clifford_thornton

I assume you've seen the jacket of his first 'breakout' solo LP (yes, vinyl), where he looks like a cross between members of Wham! and a young Steve Guttenberg. Red sweatsuit and all!

Pentatonic Fairy-Fucker, indeed. I'll just say none, it's better that way.

...it's Jerry Gonzales! (Trumpet/Congas) ← Wait, isn't everybody with the last name Gonzalez related?

Kind of like I'm doing with Mauricio Kagel's Exotica, which I'm spinning right now. Michel Portal, Vinko Globokar Siegfried Palm and several other weirdos creating one hell of a racket. Beautiful!

Though as we've said before, it's pretty dubious what DMG are doing.

I'd love to hear that shit with Pharaoh and Black Harold, actually. Better than shelling out $500 for the LP!

I always knew there was something "different" about him. ← Ouch! Seriously, a lot of the early sides are those I have yet to hear that I actually give a shit about. I can live without the Duke Pearson big band stuff, and the later Tyner albums, things like that. Got a sizeable chunk of the 4000s but little to show for the 1500 series. And the Three Sounds can keep hanging out at Brandon's.

I always thought the UK Creation pressing of Loveless was fine, though anything before that might be dubious in its original form.

Spaulding is a wonderful human being. Unfortunately, he hasn't been gigging as much as he should be. I sure wish he was going to be at Yoshi's - he's been practicing a lot and his last few records have been awesome.

Both of these were on CD, but are now OOP. They're certainly due for a reissue, though! As for Intents and Purposes, amazingly Dixon and RCA are on the same page about this not making it to CD - he's moved on to probably stronger work, and RCA is probably on the "Bill who?" by now.

I thought Dennis Gonzalez was the trumpeter of the three Gonzalez brothers... Yeah, Milford was with Montego Joe, though I've never bought those records. From Montego to ESP in what, a year?

It is a Bridget Riley, and that Larry Austin piece is great! One of the rare examples of successful 'third stream' in my opinion. The PJ big band sides I enjoy quite a bit - not really music-school geek music, unless you're talkin' reefer-in-the-lounge music school.

Don Cherry "Humus" from Actions (Wergo pressing). Probably one of the strongest of his long-form orchestra pieces.

They aren't expensive... check with Dusty Groove (www.dustygroove.com). Their VG+ stereo orange/black or rainbow (black/red) issues run 15-23 usually, and they grade by Goldmine standards. Edit for currency: These be dollars, not pounds or euros.

OK, I know I'm one for the obscuros, but my vote is for Juma Sultan, Keino Spellar and the left-fielder Robidoo (heard on John Tchicai's Cadentia Nova Danica, Polydor, 1968). All of them are wonderful, and Juma could play a mean bass as well. There's also that cat Raleigh Sahumba that plays with Milford Graves, and he's pretty powerful too - apparently taught Milford a lot of the fundamentals when they were growing up Uptown. Oh yeah, and for trumpet-playing congueros, myself and Dizzy Reece aren't bad either!

I'd like to see it too... guess they aren't taking it on the road? The original albums are fine by me; I'm keeping them for sure. Spaulding storms, especially on Volume 2.

Bird, Thanks for the influence - we hardly knew ya... Happy birthday!

I have Essence on LP - not too expensive, I think I paid what a CD would cost - and it has always been a favorite. Gene Stone had a place in Topanga Canyon where Sonny Simmons lived for a while, and they practiced daily which led to The Cry. This and the New Jazz are the ones I reach for, then the Candid, then... You can still get Heckman's Improvisational Jazz Workshop LP (Ictus 101) from Cadence for like $12. The pressing is garbage, but the music is good. Of course, it's not the original with the hand-silkscreened cover and book, but still a reasonably vintage issue.

Herbie Mann at the Village Gate, side two. Canadian maroon deepgroove, stereo. Nice pressing, too. Sidewinder: Shit, if the Colbeck were on Philips, it'd be worth twice what it is now. But rest assured, it's no runt - one of my favorite jazz records, for sure.

I have less than ten, all on LP. Not sure whether I should be proud of myself for such restraint, or smacked upside the head!

Well, my cycles jibe with and feed my girlfriend's - we live together. So when we're both on the rag, watch out!

I thought they fed Homing Grits to the pigeons in WW2! They always came back for more!!

Ira Sullivan - Nicky's Tune (Delmark), w/ Nicky Hill, Jodie Christian, Wilbur Campbell and Vic Sproles. Sidewinder: the Colbeck is pretty tough to find, a later Fontana from '70 (cat. no. 6383.001), and despite the fact that he played with Noah Howard and Sunny Murray, it's not really that 'free,' very accessible in fact. Lissack's an amazing drummer, too, a South African cat who lived in London in the '60s. Played on only one other record, with Ken Terroade, which is being reissued soon.

Anthony Braxton's contrabass clarinet solo on Jacques Coursil's "Black Suite" (America) always messes with me. Soulful, tortured, and almost completely unaccompanied.

Ric Colbeck - The Sun is Coming Up (Fontana UK, 1970) w/ Mike Osborne, Sel Lissack and J.F. Jenny-Clarke. Brilliant free-bop if there ever was...