Д.Д.

Friends, very OOP solo Bhob Rainey "Withered Grasses" (Tautology, 1999) is available from jazzloft for $15. Got my copy, haven't listened to it yet. Since we are in the solo reeds territory, let me reiterate this: Gets better at every listen. And a really beautiful sound (recorded at Maybeck Recital hall). ------------------------ Also, I was enjoying Julius Hemphill & Abdul Wadud: "Live in New York" (Red Records) today. I have most of available Hemphill, and I think this is his best one. Recorded live in 76; Hemphill is extremely lyrical, melodic, searching and free. What amazed me while I listened to it today is that Wadud is playing very West-African type of accompaniment (I guess I noticed it only today since I've been listening to a lot of Malian music lately) - this hypnotic repetative percussive figures in odd meters... his cello even sounds like some African instrument. I am not sure whatthe status of Red Records is right now, so I suggest you do not wait for too long with getting this one - I can't imagine you can be disappointed with it. Well, listened to another Hemphill-Wadud duo: Oakland Duets (Music & Arts). This one is recorded much later - in 92. It is also a good one, but not as astonishing as "Live in New York". First, the sound balanse is worse - Wadud is too upfront vs. Hemphill. Second, there is less stretching - theseare shorter tunes - and tunes they are: songlike and pretty; Wadud is doing a more standard "walking" sort of playing - no Africanisms here, IMO. Still excellent music. Now will go for "Buster Bee" - hemphill's duo with Olvier Lake on Sackville.

Shit, I was pretty confident this was Kühn on track 10 - I cannot think of anybody else playing like this. I think I will guess the tenor on this track - I have a feeling that I know him. I just need to work through my CD collection. So it is not Humair on track 3? Michelot is easily recognisable (and you are right about him being one of the most precise bassists - every note is exactly where it should be - and not a single note more than necessery) - I would have been sure ( ) has it not been for badly reproduced low end. And yeah, I should stop pretending I can credibly tell tenor and alto apart. Soprano/baritone is the best I can do.

