Д.Д.

BYG / Actuel story is definitely worth a detailed book. There's a good recent one on ESP Disk, and the story of BYG is at east as exciting. Some of the music released by the label - e.g. Jacques Coursil - is among the best jazz of that period, IMHO.

It's on Spotify (courtesy of Charly) for a few years now, I think. Sounds like a (good) needle drop:

Not if it is a limited edition Japanese raccoon.

EU is a single market, the goods bought through amazon.it are not necessarily invoiced by "amazon Italy" (normally EU amazon purchases are invoiced by their head Luxembourg office) or shipped from Italy. Amazon automatically tracks where the goods go for VAT collection purposes, so they might share this information with Sony Europe. The low price has nothing to do with exchange rate of course, this is most likely a mistake that will be corrected pretty soon. These happen with amazon from time to time - I guess many here bought Billie Holiday Complete Columbia set for $17 at amazon.com in 2001.

Thanks, Lon.

Are any of these new remasters a noticeable / substantial improvement? I got "Unity", and I liked its sound quite a bit better than the standard RVG, but that's about all I bothered to check.

Well, Mark Helias is still active, right? He's got a new solo one, btw:

Both Noble and Sanders are great (for very different reasons). Edwards is definitely good, but I can't say I enjoy his playing that much. Regarding bassists, the other day I was listening to an old Lol Coxhill / George Haslam album and there is a fantastic British bassist on it, Steve Kershaw. What a great DEEP sound. https://www.discogs.com/release/2542327-George-Haslam-Richard-Leigh-Harris-Steve-Kershaw-featuring-Lol-Coxhill-From-Whichford-Hill

Who's that? Edwards / Sanders?

Coincidentally, was listening to this one (well, first two tracks) a few days ago in order to decide whether I want to go see Jones live. Well, I am not going. I thought Jones's playing was extremely robotic - no variation in sound, intonation, no nuance whatsoever. Very narrow expressive palette. Both the tunes and backing from drums / bass also sounded quite basic (again, I got as far as the second track only). This is what I imagine AI would come up with. I have some old Jones' CDs and I remember liking them when they were released; got to revisit them soon. Might be candidates for culling - I need some space for that John Lennon "Mind Games" box. It's not all negativity here. I really enjoyed this recent release from Travis Reuter (whom I never heard of previously): https://travisreuter.bandcamp.com/album/quintet-music Among many positives (Mark Shim!), isn't it nice to hear Tyshawn Sorey in expansive bashing mode?!

Ayler Records (no introduction needed, I guess) is offering its full digital discography (that's 165 albums you will never find time to listen to) for €265.50 (+ bullshit taxes as appropriate) at bandcamp. A lot of goodies. Go to any Ayler release and scroll down to the offer: https://ayler-records.bandcamp.com/album/mmxxiv-ad .

Your kids might enjoy this interpretation: and part 2: I have and still do.

There is a new first-ever CD release of a duo concert of Kloss with Barry Miles in Bremen in 1978: https://www.discogs.com/release/31022905-Eric-Kloss-Barry-Miles-Live-In-Bremen-1978-Vol-1 Vol. 2 is supposed to be released later this year.

Unexpectedly, there is a new Happy Apple CD (recorded in 2020, as I understand)! Their last one was released 17(!) years ago. At first listen, this one is not as good as their previous ones - but good stuff nonetheless.

Thanks for the link to Klatt documentary. Very strong player. I have one of his CDs, will get more. A similar story of Johannes 'Jo' Barthelmes, an excellent German tenor/soprano player of the same generation (born in mid-'50s) who initially enjoyed widespread critical acclaim, recorded of couple of excellent albums and then completely dropped out of music for 20+ years. He unexpectedly reemerged a couple of years ago and plays well:

Do you think you could ask him? I am very curious who this could be.

Extra Ball "Birthday" is an EXCELLENT fusion album: Good tunes, tight tight playing, solos not too long, keyboards not overly cheesy. Great bass / drums interplay. What more could you possibly wish for on a fusion record?

Yes, very expressive. Really good album overall.

I have been exploring some Polish jazz hitherto unknown to me over the last couple of days. I liked this one a lot: An excellent energetic post-bop tenor (and soprano) trio album. Maciej Sikala is a very accomplished saxophone player - from a technical standpoint at least, quite possibly the strongest I've heard among Polish saxophonists. Such a gorgeous tenor sound. And the drummer, the late Jacek Olter (died by suicide at the age of 28 in 2001), is such a powerhouse here.

This is a very nice album led by a fine clarinetist Emil Kowalski (all but one tune are actually written by the band's bass player, Piotr Lemańczyk):

It's a guitar duo with several tracks being just Hall solo: https://liviarecords.com/product/louis-stewart-with-jim-hall-the-dublin-concert/

Mozg club / label bandcamp page has a good selection of yass recordings: https://muzykazmozgu.bandcamp.com/music with this being an excellent scene overview compilation: https://muzykazmozgu.bandcamp.com/album/yass-sk-adanka-jazz-forum

An excellent documentary about the Polish band Miłość - their attempted reunion after 10 years of not playing together. AFAIC, this is some of the most original jazz (they preferred calling it "yass") Poland has produced so far. A nice footage of Lester Bowie too.

OK, let's move on, shall we. Here is another one I have been enjoying: Mieczysław Kosz solo piano release as a part of the Polish Radio Jazz Archives series: It's ever so slightly in the cocktail bar piano territory, but somehow still tasteful and the "sound of surprise" is there (not an easy feat). Kosz would die at the age of 29 falling out of the window, so there are not too many recordings of him available.

Nothing wrong with history, of course... But don't you feel that saying "who is who of Polish jazz" about a recording made in 1973 sort of dismisses everything made since then?