#joe mcPhee

[dustedmagazine]

Music is an Essential Verb: Derek Taylor 2023

Music remains, along with family, friends, and a select few venial vices, my primary daily defense against the mental erosions of spiritual malaise and existential dread. Being a humanist also means being a realist, and little looks to be different on that score in the year ahead as we continue to careen toward a bleak and self-defeating dénouement. The veil of uncertainty around what ultimately feels like inevitability redoubles the need to remain thankful for and supportive of those who devote themselves to art. Summary capsules below describe some of the sounds that kept me going in 2023.

Peter Brötzmann, Wayne Shorter, Kidd Jordan, & Charles Gayle

“The trauma of my generation was what our fathers had done to the rest of the world, and so we said, ‘never again,’ and that was the whole impetus through all my life, and it still is.” ~ Brötzmann (2018)

Musician attrition and demise are dispiriting aspects of every annum, but the departure of four disparate octogenarian reedists exacted an especially steep emotional and cultural toll this year. Shorter and Jordan passed away in March, each of them leaving a rich legacy as indefatigable improviser and altruistic educator that continue influence and inspire. Brötzmann exited in June after the return of a protracted respiratory illness. Few if any can match the magnitude of his mileage and six-decade itinerary as an irrepressible, obstinately adventurous world traveler. Gayle ascended in September, an ardent, uncompromising eremite to the end. All four men left behind discographies and concert/interview footage that will leave the faithful and curious listening and marveling in perpetuity, but their collective absence still aches.

Kirk Knuffke & Joe McPhee Quartet + 1 – Keep the Dream Up (Fundacja Sluchaj)

One of the manifold joys of following the output of Kirk Knuffke is anticipating who he’ll collaborate with next. The cornetist’s ears and imagination are as huge as his heart, a trait he has in common with the equally equanimous Joe McPhee. They’ve known each other for years but Keep the Dream Up is their first released collaboration and it’s an affirming alloy of their complementary creative temperaments. Longtime McPhee comrades Michael Bisio and Jay Rosen complete the quartet with bass clarinetist Christof Knoche comprising the additive on a Brooklyn studio session that captures collective creative lightning in a digital bottle. My album of the year for these reasons and more, although hopefully Joe will bring his brass to a follow-up conclave soon.

Don Byas – Classic Sessions 1944-1946 (Mosaic)

Saxophonist Don Byas recorded prolifically during the 1940s. His porous sound and popular style bridged the schools of swing and bop through prowess and panache aligned with the most esteemed of post-WII tone scientists. That sustained industriousness hasn’t reflected in reliable access to his works, primarily because they’re spread across a plethora of independent labels and competing copyrights. Leave it to Mosaic Records to rectify the longstanding reissue lacuna. This long gestating collection corrals and sequences the bulk of them across ten discs, scrubbing their sound, and adding an expansive cache of rarified verité concert recordings made in a Swedish jazz fan’s residence. Indulging in one’s Byas bias has never been easier or as edifying.

Fred Anderson – The Milwaukee Tapes Vol. 2 (Corbett vs Dempsey)

Patience and long-game aptitude are among music producer/archivist/advocate John Corbett’s virtues. This unexpected, but abundantly welcome sequel to an archival Anderson collection on Corbett’s long defunct Unheard Music Series took 23 years to secure commercial circulation and offers an additional hour-plus from the same gig in improved sound. Fellow AACMers Billy Brimfield and Hamid (nee Hank) Drake join bassist Larry Hayrod in bringing vibrant, detailed life to the Lone Prophet of the Prairie’s (as Anderson was affectionately known) serpentine, cerulean melodies. Corbett’s current label released a plenitude of music in 2023 (see also below) but the uncommon opportunity to hear more Anderson of any vintage makes this release worthy of independent mention.

Jason Adasiewicz

Corbett vs. Dempsey also had a welcome role in Jason Adasiewicz’s return to record with two different projects. On vinyl, Roy’s World documents a 2017 Chicago studio session by the vibraphonist’s quintet originally intended as the soundtrack to a film based on neo-noir novelist Barry Gifford’s short stories. Chicago stalwarts Josh Berman, Joshua Abrams, Hamid Drake, join saxophonist Jonathan Doyle in the ensemble for a program that sounds at once fresh and nostalgic while always vital. On CD, Roscoe’s Village dispenses with band for a solo selective foray through the songbook of Roscoe Mitchell including evocative renderings of “Congliptious” and “A Jackson in Your House” that retain the composer’s essence while striking out in bold new directions.

