Leeway

KISS The Strokes The Stiffs

(I posted this on the What Are You Listening To thread, then decided I should post it here. I felt that a dissenting view has a place in the discussion). Inspired by the Rollins-Cherry thread elsewhere on the Board, decided to give this another listen. I found it more adventurous than most of Rollins work at the time, but it strikes me that Rollins was not very comfortable in the idiom. He always seems to be looking for spots to break into one of his beloved show tunes, and quite a bit of the time he is involved in ornamentation, not free playing. Cherry and Rollins are in the same room, but I'm not sure they are always on the same page. Not much synergy there, but then again, there is not much synergy either on the Coltrane-Cherry album. Rollins tenor always sounds great, but to me Sonny's unease suggests the groundwork for his later, more conventional work.

The New Pornographers Porno for Pyros Spyro Gyro

MJAZZG: I like the team of Frode and PNL. DAVID MURRAY LIVE VOL. 2 - David Murray, Lester Bowie, Fred Hopkins, Phillip Wilson- India Navigation LP.

Midnight Rambler Ramblin Jack Elliott Rambo

I prefer to think of it as cathartic Glad you are liking it.

I`ve a few of these and all sound good to me. Agreed.The 'Strange Strings' is particularly good. Agreed here too. I have a bunch that I bought for $10 each that sound perfectly OK, and I'm very glad to have the titles (and would like to find a few more). Having said that, I think the Art Yard releases are usually superior, but they cost more too.

Scorpio. Thanks Clifford.

ON JUPITER - Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra - Art Yard/KS LP.

Bo Derek Bobo Stenson Boo Radley

Politics aside, looking at the list of previous winners, (Will, Krauthammer, Ailes) all I can say is that "for those who have much, more will be given."

SUN RA AND HIS SOLAR ARKESTRA VISITS PLANET EARTH - Saturn Records (reissue). Anyone know who put out these reissues?

If you have not read it already, you might want to read George Eliot's novel, Daniel Deronda, one of the first novels to try to address teh "Jewish Question" (as it was then called) and the impulse towards Palestine. It's a neglected masterpiece.

I saw Charles Gayle live before I heard any of his CDs. If you can, see him live. Gayle is riveting. Just as day follows night, and Gayle follows Charles, "Fiery" follows Gayle. Dictionary: Fiery: consisting of fire or burning strongly and brightly; having a passionate, quick-tempered nature; having or showing a lot of strong and angry emotion. Charles Gayle is fiery. Like the street minister he is or was, this is fire and brimstone, sin and repentance, the days of judgment compressed into an 8 or 10 or 15 minute songs. This is 20 years of living homeless on the streets (someone spoke of a "cloudy" backstory, this is part of it) expressed through the saxophone, piano or bass (although it is the first and perhaps second of them that pulls me in). This is the spirit of the revival tent. If you want "standards(!)" expressed with nuance and neat turns of phrase, um, might try someone else.

Thanks Uli for posting KV's blog item. I always enjoy reading Ken's accounts of touring, concerts and recording. I feel bad that Vienna (VA) did not come through for Vandermark and colleagues, but those who did show up got a good show (I think KV indicated that). For the record, I was not one of those who headed for the bathroom during Kurzmann's solos. .

Henry Hudson Saint Lawrence The Churchill

DISCO 3000 - SUN RA - Art Yard/Kindred Spirits LP

WHAT'S NEW - Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Sunny Murray - Freedom LP. Lyons is electric on this one, and even occasionally overshadows Cecil.

HELIOCENTRIC WORLDS OF SUN RA - ESP DISK

MING - David Murray Octet- Black Saint. It would have been hard to improve upon this ensemble's personnel.

I think you're right to put your finger on the real issue with Bellow: his obsession with women, often negative, but even when positive somewhat distasteful (his fondness sometimes worse than his enmity). I think this patriarchal attitude has cost him his place in academe. The only Bellow taught in my grad program was "Seize the Day," which I still think is one of his most emotionally powerful. Occasionally, "Herzog" will pop up on a reading list. But "Herzog" and "Mr. Sammler's Planet," also raise the spectre of Bellow's race attitudes, which one could occasionally find at least racially insensitive, if not outright racist. I'm sounding rather PC here, but I just want to point out that if you are not taught at the academic level, your reputation as a writer is likely to decay,even if you do hold a Nobel Prize (no one really cares about that). A lot of the women in my grad program, who are now faculty members, loathed Bellow. I remember reading (twice) when it came out, "Ravelstein," Bellow's fictional account of his friend and philosopher, Allan Bloom (a rather suspect character himself). Maybe the elegiac tone managed to soften Bellow's usual bitterness. I enjoyed this one.

To put Bayley in perspective, try A N Wilson's Iris Murdoch As I Knew Her. Good suggestion. I have already started in on it. I picked up the Wilson book at the same time as the Conradi book, and read the latter first. I'll report back. Finished A.N. Wilson's Iris Murdoch As I Knew Her then had to take a good shower. In his attempts to drag John Bayley (referred to here as JOB) through the mud (not hard to do), ANW also drags Iris Murdoch (IM) through the mud as well, and in the process bespatters himself also. ANW recalls that he was a model schoolboy, but every great once in a while, he would explode in rage and find himself in serious trouble. This book continues that pattern, a work of rage (or at least spleen). It seems to have been tossed off so quickly that the writing itself is all over the place: part diary, part memoir, part other people's memoirs, none of them brought into a uniform whole. The book is loaded with prurient, juicy anecdotes, which admittedly are amusing to read, but leave a bad feeling. One needs to read the Conradi bio first, which is much better but somewhat too dutiful. Then this waspish work can add that intensely personal angle that Conradi steers away from. I am glad to have read both of them, and the Bayley as well (if only to know the worst). The worst thing that JOB and ANW have done, coming at it form opposite sides, is to badly impair IM's status as a writer. Yes, I still think of Bayley as a nasty little man, a proper "rotter."

It's very good. The one on Relative Pitch, "Root of Things"? Yes, indeed.

Louis Pasteur Blaise Pascal Boris Pasternak

One of my luckier finds: NOW'S THE 'FRIPPE' TIME - Bengt "Frippe" Nordstrom (cl, contra bass clarinet, tenor sax, vocal), et al. Dragon LP. Important and influential swedish jazz saxophonist, also friend to Albert Ayler. and: BENGT - Mats Gustafsson (solo). Utech Records. Homage to Bengt "Frippe" Nordstrom. Mats on Grafton alto sax. LP on lovely creamy white vinyl (yes, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing; a little eye candy is not a bad thing). Mats was nice enough to sign my copy. I miss The Thing!