clifford_thornton

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.

Yeah, Americans don't usually work the same way. It's like health care.

Myself, I'm more into the Cageian neo-dada and post-serial stuff. Not much for electronics, but weird chamber stuff and theatre pieces get my juices flowing. But: who said anything about classical records being cheap? Bach Honegger

Mine is Strange Strings...

Dizzy Reece - From In to Out (Futura) wonderful modal/free quintet with John Gilmore, Art Taylor, Siegfried Kessler (piano) and Patrice Caratini (bass). H-E-A-V-Y!

Man, I like a lot of the artists you mention quite a bit! To each their own, I guess... I can see why Jeff Koons exists (critique of the artist as commodity) but I do not like him one bit... I don't get into the photographer, Jeff Wall, too much though critics I respect seem to enjoy his work. Seems rather dull and flat to me. De Kooning is a cliche, as is Dali. Krasner is derivative of the good 40s De Kooning in a lot of her early work; I don't know much of her work after that point. Frankenthaler seems boring to me compared to Morris Louis; her palette is too gauzy for my taste and the post-painterly abstraction to me works better among more direct work such as Louis and Kenneth Noland (or, for that matter, Larry Poons). Hers is too diffuse for my tastes. Rothko's palette choices don't move me too much, but a room of them is another thing altogether. I'm not entirely sure about Joan Mitchell, but being "not entirely sure" for a while tends to lead to liking somebody quite a bit eventually (as I've done with Twombly and Tuttle), so I'll bet she will make it to the top ten at some point. Rauschenberg and Johns do almost nothing for me, though I "respect" their influence on others whom I do enjoy. I liked Dubuffet at first quite a bit; now I prefer Burri and Tapies (though I know they are different birds in many respects). Gorky used to be another preference, though Matta is far superior and now I can't see liking both Gorky AND Matta. Ruscha's paintings don't do it for me, either, though I really like his books.

Marion Brown - Quartet - (ESP Stereo original) a classic, is all there is to say!

Oh, Lotus, that's what I thought you were driving! I have never heard of TVR before...

Is that a Spider?

Slint had something, but for me, Brian McMahan's musical ideas seem more fully-formed in The For Carnation. That first EP and self-titled full-length on Matador are both superb. Re: J: "Forget the Swan" is probably one of the greatest post-punk anthems I've ever heard. Amazing!

I really shouldn't have got rid of that Joanne Brackeen trio, Snooze, on Choice. That's quite a good little record.

Wouldn't he have preferred "9"? Funny that Fred Gwynne beat him to the punch... RIP.

Thanks - you put it very well. Rigor is a good word for it. It's interesting, because he's such an affable and kind person, a very cool guy to interview, and just so warm. His music and his personality, in a weird way, seem almost disconnected. Obviously, the man is his horn, but the tough sheen that pervades a lot of his work is not obviously present when talking to the dude.

"Girl, You Got a Home" is a classic funky tune, I must admit. Oh well, got a good Lacy record and some FMPs out of the trade... I'm not very good about keeping Strata-East records, for some reason. Though if I had Clifford Jordan In the World, I'd probably change my tune... Now: Prince Lasha Ensemble - Insight - (CBS UK original), a classic recording with Stan Tracey and the great harpist David Snell. Probably my favorite Lasha next to The Cry, and Prince has many fine words to share about the recording... think I posted them somewhere on this board.

Alan Silva - Skillfulness - (ESP original, with the photo-negative image) great series of solos and duets on side one with Karl Berger, Becky Friend and Mike Ephron. Side two is orchestral madness! Also one of Mario Pavone's first recordings...

Meldhau. Ugh. Those photo spreads in the liners of one recent album make him and his bandmates look like a bunch of alterna-rock assholes.

Jolie is hot in a vampy way, but her movies are crappy and the Brad-Angelina shit is overdone. I'm often teased for thinking Jen is the shit, but that's where I am. If Vince weren't there, I would be in Chicago or Malibu offering my support.

Curson is great! I love the Fontanas especially and his work with Mingus, as well as the aforementioned Futura and the Marge (Cattin' Curson). Certainly, the pianoless quartet stuff he did in the mid-60s is my favorite, but his playing always has a lot of fire. He's kind of weird, though - very difficult to pigeonhole, for one thing, which is never very good as a selling point. To me, it's perfect inside-outside playing, but there is also a severity to it that might make it less palatable for the boogaloo set. Far more austere than, say Ornette and Don...

I just unloaded my copy of that record, strangely. Maybe shouldn't have, but oh well...

I thought it was Tadd Dameronia...