Steve Reynolds

Tomorrow 4/14 @ Jazz Gallery NYC: Angelica Sanchez Trio with Angelica on piano with Tony Malaby (saxophones) and Tom Rainey on drums. next week 4/21 Han Bennink 70th Birthday Celebration @ Columbia University and then Mat Maneri Quintet @ Cornelia Street on 4/28. seeing the drummers Rainey, Bennink and Peterson is some treat. Even though I have seen Rainey twice over the past month or so, I would go see the man every week he is that great.

I bought the recent CD on Intakt at the show. It is still hard foer me to listen to it after seeing them live. Maybe now that a month has passed, I willgive it another shot. First impressions is that it is very long and the tracks are somewhat short and constricting with each seemingly quite loud or soft and a bit rough. The show was two 25-28 minute peieces which seemed to contain a number of different compositional ideas - no sheet music but definately not all freely improvised, either. and I am *still* looking for a recording that captures some of Tom Rainey's majesty on record. Well some of them do (Tom Varner's Mystery of Compassion is a great one from about 20 years ago) - but live the guy has all the moves and never dominates save for short period's of time. he is a drummer that leaves me wanting more as he knows how to play it right on balance. Plus he is as varied a drummer without ever resorting to pastiche. Hopefully lady Barbara (my wife) gives the go ahead tomorrow for the show on Saturday - Sanchez, Malaby and Rainey - I think she will go as for some reason a person like her who would never listen to jazz on record - LOVES Tom Rainey and Tony Malaby. still not as much as she likes Nasheet Waits - but as far as saxophonists, she loves Tony more than any other as she usually doesn't love the sax - but take it from someone who has now seen Malaby now about 4 times over the last year - anyone who would have seen him on March 23rd with Helias and Rainey would knoiw they were witnessing true greatness. back to Ingrid, she was great with Halvorsen and Rainey as I said - and it was quite a varied approach working from all angles - but Tony Malaby is playing like someone from another planet. then again, I will see a few other great ones over the next few months - hopefully Rudresh, Rob Bronw, Oscar Noriega, Darius Jones, maybe Kidd Jordan and Charles Gayle and unless I get hit by a fucking bus, the *great* Paul Dunmall on June 11th with Matt Shipp, Joe Morris and Gerald Cleaver. Plus if I can get out 3 nights in a row, I will go see The Thing with Joe McPhee which of course features Mats Gustaffson mostly on baritone. My point might be that I am seeing a lot of music these days - and I have seen and heard many great left leaning/avant/out (if you will) saxophonists over the years - and I don't know if I have seen or heard anyone as on as Malaby has been the past 2 or 3 times I saw him. Almost like Evan Parker in the groove....

I won't it make it on the June 17th as I am trying to see bands on 2 or 3 other nights - but this show is @ Roulette in Brooklyn on the last night of Vision Fest this year: 9:30 PM Edward "Kidd" Jordan Quintet Kidd Jordan alto, Charles Gayle tenor, piano, J.D. Parron, sax William Parker bass,Hamid Drake drums

let's pile on top of that one - Ingrid destroyed the world a couple weeks back with Rainey and Halvorson....almost like a female version of Paul Dunmall at times.... with Davis' band, it was MUCH more subdued playing from Rainey and Laubrock. However it was quite intense in it's quietness and with the music's use of space. The compositions (all by Davis) were given numbers and she called them out before they started and usually Mat Maneri couldn't find his sheet(s) as they had fallen... I had never really heard music quite like this...

Davis is playing with Mat Maneri's Quintet on April 28th @ Cornelia Street Cafe. Very much looking forward to seeing the band with Ms. Davis on the piano. She was very good with her own band this past January. similar quintet that played last fall @ The Stone when Craig Taborn was @ the piano. Now he was amazing as was Ed Schuller on the bass, but the quintet with Davis and Garth Stevenson on bass (in place of the great veteran) should be something to behold. I expect a few tourists to be blown out by the first half of the the first set. sorry for hijacking the thread....

jeffcrom - did you get to see the *great* trombonist?

no recording yet of Gerald Cleaver's amazing quintet (saw them last DEC) which is playing again in May: May 11th - Cornelia Street Cafe Gerald Cleaver, drums; Darius Jones, alto saxophone; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Cooper-Moore, piano & diddly-bow; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass for me the best show of a band with no recording might have been Evan Parker-Mark Dresser-Bobby Previte or maybe Joe Lovano-Mark Dresser-Gerry Hemingway another great band whih might be similar to a later Andrew Hill recording - I saw Andrew's Quintet maybe late 90's - I remember that the band members were not announced before the gig and that I believe Hill had not played with a working band for quite some time - certainly not in NYC. With Marty Ehrlich, some young tenor player who I don't remember, Scott Colley and Billy Drummond - was @ The Kniiting Factory main stage and they were amazing - especially Ehrlich and Drummond.

one day one Pete or I will convince Don to post here or there or somewhere I see him at many of the shows I attend. For me the last couple of years has been good - maybe 20 or each year - this year by next Month it will be 8 already this year which is only 8 as I have a life, a wife and other responsibilites that take up much of my time - for me I would like to get to 4 or 5 a month rather than the current 2 or so. regrettably for a number of years - 2003 through 2009 I attended very few concerts - but before that for a few years, I was seeing a couple shows a month I would guess.

Open Loose: Helias-Rainey-Malaby well after they finish the second set with something called "Kryptonite" from the new CD, my wife asked me why they are playing in a little place like Cornelia Street? and she doesn't listen to jazz on record - she like American FUCKING Idol God (Jah) knows?!? you got ears, you gotta listen - nobody listenin', baby!!!! all new Helias tunes ranging from a fractured ballad to a improvised/composed 'out' piece that if played at the start of the first set would have cleared out half the room to incendiary burning groove based monster pieces like the closer the band destroyed the fucking universe. not much else to be said except I know Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Paul Dunmall, Ellery Eskelin, Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee and Sonny Rollins all still walk this earth and Tony Malaby *still* may be the *greatest* tenor saxophonist alive. and Rainey played this solo intro with his hands that was beyond and then with that closing groove exploded reality for me from 5 feet away with less than a third of the house full - leave before the second set?!?! - pure idiocy I have heard many many drummers over the years and this performance was simply a mind fuck - the whole night but *that* last driving intensely powerful passage was comparable in total fucking genius to Hamid Drake on March 27th, 1999 at Tonic with Kessler and Vandermark or Gerry Hemingway ~ 12 years ago with Barry Guy and Marilyn Crispell or Randy Peterson recently with Mat Maneri. show of the year - and that includes 2 weeks ago at the Stone looks like April 14th with Angelica Sanchez, Rainey and Malaby is a must see @ The Jazz Gallery where they will be playing the music that was to beplayed at the Vanguard with the late Paul Motian this past January. Thumbs Up and Hands Down, baby

Years ago I also saw Joe in one the best concerts I have ever seen - a trio with Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway downstairs at the Knitting factory. It was right after the trio CD with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones came out - and the trio was burning. I agree about the recorded stuff not being on the same level except for "From the Soul" and "Sounds of Joy" - especially the former - but a damn shame they didn't record the trio I saw as those guys pushed Joe to places none of the musicians on any of his recordings are willing to go to. And it is not to say they didn't groove or swing - fact of the matter is I remember trying to tell people but they think of Dresser and Hemingway like they pay with Braxton or Crispell and it was nothing like that - When Hemingway plays in a post bop groove mode, there is really nothing like it. I recently saw BassDrumBone and there was one piece where Helias and hemingway played this freebop or post bop groove together for about 8 to 10 minutes to close the first set and it was as deep a groove as any "bop" drum/bass rhythm section would ever play. And I still remember the end of that show (maust be 12-14 years ago) when it was like a modern day Ornette groove with Lovano playing like a man possessed with those brilliant mad men of the bass and drum exploding the groove.

I was *also* priviliged to see and hear the duet with Irene Schweizer and Pierre Favre as well as the followign set: Got a seat in the second row and the place quickly filled up with over 80 by the time the show started at 8:05. First piece was the most static and predictable of the set with Irene playing as she sounded for the most part on the solo portion of the Barry Guy Radio Rondo disc - nice feedback and interply from Favre. THEN...... the next piece is almost an altered blues of post bop piece... and THEN - maybe this is when she plays a certain Monk tune to my ears exact and then took it to places I didn't know existed - then the next piece might have a been an improvisational duet based on what sounded to me like the Guy's Theoria theme which was a Orchestral work for Irene's pianistic brilliance from the early 90's. and THEN - a short piece of absolute FUCKING genius with Irene plucking the inside of the piano - lordy lordy and seemingly shorter pieces throughout - they stop 40 - 45 minutes in - explosion or rorar if there could be one from 82 people - to the encore which sounded like a Monkish inflected standard from a different world. and Favre played the damn melody like he was playing a piano at the end. Stunning - crown if one existed for a live show - I think Irene Schweizer and Pierre Favre were the happiest people in the room - the joy theta they gave us and we gave back - amazing the first time they played as a duo in the U.S. ever - I am blessed to have been there.... and THEN...... For some it may have been a let down - but for me, the trio of Laubrock, Halvorsen and Rainey delivered on a similar level to the great veteran european improvisors we had just witnessed. Having just seen rainey and Laubrock a few weeks ago, I thought I know a bit of what I was in for - but without the constraints of a larger band, Laubrock especially took her game to a new level for me - and Rainey played a bit more OUT - as Pat Frisco mentioned, he couldn't recall Tom playing this free in the past - but for me - EVERYTHING was there for the great man - maybe was he Louis Moholo's alter ego when it went down that path for a bit half way through?? two 25 minute improvisations that may have beem medley's of the compostional germs/ideas that the 3 of them offer on the recording - who knows? no music sheets/charts - just the three of them playing this music that seems built on a lifetime - and although the softer portions were effective - a especially one sequence when Halvorsen adjusted the volume after starting an unaccompanied portion loud and aggresive and with volume reduction, the intensity grew and my smile widened.....but Ingrid then would just tear it up whether it was with thundering crashes by Rainey or with one of his many seemingly patented grooves that NEVER sound the same - and plaease I cannot tell you how much I loved the part when he uses the bag of sticks - I think I could slide off my chair if I were a .....well you know... and Laubrock picked up the soprano for what would eb slighly more than half of the secnd piece -and it was quite effective - with the squawks and squeals in just the right places within the music. and although Mary's loud drone or whatever may have been a bit forced - the tumultuous ending/loud intensity for the last 5 minutes or so was well taken by me as I just love a band that can blow the roof off - and this band does that and more..... 11 days to see Rainey again - and if it was up to me I would see him every time he plays...amazing band, drummer, guitarist and saxophonist - and fresh as one would ever want...don't know if it is new old or in between - but I never a band sound like them - so new and great to me Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

Giant Sand: Sucker in a Cage from the new re-master of "Long Stem Rant" recorded in 1989

true - I saw Tony Malaby's Novela last year with Kris being the arranger of Malaby's compositions. the CD on clean feed is quite good.

