Steve Reynolds

I actually prefer hearing two of the musicians in Snakeoil in other contexts - Hearing Ches Smith with Mat Maneri and Craig Taborn revealed to me that in that free improvisation environment he is one of the most explosive and exciting drummers playing today. hearing Oscar Noriega with Endangered Blood with Chris Speed, Michael Formanek and Jim Black revealed a great musician on both clarinet and alto saxophone and hearing Oscar with Mat Maneri's quintet a couple of times revealed a whole other side of his playing - from scratchy seemingly obtuse improvisations of a small small almost reductive bent to cranking angular explosions out of both horns. in contrast to many listeners of outtish or improvisational music, I have never really warmed to Berne's playing, composing or his music in general. I have *enjoyed some of his recordings - a few of the Bloodcount or Paraphrase CD's are intermittently exiciting but have never held my interests for the lengths of the recordings. When I have seen him play over the past couple of years (in Formanek's Quartet and with a John Hebert led Mingus ensemble), his improvisations never approached the burn or depth of who I consider the great saxophonists of our time. Maybe I need to see him in one of his own bands as whenever I am at a show in the city, it seems one of the regulars is raving about a recent Berne show - of which there are many - he probably plays in New York as much or more than any other New York based jazz musician as far as I can tell. So I will keep my mind open - but not quite yet - my fall calendar is pretty well booked with other shows until December....

anywhere near me and I'll be there Die Like a Dog, baby

thank you, Alexander a no brainer: Thu 19 Sep | 8.30pm £ 8 Tobias Delius / Olie Brice / Mark Sanders The first gig of a short UK tour for this new free jazz trio. Tobias Delius is one of Europe's most creative reeds players. Delius (tenor sax and clarinet) will be familiar to Vortex audiences from the stunning ICP residency in January this year. He also leads his own quartet (with Han Bennink, Joe Williamson & Tristan Honsinger), and was a member of Louis Moholo's Viva-La-Black, as well as working with Steve Lacy, Bill Frisell and many others. Double bassist Olie Brice and drummer Mark Sanders had often discussed their shared love of Delius' playing, and are delighted to invite him over for this trio tour. Toby Delius (reeds), Mark Sanders (drums), Olie Brice (bass) "Tobias Delius could be the best tenor saxophonist you never heard of. A melodist, he bends chord changes and bar lines as far as they'll go without breaking, wiping away old distinctions between 'inside' and 'outside' jazz" - Kevin Whitehead

This is refreshing as in today's day and age regarding listeners to inside/outside jazz - for the most part listeners stick with what they like and rarely venture to new territories. Maybe especially true with many of the contributors on jazz bulletin boards after arround 2002 when the novelty must have worn off. There was a time when this medium was new when listeners/participants were giving new music (to them) a shot. My impression these days is that is long since over. The listeners these days for the most part are stuck with what they like or know - too damn bad, really - if a musician or group of musicians are seen or thought to be "out" or "avant-garde", many will simply never listen to those musicians never, ever, never or we can talk about the aversion to European musicians by those who one would think would or could be open-minded to them - but rarely does that happen - as those musicians are not from their group of proven masters... oh well

from which original album? Curtain Call thanks was looking for the CD with Sonny Calrk @ a shop in NYC on Saturday I will seek this one out elsewhere

from which original album?

Joe Maneri Quartet: The Love You Are Giving Us second long improvised track on the recording, "Dahabenzapple" with Joe starting on piano - and switiching off to some or all of his horns throughout - alto sax, tenor sax and clarinet. with Mat Maneri on violin, Cecil McBee on bass and Randy Peterson on drums includes a stunning solo by Peterson where we can hear the crowd erupt and explosive improvisational interplay by all throughout the 21 minutes

Had quite a few mixed thoughts on the show on Saturday - but overall a very fine band and a very enjoyable night - always nice to be about 3 or 4 feet from the bell of Tony Malaby's tenor saxophone - I NEVER take this blessing for granted. Lightcap writes some very nice tunes but he does very little besides keep time and provide accents for the band but maybe that is the plan - he didnt even have a bow with him which for me is always a let down from the standpoint of the bass. They played a set of two short compositions during both sets that were beyond striking and which contained no solos and the improvisation was basically Cheek, and to a greater degree, Malaby improvising off the theme and the melody. First set took a while to get going with Cleaver playing well but not anywhere near with the aggressive force that he sometimes displays in other contexts. He did ratchet it up a bit during one of the stronger pieces in the second set - but never did we get the real powerhouse groove and vibe that sometimes vaults his playing to the level of the great drummers. Mitchell is a very talented pianist but he tends to the more flowery, high note content playing that is sometimes a bit much for my ears - very impressive but sometimes for me the question is tho what end? Cheek is like Warne Marsh on stroids - competely emotionally controlled and very mathematical in his approach and a couple of the solos he took were close to magnificent. His accents with Malaby when the two tenors soloed together during a couple of tunes were apt and invigorating. Malaby finds himself with this band in a restrained and controlled environment and he was easily to most interesting voice in the band - as some know he is maybe strongest when he is really stretching out and improvising at length on either soprano and especially on tenor saxophone - but here that was not the context. He took a very strong short solo on the first tune of the night staying mostly within the normal range of the horn and towards the end of the first set he got some space and played some shit that was within the framework of what the band was doing but surprised me with incorporated those gnarly and skronky sounds without disrupting the flow of the music. Second set stronger and Malaby at points had BOTH elbows cranking and Malaby aficianados know what that means....... said good bye - Tony tells me to send Evan his love on the 18th and I was on the way home and yeah - it is about the love and the vibe - and fwiw - the place was packed for both sets and the crowd loved this band.

