king ubu

Re: Monk (Riverside, I assume), there's one of those real reissues avaiable, too - with the full booklet but in small format. Not Italian but European Universal still ... same for Miles on Prestige, Evans on Fantasy, Coltrane on Prestige ... I have but the Miles of them, but they're so much nicer and not much more expensive. Alas, the selection is much smaller, I guess producing them (booklets and boxes, not the discs themselves) costs some real money, as opposed to the Italian editions. I'm still somewhat puzzled by the parallel world that Universal Italy seems to be ... they are releasing lots of classical boxes, too, and in a few cases run along better/more complete European Universal sets (i.e. Sviatoslav Richter Solo set v. Sviatoslav Richter Complete set, Hogwood Haydn v. Complete Haydn symphonies) - looks like Italy is an outfit more or less independent from the main company (or else looks like real bad management).

The Bud comes with a thick booklet that is indeed a most interesting read! As for Rollins ... I have the ZYX edition (bought at full price - Swiss music shops ripping off school kids saving their pocket money ...) which has a scaled down (regular CD size) version of the big booklet, omitting some parts of it I think ... but the liners are there, at least. Some of these Italian boxes do reproduce the booklets (the Brownie, for one - I think we went into some detail about this above), but mostly they are indeed just for the music. But then compared to all the crappy PD sets popping up all over yurp, these at least come from (near) the source and should always sound decently.

No, they were mentioned in one of the regular newsletters recently (sometime in what's still sorta summer on the northern hemisphere), but I must have deleted that mail. Probably sometime in (late) autumn - the mail announcing the October new releases doesn't mention any boxes.

BRU must've had one or the other JUG too many. Thanks for the re-post, @The Magnificent Goldberg, just read your long and interesting post. Guess I guve the jams more credit - simply because they feature some great players, including a few (Idrees Sulieman!) that never really got their due.

(@MG: haven't read your long post ... being on Smartphone it's unreadable, 2-4 words per row and thus going on eternally ... hope it will be different once I'm back on a proper screen, but it might be a goid idea to post it again unformatted, assuming that you pasted it from a word or other document and that causes the problem?) Other than that, interesting discussion. I really love Jug's playing and have at least a dozen and a half of his Prestige/Fantasy CDs ... but I guess I'm just too young (and from the wrong social and geographical background) to consider him amongst my top favourites ... guess he would make the extended "tenors whose playing I love" list ... but that one is pretty long really.

Oh, wow, missed this ... fell in love with his fat tone and fine playing right away when I first heard the old Conn CD of "Here's Louis Smith". Bought a few of his later Steeplechase albums then, as well as the reissue of his second Blue Note album ... and was overjoyed when that Horace Silver Quintet set with Smith on board turned up.

Hooked by this recent arrival - have played it several times in a row last night and will do so again later on. This one just arrived today - gave it a first spin and enjoyed it a lot ... not sure I've listened to those oboe concertos paying attention before. Something else I played often in the past days is the Chopin found on this set - that includes the Préluds, the third Ballade, the first Scherzo, three each of the Nocturnes and Études, the Polonaises Op. 26/1 and Op. 53 "Heroic", four Waltzes and 16 Mazurkas ... not exactly my favourite selection of Chopin (that would be Nocturnes, Scherzi, Ballades ... and then the Préludes, I think), but some great playing here!

Re: architecture, you ought to really consider Ferrara then! The city in late Renaissance was doubled in size, planned from scratch as a vanity/magnificence project ... it never grew to fill its new proportions though, even on the new central crossing (on an axis straight from the old/still central point, the palazzo ducale) the palazzi are in part unfinished (brick walls, marble only on the corners and entrances), yet one of the palazzi is the famous Diamanti one with its amazing facade ... There's more like the Palazzo Schifanoia and - a personal highlight - the Palazzina Marfisa d'Este. You will find amazing spots just a few feet away from all the tourists, you can stroll along (partly on) the fortifications built at the last vane enlargement of the town, you can go from the middle ages part straight to the fascist part that's ridiculous in parts and still not bad (it was built on the site of the destroyed baroque era castle, town walls were torn doen down there to allow modern/industrial entrance to town in 19c). You can read Giorgio Bassani's wonderful stories and novels and visit his grave at the far end of the cimetery of the "ebrai" as they called (call - a few retuned, there's a worthwhile museun too, alas the synagogue is closed - one of the visible traces of the heavy earthquakes a few yeard back) themselves. Guess it's easily my favourite place nowadays, would love to stay there longer (and learn the language, too).

