Modern/Avant New Releases: A running thread

[JETman]

I just got the DKV box. It's good but I'm not sure the idea "holds" for seven discs. Not like, say, a 7CD box of Rollins/Ware/Elvin or something.

In what way doesn't the idea hold? Do you mean that the trio sounds vastly different from disc to disc? Or that they aren't bringing it with any sort of consistency?

To me, the Alchemia set sort of doesn't hold for all of its 12 discs, but I think that's because I'm not sure KV has enough going on to hold anyone's attention for that many discs.

[Stefan Wood]

Not a Ken Vandermark fan.

[colinmce]

Vandermark is hit and miss for me, but I like that he's around and does what he does. I find he needs the right context to thrive I love V5-- he has the support of a great band and the compositions are strong. I also like his duos with Paal Nilssen-Love, the Side A trio on Clean Feed, Sonore, and his Delmark album. The recent solo recital Knife in the Water is also very good DKV doesn't do much for me.

[JETman]

Not a Ken Vandermark fan.

I am, in certain contexts. He's made some interesting albums. Sometimes he leaves me a little cold in the same way that Jeff Beck leaves me cold. I thought that the V5 took a little bit of a dip after FLH joined. The Alchemia set is good in very small doses for me.

[CraigP]

Anyone heard this yet? Got a dream line up as far as I'm concerned and an intriguing premise

Yes, this is nice. Good compositions/arrangements and inside/outside soloing.

[CraigP]

Vandermark is hit and miss for me, but I like that he's around and does what he does. I find he needs the right context to thrive I love V5-- he has the support of a great band and the compositions are strong. I also like his duos with Paal Nilssen-Love, the Side A trio on Clean Feed...

Pretty much what my thoughts on him. I think his concepts are sometimes more interesting than his actual playing.

[Stefan Wood]

Vandermark is hit and miss for me, but I like that he's around and does what he does. I find he needs the right context to thrive I love V5-- he has the support of a great band and the compositions are strong. I also like his duos with Paal Nilssen-Love, the Side A trio on Clean Feed...

Pretty much what my thoughts on him. I think his concepts are sometimes more interesting than his actual playing.

I agree with this as well.

Another recommendation, this time from Ayler records. I have the first two in this series, volume 4 has been issued before vol 3, but this is all good:

[NIS]

Thanks for this thread.

[CraigP]

Just received the new Rogue Art CD Watershed by drummer Dennis Fournier with a mix of European and Chicago musicians, including Nicole Mitchell. Really good! Never heard of Fournier before but he's an interesting composer as well.

[clifford_thornton]

Well, after going through the DKV set a number of times I actually came away with the feeling that it's solid and consistent. Nothing earth-shattering and a few lame funk breakdowns aside, but pretty strong trio blowing on the whole. I'm not sure if 7 discs is necessary but, you know, I'd say it's worth sampling if you have the opportunity and aren't totally anti-KV. By "holds" earlier I meant holding attention, rather than it being scattershot or anything of that nature.

Had vols. 1 & 2 but they left in the big CD purge before I moved (I wasn't totally in love with them, just thought they were "decent"). I might try to grab these again at some point, though.

Edited December 17, 2012 by clifford_thornton

[MomsMobley]

>>>> inane and unlistenable Ken Vandermark's life in any possible context, past, present or future--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoHB8RSQ8-0

Vandermark is so inane, such a dead ass emotional and intellectual hack, he's the enemy of sound-- even physics even!!-- let alone "jazz," or "creative improvised music (featuring 'telepathic interplay)" or whatever genre he's trying to glom onto the for benefit nothing but his own desperate worth-by-association shuck.

he's not the only one who sucks; I accidentally heard parts of a radio show dedicated to drummer Dave King yesterday and the Bad Plus parts were-- surprise!!-- fucking horrific. wow, these chumps listen to crappy rock music and try to make "jass" from it...

swift are the winds life for dummies, eh dipshits?

>>>>>> Vandermark + all Bad Plus combined forever and always (to say the least)--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZvieim9lyM

Not a Ken Vandermark fan.

I am, in certain contexts. He's made some interesting albums. Sometimes he leaves me a little cold in the same way that Jeff Beck leaves me cold. I thought that the V5 took a little bit of a dip after FLH joined. The Alchemia set is good in very small doses for me.

[king ubu]

Not a VDMK fan either ... but I enjoy him quite some on clarinet, and his duo concert with Paal Nilssen Love this year was great ... I picked up this recent album on recommendation of a fan I met at that concert and it's very good:

[CraigP]

Putting aside his groups for a moment, some of his best sax playing to date is found on Eric Revis' new CD Parallax.

[clifford_thornton]

Well, don't want it to turn into a V'mark bash thread (we've already got a pretty amazing one of those around here somewhere). Haven't spent time with the Resonance Ensemble music at all, though I may have a couple of things lurking around here under that banner...

Caught Jon Irabagon's Outright in concert at Cornelia Street the other day, w/ Jacob Sacks, Eivind Opsvik, Tom Rainey and Ralph Alessi. Very fine music clearly building on Wayne Shorter's classic BN era, with a kind of 21st-century rockist angularity. Admittedly the CD didn't really grab me a ton, but seeing the band work through the music was another story. So I now am going back to the disc to see how my opinion continues to form.

Enjoyed Iverson with Ted Brown recently, though that's a VERY different thing from TBP. Iverson was creative, respectful and engaging as a pianist playing the standard repertoire.

[Stefan Wood]

Got this one yesterday, and it is a surprise. I would recommend this to fans of Jimmy Giuffre's late 50's - early 60's period, the classic Bobby Hutcherson/Joe Chambers Blue Notes, and contemporary Chicago jazz:

[jlhoots]

Got this one yesterday, and it is a surprise. I would recommend this to fans of Jimmy Giuffre's late 50's - early 60's period, the classic Bobby Hutcherson/Joe Chambers Blue Notes, and contemporary Chicago jazz:

I agree. I've enjoyed all of the Klang CDs.

