Playlist, Week of 2022-07-24

Clear Frame features beautiful cornet work from Robert Wyatt in tandem with Lol Coxhill's signature soprano sax... no vocals from Wyatt, just cornet, but you can still tell it's him... his vocal style has always had a melancholy Miles tinge... Mats Gustafsson is abstract and funky at the same time on The Cherry Thing... 

Playlist 2022-07-25:

*AMM: AMMMusic 1966 "After Rapidly Circling the Plaza (LP Version)"
*Count Basie: The Complete Atomic Basie
*Paul Bley: Ballads
*Paul Bley: Turns
*Paul Bley/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian: Not Two, Not One
*Anthony Braxton: Solo (Brussels) 1985
*Anthony Braxton Zim Music: 2019-02-15 Vitry-sur-Seine (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Standards) 2020 (disc 6) (streaming)
*Bruford: 1980-06-15 Georgetown, DC (CDR)
*Camberwell Now: All's Well
*Neneh Cherry and the Thing: The Cherry Thing
*Clear Frame: Clear Frame
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Who Doesn't Fade? "What Remains"
*John Coltrane: The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. I Feelin' Good
*Marilyn Crispell/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian: Nothing Ever Was, Anyway (discs 1, 2)
*Kris Davis: Massive Threads
*Kris Davis Trio: 2014-03-04 London (CDR)
*Kris Davis and Craig Taborn: Octopus
*Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (disc 5) "What I Say"
*J Dilla: Donuts
*Duke Ellington: New York, New York
*Jimmy Giuffre: Free Fall
*Mary Halvorson: Belladonna
*Andrew Hill: Mosaic Select (disc 3)
*King Crimson: Starless (discs 26, 27)
*Steve Miller Trio/Lol Coxhill: Miller's Tale (disc 2)
*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (disc 6)
*Herbie Nichols: The Bethlehem Years (side 1)
*Nurse With Wound/Graham Bowers: Mutation ...The Lunatics Are Running the Asylum...
*Paradoxical Frog: Paradoxical Frog
*Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain (Deluxe Expanded Edition) (disc 2)
*Prince and the Revolution: The Avenue (boot CDR) (disc 1)
*Prince: 2009-07-18 Montreux Jazz Festival (CDR) (disc 1)
*Ravi Shankar: The Sounds of India
*Wayne Shorter: 2010-10-27 Zurich (CDR)
*Stereolab: The Free Design
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York, 1973) (side 2)
*Cecil Taylor Jazz Unit: The Early Unit 1962
*Cecil Taylor: Indent "Indent: Third Layer"
*Work: See 

Reading List, Week of 2022-07-24

Reading List 2022-07-25:

*Morris, Jon. The League of Regrettable Superheroes (started)
*Tudahl, Duane. Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 and 1984 (started)
*King, Stephen. The Dead Zone (reread/finished)
*Litweiler, John. The Freedom Principle: Jazz after 1958 (selections) (reread/in progress)
*Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline (Arden 3rd series, ed. Valerie Wayne) (reread/in progress)
*Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Vol. 1: 1957-1965 (in progress)

 

Sun Ra Sundays by Rodger Coleman: Coming This Fall

Coming this fall: a newly-edited open access edition of Sun Ra Sundays by Rodger Coleman, edited by yours truly. This edition will be published by the Digital Press at the University of North Dakota. From 2006 to 2016, Rodger cranked out detailed analyses of Ra's recordings on his blog NuVoid--and not just the official ones or the obscure ones, but also the unreleased ones. While not exhaustive, Rodger's blog entries, tagged "Sun Ra Sunday," does cover the period from 1961 to 1979 pretty conclusively, putting the recordings in biographical and historic context with a keen critical eye from a  musician's perspective. The new edition features almost all of the original Sun Ra Sunday blog postings, corrected, consolidated, and arranged in chronological order by date of release. Rodger has also written a new Foreword, and I have contributed an Introduction, an Epilogue briefly covering some of the recordings Rodger didn't write about, a list of "Core Recordings," and a Bibliography.

Editing this work, going over it with a fine-tooth comb to tweak it and make it ready for prime time, has reiterated for me just how groundbreaking Rodger's work was. His writing is concise, informative, and entertaining...and the subject matter, of course, is near and dear to my heart.

Rodger's original blog is still out there. There are also two PDF versions already on the web as well: one put together by Irwin Chusid, arranged in the order the entries originally appeared on the blog, and one done by me, arranged chronologically by release but otherwise untouched . This new version will supersede them all. The image above is a preliminary mockup of the cover.

Playlist, Week of 2022-07-17

The 2009 Montreux show has some of Prince's best-ever guitar playing... drummer John Blackwell ain't no slouch either... The new Mary Halvorson disc (featuring the string quartet Mivos Quartet) is gorgeous... Topic for further research: Luigi Nono...

