papsrus

Over the last 24 hours or so, ordered the following: Cecil Taylor -- "Unit Structures" William Parker -- "O'Neal's Porch" Art Ensemble of Chicago -- "Americans Swinging in Paris"

Great thread. Great line in that wonderful recollection by JSngry: Very cool. ... and this brought a tear to me eye: Well done sir! I have for some time been curious about this band, but have nothing on hand. Just ordered Americans Swinging in Paris.

Listened to the previously unreleased material on Disc B this morning for the first time. Probably the most demanding series of tracks in the whole set, for me. While I found Disc A intoxicating and exciting, Disc B struck me with much more blunt force, overall. Only once I had surrendered to the trance-like repetitions of "Chant," for instance, did the nuances of the pattern begin to emerge, and change. ... A listening experience like no other. Music overall, but particularly demanding music such as this, is wonderfully instructive, for me. And one of the great rewards that comes from challenging certain assumptions are the doors that open up elsewhere as a result. And so, with "Nonaah" still reverberating, I'm listening now to Braxton's "For Alto" with a new set of ears. It's an album I never found particularly engaging, until this morning. ... Thanks again for the music.

"Saturn Records opened its doors to the public in Oakland, California in September of 1992 ..." sounds like the store "turned evil" in the last few months http://www.yelp.com/biz/saturn-records-oakland see also http://www.saturnrecords.com/ (they still offer the box so i just made a screenshot of them offering it in case this should ever be important) Interesting. Thanks.

Are we to assume that the owner of the store actually has the original but would rather make copies than sell the original? I wonder how long this store has been in existence.

Freedom without a feeling of confidence and trust is no freedom at all. I give you Billy Strayhorn's Four Freedoms, the credo by which he tried to live his life: Think about that. Prompted me to think of Isaiah Berlin's Two Concepts of Liberty. From Wiki: Not sure what the implications, if any, might be for the arts, but it is interesting in this context that Strayhorn focused exclusively on "freedom from," or what Berlin would call negative liberties. ... I suppose there are obvious reasons for that.

OK, I did a quick calculation and the offense has picked up dramatically. Granted, the sample sizes for the periods encompassing the injuries to Longoria and Crawford are fairly small. Still, the uptick is pretty substantial: Since Longoria was injured on Aug. 3 the Rays have scored 87 runs over 17 games for an average of 5.11 runs per game. Since Crawford was injured on Aug. 9 the Rays have scored 59 over 11 games for an average of 5.3 runs per game. In comparison, from March 1 through Aug. 2 (the day before the Longoria injury) the Rays scored 488 runs over 108 games for an average of 4.5 runs per game. We'll see if this holds up. (I just realized that Longoria was called up well after March 1, so I should have started the comparison sample period when he joined the roster, but I'm too lazy to refigure that now. Maybe later. I doubt it would change the number drastically though.) I don't know. Those spring training games have a lot of guys who weren't on the roster, either. Oops. ... March 31 - Aug. 2 is what it should have read. I'll correct the post.

OK, I did a quick calculation and the offense has picked up dramatically. Granted, the sample sizes for the periods encompassing the injuries to Longoria and Crawford are fairly small. Still, the uptick is pretty substantial: Since Longoria was injured on Aug. 3 the Rays have scored 87 runs over 17 games for an average of 5.11 runs per game. Since Crawford was injured on Aug. 9 the Rays have scored 59 over 11 games for an average of 5.3 runs per game. In comparison, from March 31 through Aug. 2 (the day before the Longoria injury) the Rays scored 488 runs over 108 games for an average of 4.5 runs per game. We'll see if this holds up. (I just realized that Longoria was called up well after March 31, so I should have started the comparison sample period when he joined the roster, but I'm too lazy to refigure that now. Maybe later. I doubt it would change the number drastically though.)

It's the sportsmanship that really makes the Olympic Games what they are: Just people, getting together in the spirit of competition. ... I've got the warm fuzzies again. Speaking of the warm fuzzies, I read somewhere yesterday that the athletes village (at this, and virtually every Olympics) is the biggest erogenous zone going. Young, taut bodies from every corner of the globe bouncing into one another all over the place ... Who'd a thunk? I guess love is in the air after all. ...