Natural Information Society

Grounded as it is in core voices of guembri, frame drum and harmonium, codification of Josh Abrams’ NIS as a jazz ensemble immediately feels reductively incomplete. All participating instruments can be active architects in the undulating, melody-laced drones that frequently form the basis of the band’s gradual, granulated improvisations. Performances are more akin to collective expeditions where a galvanizing gestalt effect is afoot; one where earned communal peaks preserve the individual power and agency of the interlocking parts. Since Time is Gravity augments this already catalytic template by incorporating a larger contingent of Chicago colleagues including tenorist Ari Brown to the equation.

Abdul Wadud

A jazz-based improviser on the cello who didn’t double on other stringed instruments, Wadud was also a consummate collaborator and sideman. Magnanimity in lending his substantial talents to the projects of others resulted in a paucity of albums under his own name. By Myself from 1977 on the Bisharra label is a revelatory anomaly on that self-effacing resume. Wadud approaches the instrument as a multifaceted sound factory, plucking, strumming, and bowing, often simultaneously, to create solo tone poems steeped in personal poignancy. Gotta Groove’s vinyl reissue is a beautiful facsimile of the original album object in faithfully reconstructed fidelity.

Marion Brown

Georgia-born altoist Marion Brown had a lengthy, storied career but the body of recorded work that he left behind can present difficulties in terms of ingress to its totality. Scattered across labels, years, and circumstances, much of it is either out of print or commercially unreleased. That collective relative obscurity makes a trio of releases, two on the German Moosicus label, and a third Record Store Day viny reissue of Brown’s 1970 studio duets with Wadada Leo Smith under the shared sobriquet Creative Improvisation Ensemble even more valuable. Of the former two, Mary Ann presents concert material by Brown’s quartet from a 1969 Bremen club gig in soundboard fidelity. Gesprächsfetzen & In Sommerhausen combines two more German concert snapshots, quintet, and sextet, from 1968 & 1969 with Gunter Hampel originally released on the Calig imprint. Steve McCall is a boon on drums in all three contexts.

Art Pepper – Complete Maiden Voyage Recordings (Omnivore)

Art Pepper was an inveterate rake for most of his life, magnifying destructive interpersonal tendencies with drugs and frustratingly frequent acts of self-sabotage. That star-crossed propensity makes the fact that he left so much magnificent music even more miraculous. This lavish box is a fascinating compendium of the constantly competing artistic contradictions at his center, collecting a quartet gig across three nights and seven club sets in Pepper’s native Los Angeles, ten months prior to his premature passing at 56. Over half of the music is previously unreleased and the rhythm section, led by the impeccable and implacable pianistics of George Cables, gives Pepper a cumulative confidence boost that keeps him on the rails. None of it has ever sounded better.

Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra

Los Angeles of the late-1970s was an unforgiving environment for the economic necessities of orchestral jazz. The Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, under the nominal leadership of pianist/composer/community organizer Horace Tapscott, was a tenaciously subversive force in the face of that ruinous rule. Adopting the Immanuel United Church of Christ as an informal base of operations, the large ensemble resourcefully engaged in an ambitious series of concerts in 1979. The Nimbus label, long a Tapscott exponent and repository, released the first three entries this year in an archival subscription series collecting the voluminous results. Titles are also available individually and present the pivotal band at a performative peak with star soloists Sabir Mateen, Billy Harris, Jesse Sharps, and Robert Miranda shining just as bright as their fearless foreman.

Alan Skidmore – A Supreme Love

Unexpectedly issued on Mark Wastell’s Confront label, an imprint better known for its fealty to free improvisation, this six-disc archival tribute to Alan Skidmore’s 70+ year career in music launches with the saxophonist’s 1961 radio debut and lands some seven-hours later with his intimate 2019 rendering of John Coltrane’s “Psalm.” The aural expanse between is brimming with bright moments and luminary collaborators the likes of which include Tony Oxley, Kenny Wheeler, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Mike Osborne, Elvin Jones, and another dozen name drops from the top tier of improvised music. It’s a wild, illuminating ride and a sterling example of a musical memorial done right.

The Jazz Doctors – Intensive Care/Prescriptions Filled: The Billy Bang Quartet Sessions 1983/1984 (Cadillac)

Billy Bang and Frank Lowe shared a bottomless fraternal bond forged through parallel traumas internalized in Vietnam and expressed by the subsequent embrace of the restorative power of improvised music. The pair of sessions (one reissued, one archival) collected on this disc epitomize their deep attachment arguably as well as any of their other numerous collaborations. Outside the cardinal duo, the Jazz Doctors never really had a stable lineup, but the quartets here embody two of their best. Both programs are loosely adherent to freebop conventions with violin and tenor saxophone combining over contrabass and drums for a potent front line. Bang and Lowe are long gone now, their shared absence making the availability of this music even more precious.

