Playlist, Week of 2019-04-28

As mentioned last week, lots of AMM here... amazing how stylistically consistent they remain through the years despite various personnel changes and evolving loci of attention... But also some great solo piano... Alexander Hawkins continues to blow me away in all the settings he chooses to explore.. his newest release is gorgeous... Towards a 21st-century pantheon of solo piano: Kris Davis: Massive Threads; Craig Taborn: Avenging Angel; Alexander Hawkins: Iron into Wind (Pears from an Elm)...

Playlist 2019-04-29:

*Muhal Richard Abrams/George Lewis/Roscoe Mitchell: 2003-09-20 Venice (CDR)
*AMM: Laminal (discs 1, 2)
*AMM: 1988-01 BBC Maida Vale Studios (CDR)
*AMM: The Inexhaustible Document
*AMM: Before Driving to the Chapel We Took Coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed
*AMM: An Unintended Legacy (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Daniel Barbiero: Complex Silence 37
*Daniel Barbiero & Cristiano Bocci: Wooden Mirrors
*Anthony Braxton: 1973-08-22/25: Chateauvallon (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton/Derek Bailey: Royal Volume 1
*Anthony Braxton: GTM (Syntax) 2017 (disc 6) (streaming)
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd/Robert Andrew Scott: 2019-03-30 Richmond (wav)
*Alexander Hawkins: Iron into Wind (Pears from an Elm)
*Large Unit: Fluku
*Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: 2016-11-12 Wels, Austria (CDR)
*Masters of Disorientation: 1990-02-25 Birmingham, Eng. (CDR) (disc 1)
*Naked City: Radio
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2016-03-28 “Well Extract Belief System” (wav)
*Tony Oxley: 4 Compositions for Sextet
*Evan Parker Electroacoustic Nonet: 2015-08-28 Mulhouse, France (CDR)
*RAIC: Lamentations
*RAIC: The Heart's Message Cannot be Delivered in Words (wav rough mix)
*David Sancious: Forest of Feelings
*Archie Shepp: Mama Too Tight
*Ches Smith: The Bell
*Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra: The Solar-Myth Approach (Vol. 2)
*Craig Taborn Junk Magic: 2008-08-24 Saalfelden (CDR)
*David Bowie: Live Nassau Coliseum '76 (discs 1, 2)
*David Bowie: Re:Call 2
*Heldon: Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale
*Muffins: Manna/Mirage
*Palberta: 2017-02-10 Brooklyn (CDR)
*Palberta: 2018-05-18 Chinatown Sessions
*Ruins: Hyderomastgroningem
*Various artists: Fame Northern Soul
*Various artists: Top Shelf 8/8/88

Reading List, Week of 2019-04-28

Reading List 2019-04-29:

*Esslemont, Ian C. Kellanved's Reach (started/finished)
*Hunter, Megan. The End We Start From (started/finished)
*Olewnick, Brain. Keith Rowe: The Room Extended (finished)
*Burt, Stephen. The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2019-04-21

As I mentioned last week, starting to re-dig into AMM... hard to stay away once you start... early dense stuff with Cornelius Cardew, middle period with the classic trio, later pieces with the Prévost/Tilbury duo, the even later reunion with Keith Rowe: I love it all... The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael is a great showcase for the excellent bass playing of Michael Bisio... the new Art Ensemble of Chicago release is a masterwork.... its added palettes of strings, chamber music orchestrations, and vocals greatly expand the sonic scope of the Ensemble, taking it closer to Roscoe Mitchell contemporary classical territory... Hugh Ragin sounds great on it as well... word has it that this version of the Ensemble really kicked it at Big Ears...

