Д.Д.

Hmm, surely there is something wrong with your CD copy - no new-agey sound on mine. Sorry you didn't like it. Give it one more listen one of these days. And you can't consider youself relieved of responsibility for formal announcements - you started the whole thing, after all. But it's still a bit eraly, anyway. ---------------------------------- How is the Arch Duo?

What are you favorite ones, Jon?

This Robair guy surely is impressive. Never heard Plsek.

i'm listening to palace music lost blues and and other songs at the moment. does this mean i have to leave the thread? Well, I am listening to (and thoroughly enjoying) this one: . I meant improvisation more as an outlook on life.

Patience, gentlemen. I see that market sellers at amazon.de are already offering new copies of those for €12 ($16), so quite soon affordable copies will make their way across the Atlantic. By next Chrstmas you'll all have your copies of cheap Free America CDs.

Was not on my agenda (wanted to spend more time with those PHENOMENAL FRee AMercia reissues ), but we are an improvisation-prone bunch here, so I will give it a spin later tonight. ---------------------------------- Meanwhile, listened to another Aki Takase Leo disc: Dempa Band: Nine Fragments, and this one does not disappoint either. Will give it a couple more listens, and will expand here. AMG review

Flurin, did you get all the Free America reissues? I cannot find Braxton CDs in stores here...

Even if they are not issued in the US, European versions will be around for quite some time (looks like there were 5000 copes pressed, so 5-6 years of circulation for sure), so you'll be definitely able to find them cheap eventually. -------------------------------- Just finished listening to Art Ensemble of Chicago - "Certain Blacks", and what can I say - this is an excellent one. All you can expact from AEoC - passion, humor, musicality, groove, complexity, directness, constant surprise, and a lot of life is there. Sould quality is excellent. Again a very short recording - 35 minutes.

Listening to Free America reissues: Alan Shorter "Tes Esat" is definitely a disappointment (given that it also features one of my favorite bassists Johnny Dyani), and except for first several minutes of insane altissimo wailings by Gary Windo, is not really worth the time - compositions are boring, drummer is boring, Dyani spends a lot of time either laying out our playing bells, flute and piano, or doing monotone arco, and Shorter isn't playing that much at all - and when he does, it is... boring. Well, you got the idea. Recording is also far from perfect - raw (with particularly muddy upfront drums) and unbalanced. Not on par with excellent Orgasm, for sure. Frank Wright "Uhuru Na Umoja". Now that's the real deal. Wright is mighty (Ayler school) and fairly diverse on (quite well-recorded) tenor, but there is also bluesy and lyrical Noah Howard, impressionistic Bobby Few (who, I steel feel, overplays a bit and is too sugarly for my tastes - but here his Ravel-isms add a nice contrast to burning Wright), and on nobody else on drums but Arthur Taylor - and he shines here. Good compositions with enough variety in tempo and texture, and very decent recording quality. This one is unconditionally highly recommended. Keep in mind though, that the album is merely 30+ minutes long. As for the packaging (for those of us who need another justification why CDs are better than downloads), it is obviously a labor of love. There are reproductions of (good) "textured" paintings inside (fragments of which are displayed on the cover) with good liner notes (meaning, not talking too much about the music - but about the musicians themselves, which I find much more of value). "Franck Wright" on the cover is a bit embarassing, though.

This is an excellent disc, but 1000 copies is porbably about what it can possibly sell (it was released in 2000 or 2001, and still no sign of it being sold out...).

Reify Recordings. MP3 section does not seem to work so far.

Is this the same stuff as on Vibrations?

You haven't been doing your mandatory Funny Rat reading too attentively, have you?

Friends, I'm listening to Aki Takase "Le Cahier du Bal" (Leo) - fantastic! Solo piano. Takase displays imressive virtuosity, great ideas and endless musicality with references to all imaginable aspects of piano playing (Bach, Skryabin, Taylor, Van Hove, Bley, Monk, some stride piano and more). Very original. I am totally in agreement with Francois Carrier's review: HERE, and I particularly endorse the following "It is the strongest, most virtuosic, most original solo piano performance since the release of Kuryokhin's "The Ways of Freedom" back in 1981" (well, I take it Francois hasn't heard Matthew Goodheart's solo recordings, though). Some sound samples at Amazon.

