Pee Wee Russell... Peter Brotzmann/William Parker/Hamid Drake

Pee Wee Russell playing 'Minglewood,' a relaxed 12 bar blues. Opens on a hoarse chorus from clarinet – choked right back – spurred by old school skittering brushes from Osie Johnson. Buck delivers some elegant trumpet over a clarinet obligato. Pee Wee returns solo, higher and less granular yet no less angular -a diagonal querulousness that ends on a breathy deep goodbye. Buck back, subtley placed notes, in the next chorus hitting some higher stuff to raise the emotion with the register. Flanagan drops easily into mainstream mode, a spare line of some elegance. Back to the emphysema-tone of Russell for a chorus before Buck rejoins him, now muted for some old time wa wa, as they ride out together. Sublime...

Peter Brotzmann with William Parker and Hamid Drake: 'Never run but go 3.' Opens oddly enough in the same hoarse querulous register that Pee Wee sporadically employs above but with more aggression as Parker riffs and Drake gets almost calypso-ey... High-register squalls over hammered toms alternate with Brotz drops down into deeper chesty vocalised horn. Tough shit lightened and opened out at the bottom by the clattery surging drums. Parker hits a fast four in places to spring things along as the tenor splurts out a dense cloud of notes, all the way through varying his rhythms and lines – pro-active linchpin. Sudden drop out – sorry about that...


In the Videodrome...

Pee Wee and Ruby at Newport...

Brotz on tarogato...

For the sheer fun of it - George Clinton and co...


Pee Wee Russell
Pee Wee Russell (cl) Buck Clayton (t) Tommy Flanagan (p) Wendell Marshall (b) Osie Johnson (d)
Englewood
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Peter Brotzmann/William Parker/Hamid Drake
Peter Brotzmann (ts, tar, cl) William Parker (b, Doussn'gouni) Hamid Drake (d)
Never run but go 3
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Bill Perkins Octet... Steve Lacy/Don Cherry... Polly Bradfield... Peter Brotzmann

I knew this title originally from the wonderful Jack Teagarden version – this is the Bill Perkins Octet from 1956 doing a smooth cool school take on 'A hundred years from today.' Velvet arrangement wrapped round Perkins tenor with memories of the 1949 Miles Davis Nine somewhere in the background... Rather beautiful...

Steve Lacy served part of his apprenticeship with Thelonious Monk and throughout his career both showed a deep knowledge of his music and often returned (as if to a meadow? Apologies to Robert Duncan) to his compositions. This is early Lacy, in tandem with Don Cherry, Carl Brown and Billy Higgins – bass player apart, half the Ornette Coleman group. Cherry solos first – on trumpet, rather than his smaller horns. Still retaining the sound, however – busy but not power blowing. Lacy always seems relaxed, wherever he wanders – and inside/outside Monk's music was where he frequently rambled mightily down the years. Some wonderful arcs of notes here, when he solos, as if flying lightly above the changes. Higgins is busy throughout, rewarded with a solo of equal length to the horns. Laid back stuff – cool, almost?

Rasping, scratching, high scraping bounces of the bow – Polly Bradfield took no prisoners on her solo album of improvisations from 1979. Doing to the violin, what Derek Bailey did to the guitar, both moving it out into unfamiliar territory while simultaneously exploring the instrument's intrinsic physical being – wood and strings interacting with fingers and, here, bow. 'Extended technique' with a vengeance...


This Die like a Dog track came up on my Last Fm player and for the duration I stopped what I was doing, transfixed by the power and the finesse – stupid name for a group, maybe, despite the sentiments – what's with all this cheap transgression? - but the music... wow... Had to go and dig it out... This is 'Number 1.' Homage to Albert Ayler... by a powerhouse quartet – but Kondo's trumpet/electronics steal the prize for me: HE DO THE TRUMPET IN VOICES... to misappropriate Mr Eliot... amazing. Parker takes a sizzling arco solo as well...


In the Videodrome...

Die like a Dog - whoof...

Bill Perkins in Japan with the cool school boys...

Steve Lacy in San Francisco...



Bill Perkins
Bill Perkins (ts) Bud Shank (as) Jack Nimitz (b-cl, bs) Stu Williamson (tr, v-tr) Carl Fontana (tr) Russ Freeman (p) Red Mitchell (b) Mel Lewis (d)
A hundred years from today
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Steve Lacy/Don Cherry
Steve Lacy (ss) Don Cherry (ct) Carl Brown (b) Billy Higgins (d)
Let's Cool One
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Polly Bradfield (v)
6-19-1979
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Peter Brotzmann/Die like a Dog
Peter Brötzmann (as, ts, trgt) Toshinori Kondo (tpt, elec) William Parker (b) Hamid Drake (d, fr-d)
Number 1
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Xmas mix - Whitedog... Charles Ives... Bill Evans... Cecil Taylor... Peter Brotzmann...Guy Clark... Judee Sill... Second Zion 4... Roland Kirk

Christmas greetings to everyone... this is the first of two mixes I have done for the festive season, tracklisting below...

1.Whitedog – Budapest 4 a.m.
2.Charles Ives First Symphony – Adagio molto (sustenuto)
3.Bill Evans/Lee Konitz/Warner Marsh – Night and Day
4.Cecil Taylor – 11-52 (From 3 Phasis)
5.Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet – Aziz
6.Guy Clark – Let him roll
7.Judee Sill – The lamb ran away with the crown
8.Second Zion Four – Praise him shining angels
9.Roland Kirk – We free kings

An odd mixture, perhaps... stuff I like... the Kirk is a bit of a seasonal favourite – but it's always worth a runout. Who knows – for the same reasons, I may even whack the MJQ's version of 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' up tomorrow as part of the Christmas day mix...
Beware - this is a relatively large file if uploading, over 70mb... Number two tomorrow, alcohol/fun permitting...

The Wordsand musicXmasMix1
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Peace...