Playlist, Week of 2026-01-25

 

Got to hear the Sam Records reissue of Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 and damn, it sounded fantastic... clearer and cleaner than I've ever heard it before, with John Gilmore's solos shining with the golden clarity they deserve... Love how the Beatles show up in the middle of AMM's "The Great Hall"... [Ahmed] continues to blow me away with their mesmerizing and morphing grooves... 

Playlist 2026-01-26:

*[Ahmed]: Wood Blues
*[Ahmed]: Sama'a [Audition]
*AMM: Laminal (disc 2) "The Great Hall, Part 1"
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-06-28 NYC (CDR) (disc 1)
*Beach Boys: Love You
*Beatles: Revolver (2009 stereo remaster) (sides 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium X (disc 7)
*Patricia Brennan: Of the Near and Far
*Rodger Coleman: Journey to Brno
*Jackie DeShannon: The Complete Singles, Vol. 1 (1960-1963)
*Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington Presents Ivie Anderson (sides 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington: The Private Collection, Vol. 1: Studio Sessions Chicago, 1956
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Latin American Suite
*Grateful Dead: Hundred Year Hall (1972-04-26 Frankfurt) (disc 2) "The Other One"
*Grateful Dead: Listen to the River: St. Louis '71 '72 '73 (disc 10) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1977-03-20 Winterland, S.F.(CDR)(disc 2)
*Guided By Voices: Universe Room
*Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts
*Tim Harding/OJ Hunter/Fred McGann/Sam Byrd: 2026-01-17 RVA (CDR)
*Hatfield and the North: The Rotters' Club (50th Anniversary Ed.) (sides 1, 2)
*Henry Now: Then Again
*I.P.Y.: IPY25
*King Crimson: Lizard (selections)
*Charles Mingus: Nostalgia In Times Square/The Immortal 1959 Sessions (side 2)
*Thelonious Monk: Bremen 1965 (discs 1, 2)
*New Ting: 2026-01-12 "Seriously?" (wav)
*Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens
*Chris Potter/Craig Taborn: 2025-03-31 Cologne (CDR)
*Sun Ra: Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 (side 2)
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York City 1973) (sides 3, 4)
*Sun Ra: Hidden Fire (sides 1, 2)
*Tomeka Reid Quartet: 2025-09-26 Leibnitz, Austria (CDR)
*UYA: 1994-07-12 Think Like That (wav)
*XTC: English Settlement (sides 3, 4)

Reading List, Week of 2026-01-25

Reading List 2026-01-26:

*Garner, Bryan A. Modern American Usage, 2nd ed. (started)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: A Katnip Kantata in the Key of K: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 7: 1922 (started)
*Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas (started)
*Barker, Elspeth. O Caledonia (started/finished)
*Tanner, Tony. “The taming of the Shrew,” in Prefaces to Shakespeare (reread/started/finished)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: Sure as Moons Is Cheeses: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 6: 1921 (finished)
*Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew (Arden 3rd series, ed. Barbara Hodgdon) (reread/in progress)
*Stein, Gertrude. The Making of Americans (in progress)
 

Playlist, Week of 2026-01-18

This week ended up being a Sun Ra week, mostly... riding this Sun Ra/ Duke Ellington/"Dark Star" wave... It's After the End of the World was the first Sun Ra LP I owned... in my tender twenties, I didn't know what to make of it then, but I held onto it until I did... now, it's a fine artifact, even though it's been supplanted by the way more complete two-disc set Black Myth/Out in Space... even so, some fine Moog work here, real paint-peeling stuff... keeping this massive body of work in my head requires constant revisiting and mental updating... do I want to hear Ellingtonian swing, warped hard bop, synthesizer wildness, or radical solo piano? I want to hear all of it... 

Playlist 2026-01-19:

*AMM III: It Had Been an Ordinary Enough Day in Pueblo, Colorado "Radio Activity"
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-02-23 New Haven (CDR) (disc 3)
*Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Comp. 412)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium X (disc 6)
*Patsy Cline: Imagine That: The Lost Recordings 1954-1963 (disc 1)
*Duke Ellington: The Complete 1932-1940 Brunswick, Columbia and Master Recordings of Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra (discs 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 12 (disc 2)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Ellington Suites
*Marcus Gilmore: Journey to the New
*Paul Gonsalves: Ellingtonia Moods and Blues
*Grateful Dead: 1972-09-24 Waterbury CT (CDR) (disc 3) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 11 (1972-09-27 Jersey City, NJ) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1977-03-20 Winterland, S.F. (CDR) (disc 1)
*Joe Henderson with the Wynton Kelly Trio: Four!
*Andrew Hill: Compulsion!!!!!
*Bobby Hutcherson: Happenings
*I.P.Y.: IPY25
*Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra: Galactic Parables: Vol. 1 (disc 1) "Make Way to the City/The Arc of Slavery #72 (Part 1)
*Lee Morgan: The Gigolo
*Muffins: Baker's Dozen (disc 6)
*Camila Nebbia featuring Marilyn Crispell & Lesley Mok: A Reflection Distorts over Water
*New Ting: 2026-01-12 "Seriously?" (wav)
*Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens
*Keith Rowe/John Tilbury: Duos for Doris (disc 2)
*Sparks: MAD! (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Supersonic Jazz (21st Century Expanded Ed.) (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra: Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 [Sun Song]
*Sun Ra: Sound of Joy
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Jazz in Silhouette (Expanded Edition) (side 2)
*Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: Secrets of the Sun
*Sun Ra: Space Probe
*Sun Ra: Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 3: The Lost Tapes
*Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: It's After the End of the World: Live at the Donaueschingen and Berlin Festivals
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York City 1973) (side 2)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Live at Montreux (side 1)
*Sun Ra: Cosmos (side 2)
*Sun Ra: Piano Recital, Teatro La Fenice, Venezia
*Sun Ra: Purple Night
*Sun Ra Arkestra: Mayan Temples
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: In the Orbit of Ra (side 4)
*UYA: 1994-07-10 Eruption Conniption (wav)
*Various artists: That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History (1927-1934) (Vol. II, disc 4)
*Various artists: The Bottle Tapes: Selections from the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series 1996-2005 (disc 2)

