Playlist, Week of 2017-05-28

I've long been a sucker for the Hammond B-3 and similar organ sounds--nurtured by Felix Cavaliere and the Rascals--and lately, after a couple of years of digging Jamie Saft's work with Slobber Pup and Plymouth, not to mention John Medeski's playing in Simulacrum, I've been going back to the motherlode with Larry Young, first with the Tony Williams Lifetime and now with some great Blue Note albums... Then there's Alexander Hawkins, whose Decoy albums are full of brilliant off-kilter, spacey, and always stunning Ra-inspired organ work...  There's some great organ work from Rodger Coleman on our forthcoming release, too!... Have been digging Terry Adams' takes on Monk tunes, Talk Thelonious, especially his version of "Ruby, My Dear," which is as much a tribute to Brian Wilson as it is to Monk... The Hatfield and the North radio session from 1973 is notable for two reasons: Robert Wyatt guests on vocals (and does a killer duet with Richard Sinclair on "God Song"), and it is the only Hatfield recording I know of with Richard's cousin David Sinclair (formerly of Caravan and Matching Mole) on keyboards instead of Dave Stewart... it's a fabulous set...

Playlist 2017-05-29:

*Terry Adams: Talk Thelonious
*Colla Parte: 2015-08-15 Auxiliary, Richmond VA (wav)
*Convergence Quartet: Owl Jacket
*Decoy: Vol 1: Spirit
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Inscape - Tableaux
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-05-08 "No Crickets Here" (wav)
*Paraphrase: Pre-Emptive Denial
*Sun Ra: Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection 1952-1991 (disc 3)
*Larry Young: Into Somethin’
*Larry Young: Unity
*Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark
*Chicago: Live in Japan (disc 1)
*Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Blood & Chocolate
*Flaming Lips: Oczy Mlody
*Hatfield and the North with Robert Wyatt: 1973-01-02 Paris (CDR)
*Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Navigator
*Jefferson Pilot: Soundtrack to Welcome Stranger
*OOIOO: Shock City Shockers, Vol. 2: OOIOO Remix
*Wig Drop: Wig Drop 2
*Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: Meat Light: The Uncle Meat Project/Object Audio Documentary (discs 2, 3)

Reading List, Week of 2017-05-28

Reading List 2017-05-29:

*Aton, Ayé. Sun Ra + Ayé Aton: Space, Interiors and Exteriors, 1972 (started/finished)
*Corey, James S. A. Abaddon's Gate (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Josipovici, Gabriel. Hamlet: Fold on Fold (in progress)
*Shakespeare and the Digital World (ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan) (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)
*Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2017-05-21

Rodger Coleman sent me the final masters for our next CD release, Who Doesn't Fade?... he has done a fantastic job; it sounds wonderfully clean and is some of the spaciest stuff we've ever done... coming later this year... Continuing my ongoing explorations of Tom Rainey's drumming.... Drew Gress Quintet, Big Satan, Prezens, Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House, his own trio... the guy gets around!... Pianist Agustí Fernández's contributions to Barry Guy New Orchestra's Amphi • Radio Rondo are fantastic... My wife was at the Clash show in LA in 1982 featured on Stinkfoot in Hollywood... it's nice to think that I'm hearing her in the crowd!

Playlist 2017-05-22:

*Daniel Barbiero/Ken Moore: Lunge
*Big Satan: Souls Saved Hear
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (disc 2)
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Who Doesn't Fade? (final master wav)
*John Coltrane: Live in Japan "Leo"
*Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman: 2010-07-03 Whitney Museum of Modern Art, NYC (CDR)
*Exploding Star Orchestra: Stars Have Shapes
*Drew Gress Quintet: 2006-01-22 Bimhuis, Amsterdam (CDR) (disc 2)
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Amphi • Radio Rondo
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: 2014-05-22 London (CDR) (disc 2)
*Brian Jones Wurlitzer Trio: Drug Piano
*Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: Strong Place
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-05-08 "No Crickets Here" (wav)
*Prezens: Slipped on a Bar
*Tom Rainey Trio: 2011-05-06 Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT (CDR) (disc 2)
*Secret Keeper: Emerge
*Sun Ra: Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection 1952-1991 (disc 2)
*David Bowie: David Bowie [1969]
*Chicago: Live in Japan (disc 2)
*Clash: Stinkfoot in Hollywood (boot CDR)
*Heldon: Agneta Nilsson
*Joy Division: Closer
*King Crimson: 1971-1974 (CDR)
*NRBQ: High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective (selections)
*Tower of Power: In the Slot (side 1)
*Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: Road Tapes, Venue #2 (1973) (disc 2)

Reading List, Week of 2017-05-21

Reading List 2017-05-22:

*Corey, James S. A. Abaddon's Gate (in progress)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Josipovici, Gabriel. Hamlet: Fold on Fold (in progress)
*Shakespeare and the Digital World (ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan) (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)
*Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life (in progress)

