Д.Д.

A new 10-CD box release: http://www.newworldr...&album_id=86954

Stumbled upon some Matana Roberts solo recordings online: http://soundcloud.com/matana-roberts Beautiful sound.

I think the dark sides of Van Vliet's personality have been discussed in the dedicated Captain Beefheart thread, probably no need to repeat it here. I wonder if "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" will get reissued now. Beefheart's best, IMHO. I remember finding it interesting that Anthony Braxton dedicated one of his compositions to "master musician and composer" Don Van Vliet.

Check out Djeli Moussa Diawara's (then spelled as Jali Musa Jawara) classic debut 1982 album, "Yasimika". Not really jazz (although it has a lot of improvisation), and IMHO much stronger than everything he has recorded afterwards. Excellently recorded as well. The CD has been OOP for many years, but it is expected to be re-released soon. You can listen to the complete album on Diawara's website: http://www.djelimous...982-remasterise

In case anybody's interested: Corbett vs. Dempsey is selling a recording of Broetzmann / Harry Miller 1980 duo concert recording from their website for $20: http://corbettvsdempsey.com/publications.html Please note that this is an audience recording of merely adequate sound quality and it is just 14 minutes long. However, this is a scantily documented (on CD, at least) collaboration, and the music is good (although definitely not the best Broetzmann out there).

P.L.M., my friend, even though I might miss our opinion battles of the old days, we won't have one now . I do believe Akosh is one of the more interesting reed players today - at least in the jazz realm. The other thing is that jazz playing field is far from inspiring these days (IMHO) so yes he might be merely a big fish in a small pond. And yes, I agree with you that Akosh's duos are more interesting than his Unit stuff - I thought his recent one with electronics player erikM was very intriguing, if not always working entirely perfectly (but reeds / electronics duos are difficult stuff to pull off). In case you are wondering who of the current reeds players I actually find interesting, there are not that many and these are mostly people playing music beyond jazz (John Butcher, Martin Kuchen - I think his solo released this year is fantastic http://www.mathka.pl/martin-kuchen-the-lie-and-the-orphanage/, Seymour Wright, Bhob Rainey, Lucio Capece, Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour, and a few others).

One of the most interesting reeds players on the scene today, IMHO. I like everything I've heard by him. His website seems to have streaming audio for each of his albums, so go check it out.

The only problem with this tour for me is that FZ's solos were probably some of the least interesting since the sixties, IMHO.

Frank Zappa - guitar, synthesizer Patrick O'Hearn - bass Terry Bozzio - drums I remember having read that FZ was apparently contemplating a tour with this trio (he was suing Warner Bros, and was not sure he could finance a larger band). A shame it never happened, probably would have been the most improv-heavy Zappa's tour.

Something seems to be not right with the distribution of Zappa's Ryko CDs (at least judging by amazon.com listings). Earlier this year quite a few disappeared temporarily for quite some time, and now some seem to be available only as amazon CD-R editions ("Guitar", for example). I don't know the details of the ZFT / Ryko agreement; but I think there was some acrimony there. Ryko overtake by Warner Bros. also didn't help, perhaps. ZFT has the original tapes, and is allowed to release their versions of the albums in Ryko's possession (albeit using different mastering and under different titles, and without using the original artwork - like in the case of MOFO and Lumpy/Money). Anybody knows anything specific?

Have been listening to some great Ocora stuff recently, decided to check if there is anything on the label at organissimo, and here I am. Great label, I don;t have that many discs yet. Here is what I can recommend for the four people who are interested in this stuff here: Cordes D'Africue (Strings of Africa) - 3-CD set of string/vocal music from Madagascar / Burundi / Sierra Leone. Available relaitively cheap at amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co...ollectorzcom-21 You will hear where the blues came from . Get it while it is available, as individual CDs seem to be OOP. Albania. Pays Labe. - Plaintes et chants d'amour / Complaints and Love Songs. I am a fan of polyphonic singing, and this is quite unique stuff. India - Inde: Rajasthan. Les Musiciens du desert. Exhilarating vocal music from Rajahstan (India). Very energetic. Ocora website: http://sites.radiofr...ion=21&chaine=0

