Top Ten Black Saint/Soul Note

[.:.impossible]

I don't have a lot of Soul Note but I highly recomend Transit by Karl Berger w/ Dave Holland and Ed Blackwell.

If it hits Emusic I will be glad to have in MP3 format.

Crystal Fire (Enja, same trio) is also recommended. Absolutely the WORST cover art in my collection. So much so that I have turned the booklet around so that the liner notes serve as the cover.

[.:.impossible]

Birth and Rebirth, the Max Roach/Anthony Braxton duo recording, is brilliant. That's one more that I would classify as essential.

Second.

[Guest Bill Barton]

All the Muhal's are worthy. I wish I had all of them.

An enthusiastic "second" to that motion.

And I agree on the Regeneration and Dutch Masters recs too.

Black Saint/Soul Note IMHO is one of the most consistently high quality labels in the history of this great music (if not the most consistent.)

And don't forget Five and Convergence by the Dave Douglas "string group." Along those lines, Enrico Rava's Rava String Group is also notable.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Bill Barton

[Joe]

Some relatively obscure BS / SN dates worth investigating...

• Glenn Horiuchi, OXNARD BEET
  
• Wayne Horvitz / Butch Morris / William Parker, SOME ORDER LONG UNDERSTOOD
  
• TOM VARNER QUARTET
  
• Ellery Eskelin, THE SUN DIED
  
• Tony Oxley, THE ENCHANTED MESSENGER
  
• John Carter, DAUWHE
  
• Amina Claudine Myers, THE CIRCLE OF TIME
  

[clifford_thornton]

All the Muhal's are worthy. I wish I had all of them.

Of the Black Saint Muhals, the only other one I'm familiar with is Sightsong.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

String Trio of New York!

[Chuck Nessa]

All the Muhal's are worthy. I wish I had all of them.

Of the Black Saint Muhals, the only other one I'm familiar with is Sightsong.

All I can say is "DUH"!

[Joe]

String Trio of New York!

Seconded. Big fan of all versions of this group... I may even prefer to edition with Charles Burnham in the violin chair, which, alas, did not record for BS / SN. (Their two Stash discs = superb.) But the Regina Carter edition did, and BLUES... is a fine effort.

Somewhat related: John Lindberg's DIMENSION 5; subtract Emery (g) but add Hugh Ragin, Marty Ehrlich and Thurman Barker.

[Late]

I'm repeating a number of titles, but here are some of my favorites:

Black Saint:

• Muhal Richard Abrams: Mama and Daddy

• John Carter: Night Fire

• John Carter: Dauwhe

• Andrew Cyrille: Metamusicians' Stomp

• Chico Freeman: No Time Left

• Charles Gayle: Consecration

• Billy Harper: Black Saint

• Julius Hemphill: Raw Materials and Residuals

• Joseph Jarman/Don Moye: Earth Passage/Density

• Frank Lowe: The Flam

• Jimmy Lyons: Wee Sneezawee

• Keshavan Maslak: Blaster Master (ignore the title and awful cover art)

• Roscoe Mitchell: The Flow of Things

• Don Pullen & Sam Rivers: Capricorn Rising

• Don Pullen: Healing Force

• Don Pullen: Warriors

• Don Pullen: The Sixth Sense

• David Murray: Home

• John Tchicai: Timo's Message

Soul Note:

• Bass-Drum-Bone (Ray Anderson): Wooferlo

• Borah Bergman & Evan Parker: The Fire Tale

• Ran Blake & Houston Person: Suffield Gothic

• Ran Blake: Short Life of Barbara Monk

• Jaki Byard: To Them-To Us (didn't like this one for a long time, but it grew on me)

• Bill Dixon: Son of Sisyphus

• Dave Douglas: Parallel Worlds (I think this is his first album?)

• Ellery Eskelin: Figure of Speech (great music; the volume is disturbingly low for some reason)

• Tim Berne: Loose Cannon

• Andrew Hill: Strange Serenade

• John Jang: Tiananmen!

• Steve Lacy: Vespers (the best Aebi out there, in my opinion)

• Frank Lowe: Decision in Paradise

• Max Roach: Scott Free (also took me a while to get into this one)

• George Russell: Othello Suite

• Cecil Taylor: For Olim (the "gentle" Taylor album; still great)

• Gebhard Ullman: Kreuzberg Park East (the most obscure Soul Note?)

• Tom Varner: The Mystery of Compassion (Julius Watkins would be proud of Mr. Varner)

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, the Maslak is heavy!

And he HAS to be joking with the cover art/title.

[AndrewHill]

Thanks for the list Late. Man, there's a lot of titles I don't have!

