Playlist, Week of 2026-01-25

 

Got to hear the Sam Records reissue of Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 and damn, it sounded fantastic... clearer and cleaner than I've ever heard it before, with John Gilmore's solos shining with the golden clarity they deserve... Love how the Beatles show up in the middle of AMM's "The Great Hall"... [Ahmed] continues to blow me away with their mesmerizing and morphing grooves... 

Playlist 2026-01-26:

*[Ahmed]: Wood Blues
*[Ahmed]: Sama'a [Audition]
*AMM: Laminal (disc 2) "The Great Hall, Part 1"
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-06-28 NYC (CDR) (disc 1)
*Beach Boys: Love You
*Beatles: Revolver (2009 stereo remaster) (sides 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium X (disc 7)
*Patricia Brennan: Of the Near and Far
*Rodger Coleman: Journey to Brno
*Jackie DeShannon: The Complete Singles, Vol. 1 (1960-1963)
*Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington Presents Ivie Anderson (sides 1, 2)
*Duke Ellington: The Private Collection, Vol. 1: Studio Sessions Chicago, 1956
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Latin American Suite
*Grateful Dead: Hundred Year Hall (1972-04-26 Frankfurt) (disc 2) "The Other One"
*Grateful Dead: Listen to the River: St. Louis '71 '72 '73 (disc 10) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1977-03-20 Winterland, S.F.(CDR)(disc 2)
*Guided By Voices: Universe Room
*Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts
*Tim Harding/OJ Hunter/Fred McGann/Sam Byrd: 2026-01-17 RVA (CDR)
*Hatfield and the North: The Rotters' Club (50th Anniversary Ed.) (sides 1, 2)
*Henry Now: Then Again
*I.P.Y.: IPY25
*King Crimson: Lizard (selections)
*Charles Mingus: Nostalgia In Times Square/The Immortal 1959 Sessions (side 2)
*Thelonious Monk: Bremen 1965 (discs 1, 2)
*New Ting: 2026-01-12 "Seriously?" (wav)
*Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens
*Chris Potter/Craig Taborn: 2025-03-31 Cologne (CDR)
*Sun Ra: Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 (side 2)
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York City 1973) (sides 3, 4)
*Sun Ra: Hidden Fire (sides 1, 2)
*Tomeka Reid Quartet: 2025-09-26 Leibnitz, Austria (CDR)
*UYA: 1994-07-12 Think Like That (wav)
*XTC: English Settlement (sides 3, 4)

Playlist, Week of 2023-02-12

Interesting to how much the 1968 music of AMM, particularly "Like A Cloud Hanging In The Sky?" on The Crypt, sounds like the Grateful Dead's various "Feedback" pieces from 1968 to 1970... heavy distortion, controlled feedback, slabs of near-industrial sound... Love Bird's playing on the informal Apartment Jam Sessions... Charles Mingus's Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is considered his masterpiece, but I'll take Mingus Dynasty over that any day... of course, it's nice to have both... Don't listen to it as much because it's on DVD, but Anthony Braxton's Nine Compositions (DVD) 2003 is really special, especially the large ensemble pieces (with Dan Plonsey of Manufacturing of Humidifiers)... Keeping it going with Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor...

Playlist 2023-02-13:

*AMM: The Crypt - 12th June 1968 (disc 1)

*Beach Boys: California Girls (sides 1, 2)

*Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (mono 50th anniversary) (side 1)

*Alban Berg: Streichquartett Opus 3/Lyrische Suite (Alban Berg Quartet)

*Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: 'S Make It

*Anthony Braxton: Nine Compositions (DVD) 2003 "Comp. 190 (13tet)"

*Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: D'Agala

*Duke Ellington: The Duke at Fargo, 1940: Special 60th Anniversary Edition (disc 2)

*Duke Ellington: The Piano Player

*Firesign Theatre: How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All (side 2)

*Firesign Theatre: Not Insane (side 1)

*Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (50th Anniversary) (side 4)

*Gentle Giant: Playing the Fool (side 2)

*Grateful Dead: 1974-06-18 Louisville (disc 2)

*Annette Hanshaw: The Twenties Sweetheart

*Joe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Sessions (disc 4)

*Andrew Hill: Mosaic Select (disc 2)

*Johnny Hodges: Triple Play

*Jefferson Pilot: The Return of Troubled Youth Orchestra

*Ingrid Laubrock + Aki Takase: Kasumi

*Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn: The People I Love

*Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (Wigglesworth, BBC National Orchestra of Wales)

*Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (sides 1, 2)

*Charles Mingus Sextet: Cornell 1964 (disc 2)

*Charles Mingus: The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-65 (disc 2)

*Roscoe Mitchell Sound Ensemble: Live in Detroit (side 1)