Attila Zoller & Jimmy Raney

Hungarian guitarist Attila Zoller had selective affinity for other artists on the instrument, so much so that his mid-career period is seeded by fateful encounters with plectrist peers. Most prolific among these partnerships was his prudent pairing with Jimmy Raney. A popular proponent of bop-based jazz, Raney was in a similar exploratory headspace when the two joined forces on a trio of recordings for the German L + R label over a seven-year span. Concert dates from Frankfurt (’80) and Berlin (’86) find the duo spooling out lengthy dialogues that dabble in free improvisation while keeping codified melodies within reach. An earlier New York encounter (’79) explores their rapport in a studio. All three reissues on the Japanese Ultra-Vybe imprint are aces.

Steve Swell’s Fire Into Music

Simultaneously emblematic of NYC free jazz in the early aughts and fiercely dedicated to resisting pitfalls of provincialism by touring generously and rigorously, trombonist Steve Swell’s Fire into Music was one of the finest quartets of its kind. Posthumously dedicated to the late altoist Moondoc, this three CD set collects a trio of small venue concerts by the band from gigs in Texas and Ontario. As with the horns, William Parker and Hamid Drake are ideally suited to the extended, expository freebop safaris that formed the ensemble’s flexible repertoire. Swell’s the leader on paper but sagely embraces musical communalism without fail.

Intakt

Running a physical media imprint in the 21st century is an inherently parlous enterprise, but this steadfast Swiss label continues to evidence how it’s done. This year’s standout catalog entries include Andrew Cyrille’s Music Delivery/Percussion, the octogenarian drummer’s third solo album and first in 45-years; bassist Jöelle Leandré’s solo Zurich Concert; pianist Aruán Ortiz’s Serranías Sketchbook for Piano Trio; Beyond Dragons by the trio of saxophonist Angelika Niescier, cellist Tomeka Reid, and drummer Savannah Harris, and Ohad Talmor’s Back to the Land, a quartet-plus-guests survey that takes its compositional focus an archival workshop date by Ornette Coleman and Lee Konitz.

Ezz-thetics

The appearance of the Swiss Ezz-thetics imprint four years ago raised both eyebrows and ire. Lacking access to master tapes, veteran free jazz and new music producer Werner Uehlinger sourced commercially released editions instead, employing ace audio engineer Peter Pfister succeeded by Michael Brandli to rejuvenate and refurbish the recordings, stateside copyright considerations be damned. Reaction was expeditious and polemical, but proof is in the hearing as most of the label’s dozens of releases sound better than their original incarnations. Catalog highlights this year include another round of Albert Ayler airshots including his pivotal meeting with the Cecil Tayor Trio in 1962 on More Lost Performances, Charles Mingus’ At Antibes 1960, and Ornette Coleman’s At the Golden Circle.

Fresh Sound

Jordi Pujol is akin to Uehlinger in that he refuses to let his vision and ambitions as a producer be abbreviated by external opinion. In Pujol’s case it’s yielded a bountiful inventory of antiquarian titles that rights holders have shown little to zero interest in restoring to begin with. Cases in point for this year include a definitive collection of obscurando saxophonist Boots Mussulli’s works; concert and studio collections by the Count Basie alumni tandem of Al Grey and Billy Mitchell; hens’ teeth rare leader sessions by Arthur Lyman vibraphonist Julius Wechter; and a two-fer of Julliard-trained Ellingtonian Cass Harrison piano trio albums. Exciting guilty pleasures all around.

Playing for the Man at the Door

As complex as he was controversial, Robert “Mack” McCormick deserves consideration in the esteemed company of other maverick cultural archivists like Alan Lomax, George Mitchell, and Harry Smith. With a preservationist purview mostly comprising Texas and bordering states, McCormick spent much of his adult life obsessively documenting and disentangling the cultural capital of the region through recordings, photography, interviews, essays, and research. Smithsonian Folkways became repository for the massive reservoir after his passing and this box is the first in what will hopefully be multiple dispatches from the same. Unreleased field recordings of Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins represent the big names, but works by the likes of Hop Wilson, Cedell Davis, Robert Shaw, and a handful of others are just as persuasive. Bongo Joe Coleman’s impassioned presidential pitch closing the set will have listeners pining for a time when third party Executive Branch candidacy didn’t seem so fraught.

