Д.Д.

I don't know about "most creative player on the scene," but Hamid rocks my world. I really enjoy just about every recording I have with him on it. ← Agreed. I've seen him when he came with FRED ANDERSON in 1978 in Moers. The guy was already amazing. Check the PAUL DUNMALL QUARTET: LOVE WARMTH AND COMPASSION on FMR, one of the best DUNMALL ever. DRAKE is the drummer and it's his first encounter with DUNMALL where he prooves that he fits absolutely perfectly with the band (add PAUL ROGERS & PHIL GIBBS.) After all, he was the drummer who have boost seriously the career of PETER BRÖTZMANN at the beginning of the nineties. Hope his collaboration with DUNMALL will continued. He likes to play groove and funk alright (and he does it better than most) but he can be also be FREE as hell. And he is a great guy to meet and talk. Hugh! ← I'll check out this Dunmall CD - sounds very interesting. Drake is indeed perfect with Brötzmann on their duo Dried Rat Dog (Okka).

Of these I have only Butcher / Masaoka / Robair: Gorilla Mosaics, and it's a great one. Oh, actually, I have this Randy McKean record CD as well - it's OK, but not particularly outstanding - fairly typical ornettish stuff with McKean himself being the lest interesting of the soloists. Smoker is predictably excellent.

Uh... not to take my earlier statement back, but: what I mean is: Drake is being hailed as drummer's messiah or whatever, and that he is not. That's what I meant. He is simply a good drummer, among many others, not the best of them all and so sensationally great! See what I mean? That said, I like most of the recordings (and live sets) I have with him! ← Agree too. I have Drake's duo with Michael Zerang (whos playing I like a lot) somewhere - might be the time to listen to it finally. Actualy no, I'd rather listen to Zerang/Strid (ubu, Strid is the drummer who we saw with Barry Guy) duo on Penumbra.

Thanks for the reminder! I know I should check out some Gratkowski... in fact that goes back to when I first met David - he played some in the car, on the way to hear the awesome Barry Guy New Orchestra and after that... the Gratkowski quartet, of course (which was rather bland, though I liked the partial broadcast of the concert a bit better than the actual concert... may have to do with the fact that following up Guy's gang that night was an incredibly hard task!) ← Facio is the best of the three, IMO. The music is a bit dry, but very intriguingly organized. Really good sound quality. Gratkowski quartet was indeed quite bland that night - I also gather that playing right after Barry Guy and the bosy is a bit discouraging.

Just noticed this announcement on the ECM website: April 13 , 2005 ECM and Rune go separate ways ECM has ended its relationship with Rune Grammofon, the Norwegian experimental label it supported for five years and, indeed, put on the map in many territories. Rune discs will no longer be available through ECM distribution channels, including this web site. Now RG will make its way in the world with the aid of a distribution network whose details can be viewed at www.runegrammofon.com. We wish the company and its artists luck, fame and fortune in this new period, if that is not a misguided blessing for a label that issued an anthology entitled “Money Will Ruin Everything”. Those Rune artists who previously recorded, in diverse contexts, also for ECM, are likely to continue to do so. Arve Henriksen and Nils Økland, for instance are on Christian Wallumrød’s great new ECM album, “A Year From Easter”, and are currently touring with the Wallumrød Ensemble.

For the fans of Italain jazz: just released on Black Saint TIZIANO TONONI & THE ORNETTIANS "PEACE WARRIORS" TIZIANO TONONI - DRUMS, PERCUSSION, GONG DANIELE CAVALLANTI - TENOR SAXOPHONE ACHILLE SUCCI - ALTO SAXOPHONE EMANUELE PARRINI - VIOLIN GIOVANNI MAIER - BASS (LEFT CHANNEL) PIERO LEVERATTO - BASS (RIGHT CHANNEL) All but one compositions by Ornette Coleman.

Soundclips sound very interesting. These too.

Tony, as I mentioned, Leo Feigin is very flexible with discounts and shipping fee is merely symbolic. says the guy who's made 25 percent of the posts in the thread. ← Your remark, good Sir, remided me that I haven't listened to any EA I stuff for quite a while - time to currupt the right, I guess. Glad you enjoyed it - this is an excellent disc. I would recommend our US friends try to get a hold of it.

, I mean Looking at forum stats, 1/4 of posts in the Recommendations forum is in the Funny Rat. This place is not as backward as I though two years ago.

Russian mainstream accordeonist Vladimir Danilin - RA samples here (scroll to the bottom). Petrova and Danilin, to my knowledge represent 100% of the Russian accordeon improv music.

Umm... no. ← Piazzolla is considered to be the reinventor of Argentenian tango. Hundreds of CDs (mostly compilations, actually), most probably far from essential, but this one I can highly recommend (check out the samples): Astor Piazzolla "Tango: Zero Hour"

I would reitireta my recommendation for Guyvoronski / Petrova duo disc, as well for Petrova solo disc, both on Leo. Petrova is a monster accordeonist. Not Italian, though. For Italian, there is Antonello Salis, a rerlatively well-known "out" accordeopnist (also plays quite Cecil-ish piano), but I have to go beck to his (many) records to be able to recommend anything specifically. He has a trio accordion record with abovementioned Richard Galliano and some traditional Italian accordeaon player - when I get back home, I'll listen to it (tried once long time ago, and was not too impressed). Both Enjas are releasing one accordeaon CD per month. Gotta check some of them out. FOr an accordeon-related instruments (bandoneon, in this case), you know Astor Piazzolla, I assume?

Thanks for The Necks recommendations, gentlemen.

FYI, there is a The Necks CD on Russian Long arms label called Photosynthetic: scroll down at http://www.avantart.com/longarms/index.php?id=4 If anybody's interestred, I can try to get it for you (the label is very poorly distributed even in Russia).

John, are these two albums still the ones you would recommend to start exploring The Necks with?

Don't know Australian Free Jazz at all .

Would be great to see people who signed up for the BFT taking part in the discussion.

You might want to wait till it gets reissued later this year (as per Tony's post).

I just heard this one for the first time tonight and enjoyed it much more than you did. Nothing earth-shattering, but a really solid disc. Perhaps it was just what I was in the mood for to blow away the cobwebs of a long work day. I would recommend it to fans of Howards. ← I also liked it on a first listen. But second and third listen revealed how predictable and unexciting the music is (IMO).

As far as I remember from the Burrell's STN interview, he said that the opera itself was never performed/recorded entirely. This should be a solo piano music from the opera. I haven't heard it, but I heard (and love) Burrell's duo CD with bassist Tyrone Brown on CIMP called Recital (with hilarious cartoonish version of "Giant Steps") - some warm, lyrical music.

Excellent disc.

BTW, Geoff, you should take part in John B's blindfold test - some killer stuff there.

What's the label this Friswell is released on?

Billy Skinner had an excellent advanced hardbop album released on Accurate records around 1990. And here is a link: http://www.accuraterecords.com/skinner.html

Nice to have you back Geoff.