king ubu

Not sure ... my first impression was that he seemed lost a couple of times, mid-solo - but no matter what, this disc is worth getting! Han Bennink on the first three cuts is fun (though I feel he loses the groove on the third and starts speeding up?), the big band tracks are indeed pretty good, and the third session may not have the fire of the first (and indeed the accompaniment is less good - the Jacobses were amongst the best in Europe at that time, I guess), but it's very much alright, all things considered.

Yep, saw that too ... interesting, and I guess brownie's tough judgement works for me as well. Don't think "Les Liaisons" holds up well beyond the music, the acting is often stiff, the dialogues and characters are more like types roughly drafted on a sheet of paper than real characters. But the music is great! Niko's list on the last page doesn't mention Blakey, I guess as it's too obvious - but with the Jordan, Blakey and Monk contributions, I expect plenty of music not used in the film to be on this new release. However, I hope it'll be some real tunes and not just short cues and such.

Looking forward a lot to this! The band photo on jazzwax is from the legendary Zurich club "Africana" (the place where Dollar Brand got his start in exile and was assumedly heard by Ellington who then made a record with Brand on Reprise, as well as with Bea Benjamin, Brand's then wife), there are a couple of more (without Dennard) on the website of the "Bazillus" (this is a sequence of clubs in different locations in town, often led illegally by the same guy/core group of musicians). The "Africana" also got to be a hot spot for local players (such as Irène Schweizer, in whose playing the Brand influence always remained present), as well as for blues musicians, with Champion Jack Dupree appearing there for a long time (my dad says he heard him play there, but I'm not 100% sure, taking into account all the stuff people drank and smoked back then ... actually the "Africana" didn't have an alcohol license though). On this site here, click on "lookingBack" and then select the various incarnations for some great bits of history of jazz in Zurich: http://www.bazillusclub.ch/

YOWZAH!

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!