clifford_thornton

There are a lot of awesome ECM records but also a lot that I don't really care that much about. Life goes on. I agree that the German vinyl pressings do sound better than a lot of their CD releases from the first half of the '90s. I would assume that they sound better now, though I've only heard a smattering of newer ECM titles ( < 20) to judge from. To me they are just another player in the landscape of contemporary music imprints and I don't feel like they need to be offered "cult status" or anything, but here we are. Most of the ECM records I like are earlier rather than recent. I suppose if I were to list ten today it would be the Mal Waldron, Afric Pepperbird, Just Music, Conference of the Birds, Steve Reich "Music for 18 Musicians," Barre Phillips "Mountainscapes," Gateway 1, Music Improvisation Company, and Divine Love. Tomorrow it might include the Bleys, Michael Naura's "Vanessa," the John Clark LP, and the new Barre Phillips solo.

Sorry to hear about Mr. Cannon; looking forward to hearing the CD, in any event. Just catching up to this project now.

What a crazy situation.

Got a car again this summer and have lucked into Schaap on a few drives. I am among those who really enjoy hearing what he has to say. Sorry that he's still dealing with health issues.

this looks awesome -- I'll have to watch it later, listening to something else right now. of course comedy and much in music is all about timing, so when the timing is good, it's really something. I worked on indexing the video oral history of Bob Newhart for a project in graduate school and it was a real lesson in more ways than one!

I've never had Moot (aware of it, just doesn't pop up often enough over here) but it does look like a fun one.

Right, I knew there was an aristocratic connection. I've never really seen his name without the "von." He looks like an aging soap opera star!

I can imagine!!

I've always liked Shepp's version. It was a great day when in my college jazz history class (taught by the late Dick Wright), he crammed both free jazz and bossa nova into one class, using that as the segue. We bonded over our shared love for Roswell Rudd's Impulse! album, Everywhere. Owe that dude a lot.

story of my life! but yeah, I've been listening to CDs a lot more in the last year; now that I no longer review albums, the pressure is off and I can just listen to things and enjoy them. It's fun!

Spaulding is great. I will write him and wish him a happy birthday as well! I plan to republish the great interview I did with him in 2004. It still holds up as one of the finer ones I was able to do.

Is there extra music on Three Nails Left? I've got the whole set from that Moers concert and it's pretty fantastic. The McPhee I will grip, have both Pullen/Graves LPs and the FMP vinyl. oops, just saw the link -- no extras on the AvS. Sucks, as there's at least another 20 minutes of music, which gets pretty buck wild!

yeah, that's a good one. DKV rips. I ride for most of the V5 stuff as well as Bridge 61 and some of the duos with drummers. The large ensemble discs are, to me, very hit-or-miss. Not all ideas are sustainable across that many people and minutes, though hell, it's not like the efforts aren't well respected. AALY is cool but yeah, I think Gustafsson is more comfortable in that situation (or was at the time). Free Fall and the duo with Nate Wooley have also deeply impressed me in live situations.

I have those LPs, all excellent.

I'll have to check that out. Singular voice, RIP.

great cover.

Damn. I didn't know it was so expensive; though I'm not a musician I'd like to read it at some point in life!

And on Lacy's birthday, no less.

all the Brackeens on Silkheart are unimpeachable.

Yeah, she was seemingly off and on in England throughout her career, at least early on. RIP, what a voice.

Sometimes I kept cover variations of certain ESP titles but I narrowed them down once I had to move across the country. I did keep the Actuel and America duplicate releases of Arthur Jones' Scorpio and Jacques Coursil's Black Suite; the Americas sound better but I like to keep the full Actuel catalog intact. Otherwise, occasionally I keep CD reissues if there's extra music or if I did work on them in some form.

Things are looking good in NY... for the time being, anyway.

That Impulse! triumvirate is great. I like Things Have Got To Change a lot, but Attica Blues is really special indeed, and Cry of My People ain't no slouch either.

problem with digitizing commercially produced materials is that the library doesn't have the rights. when I send digital copies of photographs to a user, whether academic or press or whatever, I always give them the photographer name and contact (or estate contact), with the understanding that the rights-holder will be contacted and, if necessary, compensated in the event of reuse. Books and records are obviously different and ownership can be tough to navigate -- author/creator, record company/publisher, or some middle-person? Really depends. A public library and a university library also have a very different public, as you might gather. I'm also firmly against the notion that we must "digitize everything" and make it all free because in many cases, there are those creators who need to be respected in their position, whether monetarily or otherwise (nor does every creator want all of their material available in the first place -- student works, informal creations, etc.). This is of course another long-tail discussion, but I think most institutions try to thread the needle of access and rights as best they can within the law (and what they have the resources to accomplish). And I'm hardly a lawyer or fair-use expert, just out here trying my best.

I don't see that as a problem -- like rare books, held in a library for viewing/examination rather than stored away in an individual person's home. The archive that I direct is available to anyone for research, though one does have to visit NYC in person for most of the materials. That said, I would not turn anyone away who made the trek.