I spent a weekend in Bologna in June ... plenty of things to do, but what I enjoy best is just strolling around, looking at things. The best place there, for sure, is the "sette chiese" (seven churches) complex of Santo Stefano: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Stefano,_Bologna As for jazz, I don't really know if there's a site pulling together information ... this here is probably the most famous place in Bologna (never been there): http://www.cantinabentivoglio.it/eng/jazz_club.html If you have time to travel around some, consider a few days both in Ferrara (most beautiful city in the world, I think - and some stuff to check out, not just the ducal palace but some palazzos, churches etc., but again you can stroll around, walking from medieval into renaissance and on into (pre-)fascist early 20c ... and great food at Da Noemi) and in Ravenna. In Paris and jazz, I'd sugest asking OliverM ... that's what I will do when my next trip there is scheduled. Again, don't miss strolling around, for instance in the Marais, and don't miss the jazz/classical CD store of Gibert's on Blvd. Saint-Michel, if you're still into buying CDs ... there's tons of art to see of course, the Louvre (plenty of great renaissance paintings), the Musée d'Orsay in the defunct railway station (used as a setting for Welles' adaption of Kafka's "The Process") - best museum ever if you're into impressionism ... the Rodin museum is worth a visit as well ...

Oh yes, that was indeed Ewart with that extremely loud voice and laugh! Too bad I had missed the Luft/Bothen concert, but that's how it goes ... The Pat Thomas solo disc I already played btw, it's fine indeed!

Thanks, Steve! Sanders was very good indeed, but I think I ever so slightly prefer Steve Noble (who, together with Edwards, forms my favourite rhythm section for this kinda energy music, no matter if it's American or European). And I'm really, really looking forward to hearing Edwards in solo for the first time, next Saturday (though I do have to get up early to be there at 11 a.m., or rather somewhat before as I prefer to sit in front if possible). I have seen him several times this year (he played four or five sets at the amazing Brötzmann party in Warsaw in March, before that I heard him with Decoy & Evan Parker, then in Ravenna with Moholo's 5 Blokes, and now again in Mulhouse and then in Willisau ... he is quite busy, really). As for Parker, I keep trying ... this was the third time I heard him - I reported about last year's Unerhört festival, here in Zurich. He was devastatingly boring I found, when playing solo, but then he was pretty fine (still playing with that no-body-no-sound though) a few days later in trio with Oliver Lake. I also see what records he's on (I love some of them, such as Taylor's Feel Trio 10 CD box) ... I'll keep trying but I don't have high hopes. The entire Météo festival was immensely enjoyable! I should definitely try and make it a habit to be there (it takes me about an hour longer to get to Mulhouse than to go to a concert in town ... and tickets are so nicely priced, compared to what concerts cost here - Willisau will really tear another hole in my budget, but I need to see that series of Zorn concerts).

Ken McIntyre - Way, Way Out (United Artists, part of a great Blue Note 2CD set)

