Playlist, Week of 2017-06-25

Beautiful noise-imbued ambience from Anduin... stream it here... There's never time to listen to everything I want to listen to every day... if I had days long enough to be able to listen to everything I wanted to on a daily basis, something from Cecil Taylor would always be included.... Garden is one of my fave Cecil solo recordings, as much for its lyricism as for its pyrotechnical brilliance... I'm still absorbing the Feel Trio box set, and Tony Oxley continues to be my favorite drummer for Cecil... Fun to revisit the old Arthur Blythe Columbia albums... tons of great ideas and great playing, although my tastes have certainly changed over the years... I have a harder time enjoying his sharp vibrato trills now, which strike me as shrill... I need to dig out my old cassettes of the Blythe "In the Tradition" quartet at the Village Vanguard... as I remember, there were technical difficulties, but also incredible playing, especially from Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall... so glad I got to see both of these masters, and in such a vibrant, intimate setting... stay tuned...

Playlist 2017-06-26:

*Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown
*Arthur Blythe: In the Tradition
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (disc 4)
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Who Doesn't Fade?
*Coleman Hawkins: 1953-1954
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-06-12: "Spread the Eggs" (wav)
*Charlie Parker Quintet: Complete Live at Birdland (disc 2)
*Cecil Taylor: Garden 1st Set
*Cecil Taylor Feel Trio: Two Ts for a Lovely T (disc 10)
*Anduin: Noir Tales
*Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (Super Deluxe Ed.) (disc 3)
*Gong: Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1)
*Grateful Dead: Road trips, Vol. 4 No. 5: Boston 6-9-76 (disc 3)
*Grateful Dead: Cornell 5.8.77 (disc 1)
*Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention: Meat Light: The Uncle Meat Project/Object Audio Documentary (disc 1)

Reading List, Week of 2017-06-25

The summertime sci-fi reading binge continues....

Reading List 2017-06-26:

*Shakespeare, William. Love's Labour's Lost (original-spelling ed.) (reread/started)
*Turner, Steve. Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year (started)
*Murphy, Andrew. "Shakespeare Goes Digital: Three Open Internet Editions" in Shakespeare Quarterly, 61:3 (2010) (started/finished)
*Corey, James S. A. Nemesis Games (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*King, Frank. Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 3: 1925-1926 (reread/in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)

Music and Youth

 
Cecil Taylor

Youth, to paraphrase some smart geezer, may be wasted on the young. But music doesn't have to be. (Jon Pareles, "Out of Tune With the Times?" in New York Times, 1988-04-24)

Playlist, Week of 2017-06-18

Just got the new Sgt. Pepper box set... wonderful Father's Day gift from my lovely wife!... More on it later... needless to say, it sounds great.... It's always fun to revisit the wacky world of Gong... Pip Pyle's drumming on the first album is much simpler and more straight-forward than his work with Hatfield and the North or National Health... Finally getting around to watching the DVD of the live performance of Trillium J... it's wonderful! I'm glad I tried to absorb the music by itself before trying to watch it... the visuals give it a whole new dimension, of course, but what I really enjoy is hearing how the orchestra lives and breathes behind and around the singing... More soft spots: 1. the Brian Wilson's last Beach Boys record, That's Why God Made the Radio... lots of MOR pap, sure, but also some brilliant melodies and gorgeous singing... 2. the warped rock-and-roll of the title track from Yes' Going for the One... beautiful Steve Howe slide guitar...

Playlist 2017-06-19:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1997-06-29 Vignola, Italy (CDR)
*BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: 2016-11-19 Glasgow (Braxton: Comp. 27, 63; Fei; Bynum) (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium J: 2014-04-19 Roulette, NYC, Act One (DVD)
*Anthony Braxton Zim Sextet: 2017-06-03 Moers (CDR)
*Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Who Doesn't Fade?
*Fushitsusha: II (disc 1)
*Rod Laver Quartet: 2017-06-15 Richmond VA (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2017-04-17: "Unsudden Settling into Grey Emotion" (wav)
*Charlie Parker Quintet: Complete Live at Birdland (disc 1)
*Purple Trap: Decided ... Already The Motionless Heart Of Tranquility, Tangling The Prayer Called "I" (disc 1)
*Return to Forever: Where Have I Known You Before (side 1)
*Aki Takase & Ingrid Laubrock: 2016-11-04 Berlin (CDR)
*Them Against Them: Night Returns with a Gallup
*Wuppertal Workshop Ensemble: The Family
*John Zorn: Cobra (disc 2)
*Beach Boys: 50 Big Ones (disc 2)
*Beach Boys: That’s Why God Made the Radio
*Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (Super Deluxe Ed.) (discs 1, 2)
*Gong: Camembert Electrique
*Grateful Dead: Road trips, Vol. 4 No. 5: Boston 6-9-76 (disc 2)
*Led Zeppelin: Presence
*NRBQ: Tiddly Winks
*Prince and the Revolution: Dream Factory (soniclovenoize reconstruction) (boot CDR)
*Prince: The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
*Prince: The Dawn (boot CDR) (disc 1)
*Prince: Box o' Chocolates (boot CDR)
*Prince: Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic
*Various artists: Big Dance Mix (CDR compilation) (discs 1, 4)
*Yes: Going for the One

Reading List, Week of 2017-06-18

Reading List 2017-06-19:

*Corey, James S. A. Nemesis Games (started)
*King, Frank. Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 3: 1925-1926 (reread/started)
*Kirkman, Robert, et al. The Walking Dead (issues 85-87) (started/finished)
*Corey, James S. A. Cibola Burn (finished)
*Shakespeare and the Digital World (ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan) (finished)
*Jackson, Holbrook. Anatomy of Bibliomania (in progress)
*Silliman, Ron. The Alphabet (in progress)

Consolidation

cnet

The danger ... is that the illusion of infinite choice may well belie the forces of coercion and manipulation which steer that choice, and the fact that despite the appearance of greater autonomy, our choices are increasingly similar to those of everyone else around us. (Stephen Purcell, "The Impact of New Forms of Public Performance," in Shakespeare and the Digital World, ed. Carson and Kirwan, 2014, p. 222)

Announcement of New CD: Who Doesn't Fade?

I am pleased to announce that Rodger Coleman and I have a new CD out: Who Doesn't Fade? It's available for streaming or purchase. Rodger has done a fantastic job editing and mastering these live-in-the-studio improvisations, recorded at the end of last year. The cover photography by Jeff McLennan and design by James Buttery fit the music perfectly. Please check it out!