Rabshakeh

Some interesting looking stuff in here.

Hah, yes. I meant it semi seriously, but there was jazz talent in the group. I just love the look on Cherry Wainer's face when she is playing. Also, no tune gets the toddlers jumping faster (an important consideration for me at the moment). It beats even Jump In The Line by Harry Belafonte and the Peanut Vendor by Stan Kenton.

That makes sense. I have only heard him on the one record, so I am on the not-unattractive stage still.

Is there a wider British Jazz thread on this site? I have had a look and can't find. Despite being British and liking jazz, I actually don't know much about British jazz. What I know is confined to (i) the trad stuff that was always on TV back in the day and is basically a punchline for my parent's generation of jazz fans (Acker Bilk etc.), (ii) SME, Derek Bailey and co., (iii) the recent South London and Manchester stuff, and (iv) Hoots Mon. That's basically it though. Anything in between is a blank to me. The whole "prog" side of the jazz wars; the more normal side of the avant garde (Surman, Webster, Harriot, etc); the prog/fusion tie in stuff; I know nothing. It was only late in life that I even heard of the existence of Under Milk Wood. I am 99% sure that I am not even aware of the most basic classics.

I agree with you there, although I'm not always sure whether I prefer the Milestones to those later Blue Notes. Currently listening to: Dave Douglas Quintet - Meaning and Mystery (2006). Donny McCaslin, the tenor player on this, is good. I don't know anything else about him. I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has any opinions on his leader dates.

I think there are various covers, mostly showing iterations of the above photo. From discogs, it looks like the original may have been in a generic sleeve. Now onto: Terumasa Hinto Quintet - Into The Heaven (Takt, 1970)

SOUND ADVICE BY PAT PATRICK AND THE BARITONE SAXOPHONE RETINUE (SATURN, 1977) It's a fun approachable record, behind the murk and incredibly over-recorded percussion. It is an insight into the type of music Patrick was into when he first passed the threshold of the Arkestra: a sort of big band type music that was always at the heart of Sun Ra's own music, even if contorted into quite different forms. As is often the case, much as I love Sun Ra, I do wish his musicians had been allowed to record more.

Great stuff! Thanks. I am glad Elephants made the list.

Ha! Only just seen this. Spell check's still busy, protecting us whilst we sleep.

Thanks. Seems like an odd choice of a reissue, but I suppose Alive Coltrane is valuable property these days.

Is it standard ashram music? Or is there a specific Alice Coltrane slant?

Other Planes of There (Saturn, 1965) by Sun Ra

Luther Thomas Trio - Saxcrobatic Fanatic (CIMP, 1997).

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Steve Lehman - Dual Identity (Clean Feed, 2010)

Smiley Winters - Smiley Etc. (Arhoolie, 1969) With the superb Barbara Donald.

I didn't listen to it at the time, but I think it has aged okay. At least you get a sense that Osby understood hip hop and wasn't just making a play for credibility: there is a real attempt at fusion, even if it sometimes isn't as good as either genre. It helps that Osby is one of the few horn players who I think doesn't sound trapped by loops, and that the quality of the MCing and production is pretty high. I listened to that one yesterday. I enjoyed it more than his other recent albums.

Greg Osby - 3-D Lifestyles (Blue Note, 1993) One of the more full blooded attempts at hip hop crossover. For once, one I think that is semi successful.

Which are you listening to? I don't own this box, although I think I have a few constituent parts.

Oh wow. It looks like it was that gig from the cover artwork, such as it is.

I'd be interested to hear too. It's the same group that did This Is Our Language.

Well it looks like the court, having considered the documentary evidence and testimony of the witnesses, came to a different conclusion.

Thanks. It's a good performance. It's a shame it isn't a real release, but maybe it will turn up one day. The music and sound quality are certainly good enough.

I agree fully with both above posts. POD I think is still solid. Shoemaker has such a depth of understanding that he never needs to drop fully into the guff. On the Free Jazz Blog, I think the reviews' amateurishness is part of what keeps me reading it, because there I can read behind the reviews quite easily, in a way that I cannot with the much more polished Wire, and tell whether a release is worth bothering with. The best bit of FJB though is that it frequently links back to earlier releases by the artists and their affiliates, which allows you to pick up threads that you ignored at the time and get a deeper understanding.

I think that the academic theory in notes and press releases is getting a bit much. To me it just fades into an institutionalised version of corporate marketing speech. Copy production for the sake of filling the required space. Woolley is one of the worst for that, although he certainly isn’t alone. Unreadable but vapid prose has been a widespread problem in the art world for a while now and it is dispiriting to see it making inroads into new music. I find that trend, together with the linked trend of increasingly gushingly uncritical reviews of every new release, a bit of a turn off for new music, and I hope that they both fade out, although I doubt they will. I have dropped my subscription to the Wire in the last year because it has become increasingly difficult to identify the plain meaning in the overcomplex pseudotechnical marketing guff that now fills the columns and glowing write ups of every single release. This is not to say that music or music journalism shouldn’t be complex.

The Aura Will Prevail by George Duke (MPS, 1975). One of Duke’s best. Jazz to disco ratio, just right. Crazy synths, check. Zappa covers, check. Great album cover, check. Satiated dreams of future DJs, check. Just before I listened to: Frank Hunter’s The White Goddess