Review of Ask the Trees

Really nice words from Daniel Barbiero in his AMN review of the new Ask the Trees release (along with RAIC and Stephen Vitiello/Molly Berg)... thanks, Dan!

Playlist, Week of 2019-10-27

The new 2019 remaster of Arthur sounds bloody fantastic... we didn't get the big 4-disc box, just the 2-CD version... haven't gotten to the second disc yet, but the album proper sounds brilliant... The Slaughterhouse was a digital-only Prince release that deserves more attention... some great grooves there... Continue to really be inspired by Chris Cutler's drumming with Henry Cow, particularly on Unrest...

Playlist 2019-10-28:

*"A" Trio & AMM: AAMM
*Lotte Anker/Sylvie Courvoisier/Ikue Mori: Alien Huddle
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (disc 1)
*Ask the Trees: The Heart's Message Cannot Be Delivered in Words
*Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Duke Ellington: Swing 1930-1938
*Jimmy Giuffre 3: 1961 (discs 1, 2)
*Mats Gustafsson/Craig Taborn: Ljubljana
*Barry Guy/Marilyn Crispell/Paul Lytton: Ithaca
*Herbie Hancock: Sextant
*Alexander Hawkins: Song Singular
*Alexander Hawkins Ensemble: Step Wide, Step Deep
*Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn: The People I Love
*Mat Maneri Quartet: Blue Decco
*Larry Ochs/Nels Cline/Gerald Cleaver: What Is to Be Done "Outcries Rousing"
*Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Joe Morris/Gerald Cleaver: Breaking Point
*Sun Ra: 1982-06-24 Mannheim, Germany (CDR) (discs 2, 3)
*Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts
*David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun Of Goldfinger
*Henry Cow: Unrest
*Henry Cow: BBC Sessions 1971-1977 (disc 2)
*Henry Cow/Slapp Happy: In Praise of Learning
*Henry Cow: Concerts (disc 1)
*Howlin' Wolf:  Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 (disc 3)
*Kinks: Arthur, or, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire (50th anniversary remaster) (disc 1)
*Ned Lagin, Phil Lesh, & Friends: 1975-06-06 San Rafael CA (CDR)
*Prince: 1980-03-06 Atlanta (CDR)
*Prince: Work It 2.0 Vol. 7 (disc 29)
*Prince: The Slaughterhouse
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1951: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Various artists: Ten-Cent Soul (CDR compilation)

Reading List, Week of 2019-10-27

Reading List 2019-10-28:

*Pullman, Philip. The Secret Commonwealth (started)
*Ellmann, Lucy. Ducks, Newburyport (finished)
*Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar (ed. Henry Norman Hudson) (reread/started/finished)
*Bowker, Gordon. James Joyce: A New Biography (in progress)
*Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems, 1945-2005 (in progress)
*Kirby, Jack, and Stan Lee: The Essential Thor, Vol. 3 (in progress)

Ask the Trees: New Release on Bandcamp: The Heart's Message Cannot Be Delivered in Words

photo by Randy Reus

I am pleased to be a part of this new release: The Heart's Message Cannot Be Delivered in Words. This was a project put together by RAIC saxophonist Erik Schroeder, under the group name Ask the Trees. It was wonderful to play this free nature-inspired post-Coltrane jazz with Erik and two other members of New Ting, Jimmy Ghaphery and Fred McGann.

Photos from the Latest New Ting Gig

Well, from before the gig. It was great playing at Shockoe Denim; it's a wonderful space.

Fred prepares:

Tommy prepares:

Jimmy and Sam are prepared:

Playlist, Week of 2019-10-20

I continue on my Henry Cow travels... hard to say which studio album is my favorite... luckily,  no one is asking me to choose...

Playlist 2019-10-21:

*Anthony Braxton: 3 Compositions of New Jazz "Comp. 6E"
*Anthony Braxton: Quintet (Tristano) 2014 (streaming) (disc 2)
*Taylor Ho Bynum 9-Tette: The Ambiguity Manifesto
*Mary Halvorson Octet: 2018-11-12 Venice (CDR)
*Matt Mitchell: A Pouting Grimace
*Roscoe Mitchell: Nonaah (discs 1, 2)
*Roscoe Mitchell Quartet: In Walked Buckner
*Matthew Shipp Chamber Ensemble: The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael
*Sun Ra: 1982-06-24 Mannheim, Germany (CDR) (disc 1)
*Craig Taborn: Avenging Angel
*Dan Weiss: Starebaby
*John Zorn: Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus
*Henry Cow: Concerts (disc 2)
*Henry Cow: Western Culture
*Henry Cow: Stockholm & Göteborg
*Lewis Taylor: Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica Reborn
*Various artists: Cocktail Mix Vol. 2: Martini Madness

Reading List, Week of 2019-10-20

Reading List 2019-10-21:

*Bowker, Gordon. James Joyce: A New Biography (started)
*Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar (ed. Henry Norman Hudson) (reread/started)
*Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems, 1945-2005 (in progress)
*Ellmann, Lucy. Ducks, Newburyport (in progress)
*Kirby, Jack, and Stan Lee: The Essential Thor, Vol. 3 (in progress)

New Ting Gig This Week

New Ting is playing this Thursday at Shockoe Denim. We'll be opening up for Pascal Niggenkemper. We go on first, hopefully at 8 sharp. Details here. Should be fun!

