Steve Reynolds

tonight at Roulette in Brooklyn Zosha Warpeha solo on hardanger fiddle followed by Michael Foster with strings Michael’s strings band is incredible including undervalued musicians like Webb Crawford, Rocio Sanchez & the amazing Nava Dunkelman. The wondrous Zosha is also in the ensemble.

This trio was absurdly great tonight. Lordy Lord 9 minute piece followed by two 15 minute pieces ending with a 18-19 minute tour de force. The band stunned itself. Genius level improvisation by three of the greatest musicians on the planet.

Last night: duo with Sandy Ewen on guitar & Weasel Walter on drums trio with the amazing Webb Crawford & the incredible Chuck Roth both on guitar with Weasel Walter on drums Tonight: Darius Jones on alto saxophone, Craig Taborn on grand piano & the *great* Ches Smith on drums

Very sad day Weir as a unique musician. Not a soloist but became by 71-72 a brilliant improvisor playing in between and around two of the greatest improvising musicians who ever lived in Phil Lesh & Jerry Garcia. No one sounded remotely like Bob Weir. over the past 11-12 years I’ve listened to thousands of hours of Grateful Dead music. Manically in some ways. In between and around modern freely improvised music. there were never 3 guitarists together (including Phil’s 4-string electric bass) who played amplified electric improvised music near this level. Without Bob, none of this happened. The long Dark Stars, the open ended 10 to upwards of 30 minute Playing in the Bands, The Other ones, etc.

Nice list love the Sven discs madly gonna check out a few of these I have not heard yet. About to order the AMM plus Sachiko M. I usually far prefer AMM with Keith Rowe. fwiw I just saw Bill Nace with Nava Dunkelman & William Winant last week. Genius. saw Sakina Abdou a couple of times in 2024. big Sandy Ewen fan, I’ll listen to that trio discs. I’ve been listening to her solo recordings from this years southern tour. seeing Ahmed again end of February in Brooklyn 2-3 nights.

Easiest buy of the year:) Just another version of Stone/Water alone is worth the price True peak period for this music & this wide swath of musicians

Was blessed to him in Philadelphia maybe in 1998 or so with our friend Gordon B from the old Jazz Corner/Jazz Central Station in a quartet led by David Murray with the late John Hicks & Andrew Cyrille. RIP, sir

Last night at The Stone Trio M Mark Dresser, Myra Melford & Matt Wilson an hour of playful & often moving compositions. Saw them years ago. Last night exceeded my expectations. Myra peaking madly. Very unique uber melodic sense. Plus to this day, I don’t think people realize how great Mark Dresser is.

Han Bennink & Misha Mengelberg Paul Lytton & Evan Parker

Last night at The Stone Mark Dresser, Izumi Kimora, Earl Howard & Gerry Hemingway 19 minute piece with Earl switching off his synthesizer & silence to some stunning alto saxophone playing, followed by a 27 minute slab of improvised genius starting with Izumi’s grand piano joined by Gerry dueting with her for a few minutes. Earl’s synth was then incorporated magically throughout. Great more subdued 9 minute coda with Howard’s creaky gorgeous saxophone joining Dresser’s stunning intro. Dresser playing his 5 string contrabass / not sure even Joelle has a better *sound* on the bass. Just incredible as always. yeah Hemingway plays like he’s 30 and his sense of dynamics & time is beyond reproach. Wowza.

Fwiw Gerry Hemingway was incredible tonight. Mark Dresser seems to be still amazed at his playing and they’ve been playing together for over 40 years. As per usual I was with 7-8 feet of the master drummer.

Seeing Dresser/Hemingway in about 3 hours:) Randy Peterson with Mat Maneri on viola / numero uno for me. Only thing better was with Papa Joe back in the day Gerald Cleaver with Brandon Lopez on bass /meanest best bass/drum tandem in NYC before Gerald relocated 2 plus years ago Tom Rainey with Tim Berne on alto saxophone /40 years simpatico Nasheet Waits with Sylvie Courvoisier on piano / sounds like it doesn’t make sense but it’s incredible Mike Reed with Jack Wright on saxophones (brand new pairing / saw 3 great shows this past Spring) these are all magical combinations

I’m a fan & a friend of Joey. He’s well under 30. He’s getting better too. He’s very good with his assorted cymbals. Got a bit of Lytton in him. Nasheet for one is never well served on record compared to live. Rainey is another. Hard for their dynamics & sound to shine on record. Ches Smith is another. His astonishing power live in a small room never translates to recordings. Plus as I’ve seen lots of the NYC based drummers up to dozens of times, I get very very spoiled. Certainly Drake, Hemingway, Sanders & Peterson come across better on recordings than the above 3 examples

Not listening to the great drummers of today. Blessed to be seeing Gerry Hemingway tonight at The Stone. It’s actually a golden age for drummers. The older guys like Hemingway, Hamid Drake, Paul Lytton, Han Bennink & Andrew Cyrille still playing at a very high level. the slightly younger drummers than the old dudes like Randy Peterson, Gerald Cleaver, Tom Rainey, Mark Sanders & Steve Noble are incredible. then we have Tyshawn Sorey, Ches Smith, Nasheet Waits, etc. the real gap is we don’t have many under 40 drummers making their mark. Not sure why a few have not emerged as of yet. Especially here in NYC.

RIP, sir