Playlist 2019-04-22:

*AACM Great Black Music Ensemble: 2009-07-14 Program #1 (CDR)
*AMM: The Crypt: 12th June 1968, the Complete Session (discs 1, 2)
*AMM: 1970-03-02 London (CDR)
*AMM: Before Driving to the Chapel We Took Coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (discs 1, 2)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: The Mathematics of War
*Elder Ones: From Untruth
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd/Robert Andrew Scott: 2019-03-30 Richmond (wav)
*Billie Holiday: 1933-1941 Favorites (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2)
*New Loft: 2013-05-20 “Pasadena Jump Start” (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-03-04 "Weather Undersky" (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-04-01 "The More You Don't Find It" (wav)
*Paal Nilssen-Love: New Brazilian Funk
*RAIC: Lamentations
*Archie Shepp: Four for Trane
*Archie Shepp: On This Night
*Matthew Shipp Chamber Ensemble: The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael
*Sun Ra: Solo Keyboards, Minnesota, 1978
*Cecil Taylor: 1983-07-27 Genoa (wav)
*David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun Of Goldfinger
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 28)
*Allied Chemical Brothers: Tazz
*David Bowie: Young Americans
*Guided By Voices: How Do You Spell Heaven
*Residents: Commercial Album (pREServed Edition) (discs 1, 2)
*UYA: 1992-02-04/08 Break It (wav)
*UYA: Improvisations 3 (1993-1994): Yes, a Man (selections)
*Neil Young: Lesser Known Gems (CDR compilation) (disc 1)

Reading List, Week of 2019-04-21

Reading List 2019-04-22:

*Fraction, Matt, and Chip Zdarsky. Sex Criminals, Vol. 4: Fourgy (reread/started/finished)
*Fraction, Matt, and Chip Zdarsky. Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way (reread/started/finished)
*Fraction, Matt, and Chip Zdarsky. Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop (reread/started/finished)
*Rankin, Ian. Black and Blue (started/finished)
*Burt, Stephen. The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (in progress)
*Olewnick, Brain. Keith Rowe: The Room Extended (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2019-04-14

I vacillate between adding little blurbs about some of the music I listen to and despairing that I really have nothing to say.... at any rate, some great listening this week! Expect a fair amount of AMM in these lists over the next few weeks as I read Brian Olewnick's biography of Keith Rowe... and marvel at Rowe's uncharacteristically "guitar"-ish guitar playing on the gem pictured here...

Playlist 2019-04-15:

*AMM III: It Had Been an Ordinary Enough Day in Pueblo, Colorado
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Urban Magic
*Boneshaker: Fake Music
*Anthony Braxton Quartet: Live at Moers Festival (disc 1)
*Anthony Braxton: GTM (Syntax) 2017 (disc 11) (streaming)
*Cornelius Cardew: Treatise (Prague 1967) (QUaX Ensemble)
*Cornelius Cardew: Material
*Eric Dolphy: Outward Bound
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd/Robert Andrew Scott: 2019-03-30 Richmond (wav)
*Billie Holiday: Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944 (selections)
*Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories (disc 2)
*Vijay Iyer/Craig Taborn: The Transitory Poems
*Roscoe Mitchell: Bells for the South Side (disc 2)
*Sunny Murray's Untouchable Factor: 1975-06-29 Studio Rivbea, NYC (CDR)
*Naked City: Heretic: Jeux des Dames Cruelles
*New Ting: 2019-03-18 "Tune Deflection" (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-04-01 "The More You Don't Find It" (wav)
*Larry Ochs/Nels Cline/Gerald Cleaver: What Is to Be Done
*RAIC: Lamentations
*RAIC: The Heart's Message Cannot Be Delivered in Words (wav rough mix)
*Alexander von Schlippenbach & Tony Oxley: Digger's Harvest
*Sun Ra: Monorails & Satellites: Works for Solo Piano Vols. 1, 2, 3 (disc 2)
*Sun Ra: Solo Keyboards, Minnesota, 1978
*Keith Tippett's Ark: Frames (Music For An Imaginary Film) (disc 2)
*David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun Of Goldfinger
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 27)
*Various artists: Amarcord Nino Rota
*John Zorn/Insurrection: Salem 1692
*At the Drive-In: Acrobatic Tenement
*Beatles: Beatles Lost Album (boot CDR) (disc 1)
*David Bowie: Diamond Dogs
*Mike Elder/Greg Jordan/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2019-04-07 (wav)
*Mica Levi: Under The Skin (soundtrack)
*Love: Love
*Residents: Eskimo (pREServed Edition) (disc 1)
*Various artists: Exotica for Monty (CDR) (disc 1)

Reading List, Week of 2019-04-14

Finished--in under a year!