Joni Mitchell Archives - Vol. 3, The Asylum Years 1972 to 1975

Mitchell’s continuing project corollary to her old friend Neil Young’s analogously exhaustive retrospective enterprise, this third entry in the series finds her 30-something-self further broadening the lens of her art beyond the solo concert music that dominated the first two boxes. There are stirring solitary shows here, too, but it’s the band offerings that prove most revealing, particularly in the company of reedist Tom Scott’s fusion group L.A. Express. James Taylor, Graham Nash, and David Crosby lend contributory hands, and there’s a brief but intriguing collaboration with Young alongside a trove of demos and workshop versions of songs from her first three albums for Asylum.

Martin Davidson

In closing, another memorial. Martin Davidson wasn’t a musician, but European free improvisation as an art and archive would be a fraction of what it is without his copious and enduring work. As steadfast proprietor of the Emanem label he put his resources into musicians whose efforts frequently fell outside the probability of consistent commercial remuneration. Under his aegis, influential improvisers like Steve Lacy, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and Paul Rutherford gained robust catalogs alongside other aspiring artists who never garnered even niche cachet. Davidson was a curmudgeon and an anachronism, trusting his ears implicitly, suffering the indignities of inquiries from strangers seeking audience with the hip hop icon who shared the phonetics of his imprint’s name, and advancing the pleasures of physical media well past their purported expiration date. He was also a talented writer, adding invaluable context to his releases through first-person testimony and critique. Martin will be missed.

And as is tradition in this 20th iteration of this year-end exercise, 25 more titles in stochastic order. Thanks to all for reading, and gratitude to Jennifer Kelly for providing the forum and formatting.

Rodrigo Amado’s The Bridge – Beyond the Margins (Trost)

James Brandon Lewis – For Mahalia with Love (Tao Forms)

Henry Threadgill – The Other One (Pi)

Guillermo Gregorio – Two Trios (ESP)

Rob Brown – Oceanic (RogueArt)

Rich Halley Quintet – Fire Within (Pine Eagle)

Milford Graves w/ Arthur Doyle & Hugh Glover – Children of the Forest (Black Editions)

Mike Osborne – Starting Fires: Live at the 100 Club 1970 (British Progressive Jazz)

Jim Hall – Uniquities Vol 1 + 2 (ArtistShare)

Madhuvanti Pal – The Holy Mother (Sublime Frequencies)

V/A – On the Honky Tonk Highway with Augie Meyers & the Texas Re-Cord Company (Bear Family)

Mal Waldron & Terumasa Hino – Reminiscent Suite (Victor/BBE)

Oum Kalsoum – L’Astre D’Orient 1926-1937 (Fremeaux & Associates)

Sonny Rollins w/ the Heikki Sarmanto Trio – Live at Finlandia Hall Helsinki 1972 (Svart)

V/A – Equatoriana: El Universo Paralelo de Polibio Mayorga (Analog Africa)

Evan Parker – NYC 1978 (Relative Pitch)

V/A – If There’s a Hell Below (Numero Group)

John Coltrane – Evenings at the Village Gate (Impulse)

Derek Bailey & Paul Motian – Duo in Concert (Frozen Reeds)

Peter Brötzmann/Fred Van Hove/Han Bennink/Albert Mangelsdorff – Outspan 1 & 2 (FMP/Cien Fuegos)

Hasaan Ibn Ali – Reaching for the Stars: Trios/Duos/Solos (Omnivore)

Mark Dresser – Tines of Change (Pyroclastic)

Steve Millhouse – The Unwinding (Steeplechase)

Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet – Hear the Light Singing (RogueArt)

V/A – Destination Desert: 33 Oriental Rock & Roll Treasures (Bear Family)

[jazzdailyblog]

Exploring the Innovations of Jimmy Giuffre in Jazz

Introduction: Jimmy Giuffre was a pioneering figure in the world of jazz, known for his innovative approach to composition and improvisation. Born one hundred and three years ago today on April 26, 1921, in Dallas, Texas, Giuffre began his musical journey at a young age, learning to play the clarinet and saxophone. Throughout his career, Giuffre made significant contributions to the development…

[leiselaute]

Two Bands and a Legend - You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me from "Two Bands and a Legend". Released 2007 january 1st

[burlveneer-music]

The “Defiant Jazz” scene in Severance is my favorite scene in a show this year.