*Paal Nilssen-Love: New Brazilian Funk

*Charlie Parker: Apartment Jam Sessions (side 1)

*Omar Rodriguez-López: Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo

*Omar Rodriguez-López: Calibration (Is Pushing Luck and Key Too Far)

*Arnold Schoenberg: Suite, Op. 29/Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4/3 Pieces for Chamber Orchestra (Pierre Boulez/Ensemble InterContemporain)

*Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (SWR Sinfonieorchester/Sylvain Cambreling) (CDR)

*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: In the Orbit of Ra (discs 1, 2)

*Sun Ra: Hiroshima (side 2)

*Sun Ra and His Ethnic Structural Cosmo Arkestra: 1986-08-10 Liverpool, NY (CDR) (discs 1, 2)

*Sun Ra and His Alter-Destiny Omniversal Arkestra: 1987-01-22 Philadelphia (CDR)

*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Prophet (sides 1, 2)

*Sun Ra and His Omniverse Arkestra: 1988-09-01 Detroit (CDR) (discs 1, 2)

*Cecil Taylor: Live in the Black Forest

*Cecil Taylor/Han Bennink: Spots, Circles, and Fantasy

*Cecil Taylor: Complicité (disc 3)

*Various artists: Bollywood Bliss (CDR compilation)

*John Zorn: In the Hall of Mirrors

*John Zorn's Cobra: Live at the Knitting Factory

Playlist, Week of 2020-03-01

It's always interesting to hear AMM bring in outside players... I'm thinking particularly of their recordings with John Butcher...  it puts into focus exactly how singular, how sui generis their playing together always is... AAMM is no exception--even with the addition of the "A" Trio, you never once doubt that you're hearing anyone other than AMM...

Playlist 2020-03-02:

*"A" Trio & AMM: AAMM
*Arcana: The Last Wave
*Derek Bailey: Fairly Early with Postscripts
*Brötzmann/Schlippenbach/Bennink: Fifty Years After…
*Bill Bruford: Feels Good to Me
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-28 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Colla Parte: 2019-11-24 Rhizome, Washington DC (wav) (set 1)
*John Coltrane: My Favorite Things: Coltrane At Newport "Impressions"
*Company: Company 1
*Lowell Davidson Trio: Lowell Davidson Trio
*Kris Davis: Diatom Ribbons
*Miles Davis: 1970-08-18 Tanglewood (CDR)
*Miles Davis/Marcus Miller: Music From Siesta (side 2)
*Nick Fraser/Kris Davis/Tony Malaby: Zoning
*Samuel Goff: Transmissions
*Illegal Crowns: The No-Nosed Puppet
*Robert Landfermann/Ingrid Laubrock/Achim Kaufmann/Tom Rainey: Topaz
*Bill Laswell: Baselines (side 1)
*Layers of Memory: Hence Thrice
*Myra Melford: Snowy Egret
*Myra Melford's Snowy Egret: The Other Side of Air
*Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (sides 1, 2)
*New Ting: 2020-02-17 "Still Waitin' for Cantankeroid" (wav)
*Tony Oxley/Derek Bailey Quartet: 1993-09 Crawley, England (CDR)
*Charlie Parker: Bird At The Roost, The Savoy Years: The Complete Royal Roost Performances, Vol. One (side 1)
*Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton: Music for David Mossman
*Evan Parker/Trance Map +: Crepuscule in Nickelsdorf
*David Sancious And Tone: Transformation (The Speed Of Love) (side 2)
*Three Body Problem: 2019-11-02 Washington DC (wav)
*VWCR: Noise of Our Time
*John Zorn: In the Hall of Mirrors
*John Zorn: Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (discs 45, 46)
*Beatles:  From Liverpool: The Beatles Box (LP 4, side 1)
*Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Get Happy (side 2)
*English Beat: Wha'ppen? (side 1)
*Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream “Dark Star"
*Guided By Voices: Bee Thousand (Director's Cut) (disc 1)
*Guided By Voices: Surrender Your Poppy Field
*Henry Cow: Unrest (Cow Box Redux)
*Henry Cow: 1976-11-18 Nancy, France (CDR)
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*Robert Pollard: Not in My Airforce
*Robert Pollard: Waved Out
*Skeleton Crew: Learn to Talk
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1968: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Zombies: The BBC Radio Sessions (side 1)

Playlist, Week of 2019-04-28

As mentioned last week, lots of AMM here... amazing how stylistically consistent they remain through the years despite various personnel changes and evolving loci of attention... But also some great solo piano... Alexander Hawkins continues to blow me away in all the settings he chooses to explore.. his newest release is gorgeous... Towards a 21st-century pantheon of solo piano: Kris Davis: Massive Threads; Craig Taborn: Avenging Angel; Alexander Hawkins: Iron into Wind (Pears from an Elm)...

