John Butcher

[Guest Bill Barton]

Thanks for the recs Red and Nate, and I'll likely be checking out some of the others mentioned previously in this thread. It's interesting that the duo with Gerry Hemingway has pretty much been universally panned. Being a stone Hemingway fan that was one that would have been near the top of the list for future purchase.

[Captain Hate]

Bill, sorry to just now respond to your query (wtf, doesn't anybody here listen to Butcher except Nate and Red?) but Invisible Ear is outstanding, assuming it's still in print . I just found this thread doing a search on Way Out Northwest which is excellent on its own terms.

[Chuck Nessa]

Bill, sorry to just now respond to your query (wtf, doesn't anybody here listen to Butcher except Nate and Red?) but Invisible Ear is outstanding, assuming it's still in print . I just found this thread doing a search on Way Out Northwest which is excellent on its own terms.

If you expect all who listen to Butcher to respond to this thread, think again.

[Captain Hate]

Bill, sorry to just now respond to your query (wtf, doesn't anybody here listen to Butcher except Nate and Red?) but Invisible Ear is outstanding, assuming it's still in print . I just found this thread doing a search on Way Out Northwest which is excellent on its own terms.

If you expect all who listen to Butcher to respond to this thread, think again.

Obviously I defer to your knowledge of how things work here; I just think it's strange that a thread about Butcher in which somebody asks for recs goes idle for over a year.

[Nate Dorward]

He's got a new solo disc out, by the way, Resonant Spaces, which continues the vein of his last few solo records in that the pieces are recorded in unusual locations--in this case a tour of Scotland, including some work in outdoors locations (with a stiff wind blowing!).

[Alexander Hawkins]

Yes! Have only heard it through the once, but really enjoyed it...some fantastic stuff on there...

[Д.Д.]

John Butcher just posted a few albums / tracks on his Bandcamp page. Some new stuff, as well as the long OOP duo with Dylan van der Schyff on Meniscus. 

https://johnbutcher1.bandcamp.com/ 

 

[Д.Д.]

John Butcher makes his full bandcamp discography (41 albums!) available at 50% discount for £130 (€150, $160). A lot of great stuff there, including some long OOP stuff: https://johnbutcher1.bandcamp.com/album/12-milagritos#buyFullDiscography     

[David Ayers]

Bit OT but - what is the point of bandcamp? You can sample but not buy anything from the app. You can purchase but not listen from a browser. You can’t download to your phone. Life’s too short. 

[mjazzg]

I can and have done all of those.

Point for me is easy access to lots of releases.

[David Ayers]

10 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

I can and have done all of those.

Point for me is easy access to lots of releases.

Hmm. Maybe these are problems specific to iPhone?

[mjazzg]

perhaps, I'm an Android

[David Ayers]

31 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

perhaps, I'm an Android

I think that’s the difference then. 

[Д.Д.]

2 hours ago, David Ayers said:

Bit OT but - what is the point of bandcamp? You can sample but not buy anything from the app. You can purchase but not listen from a browser. You can’t download to your phone. Life’s too short. 

A lot of music is not available either on CD or streaming, so bandcamp is the only way. The best revenue option for the artists, I guess. Actually today, May 1st, bandcamp is waiving its fees and 100% of the revenue goes to artists.

And yes, of course you can download (in various formats) and stream (both through the browser and the app).  

Edited May 1, 2020 by Д.Д.

[David Ayers]

1 hour ago, Д.Д. said:

And yes, of course you can download (in various formats) and stream (both through the browser and the app).  

I’ve got the bandcamp app on my iPhone, and while you can stream an album you have purchased through the browser, you can’t buy an album and you can’t download. 

[Д.Д.]

2 minutes ago, David Ayers said:

I’ve got the bandcamp app on my iPhone, and while you can stream an album you have purchased through the browser, you can’t buy an album and you can’t download. 