Reading List 2019-04-15:

*Rankin, Ian. Let It Bleed (started/finished)
*Hiaasen, Carl. Squirm (finished)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (finished)
*Burt, Stephen. The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (in progress)
*Olewnick, Brain. Keith Rowe: The Room Extended (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2019-04-07

Lamentations, RAIC's new release may well be the strongest this avant-collective group has released yet... brooding, strange, and beautiful... a lengthy suite of spacey, brooding ruminations, all held together by the glue of Zoe Olivia Kinney's wonderful cello playing...  summoning southern spirits...

Playlist 2019-04-08:

*Derek Bailey: Standards
*Daniel Barbiero & Cristiano Bocci: Wooden Mirrors
*Boneshaker: Fake Music
*Anthony Braxton: Sextet (Parker) 1993 (disc 3)
*Dave Bryant: 2018-11-17 Sediment, RVA (wav)
*Rodger Coleman: Seven Seventeen
*Tadd Dameron: Fontainebleau
*Miles Davis/Tadd Dameron Quintet: In Paris Festival International De Jazz - May, 1949
*Eric Dolphy: Dolphy Rarities (CDR compilation)
*Eldorado Trio: Eldorado Trio
*Agustí Fernández: River Tiger Fire (disc 4)
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd: Layers of Memory
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd/Robert Andrew Scott: 2019-03-30 Richmond (wav)
*Harriet Tubman: Araminta
*Alexander Hawkins: Iron into Wind (Pears from an Elm)
*Roscoe Mitchell: Bells for the South Side (disc 1)
*New Ting: 2019-04-01 "The More You Don't Find It" (wav)
*Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Joe Morris/Gerald Cleaver: Breaking Point
*RAIC: Lamentations (streaming)
*RAIC: The Heart's Message Cannot be Delivered in Words (wav rough mix)
*Matthew Shipp Chamber Ensemble: The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael
*Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra: The Solar-Myth Approach, Vol. 1
*Cecil Taylor Quartet: Looking Ahead!
*Cecil Taylor Quintet: Stereo Drive
*Keith Tippett's Ark: Frames (Music For An Imaginary Film) (disc 1)
*Craig Taborn Trio: Chants
*Big Star: Complete Third (disc 1)
*Scott Brookman, Yani Martinelli and Friends: Songs from the Old House​/​MADRID
*Carter Family: Volume 2 1935-1941 (disc 5)
*Grateful Dead: 1968-10-12 Avalon, SF (CDR)
*Guided By Voices: Space Gun
*Guided By Voices: EP's, B's, & Rarities (CDR compilation) (disc 1)
*Kinks: 1969-11-27/29 Fillmore West, SF (CDR)
*Lemon Twigs: Foolin' Around/Tailor Made (EP)
*Tito Puente: The Complete 78s: Vol. 3 (disc 1)
*UYA: 1992-01-14 Grape Stone Hell Throne (wav)
*UYA: 1992-01-21 The Right Tool for the Job (wav)
*UYA: 1992-02-01 V.R.P. (wav)
*Edgar Winter: Entrance
*Edgar Winter: Jasmine Nightdreams
*WSAM: Backwards and Forwards (CDR compilation)

Reading List, Week of 2019-04-07

Reading List 2019-04-08:

*Hiaasen, Carl. Squirm (started)
*Olewnick, Brain. Keith Rowe: The Room Extended (started)
*Rankin, Ian. Mortal Causes (started/finished)
*Hiaasen, Carl. Skink-- No Surrender (finished)
*Macan, Edward. Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture (finished)
*Burt, Stephen. The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (in progress)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)

