Playlist, Week of 2024-02-11

The 1977 Muhal Richard Abrams quintet gig is a wonderful audience recording from Ali's Alley in NYC, featuring Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins...now there's a lineup!... as always, Muhal is generous with the solo space, so there's lots of stretching out here... I thank the music gods that I got to see McCall and Hopkins together with Arthur Blythe at the Vanguard... right place, right time... Spihumonesty is another great chamber jazz album from Muhal with knotty melodies that I can't quite wrap my head around... I love the uncertainty... Barry Altschul's You Can't Name Your Own Tune is a brilliant album with generous helpings of Muhal on piano, especially on "Cmbeh" (incidentally, a Muhal composition)... Ethan Iverson has a nice review of this album here... For some great ensemble keyboard playing that's not Muhal, check out Alexander Hawkins on Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love's Guts & Skins: super-exciting...

Playlist 2024-02-12:

*AACM Great Black Music Ensemble: Umbria Jazz 2009, Perugia, Italy (CDR) (discs 2, 4)
*Muhal Richard Abrams: Lifea Blinec
*Muhal Richard Abrams: Spihumonesty (sides 1, 2)
*Muhal Richard Abrams Quintet: 1977-03-04 NYC (CDR) (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Barry Altschul: You Can't Name Your Own Tune
*Tim Berne's Snakeoil: The Deceptive 4 (Live) (disc 1) "Perception"
*Anthony Braxton: Nine Compositions (DVD) 2003 " (tracks 1-4, 6)
*Rodger Coleman and Andrew Dickson: 2016-12-14 Nashville (CDR)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2023-12-29 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings (discs 7, 8)
*Wild Bill Davis/ Johnny Hodges: Con-Soul and Sax (side 2)
*Dimitriadis/Dörner/Freedman/Parkins/Williams: BeingFive
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 22 (disc 2)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 23 (disc 1)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Masterpieces by Ellington (sides 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Ellington Indigos (side 1)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Festival Session (side 2)
*Duke Ellington: Ellington '66 (side 1)
*Ensemble Dedalus & Erikm: Fata Morgana
*Farmers By Nature: Love and Ghosts (disc 2) "Bisanz"
*Aretha Franklin: Runnin' Out of Fools (sides 1, 2)
*Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love: Guts & Skins
*Kate Gentile: Mannequins
*Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 4 (1970-02-13 Fillmore East) (disc 2) "That's It for the Other One"
*Grateful Dead: 1970-09-19 Fillmore East NYC (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories (disc 2)
*Curtis Mayfield: There's No Place Like America Today
*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (disc 6)
*Nicole Mitchell's Sonic Projections: The Secret Escapades of Velvet Anderson
*Roscoe Mitchell: Sound Songs (disc 1)
*New Ting: 2024-01-29 "Here's Your Organ Donor" (wav)
*Sam & Dave: Hold On, I'm Comin' (side 1)
*Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: Paradiso Amsterdam 1970 (side 2)
*Art Tatum: The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Vol. 7
*Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures (side 1)
*Cecil Tayor: Conquistador! "With (Exit)" (alternate take)
*Cecil Taylor: Algonquin
*Henry Threadgill 14 Or 15 Kestra AGG: Dirt... And More Dirt

Playlist, Week of 2020-05-24

Fusion heaven, here... Forest of Feelings was one of those albums I never managed to get back in the '70s... I listened to friends' copies a lot, but even back then it was hard to come by... my brother generously gifted me a copy, and I have been digging it all over again... I lost track of David Sancious after his first two albums... there were guest appearances on Lenny White and Stanley Clarke albums, but nothing as mind-blowing as this, and after that I lost track... did he ever top his debut, though?... his guitar and keyboard playing are brilliant on Forest, and the band is crackerjack... After finishing Ted Gioia's book The Jazz Standards I've had a hankering for... well, jazz standards... love to hear them as played by Anthony Braxton, so I'll be working my way through his Standards Quartet discs again... there's also a fantastic youtube video of Braxton's more current quartet doing standards in London in January of this year, featuring Alexander Hawkins on piano... now that gets my blood going... will also be revisiting Bill Evans trio music and more Miles Davis in this vein... as well as acquainting myself in more depth with Keith Jarrett's standards trio (at least until I can't take the squawking any more)... 

Playlist 2020-05-25:

*Rashied Ali/Frank Lowe: Duo Exchange (side 1)

*AMM/MEV: Apogee (disc 2)

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Alternate Express (side 1)

*Anthony Braxton: 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003 (disc 1)

*Clifford Brown and Max Roach: Clifford Brown and Max Roach

*Chamber 4: City Of Light

*Gerald Cleaver/Uncle June: Be It As I See It

*Rodger Coleman: Real Gone 

*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2015-05-14 Nashville (wav) Track 7

*Alice Coltrane: Spiritual Eternal: The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings (disc 2)

*Chick Corea: The Complete “Is” Sessions (disc 1)

*Marilyn Crispell/Eddie Prévost/Harrison Smith: 2012-11-07 London (CDR)

*Bill Dixon: Son of Sisyphus

*Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet: Time Like This

*Andrew Hill: From California with Love (side 1)

*Anna Högberg Attack: Lena

*Keith Jarrett: Sun Bear Concerts (disc 5)

*Henry Kaiser: 1980-05-03 Richmond Artists Workshop (CDR) (disc 2)

*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Stir Crazy: Episode 9

*Layers of Memory: 2019-12-07 RVA (wav)"No. 4"

*Sergio Mendes: Quiet Nights

*MIMEO/John Tilbury: The Hands Of Caravaggio

*Lee Morgan: The Procrastinator (side 3)

*New Ting: 2020-02-17 "Still Waitin' for Cantankeroid" (wav)

*New Ting: 2020-03-02 "Media Scan" (wav)

*Don Pullen/Milford Graves: In Concert at Yale University

*Flora Purim: Everyday, Everynight

*Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee

*Keith Rowe and John Tilbury: Duos for Doris (disc 2)

*David Sancious: Forest of Feelings (side 2)

*Susana Santos Silva: Life and Other Transient Storms

*Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Quintessence (disc 1)

*Sun Ra: Continuation (Saturn/Corbett vs. Dempsey) (disc 2)

*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: 1976-08-24 Châteauvallon, France (CDR) (disc 2)

*Sun Ra: Piano Recital, Teatro  La Fenice, Venezia

*Sun Ra: The Other Side of the Sun (side 2)

*Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues (side 1)

*McCoy Tyner: Supertrios

*Mal Waldron: The Call (side 1)

*Tony Williams Lifetime: Turn It Over (side 1)

*Art Bears: The World As It Is Today

*Clash: Sandinista (side 5)

*Dark Carpet: Factory Side

*Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 5 (1973-11-17 UCLA) (disc 1)

*Guided By Voices: Surrender Your Poppy Field

*Happy the Man: 1976-04-03 Baltimore (discs 1, 2)

*Paul McCartney: Pure McCartney (Deluxe Ed.) (disc 2)

*Roxy Music: Siren (side 2)

*Devadip Carlos Santana: Oneness: Silver Dreams - Golden Reality