Derek Bailey... Peter Kowald...

I arrived back from France on Saturday night and have been exhausted since... normal service will be resumed this week, hopefully... for now -a long, spiky track from Derek Bailey – appropriately entitled 'Paris,' given my recent trip (although I was in Brittany – but near enough...). This is the guv'nor at his purest – just an acoustic guitar, recorded live in 1980.. the crabbed lines, cracked harmonics, sudden plunging runs and rapidly strummed dissonances... the ghost of jazz guitar lurks somewhere – but a long way away – the use of open strings takes his playing nearer to 'folk' techniques, oddly, rather than playing in position up and down the neck as a jazz guitarist would usually do. Bright, astringent – a steely joy...

Another live recording, performed at the 2002 Vision Festival in New York, this time on acoustic bass – from Peter Kowald - who unfortunately died later the same year... starting on a long and deep arco note and spinning radically outwards into a see-sawing phrase that he proceeds to mutate and turn and turn about... almost conversational at times, a mirror of the human voice... ...


Derek Bailey (g)
Paris
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Peter Kowald (b)
Improvisation
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Shelly Manne... Art Pepper/Zoot Sims... Elmo Hope... JJ Johnson/Kai Winding... Ludacris... Ray Charles... Steve Coleman... Terry Riley...

'Bleep.' By a Shelley Manne group from the mid seventies. Manne was - a different drummer, playing on many straight-ahead sessions, but with an experimental bent as well - he drummed behind Ornette early on and on some Jimmy Giuffre sides where the saxist/clarinettist was casting off into different waters... Here - a Monkish theme then Conte Candoli solos – much space as the piano comps sporadically, laying out most of the time. Manne on his own – a crisp solo, sans much tub-thumping – he always seemed to hold a lot back in reserve. Piano from Wofford – spartan left hand over rippling right, broken up with a couple of Monkish phrases to sustain the mood – becoming more two-handed towards the end. Alto – Strozier: fragmentary, almost jagged phrasing continuing the Monkish feel, accents closely followed by the piano. Flowing melodic bass solo from Monty Budwig. Underrated sounds from the West Coast...

Applause and a slow, stomping piano intro from the rarely-sited Brit emigré, Victor Feldman, before the overlapping horns play tag across the 12 bar structure. 'Breakdown Blues,' from a live date by Art Pepper - and Zoot Sims, who was his early hero before he fell under the spell of John Coltrane. Zoot was 'have horn – will travel,' content to roam the world in later years and pick up local backing bands as he went. Much loved at Ronnies in London, for example.... One wonders if it was the vaudeville family he was born into as much as the musician's life that made Zoot Sims as peripatic as he was? Cool name as well: John Haley Sims is o.k. but - Zoot... says it all... (This old Downbeat article gives the origins of the nickname... and more... ). One of the 'Four Brothers,' out of Lester, a consummate swinging improviser. He solos first. Pepper next, a more emotive sound – but Art, after all, carried more emotional baggage. One is struck by his sound – quite a ways from Bird, he always prided himself on his inviduality. The drums prod accurately behind - Billy Higgins in the chair. Piano comes in on a rolling motif. Block chords, octave doubling, a full sound. Ray Brown takes a chorus or two, showing his technique from top to bottom – horn lines transposed. The saxes return to ride it out, supported by orchestral piano from Feldman.

'Georgia on my mind.' A gentle introduction on piano – then the two trombones enter on a slow, lazy Hoagy-ish stroll – theme and comments intimitately entwined. Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson were a very successful if unusual outfit in their day – there have not been many combos fronted by two trombones. Twinkling piano takes it out...

A brisker version: Elmo Hope's quartet, with Frank Foster on tenor. The obscure Hope and the underrated Foster give this a good reading. Tenor solo first – Hope following him all the way - a fulsome piano backing. The drums coming through more strongly to prod him along as the solo progresses. Hope plays an expansive and full melodic line with some chasing double timed phrases. Foster returns briefly then Hope again before ending.

Ray Charles of course recorded a definitive version of 'Georgia.' Let us not be too obvious and play it – just a fragment – which is looped for the main theme of Ludacris and Field Mob's take on 'Georgia.' A clever hip hop take expanding on the basic shell - Ray sampled - which is woven in and out of the track – call and response, anyone? This track is not rated in some circles but, despite its occasional clumsiness, I like the meshing of the old and new...

Not to leave without something from the Genius... here he is playing 'What'd I Say.' I saw Ray Charles several times in the sixties and this was always the climax of the show... wild shit...

Those 'social rhythms' – where jazz and rhythm and blues cross-feed. I was never that enamoured of Steve Coleman's admittedly brave attempts to bring in contemporary strands of pop music into jazz – but here's an energetic blow out from a stellar band under his name:

'Coleman's goal here was to find the common link among all the currents in 20th century creative black music...' (From a review of the album here... scroll down...).

Marvin 'Smitty' Smith makes a brave stab at giving the funk rhythm enough flexibility for jazzers to play over – conjoined to the great Ed Blackwell. 'Pass it on.' A muscular tenor solo from Von Freeman – then Kenny Wheeler (?) - yes indeed – unfazed by the clamour he rips out some high note bravura as if to the manner borne and sounds as if he was enjoying himself... Dave Holland up next – bouncing off a vamp for a brief strum. All in then for a mutual blow before they go back into the theme. Throw in old-school (the venerable) Tommy Flanagan to the mix and what should be a mess works very well... Uplifting...

Improvisation comes in many colours – which is a clumsy but well-intentioned lead in the Terry Riley and 'Rainbow in Curved Air' from 1969. Keyboard skirling like amphetamine bagpipes over an insistent vamp. One of the loci where jazz and improvisation specifically meet minimalism and Eastern musics. Play back to back with any Alice Coltrane... I suspect that this album was more influential than it has been given credit for... tracking the electronic ripples is fascinating...

In the Videodrome...

Zoot plays 'My Old Flame...

Shelly Manne from 1970... Coop in tenor

Brother Ray...

and again in Japan...


Shelley Mann
Mike Wofford (p); Frank Strozier (as); Conte Candoli (t); Monty Budwig (b); Shelly Manne (d)
Bleep
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Art Pepper/Zoot Sims
Art Pepper (as) Zoot Sims (ts) Victor Feldman (p) Ray Brown (b) Billy Higgins (d)
Breakdown Blues
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Elmo Hope Quartet
Frank Foster (ts), Elmo Hope (p), John Ore (b), Arthur Taylor (d)
Georgia on my Mind
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J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding (tr); Bill Evans (p); Paul Chambers (b); Roy Haynes (d);
Georgia on my mind
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Ludacris/Field Mob
Georgia
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Steve Coleman
Steve Coleman (as) Von Freeman (ts) Kenny Wheeler (t) Kevin Eubanks (g) Tommy Flanagan (p) Dave Holland (b) Marvin Smitty Smith, Ed Blackwell (d)
Pass it on
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Terry Riley

Rainbow in Curved Air
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Jackie McLean... Sonny Rollins... Gil Evans... John Zorn... Phil Woods/Johnny Griffin... Roscoe Mitchell...

Jackie Mclean 1978. Thirty years before, as a budding young sax player he was taken under the wing of Bird (groan... but I couldn't resist it!). On this date – homage... with the old bop warhorse 'Confirmation,' taken at a reasonable pace, but with an unhurried, relaxed feel – tune and players being old friends, after all. McLean solos pleasantly – but one wonders whether some of the adventurous edge he had displayed in the sixties would have been more interestingly brought to bear on this material – I was thinking of some of Anthony Braxton's returns to the bop tradition where he manages to drag the tunes into a contemporary dimension while still retaining respect for their origins. Carping, maybe – McLean is a redoubtable player – a few knotty runs here and there to remind us of his original mentor on sax – and his own furthering of that inheritance. And maybe more slyly subversive than I have suggested – the relaxed pace is far from the frenetic wahoo of orginal bebop – and the usual Mclean spikiness. Hank Jones solos - as reliably elegant as ever – always a class act. An exchange of fours between the ensemble allow the rhythm section space to show their chops – Williams ripping out a few bars to remind us of his power – which is also throttled back throughout most of this track. Satisfying... but one expects more from, McLean, perhaps...

