Steve Reynolds

nothing like me posting this on a Kenny Burrell thread.... as has once been said, If Anthony Braxton is playing the contrabass saxophone in the middle of a forest and no one heard it, did it make a sound? I saw a show int he fall of 2011 at The Stone with under 20 people in the crowd and it was as good a show as I have seen in 5 years. An hour of improvised genius. Does it matter that under 20 people were at the show? *I* heard it. If it was taped and released, maybe a few hundred might hear it. different world today - MUCH more music available live and on record - and the quote, un-quote jazz scene is totally diverse and bifurcated.... but that unrecorded band - it was as good as jazz gets, IMO - that *one* show. As good as a great Dave Holland set 15 years back with the Knit packed to the rafters. now of course many still do not call *that* music jazz, but that's an old tired refrain...hopefully here no one is still beating that broken drum... well of course, there were no tunes unless Mat played a bit of one his sketches - but I believe the set that night was no tunes and maybe they took a break halfway through only to start up again - here we go, baby....and *eventually* they sure do go...but they never go...unknown tempo that is a non-tempo - and invented style on the drums from a master who played it all before and yete never *that* all-bfore stuff on record or live - yet almost every time, the *great* Randy Peterson almost breaks out into what would be the most intense post-bop groove ever - yet instead it is almost and maybe one day one might hear it.... according to some it ceases to matter when less people hear it - I say it matters just as much or more, as when the music is of it's time, is made purely for the music's sake and is of the artist's vision, soul and being, sometimes it might not be like anyone else's music. tell that to Mat, Craig, Oscar, Ed and Randy plus I venture to believe that all 5 of them are among the *greatest* musicians/practitioners on the their respective instrument(s) today and in a couple of cases - ever. Anyone here see the *great* Ed Schuller live with a band like that? Or the amazing Craig Taborn play totally improvised with dynamics from a baby grand that this boy has never witnessed? (well until Kris Davis played with Mat's band 6 month's later) I doubt any of them came from the ghetto - but, alas, a couple of them might not be white and Ed, of course, played with a legend, Mal Waldron, for a good period of time - and maybe according to the legend, he should be one too. then again, maybe Mal for some wasn't a legend, wasn't a visionary, as many only ever listened to the music before his death wish didn't pan out, and he re-invented himself and his music from 1969 through the rest of his life. no - most just might have listened to the 50's and early 60's sides on the classic recordings - as by 1969 when Mal was free at last to play Mal, jazz was laready dead for so many... Blood and Guts, baby and for Mat... Get Ready to Receive Yourself

Can: Yoo Doo Right

Yeah sometimes the idea with some of the NYC downtowners seems to be interested to "show" the compositional aspect rather than letting loose a bit more and letting the music take over. I've heard it in Kris Davis quintet, Mary's sextet and Angelica Sanchez's quintet as well. Good news is that Mat Maneri is playing in a quintet in April with Randy Peterson with a couple of musicians I don't know and I doubt there will be any of that. Maybe some micro improvising and heavy tension but Mat and Randy always let it really roar from time to time. Plus I repeat that Rainey Mary and Ingrid as a trio were as great as any band I've seen in the past couple of years as they referred to compositions/themes but had no charts and the music was amazing. Rainey was inspired, free and played some of the deepest intense grooves I've ever heard him play. Mary was better than in her sextet and Ingrid was almost Paul Dunmall on tenor!

Louis Moholo's 'Bush Fire' with Barry Guy and now I can't think of the South African bassist. In any event one the great free recordings of the 90's

Sounds great, Ubu I've seen some those musicians but I think I need to check out Mike Reed and Gred Ward....I may check out Fujiwara's band when they play on April 6th @ Cornelia Street. Mary Halvorson is in the band along with a few other interesting players. My only complaint about some of these bands from this scene is that sometimes the music is overly composed. Ingrid's Anti-house is the prime example for me. They add Kris Davis and a bassist to the great trio of Laubrock, Mary and Rainey and the music falls flat. The band u saw sounds like it had it all. The Vibes player is great. I saw him with Brotz in 2011 and he was all that and more. Subtle, biting and explosive and seemingly at ease playing in duo with a legend