The music is “Shakey Jake” by Joe JcPhee:

Nation Time by Joe McPhee

[ozkar-krapo]

Jacques DIENNET

"Mante"

(2LP box. Hat Hut rcds. 1987 / rec. 1984/86) [FR]

[cafetekla]

Cafe Tekla Mix 001

h1 {text-align: center;} p {text-align: center;} div {text-align: center;} 1. Space Organ Three Joe Mcphee 2. Lubomyr Melnyk Performs KMH III Lubomyr Melnyk 3. The Habu snake, an archipelago IV Lieven Martens 4. Y2J Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland 5. Fifth Child Burning Lonnie Holley 6. Three Days More Hieroglyphic Being & the J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl 7. Through a Rain Streaked Window Nick Malkin 8. Birdsong In The Car Park Adam Badí Donoval 9. Lullaby Bourbonese Qualk 10. Furniture Maker’s Moan Jon Collin 11. Ett Tredje Vakuum Treasury of Puppies

[musicollage]

Fire! Orchestra — Echoes. 2023 : Rune Grammofon.

! listen @ Bandcamp ★ buy me a coffee !

[diyeipetea]

“I See You Baby Shakin' That Ass” [The Cato Salsa Experience with The Thing and Joe McPhee: Two Bands And A Legend (Smalltown Superjazz; EP; 2007)] Por Pachi Tapiz. JazzX5 #533 [Minipodcast de jazz]

“I See You Baby Shakin’ That Ass” [The Cato Salsa Experience with The Thing and Joe McPhee: Two Bands And A Legend (Smalltown Superjazz; EP; 2007)] Por Pachi Tapiz. JazzX5 #533 [Minipodcast de jazz]

“I See You Baby Shakin’ That Ass” The Cato Salsa Experience with The Thing and Joe McPhee: Two Bands And A Legend (Smalltown Superjazz; EP; 2007) Cato Salsa Experience Cato Salsa, Bård Einerstad, Christian Engfeldt, Jon Riise The Thing with Joe McPhee Mats Gustafsson, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love, Joe McPhee Tomajazz: © Pachi Tapiz, 2022 “I See You Baby Shakin’ That Ass” es el tema…

[dustedmagazine]

“Everybody Hollerin’ GOAT” — Derek Taylor’s 2022

I’ve been reverentially pilfering Bill Steber’s photos as visual ledes for as long as I’ve been writing these Year End paeans (the first was in 2003, making this one the nineteenth). There’s something about Steber’s keen eye for negative space, composition and context that makes me think of Blue Note’s Francis Wolff, if transplanted to the Mississippi hill country. No blues to speak of in the stack of recordings this time around, at least as sourced from that legendary, loamy region, but still lots that’s helped keep my head screwed on and faculties relatively fog-free over the past twelve-months.

Wadada Leo Smith

Smith’s ascendance to octogenarian eminence was simply too merry and momentous an occasion to be contained to a single year. As the concluding two entries in a hexalogy of releases on the Finnish TUM label highlighting facets of his multifarious output, Emerald Duets and String Quartets, Nos. 1-12 dropped in May and were also arguably the most ambitious. The Dusted bullpen collectively dug in on both sets in a rousing Listening Post roundtable that forgivably favored the more accessible exploratory encounters with drummers Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille, Han Bennink and Pheeroan AkLaff.

Joe McPhee

The Powerhouse from Poughkeepsie turned 83 years young in November and as with past years his productive spirit appears immune to enervation or ennui. Ensemble efforts like Survival Unit III’s The Art of Flight (Astral Spirits/Instigation) and Pride of Lion’s No Question No Answers (RogueArt) continue to be the common currency of his artistic realm, but McPhee also found aegis for the release of exhilarating duets with cellist (and freshly-minted MacArthur “genius”) Tomeka Reid (Let Our Rejoicing Rise) and British sax eidolon Evan Parker (Sweet Nothings (For Milford Graves), both pressed on the prolific Corbett vs. Dempsey imprint (see below).

Peter Brötzmann

Speaking again of unstoppable octogenarians, Herr Brötzmann came out of COVID isolation with renewed vigor and a concert calendar still compellingly competitive with musicians a fraction his age. New entries in his edifice-sized discography weren’t nearly as plentiful, but a pair of archival releases still packed a gobsmacking punch. Historic Music Past Tense Future (Black Editions Archive) drops the German reedist and bassist William Parker into the precision polyrhythmic maelstrom of Milford Graves circa spring 2002 across a double slab of vinyl. In a State of Undress (FMP/Be!) is free jazz of a more formal sort with the one-off aggregate of trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Jay Oliver and drummer Willi Kellers tempering the leader’s orotund edges.

