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Posted (edited)

hey guys, this is my first post.

so im a big fan of luna surface, and ive been meaning to purchase seasons for a while now. turns out i cant find it anywhere. no amazon or even ebay or nothing.

any ideas how i can find this album?

otherwise lets discuss how genius alan silva is

Edited by baptizum
Posted

He's great. He was one of my inspirations in playing "free" cello (when I was a practicing musician).

I have the original BYG vinyl of Seasons, as well as a Sunspots CD (PM if you would like a burn). The CD is not a needle drop, but from master-tapes, and sounds phenomenal compared to the low-quality BYG vinyl.

There's another one, on French Leo, My Country, that is rare as hen's teeth but extremely rewarding.

I also dig his work with Burton Greene in the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble and with Bill Dixon and Frank Wright. A fantastic player and very influential albeit in a small circle of players/composers.

Posted (edited)

Welcome! Very much appreciate Alan Silva's work. I'd really like to hear his ESP Skillfullness, but that seems to be OOP and on the pricier end. As leader/co-leader, I have a Hero's Welcome w/ Wm Parker and the Allstar Game with Parker/Allen/Drake and Jordan, both on Eremite. My favorite sidman work is Sunny Murray's self-titled ESP and Ayler's Love Cry. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Edited by Holy Ghost
Posted

The interplay with him and Graves on Love Cry is fantabulous.

Skillfulness is a fantastic record, featuring the great flutist (and Silva's lady at the time) Becky Friend. He's also really "there" on Dave Burrell's After Love, on America.

Other Silva recommendations:

Francois Tusques - Intercommunal Music - (Shandar)

Sunny Murray - Big Chief - (Pathe)

Cecil Taylor - both Blue Notes and the Student Studies LP on BYG

duo w/ Burton Greene - The Ongoing Strings - (Hat Hut)

There's a nice solo LP on Center of the World that's pretty good, too, if a little poorly recorded.

Posted (edited)

The interplay with him and Graves on Love Cry is fantabulous.

Skillfulness is a fantastic record, featuring the great flutist (and Silva's lady at the time) Becky Friend. He's also really "there" on Dave Burrell's After Love, on America.

Other Silva recommendations:

Francois Tusques - Intercommunal Music - (Shandar)

Sunny Murray - Big Chief - (Pathe)

Cecil Taylor - both Blue Notes and the Student Studies LP on BYG

duo w/ Burton Greene - The Ongoing Strings - (Hat Hut)

There's a nice solo LP on Center of the World that's pretty good, too, if a little poorly recorded.

Yes, Student Studies, Unit Structures, and Conquistador are great, great discs. And you're spot on about Love Cry, the interplay between Silva and Graves is amazing! Thanks for the recommendations; I'm always on the look out for Silva related projects.

Edited by Holy Ghost
Posted (edited)

Larry Nai conducted a great interview w/ Silva for Cadence about ten years ago. He talks a bit about the "commercial" prospects of the Love Cry band ("we could've been the next Garrison and Elvin if Albert had kept the band together..."), as well as how tripped-out the audience was at a CT Fillmore West gig where they played opposite the Yardbirds. Anyway... interesting stuff.

Warburton also did a nice interview with him on Paris Transatlantic not too long ago that covers similar ground (Institute for Art, Culture & Perception, bass-painting, etc.) but is also worth a read:

In May 1968 I went on tour with Cecil Taylor to the West Coast with Eddie Gale, Jimmy Lyons, Frank Wright and Andrew Cyrille. We had a two-week residency at Stanford, played the Berkeley Jazz Festival, and then we opened for the Yardbirds at the Fillmore West. Cecil never mentions that concert, but it was a very important gig for me, because that was the market I was shooting for, with acts like Aretha and Charles Lloyd on the bill. I'd known Bill Graham for years so I called him up and told him he ought to book Cecil Taylor. Bill said: "I love Cecil Taylor's music, man.. but he's so damn expensive!" (laughs) Plus ça change! I persuaded Cecil to come down on his price, and we did the gig. We played to about 3000 kids sitting there mesmerised. We played for one hour and ten minutes. The Yardbirds were backstage saying: "What the fuck is that?!" I said: "This is psychedelic music."Leonard Feather wrote a review of that gig that syndicated in 26 newspapers and we got a call from Paul Rothschild at Elektra asking us to record a 45 rpm single, one side us, the other side The Doors.

The last line just cracks me up, bullshit or not...

Edited by clifford_thornton
Posted

Larry Nai conducted a great interview w/ Silva for Cadence about ten years ago. He talks a bit about the "commercial" prospects of the Love Cry band ("we could've been the next Garrison and Elvin if Albert had kept the band together..."), as well as how tripped-out the audience was at a CT Fillmore West gig where they played opposite the Yardbirds. Anyway... interesting stuff.

Warburton also did a nice interview with him on Paris Transatlantic not too long ago that covers similar ground (Institute for Art, Culture & Perception, bass-painting, etc.) but is also worth a read:

In May 1968 I went on tour with Cecil Taylor to the West Coast with Eddie Gale, Jimmy Lyons, Frank Wright and Andrew Cyrille. We had a two-week residency at Stanford, played the Berkeley Jazz Festival, and then we opened for the Yardbirds at the Fillmore West. Cecil never mentions that concert, but it was a very important gig for me, because that was the market I was shooting for, with acts like Aretha and Charles Lloyd on the bill. I'd known Bill Graham for years so I called him up and told him he ought to book Cecil Taylor. Bill said: "I love Cecil Taylor's music, man.. but he's so damn expensive!" (laughs) Plus ça change! I persuaded Cecil to come down on his price, and we did the gig. We played to about 3000 kids sitting there mesmerised. We played for one hour and ten minutes. The Yardbirds were backstage saying: "What the fuck is that?!" I said: "This is psychedelic music."Leonard Feather wrote a review of that gig that syndicated in 26 newspapers and we got a call from Paul Rothschild at Elektra asking us to record a 45 rpm single, one side us, the other side The Doors.

The last line just cracks me up, bullshit or not...

Thanks for sharing that. Worth it just for the Yardbirds quote alone :rsmile:

Posted

man now i wanna go get all these albums that i havent heard. too bad im broke and oink is down. skillfullness reviews look nice.

unit structures, by the way, is one of the best jazz albums ever

Guest Bill Barton
Posted

That Treasure Box looks wonderful...

I'm a big fan of Silva's "orchestral synthesizer" playing too, having heard him in duo performance with William Parker a few years back. There's a CD (also on Eremite) available of that aspect of his music as well.

Guest Bill Barton
Posted

I wasn't too into that Hero's Welcome thing, but seeing Silva play synth and piano (along with Sabir Mateen and maybe Gerald Cleaver? on drums) was pretty fantastic.

I haven't heard Hero's Welcome but loved the duo with Wm. Parker in live performance.

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