Steve Reynolds

Can - Waiting for the Streetcar - from 'The Lost Tapes' Malcolm Mooney irritatingly genius like

Bev - do you know who is in the John Law Trio? I havn't heard his name much over the past many years and he remains one of the my favorite pianists.

2013; The Stone NYC THE STONE RESIDENCIES EVAN PARKER SEPT 17—22

no responses from NYC folks - last gasp for common sense for those locals who have never heard this band.....

Can's 'Waiting for the Streetcar' from the recently issued Lost Tapes Malcolm Moooney at his insane best ranting for almost the whole 10 minutes with a groove that is right up there with Can's best.

I think it was 1996 or 1997 in the winter time and I was attending the Housewares show in Chicago and maybe that was the year I was able to see Eight Bold Souls at Hot House but there was one guy besides Fred Anderson that I was determined to see live when I visited Chicago and that was Von Freeman... well I think it was at The Apartment and I know the pianist was John Young and I know they had a singer for later in the set. I remember him warming up and not hearing too much and *then* when they started I remember the SOUND, the SOUND of a guy who plays the damn tenor saxophone his whole life and nothing ever mattered more than playing the tenor saxophone. We know it when we hear it. and then all I remember is that the first tune was a mid tempo bles thing and I remember the SOUND live when he started to HIT it and I remember he blew my mind for about 15 minutes straight up and that's all I remember as knew I heard a giant of the tenor saxophone and I was blessed to be within 10 feet of the bell of his horn. as Uli will surely post on the other board if he is up to it..... RIP Sir!

Saturday, Sep 08 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM TONY MALABY PALOMA TRIO Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone; Ben Monder, guitar; Nasheet Waits, drums yeah baby

my comments regarding this band from last DEC 10th are somewhere here, there and/or everywhere..... that being said, the band is pretty damn great with the highlight possibly being something really special that happens with the guitar of Brandon Seabrook and the piano of the *great* Cooper-Moore Saturday, Aug 18 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM GERALD CLEAVER & BLACK HOST Gerald Cleaver, drums; Darius Jones, alto saxophone; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Cooper-Moore, piano & diddly-bow; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass please someone who can fix Gerald Cleaver's first name....

I do realize he is quite the listener as I have much of what is on his wonderful blog site or whatever one might call it... but I *still* wonder if he has listened to Bennink/Misha's Monk Maybe I would be curious to hear what he thinks

havn't been and don't intend to unless there is a change of leadership but I don love the sound @ The Jazz Standard and especially The Village Vanguard however, there is NOTHING that compares to a real small venue when the only thing that is amplified is the bass and piano - my favorite spots being The Stone in the cooler months and my favorite spot, Cornelia Street Cafe 5 feet from the band - nothing like Tony Malaby's tenor from up close and personal and Tom Rainey or Nasheet Waits or Gerry Hemingway 8 feet from the bass drum. No sound system can replicate that.

I had an old CD of that band and I remember liking it....

I loved the interview except maybe fascinated yet taken aback regarding the open discussion of other's drug usage/abuse, etc. I do *hear* some of the arrogance that fasstrack mentions and it seems he does a very high opinion of his own music - music which I have little familiarity with - although I did see him in a small venue perform Mingus music with a fine quintet (Berne, Bynum, Hebert and Ches Smith) and alas, the material selection (3 latish ballds like Duke Ellington's Sound of Love) seemed to mirror Hersch's playing - a bit safe, very correct and very well done. maybe too well done....certainly less exciting than I expected, maybe both him and the band. what I also do seem to hear is an interesting fascination that Fred had/has with the history of the music/piano/recordings - some of the same things that Tim Berne expressed in Ethan's fine interview with Mr. Berne. my wish is that more listeners and musicians had the same interest in the recordings of people like Berne, Hersch and the many others and what they have recorded over the past 20-30 years - it still seems that the *great* classics tower over everything else in mnay people's minds... too bad, I think still... Coming Down the Mountain