Sonny Rollins at the Village Vanguard in 1957. Stomping in an uppish asymmetrical dance across the standard 'I've got you under my skin.' Recorded twenty years before the last track, it seems more free, somehow – just Rollins with bass and drums as he explores the nooks and crannies of the tune with Don Bailey's steady bass and La Roca up in the mix behind him, parrying his lines. Rollins, a supreme melodicist, his solo pulling out fragments of theme and tossing them this way and that while always retaining an architectural coherence that sees way beyond the next few bars and chords. 8 bar trades with the drummer strike fire... Bailey come in for a fast stroll over the four four with fragments of horn sporadically inserted and insistent hihat. One of the great live recordings?

Gil Evans:

'The brisk Monk favorite is tagged here with a polyphonic, multi-horn blowout that simultaneously recalls New Orleans Dixieland while pointing the way toward the avant garde movements of the ‘60s.' (From here...).

Gil opens the track with some of his dissonant bluesy rippling piano clusters. Johnny Coles plays a restrained, delicately coloured solo – followed by Steve Lacy, who knew Monk's material well – and proves it here. The ensemble gathers power behind the trombone solo – before Gil returns for some more Monkish stabs. Band again – soaring steadily into that 'polyphonic, multi-horn blowout,' striped here and there by Evans' piano – which returns again for more solo work. Interesting resonances – Gil playing off Monk but adding his own colour...

More homage – from John Zorn to Ornette, from his album 'Spy vs Spy.' A two horn assault on 'Mob Job,' with the two drummers clattering away across a very spacy mix and Mark Dresser in floating bass support. This album was famous for its all-out grabbing of Coleman's material by the throat – a hardcore rock aesthetic from start to finish. Yet – the essence remains – that free floating theme across doubled rhythms which is a well-known Ornette tactic is gainfully employed here, for example... in fact, more reverence than meets the immediate ear, perhaps – how can you out-Ornette, after all? One of those pivotal albums that display connections beyond jazz that were not so obvious once - but now, given the growing links between noise rock and improv...

Another oddity... Phil Woods and Johnny Griffin, playing 'Hand in Glove.' Both saxophonists had of course played with Monk – an interesting link, further strengthened by the presence of the drummer on this session, Ben Riley. Woods first, riding lithely across the changes. Mr Griffin next, in affable mood, it seems. Followed by Cedar Walton, a bright solo, in keeping with the overall mood of the piece, interposing a quote from 'Coming through the Rye' towards the end in grand bop fashion. Alto and tenor swap lines in friendly combat. Nothing angst-ridden or earth-shattering perhaps – just first-class musicians on a bouncing, breezy date. Quality...

Roscoe Mitchell and a quintet from 2005. A swirling storm as the ensemble criss-cross each other's lines on 'Take One.' So much acoustic ground is covered that it seems like a bigger band. Mitchell sounds like an angry, buzz-sawing giant wasp, Corey Wilkes trumpet is declamatory but further back in the mix than the saxophone, giving an odd balance(but he sounds like a find), the piano of Craig Taborn Taylor-esque in its relentless barrage of notes across the registers. The storm ebbs to leave trumpet and drums – then just drums... the resonations of the cymbals cutting crisply through the now-cleared air... Fiery stuff...




Jackie Mclean/The Great Jazz Trio
(Jackie Mclean (as); Hank Jones (p); Ron Carter (b); Tony Williams (d) ).
Confirmation
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Sonny Rollins
(Sonny Rollins (ts) Don Bailey (b) Pete LaRoca (d) ).
I've got you under my skin
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Gil Evans
Collective personnel for album:
Gil Evans (p); Johnny Coles, Louis Mucci, Ernie Royal, Clyde Reasinger, Allen Smith, Danny Stiles (t); Frank Rehak, Joe Bennett, Tom Mitchell, Bill Elton, Curtis Fuller, Dick Lieb, Jimmy Cleveland, Rod Levitt (tr); Julius Watkins, Bob Northern, Earl Chapin (fr h); Harvey Phillips, Bill Barber (tu); Cannonball Adderley, Eddie Caine, (as); Gerald Sanfino, Phil Bodner, Al Block (f, cl); Steve Lacy (ss); Chuck Wayne, Ray Crawford (g); Paul Chambers, Dick Carter, Tommy Potter (b); Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Dennis Charles, Elvin Jones (d) ).
Straight no chaser
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John Zorn
(John Zorn, Tim Berne (as); Mark Dresser (b); Michael Vatcher, Joey Baron (d) ).
Mob Job
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Phil Woods/Johnny Griffin
(Phil Woods (as); Johnny Griffin (ts); Cedar Walton (p); Peter Washington (b); Ben Riley (d) ).
Hand in Glove
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Roscoe Mitchell Quintet
(Roscoe Mitchell (as); Corey Wilkes (t); Craig Taborn (p); Jaribu Shahid (b); Tani Tabal (d) ).
Take One
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In France... amnesia... fatigue... Chet Baker (!)

Blogging will probably resume properly tomorrow... I arrived in France a couple of days ago for ten days, equipped with plenty of tracks to keep posting while away... to discover the internet connection at my friend's house on the island was kaput... some server problem... this was sorted out with marathon phone calls by her at last this morning... intrepid! So I sat tonight to do a quick post - to discover that I was unable to log on to blogger... time passed... much profanity and repeated but useless tries - until I finally realised that I was using the wrong username! Amnesia... fatigue plays strange tricks! But I will return after sleep... à propos of nothing except absurdity and fun... I saw Chet Baker's double again on Nantes railway station... à demain...

Gren Bartley and Tom Kitching at the Pack Horse, Loughborough... Friday 23d February, 2007...

To the Pack Horse again... originally I wasn't going to go as I was feeling pretty wiped out – and the main act Gren Bartley and Tom Kitching I see regularly over in Nottingham with the Pack Horse curator, Mr Marmion, on the monthly Sunday pub gig when I do the sound/p.a (declaring an interest).... what a mistake it would have been to have missed this...

Some changes: Gren now plays standing up rather than sitting down which gives them a more energetic visual presence. And a pub gig is one thing, where people drift in and out and the music wanders in and out of focus... a set in a club where you have a sympathetic audience up close and personal (including some lively younger fans) has a totally different vibe. Their material has changed as well – some new songs brought in. Gren has also very recently added banjo to his guitar playing – a rapid learning curve going on here as his fluid, complex picking style has been translated onto this second instrument. Which he plays already with the frightening assurance of a veteran, dispelling all the old jokes (well, almost – we have to have some fun...). Tom Kitching also seems to be moving rapidly in his acquisition of new skills and techniques – his violin playing was inspired and on fire this night. Together they played superbly: separately, in their solo spots, equally impressively. And they haven't been playing together that long... add the diversity of material - from the traditional tunes and blues to contemporary and Gren's self-penned songs - the future looks good, especially now that they have been picked up by a major agency. The occasional doubt I've had when watching them over in Nottingham about the pacing of their sets was dispelled here tonight. They were awesome (as one of their fans yelled out several times in appreciation of a particular demonstration of finesse). We were talking later on about comparisons with Spiers and Bowden – another great duo (and one of the few other folk acts I would cross the road for). These guys are in the same league already – and are still in their early twenties...


The night had added value – from Mr Marmion, playing with Tom backing him and later with his usual partner, Dave Morton – who had brought along a friend of his, Tom Patterson, a fine singer-songwriter form the North East. They have had a duo going back for many years – it was good to hear Tom again, a performer with much fire and passion. (Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of them - came back from the bar at the start of their set and watched it from the back of the room - my camera being left on the table at the front). Add the rather splendid Sheila Mosley to the mix with an unaccompanied ballad... my love-hate relationship with Brit folk music continues – with the balance tipped into the positive with much love tonight...

