Steve Reynolds

In the midst of a very long and now in depth thorough personal re-evaluation listening journey of all things Dead with my focus, as always, centering on Jerry Garcia despite my interest in the other's music and imput, especially Phil Lesh. Without Lesh, the band doesn't exist and never makes it to 1970. His influence on the direction and success of the music cannot be understated. Not sure why I bring that up here but this morning I put 5/2/70 in the player starting with the cut into St. Stephen. This was the beginning of the electric set of I'm not mistaken. Segue into The Other One Suite>Cosmic Charlie. Then Casey Jones and Good Lovin' for me the Pig Pen Good Lovins are way more miss than hit - BUT 69-70 versions of the others above are powerhouse vehicles for strongest hard core rock music ever played in the history of time. The *only* stuff that compares for me from The Dead of that time is the Viola Lee Blues that is on disc 2 and a few Alligator/Caution blowouts as well as many of the Dark Stars from this time-frame. sure there was much great very heavy rock music made in the period of 67- 75 or so and I've long been a fan and follower of much of it but this stuff has an extra special gift of being played with an improvisatory bent and the band happens to include 2 dudes who transcend their instruments and basically in conjunction with the band, invented a new kind of music. 5/2/70 is right in the middle of all of it

9/3/77: Grateful Dead @ Englishtown, NJ: 20 minute rip-roaring transcendent version of "Not Fade Away"

Low Profile is an overlooked gem with stunning playing from a young Dave Douglas

Digging into the Shrine 11/10/67 show - fascinating to hear the boys learning how to play. The ultra early The Other One Suite is pretty fucking incredible

Was 16 - just discovering more interesting music other than the radio songs - maybe the year I heard Glad/Freedom Rider and then Dear Mr. Fantasy and bought all of the Traffic LPs - rode my bike many miles to find an original version of the great second LP. The great band and those great records started to teach my how to listen.

Wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting them. Both are very special musicians. Especially Mr. Cyrille. My first jazz concert was Trio 3 maybe 1994 or so.

Just about to post this as this is shot to the gut for me having never seen the boisterous one live and in person. What a sound he made. An integral part of the Barry Guy New Orchestra and is well featured on both of the incredible Mad Dogs boxes on not two. I have always had a very strong fondness for the committed out dudes on low brass and he was one those dudes. RIP, Sir

Amazing line-ups and I really don't know the locals save for that great recording by the second to the last band with the great French trumpter with Ewart, etc. the festival if *just* for the drummers is mind-bending: Mark Sanders, Paal Nilssen-Love, Kjell Nordeson, Michael Vatcher, Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake!!!! And I might have missed some!?!? Incredible bounty you will experience, Oliver

Search out any or all 3: The Flame Alphabet Searching for Adam This is Our Language former features local cellist and drummer with Jeb Bishop as Amado's foil, middle recording features NYC dudes Taylor Ho Bynum(or maybe from a little north of the city - not sure), John Hebert & Gerald Cleaver with the great drummer as powerful as I've ever heard him - on record or even live the newest - last on the list - I've only listened to twice and it has a shot to be comparable to these other awesome records. Initial highlight is Joe McPhee - rhythm team is Kessler & Corsano Amado's style or language is very unique in that it is essentially groove based free jazz inprovisations that eschew the more detailed small improv *and* free jazz blowout screaming escatic style. No sheet music here and always focused group improvisation often with both horns in play simultaneously these 3 recordings are the works of a major tenor (sometimes baritone) saxophonists recorded with sympathetic world class musicians - all recordings are edited to somewhat short lengths - both The Flame Alphabet & This is Our Language have LP running time (low 40 minutes or so) so there is little or no filler. Not a track on any of these records I'm ever thinking of skipping plus the sound quality on all three of these is as good or better as anything I own. For the audiophiles here, I say try The Flame Alphabet first - hard choice as the sound that Cleaver makes on that record is like he is in the room. The only label I've heard that makes current recordings that sound this good are Nessa and maybe Hat Art (when they made a few more new recordings!)

Dick's Picks 16 from 11/8/69 contains continuous 90 minute playing covering most of discs 2 & 3. Despite not optimum sound for Garcia's guitar, this is mostly beastly primo primal Dead in peak awe inspiring power improv mode

That band is the Grateful Dead since Thelonious Monk is unknown by most people today, he must not have been that good anyways....