Tyshawn Sorey + Greg Osby — The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (Pi)

Keeping up with Tyshawn Sorey’s indefatigable activities is a lot like keeping pace with Joe McPhee, a full-time pursuit worth every penny and effort. This three-disc set has the instant enticement of capturing his working trio in the hothouse context of an extended gig at the Jazz Gallery in NYC. Add to that a program of alchemized standards sourced from the Great American Songbook and jazz brethren along with altoist Greg Osby in a rare sideman station and the results become an irresistible trigger pull. In a word: epic.

Cecil Taylor

Taylor’s been gone four-plus-years, but his in-life prolificacy continues to bestow posthumous gifts. Revelatory and digital-only, The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at the Town Hall, NYC, November 4, 1973 (Oblivion) expands greatly on its previously truncated incarnation, Spring of Two Blue-J’s originally on Taylor’s own Unit Core imprint back in 1974. Respiration (Fundacja Słuchaj!) and Live in Ruvo Di Puglia 2000 (Enja) reveal previously unreleased prototypes of his solo repertoire separated by the span of thirty-two years. Sharing a surname with the pianist probably suggests the presence of bias, but I will still ardently go on record in stating that all three are essential.

Albert Ayler — Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (Elemental)

Previous editions of this material are now obsolete thanks to this magnificent, meticulously assembled set. So invasive were earlier edits and excisions, particularly as concerns the catalytic contributions of Ayler’s life and musical partner Mary Parks (aka Mary Maria), that it’s like hearing the concerts anew. Parks’ memory and jazz history are restored by producer Zev Feldman and his retinue of collaborators. The results are glorious, both in terms of restored fidelity and the extended majesty of Ayler’s last band firing on collective, conflagratory cylinders.

Chris Dingman — Journeys Vols. 1 & 2 (Inner Arts)

Chris Dingman nearly topped my Year End list two-years ago with an ambitious five-disc opus Peace, a dedicatory body of work for solo vibraphone initially conceived as an aural paregoric for his ailing father. The elder Dingman passed away prior to its release and in navigating the grief in the years since, the son’s doubled down on the unaccompanied format as means of realizing Albert Ayler proffered adage that “music is the healing force of the universe.” Journey’s 1 & 2 reflect their predecessor, but also refract it through a sequence of malleted excursions emphasizing melody and repetition in rippling, elliptical patterns that soothe and enthrall.

Corbett vs Dempsey

John Corbett is indicative of my favorite species of record collector: an altruist whose obsessiveness in the endeavor is exceeded by his ardor for sharing the spoils of this searches through reissues that completely do the artifacts justice. Chief among the offerings this year, German free jazz pianist Georg Gräwe’s first two forays as a leader, New Movements (1976) and Pink Pong (1978), and the pivotal Globe Unity (1967), which restores Alexander von Schlippenbach’s first multinational large ensemble enterprise to circulation. Also of note, another stack of entries inspired by the Sequesterfest series of concerts initiated during the pandemic. Drummer Hamid Drake’s Dedications features solo percussion-planted encomia to his influences and is probably my pick of the eight titles released so far.

The Pyramids — Aomawa: The 1970s Recordings (Strut)

A box set that brings a personal blind spot into bracing focus and rectifies it. The Pyramids initial three albums plus a concert air shot given the deluxe treatment by the Strut label. Ancient to the Future with audible Sun Ra Arkestra and Art Ensemble influences, reedist Idris Ackamoor’s ensemble is never slavish or supine in its interpretations of precedence. Percussion jams are plentiful, as are spiritual jazz overtones, and it all combines in an earthy gestalt that also has a healthy respect and acumen for groove. I’m of an age where regrets feel increasingly impractical, but it’s still good to catch up.

Grounation — The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari (Soul Jazz)

An arguable Jamaican analog to Aomawa in its assemblage of certain analogous ingredients, Groundnation was also something else entirely. Sprawling across three LPs (a milestone in the country’s recording industry), The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari resonates as history lesson, call to arms, sacred text, and adulatory celebration among other appellations. Count Ossie, Cedric IM Brooks and their confreres mined both zeitgeist and musical alloy that had lasting effects not just on reggae, but self-determinate roots-oriented music of all sorts. Soul Jazz’s painstaking attention to accurate reproduction and contextualization is admirable and immersive.

Robbie Basho — Bouquet (Lost Lagoon)

Self-produced, released and circulated in 1984, Basho’s penultimate album tests and perhaps proves the prevailing theory that detractors of his singing far outnumber those of guitar playing. Still, he succeeds where other great polarizers of the pipes like Irene Aebi, Yoko Ono and Ethel Merman fail in his unflappable earnestness and credulity. The self-doubt and cumulative frustrations that haunted Basho in life subsume in the sincerity of his music, strangely sui generis in its intensely personalized strains of borrowed religion, spirituality and mysticism. Mileage varies, but there’s no denying Basho’s commitment to his muses.