impressions on my four days at the wonderful Festival Météo in Mulhouse (in addition, it was a pleasure to meet OliverM and his wife there, would have been great to have more time to talk, of course): :: Wednesday 24th :: afternoon (at L'Entrepôt): - Zeena Parkins solo - harp & electronics ... and histrionics - great stuff! - Clayton Thomas/Anthea Caddy - bass & cello used to produce sounds that reminded me of LaMonte Young and other drone music evening (always at Noumatrouff): - Louis Minus XVI - a french quartet of 2 sax, elb, d - rhythmically fun, punchy stuff, but the honking macho saxophones got tiring after a while - Sophie Agnel/Joke Lanz/Michael Vatcher - Agnel's carte blanche trio in its first performance that worked out amazingly well - her on piano, inside and on keys, Lanz doing some extremely well-fitting sampling and other turntables stuff, and Vatcher on drums/percussion - was pure joy seing them react to each other and to their own performance, big grins all around - The Thing & Joe McPhee - "ladies, motherfuckers, jazzfans!" - that was Mats Gutafsson's welcome message to kick off a high-energy set, him on tenor and baritone, McPhee on tenor and pocket trumpet, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on double and electric bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums ... extremely concise, to the point, yet with lots of room for blowing - two highlights in a row, quite exhilarating really :: Thursday 25th :: children's concert (short solo sets at Bibliothèque Grand'Rue, 11:30) - Per-Ake Holmlander - a fun bit of solo tuba ... he ended with a high-speed version of Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim's "Jabulani" noon (12:30, always at Chapelle Saint-Jean): - Alexandre Babel solo - a short percussion set - seemed to lack direction or purpose or focus - the sounds themselves were interesting but not quite enough to keep the attention up afternoon sets I skipped for once (Hélène Breschand in duo with Kerwin Rolland - harp and effects, and then Mathias Delplanque, more electronics in solo), did some sightseeing around Mulhouse instead and took a much-needed nap evening: - Agustí Fernández/Kjell Nordeson & dieb13 solo - two half-sets, first a duo of piano and drums/vibraphone, which was pretty great, as I hoped it would be, Fernández being one of the most amazing free form improvisers of these times ... then a DJ set, not quite up to Joke Lanz the night before, but still good ... he sampled Ornette's "Lonely Woman" for a moment, and added some more jazz that I didn't recognize, it was pretty good really - Mats Gustafsson Nu Ensemble - the piece they performed was announced by Gustafsson as an homage to Little Richard ... which only made sense insofar as singer Mariam Wallentin - fine voice, but somewhat of an accent - sang bits of blues and r & b clichés most of the time ... McPhee was on board again, so was bass clarinetist Christer Bothen - whose noon solo gig I had missed on Wednesday, he played after a duo set by "Luft" which consists of Gustafsson and Erwan Keravec on bagpipes, but it was too early for me to catch -, then Anders Nyquist was on trumpet, Holmlander on tuba, Fernández on piano, Haker Flaten and Jon Rune Strom on double basses, Nordeson and Nilssen-Love on drums, and dieb13 on turntables again ... I enjoyed the variety of the music, was expecting more of a blaringly loud blow-out, which it was clearly not ... it was well-paced and kept me interested all the way through, the only thing I found a bit annoying was Wallentin's accent ... if they include blues-clichés as vocals, if they want to pay respect, why not have her sing in her own language? I dislike that we live in the age of "everybody thinks s/he can speak english" ... would be a nice language, but people don't give a shit, yet it has to be english nonetheless, all of the time - Ventil - an Austrian quartet - rather quintet if you include the video artist - doing more drone or rather semi-drone sounds ... it was loud and intense, synths and guitars with effects, and hard-hitting beats ... but after 10 or 15 minutes, I had quite enough of it and went outside where you could still hear it, but without your guts being shaken through ... I actually do like that feeling, but this was just not really my stuff :: Friday 26th :: children's concert: - William Parker - he was great with the kids but in fact hardly played ... he had with him a pocket trumpet, a shakuhachi and the silly red/black-painted bass that he seems to take with him when traveling, alas on that instrument he produces no sound at all, no volume, no body, no resonance, just flat tones that die as soon as he plucks or bows them - anyway, it was great how he got some of the kids to interact, but doing a kangaroo jump in 7 - "hap-py hap-py kan-ga-rooh" and then right back to 1 with no break - proved a little too complicated noon: - Joachim Badenhorst - next highlight there ... the young Belgian clarinet player did a wonderfully haunting set, using some loops early on, playing clarinet, bass clarinet and tenor - of the church concerts I heard - I missed but the first with Luft and Bothen mentioned above - easily the best afternoon (Église Sainte-Geneviève) - Áine O'Dwyer - church organ (and bells) ... a meditative, slowly-evolving, captivating set ... there were drones again, long-held single notes or chords, but also intense parts, she ended it by coming down the stairs and dancing - turning around herself - through the aisles all the way from the back to the alter, clanging a bunch of long bells ... at the beginning, the also threw down the sheets of music from the gallery, on which the organ is placed - Mike Majkowski - another solo, this time on double bass ... alas not on the level of the organ set, lacking ideas and coherence, it felt like stitched together fragments, sometimes even as if he was practising ... which could be a great thing of course, but alas it was just so-so evening: - Hamid Drake/William Parker/Pat Thomas - while I'm no fan of William Parker's, when he's alongside Hamid Drake, he can do no wrong, I guess ... his bass still didn't sound - all there was was amplification -, but this trio set with a piano player so far completely unknown to me, Pat Thomas, was very good indeed - powerful, and when Drake changed to his frame drum and started singing, Parker switched to gimbri, and it got truly haunting ... however, that gimbri sounded about as great as his bass - I really don't get the point about William Parker, I guess, but I'll keep trying) - Green Dome - this was Zeena Parkins's big project, with two bearded contemporary hipsters on piano/effects and drums, funny enough both called Ryan ... didn't really work for me, was too much after