Steve Reynolds

Thomas Chapin is still seriously undervalued despite his absolute brilliance on the alto saxophone

A couple of the times I saw him live, he was wonderous did you see his alto, piano, drums trio or a more conventional lineup? I saw his band with Matt Mitchell on piano, not sure the bassist and Ches Smith on drums. Good that night but..... Incredible with Lafayette Gilcrest's trio with Michael Formanek and Andrew Cyrille with Steve Swell making it a quintet. Stunning And close to that level was with Gerald Cleaver's Black Host with Brandon Seabrook on guitar, Pascal Niggenkemper on bass and the great Cooper-Moore on piano. First time was late 2010 or 2011 when the band was just formed and they blew the roof off.

Track 2 from Decoy plus the great Joe McPhee: Live at Cafe Oto How great are an John Edwards/Steve Noble on bass/drums?!?! Listen to this CD and this 30 minute improvisation and find out

A couple of the times I saw him live, he was wonderous

I saw Ban and Maneri with Evan Parker at the Parker residency at The Stone in NYC in September. Very fine trio performance. Great show. Next time we should say hello

Who is Ramon Lopez? Btw listening now again to disc 4 of Mad Dogs box with Parker Guy Lytton with Fernandez Mind bending Best Evan Parker tenor on record in quite some time - the ending to the first 24 minute section is beyond what should be possible. Even more than his standard casual brilliance.

More later but alls I can say right now is: The Great Ray Anderson astounded me with what he played tonight, especially during the second set and the unaccompanied solo he took during the second half of Ehrlich's "Stride" was jaw droppingly fucking genius level brilliance. Second tune of the second set was "Sugar Water" from one of the earlier wonderful Ehrlich recordings on Enja - Side by Side and as I haven't heard any of those recordings for a while and I forgot how brilliant much of that music is, I welled up a bit when he chose to play my all-time favorite composition of his. But I forgot how truly gorgeous the melody is and overall what a great composer he is. Both Brad Jones and Matt Wilson were better than I've ever heard either of them and the high points of the two sets were very high indeed. Ehrlich really got the alto blazing during the second set. I also forgot how virtuosic he is on his main horn. First set ended with a klezmer inspired theme into some high energy improv with Wilson playing all kinds of cymbals and the second set ended with Ray's "Alligatory Rhumba" which ended the night groovin like a mother with The great trombonist playing like he wanted to play all night despite the tiny crowd that stayed or came for the second set. Those who didn't go if didn't stay missed an amazing hour of music. I sometimes forget how great these guys are as well. I almost didn't go and I'm sure thrilled that I did

More later but alls I can say right now is: The Great Ray Anderson astounded me with what he played tonight, especially during the second set and the unaccompanied solo he took during the second half of Ehrlich's "Stride" was jaw droppingly fucking genius level brilliance. Second tune of the second set was "Sugar Water" from one of the earlier wonderful Ehrlich recordings on Enja - Side by Side and as I haven't heard any of those recordings for a while and I forgot how brilliant much of that music is, I welled up a bit when he chose to play my all-time favorite composition of his. But I forgot how truly gorgeous the melody is and overall what a great composer he is. Both Brad Jones and Matt Wilson were better than I've ever heard either of them and the high points of the two sets were very high indeed. Ehrlich really got the alto blazing during the second set. I also forgot how virtuosic he is on his main horn. First set ended with a klezmer inspired theme into some high energy improv with Wilson playing all kinds of cymbals and the second set ended with Ray's "Alligatory Rhumba" which ended the night groovin like a mother with The great trombonist playing like he wanted to play all night despite the tiny crowd that stayed or came for the second set. Those who didn't go if didn't stay missed an amazing hour of music. I sometimes forget how great these guys are as well. I almost didn't go and I'm sure thrilled that I did

Last tune Tiger Dance

Like I Said. Portrait of Leroy Jenkins. Hot Crab Cup. My Wish. Erica. nd then the last piece which was spectacular which of course I now have forgotten the name of

No bass clarinet which is expected as he doesn't often play it Ehrlich has his alto, soprano and what must be a b-flat clarinet Front row right in front of the two great horn dudes Later I'll move my comments to the live reviews if I'm inspired Name if you want to oblige?

