clifford_thornton

This is really interesting footage and it's new to me. I assume that is Kohsuke Mine on tenor? Big fan of Takayanagi and I'm glad some of this material is being rediscovered, remastered, and reissued. The Station '70 box sounds great. I was just listening to the Moers '80 LP the other day and was reminded of how each album was an innovation in some way over what came before.

Yes. The Five Spot engagement was a huge, huge deal. I was visiting the archives of abstract painter Barnett Newman (1905-1970) and his record collection was part of the library. In addition to classical LPs were a number of late 1950s-early 60s jazz LPs, including Ornette's Contemporary and first few Atlantic albums. He had seen Ornette at the Five Spot and was a fan. It was a cultural phenomenon. Interesting side note: Jackson Pollock, whose art was licensed for the cover of Free Jazz, was not the original artist they planned to use for that album. Judith Lindbloom, an abstract expressionist painter and close friend of Steve Lacy, was supposed to paint live as the sessions were taped. However she was too indisposed that day to be able to do it, and the record label ended up licensing the Pollock image instead.

reading this thread is interesting. I never completely connected with Crothers though I never had such a strong negative reaction to the music, either. Glad she was here to do what she did for sure. And Yoko is great.

Makes a ton of sense, thanks. Just re-read the liners to the second Ornette LP on Contemporary and it looks like John Lewis was out in LA and his hearing of Ornette there set the whole thing in motion. Also, Tomorrow Is The Question was released after Atlantic had signed him, though recorded slightly before (Jan-Feb 59).

right, Schuller too -- but weren't the first of the Atlantics recorded prior to Lenox in May '59?

I don't think he had an exclusive contract to Contemporary -- he went to Koenig to sell compositions for others to record, and played them to Koenig on alto. My memory of the circumstances is a bit fuzzy and would require some digging around in my library, but Ertegun swooped in and signed him pretty quickly after the first Contemporary recordings were released. I would imagine John Lewis and Mingus had something to do with that signing as well.

that Cycles set is really nice. I think you can hear the dancer better on the CD than on the LP, and that adds an interesting cast to the proceedings. Martin Davidson works wonders. I'll buy anything with Lacy on it -- think the only bandleader LP I'm missing is Space Who (though I've got a rip of the music). And of course there are scattered CDs that I've yet to pick up, but there's time. It took me awhile to appreciate Aebi but as Jim says above, it's my ears, not the composer's, that have to catch up. She's crucial to so much of Lacy's musical world.

Barre Phillips' End to End, definitely. The Evan Parker run is quite interesting too. I guess the Maneris mostly were released prior to the 2001 cutoff, but they feel relevant (as they should).

boxed sets: the only regret is not having more time and space to listen to them.

I've been pronouncing his last name incorrectly this whole time!

more from Molde! I think I have the audio of that concert somewhere.

I was unable to see Sam in Topeka, sadly -- can't remember the exact reason but I had to miss it. I did see Andrew in Chicago, great concert.

I saw him once with Jackie McLean, Rene McLean, Bobby Hutcherson and others at the Iridium back in 2004. It was incredible to see the three veterans of Blue Note Records playing tunes like "Love and Hate." This Molde footage is something else.

Brilliant composer and player -- definitely not an easy life he had, but glad he was here to live it.

Fuck.

I am pretty sure I saw him at least once with Bobby Hutcherson and maybe with McCoy as well. This would have been in the late 1990s in Kansas City.

Damn, too bad. RIP.

Yeah, I heard this -- sad news. I associate him with Jef Gilson, a very strong player indeed.

Yeah, I suppose it could be any number of players that it references. Black Saint... well, Mingus' record by that title came out before almost anyone in the jazz world knew who Albert Ayler was!

Well, two years and just over two months in and I've got it -- mild case, slept all day yesterday, but it's certainly here. My wife brought it home as a present from a wedding she attended. I only saw her for about six hours last week as once she returned I had to travel (within the state) for work; felt a little off on Thursday but by Friday I was definitely unwell and tested positive. Mostly just dealing with fatigue and occasional bouts of light congestion; had a mild fever but that seems to have abated. She had congestion Thursday/Friday, which is still lingering, and currently no taste or smell. But all in all it could be much, much worse.

my father and I built a massive HO layout in my basement growing up, filled an entire large room. Had two separate mainlines and a mountain branch line, rail yards, locomotive facilities, industrial spurs -- the whole bit. Still have some of the custom-painted and modified rolling stock at their place in Texas (which is not where I grew up) but the layout is long gone. Might have a few slides of it but we were spending more time working on it than documenting it.

Ordered the Warsaw disc, eager to hear it. Wasn't the Praxis double LP also recorded in Europe in '68?

yeah, hopefully he'll be back in the US at some point, ditto Han. Last time I saw him was with Cyrille at Vision, prior to the pandemic.

Fred was great. Glad I got to see him a couple of times.

aha, so the writer just didn't understand who Lester was & how he fit into the situation. Definitely wasn't living there in the '70s and '80s, at least as we understand "living."