Steve Reynolds

Now here is the next order: from No Business: Joelle Leandre Sudo Quartet with Carlos Zingaro, Sebi Tramontona & Paul Lovens Intracacies: Paul Hubweber, Frank Paul Schubert, Alexander Von Schlippenbach & Clayton Thomas Kidd Jordan, Peter Kowald & Alvin Fielder - Duo & Trio in New Orleans - 2 CD sets Red Trio with Mattias Stahl: North and the Red Stream Peter Kuhn with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker & Denis Charles - No Coming, No Going - Music from 1978-79 - 2 CD set Mats Gustafsson - Vilnius Explosion then I filled my Brotzmann Tentet gap with both American Landscape CD’s from 2007 along with the 2 CD set from 2011 - Love, Walk, Sleep

I’m not interested in pre-1950’s jazz but I would never call it “crap” because it is outside of my musical taste. Just because West Coast cool jazz of the 50’s is well outside of my musical taste, you’ll never see me referring that well respected music as “crap” (Well respected and loved by those who listen to it - just as Brotzmann’s music is well respected and loved by those who listen to it) For you to continue to ignorantly refer to the music that Peter Brotzmann has dedicated his life to for over 50 years as “crap” is offensive in the extreme. Just because you hear the little of it you might have sampled as “screeching” doesn’t mean it is crap because you hear “screeching”. If you have no interest in modern free/avant-garde jazz, please do us a favor and refrain from your ignorant uninformed rantings on the subject. You don’t see me commenting on 1940’s or 50’s dance music.

Year End Holiday orders via Not Two records: Joelle Leandre: Woman’s Work - 8 CD set - mostly duos & trios from the last 5-10 years. I expect the typical great production and sound from Not Two records the above ordered with these other recent or fairly recent releases on Not Two: Hans Peter Hiby, Michael Bardon & Paul Hession: Roots / first listen to the saxophonist & bassist - excited to hear the beastly Hession on drums Mats Gustafsson Nu Ensemble - Hidros 6 - Knockin’ - large ensemble with the best of the best including Peter Evans, Joe McPhee, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten, Agusti Fernandez, Kjell Nordeson & Paal Nilssen-Love Rafal Mazur, Percy Pursglove & Ramon Lopez: Threefold - Pursglove on trumpet is new to me but I’ve become a big fan of Mazur on acoustic bass guitar. Peter Brotzmann with Takeo Moriyama & Masahiko Satoh: Yatagarasu Marco Colonna, Agusti Fernandez & Zlatko Kaucic: Agrakal - Colanna on reeds is new to me Harvey Sorgen, Joe Fonda & Marilyn Crispell: Dreamstruck - nice to the great pianist on this label - excited to hear how they capture her sound. Joe Fonda is one of the most underappreciated bassists in this music The Diagonal which is a Quintet with Jeff Parker, Jeb Bishop, Pandelis Karayorgis. Curt McBride & Luther Gray - probably the recording among all of these that might be a bit more towards straightish jazz than normal for me. The inclusion of the great trombonist Bishop and the wonderful pianist Karayorgis convinced me to put it in my cart Nu Band: The Cosmological Constant: Mark Whitecage, Thomas Heberer, Joe Fonda & Lou Grassi - I’ve seen them live and I’d love to see them again. Perfect blend of romping post bop/free bop and everything else I love about modern free jazz/improvisation and Heberer’s post-modernity is the perfect foil to more old school free jazzers like Whitecage & Grassi Harvey Sorgen, Herb Robertson & Steve Rust: Rumble Seat - I’ll buy anything with Herb Robertson Instruments of Change by Construction Party - quartet with Dave Rempis & Pandelis Karayorgis Joe McPhee: Isben’s Ghost - Quartet with Jeb Bishop, Haker-Flaten & Michael Zerang!!! Rafal Mazur, Michal Dymny & Vasco Trilla: Tidal Heating - two more new names for me

