Steve Reynolds

Damn do I miss hearing drummers in the room

Lost track of recent music but Mujician was a defining band for me maybe 20 years ago. “Birdman” & “Colours Fulfilled” remain for me two of the ultimate fully improvised free jazz recordings with Tippett at the core of that incredible inventive beauty. As I once said about Mujician at it’s peak (and was mocked strongly) the greatest improvised music in the history of improvised music RIP to one of the true great voices of this music

Random great recording The Mouser Tomeka Reid on cello Filippo Monico on drums Relative Pitch Records 5 improvised pieces a bit under 40 minutes

FWIW I’m thrilled to have discussions about actual modern avant-garde and Free improvised music here. It’s too much of a rarity. Would love to have more people join this thread. btw I mention the NY drummers as those are the ones I’ve seen the most. I’m a fan and a listener of drummers from everywhere!! Frank Rosaly and Michael Zerang are another two of my very favorites.

Cleaver has as wide a range as any drummer is this wide idiom. What he played last December with Steve Baczkowski & Brandon Lopez as compared to what I’ve heard him play with Farmers by Nature (not a favorite trio of mine) or with Mat Maneri and let’s say Ivo Perelman could be wildly different. What I saw/heard at a trio show in 2018 with Tony Malaby, Tim Dahl & Ben Monder was almost Can like. Cleaver used to irritate to no end when he would NOT play in that manner. With some groups or on some nights he could/can become somewhat passive or too subtle. He’s been a long term acquired taste for me over the last 10 to 15 years. Most or at least many of the groups that Nasheet Waits would play in have little interest to me but when he is placed in a position to play his aggressive rolling polyrythmic style with a great bassist/guitarist and a saxophonist like Malaby if Tony is getting to it, there is little like it in this world. Hyperbole??? Not even close again Summer 2018 with Monder & Malaby, the first 30 minute piece of the second set was as great of an energy jazz based drumming performance as I’ve seen/heard live over the past 5 years. Stunning stuff.

I wouldn’t think so:) the top tier guys are really something. Very hard to duplicate what they do on records/recordings. With some of them I’ve never heard anything close to what they sound like live on record. Rainey and especially Nasheet Waits. I’ve seen 3 or 4 shows/sets with Nasheet (usually with Tony Malaby) that I still almost cannot believe what I heard. As great as Sorey, Smith and Peterson have come across on some recordings, their *sound* live in a small space is beyond belief if you’ve never experienced it. Specially at either the original Stone (new location at New School to a slightly lesser extent) but at the since closed Cornelia Street Cafe I’ve heard all these guys in that narrow room seemingly get inside my body. Nasheet one night with Formanek & Malaby was like a hurricane. Randy Peterson once @ Firehouse 12 in New Haven with Daniel Levin & Malaby was so powerful no recording could ever capture his energy/force. Also the above being said, what I would give to hear Lucas Niggli, Steve Noble, Paul Lovens (if healthy) or Mark Sanders in one of those rooms. Right now though I’d settle for the NY guys as I’m really feeling the missed shows - though the great creative avant leaning musicians missing out is obviously a much larger loss for the musicians themselves

Darius is one of the best saxophonists on the NYC scene Cleaver is certainly one of the best 4 or 5 drummers of the current amazing crop of avant-garde leaning drummers(Ches Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Randy Peterson, Nasheet Waits, Tom Rainey, etc).

Random do not miss recording Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host Life in the Sugar Candle Mines with Cooper-Moore, Darius Jones, Brandon Seabrook & Pascal Niggenkemper Northern Spy Records I saw them twice (including their first concert in December 2010 @ Cornelia Street Cafe) and they were unbelievably great both times. This recording captures a good amount of that live energy/power which is very hard to replicate on disc being these shows were experienced from less than 10 feet from Cleaver’s drum kit.

