Playlist, Week of 2020-09-27

Diving into the King Crimson Larks' Tongues box... to my ears, for most of the live stuff, Jamie Muir is sadly underrecorded... the interaction between him and Bill Bruford is amazing, and Robert Fripp's guitar work is consistently stellar... Digging too the Benny Goodman sides with Charlie Christian... getting all hepped up... I have finally decided: Welcome is my favorite Santana record... 

Playlist 2020-09-28:

*AMM: An Unintended Legacy (disc 1)
*Art Ensemble: 1967/68 (disc 4) "A to Ericka"
*Bach: Sonatas & Partitas (Nathan Milstein) (sides 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Alban Berg - Alban-Berg-Quartet: Streichquartett Opus 3/Lyrische Suite (side 1)
*Anthony Braxton: For Four Orchestras (sides 1, 3)
*Anthony Braxton: Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 3 (discs 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003 (discs 3, 4)
*Charlie Christian: The Genius of the Electric Guitar (discs 1, 2)
*Kris Davis Infrasound: Save Your Breath
*Deerhoof: Future Teenage Cave Artists
*Deerhoof: To Be Surrounded by Beautiful, Curious, Breathing, Laughing Flesh Is Enough
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Works of Duke: Integrale Volume 8 (sides 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington: Air Force 1960 (sides 1, 2)
*Grails: Doomsdayer's Holiday
*Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra: Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra (side 1)
*Ahmad Jamal Trio: At the Pershing: But Not for Me
*King Crimson: Larks' Tongues In Aspic: The Complete Recordings (discs 5, 6)
*New Loft: 2011-08-24 "Wet or Dry?" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-10-08 "Corner Winds" (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-04-22 "Leaving Thirsty" (wav)
*Ed Palermo Big Band: The Adventures of Zodd Zundgren
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker (discs 3, 4)
*Tom Rainey Obbligato: Float Upstream
*Don Redman and His All-Stars: Don Redman and His All-Stars (sides 1, 2)
*Rova :: Orkestrova: Electric Ascension
*David Sancious And Tone: Transformation (The Speed Of Love) (side 2)
*Santana: Welcome
*Santana: Moonflower (side 4)
*Sheriff Jack: What Lovely Melodies!
*UYA: Live at the Willow, Vol. 1 "Tales of Tillie"
*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (discs 7, 8)
*Weather Report: Mysterious Traveller (side 1)
*Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald Decca Sessions (1934-1941) (discs 1, 2)
*John Zorn: Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus

Reading List, Week of 2020-09-27

My third reading of Steven Erikson's amazing 10-books series Malazan Book of the Fallen... among so many other things, this series is an extended meditation on the redemptive qualities of compassion and empathy... a truly amazing achievement.

Reading List 2020-09-28:

*Jemison, N. K. The City We Became (started)
*Erikson, Steven. The Crippled God (reread/finished)
*Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy (in progress)
*Marsh, Dave. The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (reread/in progress)
*Mustich, James. 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2020-09-20

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the recent spate of PR around the centennial of Charlie Parker's death spurred me to go back to my Bird collection and do some in-depth listening... not that I stopped listening to Bird; after all, he (like the Beatles) regularly shows up on the Magic Jukebox (most of the Savoy and Dial master takes, plus a healthy helping of Royal Roost and Verve cuts)... but it'd been a while since I just pulled out a Bird disc and spinned it... needless to say, he sounds as great as ever... along with John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis, his playing was what got me seriously into jazz in a way that hasn't relented for several decades now... I especially enjoyed this list by Mark Stryker of great live Bird... 20 years or so ago, I put together a 6-CD compilation of great Bird, based largely on Lawrence O. Koch's list of essential Bird in Yardbird Suite and Thomas Owens's list of greatest Bird solos in Bebop: The Music and Its Players... most of those songs are represented on Stryker's list, but there were a few I have since acquired (like the 1940 solo recording)... for live stuff, like I said last week, the Benedetti stuff still floors me... I am also partial to Complete Live at Birdland and Summit Meeting at Birdland... digging through my vinyl, it's been interesting to see what's been upgraded and improved, and what still sounds solid as is... Charlie Parker seems to be imprinted on my brain, and I love it... I go through stages of deep listening to particular artists... the thing is, there are so many of them!... I am absorbed by great music... it was also fun to reread all the reviews on Bird in the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (5th edition)... Morton and Cook really nail it, I think, over and over... 

