Д.Д.

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.

An early symptom of abbeyfication? I am not sure how you guessed I've been listening to Jon's stuff lately ... Drumm/Dörner duo CD (erstwhile 015) is highly recommended. Just checked the Erstwhile website, and it's OOP! Temporarily, I guess?

I'm also not quite in the mood to listen to "One Too Many..." or similar sort of stuff at the moment. What I did listen to with pleasure recently was: Yes, if you are into extreme vocal techniques. I am. Recorded in various inappropriate places (elevators, roofs, basements, etc.). You want a cover? Here is the cover: Now looking forward to listening to Fe-Mail's (of which Ms. Ratkje is a memebr) "All Men Are Pigs" (gameboy) with talented Mr. Lasse Marhaug. You want more covers? Here is the cover:

DA SHIT seems to have fall in every aspect (musicianship level, ideas, musical ambition), lately. But the problem for me has always been that the only thing who was of any interest to me in GEBBIA'works, before ARCANA MAJOR, was, already, his solo work. The rest, even when associate to my avatar or DAMON SMITH wasn't on the same level and no match for the best alto/bass/drums trio recorded at that time (notably, those of Marco ENEIDI). I will try to see Gebbia next week in Palermo, and will voice your concerns. Gebbia's best sax-bass-drums trio disc is Outland (Splasc(H), 1990) - one of his earliest records. My nomination for one of the most insteresting alto-bass-drums combo is Mikolaj Trzaska - Peter Friis Nielsen - Peeter Uuskyla. But I would agree on Eneidi as well. When I saw Trzaska live, I recommended he checks out Eneidi, because I hear some similarities in their approach (Lyons heritage). He didn't know about Eneidi, but was interested.

Doesn't work in "more options".

Just listened to it today. Good stuff. Not as good as the Isipingo disc in the box, but still quite impressive.

IIrc, you could search for exact word combinations putting them in quotation marks. Does not seem to work now - just returns results for any of the words from a phrase.

If I remember correctly, it's quite boring. It's not really a Kontz date, but the one by pianist (forgot the name now). All musicians play well (except for Mahall, who is here, as elsewhere, a very superficial player), but somehow don't click together - drummer is too swinging, pianist too academic, etc. I don't rememebr vocalizing - I believe there is just recitation in Japanese of short Haiku written by each of the musicians. I will give it a spin some time soon to refresh my memory.

Tom Cora - late NYC downtown cello innovator. Played some heavy fiery stuff. His compilation disc on Knitting Facotry (with many of the NYC downtown big names - Zirn, Frith, etc.) is essential. Matt Turner is my favorite living cellist (and a very distinctive pianist as well). He has several outsntainding solo records on Meniscus ("The Mouse that Roared" it's called, I htink) and Fever Pitch. Vincent Coutois, who's been mentioned above, has a beutiful intense solo on Enja MW from a couple of years ago - I would recommend it above his sideman works. Joan Jeanrenaud from Kronos Quartet has engaged in several improv. projects with success. I would highly recommend her disc with Larry Ochs and Miya Masaoka called "Fly, Fly, Fly" (on Intakt). Erik Friedlander's solo disc "Maldoror" mentioned by ubu is excellent (CD Baby site has a lot of samples), and is better than anything elese he's done (IMO). Thomas Demenga has released some very intersting things on ECM, includign veryl iberal interpretations of Bach's cello sonatas. Daniel Levin has a nice disc on Riti - it's in quartet (bass, vibes, cornet, cello). Fred Lonberg-Holm is very active in very diverse projects. I really enjoyed his duo with Carlos Zingaro (violin) released on his own Flying Aspidistra label this year. Ernst Reijseger menitoned by Nat is a improv. cello vetaran. I like his work in a long-standing trio with Georg Gräwe and Gerry Hemingway (they just released a new one on Winter & Winter). Tristan Honsinger has been doing some insane things with cello as well. Frances-Marie Uitti impressed me a lot on her heavy duo "Sonomondo" with Mark Dresser on Cryptogrammophon - they should have full tracks available for downloading on Crypto website. Yes for Peggy Lee! Wanna hear her doing decorative work - go for Dave Douglas stuff. Somehting more creative - try "Western Front" with Carlos Zingaro on hatOLOGy recommended above, or her work on (her?) Spool label. I actually would not recommend David Eyges - this is essentially bass-like plucking type of playing within a very limited blues-based framework. Enjoyable (and well-played, for sure), but not too creative or original, IMO.

I am quite confused by Gebbia's post-Arcana Major output as well (quite sizeable by now) - not even approaching its level. ------------------ For Nakatani, look out for his solo "Green Report" on his own H&H Production label. Good stuff. ------------------ Back to the welcoming EAI land: Xavier Charles / Diane Labrosse / Kristoff K. Roll /Martin Tétrault: Tout le Monde en Place Pour un Set Americain (Victo) is one of the most captivating and engaging things in the genre I've heard. AMG review

I adore Feldman. Radigue I don't know. Airplaines sounds I hate.

Sure. I make about 120 flights per year - and just about 12 train rides. Excitement of railway sounds exploration hasn't worn off yet. I just have to check that I don't have this Distel's disc on my collection.

maybe if David's description had much of a basis in reality, anyway. Would "one of the most boring discs I've heard lately" work better ?

Julien Ottavi / Dion Workman: misenlian (Erstwhile) Know airplanes? Enjoy the sounds they make? Then this is the one for you. Sound pallett covers the exciting range of A340 to B747 to Fokker 50 at various stages of the flight.

This is the long-promised Roxy DVD material, I guess. Gail keeps complaining about commercial challenges of making new FZ material available, but if ZFT had the DVD available during the concerts, they would sell like hot cakes with no overhead costs...

Would be a good choice for a listening session - does anybody but Tony and me have it? Tony, did you ever get a replacement of a defective disc from Sachimay?

Just listened to this one, and yes, I agree - this is an excellent disc! What the music is like? Well... it has all these sounds... you know... brrrrr and pshshshshsh and fsssss and tsk-tsk-tsk and click-click and bzbzbz... some times loud some times soft... you know how it gois... good stuff, in short. 5-minute mp3

Talking about Jack Wright, I see there is one release of him (in duo with Reuben Radding) in the Sachimay Intervention series ($5 per disc): http://www.sachimayrecords.com/21-24.htm

From Damon Smith:

No good. I assume with new website and all that, old FMP releases will be maintained in print. I wonder if TMM will still take place? Last TMM had 2-3 interesting concerts - I was hoping they would get released on FMP one day. As for the already "ready for release" stuff, probably Atavistic could help ? Just heard about this here--not entirely shocking, but I'm still a little surprised. I hope the catalogue remains in print--I'd been holding out on far too many (and, cripes, after-market prices are going to skyrocket). The best prices for FMP I've found are from themusicresource.com, and surprisingly they have most of them available.