clifford_thornton

It was easier to keep Hat Hut stuff in print - especially the lower-selling discs - when Werner and the label were swimming in UBS arts funding money. That's not as plentiful now, so I can imagine the label is on a tighter budget.

It was easier to keep Hat Hut stuff in print - especially the lower-selling discs - when Werner and the label were swimming in UBS arts funding money. That's not as plentiful now, so I can imagine the label is on a tighter budget.

Good news! I've been looking for the LP for ages.

Well, even without Misha present, ICP brought it in Austin big time.

Yeah, he's having some undisclosed health problems. Sorry to hear that he is ailing - he's a favorite of mine, and a sweet, brilliant and funny guy. We'll miss him tonight.

Unhinged as hell. I have a copy in low fidelity; it's fun and weird.

Don't know why, but I couldn't get into Identical Sunsets. The presence of Lash makes me want to dip into Monster Club, though.

Good to know.

How is the Universal Sound version of "Les Stances a Sophie?" If quality, that could be an indicator of... possibility.

Happy Birthday! Guess I shouldn't be the one posting this, but I'll do it anyway.

Agreed.

To put taste of the listener aside, in his mind they are equal in quality and successful in terms of what he wanted to do. A fine axiom of Bill's that bears repeating: "everything I could do was ALL I could do." I always approach those recordings with that in mind. But I wouldn't disagree that some are more quickly evocative or strike certain emotional chords with more immediacy (to me) than others. The Firehouse 12 set for one - I was just immediately in love with it. Contra Thoughts, which I don't listen to quite as often. It had some problems with the levels/balance on the production end, though with the volume cranked to 12 or 1 o'clock, I don't notice it. Obviously that doesn't reflect the intent/validity of the contents, rather the label's quality control. So yeah, there are multiple sides to the story as well as how one processes the work, but he always did what he sought out to do with recordings that were intended for release. Those that were not initially intended for release but have been or will be uncovered are going to be more of a window into the process, but with intent intact. Obviously I can't totally speak for Bill, but I can try to give you a window into his thoughts about these very matters, resulting from many hours of conversation.

Bill always said that he was both aware of the rather human tendency to compare the various works of an artist, and that in no way were his individual works to be compared. Each is considered a totality in itself, and each piece or set of pieces is relational only by way of the person who did the work. That being said, Bill was a frequent re-appropriator and elements that were successful in previous works would find themselves conjured or reflected from time to time in later projects. This is all to say that, listener's taste aside, in his mind no work superseded another. All four of the recordings you mention are excellent. I've seen the scores for some of the pieces on Intents and Purposes. They are densely-written - there are a lot of parts which are through-composed - and this differentiates the music on that album quite significantly from later work. What you might be responding to in terms of preference is the clear hand of the composer/writer, which is different from the airy sketches of Vade Mecum I and II or Son of Sisyphus.

Buncha Sixties Mobley. Workout (UA stereo) A Caddy for Daddy (NY Mono) Turnaround (Liberty stereo)

Burton still doesn't get enough props. He's great - and his music of the last decade or so has been really happening. I was talking with a friend of mine about the Manfred Schoof Quintet/Sextet LPs of the '60s - on CBS, Wergo, and FMP. There was some talk with John Corbett about it a few years ago, but securing the rights was going to be a huge problem. Another friend of mine seemed to have no problem reissuing a piece formerly on Wergo recently, and FMP is not too hard to deal with. Lippmann owns/owned the rights to Voices after he left CBS and reissued it on LP himself at one point long ago, so it seems to me this would be feasible. Probably not a big money-maker, but this music ranges from really good to freakin' awesome, so hopefully someone might someday bite.

Nuclear War was issued on a 12-inch EP by the UK punk label Y Records. I don't know what the Atavistic CD reissue contains otherwise.

Second that one - probably his best of the "early period." Edit: This was a response to the post on Burton Greene's Columbia record.

You could try ordering directly from the label: Posi-Tone.

Hey, what's wrong with "Pressed Rat & Warthog?" Mike Taylor's great.

Reform Art Unit - Darjeeling - (WM Productions)

$80 more than it costs whenever I see it in shops!

I'd like to add that I'm 100% behind increased visibility of the Carter/Bradford Quartet music through reissue. That music is very, very important.

Yeah, you can't really ask people on a jazz forum to narrow something down. I often ask myself whether just because something's rare and musically awesome, does it need to be reissued? That's why I stopped doing the "Reissue This" column for Paris Transatlantic. Not to mention that it started to feed into the share-bloggers' scene, which as useful as that can sometimes be for temporarily filling gaps, is also a big part of why I am so unsure about the viability of reissuing certain things outside a deluxe form. Most older stuff that people want - and how people listen to music is certainly less object-oriented today than it was even five years ago - is downloadable. The Dixon looks and sounds great - as do Nessa's recent single and double-disc projects. These are both rare instances. As a record collector as well as a critic, this is kind of ironic, but in my mind it is really hard to justify spending the money on reissuing most lesser-known dates. This goes for people doing labels as well as consumers. Do 1,000 people NEED to hear the Ric Colbeck record? As fine as that record is (and I've sung its praises many times), reissuing it at this point seems kind of absurd. Three of the four participants are dead and the record is easily downloadable. If you have $50 to spare, you can buy the original - it comes around on eBay. I agree with Paul - most of the "classics" are out (or have been out) already, and the rest... are just good records. Now, unheard/unissued music from the archives is another story for another thread. Sorry to be cynical about this, but unless it's something really cornerstone that one is prepared to do right (or it's really stunning material that's never been out in any form), I'm all for putting money behind the next young(er) player's project. Hooray for the next fifty years, as Anthony Braxton might say.

I mean, I have the box. What info do you need? Part of the GUO disc was originally on PoTorch/JWD #2, Jahrmarkt/Local Fair. It's not a Globe Unity box, but an FMP box which also includes music from Tristan Honsinger/Olaf Rupp (wrote the liners for that one), Brotzmann solo, Irene Schweizer, Steve Lacy and many others. Fine set and a beautiful swan song to a great label.