Д.Д.

Two full-track mp3s from the new Full Metal Klezmer CD (with Gianni Gebbia) are available at El Gallo Rojo website. Fun stuff.

Flurin, amigo, are you trying to stir The Rat with provocative contorversy ? You don't really mean it, do you? I have a couple of CDs with Mahall, and heard him live (with Schlippenbach Monk project), and I've found him invariably mediocre. Hans Koch, Wolfgang Fuchs, Louis Sclavis, André Jaume (and many many more) are definitely more interesting (and original) Eeropean bass-clarinetists...

John, have mercy on your loved ones during the new year celebration. Meaning, choose some later-period Broetzmann, not "Machine Gun". A lot (all?) of this stuff has been available on CD on Italian Felmay / Robi Droli label in the "Ictus reissues" series: LINK. I have some of the CDs, but don't remeber them at all.

Happy New Year, friends!

Whoa, that's a great line-up (except for Duval, whose playing I don't like too much... at all), and an intriguing concept. The samples did not sound that convincing, but I will probably go for it anyway.

Totally agree on "Waka/Jawaka" vs. "Grand Wazoo" - and I was also alwways perplexed by seemingly universal opinion that "Waka" is merely a warm-up for "Wazoo". "Big Swifty" was the first Zappa composititon I heard, and it is still my absolute favorite - there is a little melodic motive somewhere in the middle, that sends shivers down my spine every time I listen to it - and I listen to it often (more often than any other Zappa disc except for the guitar solos sets). There is much more stretching out here, versus very short, polished in-the-pocket Wazoo solos; Marquez is simply stuning on trumpet and fluegelhorn (what a shame he didn't stick in the band for longer!) and Preston's moog solo on Waka/Jawaka is fascinating (and I remeber reading that he himslef considers this his best moog solo ever - and the one Robert Moog pronounced impossible to play on Moog synthesizer). Wazoo has it's moments (my favorite one being insane drumming on "Eat that question"), but IMO is far less creative, experimental and invigorating work than "Waka". Being not a musician, I am not able to comment on changes, but I actually find Zappa's solos quite unpredictable (and having heard a lot of concert tapes, I can attest to the fact that solos in the same composition could (and did) change dramatically from performance to performance), with great talent for spontenous melodic invention. I also think his rhythm-guitar playing (which he unfortunately abandoned by mid-70s, when he got rhythm guitarists in his band, and which is not well documented on official releases) was reach and tasteful - is it playing changes or not?

Interesitng thread. I am pretty much with Allen Lowe on Nels CLine, and I think the term "formalism" (as well as term "bullshit") is very applicable. Cline is a very competent musician who can play anything (and he often does), but IMO his comprehensive knowledge of techinques and licks overwhelms the original ideas, and he just goes into guitar hero master class type of perforamance, without much creativity. I saw him live a couple of times, and it really looked like was thinking "now I'll play some skronk" or "now I will do some surf guitar" - and to me it felt like superficial pastiche wihtout much substance. He does have some good records - of what I heard, I liked The Inkling (Cryptogramophone) and Live at Easthampton Town Hall (on JMZ, with Zeena Parkinns and Thurston Moore) the most. His Singers disc I found just too pretty and polished, an even more so the recent one by Scott Amendola with Cline as a sideman. Talking of Cryptogrammophone, I find most of the music from their catalague to bee too polished, formulaic and safe (Mark Dresser releases being notable exceptions). Regarding EAI, I am not too knowledgeable about this music, but the more I listen (both on record and live) the more I seem to hear that a lot of it has a set of its own (pretty confining) rules, and in this regard a big chunk of it is not more creative or "advanced" than Wynton's ouevre (or tired free jazz / fire music stuff by William Parker and David S. Ware, if you wish). I am also not really getting it how Feldman and Tudor substitute for EAI.

Thanks Greg, I missed it somehow. Indeed, looks like a Petit Wazoo concert!

I am not sure about Petit Wazoo concert recordings being released - I just see this new "Joe's Xmasage" thing, and this looks like some pre-Mothers Zappa, something I (and I belive majority of Zappa music fans) would not consider a priority for a FZ vault release. If you are refering to "Joe's Domage" released earlier this year, these are Petit Wazoo band rehersal tapes, largley unlistenable, as mentioned above. My only (merely remotely realistic, alas) hope is that somebody one day will buy out Zappa's vault from ZFT to manage his musical heritage properly - I do not have slightest illusion that ZFT is willing/able to do it competently by themselves.

Jon, thanks for your warning. I try to responsible when buying music. I thought that such a large stock of new FMP titles is boght from some US distributor (or store) who could not sell FMP titles. I also seem to haveread somehting about possibility of buying CDs held by customs. In any case, I assume FMP got paid for these CDs at some point by somebody. I will probably check with Helma - she might be able to shed light on this, given the sizeable quantity.

Get Brötzmann's "14 love poems" for $12.52 NOW!!!!

