nathan

Plus, Nat made the Work Song album as a leader, which is a really beautiful and pretty unique record. Cornet/guitar/cello in front on much of it; some beautiful cornet/guitar/bass trio pieces; Wes Montgomery; etc. I didn't discover it until a fairly recently, and it's really a good one.

E. Parker's amazing w/ this technique, of course... I've seen John Zorn do some pretty incredibly circular breathing through the years, with a lot of control. Oh, and there's a tape of him playing Herbie Nichols' The Gig in which he circular breathes and holds a tonic note in the false upper register of the alto while dropping into the main ascending riff from the tune simultaneously. Sorry if that doesn't explain what he's doing very well, but it's pretty insane, very musical and just great. nathan

I am tempted to list a bunch of Eric Dolphy solos, since he's probably my favorite soloist, but I will restrain myself and pick 3 off the top of my head: - his solo on Spiritual, from the original Vanguard 1961 album. No doubt this is somewhat for personal reasons, as it was the first Dolphy solo I heard, and really knocked me out. Still love it. - his hair-raising solo on Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, from Mingus at Antibes. - his incredibly voice-like solo on Mendacity, from Max Roach's Percussion Bittersweet. A few more favorites that come to mind: - Coltrane on Autumn Serenade & Alabama. I'm not saying these are the best Coltrane solos (they're far from representative, given their brevity and relative restraint), but what he does in a relatively restrained mode and in an incredibly concentrated time-frame here is remarkable to me. - Marc Ribot's solo on Tom Waits' Way Down in the Hole. Not jazz, but probably my favorite guitar solo. - Ike Quebec's solo on Sonny Clark's recording of Deep in a Dream. Classic. - Brad Mehldau's solo on Song Song...so subtle, yet it feels like it's constantly on the verge of boiling over. Really tense in a gorgeous, low-key way. The way he rides the rhythm section throughout is masterful. - Monk's take on I Should Care on "Himself"...the whole thing is like a perfect solo to me. nathan

$10...damn...that's great! I hope you dig it. It's a beautiful piece of work...the mournful take of Dark Sestina is worth $10 alone! Great tune (recorded by Ehrlich w/ Muhal Richard Abrams and probably elsewhere) and amazing playing. Kalo, yeah, 2 bass clarinets is a lot of fun...incredible range! Immensely fun to compose for. Definitely my favorite instrument...if only I played it! Must be compensating. Speaking of multiple bass clarinets, one of my band mates, Cornelius Boots, leads a bass clarinet QUARTET, if you can believe it! Not so much a jazz group, but amazing. (They refer to themselves as "Heavy Chamber Music".) They're called "Edmund Welles", and they're playing at Zorn's new club the Stone in NYC this Friday, if anyone out in NYC needs some bass clarinet. They're recent recipients of a Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation Grant, and they're playing an epic & extraordinary new work by Cornelius. The other players are Aaron Novik, Scott Hill, and Sheldon Brown. Highly recommended. nathan

I love the bass clarinet so much my own group has 2 bass clarinetists in it! After Dolphy, my favorite is Ben Goldberg, based in the Bay Area. A true master. You can hear his playing on a number of outstanding -- if, in some cases, hard to find -- albums under his own name, with the New Klezmer Trio, the cooperative group Junk Genius, and with composer/bandleader Graham Connah. They're all good. A couple i would recommend to start with: - New Klezmer Trio's Melt Zonk Rewire -- easy to find, on John Zorn's Tzadik label, and just a masterpiece, in my opinion. Amazing bass & Bb clarinet playing, and great originals. With Kenny Wollesen & Dan Seamans. - Light at the Crossroads, co-lead with Marty Ehrlich (mentioned often above), on which both Ben & Ehrlich play bass & Bb clarinets. That would be a good one to check out, and a good starting place. Very accessible and gorgeous. Featuring the always astounding Kenny Wollesen/Trevor Dunn rhythm section. nathan

Another big thumbs up for Stanko's Leosia. Oxley's drumming on the opening track is one of my favorite performances...totally unique contribution to a beautiful ballad. Quite a track, and the rest of the album is great! I'd love to hear that Jormin record, but haven't to date. nathan

I like all of his leader recordings, but my personal favorite (and one of my favorite records period) is Serenity, by quite a ways. I return to it constantly. It's just indescribably haunting, concentrated, spacious and brilliant. As much as I like the others, this feels like a real next step to me, in a positive way. And Anders Jormin is miraculous here. Highly, highly recommended. nathan

Many thanks!

Wow! That's really exciting. Does anyone know if the content of the letter from Evans to Coltrane (mentioned among the auction items) has been published anywhere? I would love to get a look at that. Any info is much appreciated. nathan

I can think of two examples that not only really moved me and worked in context but, best of all, also introduced me to new pieces of music: 1 - I remember half-watching the pretty mediocre sci-fi movie Gattica and being totally struck-dumb by a version of Charlie Haden's First Song that I had never heard before. I tracked it down -- it was from a Stan Getz & Kenny Barron duo record called People Time -- and it remains one of my favorite pieces of music. Gorgeous, and easily the best thing I got from watching that film! 2 - From a movie I love, Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: in a moody, rain-drenched scene near the end, they play a piece from Nuba, by Jimmy Lyons, Andrew Cyrille & Jeanne Lee. Just haunted & mesmerizing...I finally tracked that record down, and it's another favorite. And a perfect fit for that moment in the film. nathan p.s. - count me as another big fan of The Conversation!