Great pick. I forget how long it is, but he really makes a beautiful transition from inside to outside playing on that. I remember playing that track for a few people at random back in the day, just somebody would be hanging out, not "jazz people" or anything, just folks, and not everybody would dig it. But some of the ones that did would get up and start hollering and screaming the deeper into it that Trane & Elvin got, I mean, involuntary reactions and shit, like in church or something. My first reaction was not quite so outwardly demonstrative, but yeah, I was gripped, to put it mildly. Still am. Ultimately, that's the kind of music I like best, the kind where "liking" it or not is not an option you have. It just takes you over. BAM. Figure it out later, if ever. Hell yeah. When I read your post I was reminded of catching Coltrane's quartet at Shelly's Manne-Hole in L.A. around 1965. People got so lost in the music that they were emitting primal screams and shouts. Those small cocktail tables were being knocked over, glasses were breaking, it was pandemonium. It was like a vortex in the room. I have never experienced anything like that, before or since. When I walked out after the set, a buddy of mine was waiting in line to go in for the next set. He asked me, "what the hell was going on in there?" I could only say, "you'll find out". Amazing. And from a 'West Coast' crowd too I don't think we'll see music of the mind and the heart like that anymore. What an experience to have heard that music in it's own time, unfolding before you! Great story, Cali. freelancer, as long as Cecil is with us, there's always the chance it can still happen. It has happened to me - maybe twice: 1) Brotzmann Tentet @ Tonic ~ 2000 with Drake in the band reading charts - with all 4 saxophonists : PB, KV, Mats and Mars two 45 minute sets had people screaming during and exhausted afterwards 2) Anderson-Jordan-Parker-Drake Vision Fest maybe 2001?? New York jazz fans dancing in the aisles.

Evan Parker Having gotten interested in jazz in around 1991 or 1992 (when I was 31 & 32), I started with Miles, Monk, Mingus, Bill Evans, etc. as I had no idea where else to start as I figured all the great music was made many years ago by dead people. Over the next few years my tastes expanded and contracted as I got the fever for improvised music - I started listening to Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and then guys like Marty Ehrlich, Don Pullen, Sam Rivers, Ellery Eskelin, Steve Lacy and the AACM musicians, etc. developing an affinity for more outside tastes. In the interim, I heard snippets of the Evan Parker 50th birthday broadcast on WKCR in 1994. I think some of it was solo soprano saxophone and some duets with maybe Derek Bailey, maybe some SME and possibly some stuff with Schlippenbach and (aghast!!) some crazy drummer man dude who was playing in a manner foreign (excuse the pun) to even guys like Sunny Murray.....I thought it was hideous, extreme and non-sensical... so I contunued with what I knew branching out until around 1998 or 1999, I noticed that this same guy named Evan Parker was playing downstairs at the Knitting Factory for 2 or 3 days - so I picked out the day that worked for me which was a trio with Mark Dresser and Bobby Previte (missing the trio with Dresser and Hemingway as I must not have been able to make it in the NYC that night). By this time, I was crazy for things like Hemingway's great quintet and Eskelin's great trio with Parkins and Black and other more groove based freeish composed/improvised music. So I get the last seat as the place was packed and it seemed a bit meandering at first UNTIL I started to HEAR what I now consider the most invigorating tenor saxophonist to my ears. the rest is history for me. It opened everything up for me leading me to be able to HEAR things like AMM, SME and so-called eai improvisations. and in 2009, I did see Parker with Dresser and Hemingway and it was what is was supposed to be... and in SEPT at the Stone this year we have: THE STONE RESIDENCIES EVAN PARKER SEPT 17—22

not counting free improvisations, here are some good ones over 20 minutes long: Horace Tapscott with John Carter, Cecil McBee and Andrew Cyrille: The Dark Tree - version on volume 1 Jimmy Lyons: Jump Up - with John Lindberg and Sunny Murray, nothing on this recording gets long or boring - all 3 play as great as they ever did on this recording Gerry Hemingway Quartet: Toombow - with Ellery Eskelin, Robin Eubanks and Mark Dresser - longer than the Quintet version with the European Quintet - but this is one of the great Hemingway compositions - both versions are equally great

Went to buy this today and B&N closed due to the remnants of the storm. Maybe next weekend as it will be one of the few CDs I can buy in a local store..... Then I ordered the River Holland Altschul set, Malabys Taramindo plus Wadada Leo Smith and the brand new Pere Ubu Can't find those in the local stores

