clifford_thornton

Though Charles Brackeen was born an Okie, he did play in Texas before moving out West. For whatever reason, I always put him in this category even though he's kinda been all over the place. Here's my two cents, via Prince Lasha: PL: ...Buster Smith was my director, and that’s where I got most of my stamina for playing the saxophone. It was so frightening standing next to him, because it seemed like the sound was coming up through the ground, up through the bottom of the horn and out through the bell. Being a young man, I was standing there [frightened] next to him for a couple of years; prior to that, we had jam sessions every Sunday in Fort Worth with James Clay, David “Fathead” Newman, and Leroy Cooper. AAJ: That’s the Texas sound that you, Ornette, Booker Ervin and others have, where it just feels like it’s coming up through the floor, and at least from my perspective, out through the speakers. It’s a really forceful thing. PL: I did the same experiment with Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Eric [Dolphy], standing next to these men it seemed like it was coming up through the ground, up through the bottom of the horn and out the bell, and that’s one of the most mysterious, magical and frightening [things]. I stood next to ‘Trane that way, and next to Rollins that way (we worked in the Jazz Workshop, went to Boston; we were all over Chicago and at the Plugged Nickel, way before your days). Those are some of the things that used to take place, and this is why I suppose you’d said that about the Texas sound. AAJ: It’s unmistakable for anything else, and it seems like you can tell where somebody is from by how they sound on their horn. PL: Illinois Jacquet was from Texas too. There used to be a great player I traveled with named Scotty, and he could play with one arm tied behind his back — he really could play tenor, and he was from Houston also. Arnett Cobb, all those guys came up out of there.

Right, thanks for the reminder. I saw him lead an orchestra piece dedicated to his time in Vietnam, and featuring Frank Lowe as a main soloist (RIP). Pretty fucking immense shit. Must've been one of Frank's last performances, as it was in 2001.

Thanks for posting that. Now I don't have to go buy the issue!

Wonder why they did that for DJs? I assume these are somehow different than the New York 4200s with Liberty jackets (e.g. Let 'Em Roll, Sweet Honeybee, Unit Structures, Stick-Up)? I have a nice stereo Liberty/RVG of Conquistador ($15), so the mono wouldn't really be an upgrade. Of course, Atomic probably wants $50.

Except Hi Voltage seems to go for quite a bit in that format. Not my favorite Mobley by a long stretch...

Strangely, I like his later, larger works better than the earlier stuff. I never would have expected that I would say I "like" him, but he's now "alright" for me.

Considering that the actual mono takes for this LP are different, and remain unissued, I don't see the real value in having a "Mono" version of this one... Conquistador Granted, I've never seen a mono pressing of it, but really, it doesn't look like anybody's biting.

I could finance grad school... or I could take out student loans! Really, I would rather not do that, but sometimes when I see things going crazy on eBay that I know I don't listen to that much, it's tempting. But never the whole thing... I suppose if I had to, I'd find other ways to hear great music. There are friends, there is the internet, there are the BFTs here (which I keep thinking I'll join in on someday), so it wouldn't be hard to remain inspired beyond looking at a rack of Blue Note and ESP spines.

I thought she was "fine" but nothing special when I heard her. Charles Burnham is very good, though it has been some time since I've seen him play live. Seeing the old Ibarra trio with him and Cooper-Moore was quite an experience - in fact, I think I saw their last show as a group before C-M was fired (or whatever). Did get the pleasure to see Fiddler Williams at a church in Topeka, Kansas many years ago. I was a kid, but even with my feeble mind of the time, he was fantastic. Saw Leroy Jenkins solo (twice) and on occasions with the reunited Revolutionary Ensemble and the Myra Melford-Jarman-Jenkins trio. He is a master! Would like to have been able to see Alan Silva, Michel Samson and Ornette in their violin-playing prime!

Amen on the Bontecou, that was a hell of an exhibition! I wish I had been in Chicago for more than a weekend so I really could have spent some time with it. Being able to go back again and again is certainly the reason why I rate the Gursky (MoMA, '01) and Last Picture Show (WAC, Mpls, 2003) as among the greatest big-exhibition experiences I've had. Looking forward to the Hesse drawings and Stella 1958 paintings at the Menil this spring!

Yeah, there are a few I need to get and just put them off. Now's the time! Kind of scary to see some are sold out!

Wow. That beats those Pretoria Arvanitas LPs by a lot!

Dutch theme continues... Kees Hazevoet - Pleasure One - (Peace original) with Louis Moholo, Arjen Gorter and the great Kris Wanders on alto. Beautiful handmade cover on this one, too!

