Steve Reynolds

Spontaneous Music Ensemble John Stevens' collective - my favorite is the last recording: A New Distance from right before his death in 1994 with a youngish John Butcher my ultimate suggestions for this music are the 2 Mad Dogs boxes on not two records. 9 discs total with all members of the Barry Guy New Orchestra in different combinations. Best sounding CDs I own and my overall favorite releases of the last 3-4 years. Tarfala, baby!!

So many great ones. I like your question, Scott What or are there any no brainer classics? I have a few of the above. Those are skewed more towards older music. I love "Nipples" and a couple of the others. Add Topography of the Lungs to that group for sure. for me I think some of the more recent EP recordings are more technically accomplished and you have one of the great ones: 50th Birthday Concert with both seminal trios. more recent awe inspiring recordings: Ghostly Thoughts : Dunmall, Adams & Sanders The Two Seasons: EP with John Edwards & Sanders - 2 CD set on emanem from 1999. Very intense almost all tenor with kick-ass performances by the bass/drum monster duo. Decoy plus Joe McPhee - either of the two CDs - Alexander Hawkins on B3 with Edwards and Steve Noble on drums. McPhee is awesome on both

Holiday order placed today - whittled it down to the following. I hated leaving off a couple of Rodrigo Amado discs (waiting on the new Not Two recording "This is Our Language" to come down in price by a few $$$) plus I again put off an expensive used copy of Ken Vandermark's Territory Band's "A New Horse for The White House". I still really want to hear that set of studio and live versions of KV large band compositions - the previous recording, "Company Switch" is very very good. But $40 for a 2 CD set is still a bit too much. What I did order is: Peter Brotzmann: 3 Nights in Oslo - 5 CD set John Butcher-Torsten Muller-Dylan Van Der Schyff: The White Spot (the other disc by this trio is phenomenal) Duke Ellington: Blues in Orbit Tomeka Reid Quartet including Mary Halvorson (on Thirsty Ear) Globe Unity Orchestra: 40 Years Evan Parker Steve Beresford John Edwards Louis Moholo-Moholo: Naan Tso Assif Tsahar: Deals and Ideals with Peter Kowald & Rashied Ali Fire Orchestra: Enter and Exit (figured get 'em both!!) David S Ware: Birth of a Being - recent reissue on AUM of the formerly rare Hat Hut LP

Don't miss Flight for Four. Always stunned by the sound and performance every time I listen. The sound compared to the recent re-issue of Self Determination Music (very unfortunately on a different label) is on another level. All props to International Phonograph. Whatever Jonathan does, he does it as good as anyone else. The only recordings of that era that compare sound wise are Nessa recordings. Plus as I've mentioned before as much as I adore Carter's clarinet, I am stunned by his earlier saxophone playing.

Larry - I think you are about to capsize the thread once more! fwiw, it's very understandable to me that some couldn't possibly imagine that Paul Lytton (among others) is an incredible accomplished musician There is no doubt that if listeners listen to similar easy to grasp melodic music on a regular basis for a very long time, whether it be jazz, blues, pop, rock or whatever, then that what some avant-grade musicians play will sound off putting and extreme. First time I heard Evan Parker on soprano was foreign sounding and extreme, but I had the patience and the interest and inquisitive nature to know that he was very accomplished in what he was playing. Whether I would be interested in listening further was unknown but I had already heard Ornette, Cecil and then guys like Oliver Lake, David Murray, David S Ware and many others. Damn first time I heard Dear Mr. Fantasy or Jimi Hendrix when I was 13 or 14, it sounded foreign and grating. All I had heard was top 40 or the Boston Pops on my mother's phonograph!! If I shut it down then, I never would have even liked Steely Dan or Traffic, let alone Paul Dunmall or Herr Peter Brotzmann I wasn't turned off by Albert Ayler or Archie Shepp or Ascension. Once I was accustomed to saxophones that didn't sound like Stan Getz or basses that didn't sound like Oscar Pettiford and once I *heard* Sunny Murray, I could hear Paul Lovens, Mark Sanders, and the *great* Paul Lytton. Seeing Lytton this fall with Wooley in two quartets was breathtaking. Sure not music for all ears, but no one who would hear those quarters with any sort of open mind, live in person, would question their musical acumen, whether they liked the music or not.

