Д.Д.

I listened to some of Liberté Surveillée in my office this morning but had to bale as Decret's guitar was not to my liking. The music as a whole also didn't really appeal to me. First listen, thought, so be mindful of that. I remember our MIA friend P.L.M. (whose judgement I often tend to trust) said that Ear Mix was a disaster (and P.L.M. is a big Humair's fan), while Baby Boom is good, but not outstanding (something we would call SINOW here). I was also somewhat disappointed by Liberté Surveillée at first listen - it all just seemed too restrained for me. But having re-listened to it for the second time recently, I seem to appreciate it more now - I think a certain restraint is a conscious choice (not a lack of inspiration) here, that challenges the muscians (Eskelin in particualr, I'd say) to explore maximum opportunities within self-imposed limits. I think they do it admirably. Eskelin comes up with some pretty complexly-structured thoughtful solos and Humair is consitently brillaint (actually I concentrated in him the most). I am not sure Chevillon (a brilliant bassist) is at his best here, and Ducret is a bit too busy for my taste (both here and nearly everywhere else I've heard him), but regardless, there is a lot to enjoy on this set. Second disc has more cooking.

You no like Andrea? I like her just find and wish that she would play more accordion and less of the other instruments she's been spending too much time with. I do like Andrea's accordeon playing quite a bit. Another wonderful lady accordeonist is Eveline Petrova - a different style, though - much more elaborate and virtuosic playing than Andrea's. ----------------------- Meanwhile, tried listening to Wheeler's "Moon" (didn't work out), Sun Ra's "Live at the Village Vanguard" (didn't go well either), and went back to Work! Enjoying it more and more with every listen.

Andrea Parkins(-Mirabassi) plays some accordeon.

Pay attention to that Humair guy!

I suggest you make a new CD sleeve yourself - something out of white cardboard, with crookedly attached abstract picture (which would avoke an association with sine waves or something equally tasty). This way Jon will think this is some sort of eaiefieiia music, and will put it on. And, as you noticed yourself, once it is on, it never stops.

Send it as a present to somebody - jon abbey, for example.

On the other hand, clarinetist Gabriele Mirabasi is a whole different story - no cheese there. What I will do as soon as Lacy's "Work" stops playing (listening to it for the third time in three days), is put Kenny Wheeler / John Taylor / Gabriele Mirabassi "Moon" (Egea) - I remember this one was good!

Friends, I started listening to Giovanni Mirabassi "Avanti!" (Sketch) - a solo piano disc - and coudl barely keep myself listenig for about as long as 1/3 of it - then just had to turn it off. This is a cheesy, overly-lyrical reworking of various popular/traditional songs. Dangerously close to muzak, and I can hardly imagine any of the frequent Funny Rat posters enjoying it.

Sounds like fun, David. And yes: I have Work. ON THE EDIT: A question might be: Do we do what David suggests in the Funny Rat thread or create a new thread? Good son that I am, I'm off to visit me mum. -_- Tony, I would have have loved to do it in a separate thread, however I suspect that we'd be listening to something funnyratty, which we should all have in our collections. I dare to assume that funnyratty content of the collections of other board members is somewhat limited. Thus, unless we subsidize other board members (including surchare for emotional damage) - or unless we use our exceptional powers of persuasion to convince them to buy "this music ", I doubt they will be able to participate. And if it's no use for them, why take it outside of The Rat? This will be viewed as some over-indulgent freak expancion. If we keep it in The Rat, though, it will be viewed as a trend for insular self-proclaimed elitism .

New release on Kevin Norton's Barking Hoop: Kevin Norton's Bauhaus Quartet Time-Space Modulator Barking Hoop BKH008 With Kevin Norton (drums, vibraphone, percussion), Dave Ballou (trumpet, cornet), John Lindberg (bass) and Tony Malaby (tenor, soprano saxophones). Recorded live at Tonic (New York City) in April 2004, and 'in the basement' in August 2003.

Got a note from Tyler of indiejazz as well: Re: these Sketch titles - as of right now, we have NO access to any Sketch stock, including the titles we carry. Sketch has declared bankruptcy - Phillipe from Sketch doesn't even have access to his own stock at this point. We are in talks with some folks about keeping the label alive. The titles that we do have will unfortunately disappear off our site one-by-one as the titles sell out. Sad, no?.

indiejazz would definitely know as they are were the only wholesale importer of Sketch CDs in the US - so Sketch might have sent them a note along the lines of "no more returns, guys".

Flurin, I will check out more Jimmy Smith eventually. This won't be on the top of my priorities, but I will do it. I did hear more than "Root Down" (Jimmy Smith used to be quite a favorite of the Russian "jazz" radio... back in the days when there was one), so I would say I got an adequate exposure to his music - and avoiding his records comes not from negligence or ignorance, but is a conscious decision. -------------------------------- Just to reiterate: everybody here whould get Lacy-Cox-Humair "Work" (Sketch) RIGHT NOW before it disappears - a perfect jazz recording. --------------------------------- All this discussion with Chaney during simultaneous listening to Farao's CD led me to an idea that we should all do it - choose a record (something not as obvoiusly and unquestionably good as as "Work" or Death's "Individual Thought Pattern", but something fairly unknown and unexplored for all of us, that would require a certain effort) and listen and discuss it at the same time (a chat would be probably more appropriate for these purposes, though) - could be interesting.

