Д.Д.

Of Free America's I thought Burrell and Thornton were the best, and for me, the only really essential discs in the series. Shepp I found extremely weak - and I am quite a fan of this period of Shepp (check out Blasé on BYG for his good work from this period). Braxton's solo is OK, but I like his later solo recordings more (like solo Milano and Köln from late '70s released on Leo). Braxton's "Donna Lee" is quite superficial, mannered and dated. Of AEoC stuff "Phase One" is good, but not really on the level of their best works (like "Fanfare for the Warriors" or "People in Sorrow"). The rest is between merely average (Wright) and weak (Bley, Lacy, Rudd). I need to revisit Emergency - don't remember it too well.

Same stuff. I have DA Musik / Black Lion eidtion of Silent Tongues: http://www.da-music.de/shop/dispitem.php3?...=0&maxrec=3 Jazz Colors series on DA Musik has a lot of good stuff - I just listened to Bechet/Pee Wee Russell set today - excellent. Don Byas concert recordings are outstanding as well. And the sound is good. I don't have Dexter (not a big fan).

I think 1201 licensed them from DA Musik for US distribution. "Air..." is good, for sure.

Da Musik / Black Lion is reissuing Cecil Taylor's solo Indent in 24-bit. This is one of Cecil's best solo records, IMO, and DA Musik is doing a good job with remastering (they did Cecil's Silent Tonguges in 2000).

Well, E and AK, are you up for keeping it up? I know PLM is around here somewhere, too. I wonder if Chaney and DD went over to Bagatellen, the usual source for EAI and improv banter... We did not go anywhere (at least I didn't). I'm just not too much in a mood to discuss music at the moment (don't listen too much either). There is no point in keeping the thread up just for the sake of it. I don't think this was ever the point - to have it stuck at the top permanently; nobody who used to post here really cared about that. Go for it, if you have anything to discuss that fits here. Currently I don't. When/if I do, I'll be back.

yeah. it hit really hard. i thought i knew shosty, but damn! proky and stravy can hit pretty hard as well. But you know them, of course.

Nate, I can't help with the original artwork, but did you try searching in the packaging behind the disc section? A few of the HatHut editions have inserts behind the disc - they are not really noticeable. I am also a bit ambivalent about hatOLOGY cover art - just as ECM's I enjoy many of them individually, but at some point, after 100 of similar covers it's enough...

I am a fan of Hans Koller as well. Some MPS stuff has been reissues in the Universal Japan HardCore Jazz series (Cecil, Sun Ra, etc.).

I don't know how about you guys, but I am quite excited about the new release of Mike Patton's project Peeping Tom (haven't heard it yet; just placed an order). Mike Patton might be my favorite living male vocalist. For those of you who are not familir with Patton (can it be so?!?), here's a little video of his performance.

You'll not be enjoying this one then: I don't like Ballet Mécanique too much mainly because it's infested with Stravinsky clichés. I enjoy Serenade and Symphony much more.

Waldron's one of the last (recorded in January 2002) - and one of the best, IMO - recordings One More Time (Sketch) features Lacy on a couple of tracks (in trio with Jean-Jacques Avenel). Superb.

We're Only In It For the Money has some of Zappa's best melodies, IMO. You might wanna check out Make a Jazz Noise Here, a '88 live recording that contians an excellent instrumental medley of We're Only in It for the Money tunes.

Go for Borodin Quartet or a cheap Shostakovich Quartet box on Regis.

Diluted focus. There is much less of Butcher here than you would hear on his solo disc, and I miss it.

Flurin, I assume you checked out the samples on the CD baby website - they are normally quite generous, so you can get a more-or-less clear picture what to expect. So, Bühler is excellent. Sort of a delicate extended technicues solo thing. Get it without hesitation. Tri-O is good, but not as good as their later incarnations. Eneidi disc I don't have but you can download huge sound samples of various live performances of this trio from here. Butcher - Masaoka - Robair I used to like a lot, but now, having heard more solo Butcher, this is definitely not on that level. Masaoka is quite an incoherent imprivisor (doing these pretty but mindless decorative koto splaches most of the time), and the whole thing is not very focused (atypically for Butcher). If you need more CD Baby recommendations, I suggest you get this, and this, and this as well. And get the Vapirov disc.

I'll check it out.

Claude Delangle - "Solitary Saxophone" (BIS, 1994) = stunning Listen here.

Amazon.fr has a nice €6 sale on Harmonia Mundi titles

If he didn't respect his own music, why would he rehearse his band for 8 months before going on a tour? I also don't feel Zappa's live guitar solos are particualrly "fuck me" or empty or non-invovled either. I do think there are certain problems with Zappa's "lite" music, which IMO come from his fundamental underestimation and misuderstnding of his core fan base. As for Zappa being an asshole, this is the veiw expressed by a few (not all) of the first-generation MOI members. For whatever reason all the musicians from his later bands tend to talk about FZ in delighted terms exclusively. FZ definitely didn't punch any of his musicians in the face...

Well, I am not a big fan of Mangelsdorff. But Brötzmann-Mangelsdorff-Bennink-Van Hove Live in Berlin '71 (FMP) is one of my favorite Brötzmann discs. But largely due to Van Hove's playing. I dunno. Get it, of course Did you get the Alarm reissue yet? Gave it one listen - very impressive. And different from other Brötzmann discs I have (30, as of last count... hardly a half of Gary's Brötzmann collection, I guess). Very highly organized music (as is obvious from the tightly notated score below)

It's FMR, not FMP.

