Steve Reynolds

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

and clearly Hunter S. Thompson ended up so self-hating that he killed himself - so clearly the drugs didn't work for him - denial is a fucking bitch - especially for guys like him (i saw him in a pathetic drunken rage in Lowell Mass sometime around 1980). There was no glory in anything he had become even then - imagine the last 15 to 20 years of his life. and I don't look for any sympathy - no need to feel bad or sorry for me or anyone else that has the disease of addiction - sure maybe for the guys back in the day when there were limited ways to access recovery and little understanding of the true nature of drug addiction. fortunately for me I was willing to follow direction of mostly old-time street dope fiends who were terrors to themselves, their families and their communities wheo also learned about the true nature of addiction and found a way out. as far as jazz being dead, we have heard that before - but apparently you are younger than I (I am 52), but sir if you love jazz, you simply be wrong. be in NY in OCTOBER this year for In Order to Survive and hear Hamid Drake with about 70 others - and maybe stay all week and hear the great band 6 times. hav you heard Hamid Drake play the drums LIVE and in person?!?!?! You will hear the *great* Cooper-Moore on piano - and he is a treasure of this music, his artistry sits right next to any of the pianists of this generattion or any generation. and William Parker leads the band with the altoist Rob Brown and trumpeter Lewis Barnes. and they play twice a night all week at The Stone sure, they should be at The Vanguard every 6 months for a week, but then agian, it is what it is. dead? not so much, maybe only from a romantic's perspective, I guess Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

and maybe a bit more from me.....see I know a guy from the Bronx that is still alive today that was in a detox facility in 1959 with Jackie McLean. I will call him Richie as that is his name. He is 71 years old and clean 19+ years from everything. His life shooting dope in the late 50's and 60's and then methadone from 1970 to July 20th, 1993 was not glorious, heaven like or anything to do with the fantasy of the junkie's from the so-called golden agae of everything - an age that never existed except in some people's brains - or apparently in lunatics like Ginsberg or Kerouac - and no I never read them, don't know shit about them or the beats or do I care to - I love jazz of then, today and in between - and today's the most for what that is worth. There is no heroin addict or crackhead or cokehead or methaddicti who lives life - at least certainly not a life worth living. myself, for the last 2 years before through some amazing circumstances I couldn't listen to even Evan Parker...fact is I *left* after the first set of Die Like a Dog Trio (Peter, William and Hamid) in May of 2003 to put the damn fucking pipe in my mouth -couldn't wait ANY FUCKING longer. nothing fucking romatic about being a addict, junkie or drunk. shit, I know - I an one - but November 7th, 2004 was the last time I used anything... and fwiw, music has never been better, and as some know, I see and hear the greatest (for me) that NYC offers on a regular basis - and in 2 weeks, Jim Black's bass drum will be 10 feet from my brain, heart and mind..... Get Ready to Receive Yourself

see this is the real deal

wishing I could be there for either or both of the following: Thursday 31 January 2013 Venue Vortex Jazz Club 11 Gillett Street N16 8JH London, UK Venue info and map Line-up Instant Composers Pool Orchestra Han Bennink Pat Thomas Steve Beresford John Coxon John Edwards Evan Parker or on January 30th: Line-up Instant Composers Pool Orchestra Michael Moore Thomas Heberer Alex McGuire Ernst Glerum Mark Sanders Ab Baars Phil Minton Alex Ward Roger Turner Wolter Wierbos John Butcher

I know KV is not for everyone and although he is playing in NYC tonight I cannot make it but I would have found a way if it was DKV or Mats with the great AALY trio..... That being said, I can't imagine, except for the most jaded jazz fan, to not devour the Chicago set from Live in Wels and Chicago. The last two tracks: Burning Sky and Blues for Tomorrow are 35 plus minutes of pure brilliance from all three including KV. And there are passages on the new box that rival those driving, raging, dynamic groove based excursions of creative instant composition/improvisational. Fact is that the trio is very unique jazz band that really has comparative ensemble in this music

