Monday, February 3, 2014

Best of January 2014 AGM Playlist

I'm glad I decided to do a "best of" instead of a comprehensive list, as this month I had listened to over 130 LPs and CDs. When you're a bad typist like I am, it's no fun typing that out.  Instead, I keep it in my hand-written journal.  Anyway, you are probably not missing much by the short(er) list.  Plus deciding which records made the strongest connection for me (only in that way "best") in a month helps me focus and assess on an ongoing basis. Something I need to do. Anyway, in chrono order:

McLean, Jackie:  IT's TIME. BN/King Japan LP.
"                  "       NEW SOIL. BN LP
"                   "      NEW AND OLD GOSPEL
The McLeans were my New Years listening, ritualizing the passage of time and all things.

Coltrane, John.  TRANSITION. Impulse Japan CD.

Art Ensemble of Chicago.  THE COMPLETE LIVE IN JAPAN, APRIL 22, 1984, TOKYO. DIW
2LP.  I deeply wish I could have seen the AEC in performance at the height of their art.



I love this picture of them in performance!

Archie Shepp NY Contemporary 5 /Bill Dixon 7-Tette. CONSEQUENCES. BYG LP.

Dixon, Bill. INTENTS AND PURPOSES. Int'l Phonograph CD.

Hemphill, Julius.  DOGON A.D. Int'l Phonograph CD.

Braxton, Anthony. B-X/NO-1-47. Affinity LP. w/Leo Smith, McCall, Jenkins.

Mitchell, Roscoe.  LIVE AT 'A' SPACE 1975. Sackville CD.

Abrams, Richard.  LEVELS AND DEGREES OF LIGHT.  Delmark LP. Much of what MRA does sails by me, but this one doesn't. Early genius is best.

Stevens, John. BIRDS OF A FEATHER. BYG LP. I played other SME this month but this will stand for all. When I think of true geniuses, whose influence is profound, Stevens is on the list, also Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell come immediately to mind.

Murray, David. SOLO LIVE  VOL.1.  CECMA LP.  DM is as uneven as the Rockies, but this one burns.

Coltrane, John.  IMPRESSIONS.  Impulse! Japan CD.

Monk, T.  MISTERIOSO. OJC Remaster series CD.  Monk, Griffin, Haynes/Blakey. This session rocks (to use a term).

Jooklo Duo with Chris Corsano. LIVE IN VITTORIO VENETO ITALY. Troglosound LP. This recording actually lives up to its buzz (one of the few lately).



The Thing.  BOOT! The Thing Records LP.  This is another one!

Osborne, Mike.  ALL NIGHT LONG. Ogun CD. w/Harry Miller, Moholo.

Davis, Miles. BLACK BEAUTY: MILES DAVIS AT FILLMORE WEST.  Everything Bitches Brew and after is getting much more interesting to me.

Coltrane, John. SUN SHIP. Impulse! 2LP. Iconic, anthemic, aspirational, real......

Mitchell, Roscoe.  DUETS WITH TYSHAWN SOREY (& Guest Hugh Ragin). Wide Hive CD. I like this better than the  recent double LP; has more of Roscoe's idiosyncratic genius.

Mitchell, Roscoe. MORE CUTOUTS. CECMA LP. Not a great copy (none seem to be), played badly on my old TT, but sounds surprisingly much better now (credit the AudioNote cartridge or my standards have dropped a mile). No doubt about the music though.

Lacy, Steve.  THE GAP.  America CD. I like that more aggressive Lacy we see in the 60s and 70s.

Futterman, Joel.  INTERACTION. JDF LP. with Jimmy Lyons. Rather amazing this even came about.

Taylor, Cecil.  THE WORLD OF CECIL TAYLOR. Candid Japan LP. Love this era CT.

Gallio, Christof, et al.  TIEGEL. Atavistic CD.  Plucked from the bargain bin, complete surprise to me. Very FMP.

Parker, Evan, with Steve Beresford, John Edwards, Louis Moholo.   FOXES FOX and FOXES FOX: LIVE AT THE VORTEX.  Both Emanem CDs. What an amazing group, Listen to Beresford on the "Live" version. These recordings bang along from the first note.

Doyle, Arthur and Sunny Murray. LIVE AT GLENN MILLER CAFE. Ayler CD.  With 3 tracks with Frippe Nordstrom. This is one of 3 concerts that Doyle did on a tour of Sweden. The concert before this is on YT.  Must be seen,  Haven't found the 3rd concert.

Mingus, Charles.  MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS.  Impulse! Speakers Corner LP.

Coltrane, John.  MY FAVORITE THINGS & GIANT STEPS.  Atlantic CDs.

Young, Larry.  MOTHER SHIP.  BN LT/Japan. Falls between the BN and free crowds, but I like that.

Parker, Evan with Crispell, Guy and Lytton. AFTER APPLEBY. Leo 2CD. Played some Crispell because I was talking smack about her on Peter's list.  Here..........she's pretty good.

Bradford, Bobby.  LOVE'S DREAM. Emanem LP. With Trevor Watts, Kent Carter, John Stevens. This is one of those really good albums that stays really good.



Charles, Denis. CAPTAIN OF THE DEEP. Eremite CD. With Moondoc, Breedlove (what happened to him?), and DeJoode (interesting that he would be in this session).  This is a terrific Moondoc session, with due respect to DC.

COMPANY 6&7.  Bailey, Braxton, et al.  I'm still green with envy that Bill picked up a Company LP box at **** at all, not to mention well under market value ( :-) , this will have to do for me until lightning strikes.  That Incus stuff is freakin' hard to get.

