Playlist, Week of 2026-08-16

 

I hope the lineup of Kim Cass's Levs proves to be more than a one-off... I really enjoy Charlie Parker on tenor... he's not as comfortable with it, and so his playing is less fluid... but it's still monstrously swinging... The Cecil Taylor big band music is endlessly nourishing... "If music be the food of love, play on"... Still continuing to be blown away by the majestic Sun Ra release Somewhere Over the Rainbow... especially all the new John Gilmore solos... 

Playlist 2026-08-17:

*Art Ensemble: 1967/68 (disc 4) "Number 2 - Quartet Version Take 7"
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Kabalaba (pt. 1)
*Beatles: Something New (side 2)
*Beatles: Yesterday and Today (sides 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton/Richard Teitelbaum: Silence/Time Zones:  "Crossing (Dedicated To Roscoe Mitchell)"
*Kim Cass: Levs
*Frédéric Chopin: 24 Preludes Op. 28/Sonata No. 2, Op. 35/Polonaise, Op. 53 (Evgeny Kissin)
*Gerald Cleaver: Adjust
*John Coltrane: Giant Steps (side 2)
*Miles Davis: Complete Birth of the Cool
*Miles Davis: Collector's Items (side 2)
*Deerhoof: Future Teenage Cave Artists
*Deerhoof: Miracle-Level
*Duke Ellington: The Complete 1932-1940 Brunswick, Columbia and Master Recordings of Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra (disc 11)
*Duke Ellington: Live in Mexico "The Mexican Suite"
*Grateful Dead: 1981-05-01 Hampton VA (CDR) (disc 2)
*Charlie Haden: Liberation Music Orchestra (side 1)
*Ingrid Laubrock: Monochromes
*Ingrid Laubrock/Kris Davis: Blood Moon
*James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto
*London Jazz Composers Orchestra featuring Anthony Braxton: 1988-03-25 Basel, Switzerland (CDR) (disc 2) "Unidentified Barry Guy Composition"
*Monstrance: Monstrance (disc 2)
*New Ting: 2027-07-27 "Horse for Au Pair" (wav)
*OM: It's About Time
*Tony Oxley Quintet: Angular Apron
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings 1944-1948 (disc 5)
*Soft Machine: Floating World Live
*Sun Ra and His Space Arkestra: What Planet Is This? (disc 1)
*Sun Ra: Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Strut) (disc 1)
*Sun Ra and His Omniverse Jet-Set Arkestra: 1980-12-31 Detroit (CDR) (disc 7)
*Sun Ra: Inside the Light World: Sun Ra Meets the OVC (side 1)
*Cecil Taylor: Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts (disc 1)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1979-03-15 WKCR, NYC (CDR) track 1
*Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane: At Iridium 2004 (discs 13, 14)
*UYA: 1995-03-16 Touch Module (wav)
*Various artists: Stax Singles Vol. 4: Rarities and the Best of the Rest (disc 2)
*Stevie Wonder: 1979-12-18 Secret Life of Plants Tour, Pasadena CA (CDR) (disc 1)
*Robert Wyatt: Shleep 

Playlist, Week of 2024-11-17

We Are on the Edge just gets better and better every time I listen to it... a true landmark record... Nice to have more Charlie Parker but nothing earth-shattering or revelatory on Bird in Kansas City... Brilliant piano trio playing from Matt Mitchell, but from him I expect no less... Revisiting old favorites: Juju: comfort food for the ears... Joe Henderson rocking it on Unity... John Gilmore smoking on Music from Tomorrow's World... I had it in my mind that he didn't solo so much on the Majestic session, but he definitely does, especially on "Possession"... that whole CD is damn revelatory, and explores whole sides of Sun Ra not heard elsewhere... specifically, live 1960 Arkestra and the superlative arrangements on the Majestic session (more florid and worked-out than the Transition albums)... 

