Leeway

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Baines Johnson Barry Lyndon

Maybe that sleep was actually psychotheraputic subliminal hypnotics embedded in the grooves of the LPs...and if so, how do I not know that Mosaic has not transferred them to these CDs? I do not want to end up with yellow drums. That should not be my fate in life, you know what I mean? Look at it this way: with the LPs, you could only get 15-18 minutes of sleep at a time, whereas with the CDs, you could get an uninterrupted 60+ minutes of sleep! Worth it for that alone. It's interesting: I've been to some pretty loud free jazz concerts, and yet any number of people will nod off before the concert is 10 minutes old. It's a pretty regular occurrence. There is one person I could swear goes for the sleep, not the music.

The Edge Slash Soft Machine

Caught a line drive foul off the bat of Frank Thomas back when I lived in the Chicagoland area. Sitting about midway between first base and the foul pole, maybe 10 rows up, in Comiskey Park. That little extra distance took some of the smoke off the ball, but it still stung like a big bumble-bee. Actually, more accurately I stopped it with my hands, it dropped straight down, and bounced back up, so I could grab it again. My son was with me. We're both still rather amazed.

Pig-Pen Ronald C. "Pigpen" McKernan Miss Piggy

Paris Trout Paris Hilton Paris and Helen

One Day Sale @ Arkiv Music: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/listPage.jsp?list_id=3694&page_size=100&page_type=4&site_id=E1240 Looks like some good deals.

Another recent acquisition: 11th STREET FIRE SUITE: For Solo Alto Saxophone with Flute and Small Instrument Accompaniment in Five Movements. Luther Thomas (as, small instruments, recitation), Luther C. Petty (fl, small instruments). Creative Consciousness Records LP. Rec. Sept. 2, 1978. I've always dug the scene around the Human Arts Ensemble, so it was a thrill to pick up this Luther Thomas LP. It's very personal, intimate, and displays the essence of the free jazz sensibility.

Knut Hamsun Knute Rockne Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ..........

I've had occasional problems with "skipping" on some of the No Business issues on some (not all) of my playback options. I had something similar occur on the Heberer LP in one section, more like popping, but that has been my only experience with something like that with the No Business LPs I do have (got to be at least a dozen).

Enoch Powell Enoch Light Enoch Pratt

Hey, I'm practically firing off 21 gun salutes over here over these Roscoe releases! That first disc is just great. I can't imagine anything coming along even at thid early date, where there will not be the most serious contender for record of the year. Unless it happens to be Part 2.

Oddly I've never owned Apple Cores, though Charred Earth is pretty cool. It's the other way around for me - I picked Apple Cores out of the bins at an Atlanta record store when it was new. I read about Charred Earth back in the day, but have never seen a copy. And I like side one of Apple Cores more than Leeway - it's more conventional than you would expect from Murray, but with an edge. And hey - Frank Foster with Sunny Murray! I think "Apple Cores" turns up fairly often around here, but I've never seen "Charred Earth" until last week, when it turned up locally. I like "Charred Earth" because it has that DIY feel that I like in early free jazz. Whereas Side One of "Apple Cores" is a surprisingly polished production. I'm sort of allergic to the conventional, especially in this type of record. Side Two seems quite different. But both are cool records.

Bronn Bram Stoker Stokely Carmichael

APPLE CORES - Sunny Murray & The Untouchable Factor. Philly Jazz LP. A lot more folks involved in this one that Charred Earth, and the production is (relatively) more sophisticated. I like Side 2 rather more, with Monette Sudler, Hamiet Bluiett, Arthur Blythe, Fred Hopkins, Abdul Zahir Batin, Sonny Brown, and Sunny Murray.

Ty Cobb Billy Cobham Bill Cosby

CHARRED EARTH - Sunny Murray & The Untouchable Factor - Sunny Murray, Byard Lancaster, Dave Burrell, Bob Reid. Kharma Records. Recorded January 1, 1977. How about a 9 minute treatment of Miles' "Seven Steps to Heaven"? Rather unexpected

