Д.Д.

Listening to the Crunchy channel of American Mavericks radio - there is a very interesting 20-minute piece of Nick Didkovsky's Doctor Nerve (website). There are some samples of the disc I am listenig to here. Anybody's familiar with them?

You should title the thread : LOST 60S BLUE NOTE SESSION, LONG OOP MOSAIC SUPER-RARE CONOSSEUR ARTIST HENRI TEXIER (DIGIPAK WITH OBI!!!!!!) -ANDREW HILL-INFLUENCED!!!!!!!

Nope, but as I said, I listened to his London Jazz Fest 04 concert (or parts of it, 55 or 60 minutes), and I like that well enough to consider getting into Braxton a bit... will spin them soon! If you decide to start exploring Braxton a few of his Hat's (Basel and Dortmund) are mid-priced now and excellent starting points. The quartet sets on Leo (Coventry, Birmingham, London) are also fantastic. Dortmund I have, for the Basel I'd be happy for pointers, seems gone... ubu I have a spare copy, don't worry.

That's Phase One, which is the best of these three AEoC reissues. Excellent sound quality as well. I wish there was more material available from these sessions. Flurin, you listened to Braxton yet?

Direct link to the P.S.F. Records. Lots of stuff to explore here.

Now-defunct CRI (Composers Recordings) label releases are avialble for $3.50 at Qualiton. All of the CRI releases are to be reissued later by New World.

I am listening to this one for the first time right now! It's a 2003 Japanese Universal Hardcore Jazz reissue with four bonus tracks (making it a 76-minute disc): http://www.universal-music.co.jp/jazz/hard...z/uccu9021.html I am only 1/4 into it so far, and loving it already! Probably to an extent due to flawless sound, I'm finally hearing what Bailey is doing. And the guys he is playing with are amazing - Kondo I knew, but this Kaoru Abe guy - wheew, this might be some of the most intense and insane alto saxophone work I've ever heard! Gotta explore more Abe (excellent EUgene Chadbourne write up on Abe).

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)!