My favorite non-jazz or non-free improv music is the band that played for more people than any other musical outfit in the history of the world. as far as some of the comments regarding subjective reasoning, I do *know* that Duane Allman was one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived and it has *nothing* to do with an opinion. as is the case with Peter Brotzmann when it comes to playing a horn

Nice post as always for me I am pretty sure about many things relative to music but if I'm too sure, I'm lost I do pause when I have experienced music live that is beyond possible and the most beyond for me might always be that show at Tonic when a large band played two 40 minute sets with a couple of us screaming a few times but the whole world save for about 50 or 60 people was oblivious that what was happening that night at Tonic, a night that was 2/11/70 through 2/14/70 at The Fillmore East for us 50 or 60 people. And yeah people were screaming "BROTZMANN!!!!!!" One screamed referencing GOD like they did when Clapton was said to be that. I thought Mats might have been Jah that night. Certainly Drake & Zerang combined might have been. yes for some of us Peter Brotzmann is way way way way more important or beyond than Prince and yes for me 2/13/70 or 2/14/70 would be the days of all days I could revisit if that shit existed in real life. Jerry & Duane with the bands back to back all night long?!?! Playing the shit they played then?!?!? At least we got Dick's Picks 4. now Jim that is what is called "Bringing It" still..... Coming Down the Mountain

C'mon, Jim energy, power, vibe - all of it - I'm a rock guy for years before I ever heard anything else and Prince never was on the level of my take - my taste maybe but I'm far from alone - you all can continue to worship his music as some sort of panacea but I never heard it that way give me the Youth on their worst day....

Enjoying the thread - not many thoughts or interest in Prince here - I liked a tune of two enough to not turn it off back in the day but wow - except that I'm amazed we get 5 pages here but how many will we get when Brotzmann goes.... for me when it comes to more popular forms of music/Rock/pop, there be 50 guys/girls/bands who could bring it way heavier than Prince. D Boon, RIP from 30+ years ago and many more

Thought of our friend Clifford when these fucking guys play a suite selected from Skies of America with no rehearsal with only a 10 minute set-up by Josh Sinton and some charts. 50 minutes later I'm dumbfounded. Heard the piece 20 something years ago. This thing last night if it was released would bend the 2-3 minds that should be kicking themselves for not being in front of the maelstrom. 2 drummer back line awe-inspiring despite maybe never having played besides each other - how's that work?!?!? lots of winners all round but that new guy tenor dude from the first band is a real voice, Sinton is always immense, but Nate Wooley and Darius Jones take the cake - they oughtta be - well you know.... wow - why I sometimes take the rush hour 2 hour drive to Brooklyn on a weekday Giants Walk This Earth

Very sad. My wife befriended or reconnected with his wife a couple of years back - a wonderful woman who was a childhood friend. I therefore heard second hand the awful reality of the repercussions of his 2011 stroke. RIP

Combination of Dark Star>Sugar Magnolia>Caution (Do Not Stop On The Tracks) from 4/8/72 @ Wembley Pool, London now *this* is the sequence of all sequences for the naysayers of The Grateful Dead energy level through the roof

Excellent in/out quartet at Cornelia Street Cafe featuring Ellery Eskelin & Eric McPherson on 4/22. Plus the bassist Stephan Crump is excellent / not familiar with the trumpeter Plus I'm going to an amazing show on 4/21 in Brooklyn @ Threes Brewing 2 bands playing Ornette music featuring a quartet with Darius Jones, Nate Wooley, Trevor Dunn & Ryan Sawyer and a quintet featuring Josh Sinton. Been wanting to see the above quartet for a while - awesome alto/trumpet tandem with what looks like should be a destructive bass/drum team 3rd set combines the 2 for a Nonet who will play some of Skies of America

Lots of incredible stuff but the choice is the second 16+ minute track from "Hotel Grief" - unexplainable and uncategorizable

One never knows what be real..... maybe one day my new minion Kate might take a visit to NYC this August and experience a tired,decrepit, dying sub-genre of music known as free jazz with losers has beens/never weres like Joe McPhee, William Parker, Joe Morris, Tony Malaby, Hamid Drake, Gerald Cleaver, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mat Maneri all playing within 4 days of each other with a few sets that have the double drumming pair of the above Cleaver and Drake!!!! All available from a few feet away..... not sure about 83-84 Dead though.....???

Grateful Dead: Viola Lee Blues 5/2/70

Been listening to much Dead lately with an emphasis on many different Dark Stars from 68 through 74. I have the bug?

Black Saint is one of the many of mine that disappeared!!

Say hi to Tony from Steve Reynolds from Wayne, NJ if you can?