Leeway

Great to hear we have another Matt Shipp fan. Let me suggest (you may have it) one of his great classic albums, "The Multiplication Table" on Hatology with William Parker and Susie Ibarra. And Matt just being brilliant by himself on "Piano Sutras." I like "The Root of Things" too, as it gives an accurate picture of what his trio with Bisio and Dickey sound like today.

Spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in New York City to take in part of Tim Berne’s Residency at The Stone, in celebration of his 60th birthday (October 16). There’s an old joke of the stuffy academic variety that circulates among English majors. It’s the story of one such student who took a speed-reading course and decided to read Milton’s “Paradise Lost” after completing the course. Asked by his professor what he remembered of this epic poem, the student responded, “A blinding flash of light.” In similar vein, my three nights and six sets of music seem to have resolved themselves into an enormous “THWACK” from Tyshawn Sorey’s drumstick. No wireless available on this trip so could not provide daily updates (aawww), so I’ll give you what I can recall beyond THWACK. Thursday night, 10/9, was scheduled as Snakoil (1st set) and Electric Snakeoil (2nd set), but in the event, both sets were given over to Electric Snakeoil, which consists of Berne, Oscar Noriega (saxes), Matt Mitchell (piano), Ches Smith (d), and Ryan Ferreira (electric guitar). IIRC, Mitchell was using an M-Audio AxiomPro (maybe alternately with the house piano). Matt said the AxiomPro is a controller (attached to a laptop) and not an actual keyboard. You can check it out here if interested in gear. http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Axiom-Pro-61-HyperControl/dp/B001TE68OS The device gave a 70’s type vibe. I kept thinking of one of Sun Ra’s electric pianos/synths. Ryan Ferreira was new to me, but his role is rather critical in Electric Snakeoil. At least during this Residency, Ferreira played mostly as a colorist, filling the interstices of the band, like an inky background to a boldly figurative portrait. It worked quite well, and I’m looking forward to this group recording. The 1st set seemed a bit sluggish. In the 2nd set, Ches kicked into high gear, and the band muscled through the set—exciting and full of interesting music. I was anticipating Friday night the way some people anticipate Kahoutek’s Comet, because Ice Station Zebra was on the bill. ISZ consists of Berne, David Torn (electric guitar), Matt Mitchell (electric piano/controller), and Ches Smith and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. It was a rare opportunity to hear Torn live, and he would normally be the center of attention, but within the first minute Tyshawn took the controls in his hands, and for the next twenty or thirty minutes he and Ches flew this set like F-16 pilots ripping off multi-G-force climbs. Totally exhilarating! People in the band were smiling and shaking their heads; everyone in the room seemed to be having a good time. Things slowed in the middle, which gave an opportunity for Torn to display the engrossing soundscapes from his electric guitar. Tyshawn stuck to his drum kit, while Ches played drums as well as vibes and congas. The band sounded good. The music was interesting. Getting within site of the end of the set, Tyshawn applied the throttle again and the band was off on another Mach 1 run. Ever drive a Lamborghini Countach down the autostrada at full tilt? Me neither, but I now suspect what it must feel like. Could the 2nd set be as good? That would be asking the impossible, but we got as close to that as humanly possible. This time it started “moderato” which again allowed Torn and the rest of the band to serve up various, interesting textures and soundscapes. Good stuff. I guess Tyshawn decided it was time to fly again, and the band responded with alacrity. I’ll say here that Tim was playing his guts out in every set, total all-in on the music. The music from Thursday and Saturday nights was mostly composed; Friday night’s music was fully and inspiredly improvised. I liked the fact that Ches and Tyshawn did not get locked into some dreary drum battles; they played within the band and in tandem with each other. But the hammer belonged to Tyshawn. An amazing two plus hours of powerful, driving, inspired music-making. Saturday was a quieter affair. The first set was Decay, with Berne, Michael Formanek on bass, Ryan Ferreira on guitar, and Ches Smith on drums, vibes, congas. I have to say I really dug this group. You could hear Ferreira spinning out musical colors and textures, beautiful and intriguing. The compositions were relatively short; I think there were 4 or 5 in the set. I would love to hear this group get recorded. Immediately at the close of the set, Tim’s wife presented Tim with a birthday cake that seemed to consist of about 100 blazing mini-cupcakes, and the audience sang “Happy Birthday.” I think Tim was pretty well surprised! The cupcakes were delicious; dug the red velvet and chocolate. The 2nd set was Cornered with the same personnel as Decay but with the addition of Matt Mitchell and Oscar Noriega. Perhaps it was a cupcake hangover, but this 2nd set seemed to drag a bit. It was one piece and lasted about 70 minutes. Some good moments but not enough to make it work as a single piece. One thing the Berne residency showed was how he continues to try new approaches, new combinations. One also can observe his commitment to his music. There is no letting down, or softening. BTW, before every set, and even every piece, Tim was dishing out witticisms, self-deprecating jokes, topical humor, sardonic comments, and a lot of the jokes became running jokes through the 3 nights—funny stuff. I was able to squeeze in one more show while I was there, a duo performance by Michael Attias and John Hebert, in an outdoor park on the Lower East Side, just off Houston Street, on a chilly, damp, misty, late Saturday afternoon. With ambulance sirens and taxi horns blaring much of the time, they played a really rather lovely set. Is it too romantic to say that rather than the noise spoiling their set, the music they made somehow made sense of the noise? Well, even if so, it was how I felt listening to them.