Kris Davis Quintet - Thursday FEB 17th @ The Jazz Gallery, NYC Kris Davis - piano Mat Maneri - viola Ingrid Laubrock - tenor saxophone Trevor Dunn - bass Tom Rainey - drums 2 sets - each 45 to 50 minutes of music really nothing like anything I have heard before. Her methods are very different and sometimes oblique - and her piano playing is sometimes subdued, sometimes not, but often she uses repeated figures - often very low or very high register motifs that seem from some sort of altered jazz place. all new Kris Davis compositions - listed 1 through 6 I think - played as medleys for the most part - the tunes were very oblique at times - although a couple were Andrew Hill like knotty things which seemed like they were impossible to play. Lot's of quiet moments and some explosive tension filled outbursts. My free jazz side wants more of the latter - but maybe the other stuff might be even more rewarding - who knows? Rainey was wonderful yet restrained save for a little bit towards the end of the second set. My friend heard that and expressed wow wondering where was more of *that* but it was the music he was given - I love Rainey but I LOVE Rainey when he explodes the kit - maybe another time - maybe more that when I see him in a trio with Mary Halvorsen and Laubrock on March 10th - or maybe not - still the sound of surprise, I know that... Laubrock was masterful whether in high pitched continuous playing or a few times when she played some ripping freeish fast improvisations. Sometimes the tension and softness was close to unbearable but the overall effect was marvelous. Rainey finished the first set with a incredible groove but he seemingly refused to play as loud as I yearned him too! Mat told me he had played a couple of the tunes before but most of it was new for him - and he nailed all of it - and although he was not able to stretch out within the confines of the music (only drawback) he had some stretches of genius level improvisation which is why he is among the greatest 3 or 4 improvisors alive, IMO. Certain times he again blew my mind and my heart - his ability ot play the softest of soft and the most intense rack like riffs that seemingly come out of thin air astounds my ears every time I see/hear him. a nigh of music that is resonating still - I listen to quite a bit of jazz/improv and I really don't know what Davis is doing tune wise - but it sure is unique and she had a stellar bad to carry out and deliver her very special music. now tomorrow more mainstream for me as my wife and I will see the Mingus Big Band at the Jazz Standars - and I really looking forward to hearing the 14 piece unit in full Swing/Groove/Mingusonian mode. what a life I live today to be free, her music, live music and live this life near NYC with all that is available... peace and blessings

edited and moved to it's own thread

The Two Seasons - Parker, Edwards & Sanders as close to free jazz if you would as Evan ever gets - 2 disc set from 1999 - live from The Vortex Mark Sanders best performance on record (that I have heard) one of my favorite recordings of all time. Lunge - Strong Language - maybe 2002 with Gail Brand, Pat Thomas, Phil Durrant and Mark Sanders one of the best mixes of electronics and EFI

last night @ Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC - BassDrumBone with Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway and Ray Anderson wonderful 2 sets with blues, post bop and freeish elements - certainly for all listners. amazing up-tempo Ornettish freebop tune closing the first set with Helias and Hemingway together for about 5 or 6 minutes smoking leading to a nuclear Hemingway solo. Highlight of the second set might have been along blues with Anderson playing through the whole dynamic range of the trombone down to the quietest sound with the audience in rapt attention. my wife and here friend loved it although not fans or familiar with so-called 'out' music. Lot's of hints of New Orleans and Anderson is as good as he has ever been - it goes without saying how incredible Hemingway is if any of you have ever seen him live from 7 feet away. compositions from all three of them and a fine night from 3 musicians who know each other very very well who still sound as fresh as they probably did 30 years ago - one other lie remains dead.

