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Those were a nice read, David, thanks.

Nabatov on hatOLOGY is so-so - fairly regular, way-too-many notes (from Nabatov and from the drummer) muscular hard-bop stuff. What amazed me so much was how more thoughtful (and much less voluble) he is on Chat Room than anywhere else I've heard him. ← I would say the disc (Sneak Preview) is more of an eclectic mix of a number of strands of contemporary jazz, and though I think David's criticisms are fair, I certainly like this disc more than he does (I have way fewer problems with Nabatov's too many notes than I have with those of many other musicians). I think I rate it just a notch below 4 stars to D.D.'s 3, I assume.

I finally got myself a copy of this (less than a year ago) for 7.70 euros. Though I'd say I got mine for a very good price, $85 seems to me to be very high. In general, I'd be willing to pay up to $30 for oop Hat's I'm really interested in - this, as the going price for Hat's in brick-and-mortars here is 23 euros ($27).

On the other hand, I've found Leo to be quite responsive to my queries. So, as has been stated, it probably has to do with the tone or the content of the message.

Yes, this Leo batch seems to be quite good. There's the Newton/Leandre, A Few Incidences by Simon Nabatov Octet (with Minton, Gratkowski, Fuhler, Wogram, Reijseger, Matt Penman, and Michael Sarin) and also Anthony Braxton Quintet's London 2004, Royal Festival Hall set, which - though I would have given it a pass - I remember some people raved about.

I also like this better (and it's one of the better things I've heard this year, as well as being one of the better efforts I've heard from any small energy jazz ensemble for a while) than either Feet Music and Boom Boom - they are good, too, if a little uneven; perhaps the band was getting better around the time Nuclear Assembly Hall was released. People are sick or hearing this, I think, but I was there for the Kongsberg part of this set and remember being quite impressed by the long bop tune, on disc 3, where all they do is trade (I haven't seen many good clarinet players live by Ljungkvist takes his place near the top, though certainly below Michael Moore). Also, the band (at least Paal) thought they were at the top of their games during the gigs on this set, well at least during the Kongsberg gig.

I'm far from being an expert on Mulligan but I am fairly familiar with "Two of a Mind" and fully agree with Paul.

Thanks, Marcus. Here's another I'm willing to give away, Thelonious Monk - In Italy (Riverside/OJC) - 21 April 1961 Milan concert, with Rouse, Ore, and Dunlop. Remastered in 1990 by Phil De Lancie. I was surprised to see that the disc is abundantly scratched, but I do not remember any playback problems from the last time I listened to it. I will mail this without the jewel case.

I just ordered the Farmer/Golson set from amazon.de, and really would have ordered the Basie set if I wasn't in so dire a shape financially. Thanks for bringing the sales to attention.

You tell them, Brownie.

That was Joelle Leandre and here is one of Joe McPhee.

Some pictures taken at Jazz a Mulhouse. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Lars Jonsson. I had already posted these two on jazzcorner but still for those who do not frequent there (and I believe I can post larger files here).

