Rabshakeh

Elvin Jones - Live At The Lighthouse (Bluenote, 1972) So pleased to finally own it

She's a writer from the early 1990s. Her most famous book is The Secret History. It is about a clique of blue blooded students at a liberal arts university in 80s New England studying classics, who get too caught up in the Mysteries and end up murdering someone. It's a good read. Quite a lot of people see it as a modern classic, although that depends on taste, I think. It has quite a clear aesthetic though - basically the one you outlined above, minus jungle.

Currently spinning this one to check, in the interests of science, whether @Teasing the Korean 's description is accurate. It's the Italian Barclay issue from 1979, which has a cover that I prefer to the original and sounds much the same.

Without wanting to suggest that it is very Donna Tartt, I think that's accurate. Adding to it is the fact that the backing vocals are by four sisters actually named Cybele, Cylene, Cynara and Cyva, who I can only assume were dressed in white robes and laurel robes throughout. Everything about it has that light, oversexed pagan quality.

I have. It is actually the first version I heard. It put me off. It's actually okay, but doesn't have the magic at all.

Interested to know how you find the new pressing.

Tamba 4, for sure. Thanks. I'll check it out. I had not idea about "Let's Go". Something to look into. Edit: It is on We and the Sea!! I listen to that record semi regularly, but the penny hadn't dropped.

Went on a jaunt today and found a couple of records that I've always loved but hadn't seen in the wild before:

I’m a definite obsessive when it comes to Os Afro-sambas by Baden Powell, Vinícius de Moraes, and Quarteto em Cy (Forma, 1966). Surely one of the greatest records ever willed into creation. Other than Raul de Souza’s 1975 version of Canto de Ossanha on Colors (Milestone, 1975), I can’t think of any other jazz versions of tunes on the record. That’s a sharp contrast to the very frequent treatment of tunes by contemporaries like Jobim, Gilberto or Bonfa. Does anyone know of any other examples?

Now on my second play of Raul de Souza’s Colors (Milestone, 1975), It’s that Baden Powell track that really does me in.

Absolutely, aside from a truly pathetic dose of man flu (sniff sniff). I've stayed on the West Coast with this one: Henry Franklin - The Skipper (Black Jazz, 1972)

Creative Arts Ensemble - One Step Out (Nimbus West, 1981)

Thanks

Hannibal and the Sunrise Orchestra (MPS, 1975)

Now onto: Steve Duke and Joe Pinzarrone - Monk By 2 (Columbia, 1994)

MJQ - Plastic Dreams (1971) An odd one. Poor Connie Kay might well have sprained his wrist from all that triangle.

I'm listening to Contours right now. I am a non musician, but does anyone know of any analysis, ideally available online, that can explain in very summary terms what Rivers is doing musically in his solos here, and why it sounds so different to Ornette, Eric Dolphy or Coltrane?

That had passed me by. I'll check it out.

The contents page looks pretty enticing. I have added it to my list.

Thanks. I'd seen the Steinbeck, but would be interested in hearing what people have to say about it: not all of the reviews at that complimentary. I think there is another book out there too, although I forget the name. George Lewis I have read, and I don't recall it going into that much detail on personalities and internal creative politics within the AEC itself. It's a great book that sits probably at a level above what I am looking for (which would be more anecdotal than Lewis). Fundamentally, how did musicians with as fundamentally different outlooks as Bowie, Mitchell and Jarman manage to stay together, and continue to produce music for decades? I assume it wasn't always that easy - there are noticeable gaps in the AEC chronology where the leads tend to pursue their own thing - but it is an incredibly impressive body of work across half a century. It's hard to think of any other group that achieved that without having some sort of central decision maker (e.g., the Arkestra).

Roscoe Mitchell - Old / Quartet (Nessa, 1975, rec. 1967)

My favourite "jazz" record of all. The toddler's middle name is "Roscoe" after I played it to my wife whilst pregnant. I'm interested to hear anything that Chuck recalls.

Does anyone know of a book or film of any length that deals closely with the inner workings of the AEC, including creative control and internal relationships? It's incredibly impressive that any group stays together that long, let alone one with so many leads.

Just seen on Twitter that Eleusinian Press has commissioned a book on Scandinavian free jazz from a writer called Daniel Spicer.

Steve Lacy - 5 X Monk 5 X Lacy (Silkheart, 1997) Hubba Hubba