clifford_thornton

Ubu, If you're into Lowe, you should pick up "Duo Exchange" with Rashied Ali if you haven't already done so. Knitting Factory reissued it on CD, and it's about as prime as one can get for tenor-drums duets. "Black Beings" is pretty good too, but not up to this level.

Other than the MPS dates, I heard there were a couple of more 'free' Barney sessions -- one on Vogue with Joachim Kuhn, Karl Berger, J-F Jenny-Clarke and Aldo Romano, and another on Moloudji with I think Francois Tusques. Brownie, do you know these? CT

You know, it's not 'unheralded' but I feel that I know far more people that have 'seen' the Art Taylor book (Notes and Tones) than actually read it. Great stuff, if you haven't picked through it.

Openian, right, I was trying to remember the name of the label. 'Diversions' is the other one that my buddy has. Interesting character, and with such short, catchy tracks it's no wonder he got radio play. Kind of like the UK answer to "The Cry" (Simmons-Lasha), that Open Music.

Wow, that's some rare shit. Never seen/heard of it before... Must Find, Must Find :rsmile: Have you heard that Bob Downes record, "Open Music"? Very nice flute-bass-drums date w/ Barry Guy. I remember it being something I knew I'd listen to a ton... if I could locate a copy.

Ebay is always amusing; I avoid it anymore... That Three Sounds is pretty uncommon, but really, if you have one you have them all. I don't understand why that Hutch broke the bank though -- I mean, a mono copy is very hard to find, but a Stereo Liberty? I think I paid about $10! The comedy quotient never ends!

The thing is that riders in the back of the pack use EPO, etc. just to hang on in the race. It's not a drug that makes you 'win', but helps you survive a stage race. I had friends in cycling who used to race in Europe, and even the single-day events one felt the need to use stuff just to stay in the pack. Lance is using shit, as is the peloton -- it's one of the not-so-secrets of the cycling world. I hope JU wins it this time around. Armstrong needs to go back to the ranch with Sheryl Crow and chill out for a while!

"Elements" came out on a 2-CD FMP set a few years ago along with other performances from that concert, issued on other LPs as "Cousscouss de la Mauresque" and "The End". I think it's still in print. Moondoc: dig "We Don't", a duo with Denis Charles on Eremite. Eremite is not always together with their orders in my experience, nor Forced Exposure. I don't know what they're smoking in Cambridge, but it affects their reliability for sure!

Probably one of the best avant-garde piano trio records EVER.

Nah, they've got better things to do, like "Funky Donkey vol. 16" or reissue a marginal late FMP...

Braxton/Smith/Jenkins - Silence (Intercord) Four ears on my Cherry LP.

That is a great record... but just because Dixon owns the tape doesn't mean someone can't bootleg it! After all, there was a BYG pressing done ostensibly off a copy of the Savoy LP. Still, the NYCF take it for me any day: that version of "Trio" on Volume 2 of the Sonet(/Delmark/Storyville/whatever else) set is really amazing.

I don't know if it's underrated or if it's just that no one cares, but that Charles Brackeen on Strata-East is something else. All those old Arhoolie SF jazz records are bitchin' -- you can still get all but the Sonny Simmons directly from the label, original backstock (the only reason the Simmons is gone is because some dealer bought all the remaining stock). Luna "Space Swell," Creative Arts Jazz Ensemble "Now!," the Smiley Winters double, all great records. But maybe it's not that they're blown off but just that they wallow in obscurity. Shit, I could sit here all night and think of obscure stuff that doesn't get props...

Huh, I forgot he was on that one... haven't heard the Redman in quite some time (don't even have it at this point). Thanks!

Anyone know anything about this character? He is/was a post-bop pianist with free leanings who recorded one record for International Polydor with a quartet featuring other Bay Area unknowns. I recently got the record, "Puzzle Box," and like it quite a bit but haven't seen him on anything else. Google yields nothing on his name. There's also a 'Robin' Young, pianist of a similar age on the "Now!" record on Arhoolie (Bert Wilson, Smiley Winters and company), that could be the same guy. They play and compose similarly, anyway. This is pretty obscure stuff, but there might be some Bay Area members that know... Thanks, CT

quirky indie rock from a new band called White Magic and the first two Will Ackerman LPs on Windham Hill, which are great. I'd always blown him off because of the way his label went, but he's a brilliant guitarist and was paying homage to Takoma way before it was cool.

The rainbow cover is the Pye reissue; Where Fortune Smiles originally came out on Dawn, DNLS 3018, with a matte forest green and gold gatefold cover, booklet inside (which most copies have lost). Great heavy session, some of which takes away all of the early Vandermark Five songbook! Side two is amazing. As for Surman... The Trio (Surman/Phillips/Martin) have LPs on Dawn, JG and Ogun (all are recommended, though not on CD unfortunately) as well as one on Futura augmented by Michel Portal and Jean-Pierre Drouet, called Alors!!! (this is on CD). Surman's two on Deram, both of which were reissued I believe, are also really stellar. So many of those Surman records from the later '70s don't really hit it for me, but those early sides where he stormed away on baritone are something else! CT

Hans Werner Henze, 5 Symphonien on DGG... had to 'mellow out' from listening to Mauricio Kagel records earlier this evening.

How did that quartet with Joachim Kuhn come out originally, anyway? I've got a nice big band date on Supraphon featuring Jiri Stivin, John Surman, Barre Phillips and Stu Martin among others, but the small-group stuff is a little more attractive to me. These rec's should be helpful...

I'd start off with some Ayler processional hymns, like "Mothers," and close it out with Frank Wright's "Church Number Nine." Get 'em feelin' the spirit, y'know?

Even without particularly being a fan of Cannonball or Miles, I love this record! It is a classic of the music, and certainly one of the best BNs.

I love those Friedman-Zoller records, especially "Metamorphosis" and "The Horizon Beyond." Great interplay, very free playing from all musicians and sickening runs through those heads! Mangelsdorff "Tension" (if you can find the fucker!) Nobody ever talks about Graham Collier, English bassist and bandleader/composer. His two LPs for Fontana UK -- "Songs for My Father" and "Down Another Road" are not to be missed, featuring fine fine playing from some of the cream-of-the-crop in British jazz. Unique modal/avant-garde jazz with a lot of orchestral weight for a small-ish band (six to eight pieces). Also, those first two Keith Tippett records (one on Polydor, one on Vertigo -- both reissued by BGO) are really hot.

Shit, mine's got more ringwear than that one! There's another session that was released by Ingo as "The Early Unit 1962" and features some weird pick-up Danish bassist, I forget whom. These are among my favorite Cecil LPs, if not my favorites. Lyons smokes...

I like my boobies with no strings attached, personally...

Shit, I just learned about this tonight. It is very upsetting how many greats we've lost lately, but at least the great orchestra in the sky has another great soprano chair... and he'll be playing with Mal again. I saw him here in MSP last fall and he looked pretty frail, but his playing was on form. I thought he'd be around forever, though...