Playlist 2024-11-18:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (disc 1)
*Beatles: Real Love (maxi CD single)
*Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips: Time Will Tell
*John Blum Quartet feat. Marshall Allen: Deep Space
*Kim Cass: Levs
*George Clinton/P-Funk All Stars: How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? (disc 1)
*John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings (disc 15)
*Miles Davis: Miles at the Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 (disc 1)
*Bob Dylan: Together Through Life
*Bob Dylan: Tempest
*Duke Ellington: The Complete 1936-1940 Variety, Vocalion, and Okeh Small Group Sessions (disc 7)
*Farmers By Nature: Out of This World's Distortions
*Agustí Fernández Ensemble: Via Augusta
*Forebrace: Steeped
*Grateful Dead: 1989-10-09 Hampton VA (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Mary Halvorson: Reverse Blue
*Hatfield and the North: The Manor Demos
*Alexander Hawkins Trio: Carnival Celestial
*Dave Holland New Quartet: 2023-07-13 Pori, Finland (CDR)
*Jackie McLean: Action
*Matt Mitchell: Zealous Angles
*Roscoe Mitchell's Cards For Orchestra Project: 2009-08-30 Sant'Anna Arresi, Italy (CDR)
*Roscoe Mitchell: Conversations II
*New Ting: 2024-11-11 "Wall Hangings and a Crustacean"(wav)
*Charlie Parker: Bird in Kansas City
*David Sancious and Tone: Transformation (The Speed of Love)
*Wayne Shorter: Juju (side 1)
*Sparks: Big Beat (side 2)
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Music from Tomorrow's World
*Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra: Strange Strings (Expanded Edition) (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra and His All-Star Inventions: 1991-11-17 NYC (CDR) (disc 1)
*Sun Ra: Saturn Research: Rarities and Oddities (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2)
*Craig Taborn/Tomeka Reid/Ches Smith: 2023-03-05 Vienna (CDR)
*Sharon Tandy: You Gotta Believe It's... Sharon Tandy
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1966-11-30 Paris (CDR)
*Thumbscrew: Wingbeats
*Lennie Tristano: Personal Recordings 1946-1970 (disc 5)
*Anna Webber: Shimmer Wince
*Anna Webber: simpletrio2000
*Larry Young: Unity

Playlist, Week of 2020-09-20

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the recent spate of PR around the centennial of Charlie Parker's death spurred me to go back to my Bird collection and do some in-depth listening... not that I stopped listening to Bird; after all, he (like the Beatles) regularly shows up on the Magic Jukebox (most of the Savoy and Dial master takes, plus a healthy helping of Royal Roost and Verve cuts)... but it'd been a while since I just pulled out a Bird disc and spinned it... needless to say, he sounds as great as ever... along with John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis, his playing was what got me seriously into jazz in a way that hasn't relented for several decades now... I especially enjoyed this list by Mark Stryker of great live Bird... 20 years or so ago, I put together a 6-CD compilation of great Bird, based largely on Lawrence O. Koch's list of essential Bird in Yardbird Suite and Thomas Owens's list of greatest Bird solos in Bebop: The Music and Its Players... most of those songs are represented on Stryker's list, but there were a few I have since acquired (like the 1940 solo recording)... for live stuff, like I said last week, the Benedetti stuff still floors me... I am also partial to Complete Live at Birdland and Summit Meeting at Birdland... digging through my vinyl, it's been interesting to see what's been upgraded and improved, and what still sounds solid as is... Charlie Parker seems to be imprinted on my brain, and I love it... I go through stages of deep listening to particular artists... the thing is, there are so many of them!... I am absorbed by great music... it was also fun to reread all the reviews on Bird in the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (5th edition)... Morton and Cook really nail it, I think, over and over... 

Playlist 2020-09-21:

*AMM: 2003-11-12 Glasgow (CDR)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Full Force (side 1)
*Beatles: The Beatles (Super Deluxe Edition) (disc 5)
*Ken Boothe: Live Good
*Brand X: Moroccan Roll (side 1)
*Anthony Braxton: Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 1 (discs 1, 2)
*Anthony Braxton: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003 (discs 1, 2)
*Clifford Brown and Max Roach: Clifford Brown and Max Roach
*Terri Lyne Carrington: The Mosaic Project
*Alice Coltrane: Spiritual Eternal: The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings (disc 2)
*Miles Davis: Pangaea (side 2)
*Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges: Side by Side
*Grieg/Schumann: Piano Concertos (Eugene Ormandy, cond.)
*Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage (side 2)
*Chaka Khan: I Feel for You
*Chaka Khan: The Platinum Collection
*King Crimson: Larks' Tongues In Aspic: The Complete Recordings (discs 1, 2, 3, 4)
*Charles Mingus: Pre-Bird (side 2)
*Charles Mingus Quintet featuring Eric Dolphy: Mingus In Europe Volume II (side 2)
*Roscoe Mitchell with Ostravská Banda: Distant Radio Transmission (side 1)
*Graham Nash/David Crosby: Graham Nash/David Crosby
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2013-08-26: “All or Something” (wav)
*New Ting: 2019-07-08 "Backhand Volley" (wav)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Birth of the Bebop
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker's All Stars 1950 (side 2)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Legendary Rockland Palace Concert 1952 (discs 1, 2)
*Charlie Parker with Quartet and The Orchestra: The Washington Concerts
*Charlie Parker: Montreal 1953
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker at the Open Door
*Residents: The Third Reich 'n Roll (pREServed Edition) (disc 1)
*Max Roach And Cecil Taylor: Historic Concerts (sides 1, 2)
*David Sancious And Tone: Transformation (The Speed Of Love) (side 1)
*Sheriff Jack: Laugh Yourself Awake
*Cecil Taylor/Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1984-10-30 Paris (CDR) (track 2)
*Lewis Taylor: The Lost Album
*McCoy Tyner: Cosmos (side 3)
*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (disc 6)
*Lester Young: The Aladdin Sessions (side 1)