Mr. Chips Sea Biscuit Georgia Crackers

Stroker Ace Butterfly McQueen Louis Freeh

Took in two concerts this weekend at An Die Musik in Baltimore. On Friday night, I went to see the Michael Formanek Quartet. This was a last minute decision, since I don't much care for Formanek. But Ellery Eskelin was playing with the group, and since I hadn't seen him in quite some time, I decided to go to the second (late) show, and at least avoid the notorious DC Beltway traffic slog. The group consisted of Formanek on bass (of course), Jacob Sacks, piano, Dan Weiss, drums, and Eskelin on tenor. Every time I see a Formanek show, which usually look great on paper, I leave muttering I'm not going to waste my time and money on going to another performance. Odd, since Tim Berne is a protege of Formanek, and I am a fan of Berne, so I should be a fan of MF too, right? No. The syllogism does not hold. I call MF's music MOR (middle of the road) free jazz (more often composed). Sonny Simmons said something once at a concert that has stayed with me. He said the music has to be a little bit scary to be good. Formanek's music is as scary as a Sunday school teacher. Anyway, I got there in time to hear the last two pieces of the first set, and they sounded really good! I thought, this time it's going to be different. I looked forward to the 2nd set. With most of the crowd gone, though, it seemed most of the energy of the first set dissipated too. The set became disjointed. I have not previously seen Sacks or Weiss before. Sacks was playing with a splint on his right pinky finger; despite that, I found his approach interesting. What was off-putting was his constant grinning and smiling, like there was an in-joke no one else was getting. Formanek had already introduced Weiss as someone who never failed to crack him up, and this held true, as Weiss and Sacks looked like two school kids trying not to laugh in church, eventually causing Formanek to start laughing too. Too bad the audience wasn't in on the joke. Oh yeah, Eskelin, he played OK, but seemingly detached from whatever the band behind him was doing. He does have a great tone though. I left, muttering, that next time... Back to An Die on Sunday to see the great Dave Burrell, in a trio with David Tamure (tenor sax) and Joe Chonto, drums. Burrell has a new (?) CD out based on Civil War themes (of all things), but he made it work. His playing was just terrific. Tamura I faintly heard of, but not heard. He plays the tenor almost like it is an alto. Chonto was completely new to me. This guy can play LOUD! I mean, there were times when he made Hamid sound like Paul Motion. Plus he had the largest collection of cymbals (about 10) I've seen on a jazz drum kit, including one very long snakelike contraption that hung on a rod that produced a long set of vibrations. But here's the thing: they were all completely tuned in to each other. They knew the music. No charts in front of them (like so many others do now, as if it was a Berklee seminar room), but they knew the music, and improvised forcefully over the basic songs. I saw both sets, some of the pieces were repeated, similar but not the same. Watching Burrell dig into the music was inspirational...even a bit scary.

Marvellous I've wondered about this one . I've had mixed experience of No Business pressings . How's this one? No complaints here. Except the price .... Indeed. No Business vinyl is treat only territory. I have most of the No Business vinyl titles and very much enjoy them, because there is some really excellent music therein. The only fly in the ointment is that I think some are digitally sourced. This is just based on listening to them, nothing specific. Anyone have information on that? I would like to find it that is not correct, but I suspect that the master for the CD and LP versions are a single hi-rez source.

Gradgrind Grendel Grindr

I don't keep very good track of my concert attendance, but I have a good idea of whom I've seen most often. It occurred to me that I would have to say William Parker, even though many of those instances I did not go to see William himself. It's just that he is so ubiquitous on the Downtown scene. Anyway, I've seen Parker, Hamid Drake, Rob Brown, and Matthew Ship at least 15 times each, probably more with Parker. I go to see Peter Brotzmann whenever he comes through NYC or DC/Baltimore, and that so far has been at least a dozen times for me. Ditto Ken Vandermark (even when I am carping about him, I still go see him). Interestingly enough, Nate Wooley is getting into the most attended category as well. I've seen Tim Berne fairly often, but I have had to go to Baltimore, Philly or NYC to do it, as he has only done one DC gig in the last decade or so, and that was just in 2013. Evan Parker-- not so many individual appearances, but attended both of his week long residencies at The Stone in NYC, 2 sets a night. Plus I've caught some additional shows (great when he came to Baltimore!). I'm probably forgetting someone. There are plenty of others I've seen two or three or four times each; that's a different post.

About half the ones on the list made sense to me, but the others I have not even heard of, and I am a confirmed chocoholic. Chicken dinner?! Grenada? Scharffen??? That last must be a ringer. Surely, M&Ms should be on the list. And how about Chunky?

Momofuku Hank Mobley Moby Dick