Last day of Jazz a Mulhouse, 27 August, Saturday - I skipped the Olivier Benoit ensemble and Xavier Charles solo sets (we arrived too early for the Charles anyway and I skipped the Benoit to do some [more] browsing and buying). Now it's been some while since I attended these concerts and my memory's spotty to start with; you have been warned. Mats Gustafsson solo - The day's noon concert at Chappel St. Jean. Mats had with him the baritone, flutephone, and the slide saxophone. He dedicated a piece each to Alvin Curran and Per Henrik Wallin. The latter piece, iirc, was just about the best piece. I think he played for about 45 minutes followed by a (much demanded, though not by me I should say) encore. It had its highs and lows but he worked with not an especially wide pallette that day and so I had had enough just about the half an hour mark. I agree(d) with a friend that the way he plays, his strengths are probably better utilized in a group setting (how and in what way, precisely, I would rather leave out now as I'm working on keeping it short, bay-bee's). Trio Chemirani - Three percussionists, father and sons. All Iranian but, at least the sons, reside in France. They played a number of intricately put together pieces, all of which also left plenty of space for solos and call-and-response's. I think all the instruments were Iranian percussion instruments of one kind or another, though most looked very familiar to me, from Turkey. The older son, in proportion with his skills, was given the most solo space. Had a great time for the first 25-30 minutes but then thought, yet again, that all of it was too much for me - perhaps a factor of the novelty, considered in the context of this festival, wearing down. Might watch them again, would not even consider getting the album(s). Sten Sandell Trio - The whole set was full of highlights and was itself the highlight of the festival, along with Les Diaboliques, for me. It had been some time since I'd heard a band with so much drive and momentum. The contributions of each, as well as the interplay, was extraordinary. Also worth noting is that Johan Berthling took quite a hand that day in shaping the music and it was also nice that we could hear him through the clutter-chaos Nilssen-Love was igniting. Easily better, really, than Flat Iron (on Sofa), their only disc that I have. The good news, then, is that I think they have a new disc out in a year, of a recent live performance. Max Nagl Big Four - Max Nagl on alto sax, Noel Akchote on guitar, Brad Jones on bass, and Steve Bernstein on trumpet. Max Nagl is, without a doubt, the least charismatic band-leader I have ever seen. Actually it's difficult to imagine that anyone could top (cut?) him. The music was low key, intended I believe, but uneventful. The nice bits were sporadic and the audience was unenthusiastic, which you could not really blame them as Nagl's attire on stage could hardly excite anyone. Bernstein tried to get some chatter going on in between the tunes but with little success, still credit to him for trying. And here, I might add, it was needed, as, again, the music rather snoozing. Thermal & Tony Buck - Thermal is John Butcher, Andy Moor, and Thomas Lehn. This was quite loud for me and I could not hear Butcher at all (apart from a solo introduction to one of the pieces). We left after about 20 minutes. Perhaps the music was better than I thought at the time but we might just have been burned out and I really wanted to hear Butcher play (or at least make out his contributions to the music, which if audible at all, I could not). Tomorrow and the day after, I will post some pictures from the festival, taken by a friend. Until next year, then. By the way, I just returned from a week long stay in Stockholm. Lovely city, amazing weather and music on five nights, I think. Most of it very satisfactory. More on these soon.

I'm in Turkey, have been for more than a week now, travelling with only intermittent convenient access to the net. Was supposed to rest some here and read and listen a whole lot, turned out I had to attend to quite a number of issues so could not even do those, oh well. Good news is that courtesy of a friend, I will go to Stockholm next week to catch two nights by The Electrics, two by the Sten Sandell trio - joined on one by Magnus Broo, trumpet player in Atomic, and a gig each, I understand, by a Martin Kuchen project and John Tilbury. I think Atomic and Sandell will be at the Glenn Miller Cafe. Nice!

26 August, Friday - Now, this time I will to sum up the proceedings in a few sentences, firm resolve, bay-bee. Indeed I will, but here's the trick - I attended to fewer concerts today. Skipped the Tony Buck, as I'd already mentioned, as well as the Olivier Benoit ensemble concert (which my girlfriend watched and told me was interesting and quite bearable, in her opinion, as she really did not get much out of his solo set and had skipped the Benoit/Agnel duo). Also, I had made up my mind earlier to skip Wiwili Williamsburg Sonatas (Gebbia/Pupillo/L. Ligeti) - So Pupillo is the bass player for Zu, I understand, and Ligeti I had not heard before. For some reason I thought it was the Zen Widow band, with M. Goodheart and G. Powell and was quite excited at the prospect of seeing them live (as I did enjoy the long pieces on the disc). Anyway, the concert was just a wee bit short of a train crash. Nothing much was happening, perhaps partly because Gebbia was not happy with the sound for the first quarter of an hour or so. I will try to steer clear of further semi-improv sets with Pupillo and as mighty fine as he might be otherwise (or perhaps with bands he leads or when he composes), Lukas Ligeti is really not my kind of drummer - looks, and sounds, like whatever he plays he plays with a great deal of effort and with little attention to dynamics. Gebbia was interesting at times but but what he did, and the few times the group did gel, were certainly not enough to leave any kind of favorable impression on me. I did meet Gebbia afterwards and we had a nice chat, very friendly and open to talk with (and also told him that this particular band wasn't my thing and I was expecting, or still hope to, see the Zen Widow band). Les Diaboliques - This is one of those acts/bands you really have to see live to fully appreciate (or at least form a valid opinion of). Not everything worked, sure, but overall I think it appealed to a broad range of the audience and I sure walked out very satisfied and with a smile on my face. All of their albums are now on my to-get list, opinions about the relative merits of each are welcome, by the way. Just to nit pick, I found Schweizer the least creative of the three, this particular night, Leandre did get into a number of "No, this is where we will go" routines, playing against the other two but in general I was very impressed with her, and particularly Nichols's, contributions. Barry Guy New Orchestra - Quite a let down, not that I was all that impressed with the Oort-Entropy on disc either, mind you. It felt like sitting through not particularly interesting ensemble sections to get to the next solo, which were hit-and-miss. The first time I've seen Evan Parker live, so I have that to be thankful for. Barry Guy as bass player/musician was pretty good, however. Done (how many words was that, then?). Oh yes, I figured out (actually just asked Philippe, who runs ImproJazz) that we could pay by cheques and grabbed a bunch of discs. Don't have them handy here, will post the list later.

