Playlist, Week of 2017-07-30

The performance of the Barry Guy New Orchestra, with Elliott Sharp, in Berlin in 2009 is just brilliant... Sharp's guitar and electronics are featured in the first piece, "Danaus," while the second piece, "Radio Rondo," focuses largely on the excellent piano work of Agustí Fernandez... Barry Guy's compositions for large ensemble continue to astound me... Sketches from Bamboo is a remarkable set of compositions for large ensemble from Roscoe Mitchell, from back in 1979... personnel includes Marilyn Crispell on piano, Anthony Braxton and Douglas Ewart on reeds, and Leo Smith on trumpet... I love the AACM-related large ensembles like this... in the early- to mid-80s, there were several creative orchestra ensembles sharing similar lineups from Braxton, Mitchell, and Smith... they are remarkably rich and nuanced... I am reading good things about Roscoe Mitchell's newest album on ECM... it's great to know he's still kicking it!... I have been enjoying investigating the various versions of John Zorn's Cobra out there... I went to an afternoon rehearsal of the game that Zorn conducted (coached?) at Harvard back in the, what? late '80s?... it wasn't as successful as any of the recordings... the Harvard students weren't loose enough... easy to understand; Zorn was an imposing figure, not bent on making anyone comfortable... Weasel Walter's Firestorm: good old-fashioned hardcore free jazz... always good to hear Marshall Allen blowing hard in this context... Sometimes things just up and grab you... smack you up the head in unexpected ways that make you think gaddam we are living in great musical times... case in point: the second disc of the Anthony Braxton São Paulo quartet set... this struck me last year, and it hit me again last night... somewhere around 45 minutes in, Braxton starts vocalizing through the horn in a way I haven't heard him do before, then Ingrid Laubrock joins in, embellishing the vocalizations, then all of a sudden Mary Halvorson comes in with a totally different sound universe of chords, as if from a different band, and wow it's just awesome, in the best sense of that word... this is just deep, beautiful music... what a great musical universe we live in.

Playlist 2017-07-31:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1997-06-29 Vignola, Italy (CDR)
*Han Bennink/Misha Mengelberg: Instant Composers Pool 010
*Anthony Braxton: Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Anthony Braxton: Anthony Braxton Quartet [Sao Paulo 2014] (disc 2)
*Kris Davis Trio: Waiting for You to Grow
*Kris Davis: Capricorn Climber
*Kris Davis/Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: 2011-10-22 Cormòns, Italy (CDR)
*Kris Davis Infrasound: Save Your Breath
*Barry Guy New Orchestra & Elliott Sharp: 2009-11-06 Berlin (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: 2011-07-25 NYC (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock: Serpentines
*Roscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra: Sketches from Bamboo
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-07-17 "Back Link, Don't Leak" (wav)
*Bud Powell: Tempus Fugue-It (disc 3)
*Ben Redwine/Daniel Barbiero/Jonathan Matis: Microeconomics
*Marc Ribot: Shoe String Symphonettes
*Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybody's Mouth's a Book
*Weasel Walter Quartet and Double Trio: Firestorm
*John Zorn: Cobra (disc 1)
*John Zorn: John Zorn's Cobra: Tokyo Operations '94
*Cornelius: Mellow Waves
*Brian Eno: Reflection
*Esquivel: More of Other Worlds, Other Sounds
*Gong: Angel's Egg
*Grateful Dead: Live/Dead "Dark Star"
*Henry Kaiser: Everything Forever
*King Crimson: Islands (40th Anniversary Ed.) (disc 1)
*Raymond Scott: Manhattan Research Inc. (disc 1)
*Bruce Springsteen: The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (disc 1)
*Tasavallan Presidentti: Lambert Land
*Wig Drop: Wig Drop 2
*Robert Wyatt: Rarities, Vol. 1 (boot CDR)