All of the music I listen to is physical media - CD’s purchased and stored on my shelves. Besides my ongoing purchases of new archival Grateful Dead Livereleases (I’ve also purchased 95% of the affordable portion of the huge amount of officially released live music that I’m interested in over the past 3-4 years) all of the jazz/free jazz/freely improvised music I buy is on independent labels such as Not Two, No Business, Erstwhile, Relative Pitch, Aerophonic, etc. I am more than happy to pay a fair amount for these releases to support their commitment to these great current musicians. Plus I STILL get excited about opening a package with an exquisitely produced CD or mini box such as the 8 CD Joelle Leandre set I’ll be receiving from Not Two records for the Holidays. There is something about the physical product that commits me to the music in a deeper way.

Maybe the most famous are the early February shows - triple bill: Allman Brothers Band Love Grateful Dead plus during the 2/11/70 show Duane Allman played with the Dead for a section of one of the shows. The 2/13 & 2/14/70 Grateful Dead shows are among the best the boys ever played and thankfully the best of the electric sets are immortalized on Dick’s Picks 4. plus we have the Dead back-to-back with Miles I believe in April and/or June 1970. The original King Crimson with Greg Lake & Michael Giles in December 1969 and many more.

Dig up the listings for the Fillmore East for 1968 through 1970

Listened again this A.M. I was stunned at what happens after the 20 minute mark. The whole thing is wonderous but the stuff with the electronics/synth and the two great saxophonists - just wow music to these ears. Like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I’m so excited about some of these new releases I’ve ordered another 9 or 10 CD’s for a present to myself. I’ve already ordered about 8 newer recordings from the Not Two catalog that I was missing so this time I mined the No Business catalog so I’ve got some interesting looking newish music coming plus the 2 CD set from Peter Kuhn from the late 70’s that I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’ve never heard him but I figured it’s got a very enticing combination of William Parker & Denis Charles plus early Kondo so I finally pulled the proverbial trigger!! Plus I ordered the 2 CD set duo & trio of Kidd Jordan with Peter Kowald & Alvin Fielder - another one I’ve been ruminating on for a couple of years.

I think it might be psi all small letters

But you are still tall!!!

This is the aspect that confuses me. I see the recording studios listed which seem to be well respected and many of the discs I have sound good (Joe McPhee with Jamie Saft, Joe Morris & Charles Downs - Ticonderoga, John Butcher with the Red Trio - Summer Skyshift, Tony Malaby’s Scorpion Eater or his last Tamarindo recording - Somoa Agua & one of the Martin Kuchen Angles CD’s come to mind as examples). These performances are good to great (Ticonderoga & Summer Skyshift are great performances to my ears). However compared to 95% of the releases on the labels I mentioned earlier, the sound is simply not an accurate representation of the music. The one that stands out are the Malaby recordings as I’ve seen these bands and they are explosive in person. Labels like Not Two & Nessa especially capture this depth and power of sound on their releases pretty much on every release. In the old days (90’s through maybe early 2000’s) it was Hat Art and some of the Black Saint & Soul Note releases that were beyond the standard fare as well as Eremite, AUM which also still release fantastically produced great sounding recordings. A few years back I bought 2 Trio CD’s from Avram Fefer at a show at The Stone. This was probably at least 5-6 years ago before I even familiar with Not Two Records. One of the releases was on Not Two (Eliyahu which must have been released shortly before the show as it was released in 2011) and the other was on Clean Feed. I remember listening to both of them shortly after the show and being astounded at the difference in the depth of sound and especially the sound of the drums & bass. So with SO many better sounding newly released CD’s available I only buy Clean Feed CD’s

I’m kinda irritated I missed the show last year. I would have loved to have seen the band and most importantly it would have been very cool to meet you. as many here know, I’m not the biggest fan of the Clean Feed label as the sound quality is variable at best for some unknown reason compared to the higher end labels such as Not Two, No Business, Firehouse 12, PSI or Nessa

Thanks for posting that. I’ve read that before - that might have prompted me to buy “Before the Silence”

Only recording I have of Cirera

Another great one: ”Before the Silence” Albert Cirera: tenor & soprano sax Hernani Faustino: bass Gabriel Ferrandini: drums Agusti Fernandez: piano on No Business Records recorded live on May 9th, 2015 at Jazz Cava de Vic during the Voll Damm Festival

Another fairly recent amazing release on Relative Pitch Records: Last Dream of the Morning John Butcher on tenor & soprano saxophones John Edwards on double bass Mark Sanders on drums recorded November 17th, 2016 @ The Fish Factory, Willesden, UK

On the list but Clean Feed recordings take a back seat to most other modern labels to me. Sound quality and production values leave a bit to be desired.

