jon abbey

for me, what's special about Hemphill is his connection to the blues, very rare for such a primal connection in a jazz musician. Coon Bidness captures this in its rawest form on 'The Hard Blues', something I've never heard on any other of his records (although again, I still haven't heard 'Dogon AD'), including the duo with Wadud you mention. I also don't like Heavy Spirits as much, but I have a feeling I'm listening for at least slightly different things than you are. did the package I sent you clear customs?

I've still never heard Dogon AD, but outside of that, Coon Bidness is easily his best, that version of Hard Blues kicks ass. and no, Dogon AD was never released on disc, Tim Berne tried really hard to get it for Screwgun, unsuccessfully in the end. I don't remember the details, but if you're curious, ask on JC, Steve Smith will know...

updated again, I removed some more discs that were bought, and added quite a few more new ones, more still to be listed. again, please e-mail me at erstrecs@aol.com to reserve items, I'll answer PMs also, but they make keeping track of the status of items more confusing for me. below is the full current list... Louis Armstrong-Basin Street Blues (Black Lion) Louis Armstrong-Rhythm Saved The World (Decca) Bardo State Orchestra-The Ultimate Gift (Impetus) Kenny Barron-Sambao (Gitanes/Verve) Han Bennink/Dave Douglas-Serpentine (Songlines) Steve Beresford-Cue Sheets (Tzadik) Greetje Bijma-Tales of A Voice (Enja) Rob Blakeslee Quintet-Lifeline (Nine Winds) Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers-Paris 1958 (Bluebird) Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips-Time Will Tell (ECM) Anthony Braxton-Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vol. 1 (double CD) (Leo) Anthony Braxton/Richard Teitelbaum-Duet, Live At Merkin Hall, NYC (Music & Arts) Marion Brown-Three For Shepp (Impulse) John Butcher-London and Cologne (Rastascan) John Butcher-Music on Seven Occasions (Meniscus) John Butcher/Phil Durrant/Peggy Lee-Intentions (nuscope) John Butcher/Georg Graewe-Light’s View (nuscope) John Butcher/Dylan van der Schyff-Points, Snags and Windings (Meniscus) Benny Carter-Best Of (MusicMasters) Benny Carter-Legends (featuring Hank Jones) (MusicMasters) Betty Carter-Droppin’ Things (Verve) Betty Carter-It’s Not About The Melody (Verve) James Carter-JC On The Set (DIW/Columbia) James Carter-Jurassic Classics (DIW/Columbia) James Carter-The Real Quietstorm (Atlantic) Eugene Chadbourne-End To Slavery (Intakt) Eugene Chadbourne/Henry Kaiser-The Guitar Lesson (Victo) Eugene Chadbourne/John Zorn-In Memory of Nikki Arane (Incus) Ornette Coleman & Prime Time-Tone Dialing (Harmolodic/Verve) Conspiracy-Intravenous (Matchless) Marilyn Crispell-Santuerio (Leo) Andrew Cyrille/Richard Teitelbaum-Double Clutch (Silkheart) Kenny Davern-My Inspiration (MusicMasters) Rhodri Davies/John Bisset-Malthouse (2:13) Miles Davis-Friday Night at the Blackhawk, Complete (double CD) (Columbia/Legacy) Miles Davis-Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, Complete (double CD) (Columbia/Legacy) Miles Davis-Panthalassa (as remixed by Bill Laswell) (Columbia) Dedication