Playlist 2022-07-18:

*Area: Event '76
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City: Live at Iridium (disc 2)
*Beach Boys: Love You (sides 1, 2)
*Paul Bley Quintet: Barrage
*Paul Bley: Turning Point
*Paul Bley: Open, to Love
*Boris: W
*Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 173
*Anthony Braxton & the Wesleyan Tri-Centric Orchestra: 2011-04-25 Middletown, CT (CDR) (disc 2)
*Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Standards) 2020 (disc 5) (streaming)
*Congotronics International: Where's the One?
*Cooper-Moore: Deep in the Neighborhood of History and Influence
*Deerhoof: Offend Maggie
*Deerhoof: Isla Bonita
*Deerhoof: Devil Kids
*Dutch Jazz Orchestra: Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn
*Michael Formanek/Ensemble Kollosus: The Distance
*Fred Frith Trio with Lotte Anker, Susana Santos Silva: Road (disc 2)
*Guided By Voices: Tremblers and Goggles by Rank
*Mary Halvorson: Belladonna
*Joseph Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 103 & 104 (Concertgebouw Orchestra/Harnoncourt, cond.)
*King Crimson: Starless (disc 25)
*Ingrid Laubrock: 2017-06-05 Moers (CDR) "Contemporary Chaos Practices"
*Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra: Dimensional Stardust
*Merzbow/Mats Gustafsson/Balázs Pándi: Cuts Open (disc 2)
*Merzbow/Balázs Pándi/Mats Gustafsson/Thurston Moore: Cuts Up Cuts Out
*Charles Mingus: Mingus Three (disc 2)
*Ikue Mori: Tracing the Magic
*New Ting: 2018-11-17 Sediment Gallery, Richmond VA (wav)
*Various artists: Luigi Nono Retrospective (2004-05-27 London) CDR) (disc 1)
*Lee Scratch Perry: Battle of Armagideon
*Prince: 2009-07-18 Montreux Jazz Festival (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Ravi Shankar: India's Master Musician
*Ravi Shankar: Ravi Shankar at the Monterey International Pop Festival
*Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet: The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet
*Wayne Shorter: 2010-06-29 Vienne, France (CDR)
*Sparks: Angst in My Pants
*Sun Ra: Sleeping Beauty (side 2)
*Cecil Taylor: Looking Ahead! (side 1)
*Lewis Taylor: Numb
*John Tchicai/Archie Shepp/J.C. Moses/Don Moore: Rufus
*Henry Threadgill Ensemble Double Up: Old Locks and Irregular Verb
*Lisa Ullén/Elsa Bergman/Anna Lund: Space
*Various artists: Bollywood Funk
*Various artists: The Wire Tapper 57
*Anna Webber: Idiom (disc 2)
*XTC: Black Sea (side 1)
*John Zorn: Cobra (disc 2)
*John Zorn: Bagatelles Vol. 8: John Medeski Trio
*John Zorn/Simulacrum: Spinoza
*John Zorn: Perchance to Dream

 

Reading List, Week of 2022-07-17

Reading List 2022-07-18:

*King, Stephen. The Dead Zone (reread/started)
*Litweiler, John. The Freedom Principle: Jazz after 1958 (selections) (reread/started)
*Goodheart, Matthew. Freedom and Individuality in the Music of Cecil Taylor (finished)
*Homes, A. M. Music for Torching (started/finished)
*Jones, Jr., William B. Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History 2nd ed. (reread/finished)
*Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline (Arden 3rd series, ed. Valerie Wayne) (reread/in progress)
*Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Vol. 1: 1957-1965 (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2022-07-10

Used to be as a kid, I'd get one album and play it over and over before getting another one (months later)... those days are long gone... all by way of saying I don't absorb all the music I listen to as much as I used to... so it was nice to return to Michael Formanek's large-scale work The Distance and realize all over again how wonderful and compelling it is... I'm still absorbing the marvelous four discs' worth of improvisations of Anthony Braxton with Nels Cline, Greg Saunier, and Taylor Ho Bynum... wonders abound on those discs, as the pieces morph and transmute multiple times over the course of the hour or so it takes for them to unfold... 

Playlist 2022-07-11:

*Area: Crac! (side 1)

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City: Live at Iridium (disc 1)

*B-52s: Wild Planet

*B-52s: Cosmic Thing

*Beatles: Past Masters (2009 stereo remaster) (sides 1, 2)

*Paul Bley: Ballads

*Anthony Braxton: The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton (disc 4) "Opus 76 (Version Two)"

*Anthony Braxton: Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989

*Anthony Braxton: Quartet (New Haven) 2014 (disc 4)

*Broadcast: Maida Vale Sessions

*Clash: London Calling

*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2009-07-23 Nashville (wav) track 6 "What You Said"

*Congotronics International: Where's the One?

