Spontooneous

Don't know of any other reissues. But those Kolisches have got to be some of the best parts. And authoritative, too, since he was Schoenberg's brother-in-law. I remember my pleasure at finding one of the originals in a thrift store and seeing liner notes attributed to Schoenberg himself.

Fan of Hilary. Not a fan of the Beethoven concerto. Oh well. But -- seriously -- drop a few bucks on a recording of the Bach-Webern Ricercar. It will atomize everything you ever thought you knew about the orchestra.

Here goes nothin'... 1 – The intro riff gets stuck in my head. The guitar on the left attacks like Scofield, though the timbre is rougher. Some really fine chops in the tenor solo, makes all that stuff sound easy. Guitar on the right also has a big Scofield influence. Nice opener. 2 – Anybody remember a Simpsons episode where they go to some fancy mall and there's a store called Just Rainsticks? The intro made me think of that. When it arrives, the theme is strong, with just a few notes, and I feel like I've heard that theme before on some other recording. This is a wonderful, concise performance with not a note wasted, even if I make fun of the rainstick. 3 – That soprano player sounds a lot like Garbarek. Maybe it's a bunch of overdubbed Garbareks. Not my thing, but OK. 4 – I think I've heard this and it might be in my collection. The trumpet sounds like Dave Douglas, and the writing might be his too, but then I have no idea who the bari is. Fallback guess would be Bluiett with Baikida Carroll or somebody like that, but you've already said it isn't Bluiett. Can't wait to find out what this one is. 5 – The piano solo and the comping show some of Mal Waldron's motor habits. I can't guess the tenor or singer. 6 – Somebody's self-produced LP from the late '70s? It's fun, even if the piano needs work. I confess I've never liked the sound of plunger over a harmon mute. No idea who it is, but I'll admit to being curious about this funky homemade thing. 7 – "Now In Our Lives," presumably played by its composer Park Adams, who should get more credit for being a monster MF composer. 8 – Sounds like something from Dudu Pukwana's neighborhood. I want this record, now, please. 9 – The dancing drums of Jack DeJohnette, probably in ECM land somewhere. I'm no good at identifying trombonists. Abercrombie on guitar? Maybe John Purcell on alto? I could listen to this all day. 10 – Is this a show tune I should recognize? Is that Mike Brecker? It's lovely. The spot of tenor-trumpet unison at the end of the chorus is striking and a great arranging touch. 11 – Rockin' cello! More than one cello? Not terribly "jazzy," but sometimes you want less jazz in your jazz, y'know. Yeah, I need this disc too. This is a monster BFT, Thom! Many, many thanks.

I'll admit to not being fond of several of the big violin concertos by the great composers. Mozart's are rote, Beethoven's seems oddly mechanical, Brahms' is dull, Tchaikovsky is trying too hard. But yes for Sibelius, Prokofiev 1, Berg, Schoenberg, Bartok 2 despite its last movement, Hindemith, both Shostakovich, parts of Britten, Ligeti. Starthrower has got me curious about Norgard. But there's a lot of violin concertos that aren't much more than violin porn. So the violin concertos I return to are few. As for piano, I love several Mozarts, Beethoven 4 especially, Mendelssohn, both Brahms, Schoenberg, Shostakovich 1 which is deeper than its reputation, Ligeti, Lutoslawski.

9 -- No idea. Joel Forrester? Raymond Scott? An interesting interlude. 10 -- Should I recognize this song? A show tune that escapes me? A nice performance. Last month I guessed Billy Taylor and was wrong, and here I find myself thinking Billy Taylor again. The coda is wonderful. 11 -- Quick recognition of this one, "Who Does She Hope to Be?" from Sonny Sharrock's "Ask the Ages." 12 -- "Love for Sale," in a recording that seems to come from Van Gelder's living room. Great, biting alto sound. No other idea, but somebody will probably figure this out. 13 -- Not CTI, but somebody who wanted to imitate CTI's success. A relic of its time, early '70s -- but all the activity, in the arrangement and the solos, doesn't add up to much, and it takes a long time to make its point. The idea of switching up grooves is good, though. 14 -- A seasonally apt closer, in an arrangement that sounds like an attempt to jump on the folk-boom train. Sam Cooke? Thanks for this one, AW!