Orchestra-Ixesha (Time) (double CD) (Ogun) Michel Doneda-Anatomie des clefs (Potlatch) Michel Doneda/Erik M/Jean-Marc Montera-Not (Victo) Doppelmoppel-Aventure Quebecoise (Victo) Dominic Duval w/ The C.T. String Quartet-The Navigator (Leo) Teddy Edwards-Good Gravy! (Contemporary/OJC) Roy Eldridge-After You’ve Gone (Decca) Roy Eldridge-Little Jazz (Columbia) Duke Ellington-All-Star Road Band (live in Chicago 5/31/64) (CBS Special Products) Duke Ellington-Live! (at the Newport Jazz Festival ’59) (Emarcy) Duke Ellington-Three Suites (Columbia) Lisle Ellis-Elevations (Victo) Elsie Jo-Live (Maya) (sextet of Evan Parker/Konrad Bauer/Irene Schweizer/Barry Guy/Barre Phillips/Paul Lytton) Bill Evans-Solo Sessions, Volume 2 (Milestone) Simon Fell-Music For 10(0) (Leo Lab) Tommy Flanagan-Lady Be Good…For Ella (Verve) Tommy Flanagan/Kenny Barron-Together (Denon) Gianni Gebbia-H Portraits (Rastascan) Stan Getz and The Oscar Petersen Trio-The Silver Collection (Verve) Benny Goodman-On The Air 1937-1938 (double CD) (Columbia/Legacy) Green Room-Hidden Music (Leo) Johnny Griffin-The Cat (Antilles) Johnny Griffin-Dance of Passion (Antilles) Dominique Grimaud-Slide (Vand’ouevre) Barry Guy/Howard Riley/Philipp Wachsmann-Improvisations Are Forever Now (Emanem) Charlie Haden-Liberation Music Orchestra (Impulse) Charlie Haden (Quartet West)-Always Say Goodbye (Verve) Charlie Haden (Quartet West)-Haunted Heart (Verve) Graham Halliwell/Simon Fell-9 Points in Ascent (Bruce’s Fingers) Joe Henderson-So Near, So Far (Musings For Miles) (Verve) Jay Hoggard-In The Spirit (Muse) Hubbub-Ub/Abu (For 4 Ears) Charlotte Hug/Chantale Laplante-Brilliant Days (For 4 Ears) D.D. Jackson-So Far (BMG) Milt Jackson/John Coltrane-Bags & Trane (Atlantic) Keith Jarrett-The Survivor’s Suite (ECM) Henry Kaiser/John Oswald-Improvised (Incus) Geoff Keezer-World Music (DIW/Columbia) Rodney Kendrick-Dance, World, Dance (Verve) Rodney Kendrick-Last Chance For Common Sense (Verve) King Ubu Orchestra-Trigger Zone (FMP) Rahsaan Roland Kirk-The Inflated Tear (Atlantic) Lee Konitz-The Lee Konitz Duets (OJC/Milestone) Lee Konitz/Red Mitchell-I Concentrate On You (Steeplechase) Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet-Konitz Meets Mulligan (Pacific Jazz) Kristoff K. Roll/Xavier Charles-La Piece (Potlatch) George Lewis-Voyager (Avant) London Improvisers Orchestra-Proceedings (double CD) (Emanem) London Improvisers Orchestra-The Hearing Continues… (double CD) (Emanem) Joe Lovano-Tenor Legacy (Blue Note) Harold Mabern-Straight Street (DIW/Columbia) Denman Maroney/Hans Tammen-Billabong (Potlatch) Wynton Marsalis-Standard Time, Vol. 3, The Resolution of Romance (Columbia) Roscoe Mitchell-And The Sound And Space Ensembles (Black Saint) Modern Jazz Quartet-Pyramid (Atlantic) Modern Jazz Quartet-Fontessa (Atlantic) Thelonious Monk-Criss-Cross (Columbia/Legacy) Thelonious Monk-Monk’s Blues (Columbia/Legacy) Thelonious Monk-San Francisco Holiday (Milestone) Jean-Marc Montera-Smiles From Jupiter (Grob) Butch Morris-Testament: A Conduction Collection, Conduction #11 (New World) (w/ ROVA among others) Butch Morris-Testament: A Conduction Collection, Conduction #15 (New World) (w/Arthur