clifford_thornton

He is a great player, tho admittedly I haven't always been impressed by his bands. The one with the Norbotten Big Band I remember liking a lot, though.

Blues Addicts - s/t - (Shadoks reissue of Spectator orig) rare 1970 Danish Cream knock-off, not bad at all...

Glad I have the Liberty stereo LP!

Mal made that out-of-tune piano sing. He made that wonkiness HIS, and he made it work!

Any thoughts on the new Auricle discs that Hemingway has put out? Duos with Butcher and Lehn?

I'll have to be on the lookout for these.

Interesting point tho his use of craggy extended technique puts him into another camp altogether - sort of hybridized Incus and Takoma if you axe me...

A piano-Finn disc in the style of Flanagan/Monterose would be very hip, by the way. Hope he finds his way back to making recordings again.

New Jim McAuley on Drip is SICK... Tks Nate for hipping me to his work!

I'll have to check this out later when not at work. I go warm and cold with Keith's early work, which is definitely derivative of Bley. But it's not bad and some of it is quite enjoyable. That said (and not to go into too much Jarrett-bashing), I find a lot of his work from the later 1970s and subsequently pretty grating. As for jazz and not-jazz, well, YMMV. I think some of the arguments against early Jarrett, Carla Bley's classic run for Watt, etc., as being "romantic improvisation" and not out of the "jazz tradition" are a little oversimplified. Categories and the words that delimit them are worth having as signposts, but the signs they hold are often merely suggestions and not gospel.

Is Finn on the scene any more? I haven't heard his name in ages. Nate D did a nice interview with him over at Paris Transatlantic. Also listening to a lot of Mary Halvorson these days. I never thought I'd be saying this about a composer of "funny rat" music, but damn!

George Russell - Electric Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature - (Soul Note repress) w/ Rypdal, Garbarek, Schoof, Christensen and Red Mitchell

Ah shit. RIP and thanks for the music and the words.

Vincent Le Masne & Bertrand Porquet - Guitars Derive - (Shandar)

Welcome. Hope you can stick around.

John Carter - Echoes from Rudolph's - (Ibedon) w/ Stanley Carter, Chris Carter, William Jeffrey and Melba Joyce

I had this to say in Paris Transatlantic in 2007. Maybe I'm remembering it more fondly than it seemed at the time, but:

These are prime cuts. Also pianist Burton Greene will be playing duos with clarinetist Perry Robinson for two nights, April 23 and 24th. Details to follow as soon as I get more of them.

Trio Camara - s/t - (Saravah, reissue)

rob are you referring to Peace Treaty or If? If. Peace Treaty is brilliant hard bop.

Way to go... that's a beautiful cover for a great record. Now: Alice Coltrane - Lord of Lords - (Impulse orig)

Masayoshi Urabe & Chie Mukai - Dual Anarchism - (Siwa)

I want a copy without ringwear.

He ain't comin' back.

I remember that too. Used to be in fairly regular contact with Buell and he talked about it to me some, though I don't believe we discussed it in our interview. I didn't "get" Infinity when I first heard it and much preferred "Living Space," for example, without the strings. Now, I'm feeling a little more "like" if not "love" for Alice w/ strings and maybe could handle it. I assume that Alice felt she was carrying on some of the work that Trane had wanted to do w/r/t strings, but I don't know that for sure.