clifford_thornton

I have had a couple of copies of that DGG box over the years and tend to agree. Wired is probably the best in there. Glad to see Iskra 1903 represented but feel that the Incus set and of course the Wachsmann era far eclipse what's in these grooves. I used to be way into New Phonic Art and the aggressiveness of this particular album but the one I return to -- if any -- is the Wergo, or for that matter, Kagel's Exotica LP.

Nice!

Shepp sounds good -- at least he was in fine form when I saw him a couple of years ago. Wonder if they'll bring out any of the old Shepp-Burrell chestnuts like "Blues for Donald Duck," "Hipnosis," and "Sonny's Back?" I suppose those are all Grachan tunes, right? I saw Keir in duo with Shayna Dulberger once, and that was quite strong, so I think you're in for a treat.

There will be perfect synchronicity when Allen is booked to play the Vision Festival in 2019.

to be fair he did say "Almost nobody," not "nobody."

I really liked the one on Porter and that group Pretty Monsters that she's in is also very enjoyable.

The lineup is absurdly tantalizing. Glad it'll be at Roulette as we can at least hope for decent sound.

Thanks -- will have to check it out. I do like Gullin though some of it is a little 'soft' for my Americanized ears. I guess it's the same problem I have with some (not all) Mulligan. I like punchy arrangements and husky baritone playing. But then again I've heard Mats Gustafsson play Gullin live and that well-placed caress can be just as hardcore as anything else.

Yeah, she's very good -- I'm trying to remember the small group I saw her with at Andrew Drury's Soup & Sound; Harris wasn't in it, that's for sure. Katherine Young is another fantastic young bassoonist who has work with Braxton and others. Her solo music is amazing, although it falls more into the contemporary composition/structured sound art realm.

In red.

Agreed. Fascinating foil for Jimmy but underestimated on her own/outside of that orbit.

**** 4 stars in next month's Down Beat! That makes me unbelievably happy.

yes to all of these. I have a private recording of Karen Borca with Irène Schweizer, Wm. Parker, and Andrew Cyrille that is absolutely burning. Would love to have actually been at the show!

how is that? I have seen a Finnish RCA pressing (1960s) before, but wasn't sure if the music would be up my alley or not.

Is some of the Folk Bag LP also on the Supraphon CBBB LP? I have that and it sounds wonderful at 1/30 of the price.

Even Zeke Tolin enjoyed himself...

Lisa Parrott and Nicole Glover were on fire last night in Allen Lowe's band -- bari and tenor, respectively. I definitely agree that there are far more women instrumentalists in the spotlight now; I'd assume part of that is due to the changing dynamics of the education system in that music schools are more diverse. Trumpeter Jaimie Branch and guitarist Mary Halvorson have both gotten a lot of love here, as has saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock.

aha -- that would make sense. Both of those Lester sessions on Muse are great. Never saw or met him, alas.

Speaking of Muse, I was going to call out "Rope-a-Dope" but I guess it did come out in Japan in the 90s.

Can't wait!

Heliodor did the WERGO titles in the US and England. That's a pretty late 60 000 series catalog number so 1971 seems accurate for release -- don't recall seeing a heavy stock gatefold edition of that one which would skew it earlier. The Time records did get sold with different covers in Italy it looks like, but they were still "Time" records and licensed overseas by Bob Shad. Might they be RCA Italiana products? Not sure how far they wandered beyond Italy but Maderna was involved with Time/Mainstream as a music supervisor, so it would stand to reason that he helped that deal get made. WERGO bought the Earle Brown-produced New Music titles in the last 20 years, probably even more recently, and has issued them on CD.

Yeah, that DGG Avant-garde series came out in the late 60s, and was mostly (though not entirely) European. I have the entire run of those boxes. Really beautiful music. Wergo is a great label -- there are a couple scattered pieces on earlier compilations but their most significant Cage and NY School releases didn't start hitting the bins until the 70s.

CD version has extra music, one piece of which is particularly good, but abbreviated notes/booklet. LP set of two has a bit less musical content but the booklet is a lot fleshier and also retains the original paste-on style cover art.

I mean, Cage and Feldman records didn't seemingly appear on European import labels until the late 1960s -- Takahashi's performance of the Sonatas and Interludes on Fylkingen were maybe among the first? Earle Brown has a cut on that La Musica Nuova box on Victrola but he's the only American represented... the New York School, despite having a huge lasting influence, didn't have much representation on European LPs until long after composers, artists, and music fans had begun paying attention.

Thanks, all! And as always, anyone having trouble finding this release can contact me.