You beat the under - I thought it might take you to the end of the day to comment, Pete

fun to read the review except the silly comment: "Italy has yet to produce a more accomplished jazz musician than the trumpeter Enrico Rava" says who? Says Nate Chinen based on what? I am not saying they are greater but who is to say that Gianluigi Trovesi, Pino Minafra or Carlo Actis Dato are not more accomplished that Mr. Rava? methinks especially Trovesi and Minafra are two of the greatest jazz musicians/musicians/composers of their generation regardless of where they are from - and certainly a comment like this regarding Rava downplays all the Italian Jazz/folk music that has been made and is being made up through today. In fact to make a comment like that shows a certain amount of ignorance and buys into the idea of who is more well known must be more accomplished. Around Small Fairy Tales, baby

there are a couple of tracks with prime later Joe Henderson on these 2 terrific albums: Mal Waldron - Soul Eyes 1997 with appearances by Abbey Lincoln and Jeanne Lee but most importantly all with the great trio of Mal, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille. One of the great Waldron recordings Bheki Mseleku - Timelessness - another wonderful recording I think from the early 90's - also with a strong feature from Pharoah Sanders

Larry - I will keep my ears open for any upcoming appearances by Jason Rigby. Although I had some of the same thoughts as you (although not expressed nearly so well) about Tony Malaby - especially after hearing him a couple of years back in a quartet I have come to hear his sound including all of the metallic screeching and sometimes what might seem to be as too much of what you refer to as a 'keening' tone as his sound in total and very organic and not foreced in that respect. this is what I wrote about the set back in Sept 2010: Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone; Ben Monder, guitar; Eivind Opsvik, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums 2nd set had it's moments - the best being the playing of Ben Monder - sometimes a bit too fusiony for me - but often he played many sparkling notes and the one fusion like solo was still impressive. Waits is fine yet loud and his bombast made me realize how great and accomplished Rainey is in comparison. The best portions of the 2 long pieces were the more abstract almost gauze like sections where Waits toned it down and Malaby's tenor despite many many harsh lines - sometimes I liked it sometimes I was wondering if he is a poor man's Paul Dunmall - but for sure he is surprising - playing with a great range on the horn. Some nice almost minimalist bow work by the bassist - and some of the portions when Malaby laid out were the strongest - very loud set and my ears just cleared up this morning...

is that the trio with William Parker and Nasheet Waits? I am DYING to see Malaby with Nasheet as I would imagine that it will be OUT of CONTROL!! plus as I mentioned to a co-worker a few minutes ago, I think I am obsessed with a certain saxophonist