And now about 30 minutes from Marty Ehrlich's band. Can hear them warming up from East 2nd st and Avenue C Getting a bit excited to hear the band

His playing on all his horns (clarinets and alto sax) is even better than very good in my listening experience. At his best as he is on Hemingway's The Marmalade King he transcends what those instruments seemingly are capable of. When I've seen him live he sometimes blends into the music and sometimes he astounds as he did the last time with ICP and with his Americanized Available Jelly band.

of course "Post-Coltrane" jazz includes the whole gamut. Would have loved to know how Coltrane dealt with musicians like Red Garland who couldn't or didn't or wouldn't hear what he was laying. And this is not a volue judgement on musicians who gre up with music in the 40's through the early 60's and then there was what happened and the bifurcation of jazz - how can we say what the music being made by the insurgents sounded like to ears trained to hear music and play music within certain confines? fascinating that Coltrane was the one guys from the pack of reknowned musicians who pushed as hard and as far as he did against the status quo

then those who really don't like the changes and advances (yes - advances) in jazz that were in some part due to Coltrane pushing the limits - no doubt in some cases to an extreme point - especially in relation to length, then they can say that *even* Coltrane didn't believe in free jazz. even the grand master who was respected by all didn't really like free jazz. so the only ones who pushed forward and beyond were mostly those un-moored from the *tradition* a faccy, of course, but it makes the staunch conservatives feel better continuing to ignore 40 years of quote, un-quote "Post-Coltrane" jazz.

Saturday night @ The Stone, NYC 11/16 Saturday 8 and 10 pm The Ray Anderson/Marty Ehrlich Quartet: “Let Me Hear You Say” Ray Anderson (trombone) Marty Ehrlich (reeds) Brad Jones (bass) Matt Wilson (drums)

oh how some just wish that Coltrane himself thought his later playing was just jiving

I might take back my Mad Dogs recommendation unless one has an open mind. Maybe start with Parker-Guy-Lytton's At The Vortex Listen to it loud 3 times and if one doesn't like that, then stick with traditional free jazz

Very sad indeed Kalaparusha at the edge of the horizon, indeed Here it as it was performed in dedication to the great saxophonist by William Parker's In Order to Survive in June 2012 on the recent box set. An amazing experience to see the suite from the first row. Big props for William's support for Kalaparusha during his final difficult time on this earth. Peace and Blessings

This is getting absurd. He thinks those he listed are basically free improv and you're recommending Mad Dogs, which costs how much again? He made it clear there was a budget issue. Others recommending Brotzmann and the rest. Is there really a reading for comprehension issue for that many of you? He wants "unstructured" so I figured the best of the best free improvisors in the area of energetic improvising would be the best place to go.

Mad Dogs box set Free improvisation from some of today's greatest improvisers including Parker, Guy, Lytton

Happy I am seeing Marty Ehrlich next Saturday and here's hoping he brings his bass clarinet with him

The 3Dom Factor on Tum is darn good. I believe you should give MOPDTK a try. But - then I may be the only one. 3Dom Factor is a very fine recording - pretty similar in vibe to the trio I saw live except the night I saw them it was Irabagon's music and Mark Helias is always incredible live.

I havn't listened to or gone to see MOPDTK and you guys are doing nothing to encourage me. OTOH, I really like Irabagon and the last time I saw him (stikcing to tenor) with Helias and Altschul he was pretty damn great when he hit his groove

at least one of the best jazz clubs is two blocks away looking forward to NOV 9th: Tony Malaby with Ben Monder et al - and two drummers - Dan Weiss and Billy Mintz will be scorching