dnsrrlls

Wow, thanks for the heads up! I actually posted a thread in this section about two years ago trying to track an issue down.

I didn't get the book, but was interested in seeing the list. It's not as bad as feared in terms of sheer flexing, if only because so many of the really chased-after inclusions have been properly reissued over the years. Still, I agree with Colin that there are some head-scratchers that seem to lean towards collector fetishism over musical impact, such as the choice of Cecil Taylor Unit and Marion Brown records, not to mention rather silly inclusions like acetates and records that only existed as test pressings that contemporaneous fans wouldn't have even known existed. And some really puzzling exclusions of entire artists that others here pointed out, like Bill Dixon, Sam Rivers, and Wadada Leo Smith. Despite my skepticism, I'm certainly a record fetishist myself. I've got 40 on the list in their original forms, and 11 more as reissues. Now Colin's list--that's very interesting! A ton of stuff I'm not familiar with, though there are a lot of artists represented that I love and just haven't heard the particular album he picked. Surprisingly to me, I didn't do quite as well on his list--38 OGs and 3 reissues. Will definitely be digging in further!

Not really related to new releases, but rather a lack of them: does anyone know what happened to Astral Spirits? They seem to have largely gone dark this year after one release back in March.

Gotta say, while I'm mildly interested in what made the cut (and am also guilty of being a collector of absurdly expensive free jazz records), I'm not sure what the purpose of a book like this is other than as a "flex." The title deems these as 100 "essential" recordings, but the majority are almost certainly going to be prohibitively expensive, collector-chased items and not anything practical for someone interested in the actual history of the music. I can see some argument for it being a NWW-list-type guide for future enthusiasts who don't care about acquiring OG copies of things, but at the end of the day this feels more like boast from the authors than anything truly in service of the music. (And if you actually are a collector and don't already own these records, prepare for it to stay that way...🤑)

My copies just landed today! Digging into the Kaučič first.

I will third the bass playing. It's a very strong album overall, but really is Janson's show.

This may be a long shot, but I'm trying to see if anyone had a lead on digitized copies of Rubberneck magazine, which was published in the UK by Chris Blackford from the mid-80s to around the turn of the millennium. In particular, I'm trying to track down issue 19 from 1995, which had a long piece by Nick Couldry titled "Turning The Musical Table: Improvisation In Britain 1965-1990" (see scant info here).

The group Mujician (with Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin) has several great albums on Cuneiform.

Just got hipped to Charlotte Keeffe via @colinmce's list. The first of the three discs of Live at Plus-Etage is a lengthy duo with Andrew Lisle that's really quite wonderful.