Door of the Cage, baby

Uh Oh the great Larry Kart did it again plus this time the thread was getting good

I'll miss the January NYC date but I'll be sure to see them on March 25th yes, Mark - and ZERO days off. For the love of the music for sure. I'll repeat that their opening gig (2 sets) @ Cornelia Street Cafe on a Sunday night in March of 2013 was as good a show as I saw that year. That show was freely improvised. The third gig was based on Ches Smith compositions @ Greenwich House and it was nearly as great. Either way, it is a magical trio.

Second set last night some douchebag and his girl chatting during the second set and this fool giving huge cheers at the end of each of the three sections. He was really trying to impress her a she was clueless and was laughing a bit when Tony was doing some of what he does that few saxophonists do. I'm sure she had never heard "out" saxophone playing before. if my wife was there, she would have let him have it and good. These two dopes couldn't ruin the night, especially the incendiary 70 minute second set which had my ears on fire. Waits being Nasheet and Malaby, especially on soprano, playing with a ferocity and extreme focus that again has me knowing what this music means to me on a very deep level. the slowest piece called Mother's Milk was the ultimate highlight and the soprano playing was as good as I've heard him on the straight horn

Great News!! I encourage all to go see this incredible trio

Very true. How about the Bill Evans Vanguard recordings? imagine trying to chat @ The Village Vanguard today? You would be thrown out. once @ Vision Fest I did tell some ass hat to shut the fuck up and he actually did! tonight: TAMARINDO!!! Malaby, Formanek & Waits

There are relatively few serious listeners for this stuff even here in the NYC area

NEVER at The Stone once in a while @ Cornelia Street way in the back but I think anyone close up with us intense serious listeners would risk limbs if they talked during a Malaby or Halvorsen or Berne or Wooley or Maneri excursion into the nether worlds.

Talking during the Schlippenbach Trio. Fucking Wonderful. Beyond assholes. Why the fuck did they show up to disrespect giants who walk this earth is beyond my ability to comprehend. I might have hurt them badly. Especially if I ever get the opportunity to see them. I've seen all three but never together. I hope you still enjoyed the concert, erwbol

Sonic Youth : The Diamond Sea

Was trying to post a photo of Dragonfly Breath to no avail.....

I missed your message, Chuck. If I get back there on Sunday night, I will do so words by thanksgiving once i digest what I just experienced

Front row - 30 minutes from the edge of an oncoming storm Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

10:00 @ The Stone Dragonfly Breath Steve Swell: trombone Paul Flaherty: tenor saxophone C. Spenser Yeh: violin & voice Weasel Walter: drums

15 minute trio track on Steve Swell's Kanreki trio is Swell, Guillermo Gregorio & Fred Lonberg-Holm fwiw, I am resisting at all costs putting disc 1 in which starts with a 31:19 piece by Dragonfly at least until the day after 11/24 which is the night I see that quartet live up close and personal. I have a feeling that track and maybe that concert might be more than simply, "the best track I've listened to this week"

Among a few more than this at the show the other night: Brotzmann/Swell/Nilssen Love: Kraków Nights (not two) Steve Swell: Kanreki - 2 CD set on not two / various ensembles including a 31 minute live set from Dragonfly Breath. Mr. Swell told me it is as intense as the self-titled masterpiece

That quartet has a secret weapon:) I hope I can put into some sort of words what happened last night. What I will say is that the *great* Steve Swell added to the ensemble seamlessly and the energy level increased from the first set. I will also say that my wife gave Hamid a big hug and for her, it was simply the best concert she has ever experienced. for me I can say something about Mr. Harrison Bankhead. It's been a while since I've seen him and I guess I've not understood what he is capable of. I cannot explain why he started by simply using the plug on his amplifier cord to play music or why or when he sings or vocalizes just as I cannot explain how he instantly composed or introduces song form melodies into a free jazz improvisation in ways that I've never heard before. Nor can I start to tell anyone who wasn't there how stunningly gorgeous were those melodic excursions or insertions. And when that first set ended (before the short duo with Ramon & Hamid) with the following said or sung twice, why did I feel tears of joy? Swing Low, baby

First Set OMFG love always to those two incredible Chicago dudes plus the amazing Duboc & Lopez peace and blessings

Fired up for tomorrow night upcoming on Saturday 12/5 @ Cornelia Street: Tamarindo which is Tony Malaby, Michael Formanek & Nasheet Waits BE THERE - if it is 70% of what it was last fall,,,,,