Nicole Mitchell and JoVia Armstrong at Artspace, RVA, 2025-11-10

 

 

  

Excellent show last night from Nicole Mitchell and JoVia Armstrong at Artspace in Richmond. Lots of electronics from both players, with several intensely trancey grooves. Just beautiful.

Playlist, Week of 2025-11-09

 

Duke Ellington's 1948 Carnegie Hall concert is a gem... the first documented recording of "Lush Life" (featuring its composer, Billy Strayhorn, on piano) and wonderful versions of "Reminiscing in Tempo" and "The Tattooed Bride" (also its premiere)... all this and Ben Webster too (although he's not featured nearly enough)... Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness) is poppier than other Praxis records I've heard, and is weaker for it... Jumpin' and jivin' with Luis Russell... now I can't get "The New Call of the Freaks" out of my head... More to say on the new release of Sun Ra's Supersonic Jazz after I've absorbed it some more...

Playlist 2025-11-10:

*Marshall Allen: The Universe Oriki
*AMM: The Inexhaustible Document
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Paris Session "The Ninth Room"
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1979-11-25 Washington DC (CDR) (disc 1)
*Beatles Remixers Group: Tuned to a Natural E, Vol. 4
*Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 173 "Opening Music - Introduction"
*Jack DeJohnette New Directions: 1992-02-22 Charlottesville VA (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Bob Dylan/Various artists: Theme Time Radio Hour S01 E49 "Death and Taxes"
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Carnegie Hall, November 13, 1948 (discs 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington: Second Sacred Concert
*Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong: Porgy and Bess
*Grateful Dead: 1971-10-21 Chicago (CDR) "Dark Star > Sittin' on Top of the World > Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 2 (1971-10-31 Columbus OH) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1971-12-05 NYC (CDR) "Dark Star > Me and My Uncle > Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1972-04-14 Copenhagen (disc 3) "Dark Star"
*Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid: Tarfala
*Joe Henderson: Mode for Joe
*Paul McCartney: Band on the Run (side 1)
*Roscoe Mitchell: One Head Four People
*Praxis: Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)
*Prince: Blast from the Past 7.0 (excerpts)
*Keith Rowe/John Tilbury: Duos for Doris (disc 1)
*Luis Russell 1929-1930 (disc 1)
*Tyshawn Sorey: The Inner Spectrum of Variables (disc 1)
*Tyshawn Sorey: Pillars (disc 3)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Supersonic Jazz (21st Century Expanded Ed.) (sides 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Prophet
*Weather Report: 1980-11-14 London (CDR)

Reading List, Week of 2025-11-09

A wonderful, satisfying (if bittersweet) ending to Pullman's marvelous series...

Reading List 2025-11-10:

*Leonard, Elmore. The Complete Western Stories (started)
*Pullman, Philip. The Rose Field (The Book of Dust, Vol. 3) (started/finished)
*Pullman, Philip. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, Vol. 2) (reread/finished)
*Bernard, Bruce. Century (in progress)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: The Limbo of Useless Unconsciousness: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 3: 1918 (in progress)
*Lambert, Eddie. Duke Ellington: A Listener's Guide (reread/selections)
*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VIII (Arden 2nd series, ed. R.A. Foakes) (reread/in progress)
 

Playlist, Week of 2025-11-02

 

In my "Dark Star" listening, I am now up to 1972, the beginning of the golden age of Dark Stars... some intense listening coming up, and the Steppin' Out "Star" (1972-04-08 London) is one of the best ever... Duke Ellington's Paris, March 1964 has great live versions of several tunes from The Far East Suite... As I have said before, I have found that I quite love Sun Ra's LP Prophet... so glad they discovered that music... it's amazing what he could do with an instrument he was playing for the first time... 

