clifford_thornton

Yeah, I guess you gotta account for the improvement from "utter shite" to just plain "shite," but I try to be more optomistic than that. And some people just don't have it, and should involve themselves in other pursuits. However, I like to think that those who write regularly (and I mean daily, or at least something every few days) and like writing, will get better at the craft. And, like I've said on this board before, criticism as an artform can exist independently of that which is criticized. At this point I read (Clem) Greenberg as literature more than anything else, though his work has informed my aesthetic vantage point a great deal.

I don't know it. It's a trio? I suspect it would be mellow, warmly lyrical and sparse with (if piano is present) some "modal" grooves. Probably a nice record.

Alex von Schlippenbach - Sven-Ake Johansson Duo - Live at the Quartier Latin (FMP original)

I sometimes feel that way about my minimal Trane LP collection...

Blythe is on the Tapscott.

It's real good. I also like the Dutchman LPs quite a lot (and they deserve a nice, crisp digipack reissue, no?)...

ALL writers can improve. The public forum is a good place to do that. And I quote (not necessarily verbatim): Jazz Kat: "I'm gonna go get stoned." Chuck Nessa: "May I throw the first?"

I wasn't all that into Warm Smiles when I heard it a few years ago; Themes for Fega seems more interesting (no Mongezi connection; named, I believe, for a critic/writer whom Beckett respected). Will definitely pick up this set.

Yeah, FR is just Bagatellen without the vitriol. Good times, though!

I thought it was going to be a Collector's Choice or whatever... Multidirection is great; haven't heard the first one.

Sorry Clem, but I'm going to try not to visualize you in pasties! Rapson is fine on some recordings with Vinny Golia. I enjoyed seeing Smoker in Adam Lane's quartet in Chicago some years back, with Tchicai and Altschul. They tore up the Velvet Lounge (with almost NO audience)...

Yeah, all three places I've lived. Strange, eh? Agreed, some on my list are pushin' it. Didn't know Rob was an ex-roadie. Nice.

I thought it counted as Grachan's recording. Not so?

Gallio is very interesting... not that young, though, is he? I don't really have much to add to this conversation. To paraphrase Clem, it isn't all that bad, though it's not all that good either. A few more than "not bad" in the contemporary Am. jazz vanguard: Reuben Radding Brian Allen Tony Malaby Rob Brown Whit Dickey Joe Morris Croix Galipault Adam Lane

What Bertrand said. Awesome date. Couldn't have asked for anything better from Grachan's resurgence.

Picked up the LP for $4 last night. It's not bad, though certainly could've lived without it. Pullen is weird, as usual, so that's nice. I found Hart's drums too under-miked (or something) for my listening pleasure - it seemed like the session was missing its bottom end, and the top was sometimes a little too "clean" to warrant a lack of reasonable force.

It's going... picking up what I can here and there. I still find Abe a little cold enough of the time, but that may change. Getting primed to do a japanimprov.com order later in the week - I certainly am getting an idea of who I'm interested in hearing more from.

Just "Ictus," which gets pretty far from the theme in the ensuing improvisations. The LP is supposedly more "tuneful" than their live performances, which were apparently pretty far-out.

I've seen the Enhance LP around for $5 or less. Never bought it, though Eugene Chadbourne seems enthused... The band looks pretty good, actually. I'd forgotten the lineup. I can only imagine what such a group would sound like live, however.

Invented emotion = histrionics. Great artists shy away from histrionics.

I've wanted to get those Beckett LPs for years - this'll be the chance to finally have 'em in some form. I also look forward to the NJO. Can't speak from a perspective of Colosseum familiarity w/r/t Hiseman, but he is on some excellent jazz records from the late '60s (add Howard Riley's Discussions on Opportunity) and plays excellently loose freebop in that context. I would patently disagree with Lemer as an Andrew Hill stylist; ambiguous, sure, but way more rhythmically left-field than most of Hill's work. Bley I would say is a closer connection. I really like that Local Colour LP a lot, and wish he'd recorded more with his own band. I would like to hear the Mike Taylor - that'll be on my list too I suppose. The vinyl is rather scarce on that one!

I agree on the broadness of AAJ - it's good to have on the one hand, interviews with Dave Rempis and on the other Maria Schneider, both on front page. However, it's a tug-of-war between the historical/academic and the currently hip, and though I tend to hit the former a bit more regularly, there's an attraction of the latter that's hard to deny. I mean, it's living music so some of that life has to be found now, right? And each contributor (in theory) has a talent/area that allows AAJ to be what it is (or might be) - though there is also that tug-of-war between giving people the chance to stretch out for the first time, and to maintain some sort of regular base of writers. Re: label profiles, yeah I've done a bunch. It's interesting to see what is happening on that end, as so much of the music's history has been documented as a commercially-recorded medium. Evolution in the studio vs. evolution on the bandstand (or in the head) is a fascinating thing.

Alabama Feeling and Tes Esat in one day? Think you can handle it, Ak-Ma? I like both of those records quite a bit... as for electric bassists, Earl Freeman's my man, but Williams isn't a slouch by any means. I think Charles Stephens may be the player holding Alabama Feeling together, keeping it from becoming a complete mess - but even in the messier parts, it's still really nice. Sabu Toyozumi is an amazing drummer, and that Nadja record is pretty sweet. His duos with Abe are unreal, however...

When I got it the first time around, it was as a promo for a radio station that probably never plays it. Was unable to score a second copy for myself, and it bums me out still...

Ditto.