Playlist, Week of 2020-09-06

The end of summer, and the listening's good... Although Bird shows up a lot randomly on the Magic Jukebox 2, it's been good to delve a little deeper... the Dean Benedetti box set is really amazing, and the somewhat low fidelity doesn't bother me a bit... those damn solos!... and nice to hear Bird's treatment of lesser-recorded songs like "Byas a Drink" and "It's the Talk of the Town"... a real time capsule... Jumping ahead to just last year, great to hear Ingrid Laubrock playing Anthony's Braxton Zim Music... in my spare time, I'd like to compare this to the London run of Zim Music from May of 2018... My old original Beatles records from when I was a kid still sound damn solid... they just leap out of the grooves and grab you... they still haven't let go after all these years...

Playlist 2020-09-07:

*Lotte Anker/Sylvie Courvoisier/Ikue Mori: Alien Huddle
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Tribute to Lester
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: Reunion
*Beatles: Meet the Beatles (side 1)
*Beatles: Help! (side 1)
*Beatles: The Beatles (Super Deluxe Edition) (disc 6)
*Anthony Braxton: 2019-11-03 Berlin (CDR)
*Bill Bruford: Fainting in Coils (sides 1, 4)
*Nels Cline Trio: Ground
*Alice Coltrane: Ptah the El Daoud
*Cul De Sac: Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall
*Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington 1938 (side 4)
*Duke Ellington: Love You Madly (1952-11-14 Carnegie Hall) (side 2)
*Mike Elder/Greg Jordan/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2019-09-21 (wav)
*Mike Elder/Greg Jordan/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2020-01-04 (wav)
*Fire! Orchestra: Arrival
*Grateful Dead: Pacific Northwest '73-'74: Believe It if You Need It (disc 1)
*Guided By Voices: Do the Collapse
*Guided By Voices: Isolation Drills
*Hampton Hawes: Trio and Quartet 1951-1956: Live and Studio Sessions (disc 2)
*Andrew Hill: One for One (side 1)
*Lemon Twigs: Songs for the General Public
*Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66: Equinox
*Lee Morgan: The Procrastinator (side 4)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-17: "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2019-01-28 "Rump Roost Tools of America" (wav)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker (disc 1)
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Volume II (side 2)
*Charlie Parker: Cheers (side 2)
*Charlie Parker: Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve (disc 1)
*Charlie Parker: Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes (disc 2)
*Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile
*Omar Rodriguez: Omar Rodriguez
*Rolling Stones: The Brussels Affair '73
*Sonny Rollins Quintet with Kenny Dorham And Max Roach: Rollins Plays for Bird (side 1)
*Ruins: Symphonica
*Sun Ra: Strange Worlds in My Mind
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York, 1973) (disc 2)
*Sun Ra Arkestra: 1973-07-04 Queens NY (CDR)
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Oblique Parallax
*Cecil Taylor: In Transition (sides 2, 3)
*Thumbscrew: The Anthony Braxton Project
*Richard Teitelbaum with Anthony Braxton: Time Zones "Crossing"
*June Tyson/Sun Ra: Saturnian Queen of the Sun Ra Arkestra
*Various ‎artists: Reunion Tape 1 (cassette compilation) (side A)
*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 2)
*When: Homage Series Vol. 1: Sun Ra
*John Zorn/Simulacrum: Baphomet

