. On my list to check out.

Kids in a bad mood so I'm letting them spin records to cheat them up. First up daughter (3) with a cover she likes. Gone down well for a first listen. Second up, son (5) wants the "really good one with American peoples and they're looking down at the city and it's really... beat-ey". Some imagination and I figured it out...