Playlist 2025-11-03:

*Rashied Ali/Frank Lowe: Duo Exchange (side 1)
*Art Ensemble: 1967/68 (disc 5) "Congliptious/Old"
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1979-06-29 NYC (CDR) (disc 2)
*Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (Super Deluxe Ed.) (disc 2)
*Sonny Clark: The Complete Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions (disc 3)
*Kenny Clarke/Andrew Cyrille/Milford Graves/Famoudou Don Moye: Pieces of Time (side 1)
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Cosmologies (side 1)
*John Coltrane: Selflessness featuring My Favorite Things (side 2)
*D’Angelo and the Vanguard: 2015-06-14 Bonnaroo, Manchester, TN (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Miles Davis: In Concert (disc 2)
*Jack DeJohnette New Directions: In Europe (side 1)
*Duke Ellington: The Girls' Suite/The Perfume Suite (side 1)
*Duke Ellington: Paris, March 1964
*Duke Ellington: Soul Call
*Duke Ellington: The Far East Suite (side 2)
*Faust: The Faust Tapes
*George: "Do You Want to Go...Swimming?"
*Grateful Dead: 1971-12-15 Ann Arbor (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1972-03-23 Academy of Music, NYC (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72 (disc 4) "Dark Star"
*Tim Harding/OJ Hunter/Fred McGann/Sam Byrd: 2025-11-01 RVA (CDR)
*King Crimson: Lizard (Elemental Mixes)
*Muffins: Baker's Dozen (disc 1)
*Pere Ubu: Datapanik in the Year Zero (sides 1, 2)
*Pere Ubu: New Picnic Time (sides 1, 2)
*Wayne Shorter: The All Seeing Eye
*Sonic Youth: Goodbye 20th Century (disc 1)
*Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: Paradiso Amsterdam 1970 (side 1)
*Sun Ra: Media Dreams (side 1)
*Sun Ra: On Jupiter (side 1)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Prophet (side 1)
*Sun Ra: Solo Works (CDR compilation)
*Sun Ra: Stray Voltage (discs 1, 2)
*Sun Ra Arkestra: Live at the Paradox
*Henry Threadgill: Listen Ship
*Trio of Bloom: Trio of Bloom
*UYA: 1994-03-13 Ideological Nipple (wav)
*UYA: 1994-03-24/27 Up Your Arkestra (wav)
*Various artists: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues (A Musical Journey) (disc 1)
*Various artists: Stax Revue: Live in '65! (discs 1, 2)
*John Zorn: Prolegomena
*John Zorn/Brian Marsella Trio: Nocturnes

Reading List, Week of 2025-11-02

Rereading His Dark Materials and the first two volumes of the Pullman trilogy The Book of Dust in preparation for the brand new third volume!

Reading List 2025-11-03:

*Pullman, Philip. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, Vol. 2) (reread/started)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: The Limbo of Useless Unconsciousness: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 3: 1918 (started)
*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VIII (Arden 2nd series, ed. R.A. Foakes) (reread/started)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: The Komplete Kat Komics, Vol. 1: 1916 (started/finished)
*Pullman, Philip. La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust, Vol. 1) (reread/started/finished)
*Pullman, Philip. The Amber Spyglass (reread/finished)
*Windsor-Smith, Barry. Monsters (reread/finished)
*Bernard, Bruce. Century (in progress)
*Lambert, Eddie. Duke Ellington: A Listener's Guide (reread/selections) 

 

 

Playlist, Week of 2025-10-26

I find it invigorating every so often to cleanse my musical palate with AMM or solo Keith Rowe... The Room fits the bill nicely... I was happy to finally get UYA Live at the Willow out on archive.org... over the last few years, I have been slowly working my way through all the UYA rehearsal tapes... we pretty much recorded everything, so there are multiple versions of songs we were working on (not really a problem for me to listen to since we were leaning toward the jazz side of things so every version is unique, for the most part) but there are also many, many improvisations (some successful, a few not)... there are over 350 of these tapes, and I have been going through them in chronological order for years now, taking notes and sorting out some possible tracks to put out, either on Bandcamp or the Internet Archive... it's an amazing but daunting body of work... I still have about 100 to go through, but it's slow going... I can't do more than one a week usually, so it's, shall we say, a long-term project... I listened to all of these right after we first recorded them, and I burned a few CDRs of some of the best improvs, but for the most part this music has been unheard by me since then, and it's been quite a revelation to revisit these 1988-1995 sessions... 

