Steve Reynolds

Picture didn't show here either. I am so glad you will be able to experience one of the very special free improvisation recordings of the 1990's.

Add William Parker, Dave Burrell, Hamid Drake and Kidd Jordan to that list. Fun to do that as the quartet played on the 15th. A strong case can be made for all as well as the above, IMO. Also add Ray Anderson, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway to the above lists. All extremely worthy of the award. Fwiw although I am not as large an aficionado of Mitchell and Threadgill as many others are - the reality that those two musicians have NOT been honored is beyond absurd.

That above post has me wanting to see the band live

Think about Miles electric stuff and listen to the brilliant opener "Pinch" Can was way ahead of it's time. I'm not sure I would have "got" it any earlier than when I first heard Can in around 1990 or so when I stumbled upon Cannabilism. I got sucked in by hearing Mushroom, Mother Sky and Yoo Doo Right. Then I bought Tago Mago and it was all over. The opening orginal first LP which are the first 3 tracks including Mushroom then the amazing side long Hallelewuh. That 18 minute track is pure genius with the ultimate Can groove. Unstoppable

Funny thing is the last few years I love listening to Keith Moon from the late 60's

All good points above Now we gotta get some people here listening to Jaki Leibezeit on drums and Holger Czukay on bass with Can from 68-72. Doesn't swing but no one EVER rocked a groove like Can. Add in Irwin Schmidt's magical sounds on analogue electric whatever keyboards and Michael Karoli's guitar - and even without Malcolm or Damo... And this band's magic is on the studio records - Monster Movie, Ege Bamyasi, Future Days, Soundtracks and of course the greatest of them all, the epic recording Tago Mago. Not clunky or cloddy there, Jim!! Mother Sky, baby

Part of it is when I heard it. I heard Cream in 1977 as a 17 year old. The strong live tracks which for me are Crossroads, Spoonful, NSU, I'm So Glad, Deserted Cities of the Heart and maybe a couple of others, rock and groove in their way due to Baker and Bruce. Then again this was a 17 year old listening to what I thought was great rock music by musicians I had just discovered and realized that were looked at as rock gods. I was also listening to Hendrix, Traffic, Yes, Floyd - and then within a year the big one for me - King Crimson - so I was listening to the guys who I thought could play. And I thought that as far as rock drummers, it was a short list for me then and maybe even today - Ginger Baker, Bill Bruford, John Bonham and later Stewart Copeland. I liked Mitchell and Moon - but they were too messy and they didn't have that crackle that my favorite guys above had. So did Cream groove like Blakey et al on Free for All? Hell no but they rocked out and the best jams like the long ones on Spoonful and NSU were then and are now (in retrospect) powerful musical statements by three twentsomethings bringing it in way that had never been done before - and honesty - never since.

For me The Ocean live on How the West was Won is very hot. As are the versions of Commication Breakdown going into an outrageous Heartbreaker. Then the version of Black Dog is as tight as the band ever got.

Now to get recordings of some of those other bands listed - wonder who was in Jackie McLean's Quintet?!?!

Title track to Speak No Evil

A few comments about Saturday night. Both trios led by Max Johnson on bass First set with Paul Flaherty switching back from alto to tenor for each shortish piece. Maybe 5 improvised pieces totally 40 minutes which fit perfectly for the small intimate crowd @ I Beam. Total facility on both horns with a pure sound through all registers of each horn. Sublime melodic playing with a subdued energy and commitment. Understated drumming by a new musician to me and fine playing by the bassist, especially with the bow. Second set with Mat Maneri on viola now joined by Michael Sarin on drums. First 5 minutes build quickly into one if those mind bending Mat Maneri riffing explosion. A few minutes later we have clapping into a personal tribute to Roy Campbell where a melody was loved almost to death. I never participated in a set of music like that before and I'm not sure it all worked for all but it worked for me. By this point I'm aware that the young bassist has an ability with the bow that is special as he can make the sound stop in such a tension filled and precise manner. I was reminded of great veteran freeish bassists like Mark Helias, Mark Dresser or Ken Filiano. Plus he really started to feel the pulse of the music during the second 20 minute piece - the transitions from arco to pizzicato were becoming organic/very natural. I hadn't heard Sarin in a couple of years and this was the first time hearing him in a free improvising context and he was subtle yet powerful with an especially attractive sound from his cymbal splashes. Done at 40 minutes, they decide to play another piece after a very strong end to the second piece. If it was after 50 minutes, maybe it doesn't work as it was getting a bit steamy and music of this sort and quality can be very satisfying in shorter set dosages. That being said, the final 8 to 10 minute piece raised the ante, showed Michael Sarin to be on the top shelf of today's drummers - some power the man exhibited - imagine the restraint of not playing like that for the first 40 minutes - so the impact was multiplied - and again Mat got to one of those plateaus of ethereal riffing and whatever, wherever or however he plays those lines of skronk, melody and everything in between. How he gets there most every time I see him play live I have stopped trying to figure out. Wonderous Blessed, baby

For Your Love from Presence is a great track, IMO I like the live recordings from LA - How the West was Won I heard more Zeppelin growing up than any other band as it was unavoidable but I still think all the records up through Presence have very high peaks. Tangerine, baby

I said hello as he walking across street from a new Cafe and He said hello back and he asked me my name when it was apparent I was going to be one if the few at the gig. A little small talk and he says that I'm the type of guy that needs his new duo CD so he gives me a copy. If they had it out at the show I woulda bought it so I guess a few extra bucks on the jar would benefit these guys. "I'm a painter as it's pretty obvious I'm not making it playing this but what else am I gonna do??" Big smile. Warmhearted. I guess a few decades on people be changed a bit, Allen!! Btw beautiful short unassuming set with the trio with the saxophonist exhibiting superb control and full range on both the alto and tenor. A real romantic melodic player - played like he comes across when I met him 30 minutes earlier. All about the beauty of the sound of his horns.

Add Paul Flaherty to the list of real nice guys.

I'm sure they will have copies on Friday when I see Max Johnson with two different trios. It's nice IMHO. Listened on my home from the gig last night. Very fine. Ingrid as powerful on record as I've heard her. Fired up for the 7/18 Rainey trio show with the saxophonist and Mary Halverson.

I had a very hard time with the trio set with Crothers, Grimes and Gibbs save for some of the piano and some of the violin with that piano towards the mid portion of the set. There is something endearing about Henry's screechy violin improvising. Crothers got to some nice exhuberant passages but overall a bit more banging than touch for my taste. The last set for which I am still looking for words for was another story.

Nice show to celebrate you birthday! I always enjoy watching Jason A. Steamy venues are fairly common in jazz/avant music, most notably The Stone. The problem is if you run the air, you can't hear the music properly; if you don't run the air, every one starts melting. Bring hankies, I suppose. Anyway, Happy Birthday! Here's hoping I Beam is not that bad Tommorow night. Forecast is a high of 80 with temperatures towards the low 70's by 8:30 First time to see Paul Flaherty on saxophones Max Johnson bass for both sets Mat Maneri on viola for second set 2 different drummers for the 2 trios

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically. I used to work with a drummer who went on tour with Zappa as a percussionist, and he said that FZ treated the musicians like dogs. And then there's his two famous quotes about jazz: "Jazz, the music of unemployment". "Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny..." Well, that was a dumb forecast if ever there was one, jazz is still here and..you know the rest. I've listened to a fair amount of Zappa and the sky-high praise for him always had me a bit puzzled, a lot of his output seems to oscillate between juvenilia and academia. I agree completely with your assessment of Zappa. Fwiw - as do I

Great upcoming shows there - including a quartet with Rudi Mahall & Axel Doerner this Sunday!!! Would love to see those dudes come to NYC Plus last night was a quartet with Agusti Fernandez

I'm sure they will have copies on Friday when I see Max Johnson with two different trios.

Whoa! Had no idea about this group or album... many thanks, off to track this down! They have 2 recordings I saw last night. One recently released and the other from about 3 years ago, I think

I wanted to hear Breedlove and Swell. When I heard Moondoc in 2012 in a quartet with Matt Lavelle as his front line partner, the alto saxophonist's delivery was fairly weak and uninspired especially compared to the very bright and energetic (overly?) playing of the trumpeter. Maybe it is the different night or maybe Leeway hears the musicians differently although we seem to agree on quite a bit. Next year, we will be sure to overlap on at least a night or two. Usually I've been able to get there 2 or 3 nights. That wasn't possible this year. I'm very glad I chose last night. Commentary on the closing set later.....

an aside from my wife. I mention what she thinks as she doesn't listen to jazz on CD except from time to time with me and is mostly coming at the music from a far different angle than almost all who read or post here. She said that last night should have been Tyshawn Sorey's big break - if you have one in this world of music. This is her response to a drummer who pretty much plays no groove, plays in a very non-traditional manner, focused more on the inside of the piano and then when he played the piano in a more traditional way approached the abstraction of Cecil Taylor. Yet he swings Yet live he is so accessible, endearing, captivating and in the end, pretty much irresistible. He has that magic gift. The gift of presence. He has the IT factor. The drummer who swings without groove. He is the one. Genius level musician based on the three concerts I've seen him play.

Tyshawn Sorey/Fay Victor Insert into previous post...... I'm no fan of "Jazz Singing" except maybe a dosing of Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughn from back in the day. Tried Betty Carter and I've heard a few avant sorts like Jeanne Lee and there is little that has caught my ear. I fell hard for Tyshawn Sorey on drums on a night he played with Evan Parker, John Escreet and John Hebert last September. As good as the other musicians were that night, Sorey was the ultimate highlight. I then saw him lead an improvising trio with Ben Gerstein and I think Kris Davis this past winter and that gave me hope that I could endure the singing. This mind and heart was opened. She sang, she wailed, she sweated, she sang about sweating, she sang with words, no words, all in all - gorgeous, compelling musician who even played some nice piano. Only problem with the piano is that it was AFTER Tyshawn Sorey played the piano. Now he is a drummer who swings like a motherfucker yet never plays a groove, and he created a tension beyond tension when 20 minutes in he walked to the piano and investigated it from all sides like only a master sound manipulator/master musician could. He then eventually sat down a played something that crossed Paul Bley and Cecil Taylor and I was stunned. after she left the bench, he returned to the kit and exploded on impact. First some more of the sticks and brushes in the air - just the sound of the air - and then the crack of the snare , the tom, the bass drum - then all of them. One of those great endings. One of those sets. Mesmerizing performances by both. My wife was all in now - she loved Sorey last fall - she now is questioning why Fay didn't enter and win The Voice - and then after the first set with her drummer, Mr. Hamid Drake, she was now in a good mood - and with my Barbara, sometimes that's not an easy accomplishment. Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

A few comments on one of the sets for starters: My wonderful wife Barbara decides she wants to on the right side 4 rows back so she can be directly in front of the drummers. Two drum kits are set up - the one in front ends up being Tyshawn Sorey's personal kit - I want to sit on the left where I sat for the first set with the Steinway grand piano directly in front of me with the wonderful Angelica Sanchez playing them and a bit of the insides when appropriate. I want to see Dave Burrell up close and personal - hands and fingers included. I did not, at this point, know what else I would be missing from the piano perspective - as this would be, somewhat surprisingly a night of music that rose or fell depending in large part, what was played on that Steinway. Skip to after the Sorey-Victor duo set........for now...... Everything being started and finished on time, the quartet comes in stage right @ 7:00. Edward "Kidd" Jordan looking a bit more than a year older than last year - and maybe a bit thinner. Burrell smiling goes past me WAY off to the left as I cede to my dear wife's wishes - wishing I hadn't given in before the last set as I had NO idea Tyshawn Sorey.... Well I get to that later if I have any words for - my my my Lordy Lordy and whatever..... Well it's not so far I can't see him - in fact seats are all great and I like the sound and comfort at Roulette - and last night even more so for whatever reason. So bass and drums, added piano and all I can see is the tenor man trying to clear his throat, I think - as he is coughing while the playing trio is really playing. He finds an entrance point and it's pretty strong, gets stronger, lots of Kidd blowing and he stops, sits down, and I hope he's ok. Not normal for a 79 year old with a cough to blow like that. Maybe unprecedented. I seen Fred Anderson @ 80 but was always a way different kinda force than Kidd Jordan. Band smoking hot - we hear tenor from the chair softly, space, more, softly - stands up - cranking, smoking, white hot alternating Jordanesque altissimo lightning with pure tenor riffing - and it builds. Roof coming down - band at a peak - then like Dexter - he walks up tenor horizontal - people be screaming - one more peak. Standing ovation 10 minute encore starts with a perfect drum solo but one last group improvisation amazing ending on a even higher note. 47 minutes of so with band on fire. Fwiw Burrell never got in the way here - always there of not - and helped the great tenorman to find his peaks Palm of Soul, baby