@ Cornelia Street Cafe TONY MALABY TRIO Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone; Angelica Sanchez, piano; Tom Rainey, drums TONY MALABY'S NOVELA Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone; Ralph Alessi, trumpet; Michael Attias, alto saxophone; Ben Gerstein, trombone; Joachim Badenhorst, bass clarinet; Andrew Hadro, baritone sax; Dan Peck, tuba; Kris Davis, piano; Tom Rainey, drums as usual I (or we as this time I with my wife - which is now/lately mostly the case as) are first or second in line as I love being in the second or 3rd seat just a few feat from the band in this very intimate space - it is long thin space - maybe 10 to 12 feet wide with small tables and benches on the side and chairs in the middle with barely enough room for someone to walk in between. It is simply a GREAT place to hear this music as there is no needs for any amplification for any of the horns and in this case just microphones for the baby grand fro Angelica and then Kris. Malaby intitially looks like he wants the old selmer tenor but then he picks up his shiny soprano and they start playing - all through the set seems like they are Sanchez's tunes/sketches but it was never discussed A few minutes in the soprano saxophone makes sounds I have rarely heard and I think they actually stopped and started something else - 50 minutes later we had heard it all - the guy next to me who has heard jazz live - but was on a trip from North Carolina and went to this show on a recommendation of a serious jazz fanatic friend - he *also* heard what the rest of us heard - first off he *knew* he heard the greatest drummer he had ever seen - but that is a given when one hears Rainey when he wants to get even a bit aggressive and excited - and he did that a few times during the set. Pretty damn great despite a few passages when the trio find it's space and balance between the tunes and the improvising. Malaby was strong on tenor but played a few solos/passages on soprano that were surprising, new and breathtaking - harsh, ascerbic and biting - but still with his melodic sensibility. and I know I have done this a few times but... THEN.... Tony tells them he needs the space where the first 2 small tables and chairs are. This means that when the alto saxophone, bass clarinet and baritone saxophones are placed in the hands of the musicians playing them that I am staring into the bells of the baritone and bass clarinet - and the alto saxophone is right ot my left. This is after I move my seat BACK a couple of feet - now I am ready for a personal show - first tune is the grooviest one from the record and the ensemble passages are mindblowingly intense and spectacular. Great tuba groove with all the horns playing everything and by 20 minutes they are back to the initial theme and *that* would have been worth it. The band isn't just good, some of you know some of the players - Ralph Alessi is a fine trumpeter - Tom Rainey is one of the great drummers of this world - and Michael Attias is a blistering hot alto saxophonist. of the people not as well known - Dan Gerstein on trombone and Dan Peck on tuba are a monsterous team - and the young guys on bass clarinet and baritone are strong young voises on their respective instruments - and the bariton sound from 3 feet away - lordy lordy.... then they played another HOUR straight - yeas maybe it would have been more powerful if they played another 40 or 45 minutes as it was SO intense at times despite there oftn bing no pulse, and many collective improvisations by many different pairings and trios of the band - they played just about all the tunes on the record and I think 1 or 2 new charts...and the high points were many - BUT when the *great* Kris Davis - who might have not hit a piano key or any part of the piano for 20 or 25 mintes straight - starts crashing the inside of the piano with the flat of her palm - I heard/experienced genius - well really despite the band going past what I was expecting which drained my insides a bit - as the music played was beyond intense and often extremley challenging - there was dirge for maybe 8 to 10 minutes that built SO slowly into something beyond where it started - that listening was challenging for the last 10 or 15 misnutes - 10 or 15 minutes longer than I in any way expected the music to last. The greatest strength for me is that this band incorporates the best of the european influences regading the small intense improvisations - Attias and Gerstein especially have phenomenal control over their instruments and the duet passages that included those 2 were a mind fuck - like the best of SME with a modern vibe within the framework of the great tunes of Malaby facilitated by what I now convinced is the genius arranging by Kris Davis. and they could do MUCH more to please the crowd by playing things as great as the opening tune - but they play what they play - they take things to the extrem at times but it is exceptionally gratifying to hear/see/experience a band that is doing what they do, PERIOD, end of story...liek Rainey - as much as I want him to play MORE of the sick explosive grooves that he is great as - and makes people crazy/delirous 0- well it does that to me, at least - they play what they play - PERIOD - and rainey did EXPLODE a few times as di Tony on both the tenor and soprano - so the band has it all.... all in all - simply a great ensemble - and packed into the tiny space with the incredible sound that this band generates - I will not miss this band the next time they play here.. I urge all to experience Tony Malaby's Novela.

although he is only 47 or 48 Tony Malaby is quite a bit better than he was 12-15 years ago. Lucky for me I get another chance tomorrow night to hear and experience his magisterial brilliance up close and personal. Especially on the tenor saxophone, he has refined his own voice to suhc an extent that he sounds like no one else - I told him I think Evan Parker with a groove and melody - which was much less personal on those older records or like on Tom Varner's Second Communion. Mat Maneri is better than he was 10-12 years ago and he was great then (if he wason his game - his brilliance is sometimes a variable thing!) but the last 3 to 4 times I have seen him the last 9 months or so, he is playing at such a high level it is pretty hard to verbalize. Evan Parker got so much better technically from the days of his 20's and 30's as compared to his 40's through 60's (present) Some listeners (not me) still prefer the early pre mid/late 80's Evan Parker - but not this listener.

