clifford_thornton

Ohhh yeeahh... Been a long time since I've had one of those. Used to be the drink of choice when I was an undergrad.

Jarman.

Sorry bro, can't follow you there either!

Ouch. I can't say I've heard him enough (or at all) to make an opinion. Eddie Jefferson is good, though!

No irony, just honest down-home funky free-blues. Excellent date. Few is on it and plays piano - it's the original quartet of Wright, Howard, Few and Ali.

That's it. Strangely enough, I'd always thought it was called "Unity." That's how it was presented to me, anyway... I prefer the stuff with Noah Howard but the Center of the World band is "good." The whooping and hollering I was referring to was Adieu, Little Man, which is retarded but also very enjoyable.

Or Shudan Sokai - Sono Zenya: Live at Hachioji Alone, which would eat Funny Rat for breakfast! japanimprov.com gets my vote for the hippest, weirdest Japanese improv CD site. I do wish for more discographical data, but what can you do?

Actually, the cover pic you posted is the one only used for the cd. The lp cover is completely different. It's a must have IMO. I have only seen it once and I snapped it up quick. I think I paid something like 2.99 for the lp. Uh, my copy of the LP has that very cover and I've never seen it with anything else. I don't know how many times Leo pressed it, but I'm surprised that it was enough times to change up. Could you post the alternate artwork?

Forgot about those... that was a weird band, with Thurman Barker and Leroy Jenkins, right?

Japan Free This site is fun. The CD shop gets a lot of my attention as of late, especially the Japanese indie stuff. I'm looking forward to getting a few more things by Moto Takagi, who is a pretty firey player and integral to the scene.

It's good, a little nutso with lots of whooping and hollering. What is now an ESP has been floating around in bootleg trading circles for a while. I have a rip from cassette and it's great, high fidelity stuff. The Schlippenbach Quartett played one of their best recorded performances at Moers that day also.

Lito is the shit - the first side is smokin'! He's also very strong (albeit in a formative stage) with Karl Berger on that ESP you posted the image of a while back. Ward played with Coltrane a few times, and worked with Sunny Murray briefly in the '60s. I have an interview that I'm hoping to transcribe soon, that gives the details of his life story from Panama to Switzerland and beyond. Very interesting, warm, and friendly cat - and a real talker!

Do you mean "least-well-documented" in terms of as a leader? He certainly plays on more AEC albums than not. I thought he was based in Chicago from the '70s on, which makes it all the more telling that his appearances on NYC records are so many. At this point, I find it hard to imagine him playing with Steve Lacy, which is where the AEC got him from...

Grape Nuts with a dash of honey. Mmm!

I'd really like to hear that duo with Yamazaki - that cat is a HELL of a drummer. Abe's guitar playing is very interesting, indeed, though not well-documented. The shit on/with Overhang Party is waaay bent...

I have that on LP. It's not bad, though Sirone takes over the date, at what I believe to be the expense of potentially fine playing by Charles and altoist Claude Lawrence. Artistry, on Of The Cosmos records (one of two titles on that label), is a much better date IMO and really deserves to be reissued. Sirone is joned there by Don Moye, James Newton and cellist Bernard Fennell. It's a gorgeous record of unique ensemble color and heavy swing. Newton is on FIRE.

Scorpio is a bootleg label. So it's safe to assume that the recent crop of Muse titles is a result of their work? I thought they had something to do with the Strata-East reissues, too, though the two of those I own sound quite good.

Haven't heard it... I did get a vinyl copy of Kidd's record on Prescription (I think it was Fielder who put up the money for the "label"), No Compromise!, which is quite good in a freebop sort of way. Fewer multiphonics than he's known for presently. It is on CD as well, I see. Recently picked up the John Blum (pno) Astrogeny Quartet on Eremite, with Parker, Denis Charles and an altoist by the name of Antonio Grippi. Very heavy stuff...

I don't really spend my days "thinking" about Pharoah, but I do like a lot of the records. He seemed like a pretty engaging hybrid of influences during the run of mid-60s dates, such as the ESP and his work with Don Cherry et al. Again, I do like those records as well. As far as going in a certain direction with "out" tenor playing, I'd say that he certainly was a starting point for more feral honkers like Arthur Doyle, and his music was certainly influential, even if only through a "vibe" or a way to incorporate "modal," vamp-heavy tunes with very free playing. For example, the late '60s/early '70s Noah Howard records on Freedom share a lot with Pharoah's aesthetic, though of course Noah's got his own thing entirely (and which I've been guilty of finding cipher-ish also). Roger Blank and JC Moses are good analogs - very fleet post-Philly Joe stylists for the free set. God love 'em both.

Keep those '60s gig lineups coming - they are the stuff us young'uns' dreams are made of!

TMW? IT SGOOD 2 SEE THGE CAPSLOKC IS STIL ON 4 U CHEWY!!!!

Well, E and AK, are you up for keeping it up? I know PLM is around here somewhere, too. I wonder if Chaney and DD went over to Bagatellen, the usual source for EAI and improv banter...

There's a copy of the Maupin LP in a shop for like $12; guess I'm getting it! I wonder what his career trajectory would've been like if he'd cut an album as a leader around the time he was working with Marion Brown and Sunny Murray...

Damn, dude, you're worse than me!

Yes, this is the track from "Shape of jazz to come". Not the same tune as the Horace Silver tune from "Song for my father". MG What the fuck is this? dont fuck with me Ornette, dude. Chill.