clifford_thornton

Kidd was great -- a kind man, generous spirit, and hell of a saxophone player. I saw him play many times in New York, Chicago, and Texas. One Texas situation also involved Kidd leading workshops with a class of children (maybe junior high?) and I watched him explore scales with the students and talk about developing sound through practice and rigor. He was very much no-bullshit, like, I couldn't imagine any youngsters getting away with inappropriate behavior, but he was obviously a great teacher. And then of course he proceeded to blow the roof off that night in Houston. RIP Kidd, and thank you.

Sad news -- really loved his playing.

I'll have to check that out. I have the DIW and Moers LPs, and like them very much.

The original LP is a nice one indeed. I'll surely pick up the CD reissue for the additional material.

Urge is the shit. Haven't dug out my vinyl copy in a few years or more. Need to do that again.

I've had that duo on LP, and one needs to have a super crisp copy to ensure that the dynamics are there and the quiet parts aren't full of crackle. I have a rip from a CD and that'll do until a NM++ copy lands in my lap!

Yeah, I passed on Rhapsody and Exchange (with Haruna Miyake). Maybe that's my mistake but if I'm going to dive into solo or duo 20th century recitals by Japanese pianists, there are other interpreters I'd listen to first. Speaking of piano duos, the Satoh-Takahashi duo on Columbia is pretty cool.

Killer one. I like the Decoding Society LPs on Moers and About Time. The recording quality varies but musically they're all super.

The only school I've been at for 20 years. Wow.

I suppose the ROI on my $3 is pretty good, but I like it enough to keep it! Oh, that's one of my favorite Marion Brown albums.

I've always liked that one a lot. Beautiful music.

That is a nice one. The art is ridiculous.

I had no idea about the circumstances of his passing. Wow.

I miss the old rankings.

Yes, that Aketagawa I also had. Maybe I'll come into another copy (can't keep all of it).

Big fan of the Takayanagi/Abe duo stuff. It is noise music, but it's great. Shintaro is cool. Not in love with it, but a solid record.

Heart is rad. Excellent player.

The Mizuno is good indeed. Swell choices.

Yeah, there's a performative aspect to Aketagawa's playing that is somewhat lost on the LPs, but he is indeed good. Angry Waves is brilliant -- I have an original of that one and think it's a sleeper hit within Takayanagi's large and wide-ranging discography. Johnny's Disk was/is connected to the jazz cafe/club Kaiunbashi No Johnny in Iwate. The Eiji Nakayama records on the label are intensely introspective post-bop, and very strong, and there's "Lee Won Hui" aka Mototeru Takagi, "Grow," which is a beautifully out soprano (mostly) and drums duo. Those are the dates I'm familiar with, but there's certainly more that I don't know.

The Aketa's Disk label is actually a pretty important independent label though the releases are hard to find. Johnny's Disk as well -- some of the jazz cafes/clubs had their own imprints and released a pretty interesting variety of artists, from straight-ahead or post-Coltrane "modal" work to very free. I still have a couple Aketas on Offbeat. Had his debut at one point but sold it. Those Yamashitas are awesome -- got em all on LP, as well as Pochi and a few other strong early Sakata LPs. Not a clinker in the bunch. I think Nakamura is a good player although I agree not with the facility that Sakata holds in this context. He has a few more mainstream albums that are solid -- "Adventure In My Dream" being probably the best that I've heard, on Three Blind Mice. And yes, I am awaiting my Dusty package with those boxed sets!

Good record.

Those Yamashitas upthread are damn good. Eiji Kitamura is the only name there I recognize. He's on a Swing Journal All-Stars LP that's in the racks.

I feel like this LP has come down a bit in price and seems to surface more often now...

I think it's a very informative book but of course a lot to cram in to a fairly limited space. Certainly fascinating. I have and enjoy a lot of the records the volume references, but as I don't know the language, I was missing a lot of context. @HutchFan yes, Moriyama preceded Koyama in the Yamashita Trio. And I'm not surprised Burning Ambulance messed up the credit. Par for the course for him...

One of Shaw's best in my opinion.