No idea about these FMPs, but I have some idea about some solo bagpipes, that to my mind is even more powerful than Dunmall's blowing: Matthew Welch "Hag at the Churn" (newsonic) Unlike Dunmall, Welch has a substantial composed element in his opuses, and it definitely benefits the cohesiveness of the music. And just some unbelievable technique and sounds. Avialable at Cadence.

Some insane bagpipes playing here. I love Dunmall's bagpipes (mroe than his saxophone playing)! More cheap goodies from Caiman: Coxhill-Lacy-Parker "Three blokes" Tippett - "Mujician III" Lacy-Parker "Chirps" Rivers - "Portraits"

Firends, I think this reissue on Terrones is worth mentioning: Futura Ger 16 Dizzy Reece quintet From in to out Dizzy Reece (trompette), John Gilmore (saxophone ténor), Siegfried Kessler (piano), Patrice Caratini (contrebasse), Art Taylor (drums) Créteil, le 23 octobre 1970 Great to see Terrones is digging into its vaults! Jaki Byard solo disc released (reissued) earlier this year was outstanding, and I am looking forward to hearing more unearthed Terrones treasures. --------------------- Looking through the Terrones website, noticed that ths one is back in print: Marge 22 Richard Davis quartet Total Package Richard Davis (contrebasse), Ricky Ford (saxophone ténor), Curtis Clark (piano) Andrew Cyrille (drums) Paris les 27 et 28 juillet 1997 More on mainstream side, but definitely with an edge (Ford's solos are incredibly tense) and just beautifully played. And there is a recent release I missed: Marge 32 Claudine François quartet Lonely Woman Claudine François (piano), Steve Potts (saxophone alto et soprano), Jean-Jacques Avenel (contrebasse) John Betsch (drums) Ivry-sur-Seine les 18 et 19 juin 2003 Not familiar with François, but with Potts, Avenel and Betsch, this should not be too bad?

Who said life isn't tough? Well, over here we are used to these prices! These really are great records. I succumbed. By the way, 'Evans?' I think I meant 'Parker.' Received these today. Д.Д.: How'd you make out? I am not at home now (and won't be for another three weeks), but I got an e-mail confirming the CD's on its way.

Gokhan, you might want to clarify which version that is - French or US; French has three more tracks.

It's there - at the very bottom of the page.

Could you post a link to samples? - cannot find them...

Tried DMG? ------- I got a few Dunmall recordings recently (on SLAM mostly) and didn't find any of them satisfying - some cliché'd fire-music playing... predictable.

Where do you guys get the Loose Torque CDs? Not form the label directly, I assume (£10 PLUS shipping )...

Loading! Flying to Moscow tomorrow, so will listen on a plain. ------------------ Somehow, totally effortlessly recoieved a Cluson 3 "Rara Avis", still sealed in the mail. Damage - €20, including shipping. Placed a market-place pre-order at amazon.de three months ago, and voila. If anybody has a good candidate for new OOP obsession, let me know. I am contemplating John Steven's SME "Karyobin" (thanks to jgthomas, other potential target Gustafsson/Lovens "Nothing to Read" has been located and rescued form some second-hand CD store in Texas and is now making its joyful journey to new (my) home).

Thanks. I still have to listen to Makarov/Letov CD on Pentagramma I have got some 6 months ago...

Yeah, I mixed it all up - Dmitriev memorial, of course... I saw Otomo Yoshihide / Sachiko M concert (it was Sachiko solo first, Otomo solo second and then a short duo)- it was pretty weak and uninspired/uninspiring. Otomo started with a horrendous (and seemingly very long) verison of "Lonely Woman" on guitar which sounded clumsy, static and directionless. Then there was a boring electronics set (with occasioanlyl interestign moemnts) where he could not really concentrate becuase of the photo flashes. Sashiko M was interesting in that I discovered that the sound of sine waves changes dramatically depending on the position of the head (ears, I to be exact) - so I spent most of the concert running / jumping around the hall turning my head constantly (to the delight of the audience - the club was packed by the way, 100 poeple or so). Otherwise, sine waves are sine waves, nothing too exciting here - but pretty painful on the ears. They did exactly the same shit when they played together - nothnig really changed, just two solo sets played simultanously. Mengelberg/Benning set was very short (30 minutes?) and silly, with all expected antics (Bennink banging the drums with his feet, drumming on the floor, sticking the sticks in his mouth; Mengelberg starting somehting and then changing the direction every 30 seconds; some joint signing / wailing / roaring.. you know, regular stuff).. nothing too interesting. They played a bit of Monk in the middle. Otomo's Live disc on DIW is great, btw. I will listen to it more, and will expand here - it is worth talking about. Woudl be quirious to hear the impressions of his Out to Lunch disc (John B got it, I think...).

Couple of my secret sources: Secret store one Secret store two

I like Warburton's reviews. The Leandre/Akosh disc is brilliant. I haven't finished even the first listen yet, so I will refrain form further comments, but it is definitely some of the most engaging music released this year I've heard.