Playlist, Week of 2019-10-13

In thinking about Ginger Baker's legacy, I say ignore"Toad" and focus on the live version of "Spoonful" from Wheels of Fire... blues-based free-jazz/rock improv at its finest... Another great (if not the greatest) free rock improv band was Henry Cow... even more than the improvisations on Unrest and Concerts, the various live concerts that came out as part of the 40th anniversary box set really solidify their position as top-notch, exciting, and challenging improvisers... "A Fireside Chat with Lucifer," from the album of the same name, is one my favorite lengthy guided improvs from Sun Ra... Ra's '80s work often gets overlooked, but there's a lot of gold there, especially in the Black Saint and A&M albums...

Playlist 2019-10-14:

*Boneshaker: Fake Music
*Anthony Braxton: Quartet (New Haven) 2014 (discs 1, 3)
*Anthony Braxton: Quintet (Tristano) 2014 (streaming) (disc 1)
*Taylor Ho Bynum 9-Tette: The Ambiguity Manifesto
*Gerald Cleaver/William Parker/Craig Taborn: Farmers By Nature (discs 1, 2)
*Kris Davis: Diatom Ribbons
*Miles Davis: Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 (disc 4)
*Duke Ellington: The Reprise Studio Recordings (disc 1)
*Mary Halvorson Octet: 2018-11-12 Venice (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock: Serpentines
*Charles Mingus: Jazz in Detroit/Strata Concert Gallery/46 Selden (discs 4, 5)
*New Ting: 2019-10-07 "We All Answered" (wav)
*Ches Smith: The Bell
*Harvey Sorgen/Joe Fonda/Marilyn Crispell:  Dreamstruck
*Sun Ra: A Fireside Chat with Lucifer (side 1)
*Cecil Taylor Feel Trio: Two Ts for a Lovely T (disc 4)
*Weather Report: Weather Report
*James Brown: The Singles, Vol.  10: 1975-1979 (disc 2)
*James Brown: The Singles, Vol.  11: 1979-1981 (discs 1, 2)
*Cold Blood: Live at the Record Plant, Sausalto CA Jul 2, 1974 (CDR)
*Cream: Wheels of Fire (disc 2)
*Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
*Digital Underground: Sons of the P
*Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings (disc 13)
*Earth Wind & Fire: Open Our Eyes
*Gentle Giant: Acquiring the Taste
*Gentle Giant: Three Friends
*Henry Cow: Trondheim (discs 1, 2)
*Howlin' Wolf:  Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 (disc 2)
*Led Zeppelin: Presence
*Todd Rundgren: Faithful
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 33)

Reading List, Week of 2019-10-13

Reading List 2019-10-14:

*Kirby, Jack, and Stan Lee: The Essential Thor, Vol. 3 (started)
*Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems, 1945-2005 (in progress)
*Ellmann, Lucy. Ducks, Newburyport (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2019-10-06

Synth-drenched excursions into a quieter side of Rodger Coleman with his new release Modular Meditations v​.​1... nice... I enjoy the 1973 guitar-band Miles Davis music from the Newport Jazz Festival release, and goodness knows we need more official releases from 1973-75, but damn if the real gems of this box aren't the two sets from the classic quintet from 1966 and 1967 ... check out how much they sped up "Gingerbread Boy" from one year to the next... Tony Williams: geez... I'm glad they keep coming up with these Coltrane discoveries... loving it all, but tapping more from the Stellar Regions vein would really float my boat... let's have more "lost"albums from 1966-67, please!... Finally, wonderful to hear ex-UYA bandmate Steven Forrey guesting on the new Vector Trio release...

Playlist 2019-10-07:

*"A" Trio & AMM: AAMM
*John Abrercrombie/Dave Holland/Jack DeJohnette: Gateway
*John Abrecrombie/Marc Johnson/Peter Erskine: John Abrecrombie/Marc Johnson/Peter Erskine
*Anthony Braxton/Tomas Fujiwara/Tom Rainey: Trio (New Haven) 2013 (discs 1, 2)
*Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell: El Corazón
*Rodger Coleman: Modular Meditations v​.​1
*John Coltrane: Blue World
*Miles Davis: Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Duke Ellington: 1932-04-11 (Hartford, CT)
*Kip Hanrahan: Coup de Tête
*John McLaughlin: Devotion
*Charles Mingus: Jazz in Detroit/Strata Concert Gallery/46 Selden (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Roscoe Mitchell and the CMS Orchestra: Untitled (on Creative Music Studio Archive Selections Vol. 1, disc 2)
*New Ting: 2019-09-30 "Emulsify My Desires" (wav)
*Gary Peacock: Guamba
*Barre Phillips: Mountainscapes
*RAIC: Chance Operations (disc 2)
*Gary Rouzer: Sei Solo - Violoncello Allein
*Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Myth Science Arkestra: 1975-01-30 Cleveland (CDR)
*Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit: April Is the Cruellest Month
*Vector Trio: (quartet)
*Al Bowlly: Al Bowlly ...Remembers
*James Brown: The Singles, Vol.  10: 1975-1979 (disc 1)
*Cream: Wheels of Fire (disc 1)
*Flying Lotus: Los Angeles
*Flying Lotus: Until the Quiet Comes
*Grateful Dead: 1977-06-09 Winterland (CDR) (disc 1)
*Henry Cow: Hamburg
*Denise LaSalle: Trapped by a Thing Called Love
*Denise LaSalle: On the Loose
*Prince: The Versace Experience: Prelude 2 Gold
*Monty Python: Tiny Black Round Things (boot CDR)
*Todd Rundgren: Initiation
*Various artists: American Pop (disc 5)
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 195o: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Various artists: Bachelor's Guide to the Galaxy: Cocktail Mix

Reading List, Week of 2019-10-06

Reading List 2019-10-07:

*Epstein, Edmund Lloyd. A Guide Through Finnegans Wake (finished)
*Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake (ed. Rose/O'Hanlon) (reread/finished)
*Kitcher, Philip. Joyce's Kaleidoscope: An Invitation to Finnegans Wake (finished)
*Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems, 1945-2005 (in progress)
*Ellmann, Lucy. Ducks, Newburyport (in progress)

Finnegans Wake Re-Re-Read

Well, maybe not the "best" book, but still.... Finnegans Wake is quite an experience. Reading it twice in a row (after having read it once back in the '80s) was something I never dreamed I'd ever do, and I definitely feel like my brain has been put through the ringer. I loved it. And I didn't even obsess over minutiae or layered meanings of individual words... my copy is astonishingly clean of annotations. I just let it wash all over me. Listening to Patrick Horgan's recording while reading it was definitely a plus... you need both your eyes and your ears for this... I find that reading it aloud to myself is often too distracting because I run into too many words I can't pronounce, and it impedes the flow... I also got a lot out of both Epstein and Kitcher's books... I especially liked Kitcher's approach to teasing out how what he terms the "Joycean virtues" ("kindness, understanding, tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness" --p. 250) are expressed in the Wake. I also appreciated Kitcher's perception of the dreamer (the reader? whoever is "narrating" the novel) and the dreamer's "dreamwork":

The dreamer is an aging man for whom there arises a cluster of overlapping issues about individuality and conformity, about public life and private life, about creativity and intimate relationships, and about the existence and value of enduring love. (Kitcher, p. 57)

Playlist, Week of 2019-09-29

I don't know how I managed to miss this juicy item from almost a year ago, but a Duke Ellington aircheck from 1932 has surfaced (well, it's been known to collectors for a while, but it's recently been cleaned up and remixed, by Steve Lasker)... it's the oldest surviving Ellington radio broadcast!... read about it and stream it here... the next two oldest, from 1936, can be found here... well, it's all just gorgeous...

Playlist 2019-09-30:

*Anthony Braxton: Quartet (New Haven) 2014 (disc 4)
*Rosemary Cloony and Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Blue Rose
*Duke Ellington: 1932-04-11 (Hartford, CT)
*Duke Ellington: 1936-05-09 Chicago (streaming)
*Duke Ellington: 1936-05-26 Chicago (streaming)
*Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath: Travelling Somewhere
*New Ting: 2019-09-16 "Simmertime Lubricity Challenge" (wav)
*Tom Rainey: Obbligato
*Tom Rainey Obbligato: Float Upstream
*James Blood Ulmer: Odyssey
*Vector Trio: (quartet)
*Dr. Dog: Critical Equation
*Mike Elder/Greg Jordan/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2019-09-21 (wav)
*Gentle Giant: The Power and the Glory
*Laneville-Johnson Union Brass/Lapsey Band: Country Brass Bands
*Matching Mole: March
*Upsetters: Return of the Super Ape
*Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: Absolutely Free
*Frank Zappa: Waka/Jawaka - Hot Rats

Reading List, Week of 2019-09-29

Reading List 2019-09-30:

*Ellmann, Lucy. Ducks, Newburyport (started)
*Kirby, Jack, and Stan Lee: The Essential Thor, Vol. 2 (finished)
*Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves (finished)
*Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems, 1945-2005 (in progress)
*Epstein, Edmund Lloyd. A Guide Through Finnegans Wake (in progress)
*Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake (ed. Rose/O'Hanlon) (reread/in progress)
*Kitcher, Philip. Joyce's Kaleidoscope: An Invitation to Finnegans Wake (in progress)