Playlist, week of 2017-05-14

I'm loving Taylor Ho Bynum's large-scale works... Enter the Plustet takes a different approach than 2014's Navigation... it's both tighter and more expansive at the same time... I somehow missed out on Heldon and Richard Pinhas all through the 20th century, so thanks to Rodger I've been playing catch-up... great stuff (again with the incisive criticism!)... Working my way through some Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey duets I got off of youtube... and what pleasurable work it is! They play really well together and beautifully extend the legacy of Interstellar Space... it's hard for me to watch the videos, though, because I don't want to be influenced by Rainey... he's just so damn good, and watching him I just want to emulate everything he does... I couldn't pull it off but I'd make a fool of myself trying.. The live Drew Gress Quintet music is an excellent showcase for Tom Rainey's "jazzy" side... he really swings hard here, and his drumming is impeccable... The Nels Cline/Larry Ochs/Gerald Cleaver Trio + Marshall Allen set in Philly: sublime hardcore free improvisation... I saw this trio in Richmond and they were again sublime... here, Marshall Allen fits like a glove... life-affirming energy!...

Playlist 2017-05-15:

*Muhal Richard Abrams Quintet: 2016-01-31 Milan (CDR)
*Taylor Ho Bynum: Enter the Plustet
*Nels Cline/Larry Ochs/Gerald Cleaver Trio + Marshall Allen: 2016-12-11 Philadelphia (CDR)
*Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Aphelion
*Kris Davis: Duopoly
*Decoy & Joe McPhee: Oto
*Globe Unity Orchestra: 2016-11-04 Berlin (CDR)
*Drew Gress Quintet: 2006-01-22 Bimhuis, Amsterdam (CDR) (disc 1)
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Oort-Entropy
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: 2014-03-24 NYC (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: 2016-01-04 NYC (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: 2016-09-25 NYC (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey/Kris Davis/Ralph Alessi: Lark
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-17: "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-05-01 "Push That Sound Over Here, Will You?" (wav)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: It Is in the Brewing Luminous
*John Zorn: The Painted Bird
*Ahleuchatistas: What You Will
*David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (The Motion Picture Soundtrack) (disc 2)
*Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Style
*Gentle Giant: In a Glass House
*Keiji Haino: Experimental Mixture- In the World (disc 2)
*Heldon: Interface
*King Crimson: 1969-1970 (CDR)
*King Crimson: 1970-1971 (CDR)
*Minutemen: 3-Way Tie (For Last)
*UYA: 1990-03-19 Middle East, Cambridge MA (CDR)
*UYA: 1990-09-03 Willow Jazz Club, Somerville MA (CDR)

Reading List, week of 2017-05-14

Reading List 2017-05-15:

*Corey, James S. A. Abaddon's Gate (started)
*Josipovici, Gabriel. Hamlet: Fold on Fold (started)
*Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life (started)
*Erens, Pamela. The Virgins (started/finished)
*Kirkman, Robert, et al. The Walking Dead (issues 68-80) (started/finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Shakespeare and the Digital World (ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan) (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)

Hamlet's Double Movement

[Hamlet] is brilliantly constructed moment by moment to convey a sense at once of a hopeless stasis, of endless talk and nothing decisive happening, and of a machine hurtling helplessly towards a conclusion at once longed for and fought against.
     This doubleness is felt by every viewer and reader, but it is very difficult to hold on to. For if we try to understand the play, to fathom its deepest springs, we lose the sense of its unfolding in time, while if we focus on its relentless forward motion we feel ourselves being carried not towards understanding but away from it. And all the while this double movement precisely mirrors Hamlet's own experience. (Gabriel Josipovici, Hamlet: Fold on Fold, Yale Univ. Press, 2016, p. 8)

Two Excellent Articles from Daniel Barbiero

Actually, one is an essay and one's a review. Both are well worth reading:



A review of Jack Wright's new book...

...and an intriguing essay about free improvisation. Building on notions of self-exposure, he says:

The central, medium-independent content of free improvisation is the improviser’s disclosure of him- or herself, from the first person perspective. ...

Think of how music can convey an emotion such as agitation—with rapid flurries of notes, loud dynamics, dissonant pitch combinations it can model the restlessness and unease of an agitated emotional state. ... What is being represented is the state of the improviser, the first person perspective on the performance, in the medium of organized sound. ...

The expressive part of free improvisation’s content can be described—we can say of a player that his line is agitated or her harmonies are anxious—but in itself it isn’t description. Through the agitated line or anxious harmonies the performer isn’t describing his or her state but rather is expressing it.

The only caveat I would have for that is: don't underestimate the power of acting. My playing may be agitated, but I may be pretending, not expressing....

I love thinking about playing in this way, and Daniel's writing about music always gets in deep.