the effect, also probably too notated to really allow the music to loosen up and breathe some - but her solo set was really good, and I'm glad I kept through this one too and stayed on for the closing set of the night ... - Zeitkratzer: Lou Reed "Metal Machine Music" Parts 1-4 - now this was the odd one out that no one could really tell how it would end up ... Zeitkratzer is a mid-sized ensemble led by pianist Reinhold Friedl I guess, and he was after all the one that had most of the work in this amazing 66 minute set ... Frank Gratkowski - hey, where's my sheet music? - was on clarinet, Hild Sofie Tafjord did her best - wasn't always enough, I thought - on french horn, Hilary Jeffery was on trombone, them lined up between the piano on the far left, and the drums in the middle of the stage, played by Maurice De Martin, on his right there were four strings: Ulrich Phillipp on double bass, Elisabeth Fügemann on cello, Burkhard Schlothauer on viola and Lisa Marie Landgraf on violin ... the music was reminding me again of minimal music, I thought of various recordings of "In C" in the process - the horns and strings kept on churning out the same notes again and again, with some slight changes, some short soloist escapes by the trombone, the horn, some fills by the drums to add to the steadily prodding, walking, stomping beat ... the piano was playing around wildly for much of the duration though, as if forming a kind of counterpoint or anti-thesis to the rest ... this was, I guess, the unexpected - at least from my side - highlight of that night :: Saturday 27th :: noon: - Clayton Thomas - another double bass solo ... though Parker only had played one short final piece on bass actually ... Clayton Thomas had been heartily recommended to me by a friend from Berlin who has heard him often while he was still living there, as the duo with Anthea Caddy gave really no idea at all how he was as a bass player, I was very curious, and the solo set indeed turned out pretty well ... he used the bow, different kinds of mallets and drumsticks and other objects and put together a really nice set that had the focus and successfully managed to create those larger arcs that Majkowski didn't really achieve now this was a very busy closing day (which was why I skipped the children's concert by the same Erwan Keravec on bagpipes ... heard a few tones while passing by the library, which is right next to the chapel) ... at 14:30, there were two events, an open air concert and a short conference with Roscoe Mitchell - I picked the later, and it was pretty interesting actually. Alexandre Pierrepont, who has written a book on the AACM, did a (rather too long) introduction and then started asking a few questions (thankfully mostly just in english) and it was pretty interesting to hear Mitchell talk, though it was all a bit on the polite side (except for an Italian lady in the audience that kinda implied AACM had a racist policy going on) and Pierrepont could have really prepared a few more focussed questions to not just have Mitchell talk some (which was nice enough, he has plenty of stories to tell and is willing to share his insights, too - after all he is teaching as well) afternoon (at La Filature) - just one set: - Der Verboten - this is a quartet that took shape at Météo a few years ago, if I understood correctly - Franz Loriot on viola, Antoine Chessex on tenor sax, Cédric Piromalli on piano and Christian Wolfahrt on percussion ... they performed a long-form improvisation in the wonderful room with its very fine acoustics ... glad I rushed there, it was excellent evening (there was a free concert at 7 p.m. first, then the main event, as usual at 9): - Native Instrument - Stine Janvin Motland on voice and electronics and Felicity Mangan using field recordings and adding more electronics - this turned into an almost danceable set, many of the older jazzheads disliked it, many left even though it was just 30 minutes short ... the duo kinda attempted to adapt vocally and electronically the sound of their nature, one being from Norway, the other from the land of OZ - the resulting soundscape was a times almost danceable, and really interesting - Sonic Communion - the main event, pt. 1 - this is a collective of Jean-Luc Cappozzo on trumpet, Douglas Ewart on various horns and little instruments - sopranino sax, wooden flute, bells, english horn ..., Joëlle Léandre and Bernard Santacruz on double basses and Michael Zerang on drums ... they struck a chord together - or rather more than just one, and a free one, too, of course ... a lovely set that to me showed with ease how naturally European improvisers and American jazzers can find together and create something that is common - I guess in this case it was mostly the French fitting into a kind of AACM/Chicago frame, but that was done without them negating their own voices ... as for voices, of course Mme Léadre did some singing in the end, and it got quite hilarious indeed - dada lives! - Roscoe Mitchell Trio - the main event, pt. 2 - actually, together with The Thing/McPhee the concert that made me book a hotel and a festival pass ... Mitchell again teamed up with two Europeans, two brits this time, namely Mark Sanders on drums and the one and only John Edwards on double bass - best bass player there is currently, for any kinds of free and energy playing ... Mitchell had with him his alto, soprano and sopranino saxophones, and he was fully THERE from the very first second, not dominating, not imposing, but just THERE, with the brits giving him great support and getting their solo and duo spots, free-wheeling and driving the music hard, while Mitchell engaged in his circular-breathing for long stretches ... they even came back for a short encore, and one needn't be afraid that the level went down, they just picked up again where they had left off and added a couple more minutes - stellar closing concert to a mighty fine festival And on Saturday, another former concert-going friend, now in a wheelchair and alas not in a condition to attend concerts regularly, passed by to say hello (and spend some time with other friends, they're all a couple of decades older than me and have attended concerts together since the seventies) and asked me if I would go to Willisau next week and told me there was a John Zorn special ... indeed, six bands on Saturday afternoon and evening, starting out with the mighty Masada itself ... so on the train back home, I booked a room and bought tickets online ... damn! (lest someone asks, I did take a frew - crappy, as usual - snapshots, but not from all concerts ... no time yet to sort them, might add a few later on, but next weekend I'll be busy in Willisau, not sure I find a moment before that)