I would highly recommend both Blue Decco and Sustain, by Mat Maneri (with William Parker, Craig Taborn, and Gerald Cleaver). Joe McPhee guests on Sustain, and plays on all, I think, of the tracks, apart from the solos, one a piece, by Taborn, Parker, and Maneri. Then there is Painter's Spring (with Daniel Carter and Hamid Drake) and Scrapbook (with Billy Band and Hamind Drake) by William Parker. I think they're both well worth hearing. Scrapbook is more upbeat, overall, and easier to get into. I prefer Painter's Spring. I have all the Spring Heel Jack discs but it's been a while since I listened to them with a critical ear. Anyway, I think I'd go with either Amassed or Masses before Live. Oh, and let us (me) not forget Tim Berne's albums. I have Craig Taborn's Junk Magic, but not the earlier Light Made Lighter, and it's fun and would satisfy you, I think, if you do not have what a favorite poster of mine calls "cutting-edge anxiety." It's a fun program and I'm happy to have it, though I seldom return to it. I have not heard much else, I think. In general, I'm much less interested in what Shipp has going with might be called cross-fertilization. But yes, I am happy, of course, for the existence of the label and the Blue Series, of which some of these albums are a part. edit: I just listened to Scrapbook and though fine, as is Junk Magic - in a very different way, it's not one that I would recommend, really, just to make that clear.

Alfred - I stopped by the Virgin on Champs-Elysees, in Paris, and they already had this for sale (and it was not labelled an import), so it might be out earlier there as well.

More Sunnysides (though a shame that I cannot download them).

One that has not been mentioned: Frank Lowe "The Flam" (Black Saint), recorded in 1975, I believe.

I thought Anything Goes was ok, I was satisfied with the performance of about half of the tunes and the rest seemed run-of-the-mill, which would have been ok to see in concert but not strong enough on the record for me to return to repeatedly. I hope Day is Done is better.

Seeing that three days to write about I will try to keep my comments short (as believe me that writing these does not come naturally at all not to mention that I haven't the talent): 25 August, Thursday - Hoping for a better day we got up had breakfast and headed to Chappelle St-Jean. Paul Dunmall Bagpipes solo - The noon solo set. I think he played 3 or 4 different kinds and took the time between pieces for a one-line information on the region of origin for each bagpipe. Not that I remember any of the infomration but I do remember what I would call the curiosity bagpipes, way smaller than the rest with a sound not unlike the sound of old (and new?) Casios. The piece on these bagpipes itself was not more than a curiosity as this particular timbre, apparently, failed to inspire much melodic or otherwise variation from Dunmall (maybe these are particularly diffiult to play, I do not know). The pieces on the other bagpipes I can summarize as being close in structure to circular breated soprano sax pieces utilizing a number of pedal points and other contrapuntal devices to keep going on and on. I enjoyed about half of this concert and the rest was ok - not particularly inspired or interesting. Outside the chappele were Dunmall's solo bagpipe dscs for sale. I did not feel like picking any up. So we had lunch and ventured into the local Fnac. I scanned the shelves obsessively and walked out with a 9 euro cut-out copy of Sylvie Courvoisier's Abaton (ECM, two disc set with Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander, a disc of compositions and another's worth of improvisations). Tilbol (Pascal Maupeu on guitar, Hugues Vincent on cello, Colin Neveux on drums) - It seemed to me, after the concert was over, that their heart is close® to rock. Which there is nothing wrong with, just an observation. But I cannot say I liked this much - the first couple of pieces raised my hopes but the rest was nothing noteworthy (especially when you see 20 or so concerts in 4 days). I think I would have enjoyed the concert more had they played more of their composed pieces. Oh, and yes, hearing the cello when the guitarist was playing, as you might imagine, was quite a task and bothered me. Sophie Agnel/Olivier Benoit duo - One continuous piece - a little over 45 minutes, I think. The total time I looked at the stage was at most 10 minutes. Good concert. Though I think I enjoy such interaction when either (1) it is quicker or (2) less transparent. Here I could predict a lot of what was to come and so the build up to that was not interesting (and the build up itself was mostly not interesting, so the changes to the overall "pace" were interesting but what was in between I was not taken with as much. Peter Brotzmann/Joe McPhee duo - After the concert, my Swedish friend confirmed with McPhee that as far as he, the latter, could remember this was the first time he played clarinet in public. Brotzmann was much less disruptive than I was expecting him to be and as a result this ended up (somewhat to my surprise I must admit) being one of the better sets of the festival. They did play, I think finished with, Master of a Small House, Brotzmann's dedication to Fred Hopkins. McPhee was particularly successful in dealing with Brotzmann's frentic forays on his saxes (played alto and tenor, iirc) on his pocket trumpet. It was good to hear them and I would go again. Ochs/Masaoka/Lee (Fly, Fly, Fly) - The last concert of the evening. I was quite tired at this point and might have dozed off now and then during this concert. Yet, I remember well that it was another highlight of the festival and I actually almost preferred the parts where Ochs was not playing at all (he did not play much anyway, and when he did it sounded like it was mostly to steer the compositions/improvisations to a particular direction and then step back). Playing, execution, wise very much a trio of equals. The music itself rarely got loud or overtly animated but it sure hung together very well and contained numerous passages of (evocative) beauty. I would have bought their disc, with the cello player from Kronos instead of Peggy Lee, were there not many discs on offer I had waited quite some time to buy. What I am (was) skipping over is the Ernst Reijseger Ensemble. They were on right after Tilbol, as a free concert. Let me see, I think there were 2 double basses, 12 cellos, and a violin in the ensemble. They all had music in front of them and apparently Ernst had precomposed (or written down, I think at least one was a Misha melody) many short phrases for them and basically went around (the ensemble was seated in a semi-circle and Ernst was moving all the time) and got different parts of the ensemble playing different phrases. Most of it was simple very melodic and enjoyable music (to listen to and a similarly fun performance to watch). There was everything from swing to straight time romps to delicate waltzes, upbeat melodies to a faux contemporary classical string music passage. I should have taken notes as this was a highly eventful concert. Good job (the ensemble was mostly local, young, musicians or students). What did I buy - I think I bought Jenssen/Glerum/Jenssen's Lighter (Geestgronden) and All Eears' Foamy Wife Hum/Line (double disc set on Bik Bent Braam, All Ears is Michiel Braam, Frank Gratkowski, Herb Robertson, Franz Vermeerssen, Wilbert de Joode, and Michael Vatcher) today. What was that about trying to keep it short, again?

Jazz a Mulhouse - 5 days, 30 concerts, and an a festival pass for only 75 euros. Well actually, the pass only buys you the 15 concerts, 3 evening concerts, starting at 9.00pm per day - the noon and afternoon concerts are free. Last year was the first time I'd ever been to this festival and I was satisfied enough to go this year again. I can already tell you that I will do my best to be there next year as well. 24 August, Wednesday - Since I was to defend my dissertation proposal on the afternoon of the 23rd, we could only get on our way on the morning of the 24th, thus missing Le Quan Ninh's solo noon set. This year we stayed at Mercure, the same hotel the musicians stay at. More importantly the festival shuttle leaves from and returns to right in front of the hotel. Anyway we arrive at around 2pm and are down at 5.10 for the shuttle, scheduled to leave at 5.30 (if you ever attend a concert/festival with me, you probably will vow never to do so again unless you're as worried about missing shuttles and not securing front-row seating as I am). Ernst Reijseger solo - Ernst's approach to playing solo, at least in this instance as well as on his disc Colla Parte, is playing pieces, i.e., tunes. Almost always, he builds these around preset melodies and the familiar structure of head-solo-head, though this is usually interpreted broadly to suit his whim as melody-solo-melody format with expanded or contracted parts of solos inserted - at time in a call-response fashion, no longer than 4 bars, at others playing until he has run out of ideas, basically, and returns to the melody to buy time. Here, he played 3 pieces from his solo album on Winter & Winter and a Misha tune - which I remember either from that album or one of Misha's solo albums. About 30 minutes, he starts to run out of fuel. But he has his bag of tricks, of course - percussion solos on the cello, cello as guitar, and walking around while playing an arco arpeggios (entertainment value innit), to name a few. He went through all of these which helped him provide a fun but unexceptional 45 minute set. I think Ernst has very good taste and is a very good and able musician yet at times plays as if he cannot be bothered to think hard and create and vary what he's doing. Nevertheless, it was a good concert but I would have liked to hear him play and make music rather than cycling through his bag of tricks - for this I think he's better when playing in well-matched ensembles, such as those of Hemingway or Clusone 3. Olivier Benoit solo - Olivier sent some people for the doors though judging from the applause that followed the conclusion of his set (one piece, around 45 minutes) it was well-liked. I'm not going to try and describe the music but it is way closer to eai, if not, than to free/avant-garde jazz. There were interesting and nicely cohering passages here and there but the duo set the following day with Sophie Agnel was easily better - had most of the good qualities of his set with half the wandering, I thought. It's good to see him play, certainly, but (as with the duo set) I actually found out that I would enjoy, or could at least follow and judge, the music better when I was not actually looking at the stage - as then I would also direct some of my attention to try to figure out how he's generating the sounds and what pedals he's using and so on. Barry Guy/Bruno Chevillon duo - First time I saw Barry Guy live. Monster bassist (and musician as I had already concluded from hearing many albums he's played part in) - and I really like his tone. I did not enjoy this set much. If I remember correctly, they went on for the entire duration (or max stopped once, so two pieces) and this I think was quite to the detriment of the music as I thought there were quite a few dead-ends, or non-happening bits, which they forced for way too long. This was mostly Chevillon's making as he, apparently, cannot bring himself to stop playing. So just as I thought, and judging from what he played and his gestures Guy too, that they were about to, and should, conclude a piece Chevillon