If the 2 Giuffres are available i will buy them. Thanks

LIVE AT SLUGS' VOLUME II - Music Inc: Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell, Cecil McBee, Jimmy Hopps - Strate-East

Haven't seen the first one before. Looks like a Greek word - is it one of those long established words that has been imported into present-day techno-speak? I'm sure many people in Britain of my age are familiar with the second, perhaps because we're a bit closer here to the rural past than you are. The closest I got to rural when I was growing up were the marigolds in front of the rowhouse I lived in. . I actually came across stooks in the Coetzee book we were discussing in another thread. I came across chyron in a media column that referred to the scroll at the bottom of the screen as the chyron. I had never heard that before. Apparently it's the name of teh company that came up with the technology. I thought it was the guy who rowed you over to Hades. Jim, I also would just hear it referred to as the crawl. Here are some links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chyron http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/chyron

CHYRON - the text blocks or text scrolls you see at the bottom of a video or TV screen. STOOKS - A stook, also referred to as a shock, is a circular or rounded arrangement of swathes of cut grain stalks placed on the ground in a field.

A fine book, Leeway, which I read some time ago. I recall thinking how visually evocative it was and what a great film could be made of it. The volume has an honoured place on my bookshelf, along with Life & Times of Michael X and, of course, Disgrace. I fully agree with you about the novel being quite visually evocative and should have emphasized that more in my comments. While appreciating that aspect while I was reading, the nature of the allegory and the character of the Magistrate, through whom we see the action of the story, took my attention also. For all the virtue of the latter, I nevertheless found him an ambivalent figure, as I commented.

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (1980) - J.M. Coetzee Life goes on sleepily in this far-flung outpost of the Empire under the benign and just administration of the Magistrate. That is, until Colonel Joll shows up with his security forces and the military to wage war against the Barbarians. Joll initiates a program of torture and killing at the outpost and against the barbarians. Eventually, the Magistrate himself falls victim to Joll. Military campaigns against the barbarians are launched, at first successfully, later catastrophically. A lot of the feeling of Kafka in this tale of an unnamed Empire, at an unchronicled time, with characters we only know by their positions or roles. I think the political allegory is apparent, and maybe more relevant now than even when the book was published. Coetzee writes beautifully. My main complaint about the novel is the character of the Magistrate. Although eminently decent and understanding and imbued with principles of justice and humanism, he yet comes off as a kind of Polonius, talking on --and on. His virtues are quite passive, his politics rather cloudy, his reactions often befuddled, his actions are sometimes simply stupid (at least for someone who runs an outpost). He is as soft as a marshmallow (but as flexible too I suppose), endlessly preoccupied with women and sex and eating well. I suspect a feminist reading of this story would be rather negative. Despite this, the insights of the book are well worth attending to.

That looks like a great way to kick off a marriage I first heard New Orleans' marching bands 35 years ago, when my new wife and I drove down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras then was not quite so rancid an event as it seems to have become. But my fondest memory, aside from catching Zulu's spear, was watching and listening to those bands. Glorious music and spirit.