I have and really like Apparitions. I have all 3 of Rogers' Criss Cross dates (Art of the Invisible being my favorite), and I really admire them and return to them often. In each case it has taken me a while to warm to them completely, but they've always drawn me back in, and it's always proven worth it. Some of his compositions sound like explosions at the note factory, and when I first heard Rogers play (live w/ an early version of John Zorn's Electric Masada, believe it or not), I was unsure of my feelings (in-born fear of the super-virtuoso guitar player!). But over time I've really been drawn to the (somewhat-arch) beauty in his playing. Some of the compositions remain a bit less than memorable for my taste/to my ears, but the integrity of the group architecture and interplay wins out. Clarence Penn & Scott Colley, in my opinion, deserve particular credit for making some really tricky shifting time signatures/grooves sound really natural and swinging. Rogers is great on the nylon-string too. And yes, the soloists are smoking throughout. I would recommend it (and Art of the Invisible). nathan

joeface -- yeah, that was with Jay at first and then Scott Amendola (who was already in TJ Kirk w/ Hunter and is, in my opinion one of he great drummers out there right now -- check out his leader records!). Scott was actually in the band by the time Bing Bing Bing was released (Jay was still on that record), if I'm not mistaken. If not, he joined right after. It was a great live band, from the early trio days. Hunter has gotten a lot more advanced through the years, but they were really good then, and there was a really good energy from them and around that scene at the time. The TJ Kirk record which was released pretty recently (Talking Only Makes It Worse) is a live date from when they were still a band (recorded after their second album), so it's not really new, but it's pretty damn good. They did some reunion shows last year, but no new material to date.

Kenny Brooks -- the tenor player on Natty Dread -- is a phenomenal jazz sax player. Amazing. Unfortunately, that one record has been his biggest exposure so far (and solo space on that album is rather limited), and he's been doing a lot of touring duty with hippy rock bands lately to make a living. I wish his jazz playing was more extensively documented, because he is a monster. Coming from kind of a Joe Henderson realm, but really unique and hip. Played one of the best versions of I Thought About You I've ever heard. His regular trio in SF for many years (with the great Eddie Marshall on drums) was one of my favorite live experiences, hearing them countless times back in Brunos' 90s heyday. His playing live with Hunter was amazing too, getting to stretch more than on the ND album. What Charlie does on guitar is radically different from fingerstyle guitar playing, and requires a different level of brain-splitting (for lack of a better or less made-up word) and independence. That doesn't make it better or anything, I'm just pointing out that it's more different than it might appear, especially with jazz style soloing laid over the top. I'll always have a warm spot for Hunter, as Charlie was an upcoming local and one of the first people I saw playing jazz live regularly when I finally turned 21 and was able to go to the (then plentiful) Bay Area jazz clubs! My favorite Hunter album is still Ready Set Shango (the ballad writing in particular is gorgeous on that one), followed by Right Now Move (I'm glad he hooked up with the outstanding John Ellis & Curtis Fowlkes). I wish his duo work with Bay Area drum master Scott Amendola (a regular in his quartet for years) had been recorded -- those were some amazing shows, and preferably (in my opinion) to his recorded duos.

Billy Kilson...definitely. Sorry, I know some people think he's great. I almost like him at this point, because his playing is so awful and wanky (to my ears and in my opinion)...it's good unintentional comedy. Though it's just sad when you hear him solo live after thoughtful solos by great players (for example, in Holland's band following Steve Nelson & Co.) -- especially because the crowd usually eats his tripe up. Nice to see the brilliant Kenny Wollesen get a positive mention here.

Coincidentally, the organist (Wil Blades) i recommended in my post is the current "Featured Artist" on the Fallico site Jim R. recommends above...

Soulstream, Those are good suggestions for (mostly) mainstream jazz in the bay area above. Unfortunately, Bruno's is currently closed for renovations. I would recommend going to Yoshi's on Monday...not only is it cheaper, but the fine saxophonist John Ellis is playing that night with a really good quartet (Aaron Goldberg, Jason Marsalis & Roland Guerin). I wouldn't miss that...if only i wasn't going to be in NYC that week. Dig the Yoshi's unagi too. There's a good, creative jam session run by the fine local saxophonist Mitch Marcus Wednesday nights at Amnesia -- over in the Mission at 853 Valencia, between 19th & 20th. See http://www.amnesiathebar.com/ Definitely a good hang, and Mitch is great. As for organ stuff, if you don't mind driving out of town a bit, and you're still in town the night of the 21st, I would highly recommend going up to the very nice Zebulon Lounge in Petaluma to see guitarist Will Bernard with the great young organ player Wil Blades. Blades is a Dr. Lonnie Smith protege, and very good. Bernard is an outstanding local guitarist who plays with Dr. Lonnie a lot himself these days (among many others). see: http://www.zebulonslounge.com/ I don't know where your tastes run, but there is always a lot of interesting more "out" stuff going on around here. If you're interested, check out http://www.bayimproviser.com/calendar.asp Enjoy!