Hmm... Ran Blake I can't stand, but Karayorgis I like... I'll go for this disc anyway.

Agree. I also like having the little thing in a jewel case with a booklet. I am as well not willing to pay more than $5-6 for a download. From what I know the OGG format (which Leo uses) shows better results at the same compression level as WMA (which is in turn better than MP3). I think Leo is entertaining an idea of having "lossless" downloads available from his site - but these of course will be massive even for broadband. And again - I still prefer having the "real" thing - even if in 10 years there won't be too many of those released.

From the Leo Recordswebsite: Special New Year offer: Save US$ 10 Instead of US$ 39.96 if bought separately, download our four latest releases: CD LR 415, 416, 417, and 418 now for only US$ 29.96 CD LR 415 Clarinet Trio 3(Ullmann, Kupke, Thieke): Ballads and Related Objects - 12/2004 - US$ 9.99 - about 66MB*** CD LR 416 Braxton / Szabados / Tarasov: Triotone - 12/2004 - US$ 9.99 - about 71MB*** CD LR 417 Pandelis Karayorgis (Solo-Piano): Seventeen Pieces - 12/2004 - US$ 9.99 - about 72MB*** CD LR 418 Collective 4tet (Geisser / Hennen / Hoyer / Parker): Moving Along - 12/2004 - US$ 9.99 - about 62MB***

On Dexter's Cigar (according to jazzmatazz)!

Nate, I have to admit I haven't spent much time listening to Bailey attentively, so my impressions are merely superficial. In the next several weeks I will go through my Bailey collection (a very thin one: 2-CD Marseille concert on Incus, "Yankees" with Zorn and George Lewis, 2 Japo discs and some bits and pieces elsewhere) and will post my impresions here. This thing with Kent Carter surely sounds intertesting - I like Kent Carter a lot.

Don't know this Bailey - so it will be YOU who will have to tell us what it's like. Talking about Bailey, I still can't fully appreciate what his approach. Probably I have the wrong Bailey. I also so him live (in duo with Susie Ibarra... sorry, Flurin, no fotos from the concert) - and he sounded extemely unfocused, nearly random. Also, didn't seem to listen to what poor Ibarra was doing (who was not particularly shining, either... I mean her playing, not her looks, Flurin).

Yeah Blake, we've been quite concerned about your keeping quite for so long. Different speculations circulated, and we are glad you finally decided to step in. I'll buy this one, if theystill have it on stock Cardew, Cornelius - Four Principles On Ireland And Other Pieces (1974)(Ampersand 7) $9.00. These Sun Ra's - are these recent Italian reissues? Anybody can comment on the sound?

Glad you liked them. This is unique music that I find truly invigorative. Some of them are improvised, btw (I am not sure improivsed ones are on the CD I gave you, though), and the way the three-voice improvised parts are built is really fascinating. I read the booklet, but it's not clear indeed if anyhting on the CD is improvised, but the text states this ensemble is the best one in improvising. I like the rougher Hallelujah-kind-of-chorales a lot. I have been a tiny bit into renaissance music and early polyphonics (some Machaut, Dufay, Ockeghem etc), and this really is different. Will have to share it with a friend of mine who's into that kind of music a lot. It is absolutely unique. I have quite a lot of early vocal music, and the closest thing I've heard to Georgian polyphonic singing is Sardenian singing - but Georgians have these hero mantality, so the songs are much more "monumental" and dramatic (I will send you a CD-R of Georgain folk battle songs from XV century - this is some powerful stuff).

Glad you liked them. This is unique music that I find truly invigorative. Some of them are improvised, btw (I am not sure improivsed ones are on the CD I gave you, though), and the way the three-voice improvised parts are built is really fascinating.

Just wanted to tell you all that I ordered the Futterman (don't at all know him, ordered it for Lyons mainly, and yes, I wonder about Richard Davis, too!), along with two other offers on that site, a Lacy solo set, "Snips", 2CDs for 6$, and Frank Lowe's "Fresh" (7$). Shipping IS steep (10$), but at the current exchange rate, it will be ok in the end. ubu Let us know about them! Futterman is excellent -and everybody here should check out his very intense Southern Extreme (Drimala) with Kidd Jordan.

I think these ones proved to be much more dangerous for the society: