clifford_thornton

Novotny is/was fantastic. I never met him or saw him live, but I have a number of vintage LPs: RAU, Three Motions, and the related outfit Masters of Unorthodox Jazz (which Novotny was not part of, far out stuff) and would love to hear the recording with Greene.

that's fair -- I am not one of those to insist free players are on a higher level. It's music I love very much but I also love straight ahead jazz, trad, swing, and whatever else. There's room for everybody.

Well, every time something bubbles up about free players not being able to play changes or read music, I feel like it has to be trotted out -- like an abstract visual artist has to be Michelangelo in their drawing ability. Sure, some foundation can help, but why do what Michelangelo did? Why play like Bird did, or why sight-read Stravinsky when that's not what your music requires? Or, perhaps a musician can do this but prefers to play free music -- then let them do it. A sampling of the musicians on that boxed set, many of whom were excellent readers/composers/players in a wide range of settings: Steve Lacy, Bobby Few, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Paul Rutherford, Misha Mengelberg, Willem Breuker, Irène Schweizer, Vinko Globokar, Albert Mangelsdorff, Fred van Hove, Johnny Dyani... and then there are people like Brötzmann and Frank Wright, Alan Silva, and others, who may not be able to read microscopic fly shit on paper but are tremendous musicians in other ways.

yeah, Dusty usually carries Gearbox LPs. They aren't hard to get in the US. Looking forward to hearing this.

Crazy list of places that shut down. Some in Williamsburg I knew well and some of those closed not because of the pandemic, but because of other primary factors.

excellent set. The book is amazing.

yeah, I mean YMMV after De Perikels but...

Wow. HBBB!

Have both on LP and they're fantastic. Jazz in Paradiso was part of a Dulfer CD box that EMI Holland did some years ago; I never had that, but it looked pretty all-encompassing. I feel like all of those Catfish LPs should have standalone reissues. They're indispensable. https://www.discogs.com/Hans-Dulfer-The-Formative-Years-68-98/release/6557889

definitely English subtitles where needed, otherwise none.

He was around 18 when he first recorded with Sonny Simmons and Marzette Watts for ESP. A talented guy.

Sad loss. Saw him play at the Vision Festival with Billy Bang and Frank Lowe, that was a treat. Pretty sure it wasn't the only occasion but that concert really sticks out.

saw it upon US release in Austin many years ago -- the Alamo Drafthouse had "Music Mondays," which were either $2 or $5, and this was one of their screenings. Pretty fantastic although I agree that Mary Maria got short shrift. Somebody needs to write a book on jazz in Scandinavia with a bent on American influences like Ayler, Shepp, Taylor, Cherry, Pettiford...

There's an interview with the band in either DownBeat or Coda from around that time and it is pretty interesting. Sadly, the music never lived up to what they were talking about (for me).

Yeah, the Consort albums -- Mandela on Catfish (an EMI subsidiary for which Hans Dulfer did A&R) and Chess! on BASF -- are both wonderful. The Nederlans Jazzarchief reissued both on one CD. The LPs are not difficult to find and should be under $100. There's also an excellent Antibes live date floating around the internet that lines up perfectly with Mandela, and is even more rambunctious. not listed on Discogs is a Japanese CBS/Sony pressing of Stairs! from the late '60s.

Great, great record. Engels and Altena on here remind me of Bennink (and Altena) on Porto Novo from 9 months later... not sure if Artone releases are easily licensed or not and I believe the catalog was folded into CBS at one point. That might preclude a reissue. Mandela is badass. It was reissued on CD a few years ago, I think. Loevendie is brilliant.

yeah, that's accurate.

I'll have to dig out my copy of Burton's autobiography where he talks about it, but my recollection was that Baraka basically wrote that piece to curry political favor and few if any of the musicians took it seriously. Burton had known him socially and was taken aback that he wrote something like that. Of course, people Baraka was aligning himself with, like Shepp, Brown, and Ayler had all worked with Greene and they were part of the same musical universe.

That Baraka piece is really a drag. Even at the time I first read it, which was right around when I discovered Burton's ESPs, it seemed totally off. Of course, Burton was invited by Marion and Pharoah -- he'd already worked with Brown and Ayler, and led a quartet with Marion, by the time it went to print. My impression is that the article hurt Burton's pride more than anything; gigs were nearly impossible to come by for almost everyone at that time in New York. Even labels like ESP were pivoting to psychedelic rock and so forth. He'd planned to go over for just a short while to France, and ended up staying in Holland from ~1970 onward.

well, he was born and raised in Chicago but his ancestry is Romanian. As far as I know English and some Dutch were his main languages. There's a pretty fascinating story about his trip to Romania in his (wild) autobiography, "Memoirs of a Musical Pesty-Mystic" (Cadence Jazz Books). Seek that volume out and you will be majorly rewarded. Novotny is pretty interesting as well. I bet that was a good gig.

yeah, I was at that concert -- great fun!

I was left with a little gift from Burton a few months ago... my dad, a pianist, and his trio were doing a Zoom listening party for a CD that they were working on, and Burton chimed in to watch/listen and say hello. He enjoyed one of the pieces so much he asked my dad for the lead sheet and recorded it. Burton's version isn't released and I don't know if he intended to put it out (he mentioned he'd like to but I'm not sure of his ultimate plan). I think Burton and my dad have some of the same influences, and as my dad's piano playing and compositions have gotten freer in recent years, the affinity is something I can sense. So I hear a lot of both of them in this rendition of my dad's music... pretty incredible.

Yeah, Bley and Coleman.

great choice.

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the pianist/composer, and my friend, Burton Greene died today in his home of Amsterdam at the age of 84. Burton's piano approach ranged from the influences of Horace Silver, Monk and Lennie Tristano to Indian music, Klezmer, and Bartók (he is of Romanian Jewish descent), creating a melodic, meditative, and rhythmically rich stew from which freedom could emerge. Burton recorded prolifically as a leader beginning in 1966 for ESP-Disk', followed by albums on BYG, Columbia (!), Horo, Hat Hut, Circle, Cat Jazz, Button Nose, CIMP/Cadence, NoBusiness, Drimala, Tzadik, and other imprints. Notable appearances include those with Marion Brown, Albert Ayler, Patty Waters, Perry Robinson, Sam Rivers, Byard Lancaster, Alan Silva, Roy Campbell Jr., and Gong, though his work as a soloist and interpreter is also vast. Despite less recognition than he and his fans might have hoped, he toured Europe and the US into 2019, a true soldier of the road. I got to know Burton in 2004 through interviewing him for the New York City Jazz Record (at that time called All About Jazz New York) and we became good friends -- I was lucky to experience his many stories and ideas through conversations over the phone, email, and in person (he inaugurated our apartment in Brooklyn as the "home for wayward jazz musicians" after staying with us in 2012) and we had hoped to do a festival including his US trio in 2020 until COVID put the kibosh on it. I'll forever cherish the friendship and memories as well as the many hours of great music. Rest in Power, Burton.