A Small Break

http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/ice/iceimport.htm

The World of Abstract Dreams will resume in late September!

Playlist, Week of 2018-09-02

walk all over you.....

Playlist 2018-09-03:

*Dave Holland: Prism
*Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories (disc 1)
*Okkyung Lee/Christian Marclay: Amalgam
*Roscoe Mitchell/Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra: Ride the Wind
*Ikue Mori: Obelisk
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-08-13 "We Do Not Need to Stop Walking to Solve This Problem Now" (wav)
*Evan Parker ElectroAcoustic Septet: Seven
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Supersonic Jazz
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Of Mythic Worlds
*Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts
*Craig Taborn/Ikue Mori: Highsmith
*Various artists: That Devilin' Tune (Vol. IV, disc 4)
*Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Ed.) (disc 2)
*Residents: Meet the Residents (pREServed Edition) (disc 1)
*Roxy Music: The Thrill of It All (disc 3)
*Shardik: Shardik
*Various artists: WSAM: Summer on the Radio (CDR compilation)

Reading List, Week of 2018-09-02

Reading List 2018-09-03:

*Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park (reread/in progress)
*Poe's Children: The New Horror: An Anthology (ed. Peter Straub) (in progress)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)

Playlist, week of 2018-08-26

Read about the Horacee Arnold album here... I only wish I had heard it back when it came out... who knows, I may not have liked it as much (I suspect I would have), but it sounds damn good now...

Playlist 2018-08-27:

*Anton Webern: Complete Webern - Emerson String Quartet (disc 5)
*AMM: 2003-11-12 Glasgow (CDR)
*Horacee Arnold: Tales of the Exonerated Flea
*Borderlands Trio: Asteroidea
*Nels Cline 4: Currents, Constellations
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: The Mathematics of War
*Alice Coltrane: Lord of Lords
*John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Deluxe Edition) (disc 1)
*Tomas Fujiwara: Triple Double
*Mats Gustafsson/Paal Nilssen-Love/Mesele Asmamaw: Baro 101
*Barry Guy/Blue Shroud Band: Tensegrity (Small Formations) (disc 3)
*Locus Solus: 50³
*Nicole Mitchell: Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-06-25 "Wood and Wires" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-07-01 Strange Matter, Richmond VA (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-07-09 "It Was Great; Nothing Was Working" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-08-13 "We Do Not Need to Stop Walking to Solve This Problem Now" (wav)
*Polar Bear: Held On The Tips Of Fingers
*Terje Rypdal: Odyssey: In Studio & In Concert (disc 1)
*Tyshawn Sorey: Alloy
*Craig Taborn: Junk Magic
*Various artists: Subradar Sampler #02
*Chicago: Live VI Decades Live (This Is What We Do) (disc 1)
*Esquivel & His Orchestra: Complete 1954-1962 Recordings (disc 3)
*Firesign Theatre: In The Next World, You're On Your Own
*Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Ed.) (disc 1)
*Grateful Dead: 1970-10-17 Cleveland (CDR) (disc 1)
*Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 21: Boston 1973-04-02 (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Paul McCartney: Flowers in the Dirt (Deluxe Ed.) (disc 4)
*Paul McCartney: Flaming Pie
*Popol Vuh: Einsjäger und Siebenjäger
*Yes: 1974-02-28 Detroit (CDR) (disc 1)

Reading List, Week of 2018-08-26

Reading List 2018-08-27:

*Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park (reread/started)
*Poe's Children: The New Horror: An Anthology (ed. Peter Straub) (started)
*Tanner, Tony. “Henry VI Part 3,” in Prefaces to Shakespeare (reread/started/finished)
*Tanner, Tony. “Richard III,” in Prefaces to Shakespeare (reread/started/finished)
*Watterson, Bill. Calvin and Hobbes (reread/started/finished)
*Watterson, Bill. Something Under the Bed is Drooling (reread/started/finished)
*Watterson, Bill. Yukon Ho! (reread/started/finished)
*Watterson, Bill. Revenge of the Baby-Sat (reread/started/finished)
*Watterson, Bill. Scientific Progress Goes "Boink" (reread/started/finished)
*Celan, Paul. Breathturn (transl. Pierre Joris) (finished)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (reread/finished)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)

Reading List, Week of 2018-08-19

Better the second time....