COREA, Chick.  THE COMPLETE "IS" SESSIONS. BN 2CD.  Bennie Maupin, Woody Shaw, Dave Holland, et al.  Have you listened to this lately?  It's just a great free blowing session, no wonder BN buried it.  It's like Corea listened to "Machine Gun" then decided to try it himself.

Now I see I went way over my intended 10 or 12 recordings.  I also see that many of the usual suspects made the list. "It is what it is," as people around my old office used to say.  BTW, I've been checking out some prog stuff, mostly Soft Machine and King Crimson, just to vary the diet a little. A lot of the Brit prog guys had connections with the Brit improv guys, various interactions back and forth, so it fills out the picture a little.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

January 2014 Listening

1.       “Whirl of Nothingness” Paul Flaherty [Family Vineyard CD]
2.       “[9] Syllables” Nate Wooley [Mnoad CD]
3.       “Fearless Leader” John Coltrane [Prestige PRCD-30059-2 CD]
4.       “Live at Zebulon” Peter Evans, John Hebert & Kassa Overall [More is More Records MIM 131 CD]
5.       “Goo” Sonic Youth [DGC 9 24297-D2 CD]
6.       “Village Life” Derek Bailey, Louis Moholo & Thebe Lipere [Incus CD 09 CD]
7.       “The Black Dirt Sessions Jack Rose [Three Lobed Recordings TLR 066 LP]
8.       “Sun Ship” John Coltrane with Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison & McCoy Tyner [Impluse! IMPD-167 CD]
9.       “Superwolf” Bonnie Prince Billy & Matt Sweney [Drag City DC179CD]
10.   “Singles Collection Volume 3” Thee Oh Sees [Castleface Records]
11.   “Future Days” Can [Spoon SACD]
12.   “New Orleans Festival Suite” Kidd Jordan with William Parker, Alvin Fielder & Joel Futterman [Silkheart SHCD 152 CD]
13.   “Now! - Other Dimensions in Music” William Parker, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter & Rashid Bakr [Aum Fidelity AUM 006 CD]
14.   “Live at in the Valley” Die Like a Dog with Peter Brotzmann, William Parker, Hamid Drake & Roy Campbell [Eremite MTE018 CD]
15.   “Far Cry” Eric Dolphy with Booker Little Jaki Byard, Ron Carter, and Roy Haynes [Prestige OKC20 400-2 CD]
16.   “Skull Worship” The Warlocks [Zap Banana]
17.   “Different Class” Pulp [Island 12 24165 CD]
18.   “Will They Turn You On Or Will They Turn On You” Magic Hour with Wayne Rogers Kate Biggar, Damon Krukowski, & Naomi Yang [Twisted Village CD]
19.   “Dawn of a New Vibration” Arthur Doyle & Sunny Murray [Fractal009 CD]
20.   “Alabama Feeling” Arthur Doyle [DRA Records CD]
21.   “Land of Lurches” Kevin Drumm [Hanson HN104 CD]
22.   “Cliff Craft” Cliff Jordan with Sonny Clark Art Farmer, George Tucker & Louis Hayes [Blue Note CDP 7243 8 56584 2 6 CD]
23.   “Conference of Birds” Om with Al Cisneros & Chris Hakius [Holy Mountain 5QXF3 CD]
24.   “Tchaikovsky Symphonies 1-6” Antal Dorati with London & Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra [Mercury Living Presence 475 6261 CD]
25.   “Damon & Naomi with Ghost” Damon Krukowski, Naomi Yang, Masaki Bathoh, Michio Kurihara, & Kazuo Ogino [Sub Pop SPCD 501 CD]
26.   “Girls, Girls, Girls” Elvis Costello [Columbia C2K 46897 CD]
27.   “Snakeoil” Tim Berne with Ches Smith Oscar Noriega & Matt Mitchell [ECM 2234 CD]
28.   “Duo Exchange” Frank Lowe & Rashied Ali
29.   “Cherry Box” Marco Eneidi, William Parker & Don Robinson [Eremite-025]
30.   “Dance with Death” Andrew Hill, Charles Tolliver, Joe Farrell, Victor Sproles and Billy Higgins [Blue Note 7243 4 73160 2 9 CD]
31.   “Colour Them Gone” Jailbreak with Chris Corsano & Heather Leigh [Nyal Recordings 7 CDr]
32.   “The Ascension” Glenn Branca [Acute Records ACT 002 CD]
33.   “Flyin the Fannel” Firehose with Mike Watt [Columbia CK 47839 CD]
34.   “Slow Globes” Mouthus [Troubleman Unlimited CD]
35.   “En Corps” Eve Risser, Benjamin Duboc and Edward Perraud [Dark Tree Records CD]
36.   “Anthology 25 Years” Can Spoon [CD 30/31 CD]
37.   “Delay 1968” Can [Spoon]
38.   “Soundtracks” Can [Spoon]
39.   “Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy” The Who [MCA 37001 LP]
40.   “Walk a Mile in My Shoes - The Essential 70s Masters” Elvis Presley [RCA 07863 CD]
41.   “The Definitive” Otis Redding [Rhino R2 71439 CD]
42.   “Moanin' in the Moonlight” Howlin' Wolf [Chess CH-9195 LP]
43.   “Howlin' Wolf” Howlin' Wolf [Chess CH-9183 LP]
44.   “Tempest” Bob Dylan [Columbia LP + CD]
45.   “Peter Gabriel” Peter Gabriel [Atco - SuperDisc SD 16615 LP]
46.   “Gilded Eternity” Loop [Beggar's Banquet SITU 27 LP]