Steve Reynolds

not a competion but I am simply making a point regarding the often overlooked drummer

Seconded I was unaware of jazz until I was 31 and I didn't grow up in a cave

Bending Bridges is nice and the band live is well balanced and exciting And when she played in the trio with Laubrock and Rainey, she was spectacular. And she isnt the best musician in the trio.

Not today but this Saturday: Trio 3 plus Vijay Iyer @ Birdland

Been listening to quite a bit of Mobley recently Not loving Peckin Time - seems like very rote late 50's date with a not fully formed Lee Morgan and an unimpressive very young Charlie Persip on drums I think he is great on Drew's Undercurrent - plus Freddie is great as is Louis Hayes

Craig Taborn when he plays with Mat Maneri

I have to give this Russ Johnson guy a listen

Crispell-Guy-Lytton Then maybe you will really complain about the bass solos!!

Almost went to see this last night. I will order the Blu-Ray and the CD for what to me is reasonable @ $54.98. I only have a few of the 1972 sets (one of which I will be listening to on a longish drive to Binghamton, NY later today) as 1972 is rightly revered as one of the best times for the band - and the set list is strong.

@ smalls playing bebop on the piano?

something Bev just listened to - if the world was a better place, the *famous* melodic line that is the centerpiece of Barry Guy's "Harmos"

try to find this one:

Not going to see him here in the great southwest - so (among others) Capricorn Climber will have to do. Mat is still working on getting his own label started - if that happens then everyone will get to hear *his* music

See my recent comments over the past few years regarding seeing him a whole lot live over the past 2 years. To my ears among the best 3 or 4 improvisers on the planet The quintet with Oscar Noriega and Randy Peterson needs to be recorded With either Kris Davis or Craig Taborn on the piano and it would be great if Ed Schuller is on bass. The duo CD with Lucien Ban is nice Capricorn Climber does NOT capture that band and especially does NOT capture what Mat is like live with that band. A damn shame that Mat Maneri isn't served well on recent recordings. Then again I'm blessed to be able to see him often usually within 10 feet where I can hear and feel his genius. And the memories of seeing him with his Dad a few times with the classic quartet will always resonate with me. Last time this year with Randy and Ed was especially intense. But he may have played even better with Kris and the trio with Ches Smith and Craig Taborn was the best 2 sets of music I've heard this year.

my thoughts on last night at The Stone in NYC which was: 8 pm Horn Guys Michael Moore (sax, clarinet) Ray Anderson (trombone) Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby (tenor saxes) 10 pm Michael Moore plays Available Jelly Michael Moore (sax, clarinet) Ray Anderson (trombone) Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby (tenor saxes) Marcus Rojas (tuba) Gerry Hemingway (drums) it's getting a bit hot in the infamous little room between sets despite the "newish" air conditioner working at full bore. And it's not even that hot out - maybe 70 degrees with showers and high humidity - but *nothing* like the place must have been 2 weeks ago whent he temperatures were in the mid to high 90's - and Tony told me before that 2 sets he played with Louie Belegonis during that time were beyond insane - but he did say it was great - so Mr. Malaby's solution is a roll of Bounty paper towels from across the street....so I am wondering why on this earth am I in NYC on a Sunday night in a humid hot little room after a first set which was nice but nowhere near why I go see live music - fine chamber jazz for four horns - arranged and played wonderfully and all, but little to no improvisation - and I'm DYING to hear these guys play their DAMN horns! so they seem to casually seem to start at 10:15 when I KNOW it needs to start right after 10:00 - just because, I need to get my fill.... when it is about 10 til 11:00 and Marcus Rojas gets out of the chair unbeknownst to me as he was sitting throughout and now he was up and it had been a very nice set - I heard a couple of the great Available Jelly concoctions/compositions/creations or whatever the hell Michael and that history of great Dutch musicians has invented over the past 30 years - and I'm pretty damn happy with what is happening. but Marcus Rojas got up out of his chair at some point and I think they were into the last tune - something called Show something or other and it was a tune I didn't know - or maybe they were finishing up the second to last tune that had about 3 or 4 different lives - and I have NO FUCKING IDEA how these guys are playing this music they NEVER played before.... and within a few minutes Marcus, Ray and Gerry are playing this Ornettish rumbling swinging groove that has my heart coming out my chest and I'm thinking and feeling that somehow that I forget a few things about the *great* Ray Anderson - lordy fucking lordy - a few mutes never knowing or caring really when he did or didn't use 'em - he played the blues and the sweet and lovely - from the distant past into right now in an instant - and then..... well - indescribable to me as I think about such things - is there anyone who can? really describe it? well at least I got to experience *it* and then....it got/became really really special - *it* almost ended 4 or 8 times - Hemingway unexpectedly did within the structures of the composition - his insane "most powerful intense drummer who ever lived" thing - within the music - yes - within the music - powerhouse over the top without being over the top - and people were screaming when it finally ended at 11:15 - few got up right away despite the heat - hard to move after that. Michael beaming despite really no saxophone solos by any of the three world class reed masters - not that is wasn't filled with improvisation - it really is nothing like anything else that I know in jazz - it really just *is* jazz - and all three smiling knowing, loving what this music is - it *is* Sunday night in a dank, hot little place with about 40 lucky people - people who heard the genius of jazz, the genius and history of Available Jelly - despite the fact that only the brilliant Michael Moore was there from the current band or the one that I know from the their 2 great recordings in a some little club over there from a few years back and silence on the way home save for the sound of the rain.... for Ernst Glerum, Toby Delius, Eric Boeren, Wolter Wierbos and Michael Vatcher - they did you proud - one day I see all of you in a dank, hot little club - maybe there - but one day maybe here Always a Pleasure

