clifford_thornton

I imagine those were cleaned up by Joe Lizzi and Ben Young, who do a lot of work for Modern Harmonic/etc.

Greetings! Figured I'd use this forum a little more effectively to announce gigs in my series at Tubby's in Kingston, NY. I'm excited to report that guitarist Jim Yanda returns to the series in the cooperative trio Empathy Gene with veteran trumpeter Herb Robertson (Tim Berne, Paul Motian, etc.) and drummer Phil Haynes (Anthony Braxton, Dave Liebman, etc.). Jim is an enthusiastic supporter of the scene and a fantastic musician who brings a unique, non-linear approach to folk-blues and free improvisation. I first encountered his playing with the trumpeter Arnold Hammerschlag; their trio with bassist Rashaan Carter was the second concert I booked at Tubby's back in 2022. This particular unit has a heavy pedigree and witnessing their interaction will be something else. Opening the proceedings is the multi-instrumentalist Jefrey Brown, whose work has spanned/transcended genre in such outfits as Gospel of Mars and Jackie*O Motherfucker. Brown is a saxophonist and guitarist and will be performing a solo set on this occasion, and I'm looking forward to hearing what tales he unfurls. The short: 7PM, Nov 12, $15 doors or $10 advance (we love it when you grip early, as it helps us to gauge turnout). Anyway, hope to see some of y'all there. It will be a good gig! Also, earlier in the day at the Lace Mill in Kingston, Michael Bisio will be performing in a quartet with Steve Gorn, Ingrid Sertso, and Timothy Hill. Make it a double-header if you so choose.

unfortunately Romano seems to have eventually fallen in line with his father's politics, and Romano's daughter Alessandra is an outspoken right wing voice in Italy.

Animals (er, non-human animals) are amazing to live with in whatever form they appear. We have one cat, a ten-year-old named Noodles (we chose to keep the shelter name, as it somehow fits), and she's the light of our life. We might get another little buddy at some point soon just to give her more company once my remote-work life wraps up (which it will). 16 is a great run. Pyewacket forever.

I would imagine that Dusty Groove will stock it. I'd be shocked if it sold out on preorder.

Aww, so sorry to hear of this. You gave her a great life.

oh, Jazz Dispensary is Concord? I had no idea. Concord refusing to license Charlie Nothing his own music for Takoma is peak record company conglomerate bs... "no, we won't license it to you, and nor will we reissue it."

These are of course just my opinions.

Will definitely get this.

With Ra, the Afro-futurist project is interesting, as is creating an environment/language that white people cannot easily co-opt. I get that, and find it important. In addition a lot of the music is good, and the visual aspects of the album covers, chap-books, and surrounding objects are neat. That is something to talk about in a broad overview context. I'm not so into a lot of the sci-fi kitsch myself, however, and the theater I can take or leave -- sometimes it is cool to see, sometimes not for me. The latter aspects to me are extra-musical baggage and get a bit cloying. What I find a bit frustrating also (and this has been my general experience) is that people get very into the idea of this outer-space cat, but leave aside the music, and don't have much interest in the broader continuum. That isn't the fault of Sun Ra, though.

Back in the day, mossy was kind of a catch-all for hippie stuff among friends and I. The plateau implies a restive horizontal field.

Yeah, I think it still holds true. I'm not sure one can totally know what the spiritual leanings of a given artistic creation or composer might be, and a lot of things are called "spiritual" without any research into what actually went into the music. I never use the term unless I know, with someone like John or Alice Coltrane, Pharoah, Ayler, Masahiko Togashi, etc., that their music is intended to be spiritual in nature. And even then, it's imbued in the work while not necessarily being the only talking point.

You need some if you're going to space.

Ah, yes, that is a wonderful album. Love it. The America LP with Lacy seems a bit more "out" in some spots (maybe because of Potts' presence) but the Victor is beautifully recorded.

I taught a class at Bard College the other day subbing for a friend (musician on tour). She teaches an Experimental Music Practices course in their Curatorial Studies department. My focus being on avant-garde jazz, it was a lot to cover in 2 and a half hours! I was asked by the students why I did not cover Sun Ra. My short answer is that he is a world unto himself but that's true for literally everyone I DID cover in the class. In order to go broad we did have to skip some of my favorites, like Mingus, Dolphy, Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and the Japanese scenes (mostly for lack of available performance footage). Ra, for me, has a lot of baggage and though I like a large chunk of his music, I feel like it would be so easy to spend tons of time on him, and Cliffs Notes just would not do the whole context justice. Short answer: they just need to give me a semester-long course.

Image isn't showing up for me. Which one is it? He's got a few pretty "free" recordings.

too bad. RIP.

All Downes is strong, though, so I am biased.

No, it's just good.

Deep Down Heavy, yes.

Agreed.

There's also a good Bob Downes LP on MFP.

me either. Decades of treatment-resistant depression and massive doses of jazz.

Understood. But he's not bad! I think it's worth checking out several minutes of his solo music and deciding for yourself. There's also a duo with Mats G (maybe more than one?) that's decent, if flutter-tonguing, harmonics, and key clicks are your thing. There is an ambient-ness to Stetson's music that works well in certain contexts... and I don't mean "new age ambient," but the kind of agitated sound environments that are neither foreground nor background.

Hearing the news that Boston saxophonist and composer (Mark Harvey's Aardvark Jazz Orchestra; Thing) has died. Sad news for the community he was a large part of.