Rabshakeh

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/10192-what-vinyl-are-you-spinning-right-now/&do=findComment&comment=170500 "llinois Jacquet - How High the Moon (Prestige) Compiles cuts from Jacquet's Prestige releases, 1968-69 Check out the final sentence from Dan Morgenstern's liner notes: "... don't pay attention to any history of jazz tenor that doesn't have Jacquet's name in bold type." Bob Porter feels the same." An interesting quote, and presumably one that was meant to be hyperbolic, but it is a reminder of how little attention Illinois Jacquet's historic corner of the jazz world gets. Does anyone actually know of a general history of jazz that deals with soul jazz, R&B approximate saxophone or jazz organ in anything like reasonable depth? In my experience, the treatment of the genre in general histories of the sort Morgenstern is referring to (as opposed to specialist works on the subject like Porter's) is mostly confined to a summary reference to Jimmy Smith and Horace Silver before moving swiftly on to Giant Steps and Kind of Blue. I can't think of any that give a halfway reasonable treatment, even to "stars" like Lou Donaldson, Brother Jack McDuff or Stanley Turrentine.

I love this one, and love the artwork too.

Motion by Lee Konitz. This is certainly one that I prefer in the original vinyl mix, where Lee and Sonny Dallas are right up front. The digital versions correct that and bring the drums forward, but at the same time makes it harder to follow. Konitz is beautiful throughout, and I love Elvin on "All of Me" in particular.

Milford Graves - Percussion Ensemble. Easily my favourite solo percussion album from before the later 70s. Sonny's Time Now - Sunny Murray A great first side: one of the best Ayler records out there, albeit it's under Sunny's name. I've never been all that happy with the second side. Clifford Jordan - In The World. This is one of my favourite straight ahead dates (if you can call it that) from the 70s. It has a real epic quality to it, with great compositions and good solos from a cracking group of musicians. In hindsight it seems crazy the sort of star quality that could be called upon at the time for a record that I believe sunk more or less without a trace commercially. Sadly, I don't have the original sleeve but instead a rather dopey Polydor version.

Creative Construction Company - Muhal on Vedette

Mal's solo on the second track - Bee Vamp - is a real favourite or mine. I think that's why it sticks in my head as the main session from that "first" career.

Thanks. For some reason that hadn't occured to me. Now that I think about it he does sound really different on earlier records like At The Five Spot.

Out of interest, and I may have missed it, but what is the reason for the 1963 start date?

WM episode coming up on Marc Maron's WTF podcast tomorrow, apparently. I'm keen to hear who out-talks who. (Edit: "Keen" is perhaps too strong a word...)

That's such a great record. If I hadn't rebought it as a download on Bandcamp recently I would.

Definitely. And that Billy Cobham album too. I like Jan Hammer’s early 70s stuff a lot. I’m just not sure that I’d necessarily want to be compared to him if I were a shredding pop metal guitarist, or vice versa.

Sad to see him go. A genuine paradigm shifter. I'm not at all sure who comes out of this comparison better off.

Ein Sof by The Assif Tsahar Trio (1997); Susie Ibarra in full swing. Yankees by Derek Bailey, George Lewis (the younger!) and John Zorn (1983). This is one of the few Zorn performances that I return to, along with News for Lulu with the same players minus Derek. I never quite understood the reason for the baseball theme for this Transatlantic partnership, but it is all fun.

Thanks. That's my evening plan, then.

I don't know that those composers had written for solo saxophone. Are there versions that you'd recommend?

He seems to have decided that his future lies in humiliating himself with vanity gigs. I've got friends who are active in extreme metal circles in London and they are having to put up with much the same from him in their chosen genres. I can see that. He is quite cold. A prowler rather than a shredder.

On Butcher, I'm not sure that solo Butcher is necessarily leagues away from group Butcher - there's just more of him to enjoy. 13 Friendly Numbers and Fixations (14) are good ones to try. The thrill of his playing for me is mostly down to how advanced his technical thinking is - he has all the techniques, emotion and range available to Parker etc., but with a really developed approach to feedback, miking and use of the physical space that he is playing in (presumably an influence from Alvin Lucier). I sometimes feel that the field of free improv is a little overfull, but he is one player who always stands out as attempting and achieving something different.

Interesting! From your description of it I am sure that is one of the two Shipp concerts that I was referring to above. That was a great gig. I remember condensation dripping down everywhere. I for some reason took a bunch of non-jazz fans there that night and they were as absorbed as I was, and still talk about it. RIP the Red Rose.

I agree that Butcher probably plays at his best solo, but I do find myself returning to his trio and quartet work a lot too - he is a player who thrives in different group and physical settings. I wouldn't want to be without Summer Skyshift or News from the Shed or Way Out Northwest: even if Butcher's own saxophone playing is not quite as inventive as on e.g. Fixations (14), he has to find different solutions to apply it. I've seen Shipp live probably more than any other player in jazz or improv, which is weird because I'd never class him as a favourite. Twice though when I have seen him play solo he has been really excellent - starting with a deliberately corny choice of material and then breaking it down and moving into exciting territory that brings to mind early Don Pullen (or possibly CT). But I have never heard him do anything like that on record (DNA with Parker is possibly the closest). A lot of his recorded solo or small group stuff seems too lush - Your Scriabin comparison is very apt - and, as I mentioned above, I found his David S Ware stuff retrograde and a bit boring, particularly in view of what else was out there at the time.

It's quite a change in cover art, isn't it? The vibe of the original photograph is amazing. Then the move to the stark pink/white/black colour scheme of the reissue.

Interesting. Back in the 90s when I was listening to Shipp perhaps more than I do now, I was sometimes frustrated at how traditional his comping was and how much leeway he gave to his front line. On lots of those David S Ware records he seemed to be merely enabling the saxophonist, or at most trying to spin things out and along. Given what other pianists like Schlippenbach, Schweizer or Crispell were up to at the time, challenging their front lines and dictating where the improvisation would progress, I used to think Shipp was too traditional and that too happy to take a subordinate accompanist/soloist role, rather than the new opportunities offered by the more democratic improv models that were then emerging. I had thought he'd improved recently - I really liked Morph from last year with Nate Wooley - but I hadn't heard him playing yet with a saxophonist like Butcher or Dunmall that has less of an immediate stylistic connection with the various American avantgarde jazz traditions. Certainly, I enjoyed this record and would second D.D.'s original recommendation. I've been listening to too much Butcher recently (he's easily among my favourite saxophonists of the last two decades) and it is refreshing to hear him pushed so far out of his usual zone of operations by what Shipp was doing. In place of the usual stalking improv predator was a caged bear that had to dance when Shipp told him too. And, as D.D. points out, the results were ... jazzy.

I like that record a lot. It’s nice to end a weekend with a record like that.

I've listened to this a few times over the weekend. I like it. It is pretty confrontational: Shipp gives Butcher very little space and he has to squeeze in where he can.

Incredible. Thanks so much for the response.