Д.Д.

Did not know abut this one, will check it out. I like piano-drums duo format.

America First was a joke, of course. Since a lot of Americans (on Discogs, for example) don't sell overseas anymore, I thought that in addition to costs there might be other factors there - like customs forms to fill or whatever. I used to buy a lot of CDs from the US. Now with shipping rates this high (and with costs of CDs going down here in Europe), this rarely makes sense. And well, I don't buy that many CDs anymore anyway.

I am not interested in the CDs, but just curious - what's up with the US-only shipping? America First? Has it become more cumbersome to ship out of the US?

Backed up by the fact that he never did release anything like this during his own lifetime, and it was not released until 25 years after his passing. Nobody releases albums with rough mixes and demo versions during their "active" years, no surprise here. When exactly it was released after FZ's passing is irrelevant as far as the "validity" of such a release is concerned - Zappa was not in charge anymore. There were only three posthumous albums that he slated for release before his death - "Civilization Part III", "Lost Episodes" and "Trance-Fusion". 50 more were released since then. Whether he would have wanted these released now is unknowable. I suspect McCartney and Ringo would have shuddered at the thought of releasing Abbey Road demos in 1970. In 2019 they seem to be just fine with this. I am glad these sessions were released. I am not interested in a physical release, but they are worth listening to a couple of times, and hearing how the tunes we know progressed in the studio is quite fascinating. There is a lot of jamming with some good solos that did not make it to the album. And it's a nice touch to start the set with "Piano Music", one of my favorite Zappa compositions.

Hot Rats sessions on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5HtSs1Y0MsCTPHpXBvVS2t A lot of Don 'Sugarcane' Harris here.

Some excellent Beefhert-influenced music: Henry Kaiser, Paul Plimley, Lukas Ligeti, Weasel Walter "The Starbreak Splatterlight": https://open.spotify.com/album/2FFfsdcvGaNEWVaeNckvpg

I guess Ayler Records could not resist releasing one more album after the official label shut-down: http://www.ayler.com/frederick-galiay-time-elleipsis.html Hope there will be more to come.

New (well, recorded in 1998) double-bass duo by Barre Phillips and Teppo Hauta-aho: https://open.spotify.com/album/11ir5zPLKH8fU20e2Q4NMc

👍👍👍 and many more !!! Yes, that's the only Bartok quartets recording I know, and I was never inclined to investigate further - this one sounds just fine.

1984 and 1988 solos. Released after Zappa's death. Sounds better than contemporaneously recorded stuff released during FZ's lifetime - this is probably the best FZ live release (so far) to hear Thunes's bass and Wakerman's drums. Not as good as "Guitar" and SUAPYG but still. Best track, IMO: Best track: https://open.spotify.com/track/0gFHij17zQ7PJrOtjJhA9Y

On "Trance-Fusion" too.

It's good stuff. At this stage, Zappa's guitar solos are my favorite Zappa by far.

Do you like this one?

Chuck referred to his interaction with Zappa previously

You probably mean "Eat That Question": https://www.amazon.com/Eat-That-Question-Frank-Zappa/dp/B01J2E59OG/ Excellent article, Larry. There are not that many contemporary reviews of Zappa's music written by somebody with the knowledge of jazz and classical music. This reminded me of Zappa being praised by Brubeck: DB: Oh yeah. My sons, especially Chris and Danny, loved rock and were involved in rock bands, and would bring home rock musician friends that I grew to respect gradually because they were such great musicians. And, there's a lot of it that doesn't seem to move me that much, but there's some that does, like -- Iola, who's that great rock composer that I like so much? IB: Sting? DB: Sting is one, but before Sting -- I played with him in a Boston concert. IB: You played with him in Boston? DB: Yeah. Oh, dear. IB: Oh, I know who you're thinking, Frank Zappa. DB: Frank Zappa. SS: Really? Brubeck and Zappa, huh? DB: Well, we were on the same night, and I thought some of the things he was doing were just terrible because they had on rain clothes, and high boots like you were going through a storm, and rain hats -- you know, those yellow kind of hats, and they would roll on the floor and everything. Then I started listening to the music rather than looking at these guys, and I was thinking, "Boy, there's a lot going on there musically." So, you never want to put down any trend, any direction. Zappa was a complex guy. For whatever reason he chose to cultivate this public image of a cynical, bitter, arrogant know-it-all. People who knew him well for years - his musicians - are invariably (with exception of early Mothers) in owe of him - both as a musician and as a person. I still have to find a single negative comment about Zappa from any of the musicians who worked with him post-1969. There are many reports of one-off encounters with Zappa (not from journalists, though) where he was generous and caring (I liked the story where two teenage brothers somewhere in Sweden persuaded him - after having played two shows in a row - to come to their place in the middle of the night to say hi to their youngest brother who was not allowed to go to the concert by their parents). Part of the problem with Zappa's public image was that he really wanted to be viewed as a "serious composer", and the world failed him! Perhaps he also understood that as a "serious" composer he was actually not that great. Decent, competent - sure, but Ravel he was not.

Again, we don't really know the details. According to initial press-release by Outhere, Uehlinger was supposed to stay with them curating new Hat releases. It could have been that he brought them all these projects (e.g. the Giuffre release was mastered back in 2017), and they told him they are not interested. So he said "Gopfetori you Tubel, I will release them myself!". And he did. Lucky us?

Steve, thanks for sharing your live impressions, very interesting. I think I saw Maneri live only once - with Joe Morris group, about 20 years ago. I hated it, mostly because of Morris's boring verbose playing. For me my favorite Maneri is still his three old Trio (with Randy Peterson and Ed Schuller) albums on Leo (which can be now bought for GBP 2.50 each as a part of the Leo end-of-the-year sale). I would reiterate my recommendation for the "Fantasm" trio disc with Maurer and Ban (https://open.spotify.com/album/4T2KdOPqKlfOKIeBXR9S68), I think having another violin player in the group brings out more variety in Maneri's playing.

This is great. It's funny how they switch between English, French and Russian (and a bit of German). Stravinsky seems to be such a nice guy. Don't know Nabokov's music, will check it out.

But "ezz-thetics" is not even the label name, it is just the name of the series. The legal entity is still Hat Hut Records Ltd. of Basel, Switzerland (see bottom right corner below).

If it were an outright purchase it would not have been "Hat Hat for Outhere" I think... Whatever, they are grown-ups, I guess they will figure it our between themselves. I only hope the back catalog (including hat ART 6000 series!) will remain available on Spotify. It will be funny if Uehlinger starts recompiling his previous Hat Hat releases for ezz-thetic imprint. In any case, he is releasing new music (and, surprisingly, a lot of it), and I am thankful for this.

Well, we don't know the details. The new Outhere Hat Hat reissues state "for Outhere by Hat Hat" - this might be merely a licensing / distribution deal. In any case, I think it's safe to say that what's happening now is not what Outhere expected. Herr Ubu, care to investigate?

Just ordered the Giuffre one today. Hard to say what Outhere plans to do with the Hat Hut catalog. They had just two CDs reissued in 2019 (Mengelberg and ROVA) and there is nothing listed in the "upcoming" section.