Pete - If I took pictures I would have snapped a picture of Kidd Jordan giving Charles Gayle a hug this past Sunday night.

fwiw - the suite that In Order to Survive performed last Tuesday June 12th was dedicated to Kalaparusha and titled as such. According to William Parker, he mentioned the great tenor saxophonist is struggling with cataracts and those cataract's effects on his eyesight. William asked any positive thoughts/energy be sent towards Mr. McIntyre. Of which I am sure there were many from the nice crowd @ Roulette. If there was musical justice, that composition/performance (which some of you may have read my thoughts elsewhere) had the power to cure many ills and if it was a different world of music, it may be able to provide some other kind of support as great as the performance was.

love the first Foxes Fox CD - will get the new one soon. maybe my most played Evan Parker recording over the last few years. Louis Moholo-Moholo is superb on that recording

well I was having a little bit of fun regarding discussing the exploits of Cooper-Moore I realize that it was a long time ago - maybe 12-14 years ago - that I saw Cecil Taylor up close @ Tonic playing with Tony Oxley - and certainly this past Tuesday what Cooper-Moore's performance compared favorably with what Cecil Taylor was playing that night as far as dexterity, speed, precision, passion and imagination. What I heard this past Tuesday was a great performance by a great pianist. Maybe I will simply leave it at that. Craig Taborn is a very good/great/wonderful pianist that I enjoy greatly and have seen him 4-5 times live over the last year in a variety of settings and I always leave excited and impressed with his abilities. He was very very good this pat Tuesday. After seeing/hearing Cooper-Moore I almost forgot about hearing Taborn.

maybe more later but a few comments on the first 2 nights.... saw all the bands - can do without the opening invocation but I could still hear Drake, Parker and Cleaver behind the nonsensical wailing of 3 ladies.... and I knew the drummers sounded great from my front row seat.. don't know what Kneebody is or why they were there but it had something to do with a grant....and I waited for Dunmall, Shipp, Morris and Cleaver starts out a bit forced with Dunmall only with his tenor which is a plus - maybe it isn't even his tenor, I don't know. Shipp plays all the time, some strong stuff but too much just rolling on the keys thinking maybe it is like Chris MacGregor but I want some space - but Dunmall often makes me forget about that as he takes the tenor out to great places - then the last 30 minutes of the hour set Paul Dunmall and Gerald Cleaver find an incredible rapport and the set turns magnificent - especially when Shipp finally gives the band some space and let's Dunmall explore the full dynamics of sound and space - the final groove is subtle and immensely powerful. Sharp was fine but the lady singer was a bit much for me Dresser's band good with one great long form thing in the middle with all pieces meshing - highlights are Rudresh and Maroney along with the great bassist good night second night...fine melodic solo set by Eri Yamamoto Farmers by Nature started off very softly and was a challenging hour (in a good way) with fine playing by all 3 - Taborn as good as I expect from him. Darius Jones quartet - shorter set with the highlights being his playing on a couple of ballad like pieces where his sound raises the roof - Matt Mitchell is fine on piano and Smith and Dunn played well - my wife commented that this was a bit more mainstream and both of us enjoyed it - Jones remains a strong newer voice on the alto saxophone... and THEN..... I FORGOT yes - I have seen a great many great drummers the past coupl of years and I did see Cooper-Moore with Cleaver's band last December - and I know these guys been playing together forever - supposedly there is nothing new BLAH BLAH playing a tribute to the hurting Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre who is suffering with blindness from cataracts, William Parker composed the suite that they just premiered in Montreal last weekend. and they go... Cecil Taylor is alive, I know Paul Bley is alive Keith Tippet is alive Cooper-Moore is the greatest pianist alive - well my opinion, of course - but for me last night was beyond anything I have ever seen or heard from at the 88 keys. He improvised plays the thematic material better than the 2 wonderful horn players and his excursions into the stratosphere were superhuman - and his comping!!!!!!! this guy played the phases Brown and Barnes improvising *while* they were playing them - and then the elbows, the knuckles and all of it - and he then knew how to bring the sound down, lay out, come back, build up...we heard 3 good to great pianists the first 3 hours - but Cooper-Moore is beyond any of that - genius is genius - it doesn't come often maybe it doesn't happen all the time as he was wonderful last December - but last night - more than that but I FORGOT Hamid Drake made a fan out of my wife for life - she knows as the *great* Gary Sisco said, that if you bring anyone with an open mind to hear Hamid, they leave knowing they have witnessed the greatest drummer in the world. yes - for what he does, He is the greatest drummer in the world - my wife said it best - he isn't a jazz drummer like all the other ones, even her previous favorite Nasheet Waits...she might even have us coming back next Sunday.. last thing - I told Hamid Monday night that I am bringing my wife on Tuesday to see him and that I told her that she will hear a different or better version of Nasheet..he smiles..he doesn't know me last night he remembers - I met your husband last night, etc. and as always he is the nicest person in the room - the most gracious and Barbara (my wife) gave him a hug and a kiss - and I tell him that I hope he says hello to his friend and mine - Ulrich - when he gets back in Chicago as my wife said, it was the greatest band she ever saw - she isn't a "jazz fan" but she likes the shows - but this is a band that all should see live - Parker's themes were as strong as anything I have heard from him, Rob Brown was stupendous and Barnes was succinct and cutting - and seeing and hearing William Parker and Hamid Drake 10 feet in front of me connect like no other bassist and drummer do was shown during a duo section with Parker playing Parker and Hamid with just his hands - pure magic and telepathy. In Order to Survive