Playlist 2019-04-29:

*Muhal Richard Abrams/George Lewis/Roscoe Mitchell: 2003-09-20 Venice (CDR)
*AMM: Laminal (discs 1, 2)
*AMM: 1988-01 BBC Maida Vale Studios (CDR)
*AMM: The Inexhaustible Document
*AMM: Before Driving to the Chapel We Took Coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed
*AMM: An Unintended Legacy (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Daniel Barbiero: Complex Silence 37
*Daniel Barbiero & Cristiano Bocci: Wooden Mirrors
*Anthony Braxton: 1973-08-22/25: Chateauvallon (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton/Derek Bailey: Royal Volume 1
*Anthony Braxton: GTM (Syntax) 2017 (disc 6) (streaming)
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd/Robert Andrew Scott: 2019-03-30 Richmond (wav)
*Alexander Hawkins: Iron into Wind (Pears from an Elm)
*Large Unit: Fluku
*Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: 2016-11-12 Wels, Austria (CDR)
*Masters of Disorientation: 1990-02-25 Birmingham, Eng. (CDR) (disc 1)
*Naked City: Radio
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2016-03-28 “Well Extract Belief System” (wav)
*Tony Oxley: 4 Compositions for Sextet
*Evan Parker Electroacoustic Nonet: 2015-08-28 Mulhouse, France (CDR)
*RAIC: Lamentations
*RAIC: The Heart's Message Cannot be Delivered in Words (wav rough mix)
*David Sancious: Forest of Feelings
*Archie Shepp: Mama Too Tight
*Ches Smith: The Bell
*Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra: The Solar-Myth Approach (Vol. 2)
*Craig Taborn Junk Magic: 2008-08-24 Saalfelden (CDR)
*David Bowie: Live Nassau Coliseum '76 (discs 1, 2)
*David Bowie: Re:Call 2
*Heldon: Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale
*Muffins: Manna/Mirage
*Palberta: 2017-02-10 Brooklyn (CDR)
*Palberta: 2018-05-18 Chinatown Sessions
*Ruins: Hyderomastgroningem
*Various artists: Fame Northern Soul
*Various artists: Top Shelf 8/8/88

Playlist, Week of 2019-04-21

As I mentioned last week, starting to re-dig into AMM... hard to stay away once you start... early dense stuff with Cornelius Cardew, middle period with the classic trio, later pieces with the Prévost/Tilbury duo, the even later reunion with Keith Rowe: I love it all... The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael is a great showcase for the excellent bass playing of Michael Bisio... the new Art Ensemble of Chicago release is a masterwork.... its added palettes of strings, chamber music orchestrations, and vocals greatly expand the sonic scope of the Ensemble, taking it closer to Roscoe Mitchell contemporary classical territory... Hugh Ragin sounds great on it as well... word has it that this version of the Ensemble really kicked it at Big Ears...

Playlist 2019-04-22:

*AACM Great Black Music Ensemble: 2009-07-14 Program #1 (CDR)
*AMM: The Crypt: 12th June 1968, the Complete Session (discs 1, 2)
*AMM: 1970-03-02 London (CDR)
*AMM: Before Driving to the Chapel We Took Coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (discs 1, 2)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: The Mathematics of War
*Elder Ones: From Untruth
*Jimmy Ghaphery/Gary Rouzer/Sam Byrd/Robert Andrew Scott: 2019-03-30 Richmond (wav)
*Billie Holiday: 1933-1941 Favorites (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2)
*New Loft: 2013-05-20 “Pasadena Jump Start” (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-03-04 "Weather Undersky" (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-04-01 "The More You Don't Find It" (wav)
*Paal Nilssen-Love: New Brazilian Funk
*RAIC: Lamentations
*Archie Shepp: Four for Trane
*Archie Shepp: On This Night
*Matthew Shipp Chamber Ensemble: The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael
*Sun Ra: Solo Keyboards, Minnesota, 1978
*Cecil Taylor: 1983-07-27 Genoa (wav)
*David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun Of Goldfinger
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 28)
*Allied Chemical Brothers: Tazz
*David Bowie: Young Americans
*Guided By Voices: How Do You Spell Heaven
*Residents: Commercial Album (pREServed Edition) (discs 1, 2)
*UYA: 1992-02-04/08 Break It (wav)
*UYA: Improvisations 3 (1993-1994): Yes, a Man (selections)
*Neil Young: Lesser Known Gems (CDR compilation) (disc 1)

Playlist, Week of 2018-10-07

A few words about the new AMM 3-CD release An Unintended Legacy: it's wonderful... notable for the rejoining of guitarist Keith Rowe after an eleven-year absence, it's remarkable how much this sounds like he'd never left... and yet there is an advancement of sorts, or a difference, in how things unfold... the music is as mysterious and subtle as ever before, and there is a subdued statis that is meditative and lovely... even so, it's great to hear the Beach Boys insinuate themselves into the fray, on the first disc... good thing it was Pet Sounds and not M.I.U. Album... not sure that selection was as random as Rowe's radio interjections were in the past, but it works...