Reading List, Week of 2026-01-18

 

Reading List 2026-01-19:

*Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew (Arden 3rd series, ed. Barbara Hodgdon) (reread/started)
*Stein, Gertrude. The Making of Americans (started)
*Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty (started/finished)
*Bernard, Bruce. Century (finished)
*Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew (Arden 2nd series, ed. Brian Morris) (reread/finished)
*Wade, Francesca. Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife (finished)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: Sure as Moons Is Cheeses: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 6: 1921 (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2026-01-11

 

Components is yet another excellent Blue Note recording from Bobby Hutcherson... Herbie Hancock is brilliant on this, and Joe Chambers' drumming, and compositions on all of Side 2, are tasteful and exhilarating... with its "components" (sorry) of avant-garde, outside/inside playing typical of the work of Hutcherson, Andrew Hill, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, etc. of this period, this album is one of the reasons I keep returning to mid-sixties Blue Note... The 1980 Art Ensemble of Chicago show features an hour-long rendition of "People in Sorrow" that is beautiful and stirring... Blissing out with Sun Ra and Duke Ellington... 

Playlist 2026-01-12:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-02-23 New Haven (CDR) (disc 2)
*Fred Astaire: Starring Fred Astaire (discs 1, 2)
*Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (mono 2024) (sides 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Comp. 416)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium X (discs 3, 4, 5)
*Patricia Brennan Septet: 2025-11-01 Berlin (CDR)
*Patsy Cline: Imagine That: The Lost Recordings 1954-1963 (disc 2)
*Miles Davis Quintet: Miles Smiles
*Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington 1939 (side 1)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Ellington Suites "The Queen's Suite"
*Duke Ellington: Anatomy of a Murder
*Duke Ellington: His Piano and His Orchestra at the Bal Masque (side 2)
*Duke Ellington: The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
*Globe Unity Orchestra: Globe Unity ‘67 & ‘70 "Globe Unity '70"
*Grateful Dead: 1972-09-15/16 Boston (Enjoying the Ride, disc 12)
*Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 36 (1972-09-21 Philadelphia) (disc 3) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1974-10-17 Winterland, SF (CDR) "The Other One"
*Grateful Dead/John Oswald: Grayfolded (disc 2) "73rd Star Bridge Sonata"
*Elmo Hope Ensemble: Sounds from Rikers Island
*Bobby Hutcherson: Components
*Ingrid Laubrock: Purposing the Air (discs 1, 2)
*Joe Morris: Abstract Forest
*Camila Nebbia/Kit Downes/Andrew Lisle: Exhaust
*Sam Rivers: Contours
*Wayne Shorter: Etcetera
*Wayne Shorter: Schizophrenia
*Sun Ra: The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 2
*Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra: Atlantis
*Sun Ra: Astro Black (side 2)
*Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra: Sign of the Myth (side 1)
*Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra: Friendly Love
*Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Arkestra: Outer Space Employment Agency
*Sun Ra: A Fireside Chat with Lucifer (side 2)
*Sun Ra: Celestial Love (side 2)
*Sun Ra: Blue Delight
*UYA: 1994-06-14 Acid Stipulation (wav)
*Maria Valencia/Brandon López/Matt Moran: Tarabita Espiral
*Various artists: The Bottle Tapes: Selections from the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series 1996-2005 (disc 1)
*Weather Report: 1974-09-27 Boston (CDR)
*Baby Face Willette: Stop and Listen
*Baby Face Willette: Face to Face 

Reading List, Week of 2026-01-11

It was fantastic to return to the world of Malazan... The Tales of Witness series is shaping up to be a worthy followup to the Book of the Fallen...
 

Reading List 2026-01-12:

*Wade, Francesca. Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife (started)
*Erikson, Steven. No Life Forsaken (finished)
*Bernard, Bruce. Century (in progress)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: Sure as Moons Is Cheeses: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 6: 1921 (in progress)
*Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew (Arden 2nd series, ed. Brian Morris) (reread/in progress) 

 

Sun Ra and the Blues

 

I like what Jason Weiss had to say about Sun Ra and Blue Delight: "What emerges time and again is 1001 ways of reading the blues" ("Sun Ra: The Living Future," Village Voice, 1989-07-04): a trait Ra shares with Duke Ellington.