Frank Marmion has a couple of tracks on his club web site front page jukebox - including one song 'Doolin' featuring Tom and Dave Morton...there is also a track on my jukebox if you scroll down the left hand side of this page - two songs, 'Squareriggers' and 'The Dutchman'...

Eric Dolphy... Albert Ayler... Little Willie John... Terry Riley... Charles Mingus...

Starting off on a spiritual note for the day after Ash Wednesday – via the pagan wing first – 'It's magic.' ( I jest...). Eric Dolphy, from the 'Far Cry' album. High on his bass clarinet, he states the theme at a slow, sedate walk. His vibrato giving a hint of Ayler (or the reverse) – broad strokes... Played fairly straight – then zooming off into double timed runs all over the registers, showing not just his phenomenal technique but a wonderfully skewed harmonic sense which provides an amazing bending melodic line that is exploratory, emotionally and intellectually satisfying and way beyond just blowing on the changes. Jacki Byard in minimal mood at first, takes a pithy solo. Dolphy returns with the theme – then a short coda that ends on a dark, woody note... magic, what else?

Wally Shoup name-checks Albert Ayler, late Coltrane – and Little Willie John – in an article about influences... here's two of the three...

'Deep River' is Albert on soprano – testifying on the old spiritual. If one aspect of Ayler's music was a look back at New Orleans improvised polyphony, another major strand is gospel. Indifferent recording quality perhaps – but one can hear Grimes running his bass mightily and Sunny Murray stretching it out underneath. Call Cobbs chords along distantly – but the focus is the soprano horn. There is a meditative feel to this track – as if eavesdropping on someone at prayer. Ayler plays it straight with a searing vibrato. Cobbs solos briefly – re-iteration of the theme, basically but Grimes provides the interest behind him.

Back to the fire musics... 'Holy Spirit' and Ayler plus Don Cherry in pentacostal mode... Murray in the drum chair again – plus Gary Peacock on bass. High squeals before they play the theme punctuated with stabbing accents. Ayler steps up – Peacock emitting swooning figures on bass as Murray lurches the rhythmic pulse. Trills answered back by the drummer's cymbals as Cherry adds comments sporadically. Ayler – 'vocalised' throbbing tenor – a more social voice than on 'Deep River,' bearing witness... Cherry solos – more laid back emotionally but with a poignant edge in his tone. Ayler comes in behind with high figures. Peacock takes over – pizzicato and arco. The horns return in tandem then state the theme. Four musicians... so much space...

Little Willie John is the man who recorded 'Fever' (famously covered by the sublime Peggie Lee), among other R and B hits. ('According to some sources the song was co-written by Little Willie John and Eddie Cooley; others say it was written by Brill Building regular Otis Blackwell.' From here... Otis Blackwell here seems to say that he wrote it with Eddie Cooly. Whatever...).
A small man with a big voice... a proto-soul singer from the fifties and early sixties... here he offers his hit 'I'm Shaking.' His career was cut short in 1966 when he was jailed for manslaughter – he died a couple of years later in prison. Seen as a major influence on James Brown – I also hear something of him in Sam Cooke – that passionate mélange of gospel and blues which became soul music. Here's a MySpace page with some songs and more info...

The spiritual roads travelled are many... here is Terry Riley improvising on a just-intonation organ with delay effects – edging into Alice Coltrane territory? 'Anthem of the trinity' is a long meditation where western techniques meet Indian ragas and the teaching of Pandit Pran Nath. Not jazz, exactly – but linked...

In the comments for last Saturday's post, Jeremy said he liked Charles Mingus... so: here's the man from his epochal 'Tijuana Moods,' a track entitled 'Dizzy Moods.' Based on the chords of Dizzy's 'Woody n' You,' this is from the Mingus album that lay on the shelves for several years before being released – inexplicably. 'Tijuana Moods.' A collision between a boppish theme and the games Mingus plays around and against it – especially in the middle eight which drops into three... A series of short musical interludes before the theme. Knepper leads off – his bluff laconicism buffeted but unbowed by those rhythmic changes underneath in the bridge. Curtis Porter follows on tenor, a nice dancing solo. Then the surprise star – the obscure Clarence Shaw – fresh and warmly lyrical. Mingus reckoned that if the album had been released in its time Shaw would have become a major star. Richmond takes a solo, interspersed with a fluttering ensemble figure. A brief solo passage of piano – more of a contrasting link between sections. One notes the sheer amount of variety, coloration and musical information that Mingus can cram into a seven piece band and a basic theme...

In the Videodrome...

Terry Riley at the Detroit Institute of Arts...

...Alice Coltrane in SF...

...Sonny Rollins and Don Cherry...

Eric Dolphy
(Eric Dolphy (b cl); Booker Little (t); Jaki Byard (p); Ron Carter (b); Roy Haynes (d) ).
It's magic
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Albert Ayler (ss); Call Cobbs Jr. (p); Henry Grimes (b); Sunny Murray (d) ).
Deep River
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Albert Ayler
(Albert Ayler (ts): Don Cherry (t); Gary Peacock (b); Sunny Murray (d) ).
Holy Spirit
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Little Willie John
I'm Shaking
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Terry Riley
Anthem of the trinity
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Charles Mingus

Dizzy Moods
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Final call for older downloads...

I have finally erased several SaveFile downloads – the following are still extant but will be deleted very soon... New MP3's coming... later today or early tomorrow, depending on extent of fatigue...

Cecil Taylor Quartet
(Cecil Taylor (p); Evan Parker (ss); Barry Guy (b); Tony Oxley (d) ).
Last
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Gil Evans
( Gil Evans (arranger, piano), Johnny Coles, Bernie Glow, Ernie Royal, Thad Jones (trumpet), Jimmy Cleveland, Tony Studd (trombone), Ray Alonge, Julius Watkins, Gil Cohen, Don Corado (French horn), Bill Barber (tuba), Eric Dolphy, Wayne Shorter, Al Block, Steve Lacy, Andy Fitzgerald, Jerome Richardson, Bob Tricarico (reeds, woodwinds), Bob Maxwell, Margaret Ross (harp), Harry Lookofsky (tenor violin), Kenny Burrell, Barry Galbraith (guitar), Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Gary Peacock, Richard Davis, Ben Tucker (bass), Elvin Jones (drums) ).
Flute Song/Hotel Me
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Miles Davis
Miles Davis (t); Gary Bartz (ts); John McLoughlin (eg); Keith Jarrett (ep); Michael Henderson (b); Airto Moreira (perc); Jack De Johnette (d)
Sivad
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Miles Davis
(Miles Davis – trumpet;Wayne Shorter - soprano sax; Bennie Maupin - bass clarinet; Chick Corea - electric piano; John McLaughlin - electric guitar; Harvey Brooks - Fender bass; Dave Holland - bass
Lenny White, Jack DeJohnette – drums; Jim Riley – percussion).
Bitches Brew
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Charles Mingus
(Jack Walrath (tp) Jimmy Knepper (tb, btb) Mauricio Smith (fl, picc, ss, as) Paul Jeffrey (ob, ts) Gene Scholtes (basn) Gary Anderson (cbcl, bcl) Ricky Ford (ts) Bob Neloms (p) Charles Mingus (b, South American rhythm inst., vo, arr) Dannie Richmond (d) Candido, Daniel Gonzales, Ray Mantilla, Alfredo Ramirez (cga) Bradley Cunningham, Ricky Ford, Jack Walrath (South American rhythm inst.)
Cumbia and Jazz Fusion
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Brotherhood of Breath
(Chris McGregor: piano; Dudu Pukwana, Alan Skidmore, Mike Osborne, John Surman, Ronnie Beer (saxes/flutes etc); (Mongezi Feza, Nich Charig, Harry Beckett (t); Malcolm Griffiths, Nick Evans (tr); Harrie Miller (b); Louis Moholo (d) ).
Night Poem
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Pharoah Sanders
(Pharoah Sanders (ts); Chris Capers (tp); unknown (as); Albert Ayler (ts); unknown (ts); Dave Burrell (p); Sirone (b); Roger Blank (d) ).
Venus-Upper and Lower Egypt
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Evan Parker
(Evan Parker (ss).
Leipzig's Folly
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Art Pepper... Count Basie/Lester Young... Paul Desmond/MJQ... Miles Davis... Gil Evans... Wolf Eyes... Howling Wolf

Art Pepper came back from the dead – drugs and jailtime - to pretty much achieve his lifetime ambition, according to many:

'Alto Saxophone player Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr. (b. 1925; d. 1982) wanted to be known as the “greatest alto saxophone player in the world,” a tall order considering contemporaries like Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, and Paul Desmond. In spite of this, Pepper outlived all of them... Pepper... Desmond and Lee Konitz, were among the few small-combo saxophonists able to forge an individual sound despite the long shadow of Bird.' (From here...).

