Top Ten Black Saint/Soul Note

[randyhersom]

Big red box says Booster Pack Blowout 30 cents per song as I'm checking new releases. Back button, a little math ... I'm paying 15 for what costs me 12.50 if I wait, Close Enough! Click! and ...

Geri Allen Etudes

Ran Blake The Short Life of Barbara Monk

Billy Bang (with Sun Ra) - Tribute to Stuff Smith

Max Roach and Anthony Braxton - Birth and Rebirth

New Air with Cassandra Wilson - Air Show No. 1

Paul Motian - Story of Maryam

some digging for a three track album ... and

John Lindberg - Trilogy Of Works For Eleven Instrumentalists

Billy Bang's on the headphones right now. Instant gratification is a beautiful thing.

Edited December 10, 2008 by randyhersom

[Kyo]

You can buy them cheap from the Back Saint website directly. I think they dropped prices further after they were purchased by CAM Jazz.

Very nice. I've been wanting to buy some of these on CD for quite some time,

with prices below 9 Euro per disc I finally will. And it's great to be able to sample

more obscure stuff via eMusic now, too!

[Omari10]

Don Pullen: Capricorn Rising, Joseph Jarman: Black Paladins Andrew Cyrille: Metamusicians' Stomp each of these dates to me are must have Black Saint LP's and Baikida Carroll's Shadows And Reflections: Soul Note is also a great recording

[clifford_thornton]

Really hard to pick and rank ten from the vast catalog of both labels. I haven't been truly disappointed by any of those that I've owned... well, the Waldon/Silvano duo isn't the best Mal and the Art Davis is a little underwhelming, but one could do worse than listening to either record.

[felser]

2 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Really hard to pick and rank ten from the vast catalog of both labels. 

Agreed.  Some favorites that immediately come to mind beyond the obvious Billy Harper titles include 'Sightsong' by Muhal Richard Abrams/Malachi Favors, and some of the Andrew Cyrille albums with Ted Daniel & Co. 

[JSngry]

Hemphill

[T.D.]

4 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Really hard to pick and rank ten from the vast catalog of both labels. I haven't been truly disappointed by any of those that I've owned... well, the Waldon/Silvano duo isn't the best Mal and the Art Davis is a little underwhelming, but one could do worse than listening to either record.

Sometimes I'm Blue with Kim Parker also falls somewhat short of the best Mal IMO. 😉

On the positive side, Seagulls of Kristiansund is close to the best Mal and Andrew Hill's Shades is awesome. Lester Bowie's The Fifth Power is very good.

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Hemphill

Yes.

1 hour ago, felser said:

Agreed.  Some favorites that immediately come to mind beyond the obvious Billy Harper titles include 'Sightsong' by Muhal Richard Abrams/Malachi Favors, and some of the Andrew Cyrille albums with Ted Daniel & Co. 

Those Cyrille albums with Ted Daniel are killer. Shout out to Nick DiGeronimo (bass) on a couple of those.

I like the Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus Spirit of Nuff Nuff.

Edited yesterday at 02:54 AM by T.D.

[felser]

21 minutes ago, T.D. said:

Those Cyrille albums with Ted Daniel are killer. Shout out to Nick DiGeronimo (bass) on a couple of those.

+1 on DiGeronimo.

[Ken Dryden]

On 11/5/2008 at 3:58 AM, JohnS said:

Lots to chose from but don't overlook JOHN JANG: TWO FLOWERS ON A STEM (Soul Note)

Agreed.

[Rabshakeh]

I find it really interesting to hear a young David S Ware on those Cyrille records with DiGeronimo rather than William Parker. 

[Holy Ghost]

T.D.: THIS!

Wicked!

9 more to go..

 

[Holy Ghost]

next and playing now:

 

[Dub Modal]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Hemphill

To wit: 

[Pim]

In any order:

Billy Harper - Black Saint

Billy Harper - In Europe

Cecil Taylor - Winged Serpent

Henry Threadgill - Spirit of Nuff Nuff

Joseph Jarman - Black Paladins

Julius Hemphill - Flat Out Jump Suite

Mal Waldron - Seagulls of Kristiansund

Mal Waldron - Crowd Scène

Marc Copland - Paradiso

Micha Mengelberg - Change of the Season

Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron - Sempre Amore

Steve Lacy - Revenue

Steve Lacy - The Window

Steve Lacy - Trickles

[Late]

And if you've ever wanted to hear the stritch outside of Roland Kirk, it's played very well on this record:

[clifford_thornton]

51 minutes ago, Late said:

 

yeah, this is the Hemphill Black Saint I go to. And that Sarbib is good also; he's generally pretty excellent.

in 2008 I wasn't as caught up on the Muhal Black Saint albums, but have since bought all except the duo with Amina, which for some reason is kind of hard to find. Can't recall the last time I saw one in the bins in a record store. The documentation of AACM, BAG, and artists in the Taylor orbit like Cyrille & Lyons (and Dixon, if you want to characterize Bill's work as such) in the 80s and 90s is probably where Bonandrini's curatorial strength really lay. I also think the George Russell dates released or re-released by Soul Note are pretty excellent.

 

[Holy Ghost]

On 11/6/2008 at 6:09 PM, WorldB3 said:

I don't have a lot of Soul Note but I highly recomend Transit by Karl Berger w/ Dave Holland and Ed Blackwell.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd100/d188/d1888624688.jpg

 

If it hits Emusic I will be glad to have in MP3 format.

Just spun it, a big oh yeah!

Is it safe to say the Black Saint is more out-leaning than Soul Note, yet they are the same label?

[JSngry]

That was intentional, as I understand it.

[Guy Berger]

There are a lot of great recordings on these labels - I was lucky to pick up a lot of the CamJazz reissue boxes back in the day.

If I had to pick favorites of what I’ve heard:

Muhal Richard Abrams, Blu Blu Blu & Blues Forever

David Murray, Home & The Hill

New Air, Live at Montreal Jazz Festival

Mal Waldron, The Seagulls of Kristiansund & Crowd Scene

Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy, Sempre Amore 

Steve Lacy, Only Monk & More Monk

Paul Motian, Misterioso

Geri Allen, Etudes

 

I am sure there are others 

[Д.Д.]

I think the labels are consistently outstanding.

I particularly like these Black Sains:

1. Marcello Melis - The New Village On The Left... (I first heard about this album with Roswell Rudd, Enrico Rava and Don Moye - as well as Sardinian singers! - way back when in the Funny Rat thread as a recommendation from late brownie)
2. Frank Lowe - The Flam
3. Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell - Old and New Dream
4. Charles Bobo Shaw Human Arts Ensemble - Junk Trap
5. The John Carter Quintet - Night Fire
6. Muhal Richard Abrams - Blues Forever
7. Wayne Horvitz; Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris; William Parker - Some Order, Long Understood
8. Jimmy Lyons Quintet - Give It Up
9. Glenn Spearman Double Trio - Smokehouse
10. What We Live (Lisle Ellis; Larry Ochs; Donald Robinson) - Fo(u)r

and these Soul Notes

1. Bill Dixon  - In Italy, both volumes
2. Jaki Byard - To Them - To Us (my favorite Byard album)
3. Andrew Cyrille - The Navigator
4. Kenny Clarke; Andrew Cyrille; Milford Graves; Don Moye - Pieces of Time
5. Max Roach Quartet - Scott Free
6. Enrico Rava Quintet - Secrets
7. BassDrumBone (Mark Helias; Gerry Hemingway; Ray Anderson) - Wooferlo
8. Paul Nash - The Soul Of Grace
9. The Michael Marcus 3 - Live in N.Y.
10. The Fringe (George Garzone; John Lockwood; Bob Gullotti) - Live In Israel

Edited 3 hours ago by Д.Д.

[clifford_thornton]

3 hours ago, Guy Berger said:

There are a lot of great recordings on these labels - I was lucky to pick up a lot of the CamJazz reissue boxes back in the day.

If I had to pick favorites of what I’ve heard:

Muhal Richard Abrams, Blu Blu Blu & Blues Forever

David Murray, Home & The Hill

New Air, Live at Montreal Jazz Festival

Mal Waldron, The Seagulls of Kristiansund & Crowd Scene

Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy, Sempre Amore 

Steve Lacy, Only Monk & More Monk

Paul Motian, Misterioso

Geri Allen, Etudes

 

I am sure there are others 

yes, the Lacys & Waldrons... while there are recordings by each I would pull out before those, they're still really good and Seagulls is super.

[Guy Berger]

I should have mentioned in my list:

Jon Jang, Two Flowers on a Stem

Andrew Cyrille w/James Newton, X-Man and Good to Go: A Tribute to Bu (I like the duets w/Jimmy Lyons and the quarters with David S Ware too, but return to these 2 the most)