king ubu

I like the Mosaic box quite a bit! But I gather that's a decidedly unpopar opinion around here...

Will have to check that out, Big Beat Steve!

Have you checked out Steve Lacy? This is not tongue-in-cheek (I originally intended it that way though, I confess) - he did some marvellous and very accessible things, not just freakishly out solo and duo improv albums. "Work" on the defunct Sketch label is a great one, in trio with Jean-Jacques Avenel and Daniel Humair, and maybe "Morning Joy", a live recording from the 90s on hatOLOGY, which adds fellow alto/soprano sax player Steve Potts and has John Betsch in Humair's place. There are of course also his early three albums for Prestige/New Jazz, one with Wynton Kelly ("Soprano Sax", with Buell Neidlinger & Dennis Charles), one with Mal Waldron ("Reflections", their first Monk album, with Neidlinger & Elvin), and one with Don Cherry ("Evidence"), plus the Candid album with Charles Davis ("The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy", with John Ore & Roy Haynes). These are not regarded as being among Lacy's best, but they might be to your liking. The other name you should check out on soprano is Lucky Thompson - but him being a doubler I assume you have some of his albums. There's marvellous soprano playing on that disc on Freshsound which teams him with Tommy Flanagan, and also on half of "Lucky Strikes" (Prestige/Fantasy, with Hank Jones, Richard Davis and Connie Kay, I think). To me, I think these are the two greatest, but then I still need to dig deeper into Wayne Shorter's works (his early recordings most of which I have, are tenor only...). There are others, I'm sure, and maybe that statement about "greatest" is stupid, it just reflects my current opinion anyway.

I have never had that problem. Return the defective. Never had that happen so far... but that does suck. Thanks for filling me in on BIS - that's beyond my horizon (both time and money wise) at this time, hence I never heard of it.

Hey, I agree - I did mention some of the points you're making (already back then when I did that interview - not sure it's in this thread or in others). I am still at university and have no business knowledge whatsoever (and nothing at all to offer...), but that thought still did cross my mind for a second, back then... and some other points you make are quite valid, too - he's releasing about as many discs per year as does Blue Note (which is part of a huge corporation), and I too struggle to keep up with buying all that I'm interested in (and I did heavily make use of the great sale he's offering to stock up on items I never came around or simply couldn't afford at full prize).

and what's BIS? never heard of that

clem, I can relate to what you say... in fact I actually agree. seems to me that yes, ego is involved, as is old age. but one thing that I can't deny is that he's releasing albums by younger european players whom I like and whom I feel have more to say than some 'merican douchebags that are all over the scene (both mainstream and avantgarde wise). the problem as I can see is that he's more or less doing all the work himself, the business he runs being very small, so he's focusing on looking forward, rather than looking back. the "disservice" phrase is a bit harsh, I'd say... he did put out all of that stuff, it's still out there somewhere, and hopefully some are still listening to it, not just possessing it as assets or whatever bull. anyway, I'd certainly wish he'd do both: reissue his old catalogue and continue his venture to discover and release new stuff. and one last thing: you can't blame him if the current scene doesn't have any McPhee's to discover that everybody forgot about... the internet certainly did change things in that respect - and he's not to blame for the quality (or lack thereof) of the current music scenes. and in my opinion, he did pick a few interesting musicians, such as Colin Vallon or Manuel Mengis - I don't assume anyone cares about that in the US or the world in general, but then Uehlinger doesn't need to care about that, much, either...

Hey, wait a minute! What the hell's that supposed to mean, "not completists"?!? Do you want me to feel bad again? Or let me know not everyone's as crazy as yours truly? Timely thread to pop up again, time to revisit that Mosaic! In the meantime I also got "The Return of Tal Farlow" (zyx cardboard version from the zweitausendeins/zyx sale) and one of the Concords. Both fine, but nothing in there that he didn't already do during the years covered by the Mosaic. He didn't really evolve much, did he? Not that everybody has to go through various periods like Miles or Trane, but...

Hey, I do like the cardboard packages! (Not necessarily the photos and cover fonts, though...) Thing is, the aim is to create something physical - now purists may call that bull and consider it old-fashioned anachronism in CD or now digital age, but it's about creating something nicer, less plastic than the ugly (but practical, of course) jewel cases. between the lines did similar beautiful packages, but they were swallowed up by some larger enterprise and by now only the design remains, but the covers themselves are now packed in the usual jewel cases. I guess the way to look at the cardboard covers is that this is not a product to endure for ages - I know most of us think the CD is (I think like that, too, having come up in the CD era entirely), but that's just a fiction in the end. This is the kind of product that grows older and changes, like we all do (ok ok, now that's bull, too... but somehow I like the idea...)

Werner lost a funding partner in 1990s and it's no easy business putting out the kind of music he does. However, keeping the label's most representative works out-of-print for such long stretches is never a great idea. That partner was the UBS, (one of) the largest bank in Switzerland (and by now suffering badly from the US subprime crisis...) Thing is (I did an interview with W. Uehlinger a few years ago), he simply doesn't bother that much to do reissues. He can handle a certain number of releases each year, and his main focus is still on releasing new music, music by people he believes in. I don't see fit to question that decision, though I'd certainly be glad about some CDs being less "collectable", too.

never felt like getting it but I have no idea how it is... would be interested in a couple of opinions, too!