Oh, man. I've been threatened over music reviews a couple of times, but never to that degree. They all sobered up eventually. There could be truth in Xybert's suggestion that the "theater review" part is fiction. Assuming it really is someone offended by a long-ago review: Do you have contact with sources from your theater-critic days who might recognize the writing style, the psychological fingerprints? I'd propose one other thing. Scan the letter, black out your personal info, and post the scans on some community websites. Someone might recognize the writer, or have letters from the same creep.

DL, please, please, please, please...

Backtracking for a moment to the recordings in the Domaine Musical box. The CD box is expensive and hard to find. But look for the old Vox Turnabout budget LP of one of the recordings therein, Boulez's 'le marteau sans maitre.' It's pretty easy to find in the used bins, and Gazzelloni is tearin' it up.

A very warm cat indeed. Met him at the funeral for Claude "Fiddler" Williams. John flew across the country on his own dime to the funeral of a jazz violin tribal elder, and played so beautifully in Claude's memory. I'd been hoping to see and hear him again sometime.

Here's the first part --- 1 – Must recuse myself on this one because I saw a hypertag identifying the artists, people whose work I love. The comments already posted in this thread prove that we have some sharp-eared listeners in this room. 2 – Recognition of this one kicks in after a while. Track 5 here. The leader doesn't get as much credit as he deserves for his writing. 3 – Probably not Sonny Clark or Wynton Kelly, but the light articulation reminds me of them. Delightful. Each chorus is better than the one before. 4 – A very strange arrangement of Stardust, circa 1959. The tenor, quick to latch on to the Coltrane influence, fascinates me. 5 – "The Train and the River," Giuffre and Hall, back in the day. It reminds me -- why aren't there more attempts to reflect a country influence in jazz? 6 – A Dameronian chart, with more notes than Dameron would have written. Tenor sounds almost like Paul Gonsalves. Weird and wonderful. On second thought, is this Johnny Griffin on Riverside? 7 – Pleasantly "heavy" groove. The guitar sounds very Ulmeresque, and I like it that way. Cuts off abruptly. 8 – Oh, gosh, I have a lot of records that sound like this one. Nice tune, circa 1958. The trumpeter has me guessing Donald Byrd and the bassist has me guessing Paul Chambers. (edited to make that darn link work)

What Jim said. The smugness of the piece is just full of shit, as is the brilliant satirist's unwillingness to put his real name on it. (Says the pseudonymous poster, yeah, I know.) Wondering what the motivation for the whole thing was, other than gratification of the writer's ego.

The Horace lyric for "Song for My Father" is on the "It's Got to Be Funky" album from the '90s on Columbia. Andy Bey forges ahead bravely with the bad lyric -- but he could have done so well with this lyric.

Download, please and thank you!

Running out of time to finish this one... 8 – Is this a '60s show tune or something I should recognize? Or some kind of European folk tune? The pianist's understated precision reminds me of Billy Taylor, and I mean that in the best way. The bass part is really beautiful, too, especially on the coda. This one's a keeper. 9 – I want to like this more than I do. The trumpet intro is nice, but after that we part ways. It smells more like a schoolroom than a club. The alto solo is like some sort of uneasy compromise between Konitz and Kenny Garrett – player has a hard time getting started, but the solo's ending is nice. Trumpet doesn't have much left to say the second time. Maybe my least favorite tune of the set. Not so bad, but instead of hearing an original voice I'm hearing studied, deliberate echoes of other people's voices, both in the playing and writing. 10 – Good clarinet in there, and a nice dancing feeling. A marimba or xylorimba instead of vibes? Praise for the percussionist, who's doing something different every few seconds. The addition of voices near the end works, it isn't overkill. 11 – Really fine version of that Nick Drake song. I want this record. 12 – Is this some kind of pop song, a relatively recent one, dramatically rearranged? Whatever it is, the arrangement is just beautiful, and so is the performance. 13 – "A Child Is Born," and I guess the guitarist is the leader? It's somebody who's listened to a lot of Kenny Burrell. No great discoveries here, but very entertaining. 14 – Who wrote this lyric for "Song for My Father?" It's SO much better than the words Horace forced Andy Bey to sing. Otherwise, I'll just echo what HP and others have said: Who's so deeply into Leon Thomas? A very well-chosen BFT here! Thank you!

