Funny Rat

[king ubu]

I have a soft spot for "My Name is Albert Ayler", though I'm aware that it doesn't come close to his best albums... "Summertime" is great, though!

Favourite 5: Spiritual Unity, Spirits Rejoice, Hilversum... now it gets difficult... Prophecy is good, Vibrations is good, as is Copenhagen tapes (I prefer HIlversum, though), Maeght is good, so is the 2CD on Impulse... hard to choose really!

[Д.Д.]

Very strange, that cover is small when you view it on the site itself!

And you call Fear Factory album covers scary!?

[jon abbey]

one great Ayler release that not many people seem to know about is the double CD Albert Smiles with Sunny (In Respect). it's the full concert of what was released by ESP as Prophecy, the trio with Peacock and Murray a month before they recorded Spiritual Unity.

more info at the bottom of this page:

http://www.ayler.supanet.com/html/prophecy.html

[jon abbey]

In Respect is the label name there, in case that wasn't clear.

[alankin]

... Philip Johnston (Webpage) - excellent saxophonist and very skillfull arranger and composer...

Phillip Johnston has a new CD out on Innova called Rub Me The Wrong Way. The CD has three quirky compositions that he did for a dance troupe. Sounds pretty good on my first listen.

[king ubu]

Thanks for that info, Jon! I have that music all on the Ayler tree, very very nice!

Alan, thanks, too! Sounds good!

[P.L.M]

Just a quick visit to the thread (too much work).

The five AYLER according to my taste (of course) :

SPIRITUAL UNITY (ESP)

SPIRITS REJOICE (ESP)

LIVE IN GREENWICH VILLAGE (COMPLETE) (IMPULSE!)

NUITS DE LA FONDATION MAEGHT (1970) (WATER / SHANDAR, whatever)

WITCHES & DEVILS (FREEDOM or, better, DA MUSIC with a remastered version in 24 bits who sounds gorgeous)

and the five BEEFHEART:

TROUT MASK REPLICA (REPRISE)

LICKS MY DECALL OFF, BABY (REPRISE)

I GOING TO DO WHAT I WANNA DO: LIVE AT MY FATHER'S PLACE 1978 (RHINO)

CLEAR SPOT (REPRISE)

SHINY BEAST (BAD CHAIN PULLER) (VIRGIN)

Edited September 28, 2004 by P.L.M

[Matthew]

Just want to sing the praises one more time for Roscoe Mitchell's Solo 3. I've been listening to it a lot lately and it is really a very beautiful disk. I always find it interesting how Mitchell's music seems to come out of silence. It's as if he's been thinking of what to play for a long time and it's not coming out until he's ready. The song 1999/2002: For flute and percussion cage is one of the better flute things I've ever heard -- very gracefull. Plus, the percussion cd gives a wonderful sense of Mitchell's timing and his approach to the whole sound/silence aspect.

[Д.Д.]

Just want to sing the praises one more time for Roscoe Mitchell's Solo 3.

Incidentally, last Sunday I placed an order at indiejazz.com, including this one. $30! - it's better be good!

[John B]

mine would be

1)Spirits Rejoice

I'd completely forgotten about this one. I'll be listening to this and Spiritual Unity tonight, along with an Art Ensemble of Chicago rarity that just made its way to me.

[king ubu]

Mitchell will play solo in Zurich late in November, I'll try to catch him if I can!

[Д.Д.]

...an Art Ensemble of Chicago rarity that just made its way to me.

What's that?

[Д.Д.]

