clifford_thornton

Thanks, Randy. These are all good observations. A few of these have been guessed already, however: #1 is Danish trumpeter Hugh Steinmetz leading a sextet through the tune "Nisshimbo," from his first album as a leader for Debut (Denmark), Nu!, recorded in 1966. The reedists are Karsten Vogel and Niels Harrit. #4 is our own Allen Lowe on tenor from his first LP as a leader, For Poor B.B. and Others, recorded in 1985 and released on his Fairhaven imprint. The tune is called "H.W." and features Bob Neloms on piano. #6 is a Japanese group called Evolution Ensemble Unity, featuring saxophonist Mototeru Takagi, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo and bassist Morio Yoshida. It was recorded in 1976 and released via their own private label on an album called Concrete Voices. It's a cover of the Steve Lacy tune called "Bone." #10 is a tune called "Cogito Ergo Slum" from the UK-based collective Balance, with Ian Brighton on guitar, Radu Malfatti on trombone, Phil Wachsmann on violin, Colin Wood on cello and Frank Perry on percussion. This was recorded in 1973 and released on the Incus label. I'll throw this bone out there if it's not been figured out already, in that the Allen Lowe cut is the only one from an American ensemble though #7 does feature one American player and it's not the cellist. Track #2 is indeed led by a doubler, who plays alto in addition to clarinet. Each track represents creative music from a different country.

Thanks! Oliver, I believe that tracks 1 and 5 (not yet guessed, although it seems to be one of the less popular cuts) are the only ones that have appeared on CD.

yes, it's pretty good. My favorite Maslak is the duo with Charles Moffett on Soul Note. The trio with Mark Miller and Sadiq Shahid is enjoyable too (records on Circle and Waterland). I've never had the second Leo with Lindberg and Murray but would imagine it's quite nice.

Just to update everyone, tracks 1, 4, 6 and 10 have been correctly identified. That leaves eight more tunes.

Thanks. We're not supposed to talk politics over here I guess, but this seems like a special case... Anyway, not sure if I should give any hints yet but I bet people are starting to figure out the theme here.

Thanks. It's been very hard to listen to anything the last couple of days. Blasted some Wu-Tang Clan on the way to work and that helped a little.

Corto Maltese is correct on Steinmetz, EEU and Balance! Bit of a rough way to start the week but I'm glad people are listening to the BFT. Sorry we elected this stain.

Yeah, sorry it had to be this way. Thanks for being you.

Spiritual Nature is awesome. I bought that JVC LP of We Now Create maybe 10 years ago and it was one of the first Japanese avant-garde LPs I picked up. Of course there are a lot of records in that category, many of them quite good, but Togashi's consistently remain among the best.

We Now Create is awesome. Have the same pressing -- would love a gatefold original but then again, have had spotty luck on the sound of those green label Japanese Victors...

Happy Belated, Paul!

Yeah, pretty obscure player. Sounds good though.

Yeah, this Japanese pressing sounds a bit better than my US issue (which, to be fair, was kinda ratty).

Marion Brown - Sweet Earth Flying - (Impulse, JP)

Takehiro Honda - Meets the Rhythm Section + Sadao Watanabe - (Trio, JP) nice straight-ahead Japanese jazz, fluid and blocky in all the right places

+1 on Open Sky.

If CDs are still around by the time I am old and retired, I'd actually have time to listen to and enjoy that. Not right now really.

Love that SME large ensemble stuff.

Sad news. He was something else. I never got the chance to see him perform.

I've seen copies (via Popsike, etc.) with red, orange, and white labels, respectively. For an edition with 300 examples, that's a lot of variation!

4. Januar is awesome. I bought a copy years ago and it wasn't cheap then either.

Strong date. Still have my eyes peeled for the limited original with the swirl cover.

Rough. Sorry to hear this.

Thanks Chuck - AB put it to me a little differently and what I recalled was that he self-financed his music/recordings/ensembles, but I may not have understood it clearly enough.