Time

  In old age, time becomes urgent.... (Harold Bloom, The Anatomy of Influence, 2011, p. 94)

Playlist, Week of 2021-05-23

Buddy Holly's undubbed voice on the apartment sessions on Down the Line pierces through with a grace and power that reaches out and grabs you... I prefer all the undubbed versions of his work... 

Playlist 2021-05-24:

*Beach Boys: That’s Why God Made the Radio
*Beatles: Hard Day's Night (2009 mono remaster)
*Sidney Bechet: The Legendary Sidney Bechet
*Chicago: Chicago III
*Nels Cline Singers: Share the Wealth
*John Coltrane: Fearless Leader (disc 6)
*Connie Crothers/David Arner: Spontaneous Suite for Two Pianos (disc 1)
*Eric Dolphy: Out to Lunch (side 1)
*Duke Ellington: The Centennial Edition: The Complete RCA-Victor Recordings (disc 16)
*Duke Ellington & Teresa Brewer: It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing
*Jimi Hendrix & the Cry of Love: First Rays of the New Rising Sun (soniclovenoize reconstruction)
*Jimi Hendrix: Midnight Lightning
*Buddy Holly: Down the Line: Rarities (disc 2)
*Elvin Jones: The Complete Blue Note Elvin Jones Sessions (disc 1)
*Sabir Mateen: URDLA XXX
*Nicole Mitchell's Sonic Projections: Emerald Hills
*Louis Moholo Moholo Quartet: 4 Blokes
*David Murray Octet: Dark Star: The Music of the Grateful Dead
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*Cecil Taylor: In Transition (side 1)
*Carla Thomas: Let Me Be Good to You (The Atlantic & Stax Recordings 1960-1968) (disc 3)
*Robert Turman: Chapter Eleven (disc 2)
*UYA: 1992-03-17: Market Ploy (wav)
*Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-23

Turns out I wasn't ready to give up Sorrentino yet, so I'm rereading one of his funniest books... I guess you have to find making fun of and tearing apart the language of turn-of-the-last-century boys' westerns funny, consarn it.... and I do... all this while Ulysses just gets better every time I read it... 

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-24:

*Bloom, Harold. The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life (started)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Gold Fools (reread/started)
*Howlett, Kevin. The Beatles: The BBC Archives 1962-1970 (finished)
*Joyce, James. Ulysses (reread/in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2021-05-16

Some fine piano playing from Craig Taborn on Unknown Skies ....several fiery passages reminiscent of Cecil Taylor... nice to hear him in this vein... Been a while since I pulled out The Olatunji Concert... damn, it's fierce... good for the soul... Alice Coltrane was the perfect pianist for this music... Thurston Moore's By the Fire is a worthy successor to Sonic Youth... Nice to revisit the VCU Jazz Orchestra's version of The Tattooed Bride, now that I'm more familiar with the Ellington original (from Masterpieces) than I was back in the '80s when it first came out... it's got old bandmate Jon Mela on it... good arranging work by Doug Richards... well done!

Playlist 2021-05-17:

*Anthony Braxton: Creative Music Orchestra "Comp. 25" (part 4)
*Rob Brown Trio: Unknown Skies
*Burial: Tunes 2011-2019 (disc 1)
*James Carter: The Real Quietstorm
*Circle: Circle 2: Gathering
*John Coltrane: Fearless Leader (disc 5)
*John Coltrane: The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
*Curlew: 1st Album + Live at CBGB 1980 (disc 1)
*Dutch Jazz Orchestra: Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn
*Dutch Jazz Orchestra: You Go to My Head: Strayhorn and Standards
*Duke Ellington: The Centennial Edition: The Complete RCA-Victor Recordings (discs 14, 15)
*Duke Ellington: Live and Rare (disc 3)
*Kip Hanrahan: A Few Short Notes from the End Run (side 1)
*Craig Harris: Aboriginal Affairs
*Joe Henderson: Mirror, Mirror
*Jimi Hendrix: Crash Landing
*Thurston Moore: By the Fire (disc 2)
*Muffins: Bandwidth
*Larry Ochs/Miya Masaoka/Peggy Lee: Spiller Alley
*Charlie Parker Quintet: Complete Live at Birdland (disc 1)
*Tyshawn Sorey: The Inner Spectrum of Variables "Movement II"
*Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra: The Solar-Myth Approach Vols. 1 and 2 (disc 1)
*This Heat: Made Available: John Peel Sessions
*Thumbscrew: Never Is Enough
*Robert Turman: Chapter Eleven (disc 1)
*Virginia Commonwealth University Jazz Orchestra: The Tattooed Bride (side 2)
*World Saxophone Quartet: Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music (side 1)

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-16

Scrubbed my mind with Sorrentino... Now it's on to a reread of Ulysses, this time along with an Irish Radio recording from 1982... never just listening... got to have the eyes on the page...

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-17:

*Joyce, James. Ulysses (reread/started)
*Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher. Cupid's Revenge (started/finished)
*Duke Ellington: The Centennial Edition (ed. Orrin Keepnews et al.) (reread/finished)
*Lucretius. De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things) (transl. David R. Slavitt) (finished)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Misterioso (reread/finished)
*Howlett, Kevin. The Beatles: The BBC Archives 1962-1970 (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2021-05-09

There's a wealth of Ellington-tinged beauty on all four of the Dutch Jazz Orchestra's recordings of the works of Billy Strayhorn... achingly sumptuous, just incredible.... 