Interesting thread. In addition to McLean, Roscoe Mitchell and Braxton (of the latter I have 45 albums, including some multi-CD boxes, and I did spend substantial amount of time listening to his music) mentioned above, I would say Mingus. I have most of his stuff, and I am not sure if I ever really liked it that much. First, I can't appreciate his bass playing (sound too tense and contrived; solos boring and often too busy, IMHO), and his compositions and arrangements I find somewhat formulaic and stifling (I like "What Love?", though). Might be also due to Dannie Richmond's presence - don't like his style either. At the moment, Mingus Plays Piano is the only album of his I return to often. Then, Ornette. I think I have his complete discography, save for a couple of items. Love his compositions, particularly the earlier ones, never managed to appreciate his solos - they all sound very much the same to me (again, earlier ones I find more appealing).

Would you be able to compare with the original CD issues?

I've been looking for this one for a few years now... The best bet would be some second hand CD shops in France...

That reminded me of some of those Playboy jazz polls- Paul McCartney on bass, Edgar Winter on sax, Chuck Mangione on trumpet, etc. Don't forget Eric Clapton on guitar There's a thread over on the Hoffman forum about Clapton playing "jazz" - at least according to some bright minds over there And Phil Collins on drums

Let me highly recommend the recently released compilation Captain Beefheart's Jukebox (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Beefhearts-Jukebox-Various-Artists/dp/B0024DIZPI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1271961759&sr=8-1). It is well researched and thoughtfully compiled, with good liner notes. Mainly consists of excellent blues numbers (and I am not too knowledgeable about the blues, so most of the stuff was new for me), and really highlights the fact that good Captain didn't appear fully formed out of nowhere, but developed on what has been done before him.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just repackaged the original CDs. That's my assumption too, even though the Cam Jazz website says "patiently integrally remastered paying strict attention to the sound quality".

Comments on the sound of these vs. the single CD editions would be appreciated.

http://www.freedomofthecity.org

I placed 4-5 orders with the over the last few years. Never had any problems.

I think Waldron is best in duos - he really tends to bring out the best in his partners in such a setting. In addition to numerous duos with Lacy, I would recommend: "Songs of Love and Regret" with Marion Brown "After Hours" with Jeanne Lee "Left Alone '86" with Jackie McLean "Left Alone Revisited" with Archie Shepp (Waldron's last, I think) and conditionally, "One More Time" with Jean-Jacques Avenel (Avenel overplays a bit, but Waldron's solo "All Alone" is phenomenal, and there are a couple of wonderful tracks with Lacy).

Gentle Giant's "Free Hand", "The Power and the Glory" and "In a Glass House" will be reissued in the end of January. These are the remasters from the original 1/4-inch tapes, which were apparently not available for the previous reissues. Some audio and video bonus material is going to be included too. Available for pre-order at amazon and cduniverse.

It appears that this is related to an imminent reissuing of much of the Zappa catalog. Most of these 1995 CDs are now discounted at Amazon and DeepDiscount.com if they are still available. Has anyone heard these new versions yet? I can't seem to find a ton of info on release dates and am trying to decide whether it's worthwhile to just pick up the old versions. My main goal is to avoid the albums that FZ butchered with redone drums and so forth (I know some of the 1995 series suffered from this). Imminent reissues? I very much doubt it. ZFT can barely handle issuing a couple of titles per year, them reissuing the whole FZ catalog of 70+ titles in unthinkable. Just two recent ZFT releases can conditionally qualify as reissues: MOFO (which contains the original mono mix of Freak Out!), and Lumpy / Money containing mono mix of "We're Only in it for the Money" and an a few rare versions of "Lumpy Gravy". Many FZ titles desperately need a new reissue treatment, "Hot Rats", "Uncle Meat" and "Sheik Yerbouti" in particular.

Why, we already see what happens. Old FMP stuff is being reissued on jazzwerkstatt (http://www.jazzwerkstatt-online.de/ ), and there are new FMP releases on "FMP-Publishing" : http://www.fmp-label.de/ . The "old" FMP (http://free-music-production.de/ ) is now only in charge of TMM festival, it seems.