JLH reissue plans

[David Ayers]

I can't even find one to buy.

[mjazzg]

I can't even find one to buy.

Jazzloft still showing in stock this morning - whether or not they have copies....

[David Ayers]

I can't even find one to buy.

Jazzloft still showing in stock this morning - whether or not they have copies....

Thanks for the tip but ... they won't and in any case I only buy over here either in-store or occasionally online when there is guaranteed stock and short delivery times. Amazon uk list it but don't have it. I don't collect so stuff like this is only ever an impulse purchase for me. In any case I know the music well.

[mjzee]

I just got my copy today. Obviously a lot of love and care went into the packaging and production. I remember being not impressed with the music when I heard it in the '70's; I'm hoping I'll hear it in a different way today. So many people here spoke so highly of this album that I thought it's worth revisiting. But this is the way a rerelease should be done; bravo.

[clifford_thornton]

I can't even find one to buy.

Jazzloft still showing in stock this morning - whether or not they have copies....

Thanks for the tip but ... they won't and in any case I only buy over here either in-store or occasionally online when there is guaranteed stock and short delivery times. Amazon uk list it but don't have it. I don't collect so stuff like this is only ever an impulse purchase for me. In any case I know the music well.

Why don't you buy JETman's spare copy?

[David Ayers]

I can't even find one to buy.

Jazzloft still showing in stock this morning - whether or not they have copies....

Thanks for the tip but ... they won't and in any case I only buy over here either in-store or occasionally online when there is guaranteed stock and short delivery times. Amazon uk list it but don't have it. I don't collect so stuff like this is only ever an impulse purchase for me. In any case I know the music well.

Why don't you buy JETman's spare copy?

Tha answer to that question is in his post and in mine, grasshopper.

[Leeway]

I can't even find one to buy.

Jazzloft still showing in stock this morning - whether or not they have copies....

[JETman]

My spare is gone.

[skeith]

Got my copy yesterday. Great job in making this release. The sound on the Hard Blues is much better than it sounds on the freedom label release of Reflection ("Coon 'Bidness")

One thing that surprised me is that on the opening track the music shifts from one speaker to another like some Hendrix or other rock albums from the 60s. Sounded odd - but I love the music.

Thanks again JLH!!!

[jonathanhorwich]

Dear Mr. Skeith,

Yes, that shifting you hear is due to the fact that the 4 track tape recorder they used had a faulty channel so as it dipped in and out the sounds shifts over. Then when it recovers from the intermittent fault, the sound comes back. I probably should have noted that on the Producer Notes and will in the future. Also the producer of the original session was involved in the rock world so the shifting is somehow appropriate to his style. Jonathan

[Leeway]

Dear Mr. Skeith,

Yes, that shifting you hear is due to the fact that the 4 track tape recorder they used had a faulty channel so as it dipped in and out the sounds shifts over. Then when it recovers from the intermittent fault, the sound comes back. I probably should have noted that on the Producer Notes and will in the future. Also the producer of the original session was involved in the rock world so the shifting is somehow appropriate to his style. Jonathan

Jonathan, when you say "in the future," does that indicate another (I assume 2nd) pressing of this release?

[skeith]

Dear Mr. Skeith,

Yes, that shifting you hear is due to the fact that the 4 track tape recorder they used had a faulty channel so as it dipped in and out the sounds shifts over. Then when it recovers from the intermittent fault, the sound comes back. I probably should have noted that on the Producer Notes and will in the future. Also the producer of the original session was involved in the rock world so the shifting is somehow appropriate to his style. Jonathan

Jonathan,

Whoops - I meant to say that the shifting is noticeable on the "Hard Blues", not the opening track. Sorry for any confusion.

I was not complaining, but merely wondering if the effect was intentional, although I suspected it was not.

Again, I am very, very happy with this release and the job you did on it.

Edited October 24, 2011 by skeith

[jonathanhorwich]

Thanks for your kind words Skeith. I do not plan to reprint Hemphill. When the 1500 sell out that will be that. As a side note, when I first heard the shifting I thought the rock producer had done it on purpose until I found out that the tape deck had a faulty channel.

[paul secor]

Dear Mr. Skeith,

Yes, that shifting you hear is due to the fact that the 4 track tape recorder they used had a faulty channel so as it dipped in and out the sounds shifts over. Then when it recovers from the intermittent fault, the sound comes back. I probably should have noted that on the Producer Notes and will in the future. Also the producer of the original session was involved in the rock world so the shifting is somehow appropriate to his style. Jonathan

Julius Hemphill is listed as producer on the Arista/Freedom issue of Dogon A.D. and on the Arista/Freedom issue of "The Hard Blues". Oliver Sain is listed as engineer, but he was associated with the world of blues and rhythm and blues, not the rock world.