Blythe, Jemeel Moondoc, Zeena Parkins, Thurman Barker among others) Butch Morris-Testament: A Conduction Collection, Conduction #23 (New World) Butch Morris-Testament: A Conduction Collection, Conduction #31/35/36 (New World) Butch Morris-Testament: A Conduction Collection, Conduction #38/39/40 (New World) (w/ Le Quan Ninh, Zeena Parkins, Myra Melford, Tristan Honsinger, Motoharu Yoshizawa among others) Butch Morris-Testament: A Conduction Collection, Conduction #41 (New World) Joe Morris/Rob Brown Quartet-Illuminate (Leo Lab) Jelly Roll Morton-Mr. Jelly Lord (Tomato) Jelly Roll Morton-Original Versions of the Music Inspiring ‘Jelly’s Last Jam & Other Morton Classics (Bluebird) David Moss/John King/Otomo Yoshihide-All At Once At Any Time (Victo) Manuel Mota-Leopardo (Rossbin) Sainkho Namchylak-Letters (Leo) New Klezmer Trio-Masks And Faces (Tzadik) New Klezmer Trio-Melt Zonk Rewire (Tzadik) Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra featuring Bill Dixon-The Enchanted Messenger (Soul Note) Tony Oxley/Alan Davie (all/FMP) Jeff Parker/Kevin Drumm/Michael Zerang-Out Trios Volume Two (Atavistic) Maceo Parker-Roots Revisited (Verve) Big John Patton-Blue Planet Man (Evidence) Art Pepper-Laurie’s Choice (Laserlight) Rod Poole-December 96 (WIN) Rod Poole Trio-Iasis (Transparency) Bud Powell-The Best Of (Verve) Eddie Prevost/Veryan Weston-Concert, v. (Matchless) Sun Ra-Out There A Minute (Blast First) Hans Reichel-Coco Bolo Nights (FMP) Marc Ribot-Shoe String Symphonettes (Tzadik) Max Roach-Percussion Bitter Sweet (Impulse) Sonny Rollins-Worktime (OJC/Prestige) Sa Zna-Into Oberland (Leo Lab) Joe Sachse-European Echoes (FMP) Sten Sandell-Music From a Waterhole (Alice Music) ($10) Pharoah Sanders-Message From Home (Verve) Archie Shepp-On This Night (Impulse) Sign of The Raven-live at the loft Cologne (Uton) (featuring Mark Sanders) Roger Smith/Neil Metcalfe-S&M (Incus) Matt Turner-The Mouse That Roared (Meniscus) Charles Tyler Ensemble (ZYX/ESP) McCoy Tyner-Supertrios (Milestone) Uchihashi Kazuhisa and Gene Coleman-Storobo Imp. (False Walls) Various Artists-Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (Columbia) Edward Vesala Sound and Fury-Nordic Gallery (ECM) Phil Wachsmann-Icarus (FMR) David S. Ware-Flight of I (DIW/Columbia) Charles Wharf/Simon H. Fell-Frankenstein (Bruce’s Fingers) Dr. Michael White-Crescent City Serenade (Antilles) Davey Williams-Charmed I’m Sure (Ecstatic Peace) Cassandra Wilson-New Moon Daughter (Blue Note) Cassandra Wilson-Travelling Miles (Blue Note) Stephan Wittwer-Streams (Grob) World Saxophone Quartet w/African Drums-Metamorphosis (Elektra/Nonesuch) X-Communication (w/Butch Morris, Hans Reichel, Paul Lovens, etc) (FMP) Min Xiao-Fen-Spring, River, Flower, Moon, Night (Asphodel) John Zorn-Duras: Duchamp (Tzadik) John Zorn-Filmworks 1986-1990 (Elektra Nonesuch) John Zorn-Filmworks II (Tzadik) John Zorn-Filmworks V Tears of Ecstasy (Tzadik) John Zorn-Filmworks VI 1996 (Tzadik) John Zorn-New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands (Tzadik) John Zorn (Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet)-Voodoo (Black Saint) John Zorn/Fred Frith-The Art of Memory (Incus)