Don’t miss Siero I also like Suite for Helen F quite a bit Sad Life, En Adir & Sound Hierarchy are great Seeds, Visions & Counterpoint has some great peaks I also have not kept up but I have a nice trio disc or two with Mat Maneri and I think Whit Dickey I can do without 100 recordings with Matt Shipp not sure what the point is

Free jazz blog is a good resource labels: Not Two Records No Business Records Intakt Relative Pitch Trost look up Catalytic Sound AUM Fidelity for more traditional downtown sounds Pi recordings Ogun look up Cafe Oto for related labels Joe McPhee alone has released at least 20 or 25 great recordings over the past 10 to 15 years

I hate music site is back on line thread is Free Jazz/improv albums 2005-2015. I think I have a bunch of posts there. If I can figure it out, I’ll try to copy some of that information for here.

Usually these boxes from Not Two take about a month. I’m thoroughly enjoying the Wooden Box. Maybe a bit traditional (some standard Brotzmann duos with Nilssen-Love - very good but not otherworldly) but the disc with Guy & Leandre together with other musicians added is pretty great. There are also 3 or 4 various trio or quartet circa 20 minutes or so pieces that are terrific. Plus it’s the most attractive box set I own.

Random great recording Spinning Jenny Daniel Levin Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Chris Corsano Trost records recorded @ Firehouse in New Haven, CT on 8/21 & 22, 2015

Memories of a Tunicate Peter Brotzmann & Fred Lonberg-Holm recorded in Studio on 6/12/2019 on Relative Pitch records

Nice list from Colin as I wrote in a PM to FOTB I posted some of my ear worms of the past decade plus in detail on another board as often here it isn’t really of interest to the large majority. But maybe I’ll be inspired today revisiting one of the 4 tremendous Barry Guy Small Formation box sets on Not Two Records - Mad Dogs on The Loose with mostly more old school improvisors - mostly the same players as are on the original (and sadly way out of print and hard to come by - Mad Dogs) 4 CD set with great slabs of fairly typical yet often overwhelmingly munificence care of the grand masters of the idiom. These are the members of The Barry Guy New Orchestra of the early 2010’s - Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Johannes Bauer, Herb Robertson, Raymond Strid, Paul Lytton, Per Ake Holmlander, Hans Koch, Trevor Watts, Augusti Fernandez & Maya Homberger maybe my real intro to the wide world of the *great* Agusti Fernandez

Ken Vandermark 7 CD box set Unexpected Alchemy with: Nate Wooley John Butcher Eddie Prevost Steve Noble Hamid Drake Joe McPhee John Tilbury Ikue Mori Mette Rasmussen Kent Kessler on Not Two Records

The Dave Rempis releases on his Aerophonic label are all very good to incredible currently listening to ICOCI which is Dave with Jasper Stadhouders & Frank Rosaly pretty incredible how consistently great these recordings are. I’m sure Rempis is a good curator picking the best shows but the creativity of all the various small groups along with Rempis’ saxophone playing (as good a technical virtuosic player as exists in this idiom) is really astounding.

RIP, Sir I'm imagining what he experienced - what a life

I want to get this one. I love Akira Sakata.

Plus Paul Rogers & Louis Moholo!!!

Shipping notice🤗🤗

I hope you have the Dennis Gonzalez CD

Pre-ordered very glad you hear about this recording

Dave’s 34 is amazing. Bonus disc from the previous night (6/22/74) might be even better. The sound of the Wall really comes through. Phil is immense.

I’m speaking for me as well as friends of mine who are regular attendees of shows that I see in NYC (or used to see). There is a depth to Peter’s playing due to his lifetime of music. It is there clearly for anyone willing to listen. However you are not alone. Many have moved on for the more traditional forms of post-Coltrane “free jazz” or the more historical “non-idiomatic” improvised music that people like Brotzmann, Parker, Schlippenbach, Guy et al are still practicing. Understood. I also am very interested in newer approaches that discard many of these more typical elements. fwiw the quartet with Trzaska, Mats, Holmlander & Mazur is very good with Mats in a mode somewhere in between his extremes. I also think Gustafsson’s later music is very much more interesting than what he was doing 20 years ago - bedsides The Thing which has never been what he does best.