I've never seen the Mbari issue. Perhaps the credits are listed differently there.

Edited October 25, 2011 by paul secor

[mikeweil]

I ordered a copy from amazon.com only last weekend, and received shipping confirmation yesterday - so there are still some copies available. I'm very curious about this, and the sound - I admit I have a download somewhere of a disc transfer of the Arista LP, but this never quite grabbed my attention. But even if it turns out I don't like it, there's no need to worry ...

[AllenLowe]

yes, I'll be selling mine for $500 after they run out -

[clifford_thornton]

I've never seen the Mbari issue. Perhaps the credits are listed differently there.

Sain is not listed on the Mbari - no producer/engineer credit on mine.

[ep1str0phy]

Having spent the most time in the past with vinyl rips of Dogon A.D. (I think Screwgun's online "release" of the album in the mid-2000s was a big part of how the music developed such a huge cultural cache in recent years--though I don't think I'm overstating the case when I say that this has long been one of the most influential albums among the under 40 set of jazz experimentalists), this reissue is a revelation. The depth of the sound field and the starkness of the separation make it sound like something else altogether... I'd been listening to this clammy, fuzzy sound for so long that it felt like vinyl clicks and pops were a fundamental part of the album.

That being said, I'm really amazed at how rough this music is--and I mean that in the best way possible. The passage of time, naturally, forges innovations into steely, precise techniques--this being one of my criticisms of a lot of free jazz of the past fifteen or twenty years. Any number of younger bands could cut the living hell out of an 11/4 vamp (or 11/16--I heard someone say that the "Dogon" vamp was 11/4, but it's pretty easy to hear as two quarters + three 16ths, I think), but I can't think of too many current musicians who could take an odd-metered exercise and make it about anything other than the meter--which is precisely what this band does. I love how/when Wadud and Wilson get off each other now and again, because this would totally derail a lesser music; Dogon just floats through its technical hiccups because Hemphill's music prioritizes the vocalistic and sonic over the mechanical.

It's actually easy to hear Dogon as the inception of later schools of riff-y/odd-metered experimentalism, or rather as a validation of that "idiom" as a platform for freer improvisation. Kind of like how Roscoe, Muhal, and the AACM invoked subtraction and silence as a different way of getting at the emotional/spiritual ecstasy of old-school, combustible free jazz (ala Trane), Hemphill invoked angular cyclicalism and stasis as organizing principles--just another way "out" of the free music soup and into something fresh and full of possibility.

[Larry Kart]

Fascinating post, ep1str0phy.

[ep1str0phy]

Thanks, Larry!

[colinmce]

Finally placed my order via Amazon Prime today but alas no shipping notice as there ought to have been. Damn.

[romualdo]

thanks for that synopsis ep1str0phy

I've never heard this LP before - sounds like it's going to be a revelation

just been notified today that my copy is finally on its way (Import CD's) - have been sweating over this for the last few days (OOP that quickly!!!)

[colinmce]

Finally placed my order via Amazon Prime today but alas no shipping notice as there ought to have been. Damn.

Ha! Spoke too soon! On its way.

[.:.impossible]

I immediately connected with "The Painter" and "Hard Blues", less so with "Dogon", but repeated listening has been great. Almost like peeling layers of an onion, one listen at a time. Interesting because my initial impression was that "Dogon" was the least demanding of them all.

[jonathanhorwich]

I think the write up by Ep1strOphy is brilliant. Really perceptive. Surely beyond what I could ever express in words or even concepts. And on another subject, I should not have said Oliver Sain produced it. It was his studio and he was the engineer. Here is a quote test from Baikida to me about the drop outs, etc. Thought you guys should get the straight dope rather than my interpretation.

"Hey Jonathan,

The problem we had with the recording was: Oliver Sain's Gateway Studio, (where we recorded Dogon A.D. and "Hard Blues") only had a 4 track tape recorder and one of the tracks didn't work. He had to

juggle between the group set-up and the solo set-up, and sometimes it wasn't so smooth. Also, being a funk master/engineer he wasn't really familiar with the music we were playing so it sometimes caught him off guard. After working through the experience, he loved and talked about the session and the music for years.

Baikida Carroll"