Playlist 2018-10-08:

*Anton Webern: Complete Webern - Boulez (disc 6)
*Muhal Richard Abrams: Mamma and Daddy
*AMM: An Unintended Legacy (disc 1)
*Daniel Barbiero et al/The December 1952 Project.: 2018-09-30 Sonic Circuits, Washington DC (wav)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium E (discs 3, 4)
*Gerald Cleaver: Adjust
*Marilyn Crispell/Eddie Prévost/Harrison Smith: 2012-11-07 London (CDR)
*Kris Davis and Craig Taborn: Octopus
*Eric Dolphy: Conversations
*Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society: Barbeque Dog
*Mat Maneri Quartet: Blue Decco
*Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory: Nine To Get Ready
*Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory: 1999-06-11 Chicago (CDR)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2018-09-24 "How Easily I Can Lie" (wav)
*Hugh Ragin Trumpet Ensemble: Fanfare & Fiesta
*RAIC: Symbiosis, Vol. 2 (cassette)
*David Shea: Hsi-Yu Chi
*Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra: Other Strange Worlds
*Sun Ra And His Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra: Sun Embassy
*Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Research Arkestra: 1971-11-11 Delft, The Netherlands (CDR) (disc 3)
*Sun Ra: Of Abstract Dreams
*Craig Taborn: Light Made Lighter
*Various artists: Blue Note Plays Bossa Nova (disc 1)
*YoshimiO/Susie Ibarra/Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe: Flower of Sulphur
*John Zorn: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Vol. 3
*John Barry: Thunderball (Definitive Soundtrack Collection)
*Chicago: Live VI Decades Live (This Is What We Do) (disc 2)
*Delivery: Fools Meeting
*Grateful Dead: 1970-10-17 Cleveland (CDR) (disc 2)
*Innerzone Orchestra: Programmed
*King Crimson: 1972-03-10 Peoria IL
*Bill Laswell: Dub Chamber 3
*Paul McCartney: Egypt Station
*Pax Nicholas And The Nettey Family: Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef
*Jimmy Reed: Mr. Lucky: The Complete Vee-Jay Singles (disc 2)
*Roxy Music: The Thrill of It All (disc 4)
*Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Up above My Head (disc 1)
*This Heat: This Heat
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 18)

The Influence of AMM

AMM: The Inexhaustible Document Exhibition (Huddersfield Contemporay Music Festival)

Yet, it's perhaps only now, in a 21st-century, post-noise milieu, that AMM's earliest statements can be properly understood. Their eternal drones, peppered with dense, abstract sonic events and liberated from conventional virtuosity, have become a lingua franca, heard for the last decade or so at countless DIY shows in nameless dungeon basements from Brighton to Brooklyn, while the syntax of space and duration they pioneered has continued to inspire subsequent generations of improvisors. (Daniel Spicer, Wire review of AMMMusic, 2016-04)

John Tilbury on Improvisation

https://dalstonsound.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/john-tilbury-and-marcus-schmickler-john-butcher-at-cafe-oto/

Yet because of its directness, its immediacy, improvisation is often perceived simply as something musicians do when they arrive on stage, as if by default, without sheets of manuscript paper. They invent nothing, they simply access their memory bank. But just as thought has preceded the mark on the manuscript paper in the composer's studio, so before he emits a sound the improviser has trained and prepared himself; he has reflected on the new musical problems that have arisen; he has pondered and perhaps rejected the 'reformulation of successful modes'; he has recalled the unresolved tensions of previous performances; he has considered the relationships with other players: in short, he has engaged in musical thought. A particular improvisation is one of many possible consequences of these considerations; spontaneously and publicly, they are given temporal musical expression. (John Tilbury, Cornelius Cardew: A Life Unfinished,Copula, 2008, p. 318)

Make a Sound

The most fundamental reason for making music is to communicate and this ability and its fulfilment is fundamental to human existence. What else explains the almost compulsive desire to make or consume music? There may be no more thing for a human being to do than make a sound and know that it is being heard by another human being. (Edwin Prévost, No Sound Is Innocent, p. 43)

AMM and the Importance of Documentation

On the music of AMM:

This is music which is not exhausted by repetition, and even seasoned AMM admirers (ourselves included), who might once have rejected the very idea of 'mechanical reproduction,' have begun to accept the importance of documentation. This is music which transcends its moment. It does make sense to listen to it many times. It is never the same, always fresh, always developing, or developing new pathways in the listener. --Cook & Morton, Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 5th ed. (p. 38)