David Izenzon

[clifford_thornton]

Oh yeah, the Motian is very good but even better shit exists live, with Brackeen BLOWING on tenor.

[Late]

I heard a record of Charles Brackeen with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Brackeen sounded so much like Ornette, it was astonishing, even the compositions though it was Brackeen´s originals, sounded exactly like something written by Ornette.

[AllenLowe]

I think the problem with the Byard album is an out-of-tune piano and very little "presence" in the recording - musically it's quite good -

Jaki Byard is GOD -

[AndrewHill]

I heard a record of Charles Brackeen with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Brackeen sounded so much like Ornette, it was astonishing, even the compositions though it was Brackeen´s originals, sounded exactly like something written by Ornette.

That's got to be one of the coolest Strata East covers I've ever seen! Take that its not available on cd?

Edited January 14, 2009 by Holy Ghost

[king ubu]

I think the problem with the Byard album is an out-of-tune piano and very little "presence" in the recording - musically it's quite good -

Jaki Byard is GOD -

ahem, you might want to tell this to those britons and their atheist buses... he he

[king ubu]

I heard a record of Charles Brackeen with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Brackeen sounded so much like Ornette, it was astonishing, even the compositions though it was Brackeen´s originals, sounded exactly like something written by Ornette.

That's got to be one of the coolest Strata East covers I've ever seen! Take that its not available on cd?

Here's another one designed like that:

Cecil Payne - Zodiac

[paul secor]

I heard a record of Charles Brackeen with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Brackeen sounded so much like Ornette, it was astonishing, even the compositions though it was Brackeen´s originals, sounded exactly like something written by Ornette.

That's got to be one of the coolest Strata East covers I've ever seen! Take that its not available on cd?

Bellaphon Records (Germany) reissued it on CD in 1993 - probably out of print now.

[AndrewHill]

I heard a record of Charles Brackeen with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Brackeen sounded so much like Ornette, it was astonishing, even the compositions though it was Brackeen´s originals, sounded exactly like something written by Ornette.

That's got to be one of the coolest Strata East covers I've ever seen! Take that its not available on cd?

Here's another one designed like that:

Cecil Payne - Zodiac

Nice!

This Dolphy Series...any more info on it? There seems to be at least four of them.

[clifford_thornton]

They were produced by Clifford Jordan for Strata-East. Two of his dates, the Brackeen, the Pharoah, and the Payne - that's all I know of. Nice stuff!

[AndrewHill]

They were produced by Clifford Jordan for Strata-East. Two of his dates, the Brackeen, the Pharoah, and the Payne - that's all I know of. Nice stuff!

Thanks!

[Shannon Dickey]

I really enjoy the Cecil Payne set. I do believe I have one of the Jordan's, hell, now I gotta' go to the garage and hunt!!

Best to all,

-------HB

[Shannon Dickey]

Anybody enjoy the Charles Brackeen titles on Silkheart? I remember getting a bunch of Silkheart vinyl in the early 1990's. The 3 Charles Gayle titles, the fantastic

Booker T. lp and the David Ware lps. Any feedback folks???

---Best,

HB

[Guy Berger]

In 1977, Izenzon recorded and toured in a trio of Paul Motian's, with Charles Brackeen on tenor and soprano.

The album is called "Dance" and is available on ECM:

Not my favorite record by Motian, and I think Brackeen is somewhat underutilized, but Izenzon is awesome here. Highly recommended for fans of arco bass playing.

Guy

[Chuck Nessa]

They were produced by Clifford Jordan for Strata-East. Two of his dates, the Brackeen, the Pharoah, and the Payne - that's all I know of. Nice stuff!

NOT produced for Strata-East.

Clifford produced these for a label he was going to operate called Frontier. That enterprise never materialized and he licensed some titles to Strata-East. At some point around 1980 he offered the masters to me. He played unissued dates by Wilbur Ware and Ed Blackwell from this stockpile. He included his own titles "Glass Bead Games and In the World as part of the package. He said he was withholding a Don Cherry date at Don's request.

[clifford_thornton]

Oh shit, didn't know that. Thanks.

[ep1str0phy]

Oh yeah, the Motian is very good but even better shit exists live, with Brackeen BLOWING on tenor.

Yeah--the playing is maybe a little too tasteful on the date ubu mentioned. I remember being disappointed that there wasn't a little more aggression on the trio disc, although I don't think any of the men involved could be considered bashers, really.

[paul secor]

They were produced by Clifford Jordan for Strata-East. Two of his dates, the Brackeen, the Pharoah, and the Payne - that's all I know of. Nice stuff!

NOT produced for Strata-East.

Clifford produced these for a label he was going to operate called Frontier. That enterprise never materialized and he licensed some titles to Strata-East. At some point around 1980 he offered the masters to me. He played unissued dates by Wilbur Ware and Ed Blackwell from this stockpile. He included his own titles "Glass Bead Games and In the World as part of the package. He said he was withholding a Don Cherry date at Don's request.