Playlist 2025-10-27:

*Lily Allen: West End Girl
*Marshall Allen: New Dawn
*Beatles: Abbey Road (Original Master Recording) (side 2)
*Beatles: Nice Time, Vol. 2 (boot CDR)
*Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Comp. 414)
*Peter Brötzmann Sextet/Quartet: More Nipples "More Nipples"
*Miles Davis: Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary (disc 2)
*Miles Davis: In Concert (disc 1)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Ellington Suites "The Queen's Suite"
*Duke Ellington: The Great Paris Concert (disc 1) "Suite Thursday"
*Duke Ellington: The Reprise Studio Recordings (disc 4)
*Duke Ellington: The Popular Duke Ellington (side 2)
*Duke Ellington: Live in Mexico "The Mexican Suite"
*Ella Fitzgerald: The Best of the Song Books
*Grateful Dead: 1971-04-25 Fillmore East (Enjoying the Ride, disc 7)
*Grateful Dead: 1971-11-15 Austin TX (CDR) "Dark Star > El Paso > Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1971-12-05 NYC (CDR) "Dark Star > Me and My Uncle > Dark Star"
*Herbie Hancock: Sextant (side 2)
*Tim Harding/OJ Hunter/Fred McGann/Sam Byrd: 2025-10-17 RVA (CDR)
*Bobby Hutcherson: Oblique
*ICP Orchestra: 2004-09-09 Bimhuis (CDR)
*Loretta Lynn: The Definitive Collection
*Rob Mazurek Sound Is Quintet: 2010-03-03 Italy? (CDR) (disc 2)
*Myra Melford: Snowy Egret
*Charles Mingus: Mingus Plays Piano (Spontaneous Compositions and Improvisations) (sides 1, 2)
*Thelonious Monk: Piano Solos (sides 1, 2)
*Muffins: Double Negative
*New Ting: 2025-10-20 "Tethered Dream" (wav)
*Evan Parker/Keith Rowe/Barry Guy/Eddie Prévost: Supersession
*Plumb: Plumb (discs 1, 2)
*Prince: Blast from the Past 6.0 (excerpts)
*Prince: Blast from the Past 7.0 (excerpts)
*Keith Rowe: The Room
*Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (BBC Symphony Orchestra)
*Sun Ra: Monorails & Satellites: Works for Solo Piano Vols. 1, 2, 3 (disc 3)
*Sun Ra: Nothing Is… (side 1)
*Sun Ra: Astro Black (side 1)
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York, 1973) (side 1)
*Cecil Taylor: Spring of Two Blue-J's (side 1)
*Trio of Bloom: Trio of Bloom
*UYA: 1994-03-01 Billy Ability (wav)
*Various artists: The Singing Detective: Music from the BBC TV Serial (discs 1, 2)
*Mal Waldron: The Call (side 1)
*Stevie Wonder: Music of My Mind
*Yes: Tales from Topographic Oceans "Ritual"
*Frank Zappa: Lumpy Gravy
*John Zorn: Prolegomena
*John Zorn/Brian Marsella Trio: Nocturnes

Reading List, Week of 2025-10-26

Reading List 2025-10-27:

*Bernard, Bruce. Century (started)
*Pullman, Philip. The Amber Spyglass (reread/started)
*Windsor-Smith, Barry. Monsters (reread/started)
*Pullman, Philip. The Subtle Knife (reread/started/finished)
*Herriman, George. Krazy and Ignatz: Love Letters in Ancient Brick (1927-28) (finished)
*O'Brien, Edna. Night (finished)
*Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene (finished)
*Lambert, Eddie. Duke Ellington: A Listener's Guide (reread/selections)