One of the loveliest BFTs in recent memory. 1 -- In the afternoon stillness, a summer breeze blows gently over the field where the harmon mutes grow. Good crop this year. But seriously folks. This one's all about the composition and the textures. And for once, the harp and the bells aren't overkill. The lower notes on the harp are so beautiful. 2 -- A very Evans-y trio, and I mean that in the best way. This is how it was originally meant to work, three individuals on an equal footing. The drummer's dance with brushes is what I like to hear. 3 -- Haunting composition. They don't throw much "jazz" on it, and that's a wise decision. It's very satisfying exactly this way. 4 -- Alto and minimal piano. Marion Brown? 5 -- The beginning sounds very Aaron Copland-ish. Then the percussion kicks in (cajon?) and it seems like it might be a Guillermo Klein thing. 6 -- Nice Metheny-influenced guitar. It isn't Pat, but I like the way this player thinks. 7 -- This one I recognize right off: http://en.wikipedia.org...Monk More later. 'Til then, I want to stake a partial claim on Track 11. It's that darned Nick Drake song I can never remember the name of.

More fun with Mercury...

Rosen also wrote "Sonata Forms." BTW, that Haydn LP, released over here on Vanguard, is revelatory.

DL, please and thanks.

Past time to finish what I started here... 8 – More instruments just keep comin' in. Love that arrangement. Nothing particularly special happens in the solos, but the shaping hand of the arranger leaves a big impression. 9 – This is one of those newish Maria Schneider-y things. Hard to count – is that 7/8? Well written, played "correctly," but the band is too busy counting to really let go and play. I kinda like, but wish I liked it better. Maybe I'm just not in the mood. 10 – But yeah, I'm in the mood for this. Pretty good tenor and organ, but the highlight is the very unbuttoned trumpet solo, each chorus better than the one before. 11 – Come to think of it, I'm in the mood for this too. Should I know this head? Is it Ornette's writing or merely Ornettish? The Ornette vein continues in the beautiful tenor solo. Is that perhaps the real Dewey Redman? If not, it's somebody who learned the right things from him. The alto is more lick-oriented, but the solo works anyway. Despite my slowness in responding, I've really enjoyed the music here, pretty much all of it. Thank you, Tom!

1 – Love the piano. Merely like the tenor. Some Getzian phraseology there, but it isn't Getz. Is it Chris Potter, Bob Berg, Mintzer? Nothing but praise for the pianist, who catches everything that's thrown on this field. 2 – There's a Mingus-y quality to the head. Another tenor who has paid a lot of attention to the Four Brothers. Trumpet's tone leaves some to be desired, but the heart is in the right place. The accompanied drum solo is fine. I want to hear more from these players. 3 – I like the way the composer of this one thinks. The tenor isn't afraid to swing it. The guitar is OK but doesn't work as well. The bass line is poppin', though. 4 – It's an all-brass ensemble, nicely thought out. The bass solo is very effective. No guess, but much admiration. 5 – Maybe a late-career Dizzy record, or a Sandoval project? Lots of Dizzy in that graceful trumpet solo. OK, but a little overproduced. We all get that it's "Spanish" without the castanets. 6 – Edmund Gregory, as revealed before. 7 – Presumably this, which I hadn't heard of before I just Googled it: http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Take-My-Hand/dp/B002Y84548 Really well done, and not a note too many, and a wonderful response from the rhythm section.

I know a former elementary music teacher who was fired for throwing a tamborine at a kid. It drew blood.

I can't top that story. But I just wanted to say that the trumpet outburst on "Red Top" got me started on a lifetime mission to collect Benny Bailey records.

Back with better comments in a few days, but I wanted to post the ID of track 6, a tune I know really well. This version (there are several others, under varying titles) is the first track on this one: http://www.allmusic.com/album/sahib-shihab-and-the-danish-radio-jazz-orchestra-mw0000784793