Brownie, thanks for the compilation (and thanks for ubu for providing me with it). 1. Opening full of suspense. Timpani? Talk about drama… I like the trumpet sound here – very soft and nuanced. Very well arranged, and flute at the end is a nice touch. Concise but eloquent. Very nice. Very French. Movie theme? 2. Nice bass sound. Well, there are not too many people playing bass like this – this is Mr. Reggie Workman. Very nice opening bass solo – punchy and powerful, and I like the way Workman plays chords on bass. Elegant. Tenor. Excellent sound, and I like the ideas. Quite a tensely reserved solo. I thought of Ricky Ford at the beginning, but hear more Henderson-isms than Ford has, so I am not sure who this is. Nah, of I know who this is. It’s Henderson himself. Good solo (but now, having recognized Henderson, I can say that this is far from his best). Such a confident bass – Workman lets the notes linger for a long time, making the bass really sing. I remember seeing him live – he would strike the strings with a great force and his hand would fly off the bass – as if he was fighting a dangerous animal risking his hand being bitten off. OK, by the end of tenor solo it is quite obviously who the pianist is – Mal Waldron, with his dark, repetitive figures. This might be his composition, thinking about it. Quite a typical Waldron solo – a bit primitive, but eloquent. OK, but not the best Waldron solo out there – its (relative) blandness allowed me to focus on drums – and this is some nice, and also easily identifiable (very musical and quite aggressive) - Cyrille. Excellent. Long track (10 minutes), and I didn’t even notice it passing. 3. Talking about singing bass. Michelot? Probably not. Regardless, it’s beautiful (but damn, I should know this bassist). Great drums - tasteful, and very resourceful without being flashy – sound like Humair to me (one of my favorite drummers), but probably not him (Humair usually uses cymbals more, but here there is this “scratch” on cymbals that is very Humair-ish). Elegant piano (Bill Evans influence I hear?). Beautiful melody. Could this be HUM? Short and sweet. Bravo. 4. Big band. I like the theme. Quite an intricate arrangement (I am listening in headphones, and there is quite a bit of stuff going on), without being overloaded. Piano solo is good – sounds composed to a large extent, but this is understandable in the big-band framework. Tenor (or alto) – good sound. Also sounds pretty calculated, but a good one (and piano’s doing some interesting sparse comping behind it). Drums are a bit of a let-down after these fireworks. Good one. 5. Hmm, now we get into some Blue Notish territory. The opening theme sounds nice but pretty trite (very dated – late 50s–early 60s, I guess). Nice tenor. Shit, that’s some extreme stereo separation! Beautiful trumpet solo. Nice bluesy piano solo. Sweet but not too deep. Don’t want to dismiss it, it’s a first-class music, but it just sounds like too many other things recorded in early 60s. Blue Mitchell or stuff like this. 6. Begins too peaceful, but as soon as alto starts jumping in there is a bit of intrigue created. This tenor sound is a bit colorless, and too relaxed for my tastes. I do not hear tenorist really challenging himself in the solo. Alto is more interesting, but also sounds fairly predictable. Funny how alto sound is similar to Braxton’s (this is not him, of course). Generic piano solo. Now there is some simultaneous playing – would have been more interesting if tenorist interacted with altoist a bit. Drums could also have stretched a bit more. Don’t like it too much. As for ID-ing, I thought of Lee Konitz at the beginning, but this is not good enough for him, IMO. 7. Didn’t expect the guitar here! And some squeaky trumpet – more movie themes? Nice melody, by the way. I am not a big fan of this sort of trumpet sound – too rattling for me, but here it works well. Tenor is a bit vulgar, no? Or is it two tenors??? Hawkish sound(s). And a switch from guitar to piano in the middle as an accompaniment – good idea. And back to guitar when trumpet starts playing – very nice. And even some vibes at the end! Good stuff! 8. Nice ballad. Good tenor sound. Got a bit sleepy by the piano solo. I thought the piano solo was quite weak – just clichés, no original ideas. Back to tenor, and I the piano plays too much behind it – less notes would have worked better (given very economical approach of the tenorist), IMO. OK stuff. 9. Good opening. Again, horrible stereo separation. Oh, shit. Vocals. I mean, I appreciate “the character”… But first, why so out of tune? Second, why so upfront vs. the band? The vocals are just too mannered and pretentious. Too much character, I guess. The band is excellent, btw. I wonder if the vocalist likes the backing himself (although I doubt this is all recorded at the same time – probably overdubbed). 10. Quite a ride, this one. Pianist (Joachim Kuhn, I guess –all this over-the-top baroque stuff…should be him) plays too many notes, but tenorist manages to navigate in this dense field really well. A beautiful theme interplay at around 2 minute mark – bravo to tenorist, quick mind! Sounds like they played quite a bit together. Piano solo. Impressive. Yes, it’s over the top, yes too many notes, bordering on tasteless even – but you have to acknowledge the monster chops (sound like the guy has three hands) and all this exuberant baroque/Chopin stuff is incorporated nicely. Oh shit, didn’t expect this brass interlude – that’s excellent! What a surprise! Now, this does not really work – this repetitive riff by the brass section (overdubbed?) and improvisation by the tenor/piano – but it is interesting, nonetheless. Beautiful playing by the tenor, and shame on me for not identifying him (I thought of Andre Jaume first, but then decided it’s not him – sound is similar, but ideas are different; could this be Jerry Bergonzi stretching himself, by chance? – if yes, bravo to him). I enjoyed this track a lot (listening to it for the second time)! And it is interesting, because is far from perfect, IMO – piano overplays, this brass interlude is out of place – but there is searching, there is excitement of trying something new…and it is fascinating to see creative minds in work. 11. Large band. Good mainstream piano solo. Trumpet pyrotechnics – not bad. Passing chord changes off as bass solo does not work. Excellent muscular trombone solo. It’s 5 minutes now and my attention begins to wander. I mean tenor solo is also good (excellent altissimo!), but this monotonous bass is dragging things down. 12. Don’t like the singer too much – forced vibrato, too studied intonation. No ease. The band I like. The ending is particularly weak with really unfortunate choice of notes. 13. Fun. The bass is a bit awkward. By the end bass gets a bit tiring – if he played it at double tempo the whole thing would have been much more fluid and light, as I think it had been intended to be. 14. Nothing that could hold my interest here (except for little tasty drum breaks at the beginning). Organ backing is horrendous, IMO. And hearing this mechanistic metronome-like bass makes me remember why I don’t listen to traditional big bands. Solos are solid, particularly the alto one. This thing does not want to end... enough is enough. Least interesting track for me here. 15. Heeey, this one I like. Interesting, not trivial theme. I cannot figure out what is this instrument that’s soloing! Cornet? Clarinet? I liked the solo – has a desolate and somewhat careless feeling. Alto solo is excellent as well. Nice melodies he comes up with. I wish the sound quality was better… 16. Some compressed big band sound. Is this our friend from track 9 singing? I like this a bit more. In tune, at least. I don’t like forced laughs in songs, though. Good band. Brownie, excellent collection. This BFT will probably lead to some CD purchasing – tracks 1, 2, 3, 10, and 15 left me very intrigued.

