Leeway

They were that good! Sorry, the upload got hung up and I ended up with 3 threads. I've asked the mods to delete 2 of them.

I'm attending the Vision Festival this week in Brooklyn, NY, and thought it might be useful to provide a morning-after update for each night of the Festival (except Sunday, which I will not be able to attend). Anyone else who is attending the Festival, feel free to jump in and provide your observations and comments. I came up a day early in order to catch sets at I-Beam in Brooklyn of two emerging saxophonists who are generating a lot of excitement. The first set was from Keir Neuringer, on alto sax, recorder (the kind you got as a kid but never learned to play) and a bit of wood flute, with Shayne Dulberger on bass, Simone Weisenfels on piano, and Julius Masri on drums, an excellent band. At the risk of falling into hyperbole (OK, I may have already), Neuringer is one of the most extraordinary sax players I have seen in years. He seems to have absolute technical command over his instrument, with bushels of technique. Technique I know doesn't make a saxophonist, or indeed, music, but here Neuringer is able to create a very compelling sonic landscape. In addition, Neuringer's stage presence is somewhat unusual, as he pretty much stays in one spot, but strikes an inventory of Ian Andeson-Jethro Tull like postures, perhaps partly personal habit, partly an effort to squeeze out every bit of sound from the sax. There is only one person I would want to see Keir "matched-up" with (against?) Neuringer and that would be Evan Parker. He's that good. (I remember a duo performance of Evan Parker and Ned Rothenberg that blew the roof off Pyramid Atlantic some years ago. This would probably be even better). Second set was Danish-Norwegian (born in Denmark, living in Norway) alto sax player, Mette Rasmussen, with pianist Craig Taborn. Mette played with assurance and deployed an extensive saxophonic vocabulary, but seemed just as interested in composing a narrative as in demonstrating technique. In what might be a trend, Mette also used a fair amount of movement and body language while playing. (Gustafsson does too, now that I think of it). Taborn, by the way, gave yet another "all-in" performance on piano; he's really quite exciting when given the range. I'm seriously looking forward to seeing Mette again. I think she will be in Philadelphia today and New Haven tomorrow (?). Two really fine and exciting sets. Hope the rest of the week goes this well.

Our Man Friday Daniel Defoe William Dafoe

Worth shelling out for the new CD which tacks on two full sets from another night! Yes, I'll probably go for that one too

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION - Decoy with Joe McPhee -Otoruku LP. McPhee (pocket tp, as), John Edwards (b), Alexander Hawkins (Hammond B-3), Steve Noble (d). Such a strong album, and Hawkins is rockin' the B-3.

PATTERNS - Noah Howard with Earl Freeman, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg, Steve Boston, Jaap Schoonhoven. Hilversum, 1971. Altsax LP . One of my favorites.

Dr. Feickert Commander Riker Senator Lowell Weicker

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter Tempest Storm Gale Sayers

Happy Birthday Bertrand! May all your discographical information be complete and correct

THE TAKEOVER - Muriel Spark -1976 Whether by coincidence or design (I'm betting on design), Muriel Spark constructs a novel that seems to invert the fictional world usually associated with Iris Murdoch: the very rich, and the not so rich who depend upon them; the spirito-mystical physical place in nature where revelatory things take place; invocation of the ancient world; the homosexual crowd with their hipness and elegance; the valuable place of art and specific keystone artworks, the sexual mery-go-rounds, etc. Except in Spark's hands, it becomes the darkest of comedies, a story of a nest of vipers whose time is spent screwing each other, out of moral obligations, or money, or for just plain sex. Literally everyone is a crook, out of either ego, or pleasure, or necessity, or profession. Set in Italy (where Spark lived for many years), it presents an unflattering picture of that fabled boot: dim noblemen and women, corrupted by privilege and money and ease; complicated and harmful laws that prevent any sort of justice being done; predatory crooks (nearly everyone), and general malfunction of the state. Where Murdoch takes these ingredients and typically finds a Platonic arrangement of the Nice and the Good, Spark makes a good Aristotelian story of it out of the Ugly and the Bad. Not a very long novel but twice as long as most Spark's books, there are points where it slowly circles the drains, as outrageous and illicit behavior is heaped upon outrageous and illicit behavior, nearly the whole inventory of vile conduct (and she does remind one of Waugh here). Shorter might have been better. Still, if hou like "vile bodies" and the things that they do, this is an amusing book.

