king ubu

played the Dizzy right through ... excellent stuff mostly!

Finally got started with this one last night ... wasn't even aware yet Kenny Washington was involved - love his liner notes and insights! Played discs one and two last night, disc two in all its glory again today. Now on to this: starting where Leo Wright joins (mid of disc 3) and going to at least the Antibes concert on disc 5, maybe more ...

How many musicians actually do listen to their own records? Makes a certain amount of sense to me. Trane knew Heath from his Philly days, and Heath was among the first tenors (Bill Barron being another) to really understand Trane's music. Oh, and Miles had recorded with Jimmy and Percy Heath at his April 20, 1953 session for Blue Note ("C.T.A."). Didn't Miles plan to get Heath sometime later again ... around the time he then signed Mobley? Heath was out on parole and not allowed to travel, so he couldn't take the gig - that's how I remember the story.

Not sure about all of this ... on the label site it says if you order, make sure to list alternatives as "currently" many titles are out of stock ... http://www.redrecords.it/item.aspx?id=317&tipo=releases&Lang=ENG as far as shipping costs go, the info is only in the Italian language version of the above page:

Oh yes, don't miss the Crusaders! (Can't say anything on the Hutcherson, it's in the pile here...)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Nice one! Sounds very much like 90s acid jazz of the better sort, too ... but then obviously acid jazz was nothing new under the sun anyways.

Yes indeed I noticed Hinte! There was some tv series over here on funk and soul, and it went on to disco, Donna Summer etc. - and yeah, plenty of it was downright fascinating to me! I never really bothered to find out much about it previously ... growing up in times of euro-dance crap (my sis listened to that stuff all too often and it hurt my ears ... she in turn considered me elitist), I never quite realized there was more to disco, but indeed there is.

Monday night was Howe Gelb and band ... great fun, very long concert in an intimate venue Howe has played several times and seems to really enjoy - first off was an acoustic set (Howe and another guy on guitars, third on a weird - seems self-made - double bass), then eventually Howe set down at the piano and played lots of Monkish stuff (with the guitar player changing to drums), and finally it went electric (Howe and bassist on electric instruments, third guy still on drums). Not quite sure what it all was, in the end ... dillentante stuff, genius, dada ... but fun it was! On Tuesday I saw german pianist Lars Vogt - change of pace and scene - doing a solo recital. First off, Bach's Goldberg Variations, played softly and with a wonderful touch, an amazingly rich colour palette, too (and with the roughly 75 minutes it took him, he must have played all or most repetitions). After the break, he closed with Beethoven's final piano sonata, op. 111 - amazing stuff to witness in concert, for sure! No encore - but I found that perfectly alright, I mean after op. 111, what else is there to say? Friday night, another change of scene, this time to free improv at the WIM, a musicians' collective offering rehearsal space and doing these workshop concerts. In front of twenty people (several of whom musicians themselves), Colin Vallon (p), Christian Weber (b) and Alex Huber (d) played a terrific concert. First set was powerful and intense, second took a while to build up steam, but again it was great. Vallon played as much inside of the piano than on its keys, using various devices to "prepare" it, Weber was his usual self, strong as a rock yet extremely fast in reacting to the surroundings, with neverending power and flow of ideas, him too applying various techniques they don't teach you in conservatory (or at jazz school), and Huber, whom I'd not seen before, was doing a great job, too, pushing and embellishing, bowing his cymbals but also driving them on with a free style that would still suck you in, rhythmically. At that concert I bumped into an old friend whom I'd not seen for years ... he tells me tonight Weber would play at his place, in front of some invited friends. So of course I went there too - and wow! Again, a great performance, about an hour of solo bass, much arco playing (his fingers nearly fell off yesterday - he never uses amplification and he really was playing hard for both sets!) and again creating soundscapes that were beautiful and wondrous in many respects. Love this big hungry man on the bass! Next up (hopefully, I caught some bad cold and was hesitant to go tonight already) on Wednesday Colin Vallon with his regular trio on their CD release tour.