This is more or less the way I imagine you.

Never heard Batagov. He has quite a large discography (mostly on Long Arms label), and I've been meaning to check out some of his works. Will buy some some of his CDs next time I'm in Russia.

I forgot about that one! This was made before the (phenomenal) Barry Guy concert I drove 250 km to see (in addition to having a pleasure of meeting Flurin in person).

D.D, this should be your new user name.

No good, IMO.

I don't have this one, but if you want more tame Cecil, go for For Olim, also on Black Saint / Soul Note - this is a solo disc, and a rather atypical one for Cecil - relatively short pieces, quite lyrical, a lot of striaght melodies. Beautiful piano sound as well.

I have Minasi's earlier trio recording (with Krall and Filiano), and I saw Minasi live once. Nothing interesting, IMO. The guy plays a lot of notes very fast, with pretty sound. Gets boring after 10 minutes.

Good luck with the Pukwana disc. I'd love to buy a copy for myself, but there is no way that seller will be supplying either of you with an actual copy. That is the worst seller feedback rating I think I have ever seen on either Amazon or Ebay. 31% negative, 6% neutral, and many comments that he lists items he does not have in stock. Hmmm...interesting. He was listed as a "new seller" when I bought - no feedback. Looking at the feedback now (all recent), I'd say you are most likely right. We'll see. If it goes bad I'm not worried about getting a refund from Amazon. Sure do want that disc though. Yeah, I guess my chances of getting this CD from this amazon.com seller are remote. But now I got into a hunting rash, so I placed an order for it at amazon.co.uk that is known to be quite a fuck-up when it comes to accuracy of its listings (and quality of delivery, as some of us here could confirm). But I did get Evan Parker's Monoceros from them, when it was already way OOP. So we'll see.

Yeah, I remember also waiting for these Parallactic releases forever, and having a bit of a heated correspondence with Brandon Evans (who used to run the label). Brandon finally got into arrnagement with DMG and they supplied all those who paid for the discs (and who were anal enough to keep reminding Brandon about it) with copies. This was five months or so after the prepayment. ---------------- This Fela is excellent! This is a live recording, really raw and in-your-face and Baker is providign some kick-ass heavy drumming. If you are a Fela fan already, you cannot go wrong with this one. My favorite one is Zombie, though. ---------------- And thanks for the Pukwana hint - I just ordered a copy from amazon. Not sure this will work - it still shows the copy available, although I, I, I just ordered it!!!!

So has anyone picked up the solo CD-R? I have only his solo on Parallactic, released a couple of years back. Haven't spent much time with it yet. It is here in the "to listen-to" pile - but so far it's been pushed back by this little sucker:

I am going to get more Braxton's GTM, and will go for Four compositions (GTM) 2000 on Delmark: http://delmark.com/delmark.544.htm. This is small group (quartet) and I have been enormously impressed by pianist's Kevin Uehlinger's CD (Alchemusic (Vol. 1) on newsonic), so I am interested to hear his cotribution to Braxton's music.

Sonny Simmons website

Today actually I was listening to disc 3 from the 4-CD Braxton's "Six compositions (GTM) 2001" set (on Rastascan/Limited Sedition/Barely Auditable). I have this set since the day it was released (it costed like $15 at CDUniverse, iirc), and never managed to go through the whole damn thing. The first two discs are occupied by a mammoth composition for a large band that would invariably drive me to despair after 15 minutes, so I think never even got to disc 3. And well, it turned out to be really good! It is for a much smaller band (Braxton-Rosenberg-Shiurba-Sperry-Robair), and past the zombie GTM themes (farly short here) the improvisations are excellent.