No problem! This shall be a cool addition to the Lörrach/Paris disc!

Don't know. I just picked up the references from the Piliso sleeve note. Did you try searching for the album titles? MG Yup - maybe you'll be luckier than me, post the link in case, please!

read my post above yours - I wondered about it too and looked around... and now being on my own computer, I see that the Stockholm portion indeed is part of the Ayler tree (CDR4): Donald Ayler-tp; Albert Ayler-ts; Michel Sampson-vln; Bill Folwell-b; Beaver Harris-d. Koncerthus, Stockholm, Sweden, 661110. 5. Truth is marching in [Ayler] (8:43) 6. Omega is the alpha [Ayler] (9:59) 7. Our prayer [D. Ayler] (7:49) I'll get any official release of this, of course! It's great to have most of the tree in official versions by now!

While I don't know the soundtracks, I've had a chance to catch "Anna" a few months ago, in a whole series of films related to BB and Gainsbarre... stupid little flick, but Anna Karina is great in it, and Serge's few short appearances (the perfect arrogant asshole) were great as well. The best about it though was definitely the music, he had a great hand for that! Where do you have this music from? The 3CD "Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourgh" box? Or old LPs with longer parts of the respective soundtracks?

Hm, I'm not sure she's good at all, but she sure was gorgeous...

The Movers I was unable to find, by the way - is that and the Masilea/Phale "jazz", too?

Hm, I'm ambivalent about Gayles, too - I love "Touchin' on Trane" but have never felt a need to check out much more... stumbled over a 2CD set on Knitting records ("More Live" or something?) and that one left me pretty uninterested. As for Ayler, I have no clue, but on "My Name Is Albert Ayler", he tackles "Billie's Bounce" (and the opening tune is a standard, I think "On Green Dolphin Street"?), and he's not really succesful (but his free-ish version of "Summertime" is pure magic!)

Just ordered Vol. 1 from Caiman via Amazon.fr - they're offering all of them for around 15 euro!

Yes, it's a pity the search function doesn't work for artists. I started out just browsing the site. The sleeve notes to the Bra Ntemi CDs mention a number which were going to feature in my next order. The Movers - Repeat after me - Gallo CDGB50 (this has the cover version of "Mannenburg" I quoted about above) Masilela & The Movers - Bump Jive - Gallo CDBG51 Lulu Masilela & Thomas Phale - Cool down - Gallo CDBG42 There's another Ntemi Piliso CD called "at Teal" something. Maybe a search for "Teal" will turn it up. I can't remember what it was I put in to reveal that one. Maybe it just came up while I was browsing. Those are 1976 recordings. Perhaps a search for "Teal 1976" might do the trick. It's probably also worth doing a search for "sip 'n fly", which was a title of a Ntemi session in 1954, at which he and Masilela were the only youngsters - everyone else was a veteran. It was a band Ntemi put together called the Alexandra All Stars (sometimes spelt "Alaxander"). This surely must have some historically pretty significant players on it. It was a big hit, so may be on CD. MG Thanks! Ntemi Piliso - At Mavuthela Vol. 1 1975 Ntemi Piliso - At Mavuthela Vol. 2 1975 Ntemi Piliso - At Teal Records 1976 African Jazz Pioneers - Sip'n'Fly Lulu Masilela & Thomas Phale - Cool Down Will send in an order later, thanks a lot! Prices are indeed pretty nice, and waiting a while is not problem at all!

Ah, I found them - they're listed as "At Mawuthela Vol.1/2", artists aren't logged - too bad. Anything else that should be ordered along with them, MG?

I can't find these Ntemi Piliso discs on kalahari.net!? Are they sold out? A search neither for Ntemi nor for Piliso brings the up!

bumping this up, just happened to find this site here, pretty nice, with lots of infos on releases: http://www.westbrookjazz.de/ Good to see some reissue action, even more so on the side of Hat Hut records (though I have the old Hat Art CDs of Love for Sale, On Duke's Birthday and the live Westbrook-Rossini 2CD set).

some interesting stuff there - Reuben Radding on hat, now that's cool! The Westbrook-Rossini may be a nice one, too (I have the other one, I thought both were still fairly easy to find? Maybe I'm wrong and only the other one's still around...), also the Clusone! Will the Shepp/Roach Roach/Shepp be remastered? Was the Braxton/Roach worth replacing? Here's the Ayler Stockholm 1966 info I found on the Ayler site: http://www.ayler.org/albert/html/unreleased.html Berlin 1966 is part of the Revenant box - anotehr smart collision, as with Ayler records "Copenhagen Tapes" release: Has the Berlin date been in the Ayler tree? I don't have the information at hand. (edited to correct Berlin/Stockholm)

Happy birthday!