Mad Men Dr. Strangelove Jack Torrance

That's new to me. Looks good. That's new to me. Looks good. It's a nice record but if memory serves correctly it's not the best sounding recording...have not played it in years. It is a good one indeed, and my standards might be low, but it didn't sound bad to me really. Or to put it another way, the sound quality didn't draw my attention away from the music-making.

KAZUKO SHIRAISHI: DEDICATED TO THE LATE JOHN COLTRANE - Miraishi (voice, jazz poetry), Sam Rivers, (sax, fl, p, perc), Andrei Strobert (perc), Buster Williams (b), Abdul Wadud (cello). Musicworks LP. Quite the Beat performance (in Japanese), with some nice musical backing by Rivers and company. Don't know if this was issued with a lyric sheet, but if so, I don't have it. Might need to scout out Shiraishi's "Sacred Lust" book of poems.

I'm really looking forward to the Echo Echo Mirror House multi-CD release. I loved the previous release, thought it was one of the best of the year.

SPACE AURA - Sun Ra and his Band from Outer Space - Art Yard 10"

Larry Ochs

Wendy Ronald McDonald Jack (the one in the Box)

Thanks for the link. I love Mats enthusiasm. I'm surprised he leaves anything behind on his shopping trips! I suspect the shop has a good collection of Mats own LPs. I like a shop with character and personality, even if it doesn't quite jibe with my own, or may have the occasional sharp elbow, if it is motivated by a passion for what it does.

THE NEARER THE BONE, THE SWEETER THE MEAT - Peter Brotzmann, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo - Cien Fuegos LP reissue. What a hot group these three made.

Dan Peck Pecksniff Peckerwood

A lot of older people are in the audience because there are a lot of older people in the general population, to with, Baby Boomers. However at least at the free jazz/avant music shows I've been going to, there are many younger people as well. A lot of them are coming over from Alt Rock/Noise/Electronica etc, especially now that people like Thurston Moore and Mats Gustafsson have led the cross-over. The future of this music is in aggressively experimental and avant modes of recording and performing; that creates the necessary energy ("buzz") to bring in new listeners. The most encouraging thing for me to see are the many young musicians going into this area of music. We have an incredible new generation of musicians currently performing (no knock on the veterans!). As long as that is the case, I feel encouraged about the future of the music.

Jules Dassin Jules and Jim JSngrey

Some guys want to know if their girlfriend is "on the pill" and some want to know if she is "on to Pilz." Sorry, couldn't resist. Still working the Ran Blake inventory at Casa Leeway: Owl LP. Pretty interesting. Looking forward to the rest. This is one of my favorite Blake LPs. I'm really puzzling over the liner notes on the back. Are they written by Ran? The left column is pretty straightforward, about Schuller, 3rd Stream and the NE Conservatory of Music. The right column though is perplexing. Were John Simon, Susan Sontag and Amiri Baraka figures that loomed large in Ran's personal landscape? Are the comments meant to be taken seriously? They are really rather inscrutable. It seems the very last paragraph might be intended humorously, but I'm not certain of that. As far as the author of the note goes, this does not seem to be Ran writing, but more likely one of the producers, perhaps JJ Pussiau (indeed the slightly capricious tone suggests a French sensibility). As far as the description of the "storyline", this is typical of Ran's improvising methodology. He often envisions people-- friends, historical figures, people he admires-- in narrative situations and scores the "film" he sees accordingly. So Simon, Sontag, and Baraka do not particularly loom large in Ran's world, they were likely just on his mind at the time. The programs that accompany his performances often have quite detailed and personal dedications. Yes, thanks Colin, for responding to the questions I had about the liners. The idea of a film sensibility in his music is pretty interesting, for example, I have a copy of Film Noir which makes the connection rather explicit.

LIVE IN BOLOGNA - The Cecil Taylor Unit - CT (p), William Parker (b, Carlos Ward (reeds), Leroy Jenkins (vn), Thurman Barker (marimba, d, perc). 2LP Leo Records. 3 Nov 1987. Cecil is marvelous as always, but this time around my attention was caught by Barker's marimba, creating an interesting (festive?) ambience, and Leroy Jenkins' violin, which runs like an electrical current through the performance.