king ubu

Uh... not to take my earlier statement back, but: what I mean is: Drake is being hailed as drummer's messiah or whatever, and that he is not. That's what I meant. He is simply a good drummer, among many others, not the best of them all and so sensationally great! See what I mean? That said, I like most of the recordings (and live sets) I have with him!

Thanks for the reminder! I know I should check out some Gratkowski... in fact that goes back to when I first met David - he played some in the car, on the way to hear the awesome Barry Guy New Orchestra and after that... the Gratkowski quartet, of course (which was rather bland, though I liked the partial broadcast of the concert a bit better than the actual concert... may have to do with the fact that following up Guy's gang that night was an incredibly hard task!)

Happy Birthday!

To add a bit to the Henry Grimes saga... Just finished a first listen to Grimes set from the 2004 Tampere festival in Finland, with Khan Jamal, Jemel Moondoc, and Hamid Drake. Very good set, not as free as the Crispell-Grimes-Cyrille trio, but all the better so! Jamal is great, Moondoc, too, and Drake - wtf, is that man a funk drummer or what? Fits in nicely here, but he does indeed very often play generic funk and fusion beats (you know, like the hi-hat stuff that Tony does on "In A Silent Way", just - of course... it's Drake - more intricate). Well, whatever Drake is (not that great a drummer as he seems to be, from what one hears about him, but that's just my opinion), this set is quite good! A nice blend of sound, too, with as-vib-b-d, and Grimes is mixed normally, not so ridiculously loud as he was when I saw the trio. Also he is playing more walking stuff and does not try to do flashy stuff that may (or may not) end up in boring fumbling and fuzzy sounds.

Don't have this release, but I have the French LP package of the Columbia recordings, as well as the respective Masters of Jazz discs... Columbia just doesn't get it right, of late... not even with Duke. This disc - while certainly a good collection, and probably a *great* listen, if they managed to pick out those tracks from the Columbia years that are terrific (I assume the really good ones should all fit onto one CD, but then you'd have to leave out many good ones...). However, this release should just be the teaser, and then ther should be a 3CD set collecting all of it... (dream on)

RIP - have to spin some of those Tristano sides again soon! And "Plectrist", too - a great musician!

Just gave this little puppy a first spin: I really like it! Got it thanks to gnhrtg and the pay-it-forward thread (and David's - you know, the fella who wrote 25% of the posts in this thread - recommendation pushed me over the edge to ask for it in that thread). Puschnig and Dickbauer on various reeds (plus flute by Puschnig and little instruments by both) make a great match, Godard goes all over his feghing tuba - that guy is mad, I tell you! Herbert Joos adds some nice touches on trumpet, too. Funny to hear this kind of songs being interpreted in a "jazzy" way, with improvisation, ostinati, grooves, funny stuff etc. These songs are rather similar to some swiss folk songs and traditional songs, so somehow there is always some kind of natural reluctancy to deal with this (most of the folk music in Switzerland and Germany and Austria being nothing but an ugly, television-compatible, sell-out that has nothing to do with folk traditions, but everything with how to make big $$ with the stupidity of backwards-minded people with little brains...). However, this disc just blows all these potential drawbacks away within the first couple of bars...

another on the Guyvoronski / Petrova - I recently posted about it, after finally giving it a spin. A very nice disc! About Piazolla - man! You're in for a treat, I tell you! I'm far from being knowledgeable, myself, but the couple of live sets I have I love! Both have those de Lempicka tasteless sell-out covers, but the music is great!

I'm really having a hard time finding answers to all the refined questions Allen asked. This site may help him answer the question about what is the capital of Montana. Then, here's a sample of Hoagy's "Stardust" - nice chance to train your ears a bit again, and find out about them changes yourself! Here, then, is a website about professors (they should know, shouldn't they?) trying to work out why birds sing: http://www.physorg.com/news3849.html. This book may also be helpful, however only in respect to a very special and man-made species (but aren't all taxonomies man-made, in the end?): That's how far I've come by now... if I have a few more glasses of guinness, I may or may not fine a few more answers. Oh, I forgot one: the monkey/language question is highly debatable one - maybe Allen knows the answer but just doesn't want us to know?

Tony, give this one a try: One of my favourite recent discs! Nate mentioned the new Saluzzi being good, but I haven't yet checked it out. Then there's the italians... Trovesi made a couple of duo discs with Gianni Coscia, but I only have one so far (on Egea), plus a live set. Also Gabriele Mirabassi plays with the fisa player Luciano Biondini (I got a live set of them with Michel Godard - fantastic stuff!). Check out the Galliano first, it's a treat!

← well well well well well... this image was actually the first I wanted to post, but somehow I found the fishy one more fitting this afternoon... not, past midnight here, this is definitely the better: You know, google image search is a funny thing when you're at work and bored

You can listen when you follow my link - extremely crappy of-its-time music in the worst sense! I only have that Blue Note Pell disc (with the added Fagerquist session), and I would like to hear a few more! Will have to save some money, I assume... ← How does Dave Pell sounds to you, like Lester? These recordings I own from undocumented compilation has that reed player all the way, and he is very good while doing that emulation of Pres... ←

Maybe he was hoping for that light-brown patina? ← Please! When it costs an extra $30, we call the color sepia. ← sorry, I don't understand:

Maybe he was hoping for that light-brown patina?

Makes my $65 purchase at Disk Union look pretty good. ← Not to mention the $96 I think I paid when it was on the 'Running Low' list ← 500$ and he gets a box with an acidic spot right over Chico's face? Uh, imagining this and the Thad/Mel could bring me 1000$... crazy!

You can listen when you follow my link - extremely crappy of-its-time music in the worst sense! I only have that Blue Note Pell disc (with the added Fagerquist session), and I would like to hear a few more! Will have to save some money, I assume...

The Pep's albums are what I have with Nock - excellent stuff! (First rate Richard Williams, too!). The Necks I saw live, back in 2001, at the Taktlos festival. Definitely a great experience! Their way to build and morph and make use of tiny bit and glimpses of music is terrific!

Since Pell is being mentioned, allow me a short departure from the topic. Is this the same Dave Pell? (available here: http://www.basichip.com/)

Don't know Australian Free Jazz at all . ← Same here... even without "Free" in there... The Necks, are they Australian? What about Mike Nock? From NZ? No one else comes to mind...

I have this one here: Enjoyable, swinging music. As Sangrey put it: very good for what it is! Not music I could listen to all the time, but when the mood is right, it's perfect.

You might want to wait till it gets reissued later this year (as per Tony's post). ← Well yes, maybe I better wait (if it is the same disc that Tony's post mentions as being reissued - I'm still a bit confused!)