Playlist, Week of 2023-03-05

I find myself drawn to early Cecil Taylor... Jazz Advance, Looking Ahead!, Love for Sale, and all the absolutely killer Candid recordings... Sunny Murray was necessary, but it's wonderful to hear what Cecil was doing with the solid underpinning of a straight beat from Dennis Charles... later on, we get a small glimpse of how Cecil's playing to a "beat" had developed when Ronald Shannon Jackson occasionally threw in his stomping marches... It's not a pattern, but as I work my way chronologically through Charles Mingus's discography, I find myself missing his early stuff and looking forward to getting back to it... I'm talking the Debut recordings, the early Jazz Workshop sides, and the giant 1950s albums, from East Coasting and Tijuana Moods to Mingus Dynasty... all in good time... Okay, it really isn't a pattern, but I am also finding that what's floating my boat with Sun Ra these days is his piano playing on all the early Saturns... Mary Halvorson's Amaryllis deserves all the attention it's gotten since it came out last year... I think I am more intrigued by her compositions than by her playing... looking forward to seeing her at Big Ears this year... 

Playlist 2023-03-06:

*Zoh Amba: 2023-01-24 Vienna (CDR)
*Derek Bailey/Pat Metheny/Gregg Bendian/Paul Wertico: The Sign Of 4 (discs 2, 3)
*Anthony Braxton: 1969-10-25 Paris (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton: 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 (discs 1, 2)
*John Coltrane: Live in Japan (disc 1) "Afro Blue"
*Dreams: Dreams
*Firesign Theater: Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him
*Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis
*Layers of Memory: 2019-12-07 RVA (wav)"No. 3"
*James Brandon Lewis: An UnRuly Manifesto
*James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon
*Mat Maneri: Pentagon
*Charles Mingus: Revenge! (discs 1, 2)
*Charles Mingus: The Great Concert of Charles Mingus (side 1)
*Prince: 50 Essential Bootlegs Listening Companion (CDR) (discs 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12 (discs 1, 2)
*Soft Machine: BBC Radio 1969-1971 (disc 1)
*Mike Sopko/Bill Laswell/Thomas Pridgen: Sopko Laswell Pridgen (selections)
*Sparks: Indiscreet (sides 1, 2)
*Sparks: Big Beat (side 1)
*Sparks: Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins (sides 1, 2)
*Sparks: Lil' Beethoven (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra: Ellingtonia, Vol. 2
*Sun Ra: Solo Piano at WKCR, 1977
*Sun Ra: Solo Piano, Vol. 1
*Sun Ra: Lanquidity (45rpm version) (sides 2, 3, 4)
*Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra: 1990-05-05 Santa Cruz CA (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Sun Ra Arkestra: Living Sky (side 2)
*Cecil Taylor: The Complete Candid Recordings of Cecil Taylor and Buell Neidlinger (disc 1)
*Cecil Taylor: Indent
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1975-07-25 Antibes (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1976-07-14 Bremen (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor: 1976-07-25 Antibes (CDR)