Despite his torrid life, Pepper was remarkably consistent in performance, live and on record. This is 'Labyrinth' from the exhaustively recorded sets at the Village Vanguard in 1977. Cables and the rhythm section float it in before Art joins them – plaintive, thoughtful alto. Almost gentle. Cables ripples into his solo, cascades of treble. Pepper returns . Mraz takes his turn – a galloping bass solo. Pepper again. Ending over a Cables mutating riff, he gets more enervated, stretching the timbre. Elvin is gentle with them all... Some of the distance that Pepper travelled from his start in the business in the forties to his later career can be measured in a Downbeat article which states that his favourite sax player in the fifties was Zoot Sims. By 1964, it was John Coltrane...

Basie cut some neat small band sides in the thirties – this is 'Lester Leaps In' with the inimitable Prez... leaping in... Basie's piano leads them, the riffing theme then – Lester. Long winding lines, short riffs, stop time breaks, fours with the leader, with the ensemble. A lot going on in a short space of time.

I have always had a soft spot for the MJQ – they were the first band I ever saw live way back in the early sixties, when they were riding high – and visits to the UK by American jazz musicians were rare because of the dumb Musicians Union exchange ruling. Also – Paul Desmond. I saw him not long after the MJQ with Dave Brubeck – and loved them as well... (yes, I dug Brubeck...)... Here are the alto player and the MJQ together at a concert at Carnegie Hall in 197 playing 'Bag's New Groove.' Theme – blues meets Bach almost in the bouncing voices of piano and voices in counterpoint – yet Lewis interjects crushed notes more agressively than you would imagine – his blues pedigree can sometimes be forgotten. Desmond is ice-cool, limpid, one of the unique voices on alto (see above comments regarding Art Pepper). There is a sprightly swing to this. Connie Kay (!) booting it along towards the end... fire in the belly at this particular concert... Recorded Christmas Day, 1971, this is from a rare album – unfortunately. Desmond had a dry wit:

'Of Vogue fashion models, he said, "Sometimes they go around with guys who are scuffling -- for a while. But usually they end up marrying some cat with a factory. This is the way the world ends, not with a whim but a banker." ' (From here...

Early on in their careers – a snapshot of bop in 1951... a Miles-led session with Sonny Rollins and Jackie McLean. Rollins more fully formed than young Jackie. Miles sounds lyrical and at ease – he already had 'Birth of the Cool' and an apprenticeship with Parker under his belt. The alto sounds Bird-ish understandably, starting a bit hesitantly but making it through. Miles returns for another bite. A long track for the time – one of the first for long players... pelted along by Blakey and solid if under-recorded bass. Bishop comps in bebop mode. 'Dig.'


'Spoonful.' Gil Evans doing a Howling Wolf number written by Willie Dixon – looking at the date I wonder if it was via Cream? Theme stated via dissonant piano clusters as the bass picks up the slow walk and the orchestra slowly gather. Dark blue voicings and hovering shimmering figures. Electric guitar (Burrell) sparsely solos. Phil Woods gives out some searing alto... Evans returns -surprisingly effective abstracted blues – arrangers piano, maybe, but he wasn't at all bad...

...whose afraid of the big bad... Anthony Braxton memorably played with Noise band Wolf Eyes not so long ago. This is not a track from the album as it has been out all over the internet already. Here's Wolf Eyes doing what they did in 2003... Tell-tale heartbeat drum brings in deep bass and a ratchety riff as drawling drawn out voice essays some garble – descending into processed stretched-out wolf-howl... returning in a spinning vortex of granular argument – vocal spun off into something else. Almost conventional syncopated snare beats... a slowed down rhythm pattern and swirls of ribboned voice circling like a malevolent flock of bats... whoo hoo...

... Howling Wolf inhabited a similar area of timbre, in a way... my favourite blues singer, I think... something elemental about the Wold, a giant of a man. 'I ain't superstitious.'



Art Pepper
(Art Pepper (as); George Cables (p); George Mraz (b); Elvin Jones (d) ).
Labyrinth
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Count Basie/Lester Young
(Count Basie (p); Buck Clayton (t); Dicky Wells (trb); Freddy Green (g); Walter Page (b); Jo Jones (d) ).
Lester Leaps In
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Paul Desmond and the Modern Jazz Quartet
(Paul Desmond (as); John Lewis (p); Milt Jackson (vib); Percy Heath (b); Connie Kay (d) ).
Bags new groove
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Miles Davis Sextet
Miles Davis (tp) Jackie McLean (as) Sonny Rollins (ts) Walter Bishop Jr. (p) Tommy Potter (b) Art Blakey (d)
Dig
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Gil Evans
( Collective personnel: Gil Evans (arranger, p), Gil Evans - Piano, Arranger
Eric Dolphy (fl, cl, bass-cl, as); Jimmy Knepper, Frank Rehak (tr); Jimmy Cleveland, Tony Studd (tr, t); Johnny Coles, Thad Jones, Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci (t);Wayne Shorter, Steve Lacy, Jerome Richardson, Phil Woods, Bob Tricarico, Al Block, Garvin Bushell, Andy Fitzgerald, George Marge,(reeds, w); Julius Watkins, Gil Cohen, Bob Northern, James Buffington, Ray Alonge, (fh); Billy Barber (ta); Harry Lookofsky (v); Margaret Ross (h); Kenny Burrell, Barry Galbraith (g); Gary Peacock, Ben Tucker, Paul Chambers, Milt Hinton, Ron Carter, Richard Davis(b); Osie Johnson, Elvin Jones (d) ).
Spoonful
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Wolf Eyes
(Nate Young, Aaron Dilloway, John Olson - electronics, programming, voices, guitar, tapes, horns etc... )
Rotten Tropic
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Howling Wolf
(Collective personnel for album: Howlin' Wolf (v, g, har); Willie Johnson, Hubert Sumlin (g); J.T. Brown (ts); James Cotton (har); Hosea Lee Kennard, Lafayette Leake, Johnny Jones (p); Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy (b); Willie Steele, Sam Lay (d).
I ain't superstitious
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Review: IST - I am Jesus and you're not...More flashes of rocking incandescence in the Provincial Night...

I was sent this track a couple of weeks ago – meant to review it before but the usual madness has prevailed recently and everything is out-of-sync still...

...so – who are IST? ... a band based in Leicester (just down the road from God's Little Acre... go here for more info...