Reading List 2018-08-20:

*Celan, Paul. Breathturn (transl. Pierre Joris) (started)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (reread/started)
*Tanner, Tony. “Henry VI Part 1,” in Prefaces to Shakespeare (reread/started/finished)
*Tanner, Tony. “Henry VI Part 2,” in Prefaces to Shakespeare (reread/started/finished)
*Bouros, Terri. Young Shakespeare's Young Hamlet: Print, Piracy, and Performance (finished)
*Pynchon, Thomas. Bleeding Edge (reread/finished)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2018-08-19

Alexander Hawkins' piano playing on A Night Walking Through Mirrors is wonderful... the future of jazz piano is safe with Hawkins, Kris Davis, Craig Taborn, and Agustí Fernandez... Taborn's work on The Bell is hypnotic and sublime... Back in the early '80s, a group of people called the Richmond Artists Workshop put together a fantastic series of performances in Richmond... they brought in Fred Frith (twice, once solo and once with Phil Minton) and Henry Kaiser (solo and with members of the Orthotonics and the Muffins)... the highlight for me, though, was Wadada Leo Smith in a beautifully contemplative trio set with Peter Kowald and Bobby Naughton... hard to imagine a series of that magnitude happening here these days...

Playlist 2018-08-20:

*Anton Webern: Complete Webern - Boulez (disc 2)
*AMM: Fine
*Anthony Braxton: Sextet (Parker) 1993 (disc 1)
*Harry Carney: With Strings
*Chicago/London Underground: A Night Walking Through Mirrors
*Chick Corea: The Complete “Is” Sessions (disc 1)
*Kris Davis: Good Citizen
*Whit Dickey/Mat Maneri/Matthew Shipp: Vessel in Orbit
*4-Story Saxophone Quartet: 2018-08-08 "Improvisation" (mp3)
*Milford Graves/John Zorn: 50²
*Barry Guy & London Jazz Composers Orchestra: 1975-03-10 London (CDR)
*Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories (disc 2)
*Roland Kirk: Volunteered Slavery
*Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble: Live at the Knitting Factory
*Roscoe Mitchell: Bells for the South Side (disc 2)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-07-09 "It Was Great; Nothing Was Working" (wav)
*Herbie Nichols: The Complete Blue Note Recordings (disc 2)
*Eddie Prévost-John Stevens Double Trio: 1978-08-02 London (CDR)
*Ches Smith: The Bell
*Wadada Leo Smith/Peter Kowald/Bobby Naughton: 1981-10-07 Richmond VA (CDR)
*Billy Strayhorn: !!!Live!!!
*Billy Strayhorn's Septet: Cue for Saxophone
*Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra: Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
*Craig Taborn/Ikue Mori: Highsmith
*Tommy Bolin: Whirlwind (disc 1)
*Esquivel & His Orchestra: Complete 1954-1962 Recordings (disc 2)
*5uu's: Crisis in Clay
*Grateful Dead: Anthem of the Sun (50th Anniversary Deluxe Ed.) 1967-10-22 Winterland (disc 2)
*Grateful Dead: 1971-10-29 Cleveland (CDR) (disc 2)
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 2 (finished, 08:18:15-11:42:36)
*Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 24: Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA 1972-08-25 (discs 2, 3)
*Grateful Dead: 1975-03-23 Kezar Stadium, San Francisco (CDR)
*Jefferson Pilot: The Optimist Field
*King Crimson: 1972-02-18 Detroit
*Paul McCartney: Flowers in the Dirt (Deluxe Ed.) (discs 2, 3)
*Popol Vuh: In den Gärten Pharaos
*Sonic Youth: Anagrama
*Sonic Youth: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom
*Various artists: Variations #6: The Library (Jon Leidecker) (CDR)
*Various artists: Variations #7: The Composer (Jon Leidecker) (CDR)
*Yes: Best of Wembley 1977 (boot CDR) (disc 1)

Playlist, Week of 2018-08-12

Really enjoying my third time through the 1972 Dark Star extravaganza... it's fun to dip into these extended improvisations totally out of context... of course, it's also great to listen to them totally in context, which I'll return to at some point in the future.... I came across a reference to Catatumbo on Ingrid Laubrock's website, hadn't heard it yet...a nice free improv trio, with her sax playing being typically inspiring... Always nice to return to Sun Ra's masterpiece When Angels Speak of Love... besides Gilmore (of course), the standout player for me on this is the under-recorded Walter Miller on trumpet...

Playlist 2018-08-13:

*Anton Webern: Complete Webern - Boulez (disc 1)
*AMM: 2001-04-15 Chicago (CDR)
*Catatumbo: Catatumbo
*John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Deluxe Edition) (disc 2)
*Jerry Goodman & Jan Hammer: Like Children
*Barry Guy/Blue Shroud Band: Tensegrity (Small Formations) (disc 2)
*Mary Halvorson Quartet: Paimon (Zorn/Book of Angels Vol. 32)
*Alexander Hawkins: Song Singular
*Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble: Let’s Call This...
*Roscoe Mitchell: Conversations II
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-07-01 Strange Matter, Richmond VA (wav)
*Billy Strayhorn: The Peaceful Side
*Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra: When Angels Speak of Love
*Craig Taborn: Avenging Angel
*Various artists: Subradar Sampler #01
*Various artists: That Devilin' Tune (Vol. 1, disc 7)
*Al Bowlly: Just a Bowl of Cherries: The Complete Flexi-Discs
*Scott Brookman, Yani Martinelli and Friends: Songs from the Old House​/​MADRID
*Esquivel & His Orchestra: Complete 1954-1962 Recordings (disc 1)
*Grateful Dead: Anthem of the Sun (50th Anniversary Deluxe Ed.) (disc 1)
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 2 (in progress, 04:56:08-09:05:15)
*Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 24: Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA 1972-08-25 (disc 1)
*Jefferson Pilot: The Optimist Field
*King Crimson: 1972-02-12 NYC (disc 2)
*Paul McCartney: Flowers in the Dirt (Deluxe Ed.) (disc 1)
*Panzerpappa: Koralrevens Klagesang
*Popol Vuh: Affenstunde
*Proctor and Bergman: TV or Not TV
*Bruce Springsteen: The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (disc 4)
*Various artists: Tokyo Flashback
*Various artists: Variations #5: The Discipline (Jon Leidecker) (CDR)
*Yes: Tales from Topographic Oceans (side 1)
*Frank Zappa: Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (disc 2)

Reading List, Week of 2018-08-12

One of the greatest books of comic art ever... Monty is still going strong....

Reading List 2018-08-13:

*Meddick, Jim. Primary Crullers: A Robotman Book (reread/finished)
*Shakespeare, William. Richard III (ed. John Jowett, New Oxford Shakespeare, Critical Reference Ed.) (reread/finished)
*Bouros, Terri. Young Shakespeare's Young Hamlet: Print, Piracy, and Performance (in progress)
*Pynchon, Thomas. Bleeding Edge (reread/in progress)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)

A Typically Perfect Pynchon Sentence

Jim Henderson. Looking north up Broadway at the Apthorp on a cloudy afternoon. 

Just one random perfect sentence from Bleeding Edge:

She squints past roofline contours, vents, skylights, water tanks and cornices under this pre-storm lighting, shining as if already wet against the darkening sky, down the street to where the cursed Deseret rears above Broadway, one or two storm-nervous lights already on, its stonework at this distance seeming too uncleansable, its shadows too many, ever to breach. (Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge (Penguin 2013), p. 199)

Playlist, Week of 2018-08-05

Shout-out to Scott Brookman and Yani Martinelli's new release... nice new batch of tunes, with Yani and friends augmenting phone videos of Scott playing guitar and singing... international cross-pollination!... Both Directions at Once is solid '63 Coltrane... I despise the crappy hype that has surrounded this release; these sessions were never planned as an album, "lost" or otherwise... the new compositions are wonderful... great to hear multiple studio versions of "Impressions," although none of them approach the barn-burning intensity of any of the '61 live versions... The new Parliament album is underwhelming... some nice stuff, sure, but I'm missing the funk... the P-Funk.. the bomb...

Playlist 2018-08-06:

*AMM: 2000-10-14 Boston (CDR)
*Cornelius Cardew: Works 1960–70 (Tilbury/Duch/Davies)
*Rodger Coleman: Gone Again
*John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Deluxe Edition) (disc 1)
*Mats Gustafsson & Thurston Moore: Hit the Wall!
*Barry Guy/Blue Shroud Band: Tensegrity (Small Formations) (disc 1)
*Alexander Hawkins Trio: Alexander Hawkins Trio
*Alexander Hawkins/Evan Parker: Leaps in Leicester
*Ahmad Jamal Trio: Jamal At The Pershing Volume 2
*Thelonious Monk: The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection (disc 2)
*Ikue Mori: In Light of Shadows
*Ikue Mori: Obelisk
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York, 1973) (disc 2)
*Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts
*Ben Webster with Strings: Music for Loving (disc 2)
*Lily Allen: No Shame
*Scott Brookman, Yani Martinelli and Friends: Songs from the Old House​/​MADRID
*Clash: Sandinista! (disc 2)
*Delivery: Fools Meeting
*Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 19: Honolulu Civic Auditorium 1970-01-23/24 (discs 2, 3)
*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 2 (in progress, 02:49:37-04:56:08)
*King Crimson: Lizard (40th Anniversary Series)
*Parliament: Medicaid Fraud Dogg
*Pink Floyd: A Tree Full of Secrets (disc 1)
*Spirit: Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
*Various artists:  Dim Lights, Thick Smoke & Hillbilly Music: Country & Western Hit Parade 1945

Reading List, Week of 2018-08-05

Reading List 2018-08-06:

*Meddick, Jim. Primary Crullers: A Robotman Book (reread/started)
*Pynchon, Thomas. Bleeding Edge (reread/started)
*The Living Dead 2 (ed.  John Joseph Adams) (finished)
*Shakespeare, William. Richard III (ed. John Jowett, New Oxford Shakespeare, Critical Reference Ed.) (reread/started)
*Bouros, Terri. Young Shakespeare's Young Hamlet: Print, Piracy, and Performance (in progress)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)