I think maybe the most exciting recent issues might be the two recent Not Two recordings that feature Joe McPhee. “Journey to Parazzar” is what initially appears to be a somewhat standard sax-bass-drums trio gig (noting that as mostly always McPhee plays a decent amount of his pocket trumpet along with his alto saxophone for this concert recording). Klaus Kugel is a fairly standard yet excellent drummer for this sort of thing but the inclusion of John Edwards gives it a shot to be special. First track of 28-29 minutes is great but the real treat is the next 20 minute piece then the two short pieces that ended the show. Not worth me trying to explain why but this is very special music and McPhee is playing in a manner that separates him from his peers. He takes lack of cliche to an extreme but doesn’t play with some of the extreme extended techniques that we hear from some of the younger players. the other is the previously discussed Sweet Oranges on which McPhee plays tenor saxophone & slide trombone Another stunning recent recording is the trio recording with Liudas Mockunas with Rafal Mazur & the *great* Raymond Strid - Live at Divadlo 29 - also on Not Two Records - under 40 minutes but worth it to the extreme Also I just ordered a holiday package that includes a bunch of unheard by me releases from Not Two: Joelle Leandre: A Woman’s Work - an 8 CD box that is mostly duets with 1 disc that is a quartet with Joelle, Evan Parker, Agusti Fernandez & Zlatko Kaucic (reminding me to remind you and everyone here of the great 5 CD Zlatko Kaucic box) Dreamstruck - Trio with Harvey Sorgen, Joe Fonda & Marilyn Crispell Threefold - Trio with Rafal Mazur, Percy Pursglove & Ramon Lopez Agrakal - Trio with Marco Colonna, Agusti Fernandez & Zlatko Kaucic plus some more traditional free jazz trios with Brotzmann & Hans Peter Hiby plus the brand new seemingly more traditional Quintet release called The Diagonal with Jeff Parker, Jeb Bishop, Pandelis Karayorgis, Nate McBride & Luther Gray) plus I dug up decent priced copies of Rumble Seat which is a trio with the GREAT Herb Robertson & the Nu Band’s Cosmological Constant which features the wonderous front line of Thomas Heberer & Mark Whitecage.

Another listen to the latter this morning. First 2 tracks (album is 5 tracks ranging from 10 to 12 minutes each) with Fernandez obsessed with the inside of the piano take some time to build some momentum. By the end of the second track, things are getting very exciting. Tracks 3 & 4 are high water marks for this sort of music. Evans & Gustafsson show so much restraint that when we get any sort of release the power & energy of this drummerless trio is really beyond any other group I’ve ever heard of this sort of configuration. Grand Masters of the highest order.

Agree with this - I’ve only played Pillars II so far and it is very interesting music. Last few minutes is stunning. It inspired me to go back to the last Tyshawn double CD and disc 2 of that disc is now exploding in my brain. Waited ~ 20 to 25 minutes for the drum kit but that’s Tyshawn. Forcing or inspiring me to listen and to have patience - Forcing or inspiring me to listen to the music as a whole and not necessarily the individual playing or improvising. Similar in those respects to small form electronic/acoustic improvisation.

Ben LaMar Gay: Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun Milford Graves Trio with Arthur Doyle: Babi plus BIG Holiday order being prepared🤗🤗

The demographic at the shows this Summer/Fall with Malaby et al was on the young side. Lots of young people there to see Nasheet Waits & Ben Monder. I’m sure Tim Dahl is exciting to people interested in alternate hard core, rock, progressive, etc. None looking for old school easy listening jazz. Last night for Mars et all had the old free jazz regulars and then lots of people younger than I am. I don’t think anyone left dissapointed.