1. I love all these scratchy vinyl sounds. Punchy bass. I first thought this was theremin, not voice Sounds groovy. Well written. Guitar solo – nice and sweet, classic Green sound… but nothing really special. I like these little ostinato phrases of saxophones behind the solo. There is even tuba! Piano solo is way too generic - I tend to focus more on what this funny phrasing of saxophones and tuba behind it. Bass is huge! Really good writing – I like that they seem to bit out of sync, but still it all falls into place perfectly. Good collective horn improvisation piece (reminded me of writing on Kind Crimson’s “Lizard”) – would have liked them freaking out more). I like the sample idea, but it’s already a bit too long. Good stuff overall, I just missed strong improvisations here. 2. Two basses (or one is cello?) with trombone. Yeah, cello. Cute quirky theme – but repeated a bit too much. Are they going to improvise or what?. Hoopla, was this a trombone breathing sound at 3:40 – it’s such a clean performance overall, nice to have a bit of human imperfections creeping in. Not too happy with the track actually – the emphasis is on the writing (as opposed to improvisation), and it is not too interesting here. Glenn Ferris, I guess, on one of his Enja HW albums. He can do much better than this when he stretches (saw him live recently, and he is very impressive). 3. Cute percussion. Nice bass clarinet sound. Well written, excellently performed, but for me it very much follows the pattern of first two tracks – well-written quirky pretty themes, interesting arrangements with counterpoints, and very superficial improvisations. All very clean. But really well played. Could be Sclavis on bass clarinet. 4. Well played clever music. Not something I would be interested in listening to normally. Vibes solo is noodling. Bassist sounds like the one from track 1 – very (too?) assertive. Trumpet (cornet?) I like more – bassist is pulling too much on himself here. Trombone solo is good. All in-the-pocket. 5. No-no-no. Just nothing I could hold on to here. So bland. 2 minutes only and I am ready for it to end. Piano solo is not too bad, though. 6. Oh, thumb piano… nice. I think the drums here is a bad idea – the music would have been much more liquid and light without this constant bass drum pulse that nails it to the ground every second. Also sounds like something Enjas would release. Oh, there’s balafon here as well. The idea is nice, but it just does not work overall – drums I mentioned already, but also piano (the pianist is most likely German – all these annoying schooled romantic piano clichés…) just overdoes it. I still have to hear a good African folk / Jazz fusion, though, so these guys are not the only ones who failed. This is still better than what Roswell Rudd did on his “Malicool” stuff. Probably this is Trio Ivoire – I have their disc somewhere, too lazy to check now. 7. Also African-inspired. I like it. Beautiful alto sound – light and sweet, not too imposing, without overdone vibrato. Quite similar to Funny Rat’s perennial favorite Gianni Gebbia in sound. I like what drums/bass are doing – some very intricate drums playing; bass is very percussive and a good counterpart to drums. Alto is not doing anything outstanding (could have stretched a bit more, really), but it’s OK – still sounds nice. Excellent drums solo. This low-tuned drum sound in the right channel surely is good. Hamid Drake’s influence, but I don’t think this is him. Good stuff. 8. Some blues – good transition. Funny what drummer is doing – I like it, even if it does not fit too well into the whole blues framework. I like the guitarist in the right channel more – he’s less predictable. Sweet. 9. Nice bass clarinet into. This other low instrument - I cannot even tell what it is. Sounds a very dated – late 80s/early 90s – you can’t imagine music like this recorded these days. This leading saxophone (soprano or alto? I can’t tell) surely sounds ugly. Again, cleverly conceived and executed, but just no strong improvisations… 10. Sounds like something from the CMP label. This synth. sound - argghh. Well, here is alto sound that I would have problems listening to for too long (even if the ideas are good – and I like the ideas here). Drummer sounds like Chad Wakerman. Too stiff for my tastes. Overall, this is all so stiff and forced… I don’t like it. Oh, it’s not the end, there is a trumpet solo here. Solo is OK, sounds like Kenny Wheeler at his more exuberant (meaning, this is not him), overdoing all these high notes. Man, this is long (and tiring) track. This repetitive bass riff is very annoying. Yeah, all we needed here is more of these cheapo synth sounds. I think this is not good at all. 11. Nice, very Milesian trumpet. I bit of diversity in the rhythm section’s playing wouldn’t have hurt. 12. The bass guitar player really overdoes it. I like the alto a lot – the most interesting improvisation on the disc so far (even if the technique is not perfect – it sounds like there are some intonation problems in the beginning and end of the solo). Bass guitarists produces about three times more notes than would have been adequate. I’m curious about the altoist. 13. No. I mean it’s nice to have cello as a solo instrument, but without any original ideas it does not get beyond a gimmick factor. We heard a lot of piano solos like this. Little polite drums breaks… Just no challenge whatsoever. I don’t see the point. 14. I like the vibes solo. The sound is without new-agey psychedelic cheesyness, but very focused. The band arrangement is rather clumsy, and the theme is a bit too corny, IMO. French horn – beautiful, beautiful sound. 15. Very sweet. Strangely recorded – is it two sets of vibes, each separately miked? I’d like it longer. Hey, what’s with these sounds at the end? Thanks Mike.

The music that separates the guys who understand from the guys who don't.

Beacuase we guys actually buy it. And us guys like this are not too many.