Sun Ra

Labels like Modern Harmonic and Cosmic Myth Ra continue to keep Ra relevant even though the Saturnian left the planet decades ago. This year’s passel of reissues includes timely returns of Ra to the Rescue and Universe in Blue, each augmented with extra and/or extended tracks. The latter album includes several showstopping John Gilmore spotlights and ample Ra organ-omics while the former gets its most complete edition yet with a survey of snapshots across 1970s sessions. A genuinely new release, Prophet zeroes in on Ra’s 1986 in-studio experiments with the then-newfangled eponymous console and he responds like a kid in a keyboard candy store with select Arkestral band members, including an ailing June Tyson, in exuberant, if fleeting, support.

Steeplechase

The Danish label is an old reliable in these pages, plugging along with current releases from its international stable of artists alongside occasional, but always welcome, reissues. Stephen Riley’s My Romance isn’t the tenorist’s first recording with B-3 organ, but it does mark his first as a leader. Electing Brian Charette to cover the keys with just Billy Drummond on cans in support is a stripped-down stroke of genius. Vintage concert performances with bop pianist Duke Jordan in the company of Danish tenorist Bent Jaedig (Montmartre ’73) and archival recordings by tenorist Brew Moore (Special Brew) and dearly departed Philly guitarist Monette Sudler (In My Own Way) stand out, too.

Bear Family

Bear Family basically has access to a bank vault-sized archive when it comes to vintage country fare. It’s a mighty good thing because Bill Carter holds at best token traction with the 21st century arbiters of the genre. Sixty-seven tracks across two discs chart the ups, downs, and all arounds of Carter’s career (The Complete Recordings from 1953 to 1961) jumping from Western Swing to hillbilly to honkytonk to rockabilly. Perhaps best of all, Carter was 92, lucid, and around to see the release back in March. Western Swing legend Bob Wills’ younger brother Billy Jack was the recipient of similar treatment with Cadillac In Model ‘A’, a comparatively stingy 31-track survey and latest in the label’s long running Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series.

Ezz-thetics

Born out of both providence and necessity, the Ezz-thetics label exists in the continued absence of the venerated Hat Hut lineage of imprints. The earlier catalogs are tied up in legal proprietary knots, leaving owner Werner X. Uehlinger to throw caution to the curb and pursue a longstanding dream of applying his decades-honed judgment as a producer to free/jazz classics. The venture immediately ran afoul of critics who took umbrage with his audacity in side-stepping stateside copyright considerations and reimagining sacred texts. Wherever one opines on those controversies, there’s no denying the new lease audio engineer Michael Brandli has accorded the source materials. Cecil Taylor’s (With) Exit to Student Studies Revisited, Paul Bley’s Play Annette Peacock Revisited, and Sun Ra’s Nothing Is… Completed & Revisited are exemplary stand outs.

Fresh Sound

Lisbon-based Fresh Sound is another reissue label that continuously courts its share of contention. The logical, if admittedly self-serving counter is that American rights holders to nearly all of the music that they traffic in couldn’t be bothered to apply even a fraction of the care or quality they bring to bear. Exacting attention to the most esoteric and obscure jazz artists has long been the archetype. This year’s batch includes definitive collections of trumpeter Dave Burns (1962 Sessions), baritone saxophonist Virgil Gonsalves (Jazz in the Bay Area 1954-1959), altoist Joe “Mouse” Bonati (Portrait of a Jazz Hero) and Belgian vibraphonist Fats Sadi (Sadi’s Vibes: A Retrospective 1953-61).

Morteza Mahjubi — Selected Improvisations from Golha, Parts 1 & 2 (Death is Not the End)

Tempered instruments aren’t an intuitive match for micro-tonal composition, but that hasn’t hindered musicians of manifold ethnicities from adapting them to the intricacies of indigenous music. Iranian pianist Morteza Mahjubi did so prolifically during his lifetime, recording his innovations for Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programs between 1956 and his passing in 1965. Spread over two album-length discs (with hopefully future volumes to follow), Mahjubi applies his custom tuning system to the ivories and approximates the sonorities of endemic instruments like the tar (lute) and santur (hammered dulcimer).

Branko Mataja — Over Fields and Mountains (Numero)

Mataja’s biography reads like a Spielbergian screenplay. Abducted from his native Belgrade and conscripted to a German work camp during WWII, the lifelong guitar enthusiast worked a variety of trades after being liberated, before emigrating to England, then Canada, and finally a string of stateside cities. Mataja eventually settled in Los Angeles where he worked as a barber and started a side business a freelance guitar technician. Memories of his home country haunted him, and he recorded a pair of albums in his garage studio/workshop from which this LP is sourced. Milky, murky reverb and sustain are calling cards, alongside an improvisatory approach to traditional Croatian melodies that’s equal parts melancholic and mysterious.