Theo Loevendie - Stairs! - (Artone original) apparently the first 'proper' Dutch new jazz LP, from '67, with Maarten Altena and Johnny Engels. Engels (and Milford) is who Han Bennink emulated to get his style. Anyway, it's a great record, and despite being a fairly ratty copy, this one still sounds wonderful.

Ellsworth Kelly - a wonderful and both chameleonic and steadfast painter (and sculptor) of color/form, with a very Cageian sense of keen observation. I do like Mike Kelley (and Pettibon) as well, though. Heard the name Terry Allen dropped before, but never followed up on why. Thanks for the impetus.

Those photos make me feel like busting Santana out later! Even if she was in the work boot-and-flannel scene in the 70s, a guy like me can still get all over her!

It's funny that most people (myself included) seem to be bringing up painters. I really like a lot of concept work - or whatever you want to call it - but there are even a few in that realm whose work I can't deal with. I can't take Kosuth, or Art and Language for that matter - it's almost taking too much of the art content out of the work, which is not the way I feel about most concept art. With Kosuth and A&L, it's just too devoid of aesthetics for me - most concept art seems to have a pretty high aesthetic content, a sense of humor about itself, a DIY rawness to it, etc., that is very engaging. I guess one could say Kosuth is like the Ad Reinhardt of concept art, but at least Reinhardt had a sense of humor!

Man, it's all that "Tenth Street Touch" stuff, but de Kooning did some fine small black paintings in the 40s. I find Hofmann boring for some of the same reasons as I do de Kooning, even though he was the start of a lot of that work and certainly makes a valid case for extending the optical elements of the best Cezanne. Dunno if my post didn't make it clear (probably not), but Twombly is staggering and I love all of the paintings I've seen. Houston has an amazing collection of his work, though I may take a pass on the sculpture. At first I was very unsure of Twombly, but it is that uncertainty that made me get to know and love the work as I do now. This happens to me often with the artists (and musicians/composers) that I end up being obsessive about - captivating with the question "do you love it or do you hate it?" Still, I'd rather talk about the artists I love any day: Clyff Still, Judd, Serra, Stella, Twombly, Hesse, Bontecou, Newman, Louis, Noland, Smithson, Guston, Bob Thompson, Tony Smith, Kelly (even if he seems a little short on verve these days)... longer list of names than that, but we're on the subject of hatin'. Didn't know that about Winogrand. Thanks, clem. One more to add to the shit-list: Rosenquist is so utterly garish and slick that I just can't look at it. I sort of 'get' his point, maybe, but I cannot deal with his work at all. Funnily enough, I was given the big Guggenheim retro book a couple of years ago for Xmas...

That would be MOST artists right there. It's the above kind of thinking that keeps us in the situation that we are today, culturally.

I can't imagine Fred Anderson and Irene Schweizer together at all. I'll have to get this just to see how it works, I guess... Not a dis on Irene - love her work - but it's a weird combo for sure. Not gonna be Tuned Boots, I wouldn't think!

"Snowflakes and Sunshine"... :rsmile: Alan Silva Skillfulness a close second!

Guston is another one that it took me a while to appreciate, but now I do very much. I'm thinking of his figurative work - the abstract colorist stuff from the '50s is a different story altogether. I wasn't even going to say anything about Kinkade... not worth it! I don't know why Rauschenberg and Johns don't do it for me. Johns has a series of works (think they are called Lifelines) with a string drawn across a blue-grey field which are quite beautiful, that were the best thing about his Walker show a few years back. The string was attached at either end to loosely moored wooden planks, thus hanging the string (or cable) an inch or so in front of the canvas. Optically, they were somewhat interesting, but the starkness of the whole effect was really something. As yet, I haven't seen a Rauschenberg that doesn't do anything more than act "cute," but it may happen someday. The best art exhibition I've ever seen in my life was The Last Picture Show, curated by Doug Fogle at the Walker. It was a study of conceptual artists using photography in the 60s, 70s and 80s - Ruscha, Smithson, Graham, Huebler, Bas Jan Ader, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Eleanor Antin, etc. and it was absolutely stunning. Never seen such a high concentration of multi-leveled (and much of it fairly "underground") work in such a committed setting. Second to that: Andreas Gursky at MoMA, 2001.

...but Islam #3 is nice! This is a far more complete list than you usually see.

You could get all the original Solid State LPs for significantly less than that!

Good to know, brownie. I just ordered the reissue CD of Hal Singer's Blues and News (Futura SWING-01) as I'd given up on an affordable vinyl copy... almost paid $250 once but ended up not pulling the trigger. It is high time that the entire catalog was properly reissued! Got lucky with that Reece; I think the only Futura vinyl that I actually paid out for was the Perception, which I like a lot as well. Allan: surprised to see you spinning Your Prayer - that is a fine ESP session. The group with Noah Howard is my favorite of Wright's, but that second ESP is pretty top-notch.