Steve Reynolds

Thank you for preserving my sanity! I do understand we all have differences in musical perspectives - I'm just not as attracted to pretty or melodically based playing as I am astringent and precise powerful pianism

Although the music is different, what a shock to put on Oort-Entropy (Barry Guy New Orchestra) with Agusti Fernandez at the piano after listening to Jason Moran. Moran sounds pretty and melodic for sure, but there is little grit, guts or power. Sounds like a pastiche of a bunch of fine pianists. Certainly The New Orchestra is not for everyone as it incorporates new music, baroque and free music sensibilities into it's whole - BUT if one wants to hear a truly great pianist deal with very difficult and challenging material - and raise the music's level - listen to that recording. Plus at that time, he was the newest member of the band!!! If you want more, get the Mad Dogs box and hear how he cuts a swath right inky and through Parker-Guy-Lytton - a trio that has been playing together for 30 years. Or as expected, don't bother listening and stick to the easier and softer way. We don't want to hurt anyone's ears.

Oops - I edited my earlier post rather than quoting it. I was simply hoping to hear back who the "grating and unoriginal" avant-garde musicians were who put on those depressing shows. Was hoping to get more than the typical broad brush smear of those crazy avant-gardists Fwiw - I listened closely to Breaking Glass this AM and I am non-plussed by Moran. Not my favorite Trio 3 + recording but them again, I prefer them by a bit without the piano added. I can give them a little push back on adding Moran and Iyer in order to get those two weeks on successive years at Birdland!! Then again, if some of you were paying attention in the late 90's the trio could barely get a sniff from anything close to a jazz club. So I guess they all had to get over 70 for that to happen!!!!

Not a huge fan of drum duets with saxophonists unless they are Evan Parker & Eddie Prevost or Paul Lytton or John Stevens Seriously it isn't my favorite set-up I like a third wheel to amp up the interplay and energy level I'd like to hear Roscoe with Mark Sanders!!!

But doesn't Moran fancy himself something of an avant musicians? - Rivers, Braxton, Taylor, Threadgill, Oliver Lake, et al? He certainly seems to like getting into their performances. Sorry you don't enjoy these types of performances, but I can understand that, since sitting through straight-ahead stuff depresses me. To each his own, and no argument there. As for the Board, I more than suspect the advantage is towards the mainstream, although I think the tilt has not been as great as formerly. I think he models himself on Jaki Byard, a mostly inside-modestly outside type of musician schooled in the mainstream tradition. I've seen some pretty depressing avant garde jazz performances--almost no audience, the venue a dump, the performance grating and unoriginal. But I have seen everyone you mention live, and would do so again with the opportunity.I'm very curious who the musicians who played in the depressing avant-garde performances. Some "avant-garde" jazz musicians are not avant-garde in that what they play isn't so original. I'm very curious who these people were. Fwiw - the size of the audience has no bearing for me. 1 of the 3 or 4 best sets of music I've ever witnessed was in front of about 18 or 20 people. As far as the venues, they is what they is. This is about musical quality, not how many in the crowd or if the served fancy sparkling cider. Am I missing something? I'm dissapointed not to hear who the "grating and unoriginal" avant-garde musicians were. Not that I expected a response. A broad brush is the easier response, I suppose.

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. I hear good, even great things, about Satoko Fuji, but it is going to take me a while to get over her disastrous Vision Fest appearance. Maybe her husband can take some of the blame for that, but it was still her gig. One of the big disappointments for me. Perhaps she comes across better on disc. Broke the piggy bank today and ordered: 1) Badenhorst, Joachim / John Butcher / Paul Lytton: Nachtigall 2) Decoy with Joe Mcphee: Spontaneous Combustion [2 CDs] (have the LP but need the additional minutes) 3) Mitchell, Roscoe / Mike Reed: In Pursuit of Magic 4) Nilssen-Love, Paal Large Unit: Erta Ale [3 CD BOX SET] 1) and 4) sound intriguing. Would love to hear your thoughts down the road 2) is a given as the first live recording by Decoy & McPhee has some passages that really explode with McPhee playing as fierce a tenor saxophone as I've heard from him for some time. I expect more and better with a 2 CD set

Some us await the FULL report!!!!

One good thing about this discussion is that it will prompt me to listen more closely to the Trio 3 recording to see if I hear anything I've missed something whenever, over the years, I've listened to Jason Moran. To be very honest, I've never heard anything that inspired me to listen further. Maybe I'm missing something but whenever one of these musicians goes the route of the newest recording, any shot in finding one's voice and vision is long gone. So maybe for my tastes, there was never much there in the first place - although hearing some positive comments above from board members I highly respect has me questioning what I've heard - so therefore that's why I'm going to give Breaking Glass some more attention. I did hear the trio disc with Motian and Potter on ECM - then again, I barely made it through the disc, I was so bored. And I'm no fan of Charles Lloyd, so I've never heard any of that collaboration Sorry to go starving artist on you all, but I'm more impressed with the musician who plays what they want, with choose who they play with - and do that all the time. Serious musicians who play 100% for the music. Value judgement about Moran? Sure Justified? Who knows? It's my viewpoint. When it quacks like a duck..... Will he go FUNK next?!?!? Of course, the argument is always that he made the record cuz that's what he wanted to do - or don't give the guy a hard time as he deserves a few accolades from someone other than the hardcore music fan - or whatever BS we always hear when someone goes the soft, easy way. And, No, I have no interest or plans on listening. Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

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.