Playlist, Week of 2017-08-27

A couple of recent Dime acquisitions... the Henry Threadgill set from the Big Ears Festival is nice, pretty sedate... The Lol Coxhill-Richard Sinclair gig from 1975 is testing my ability to mentally compensate for dodgy bootleg sound... it's a really rough audience recording, but it's also a one-time event, and the playing is really nice... Sinclair's bass playing comes through clearer than the drumming... I will have more to say about the new Sun Ra releases from Cosmic Myth Records in a separate posting... I will just say here that they are excellent and are must-haves... Jazz Free is a guitar extravaganza... The Susan Alcorn trio set (with Ingrid Laubrock) is brilliant... Laubrock is so good at pulling off these amazing extended quiet improvisations...

Playlist 2017-08-28:

*Air: Live Air
*Air: Air Mail
*Susan Alcorn/Ingrid Laubrock/Leila Bordreuil: 2017-08-18 Brooklyn NY (wav)
*Jim Black: Alasnoaxis
*Nels Cline/Henry Kaiser/Jim Thomas/Weasel Walter/Allen Whitman: Jazz Free: A Connective Improvisation
*Henry Kaiser & Wadada Leo Smith: Yo Miles! (disc 1)
*New Air: Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-08-21 "Fire Head" (wav)
*Sun Ra: Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection 1952-1991 (discs 1, 2)
*Sun Ra: selections (Bandcamp streaming)
*Sun Ra: Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold
*Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: The Magic City (Full Stereo Version)
*Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra: My Brother the Wind Vol. 1 (Remastered and Expanded Edition)
*Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees
*Henry Threadgill's Zooid: 2017-03-26 Knoxville TN (CDR)
*Big Star: Complete Third (disc 3)
*Coxhill Sinclair Band: 1975-11-21 Reims, France (CDR)
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Greg Jordan/Sam Byrd: 2017-06-17 (wav) (selections)
*Gong: Expresso II
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 1 (in progress, 06:00:00-08:27:00)
*Guided By Voices: August by Cake
*Various artists: She's So Fine: The Rise of the Girl Groups (disc 2)
*Various artists: Ol' Virginia Soul, Part 1: Jump Up and Down

Reading List, Week of 2017-08-27

Reading List 2017-08-21:

*Jones, John. Shakespeare at Work (started)
*Sharpe, Matthew. Jamestown (started)
*Hays, Michael L. "Shakespeare's Hand Unknown in Sir Thomas More: Thompson, Dawson, and the Futility of the Paleographic Argument," in Shakespeare Quarterly, 67:2 (2016) (started/finished)
*King, Frank. Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 4: 1927-1928 (finished)
*Le Carré, John. The Little Drummer Girl (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)
*Sun Ra. Collected Works Vol. 1: Immeasurable Equation (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2017-08-20

In the 1975 Henry Cow show with Robert Wyatt at the New London Theatre, Wyatt is not just a guest; he is fully integrated with the band... part of this show was excerpted on the LP Concerts, but it's especially nice to hear Wyatt performing on Cow classics like "Beautiful as the moon; Terrible as an Army with Banners" and "Living in the Heart of the Beast"... the whole show is quite extraordinary, actually... The new Guided By Voices album sounds to my untutored ears like some of the most cohesive stuff Robert Pollard has put out in recent years... some great gems here... love the crossfading and quick transitions too... I hadn't forgotten about it, but it'd been a while, so it was nice to return to Antony Braxton's Echo Echo Mirror House Music... deep and nourishing... the unedited odyssey of Big Star's third album as documented in Complete Third shows that things weren't necessarily as incoherent or chaotic as legend sometimes has it... the early demos perhaps capture its spirit best...

Playlist 2017-08-21:

*Anthony Braxton: Trillium E (disc 2)
*Anthony Braxton: 3 Compositions (EEMHM) 2011 (disc 2)
*Nels Cline Trio: Ground
*Duke Ellington Small Groups: Back Room Romp
*Duke Ellington: The Great Ellington Units
*Sun Ra: selections (Bandcamp streaming)
*Sun Ra: Spaceways
*Sun Ra and His Astro Ihnfinity Arkestra: The Intergalactic Thing
*Sun Ra and His Mythic Science Arkestra: The Paris Tapes: Live at le Theatre du Chatelet 1971
*Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra: Sign of the Myth
*World Saxophone Quartet: Requiem for Julius
*Big Star: Complete Third (discs 1, 2)
*Dreamhead: 1991-04-28 Harp Studio, MA (selections)
*Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12 (disc 2)
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Greg Jordan/Sam Byrd: 2017-06-17 (wav)
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Greg Jordan/Sam Byrd: 2017-07-15 (wav)
*Gong: Angel's Egg
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 1 (in progress, 05:07:00-06:00:00)
*Guided By Voices: August by Cake
*Henry Cow & Robert Wyatt: 1975-05-21 London (wav)
*Neu!: Neu!
*Tito Puente: The Essential Tito Puente (disc 1)
*UYA: 1991-05-05/27 The New Hippies (wav)
*Various artists: She's So Fine: The Rise of the Girl Groups (disc 1)
*Yes: Going for the One

