Playlist, Week of 2026-06-28

XTC's Live Boots: energy over fidelity... Myra Melford's For the Love of Fire and Water still holds up as one of the strongest jazz releases of the last few years... Always great to dip back into early Ellington... talk about holding up... The jam session of Jimi Hendrix with Robert Wyatt on drums is disappointing, as only Hendrix jam sessions can be... The Fire! Orchestra's recordings are uniformly transcendent and inspiring, not least because of the vocals of Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg... The Art Ensemble of Chicago is truly one of the greatest improvisational groups... their 1978 Public Theatre run is outstanding... 

Playlist 2026-06-29:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1978-03-10 NYC (CDR) (disc 2)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1978-03-11 NYC (CDR) (disc 1)
*Ayumi Ishito: Ayumi Ishito and the Spacemen, Vol. 1
*Beach Boys: We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years (disc 2)
*Anthony Braxton: 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (selections)
*John Coltrane: First Meditations (For Quartet)
*Cream: Wheels of Fire (Super Deluxe Ed.) (disc 3)
*Kris Davis/Lutosławski Quartet: The Solastalgia Suite
*Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (disc 5) "Honky Tonk"
*Miles Davis: The Columbia Years 1955-1985 (disc 4)
*Duke Ellington: The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1927-1973) (disc 1)
*Duke Ellington: Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band, 1940-1942 (disc 2)
*Fire! Orchestra: Enter
*Fire! Orchestra: Ritual
*Funkadelic: Hardcore Jollies
*Grateful Dead: 1978-04-24 Normal IL (CDR) (disc 1)
*Grateful Dead: 1991-09-24 Boston (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1991-09-26 Boston (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Jimi Hendrix w/Robert Wyatt: 1968-10 Hollywood (CDR)
*Neil Jendon/Mark Nagy: Cardew/Treatise, Vol. 5: Pages 101-130
*Ingrid Laubrock: Monochromes
*Lazro/Léandre/Lovens: For Baritone Sax, Double Bass & Drumset
*Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane
*Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet: For the Love of Fire and Water
*Mendoza Hoff Revels: Echolocation
*Merzbow/Balázs Pándi/Mats Gustafsson/Thurston Moore: Cuts Up Cuts Out
*Harry Miller: BBC Sessions, 1976-1977 (CDR)
*Muffins: Baker's Dozen (disc 11)
*Naked City: Heretic: Jeux des Dames Cruelles
*New Ting: 2026-05-11 "Battering Wham" (wav)
*Angelika Niescier: Chicago Tapes
*Pauline Oliveros: Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970 (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Playfield: Stepping Out, Vol. 1
*Sonny Rollins: East Broadway Run Down (side 2)
*Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages
*Sparks: MAD! (sides 1, 2)
*Sparks: MADDER! (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra: The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 2 "Cosmic Chaos"
*Sun Ra: East Two +5 (sides 1, 2)
*Sun Ra and His Omniverse Jet-Set Arkestra: 1980-12-30 Detroit (CDR) (disc 3)
*Cecil Taylor: 3 Phasis (side 2)
*Test: Ecstatic Peace
*Pat Thomas & XT: Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* (disc  1)
*Weather Report: Black Market (side 1)
*XTC: Live Boots: Emerald City, Cherry Hill, New Jersey 17th April 1981 (sides 3, 4)

Playlist, Week of 2020-04-12

Even though it got its own side on Big Fun, I always felt "Ife" was kinda buried in the context of that album... the super-clean remastered version on the On the Corner box set is a revelation... I think this original studio version is stronger than the subsequent live reworkings, which focused mostly on the killer bass line... Speaking of killer, the two live sets of Fire! Orchestra that recently appeared are just that, monumental presentations of most of the material from Arrival... The music of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi group is a deep well that merits continual revisiting... Jewel in the Lotus is one of the best Hancock albums not appearing under his own name... Love hearing Eddie Prévost's free jazz drumming in a non-AMM context like the Steve Miller Trio... One thing about working from home is the luxury to play music a bit louder than I can at the office, can you tell?... and believe me, I am counting my blessings that I even have a home... stay healthy and safe out there, folks... I feel really lucky to have seen both the Muffins and Happy the Man in intimate settings back in the late '70s...

Playlist 2020-04-13:

*AMM: Laminal (disc 1)
*Anthony Braxton: GTM (Syntax) 2017 (disc 7) (streaming)
*Dave Brubeck: All the Things We Are
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-28 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Alice Coltrane: Universal Consciousness
*Alice Coltrane Sextet: Live at the Berkeley Community Theater 1972
*Company: 1979-03-04 London (CDR)
*Miles Davis: The Complete On The Corner Sessions (disc 2) "Ife"
*Fire! Orchestra: 2018-03-03 Geneva (CDR)
*Fire! Orchestra: 2018-11-18 Stockholm (CDR)
*Herbie Hancock: Treasure Chest (side 2)
*Fletcher Henderson: The Complete Fletcher Henderson 1927-1936 (sides 3, 4)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Stir Crazy: Episode 3 (streaming)
*Steve Lehman Octet: Travail, Transformation, and Flow
*Liquid Friction Assemblage: 2019-02-01 Rhizome, Washington DC (CDR)
*Jimmie Lunceford: Jimmie Lunceford (side 1)
*Bennie Maupin: The Jewel in the Lotus
*Steve Miller Trio/Lol Coxhill: Miller's Tale (disc 1)
*Grachan Moncur III: New Africa/Aco Dei De Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early)
*Thurston Moore: Spirit Counsel (discs 2, 3)
*Joe Morris Quartet: 2015-12-04 Amsterdam (CDR)
*Evan Parker: Strings with Evan Parker (disc 3)
*Gary Peacock: Guamba
*Barre Phillips: Mountainscapes
*Bud Powell: The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 (side 2)
*Nino Rota: A Selection of His Work with Federico Fellini (cassette compilation)
*Gary Rouzer: Studies and Observations of Domestic Shrubbery
*Devadip Carlos Santana & Turiya Alice Coltrane: Illuminations
*Sun Ra Arkestra: Reflections In Blue (side 2)
*Test: 2000-05-25 NYC (CDR)
*Mal Waldron: The Call (side 1)
*Alex Ward Item 10: Volition (Live At Cafe Oto) "Entreaty"
*Ben Webster: Ben Webster and Associates
*3-2-1: For Five (cassette)
*3-2-1: Three: 2; One: Zero (cassette)
*Cream: Goodbye Tour Live 1968 (disc 4)
*Happy the Man: Happy the Man
*Happy the Man: 1974-05-03 Harrisonburg VA (CDR)
*Henry Cow: Ex Box: Collected Fragments 1971-1978
*Material: Memory Serves
*Muffins: <185> (side 1)
*Pere Ubu: New Picnic Time (side 2)
*Talking Heads: Remain in Light (sides 1, 2)