clifford_thornton

worth it for the title track alone, my god!

RIP, too bad. Just watched her in After Hours not too long ago.

Right, I actually talked to Dave about this so it was indeed conceived as a mass of individual lines/phrases superimposed to create a collective whole. If musicians are playing their own thing in parallel, then they're doing right by the music as it was composed. A lot of free music is quite organized and sometimes even precomposed. Good call on the Coursils. I think of them a bit differently but they are rigorous and spacious for sure. the Horos are pretty bound up in all sorts of questionable ownership deals. That said, there's only a handful of Horo LPs to my mind that are really in the "free jazz" realm. Most of what I own or have heard is of the "off-kilter mainstream" variety. There are some more experimental exceptions, though: Lacy, Schiaffini, Mengelberg-Bennink-Schiano-Rutherford, Laboratorio Della Quercia, MEV... IIRC at least one of the Lacys got the vinyl reissue treatment not so long ago. Re: Togashi, those are great records but I don't feel that something like, for example, Guild for Human Music has much in common with the Black Unity Trio on the face of things.

well, simply put, Echo is a dense thicket of clusters and superimposed scales and operates more like a matrix or latticework. Solestrial and Luna Surface are similar in that they are built off of scalar superimpositions, but structured more purely around constant glissandi. Silva also came from action painting and the gestural strokes of flinging liquid paint onto a floor-bound canvas (acting within that environment) influenced these works pretty heavily.

the Silvas are very different animals from what is being discussed here. no, Otis Harris never led a date, but his playing is of a piece with some of the musicians being discussed here. His writing was maybe a bit more boppish, as evidenced by the additional tracks on the Ted Daniel Sextet album.

yeah, for sure, I was not thinking so much in a European perspective but Prayer for Peace is certainly in a related zone. Beautiful album. "Communications Network" is a neat document of areas in progress though to me it's not quite on the level of CT's other albums. However, there are certainly reasons he sought to release it on his own label and spend the money getting it out into the world. I say this with obvious love for the man and his work.

I can't think of very many records yet to be reissued that merit much hype, the exceptions being the Marzette on Savoy and the Colbeck on Fontana. Otherwise, most of the truly great records in free music have seen the light of day at least a few times. re: ESP, I zoomed in on the two Tylers but there are of course many on the label that I love. Not sure they'd fit in whatever bucket we're putting Black Unity Trio into, but if Ayler-influenced rust belt "free jazz" is the criteria, I'd continue to check into Tyler, Jones, Frank Wright, Otis Harris (Cleveland) as well as Charles Gayle (Buffalo). Not sure about Pittsburgh as it's a town I mostly associate with drummers (f.e.: Beaver Harris, J.C. Moses, Joe Harris). Erie, PA and Gary, IN I don't know enough about to hazard a guess. Cisco Bradley is working on a book about rust belt musicians; I'd imagine it will be an interesting volume.

yeah, the later Tyler LPs are excellent but I don't feel like they are in the same bucket as the Black Unity Trio. His compositional voice and playing were a bit more fully formed by the time "Saga of the Outlaws" came around. for what it is worth, the ESP I gravitate to the most is "Eastern Man Alone," which features Tyler and a string trio of University of Indiana players: the professor David Baker on cello and U of I students Brent McKesson and Kent Brinkley (basses). It does fit in with a certain conception of hummable, spiritual tunes and gooey interplay that Ayler certainly put forth in his music.

Arthur Jones' "Scorpio." I like Scorpio better, but honestly if I had heard Al-Fatihah in the late 90s it probably would be in my pantheon of emotionally rich and direct "power trio" records as well. It wasn't until 2007 or so that I actually sat down with the music, via a CD-R from a friend. Not for nothing, Arthur Jones was also from Cleveland. I suppose the case could be made for Charles Tyler's ESPs having a bit of similarity, vibe-wise, but Tyler's writing and solos have a different cast from Yusef Mumin's.

Happy Birthday, Guy! Thanks for all you do!

Lucky you are. I really want one of those John Butcher t-shirts. Hopefully Oto has some left.

Perhaps he was under contract to Impulse at the time of its recording (June 17, 1965) and thus Impulse felt it had the rights to release it? This was mere weeks before he went over to Englewood Cliffs to record On Impulse!.

yeah, have the same pressing. Great record!

Damn. The Phil Zone was really something else. Monumental figure, huge ears, and a fascinating life. RIP. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-age-death-b2635863.html

seems to be an abbreviated part of the set, but it is something. Acceptable sound, fierce performance.

Definitely, he always has been. I've never heard the Davis set with Stinson. Diving in now (albeit through computer speakers)

Wow, what an incredible piece of writing.

Gosh, 2005? NYC, Iridium IIRC. Hearing them do "Love & Hate" was something... René was also on the gig; I forget who was in the rhythm section, might've been Leroy Williams on drums.

I know Moncur did have embouchure problems periodically. I've always adored his playing, though. Glad to have seen him with McLean & Hutcherson once, a weighty experience as you can probably imagine.

fine Pearson date for sure.

Side two track titles are quite something.

yeah, it was a really wonderful site and I honed my writing chops there for sure. Dan was very forgiving (and repairing) of my "occasional" word salads. Glad you dug the interview. It remains one of my favorites.

was just coming here to post this as well. She was a badass and a very cool person. RIP.

I have a rip of a Sick Dick cassette with Miller that sounds like AMM. Some of the band's music veered into no wave territory as well. I think Sick Dick had at least a few iterations/aesthetics from what I gather. Ditto Cool & the Clones, depending on who was involved. Borbetomagus were incredible, and the records are uniformly wonderful. I have a particular soft spot for the self-titled black cover album (two were self-titled) and the Zürich double LP, but each one is impressive and nuanced. I had the distinct pleasure of presenting both Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich in separate concerts in the last several years, albeit not Mr. Miller. The documentary on Borbetomagus, A Pollock of Sound, is very well done.

Sorry to read the news that guitarist Donald Miller has passed. Best known for his work in Borbetomagus (who I was lucky enough to see many years ago), he also performed in Cool & the Clones, Sick Dick & the Volkswagens, and as a solo string wrangler, both electric and acoustic. RIP and thanks to him for being there and doing what he did. His recent solo work can be heard here, to brilliant advantage: https://donaldmiller.bandcamp.com/album/transgression