Boneshaker in RVA

Had a great time last night getting blown away by Boneshaker (two-third of this power trio pictured above: monster drummer Paals Nilssen-Love and master bassist Kent Kessler; not pictured: sax wizard Mars Williams). They delivered a hard-driving set of blistering free jazz  alternating with quieter pieces colored by Nilssen-Love's quieter percussive tricks. Opening up for them was an amazing effects-laden trumpet solo piece by Timothée Quost, who later joined Boneshaker for their final piece. I missed Big Ears this year, dammit, but at least I got to see this, right in town!

Playlist, Week of 2019-03-31

Wooden Mirrors, the new release from bassists Daniel Barbiero and Cristiano Bocci, is a worthy follow-up to their earlier CD, Non-Places... it's a double bass-lover's delight, and it's also an intriguing musical conversation that extends some of the ideas of Non-Places into a more intimate, private settting.... Marvelling again and again at the mastery, dexterity, and imagination of Craig Taborn... digging his fluid piano as well as the sometimes Latin-tinged drumming of Tyshawn Sorey on Flaga... Getting my prog rocks off in conjunction with reading Macan's Rocking the Classics...

Playlist 2019-04-01:

*Daniel Barbiero & Cristiano Bocci: Wooden Mirrors
*Peter Brötzmann: The Chicago Octet/Tentet (disc 1)
*Gerald Cleaver/Uncle June: Be It As I See It
*Kris Davis and Craig Taborn: Octopus
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Happy Birthday Duke! Vol. 5
*Flaga: Flaga (Zorn/Masada Book Two: The Book of Angels Vol. 27)
*Mary Halvorson: Code Girl (disc 2)
*Alexander Hawkins Trio: Alexander Hawkins Trio
*Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories (disc 1)
*Roscoe Mitchell: Conversations II
*Larry Ochs/Nels Cline/Gerald Cleaver: What Is to Be Done
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Utter
*Naked City: Grand Guignol
*Tom Rainey Trio: Combobulated
*Sun Ra: Monorails & Satellites: Works for Solo Piano Vols. 1, 2, 3 (disc 2)
*Craig Taborn: Light Made Lighter
*Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts
*McCoy Tyner: Asante
*Caravan: In the Land of Grey and Pink
*Elvis Costello: Live At The El Mocambo
*Emerson Lake & Palmer: Tarkus (side 1)
*Gastr Del Sol: Crookt, Crackt, or Fly
*Genesis: Selling England by the Pound
*Guided By Voices: Album Tracks 1992-2004 (CDR compilation) (disc 2)
*Guided By Voices: Space Gun
*Guided By Voices: Zeppelin over China
*George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (disc 1)
*Hella: Acoustics
*Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick
*Pere Ubu: The Art of Walking
*Pink Floyd: Ummagumma
*Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
*Robert Pollard: Music for 'Bubble'
*Tim Presley's White Fence: I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk
*Tito Puente: The Complete 78s: Vol. 2 (disc 1)
*Shipping News: Flies the Fields
*Chris Squire: Fish Out of Water
*Tina Turner: What's Love Got To Do With It
*UYA: 1991-12-21 Where What? (wav)
*UYA: 1992-01-06 Up Your Apocalypse '92 (wav)
*Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun (selections)
*XTC: English Settlement (2016 original master ed.) (selections)
*Yes: Close to the Edge (side 1)

Reading List, Week of 2019-03-31

Reading List 2019-04-01:

*Hiaasen, Carl. Skink-- No Surrender (started)
*Modan, Rutu. Exit Wounds (started/finished)
*Hiaasen, Carl. Flush (finished)
*Stanley, John, and Irving Tripp. Little Lulu: Lucky Lulu (finished)
*Burt, Stephen. The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (in progress)
*Macan, Edward. Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture (in progress)
*Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (4th ed.) (in progress)