Steve Reynolds

On a good night Nasheet Waits is a very exciting drummer to see and hear live

Yes, the first thing I did on Thursday was give Steven Joerg $60 for the box. I'm not an autograph guy so if I was I would have had the box signed by the quartet plus Yamamoto, Cooper-Moore and Leena Conquest. but I am happily not that person. Packaging is simple and very nice - a simple sqare box with indidvidual cardboard sleeves in different colors for the different ensembles. What I have listened to is very fine although having just seen 2 nights in as good an environment visually and sonically that is possible, it isn't quite the same. as far as squabbles, I don't care. As far as William Parker's music, the two nights last week gave me a renewed appreciation of his brilliance as a melody maker and composer - he has a very rare gift that is overlooked by many who eschew his music as they think it is something that it is not. The quartet it the band that many who doubt need to need to hear.

30 years old or so Kind of Blue and Mingus at Antibes

Bands were as follows: 10/10 Thursday 8 pm In Order to Survive Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet), Steve Swell (trombone) Cooper-Moore (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) William Parker (bass) 10 pm Raining on the Moon William Parker (bass) Leena Conquest (voice) Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Eri Yamamoto (piano) Hamid Drake (drums) 10/11 Friday 8 and 10 pm O’Neal’s Porch Quartet William Parker (bass) Rob Brown (alto sax) Lewis Barnes (trumpet) Hamid Drake (drums) question is how do I even start to explain my experience over those two nights? Some may have seen instant quick messages which were blurted out here or there slobbeerin on about the drummer...so how to say something that isn't read as Reynolds is being a Hamid Drake fanboy, blah blah blah.... let's see - How about my prior impressions of the core quartet and the related bands? for whatever reason I have only seen In Order to Survive and that was as recent as last Summer - in June @ Vision Fest - and my experience was that the band was tight, loose and that Cooper-Moore was the highlight - and that Drake was Drake and that Parker was a bit rote and Brown was good and that Barnes was simply OK - a fine show with a few quibbles... so I was excited to see that Steve Swell was standing between Brown and Barnes - and they started with a new composition that last just under 30 minutes - and it featured all band members sololin and interextaing and again Cooper-Moore was wonderful although probably undermiked - and the composition took on some Mingusian qualities towards the end when it morphed into something that I still can't fathom in it's excitement and complexity. Parker then urged Drake to take a solo - and if he didn't play another solo the next night, all was worth it - I was in the front row 5 feet from the kit - and his beaut, his mastery of rhythms is simply unmatched by anyone who I've ever heard - live or on record - and THEN - William plays the bow, Cooper-Moore then closes the cover to the keys and sings and screams the blues for a bit - and 40 minutes in, it couldn't get better - and it didn't - 2 nice tunes - the next to last a Hymn that was a bit saccarine and cloying - it wanted to be a south africa type piece - it didn't quite work but fine by normal standards - and the closing piece nice but maybe the set lasted a few minutes too long at 65 minutes Second set with the singer very very fine with the great composition James Baldwin to the Rescue being incredibly vibrant, melodic and swinging like a MFer.... next night my wife decides to go (thnak jah - she was in a miserbale mood nagry at the world for whatever reason 0 so we go in early and order a coupld of CD cabinets and wait for the rain that never came and got our seats in the second row saved.... and then we walk up and see Hamid - and she STOPS - so I say to the drummer that my wife loves - and he smiled and I walked inside and 10 minutes later I think she was still chatting it up with him - she is starting to remember last Summer I tell her THIS time it will be different - we are in a little place and it will sound different. William tells us the compositions they will play and that they will probably play right through and hour later, I'm not jaded to anything - thew quartet at the core is immense, gorgeous, Rob Brown is insane and out yet grounded, Lewis Barnes is everything in between - nothing beyond the normal yet steeped deep into all of the tradition and now - and William here and in the secnd set never picked up the bow - and played better than I have ever heard him - and drum solo happened somewhere about half way in and it was more incredible than on the previous night if that was possible....and the melodies and compostions from Parker are cleaner, clearer and more stunning than I ever realized. so I expected the seocnd set to be similar - and it wasn't - Malachi's mode with Parker on a crazy little horn was the simply put - the best duet with a drummer I've ever heard - Drake plays everything that I've never any other durmmer play - and the SOUND of his drums and the metal and cowbell - no more, I promise and it's over and I am trying to tell a few people afterwords that never saw him before that were stunned that night that maybe Hamid Drake is NOT the greatest drummer they will ever see - and I'm really not believing myself except knowing I saw and I see well you know - I see them all and love them all - but these 2 nights......resonating..... and on the way to the car my wife says this is the greatest band ever and he is the greatest drummer of all time - and I stop fighting, I surrender, she knows, I know - no not a contest - must be like when they saw the giants back in the day - well as good as these are giants in the day of today.... the sweetness and beauty between Parker and Drake is love, it is what people who have heard and who have listened and seen says it is - it is beyond this world - beyond my words or anyone else's peace and blessings