Check out the samples at the Matthew Welch's web page. What a telent - both as performer and composer! Note that the solo bagpipes piece here sounds very traditional compared to the stuff on Welch's "Hag at the Churn" (on newsonic). There, most of the pieces do not sound like bagpipes at all (and morever, every trakc sounds totally different form each other - from quiet drones to fluid soprano saxophone-like solos to menacing multi-layered pointillistic suites and to some pretty indiscribably stuff). I haven't listened to his Leo disc (with pieces for bagpipes and orchestra) yet. Gotta get all the Welch that's available out there. Anyody heard Braxton's discs with him ("Composition 247" on Leo, and "Compositions for solo bagpipes" on Parallactic)?

This is beautiful one. Has a couple of Carter/Williams duos, and the score is excellent (early Stravinsky-influenced). There is a second soundtrack, without Carter and Williams, with a cello as solo instrument, and it is also some beautiful music.

Another excellent one: The Bach harpsichord album. Robert Aldwinckle (Regis) I am normally not a fan of harpsichord. I tend to find its sound too harsh, lacking any depth or subtlety. Not the case here. Aldwinckle makes it sound much more than merely decorative (or is it Bach's compositions?). Sound is good. For period instrument purists among us, the instrument used is a copy of the XVIII century piece, so I gues this should qualify. Regis is also a budget label, so this one should be available for cheap as well (I think broinc.com carries their releases).

Mac powerbook, sine waves, turntables. Period, really. XVII century vintage. Instrumentlaists are excellent (this is a rather small ebsemble - 12 instuments, and they rarely play alltogether - really sparse orchestration), sound is great. You have a preference?

Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea (Brilliant, 4CDs) This is an opera. I don't like opera. But this one is good. Even if one soprano is somewhat withered, and tenor is rather bleak. Still good stuff. The set is dirt-cheap here in Europe (€ 10 for 4CDs). This is not some cheapo edition, on the contrary - thick booklet, good artwork, etc. I don't know how Brilliant pulls it off financially.

This Solal disc was released less than 3 years ago!

A lot of what retired van Vliet was illness - he has MS, if I am not mistaken. Vliet got sick way after he retired from music, iirc. I agree, I think we should distinguish between "retired" and, well, "forced to retire". Poeple who can afford making a living by playing/recording but retire volunterely because they feel they are not up to the level they once set, is one thing. I assume it would take a great deal of courage to do it, and probably very few people can (although some should, IMO - has anybody seen Dewey Redman's recent concerts? ... Archie Shepp? Sonny Rollins? Sunny Murray?). People who are forced to retire (often at their prime) becasue they cannot make a living playing the music are a different case. And there are dozens of names. ESP guys for sure (Giuseppi Logan, in particular); Charles Brakeen... many many others, unfortunately.

Can't get it to play on my computer. It's OK, I have a couple of sealed CDs still. As I am now a proud posessor of a CD Stripper (see picture attached), appreciating new music is becoming easier and easier. Why not go for this solo Sonny Simmons on Parallactic that's been sitting around here unlistened for ages? Edit: Simmons didn't go too well. It actually sounded quite good (except for Simmons' piercing tone), but not for this time (it's 2AM and I am working). So I went for this one: And this is exactly what I needed right now. You fellas are also into medieval vocal music, aren't you?

Yes, you will receive an e-mail from Ariel informing you that actually he is routinely performing children's lullaby and Christmas carol music, praised by authoritative music critics for their unprecedented warmth. ------------------------- Have been listening a lot to wonderful Frisque Concordance: "Spellings" (Random Acoustics) recently. Frisque Concordance is: John Butcher - saxophones Georg Gräwe - piano Hans Schneider - bass Martin Blume - drums Beautiful music, with Martin Blume shinining in particular. Martin Blume website. ------------------------- Also, had a first listen to India Cooke: "Redhanded" (Music & Arts). Excellent work. India Cooke is a violinist with gorgeous lucid tone (reminiscent of Micheal White at his best), and the music is clever creative free jazz with monster band - George Lewis, Larry Ochs, Donald Robinson and Lisle Ellis. Everybody plays wonderfully - Ochs creates great interplay with Cooke with his violin-sounding sopranino, and adds a bit of firebreathing tenor (it's amazing how different his approach on two horns is), Lewis is flamboyant and very inventive and the rhythm section is invariably solid. Recommended. Looks like there is not that much by/with Cooke available, but she had a duo release with Joelle Leandre ( ) on Red Toucan, and I am getting it of course (for $12 at indiejazz).