V/A — Padang Moonrise: The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry 1955-1969 (Soundway)

A double-LP + 7” survey stacked with sublime discoveries from coordinates geographic and temporal that beg for an even deeper dive. Reverb-dipped guitars and swirling, droning organs are persistent common denominators alongside varied hand percussion and a revolving cast of melancholic crooners across genders and dialects. It’s cross-cultural music that’s exotica-adjacent and still ripely redolent of American soul. Ghost World’s Enid would’ve had a field day immersing herself in this stuff. I know I have.

Jalaleddin

Old, but still new to me, and perhaps my most listened to platters among the many vinyl discoveries procured on record shop safaris this year. Discogs lists seven albums to Jalaleddin’s name, and I feel fortunate to have found six on the cheap in a single shop. Based in San Francisco in the 1970s and a master of the kanun (Turkish trapezoidal zither,) Jalal Takesh started his musical career cutting belly dance records. Benefiting from a Santana-like broadmindedness, his bandleading would soon conscript musicians of other traditions including Indian ragas, Greek rebetika, and Spanish flamenco. Hand-sketched and colored by an academic friend of Takesh’s, the album cover illustrations are aces, as well.

25 More in No Fixed Order…

Andrew Cyrille/William Parker/Enrico Rava — 2 Blues for Cecil (TUM)

Michael Bisio Quartet — MBefore (Tao Forms)

Ingrid Laubrock/Brandon Lopez/Tom Rainey — No Es La Playa (Intakt)

Patricia Brennan — More Touch (Pyroclastic)

Mark Turner — Return from the Stars (ECM)

Jeb Bishop/Pandelis Karayorgis/Damon Smith — Duals (Driff/Balance Point Acoustics)

Ches Smith — Interpret it Well (Pyroclastic)

Sam Rivers — Caldera (NoBusiness)

Toots Thielemans & Rob Franken — The Studio Sessions 1973-1983 (Dutch Jazz Archive)

The Pyramids — Penetration! (Sundazed)

Horace Tapscott Quintet — S/T (Mr. Bongo)

V/A — Girls with Guitars Gonna Shake (Ace)

John Ondolo — The Hypnotic Guitar of John Ondolo (Mississippi)

Biluka y Los Canibales — Leaf-Playing in Quito 1960 to 1965 (Honest Jon’s)

Myra Melford’s Fire & Water Quintet — For the Love of Fire & Water (RogueArt)

Ndikho Xaba & The Natives — S/T (Trilyte/Mississippi)

Brandon Seabrook — In the Swarm (Astral Spirits)

Sirone — Artistry (Moved by Sound)

William Parker — Universal Tonality (Centering)

Charles Mingus — The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s (Resonance)

Markos Vamvakaris — Death is Bitter (Mississippi)

Jeff Parker — Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy (Eremite/Aguirre)

Mal Waldron — Searching in Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert (Tompkins Square)

Allan Botschinsky Quintet — Live at The Tivoli Gardens 1996 (Stunt)

Jimmy Castor Bunch — The Definitive Collection (Robinsongs)

Derek Taylor

[jazzdailyblog]

"For Alto": Anthony Braxton's Groundbreaking Saxophone Odyssey

Introduction: In the realm of avant-garde jazz, few albums have left as indelible a mark as Anthony Braxton’s “For Alto.” Released in 1971, this audacious double LP stands as a testament to Braxton’s fearless pursuit of musical innovation. This blog post delves into the revolutionary nature of “For Alto,” its creation, reception, and enduring legacy. Pioneering Solo Saxophone Innovation: “For…

[alethianightsong]

Put them together and The Road (2009), A Quiet Place (2018), and Bird Box (2018) form a genre I like to call "parenting at the end of the world sucks."

[writerobscura]

Front row seats that Netflix paid for at AMI Spring/Summer 2024. Seriously tho - two of my all time phalange-man favs are bookending in the first pic.

[paceypeternathanslawyer]

There’s just something about male TV characters who call people simply by their last name... 😁😍🔥

[brokenfuturerpg]

PBS MASCULINOS POR EDAD

Hola personitas. Venimos con un aporte que nos ha costado un tiempito reunir. Es posible que algunos PB tengan 1 añito más de lo que pone, porque igual cumplieron recién. Esperamos les guste ^^

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