GA Russell

Here are the album's liner notes: I wrote most of this music in June of 2002. It’s the first set of new music I completed since returning from India almost a year earlier (though earlier that spring I had written a few individual pieces for my quintet, the Tent, and the collective trio, Equal Interest). I was waiting to see what would emerge naturally from my experience as opposed to trying to make something happen. One of the things I notice about this music is the layers of simultaneous activity, not unlike life in modern-day India: a continual bombardment of the senses and a mingling of the peace of the ancient with the hustle of the present. In Calcutta, in particular, the commotion can be overwhelming, yet at the same time I experienced incredible joy and a certain calmness at the heart of it all. For this album’s music I turned once again to the Sufi mystic poet Rumi for inspiration. This time all of the music came from one poem, The Image of Your Body, which in hindsight is an apt metaphor for my own journey of the last 2 years, as indeed I’ve made it out of the city. I spent 2002-3 at an ashram in upstate New York, and now I’m in Berkeley, CA. I first played this music on the melodica and as a result, much of it is based on melody. It’s conceived as quartet music, but what’s important here is not the instrumentation but rather individual musical personality. Brandon and Cuong each brings his own voice to the music in a way that’s beautiful and quite different from the other, and so I include performances with both of them. I also include here two older pieces, Equal Grace and Yellow Are Crowds of Flowers, II, written for my group Crush (which toured both as a trio with Stomu Takeishi and Kenny Wollesen and quartet with Cuong). I so like the way this band plays them that I felt they were worth revisiting for this recording. This is my first project with drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee, whose sensitivity to what’s happening in the moment and whose ability to enhance it make him a true joy to play with. And Stomu’s sense of time, space and esthetics provides enduring inspiration and support. As always with music like this, which depends so much on the individual players’ contribution, my heartfelt thanks to these musicians for making it happen. May we all, musician and listener alike, become the ones that, when we walk in, luck shifts to the one who needs it. Myra Melford Berkeley, California June, 2006

B. Goren, I have a review copy of this one. I have four Cryptogramophone albums, and they all remind me of music from the 70s, although in different ways. About the time that the Blue Note board was shut down (Has it been three years?), the British guys over at AAJ were singing the praises of a 70s album by Neil Ardley called A Kaleidescope of Rainbows. I gathered that for some of them it was their favorite record. The Image of Your Body reminds me of Kaleidescope. It's a good album, but my least favorite of the four Cryptogramophones. I find the songs impressionistic without a handle to grab onto. None of the songs are hummable, but they are pleasant to listen to if you are in the right mood. I had never heard of Melford before. B. Goren, tell us what you know about her and why you like her!

Sounds like when it rains it pours! Hope everything turns out OK for everyone including Fido!

I see that barrons.com posted yesterday that EMI has now signed on with SpiralFrog: September 6, 2006, 2:08 pm EMI Agrees To Offer Music Through Spiral Frog Free Music Download Site Posted by Eric Savitz Spiral Frog, the startup that recently announced plans to offer advertising supported free music downloads, today said a second major music label, EMI, had agreed to participate in the site. Universal Music had previously agreed to offer songs on the new site. That’s two down, two to go: the company has yet to sign up Warner Music Group or Sony BMG for the new service, which is supposed to launch later this year. edit for typo

My pick for this month is Blossom Dearie - My Gentleman Friend. This will be my eighth Blossom Dearie album, but my first since 1999. I still listen to what I have quite a bit.

Happy Birthday!

Noj, I put that one in my queue the other day. Let us know what you think of it!

Get well soon, Paul! I hope this won't affect your beer drinking long term!

OK, Late. I've been putting off getting this one because 1) I already own a number of tracks from the Best Of PJ LP of his that was put out I think in the late 70s; and 2) I've been listening to his latest, In My Time, quite a bit since I got it in December, and I figured I needed a rest from Gerald Wilson. But The Artist Selects is pretty close to the top anyway, so it won't hurt to make it the choice for next month.

His The Artist Selects is inching its way up my Your Music queue.

I dug out the two LPs I had in mind when I made my comment about Paul Bley, and I see that they were recorded in 1965 and 1966. The drummer on both was Barry Altschul.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

I vaguely remember the video from Donald Fagen's The Nightfly. As I recall they went into a bomb shelter listening to Time Out.

Happy Birthday!

Is he a cockney? I thought he was doing an impression of Roddy McDowell!

Flurin, in the early 90s, somebody (and I think it was Muse Records) had what it called a "Final Vinyl" sale, in which it sold a large selection of Muse, Savoy and OJC LPs for five dollars each. This Art Farmer is one of the ones I picked up at that sale. I've always liked it. It's the sort of solid no-frills playing that I like about so much of 50s jazz, particularly from Prestige.

I'm glad you chose this! I have this music in the Clifford Brown Blue Note box. So this is a good reason for me to open it up and try the first CD.

The street signs at the corner of Grant and Green in San Francisco.

Doug Ramsey in his Rifftides blog quoted MC this week as saying that he has considered re-issuing the Roulette Maynard Ferguson Birdland album. I have been interested in that Mosaic box since it first came out, but the price for 10 CDs was too steep for me.

I listened to this again today, and I was struck by the influence of the Paul Bley trio circa 1967, both on the piano playing of Marcin Wasilewski and the drumming of Michal Miskiewicz.

I only have the OJC LP, which sounds fine to me.

I chose the internet as the most transformative, because my life would not be a whole lot different with a computer without the internet. I chose the cellphone as the most annoying for the reasons stated above. But it's the people who are annoying, not really the phone. If everyone turned off his phone except while using it, I don't think it would be all that annoying. Of course, people who use their cellphones in public places are pretty annoying, all right.

Yes, that's the Vol. 1 I was speaking of.

Flora means flower or vegetation, right? Shouldn't it be fora, the plural of forum?