Steve Reynolds

Tons of actual current ones last weekend live / 2 amazing sets Mary Halvorson Michael Formanek Tomas Fujiwara They call themselves Thumbscrew best superband i ever saw was Peter Brotzmann’s Chicago Tentet Herr Brötzmann plus Mats Gustafsson Ken Vandermark Mars Williams Joe McPhee Fred Lonberg-Holm Jeb Bishop Kent Kessler Michael Zerang Hamid Drake live 2000 & 2002 @ Tonic on Norfolk Street in NYC

Listening to the 18 minute piece from the quartet with Picard, Niesemann, Guy & Niggli It’s incredible how fresh this “old school” improv sounds. These “small formation” improvisations always stun me with their vibrancy. Niggli is a powerhouse. Guy is as great as ever at over 70.

No company provides better service than Not Two records

Disorder at the Border plus Tobias Delius Kataklisma fundacja sluchaj Daniele D’Agaro, Giovanni Maier & Zlatko Kaucic no Ornette covers like the astounding Not Two release but the addition of the great Delius makes this a great show/release / all fully improvised. Maier is a great great bassist. recorded live on 9/15/2017

Received my boxes today. Starting with the 2018 5 CD box. Lots of Purcy & Rafal. Can never get enough of these musicians. Add in Snekkestad, Mette, Lytton, KV Agusti & Ramon Lopez and what you have appears to be magic music. 4 discs of improv then a new 57 minute piece with Mats Gustafsson & Liudas Mockunas (2 of the greatest saxophonists on the planet) added and I think I’m looking forward to disc 5.

Thumbscrew (both sets) were incredible last night. Stunning on all kinds of levels. yes, Mary is GOD:)

Thumbscrew (Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek & Tomas Fujiwara) are playing Friday & Saturday night at Jazz Gallery / 4 sets / I expect full house both nights / about 80 to 90 people I think. I’ll be there for the 7:30 set on Saturday. Bringing a friend who only knows classic jazz and some jam band stuff. I expect him to like the guitar player:)

For this sort of basically “non-commercial” music anything close to filling 100 seats is pretty great. Not easy music. Invigorating and challenging to my ears.

RIP, sir Played with Can ~1968 and his out solo on the opening track “Millionenspiel” from The Lost Tapes is blazing.

Saw them last night @ Roulette in Brooklyn / wonderful. Especially Tomeka Reid who is a genius level cellist. Great large crowd. Amazing energy & enthusiasm in the great concert space.

His groups and these musicians / young & old / continue to create stunning freely improvised music. The level of improvisation and truly creative music that are on these boxes is astounding. Especially Tensegrity & Intensegrity with dudes like Agusti, Evans, Gabriel & Snekkstadt (spelling) etc.

Easiest automatic order ever. As you all know I’m of the voice that all of the previous Barry Guy box sets are the ultimate in modern intense free improvisation.

Birdman & Colours Fulfilled are among the best 2 free jazz records ever made.

Where was this or is this show? I saw this group at Vision Fest in June and they were spectacular. Plus Shipp has never been my favorite pianist. On this night he showed a side of his composing & piano mastery I had not experienced previously.

Phil Lesh & Friends with John Scofield, Grahame Lesh, Ivan Neville, Karl Denson, Eric Krasno & Alex Koford 2nd Row Loge @ Capital Theatre in Port Chester, NY

To my ears, she’s one of the greatest improvisors on the planet.

Hoping Dan is OK

Tonight Tomeka Reid with Mary!!!, Jason Roebke & Tomas Fujiwara!! you also see stuff I will never see:)

Agree / a bunch of us were on this board and JCS during this time railing about the dross that was and still mostly is “mainstream” jazz. long live Jazz Corner & Jazz Central Station Alive in the House of Saints, baby

other great shows One of the Eskelin/Parkins/Black shows at Tonic was so beyond incredible. Maybe 1999. Berne/Gress/Rainey maybe 98 or 99 stunning Drake with Mat Maneri & Rob Brown / stunning DKV on 3/27/2001 / unbelievable Evan Parker, Berne, Gress & Mark Sanders May 2001 at Knitting Factory / set 2 !!!! Trio 3 Knitting Factory Dunmall with Rogers & Norton knitting factory in a small room!!!!!! With bagpipes!!!

This!!! Emphasis on Denis Charles, Eskelin-Parkins-Black, Clusone 3, Thomas Chapin, Tapscott eremite records was a force / 2 Days in April with Fred, Kidd, William & Hamid seeing that band circa year 2000 was incredible. add What We Live / the 2 CD’s with Dave Douglas & Wadada Leo Smith Even The Sounds Shine, baby!!

Some of the greatest things ever from the 90’s are: Braxton’s hat ART classic quartet Willisau & Santa Cruz Gerry Hemingway’s hat ART European quintet recordings Joe Maneri’s great recordings on hat ART & Leo Ivo Perelman on Leo DKV trio live in Wels/Chicago from 1998 Evan Parker’s peak period was the 90’s Paul Dunmall & Mujician from the 90’s is extraordinary David Murray’s numerous quartet & quintets from the early 90’s are great (although not my ring these days) Fred Anderson’s stuff / plus all the great okkadisk releases in general started here Mats Gustafsson’s great early trio stuff with Barry Guy I saw a bunch of shows in the late 90’s and early 2000’s in NYC and none of it was warmed over free jazz. Tim Berne, Mark Whitecage, Andrew Hill, Dave Holland, Marty Ehrlich, Ray Anderson, Fred Anderson, Joe Maneri, David S Ware, Instant Composers Pool, Willem Breuker, Joe Maneri, Gerry Hemingway, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Marilyn Crispell with Barry Guy & Gerry Hemingway. Etc. Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Die Like a Dog, Evan Parker with Mark Dresser & Bobby Previte, Dunmall with Paul Rogers & Kevin Norton. John Lindberg, etc. this live music changed my life

Tomeka Reid Quartet @ Jazz Gallery in NYC 7:30 & 9:30 sets Tomeka on cello Mary Halvorson on guitar Jason Roebke on bass Tomas Fujiwara on drums center table first row:)

The last real connection to Coltrane’s working band(s) loved the early screaming wailing beautiful music. Some said it was ugly but Beauty is a Rare Thing. Oh to have been there. RIP, sir

Sorry but the Dead never played “Impressions” at a live concert. You must have it mixed up with something similar. In their later years they riffed on So What a bit but that is really ancillary to what they were doing. Not from you CJ, but I hear more opinions about the music of the Grateful Dead from those who know songs like Sugar Magnolia, Truckin’, Casey Jones or Touch of Grey than those who have actually made an effort to listen closely to some of their famous shows - most of which are commercially available and often in very good to excellent sound. The reason it’s apt for this thread is that they are really the *only* extremely popular rock group whose music has a huge component of improvisation. The classic live performances of one period as an example: 1972 through 1974 has some of the most astonishing improvised passages of music ever created. Just the Dark Stars played and recorded in 1972 reveal musical depth that many are still coming to terms with. Jerry, Phil & Bob in that year (and from 1969 through 1978 in general) are playing at a very high level. Keith Godchaux in the years 1972 & 73 (to a lesser extent in 74-77) is improvising on a surreal level. He was a truly great pianist from an improvising perspective. But Garcia & Lesh were the true core and both were masters at their craft. It’s my view that Jerry Garcia was just about the best guitarist I’ve ever heard. I used to mock Dead Heads who thought like this. It took me hearing a massive amount of improvised music from the greatest musicians in the world to think about Garcia like this. In fact he stands right next to all my favorites as an improvisor. Current & historical. From Coltrane to Evan Parker to Cecil to Misha to John Butcher to Nate Wooley to Joe McPhee to any of them. Don’t let the overwhelming “thing” that is the Grateful Dead cloud what actually happened. Certainly the “scene” is insular and many of it's most fervent followers/listeners don’t know a thing about jazz, other improvised musics, etc. This was a huge turnoff for me as well in my formative musical years when I was amazed many of them never heard of King Crimson or other creative rock groups. As the decades have passed my musical tastes have gotten much more geared to the avant-garde. Especially the last 10-15 years. But rediscovering the Dead 7-8 years ago revealed a group that at their peak played the most extraordinary improvised music with a rock vibe I’ve ever heard. So to me they are all that and often more.