T.D.

I went to a microtonal concert last night (Lyraccord - Timothy Hill and Sasha Bogdanowitsch) and found out that composer Michael Harrison passed on 17 April. RIP. I only have this old piano recording on his own label, but there's a more recent release on bandcamp https://michaelharrison.bandcamp.com/album/revelation (also on Cantaloupe Music).

I think he's also trying to project an image as an "outsider critic" of sorts. I don't often read Burning Ambulance. Sometimes I visit the site because people link to discussions of subjects that interest me. I've usually been somewhat disappointed by the reviews/discussions/whatever. Missed the Bird thing, which is just as well.

Both were geographically downtown: Ornette's loft in Soho (Prince St.) and Slug's in the East Village ("Alphabet City"). Where the line is drawn is hazy. The Kyle Gann essay I linked to says "below 20th St.", but says that's arbitrary because The Kitchen is now on 19th. I think the region might be expanded to Chelsea (which is itself vague, with northern boundary either 34th St. or "upper 20s"), because (for instance) the W. Eugene Smith loft was on 6th Ave. near 29th St. "Downtown" refers to downtown Manhattan, below 20th Street (I'll pick that as an arbitrary boundary since the Kitchen, an important Downtown performance space, is now on 19th Street).

RIP. I discovered him via Traffic and still have a copy of Alone Together. He played nearby (Bearsville Theater) in 2015 but I was too cheap to go. Now I regret that.

Somewhat off-topic, but "Downtown music" is a thing in classical/"new" music as well. Kyle Gann dates the scene (but not usage) to 1961 (Yoko Ono's loft 🙂), see https://www.kylegann.com/downtown.html I'm going to look into when that usage first appeared in print.

I saw that at a film festival last fall. Thought it was OK but didn't measure up to all the reviews it later received.

Best "current" film I've seen in a long long time. Agreed on all counts.

Long Play 2026 – Bang on a Can A lot of diverse programs with a significant number of jazz shows.

I preordered back in January and it shipped today.

Those credits are for the entire album (The Fastest Train), 1 CD of the box. I don't know the instruments on that specific track. Parker is credited on keringot, hochiku, shakuhachi in D & A, stereophonic bamboo flute, Ojibway overtone bass flute, pocket trumpet, malakan flute, Chinese shakuhachi.

Cribbing from the booket, the Parker was recorded in Amsterdam with Coen Aalberts (conch shell, winti flute from New Guinea. cricket sounds, bird sounds, bamboo brushes, whistles, drum set) and Klaas Hekman (dogon flute, shakuhachi, bass Indian flute, piccolo, C flute).

Since Parker's been ID'd on #9, it's track #79 here. Nice choice! I actually own this (as part of the box set), but it'd never have occurred to me. Parker is one of my reflex guesses on BFTs, but not for shakuhachi. The saxophonist on #3 is interesting. Kaoru Abe and Akira Sakata are the only Japanese skronkmeisters I'm familiar with, but I was sure they weren't involved. Will have to research Kawashima!

Seriously, I'm not sure publishers do serious editing any more. OTOH, doesn't pretty much any book contain a preface in which the author thanks family, sources, assistants, publisher/editor etc. and concludes with "...any remaining errors are the author's responsibility"?

Extremely sad to hear this. RIP and thanks for a great body of work.

[Italics added] I posted about the Westbrook on a "British jazz reissues" thread a couple of weeks ago. This release initially confused me, but the way I read the non-compete agreement the "unreleased Hat Hut archives" stip allows him to release material by living musicians that's in said archives. Although it's not entirely clear: does "exceptions" apply to both the "living" clause and the "historic" clause, or just to the latter? After some thought I concluded both. Granted, I could be giving Werner too much credit on ethical matters... AlAy Ltd. is subject to a non-competition agreement starting June 2025 with a term of three years in Switzerland. During this period, AlAy Ltd. may not accept or release recordings by living composers/musicians. Our releases during this period will therefore focus on historic recordings from the past. Exceptions are unreleased recordings from the archive of the former Hat Hut Records Ltd. 4106 Therwil, which changed its name to AlAy Ltd. in June 2025.

Thank you. I held off ordering due to fear of something of the sort (lack of concrete KD info), and have been waiting for reviews. Re. lack of editor, sadly that seems practically the norm nowadays.

I really dig the bowed bass in #2, which ought to give some pointer, but no guess as yet.

I also got early Ra vibes from the intro of #1, but eventually decided it's probably somebody else.