Biggest gift so far with the set is the 3 guest musicians on the 2009 Vision Fest show. Bang is brilliant, Bradford is in fine form and James Spaulding plays as if possessed. The gift for those not that familiar with the core quartet could be Rob Brown. Grounded to the groove but goes way out very effectively. Now listening to incredible violin/drum duet section and it like something I just heard only with the late great violinist. Drake's grooves and organic playing is really something to savor. I'll treasure the memories of the last 2 nights forever.

Discs 1, 5 and 7 are great. Sound is very good. Especially impressed by the Sextet with Bradford, Spauding and the great Billy Bang. Much more to this quartet and variations than might immediately meet the ears. The last 2 nights are too fresh in my heart to be able to express much more for whatever reason. Btw William's notes in the booklet are very enlightening and speak very clearly about what this music is about.

Parker's melodies are beyond beautiful

Second set even better Lordy Lordy

For those who don't know, Hamid Drake is the greatest pure drummer in the world First set tonight beyond intense and was the heaviest grooviest set of music I might have ever heard

Some more comments later but a few passages on arco that Parker was as sublime as I've ever heard him. Drake and Parker together remain as immense as any bass/drum tandem. Looking forward to 2 sets from the core quartet tonight.

1. Not wasting time on that. 2. "It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered." - Aeschylus aka the Clusterfuck which was a result of envy. I went into the details in one of the Mathew Shipp threads. 1. Of course you wouldn't. 2. Reading the links was interesting. Thanks. 1. Didn't wast time because I don't think Monk went through the motions like Parker does. I also don't think Parker is in the same level as Monk. I guess you think differently. As in, it just came across as baiting as a response. 2. You're welcome. Last year In Order to Survive was spectacular and I am imagining that an hour from now it will be anything but rote Btw they have the box set here and It's mine in a few minutes Plus I have a seat 5 feet from Hamid's bass drum Life is beautiful

Tonight: In order to Survive and then Raining on the Moon band They better have a box set ready for me....... Yes. He is no Fred Hopkins, that is for sure. Sometimes it takes a while for his groove to take place. With Hamid they always find new grooves Yes. He is no Fred Hopkins, that is for sure. Sometimes it takes a while for his groove to take place. With Hamid they always find new grooves

Nice line up as long as Escreet leaves his fusion hat at home - which with that line up I suspect he had to Escreet was very good live and nothing that even sniffed of fusion

Btw good news is the quartet with Evan Parker, John Escreet, John Hebert and Sorey recorded an album in the studio a few days after the show at the Stone in September

with: Ben Gerstein: trombone (and recorder) Jeremy Viner: alto saxophone and clarinet Angelica Sanchez: piano after seeing Sorey with Evan Parker, my wife and I decided to attend this show this past Sunday night. Both of us have loved hearing and seeing Ben Gerstein as he is a very unique and expressive musician who has never failed to impress when seeing him live. I don't believe the quartet has ever played together and as expected they came to the little stage without sheet music which seems to be a regular goings on for some of these ad hoc Sunday night groups @ Cornelia Street Cafe. The drummer had his own kit with only a snare and bass drum (just like with Evan Parker) and with Gerstein in front of the drummer and Viner starting quietly on clarinet in front of the baby grand piano (with keys unseen as they often set it up with quartets or larger), the first 10 to 15 minutes or maybe even more was tentative or "searching" to put it nicely. At some point it became apprarent that something was working out. Gerstein almost mad-cap switching of various mutes became organically interwoven in the music (think of Herb Robertson), and Sanchez really began to define and focus the band's sound and approach. She is one of many great pianists who play in this in/out free mode and she blends spikey intense playing with a solid melodic approach. She is able to intersperse the insides of the piano with some mild preparations and also scorch the earth with some extreme post/free bop passages. And by the end of the first 30 minute pieces, the crowd was pretty stoked. an aside is that even in a club environment, when a band is playing like this in a free improvisational mode, we are spared the rote applause after solo - and for the most part, there were few distinct solos from this band. so the second piece of the first set starts and within 15 minutes they get to places that music of this sort can never plan on going - and although for about 5 - 7 minutes more it evolves into some very aggressive more standard wailing, ripping, escastic free jazz screaming and interplay, it wasn't just that - and after some blasts on the bass and snare, I thought it was over at about 20 - 22 minutes - and I thought continuing from those heights would be a let-down - but they finished stronger and the piece ended to a strrming response from the good crowd. second set was a continuous 50 minute performance without the extreme heights of the last 15 monutes of the first set - but highlights included Sorey's brilliant use of cymbal scrapes, crashes and small sounds - he is a grand master in this area - fascinating and very effective - maybe moreso when eyes are closed, Gerstein's foray's on the recorder, a great loud duet section with an open trombone and the drummer with sticks playing quite loud - and also Viner playing all the notes on alto saxophone coming out of Braxton/Ehrlich. Viner is a very techinally adept player who had a few moments of true surprise throughout the two sets. I was less impressed with his clarinet playing which while fine, was often used to compliment the band and I didn't hear much that made my ears perk up. Overall - and excellent night I like that I am hearing bands that have influences as varied as SME to the more tradional free jazz and bop/post bop linage. Very nice to hear a wide ranging band that is not stuck in any one camp.