I’ve had 3 or 4 younger friends get into jazz via the stuff I listen to live. My friend that I’m going to shows with these days (he’s almost 23) went to the Mars Williams show last night along with the 2 sets at Cornelia Street He told me some of the Ayler Christmas music set was tear inducingly great - that 12 days of Christmas as played by these masters was stunning. I mean we were in the front row 3-4 feet away we had Steve Swell & Williams - you know what’s it’s like to be that close to Steve Swell when plays trombone??? - with Nels Cline 8 feet away behind Swell with Tomeka Reid stage left 10 feet away and the wonderous Hilliard Greene straight back 8 feet away with Corsano maybe 12 feet away in the back left corner. Two 30 minute suites of unrelenting energy and moments of pure beauty. I think that concert would be a fine introduction to many newer listeners who are unfamiliar with jazz and maybe grew up on rock, hip-hop or whatever else. They don’t know that this stuff is “out” or “avant-garde” or “difficult” - they don’t know that jazz is supposed to sound like the jazz they might have heard from their fathers or grandfathers - they may not know the great classic jazz or the 50’s & 60’s and therefore not know that most or some of current jazz doesn’t sound anything like that any longer as it is now 50 to 60 years since that music was played!!! In fact our first show early this year was Mary Halvorson with Randy Peterson. favorite two shows were Tony Malaby with Tim Dahl, Ben Monder & Gerald Cleaver & Ben Monder with Malaby & Nasheet Waits - These nights were each 2 set monsters of far reaching abstract long form improvised music on the order of Can, 70’s Miles with a modern improvised edge that was way beyond either of the above. Both nights to my 2018 ears were among the best shows I’ve seen in 4-5 years. for all tastes - of course not - but let’s not misunderstand what open young listeners are going to get excited about. Some like drones, overtones, huge energy, off the hook virtuosity played with passion and fierce energy. He had been to Smalls a couple of years back and “liked” it but this stuff has him into it. His current dream is to see Peter Brotzmann one other guy a few years back when he was 23 or so went to a bunch of shows with me (he’s a rock bassist who also plays upright jazz bass) and his absolute favorite show was a duo of Peter Brotzmann & Hamid Drake. so sure in 1990 or so I heard KOB, Monk’s Music & Mingus Alice at Antibes but who’s to say if I didn’t SEE Thomas Chapin live with Mario Pavone & Michael Sarin or maybe even Anthony Braxton with Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser & Gerry Hemingway that I wouldn’t have come back for more? At that point I was listening to Beefheart, Crimson, Gong and many more - why wouldn’t I have been open to more out leaning jazz? In the end I wasn’t closed off but I might have been if I didn’t pick up the Penguin Guide where they gave Ellington or Dexter Gordon or John Coltrane great respect as well as being excited about Evan Parker or Misha Mengelberg or Peter Brotzmann

Mars Williams Ayler Christmas early 6:00 show at New Stone with: Nels Cline in guitar Steve Swell on trombone Hilliard Green on bass Tomeka Reid on cello Chris Corsano on drums then 2 sets at Cornelia Street - not familiar with the guiratist Gordon Grdina with: Mark Feldman on violin Hank Roberts on cello Mark Helias on bass Tom Rainey on drums I’ve never ever seen a band with 3 of the absolute greatest string players alive in one band - Plus the *great* Tom Rainey - looking forward to all of it

It works for what you like as well, Kevin

I think Per Ake Holmlander’s 3 CD release saves jazz once again today for me those improvisations with this young trumpeter I never heard of before 2 months ago, the *great* Steve Swell and this young woman double bassist I also never heard of before continue uplifting my spirits about everything. then the improvised/composed suite with the full large ensemble on disc 3 - Wow another incredibly exciting recording featuring musicians of all ages from all over the world. Good for all listeners. On Not Two Records