clifford_thornton

I checked out the reunion Sebadoh gig with Eric Gaffney in Austin recently. Strong stuff... that is, when Gaffney was fronting the bit. Lou can suck it. I like Dino, but feel that after Green Mind, shit went in the toilet. Hopefully the bombast and energy can be reclaimed.

Sadly, it's actually a studio record. But yeah, excellent stuff. I'll throw it on later today... that and the ICP variant of that tour, with "Eeko" on side two.

I might be with Paul Secor on this one. I'm not a player, nor is Cuscuna, and who are we to say that anybody - Jemeel Moondoc, Arthur Doyle, Phill Musra, Bob Ralston - are emotionally excessive or screaming pretenders? I'm into this music at this level because I feel things, and I think, and I have an identification with cats who express similar things to what I know/experience/feel. Yes, it is a Crouch-like quote. Is that just part of being a critical child of the late '70s/early '80s? The not naming names thing is pretty unhip, too. Clement Greenberg, in his art criticism of the 1960s, and LeRoi/Amiri Baraka in his writings of that time, certainly named names. Maybe to a fault (did Burton's career suffer? I know Frank Smith's did). But art critics like Michael Fried in the later '60s and into the '70s, only mentioned names when praising. When damning, it was a broad and impersonal swath. Same goes for Crouch and, evidently, Cuscuna (in this case).

Wasn't he playing with cats like Charles Moffett, Don Cherry, Byron Allen and Alan Shorter prior to his commitment to Trane's group? I guess that implies more of a "free-bop" thing, but...

It's not the first time that somebody reports the booklet is missing from that vinyl! My copy has the booklet but I don't have a scanner Mine was w/o/b as well. The vinyl was a little rough - would like to get a NM copy!

Jane's playing is fine on that Pharaoh (and enjoy it on the Mingus Jazz Workshop side too), but I have to wonder how things would've differed sans piano. Patillo can swing - dig the first Simmons on ESP for more proof - and Bennett and Foster could certainly keep things rolling. Just a thought. Still need a clean LP copy of Live at the East...

I heard it was more mainstream. I'd like to get the progression from this to his later stuff nailed down; it's a pretty interesting and unique course that's luckily well-documented on LP. This evening: Michel Portal - Splendid Yzlment - (CBS-AKT orig) Al Shorter - Tes Esat - (America)

Looks pretty harmless to me!

Giuseppi Logan - Quartet - (ESP Original stereo) New York Contemporary Five - Consequences - (Fontana Japanese pressing)

How are we positing Shepp's re-evaluation of his playing from the 1970s on? How are we positing, in a different light, Frank Stella's paintings after the early '70s? Shepp was at his zenith pre-blowout and Stella should never be allowed near a metal shop. Is there an end to the line?

Now THAT'S an obscure reference! I can't really add anything to what you guys have said. I wasn't "there" at the time. Sure, it's easy to fall for a lot of smoke without much fire in the belly, and it does happen, but MC, in his quote, seems to be discounting nearly an entire genre of music on the charge that there were some fakers. There also were some lesser talents playing changes who some people harangue MC about reissuing on Mosaic, day in and day out... and the AACM guys weren't all tinkling bells and measured tones, either. Some of that shit is fierce. Dig on Lester Bowie's orchestral material ca. 69/70 for a bit of that. As for "rage," great art can come in opposition, sure, and a fire in the belly can burn away the filth and prime the landscape for regeneration. Maybe idealistic, but... Giuseppi Logan is my co-pilot, and Frank Smith my navigator.

That's the only of Ray's LPs that I don't have. Really dig Rites and Rituals and June 11, 1971, though the Intercord isn't bad either.

Cuscuna... well, I would admit some surprise from this end reading something so dismissive. I mean, he DID license a bunch of Alan Bates Joints and yet there's the whole "avant-garde trainwreck" thing which, in my estimation, goes further for him than Tyrone Washington. I mean, one can surely revise one's opinion, with time, of certain music (as I've done with SY Daydream/etc), but when you're in a position of taste-making, it's important not to poo on the spoon that, as a babe, fed you.

Barry Altschul - You Can't Name Yr Own Tune (Muse) w/ Sam Rivers, George Lewis, David Holland and Muhal.

"The influx of creative technically proficient musicians from Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit shoved a lot of the screaming pretenders off the scene. Freedom was no longer equated with anger and lack of musicianship." Firstly, though the AACM/BAG cats were certainly influential, I wouldn't say they "replaced" the post-Trane/Ayler players by any means. The AACM guys, too, were early on charged with the same "angry poseurs" mentality... not that there isn't "bad" art, but it's an easy cop-out due to lack of understanding.

Maybe I should add that that quote seems to be full of shit.

Wilber Morris - Wilber Force (DIW) w/ Denis Charles and David Murray.

Cats. In Sinks.

I've heard of that incident.

Yes. I especially enjoy Dickerson's Peace, with Cyrille and Lisle Ellis. The Duke Jordan is good, and I've had the Hills before and enjoyed them (why I didn't hold on to them...?). All of the McLeans are strong as well. Few of those I should replace, as the covers are toast...

If yr talkin' late '60s stuff, I would expect the cast of non-Cuscuna-ordained blowhards to include Messrs. Wright and Lowe, as well as people like Byard Lancaster, Marzette Watts, Linda Sharrock, Arthur Doyle et al. The Arista-Freedom series aside, I can't really imagine MC jamming Black Beings and things of that ilk. Do I underestimate? Perhaps, but... I have a lot of reverence for that post-Coltrane NY Fire Music, but I can understand the backlash against it, too.

BTW, Brownie, yours wasn't the black cover with purple silkscreen? A few test pressings went out like that to reviewers, before the jacket was completed.

The way Bernard tells it, the Town Hall material was slated for ESP first and then Ornette took the tapes to Blue Note. But hey, I wasn't there in 1965.

Yeah, it's good. Never heard a Curson LP that I didn't like, as a matter of fact. That Collier is wonderful!

That AT album is a smoker, isn't it? Of course, the Hill album isn't exactly chopped liver either. Yep, the AT is an excellent album. Very under-rated ! And hard to find!! at human prices sidewinder is not human... Mine's a Japanese pressing, but it sounds great (mono) and is a hip session!