Let me tell you despite what I think about much or some of what William Parker plays and his limitations, the Quartet is wonderful and that performance last summer (2012) was one of the best sets of music I've heard over the past couple of years. Let's hope this week is even better and it should be amazing to hear the Parker-Drake rhythm section in the little club. Plus it is cool outside so I am all fired up for two great nights! Great to see that these recordings are being issued at the same time - I have to think not a coincidence.

hoping they may have a few advance copies at The Stone as I will be there on Thursday and Friday - to see the band(s) that played most of the music on the box set. Hard to go worng with 8 CD's that all have Hamid Drake as the drummer. fwiw - the last disc is the Quartet augmented by Cooper-Moore (In Order to Survive) and the performance was SPECTACULAR - I am VERY excited to see they are releasing that concert. Plus first set on Thursday is In Order to Survive

saw a guy for the first time last night who doubled on alto saxophone and clarinet - Jeremy Viner better on the alto - held his own in heavy company in a free improv setting

More later within a few days BUT First set 2 pieces wholly improvised each 30 minutes Mind blowing

About 45 minutes until The Tyshawn Sorey Quaryet My wife just got a hug from Angelica!!!

Certainly am. Enjoy the concert. I have never seen Prevost or Tilbury live and neither have been here since ~ 2001 when AMM last played as the trio with Keith Rowe. I'm still upset I didn't go see them live. I've been fortunate to see Rowe live on a number of occasions.

thinking of going to see the following on Sunday night - Ben Gerstein is a wonderful unique trombonist who I have really enjoyed in the past live and Angelica Sanchez is an excellent pianist. I've never heard Jeremy Viner. It looks like a free improvisation group so I'm leaning towards checking it out. Plus Tyshawn Sorey was a huge surprise for me when I saw him a couple of weeks ago with Evan Parker. Sunday, Oct 06 - 8:30PM - Cornelia Street Cafe TYSHAWN SOREY QUARTET Dan Weiss, host Angelica Sanchez, piano; Jeremy Viner, clarinet, alto saxophone; Ben Gerstein, trombone; Tyshawn Sorey, drums

John Zorn should buy an air conditioning system for The Stone when he does, I might buy a CD of his

