Playlist, Week of 2024-11-17

We Are on the Edge just gets better and better every time I listen to it... a true landmark record... Nice to have more Charlie Parker but nothing earth-shattering or revelatory on Bird in Kansas City... Brilliant piano trio playing from Matt Mitchell, but from him I expect no less... Revisiting old favorites: Juju: comfort food for the ears... Joe Henderson rocking it on Unity... John Gilmore smoking on Music from Tomorrow's World... I had it in my mind that he didn't solo so much on the Majestic session, but he definitely does, especially on "Possession"... that whole CD is damn revelatory, and explores whole sides of Sun Ra not heard elsewhere... specifically, live 1960 Arkestra and the superlative arrangements on the Majestic session (more florid and worked-out than the Transition albums)... 

Playlist 2024-11-18:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (disc 1)
*Beatles: Real Love (maxi CD single)
*Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips: Time Will Tell
*John Blum Quartet feat. Marshall Allen: Deep Space
*Kim Cass: Levs
*George Clinton/P-Funk All Stars: How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? (disc 1)
*John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings (disc 15)
*Miles Davis: Miles at the Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 (disc 1)
*Bob Dylan: Together Through Life
*Bob Dylan: Tempest
*Duke Ellington: The Complete 1936-1940 Variety, Vocalion, and Okeh Small Group Sessions (disc 7)
*Farmers By Nature: Out of This World's Distortions
*Agustí Fernández Ensemble: Via Augusta
*Forebrace: Steeped
*Grateful Dead: 1989-10-09 Hampton VA (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Mary Halvorson: Reverse Blue
*Hatfield and the North: The Manor Demos
*Alexander Hawkins Trio: Carnival Celestial
*Dave Holland New Quartet: 2023-07-13 Pori, Finland (CDR)
*Jackie McLean: Action
*Matt Mitchell: Zealous Angles
*Roscoe Mitchell's Cards For Orchestra Project: 2009-08-30 Sant'Anna Arresi, Italy (CDR)
*Roscoe Mitchell: Conversations II
*New Ting: 2024-11-11 "Wall Hangings and a Crustacean"(wav)
*Charlie Parker: Bird in Kansas City
*David Sancious and Tone: Transformation (The Speed of Love)
*Wayne Shorter: Juju (side 1)
*Sparks: Big Beat (side 2)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Music from Tomorrow's World
*Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra: Strange Strings (Expanded Edition) (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra and His All-Star Inventions: 1991-11-17 NYC (CDR) (disc 1)
*Sun Ra: Saturn Research: Rarities and Oddities (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2)
*Craig Taborn/Tomeka Reid/Ches Smith: 2023-03-05 Vienna (CDR)
*Sharon Tandy: You Gotta Believe It's... Sharon Tandy
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1966-11-30 Paris (CDR)
*Thumbscrew: Wingbeats
*Lennie Tristano: Personal Recordings 1946-1970 (disc 5)
*Anna Webber: Shimmer Wince
*Anna Webber: simpletrio2000
*Larry Young: Unity

Playlist, Week of 2024-01-14

 

Back to my "comfort listening"... lots of Grateful Dead, especially "Dark Star" and "The Other One," some Cecil Taylor, some Sun Ra... Art Ensemble of Chicago, Roscoe Mitchell, Matana Roberts... next week, some Anthony Braxton... Also trying to absorb new sounds, like Kate Gentile's amazingly challenging new album Find Letter X... the work of her as a solo artist and with Matt Mitchell (especially on Snark Horse) is consistently invigorating and different... angular, knotty composed melodic lines underpinned by an ever-shifting rhythmic pulse with irregular patterns and angular, knotty drum sentences... her drumming encompasses and synthesizes free jazz, Chris Cutler-style rock, and dynamic metal... Matt Mitchell is a brilliant piano player, and I'm looking forward to seeing him at Big Ears this year... too bad Gentile isn't in the lineup as well!