[Adam]

up

[randyhersom]

I found out you are allowed to have a second account as long as you use a second email address, so I grabbed a 300/month second acount to be ready for today. It's down below 30 and I have about 55 Black Saint/Soul Note titles downloaded. My first priority was to grab all the Jimmy Lyons and I'm listening to Wee Sneezawee as we speak. About half of the catalog is up and the rest will arrive tomorrow. My first listen was the track Deep and Mellow by Beaver Harris' 360 Degree Music Experience, then First String by String Trio of New York. I have literally wanted some of these titles for thirty years.

[RDK]

I already had it on LP, but Billy Harper's "Black Saint" just had to be my first d/l.

[WorldB3]

I already had it on LP, but Billy Harper's "Black Saint" just had to be my first d/l.

Same here, I never heard it but I have been looking for it for some time.

I have 7 dl's left for the month, where next with the BS/SN?

[RDK]

I already had it on LP, but Billy Harper's "Black Saint" just had to be my first d/l.

Same here, I never heard it but I have been looking for it for some time.

I have 7 dl's left for the month, where next with the BS/SN?

There are a few 2-3 track albums in the bunch.

[Late]

The Billy Harper is great. Try the Julius Hemphill (Raw Materials and Residuals) as a tonic, however.

[BFrank]

Pullen/Adams "Live at the VV" is a good one.

Needless to say, there's TONS of stuff worth exploring.

[Tom Storer]

I've used up my monthly total, so I have to wait a couple of weeks. It wouldn't make any sense at all for this to be a North America-only deal, but I've had it happen often enough that something I want is not available for European subscribers that I'm biting my nails.

[WorldB3]

Pullen/Adams "Live at the VV" is a good one.

Needless to say, there's TONS of stuff worth exploring.

I know, I was going to just grab a couple titles a month but I am feeling the need to activate an old account and load up on these.

Good feature on it here:

http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/blacksaint/index.html

[randyhersom]

Just had a refresh on my original account, spent it all quickly on Black Saint/Soul Note:

Lester Bowie - 5th Power

Julius Hemphill - Raw Materials and Residuals

Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell - Red and Black Live at Willsau

Archie Shepp - A Sea of Faces

John Carter - Night Fire

Karl Berger - Transit

Sun Ra - Mayan Temples

Sun Ra - Hours After

Sun Ra - Reflections

New Air - Live at Montreal

Roscoe Mitchell - 3x5 Eye

George Russell - Electronic Sonata - 1968

George Russell - The Essence of

George Russell - Listen to the Silence

George Russell - Othello Ballet Suite

Charlie Haden - Silence

Michelle Rosewoman The Source

World Music Meeting with Andrew Cyrille - To Hear the World in a Grain of Sand

After 414 downloaded tracks there's still coveted items like Geri Allen's Etudes, Ran Blake's The Short Life of Barbara Monk, Billy Bang/Sun Ra tribute to Stuff Smith and plenty of Muhal, Lester and Leroy Jenkins out there for the next big refresh around the 18th.

Edited December 1, 2008 by randyhersom

[Д.Д.]

You can buy them cheap from the Back Saint website directly. I think they dropped prices further after they were purchased by CAM Jazz.

I like the Trio Hurricane - Suite of Winds disc.

Of course, any Bill Dixon will be stupendous, but really who wants to listen to that on their computer?

One needn't listen on computer speakers. I find emusic's mp3s more than acceptable for the cost. And in the case of BS/SN discs, I can barely find/buy them at any price.

[WorldB3]

After 414 downloaded tracks there's still coveted items like Geri Allen's Etudes

Etudes is my favorite one out of the bunch I have grabbed so far. Actually everything I grabbed in my first batch was excellent:

Billy Harper - Black Saint

Geri Allen with Charlie Haden, Paul Motian - Etudes

Andrew Hill - Shades

Paul Motian - The Story Of Maryam

Paul Motain - Out Of Time

Karl Berger - Transit

Got these on my refresh yesterday:

George Adams with Don Pullen Quartet - Live at the Village Vanguard Vol 1 @ Vol 2.

George Lewis - Homage To Charlie Parker

Billy Harper - In Europe

Andrew Hill - Strange Serenade

Walt Dickerson - Life Rays

[Uncle Skid]

After 414 downloaded tracks there's still coveted items like Geri Allen's Etudes

Etudes is my favorite one out of the bunch I have grabbed so far.

Wow, this is a fantastic record... thanks for the tip, guys!

[RDK]

One under-the-radar album I really like is Bobby Bradford's "Lost in L.A."

George Russell's "Electronic Sonata - 1968" is another surprise. Didn't know what to expect, but it's terrific - and only two long tracks.