Great set, the Hawkins!

Steve, do get that Barry Guy box! Just got the latest one from Ayler and enjoyed the first (and so far only) spin: Joëlle Léandre - Can You Hear Me? (2015 re-creation) order aylCD-146 - €13 personnel: Jean-Luc Cappozzo, trumpet Alexandra Grimal, saxophones Jean-Brice Godet, clarinets Christiane Bopp, trombone Guillaume Aknine, electric guitar Théo Ceccaldi, violin Séverine Morfin, viola Valentin Ceccaldi, cello Joëlle Léandre, double-bass Florian Satche, drums, percussion cd tracks: 1-9. Can You Hear Me? Excerpt #1 | Excerpt #2 Excerpt #3 | Excerpt #4 | Excerpt #5 Total time: 48'09 release information: Recorded in concert on January 29th, 2015 at L'Arsenal, Metz, France. Cover photo by Colette Gigos. 1 CD Digipack. aylCD-146 This hybrid piece, where for the first time the musician has agreed to play the problematic role and function of ‘composer’, can be read both as a form of achievement and as a founding act. Indeed, ‘composing’, as she makes it clear here, with the structure constantly generating and encouraging individual expression, is nothing else for her than a transposition to ‘another stage’ of the improviser’s gesture and a transfusion into a band’s plural entity of the complex spread of a thought both intimate and collective, made even more unique by its will to be shared. […] Because she constantly feeds all her experience as an improviser into her writing, Léandre has clearly created, with "Can You Hear Me?", a major milestone in her already illustrious career. ( from Stéphane Ollivier’s liner notes )

CD 1 of Vol. 1 (4 Vols, each three discs) - enjoying this box quite some!

