Playlist, Week of 2025-09-21

As much as I enjoy Mary Halvorson's guitar work (and I do), I gotta say, I enjoy her playing as a member of other people's groups than when she plays her own compositions as a leader... cases in point: Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House and the Tom Rainey Trio... Still working my way through all the "Dark Stars," and, again, I feel compelled to say how tired I'm getting of the "Feelin' Groovy" section... looking forward to when they drop it for good... Also still much enamored with Duke Ellington these days... I doubt that will ever change...

Playlist 2025-09-22:

*Beatles: The Beatles' Second Album (mono 2024) (side 2)
*Beatles: Help! (2009 stereo remaster) (side 1)
*Beatles: Rubber Soul (2009 stereo remaster) (sides 1, 2)
*Beatles: 1967-1970 (2023 Edition) (side 5)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (DVD) (Act IV)
*Butthole Surfers: Double Live (disc 2)
*Bob Dylan/Various artists: Theme Time Radio Hour S01 E47 "Fools"
*Duke Ellington: The Complete Duke Ellington, Vol. 4: 1932 (side 2)
*Duke Ellington: The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups (Vol. 9/10) 1940-1946 (sides 3, 4)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: A Drum Is a Woman (side 2)
*Duke Ellington: The Reprise Studio Recordings (disc 5)
*Tomas Fujiwara: Pith
*Gjerstad/Schlippenbach/Narvesen: Seven Tracks
*Grateful Dead: 1970-09-19 Fillmore East NYC (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1970-10-11 Wayne, NJ (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1970-10-17 Cleveland (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1971-02-24 Port Chester, NY (Enjoying the Ride, discs 4, 5)
*Joe Henderson: Mode for Joe
*Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love
*Joachim Kühn: Échappée (disc 1)
*Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: Strong Place
*Getatchew Mekuria/The Ex & Guests: Moa Anbessa
*Matt Mitchell: Sacrosanctity
*New Ting: 2024-07-14 "Magic Duck Feet" (wav)
*New Ting: 2025-08-30 Test Run, Richmond VA (wav)
*Prince: Blast from the Past 5.0 (excerpts)
*Wayne Shorter: Schizophrenia (side 1)
*Tyshawn Sorey: The Inner Spectrum of Variables (disc 2) "Movement V + VI + Reprise"
*Cecil Taylor: In Transition [Love for Sale] (side 3)
*Cecil Taylor/The Ensemble: The Light of Corona "Two"
*Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits
*Lewis Taylor: Stoned- Part I
*Henry Threadgill Zooid: This Brings Us To (side 3)
*UYA: 1993-12-02 It's Butter Now Isn't It? (wav) (selections)
*Dan Weiss/Miles Okazaki: Music for Drums and Guitar

Playlist, Week of 2020-11-15

Deerhoof's latest slew of albums is a lot of fun, but the best of the lot is Love-Lore, an amazing mix of cover tunes which manages to include Sun Ra and Anthony Braxton AND Dionne Warwick AND "The Jetsons" AND P-Funk... starting to sound a lot like the Magic Jukebox!... John Gilmore's work on Pete Sims's Turkish Women at the Bath is nice enough... hell, it's wonderful... but it just confirms for me that Gilmore did his best work with Sun Ra... Nice to hear Robert Wyatt on three of the tracks from the new Code Girl album... as a longtime Wyatt fan, I've been intrigued to read in Mary Halvorson interviews how much she's been inspired by Wyatt, and this new album really nails that inspiration, with his vocals fitting in perfectly with the Code Girl aesthetic already in place from their first album... 

Playlist 2020-11-16:

*Muhal Richard Abrams Quintet: 1977-03-04 NYC (CDR) (disc 3)
*Daniel Barbiero: In​/​Completion
*Blood Incantation: Hidden History of the Human Race
*Daniel Carter/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Gerald Cleaver: Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1
*John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Deluxe Edition) (disc 1)
*Deerhoof: Love-Lore
*Explorers Club: Grand Hotel
*Fable: Live 1978
*Grateful Dead: Pacific Northwest '73-'74: Believe It if You Need It (disc 2)
*Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling
*Scott Hamilton: Scott Hamilton Plays Ballads
*Andrew Hill: Solo (disc 1)
*King Crimson: Starless (discs 3, 4)
*Ingrid Laubrock: Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt (disc 1)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Stir Crazy (CDR compilation) (disc 7)
*Lemon Twigs: Songs for the General Public
*Allen Lowe: Jews in Hell: Radical Jewish Acculturation (disc 1)
*Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Ring
*Ollie & the Nightingales: Ollie & the Nightingales
*Mario Pavone: Arc Trio
*Prince: Surprise Jazz Night with Prince (boot CDR) (discs 2, 3)
*Don Pullen: Mosaic Select (disc 2)
*Carlos Santana/John McLaughlin: A Live Supreme: 1973-09-01 Chicago (boot CDR) (disc 2)
*Alexander von Schlippenbach: Monk's Casino (The Complete Works of Thelonious Monk) (disc 3)
*Sara Serpa: Close Up
*Pete La Roca Sims: Turkish Women at the Bath
*Mike Sopko/Bill Laswell/Tyshawn Sorey: On Common Ground
*Sun Ra: Egypt 1971: In Heliopolis: Unreleased Recordings (streaming)
*Sun Ra: Egypt 1971: Egyptian Oasis: Unreleased Recordings (streaming)
*Henry Threadgill Zooid: In for a Penny, In for a Pound (disc 2)
*Charles Tolliver: Mosaic Select (disc 1)
*Various artists: Ad-Rock & Mike D's Alphabetical Jukebox (CDR compilation) (discs 17, 18)
*Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald Decca Sessions (1934-1941) (disc 8)
*Dan Weiss/Starebaby: Natural Selection

Mary Halvorson on the influence of Braxton

TC: What is the most important thing you feel you learned from Braxton?
MH: It’s really hard to narrow it down to just one thing! So I might cheat and mention a few things. When I first met Anthony and started taking his classes at age 17, his music inspired me deeply (and it still does today). During those early years as a student he constantly encouraged me to explore, and to get out of my comfort zone. He encouraged mistakes, and encouraged taking risks even if it meant failing. His musical universe is and was so expansive and diverse, and seeing the scope of what he’s done and how he continues to change and evolve is inspiring in itself. He is fearless, and makes no compromises. In my mind, all kinds of boundaries started dissolving. Anthony also taught me to value musical tradition of all kinds, to be open-minded, and to check out absolutely everything. He never qualified one kind of music as “better” than another kind. And maybe most importantly, he gave me the courage to pursue music as a career. When I was 19 and trying to decide if I should become a musician, I really wanted to but just didn’t think I could pull it off. Fortunately, I had Anthony, and my guitar teacher Joe Morris (Joe was the other really important figure during my college years) pushing me to go for it. I needed that. (Troy Collins, Mary Halvorson: Variety and Contrast, Point of Departure, issue 52, 2015)