Chuck - Do you know if there was a connection between the stillborn Frontier label and Harvey Brown's Frontier Press which was active during that time frame?

edit - Googled Harvey Brown - Frontier Press and answered my own question:

From - Olson's Buffalo

Michael Boughn

The earliest appearance of community in this sense was around Harvey Brown’s Frontier Press. Harvey Brown came to Buffalo in the fall of 1964. Like many of the others then flocking to the city, he came from Cleveland, Ohio via the Al Cook connection. Cook, who had been teaching at Case Western, was hired as Chair of the English Department at the new State University of New York, and given tremendous resources to build the Department. Many of those he had worked with and taught at Case Western were hired to teach at Buffalo, or followed others there as students. Unlike most others, however, Brown was a millionaire, a designation that still meant something of consequence in 1964. His grandfather had invented a mechanism that facilitated the off-loading of materials from river barges, and the money he accumulated from his invention propelled his family into the upper echelons of Ohio society.

By the time Harvey Brown got to Buffalo, he had rejected both his social position, preferring the company of jazz musicians to debutantes, and his financial position. His relation to the money he inherited was based on the understanding that it embodied two contradictory energies or powers: accumulation and circulation. Call them angels. Brown felt that to capitulate to the angel of accumulation was to give power over your life to money, to allow it to rule your spirit. To give that power over to the angel of circulation, on the other hand, was to subjugate money to spirit. That was the path he chose, and Olson became one of the main instruments he used to realize it.

Harvey Brown’s connection with Charles Olson was immediate and intense. In so far as they shared a sense of political priorities, Olson fit into Brown’s plans to use his money to further certain specific ends. Brown, through his connections with jazz musicians in New York and Cleveland, had started a recording company to further the work of struggling artists such as Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Clifford Brown, and Clifford Jordan. Brown understood the work of these artists to constitute the ground of a new American republic, the visionary incarnation of Winthrop’s City on a Hill. It was an ec-centric community whose importance was both in its antithetical message, and in the method it had pioneered: improvisation based on the call and response of traditional African-American music (see Brown’s fascicle “Jazz Playing” in The Curriculum of the Soul). That method for Brown resonated precisely with Olson’s sense of the projective, and that correspondence provided the basis for Brown’s ongoing support for both the recording project, and for Frontier Press.

Though Harvey Brown was a bit late on the scene to record Clifford Brown.

Edited January 15, 2009 by paul secor

[Gheorghe]

Look for the DVD titled David, Moffett & Ornette - Paris 1966. The company Rhapsody currently publishes and distributes it. Some nice footage of Izenzon there, and one's given some insight into the person as well. Warmly recommended.

After I read your answer, I ordered it and got it yesterday. Well really, the music´s great. It´s much of the music they played at Golden Circle and it´s really interesting to see them improvising to the film. Too bad it isn´t a bit longer and I didn´t see the excerpt of Ornette playing on piano or Charles Moffett playing xylophone. But it´s great to see all of them playing. Izenzon really looks like a nice kind of person, would have been great to hang around with those people.

The longest part of the film is Roland Kirk. Well I was really looking forward seeing that. The short excerps from Ronnie Scott are great, and Kirk at the Zoo also. But I can´t get with that other strange sounds and the John Cage stuff. Well, I´m hip enough to dig more freakish stuff like Ornette on the fiddle and all that, but if it´s just abstract sounds like "western avantgarde" it´s a bit too much for me.....

[AmirBagachelles]

Fascinating thread. Chuck's info on Clifford Jordan's stash of unissued dates reminds me of another great unissued treasure, the balance of Ornette's Town Hall concert containing Izenzon's epic bass solo, which I believe was largely composed. (Do I have that right?) Let's hope Ornette will one day issue that great concert at full length.

For sure, the Blue Note reissues of the Golden Circle records are (for me) the apex of the expanded-edition-CD-era. Those discs are mind blowers. Roll up the windows, turn it up and drive.

[clifford_thornton]

From what I understand - and somebody may know more about this - the recordings were badly marred by distortion and the only salvageable (then) material was issued via ESP. I don't know the state of the tapes now or whether any more salvageable music has been found from that concert.

Ornette has never been one for going back into his archives. Who knows whether that will change.

[king ubu]

From what I understand - and somebody may know more about this - the recordings were badly marred by distortion and the only salvageable (then) material was issued via ESP. I don't know the state of the tapes now or whether any more salvageable music has been found from that concert.

Ornette has never been one for going back into his archives. Who knows whether that will change.

This is off-topic but wasn't there a disc on A&M that was sort of an archival release? A supplement to - I think - "Dancing in Your Head"? (I'm not a completist of his music post 1970 or so... and before, my collection has various gaps, too)

[clifford_thornton]

Hmm. Not sure, as I have Dancing in Your Head on vinyl.

[kh1958]

From what I understand - and somebody may know more about this - the recordings were badly marred by distortion and the only salvageable (then) material was issued via ESP. I don't know the state of the tapes now or whether any more salvageable music has been found from that concert.

Ornette has never been one for going back into his archives. Who knows whether that will change.

This is off-topic but wasn't there a disc on A&M that was sort of an archival release? A supplement to - I think - "Dancing in Your Head"? (I'm not a completist of his music post 1970 or so... and before, my collection has various gaps, too)

You are probably thinking of the Artists House LP Body Meta.

[king ubu]

Hmm. Not sure, as I have Dancing in Your Head on vinyl.

I thought "Body Meta" was the supplement to "Dancing" but I might be wrong, AMG says "Body Meta" was the first release of Artists House, so... no idea where I got that idea from, sorry.

[king ubu]

Yup, we were posting simultaneously... when did "Body Meta" come out, in 1976 as AMG says? In that case it wouldn't really be a belated second helping...