clifford_thornton

definitely in that zone.

I do have this, so... 5?

Awesome. Yeah, fascinating environment it sounds like.

Porter was going to do it but they went under. Lasha owned the masters and I'm not sure what their status is. Regarding Insight, he spoke a bit about it in an interview I did with him many years ago. It's on AAJ but I'd prefer not to drive traffic there. This will be reprinted in some more tangible form in the future. There's more on it throughout the interview but this kind of gives some background. When did you go to England? It was somewhere around '65 to '67. I used some of the Queen's Royal Orchestra for that record. I had a friend named John Hammond at CBS, and he always liked my playing and John Handy's playing. He said “I'm going to set you up a date for CBS in Great Britain” [which resulted in Insight, CBS UK, 1966]. I went over with a friend of mine, the bassist John Hartt, and I lived in Kensington for about a year on Russell Road, and Yusef Lateef used to come over and he wrote some of the parts for the harp. I lived with a millionaire who went on the road with Philly Joe Jones and later lost his life – John was a great bassist and sat up all night playing like Bud Powell on the bass. He had drums and everything, and I used to have Yusef come over because he was playing Ronnie Scott's club at the time. I played a concert in Cambridge, one in Brighton and recorded there. We rode around in Bentleys; they didn't have minks, but chinchillas for their ladies! We were staying at a mansion – the mansion had so much land to it, a great big place, and we had a baby grand piano inside so we'd play throughout the night. We built big bonfires and smoked a lot of hashish, did whatever we wanted. Having an invitation to come to this place, I took Moffett with me and Chris Bateson, and we'd do gigs. I think the family that owned it was out of the country; John was a relative of the owners. We weren't close to anyone, and the music has always been very well-mannered; it's not like rock, you don't hear this next door. We did music inside at this mansion with three or four floors, ten or twelve baths, just all kinds of beautiful areas. When you put that band together for Insight, did that band work at all, or was it just for the record date? It was for the record date; Stan [Tracey] was working Ronnie Scott's as was Yusef, and the other cats were working clubs too. I just went over there for CBS because John Hammond got that together. Joe Oliver was the drummer, and he was the only other brother in the band. He was in New York at some point, I think. Coming from New York to that environment must have been something else. Yeah, because most millionaires live in Kensington. You look at the house and you can see who built it in what year, and we don't do it that way here. Right, we just want things to be thrown away and they're not connected to any history. Right, but they keep up with everything in the European countries. They keep up with the music, and they know.

You're never going to find out how or why the cat purrs if you try taking it apart.

Joe is great and I'm glad this survey is out there.

any experience with Omnivore LP pressings? I like the cover photo but kinda wish the artwork had a little more punch to it.

still got it!

yep.

they did supply me with a few review copies over the years, which I reviewed. I guess it's possible that the publications purchased them for review and didn't let me know that they had done that.

wow, what a run. I guess Gary Snyder gets lumped in with the Beats, and he's still kicking at 90.

yeah, hard to care, as much as I like Henderson and Dorham. I've got all of this stuff in one form or another. Nothing from the vault and not enough alternates to make it worthwhile IMO.

Jazz Record Mart and Delmark, I presume.

yeah, I like this one.

that's one I've never had, either, though the band is pretty awesome on it.

he doesn't say it in print, that's all I can mention here.

yeah, would certainly make sense. I try not to read too much of Steve Coleman talking but he's good on those records for sure.

THIS

Coleman (Steve) worked with Doug Hammond a bunch and I wonder how Doug and that whole scene fit into M-Base. Never really got into the latter for various reasons but the Doug Hammond albums on Idibib (and Tribe) are super. ooh Lasha acetate, nice! Had many phone conversations with him over the years, and he was/is an amazing person.

Never heard of that one -- will check it out!

Downes is very cool. He's been sending along youtube vids of his quarantine solos, so I get a Downes sonic observation in my inbox every now and then. His latest was a "flute admonishment" to the moles digging up the garden near his house. Hilarious.

yeah those Surmans are great. John Warren is a hell of an arranger. Bob Downes also stepped out in that direction with Electric City.

What about the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra or the London Improvisers' Orchestra? More in the avant-garde realm, but certainly worth investigating. There's also John Stevens' Spontaneous Music Orchestra and Paul Rutherford's Iskrastra, both of which are maybe a bit more obscure. Might also add People Band to this list if you haven't already explored their work. Two Emanem archival releases, well worth investigating.

not super in depth but this is a start:

El Paso gets its power from NM/western grid, not TX grid, correct?