(from the Living Stereo box)

the solo Satie disc

lately: I was indeed crazy enough to complete my Spányi/CPE Bach holdings in the recent BIS sale @prestoclassical's ... enjoying it an awful lot! Other than that, the Prohaska got two spins so far, it's good, of course, but fails to really grab me by the guts. The Enescu on the other hand is moody and beautiful. Not familiar with the music elsewhere (that is except for the third - there is no second actually, Enescu seems to have said it was in his head, too bad he didn't write it down in time - sonata by Lipati), but I think this is a splendid set, really! Even more splendid is the Gál - great stuff there, full of twists and jagged surprises, but full of melody just as well. Not familiar with his music yet otherwise, gotta check out more, that's for sure (and in light of 51 discs of Spányi/CPE Bach, I really wish there were several dozen more discs to complete Gál's piano music!) The Schubert by Orkis is wonderful - he plays a Graf fortepiano on disc one (Impromptus D 899 & D 935) and a copy after a Nannette Streicher piano on disc two - and it's disc two that I find even better, with the folksy piano pieces D 946 and the Moments Musicaux (D 780) as well as D 899/1 played from the original pencil draft, and the original version of D 946/1 to end things. Played like this, Schubert's pieces sound intimate, almost as played in your living room, really. A totally different experience (and maybe one that fits with some of the other stuff depicted above, and the mood that listening to it brought me to). The Weingartner concerto seems to come after Brahms, and his arrangement/completion of the Schubert symphony that follows is probably a bit too full-bodied for Schubert, but both are nice pieces (and actually remind me that I should revisit Weingartner's Brahms symphonies cycle). Albéniz by de Larrocha is probably about as good as it gets ... thanks to soulpope for insisting (I already have the EMI Icon box of her's, but just bought a few of her later Decca recordings of Spanish repertoire).

That's why I bought the "Complete Masters" box, I guess - but guess what? I never heard a single tone from it yet (and have lent it to a friend a year or so ago - do plan to get it back though).

Agreed on Schneider! As for Mark Masters, other than the Grachan Moncur disc (thanks, brownie! ), I have one with Lee Konitz but am honestly not sure I ever played it yet. I also like this Swiss guy, Kaspar Ewald ... not sure he has any recent releases out, have two of his albums from around 10 years ago:

Like: there was a CD reissue boom going on from 1995 to 2005 ... a dozen years past it, the ones owning rights to Erroll Garner finally get on it, too? And yet the liners to the Complete Concert by the Sea stressed how well Garner's affairs had (and have! ha!) always been handled ...

taken from a Jazz Icons DVD, I assume: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz-icons-series-3-sonny-rollins-65-and-68-sonny-rollins-by-c-michael-bailey.php finally about to buy these, had the first box for a while, just bought the fourth, lent a few single DVDs from a library years ago ... and going to pick up Vols. 2 and 3 on the way home from work today (gotta pay baksheesh for the cutsoms) ... leaves Vol. 5 which will be part of my next Mosaic order (not scheduled yet, though i wand the new Pres set badly)

JPC has nice prices on some of the Storyville boxes - these go for 35€ currently: The Duke Box https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/Duke-Ellington-1899-1974-The-Duke-Box/hnum/8707288 The Blues Box https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/The-Blues-Box-7CD-DVD/hnum/5557134 The Armstrong Box https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/Louis-Armstrong-1901-1971-The-Armstrong-Box-7-CD-DVD/hnum/9912297 George Lewis - Keeper of the Flame https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/George-Lewis-Keeper-Of-The-Flame/hnum/4080235 Billy Strayhorn - Out of the Shadows https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/billy-strayhorn-out-of-the-shadows/hnum/5247145 The Earl Hines goes for €43: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/earl-hines-piano-genius-at-work/hnum/8602936