Steve Reynolds

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.

Just received my box yesterday wondrous presentation as far as Brotzmann I’m more thrilled to hear him these days than ever. He’s a treasure for many of us who hear in his voice on his various reeds a sound of love and maybe anger, the resonance of a passion from deep within. The 23 minute trio piece on disc one with Guy & Kaucic is everything I thought it would be and more. Sure it’s what we know they do but it’s so forceful and focused as Peter switches from his horns to the last passage on the tenor. Glorious. this is music made from a lifetime of playing and living.

Saw him a few times since the comeback missed the incendiary trio with Dunmall & Cyrille from 2009, I think. It’s a very intense set - I missed it because I knew it was going to be very very hot in the hall and I understand it was even hotter!!! RIP to a true improvisor

Saw Lee in France (forget the City) in maybe 1994 with Reggie Workman and a drummer I was unfamiliar with. Lew Tabackin was in the audience. it was the first or second jazz show I ever saw. RIP, Sir!!

Took me ~2 weeks to listen to anything freely improvised - the stress level for me was pretty high although through my recovery process my wife and I are at a more peaceful place. Thank Jah for that. Over the past couple of weeks when I have listened (I’m very busy 8:30 to 6:00 during the week working from home) - and when I have I’ve been as moved by the current modern magical improvised and improvised/composed jazz & jazz related music as I ever have. Maybe I took it for granted. It’s a true golden age of avant-garde jazz/improvised music despite the almost complete lack of attention it receives. The last 5-10 years has been a gold mine of musical riches from both young and old - and from all corners of the world. I dearly miss the live shows and I’m devastated to think of the economic hardship of my current musical heroes here in NYC and around the world. I pray for my number 1, 2 & 3 - Mat, Randy & Tony - but of course for ALL of the musical warriors that have been at the fore front of improvised music while always knowing there would never be any economic reward - especially for the young dudes & dudettes, my heart is strong for all of you. still...... Coming Down the Mountain

They might have used a sub title of “small formations” to describe the release. In any event we do NOT have live music to attend to and to support our heroes so this release for me is the closest thing to have something bedsides worry and fear and the unknown to look forward to. All of the great Guy boxes end with a medium length full orchestra (or almost full band) piece. The last one (probably the best of the 4 boxes, IMO) Intensegrity has the full length Guy composition on disc 5.

Just released in limited edition 5 CD wooden box small formations then one 8+ minute full band piece if I can remember (it’s on the website) here are the musicians: Barry Guy Maya Homburger Joelle Leandre Agusti Fernandez Mats Gustafsson Peter Brotzmann Steve Swell Rafal Mazur Per-Ake Holmlander Mikolaj Trzaska Ken Vandermark Paal Nilsson-Love Zlatko Kaucic Without a doubt for me the most exciting upcoming release of the year - the combinations look very exciting. My guess is that the legends brought their A games to this mini-festival that led to this release. peace and blessings to everyone here in these difficult times

Me too

Sold out in NYC @ Le Poisson Rouge I’ve recently started listening a bit to them and I’m a bit intrigued I am kind of amazed that they have such a following for the type of improvised music they play when many other great improvising ensembles barely fill small rooms. maybe I would understand more if I see them live but per the above sold out before I even knew the shows existed