clifford_thornton

well, guess Gearbox isn't under the EU anymore!

yep, apparently so. Trying to find video footage and it's not popping up, though it looks like set audio is downloadable from various places.

yeah, curious to know how he is doing.

ha -- well, when you hear Jamie unrolling duct tape and stuff like that, you know it was probably something to see.

The Bailey-Muir is excellent. Fascinating interplay, would've loved to have been there to watch it all go down.

A bit overshadowed by other losses in April, but saxophonist and actor Bob Feldman passed on (I believe) April 8 at the age of 79. He wrote me a very nice letter when I reviewed his Triplicity CD with Walter Perkins -- was able to catch the band (post-Perkins) at Cornelia St., and Bob was a very kind man as well as being a fantastic player. Wish I'd had more opportunities or made the effort to seek him out when I moved back to NYC. He was a practicing Buddhist so I am sure he was already at peace, but hope his travels are safe.

Peter Brötzmann -- 14 Love Poems -- (FMP, Ger)

The guitarist and composer passed last night at 69 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Was lucky to see him a few times; the most recent at a RBMA performance in Chelsea that was absolutely shattering. https://pitchfork.com/news/glenn-branca-dead-at-69/

Derek Bailey + Jamie Muir -- Dart Drug -- (Incus, UK)

under-heralded classic. Have the original pressing and it's a treasure. That Free America series should be brought out again -- they didn't get to every one, and there are some really great albums in that series.

Multiple Japanese CD reissues since, as well as a 75th Anniversary LP in the US and an EU LP edition as well (maybe legit, maybe not).

Yeah, I love that Savoy as well. I assume it's a matter of licensing through Warner/Atlantic, if they even have the tapes any longer. From what I recall of Dixonia it's not clear whether there are any additional recordings from those sessions. But alas, as much as I'd like to be a contractor for more of these types of releases on Now-Again, he's got enough other projects in the works that it's really hard to say what'll happen.

That's one of the strongest jazz albums ESP released.

Ulrich Gumpert, Raud Malfatti, Tony Oxley -- Ach Was?! -- (FMP, Ger) pretty great example of this kind of thing if you are into this kind of thing.

Well in 2005 my grasp was a little less clear. Strata-East would have made sense. Tribe not so much, since it was localized to Detroit and environs.

Sun Ra -- God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be -- (Cosmic Myth reissue)

The Dorham is Dave Bailey's "Bash" with alternate takes, correct?

Helen Merrill -- s/t -- (Emarcy, dg 2nd press) Hal McKusick -- Jazz Workshop -- (RCA Victor, mono)

ah, that's what I had kinda guessed -- which is why, despite intrigue, it's never entered the collection.

Huh. Will be curious to see how and what they do in the future, though admittedly I wasn't sure how hands-on Koester had been for a while.

Don't have this one on LP, so I'm eager to check it out. I do like the steel drum-heavy Timeless album.

haha, too true.

Alan Skidmore -- T.C.B. -- (Philips, UK)

yeah, that's one of my favorites too. Now, on a work-from-home afternoon: John Betsch Society -- Earth Blossom -- (Strata-East, US)

From Fred Weaver: Rest In Peace to my cousin Brooks Kerr who died last weekend. Brooks was a once-in-a-lifetime character, respected musician and essentially an adopted son of Duke Ellington. Over the past several decades, Brooks loved to create three-party phone calls where he would listen silently as my mother spoke to his friends, many of whom were famous musicians, their spouses and children. My mother knows next to nothing about jazz, so she talked politics with Max Roach, cats with Doris Parker and history with Alan Gershwin. Brooks would leave frantic, rambling free jazz voicemails on our phone that referenced people, quotes and historical events I don’t know that I’d ever be able to connect (or, hell, even *identify*). These messages were a great source of entertainment and bewilderment, and invariably wrapped up with the exclamation“Til Death Do Us Part!” before hanging up. Indeed, Brooks. You will be greatly missed.