Pim

I hope it’s not true but it probably is. Sonny was a giant. A unique saxophone player with a beautiful sound.

Mulligan and Harper in one band. That’s definitely interesting!

And another week has passed. Mal made some pretty good records in the early '90's. The enormous variety in settings, personell and styles really keeps on going. The weeks started with the pretty obscure Where Are You recording with Reggie Workman an the female Italian alto saxophonist Cristina Mazza. It was released on Il Posto, vinyl only. It's the more free oriented and abstract recording of the week. Unfortunately Mal does not play with Reggie here. Mazza is a good saxophone player but the whole record misses some spirit and direction. The mostly free improvisations do not really seem to go anywhere and there's not a lot of chemistry here. An ok record but not essential. New Horizon is the second encounter with Charlie Mariano and it's better than it's predecessor. The theme here is again the European revolutions of the early '90's. It's an excellent record full of joyfull interplay and the music is a little more exciting and free than the other Alfa Jazz session. Especially the long suite is of great interest. My Dear Family was Mal's last record for Alfa Jazz, though most people probably own the Evidence version. An surprising line up that combines Grover Washington Jr. with Pheeroan AkLaff. It's beautiful music mostly in ballad style. A great showcase of Eddie Henderson's underrated talents. The Japanese traditional 'Sakura' is the beautiful highlight of the album.Then there's another record with Doudou Gouirand and Michel Marre: Le Matin D'Un Fauve. It's definitely an interesting listen as the music goes into lots of directions: jazz, neo classical and world influences. Interesting but not really more than that. Both Gouirand and Marre fail to make a real lasting impression. Their playing is ok but not very original. The duet with George Haslam: Waldron/Haslam is one of the nice suprises this week. Haslam is a British reed player that played with the likes of Evan Parker, Borah Bergman and many more. His playing his pretty subdued on this record. It's a great duo that works out very well. Haslam is on Baritone and those dark warm voicings sound beautiul with Mal's gentle and at ease background playing. Also feautered this week is the the last duo recording with Steve Lacy: Communiqué. Probably not a real surprise: it’s freakin’great. And also quite different from the other sessions for it has some interesting compositional choices: some by Monk which they never played before and also one by the underrated Elmo Hope. Finishing this week with the duets with Jeanne Lee: After Hours. I do not want to offend fans with my 3.5 stars but these standards aren’t as interesting as their originals they performed together. But Jeanne is a hell of a singer. I am not a real vocal jazz lover but she has it all: soul, feeling, timing, timbre and technique. I like her, I just don’t really like standards performed in this kind of setting. But better stuff is yet to come. Of all the singers that singed with Mal post Billie: I like Jeanne Lee best. Thanks again guys, hope again you enjoy reading and of course: listening! https://snake-out.blogspot.com https://snake-out.blogspot.com/2020/12/all-reviews-in-chronological-order.html https://snake-out.blogspot.com/2020/12/all-reviews-by-rating.html

I am good thanks for asking! My wife’s mild symptoms have gone away and I did not get contaminated fortunately.

There’s one at Discogs for around 22 euros and one at Amazon.co.uk for around 18 pounds. It’s not cheap indeed

Not the most appealing artwork by the way. Of course not the most important thing but it would have been nice If they had used a nice photgraph of the guys in action or something like that.

You're a lucky man Clunky! Excellent live music Nice gesture by the seller also. Great to see those sellers still exist.

I’m in!

Brie Larson Kevin Bacon Fiona Apple

Wow what a haul! Enjoy it!

Did not know that. No harmful intentions, and I am sure pglbooks knows that. Did not mean to question anything. I saw pglbooks bumped a couple of times and wanted to help.

Discogs for example. Median price for the set is around 60 euros. Have to say that most sellers are above that price.

Isn’t the price a little high? One could get a copy for around 60 or 70 euros elsewhere on the internet?

Heard good thing about it so it’s on my ‘to listen’ list.

My wife is 6 days without symptoms now and my third test today came out negative again. This means I can go to work again tomorrow. We have the luck that it was just a mild case. Unfortunately that does not go for everyone of course. thanks guys for all your kind messages. It’s not a weird thing but is nevertheless very special when people from all over the world wish you good health.

Yup it’s the one from the Village Gate concert.

Great to see many of you are already vaccined yet. Things are still progressing pretty slow here...As a thirty year old I think its gonna be my turn somewhere around July. I must say that I am not to happy to get the AstraZeneca as the people I know who had that one experienced pretty serious side effects. Like a serious fever for multiple days, extreme headaches, throwing up etc. So I prefer any other vaccine.

Thanks Clunky, that was exactly what I wanted to achieve with writing the blog so that is a huge compliment! Small teaser for the Utopia discs with Jim Pepper, for I have the feeling these Tutu discs are still pretty unknown.

Another milestone: we are now entering the '90's. I was born in 1990 and it feels some kind of special that I was alive when this stuff was recorded. It feels sometimes like you missed the bus or something: all of those legends who you adore that you were never managed to see in real life for they passed away already or you were to young. This week is full of encounters with fantastic saxophone players: Jim Pepper, Charlie Mariano, Barney Wilen and 4 albums with Steve Lacy. It felt logic to combine some records into one review. Monday was the day of Mal's great encounter with Barney Wilen: on French Story they play movie theme's that are mostly affiliated with French cinema. Of course there's the theme of Ascenseur Pour 'Echafaud but also other great selections including a stunning version of Mal's All Alone (here titled Quiet Temples as it was originally released in 1964 on a Powertree release). It's beautiful, atmospheric very straightahead jazz. It has this cliche 'film noir' feeling I very much like. Autumn Dreams with Charlie Mariano has a little of the same feeling but is not as appealing. Both such great musicians they could have picked more exciting compositions which would have resulted in more.... exciting music. It's a nice listen anyway but does not fully meet up one's expectations. The concerts with Jim Pepper at the Utopia jazz club are insanely good. Lot's of chemistry, powerful playing by all of the guys and they just swing so freakin' hard. This really was a stunning band. 2 more Tutu discs that are very much worth having. So unfortunate that Jim Pepper passed away not long after these sessions. It would be their last recordings together. The end of a very fruitful relationship. For Tutu he was replaced by Nicolas Simion, a great and highly underrated saxophone player from Romania. If all works out well I have an interview with him coming weekend. Then there's all the stuff with Lacy: four records in only 3 years but they are again all worth having. I Remember Thelonious is probably the least interesting for it contains mostly more interpretations by Monk. Always lovely to have a few of them on a record but here I miss some of their own work. It is nevertheless still very good and people on the web seem to disagree with me. Japan Dream is pretty rare for it was released on the Japanese Egg Farm label. It's very good with an astonishing version of Lacy's 'Blues for Aida'. Favorites for this week are the studio session Hot House and the live session Let's Call This...Esteem. Filled with compositions by Lacy, Waldron, Duke Ellington, Monk, Bud and Herbie Nichols it hardly could go wrong. The chemistry is immense, the setting is awesome. Great music for a very low price. Spring in Prague is the only trio session for this week. Not as good as 'No More Tears for Lady Day' it still is highly enjoyable record with the same group. It's Mal in a very accesible way. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is nothing more than a compilation of the trio sessions with Carduso and Betsch plus a selection from the record with Wilen. It does contain 2 new tracks but both are not very good. One more thing: David Friesen performs with his trio monday night the 29th of March at 20:00 European time. One could find the concert at that time at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn_EAcyUhNk

Yeah can’t wait to spin them Was looking for them for quite a while. They have to be shipped from Japan so I have to be patient...

Harold Land - The Peace Maker Bobby Hutcherson - Patterns Patterns is really difficult to obtain these days. Managed to find a copy trough proxy shopping for 22 euros

Again a negative test result. Let’s hope it remains so!

Not really a big fan of Garnett’s leader dates like ‘Black Love’. But his playing on Mtume’s Umoja Ensemble or Norman Connor’s Dance of Magic is excellent. What is it you don’t like in his style?

Oh yeah I will definitely get this!

I am mostly glad that the release is again confirmed by Nimbus. I was a little afraid it would be cancelled. I could wait 2 more months.....