Playlist 2024-01-15:

*AACM Great Black Music Ensemble: Umbria Jazz 2009, Perugia, Italy (CDR) (disc 1)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-08-03 Seattle (CDR)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (disc 2)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris (Live at Sons D’Hiver) (disc 1)
*Beach Boys: I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions (disc 1)
*Beatles: The Beatles (Super Deluxe Edition) (disc 7) (PCM Stereo, sides 1, 2)
*Beatles: 1967-1970 (2023 Edition) (sides 1, 2)
*Paul Bley: With Gary Peacock
*Paul Bley: Open, To Love
*D’Angelo: Brown Sugar (Deluxe Ed.) (disc 1)
*Miles Davis Quintet: In Concert at the Olympia, Paris 1957
*Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet: As Things Go
*Kate Gentile: Find Letter X (discs 2, 3)
*Gong: Gazeuse!
*Grateful Dead: Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings (disc 9)
*Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 48 (1971-11-20 UCLA) (disc 2) "The Other One"
*Grateful Dead: 1972-09-27 Jersey City, NJ (Dick's Picks 11) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead 1973-10-25 Madison, WI (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1974-07-25 Chicago (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1982-09-21 NYC (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Fletcher Henderson: Louis Armstrong with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra 1924 to 1925 (side 2)
*Dave Holland Prism: 2013-10-25 Umea, Sweden (CDR) (disc 2)
*Jefferson Pilot: Sad Magazine
*Ingrid Laubrock: Monochromes
*London Brew: London Brew (disc 1)
*Madvillain: Madvillainy
*Mars Volta: Amputechture
*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (disc 2)
*Roscoe Mitchell: Sound Songs (discs 1, 2)
*Nieuw Ensemble: 2011-01-20 Amsterdam (CDR) (Stockhausen, Berio, Xenakis, etc.)
*Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter One: Les Gens de Couleur Libres (sides 1, 2)
*Wadada Leo Smith: Najwa "Ornette Coleman's Harmolodic Sonic Hierographic Forms: A Resonance Change in the Millennium"
*Sparks: Live at the Record Plant 1974 (sides 1, 2)
*Sparks: The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: Secrets of the Sun (side 1)
*Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: Paradiso Amsterdam 1970 (side 1)
*Cecil Taylor/Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1984-10-30 Paris (CDR) (track 2)
*Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane: 2004-03-23 NYC (CDR) (disc 2)
*Tony Williams Lifetime: Emergency!
*XTC: 3D EP
*John Zorn/Incerto: Full Fathom Five
*John Zorn: Bagatelles Vol. 4: Ikue Mori

Playlist, Week of 2021-06-06

All of a sudden it's summertime, and a perfect time for absorbing Matt Mitchell's elliptic and cryptic piano work with Anna Weber... and also on Tim Berne's Snakeoil's live recordings... Slowly absorbing lots of new sounds (new to me, anyway): Burial, Robert Turman, Duke Ellington... so many worlds... 

Playlist 2021-06-07:

*B-52’s: Cosmic Thing
*Beach Boys: Today
*Beatles: Rubber Soul (2009 stereo remaster) (sides 1, 2)
*Tim Berne's Snakeoil: The Deceptive 4 (Live) (disc 2)
*Ran Blake Quartet: Short Life of Barbara Monk
*Burial: Tunes 2011-2019 (disc 1)
*John Coltrane: Meditations
*Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Get Happy
*Connie Crothers/David Arner: Spontaneous Suite for Two Pianos (disc 2)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Live at Newport 1958 (discs 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington: Live in Mexico
*Explorers Club: Grand Hotel
*Grateful Dead: 1972-04-11 Newcastle Upon Tyne, England (CDR) "Truckin'"
*Jimmy Giuffre 3: 1961 (disc 2)
*Al Green: Greatest Hits (sides 1, 2)
*Johnny Hodges and the Ellington All-Stars without Duke: Duke's in Bed
*Buddy Holly: The Buddy Holly Collection (disc 1)
*John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Ultimate Collection) (disc 7)
*Paul and Linda McCartney: Ram (half speed remastering) (side 2)
*Charles Mingus: Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 (disc 4)
*Roscoe Mitchell & the Note Factory: Song for My Sister
*David Murray Big Band: David Murray Big Band
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*Mustafa Özkent: Gençlik İle Elele
*Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R
*Robert Turman: Chapter Eleven (disc 4)
*Various artists: The Rough Guide to Boogaloo
*Anna Webber: Simple
*John Zorn: Azoth