The track: 'I am Jesus and you're not.' (Go to their MySpace site to hear it ). Pithy and sharp – like the duration – a snappy 1 minute electronic showerburst driven by an insistent nagging guitar riff (which reminded me of something which I couldn't drag back from the memory banks – until it hit me just now – surf guitar!), vocal imprecational put-down with antinomian/sectarian heretical undertones ho ho(that's not a post-punk Belfast band – but... maybe a good name for a cover band, hey, any would-be Feargals out there?) - a wild ride of joyfully sneering hurled-at-you rapido lyrics, with the title thrown out as the chorus/hook – slashing rhythm guitar and real in-your-face rock and roll drums (cymbal crashs like dustbin lids kicked over in an alley after leaving the hostelry... late) ... A lot crammed into the 60 seconds – bursting at the seams with energy... wearing its influences lightly but adding to them with a freshness and deftness of step which shows their originality (unlike most conventional current 'rock' bands who seem mired in the sludge of the past – you know who I mean...). Regarding their sonic predecessors - among many, they name-check Elvis Costello – cue standard rant: diamond geezer no doubt but the fucker can't sing (and they can) and wants to be taken seriously in his dotage...what did Burt Bacharach make of it all? (oh, hello, they name-check him as well... interesting...) – despite that, there's a taste of the old Stiff rawness that the Attractions had when he started out and his whiny voice sort of worked for a time – this is a plus... maybe that's what they had in mind...

I've had the mp3 on my desktop for a couple of weeks and it nags at me to play it all the time...

These guys have some wit – there is a song on their MySpace site entitled 'The Wreck of Eddy Fitzgerald,' title of which made me smile (memories of old groaning Gordon Lightfoot's only decent record). If this is what's coming out of Leicester at the moment I'd better hop an Arriva sometime and check it out...

'I am Jesus and you're not' is released digitally on 21st February 2007 – on vinyl/cd 28th Feb 2007... go grab it... details here...

IST does NOT stand for Indian Summer Time, or Springfield Institute of Technology – as far as I know... Or Ironic Semiotic Transitions... Istianity could be your new religion... I see that they are playing at the Loft in Cambridge on the 17th Feb... if you're in the area – go seek further revelation... hallelujah...

(The photo at the top is by Kitty Valentine - Official Pink Box photographer).

Three for carnival... Steve Lacy/Marilyn Crispell... Archie Shepp... Charles Mingus...

Found on Limewire...

Steve Lacy made an album of duets in 1996. This track is 'The Crust,' with the soprano saxist accompanied by Marilyn Crispell. Piano states an ascending scale/melody as a vamp against which Lacy enters and plays the jaunty theme with its undertones of Monk. Lacy solos, nothing seemingly over-complicated – yet somehow just right. 'Taking the line for a walk,' as Lacy once summed up the art of improvisation. Crispell's solo starts in Mal Waldron territory over an insistent off-centre left hand vamp. It gets knottier...

Agit-prop seventies style. Archie Shepp and cohorts performing the 'African Drum Suite' from his album 'Cry of My People.' Drums, skirling horns, choir: 'African drums we love you so much.' This could be come across as a bit twee – but one remembers the temporal backdrop of turmoil, war, battles for racial identity and that counterbalances any over-reach, I would argue. Shepp blasts it out on soprano, the backing a little reminiscent in places of Coltrane's 'Africa Brass,' (plus shades of 'Kulu Sé Mama?') as the rhythm section patter away - rolling African-esque rhythms cross-fed into jazz. Again, a shadow of Coltrane over Shepp's soprano and the modal vamping piano - yet he has his own sound and the minimally-used strings give a unique texture. Ambitious...

'Johnny Coles's is present in spirit - in the piano, it seems...' The mighty Charles Mingus and a track from one of the great live albums, recorded in Paris 1964 – 'Fables of Faubus.' Militancy á la Mingus – dry, caustic, passionate and wild by turns. (Coles was taken ill prior to the gig...). A sing-song theme and off they go - Richmond's drums a skitter-skatter, howls, imprecations, imploring solos - abrupt tempo changes, accelerando/ritardando (I love those Italian terms rolling off the tongue to mimic the time-games - as if conventional notation could come near capturing music like this). Everyone on the top of their art - check that late section with Dolphy's amazing vocalised squawks and slurs and Mingus's bass mirror - an amazing conversation... 37 minutes and you still want more...

Update – I just noticed on a random flick through the blogs that Etnobofin has a post about Eric Dolphy in Europe which mentions this gig. Synchronicity... Worth checking out...

A short post – but exhaustion has taken its toll and I've run off the end of myself... more to come when I 've rested up...



In the Videodrome...

Jaco Pastorious with Gil Evans Ork in Japan...

...Archie Shepp on soprano

...and Steve Lacy...

...Soft Machine...

Steve Lacy/Marilyn Crispell
(Steve Lacy (ss); Marilyn Crispell (p) ).
The Crust
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Archie Shepp
(Archie Shepp (ts,ss); Peggie Blue, Joe Lee Wilson, Andre Franklin (vo); Charles McGhee (t); Charles Greenlee, Charles Stephens (trb); Leroy Jenkins, Lois Siessinger, Gayle Dixon, John Blake (v); Esther Mellon, Patrica Dixon (c); Harold Mabern, Jr., Dave Burrell (p); Cornell Dupree (g); Ron Carter, James Garrison (b); Bernard Purdie, Beaver Harris (d); Nene DeFense (tam, perc);Judith White, Mary Stephens, Barbara White, Mildren Lane (background voc) ).
African Drum Suite
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( Charles Mingus (b); Eric Dolphy (fl, b cl, as); Clifford Jordan (ts); Jaki Byard (p); Dannie Richmond (d) ).
Fables of Faubus
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Download problems sorted...

The download problem with YouSendit has now been sorted out... apparently their new policy gives a limit - which people had exceeded this week - for downloading files. This has now been upped so fire away... Re Anon comment about the Mingus... I've been looking at other options for downloads as backup but there have been a couple of good reasons to stay with SaveFile for longer downloads up to now... It's all about time and energy - both of which I have had in short supply recently. But I did check it out and it was very slow... maybe a blip but I'll have a think about it... This week there will be a big file clearout and update which I've needed to do for some time regarding the SaveFile downloads and I have been looking at other options... Stay tuned...

Made the transition...

I finally made the jump - over onto the new blogger... so far so good... There will be a slight backlog of posts this week due to sheer exhaustion - and other activities - recording tomorrow some demos for a friend and some family stuff... hopefully the show will be back on the road soon enough... apart from the usual, there will be a short review of last Friday's gig at the Pack Horse that venerable/scruffy venue on the edge of the Artist's Quarter in God's Little Acre... one of my favourite acoustic/folk aggregations (of which there are not many, let it be said...) Gren Morris and Sam Stephens. (Link to my review of their gig last year is here... In response to my review of the recent Pete Morton gig, someone commented: 'Based on your photos, however, I'm worried that his gig appears to have taken place in a broom closet.' Here's a photo from last Friday - which displays some of the informality of the Pack - whose present organiser Mr Marmion has continued running the Owld Place in the anarchistic, freewheeling tradition of its glory years ( coupled to his own innate sharpness about the game which has enabled it to survive against the odds). This is from the other end of the long room - under the clock. Not exactly a broom closet - just resembles one from certain angles. Someone is coming through the door...














To keep the music going... here's a track from 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady,' Charles Mingus's wild, sprawling masterpiece from 1963. I had a request for this so dug it out of the pile - enjoy. 'This is... one of the only jazz albums to have liner notes written by a clinical psychologist...' (From Robert Spencer's review here...). Cool...
This is CD track four, which gives the last sections from the original album... smearing, sensuous saxes and muted brass a la Duke - but given the wrenching spin to the side that Mingus's own genius perpetrated on his hero's influence. And the 'Spanish Tinge' to the fore - Jay Berliner's flamenco guitar ripples and hacked strums - alternately delicate and brutal. Rhapsodic piano, a recurring flute-led section that reminds me of generic sixties tv themes for some reason -Charlie Mariano - who throughout the whole album is probably the top soloist... Amazing, beautiful ensemble colourations, accelerando, ritardando - those beautiful games with stretching time... so many riches, so little time tonight (stretched or otherwise)...

