clifford_thornton

Great question. There are at least two Jimmy Johnsons in jazz drumming circles. One died in 1979 and it would not surprise me if this is the same person who played with Ellington. A photo on the back cover of Dickerson's "To My Son" (recorded 1978, released 1980) shows a man who could be in his 40s, although I'm not sure if he'd be 48. The Jimmy Johnson on Discogs credited (perhaps erroneously) with both Sun Ra and Ellington sessions is also credited up to 1986 with the likes of Jeff Lorber, George Benson, and Charlie Haden. Would love to tease out who's who here.

Very strange indeed. I never really cared for/about her, but agree that the jazz content is part of the deal!

Cool to see him regardless.

Not really the point, but I'm sure Milford could have had Black Editions or Eremite sell those IPS albums for him if he wanted them moved...

This.

saw that wonderful Artists Space exhibition... RIP.

Yup. Saw him with Peter Evans as well, excellent jazz drummer when duty calls!

both!

that happened to me on a different browser just now -- I'll see if Autonomedia can fix it.

For what it is worth: Matthew Shipp and I will be in conversation about our respective books––Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings (Autonomedia, 2025) and Singularity Codex: Matthew Shipp on RogueArt (RogueArt, 2023) at Monument, a fantastic gallery and community space in Kingston, on May 30 at 7PM. This event is free and open to the public, and we'll have copies of our books available. Matt's is a collection of essays, lectures, and prose beginning with the title essay delineating a landscape of post-Monk pianism into which his own work falls, and the entire volume is a fascinating statement of intent and a quest for knowledge and understanding. My book is a bit different, and documents the 25 recordings (and one printed volume) Matt did for the French label RogueArt as well as providing context through rangy interviews with crucial and long-term collaborators. We hope to see you there! (flyer design by d.norsen, with apologies to Steve Albini & Byron Coley)

ugh. that sucks. hope they can get this crap figured out again. I figured I'd buy the Sabir if and when Dusty stocks it.

If I had an original of the Jamal I'd probably sell it at this point and add the proceeds to my new road racing bike fund. I'm fine with the reissue; it's a heavy listen and an interesting record but doesn't get a lot of play around here, either (neither did the old CD). The Cherry is a classic; I remember buying my first copy (a US press) in the 90s and being utterly addicted to it. I'd never heard anything like it before. The Roach I had and sold pretty quickly... great cover art, but just not my jam organ-wise.

well, being a big fan of boxing and wrestling, Shipp kinda pushes buttons in that sense and there is an art to how he expresses his opinions. Worth reading his collected writings to get an idea of that (although he didn't include the Herbie or Jarrett pieces). The André 3000 piano thing is truly pointless as a release; I don't know how much real estate he truly takes up, but I see why Shipp is peeved (and we've talked about it a bunch), given how much he's put into it over the decades. Crazy to me that a major label puts out 18 minutes of this dreck, but it's happened before and it'll happen again.

yeah, I remember seeing that at some point long ago. It is indeed fascinating.

Ha, yes, that was a very interesting project to co-produce.

I wouldn't have guessed Barefield but to be honest I've only heard his earlier work with Roscoe, Tani Tabbal and Anthony Holland. Thanks again for putting this together and welcome to the board!

Very interesting!

He’s not a big record listener but maybe someone will point him to it. William was in my dream last night… Vision Festival dreams.

could be. But hopefully they listened to the announcement where "Denis" (or Dennis, as he was known then) was absolutely not said! I suppose we're going in circles here, but the error is just perplexing and could have been fixed without a ton of extra legwork. Someone like William Parker, who is alive and worked with Denis regularly, could have easily identified Huss/Frank as the mysterious Charles drummer.

Sorry, not in the booklet -- thought it was put forth earlier in this thread that both played with Dorham, but now I can't find it. Zev don’t know Huss, or Jack…

Denis has a child or children, correct? I am positive the interviews in the booklet are heavily edited/amended, so who knows what Drayton said or recalled. Elsewhere it was stated that both Charles brothers played with KD.

are we not? In this house, Japanese jazz of varying stripes is pretty regularly on deck.

Oh yeah, while I totally feel what the first paragraph is going after, there's a way to word these ideas that is more to the point.

Sorry to hear about your buddy, Lon. Is there more from the Ljubljana date with Oxley (one track is on Live at the Festival)? Might be an interesting Resonance date if it can be scrounged up.

Bummer. I thought the Bernie Drayton interview was fascinating; the other texts mostly spotlighted Dorham, with little verbiage spent on the other band members (except maybe Red). Not surprising, but still...