I have most of the AMM of which I am a huge fan of, especially the stuff with Tilbury and Rowe. I have a few of the others - but not the trios with Tom Chant Fwiw the duo CD with Prevost/Schlippenbach is wonderous Bummer... still looking forward to hearing it, will probably benefit from the slightly lowered expectations (although, having said that, i wasn't expecting a mind blower, but still). I heard the group, it's fantastic. I haven't heard the record, but I expect it to be be just as good. Not just being a fanboy, or if I am, its OK, because it seems justified here. Nothing wrong with being a fanboy, and I like all the artists involved in this group. There are some great tracks, but again, there are some fair to middling as well. It just feels like there's a limited bag of tricks that they play here, whether by design or otherwise. Like they are being challenged and can only give one kind of answer. I was disappointed, given the expectations. I wouldn't be surprised if they kill it live. I was irritated I wasn't at either of the two nights last week. I don't want to leave the impression (if I did) that this is a crash and burn, howling in the night band. Just the opposite really. The band is a quiet, controlled band, very precise, very composed, idiosyncratic; the intensity is there, but it seems to me a controlled intensity. When I first heard them, the thought occurred to me that this group is very much in a Giuffre-like mode. I guess we'll see if that translates to the CD.

He does play actual drums (I'm speaking generally for all four discs), and he pretty much lays into them too. It's really exciting playing, and it seemed a departure from recent AMM stuff. I haven't followed that as closely as you, but it is definitely not the sort of minimalism one associates with later Prevost. There's a lot of bold playing.

Exactly my thought as well. The trio with Prevost and Tibury seems incongruous, but it hopefully would reveal a different side to KV. I like what Prevost has been doing in his "Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists," and his meeting with Yarde, I thought, was pretty engaging. I'm not too shocked therefore that he and Vandermark have hooked up. I'm still making my way to order those sets. BUT a disc with Tilbury is a whole other deal. This is KV with AMM for all intents and purposes. Maybe I'm off base, but I can't imagine this being a good match. I noticed this Twitter feed from Dawid Laskowski: https://twitter.com/MrPilatusP/status/513309690017898496 "Last night Vandermark/Prevost w/ Tilbury was mind-boggling tonite more w/ Guillaume Viltard (@cafe oto). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Maybe Vandermark is the new Lou Gare. I do sense that Prevost is exploring changes in his music, cf the Yarde disc. . Prevost's drumming on these discs is really strong. I'm not too surprised that KV is willing to hook-up with EP and JT.

Exactly my thought as well. The trio with Prevost and Tibury seems incongruous, but it hopefully would reveal a different side to KV. I like what Prevost has been doing in his "Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists," and his meeting with Yarde, I thought, was pretty engaging. I'm not too shocked therefore that he and Vandermark have hooked up.

Bummer... still looking forward to hearing it, will probably benefit from the slightly lowered expectations (although, having said that, i wasn't expecting a mind blower, but still). I heard the group, it's fantastic. I haven't heard the record, but I expect it to be be just as good. Not just being a fanboy, or if I am, its OK, because it seems justified here.

Salchipapas. Turning up on food trucks around here.

I didn't know about ZG's personal life, which seems um, interesting, but from my used book scouting days I discovered a thriving collector's market in two types of Zane Grey titles: the Westerns, but they had to be in original dust jackets (usually pretty colorful), and the real-life hunting and fishing adventures. The latter can bring serious money. I hope the wife got the copyrights.

I guess I'll put my oar in here too. I've been attending IL concerts since 2010, I think shortly after she came over from England. First concert I saw was Paradoxical Frog. I think there were about 9 people in the audience, including someone who kept disrupting the performance. I've discussed it elsewhere so won't go into it again. But her playing hooked me then and there. Probably have seen her a couple of dozen times since then. I like her soprano playing, but I like her tenor even more. I think she is slightly superior on the latter. I don't see any comparison between her playing and that of Malaby, in the sense that they are not at all similar. They each have their own different language. I would push back a little that somehow IL is a product of the players around her, including Rainey. Every player benefits from their cohort and their contemporaries, but IL's talent and ambition are her own, and she has led her development. I think she has benefited from playing with Rainey, but then I think Rainey has benefited from playing with her. Rainey himself seems to have entered a renascence. I've been toying with the idea that IL is a lot like Mary Halvorson. Both are immensely talented, have technical proficiency, and really fluid and complex musical languages that yet are pleasing to listen to. Usually going to one or two of their concerts converts most people to fans. The Relative Pitch duo album with Rainey comes closest to capturing how she sounds in concert.

BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT INTO HELL (1971) - Doris Lessing Lessing called it an "inner-space fiction." It reminded me of DeQuincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater and , rather surprisingly, Anthony Burgess' The Doctor is Sick, although each author's mythopedia is wildly different. I think the influence of R.D. Laing is also apparent, as Lessing seems to agree with Laing that the insights of "madness" might be more useful than the "normal" or conventional mind. Lessing was getting at this in Four Gated City, which is strongly interested in mental illness, treatment of such illness, indeed, whether there is such a thing as mental illness. There is also the underlying belief that people can conduct that inner voyage themselves to free themselves of dull conventions and reflexive thinking. There is some wonderful imagery in this book, some wonderfully-delineated scenes. Lessing expertly draws upon probably half a dozen genres in this book, but it is still a difficult read because there is a lack of dramatic tension for the most part. I suppose being inside one's head is more interesting when it's your own.

I really do like Paradoxical Frog, especially as a starting place, especially the first album (with the green frog). Then either of the Anti-House albums. I also really like the duo album with Rainey on Relative Pitch, "And Other Desert Town." I happen to like sax-drums duos generally, but I find this one so fluid, conversational, and yet full of ideas; might want to give it a try.

Please do check out the video links I posted @3517; a pretty fair representation of what Ches' group is about. Plenty of other live vids from YT also.

Rub it in Maybe they have had to restock it.

Thanks Steve for the vivid description of the concert last night. I like what you said about taking them for what they are, instead of what one wants them to be. It's always the result that matters, not the method. I used to get dismayed when I saw the sheet music and compositions come out, because I like that wailing and roaring also. Perhaps the newest free players, Millenialls, who were not around in the 60s and 70s (at least as players) find composition-based performance to be the direction they want to go. Not all, but a fair number. Some good stuff has come out of that approach. I still prefer free improvisation/free jazz, but composition that leaves a lot of space for improvisation works for me. Even through-composition that retains its energy works, but that is a hard trick. People like Ches are trying ambitious projects that mix improvisation, composition, electronics, and rock are probably the wave of the future.

Mine says "preparing for shipment". Mine still says October 20th . The product page says "ships in 10 to 12 days" but you must have caught the wave. I also have 2 other items which might have slowed it down; I think the Adasiewicz vinyl might be held up.

Thanks Colin, jumped on that. I had been looking at the Kowald, but the list was too high. I could swear there were some resellers selling it at $25 also, but when I went back to check,I didn't see their listings. I added the vinyl "From the Regions" and Ideal Breads "Beating the Teens." I could have got "Beating the Teens" elsewhere cheaper but factoring in the free shipping, only a few dollars less. BTW, I did notice some fairly long lead times on shipping. Earliest estimated shipping for me is Oct. 20. But that's OK.

Lots of clean feed recordings are weak - especially compared to what these musicians can be like live. I kind of have a feeling that live from a few feet away will be anything but weak. I've been waiting a couple of years to see this band live. I never expect a clean feed recording to capture what a band sounds like live. Capricorn Climber is awesome live / the recording is stale. Malaby's Novela is even more incredible than the above band live / the recording is "nice" and maybe a bit exciting at times. Overall nothing more than a three star record. Berne with Malaby plus Mary Halvorsen - with the great Andrea Parkins and Ches Smith on drums?!?!? I'm trying to lower the expectations in my head. We'll Let You Know I liked the first album from Ches Smith & The Arches, "Finally Out of My Hands." Don't have "Hammered," but from what I can glean from YT vids, it doesn't seem like a miss. I found a couple of You Tube vids that are, I think, instructive, and at least give an idea of what we are talking about. Personally, I think the performances are quite fine, some hot moments from Malaby and Berne, and evolving over a 6 month period: http://youtu.be/DHWFSdtAesU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k7o48N15fE