*Estamos Trio: People's Historia

*Joe Farrell Quartet: Joe Farrell Quartet

*Michael Formanek/Ensemble Kollosus: The Distance

*Fred Frith Trio with Lotte Anker, Susana Santos Silva: Road (disc 1)

*Mary Halvorson: Belladonna

*Kip Hanrahan: Days and Nights of Blue Luck Inverted

*Freddie Hubbard: The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard

*King Crimson: Starless (disc 19)

*Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy

*George Lewis/Roscoe Mitchell: Voyage and Homecoming

*Tony Malaby's Sabino: The Cave of Winds

*Garry Martin Project (CDR compilation) (disc 4)

*Rob Mazuerk Quartet: Father's Wing

*John McLaughlin: Where Fortune Smiles

*Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet: For the Love of Fire and Water

*Merzbow/Mats Gustafsson/Balázs Pándi: Cuts Open (disc 1)

*Charles Mingus: Mingus Three (discs 1, 2)

*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (discs 4, 5)

*Hank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70 (disc 8)

*Phantogram: Voices

*Spirit: Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus

*Cecil Taylor Unit: It Is in the Brewing Luminous "Part 1"

*June Tyson/Sun Ra: Saturnian Queen of the Sun Ra Arkestra (side 1)

*Various artists: Masters of the Modern Piano 1955-1966 (side 2)

*Anna Webber: Idiom (disc 1)

*XTC: Drums and Wires

*John Zorn: Cobra (disc 1)

*John Zorn/Simulacrum: Spinoza 

Reading List, Week of 2022-07-10

Reading List 2022-07-11:

*Goodheart, Matthew. Freedom and Individuality in the Music of Cecil Taylor (started)
*Smith, Ali. Companion Piece (started/finished)
*Herbert, Frank. Children of Dune (reread/finished)
*Jones, Jr., William B. Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History 2nd ed. (reread/in progress)
*Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline (Arden 3rd series, ed. Valerie Wayne) (reread/in progress)
*Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Vol. 1: 1957-1965 (in progress)

New Ting Gig July 19 Opening for Jack Wright and Ben Bennett

New Ting in person! July 19 at Orbital, here in RVA. Opening for Jack Wright. Show will start at 7 pm sharp. Be there and be square!

Playlist, Week of 2022-07-03

Beautiful, heavy sounds from the Art Ensemble... I am just now catching up to this late live set, the last (I believe) to feature Joseph Jarman... it's great, the whole band cooks, especially (no surprise here) Roscoe Mitchell... I am enjoying exploring the compositions of Annette Peacock through the prism of Paul Bley.... 

Playlist 2022-07-04:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City: Live at Iridium (discs 1, 2)
*Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (2009 stereo remaster) (side 1)
*Ben Bennett/Jack Wright: Tangle
*Paul Bley: Annette
*Paul Bley/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian: Not Two, Not One
*Anthony Braxton: Prag 1984 (Quartet Performance)
*Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Standards) 2020 (disc 4) (streaming)
*Peter Brötzmann Octet: The Complete Machine Gun Sessions "Machine Gun"
*George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars: Dope Dogs
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Who Doesn't Fade?
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Imaginary Vinyl
*Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (disc 2) "Honky Tonk"
*Miles Davis: Agharta (disc 1)
*Alexander Hawkins Mirror Canon: Break a Vase
*Julius Hemphill: 'Coon Bid'ness
*Henry Kaiser/Robert Musso: Echoes for Sonny
*Lemon Demon: Spirit Phone
*Myra Melford's Be Bread Sextet: 2010-08-27 Saalfelden, Austria (CDR)
*Hank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70 (disc 7)
*Nurse With Wound/Graham Bowers: Excitotoxicity
*Jeff Parker: The New Breed
*Perch Hen Brock & Rain: Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere
*Prince: 12-inch Remixes 2a (CDR compilation) (selections)
*Prince: Thieves in the Temple (CD maxi-single)
*Prince: The Work Vol. 3 (disc 1)
*Nino Rota: Fellini's Amarcord (sides 1, 2)
*Soundcarriers: Wilds
*Sparks: Balls (side 1)
*Staple Singers: Be Altitude: Respect Yourself
*Jack Stauber: HiLo
*Sun Ra: Continuation (Saturn/Corbett vs. Dempsey 2CD) (disc 2)
*Sun Ra Arkestra: 1974: Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (CDR)
*Sun Ra: Ellingtonia, Vol. 1 (streaming)
*Henry Threadgill Zooid: Poof
*David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun Of Goldfinger "Soften the Blow"
*Dionne Warwick: Presenting Dionne Warwick (selections)
*Dionne Warwick: Anyone Who Had a Heart (selections)
*Dionne Warwick: Here I Am (selections)
*Dionne Warwick: Here Where There Is Love (selections)
*Jack White: Fear of the Dawn
*John Zorn: Bagatelles Vol. 7: Brian Marsella
*John Zorn/Simulacrum: Spinoza 

Reading List, Week of 2022-07-03

Reading List 2022-07-04:

*Jones, Jr., William B. Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History 2nd ed. (reread/started)
*Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline (Arden 3rd series, ed. Valerie Wayne) (reread/started)
*Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew (NCS 3rd ed., ed. Ann Thompson) (reread/finished)
*Herbert, Frank. Children of Dune (reread/in progress)
*Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Vol. 1: 1957-1965 (in progress)