Thursday, July 18, 2013

Lately Listening

1. Urs Leimgruber/Roger Turner Duo (Relative Pitch CD): Wasn't familiar with Leimburger's work. Major oversight on my part. Dug this release.

2. Jemeel Moondoc & Connie Crothers (Relative Pitch CD): Not enough Moondoc in the world. Thanks again, Kevin.

3. Michael Bisio & Matthew Shipp (Relative Pitch CD): The weak link in the catalog for me. Find Shipp less and less interesting these days.

4. Chris Abrahams & Magda Mayas, Gardener (Relative Pitch CD): Harmoniums? Fuck yeah! Jammed this several times. A thorny one, for sure.

5. Joe Morris/Augusti Fernandez/Nate Wooley (Relative Pitch CD): Another good one.

6. Gunter Schlienz/Kyle Landstra/N. Chambers/Cliffsides, Swim Trunks (Space Slave Editions CS): Ode to summer. Some zoned synth jammers on this one.

7. Frank Wright, One for John (BYG Actuel LP): Frank Wright. What else can I say?

8. Sam Rivers/Mario Schiano/Dave Holland/Barry Altschul, Rendez-Vous (Red LP): Hot!

9. Attenuated, Deep Opacity (Space Slave Editions CS): Intense drones. Damn, this is good.

10. Okkyung Lee, Ghil (Ideologic Organ LP): Lots of scraping and rasping.

11. Jooklo und Metabolismus, Perception of the Illusion of the Opposition of Contraries (Troglosound CS): Good mix on this tape--some droners, some free sax playing by Virginia Genta and some groovier bits.

12. Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand, Massacre in Catena Valley, 1971 (Space Slave Editions CS): Best release from the recent batch. A lot going on here. Definitely requires a second listen.

13. Pelt, The Eighth Day, the eleventh months, the two thousand and twelfth year (Brave Mysteries CS): A bit of a letdown after last year's burning LP release.

14. Pierrot Lunaire, Imitation of Life (Space Slave Editions CS): Not up to the standard set by previous releases.

15. Calypso Borealis, Agaw Shasha (Space Slave Editions CS): Another solid droner. The new New Age, baby.


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Monday, July 8, 2013

Lately Listening


1. Various Artists, Traces 2 (Recollection GRM LP): Reissue compilation of early electroacoustic from GRM's archives. Some quality cuts on this one.

2. Cody Yantis, Starvation Winter (Sunshine Tape): Stripped down compared to Yantis' recent releases. Complex in its simplicity.

3. AYCH, As the Crow Flies (Relative Pitch CD): Awesome release. Once again, we benefit from Kevin's great taste.

4. Evan Parker, Vaincu.VA! Live at the Western Front (Western Front Music LP): Glad this archival release saw the light of day.

5. Iannis Xenakis, GRM Works: 1957-1962 (Recollection GRM LP): This reissue series is killing it.

6. Saguache, Sky Contours (SicSic Tapes): More Cody Yantis.

7. Inez Lightfoot, Sleep by Night/Fly by Day (Northern Twilights Tapes): Run of the mill. Seems to be going through the motions after a solid run of releases.

8. Dark Revolution Collective, Live (Qbico LP): Part of the Qbico Omega-Omicron 10-LP box set. Percussion jammer from Makoto Kawabata.

9. Arthur Doyle/Wilber Morris/Rashid Bakr, Live At the Alterknit, NYC (Qbico LP): Part of the Qbico Omega-Omicron 10-LP box set. Not the best recording quality. Arthur Doyle is his usual wild self, though a lot of the moves are the same.

10. Steve Baczkowski/Ravi Padmanabha, Improvisations 2005 (Qbico LP): Part of the Qbico Omega-Omicron 10-LP box set. Love these guys, but this is a bit of a throw-away.

11. Way out Northwest, The White Spot (Relative Pitch CD): More quality on Relative Pitch

12. Manfred Schoof, European Echoes (Cien Fuegos LP): Another burner from this reissue program.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

40 years ago; Sam Rivers' Streams

Forty years ago on July 6, 1973; Sam Rivers, Cecil McBee and Norman Conners performed at Montreux Jazz Festival Switzerland.


Sam's discography goes from his Blue Note leader dates of Contours and New Conception in 1965-66 to the Impluse! releases in 1973 of Streams, Hues, and Live.  These three albums define Sam in the avant free- jazz world.   The below video is not from this time frame but a little later in 1979.  It represents the spirit he brought the music. 



