clifford_thornton

It's probably in the autobiography and my copy is in storage. Was he teaching then, perhaps?

pedal steel guitar with some additional effects.

haha, yes, me too!

Ballads and Virtuosi. They were part of a proposed double LP for ESP.

Yeah, got that too as well as a couple later samplers that were included with The Levitts and a Billie Holiday record.

Mercury (owners of Limelight), Philips/Fontana, and International Polydor were all under one odd roof in the 1960s and early '70s, so technically he did six albums under that umbrella in short succession (although Touching was originally on Danish Debut, so the Fontana is a reissue). That said, the only one that received US distribution was Mr. Joy, though Arista/Freedom did reissue two of the Philips/Fontana/Polydor sessions. Ramblin' was originally done for GTA, an arm of RCA Italy, and that label folded so BYG put it out instead (and Red Record somehow reissued it later in the 70s). Bley did quite a few records for ECM, starting with two albums of archival recordings, and also a number for Soul Note and his own IAI imprint, which he co-ran with his wife, video artist Carol Goss. One of the ECMs and one of the IAIs were supposed to be on ESP, so that would have made four on ESP. So I'm not really of the mind that his releases were that far flung in terms of where they landed, and he did have the creative freedom to do pretty much whatever he wanted in most instances (something that might not have happened on Columbia or Prestige).

Was: Initially, we thought about doing a magazine with a CD inside. I liked the idea of an exclusive anthology album. When I was first learning about jazz in the mid-’60s, there was an album that Impulse! put out called The New Wave in Jazz that had Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, and all these guys, and that’s how I found out about them. I knew Coltrane, but that was my first exposure to Shepp and Ayler. There’s also a label out in New York called ESP that does some pretty radical s**t. They put out an ESP-sampler vinyl that you could buy for a $1.99. It didn’t have whole songs, but it had bits of everything from Sun Ra to William Burroughs to Pharoah Sanders. It was all very extreme music, and that’s how I learned about it.

that looks great. Now: Craig Kupka -- Crystals -- (Folkways, US)

Was it with Heather Leigh?

True, Canadian and Jewish.

Even this?

Yeah, Blue Note did record two Cecil Taylor LPs and they did pretty well (despite being oddly recorded). Cecil is a VERY different artist from Bley and I don't think they were after the same things, not even remotely. Cecil built a much more consistent arc -- I don't think that Bley's recordings, if you go from, say, the Mercury record to the Savoy to Barrage to Blood to Revenge -- these are really quite a zigzag. Bley did work with some amazing reed players, sure: Ornette, Gilmore, Pharoah, Ayler, Giuffre, Marshall Allen -- but trying to put him in an Andrew Hill-like situation just doesn't make sense. Also, Blue Note purposely didn't record white players that often, so... it's kind of a moot point. Not sure why Lion and Wolff are necessary to validate one's career.

It was funny to hear Terry at such a young age going toe to toe with Buell (who was also much younger then). And I agree with him in that Cecil's music, at least at that period, wasn't that far out. It's always felt pretty accessible to me... guess you just have to be at the point where you want to access those feelings.

haha!

Blue Note would never have found him salable. He didn't do one thing for long enough, except be Paul Bley.

you can always get a refund if it doesn't work out.

^ same. The pre-ESP stuff, on Savoy, GNP, Mercury, and Debut, is also quite fine. Actually had that GNP on last night and it holds up quite well. I think the Savoy is where he really started stretching his legs, at least on record.

Yes, one of the greats. His way of swinging seemed so effortless while having an equal amount of heft. For whatever reason I couldn't get that into his leader dates but I feel like that was partly due to the sidemen. I was at Cooper-Moore's apartment the day the news about Billy's death broke. It was a heavy day. I remember it well.

Archie Shepp -- Life at the Donaueschingen Music Festival -- (SABA, GER)

Richard Williams remembers: https://thebluemoment.com/2018/03/19/buell-neidlinger-1936-2018/

of course. That was a fun experience and the third musician I ever interviewed. Newport '65 I believe. Barron continued playing with Cecil off and on into the later '60s.

ah -- shows you how long it's been since I dug those out! Carry on then.

Great piece, fantastic player, swell guy.

Muddy Waters -- Electric Mud -- (Cadet Concept, green label US pressing)

Just got the news from my editor (via Buell's family) that the bassist died today at age 82. He was a force of nature and will be missed. One of the first musicians I interviewed, and though I didn't keep in touch as much as I should have, I really got a kick out of talking with him early on. At one point he trying to write his autobiography though his eyesight had gone and I believe that project had to be scuttled. It would have been something to read, from the stories I'd heard... RIP sir, and thank you.