Д.Д.

Friends, I would like to recommend highly the follwoing record: Gray Ghost - "How to Create Words" (482 Music, 2003) Hard-to-describe music. A lot of things are mixed together - some John Butcher, some Evan Parker, some E IA (I think), some fairly traditional "free jazz"... All sounds very creative, enjoyable and relevant. Sound samples at CD Baby. Available at indiejazz, CD Baby or directly at 482 Music. -------------------------------- Also, have been listening to some Erstwhile treasures that landed at my door. Keith Rowe/Günter Müller/Taku Sugimoto - "The World Turned Upside Down" Pure gentle beauty. Fairly quiet, but with its own logics, developmentand a lot of clever interaction. The best one of 4 records with Keith Rowe I have so far ("Weather Sky" and "Live at Lu" - both on Erstwhile, I found extremely boring, and "Grain" on Zarek is very good, but probably sllightly less interesting than "The World...") Thomas Lehn / Marcus Schmickler - "Bart" This one is a much more rambunctious affair, and I like it even more. The sounds that Messrs. Lehn and Schmickler emit are very pleasing to my ear (a lot of low-to-mid register, shall I say "farting" sounds - no sine waves), all quitre energetic (but not violent or noisy) with a lot of dynamic variation, exciting interplay and constant surprises. Interaction between musicians is truly fascinating - gentlemen obviously had fun playing with each other. Was going out tonigh, and just couldn't leave until the record was over - was really mesmerized by what I was hearing. More Erstwhile stuff to explore in the next days.

Time to become a vocal one, then!

IMO, you are not getting the full effect not only because of Bowie's absense, but because this is a realtively weak performance by other band members. For AEoC at their prime go for Fanfare for the Warriors, as was already recommended above.

Oh yes.

I have the same impression of Murray. Technically superior player, but his music just sounds fake to me.

Send it as a present to somebody - jon abbey, for example. oh, you guys! just what I need in my mailbox, more unsolicited crap, how did you know? Well, I got a package in my mailbox today...

Hannibal is great! Would love to heare more of him! Same here - I guess his Enja stuff is all OOP, right? You never know with Enja HW... I got this one from amazon.de some time ago - and it is good:

Learned from a mutual friend that Marion Brown is much better now. He recently received a $5,000,000 compensation for the wrongful amputation of part of his leg. Hope to be in touch with Marion directly soon! Guy, keep us posted!

Hannibal is great! Would love to heare more of him!

I'd say that Cox's playing here is more interesting than on his solo disc.

Unlike Dal Vivo! a/k/a From the Alive One!, Work -- when it desires to do so -- manages to be jubilant without screaming CLOY! And at 47 minutes, not-at-all-odddly enough, I wanted MORE! And so, a second spin. ON THE EDIT: CRIPES this is good! Nice call, ubu. John: You're in for a treat. Tony, pay a special attention to Humair's work on track 6 - the guy's imagination (and skill) is endless! Should be listened to in headphones.

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".