after many years of listening to rock music from my late teens through my 30th birthday (from Credence, Traffic, Steely Dan, Zeppelin, Cream/Clapton, Dead, Allmans, Hendrix, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Gong, Gentle Giant, Eno, Roxy Music, etc. and espceially througout my college years, the band that had it all for me - King Crimoson - especially that amazing 73-74 band that produced Larks Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, Red and that incredible live LP - USA I had always somehow knew about jazz - I had a shortterm friend in College in 1978-79 - my freshman year - who had a Coltrane or Freddie Hubbard LP that he played a couple of times - and maybe there was something - and I alwayes remembered a day in January 1979 when I heard about a guy named Charles Mingus who had just died of ALS (to me Lou Gehrig's disease). I had also during those years picked up Birds of Fire and The Inner Mounting Flame which had me try a later McLaughlin LP which did nothing for me and I left it at that... then after falling out of touch a bit with music despite having some interest in REM, Little Feat, maybe Husker Du and The Replacements in the later 80's, I had lost most of my passion for sound/music etc. But I always heard about some crazy band/man named Captain Beefheart - and so on impulse I bought a cassette of an album called Trout Mask Replica - probably bought it around 1990 when I was 30 - and I HATED it but I would not and then could not stop listening to it - it prompted me to buy a CD player as I had to hear ALL of it - I discovered something to care about in music again and reading about him - he mentioned two names Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman - I wasn't going there yet - but I woke up one day in 1991 or 1992 and bought 4 CD's: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue Bill Evans - Waltz for Debby Charles Mingus - Live @ Antibes Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music liekd them - missed the rock beat but kept listening and THEN - I really heard "Well You Needn't" and it was over until.... I used to visit Crazy Rhythms in Montclair, NJ and I bought lots of stuff there - but then I heard a few more things and I heard Evan Parker on the radio for his 50th birthday on WKCR and it was HORRIBLE - but I would listen again - and I searched and read and found modern jazz where GIANTS walked this earth and STILL do. Subsequent listening showed me that it isn't just a historic music which is what I gather from so many who still listen to much of the same/similar version of our initial passion - I discovered Parker - Stitt - McLean - Lyons - Osbourne - Chapin - Darius Jones, etc - or Hawkins - Mobley - Gordon - Coltrane - Shepp - Ayler - Parker - Mitchell - Malaby - Dunmall and all in between - what I blessing to learn to listen Monday I see Paul Dunmall/Mark Dresser live among others and Tuesday I see Hamid Drake/Darius Jones/William Parker/Cooper-Moore among others and I am blessed to love this music, old and new and I thankful that I opened my ears to all of iit as I knew already that Don Van Vliet said "if you got ears you gotta listen"