clifford_thornton

Francois Tusques Thought the Organissimo community might be interested in this recent article on French pianist and free jazz catalyst Francois Tusques, who played with Americans like Sunny Murray and uh, "me," in the late '60s and early '70s, in addition to leading his own groups of both free jazz and ethnic stew. Thoughtful comments and additional information are always welcome... Cheers, Clifford

Now, Ted Curson Tears For Dolphy (Fontana UK black label mono, Marte Roling's cover) Found all the Fontanas, but where is the box with what I was actually looking for?

Wow, sad news. RIP and thanks for the music.

Nice one! Though I think I've blathered on before about how the programming of the "Paris Suite" is kinda out of order...

Yeah, who knows. I'm not sure if there is any extra material in the vaults for this, as I just have the Neon LP and I'm willing to bet the Akarma transfer is from a cleaned-up vinyl source. Maybe Maxine McG knows? Funny, I've gone from saying "Great Record!" to admitting it's in storage, to finally admitting I never listen to the second side!

Amen. Probably sold her the speedball, too.

Gross. Doubt anybody will buy them, but who knows? She wasn't a bad player; I remember my dad jamming East to Wes incessantly when I was in high school. Too bad the speedball killed her.

"Night Poem," that's it. If I could find my copy of it, I'd revisit it and probably get more out of it now. Since you bring it up as an intro, or a transitional piece, it might be interesting to program the CD with that, say, between "MRA" and "The Bride" (stripped bare by her bachelors, even?) or something, just to get a feel for it in a different context. It might carry more weight like that. I seem to remember "Night Poem" being a lot more AACM-ish in texture than most of the dense, free escapades that characterize the Cuneiform discs, etc., though I could be totally mis-remembering it.

I'm pretty sure my copy of the AOTW is still in storage, as I've only been able to get to a few boxes and none of them yielded it. O'wise I'd play-by-play-by-play. I've always liked the first side so much that I often never get into the spare rustling improvised suite that makes up most of the second side. It doesn't sound much like the rest of their material, even the live 'free' jams.

That was certainly one thought I had. I can't remember if it's Bates or not - It's got a Verve label and Polydor information, with a 1969 publishing date. I just think it's very weird that Richard Williams goes on and on in the notes that this is the first issue anywhere of the material. Confusing! Sounds great, though!

This is almost as bad as the "Money Jungle" situation, innit?

Just finished Bobby Few - More or Less Few (Center of the World) - "the PIANO has GUTS!" - and now it's time for bed...

Milford Graves and Don Pullen - Nommo - (SRP), healing forces of collision and cohesion...

Brandon Burke has that LP, and has spoken very highly of it as well. I think he got it very, very cheap if I remember correctly!

The album is "It's About Time", and it smokes! That's it, thanks. I'll try to pick it up next time I see it. Nothing like having a few oddballs among all the 'free music.'

Huh. If it weren't in GBP I might pull the trigger on a couple of those!

Yeah, Orgasm is a motherfucker - I have it on a UK Polydor version from the late '60s/early '70s, titled Parabolic, and the liner notes strangely state that it is the first issue anywhere of the material. Very odd. This is corroborated with the liner notes to Tes Esat, which talk about a date (for Verve) lying in the can. Anyhoo, I'd like to hear some of Gato's early work from Rome, with Giorgio Azzolini and that crowd. I'm willing to bet it's straighter material, but the reports are strong on those records.

Awesome! Tip o' the hat to ya, Cap'n!

I've heard good things about an LP he cut for RCA-Victor, but outside of Brubeck-Desmond haven't heard much. I always liked his playing on those records; Bru is kinda cloying for my tastes, but Desmond and Morello are often interesting together. If I'm not mistaken, there is at least one Desmond-Mulligan LP on Verve that has Morello on it; it's a nice West Coast pianoless quartet date that really opened my ears to Desmond, especially.

Yeah, agreed - the Nova builds nicely, but TCB is phenomenal. I bet he was great with Elvin, too. My favorite Skid performance is a live boot (probably being passed around the internet by now) from Frankfurt in 1972 with the Griffiths-Taylor-Laurence-Levin quintet. Very strong stuff, but it would have been even greater to see! Now spinning: Jarman-Moye Egwu-Anwu (India Navigation) featuring some drum patterns that, now that I think of it, sort of remind me of Hank Drake.

Funny, I've never really given any time to their recordings from later years, as much as the 70s material is a gas to listen to. It's something about being without Feza and Dudu that just doesn't make it the same - maybe why those later Blue Notes recordings are in another area entirely. For Mongezi is heavy, but also rather directionless, for example. Then again, I guess it was edited down from a long concert, but still...

Yeah, joyful it always is - they are a gas to listen to. Most of the live stuff is way, way freer than anything on the Neon (or even the Victor LP cut a year later), but those Cuneiforms are amazing discs. I listen to them far more than any of the LPs. The Brotherhood are still quite underrated, which is strange considering how the internet has made finding that music much easier. I would think cats would have jumped all over the shit at this point... they had a pretty strong following among European audiences in the 70s, if I am not mistaken. Seems like you couldn't put on a festival without that band showing up!

Actually, French pianist Francois Tusques is working on a series of visual diagrams of Monk's music. It's referred to in a recent AAJ article on Francois, worth a look if yr interested. I have seen the diagrams and they are absolutely beautiful. Also, graphic scores - though really telling you more about the composed angle than the improvised - are often wonderful visual ways of conceptualizing a piece. In jazz, if you look at the scores of Cecil's music, or for that matter Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity diagrams, it is really beautiful stuff.

All of those are valid points, especially the first - even mild autism can really cause a lot of alienated and confused feelings, despite what seems like social well-adjustment. I have some experience with this and let me tell you, it is not pretty for those who have to deal with it.

Damn, I wish I had that on LP! You can send it to this address: 29xx W. Dallas Houston, TX xxxxx