king ubu

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, looks horrible indeed.

Yeah, please do tell us more, Allen!

Thanks - glad some bother to read it Next up: Mulatu Astatke on Saturday night, again with Alex on keys! Uploading pics is quite easy - the bigger part is storing them somewhere first (I'm using photobucket), then you just have to get the URL from where the pic is stored and use the "Insert other media" button, pick "Insert image from URL" and paste that URL there.

had a terrific concert weekend ... already wrote up at length in german here for those that are interested ... shorter english version: Decoy & Evan Parker - Novara (Italy) - January 30, 2016 Left Zurich in the mists, just to arrive in the even thicker mist of northern Italy's rice region - had a stroll through the lovely centre of the town in the afternoon and after pizza and a couple of beers walked out to the odd place the concert was scheduled in ... glad to see the Leslie was already turning when I got there, and that ol' hammond organ looked great indeed! Later on, warm greetings from Alex before the concert, and of course I was looking foward a lot to hearing this. It was obviously not the first time that these guys met, but it was the first time they played in this very constellation. BAM and they're off! The quartet played a very intense, mostly pretty dense long set, energy levels were high from the git-go, the free grooves Edwards and Noble locked into or chugged along jaggedly, without ever imposing anything on the others, were quite amazing, and obviously Mr. Parker dug the wealth of offers and possibilities opened up by the band - and he dug in deeply. He stuck to tenor (Mr. Noble later told me that he'd only take one instrument when he's traveling since it got so complicated), and I just love his sound on tenor, it's really gorgeous! And Alex' organ playing with Decoy is quite something - far removed from any jazz organ clichés, often sounding more like some old analogue synthesizer I thought, yet still making very good use of the power the organ has to offer. In the second half of the continuous set, there was this part where it sounded to me like Parker was channeling Coltrane - a mix of "sheets of sound" and lose-but-not-free early 1965, that's how it sounded to my ears ... and of course it was still all Evan Parker. As a listener, it actually took me 10 to 15 minutes (I guess - I lost any feeling for time) to get adjusted to the music, to deal with its richness, to kind of figure out how to listen, what to pay attention to etc - there was simply too much music to pay attention to all in detail, but that made it all the more powerful and impressive. After the concert - they closed with a great encore, maintaining the energy level, it was clear that they were here to play! - I hat chats with Edwards and at some length with Noble, very interesting at that (that's Edwards, Corrado who's one of the organisers, me, and Parker). Then I was summoned ( ) to join the gang for drinks, shook hands with Evan Parker as well, and had a lengthy chat with Alex at the bar we ended up. They were happy having their negronis (I needed a large beer first, at the venue, there was water only for the musicians, and it was packed and stuffy). I ended up in my hotel room at 2 a.m., set the alarm clock for 7 and tried catching some sleep ... up again way too early (luckily the hotel was just across the railway station). My head was throbbing, I bought a wrong train ticked (first class ... not even sure there'd have been any first class coaches) and forgot to validate it, too - luckily there was no one checking tickets. I played Rubinstein's great recording of Mozart's piano concerto KV 491 with Krips conducting - the train ride was measured to be just long enough. Off at Milano Centrale, the impressive neo-classical/fascist main train station in Milan (have a look at it here). Once in Milan, I had two hours, so I took a walk again, first into the centre, walking past all the homeless sleeping in front of the large and ugly business buildings. Then took a detour passing La Scala, the dome, the famous Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II etc, finally ending up at Teatro Manzoni, where at 11 a.m. the Muhal Richard Abrams Quintet was scheduled to play. There was a nice surprise regarding the line-up, with Leonard Jones (instead of Brad Jones) on bass. The others were Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Bryan Carrott (vibes), Reggie Nicholson (drums), and of course Abrams on piano. The music was totally different from the one the night before, of course. Again, they did one long set and another fine encore - they seemed very focused. There was this typical of Chicago jazz quality of opening up spaces, letting things gradually evolve and waiting what was going to happen. More like options opened rather than options used - some of them were used of course, but it was most fascinating to observe which ones, what turns the performance took etc. All the musicians had their solo spots, and one of the most beautiful moments happened when after Leonard Jones' bass solo - deep, full-bodied, reverberating sound - the master joined in on piano again. But in the end, Finlayson (without ever showing off) and Carrott were the main attractions as soloists, and I might have enjoyed hearing a bit more by Abrams himself. On the other hand, no matter who was actually soloing, it all bore the handwriting of the leader of the group. For the encore, they showed up one by one, Carrott starting off just playing with his four sticks in the air and then gradually approaching his vibes from its sides, finally ending up the keys (or whatever these plates are called). Then I had some antipasti with Corrado (the guy on both pics above) and some of his friends, but had to quit before they started ordering main dishes as I had an appointment with Claudio Fasoli, which turned out very nice and interesting indeed - we switched some of his albums (I'd been in touch a few weeks back about a bronzed/semi-unplayable disc of his, "Land", with Kenny Wheeler and JF Jenny Clark, then managed to obtain a perfect copy from another guy in Germany and created another copy for Mr. Fasoli, which he happily accepted - he had sent me his best copy of the album before, but it turned out to be quite similar to the two I already had ...) - either way, I asked him some questions (how did he end up playing jazz and the like) and it was wonderful to see how someone his age and of his pedigree can still be so much of a fan and so enthusiast about all things jazz! He really adores Lee Konitz, and hearing Lee, after having gotten acquainted with NO and Chicago trad jazz initially, was what prompted him to become a jazz musician himself. He also mentioned that he, as well as Franco d'Andrea and Enrico Rava (roughly the same age, all three) were entirely self-taught, and that he actually plays without any pressure on teeth and lip ... no idea how that would work, but the results he gets prove him right, that's for sure! So yeah, that's the *short* version ... I get carried away. As I couldn't take any useful pictures from my seat at the MRA concert, here's one more from Decoy & Parker:

and why under "artists" when it's about oguns? seriously: great stuff!

It was also Universal that licensed those (mostly) somewhat more adventurous albums to Promising Music. And Edel shut that door -- offering those "Spiegel Edition" reissues and all them downloads instead ... Spiegel, for those that don't know, is a German news magazine, and German press is trying to generate some revenue by selling books, music editions, furniture, nonsense, lifestyle, happiness, cars, luxury holiday trips etc pp)

Yeah. Different times, different musics, different musicians, different approaches -- if you (not as in: "you, Mr. Sangrey"!) want to make value judgements about this, better do your homework or you risk coming across as pretty opinionated. Fact: that someone can be a member of this board for a decade and not be aware of Vijay Iyer also says something about this very board of course. This is one of those "jazz in print"-topics that can drag you down if you don't watch out ... not that I'm the biggest Iyer fan, far from really, saw his trio live, saw him in duo with Rudresh Mahanthappa - and no, Iyer is definitely not "loose" in many ways. But his most recent trio album (ugh, it's on ECM! ) got me interested again, I enjoy it quite some, no matter if it turns to 20c classical music or to Robert Hood. Not sure if Iyer is on the way to get over the "learned" thing (that is probably connected to the "not loose" thing in some respects) or not, but I guess I'll keep watching - and listening - with some interest.

Those boxes - George Duke, Art Van Damme, Eugen Cicero, Herbolzheimer, Shearing, Francy Boland, Baden Powell (the last two just 2CD sets), and though not MPS material but very similar looking the box of Doldinger's early recordings - were all done when MPS was part of Universal (which ended with the latest merger, the big gulp that took in EMI -- MPS was one of the labels that had to be "divested" or whatever that's called ... the only box Edel has done, to my knowledge, is the Peterson box - expensive vinyl for a dying clientele I guess (I actually wonder if any of those in for *that* ride are still alive ... I mean those are some fine enough albums, but I can't really imagine many folks paying serious money). Either way, I'm not holding my breath for a Solal box, rather I just pick up whatever vinyl I can, and then help myself to some more (I have all of those sets btw, except for the Herbolzheimer and Shearings - I guess none of them are really essential, maybe the Baden Powell is if you into Brasilian music, but all of them are pretty nice, and the Duke is loads of fun!)

here's the post (click on that small symbol on top right, "Share this post", and then you can copy the link which comes up in a pop-up window) -- but alas those BNF links won't work: Here's a link to "Mr. Heine's Blues" that will hopefully work ... was there really ever a CD titled like that or is that some odditiy in the database of the BNF? http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39197872d Seems "The SoloSolal" was also part of this series -- another reissue I was totally unaware of: http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38215166f EAN 0042284311120 / MPS 8431112 (Boite) : POL 899 (discogs has no listing for that CD of "SoloSolal" ... and I hope the links work, for me they do, but that might one of those cache things)

It was ... both if these are very OOP though: In addition, there were two two-disc sets with the solo and live albums, respectively, and there was a single reissue of the friends disc. Most (but not all!) of Koller's albums were reissued as single discs as well.