Thursday, July 4, 2013

June 2013 Listening

1. “What the Brothers Sang” Bonnie Prince Blly & Dawn McCarthy (Drag City) LP
2. “Master and Everyone” Bonnie Prince Blly (Drag City) LP
3. “Melted” Ty Segall (Goner Records)  58Goner LP
4. “Songs for My Sister” Roscoe Mitchell (Pi Recordings  P103) CD
5. “New York Eye & Ear Control” Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, and John Tchicai 
6. “Carved Into Roses/Infinityland/Singles” Skullflower with Matt Bowers (VHF) vhf#128  CD
7. “Case History” Kevin Coyne (4 Men With Beards) 4M191  LP
8. “Conference of Birds” OM (Holy Mountain) 5QXF31LP  LP
9. “Rides Again” James Gang (MCA) MCA-371111  LP
10. “Long Story Short: The Unlimited Festival 2011” Peter Brotzmann (Trost) CD
11. “Crossroads” Eric Clapton 
12. “In C”  Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paradiso UFO (Squealer) SQLF 037 CD
13. “Last Notes” Joe McPhee, Bill Nace, and Thurston Moore (Open Mouth)  OM28b  LP
14. “Silence Yourself” Savages (Matador) Digital
15. “Strange Days” The Doors  (Elektra) Digital
16. “Band of Gypsys” Jimi Hendrix (Capitol) SN-16319  LP
17. “Perles Noires Vol. 1” Sunny Murray with Sabir Mateen & Alan Silva  (Eremite)  Eremite-045 CD

18. “The Nows” Paul Lytton, Nate Wooley. Ken Vandermark & Ike Mori  (Clean Feed) CF260CD  CD
19. “Slug's Saloon” Albert Ayler. Donald Ayler, Sampson, Jackson, & Worrell 
20. “From Valley to Valley” Peter Brotzmann, William Parker, Hamid Drake, & Roy Campbell  (Eremite) MTE018  CD
21. “For Octavio Paz” Six Organs of Admittance (Holy Mountain) 21852  CD
22. “The White Spot” John Butcher, Torsten Muller, and Dylan van der Schyff (Relative Pitch Records) RPR 1006  CD
23. “Crescent” John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, and Jimmy Garrison (MCA)  MCAD-5889  CD
24. “Grand Prix” Teenage Fanclub
25. “My Name is Albert Ayler” Albert Ayler
26. “Lorrach, Paris 1966” Albert Ayler, Don Ayler, Sampson, Fowell, & Beaver Harris  (Hatology) 572 CD

27. “Student Studies” Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Alan Silva, and Andrew Cyrille (Fuel 2000) 3020613392  CD
28. “Low” David Bowie (Virgin) 7243 521907 0 6  CD
29. “Anthology 1979-1983” Chrome (Cleopatra)  CLP 1384-2  CD
30. “Remembrance” Cecil Taylor & Louis Moholo (FMP) CD 4  CD
31. “Angels, Devils & Haints” Joe McPhee, Michael Bisio, Dominic Duval, Tchamitian, & Paul Rogers  (CJR) CJR 7 CD
32. “Hitsville USA” Various Artists (Motown) 374636312 CD
33. “Seven Steps to Heaven” Miles Davis (Columbia) CK 48827  CD
34. “Live in Bologna” Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Thurman Barker, Carlos Ward and Leroy Jenkins  (Leo) CD LR 100  CD
35. “Walk a Mile in My Shoes - The Essential 70s”  Elvis Presley (RCA) CD
36. “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin (Rhino) R2 71063  CD
37. “Comets on Fire” Comets on Fire  (Alterative Tentacles) Virus 301  CD
38. “Good Morning Spider”  Sparklehorse (Capitol) 536671 CD
39. “Codebook” Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, Francois Moutin & Dan Weiss (Pi Recordings) P121  CD
40. “Drum Dance to the Motherland” Khan Jamal (Eremite) MTE-050  CD
41. “The Hilversum Sessions” Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Sunny Murray & Gary Peacock (ESP) ESP 4035  CD
42. “Long Island” Endless Boogie 
43. “Stay with Me: Anthology”Faces 
44. “Spitfire” Don Dietrich & Ben Hall (What The…?) What-011  LP
45. “Wild Flag” Wild Flag (Merge) MRG411  LP

46. “Starlite Walker” Silver Jews (Drag City) DC55  LP
47. “Green Flames” Green Flames: Narita Munehiro, Tabata Mitsuru, & Ujiie Yuro (Assommer) 2012 007  LP
48. “Stuttgart 1963 Concert”  Sonny Rollins, Don Cherry, Henry Grimes, and Billy Higgins (Jazz Connoisser) 106 Mon  LP
49. “Charles Tyler Ensemble” Charles Tyler (Get Back) 1070  LP
50. “Speaking in Tongues” Talking Heads (Sire) 7388-1 LP
51. “Call the Doctor” Sleater-Kinney (Chainsaw) CHSW-13  LP
52. “The Healer”  John Lee Hooker (Chameleon)  D1-74808  LP
53. “Abbey Road” The Beatles (Capitol)  SJ-383  LP
54. “Air Song” Air: Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall & Fred Hopkins (India Navigations) IN 1057  LP
55. “Time Out of Mind” Bob Dylan (Columbia) COL 486936 1  LP
56. “The Paris Sessions” Art Ensemble of Chicago (Arista) AL 1903  LP