Thirsty Ear Corner

[Guest akanalog]

i saw tim berne last night with taborn/torn/rainey (hard cell).

that guy has NO SOUL.

it is like when he is playing he is trying to tap into that great spiritual unconsciousness that the nicest players can tap into but his access is always denied and he ends up doing that droning long tone build up over and over as he waits on hold. and then the music just peters out.

taborn is da man though (even though i don't enjoy his albums). shipp could learn a thing from him about how to integrate and consolidate ones jazz chops and ideas with new technology and gear and doing so with dignity and class.

[.:.impossible]

That's interesting you say that. People praise 'The Sublime and...' where I think it could have benefited from some serious editting. The tone blooms between Taborn and Ducret is what makes the good moments great. I haven't gotten much out of Berne's playing either, though I haven't seen him live.

Who is Torn? What do you think of Ducret?

[ep1str0phy]

hey i was just responding to someone insinuating that i didn't "get" what dj spooky was doing or for some reason maybe in 2020 his transhyperdubunal transmissions would make sense to me.

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No such insinuation was made by me. I specifically referred to the unintelligibility of Braxton, Ornette and Taylor regarding their writing/speaking about music.

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...and--to clarify--I did not mean to imply any level of "misunderstanding" on Akanalog's part. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of all the disgust. On what levels are we dealing? What's the problem? The music? The ideology? Does the latter denigrate the former? I'd just like to hear the opposite viewpoint (for edification, anyway).

Oh, and I didn't mean to say that Braxton, Ornette, Taylor (et al.) speak nonsense. Quite the contrary--I think there's a lot of depth and intelligence to what (on first glance) may seem like pretension and incoherence. The point is, whatever one's take on musical ideology/verbage, the sound is left to speak for itself.

[king ubu]

No time to read through the whole thread, but in my opinion Thirsty Ear is no way as great as ESP or Hat or whatever...

What I've heard and what I think of it:

The GoodAndEvil Sessions

Boring, a total let-down (even more so since one of the very few good Swiss jazz critics wrote an orgasmic review about it...)

Roy Campbell - It's Krunch Time

Ok, but not great. As someone said above: some beautiful moments. Wilber Morris... I only recently got familiar with him - a plus for this disc. Khan Jamal too, is pretty interesting.

DJ Spooky - Optometry

Boring stuff. A friend of mine is a big fan of this disc - I can't see why...

Spring Heel Jack - Amassed

A great one! I definitely want to check out the other SHJ discs!

Craig Taborn - Junk Magic

Just got this a few weeks ago, gave it one listen and it didn't really grab me. Will give another listen soon.

I do realize that I don't know a lot of Thirsty Ear releases, but given waht I think about these, I don't feel the need to explore the whole label. Certainly I want to check out more Spring Heel Jack, and maybe some of those Hunter/Prevites. Not sure I need more Shipp than I have (three or four Hat releases and a couple of live dates).

For me it all is a bit too pretentious - it comes accross as trying very hard to achieve something. Would be better to go the understatement way and then surprise with some real achievements, instead of blurting out how great they are and then offer some old stuff, packed as if it was the future of the whole music.

An aside: anyone knows the Albert King live disc?

Edited September 26, 2005 by king ubu

[Guest akanalog]

that's what i was sayin' ubu.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

This might be a nice album for some (photoshopper of the cover art should be taken out back). Very accessible and that might rub folks the wrong way just out of irony. Eriko Yamamoto on piano is extremely talented, themes are a nice change of pace from the heady stuff. Kind of an odd duck for Thirsty Ear, being similar to Taborn's 'Light Made Lighter' - not nearly as Windham Hilly as Shipp's 'Pastoral Composure'.

I still love 'Equilibrium' bestest.

[ep1str0phy]

No time to read through the whole thread, but in my opinion Thirsty Ear is no way as great as ESP or Hat or whatever...

For me it all is a bit too pretentious - it comes accross as trying very hard to achieve something. Would be better to go the understatement way and then surprise with some real achievements, instead of blurting out how great they are and then offer some old stuff, packed as if it was the future of the whole music.

An aside: anyone knows the Albert King live disc?