There's a new Silke Eberhard / Ulrich Gumpert CD on Jazzwerkstatt that I'm looking for.

[Steve Reynolds]

Ok - back int he day on another board, there was MUCH KV bashing and some by me - I have never been a fan of the Vandermark 5 despite a pretty damn sincere effort some 8 to 10 years ago to really listen to the band - and the large Transatlantic band is up and down - but I sure would love to see them live - and a trio in NYC in the early 2000's with Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton was close to unlistenable DESPITE Paul Lovens being fucking brilliant.

and his efforts through the grant to bring the Brotzmann Tentet to life is priceless - the 2 performances I witnessede of that ensemble in 2000 and 2002 @ Tonic in NYC *remain* the greatest live performances of music this boy has ever witnessed.

HOWEVER...I always think that although KV is limited when he gets into it with guys like Mats with AALY despite the pure unadulterated brilliance of the AALY trio with KV - for the naysayers listen to 'Hidden in the Stomach" from 1996 or the transcendent "Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe" from couple of years later - try the opening track (written by Ken) when about 3 minutes in KV launches a riff with energy that is on the level of any free jazz tenorist - DESPITE the fact he is next to the beast of all beast on that same horn - Mats himself.

and as far as DKV - I saw the band on 3/27/2001 and while Ken may not have at his best, the actual show was among the 4 or 5 greatest shows I have EVER attended - Drake and Kessler with KV's groove based playing (his strength for sure as miniature improvisations and complex detailed improvisations are certainly not) made for an energy level with Drake playing at his highest level as he always has with that trio made it a night to remember for me those many years later.

and the band has 2 recordings - Live at Wels and Chicago (recorded 1998) and Trigonomtry (recorded on 3/24/01 & 3/31/01) that remain 2 of the great free jazz recording of the past 30 years.

disc 2 of Wels - specically the last 2 long tracks are genius and thos riffs and melodies shoule be fucking canonized in a faitr and just musical world.

Edited December 19, 2012 by Steve Reynolds

[jlhoots]

Ok - back int he day on another board, there was MUCH KV bashing and some by me - I have never been a fan of the Vandermark 5 despite a pretty damn sincere effort some 8 to 10 years ago to really listen to the band - and the large Transatlantic band is up and down - but I sure would love to see them live - and a trio in NYC in the early 2000's with Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton was close to unlistenable DESPITE Paul Lovens being fucking brilliant.

and his efforts through the grant to bring the Brotzmann Tentet to life is priceless - the 2 performances I witnessede of that ensemble in 2000 and 2002 @ Tonic in NYC *remain* the greatest live performances of music this boy has ever witnessed.

HOWEVER...I always think that although KV is limited when he gets into it with guys like Mats with AALY despite the pure unadulterated brilliance of the AALY trio with KV - for the naysayers listen to 'Hidden in the Stomach" from 1996 or the transcendent "Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe" from couple of years later - try the opening track (written by Ken) when about 3 minutes in KV launches a riff with energy that is on the level of any free jazz tenorist - DESPITE the fact he is next to the beast of all beast on that same horn - Mats himself.

and as far as DKV - I saw the band on 3/27/2001 and while Ken may not have at his best, the actual show was among the 4 or 5 greatest shows I have EVER attended - Drake and Kessler with KV's groove based playing (his strength for sure as miniature improvisations and complex detailed improvisations are certainly not) made for an energy level with Drake playing at his highest level as he always has with that trio made it a night to remember for me those many years later.

and the band has 2 recordings - Live at Wels and Chicago (recorded 1998) and Trigonomtry (recorded on 3/24/01 & 3/31/01) that remain 2 of the great free jazz recording of the past 30 years.

disc 2 of Wels - specically the last 2 long tracks are genius and thos riffs and melodies shoule be fucking canonized in a faitr and just musical world.

Another "old one" - FJF:Blow Horn (Okka)

[Steve Reynolds]

clifford - was thinking about seeing that band @ Cornelia Street - I am hoping you are there this Saturday for Open Loose with Malaby, Helias and Rainey - last time was beyond great - especially the seond set when Rainey destroyed the fucking world.

I be there sitting in one of the closer seats...

[clifford_thornton]

Alas, I'll be back home for the holidays so I won't be able to catch Open Loose. Dang.

Got this one yesterday, and it is a surprise. I would recommend this to fans of Jimmy Giuffre's late 50's - early 60's period, the classic Bobby Hutcherson/Joe Chambers Blue Notes, and contemporary Chicago jazz:

Just pulled this one out of my mailbox too. Looking forward to diving in.

[mjazzg]

Got this one yesterday, and it is a surprise. I would recommend this to fans of Jimmy Giuffre's late 50's - early 60's period, the classic Bobby Hutcherson/Joe Chambers Blue Notes, and contemporary Chicago jazz:

I agree. I've enjoyed all of the Klang CDs.

There's a new Silke Eberhard / Ulrich Gumpert CD on Jazzwerkstatt that I'm looking for.

Big fan of Klang and I think this new one maintains the standard. Some very nice playing on some imaginative compositions - challenging in a non-challenging manner if that makes any sense at all?!

[Blue Train]

A site I use to keep track of the more interesting new releases.

http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/

Edited December 20, 2012 by Blue Train

[alankin]

Your link has an error. I think it should be: http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/

[Blue Train]

Not sure what it is, but I can't seem to post any link on here since the change over to the new software....which I think was a step backwards.

Yes, that's the link. Thank you.

[alankin]

If you copy the text of a link, the software will post it as a clickable link.