Playlist 2020-09-21:

*AMM: 2003-11-12 Glasgow (CDR)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Full Force (side 1)
*Beatles: The Beatles (Super Deluxe Edition) (disc 5)
*Ken Boothe: Live Good
*Brand X: Moroccan Roll (side 1)
*Anthony Braxton: Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 1 (discs 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003 (discs 1, 2)
*Clifford Brown and Max Roach: Clifford Brown and Max Roach
*Terri Lyne Carrington: The Mosaic Project
*Alice Coltrane: Spiritual Eternal: The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings (disc 2)
*Miles Davis: Pangaea (side 2)
*Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges: Side by Side
*Grieg/Schumann: Piano Concertos (Eugene Ormandy, cond.)
*Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage (side 2)
*Chaka Khan: I Feel for You
*Chaka Khan: The Platinum Collection
*King Crimson: Larks' Tongues In Aspic: The Complete Recordings (discs 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Charles Mingus: Pre-Bird (side 2)
*Charles Mingus Quintet featuring Eric Dolphy: Mingus In Europe Volume II (side 2)
*Roscoe Mitchell with Ostravská Banda: Distant Radio Transmission (side 1)
*Graham Nash/David Crosby: Graham Nash/David Crosby
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2013-08-26: “All or Something” (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-07-08 "Backhand Volley" (wav)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Birth of the Bebop
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker's All Stars 1950 (side 2)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Legendary Rockland Palace Concert 1952 (discs 1, 2)
*Charlie Parker with Quartet and The Orchestra: The Washington Concerts
*Charlie Parker: Montreal 1953
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker at the Open Door
*Residents: The Third Reich 'n Roll (pREServed Edition) (disc 1)
*Max Roach And Cecil Taylor: Historic Concerts (sides 1, 2)
*David Sancious And Tone: Transformation (The Speed Of Love) (side 1)
*Sheriff Jack: Laugh Yourself Awake
*Cecil Taylor/Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1984-10-30 Paris (CDR) (track 2)
*Lewis Taylor: The Lost Album
*McCoy Tyner: Cosmos (side 3)
*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (disc 6)
*Lester Young: The Aladdin Sessions (side 1)

Reading List, Week of 2020-09-20

Reading List 2020-09-21:

*Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy (in progress)
*Erikson, Steven. The Crippled God (reread/in progress)
*Marsh, Dave. The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (reread/in progress)
*Mustich, James. 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2020-09-13

Love how the Dead returned to "Dark Star" in the '90s... I'm finding all the chanting on Alice Coltrane's Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana strangely relaxing... usually not my cup of tea... I get impatient with the "spiritual" side of world music... Don Cherry's explorations in that realm leave me cold... Got blown away all over again by the utterly amazing playing of the "Lost Quintet" on Miles Davis's Live in Europe 1969... on "Milestones," Miles and Wayne Shorter lead the band in a peppy rendition of the head, with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette swinging as hard as Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones ever did, only for the horns to drop out as Chick Corea pulls the rug out from the head and leads the rhythm section away to some kind of out, open space... then horn lines come back in, back to finger-snapping hard swinging, then... out again... Miles then jumps in on this tension, stomping all over the contrasts with burning lines that define gravity, followed by some of Shorter's most intense soloing ever... just staggering, masterful music...

Playlist 2020-09-14:

*Beatles: The Beatles' Second Album (side 2)

*Beatles: Something New (sides 1, 2)

*Beatles: The Beatles (Super Deluxe Edition) (disc 4)

*Anthony Braxton Quartet: 1976-10-28 Graz, Austria (CDR) track 3

*Alice Coltrane: Spiritual Eternal: The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings (disc 1)

*John Coltrane: Live in Seattle (discs 1, 2)

*Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1969 (The Bootleg series, Vol. 2) (disc 1)

*Deerhoof: Surprise Symphonies

*Eric Dolphy: Stockholm Sessions (side 2)

*Eric Dolphy: Last Date (sides 1, 2)

*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Greg Jordan/Sam Byrd: New CDR Compilation (disc 2)

*Duke Ellington: All Star Road Band (side 4)

*Duke Ellington: Unknown Session

*Grateful Dead: Wake Up to Find Out (discs 2, 3)

*Guided By Voices: Mirrored Aztec

*Andrew Hill: One for One (side 2)

*Keith Jarrett: Standards Live

*Elvin Jones : The Prime Element (side 2)

*Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Does Your House Have Lions: The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology (disc 1)

*Lemon Twigs: Songs for the General Public

*Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder

*Charlie Parker: The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker (disc 2)

*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker (Vol. 3, side 2)

*Charlie Parker Quintet: Complete Live at Birdland (discs 1, 2)

*Charlie Parker: Bird at St. Nick's

*Prince: 1999 (Super Deluxe Edition) (DVD: Live in Houston 12/29/82)

*David Sancious and Tone: Dance of the Age of Enlightenment

*Sun Ra Arkestra: Kosmos in Blue: A John Gilmore Anthology, Vol. 1

*Clifford Thornton & the Jazz Composer's Orchestra: The Gardens of Harlem

*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (discs 3, 4, 5)

Reading List, Week of 2020-09-13

No, I'm not reading Spanish; I just like this cover...

Reading List 2020-09-14:

*Erikson, Steven. The Crippled God (reread/started)
*Erikson, Steven. Dust of Dreams (reread/finished)
*Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy (in progress)
*Marsh, Dave. The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (reread/in progress)
*Mustich, James. 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2020-09-06

The end of summer, and the listening's good... Although Bird shows up a lot randomly on the Magic Jukebox 2, it's been good to delve a little deeper... the Dean Benedetti box set is really amazing, and the somewhat low fidelity doesn't bother me a bit... those damn solos!... and nice to hear Bird's treatment of lesser-recorded songs like "Byas a Drink" and "It's the Talk of the Town"... a real time capsule... Jumping ahead to just last year, great to hear Ingrid Laubrock playing Anthony's Braxton Zim Music... in my spare time, I'd like to compare this to the London run of Zim Music from May of 2018... My old original Beatles records from when I was a kid still sound damn solid... they just leap out of the grooves and grab you... they still haven't let go after all these years...

Playlist 2020-09-07:

*Lotte Anker/Sylvie Courvoisier/Ikue Mori: Alien Huddle
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Tribute to Lester
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Reunion
*Beatles: Meet the Beatles (side 1)
*Beatles: Help! (side 1)
*Beatles: The Beatles (Super Deluxe Edition) (disc 6)
*Anthony Braxton: 2019-11-03 Berlin (CDR)
*Bill Bruford: Fainting in Coils (sides 1, 4)
*Nels Cline Trio: Ground
*Alice Coltrane: Ptah the El Daoud
*Cul De Sac: Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall
*Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington 1938 (side 4)
*Duke Ellington: Love You Madly (1952-11-14 Carnegie Hall) (side 2)
*Mike Elder/Greg Jordan/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2019-09-21 (wav)
*Mike Elder/Greg Jordan/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2020-01-04 (wav)
*Fire! Orchestra: Arrival
*Grateful Dead: Pacific Northwest '73-'74: Believe It if You Need It (disc 1)
*Guided By Voices: Do the Collapse
*Guided By Voices: Isolation Drills
*Hampton Hawes: Trio and Quartet 1951-1956: Live and Studio Sessions (disc 2)
*Andrew Hill: One for One (side 1)
*Lemon Twigs: Songs for the General Public
*Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66: Equinox
*Lee Morgan: The Procrastinator (side 4)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-17: "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2019-01-28 "Rump Roost Tools of America" (wav)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker (disc 1)
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Volume II (side 2)
*Charlie Parker: Cheers (side 2)
*Charlie Parker: Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve (disc 1)
*Charlie Parker: Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes (disc 2)
*Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile
*Omar Rodriguez: Omar Rodriguez
*Rolling Stones: The Brussels Affair '73
*Sonny Rollins Quintet with Kenny Dorham And Max Roach: Rollins Plays for Bird (side 1)
*Ruins: Symphonica
*Sun Ra: Strange Worlds in My Mind
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York, 1973) (disc 2)
*Sun Ra Arkestra: 1973-07-04 Queens NY (CDR)
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Oblique Parallax
*Cecil Taylor: In Transition (sides 2, 3)
*Thumbscrew: The Anthony Braxton Project
*Richard Teitelbaum with Anthony Braxton: Time Zones "Crossing"
*June Tyson/Sun Ra: Saturnian Queen of the Sun Ra Arkestra
*Various ‎artists: Reunion Tape 1 (cassette compilation) (side A)
*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2)
*When: Homage Series Vol. 1: Sun Ra
*John Zorn/Simulacrum: Baphomet

Reading List, Week of 2020-09-06

 

Reading List 2020-09-07:

*Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy (in progress)
*Erikson, Steven. Dust of Dreams (reread/in progress)
*Marsh, Dave. The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (reread/in progress)
*Mustich, James. 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die (in progress)