clifford_thornton

Joe Malinga - Tears for the Children of Soweto - (Canova) solid SA-rooted township groover with Runo Ericksson, my namesake and a bunch of rather obscure cats - Malinga plays alto, but this is all I know of his.

Thanks, Clem. I'm gonna print that post off so it may be of some use when rooting around for the "good stuff," if it still exists... thought about the Chron but my last "Alternative Weekly" gig was a wash (City Pages, Mpls) - apparently I was "too academic," or some such. Back-handed compliment, but that one I'll take to the bank.

Sidewinder, how am I supposed to PM you when your inbox is full? Jeez!

Hymie's indeed, Clem, though I'm not originally "from there" and hence one reason I didn't stay. Heh, you haven't seen the Pentangle records oozing outta the shelves, either! Somebody was talking about a 'serious' jazz and blues store in San Antonio (?!?); haven't seen much or not been to the right places for LPs here in Austin... I'm way East Austin (near the HEButts on Manor) right now, but that will change I'm sure, along with culinary tastes and disposition towards Flaubert (balls still intact). But long-ago reads of SOME Flaubert in fin-de-siecle art history aside, Dewey is my main man aesthetician. In a way, I could see Gustave fitting in to the trajectory a lil' bit there, so we'll see. Anyway... thanks for the thoughts, will seek out the good barbecue.

Haven't been to that club - was going to meet a few Minneapolitans there tonight but got too sidetracked with studies. Ah, grad school... can never get enough of it. San Marcos is not far at all from here; may be able to swing down, depending on schedule. Will PM you if it's a possibility. Piggyback away...

Actually, I'd forgotten about that one... Bob Thompson is wonderful, one of my favorite painters for many reasons (and if you knew my art preferences, it might REALLY come as a surprise). He's also a good name to drop when interviewing guys who came up in the '60s, for many of them seem to have a Thompson story or two!

Joe McPhee - Mike Kull - Harold E. Smith - Trinity - (CJR original) Haven't listened to this in years and it is quite a treat now! Forgot how HEAVY this shit is... the drumming will SCARE you.

As some of you might know, I'm a recent transplant from the cold North to the less-cold South: Austin, TX to be precise. If any of the other Austinites want to actually hang out in real time, get some brews or some food soon, it might be interesting... Of course, no pressure, but for those who want to, PM me at your leisure and we can co-ordinate something. CT

Yeah, I've never actually ignored anyone, just glossed over their posts... After my bid at a little row with Clem, I thought about it, but then realized what's the point? It's the internet - if you get tired of the shit, one can always go on eBay instead... and none of this is life-ruining anyway.

Thanks for the reminder of the Enja - I'd seen it before but for some reason didn't buy it. Ron Mathewson is a very good bass player, fwiw.

I'm wondering if the problem is recording process, rather than the actual music played - not being an expert at the 'how' myself, I still can say I prefer a lot of top-heavy grit to the crisp, clear and almost stereo-test levels that a lot of fusion-y records after about 1975 seem to hit. Does this make sense? It's just a thought... I'm surprised about the dismissal of Elton Dean, but to each one's own!

Wait, now we're back to sqare one!

No shit. That was my first thought as well.

I won't lay claim to dropping knowledge on the jazz vocal canon other than a few less-canonized artists, but BC has piqued my curiosity without being enough so as to pull the trigger on picking up any of her records. Some across-the-board recommendations might be useful for those neophytes like myself. She sang at LeRoi's BARTS extravaganza (The New Wave in Jazz, Impulse), am I right? Think it would've been interesting to have somehow stuck in the Carter and Ra tracks on that LP. "New Wave" might have been interpreted a little differently as a result... or not.

I did like some of their more Germs-y efforts on Incesticide, actually. Haven't heard either of those bands in YEARS.

Continuing with Bob Thompson covers: Steve Lacy Quartet - Forest and the Zoo - (ESP-Disk') with Rava, Dyani and Moholo, recorded at a Fluxus event in Buenos Aires!

Rob Brown Trio - Breath Rhyme - (Silkheart) a great trio with William Parker and Denis Charles, extremely colorful music! Appropriately, with a painting by Bob Thompson as its cover...

Strange... wonder who was in the band? I can't really imagine him playing with electric musicians, but who knows...

From James?

Which is funny, because Pearl Jam are still pretty huge if I remember it right. And to a degree, they are in a position to do whatever they want because they're living quite comfortably, I assume. Yeah, I can't think of too many people who tear up the cheques.

For me, that's the strongest cut on the album. It's interesting to hear him in the context of Grachan Moncur III's Evolution from a few years earlier - Lee adds a lot of balls that the record might not have had without him, and yet the entirely different weight of Grachan's music (and the rest of the ensemble) add a strange degree of 'otherworldly' poise to Lee's playing as well. Pretty cool record for those reasons alone (and a few others, too, fwiw).

Ted Curson - Urge - (Fontana UK stereo, blue label, photograph cover) Booker Ervin, Jimmy Woode, Edgar Bateman

Jim, of course - agreed on all counts. My more pithy response is in no way taken as philosophical minimization of conviction in self - how could one, indeed, produce work of staggering conviction without that very fact of selfness? Assuming your last question was rhetorical - think that would be obvious to anyone here. But, there are many with far less than "icon" status who nevertheless had steadfast will to both art and action (action = self).

This is one of those dates that I cannot even recall what it sounds like - though the King LP has been in my shelves for quite a while. Still, I would like to hear the "augmented" ten-incher, as "Everything Happens to Me" is one of my favorite standards.

Derailment #xxx - a MAJOR difference between Miles and Bill Evans: Evans' tropes were copied in a way as to promote a certain 'style' of playing, rather than a notch in the music's continual refinement. Miles was about as far from a given 'style' as one could get. Granted, what Bill Evans did could probably not have been done without the references to Miles' work of a certain period. It's funny - if anyone here had said even five years ago that I would be remarking extensively on anything Miles-related, no matter how oblique the connection, I would've scoffed. Certainly not the biggest Miles nut around, but the discussion is interesting.