king ubu

I think he was one of the many more obscure musicians I found out early on thanks to JE Berendt ... fine player, I have at least half a dozen of his Steeplechase, Muse and more recent albums and have enjoyed each and every one I've heard, including his appearances with Shirley Horn.

yeah, the ancient Chinese farmer may prefer grindcore, after all ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1001_Albums_You_Must_Hear_Before_You_Die

Sad news!

Lew Wasserman and MCA ... the mob that ran Hollywoodland and that alternative president that struck the world in the eighties

I would also generally disagree with the notion that Weill and his music are unknown over here ... Brecht is still huge (and would be immense if not for his heirs that are extremely strict with allowing productions of his plays etc), and Weill is closely linked with some of his finest and most famous work. There was also a pretty nice movie made on Weill (including his US exile) in which plenty of German pop (in the widest sense) musicians appeared, as well as Willem Breuker (r.i.p.) and Milva and others. If there was need for unearthing, I guess that has been going on for at least two or three decades by now. Me being Swiss, we sang all those dreadfully lame Lennon/Macca arrangements in school, too, but no Weill, yet I guess most any high school kid with some interest in music and theatre would eventually stumble over Weill and/or Brecht-Weill.

Wouldn't fit ... and from what happens to labels "integrated" into Outhere, I'm not sure Hat will continue as a brand as we know it ... it might change its face and be merged with other jazz holdings of Outhere (i.e. the jazz productions done by Zig Zag Territoires, mainly a classical label that was acquired by Outhere not too long ago). But this is pure speculation of course. And all in all, these hatOLOGY cardboard sets may look nice when they're new, but discs get scratched, cardboard gets scoffed ... on the other hand, same happens to us, so that's alright in some ways

Heard about this a few weeks ago, at the Swiss distributor's of Outhere -- and now Hat. Outhere does some great classical releases ... guess it's as good news as was possible with WXU (I have some reason to assume that no one wo_man could quite live up to the expectations that were around). The alternative was probably for Hat to just fade away.

The split made between the composer and the pianist is weird, too, coming from pianists all the more. They should know how difficult much of his music is to play ... or at least to play it in style. After all pretty much no pianist ever offered his own valid take on Monk, so why even try and pretend and bother about his compositions if they turn out way too neat if played by anyone other than the man himself?

Either way, he quite certainly wasn't the only one with a relevantly off opinion o Monk, even at that time, I should assume?

It took me a while, but I great to enjoy Peterson's playing from his first Verve recordings to the MPS years and in part also beyond (though from around 1970 on I don't know his discography nearly as well as for the two decades prior to that) ... however, that remark strikes me as pretty much on the money, nonetheless.

Yeah, I found that somewhat disturbing actually, was going in there fairly positive, at least neutral ... and found it pretty drab. Pics from last night - was good, not great:

I actually like some of his music alright (Kühn-Bekkas-Lopez for instance), and I respect Ornette ... but yeah, he overplayed, underplayed, forthepeopeplayed, milked motifs noteven existing, romanticised for hours no end in c major, and he was pretending to be oh so relaxed and savvy when he was just sloppy and careless and in reality as stiff as his extremely boring (though of course technically competent [musically impotent] ... for the people, dig?) rhythm section. Funny visual detail: accompanyists bald=impotent monk like chaste, boss with lion's mane=hippy happy hoppy huppy etc diddle do dum ... That

True dat, Steve! I've had nowhere near the exposure to them that lucky you had and continues to have ... but last summer, the final concert at Willisau -- upside down the world seemed to be that day. Everybody there to hear a rather dreadful Joachim Kühn trio set, but no one seemed to know who those two weirdos were that happened to be there as uhm, supporting act. To me, the first set by Maneri/Peterson was pure bliss, a magic set really ... I should've known better and left right after ... the audience loved Kühn (and I got why - but that just adds to my contempt for crowds I'm afraid), which made it even more dreadful to me.

Thanks! Just put in my order (adding the new Cannonball and Byas discs)

Joe Lovano's quartet tonight - it's been a while since I heard this kind of "mainstream" jazz in concert, looking forward.

Evil thread title, fooled me for the second time already ... it's not April 1 quite yet.

Haven't made it through the whole disc yet, but I echo that -- and if there's ever an Org+mikeweil gig in Germany, I'll do my best to make it there!

Agreed! A highly enjoyable set. Picked one up a few years ago (CD version, but I guess it wasn't much cheaper, don't recall, doesn't matter, once the decision is made to buy, I don't look back).

Just a quick note that CD has arrived already on the other side of the pond - looking forward to a first spin over the weekend!

Very sad news. Heard him (with Turrentine and Mingus) very early on when I started exploring jazz, and always enjoyed his playing a lot. Much love!

No loose cardboard in mine. But as often in Europe, it wasn't sealed when I got it.

Well, it's a variant on a Dolphy tune, after all I think the combination of John "Jabo" Starks and Clyde Stubblefield was magic. Would be hard pressed to name one favourite JB drummer, there's Melvyn Parker, too, and a few others, but Jabo and Stubblefield would top the list together, I guess.

Rainbow Grill = De Doelen in yankee speak? Anyway, cool news if it's indeed new material!