Tony Malaby just got here and I'm first in line and ready as I'm gonna be

Friday September 20th @ Cafe Oto looks immense: Otomo Yoshihide with Mats Gustaffson, John Butcher, John Edwards and Mark Sanders should be intense and couple be exceptional. I would fly there fo that if I was single.

Here is the kicker that when he is speaking of the John Surman SOS recording of 1977: "Yes, it's that anti-establishment movement, which I find amusing because none of the players could play establishment music" first off, asshat - how broad a brush are you painting with that so-called 'anti-establihment movement'? the brits only? Does this include the AACM and BAG? let's say it's just the British or even including other practitioners of what some refer to as european free improvisation musicians - and at that time it would refer to the first generation musicians of that movement. then that would include musicians such as John Stevens, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Derek Bailey, Tevor Watts, Harry Beckett and Evan Parker - and if we stretch just a little bit to the continent, it would then include Han Bennink, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Manfred Schoof, Misha Mengelberg, and many more. whether some of these guys could play 'establishment material' is known or unknown - but there are quite a few of them who are very well versed in many idioms of jazz or otherwise - but the laughable aspect of Branford's comments is that he cannot hold a candle to any of the above musicians. These guys invented and re-invented jazz and free improvisation on levels that he could only think about - which he obviously hasn't as he hasn't a fucking clue about free improvisation or the immense talents and legacies of these so-called anti-establishment musicians. It's on the verge of being bigoted if who he is refering to are the europeans and it certainly comes across that way. I really wish they would have spun an SME record for him like they did with the great Evan Parker recording from 1999 with John Edwards and Mark Sanders recently where he didn't have a fucking clue at what they were doing. blood and guts, baby

Saturday, Sep 07 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM CHRIS LIGHTCAP - BIGMOUTH Chris Lightcap, bass; Chris Cheek, tenor sax; Tony Malaby, tenor sax; Matt Mitchell, piano; Gerald Cleaver, drums

I saw the Ware quartet with Susie in 1998 and the highlights were Susie and Matt at that show. At a later show with Brown, the band was again fine save for Brown. As far as Edwards and Dickey with band - on the recordings they are no great shakes - pretty standard fare freeish post 60's bashing wishing they had the nuance of a dozen other free drummers If you dump Ibarra, at least replace her with another great drummer and not with an amateur. One may not like Susie Ibarra but she is a tremendous drummer. Then again there are apparently legions of NYC jazz musicians who won't give the time of day to one of the greatest drummers alive, Randy Peterson. And it took Paul Bley to give Joe Maneri a shot at a gig at 67 years old or so. So what NYC jazz musicians think sometimes is a bit for the who gives a shit file.

Thanks for posting this, Clifford Not in agreement with very much for whatever reason, he rubs me very much the wrong way even though I can't pin point why. I'm always reminded that I was aware that in the late 90's he was known to check out Tower Records big store in NYC every day to see what was sold of his. Self-importance to the extreme That is what irritates the fuck out of me about Matt Shipp

I am not in the camp that has Berne doing it for the money or that the music itself is in any way compromised. My only beef is the actual sound. I want to hear Formanek breath, I want hear the strings, I want to hear the resonance of his gorgeous bass sound. I want to hear Cleaver's amazing crisp powerful sound. Another example is on Small Places where there is an aggressive passage during the first or second track and the band is smoking but the sound is muffled and subdued. That's all - nothing else and nothing more from me on this subject for a while Peace and Blessings

Nobody said all music needs to be as you said above The reality is it is NOT bashing Maybe answering the critique (much different than 'bashing') might provide some insight

My wife also says YES!!

Yes

Anyone ever hear Michael Formanek live? For those who haven't, he has a gorgeous resonant sound consistent with the sound of his bass on those great enja releases from the 90's Tell me - anyone - you hear that sound on either ECM release?? Regarding Xybert's comments: And I haven't seen Snakeoil live but I do know Ches Smith is a beast live and he is anything but on the ECM recording

Most of the great shows I've seen over the years have been at Tonic, The Stone and Cornelia Street Cafe Very, very few recordings of anyone for whatever reason have been released of anyone from these venues

My latest is DP 31 8/74 Great playing from all especially Lesh. Yes Bill is a groove master Vocal suffer especially Bob - WRS is very weak

Maybe grit

Why I havnt bought it. Burned too often lately by the ECM effect. I'm sure if they can take the snap and crackle out of Gerald Cleaver and Ches Smith, they can do the same to Billy Hart. Fwiw, they might even be able to take the groove out of Hamid Drake if they ever had the chance

The set is worth it for Darek if youe really love Drake He sounds great and his approach and vibe differs throughout all 7 discs

Blue Train is correct. My two large orders shipped right away and I was very satisfied I am working on a new order that will include the KV Resonance Box to ensure I get the free shipping. Trying to figure out which other discs to choose....