Walk, Love, Sleep is intense however the mood must be right. Recorded in close up which I like very much. Gives one a bit of an idea of what it was like live. The shows by the original tentet in the late 90's early 00's remain the greatest shows I've ever seen by anyone

Most jazz listeners never heard a deep Tom Rainey groove but we want call someone who might be a talented musician or performer in some other musical area and he is called a "the last great jazz innovator" I ask again - has the person who said heard Tom Rainey live when he invents a new groove? I say he is the most innovative and creative jazz drummer alive and yet.... Well u know...... Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows As always the greatness of this music exists right besides our ears and so many will not or cannot hear it so we look for a crossover or pop record or hip hop record that may have some oblique reference to improv or jazz or gas some musician who used to care about "the music" and now cares about something else. And Tom Rainey or Randy Peterson exist in this world of music and for their part play drums like no one now before or in the future. True innovators both. And they play jazz Well in Randy's case it is usually with Mat Maneri as even the great jazz musicians don't know what to do with him But one day...... "It's gonna be huge" Joe Maneri circa 2000 in front of Tonic speaking with me on the sidewalk A true dreamer and the last great innovator in jazz....if it weren't for all the rest Let The Horse Go

I will take a look at home - have no videos at work but then maybe some of y'all should find out about what Brandon Seabrook is playing.....I think Gerald Cleaver's Black Host is one of the greatest bands I ever heard - and they got this guitar player named Brandon FUCKING Seabrook - and he plays a more interesting guitar than any of all of that well you know...... now *that* was some guitar playing to these ears...... and howza bout John Adams on the amzing damn CD called Ghostly Thoughts with Dunmall and Sanders hold moly - top 25 all time for me.

really who cares except for the people posting here. I couldn't buy a George Benson jazz album recorded in the past 35 years as apparently there arn't any. so he's not that interested or interesting, so why would anyone who is really into jazz/improv be interested. kind of like Herbie Hancock only moreso. so may great players today and we want to talk about someone who could care less about jazz - if he did he would make a fucking jazz record.

The old quartet CD's are really great in retrospect - especially O'Neal's Porch. There are 2 or 3 tracks on that recording that really stand the test of time. The original IOTS band is nothing like this band as the drummer *isn't* Hamid Drake. This band is closer to the quartet as it is simply the quartet plus Cooper-Moore. IOTS at times had guys like Daniel Carter and the drummers were Rashid Bakr or Suzie Ibarra. The 2 CD set The Peach Orchard from maybe 1997 or 1998 was much discussed as it did have Cooper-Moore. However the last time I listened to it (around the time I saw the band in June), I found that it was NOTHING like what the band is doing today. The band is different because of one Hamid Drake - so the band is more groove based and has more of an engine than the band with Suzie from The Peach Orchard - and the long form composition they played that night was of a vibe not really found on that recording.

Don't get me wrong, I think Branford is a hell of tenor saxophonist. Not a huge fan of his soprano playing but then again I havn't listened to nay of the recent recordings. I have no issue with the music itself except that it just doesn't interest me so much as it is always the same or similar formats - quartet with sax, piano, bass and drums - same as I have little interest in the Jarrett trio for the same reasons - just not that interesting to me. I'm sure it would be a good show, but then again the Barry Harris trio is playing down the street from me - and they are great musicians - but they are playing music that is not really of interest to me - so it's a personal choice - I just find it a bit boring to be doing the same thing for 50 years as that trio would be doing - yet Harris is maybe the last bop pianist - and he grew up with the music - so he is no neobopper. But as musicians, his current band is probably terrific as most experienced jazz musicians are terrific musicians. But I know to Branford as the name of his recording indicates, he just plays tunes.