I haven't looked at the numbers to verify this, but it seems as though the Rays' offense has improved significantly since Longoria and Crawford went down with injuries. Baldelli hit his first home run of the season tonight. Nice to see. And the Rays were tagging the ball from top to bottom tonight. Everyone in the lineup had a hit except for Upton. Nice win.

First part of Disc B tonight -- Improvisation 1, Ballad and Nonaah (quartet). I made a feeble attempt to follow along the quartet version of Nonaah using the earlier discussion here about the placement of each of the four musicians as a guide. My lack of familiarity with the music (and the musicians) coupled with the sheer force of the piece pretty much overwhelmed my attempts at this early on. ... Amazing music. Both immediate and gradual in the way it reveals itself. ... I need much more time with this ... and a bowl of ice cream before sleep.

Interesting -- I had always thought of Braxton's method of composition -- particularly GTM -- as being all about process. Sort of a "journey is the reward" kind of thing. I say this having only a layman's understanding of his compositional methods, but I think I understand enough to realize his methods are in large part about creating opportunities and "freedom" for the musicians performing his pieces. In this respect I would agree that characterizing his compositions as too restrictive or serious is to miss what's going on. I get the sense that the musicians performing his music are often giddy as they probe and explore the possibilities in the compositions. I've said before (in this thread, I think) that I find a great deal of joy (and freedom) in much of Braxton's composed music -- Iridium in particular. Also, I think you are right on in pointing to the "proliferation of cheap digital technology" as a culprit in spawning all sorts of noise that chews up way too much bandwidth, and possibly creates as much confusion as clarity among the various tribes ep1str0phy mentioned. But as long as artists who wouldn't otherwise be heard can use the technology to reach us in new ways, I'll drink from the trough willingly.

I'm agnostic on the whole thing. I don't DL from blogs. Don't really care if others do or don't. Artists do need to get paid somehow, though, so as a personal choice, I try and stay legit, as best I can determine how to do that.

He's a little dismissive of Braxton's compositions, which he calls "often abstract, distant, and cerebral", a broad statement which I think renders his opinion here a little suspect. Fair enough, but in defense of the guy, I think he's just a regular Joe out there who is real excited about free and improvised music. He seems to listen to a ton of stuff, so he's either a wealthy regular Joe or ... I don't know, actually. ... Anyways, his comments come across to me as some regular guy just telling you how the music hits him. The other thing is, he does hand out 4 and 4 1/2 stars pretty liberally, (although 5 stars is fairly rare) so I keep that in mind. He really likes a lot of stuff, basically. ... I can relate to that.

This is all allegedly, of course .... Olympics Oopsies Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators so far during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back: 1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregorieva from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.' 2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.' 3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.' 4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.' 5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.' 6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.' 7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.' 8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.' 9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'

that's not cool.

I thought it was the other way around. ??

... so true ...

My favorite flag at the Olympics -- Chinese Taipei ... also referred to in some remote parts of the world as Taiwan. Oh ... and so glad they've apparently cleared up that nasty gymnastics age mess so quickly. THAT could have been embarrassing. In other news, Cuba pounds U.S. baseball team (bah!), U.S. women's soccer team wins gold , and no one has heard from the Norwegian women's handball team since yesterday's match against Korea.

You ... make the call Legit? Or not?

Ponson pounded as porous pinstriped pitching staff is the pits. ... Jays win 14-3.

... there's something not quite right about this, but I can't put my finger on it ....

Sky high. I had to shut it down after Disc 1 and collect myself. This is beautiful and emotionally demanding music, as you said. The title track is stunning and powerful, while pieces such as "A1 TAL 2LA" and "Tahquemenon" struck me as gorgeous and supple -- music to be savored. There are many rewards hidden here, me thinks. And the sound quality is excellent, IMO. I'm no expert, but this music is coming through beautifully to my ear. Very excited by this one. Thanks for the music!

In the FWIW department, "Beyond Quantum" gets 5 stars here. And this guy listens to a lot of free.