Steve Reynolds

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.

Looks strong, Ulrich

Gerald Cleaver's Black Host havn't heard the recording but live they are everything - combining raunchy guitar care of Brandon Seabrook, way out bass via Pascal Niggenkemper, the awesome Cooper-Moore on free jazz piano and the great screaming bluesman on alto, Mr. Darius Jones. Cleaver lays down the groove throughout most of the music that I heard live - lots of rock feel to this band - and it isn't really fusion of the traditional sort.

Iyer was quite good with Trio 3 a coupld of months back. I've not listened much but I'm tempted to go see his large ensemble @ Montclair State on October 5th as he had the very good sense to have the *great* Mat Maneri in the band.

Mid Month but the Marty Ehrlich residency @ The Stone has some great bands - I'm going for sure on 11/16 to see two sets of the quartet with Ray Anderson, Brad Jones and Matt Wilson 11/14 looks great as those 2 bands with Formanek and Sarin should groove like mad. THE STONE RESIDENCIES MARTY EHRLICH NOV 12—17 including: 11/14 Thursday (HB) 8 pm Rites Quartet: Frog Leg Logic Marty Ehrlich (reeds) James Zollar (trumpet) Michael Formanek (bass) Michael Sarin (drums) 10 pm The Traveler’s Tales: Malinke's Dance Marty Ehrlich (reeds) Adam Kolker (tenor sax) Michael Formanek (bass) Michael Sarin (drums) AND: 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)

He said this morning that he will have a volume 2 done within 3 years. Not sure if he was serious as he sadi he had been working on the book since 1981.

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.

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.

heard Crouch this AM in a short interview with Don Imus and it was interesting to hear him speaking to a mass audience For me with my trained ear - even in this mainstream context, Stanley said that in jazz one cannot improvise alone on stage with other musicians and we know we hear that alot - of course VERY FEW of the millions of people listening to the interview have any idea what he is talking about. For me I know that he simply cannot help himself in his resentment of music he dislikes and even disdains just because the inteplay of certain improvising musicians or altered or different approaches of improvisation and interplay isn't the *same* or as obvious as the interplay of the music of be-bop, hard bop or more mainstream jazz music. One thing he did say that speaks of the truth - when Don axsked him about Parker's heroin addiction - Stanley responded that he stumbled into it and couldn't escape. Now this speaks of wisdom from Crouch.

Now we need to hear the recordings of The Barry Guy New Orchestra that were played after the small formations sets. We need them soon!

Hate me for this if you like: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Peace and Blessings

Go see a band or musicians that you THINK are too far out or difficult play LIVE Pick a band with a great drummer

The 2 nights and therefore 4 sets I attended were between excellent and spectacular

My wife asks me. Do they prepare? How do they know what to play? Well we all will never know. Evan was almost Ben Webster at the end if the first set and then he is beyond Evan or Trane on the tenor during other portions effortlessly going from circular to that shit he plays that is unplayable by all other tenor players and its all of a piece. And the second set he plays 50 minutes straight except for a two minute coda by the pianist half way through the four piece set. And yet none of it is for show. Extreme intensity and energy levels beyond fucking realistic. How do they prepare? Music played like this is prepared through a lifetime. Life lived. Wisdom through dedication and love. Btw Mat was gorgeous with no pick up and just enough of his sound came through. No ego yet no deference to great man - just respect and beauty.

More later but last night - especially the second set Evan with Sylvie Courvoisier - was one of the singular nights of improvisation in the history of such things. Half way through the second set Evan picks up the straight horn and it goes - thin to the thickest rich circular breathing excursion that exists in this world. Sylvie gets in through the inside of the piano and by the time the 20 minute piece ends, Evan pinched, finessed the tiniest and most direct and precise sounds out if that horn. Best I've ever heard him. And that pianist.....Lordy Lordy And my wife loved it so for those not ready, give yourself a break and listen