Separate release of disc 4 of "Duke Box 2", maybe?

Usually writing about my concert experiences in German and don't find the time to always duplicate (translation is not the way, I feel too much at home in English than just to re-do the same write-up in a different language - which btw is pretty darn difficult, too, if that was the goal). Anyway, I went to see William Christie conduct Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Médée" at Zurich opera last night, and as I promised someone else in another forum to report, here's my English write-up again - it was outstanding almost beyond belief! Zurich Opera, 18 February 2017 MÉDÉE Marc-Antoine Charpentier Conductor: William Christie Producer: Andreas Homoki Stage design: Hartmut Meyer Costumes: Mechthild Seipel Light design: Franck Evin Choreographische Beratung: Katrin Kolo Chorus master: Jürg Hämmerli Dramaturgy: Werner Hintze, Fabio Dietsche Médée: Stéphanie D’Oustrac Jason: Reinoud Van Mechelen Créon: Nahuel Di Pierro Créuse: Mélissa Petit Oronte: Ivan Thirion L’Amour, Captif de l’Amour, Premier Fantôme: Florie Valiquette Nérine: Carmen Seibel Arcas, Second Corinthien, La Jalousie: Spencer Lang Un Argien, La Vengeance: Roberto Lorenzi Une Italienne: Sandrine Droin Premier Corinthien, Un Argien, Un Démon: Nicholas Scott Cleone: Gemma Ni Bhriain Deuxième Fantôme: Francisca Montiel Harpsichord: Paolo Zanzu Lute: Brian Feehan, Juan Sebastian Lima Cello: Claudius Herrmann Gamba: Martin Zeller Violone: Dieter Lange Orchestra La Scintilla Chor der Oper Zürich Members of Les Arts Florissants Phenomenal in every respect, one of the best opera nights ever, and quite likely to be the highlight of this still young year. How amazing to witness a cast that is really at home in the language in question - not that I actually understood it word by word, but none of the minor to major diction and pronounciation and accent problems that we usually just have to accept when watching opera (and in that respect: what a huge difference to the Milan "Don Carlo"). I've become tolerant long ago about this, but what a huge different to have a fully idiomatic cast! William Christie strictly insists on this, as he mentioned during the matinee in presentation of this new production a few weeks back - the show last night was actually the final one again already - and I fully endorse this, now that I have been able to witness the wonderful results. So many great things, it's really hard to find words. Let's start with the play itself. What a wonderful opera, finding a perfect balance between words and music. There's no fat to it, it's just perfect. No vocal girlands, no show-offery, no nothing, just a perfect synchronisation between what is sung and how it is sung (and played). This is not a sequence of numbers with star arias and all that, but really a play. And Homoki's production and stage direction actually made it work in a way that even the Divertissements were quite perfectly integrated into the whole, sort of echo chambers of the main plot. The choir, enlarged by an haute-contre section from Les Arts florissants, did a wonderful job (as I've come to expect by now - Zurich opera can be really proud of such a fine choir). So did La Scintilla, the HIP orchestra of Zurich opera. They were enlarged by several guests as well, mainly in the winds section, which had a lot of work to do and did just fine. Christie had a harpsichord to play and conduct from, but to his right there was another harpsichord, as well as a small organ. As I could not see much of the orchestra during the play (I could see the recorders and that was pretty cool, too), I don't know how much of the harpsichord continuo was played by Christie himself. The continuo section was really good anyway, bleding into a wonderful and varied sound, using different combinations of the instruments at hand (including the organ I mentioned). The stage itself was set up very simple, using a second floor that could be lifted to disappear and was often lowered so it was merely a step up from the ground level. On top you would have different colours than downstairs, the lower area was also opened up to the back a few times, but mostly just to let people (or devils) appear and disappear - very effective, and very nice to look at, too. There was hardly any furniture or other stuff on the stage, which fit the unfolding tragedy perfectly well, I found. And as the tragedy has been mentioned, it really sempt to be the tragedy of Stéphanie d'Oustrac. She was outstanding in the title role, both as a singer as well as an actress - she really became Medea. Yet at the same time it got pretty clear how much love Charpentier must have had for that character, so far beyond any moral categories mankind is used to - not to say a monster. The melodies Chapentier wrote for his Médée are truly beguiling, again and again. Van Mechelen did an outstanding job as well. Most beautiful where the - quite many - moments when they sang at a very low volume. Those pianissimo moments, a few soft harpsichord tones added ... what tension, what vibrancy! At some moments I felt as if I were watching a forbidden scene - the intimacy generated by those very quiet moments was amazing. Of course this again was made possible by the fact that d'Oustrac really filled that role perfectly well, vibrant and intense. The other roles, both larger and smaller, were all cast very well, too. What I found interesting, and it was certainly determined only in part by my own preferences, is how much this is about Medea, the monster, and how relatively little sympathy came up for Créuse (Mélissa Petit was excellent, not her fault at all!) by comparison. Créuse, at least as far as the play seems to tell us, is not the one to blame really for the events that are to unfold - yet it's Medea, the independent and strong character that captures the attention, that is front and center, albeit her doings are horrible beyond belief. This of course creates tension as well, which again is held back or counterbalanced ingeniously by Charpentier's music. So yeah, great night at the opera!