no one except his closest confidantes seem to know for sure, but my guess is that it's private Japanese backers, not a big Japanese fan base.

in my ongoing quest to cut my CD collection down from around 6200 discs (currently) to under 5000 (at least), I've started putting up some titles on ebay. first up, I'm going to list a bunch of original series Hat Arts, between 6000-6200. the first five are up now, more will go up when I've got time: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZerstrecs anyway, thought some people here might be interested, the reserve bids on all of these are $20, so they won't go for less than that.

Chris knows the specifics better than me, Lasse wants to trade for quite a bit of the Erst catalog, but he only has limited copies of his own stuff, so I think only a few per title, but I really don't know. I have that Thirteen Ghosts CD, as Nate says, Thurston and Bailey don't play together, although I have seen them do that (in trio with Loren Connors, and I believe in duo also), it was surprisingly good as I recall. the other Thirteen Ghosts disc is better, with the also awesome title "Giganti Reptilicus Destructo Beam". this is on the long defunct Scatter label, which was based in Glasgow, and was one of the first labels to take a serious interest in documenting free improv incorporating live electronics.

you guys know me really well, thanks for thinking of me. David, what's the solo Marhaug like? he's supposed to trade us a bunch of his stuff soon, so I'll probably end up hearing a lot of his discography, but I'm curious to learn more about him, since his duo with Pita here a few weeks ago was so strong. is it wall-of-noisy or mellower than that? does it jump around, is there any silence incorporated, or is it pretty constant and linear? he's got quite a range, I know he's working on a solo disc for Mark Wastell's Confront Collector's Series, which tends towards the minimal. tons of concerts here the last few weeks, after I literally went three months without seeing one. tonight was a DMG instore of the duo of Tony Buck and Nate Wooley, nicely minimal improv with a pretty constant flow of ideas, pretty enjoyable.

yeah, Mr. Rowe laughed really hard when I read him the one about him on the phone this morning. part of the joke there is that he believes that people perform Treatise too fast, he thinks it should take maybe 20 or 30 minutes for a page, and it's basically impossible to perform the entire score. pretty funny.

I believe it began as a recommendation for the Peter Brötzmann/Shoji Hano disc of the same name: http://www.japanimprov.com/imjlabel/512/index.html and it then proceeded to discussion of somewhat similar territory, basically a thread where a handful of people can give each other suggestions as they explore a common area of interest.

it's pretty lame actually, I think it's OK to drop the entire last section of a review (slightly shady, but OK), but totally inexcusable to edit that concluding sentence to make it seem as if Nate is keener on the whole disc than he actually is. if I was Nate, I'd be irritated.

I don't think JC is going to cease operations, but it's true that if it did, I would attempt to divert eai discussion to I Hate Music instead of here. one thing that's very nice about IHM is that the two moderators are extremely involved in posting also, so they're very quick to realize when someone's crossed the line, or sometimes to stop things before they ever get to that point. it's the best resource for music discussion (admittedly primarily experimental) I've ever been a part of. I will say that the tenor of pretty much every discussion I've ever been involved in here (keeping in mind I only look at a couple of threads) has been far more pleasant than on JC.

I like all three of those, the two with Japanese musicians the most (the Kahn/Kawasaki is a trio with Tetuzi Akiyama). the nmperign/Muller recording would have been better if they'd waited a bit, that was their first meeting (and it's not all trio, there's a duo nmperign and a solo Gunter track on there), and their second, at AMPLIFY 2003, I thought was decidedly better. but it's still a fine CD. Nate, Manuel Mota's playing here tomorrow night, with Margarida Garcia, Barry Weisblat, Toshio Kajiwara and Tim Barnes, I'm planning on being there...

probably, yeah, since Pita arrived in the US just a few hours before, and they never played together before. not usually, but I don't have any hard and fast rule against it. but I wasn't too blown away by their first disc together, and I don't think Kevin will be doing any more collaborative discs for a while, if ever. I'm going to hopefully do a duo of Pita and someone, maybe Lasse, we'll see...

I saw an extremely impressive duo set of Pita and Lasse Marhaug last night between 2-3 AM in the No Fun Festival in Red Hook (Brooklyn). massively loud, my ears are just returning to normal now, nine hours later. my wife said she thinks it was louder than the Merzbow show she saw in Tokyo a few years ago.

no, not a benefit set, although they ended up combining it with the previous set which was and making it one admission, so I'm not sure. next weekend in NYC, assuming you're still here Sunday, this should be well worth your while: barnes/mota/weisblat/kajiwara/garcia Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:00 p.m. tim barnes (percussion) + manuel mota (guitar) + barry weisblat (home made electronics) + toshio kajiwara (turntables) + margarida garcia (bass) http://www.issueprojectroom.org/events.html

get Radian-Rec.Extern (Thrill Jockey), then get their newest one, Juxtaposition (also Thrill Jockey), I think they work much better if you hear them in that order. off to see them at Tonic in an hour, very excited!

I don't really have many thoughts on it, I bought it when it came out (coincidentally partly because of Martin's rave about it), and really disliked it, I probably only even played it once, maybe twice. I didn't hear those connections you mention, but I'm really not a fan of Wand or Thomas improvising electronics (I thought Lunge live were pretty pointless, not crazy about the records either). I found this group of musicians somewhat interesting maybe ten years ago when they were initially experimenting with electronics (not Oxley, the others), but they're not my thing anymore. glad you're enjoying it, though, John!

bing bing bing! summed up succintly as always by Mr. Dorward. Jon Morgan informs me that Meniscus isn't quite dead yet, he's still thinking about whether to proceed. if anyone's looking for any Meniscus titles and can't find them, PM me because I'm about to do a trade with him and I'll get whichever you want, which you can then order through ErstDist.

