AGM Playlist for September 2013: The CD Edition!

So September was a pretty good month for live music. First the Gratkowski caravan, then the Larry Ochs residency at The Stone, very musically satisfying, although poorly attended. Then a week later, back to NYC for 4 days and 8 sets of the Evan Parker residency. All of those sets were wonderful. I was most impressed by the Rocket Science sets, especially the 8:00 PM set. Peter Evans displayed a level of virtuosity that was really stunning, which was beautifully counterbalanced by EP's depth and maturity. One of the best sets of free jazz I have heard. The set with Sylvie Courvoisier was also notable. She played free and loose, quite exuberantly it seemed to me, in contrast to her performance at the previous EP residency. Peter Evans also figured in the Bleeding Edge set, which was also quite fine.

Larry Ochs and Gerald Cleaver

This month I did something different: the playlist is composed exclusively of CDs; not an LP to be found. Just a bit of whimsy I suppose but it wasn't bad delving into the CD stock. Of course I was only home for about 2 weeks, so it was easier to pull off. October will be exclusively LPs.


1) NEW SURFACING 1978-1992: Spontaneous Music Ensemble - John Stevens, Nigel Coombes, Roger Smith. Emanem CD. Count me a huge John Stevens/SME fan.

2) SIFTER: Halvorson, Knuffle, Matt Wilson. Relative Pitch CD. I'm not sure about the choice of Wilson, he seems to me a limiting factor; someone like Ches Smith would have been better, but this is still a very good album. Knuffle is surprisingly strong and pretty much carries the album.

3) THE PANCAKE TOUR: Urs Leimgruber, Roger Turner. Relative Pitch CD. Excellent CD.  Another excellent Relative Pitch CD and performance by Leimgruber (urge to type burger!).

4) STOF: Ab Baars- Ig Henneman Duo. Wig CD. Worthy.

5) LARK: Laubrock, Rainey, Davis, Alessi. Skirl CD. Excellent.

6) LIVE IN MADISON: Luis Lopes and Humanization 4Tet. Ayler CD.

7) [ON]: Eric Brodard, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Edward Perraud. In Situ CD.

8) MAGIC: McPhee, Duval, Rosen, Trzaska. Not Two 2CD.

9) THE HOLY LA: Steve Lacy, Aebi, Betch, Avenel.  Free Lance CD. Fine Lacy. Lacy is in my Pantheon.

10) THE BLEEDING EDGE: Parker, Lee, Evans. psi CD. From a live recording in England around the time of the last EP residency. Too bad they didn't use the one from The Stone (maybe they couldn't). I recall that was outstanding. This is pretty good too!

11) THE NOWS: Lytton, Wooley, Mori (Disc 1); Lytton, Wooley, Vandermark (Disc 2). Clean Feed.

12) FLOW OF X: Matt Shipp Quartet (with Maneri). Thirsty Ear CD. Do we tend to take Shipp for granted, despite his exceptional talent?

13) POINTS: Matt Shipp Quartet (with Rob Brown). Silkheart CD.

14) LIVE IN THE WORLD: David S. Ware Quartet. CD1 of 3. Thirsty Ear. Shipp often plays on piano what DSW is playing on sax or a commensurate counterpart.

15) CATALOGUE d'OISEAUX BOOK 7: Messiaen, comp. Peter Hill, piano. Regis CD.

16) BEFORE AFTER: Leandre, Mitchell, Van Der Schyff. RogueArt CD.

17) FOUR COMPOSITIONS (QUARTET) 1995: Braxton, Fonda, Norton, Reichman. Braxton House CD. Do we take Braxton for granted?

18) TWO DAYS IN CHICAGO: Mengelberg, Anderson, Vandermark et al. 2CD Hatology.

19) DEALS, IDEAS, and IDEALS: Assif Tsahar, Peter Kowald, Rashied Ali. Hopscotch CD. Love Kowald. One hardly hears of Tsahar performing.

20) MAD DOGS: Barry Guy and many Brit and German free jazz musicians (also Dutch and Swedish too). Not Two 5CD. Peculiar packaging, high price, but really excellent and worthy music.  In a sense, a summit performance of Euro free jazz. Barry Guy is huge here.