I don't buy or download through the app, can't comment on this. I buy through browser and stream on the phone through the app. I would agree, not the most user-friendly platform, but life is too short to wait for a perfect solution to listen to the music you want, right?    

[David Ayers]

11 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

I don't buy or download through the app, can't comment on this. I buy through browser and stream on the phone through the app. I would agree, not the most user-friendly platform, but life is too short to wait for a perfect solution to listen to the music you want, right?    

Ah well - sadly it’s not music I’m lacking but time!

[Rabshakeh]

John Butcher gets the Epiphanies slot in this month's Wire. A good article that won't take much of your time, and worth searching out.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Rabshakeh

[Steve Reynolds]

Big listener to Butcher. Endlessly inventive and focused. Prefer his recordings with drummers. 

[colinmce]

Just to update the thread a bit, Butcher has played on many albums from the last few years that I've really enjoyed-- possibly moreso than ever:

-Last Dream of the Morning - two discs on Relative Pitch & Trost
-Blasphemious Fragments (Rastascan) w/ Gino Robair & Phil Minton
-Fictional Souvenirs (Astral Spirits) w/ Pat Thomas & Ståle Liavik Solberg
-Low Yellow (Jazzwerkstatt) w/ Wilbert de Joode & Martin Blume
-Frisque Concordance -  Distinct Machinery (Random Acoustics)
-We met- and then (Relative Pitch) w/ Barre Phillips & Ståle Liavik Solberg ‎
-But Everything Now Left Before It Arrived ‎(Meena) w/ John Russell & Dominic Lash
-Sounds Of Assembly (Meena) w/ Jennifer Allum, Ute Kanngiesser, & Eddie Prévost
-Discernment (Spoonhunt) w/ Dominc Lash, John Russell, & Mark Sanders

And then of course the 5xLP box set on Ni Vu Ni Connu, which was uniformly excellent but unfortunately only available on LP

The only one that fell a bit flat to me was the reunion with Shipp & Lehn on RogueArt. 

[Steve Reynolds]

New one on 577 records “Fathom”

with Thomas, Lash & Noble

fantastic like the above / especially the ones on Relative Pitch. The one with Barre Phillips is really really great.

 

have to get the quartet with Prevost. The great drummer is playing as great as ever at over 80.

[mjazzg]

Waiting on two of the Ni Vu Ni LPs

Not only available on LP, they're available as downloads too

[colinmce]

46 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Waiting on two of the Ni Vu Ni LPs

Not only available on LP, they're available as downloads too

Correct, that's how I listened. Would prefer these on CDs but oh well. 

[paulfromcamden]

On 5/1/2020 at 7:33 PM, Д.Д. said:

A lot of music is not available either on CD or streaming, so bandcamp is the only way. The best revenue option for the artists, I guess. Actually today, May 1st, bandcamp is waiving its fees and 100% of the revenue goes to artists.

I think one other consideration with Bandcamp is that it allows music to be released that may not otherwise see the light of day. We've all seen CDs on merch tables that were pressed in a run of 1000 or whatever five, six, seven years ago and haven't sold out yet. The market for improvisation is healthy but not huge.

Now good quality digital recordings can be made at reasonably low cost it's great to have a way of releasing more material without having £££s tied up in boxes of CDs.

I always prefer physical product but Bandcamp seems like a good option for music we might otherwise not hear.

[Д.Д.]

22 hours ago, colinmce said:

And then of course the 5xLP box set on Ni Vu Ni Connu, which was uniformly excellent but unfortunately only available on LP

21 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Waiting on two of the Ni Vu Ni LPs

Not only available on LP, they're available as downloads too

You guys like this stuff?! I was there at the concerts, and I thought it was all mediocre (by Butcher standards, that is), particularly the larger grouping with Liz Allbee. The only thing I liked was one short solo tenor piece that was a part of the duo with Agnel on the first day. I was quite bummed out because I traveled to Berlin specifically for these concerts.