I listened to free music and inside jazz for years and had my ins and out and ups and down with many musicians. I had some periphery listening experiences with Tony Malaby until about 3 years ago I saw him live with a quartet that was Tony, Ben Monder, a bassist I forget and Nasheet Waits. I thought for a bit then and afterword that what Malaby was doing with extended tones and completely overblowing at times beyond anything I had ever heard anyone do - both on soprano and especially on tenor with that loud band (Monder plays LOUD) - that he might have a little fakery in him. After seeing him and hearing him maybe 8 or 10 times since, he is (as I have told him), the second *greatest*saxophonist in the world, he laughs when I told him who the *greatest* is (in my eyes only, of course), I say Evan Parker and I tell him you are kind of like Evan Parker with a groove. whether anyone hear thinks like me or is less of an absolutist, the *idea* that a guy like Evan Parker or Tony Malaby or Albert Ayler or yes, even the late, great Papa Joe Maneri is a faker is tomfoolery at it's peak. Isn't the faker the guy who hears Evan Parker for the first time in a while or ever and says " He's British, I know him" DO YOU? REALLY? I don't really think so you knew Fred Anderson too, or maybe Edward Wilkerson or Michael Moore or Carlo Actis Dato - nah - you don't know this music - never really listened to it save for Trane - but that's only 45+ years ago - so nothing in free music can compare - GOD dies - we all know that too I would be surpised if you ever saw Han and Misah play live - probably just know the Dolphy record when they were kids...... I guess - just cuz you signed up the David S. Ware Quartet to columbia those years back, we should give you props for supporting what some of us call *the* music..... The last of the blue notes say hello.....ask Louis Moholo Moholo about Evan Parker and this music - you know him. HA!! You Got Ears, You Gotta Listen - DVV

that is certainly true when it comes down to legends or non-legends from the 1960's. The great example was always Guiseppie Logan. the first generation of british/european free improvisors started to change that as they came from different traditions but only included the american jazz and free jazz tradition as a part of where they were coming from. They *know* they were not americans and that whatever music they were playing was a different music that many for years wouldn't even consider it jazz or even related to jazz. imagine hearing the Spontaneous Music ensemble circa 1973 with John Stevens, Trevor Watts, Evan Parker, and Derek Bailey with bot saxophonists squealing away on soprano saxophone and thinking jazz?!?!? - I don't think so. but today even as Branford imediatley commented, what Evan Parker does, if not anything else, is *formidable* so for at least 30 years, the technique and abilities of the established first generation or succeeding generations of free improvisors has not been in question. see ICP live with Han, Misha and the rest of those briliant musicians and let me know....

I appreciate what freelancer posted in response to my comments. Quoted from Branford: That took some practice. Took a lot of practice to get that together. It’s not going anywhere. It’s just sitting there. Sometimes playing out has a purpose, and sometimes it’s just playing out. To me, this is just playing out. The saxophone player has practiced a lot, and he has all this technique at his disposal. But what his band is playing is not affecting his outcome at all. He’s just playing what he plays. And it’s formidable. It’s hard stuff to play. My comments: Well he sure has practiced alot and it sure is formidable. As most listeners of free improvisation know, maybe the one complaint some have about Evan Parker is he can play brilliantly at will and most things recorded after 1990 or so seem to almost come too easy for him as his technique and facility on the either saxophone is unrivaled in those circles. However, the *idea* that Sanders and Edwards are not affecting his outcome is based on an unfamiliarity of the idiom. If it *was* Brotzmann, we know that observation might be more apt or even completely accurate. more from Branford: It gets louder in volume, but it doesn’t change in intensity. It doesn’t build as a group. It’s just getting louder because the drummer is getting louder. He’s not getting louder. no, Evan doesn't alter his volume once the intensity starts ramping up. He does crank up the intensity - in fact, that is where the major excitement comes for me in his extended tenor saxophone improvisations. as far as it not going anywhere, this is just because there is no formal groove, although The Two Seasons as a whole (both long CD's which is most or all of 4 sets recorded on 2 different nights in 1998) is as groove based as an Evan Parker trio is ever going to get, and funny he mentions the drummer as this *is* Mark Sanders' greatest recorded document and the altered mashed, and invented grooves and anti-gooves he gets to throughout this recording makes this one of the best 3 or 4 Evan Parker recordings suited for a listener unfamiliar with what he does in this power trio (if you will) context. Of course if he (or anyone else) is exposed to the music like was the case here - with little or no (have to say the answer is very close to NO in this case) experince in listening to this sort of thing, I can't imagine a response other than what was the response! maybe ignorance is bliss or looking for more of that blues based, well you know, maybe like his brother would fall back on.... Of course it isn't anything like David S. Ware with Matt, William and Suzie. That is groove based free jazz with a pulse that is very close to traditional jazz/free jazz. This music is different - formal?!?! - not sure what that measns, but maybe as as a recent recording declares.... Gold is Where You Find It