Friends, I've been listening to this disc for a couple of days now, and can wholeheartedly recommend it:

Paul Plimley / Lisle Ellis / Donald Robinson "Density of the Lovestruck Demons" (Music & Arts, 1995)

My first exposure to Plimley, and what a nice surprise! Piano trio. Plimley has a pretty original style - free for sure, but very warm, bluesy... very jazz. Pretty original style - the closest analog I could think of is von Schlippenbach (also highly percussive style, and a bit of a "paradoxal" appraoch as if he is constantly questioning himself - and then gives answers that even he himself hadn't expected), but I think Plimley has more warmth and melody (but equally virtuosic). Ellis and Robinson are a perfect rythm team - Robinson is an old-time swinger, but a very free one - anything can happen at any time (but it will always sound good) - and very much focused on making his partners sound good. Ellis is absolutely brilliant, with powerful round sound jumping betweeen piano and drums - and also very and sync with other two players. YOu can ghear immidiately that the trio has been playing together for some time - and they like it. Lovely, lovely music. Couple of Ornette's tunes, btw... overall, the whole disc has this early Ornett-ish fill - cheerful, suprising, concise (all compositions are pretty short) and with a bit of a gang-ho attitude.

There are some sound RA samples on the M & A website: http://musicandarts.com/CD4906j.html

Got my copy for $7 at themusicresource.com - they might still have more.

More Plimley recommendations, anyone?

EDIT: and btw, I was listening to Plimley right after Cecil's Willisau concert - with initial apprehension that listenig to any pianist after that would be just unfair to the musician - well, Plimles still somehow pulled it off.

Edited September 28, 2004 by Д.Д.

[John B]

...an Art Ensemble of Chicago rarity that just made its way to me.

What's that?

a record called Go Home, that they recorded in Paris a few months prior to Les Stances A Sophie. It was released on vinyl by a company called Galloway in, apparently, very limited numbers. An "unofficial" cd version also exists, but appears to also be extremely rare.

A kind soul supplies me with a dub of the cd.

[John B]

Friends, I've been listening to this disc for a couple of days now, and can wholeheartedly recommend it:

Paul Plimley / Lisle Ellis / Donald Robinson "Density of the Lovestruck Demons" (Music & Arts, 1995)

I was very impressed when I saw Lisle Ellis live a few months back with Marco Eneidi. I believe he will be bringing his own group here in November,

I've never heard of either plimley or this album before. This one sounds interesting, and will be added to "the list."

[John B]

I had forgotten how beautiful Spirits Rejoice is. What a fantastic album! This is really whetting my appetite for the box set.

[Д.Д.]

I had forgotten how beautiful Spirits Rejoice is. What a fantastic album! This is really whetting my appetite for the box set.

Hve been postponing buying this one in hope to identify the best-sounding CD copy. Which one do you have (I asumethere are at least 5 of them around), and how does it sound?

[John B]

I had forgotten how beautiful Spirits Rejoice is.  What a fantastic album!  This is really whetting my appetite for the box set.

Hve been postponing buying this one in hope to identify the best-sounding CD copy. Which one do you have (I asumethere are at least 5 of them around), and how does it sound?

I have no idea. I just have an old copy of whichever version the local library owned.

Now listening to Bells / Prophecy

It would be nice if someone such as Mosaic could release a set of all of the "official" Ayler discs, remastered, with any bonus tracks that migt be lying around. It would be wonderful to have these albums in the best possible sound.

Edited September 29, 2004 by John B

[Д.Д.]

It would be nice if someone such as Mosaic could release a set of all of the "official" Ayler discs, remastered, with any bonus tracks that migt be lying around. It would be wonderful to have these albums in the best possible sound.

Actually all recent reissues sound good - SPiritual Unity by Dutch label Calibre sounds great, hatHut did a gret job with the Paris peformance and the Copenhagen tapes relesed on Ayler sond quite good as well.

I assume all the bonus tracks imaginable are in the Revenant box. There porbably won't be much left.

[John B]

Actually all recent reissues sound good - SPiritual Unity by Dutch label Calibre sounds great, hatHut did a gret job with the Paris peformance and the Copenhagen tapes relesed on Ayler sond quite good as well.

I assume all the bonus tracks imaginable are in the Revenant box. There porbably won't be much left.

You are most liekly correct. Part of my problem is the amount of his recordings that I have never heard. I'll need to add the Hat and Ayler discs to my next order, as well as buying real copies of the albums I have old burns of.

[Nate Dorward]

Actually all recent reissues sound good - SPiritual Unity by Dutch label Calibre sounds great[.....]

Er, really? I have a reissue from that period in the 1990s when a German label put all the ESP catalogue back in print. It sounds better than Machine Gun but that's about all I can say in its favour. Famously, the recording engineer didn't even record the first track in stereo because he thought they were just practicing.

Whatever the case it's wonderful music. I also like Spirits Rejoice a lot. The only others I have are Vibrations & the Impulse Greenwich Village 2fer; Vibrations never quite grabbed me (again, I may have a version with a poor CD transfer--the drums aren't caught very well) but the Impulse is great. It really is high time all the ESP stuff was collected in one spot & remastered properly.

*

Paul Plimley & Lisle Ellis are terrific, yes; one hopes Hat Art's reissue program catches up soon to Kaleidoscopes, their marvellous album of Ornette tunes. My one complaint about them is that they can get stuck into familiar routines on their own sometimes--e.g. I've seen Plimley do his "Stomping at the Savoy" partypiece 3 times now in various concerts over the years, & it got a little stale. But that's a minor complaint. Catch Ellis on the new Enedi/Brotz/Ellis/Krall disc too--a great disc.

*

np: Ochs/Jeanrenaud/Masaoka, Fly Fly Fly. Which is really nice stuff--one of my favourites so far this year. The cello & koto get a little cross-cultural synthesis going--the cello sounding rather "Asian", the koto often like a harp or the strummed inside of a piano. The first two tracks would please fans of the Tilbury/Morton Feldman school of tonal, minimalist improv; but the last two tracks are a lot more various & sometimes prickly. I like both sides of the disc about equally.

[P.L.M]

Yep, the Calibre are the best of the reissues batch.

Abraxas/ Get Back and Fuel are all alike, that means correct.

But you know what is the best sounding Ayler's CDs of ESP material?

The CD-R than ESP itself sell throught their website!

They burn for you the one you want and send it with the proper art work and all.

Of course, no miracle to expect, because all these material was badly recorded in the first place.

And, shure, a little 24/96 remastering by Peter Pfister would be much welcome.

From ESP, maybe. But I think there's a lot Ayler who is still sleeping in the archives of european radio.

Edited September 29, 2004 by P.L.M

[John B]

But you know what is the best sounding Ayler's CDs of ESP material?

The CD-R than ESP itself sell throught their website!

They burn for you the one you want and send it with the proper art work and all.

I've been hesitant to order any of these. $13 plus shipping for a cdr seems a bit steep to me. You have me curious enough to try this out at some point.

[Gary]

I had forgotten how beautiful Spirits Rejoice is. What a fantastic album! This is really whetting my appetite for the box set.

Spirits rejoice was the first time I heard any Ayler & whenever I put it on I still remember the feeling I had that first time.

[Guest Chaney]

Léandre / Maneri / Marguet / Ryan: For Flowers (Leo)

Perhaps it is a hesitancy on the part of the musicians to truly engage in an improvisation with Joel Ryan, on "computer based electronics", that leads to this stasis. There is a certain amount of confidence and trust necessary in order to allow your sound, that most personal and defining of improvisational fingerprints, to be altered and distorted on the fly. Ryan's role is significant in this recording, as he manipulates the sounds of the other three throughout the proceedings, adding delay here, reverb and pitch modulation there, with a constantly heavy panning. His "solo" statement, a heavily processed duo with Marguet on "Crocus", burns out quickly as all the tricks are let out of the bag. His work on "Tulips" is a bit more like it, but one gets the feeling that there is a bit of Oz in the proceedings. Only Léandre's vocals (as wonderful as ever) a little over halfway through the piece save it from sounding like the well has run dry. Ryan's response is inspired, picking apart the vocals into breath sounds and sibilants, while still giving her enough space to explore. It is the highlight of the disc.

Can't say that I'm interested in pursuing releases on which these "computer based electronics" "musicians" are involved but has anyone ever heard this act done successfully? (Being willfully intolerant.)