Oh, wow, was totally unaware of that! The album was later reissued as part of Universal's bunch of Koller MPS reissues, with original cover art. Took me a while to find it, but I eventually did manage.

Yeah! Wish that "Solal Series" would have grown beyond this Vol. 1 back then ... but MPS in the CD era was always a mess, it seems. Some brave guys at Universal did the entire Mangelsdorff and Koller at least, but all in all it was a clear case of too little, too late. As I'm not into the DL thing really, Edel's remedy isn't doing that much for me, but having collected MPS CD reissues for a while (Motor Music, the stray one such as this Solal disc, the stray Japanese reissue, Universal and Promising Music series, also some of those most recent ones already by Edel I think with the "Spiegel Edition" cardboard slipcases), I've gotten pretty far over the course of almost 20 years.

album of the year (besides the upcoming Allen Lowe one, o'course)

"Suite for Trio" was on proper CD a while ago, with a foogly cover: "Nothing But Piano" and "Four Keys" I just recently played again (MP3 only, though I have the later on vinyl by now) - the former is ridiculously good, and the later better than I'd ever dare to consider, reading the odd line-up - I still prefer Solal/Konitz in duo or with b/d, but Scofield is playing some fairly straight jazz guitar here (don't think I've heard him doing so elsewhere), using very little of his harsh effects and stuff ... in fact his playing here reminded me a bit of Jim Hall a few times.

The Grant thing only gives the first of the two dates, but the selections might match what's a mix of both on the new set ... but I guess we'll only know for sure when we can hear it. Looking forward to this very, very much!

Would be interested as well! While looking for any write ups (without success) found this interesting article: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/05/erik-satie-jack-in-the-box-1926

Okay, okay, I want this! Still need the Bee Hive as well ... any time frame for the upcoming Pres set known?

Was VIK some kind of low-price sub of RCA's? Have to confess that Dockery (and De Brest) and - to a lesser extent also Bill Hardman - never really clicked with me ... I do enjoy all those "second edition" Messengers albums, the best of them are up with the best of Blakey's albums for sure, McLean was almost always an interesting voice, even in those early years ... and wherever Griffin turns up, I want to hear it! Guess I need to re-visit some of those albums again soon. Has the Cadet album ever been on CD?

That's the older edition. Reissue on Joe Haider's label looks like this:

Who is number 6, or does one count twice? Anyway, good luck with this Allen, I'll be in in a few days. I've really enjoyed the "Diaspora" series, have played it four times by now (a couple of discs more often than that), it's indeed a big amount of music to digest (and I'm afraid I didn't get that far with "Mulatto Field Radio" yet, need to dig that one up again as well). And it's not exactly easy music to digest, either -- but it's very much worth ones time and attention!

Earlier thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/78478-ric-colbeck-the-sun-is-coming-up/

love what I've heard of the series by La Venexiana - I've got the single releases actually, and just about when I had them all, the box came out, costing about as much (or little) as the three-disc Ottavo libro alone - so I'd say just get that box, take all the time you need, and maybe some by Concerto Italiano to have comparison (fifth and sixth books maybe? regarding their sixth, I once read somewhere that their earlier recording, done in 1992 and released by Arcana, was superior to the later naïve recording, so I got that earlier one used, certainly a nice disc, but I don't know the naïve recording, got the second and fifth there, the later actually on Opus 111, but that belongs to/was bought by naïve or something) you can also check out Les Arts Florissants under Paul Agnew, they did three discs of excerpts only though (I have one of them only, Vol. 2 / Mantova) re Consort of Musicke I guess I tend to agree, but then it was a disc of their recordings that made me curious enough to go for more, so it's not all bad ...

Just got "Ask a Woman Who Knows" (Japanese edition, +1, 14 tracks, the bonus one is a very nice one by Bob Dorough, "I've Got Just About Everything") - it's indeed a most tasteful record, maybe a tad too tasteful, but time will tell about that ... anyway, thanks again for the recommendation! Btw, Broadbent only arranged two (I think, reading the credits is a drag) of the songs, most are by Rob Mounsey (new name to me), three or four (including the Dorough track) by John Clayton.

related (Weiss w/Clifford Jordan), just in case: