Pim

You Americans and Britons are doing so much better with the vaccination policy and strategy. Glad for you guys you’re protected now!

Finally, my mom and dad got their invitation too now. They are both 70 years old. Though I am well aware COVID could be dangerous for everyone of any age, it was my parents that I was most worried about from the beginning.

My two Impulse! favorites by Sanders

We are getting closer and closer to the end.... But we have still a lot of enjoyable records to go. Mal was very productive, also in his last years. This week was generally pretty satisfying. Some vocal albums, some duos but also the first recordings of his excellent second TUTU quartet with Nicolas Simion. Monday's album with Judy Niemack: Mingus, Mal & Monk is a nice album. It will never become my kind of thing but Judy has a very pleasant voice and her interpretation of Seagull's is excellent. The following album with Italian singer Danila Satragno is again a bit of a failure. Like more of the Italian singers Mal have worked with: she just isn't much of a singer. She has no technique, subpar timing and just sounds unexperienced. Part from that the sound quality isn't very good either. Fortunately there are the two TUTU's with Nicolas Simion, Ed Schuller and Victor Jones: Mal, Verve, Black & Blue and Remembering the Moment. Simion really is one underrated saxophone player: full of power and passion, a lovely robust sound and a great technique. I love the guy's playing and he was a worthy successor to the great Jim Pepper. Really guys, these TUTU discs are all great. It's intense club jazz at it's best: full of joy and energy. Both Ed Schuller as Victor Jones are also in great shape.The second duo with George Haslam is nice but not as good as their first album together. There's a little less chemistry to be found here but Mal's solo effort Sakura is among his most beautiful records. Also present this week are some of the records that we're made on Mal's 70th birthday tour in Japan. His second wife Hiromi arranged that his whole family would accompany him on that tour including his ex wife Elaine and his two daughters with her: Lori and Mala. Also present were Hiromi herself and her 5 children with Mal: Naru, Marianne, Malcolm Jr. and the twins Michael and Sara. According to Jeanne Lee, who was also joining the companionship, sometimes there were more Waldron's on the train than Japanese people. Lee is present at the recording with Japanese flautist Toru Tenda: Travelin' in Soul-Time: an excellent album on BVHaast. Most of the music was played in remembrance of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Especially 'White Rain' is a very impressive composition, based on a poem that was written by a survivor. The closing album of this week is one of the hidden pearls in Mal's discography. Bit, with the excellent Japanese drummer Takeo Moriyama is pure magic if you ask me. An engaging encounter of 50+ minutes that keeps your attention from the start till the end. Lot's of chemistry and interplay and the enormous variety in playing styles is great. It's a pity it's so damn hard to find these days for a decent price. Some of the other records from the tour (the duet with Mala Waldron, the second duet with Moriyama, another encounter with Jeanne Lee and Toru Tenda) will be reviewed as part of the awesome Maturity series. Closing now with the Japanese poem that was written by Syo Ito: White Road: A white road A white road in Hiroshima Mother walked that scorching road Barefoot Working clothes all torn And I, who had been born Just 40 days before Held in those arms Gazed up with eyes of innocence To where the deep blue sky Stretched wide, she said The white mushroom cloud Moved like a sea slug Growing wide, and wider still Mid-summer phantoms And these hateful things That happened long ago Are so infinitely sad The image of that single Long white road Lies in the corner of my mother’s Heart and mine And does not even try to die The road stretches on and on An endless road White dust-covered and soiled by grief The road began that moment The road without and end The road we’ve walked without a pause For fourteen years Mother is tired And I am tired And when beset by waves Of sadness and exhaustion She lay a while to rest Her tears fell on my face And left their patterns in the dust A white road The white road of Hiroshima https://snake-out.blogspot.com All Reviews in Chronological Order All Reviews by Rating

Mosaic wasn’t really my introduction to Tina. To me it was also the line-ups that attracted me, and they also already had quite a reputation on the internet. I was convinced from his very first note on True Blue and bought the other albums within a couple of months of that introduction.

To be honest: I don’t. Now that I am a more experienced listener is strikes me that most of those ‘top 100 albums’ are not among my favorites. In fact it’s the other way around in a lot of cases and I still find music that is so incredibly good but never to be found in a list. I like the Rateyourmusic feature where you could compose a top list with high votes but not a lot of voters.

Of course lists are always subjective but they could still be inspiring. The unfortunate thing with this one is the ability to vote which leads to a top 100 of the usual suspects.

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.