It does? Yes it does from my perspective which includes personal experience with drug addiction and recovery. Most addicts never escape active addiction even today when there are avenues and opportunities to recover and get clean.In Parker's time the understanding regarding the disease of addiction did not exist. It was looked at as a moral deficiency and personal weakness which it certainly is not. . No one had any clue about any of it - who the hell knew what they were getting into when they figured they were just fooling around with another drug...when did start using heroin? Late 30's or early 40's? On the other hand many people who have used drugs including heroin did NOT and do NOT become addicts because they were or are NOT addicts. Some people are simply prone to addiction and at some point, once they are using they are unable to stop using through their own will. Parker was one of those people. Coltrane was also but through his process and in his case a God he found, he was able to stop using in 1957 - although as we know the after effects from his active addiction which was probably liver cancer from untreated hepatitis C killed him 10 years later. Well that's a lot more insightful than Crouch's response! Then again, didn't Parker say Heroin addiction was like rolling over all your problems into ONE big problem. And what about the connection between being a Black man in America at the time and addiction? the reality is that as long as what are refered to or thought of as 'hard drugs' have been available or used in this country - they have been distrubuted through and from more blighted areas which have been predominately populated by black/monorities. I think this says as much and then and now about the connection/relationship between African Americans and addiction as anything. My experience is that the disease of addiction does NOT discriminate base don color/age/religion/background/family background, upbringing or whatever. addicts are addicts - that's really as deep as it gets. I know Doctors/Lawyers/homeless/homeowner/nice guys/scumbags - I know all sorts. Sure addiction occurs across all types of socio-economic divide. But to dismiss the reasons some people fall into addiction and some people not, as purely to do with some kind of physical or genetic predisposition - as you seem to be implying - seems a rather quaint and old fashioned perspective. And out of synch with contemporary evidence based drug and alcohol knowledge. But if that's the story you want to tell yourself then well and good. It's actually one of my favorite subjects. I appreciate you engaging me on this topic. I actually do not believe it has anything to do with genetics or a physical pre-disposition. No one including myself knows for sure if some of us are born as an addict although some do believe that this is the case. I tend to see this as a bit much. My experience and belief is that with some of us, our drug addiction is based on an emotional or even a spiritual void if you will (although to this day, I'm wary of confusing people by using that misunderstood word) and subsequent ongoing pain that can only be filled with whatever brand of drug that works for us - works for us to temporarily eliminate that pain and fill that void. At some point, the solution becomes the problem but by that point, no matter what the substance is, we cannot stop as we are now physically, emotionally and mentally in the grips of drug addiction and we cannot stop using, We use against our will, and we see no way out. It doesn't matter what the substance is - however at the latter stages of addiction a great many addicts end up using substances like heroin, crack, methamphetimine - drugs that are widely considered highly addictive, dangerous and destructive - all of which is true - or a combination of those drugs supplemented and complemented with pain pills, alcohol, marijuana. The reality is that many people try pot, ecstasy (or molly), K, cocaine or even crack and heroin - and despite the fact that these drugs are all addictive to varying degrees - many of those people do not turn into drug addicts - therefore there is something different about some of us who do become addicts with the same background as friends or brothers or sisters who started out doing some of the same things - who did NOT become drug addicts. Recovery replaces active addiction with a solution that varies in kind from one recovering addict to another. The relaity is that in the 1940's and 1950's there was very little hop for an addict to recover - and today it is different although from a standpoint of how many people recover from the disease of addiction, it is still very, very low - as still most addicts are destined to die a using addict death - and befopre that will suffer via degradation, institutions, depravity, desparation and sometime insanity. I'm not engaging you so much per se, although your post does give a worthy insight on drug use from the individual perspective. I'm more thinking of using as it relates to Parker and the Jazz community of the day, and how much Heroin use in the Black jazz community reflected Heroin use in the Black non-Jazz community. And how much this determined the choices and the circumstances that were presented or forced upon Parker. For instance, 9 out of 10 Black musicians were using/addicts, so how particular was that to the wider Black community of the time? Obviously most White Jazz players of the time were users too, but using was an anomaly in non-Jazz White America. So with all the ragging on Crouch, I would expect him to have a greater understanding of how Heroin was a part of Black Jazz life - in the particular, and how this related to Black life in more general circumstances, because of his own connection to the Black American past as well as the access this gives to a more intimate oral history. People on this board can pick scabs at the supposed over dramatisation or weakness in Crouch as a writer, but in seeing Crouch as a Social Historian of the music, I would rather read his research than a White person attempting something similar. I think the 'anti-Marsalisism card' gives many on here a so called ideological higher ground when it comes to receiving books like this. good to read your comments. I don't know that the 9 out of 10 figure as far as how many jazz musicians (whate and/or black) were using Heroin at that time (early to mid 40's to mid to late 60's? or beyond?) is accurate. Do you have a source for this? I would be very interested. Next thing I know is many people then, today and in the future will end up physcially addicted to opiates. Today it is very common for people to start using oxycontin, percocet, vicodin for legitimate reason and end up "addicted". However being physically addicted does NOT necessarily mean that that perosn is an addict. Many can break that addiction and then not suffer from the obsession and compulsion to use other drugs as a replacement - and often end up using heroin or morphine or dilautin or any of the pain pills I mentioned above - AGAIN. And they do it again after repeated withdrawels and person devastation, degradation, etc. That is a true drug addict. So if a very high percentage of jazz musicians of that a time or *a* time were using heroin, that doesn't mean they were drug addicts. It is my belief after reading the wonderful biography of Thelonious Monk by Robin Kelley that Monk was not an addict - although he did suffer from various mental ailments and tended to drink too much from time to time and tended to smoke quite a bit of pot - but to my knowledge/recollection according to the book and other things I have read over the years, although he used many other drugs, including heroin, he was never one of thwese guys like Sonny Clark or Ernie Henry who would die from the disease of addiction, and die young - or like Hank Mobley - or Art Pepper - who would suffer and die at a slighly older age - both of whom were addicts. Or Stan Getz - who apparently finally got clean in his late 50's or early 60's - a few years before he died of cancer? An addict - sure but were they all? I tend to doubt it - often people go through phases when they are younger and are able to not cross that line as they are simply not addicts. Was Sonny Rollins and addict or was he just addicted when he was young? And how about the other well known jazz musicians who seemed to surve and advance - fascinating subject for me