21) SUNSHINE: John Stevens, Frode Gjerstad. Impetus CD. I always find this hookup interesting.

22) APPLICATION, INTERACTION AND...: Stevens, Watts, Barry Guy. Hi4Head CD. First-rate.

23) CALYPSO's SMILE: Joseph Jarman, Don Moye, Essiet. AECO CD. The AEC remind me of the Beatles: together unbeatable, but individually weaker (with possible exception of Roscoe). IOW, the sum is greater than its parts.

24) MINING THE SEAM: The Rest of the Spotlite Sessions: Stevens, Watts, Guy. Hi4Head CD.

25) THE SUN: Steve Lacy with Aebi, Carter, Rava, Berger, Romano, Potts, Johnson, and (a bit surprising to me) Teitelbaum. Emanem CD. Teitelbaum is awesome here, and it gave me a new perspective on his work.

26) LIFE AMID THE ARTEFACTS: 2 sessions: Free Space and Otherways. Emanem CD. Excellent.

27) ROCKET SCIENCE: Parker, Evans, Taborn, and Pluta.  Paler than the the live performance that I saw, but still excellent. The symbiosis between Parker and Evans is interesting to watch/hear, and I think Evans challenges Parker about as well as anyone can in the current scene.

28) ITHACA: Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell, Paul Lytton. Intakt CD. Crispell plays strong here, not ECM-ish.

29) "it won't be called broken china": Evan Parker, Misha Mengelberg. Amusing and interesting sleeve note by Steve Beresford. Another interesting musical relationship.

30) SPIRITUAL MOMENTS: Lacy, Carter, Masahiko Togashi. PJL (Japan) CD. A fine album.

31) LIVE AT THE GLUCKSMAN GALLERY, CORK: Dunmall, Han-Earl Park, Mark Sanders, Jamie Smith. Owlhouse CD. Good but under-recorded. Park has tremendous facility. Park played a short duo set with Parker. Evan made a quip about Evan Parker-Peter Evans-Earl Park merry-go-round.

32) WE ALL FEEL THE SAME WAY: JONES-JONES: Larry Ochs, Mark Dresser, Vladamir Tarasov. SLR CD. Tarasov is from the Russian Ganelin Trio. Excellent. It occurs to me that Ochs is a lot like Tim Berne. Neither are virtuosos, but both a fertile musical creators, adept at creating new musical scenarios.

33) FUCK DE BOERE 1968/1970: Live version of Machine Gun from 1968, and the title track, live 1970. UMS CD.

34) FURTHER SECRET ORIGINS: Katherine Young, solo bassoon. Porter CD. Tremendous. Give her a Guggenheim or Fulbright  or MacArthur for goodness sake!

35) QUARTET(MOSCOW) 2008: Braxton, Bynum, Young, Halvorson. Leo CD. An exciting performance. Braxton has been important in developing young talent and giving them a chance to perform at a high level and does so unassumedly. So many alumni of the Braxton "school."

36) SEVEN STANDARDS 1996: Mario Pavone, Anthony Braxton, Tom Chapin, Dave Douglas, Aklaff. Knitting Factory CD. I still find Braxton's relationship to the standards problematic.

37) DUCK: Buffalo Collision: Berne, Hank Roberts, and 2/3 of Bad Plus, Iverson, King.

38) NIDIDHYASANA: Steven Gauci Basso Continuo with Nate Wooley, Mike Bision, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten. A minor classic at least. Where has Gauci been?

39) DRAGON: Bobby Bradford, Gjerstad, PNL. PNL CD.

40) ISKRA 1903: Rutherford, Wachsmann, Guy. Maya CD.

41) "Members, don't git weary." Max Roach, Bartz, Tolliver, Merritt, Cowell, Andy Bey (title trk). Atlantic Masters CD. Hip lineup and music. That "members" seems curious to me.

42) ARIA: Kowald, Alberto Braida, Giancarlo Locatelli. free elephant CD. Surprised me by how good it is.

43) THE CELESTIAL SEPTET: ROVA and Nels Cline Singers. New World CD.

Next month: LPs!