...also... apparently YouSendIt is flashing up the following message when attempts are made to download last week's mp3's:

'File sender has exceeded his or her download limit.
The file cannot be downloaded at this time because the sender of this file has exceeded his or her download limit.
The sender has been notified by email. Please feel free to contact the sender of this file as well.'

Not sure what this is about - maybe just a temporary blip, but feel free to contact me, as they say - I can always upload them again on another site if necessary...



Charles Mingus
( Rolf Ericson, Richard Williams (tp) Quentin Jackson (tb) Don Butterfield (cbtb, tu) Jerome Richardson (fl, ss, bars) Dick Hafer (fl, ts) Charlie Mariano (as) Jaki Byard (p) Jay Barliner (g) Charles Mingus (b, p) Dannie Richmond (d) ).
Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Track Four
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Coleman Hawkins... Sonny Rollins... Muntu... Lee Konitz/Gerry Mulligan... Earl Hines... Sam Rivers...

I've been listening to a lot of Coleman Hawkins recently – going back to the Fountainhead, as it were (with apologies to Ayn Rand)... This is Bean playing 'Bird of Prey Blues.' Hank Jones leads them into an uppish, straightforward blues theme – Hawkins starts off breathy and sparse, building to longer lines after the first chorus. Crisp drumming and solid bass sustain the Hawk's flight – plus some riffing piano from Jones. Jones shows his class in the next solo. Buck Clayton then, graceful yet with no little fire. Brown walks his way in straight on four for a chorus then opens it up. Stanley Dance set up this 50's session and his work with Hawkins and others, released on the Felstead label helped to bring a clutch of over-looked players back into the critical eye - under the term 'mainstream:'

'Mainstream was intended to identify performers who were not playing either traditional jazz or bebop. Since good jazz, regardless of style, "swung," to describe someone as a swing player seemed redundant. Dance himself used the term "casually and briefly" and felt that "for a time it was an adequate label." His intent was to identify players who had made considerable contributions and were still in their prime, making vital music yet were not being recorded.'
(From here... scroll down...).

Jumping on a few years – one of my favourite standards 'Where or when,' played at the post-9/11 concert in Boston by Sonny Rollins. Stretching the melody as the trombone of Clifton Anderson weaves round him – to take the foreground as Rollins drops back and eventually out. Anderson refers extensively to the theme in his solo... Piano next, with some Jarrett-esque vocal doubling of the line – straight-ahead stuff with some quotes in bebop fashion. Rollins comes in slightly off-mike – then starts to mix it up. An emotional recording, obviously. Rollins said on the evening:

'“We must remember that music is one of the beautiful things in life, so we have to try to keep the music alive in some kind of way. Maybe music can help; I don’t know, but we have to try something these days.”

Albert Ayler channelled by Muntu at the Vision Festival 2002... I saw Roy Cambell last November at the London Jazz Festival fronting up Marc Ribot's tribute to Ayler group and he was great. He shows his chops here – from low growls to high rips. Moondoc has been around a while, coming off the free jazz side of things but with a salty lyricism all his own. Collective improv then the alto steps up to solo. Joined again by Campbell for more ensemble – then the track fades on Cambell out on his own. Parker does some interesting games with time – from fast thrumming walk to half speed to probing stabs and Bakr underpins strongly – up in the mix.

'Loverman' on alto has strong connotations of Charlie Parker's broodingly tragic version – Lee Konitz evades the long shadow (as he did from the start of his career onwards) in a poignant reading with Mulligan and Baker in support. His piping, pure sound and melodic invention cut through over the grumbling deep baritone and distant trumpet. An abrupt ending... Ice cool yet with a nugget of emotional fire buried deep...

More 'mainstream'... 'Cottontail' - coming out at speed – Earl Hines and a bunch of Ellington men, recorded in 1966. Hines in fine form, swapping eights and stomping and striding his way to glory...

Sam Rivers and his Big Band – a tribute to his wife – 'Beatrice.' A re-interpretation of the tune he first recorded way back... this date, that produced the album 'Inspiration,' was his first in many years. As they say, go figure... The good news - Rivers is one of the flip-siders to the 'tragic jazz musicians die young' coin – a sprightly octogenarian who stills knocks out stimulating music. This track takes the sixteen bar theme and runs with it through a stack of solos, the majestic and unusual ensemble generating blocks of sound in unconventional fashion... Rivers has a special way with moving his big band musician through the musical space - more 'inside' than some of the tracks on the album... but who cares about labels anymore... 'mainstream' anyone?


In the Videodrome...

...Joe Bowie's Defunkt...

... Bean and Bird...

... Jackie McLean...

... Scott Hamilton and Wayne Shorter...

...and some Chinese music (Isn't that what Louis Armstrong called Bebop, originally?)...
... a tip of the bebop beret to the Irish Improvised Music Company, who sent me this in an email...



Coleman Hawkins
(Coleman Hawkins (ts); Buck Clayton (t); Hank Jones (p); Ray Brown (b); Mickey Sheen (d) ).
Bird of Prey Blues
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Sonny Rollins
(Sonny Rollins (ts); Clifton Anderson (trb); Stephen Scott (p); Bob Cranshaw (b); Perry Wilson (d); Kimati Dinizuli (perc) ).
Where or when
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Muntu
(Jemeel Moondoc (as); Roy Cambell (t); William Parker (b) Rashid Bakr (d) ).
The truth is marching in
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Lee Konitz/Gerry Mulligan Quartet
(Lee Konitz (as); Gerry Mulligan (bs); Chet Baker (t); Carson Smith (b); Larry Bunker (d) ).
Lover Man
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Earl Hines
(Earl Hines-(p); Cat Anderson, Bill Berry, Ray Nance, Clark Terry-(t); Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper (trb); Jimmy Hamilton (cl, ts); Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope (as); Harold Ashby, Paul Gonsalves (ts); Richard Davis (b); Sonny Greer (d) ).
Cottontail
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Sam Rivers
(Sam Rivers (f, ss, ts); James Zollar, Ravi Best, Ralph Alessi, Baikida Carroll(t); Art Baron, Joseph Bowie(trmb); Steve Coleman, Greg Osby (as); Chico Freeman, Gary Thomas (ts); (Joe Daley (bs); Bob Stewart (tu); Doug Mathews (b); Anthony Cole (d)
Beatrice
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We get requests... Cecil Taylor/Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Tony Oxley...

We get requests... I received one from Karonner Franz asking to re-up the Cecil Taylor/Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Tony Oxley track 'Last' from the live album 'Nailed,' recorded in Berlin in 1990, posted last March. While I am sorting out the mp3's for later today – here it is... A monster of a performance – I wrote about it originally here so won't repeat myself – except to say that Evan more than holds his own with the Mighty Cecil. And to repeat the quote at the top of that post:

"'To play with Cecil Taylor you need the stamina of an athlete and the imagination of a god.' (Tony Oxley – from the booklet accompanying the cd).

And one final quote, from a review by Derek Taylor here...

'Those searching for conclusive and irrefutable evidence of free improvisation as high art need look no further.'

Enjoy... this track will be deleted within 7 days – along with most of the other long tracks on SaveFile as I am in the process of doing some long-overdue file maintenance.

Cecil Taylor Quartet
(Cecil Taylor (p); Evan Parker (ss); Barry Guy (b); Tony Oxley (d) ).
Last
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Winter comes to God's Little Acre.... A snowman called Frank... and some jazz...

Blogging has been delayed due to illness (again – boring but inevitable) but should be back on track tomorrow at the latest... Meanwhile...The snow has arrived in God's Little Acre – here are a couple of photos of the boy Jake and Scott building a snowman – called Frank...