Playlist, Week of 2020-08-30

I'm a sucker for that Canterbury keyboard sound, that almost-schlocky horror movie organ sound exemplified by Mike Ratledge and Dave Sinclair... it's in heavy evidence in the work of Dave Stewart on Hopper Tunity Box... Stewart cleaned his sound up for his stint with Bruford... while his playing is nice there, I prefer the dirtier sound of his playing with Hatfield and the North and National Health (the first two albums, anyway)... I like the pairing of Derek Bailey with the Ruins, but I think I prefer the Ruins on their own... perversely, their insanity is rather curbed with the addition of Bailey... Some great pop on the new Lemon Twigs album... I can tell it's one of those records that will bear up to repeated listening... I guess I can't avoid the hype, but it is fun picking through the lists and stories about Charlie Parker these days... he still sounds astounding... this is a good list... I hear a lot of Morton Feldman in Tyshawn Sorey... I am enjoying going back through some of my old Blue Note reissue albums... they just sound fantastic...

Playlist 2020-08-31:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Meeting
*Beatles: Introducing the Beatles (sides 1, 2)
*Hamiet Bluiett: Im/possible to Keep (disc 2)
*Bill Bruford: Fainting in Coils (sides 2, 3)
*Buffalo Springfield: Last Time Around
*Don Cherry/Penderecki/The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra: Actions "Actions"
*George Clinton Presents Parliament/Funkadelic: Mothership Connection Newberg Session
*John Coltrane: Kulu Sé Mama (side 2)
*Miles Davis & His Tuba Band: Pre-Birth of the Cool (sides 1, 2)
*Miles Davis: The Complete On The Corner Sessions (disc 2) "Ife"
*Elton Dean Quartet: 2004-07-26 London (CDR)
*Death Ambient: Drunken Forest
*Decoy with Joe McPhee: Spontaneous Combustion (disc 1)
*Derek and the Ruins: Saisoro
*Duke Ellington's Spacemen: The Cosmic Scene
*Agustí Fernández plus Big Ensemble Taller De Músics: Aura
*Fire! Orchestra/Krzysztof Penderecki: Actions
*Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet: Time Like This
*Benny Goodman: Small Groups 1941-1946 (CDR compilation) (disc 2)
*Guided By Voices: Mirrored Aztec
*Joe Henderson: Multiple
*Henry Cow and Friends: A Celebration of Lindsay Cooper: 2014-11-21 London (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Andrew Hill: One for One (side 2)
*Dave Holland: Emerald Tears (side 1)
*Hugh Hopper: Hopper Tunity Box (side 1)
*Keith Jarrett: Standards, Vol. 2
*Jefferson Pilot: Shadow Hobby
*Elvin Jones : The Prime Element (sides 1, 3)
*King Crimson: Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind (disc 3)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: And Other Desert Towns
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Stir Crazy (CDR compilation) (disc 4)
*Lemon Twigs: Songs for the General Public
*Grachan Moncur III: Mosaic Select (disc 3)
*Necks: Body
*New Ting: 2019-07-29 "Tardy But Hardy" (wav)
*Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Volume III (side 1)
*Elvis Presley: A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-55 Recordings (disc 2)
*Dudu Pukwana and Spirits Rejoice: 1980-06-01 Nyon Festival, France (CDR)
*Tom Rainey Trio: 2013-10-19 Brooklyn NY (CDR) "track 6"
*Rova :: Orkestrova: Electric Ascension
*Schubert: Octet (Michael Collins)
*Frank Sinatra: Nice 'n' Easy (side 1)
*Matthew Shipp Quartet: Not Bound
*Sonic Youth: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom
*Tyshawn Sorey: Alloy "A Love Song"
*Space Debris: Behind the Gate (disc 2)
*Cecil Taylor: In Transition (sides 1, 2)
*Tammi Terrell: Come On and See Me: The Complete Solo Collection (disc 2)
*McCoy Tyner: Cosmos (side 1)
*Various ‎artists: Crumb: Original Soundtrack (side 1)
*Various ‎artists: Reunion Tape 1 (cassette compilation) (side B)
*Various ‎artists: Random Radar Records (A Random Sampler) (side 2)
*XTC: Drums and Wires
*XTC: Black Sea (Surround Sound Series) (disc 1)
*XTC: English Settlement (2016 original master ed.)