great - they all get 5 stars except Seamus Blake gets 4 for using effects. he HATED Evan Parker with John Edwards and Mark Sanders - he thought it might be George Garzone!!!! LOL plus it was maybe the greatest track on The Two Seasons - Winter VI - If I am correct that section is mind bending, dynamic and contains some of the greatest tenor saxophone ever recorded by anyone - but of course it ain't like Trane to Branford. you know it aint anything like Trane - but the old doesn't go anywhere, BLAH fucking BLAH - you have no ears for free music as you never even heard it - he's British, right?? Is he a new guy I thought I would hear next - like Gary Giddens a few years back? Evan Parker who he!!?!? fuck you Branford,,,,no bass solos are good unless it's Ray Brown BS.....more blah FUCKING blah you can't deal with John Edwards, Mark Sanders and Evan Parker At the Vortex, baby

I will switch to that thread - but alas the reason I stopped buying Tomasz Stanko CD's quite a few years back is .......well you know.....

They will smooth it all out - the last great ECM as far as the sound of the drummer was Bley-Peacock-Motian - Not Two, Not One - not sure why we don't hear the drummers on ECM recordings like they sound live Listen to Cleaver on the first Formanek Quartet record (The Rub and the Spare Change). Listen to him live - which I have many times over the past few years and he *sounds* and *plays* great. Maybe the second Formanek recording on ECM (Small Places) will be better soundwise but I know this topic has been beat to death - but until I hear a recent ECM recording that sounds like the band (and I saw the band live - and they *sound* great), I will keep beating it to death. Especially since ECM is lately recording some of the musicians I really love and do see live, I will continue

Will update as soon as we start to see who he is playing with - but another opportunity similar to Sept 2009 at the Stone: THE STONE RESIDENCIES EVAN PARKER SEPT 17—22

in order to plan in advance - once in a lifetime chance to see this incredible band in the small confines uop close and personal for a week's engagement. I be there a few nights, I am sure: 10/8 Tuesday 8 and 10 pm In Order to Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Cooper Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) 10/9 Wednesday 8 and 10 pm In Order To Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Cooper Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) 10/10 Thursday 8 and 10 pm In Order to Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Cooper Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) 10/11 Friday 8 and 10 pm In Order to Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Cooper Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) 10/12 Saturday 8 and 10 pm In Order to Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Cooper Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) 10/13 Sunday 8 and 10 pm In Order to Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Cooper Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) fwiw I saw this band this past June at Vision Festival and they were the highlight of the 3 full night I attended. Fresh episodic composition that night by William Parker which was a tribute to Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre. The whol eband was precise, free and inspired with Hamid Drake and Cooper-Moore playing on a level unknown to most mortals. To see and hear Hamid Drake in a place like The Stone with this band is not something I ever expected to be able to witness. O'Neal's Porch, baby

fwiw I am not a musician either. I think it's dangerous to glorify not only addiction but to over-glorify the supposed last great jazz musicians. Coltrane is the greatest example of this. First off, all of his great accomplishments occured years AFTER he stopped shooting heroin. secondly, the idea that one would stop listening because of one group of musicians (Miles, et al and others) did what they did. I was never that much interested in all that either, but Mal Waldron never went there - ever hear Billie's last pianist in his prime from the 70's through the 90's? Dead??? He played his piano like his life depended on it, and it might have - Mal, Verve, Balck and Blue, baby what about the AACM, the NYC Loft musicians, the great british, dutch and german innovators, the post Loft downtown musicians, the St.Louis BAG group, and all in between? Just from Chicago in the past 30 years?? If you are THAT interested in those 3 great artists (Billie, Charlie and Chet) why wouldn't you be curous about some equally (yes, I said it) great musicians that have carried on that tradition and expanded upon it? Jazz was dead by the end of the 1960's??? Blue Winter, baby

I will get this CD soon. We all know Shorter is one of the greats but reading these reviews make me think that this recording is so beyond most anything else recorded today and so on...makes some of my old hyperbole pale in comparison. I look forward to hearing it