Here are some ongoing links that are for large files (over 20MB) – these are not reposts but have been up for a while and I will be deleting them very soon. A reminder - files under 20MB, which are the majority that I post, are only up for a week (although I will usually comply with a request for a repost):

Gil Evans
La Nevada
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Albert Ayler
Masonic Inborn Part One
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John Zorn
Mikhail Zoetrope Part One
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Keith Jarrett
Koln Concert Part One
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Tony Oxley
Saturnalia
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Albert Ayler
Holy Holy
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Dizzie Gillespie
Oro, Incienso y Mirra
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Miles Davis
Funky Tonk
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Erroll Garner... Billy Bang... Bley/Parker/Phillips... Thelonious Monk... Sidney Bechet... Derek Bailey/Tony Oxley...

Erroll Garner was incredibly popular in the fifties and sixties – this track 'Mambo Carmel,' is from his 1955 hit album 'Concert by the Sea.' Self-taught and open-eared, Garner was a gem, irrepressibly swinging on everything he played. Crashing left hand chords and florid right hand – then suddenly he pulls back, drops the level and lightly stomps off – his left hand chording like a guitar in that inimitable style he developed. Doesn't really matter about the accompanists – sorry Eddie and Denzil - they're only along for the ride. I saw him play a couple of times in the sixties – he was wonderful...

Another live show... Billy Bang starts off solo – a scintillating dazzle of string techniques – bouncing the bow of the strings, double stops, Ornette-style splinters of sound, almost folk melodies – followed by Hamiett Bluett in the same vein – playing way up high on the baritone to get an almost string-like squeal, descending and ascending – from gruff deep to sarcastic high. A brief pause...interjections from audience... then they start up again, baritone and violin soon followed by the Asian timbres of the komungo – Jin Hi Kim playing some almost-bluesy figures and string snaps that hint at country blues, microtonally sliding across the western intonations of the other two. Recorded at the Vison Fest in New York 2002. High energy stuff...

Dreamily oblique piano from Bley, closefully followed by Evan Parker sounding almost breathy – he always seems at his nearest to jazz on the tenor and in a group setting. Phillips enters way down low, testing my sub-woofers. A total trio performance, each instrument integrated in its dance across the acoustic map. Slow, almost stately, moving like deep breathing as motifs are exchanged and altered, spun back and forth. A sudden burst of piano from Bley that announces another section where Phillips has changed to arco – the sawing timbre matched by the tenor's rasp. A more scampering pace now as Phillips returns to pizzicato. Skittering, bitten off phrases from Parker – before it suddenly ends... Chamber improvisation but with a steely core... interesting to compare this to Jimmy Guiffre's trio with Bley and Gary Peacock, of which I have some.. somewhere...

Monk with Johnny Griffin, live in 1957. 'Coming on the Hudson,' one of those off-kilter Monk tunes where the main theme is transposed/extended into the middle eight. Griffin solos, off and flying, finding the spaces in Monk's harmonies that few could, yet not ignoring the tune. Monk takes over – as ever the tune firmly pushed to the front of his improvisations, playing quite fulsomely here, in the days when maybe he didn't rely quite so much on tried and tested runs – the whole tone gallop down the keyboard, for example. Magical... Along with Coltrane, I favour Griffin's work with Monk, much as I like Charlie Rouse's...

'St Louis Blues' with declaratory trumpet from Sidney De Paris and growling trombone from Vic Dickenson as Bechet swoons around them on clarinet. Recorded for Blue Note in 1944. Pops Foster keeps it rolling strong. Hodes's piano a delight...

The Old Firm of Bailey and Oxley, recorded in New York, 1995. Oxley starts off quietly, small patters and scrapes, bringing his kit in gently. Bailey follows him, abrupt treble shreds laid across the building rhythm... waves slowly accumulating. Bailey pointillistic, dabbing figures that gradually extend into longer, barrelling lines, a tougher vertical scrabble. They seesaw between scarcity and abundance, long and short, Bailey reflective, spartan in gesture and volume just over half-way in as Oxley drops his levels. Proceeding... Oxley sending out on deep thuds and rippling metallic sounds from his various ironmongery as Bailey works the top end... starting to chop chords in up and down the neck interspersed with those beautiful tangles of notes – answered by steel shimmers – then silence... and applause...

Then the blues... Robert Jr Lockwood.... a link back to the almost-mythic Robert Johnson... playing a song I always associate with Sonny and Brownie – 'Key to the highway.' Lockwood takes it slower than they used to, an easy lope away down the road. His 12 string guitar playing a masterful frame for his voice...

In the Videodrome...

Robert Jr Lockwood...

... Sonny and Brownie...

...Chris Corsano in London...

... and some more Corsano (why not?)...



Erroll Garner
(Erroll Garner (p); Eddie Calhoun (b); Denzil Best (d) ).
Mambo Carmel
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Billy Bang Trio
(Billy Bang (v); Jin Hi Kim (komungo); Hamiett Bluiett (bs) ).
Bangart 100
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Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips
(Paul Bley (p); Evan Parker (ts); Barre Phillips (b) ).
Variation 2
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Thelonious Monk
(Thelonious Monk (p); Johnny Griffin (ts); Ahmed Abdul-Malik (b); Roy Haynes (d) ).
Coming on the Hudson
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Sidney Bechet
( Sidney de Paris (tpt), Vic Dickenson (tbn), Sidney Bechet (clt -2), Art Hodes (pno), George 'Pops' Foster (bs), Manzie Johnson (dms) ).
St Louis Blues
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Derek Bailey/Tony Oxley
(Derek Bailey (eg); Tony Oxley (d) ).
Kenmare
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Robert Jr Lockwood, vocal, guitar.
Key to the Highway
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John Zorn... Keith Jarrett... The Art Ensemble of Chicago... Derek Bailey...

Three long tracks... one short...

The first, an early piece, interesting probably more for what it reveals about its young composer/creator's intentions and music philosophy – throwing a light over later mature work. John Zorn's 'Mikhail Zoetrope Part One.' Recorded in 1973. Guy Peters said of this piece:

'The three-parted "Mikhail Zoetrope" (running more than three quarters of an hour) is in Zorn' own words "the craziest piece I've ever written." Those who've heard some of his more challenging works know what that implies: it's batshit insane. When discussing the brief "Wind Ko/La," Zorn reveals it's probably no surprise that his mother put him under observation at a psychiatric clinic from age 8 to 16. His mother must've been quite a tolerant person, as most other parents would undoubtedly hire an exorcist... but for the most part, it's a pure mess that probably works fine as a concept (if you're into this stuff), but is simply un-listenable and worthless as "music." ' (From here... scroll down...).

This was recorded on left and right channels, one over the other, Zorn on soprano sax and a variety of kitchenware, found sounds plus grunts groans and other assorted vocal noise - pre-figuring Mike Patton's work with him recently?

Love it or hate it, I figure... Zorn is an odd character who inspires strong emotions for and against (let it be said that the above quote is taken from one review among many of Zorn's albums and Peters is a knowledgeable and affectionate follower of the man).

The circumstances that surround the Keith Jarrett recording of the 'Koln Concert' are well-known (apparently – I didn't know them as I haven't really followed Jarrett much although I like his playing) – lack of sleep, crap piano but show goes on – and a classic is born, from a totally improvised performance. This is 'Part One,' spinning outwards from relatively simple minor key beginnings, becoming almost gospel-like in the rolling full left hand voicings. Free improvisation coming from a tonal base and fascinating because of that... Jarrett reached a lot of hearts and minds with the album that this piece is taken from. Still uplifting...