maybe I write more later - the second set with Formanek's quartet was fine, albeit a little straight and to my ears, a little bit of maybe I have heard this before - despite stunning piano from Taborn and fine drumming from Cleaver although Cleaver was far more interesting last Saturday in his band. Berne was also good and immersed in Formanek's compositions but after what I heard in the previous set.... Mat Maneri, Oscar Noriega, Craig Taborn, Ed Schuller and the *great* Randy Peterson. much minute and detailed and soft textures with a quiet extreme intensity organically evolved a few times into the most intense jazz from another world improvisation I may have ever encountered. Schuller was immense, creative, beautiful especially with the bow and a stick he used on the closing mostly intense piece and yet nothing too flashy, Noriega on bass clarinet about half the set and on alto on the last 15 minute piece was extraordinary in his scope of soft, slow, fast, loud and a combination of all those descriptors. Mat Maneri is simply one of the greatest musicians in the world - he is a rock star in a musical idiom that draws 30 people to see one the greatest bands I have ever heard. Some parts of the set were played on a level of jaw dropping genius - sounds and visions from a place far from what is known or heard before. and...not being a fanboy - but Randy Peterson upped the ante over the 2 sets a couple of months back - mother of god - on a level of Hemingway, Drake, Bennik, Rainey, Waits, Elvin Jones, Edward Blackwell, Andrew Cyrille, Sunny, Philly Joe and whoever else ever sat behind a drum kit - and maybe even Paul Lovens - but propbaly the polar opposite of Lovens, with broad full strokes and that great anti-swing swing - like no drummer in the world. the duet section with Taborn was over the top and when Mat creates monster riffs at full volume with the horn echoing his lines and Peterson dropping fucking atomic bombs and extreme cymbal crashes - nothing more exciting in the wordl of improvised jazz music than that. and then to see a young guy sitting next to me in the front row for the Formanek set buy an old out of print copy from his hero who he said was Mat - having heard him for the first time about 2 years ago by mistake - that copy of the classic Joe Maneri quartet recording Dahabenzapple with Papa Joe, Mat, Cecil McBee and Randy at the kit in all his glory recorded a way back in 1993 - I havn't seen a new copy in 10 years at least - there is life to this music that few are willing to hear. second set sold out as expected, but there were only about 30 for the first and as nice as the second set was, it wasn't in the same league as what I heard from 8:15 to 9:10 last night.... if a band led by Mat comes within flying distance.... Get Ready To Receive Yourself

Han Bennink Misha Mengelberg Peter Brotzmann Evan Parker Peter Kowald Joe Maneri John Stevens all had or still have amazing musical lives

we are in sync, Ubu would kill to see the Schlippenbach Trio on the 14th for me: The Stone NYC: 8 pm Matt Maneri with Ed Schuller, Randy Peterson, Oscar Noriega, Craig Taborn Matt Maneri (viola) Ed Schuller (bass) Randy Peterson (drums) Oscar Noriega (sax) Craig Taborn (piano) 10 pm Michael Formanek Group Michael Formanek (bass) Gerald Cleaver (drums) Craig Taborn (piano) Tim Berne (sax)