Leaving in a couple of hours for what could be or should be a great 2 sets: Moore, Malaby, Eskelin and Anderson: "Horn Guys" Then add Marcus Rojas and the great Gerry Hemingway and they play Available Jelly Will be stuffy but its only in the high 70's

The Dresser band is strong - very good at 2012 Vision Festival

Not part of your crowd is he? No - I like many of the musicians that he plays with (maybe especially Michael Bisio who is the bassist in his trio with Whit Dickey), but alas, not all downtowners are created alike - thank jah I have ears and I gotta listen..... hard to forget his rumbling playing during the first half hour of what could ahve been a great quartet set with Paul Dunmall at last year's Vision Fest. When he finally gave the great tenorman a chance to really play when Shipp *finally* stopped or even reduced his playing to something listenable, the set finished in fine form. He sounded like a bad version of Chris MacGregor - and the great South African *never* played to excess like Shipp is prine to do.

too bad Shipp isn't as great as he thinks he is

Would love to hear the trio. Jason with Peter a couple of years back was quite good

Another good trumpeter who plays post boppish stuff is Eric Boeren with Available Jelly and other Dutch ensembles. Magnus Broo is another fine youngish powerful trumpeter who is exciting to these ears Almost went to see him in Jeff Watts big band on Saturday but alas I saw Tony Malaby again.... Next time..... Now you, sir, must start work on trying to catch others and not just Malaby again and again Next show for me in NYC will be probably more mainstreamish as I promised my wife a show at The Jazz Standard or the Vanguard. Then again it's gonna be hard to miss Malaby with William Parker and Nasheet Waits on 7/31 but I am missing it..... Plus I'm gonna miss a great show next Sunday at The Stone as I refuse to withstand the heat despite it looking like one of the best shows of the year... Hard for me to miss Hemingway, Rojas, Eskelin, Malaby ( yes him again), Michael Moore and Ray Anderson. Gonna be great but unless it drops to under 70 degrees, I doubt I go.

Almost went to see him in Jeff Watts big band on Saturday but alas I saw Tony Malaby again.... Next time.....

This might be hard to explain and I am certainly not the best listener/poster to try to explain these thoughts. I always hope that some of the more regular attendees of many of the musicians that I see most often would comment here or elsewhere about the music being performed these days that might fall under the broad parameters that might be known as downtown NYC/avant-garde yet jazz based music. What I AM hearing is that the overall vibe of much of this music has certainly moved towards a more abstract vibrational quality while at the same time it is often still very compositionally orientated. I sure wish I was able to see even more of the musicians that I am less familiar with like Sylvie Courvoisier, Zeena Parkins, and others. The last three shows I have seen (Kris Davis Quintet, Maneri-Taborn-Smith and then last Saturday - Tony Malaby's quartet with Ben Monder, Eivind Opsvik and Ches Smith) 2 of the 3 shows were based on compositions (Kris' and then Tony's) but the improvisations that came out of these structures to my ears have become increasingly adventurous and spontaneous. Both bassists on those bands were extraoridnary with the bow - Hebert with Davis more traditional - and then Saturday Opsvik was a revelation to me. Compared to a show with the same band (with Nasheet in the drummer's chair), the music developed into drones and interplay with guitar and long intense and controlled tones on the bass that were very new to my ears. I know some of these musicians spent quite some time with Paul Motian - and they even did a Motian tune Saturday (by far the most traditional playing of the night by all), so maybe his open-minded spirit has been moved to these fine young musicians. the common bond IS the imput of the 30 somethings - Ches Smith, Kris Davis - and I think the ongoing unknown influence of what I refer to as 'Maneri Music' which, of course, is being carried on and developed by the *great* Mat Maneri - who I have to say - among all these musicians - really helps the bands he is in the take the music towards these new horizons. and the middle show which was July 7th with the trio of Ches Smith, Mat Maneri and Craig Taborn - has resonated with me for the 2 weeks since I experienced it - and without a doubt was one of those musical experiences that will not and cannot be replicated. I think the open-minded approach of these guys allowed them to play some music that night that did indeed invent new music - I have been thinking of it as doom metal free jazz improvisation - my wife who one would think wouldn't like the more 'out' music - said it was among the best musical performances she's seen with me - ranking with Hamid Drake with In Order to Survive and ICP with Han Bennink - which is quite a statement - being the music of the trio contained new recognible groove, melody or anyhting other than spontaneous creation or combustion as she said, it was a rock band and Mat, Craig and Ches were rock stars, save for the glory - only the power and the brilliance. thoughts welcome

I think Billy Drummond is one of the great ones - one of the few drummers I really like that seems to move seamlessly into the forms of modern music that I am most interested in (from time to time) from more traditional more swinging type music, and that night was an especially good night, I think for specifically Drummond and Alessi. Tony was quite inconsistent that night, especially during the seocnd set when they played one long, long Bechet tunes that i think Malaby got carried away with incorparating a few too many modern or avantish elements into the traditional composition.

Add Ralph Alessi to the list. on a couple of occasions that I've seen him live with my wife, my wife thinks he's terrific....I thought he was especially good in Tony Malaby's Reading band that featured the *great* Billy Drummond. Very easy on the ears as he nevers wears on the ears and yet his playing is filled with lyrical inventive ideas.