From 1969 – The Art Ensemble. A side of an lp, 'A Brain for the Seine,' recorded (strangely enough) in Paris. The Art Ensemble created their unique acoustic space that was large enough to encompass their collectively steady eye back to the past and their experiments in the here and now (as was), alongside the visual theatrical element of their live performance that riffed strongly on African culture. This gave an unsettlingl, unsteady focus – often quite straight-forward blowing bouncing off spattering small instruments, noise, jumpcuts between jokiness and political statement with the artists dressed up in vivid robes, masks and wild face-painting. Via the AACM, this mix of the european avant-garde and the American gave music that was often quite different to the fire musics of New York. On a different track but coming from similar influences/origins, one can see how Anthony Braxton's work can be tracked back to Chicago and this influential group. Different strokes... The Art Ensemble developed their own methods of long-form improvisation that offered – sometimes - a more user-friendly than usual entrance into the complex sound worlds of the avant garde – to make a clumsy example, the tradition going back to Dizzy Gillespie's vaudeville side as opposed to Bird's junky noir-cool? 'A Brain for the Seine' starts with wah-muted trumpet, harmonica, rattling chains(?), tinkering percussion, sporadic long horn notes like a fog warning, gongs, before Malachi Favors bass thumps several low notes, a strangled voice demands water -'Please can I have a drink of...'- then Lester Bowie drops the mute and plays open horn venting a Spanish-tinged line over what sounds like a marimba as Favors moves between arco and pizzicato... and so it goes onwards... funny – slapstick and smart – and technically superb playing dropped down the mineshaft at intervals into noise and exotica, along with several kitchen sinks. That's the Art Ensemble of Chicago...

Lastly... some of the guv'nor, Derek Bailey, recorded solo in Japan, 1978, on electric guitar for this track – 'A Wonderer(Wanderer?) from the British World.' This is for Montegue, who digs Derek... Steely brilliance...
After the gigs last week, playing, organising and attending, fatigue has impacted on my uncertain health, so apologies for lack of music so far this week. More to come tomorrow...

In the Videodrome...

The Art Ensemble...

John Zorn...

and 9 minutes of Keith Jarrett in Italy, 1974...


John Zorn - soprano saxophone, assorted pots and pans, vocal gymnastics, found sounds...
Mikhail Zoetrope Act One
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Keith Jarrett – solo piano
Koln Concert, Part One
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Art Ensemble of Chicago
(Lester Bowie; trumpet, flugelhorn, bass drum, horns
Roscoe Mitchell; soprano sax, alto sax, bass sax, clarinet, flute, percussion
Joseph Jarman; soprano sax, alto sax, clarinet, oboe, flute, vibes, percussion, guitar
Malachi Favors: bass, fender bass, banjo, percussion ).
A Brain for the Seine
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Derek Bailey – solo electric guitar
A wonderer in the British world
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Club Sporadic... Saturday 27th January, 2007...

A chaotic, sprawling night at the Club Sporadic - with some surprises... The featured band Hulot played a short, sharp twenty minutes or so, echoes maybe of the Gang of Four in the harsh trebly Strat and the Three Johns – with regard to the drum machine – yet a fresh sound and this first gig showed few hiccups– they have their own vision, went down a storm and are booked back here again in March... Frank Marmion played a great set – acoustic folk with inept keyboards from yours truly who was still recovering from a late night after the Pete Morton gig – Frank managed to override my vision of integrating electronics into his music and went down well. (I will get it right, Frank, honest...). Plexus played their usual long pieces in duo form and later with Murray to bring us up to strength. Hard to review your own music – I know my head was elsewhere and we were all a trifle, shall we say, jaded. But some interesting stuff in there – that's the gamble of free improvisation, after all. Towards the end of the night we were joined by various members of the audience who got up to play... Not one of Plexus's best nights maybe – but band, singers and audience, were great and created a good atmosphere all evening... ending with impromptu dancing to some traditional jazz courtesy of DJ Whitedog, who laced the usual eclectic ambiance (tonight moving from Ornette's Prime Time to Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes via Charles Mingus and some weirder noise) with some Muggsy Spanier and Sidney Bechet... and James Brown... get down!

Pete Morton at the Packe Horse Loughborough, Friday 26th January...

To the Pack Horse, Loughborough – Pete Morton, probably my favourite English singer/songwriter, on his annual visit to the Grand Old Club... Mr Marmion and Mr David Morton (no relation) started off with a couple of songs – 'The Dutchman,' which grows on me every time I hear it, and 'Ratcliffe Highway.' Forward Pete Morton – starting with a new song 'Good enough for me,' (I think). First couple of numbers seemed a bit tentative and I wondered if we can always have such high expectations of a performer – then he proceeded to blow the place apart as ever (how wrong can you be...) – his unique mixture of humour, passion and sharp social observation folded into his music – a soaring voice and rock solid guitar combining to build on what's left of the tradition without lapsing into the twee or the irrelevant – no more bloody songs about the First World War, for a start... although if anyone could come up with a new angle on those events – it would be Pete, I guess.













What he does is shine a light on the commonplace and position it in a wider context – without preaching – with a searing optimism which is just so damn refreshing. A celebration of his roots that fixes them in our common heritage without narrow xenophobic trappings – or sneery old lefty whinings – and takes in the city and the country, from mundane activities like standing in a post office and observing the people in the queue to the fun of a drinking session in a ratty old pub to the wide spaces and flatlands of Lincolnshire. I wrote a lengthy review of his last performance here so won't repeat myself too much – except to note that Pete never just wacks out the tried and trusted – he always has something new to offer – like the song in Platte Deutche. Even the anthem – 'Another Train' – gets sneakily placed in the song order – too easy to end on, he resists the temptation to take the easy hit. Pete, of course, has always been a superb interpeter of the tradition, making his bones all those years ago with his epic version of 'Tam Lin,' for example. Tonight he finished on 'Farmer's Boy,' plugging his audience into the English Rural Sublime with a vengeance... A stirring, soulful, superb night... He also gracefully performed my request for my current favourite song 'Shepherd's Song,' about the tragic nineteenth century poet, John Clare. Thanks, Pete... (And quick mention of the other floor singer, John Bentham, who bears a remarkable resemblance to the free jazz saxophonist,Paul Flaherty, and has a powerful yet mellow voice... ).

Support Kermit Driscoll... Benefit tonight in New York at the Tonic...

A flurry of reviews from a busy weekend and the usual eclectic mix of mp3's to come... but first a message about Kermit Driscoll from Matt Merewitz...







Though he has never released an album under his own name, the bassist Kermit Driscoll has had a considerable impact in adventurous jazz circles over the last 20 years. Mr. Driscoll first emerged as a close compatriot of the guitarist Bill Frisell during an influential stretch from the mid-1980s through the mid-90s. ('Live,' a 1991 Gramavision album credited to Bill Frisell, Kermit Driscoll and Joey Baron, especially worth seeking out for Mr. Driscoll's nimble rapport with the guitarist and drummer.) Mr. Driscoll concurrently tangled with an honor roll of downtown composer-improvisers like the alto saxophonist John Zorn and the trumpeter Dave Douglas, with whom he worked in a collective called New and Used. Then at some point in the mid-90s, Mr. Driscoll unknowingly contracted Lyme disease from a deer tick bite. He spent years contending with headaches, joint pain and deep fatigue before receiving an accurate diagnosis in 2005, when the disease was already in its difficult-to-treat third stage. Mr. Driscoll had stayed somewhat active during his illness - he appeared on several noteworthy 2005 releases, including albums by the guitarist Ben Monder and the drummer John Hollenbeck but he found it increasingly hard to work. Last month he managed to perform on a benefit in his honor with Mr. Douglas and Mr. Monder, among others; this month he played a concert with Mr. Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble. ('The next day he said that the music healed him, he felt a lot better,' according to Mr. Hollenbeck in an e-mail message, 'With this disease you go up and down.') On Monday Mr. Driscoll will appear, but probably not perform, at the largest yet benefit for his medical expenses. The lineup will include Mr. Frisell, with his 858 String Quartet; Mr. Zorn, with an undisclosed ensemble; Mr. Hollenbeck, with an ethereal group called the Refuge Trio; and the bassist John Patitucci, with the saxophonist Jon Ellis and the drummer Kendrick Scott. (Monday at 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, 212-358-7501, tonicnyc.com; cover, $25. Tax-deductible donations can also be made payable to Emergency Relief Fund (Kermit Driscoll) and mailed to Bill Dennison, Musicians Union Local 802, 322 West 48th Street, New York, N.Y. 10036.