thanks, Ubu my report: Gerald Cleaver Quintet NYC 12/10 Gerald Cleaver, drums; Darius Jones, alto saxophone; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Cooper-Moore, piano & diddly-bow; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass walked up early with my friend Chris who has seen 1 great jazz band in his life - the incomparable Instant Composers Pool this past spring... We see the bassist go in the club - never heard of him or seen him before - oh another young guy maybe who is filling in for someone I should know.... we sit 2 tables away and see the big man smiling walking around felling comfortable with himself and checking out the piano he will play..the rest of the band is on the stage @ 9:05 and a different looking youngish early 30ish man with a little cassette recorded starts fiddling with it against his guitar strings..and it starts. With a few sheets of music in front of Jones and Seabrook the music had started. Darius is playing slow and soft and only accompanied by Seabrook who is taping him and rewinding and feeding it back through his strings - wtf.... and it gets good - long 22-25 minute piece with all involved - multiple themes with Cleaver and that young bassist subdued with one solo by the big man, that man, the guy I was really there to see no matter what for my first time live, who I found out really was the wonderous, the *great* Mr. Cooper-Moore - yeah I heard him on record and all, but this was Cooper-Moore with guys 20 years his junior. next was a ballad that turned into a stilted, off kilter exposition of guitar and alto with what might have seemed like some pianist from what might some sort of romantic era of jazz or other musical history - then they transformed into the next tune which was the most upbeat with the bassist and drummer emerging into what I hear as ghosts of Louis Moholo-Moholo filtered through Andrew Cyrille into what is a unique and synchronzied groove that appears and dissappears without seeming being planned - very nice set. one never leaves before a second set if at all possible unless the wife or the club forces one too. they come on @ 10:40 and blow the fucking roof off the place - first piece Darius Jones and especially the guitarist take this music that might be called jazz and bring it too places that I rarely hear - jazz is dead, Nicholas?? holy fuck and Cooper-Moore and Seabrook who if it like the bassist, Pascal who told me he never met the pianist before this past Monday - maybe the guitar man never did either - They played off each other played the same notes when they were never played before and it was a maelstrom of greatness - all of them the bassist and guitarist using their bows, all organically woven into the compositions - a beautiful cacophony, indeed. then the massive crunch of the bows of each string instrument, with Pascal using a silverish bowl, with Cleaver scraping one cymbal extraordinarily morphed into that distant and then immense swing/beat tight groove with Jones always playing the ground force, with that Lyonesque alto always up front and powerful not out of place as maybe it should have been taking into account what we heard from the piano and guitar. Brandon Seabrook is the best guitarist I saw this year despite seeing Nels Cline and Mark Ducret - so how about that? and Cline and Ducret were and are great - but what I experienced last night.... and the band and the music, not good, not excellent, simply spectacular - they had played all week - the previous night @ Cornelia Street and the other nights @ other venues - and maybe they hit their peak for the second 45-50 minute set. my friend Chris said it was the best concert of any kind he has ever attended, I wonder if he could sleep last night?? you know how some say - if I could have been there when so and so played or it must have been something in 1958 or 1966 or whatever, it was something last night, jazz is dead, indeed - totally unlike any other band I have ever seen, all unique and strong voices unlike any others - and there is nothing like Cooper-Moore when is clapping or shouting when he is so damn inspired when he is not even playing hitting all of those 88 keys with might, grace, fingers elbows, forearms and in orders that have never been played before - he is a force of nature and he sat down with me, told me about David S Ware, William Parker and having dinner in Italy with Joe Maneri, and he staring to tell me poem he wrote about Peter Kowald and how he will play with some young guys at Peter's former home this spring, and with smile and grace that it uncommon in this world, I loved the meet you Mr. Cooper-Moore -you make my eyes water and you made my heart sing last night - with all those young guys in Mr. Gerald Cleaver's band - jazz is dead, alas not even thinking about not breathing.... they missed nothing it was surely the sound of surprise...had high expectations but it was totally different than I imagined, like some sort of alternate jazz I had never heard before even though besides the guitarist who played like no other I have ever heard, I know this music a bit - but they still trasnformed it into something new, fresh, organic - wow.

waiting for full report, Ubu Love a larger band with the *great* Tom Rainey I plan on putting my report in by tomorrow!

Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC Tonight: Saturday, Dec 10 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM GERALD CLEAVER Gerald Cleaver, drums; Darius Jones, alto saxophone; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Cooper-Moore, piano & diddly-bow; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass will be my first time hearing Cooper-Moore live and I cannot wait - not many gigs feature the very unique pianist/instrumentalist/improvisor. *especially* thrilled to be going to experience the wonder of the *great* Darius Jones live once more as the last time from about 3 feet away was beyond my wildest expectations.

No Tony Malaby at the Vanguard 1/31 through 2/5 Damn shame.....

all I know is that Mat Maneri played with his band this past summer at the Vanguard and it is hard ti imagine him being let on that stage without being in Paul's band. yes - Mat is one of the great improvisors in music today - Papa Joe used to say that he was the best musician is his band - even back in 1993 when they made those classic quartet recordings. I beg to differ as great as Mat is, Joe was on a different, yet much odder and abstract level. Let's see if Tony Malaby takes *that* stage from 1/31 through 2/5 now that Paul Motian is no longer with us.