Reading List, Week of 2017-08-20

Reading List 2017-08-21:

*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Lunar Follies (reread/finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*King, Frank. Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 4: 1927-1928 (reread/in progress)
*Le Carré, John. The Little Drummer Girl (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)
*Sun Ra. Collected Works Vol. 1: Immeasurable Equation (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2017-08-13

A short list, but action-packed. I put the 10-hour compilation of all the 1972 "Dark Star" improvs from the Grateful Dead on my phone. It was a travel week, so it was great to have it going while in the hotel room. I understand there's a Version 2 out there now--I need to snag that. Guess I'll finish getting through Version 1 first--this will be the second time through. It's great stuff.

Playlist 2017-08-14:

*Beach Boys: Today/Summer Days and Summer Nights (two-fer)
*Beach Boys: 50 Big Ones (disc 1)
*Beatles: With the Beatles (2009 mono remaster)
*Beatles: Hard Day's Night (2009 mono remaster)
*Beatles: Help! (2009 mono remaster)
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 1 (in progress, 01:10:00-05:07:00)

Reading List, Week of 2017-08-13

Reading List 2017-08-14:

*Le Carré, John. The Little Drummer Girl (started)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Lunar Follies (reread/started)
*MacDonald, Ross. The Chill (reread/started/finished)
*Le Carré, John. The Secret Pilgrim (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*King, Frank. Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 4: 1927-1928 (reread/in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)
*Sun Ra. Collected Works Vol. 1: Immeasurable Equation (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2017-08-06

Just getting around to Neu!... trancy space-rock, really nice... The more I listen, the more I realize I don't really know that much, and certainly don't have the vocabulary to express what I think about the music I listen to... unless you catch me with a beer... Maybe next week...

Playlist 2017-08-07:

*Anthony Braxton: Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (disc 4)
*Anthony Braxton: 3 Compositions (EEMHM) 2011 (disc 1)
*Nels Cline: Coward
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2015-05-14 Nashville (wav) (selections)
*Alexander Hawkins: Unit[e]
*Decoy & Joe McPhee: Oto
*Henry Kaiser & Wadada Leo Smith: Yo Miles!
*Maurice McIntyre: Humility in the Light of the Creator
*Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 (disc 2)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-07-17 "Back Link, Don't Leak" (wav)
*No Material: No Material (disc 1)
*Bud Powell: Tempus Fugue-It (disc 4)
*Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: The Magic City
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: The Sun Myth (African Chant) (streaming)
*Sun Ra: The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums: Cymbals & Crystal Spears (disc 2)
*Sun Ra: Disco 3000: The Complete Milan Concert 1978 (Art Yard) "Disco 3000"
*George Clinton: George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love
*Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12 (disc 1)
*Guided By Voices: August by Cake
*Gong: Camembert Electrique
*Gong: Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1)
*Gong: You
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 (started, 00:00:00-01:10:00)
*Jayhawks: Tomorrow the Green Grass
*Neu!: Neu!
*Neu!: Neu! 2
*Prince: For You

Reading List, Week of 2017-08-06

For more on Sorrentino's first novel, see Daniel Green's chapter from his forthcoming book on Sorrentino's work.

Reading List 2017-08-07:

*Le Carré, John. The Secret Pilgrim (started)
*Sun Ra. Collected Works Vol. 1: Immeasurable Equation (started)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. The Sky Changes (reread/started/finished)
*Clinton, George, with Ben Greenman. Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You? (finished)
*Youngquist, Paul. A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*King, Frank. Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 4: 1927-1928 (reread/in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)

A Pure Solar World

This excellent meditation and study of various aspects of Sun Ra's work contains the best explication of Ra's poetry I've ever read, explaining his concepts of equations and clarifying how the poetry and the music reinforce each other in equational conceptual loops. Highly recommended! For more, here are two good reviews.

The Magic City

The Magic City is:

quite simply the most moving, evocative, and sustained group improvisation to come out of the sixties (Paul Youngquist, A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism, 2016, p. 186)

I could't agree more! I note with excitement that Cosmic Myth Records is now offering this (on vinyl and on CD) in a remastered stereo version. Has anyone heard this?

Also, there's tons of Ra on Bandcamp all of a sudden...many digital releases plus many of the bonus tracks that were previously only available on iTunes. You can see my overview of some of those bonus tracks here, plus more here. Exciting!