It does? Yes it does from my perspective which includes personal experience with drug addiction and recovery. Most addicts never escape active addiction even today when there are avenues and opportunities to recover and get clean.In Parker's time the understanding regarding the disease of addiction did not exist. It was looked at as a moral deficiency and personal weakness which it certainly is not. . No one had any clue about any of it - who the hell knew what they were getting into when they figured they were just fooling around with another drug...when did start using heroin? Late 30's or early 40's? On the other hand many people who have used drugs including heroin did NOT and do NOT become addicts because they were or are NOT addicts. Some people are simply prone to addiction and at some point, once they are using they are unable to stop using through their own will. Parker was one of those people. Coltrane was also but through his process and in his case a God he found, he was able to stop using in 1957 - although as we know the after effects from his active addiction which was probably liver cancer from untreated hepatitis C killed him 10 years later. Well that's a lot more insightful than Crouch's response! Then again, didn't Parker say Heroin addiction was like rolling over all your problems into ONE big problem. And what about the connection between being a Black man in America at the time and addiction? the reality is that as long as what are refered to or thought of as 'hard drugs' have been available or used in this country - they have been distrubuted through and from more blighted areas which have been predominately populated by black/monorities. I think this says as much and then and now about the connection/relationship between African Americans and addiction as anything. My experience is that the disease of addiction does NOT discriminate base don color/age/religion/background/family background, upbringing or whatever. addicts are addicts - that's really as deep as it gets. I know Doctors/Lawyers/homeless/homeowner/nice guys/scumbags - I know all sorts. Sure addiction occurs across all types of socio-economic divide. But to dismiss the reasons some people fall into addiction and some people not, as purely to do with some kind of physical or genetic predisposition - as you seem to be implying - seems a rather quaint and old fashioned perspective. And out of synch with contemporary evidence based drug and alcohol knowledge. But if that's the story you want to tell yourself then well and good. It's actually one of my favorite subjects. I appreciate you engaging me on this topic. I actually do not believe it has anything to do with genetics or a physical pre-disposition. No one including myself knows for sure if some of us are born as an addict although some do believe that this is the case. I tend to see this as a bit much. My experience and belief is that with some of us, our drug addiction is based on an emotional or even a spiritual void if you will (although to this day, I'm wary of confusing people by using that misunderstood word) and subsequent ongoing pain that can only be filled with whatever brand of drug that works for us - works for us to temporarily eliminate that pain and fill that void. At some point, the solution becomes the problem but by that point, no matter what the substance is, we cannot stop as we are now physically, emotionally and mentally in the grips of drug addiction and we cannot stop using, We use against our will, and we see no way out. It doesn't matter what the substance is - however at the latter stages of addiction a great many addicts end up using substances like heroin, crack, methamphetimine - drugs that are widely considered highly addictive, dangerous and destructive - all of which is true - or a combination of those drugs supplemented and complemented with pain pills, alcohol, marijuana. The reality is that many people try pot, ecstasy (or molly), K, cocaine or even crack and heroin - and despite the fact that these drugs are all addictive to varying degrees - many of those people do not turn into drug addicts - therefore there is something different about some of us who do become addicts with the same background as friends or brothers or sisters who started out doing some of the same things - who did NOT become drug addicts. Recovery replaces active addiction with a solution that varies in kind from one recovering addict to another. The relaity is that in the 1940's and 1950's there was very little hop for an addict to recover - and today it is different although from a standpoint of how many people recover from the disease of addiction, it is still very, very low - as still most addicts are destined to die a using addict death - and befopre that will suffer via degradation, institutions, depravity, desparation and sometime insanity.