clifford_thornton

Sunny Murray - Big Chief (Pathe) pretty heavy 'swing unit' session from '69, with Tusques, Vitet, Guerin, Terroade, Silva et al. moving on to a CD now...

I used to live on Riverside Drive, but my view wasn't so great...

Sometimes a group is greater than the sum of its parts, you know? That's why groups that look great on paper sometimes fail to grab, and a band full of otherwise 'nobodies' (hate to use that term, but I will for now) might take it much farther. Therefore, I might prefer a Rocky Boyd record to some Dexter Gordon sessions, just because the group was more 'on'. One player may lag a bit behind others in skill, but if the music is in the aether and there's no slack - only effort, joy and intuition - the music will come through as raw as one hopes for.

I thought that was the Ingo of The Supremes....

Yup, that's 180 Riverside Drive!

Academy CDs, in the West Village... (the original Academy location)

Downtown Music Gallery, on 4th and Bowery I think... More 'progressive' stuff but a great selection of CDs that you won't find at those other places.

Aha, thanks for the explanation! Still, Japanese BYGs are cool...

Yeah, the 'Pepper Adams' Poppin' is almost as funny as the Paul Bley Quintet on America - with a big picture of Don Cherry, front and back!

That sounds like the right year to me... I could swear I fingered (not stink-fingered, mind you) a Jap BYG of it though.

I feel like most of the 'up-n-coming' indie rock bands I listen to are about ten or fifteen years old (I think I said this somewhere before). Most also end up being from a certain Kentucky city that isn't the capital. But to reiterate an already ancient post by Sr. Burke, Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth are two-handedly probably the most important factor in most of us under-35 types paying any attention to Fahey, Feldman, Ferrari, Brotzmann, Marion Brown and all the rest of it... hell, I'll admit checking Thurston's Grand Royal article and buying every Table of the Elements release I could get my hands on as a sophomore in college.

I guess I didn't notice that the ALS referred to was the Antibes version (which I think was issued by BYG Japan originally)... that's heavy shit.

Mine too. It doesn't get enough props, but it's a great record!

There are two on Cadence Jazz, one a duo with altoist Rob Brown and I believe the other is solo, but I'm not sure about that. Probably still available from Cadence at around $8 a pop.

The polarized blue and white cover that Marcello refers to is the first edition, and it looks gorgeous even if it is on flimsy stock. I think that this was bootlegged on CD. As for Indent, it came out later as an Arista-Freedom LP, and I think I've seen some CD copies of questionable origin, none with the original cover art. The titles Brownie just referred to are the ones I was thinking of... too bad they didn't come out. Chuck, do you know how many were pressed of the Unit Core titles? Assuming 1000 each but that's just a guess.

For some reason I've passed on "First Meditatons," and I don't know why. Now maybe I shouldn't. Still, my favorite Trane from this period falls with Ascension and the stuff he did on the West Coast with Pharaoh, Donald Garrett et al. The tracks from New Thing at Newport and The New Wave in Jazz are great, but with both albums the spotlight appears to be on the other groups...

Richard and Mimi Farina "Celebrations for a Grey Day" (Vanguard)

Thanks for the info, Chuck. I didn't think they'd been issued but I suppose one never knows - it could be another Dogtown conundrum. My Indent has labels reading 3055 5A and 3055 5B, though the jacket reads 30555. I guess it would stand to reason from the thick stock, heavy vinyl and underground look that this title was the label's 'seed.' Interesting story - it certainly would've been nice to have a Cecil LP on Nessa (or would it have been Nessa-Core?)...

Hey all, I was perusing a Unit Core flyer and noticed advertisements for a "Volume Two" of Indent and a workshop orchestra double LP. Never seen these offered, though the flyer contained jacket mockups and all the pertinent details. Anyone know if these were issued? Here's what I have: Unit Core 30551 "Spring of Two Blue J's" Unit Core 30555 "Indent" Thanks! CT

I think it's been stated elsewhere, but a set of the Braxton Aristas might be nice. Weren't the Revelation Carter-Bradford LPs reissued by Hat?

I'm a big fan of Ghetto Music but never really got around to the second LP. I remember the songs being a lot shorter and more radio-friendly, like a bizarro Duke Pearson record from the same period.

Energy, action, and motion.

The artists, as I understand it, weren't ripped off - they were paid a small amount for recording, with small royalties against what sold, as with most independent labels. Apparently, some major distributors did rip off ESP by altering sales to 'lost shipments' and consequently some royalties were lost that way. There are some people like Sunny Murray who clamor on and on about getting ripped off because his lone session as a leader was a "gold record in Japan" (Japanese ESPs were, in fact, unlicensed) but of the artists I've spoken with about ESP, most felt that it was a solid opportunity to record that launched many a career. I've spoken at length with Stollman, and both credit and pay are going where they are due.

As far as I know, it's going to be steady and sure reissuing of the back catalog, occasionally with unissued cuts and/or interviews. The Wright interviews are cool - c'mon, man, they're a piece of history! Besides, they aren't very expensive. One thing is for sure, and that's that these are completely authorized reissues and the artists and recordings are being treated respectfully. The Marion Brown set will contain both LPs plus some bonus material, as I understand it...

John Cage.