Playlist, Week of 2018-04-15

 

Two recent albums featuring pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Kate Gentile have been exciting me for the last few weeks: Mitchell's A Pouting Grimace and Gentile's Mannequins... both of these were on several of last year's best-of lists, and with good reason... both have compositions with intriguing, knotty melodic lines that turn and twist on themselves... Mitchell's piano and electronics work is exquisite, and Gentile is a clean inventive drummer whose textures sometimes evoke Chris Cutler... in fact, much of this music evokes the improvisational textures of late-era Henry Cow, which makes sense when you consider that Mitchell used to play in Thinking Plague... Mitchell's music is also more than a little related to the work he's done with Tim Berne's Snakeoil... I continue to revisit Sonic Youth with awe at the sheer, oh I don't know, guitar-ness of it all... I don't know when I'll return in depth to Cecil Taylor... I am still reeling from the news of his death... In the meanwhile, I plan on continuing to explore Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell... especially since this week marks the ending of my Henry Threadgill listening spree... for me, the studio albums are far stronger than all the live shows, especially the Zooid ones... and his two most recent albums, In for a Penny and Old Locks are among his strongest ever...

Playlist 2018-04-16:

*AMM: Fine
*Lotte Anker/Craig Taborn/Gerald Cleaver: Triptych
*Tim Berne's Snakeoil: You've Been Watching Me
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2017-12-27 Nashville (selections)
*Decoy & Joe McPhee: Oto
*Tomas Fujiwara: Triple Double
*Kate Gentile: Mannequins
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Oort-Entropy
*Matt Mitchell: A Pouting Grimace
*Roscoe Mitchell: Duets with Tyshawn Sorey and Special Guest Hugh Ragin
*Roscoe Mitchell: Bells for the South Side (disc 2)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-03-19 "Cornering the Market" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-03-26 "Bowser Intake Ratio" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-04-02 "Hold It Against Me" (wav)
*Wadada Leo Smith: Najwa
*Tyshawn Sorey: The Inner Spectrum of Variables (disc 1)
*Tyshawn Sorey: Verisimilitude
*Sun Ra: selections (Bandcamp streaming)
*Henry Threadgill Zooid: In for a Penny, In for a Pound
*Henry Threadgill Ensemble Double Up: Old Locks and Irregular Verbs
*Henry Threadgill Zooid: 2017-03-26 Knoxville TN (CDR)
*Lily Allen: Sheezus
*Colin Blunstone: Ennismore
*Carter Family: Volume 2 1935-1941 (disc 2)
*Firesign Theatre: I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus
*Grateful Dead: 1969-02-22 Vallejo CA (CDR)
*Grateful Dead: Three from the Vault (1971-02-19 Port Chester, NY) (disc 2)
*J.B.'s: Funky Good Time: The Anthology (disc 1)
*Ozric Tentacles: Jurassic Shift
*Panda Bear: Person Pitch
*Lee Perry: I Am the Upsetter (disc 3)
*Rascals: Freedom Suite (side 4)
*Sonic Youth: Evol
*Sonic Youth: Sister
*Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation
*Sonic Youth: Goo
*This Heat: This Heat
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Various artists: Eccentric Soul: The 4J Label
*Hank Williams: The Original Singles Collection (disc 1)
*WMWS: One Night Stand
*Yes: 1975-07-23 Providence RI (CDR) (disc 1)
*Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: The Roxy Performances (disc 1)