Playlist, Week of 2017-05-07

Not much to say about the new 3-CD set of Sun Ra singles except that the sound is much improved over the Evidence release. That, and finally having clean, best-sounding-ever versions of the Pat Patrick-heavy single "A Blue One" and "Orbitration in Blue," only rediscovered after the Evidence set came out, make this a must-have collection... The Ingrid Laubrock recording with the Serenus Zeitblom Oktett is more than just her sitting in (I realize my use of the word "just" could be taken pejoratively, but I don't mean it that way); it's a five-part composition by her, and it is wonderful. Strange and spacey at times, the string-heavy instrumentation (two electric guitars, viola, cello, electric bass) plus vibraphone is a great setting for her saxophone work... it's definitely an ensemble piece, not a concerto for saxophone... that being said, at times, it's downright Braxtonian... excellent music... Still loving the Barry Guy New Orchestra discs... I have been working my way through Andy Partidge's Fuzzy Warbles series... many gems scattered throughout, but also many reasons to remind me why he can be so infuriating and irritating at times, with many (most?) of the demos of XTC songs not so different from the released versions as to merit much interest, and with several pieces being just abrasive and self-indulgent (like "The Laugh Track" or "Jacob's Ladder")... but then he includes masterworks like "I Defy You Gravity" and "I Don't Want to Be Here" and all is forgiven...

Playlist 2017-05-08:

*Anthony Braxton: Trillium E (disc 4)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (disc 1)
*Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: 2007-12-29 Nashville
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Perihelion
*Eric Dolphy: Iron Man
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Oort-Entropy
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Amphi • Radio Rondo
*Mary Halvorson Septet: Illusionary Sea
*Ingrid Laubrock: Serpentines
*Manfred Schoof: European Echoes
*Sun Ra: Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection 1952-1991 (disc 1)
*John Zorn/Simulacrum: 49 Acts of Unspeakable Depravity in the Abominable Life and Times of Gilles de Rais
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-17: "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" (wav)
*Serenus Zeitblom Oktett with Ingrid Laubrock: 2016-09-06 Sardinia, Italy (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1981-11-07 Zurich (wav)
*Beach Boys: Made in California (disc 3)
*David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (The Motion Picture Soundtrack) (disc 1)
*Al Bowlly: Just a Bowl of Cherries
*Deerhoof: selections
*Henry Cow: Late
*Joy Division: Closer
*Andy Partridge: The Official Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Album (disc 9)
*Prince and the Revolution: Around the World in a Day
*Todd Rundgren: Box o'Todd (disc 2)
*UYA: 1991-04-17 Metalayers (wav)
*UYA: 1991-04-21 Castle Shadows (wav)

Reading List, Week of 2017-05-07

Reading List 2017-05-08:

*Corey, James S. A. Caliban's War (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Shakespeare and the Digital World (ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan) (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2017-04-30

Really enjoying Ingrid Laubrock's contribution to Music for a Film That Never Was, an anthology of invited musical contributions to imagined films. I love the concept, and her "Mississippi" is a mysterious, undulating evocation of a watery realm, scenes taking place on sunken ships... The Tony Williams Lifetime is a group I wish I'd really gotten into when they were active. I didn't discover them until the '80s. I prefer Turn It Over because of the addition of Jack Bruce. I can hear a definite influence of Tony Williams on the drumming of Bill Bruford with King Crimson. In many ways Lifetime is like an alternative Crimson with more organ and less posturing... I need to go back to Yamataka Eye and John Zorn's first duo recording to compare, but it's hard to see how it could be any better than Naninani II... there's so much going on, it's wonderfully varied in both texture and mood, and it feels like there's less screaming (not that I mind Eye's screaming, but less of it leaves room for the subtle keyboard and percussion work that's going on)... I always listen a bit every week to stuff I've played on; not only does it help my analyze (and try to improve) my own playing, but I always find that there's so much going on that I've missed, whether because of being so much in the moment, or paying attention to one part over another, or due to placement in the room and differing sound levels... I particularly find this to be the case with New Ting Ting Loft improvisations, and last week's piece "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" is no exception. For this one we tended to stay quiet for a good 20 minutes before breaking out the volume, which doesn't always happen... it makes for interesting textures and tensions...

Playlist 2017-05-01:

*Bloodcount: Saturation Point
*Anthony Braxton/Evan Parker: Duo (London) 1993
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium E (discs 2, 3)
*Stephan Crump/Ingrid Laubrock/Cory Smythe: Planktonic Finales
*Yamataka Eye and John Zorn: Naninani II
*Barry Guy New Orchestra: Oort-Entropy
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-10 "Swipe Out" (m4a)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-17: "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" (wav)
*Herbie Nichols: The Complete Blue Note Recordings (disc 3)
*Paradoxical Frog: 2011-06-10 Vision Festival, NYC (CDR)
*Various artists: Music for a Film That Never Was (streaming)
*Tony Williams: Spring
*Tony Williams Lifetime: Turn It Over
*Ahleuchatistas: Of the Body Prone
*Deerhoof: La Isla Bonita
*Steve Hackett: Voyage of the Acolyte
*Henry Cow: Cow Cabinet of Curiosities
*Andy Partridge: Fuzzy Warbles 5
*Andy Partridge: Fuzzy Warbles 6
*Various artists: Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World
*Various artists: Rum Punch
*Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: Road Tapes, Venue #2 (1973) (disc 1)

Reading List, Week of 2017-04-30

Reading List 2017-05-01:

*Corey, James S. A. Caliban's War (started)
*Shakespeare and the Digital World (ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan) (started)
*Kirkman, Robert, et al. The Walking Dead (issues 64-67) (started/finished)
*Corey, James S. A. Leviathan Wakes (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)