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Fair enough... and, really, nothing's ESP caliber these days (and I never meant to say that the Blue Series was--only that certain superficialities incite comparison). In some way, however, I admire the foolhardiness of the whole Thirsty Ear thing. The savvier set can (and seems to) see through the pomp, but there's something amusing (?) about the Blue Series' self-conscious revolution-speak... and if it gets the hipster crowd listening, then why not? Ornette is miles above this stuff, but there's no doubt that a title like The Shape of Jazz to Come is as pretentious as it gets. Regardless, sensationalistic marketing practices can and sometimes do make for fascinating events.

Musical quality is another thing. The Atlantic Ornette material is ostensibly classic. I still believe that the Blue Series BS--like it or not--shouldn't diminish the quality of certain recordings (i.e., the Shipp sides, which are, to these ears, excellent). But yeah, there are clunkers.

Man, that Albert King disc was totally left field. The set seems good, though (horns?!).

[Aggie87]

up...

I've had the newest Mat Maneri disc, "Pentagon" for a little while now, and like this one quite a bit. Worth looking for, if you have liked any of Maneri's previous work.

I've also read quite a bit of good things about Matthew Shipp's newest solo piano recording, "One" (including positive comments from the Funny Rat folks!). Need to pick that one up.

I still like the Thirsty Ear stuff, recognizing it's not as "forward" as other labels as it purports to be, yet still making interesting and accessible music.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Aggie87

[BFrank]

Still enjoying Wm Parker's "Raining on the Moon". Been paying more attention to the vocalist, Leena Conquest. Never heard of her other than here. She has an album that eMusic carries and I've been thinking of downloading it.

[Aggie87]

I like all of Parker's small group leader dates that I've heard. I have "Luc's Lantern" on my to-get list right now. For some reason the larger group stuff (Little Huey) hasn't clicked for me...yet. BF - if you pick up that Conquest recording, let me know what you think about it. Who else is on it?

Another recent disc I've been enjoying is KTU's "8 Armed Monkey". This one is a quartet, comprised of Kimmo Pohjonen (accordion), Samuli Kosminen (samples), and King Crimson's Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelloto (okay, former Crim member Gunn, I guess). Unusual instruments, unusual sound, but a keeper.

I've also noticed that Thirsty Ear also has some recordings by the rock group the Church. I have "After Everything Now This" from '02. Need to check out some of their other more recent recordings, I think.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Still enjoying Wm Parker's "Raining on the Moon". Been paying more attention to the vocalist, Leena Conquest. Never heard of her other than here. She has an album that eMusic carries and I've been thinking of downloading it.

Leena was great when I saw her with Parker a few years back. Beautiful and powerful voice that was unfortunately teamed with Amira Baraka rants.

That solo outing is old school soul I think. I did an iTunes search and came up with a cut with some clubby euro rapper too. Sure wish she would do a breakout jazz rekkid cause she's got the lungs and everything else as I recall..

[ep1str0phy]

Still enjoying Wm Parker's "Raining on the Moon". Been paying more attention to the vocalist, Leena Conquest. Never heard of her other than here. She has an album that eMusic carries and I've been thinking of downloading it.

Leena was great when I saw her with Parker a few years back. Beautiful and powerful voice that was unfortunately teamed with Amira Baraka rants.

The grooves on that Parker album are just so tough the vocals do get a little obtrusive. Again, wonderful voice, great band--but everyone seems a little stifled by the ten minute+ hypno-rants. I love listening to Parker ride on the rhythm, but harmonic stasis/poetry reading is a little tedious after a while.

[BFrank]

Aggie, haven't been able to find out who's on that Leena album. No info on AMG or her label's web site. The clips do sound like mainstream pop/soul, but from what I can tell, they also sound like there's a little more there than meets the eye (ear?).

Here are some photos of her with Wm Parker (you can see photos of him, too): Pictures: Leena Conquest

[BFrank]

I've also noticed that Thirsty Ear also has some recordings by the rock group the Church. I have "After Everything Now This" from '02. Need to check out some of their other more recent recordings, I think.

BTW - Pick up "A Box Of Birds" by The Church. It's a really fine collection of covers by everyone from The Beatles to Iggy Pop to Hawkwind.