Steve Reynolds

Rachel Musson is a great tenor saxophonist. Her recordings on matchless with Eddie Prevost are great. Under the Sun is incredible with the *great* N.O. Moore on guitar.

Last week Tony Malaby, Jakob Sacks, John Hebert & Tom Rainey. An hour of continuous music with composed themes & stunning improvisations Tamarindo which is Malaby, Brandon Lopez & Nasheet Waits. Hour freely improvised followed by a 15 minute coda/encore. Very demanding yet rewarding midnight set. seeing these two wildly different extraordinary drummers back to back was a treat. Seeing & hearing the *great* Tony Malaby never gets old. Must be close to a hundred times now over the past 15-17 years. Grand master on tenor & soprano saxophones. Nobody sounds anything like him. Jack Wright on alto & soprano saxophones with Evan Lipson on double bass & Mike Pride on drums. The next night they added Brandon Seabrook on banjo. That 35 minute set top 3-4 sets of the year. Jack Wright at 82 destroying atoms. One of the greatest improvisers on the planet Jonathan Moritz on tenor saxophone with Shayna Dulberger on double bass & Mike Reid on drums. Great set of 3 tunes. Moritz is great. Duo with Daniel Carter & Ayumi Ashito. Wondrous soft improvisations with Carter as always switching from the large array of horns. Flute to trumpet to clarinet to soprano, tenor & alto saxophones.

So sorry I missed it! Fell asleep & ended up at late sets in NYC

Last night Trevor Dunn’s Proofreaders playing the music of Ornette Coleman Trevor on contrabass Darius Jones on alto saxophone Nate Wooley on trumpet Ryan Sawyer on drums tight 50 minute set. Darius & Nate are peaking as always. Stunning working of music that I used to listen to often years ago. Lots of fun. Ryan is a great drummer, fwiw. last Friday Michael Foster, Webb Crawford & Joey Sullivan Michael on tenor & soprano saxes, Webb on guitar & tenor banjo & Joey on drums Maybe the 7th time I’ve seen the trio / best set so far. Intense 30 minute piece/set Webb is incredible. Michael remains to my ears, the best saxophonist in NYC. Endless ideas and intensely quiet or threateningly loud. What a sound. Especially on soprano. Stunning first shows in a few weeks. Went to over 25 in April & May.

I’ll be there on 7/19

The 72-74 band with Fripp, Weston, Cross & Bruford was the best live amplified rock band ever save for The Grateful Dead (68 thru 78). Only rock band that could improvise within & without structures near the level of The Dead.

His most recent recordings are incredible end of life magic Rotations + with Franz Hautzinger & Ignaz Shick / recorded in 2023 Stumps a quintet which includes Joel Grip & Axel Doerner / recorded in 2022 both released in January of this year Two of the most creative & wonderful recordings I’ve newly heard over the past few years RIP to a grand master

Bush Fire Foxes Fox etc RIP to the greatest drummer of the past 40-50 years that I never saw live sounded nothing like any other drummer. Some people here might know I have a thing for drummers of the very wide idiom called free music. peace and blessings

Last Thursday at Solar Myth in Philly Gerry Hemingway, Reggie Workman & Miya Masaoka astounding 75-80 minute set Reggie turns 88 in 2 weeks. Channelled the ancients. Hemingway was brilliant as always. Their use of alternate instruments (especially Workman with bells, tubes & soft breaths) was organic & deeply psychedelic. This is what avant-garde is. 28-30 minute piece followed by a 38-40 minute improvisation. Shortish 6-7 minute encore left some if us stunned. Munificent. deeply moving & life affirming on Friday a great set: Michael Foster with Strings with Nava Dunkelman being even better than the last 2 shows I saw with her. Rocio Sanchez on cello & Jessica Pavone on viola are two new additions to the group & the young virtuoso on cello destroyed atoms. They employ shards from Ellington, Strayhorn & McPhee with freely improvised sections to great effect. Concise 42 minute continuous set.

Saw Tyshawn Sorey, Rudolph & Liebman in 2023. Liebman’s playing was very weak. He was and is very very frail.