wow, I don't think I read that before, Nate, thanks for cutting and pasting, pretty funny. Wayne's no better in person, although he tones the vocabulary down a bit. but he makes up for that with a pretty much constantly smug smile (which seems to be saying "I'm talking to you but I'm not sure why, because not only aren't you very smart but I already know everything you're going to say") that made me want to punch him within minutes of meeting him. and yes, Ferran Fages is one of the more interesting young musicians around, both on his own and as half of Cremaster.

we actually don't stock too many of the Creative Sources titles, they're a little pricy for us and CS is a little pushy about payment and they're not hooked up to PayPal. we do stock the ones we like, though, the ones more towards the electroacoustic side of things, and they do have some potentially interesting things coming up, so we'll probably restock again fairly soon. keep us posted on what you think of those Ersts, pro or con...

you're not kidding. if it was anyone else, I'd think that they withdrew those pieces as a kind of impicit apology, but Mr. Kelsey's planning on reposting them on his newly established blog, I assume sans comments. it's a great couple of months for concerts in NY. besides the Hemingway/Lehn Saturday and the Barry Weisblat/Margarida Garcia/Sean Meehan/Tim Barnes show last night (which I liked decidedly more than the Lehn/Hemingway). there's tons more stuff coming up: March 17-Radian at Tonic March 18-20-No Fun Festival, at the Hook in Red Hook, Brooklyn March 21-TV Pow/Boris Hauf at Brooklyn College, CUNY March 24-Yasunao Tone/Hecker at Experimental Intermedia April 1/2-Sachiko/Otomo at Japan Society April 9-John Butcher with Sean Meehan and James Fei in Williamsburg at the Cave April 16-John Butcher/Gerry Hemingway at Location One April 22-Giuseppe Ielasi/Dean Roberts/EKG at Diapason April 26-30-Moving Patterns festival, acfny.org, Fennesz, Thilges3, etc. some may think this is always the case in NYC, but I hadn't been to a show in three months before the Lehn/Hemingway the other night. here's my report on that show, reposted from JC: "a bit surprisingly, I mostly agree with Steve about last night's set, just toned down a few notches of excitement. the technical conditions were awful, I'm sure that space works fine for the acoustic music normally played there, but a mono amp, an inability to get the system grounded (the buzz Steve refers to) and a less-than-ideal speaker system, didn't leave Thomas too much flexibility in terms of the colors he could produce, he really sounded more hampered and hemmed in than I've ever heard him (I must have seen him at least twenty times in the last five years). the first piece didn't really work as Steve said, probably because of this, but they settled in after that. in general, this duo is a bit old school Euro improv for my tastes these days, and I think Hemingway's strength isn't really pure free improv, but the kind of loosely structured compositions he played with his old quintet. but I still enjoyed parts of this a lot, including the fiery thrashout at the end of the third piece that Steve mentions. I thought the quiet coda piece after that was unnecessary and fairly pointless, it really didn't work for me. some of the earlier quiet sections were beautiful, with Gerry's work reminding me of Tim Barnes at times. but all in all, good to see those guys again, on stage and off"

yes, there's definitely some overlap, the Baltschun/Dorner/Fagaschinski disc was one of the most interesting non-Ersts I heard last year, decidedly recommended.

all single CDs are $8 plus shipping, double CDs are $14 plus shipping, except when marked differently. e-mail me at erstrecs@aol.com to reserve discs and ask about shipping costs, I’m happy to ship anywhere in the world. PayPal is the preferred method of payment, I can also accept personal checks in dollars. thanks a lot! ======================================= (original list removed to avoid confusion, please see updated list below) ======================================= if there's enough interest, I'll keep updating this until I run out of discs to sell. this list is specifically jazz and improv, but if you're interested in seeing a full sale list of all genres once I put it together, please e-mail me at the above address and ask to be put on the list to see these. thanks!

I know you're joking, but I'm still not quite sure how I got mean. Phil Freeman is the editor of High Society, and his primary background is in metal. I've read tons of his reviews and blog posts, he pretty much revels in the fact that he has a short attention span. all I did was point those things out. as for Chris, I never said one word about his own music or anything like that, I even offered him a promo CD early in the thread, which he ignored. very strange...