Д.Д.

Saw Joe McPhee with Universal Indians (John Dikeman, Jon Rune Strøm, Tollef Østvang) last night. Very frustrating experience. I love McPhee and saw him at least 10 times over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, I never saw him in a group that would be complimentary to his immense talent - and this concert was no exception. Dikeman is a good player with extremely forceful sound on tenor - he must be the loudest tenor I saw live (louder than Brötzmann or Gustafsson and at least 1/3 louder than McPhee). I moved to the back of the room, the volume was hurting my ears. A lot of super-fast runs, a lot of wailing. Nothing we have not heard before. McPhee played tenor exclusively with gorgeous sound and beautiful ideas. BUT, he was playing probably three times less than Dikeman, and even when he was, Dikeman would insist on playing behind him (more like in front given his volume). This was extremely annoying. It was similar to Rodrigo Amado / McPhee gig I saw some time ago - there, Amado would not shut up AT ALL. What's wrong with these tenor players?! Are they trying to prove something to McPhee? They are not in their 20s, these are seasoned players who are supposed to know that more is not necessarily good... Even more annoying was a totally inept rhythm section. Tollef Østvang is a shockingly bad drummer. No swing, no ideas, no dynamics, no flow, some clumsy rock licks. Really horrible, I could not believe McPhee would tour and record with a musician of such level. Jon Rune Strøm was OK, nothing interesting but not horrible at least, thank you very much. So, in short, no way am I ever going to a Universal Indians gig again, and I still hope to see McPhee live in full glory.

The first one, "Big Deep".

I saw Wooley a couple of weeks ago with Harris Eisenstad's quartet (with Matt Bauder on tenor and a (good) bassist whose name escapes me now) - he was very impressive. I had heard a few things of his and saw him live way back when, 20 years ago in New York (I seem to remember it was a young bassist's band with Steve Swell and Wooley). I thought then he was definitely OK but a bit chatty, unfocused and with boring undistinguished sound. However, what I heard here in Vienna was super precise with great long-form development of ideas and just impeccable technique. Matt Bauder was also outstanding - such a deep old-style sound on tenor. Overall, the concert was very enjoyable. It would have been fantastic if it weren't for silly and formulaic compositions of Eisenstad's. So I will be checking out more Wooley for sure. I also saw Konk Pack (Roger Turner, Thomas Lehn and Tim Hodgkinson) a few days ago, and this was one of the most exciting concerts on my memory. Talk about non-formulaic - the range of sounds these guys produce while making a coherent whole is spellbinding. One hour gig flew like 10 minutes. Do see them live if you get a chance (not many people chose to do so in Vienna - there were maybe 20 people in the audience), these guys are not getting younger (Turner is approaching 80). All of Konk Pack CDs are OOP, but they are still relatively easy to buy second-hand: https://www.discogs.com/artist/454272-Konk-Pack .

All these reissues (there is a full list - 200 titles - at Discogs ) are suddenly listed as unavailable at amazon.co.jp. This is too fast for all of them to go OOP - they were released in October - November 2021. Same goes for other recent Universal Japan reissue series, e.g. this one. Anybody knows what's happening? Perhaps some manufacturing issues at Universal Japan?

Cath Roberts / Olie Brice duo on Relative Pitch: https://westhill.bandcamp.com/album/conduits Just released. Good stuff.

Oh yes. One of my first CDs. I liked it when I bought it, and today - after hearing many other alternative performances - I still enjoyed this one. The performances are very energetic and the sound quality is surprisingly good.

You guys are weird - but thank you for encouragement and nudging. I will probably do a BFT. I gave it a thought today, got some ideas. This is likely to become the most ignored (or hated) BFT ever - but you guys, since you asked for it, will have to go through the torture of listening to it and then post your thoughts. And I expect a lot of deep deep thoughts! Now, back to Mike's BFT.

Mike, I am looking forward to learning (and being embarrassed) who the US tenorist is. Will listen to these tracks some more, might have some ideas. I read through others' comments - funny, several people thought that there were Dutch players on track 2. Well, you might be the only one here interested in hearing it.

Mike, thanks for compiling the BFT. I am not focusing on ID-ing too much, but just sharing my impressions as I go along. 1. Nice clarinet sound. Cute simple lullaby type of melody. Cheesy Rhodes. Basically, no improvisation, right? Way too long for what it is. Did not like it much. 2. Is this some Herbie Nichols composition? I don’t like Herbie Nichols. Some sort of piano preparation here – mini cymbals on piano strings? Piano player and the drummer play really well together, otherwise not too interesting for me. Piano improvisation is quite repetitive and limited in scope. Sounds Dutch - certain embedded wackiness. 3. I liked this one. The tenor is telling a story – interesting to hear the ideas unfold. The piano is way over-the-top behind the saxophone – would have been better if it were more economical. Not a good recording balance between bass and piano – the bass is too upfront (I like the bassist). The piano solo is OK overall, A LOT of notes for sure – but not as interesting as saxophone. Good stuff. 4. Well, this one is pleasant - not much else I can say about it. Sweet voice, not very original. Pretty music for large European outdoors festivals. Not something I would be interested in listening to more than once. 5. Really liked the solo drums intro. Was hoping it would be a 14-minute solo drums track, but no, here are these needless additional instruments. Piano solo OK, nothing special. Oh, there is tenor as well. Tenor is nice – forceful, rich sound. Very familiar, should know who this is. Could it be this gentleman? Second piano solo is really boring, IMHO. Feels like it’s two not particularly well coordinated pianists at times. A lot of notes, but still leaves me bored. Tenor is back, very nice, not too original. Getz influence apparent, IMHO. Good track, way too much piano, I liked the drummer the most. 6. Sounds like the same composer as on Track 2. Like the drummer. Very fluid flugelhorn solo, enjoy it a lot – some really fine non-trivial ideas, and such an effortless playing. My favorite solo in this BFT. The drummer is on fire! Piano solo. Ha-ha, was it a Shostakovich quote there? Man, I wish the bass was not amplified this aggressively – gets in the way of the piano. Very “composer-ish” type of solo. I like it, a bit messy, but a lot of good ideas. The drum solo is a bit too show-offish, but good. I am not familiar with modern European mainstream jazz bands (these are Europeans, I think), this is good stuff. 7. Nothing much I can say about this one. I think the tune is silly. The bass clarinet improvisation is not interesting. The piano is generic as well. Well, bass clarinet has a nice sound. 8. Good bluesy guitar. Somewhat unexpected groove from bass and drums – I like it. The tenor sound is beautiful with plentiful Phoroahisms, but the solo is noodling. Guitar / bass interplay – I think the improvisations are stagnating, both are marking time. A lot of blues licks from guitar. Again, I guess I like the drummer the most on this track – and the drumming is quite similar to a few previous tracks. Both guitarist and tenorist play well with gorgeous sound, but the improvisations are by the numbers and banal. 9. Well, this is a strange track. Bass and drums are playing horribly together, sounds like the bassist is actively sabotaging the proceedings – the timing and the accents are all wrong. The theme is sort of banal. I like the tenor sound a lot, and his / her playing too (somebody I definitely should know, but can’t ID to my shame), but the rhythm section support is just terrible. Oh, the tenor solo is over already? I think the guy (gal) just got started. The piano solo is OK (the mumbling less so). Annoyingly busy left hand. Why do the drummer and the piano player insist on keeping playing through the bass solo - is this revenge for ruining the track? Overall, curious about the tenorist (who is somewhat underutilized here, IMHO), that’s about the only interesting point for me here. 10. Did not like this one too much either, sorry. The solo bass beginning is good, but then in goes into start-stop potpourri sort of thing with no ideas developed long enough. Very show-offish piano, very few interesting ideas. Good drumming. Mike, thanks for the BFT. This is the music I normally would not listen to, which made this BFT interesting for me. The drumming style (which I mostly liked) is very similar on many tracks, and actually piano playing (which I strongly disliked) is of the same type too.

Just downloaded and listend to this one from 1983: https://destination-out.bandcamp.com/album/was-macht-ihr-denn First of all, the sound quality is excellent - Baby Sommer's drums sound is so full. Second, this is a great work by an excellent ensemble (Van Hove, Mark Charig, Phil Wachsmann and Günter "Baby" Sommer). Highly recommended.

This one by Mototeru Takagi released by good people at NoBusiness is very nice: http://nobusinessrecords.com/mototeru-takagi-live-at-little-john,-yokohama-1999.html . Quite lyrical.

Excellent, thanks.

I hope they don't spend half of the book on bitching about Helma Schleif.

There are a couple of classical CD stores that still manage it somehow (but pale shade of what they were back in a day) and a few second-hand CD / Vinyl stores (one of them, Black Monk, is actually quite good). I've seen a few new small Vinyl-only stores, but I have not been inside.

I saw this band as well, probably around 2002 in Washington, DC. It was an excellent concert, and Jamal's playing was the highlight - all these overtones... Love his trio album with Pierre Dorge and Johnny Dyani on SteepleChase, one of my most-listend jazz albums of the last 20 years or so.

Right you are! I put it in the list.

Denmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Albertson

Scott, you might want to edit the first post in this thread adding the blog's URL.

Thanks, I might check it out since I like Knuffke, but I tend to avoid anything with William Parker.

Well, I didn't know who James Brandon Lewis was, so I checked his Molecular album on INTAKT. I though he was extremely boring. Safe robotic playing, generic compositions. Loved Brad Jones / Chad Taylor team though.

You might want to consider Martial Solal Trio "Triangle": https://www.discogs.com/release/4318656-Martial-Solal-Trio-Triangle - one of the best piano trio records of the last whatever decades, IMHO. But I like Solal in general.

Yeah, let's ban this earless pseudo jazz fan from JAZZ for life and beyond! No one shall doubt the jazz party line (as formulated by Milestone)! felser, thanks for the BFT. For me, the biggest surprise was Ahmed Abdullah's trumpet playing on track 11. I heard his nice (but not exactly earth-shattering) "Diaspora" album on CIMP - his playing is much more mellow there, didn't even consider it might be him. And I still have his Silkheart CD lying around sealed - probably about time I give it a listen. I have another Steve Reid record from the same period (with Arthur Blythe), haven't listened to it for 20 years or so. I seem to remember there were some sound balance issues there.

I love Scriabin, and I have this set. I think it is pretty weak. I the playing is timid and colorless and lacking in dynamics. My recommendation for Scriabin would be Sofronitsky.

Good, thanks, I put the Spotify links on the ist.

Is the trumpeter on track 11 Japanese?