Last Thursday night one of the best sets I’ve ever seen. at The Stone at The New School in the Glass Box Theatre: Kochi Makigami on wood flute, vocalizing, cornet & theremin Sana Nagana on violin Ned Rothenberg on alto sax, clarinet & wood flute Tim Dahl on electric bass Ches Smith on drums explosive, dynamic 52-53 minutes. 4 pieces each unique yet connected in some odd way. wowza on a million levels. Fully improvised yet seemed like a suite. the following night was very good with Myk Friedman, Erik Frieadlander & Nava Dunkelman joining Kochi. But after Thursday it paled in comparison. Tim Dahl & Ches Smith are an unstoppable force. And the violinist was a radical voice & Kochi didn’t over do his mind blowing vocal technique which he tended to do last night. as many times as I’ve seen Ches, he continues to astound me. And I’ve probably seen him in various groups about 40-50 times over the years. In some ways like John Henry Bonham. Meant as the highest compliment. It’s also great to be 10 feet from his bass drum. After Phil Lesh, Tim Dahl is the best electric bassist I’ve ever heard. Live in a small room, it’s life changing every time. He’s insane.

Last night at Close Up in NYC two very strong sets from Ingrid Laubrock, Brandon Lopez & Tom Rainey

Same here. Glad they are playing well.

Second set last night with Billy Martin might have been even better. Fred brought out the fire the last 20 minutes. Billy matched his force & energy. Wowza. Fred Frith is a genius on multiple levels. Peaking at 75.

On another level tonight. Nava rules the world. A PLUS set. Incredible. peace and blessings

Last night: Fred Frith with Tom Malmendier on drums astounding 47-48 improvisation tonight: Frith with Nava Dunkelman

Last night Pulverize the Sound Peter Evans, Tim Dahl & Mike Reed short intense 35 minute set worth the silly traffic / they hit it intense & keep the energy up the whole time One time with Mary Halvorson & Tyshawn Sorey he became irrelevant next to those two grand masters. He must think he’s really great to not give Alex space. My god, it’s fucking Alexander von Schlippenbach. Does he not know that Evan Parker lays out? as an aside my wife hated him:) she wasn’t a learned listener but she could listen. She didn’t love saxophone, but she loved Tony Malaby, Darius Jones & Kidd Jordan:) “you got ears, you gotta listen” Don Van Vliet my Barbara had ears:)

My experience with Irabagon is he plays too much. Doesn’t lay out enough. The *great* Alexander von Schlippenbach deserves more space. The saxophonist should have deferred more. Fonda & Altschul are a great pairing. I enjoy them more with a more humble saxophonist.

First show since 4/30 Ned Rothenberg, Sylvie Courvoisier & Nasheet Waits At The Stone last night. Front row center:) 52 minute improv with a 7-8 minute coda/encore Ned does lots of circular breathing but only when he picked up the alto did he really match the incredible energy & force of the great pianist & drummer. He lacks grit & fire but he’s a very good technician on his horns. He never gets to the next level like the great ones. Sylvie as great as I’ve ever seen her & Nasheet is a force of nature. A great listener & a master of sound. He creates grooves that we didn’t know existed. His dynamics are otherworldly. Sylvie is the best improvising pianist in New York.

Don’t miss “Keep the Dream Up” with Joe McPhee, Kirk Knuffke, Michael Bisio & Jay Rosen. Amazing performance & recording. Rosen sounds especially great. one of the best jazz releases of 2023. Magical session.

Among other gigs I saw Tyshawn Sorey in duet with Angelika Niescier last Wednesday at Zurcher Gallery on Bleecker Street. SO great to see all the dedicated listeners, old & new. Especially seeing the wonderful people who treated my wife so great when we went to the shows. Roberta & Richard top the list:) Tyshawn on snare & bass drum w/ 2 cymbals 40 minute set. Maybe the best drumming I’ve ever witnessed. Brought EVERYTHING out of the wonderful alto saxophonist. Brilliant concise focused improvising. also saw an amazing gig with Ada Rave, Chuck Roth, Michael Vatcher, Elisabeth Coudoux, Michael Foster & Sean Ali. duo with Chuck & Elisabeth which was awe inspiring. Quartet with the others which might have been even better. Ada is one of the greatest tenor saxophonists I’ve seen over the past 2-3 years.

Genius on the house’s money for a long time glad he stayed as active as he could until the end Ray Gun Suitcase is the greatest unknown rock record of the last 50 years Final Solution indeed RIP, sir

Tyshawn beyond great. Roscoe played mostly bass sax with small percussion with a little sopranino. His last solo on the bass saxophone was a work of genius. Brought tears to my eyes. 44 minutes with 2 very short encores. A very moving experience for me.

Tyshawn Sorey & Roscoe Mitchell Solar Myth front row 8-9 feet from Roscoe:)

It’s a great room. I was there last Saturday for Nels Cline, Ingrid Laubrock, Chris Lightcap & Tom Rainey this Saturday Tyshawn with Roscoe