Agree on "Nailed" - one of my favorite Evan Parker records (not nececcerily Cecily Taylor's). I would argue though that there was one more saxophonist - Carlos Ward who brought a very interesting aspect to Cecil's (and the whole Cecil's band) playing with his lyrical and higly melodic approach (on Leo label: "Live in Vienna" and "Live in Bologna"). Ward stands out a strong personal voice, in no way overshadowed by or subodinated to neither Cecil nor the memory of Lyons (who preceded him in the Cecil's band). It's a shame they haven't woked more together. Another altoist I would be very curious to hear with Cecil is Sonny Simmons.

I am afraid "when" = "never" in this case.

I did, I did! Need to do more listenng, but the intial impression is that other than Lasse Marhaug (which I thought was very interesting), the releases are not essential. Ras Moshe is a fairly typical '60s "free jazz", and Gjerstad/percussionist duo sounded quite monotonous. More listening required.

Avenel is normally a much more flexible and inventive bassist than this format allows him to be. He worked with Steve Lacy for 20 years, and can be heard on many of his records. The one I'd recommend in particular: "Bye-Ya" - Steve Lacy Trio (Freelance) "Monk's Dream" (Verve) trio plus Roswell Rudd plus ( ) Irene Aebi (on a couple of trakcs only). If you ordered Mal Waldron's disc, you'll be able to enjoy Avenel's playing to a full extent. Humair can play anything (equally well), but again, I feel he is most interesting in a more adventurous setting (like his band with Mark Ducret, Bruno Chevillon and some Ellery Eskelin: "Liberte Surveille" (2CD) - also on SKETCH).

Unspectacular is the right word. But I feel that there are just way too many notes played - every second one could be safely skipped. Every first one also, actually - I'd prefer to hear Avenel/Humair duo. As for "hardbop" - sure, you know my classification challenges. Everything that's traditional and boring I tend to (unjustly) call "hardbop". "Mainsteam" would probably be the right word. It's not that bad, actually. But pretty bad, nonetheless. I don't think neither Avenel nor Humair particularly shine in this setting. In general, Sketch was not exactly the most adventurous label. The most "out" disc they released would probably be Mal Waldron's One More Time - with Aveneal (in his element there) and (on a couple of tracks) Lacy(now this disc is essential). Don't hear Hill's influence in Farao's playing. But do hear Corea, Tyner and Jarret.

Tony, bus?! - Why bus???

... I'll listen to Borderlines. Me too.

Late, I have only two records under his name: "Ink." on Sachimay - a solo recording, which might be the best exposure to Rainey as soprano saxophonist. "Crawlspace/ Universal Noir" on Tautology (OOP, but can be located). THis one has both solo tracks and duos/trios with Jack Wright (another "extreme" saxophone master) and trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum. Rainey is also working in nperign project with trumpeter Greg Kelley -but there the soprtano saxophone is barely recognizable. In general, with nperign (at least on their discs that I've heard) there are ......................very........................few......................sounds Check out Bhob Rainey's website (should have samples): http://bhobrainey.net/

Btw, there is another CD of Schlippenbach playing Monk: Alexander von Schlippenbach, p Ino Nobuyoshi, b Sunny Murray, dr Enja Horst Weber, 1997 Not sure about the avialability. ------------------------------------------------------ For perpetually lucky Swiss people: Monk's Casino can be obtained from amazon.de (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007OQC9W/qid%3D1108512556/028-4117530-6350966 ) for €33 (including shipping). Not too bad.

Well, when you get to the disc 2 of the set any large red rubber object will start spontaneously falling out of your hands. From what I understood, the best way to cope with this is to keep serious face expression. -------------------- This Farao-Humair-Aveneal trio is bullshit, frankly. Muscular, overdone, sterile hardbop - all thanks to Farao; and there's nothing much Humair and Avenel can help the music with. On the other hand, you like Rubalcaba ...

Good haul. Let us know about the Monk's Casino. I belatedly post my concert impressions. To begin with, Schlippenbach is the man. Inventive, powerful and suprisingly lyrical playing. Unfortunately, he didn't play that much and took probably 2 relatively long (2-3 minutes) solos throughout the whole set. In general, nobody played really long solos. However, Mahall's solos, regardless of actuall length always seemed too long to me - a fairly superficial player, with limited bag of tricks and quite an ugly bass clarinet sound (all in piercing cold middle-to-up register, with lower register nearly completely lacking). Dörner, on the other hand was excellent (reminded my of Ted Curson a bit, of all musicians). Bass-drums were competent but not more. Arrangements were very interesting and diverse - from very straight readings of the themes (without solos), to humorous brass/winds trios (Schlippenbach played some shaky trumpet as well), to some quite radical re-interpretations (e.g. two themes played at the same time in different rhythms and tempos). There was also quite a bit of show driven by Mahall and Dörner mostly, including all musicians (except dignified Shlippenbach) playing while lying on a floor, the drummer beating straight tempo to "We See" by throwing and catching HUGE red rubber to and from the floor (with very serious and concentrated German expression on the face), while Dörner and Mahall would chase him all over the club in order to knock the ball out with their feet (all while playing), so that the drummer would have to run and pick up the rolling ball as fast as possible to get back too his rhythm routine. Also there was an interesting part where Dörner would turn the light on and off, and the rhythm section would have to stop when he would (unpredicatlbly) turn the light on (and start again where they left off as soon as the light woudl go off) - and the level of coordination the band showed was very impressive. Fun. Going back to music - to summarize, arrangements were excellent, Schlippenbach and Dörner inspiring, Mahall a definite minus and rhythm section merely lukewarm. Would be intersted to hear whether this is the same way on CD.