Playlist 2021-05-10:

*Daevid Allen Trio: Live 1963
*Marshall Allen/Matthew Shipp/Joe Morris: Night Logic
*Beatles: Beatles for Sale (2009 stereo remaster) (sides 1, 2)
*Burial: Untrue
*John Coltrane: Fearless Leader (disc 4)
*Miles Davis: Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings 1951-1956 (disc 1)
*Deerhoof: Future Teenage Cave Artists
*Die Like a Dog: Fragments of Music, Life and Death of Albert Ayler
*Dutch Jazz Orchestra: So This Is Love: More Newly Discovered Works of Billy Strayhorn
*Duke Ellington: The Great Chicago Concerts (discs 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington: Duke 56/62 Vol. 1 (side 3)
*Duke Ellington: New York New York
*Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Soup
*Indigo Trio: Anaya
*I.P.Y.: IPY
*Joëlle Léandre and George Lewis: Transatlantic Visions
*John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Ultimate Collection) (disc 1)
*London Jazz Composers Orchestra featuring Anthony Braxton: 1988-03-25 Basel, Switzerland (CDR) "Unidentified Braxton Composition pt. 2"
*David Murray Big Band: David Murray Big Band
*Carlos Santana/John McLaughlin: 1973-09-05 Berkeley (boot CDR) (disc 2)
*Alexander von Schlippenbach: Monk's Casino (The Complete Works of Thelonious Monk) (discs 2, 3)
*Sonic Youth: The Eternal
*Sun Ra: The Eternal Myth Revealed, Vol. 1 (disc 4)
*Robert Turman: Flux
*Larry Young: Heaven on Earth
*Larry Young: Mother Ship

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-09

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-10:

*Duke Ellington: The Centennial Edition (ed. Orrin Keepnews et al.) (reread/started)
*Howlett, Kevin. The Beatles: The BBC Archives 1962-1970 (in progress)
*Lucretius. De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things) (transl. David R. Slavitt) (in progress)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Misterioso (reread/in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2021-05-02

I still don't know what I think about A Drum Is a Woman... there are some interesting musical moments, but Duke Ellington's narration is often coy and irritating... maybe if I'd seen it in the context of the TV show I'd feel differently... there's not a lot of swing in it, but I feel like I'm probably missing the boat... further research needed... Midnight in Paris, with only two Ellington compositions on it, is a great case for Ellington and Billy Strayhorn as excellent arrangers (recomposers)... In addition to the Duke, I have also been digging a little deeper into my Jimi Hendrix collection... can't get enough... still and all, with all the incredible live shows and studio outtakes that have been released since his death, to me there's nothing better than the three original studio albums, plus Band of Gypsys and Cry of Love... 

Playlist 2021-05-03:

*Brahms & Schumann String Quartets (The Lindsays)
*James Carter: In Carterian Fashion
*Company: Trios
*Declared Enemy: Salute to 100001 Stars: A Tribute to Jean Genet
*Hamid Drake & Bindu: Blissful
*Michel Edelin Trio: Kuntu
*Duke Ellington: Ellington Uptown
*Duke Ellington: Duke 56/62 Vol. 1 (sides 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: A Drum Is a Woman
*Duke Ellington: His Piano and His Orchestra at the Bal Masque

*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Midnight in Paris
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Featuring Paul Gonsalves
*Scott Fields Ensemble: We Were the Phliks
*Alexander Hawkins feat. Evan Parker + Riot Ensemble: Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians)
*Jimi Hendrix: The Jimi Hendrix Experience (discs 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Jimi Hendrix: West Coast Seattle Boy (deluxe ed.) (discs 3, 4)
*Kassap/Lavant/Lopez/Médioni/Tchamitchian: Ascension, Tombeau de John Coltrane
*Roscoe Mitchell: Bells for the South Side "Red Moon In The Sky/Odwalla"
*Monash Art Ensemble/George Lewis: Hexis
*Moving Gelatine Plates: The World of Genius Hans
*News From Babel: Sirens & Silences/Work Resumed On The Tower
*OOIOO: Nijimusi
*Alexander von Schlippenbach: Monk's Casino (The Complete Works of Thelonious Monk) (disc 1)
*Matthew Shipp: Art of the Improviser (discs 1, 2)
*Skeleton Crew: Learn to Talk
*Speaker Music: Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (disc 2)
*Sun Ra: The Eternal Myth Revealed, Vol. 1 (disc 3)
*Sun Ra: Of Abstract Dreams
*Steve Swell's Fire Into Music: Swimming in a Galaxy of Goodwill and Sorrow
*Cecil Taylor & Günter Sommer: Riobec "Riobec 1"
*Carla Thomas: Let Me Be Good to You (The Atlantic & Stax Recordings 1960-1968) (disc 2)
*David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun Of Goldfinger "Eye Meddle"
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 1)
*Anna Webber: Simple
*Teddy Wilson: Teddy Wilson (Giants of Jazz) (side 3)

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-02

Reading List, Week of 2021-05-03:

*Howlett, Kevin. The Beatles: The BBC Archives 1962-1970 (started)
*Lucretius. De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things) (transl. David R. Slavitt) (started)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Misterioso (reread/started)
*Sappho. Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments (transl. Aaron Poochigan) (started/finished)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Rose Theatre (reread/started/finished)
*Sappho. The Poetry of Sappho (transl. Jim Powell) (finished)
*Sorrentino, Gilbert. Odd Number (reread/finished)