clifford_thornton

I never bought any of the Volcanic LPs. Beyond the discographical completist factor, are these any "good?"

Speaking of Mal - and not that he's obscure - but some of the trio records he made (or released) in Japan are pretty awesome. I like Tokyo Bound a lot, for example.

Brotzmann, as much as he fought (like other European jazz musicians at the time) for his own identity outside that of American jazz, is still a jazz player through and through. Parker can play in that idiom, too, but I think the connection to a saxophone tradition as we might think of it on this board is often tenuous. His most celebrated recordings, whether for technicality, intense development of group and solo structures, or sheer audio-perceptual reconstitution, fall very far from the "jazz" and "free jazz" tree(s). If Parker is analogous to visual art, it would be to Richard Serra's sculptures - perceptual/environmental alteration through the hard facts of material relationships.

Thank god for you, Chewy... and I mean that in all sincerity!

You know, I don't have that one. Though a quartet, Monk's Casino is good, and seeing him do an hour of solo Monk was far better!

I'm not denigrating metal at all. I just think that Ratliff is too loosey-goosey in his connection.

This may be faulty recollection of a faulty bio, but didn't Wes quit the Coltrane band?

Indeed! This one is pretty incredible - Favre/Kowald/Schweizer from '68 Also a lot of love in these parts for the Howard Riley trios of the late '60s and early '70s.

Slow news day: reprint an old Bad Plus article and save those of us who read the anguish.

I mean, usually I'm neither here nor there with Ratliff, but this one seemed so ignorant I just had to vent. No mention of Olaf Rupp, Weasel Walter, Adam Caine, Mats Gustafsson, Raymond Strid or anyone doing anything comparable in approach/sound to anything "metal."

Okay, so I know I might be letting fly on one of music criticism's easiest punching bags, but this article is totally ridiculous. Not because the premise is bad - in fact, it's totally legit on some levels, especially with ultra high octane energy music & some of the brutal Euro gtr/b/d power improv of late - but Ratliff doesn't know enough about either subject to write intelligently. Link OK, venting over.

Samara Lubelski - Spectacular of Passages - (De Stijl, test pressing)

I think there needs to be a Riverside sampler with Hawk interviews, Bertolt Brecht, and race-car/train sounds interspersed. It would be rad!

Yes indeed - he's great on the America LP, and fits in perfectly with the NYAQ aesthetic. Finn von Eyben is a monster bassist, too - classical player if memory serves.

For what it's worth, Cuneiform will be putting out archival material of the Rudd-Tchicai quartet with Louis Moholo and bassist Finn Von Eyben. It is comparable to the NYAQ, save that Milford refused to make the trek to Europe in 1965 so Rudd and Tchicai used Moholo (not like he's a slouch, either). This is the same band that had an LP released on the America label. I have high expectations for this release; it is the first authorized appearance of this band on record.

I'd be curious to hear this as well. Nice find, chewy.

The Columbia stuff is pretty good - I used to have minty copies on wax, inherited from my dad. Ended up giving them to a friend who was a Hank Garland fan.

Impressive and wonderful LP, but not one I pull out that often. It's an easy recommendation to see what Parker is, in some sense, "about," but if you're looking for an easier pathway there are other records. Perhaps you'd like Conic Sections more - I seem to remember a sense of delicacy in that disc though it's been a while since I've heard it (and unlike Chuck and Larry, one hearing doesn't seal it in memory). The quartets with George Lewis retain a broad sense of sound/movement as their modus operandi, but "group melody" has a way of emerging. The duets with John Stevens are great as well in that same vein. I would try The Longest Night on Ogun or the early archival material that Emanem has issued. FWIW, I've always found it easier to listen to his tenor playing. And there is nothing wrong with just not being all that into someone.

You'd do well to listen to Kelly Rossum. Fine inside/outside player from Minneapolis who has just relocated to NYC. Lots of excellent contemporary trumpeters, though some of the ones I'd immediately point out hew closer to the avant-garde end of things. You might dig cornetist Josh Berman - excellent player, and his Old Idea firmly updates the in-betweenness of mid-60s Blue Notes, albiet chunkier and more fractured.

Bedhead - Beheaded - (Trance Syndicate) of course, there's very little "trance" on the Trance Syndicate label...

Nice one, Jeff. Now: Schweizer/Nicols/Leandre/George Lewis/Gunter Sommer - The Storming of the Winter Palace - (Intakt)

Not that particular one, but Japanese Vertigo LPs are very hard to find!

Too bad. I know a couple of people who played in his backing bands. Seems like he had a tough time with all of life's hardships, and didn't quite come out the other side. RIP

I wouldn't get it for Grachan - my recollection is that most of his appearances are in fleshing out thematic material. It's still probably their best CD, and Denis Charles sounds awesome.