Steve Reynolds

The okkadisk trio with Anderson/Kowald/Drake is one of the best Fred Anderson recordings. The great bassist really pushes it.

My recommendations for recent (the last couple of years) must buy recordings include: Mad Dogs box Rodrigo Amado - Searching for Adam Dragonfly Breath William Parker box - Wood Flute Songs Code Read - Assif Tsahar, Mark Dresser & Gerry Hemingway Older recordings that you may have missed - that I believe you will be destroyed by: Myra Melford - either Alive in the House of Saints and/or Even the Sounds Shine John Law - Exploded on Impact Air - Air Time DKV Trio - Live in Wels and Chicago AALY trio + Ken Vandermark - Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe and/or Hidden in the Stomach Available Jelly - both volumes of Live at Nassau Cluesone Trio - I am an Indian Gerry Hemingway Quintet - Demon Chaser All right in your sweet spot - and all, IMO, all time great recordings Plus the first Tamarindo CD is arguably superior to the latest from the band. peace and blessings

Blue Winter, baby December 12th, 2004 recorded live @ Johnson State College ( I think ) in Vermont Best sounding recording of Parker/Drake in existence

The band is not an easy listen. It may be described as low-key but intense. Very intense, often obtuse and very challenging. My viewpoint is that it must also be very challenging for them to play this music. They never take the easy way out. It seems like they try to create musical situations that have no solution and yet somehow they often find one. The highs are extraordinary yet it can take some time (often much time from experiences in seeing them live) to get to those incredible peaks. They are like no other saxophone-bass-drums trio I've heard

A few listens through Malaby's Taramindo recording "Somos Agua" and I'm finally ready to give a full recommendation. It took some time after seeing the band from a few feet away to be able to "hear" the trio with some perspective. It really does capture in microcosm what they do live. Nasheet is captured very well on record which is not an easy thing to accomplish. If interested, simply listen to him on the first track where he starts out strong but towards the end of the medium length piece, he is doing what only he can do - those poly-poly rhythms with power and force that seemingly almost pushes Makaby's tenor over the edge. Some more passages as good as this throughout the hour. Looking forward to seeing the trio again on 10/25 with Michael Formanek in place of William Parker. They are playing both Friday 10/24 & Saturday night - 2 sets each night - @ Cornelia Street Cafe.

My favorite of the well known piano solos is Monk's intro solo on Well You Needn't before Trane famously is called to enter

Cecil Taylor's improvisation on E.B. from The World of Cecil Taylor. I don't know if it can be called a solo - more like the creation of something seemingly impossible. Shook my world some 20 years ago and again recently when I heard it again for the first time in over 10 years.

"Blessed" the duo with Joe & Mat was also recorded in that timeframe. "Angles of Repose" is quite something. Mat's favorite of all the drummerless recordings of him and his dad. "Going to Church" might be the greatest unheard album of the last 30 years. It is so emotionally charged and due to the larger ensemble, much different than the trio and classic quartet recordings. Fwiw - a little story from Mat - once his father could no longer play, the last couple of years were just sitting in the chair just waiting for the end. If one listens to Blessed (maybe like Jeff describes November - and Lacy to Jeff is like Papa Joe to me) it is not an easy listen. I was told the recording process was not easy as Joe was struggling with his health. But I am very glad we have that very human, very personal music available to us. When the Ship Goes Down

Isn't "Sky Piece" Thomas Chapin's last studio recording? If so, he saved the best until right before the end

I'm most interested in jazz as a living breathing music of the present. Living and working musicians plying their craft to carry the tradition forward. Of couse it should go without saying that I love the music of the past and I owned or have owned much of the past music on CD that is of interest to me. But I am totally uninterested in jazz as primarily a historical or museum piece or as a collectible based hobby. This is not what jazz is. I'm a music fan who discovered jazz when I was around 31 years old and I found my way through the music through my inner motivations. From Bill Evans to Mingus to Ellington to Dunmall to Misha to Monk to Waldron to Braxton to Hemingway to Miles to Clifford to Mongezi Feza to Brotzmann to Shorter to Tony Malaby to Joe Maneri to Hamid Drake to Fred Anderson to John Stevens to Evan Parker to Hank Mobley. It's all one music to a great extent to me - and it's always been at it's absolute best when performed and heard live. Of course we can't hear the musicians of the past in person but I do know that Giants Walk This Earth Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

Those sorts must go to Jazz @ Lincoln Center No I'm not into retro swing or rockabilly. I'm interested in music other than jazz, but those interests ever towards certain types of rock and electronic small form improvisation.

"Sneering attitude of pure jazz fans themselves" Huh? "Not some 'far out' music where you just sit and nod your head in pensive contemplation, marveling at your own sophistication of being there " Really??? You've experienced this at "avant-gradish" or "free" jazz concerts?? I don't know any listeners like this. The people who go and some go often - they go because the music is invigorating emotionally and yes - sometimes intellectually. Fwiw, I never sit there pensively listening. Most of the music I see live has it's roots in older jazz - and most of it is easily enjoyed live by opn minded listeners. Granted some of the free improvisation is not easy listening - for example a 2 weeks ago Friday a trio of Tyshawn Sorey, Kris Davis and Mat Maneri was, at times, rough spiky and even grating. But that is an exception. The trio the night before with Maneri, Craig Taborn and Ches Smith could have been appreciated and enjoyed by anyone who hadn't already decided that the "avant-garde" is some "far out" music that is only enjoyed by so-called sophisticated jazz listeners.