would try to get them going again - and this mostly resulted in Guy's reacting with a similar passage, which did not make the music any more interesting. Anyway, I'm happy I saw them but I could have done with 30 minutes of this. Le Grand Huit - was Herb Robertson, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Itaru Oki on trumpets, Johannes Bauer, Conny Bauer on trombones, Per Ake Holmlander on tuba, and Edward Perraud and Raymond Strid on drumkits. Now this concert went way downhill after the initial 15 minutes or so as pretty much all that happened afterwards was rotating duos highlighting two members of the ensemble - where the rest either did nothing or tried to come up with some backing riffs to spice up the proceedings, with not much success. I do not know whether they had rehearsed much but since there was no leader, they are a collective you know, I did not see the point of putting them together in this fashion as, again, it was not collective music making in any sense. One more thing, I was very bothered by Edward Perraud's contributions - he's obviously a resourceful percussionist, he could match and imitate the sounds emanating from any of the instruments, the problem being, as you might guess, that he did little else and he hardly ever stopped playing. Koch/Schutz/Studer - We had listened to Life-Tied a few days before leaving for the festival and had high-hopes for this set. So it might be because we had stepped off a 4.5 hour train ride and sat through 4 concerts already, i.e., we were tired, but I do not have much good to say about this concert either. I will just say that, seeing them live, I do not believe that either Schutz or Studer, are near Koch's level as a musician or as instrumentalists. So I think it was after the Benoit set that I ran into a friend from Sweden (who was there with his German friend, and I had met them both, courtesy of likewise [jazzcorner poster], at Perspectives 2004). The only disc I bought the first day was Wright/Nakatani/Doneda's From Between (SOS Editions). This was before I had discovered that you could pay by cheque. Anyway, at the end of the day I was not in the high spirits I was expecting to be. In fact, I had found the music, overall, to be quite uneventful. I started chatting to my girlfriend about how perhaps I could have made a better choice and opted for another festival and so on. Anyway, you do know now that I felt differently by the end of the festival, reports of the concerts of the following three days to come soon (the highlight, again, being the Sten Sandell Trio, followed by Les Diaboliques, Ochs/Masaoka/Lee, followed by Brotzmann/McPhee, I guess).

Yes, well, I had seen a friend from Sweden there who takes and took lots of pictures in each concert, with a tripod and was going wait for a week or so so that he could sift through and send me the better pictures. Anyway, I guess I can always post those later along with (even) more comments on the concerts. I will get to work tonight. Meanwhile, for those who have heard the band's earlier output, I've been listening to disc 1 of Atomic's The Bikini Tapes (3 disc set of live material on Jazzland, recorded mostly last year, iirc, and quite a part of which comes from a concert I attended in last year's Kongsberg Jazz Festival) and overall, I enjoy it more than either of their earlier (studio) albums. Ljungkvist, in particular, and Broo - neither of whom I'd really been fond of in this context - acquit themselves very well.

Yes, I also forgot about The Water is Wide, quite a good album overall with 4-5 amazing tracks. Mehldau's contributions are very strong, his (well everybody's actually) solos on those first couple of tracks are themselves worth the money, I think.

I would get, in order of preference, Art of the Trio 4, Art of the Trio 1, Largo, and Anything Goes. Though I'm only certain about putting Art of the Trio 4 first. If you can find the other volumes, I would go for Art of the Trio 3 and 2 before anything else (and, actually, I would think those two would suffice unless yuo become a big fan).