In fact, some of it like disc1 (2009) and the bonus disc with the Don Cherry stuff (2008) might be a bit better than damn great. One of the discs is a bit rough - maybe one of the middle discs from 2010 - the band never get going like they are capable of and one wonders why they might have included it the last 2 shows from 12/27 & 12/28/11 are energy filled with lots of KV on baritone sax. and the main reason it is worth getting is it the best recording of Hamid Drake - soundwise, performance wise, really all around - diverse, energetic and simply a document of one of the truly transcendent drummers of this generation or really any generation. I am only listening to this in my car - with a decent enough sounding stereo - and it almost sounds like him live - and I remember last June live - and this recording brings the listener pretty close to the sound of Hamid live - and for those who have heard and seen him live in a good sounding club or hall - there is nothing in this world that compares.... Blue Winter, baby

fwiw - much of the 7 CD DKV box is pretty damn great

real good year - maybe as good as 2011..... Schweizer-Favre @ The Stone - spring Open Loose - @ Cornelia Street - spring Rainey-Halvorsen-Laubrock @ The Stone - spring Mat Maneri Quintet @ Cornelia Street - April In Order to Survive @ Vision Fest Dunmall-Shipp-Morris-Cleaver @ Vision Fest Han Bennink 70th Birthday concert @ Columbia University - spring Tony Malaby's Novela @ Corneila Street - summer Open Loose @ Cornelia Street last weekend (December 22nd) with Nahseet Waits in Rainey's seat Travis Laplante quartet with Mat Maneri, Michael Formanek & Randy Peterson @ I-beam - Brooklyn - December 2 best shows: Mat Maneri's Quintet with the great Kris Davis and typically beyond improvising from Mat & Randy In Order to Survive with seminal performances from Drake & Cooper-Moore other best individual performances: Rainey with Open Loose in the springtime Malaby last weekend - ended the first set with as extraordinary improvising on the tenor saxophone as this boy has (ever?!?!) witnessed

for me the best Ed Blackwell recordings are the later ones - number one being Joe Lovano's 'From the Soul' from 1992 also great is 'Sounds of Joy' with Lovano andf Anthony Cos from maybe 1990 of the older records, the fulcrum has to be the legendary Five Spot recordings from 1961 with that one in a million band.

clifford - was thinking about seeing that band @ Cornelia Street - I am hoping you are there this Saturday for Open Loose with Malaby, Helias and Rainey - last time was beyond great - especially the seond set when Rainey destroyed the fucking world. I be there sitting in one of the closer seats...

"Streetcar" is the single greatest thing I have heard this past year - about 7 minutes in the band CRANKS it up and the tension is finally released. the whole 3 CD box is filled with much great stuff and limited filler

Ok - back int he day on another board, there was MUCH KV bashing and some by me - I have never been a fan of the Vandermark 5 despite a pretty damn sincere effort some 8 to 10 years ago to really listen to the band - and the large Transatlantic band is up and down - but I sure would love to see them live - and a trio in NYC in the early 2000's with Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton was close to unlistenable DESPITE Paul Lovens being fucking brilliant. and his efforts through the grant to bring the Brotzmann Tentet to life is priceless - the 2 performances I witnessede of that ensemble in 2000 and 2002 @ Tonic in NYC *remain* the greatest live performances of music this boy has ever witnessed. HOWEVER...I always think that although KV is limited when he gets into it with guys like Mats with AALY despite the pure unadulterated brilliance of the AALY trio with KV - for the naysayers listen to 'Hidden in the Stomach" from 1996 or the transcendent "Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe" from couple of years later - try the opening track (written by Ken) when about 3 minutes in KV launches a riff with energy that is on the level of any free jazz tenorist - DESPITE the fact he is next to the beast of all beast on that same horn - Mats himself. and as far as DKV - I saw the band on 3/27/2001 and while Ken may not have at his best, the actual show was among the 4 or 5 greatest shows I have EVER attended - Drake and Kessler with KV's groove based playing (his strength for sure as miniature improvisations and complex detailed improvisations are certainly not) made for an energy level with Drake playing at his highest level as he always has with that trio made it a night to remember for me those many years later. and the band has 2 recordings - Live at Wels and Chicago (recorded 1998) and Trigonomtry (recorded on 3/24/01 & 3/31/01) that remain 2 of the great free jazz recording of the past 30 years. disc 2 of Wels - specically the last 2 long tracks are genius and thos riffs and melodies shoule be fucking canonized in a faitr and just musical world.

CT - is that Harmos Live recording out/available on Intakt??

maybe some of you want to read the Penguin guides to see where Cook and Morton are coming from