RIP to one of the masters of all the worlds of jazz and improvised music

I work with and associate with a fairly wide variety of people and very few have any idea about the music I listen to that falls broadly into the jazz/improvisation umbrella. As far as the younger people - let's say under 35 - very, very few of them even have an idea of what jazz is or even might be. MAYBE they MIGHT have heard of Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Duke Ellington - but even that is unlikely. How about Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock or John McLaughlin? Very doubtful So what about a current jazz star who plays major clubs or festivals like Chris Potter, Terence Blanchard, Fred Hersch??? Never They probably have heard of a Marsalis but they wouldn't even know what that means. BUT I've found a music fan or two and brought them to a show or two and they are stunned every time that a music of this quality, verve and energy exists. Then again, I pick very cool shows:)

Plus it makes for the best avatar.....

Same here. One day I will take another swing at it.

Often for addicts, we have "wanted" to not drink or use too much or to excess - and we have almost always or always (100% of the time) had VERY little or NO success in moderation - whether it be "hard" drugs or the most insidious of all drugs for an addict: Alcohol It is very clear that Coltrane suffered from a long and severe active addiction for something close to ten years up through 1957. Moderate use of alcohol after quitting the "hard" drug is usually not possible. It is often stated as such but normally that addict eventually drinks to extreme excess or reverts back to their "drug of choice" I cannot recall any of the biographies that I've read (many but mostly quite a few years ago) stating that he did anything other than quit all heroin use and alcohol use - all in 1957.

My understanding is that Coltrane kicked heroin in the spring of 1957 and along with that, stopped using alcohol as well. He often drank heavily prior to that especially when sick from heroin withdrawals when he couldn't get enough to keep him "straight". This is a very normal pattern for using heroin addicts. I can't imagine that an addict like Coltrane would have been able to moderate his alcohol consumption after getting clean from heroin. Lon - hasn't there always been some confusion on when the studio sessions were recorded with Monk/Coltrane - April through June 1957? Didn't the quartet function live through the second half of 1957 with some concerts in 1958 as well?

i think that i recently saw a quote in either the early fuji discography or the jc reference, something like: 'despite giving up drugs and alcohol, coltrane continued to smoke [cigarettes] for the rest of his life'. i think the consensus is that he stopped drinking. My understanding as well. I had never seen or read anything anywhere that claimed/documented that Coltrane was drinking alcohol over the last 10 years of his life.

I was there last night. Some "CD Release Party", huh? You would think that announcing a show as a "CD Release Party" you might want to have the CD available for sale? Nope. No CDs for sale at all. Start 20 minutes late? No problem. Leave after an hour and 10 minutes ignoring the crowd (hint: your fans) asking for an encore? No problem. Hang around to sign your new CD at your "CD Release Party"? Huh? What do you mean, "hang around"? We high-tailied it outta there and disappeared. We don't do no stinkin' autographs. I have a problem when the audience is all set and ready and the band is way too slow in starting. One night Tony Malaby had his "Reading Band" with Billy Drummond on drums and they were very late for the first set and much too slow getting back to the stage for the second set. The music was still very good but I was irritated, my wife was very irritated and there was no reason for any of it. They were at the back of the room messing around rather than getting to the business that we were all there for. My wife noted that with Tamarindo with William Parker and Nasheet Waits that Tony was much more serious, on time and focused. She thinks it's because of William Parker and his serious vibe and I tend to agree. This past Tuesday Evan Parker started at 8:05 and 10:07 and gave us 70 minutes for each set. Room was packed and ready to go and he obliged in a very professional manner. Very nice was to start the sets eliminating the given "start 15-20 minutes late" standard that seems to exists. I know in the past it was worse but starting promptly for me leads to a better atmosphere and better reception/interaction with the audience.

Looks like carved stone of some sort to me. Plus it's on not two so that usually means stunning audio quality from my past experiences with the label save for 2-3 exceptions - alas they are not the quality equivalent of hat art after all...but the great sounding recordings are truly something

I saw Fujii in a trio the other night at Pathhead ( a small village outside Edinburgh. Tom Bancroft (drums ) lead the completely improvised set . It was a stunning concert that really defies description. I felt truly privileged . I ended up buying 4 discs featuring her or her husband ( trumpeter Natsuki Tamura ) I think her Ma- do quartet is possibly her best group. I am promising myself to get this recording. Plus I love the cover.

Great cover -- photo and design. Seconded - awe inspiring cover/photo

Thanks, Jim Recorded on 8/13 & 8/14 in NYC. The band played the previous week @ Birdland. My wife and I were there on Saturday 8/10.