having given some more thought ... of course it's local guys I saw most often (each of them four or five, maybe six or seven times - and I'll see more of them in the future, I hope): Colin Vallon (with his own trio and with singer Elina Duni, whom, alas, I've seen but twice yet) Christian Weber (from solo to gigs with Oliver Lake and Urs Leimgruber and as sideman with Co Streiff's fine sextet) Irène Schweizer (solo, duos with Pierre Favre and charming singer Françoise Kübler, as guest with Trio 3) of the non-locals, I'm quite sure Taylor Ho Bynum wins the honours (with his sextet, with Braxton, with the Convergence Quartet, with Mike Reed ...), then there's also Matana Roberts (Coin Coin Chapters 1 and 2 and two solo gigs), then the entire Trio 3 (plus Cyrille with Grimes and Crispell, plus Lake in various other settings, plus Workman solo and with Shepp/Lateef). This list is probably still incomplete ... the Bauer brothers have been up several times, Pierre Favre as well, Abdullah Ibrahim for sure (at least four times), Brötzmann ... I should really take notes of the concerts I catch, just like I do with the movies I watch. Memory about sidemen fades too quickly too often.

Wow, that sounds like quite a ride, Ricky! Thanks for sharing - fascinating!

Thanks for these videos - fascinating stuff!

Who is Sylvester? Stallone, Stone, Sonny Red ... or is that one of those cases where "believe me, you don't want to know"?

they seem to call 'em "swiss bells" here (btw, the name of Zurich airport in Dutch means just that: balls )

cow bells, uhm, bull balls? anyone ever tried? they just started serving that in some restaurant here ... fried and with some sauce - just read a story about it ... don't think I'm going to try.

Happy Birthday, Wes, wherever you're truckin' around!

I wonder, too ... that phrase just makes little sense ... I guess it might actually just be ONE record, then bloated to 12" because .... well, why anyway, because it's silly heavy duty vinyl and running at 45 rpm probably. I don't quite get it.

they good! don't know the duo yet, but yeah, go if you have a chance!

There's also this - judged on the disc from last year (sixth book of madrigals by Gesualdo) it ought to be glorious: Gesualdo: Responsoria (1611) La Compagnia del Madrigale (Glossa) Also recently released: Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro Musica Aeterna, Theodor Currentzis (Sony Classical) gets fine reviews ... but Kermes as countess? don't know if I need that ....

I'll be happy if there's new (to me) Teddy Edwards on it ... but yeah, if anyone finds out more on line-ups, please do share!

The Venuti/Lang is probably the one I kick myself most ... got the JSP then - worlds apart, of course! The Bailey I got, hesitatingly - but boy is it good! Recently got the Ella/Duke CD box, so I'll pass that vinyl set - still haven't bought any of those, not even the Monk/Coltrane ... next ones I'd be tempted would be the Coltrane and the Brownie, but in both cases I've got it all (and much more in the case of Brown/Roach) on CD.

dude got older but younger at the same time, crazy but: very valid points, all

I see you've gone for the Hackett. Good move - I've done the same. Yes, with all the Selects suddenly hitting the "running low" list (glad I got the Booby a few months ago - came back in stock and out it goes ... the end of the Selects is pretty near now, alas!) I figured I'll just put in another big order. I'm nearing - for the very first time after nearly 20 years of collecting Mosaic boxes - the state of having almost all I want (missing the Luncerford, Artie Shaw, not sure about the Crosby and the Goodman ... skipping the Satchmo, not sure about Ella and Woody Shaw either yet ... and the new Satchmo will go to the wantlist immediately although probably I won't pre-order. I kinda feel ... saturated Seriously now, I enjoy Hackett's playing where he popped up so far (including the two albums he made with Teagarden) and even though it will probably not turn out a real "must have", it would be one of those cases where I'd be angry at myself for missing it (there are a few of those, but I've found a dozen or so OOP sets in the meantime, although usually not at crazily cheap prices, but affordable and fair).

€ 19.79 at amazon.fr (somewhat more on amazon.de) - indeed pretty okay I'd say!