Movies We've Just Watched discussion
LISTS, LISTS, AND MORE LISTS
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Stuff We've Just Listened To
Phillip wrote: "yep ... fucking hans zimmer will probably continue to pick up whatever half-baked awards they are tossing these days. at least i'm not seeing danny elfman's name on every other soundtrack these days. "I've been saying this same thing since 1989 if you substitute "John Williams" for "Hans Zimmer" and make the subject Graeme Revell...
heheheh
i've been working night and day on the emily project i may have mentioned recently - taking nine of dickinson's poems and setting them for choir and orchestra. it's coming along nicely, but damn, it's killing me. i don't know how many nights i've been up working until 3 am over the past few weeks.but!
i've been managing to do some listening while writing parts and driving in the car, and i picked up ab baars newest solo CD, "time to do my lions". ab baars is from the netherlands and plays with the instant composer's pool, otherwise known as ICP. it's a large collection of all the greatest improvisers on the amsterdamn scene with folks like han bennik, misha mengelborg (both of whom played on eric dolphy's celebrated "last date" recording), mary oliver, tristan honsinger, michael moore, et al.
ab is one of the most interesting tenor players out there these days, mixing the classic big tone tenor that i've been writing about above with all the microscopic detail and microtonality that we contemporary saxophonists are trying to bring out of the instrument. he is lyrical and static all at once, often just tugging away on three notes and bending them every which way. baars plays a little clarinet in the ICP, but on this date he really stretches out and delivers some masterful improvisations on the instrument - really, this is the big surprise of the record for me, i know what a brilliant tenor player he is, but dang, this clarinet thing ... i had no idea. there are two tracks that he plays shakuhachi (japanese wood flute) on, but they are throwaways in my opinion - he's not enough of a master on the instrument to realize the ideas he is exploring with any real sense of deliberateness, or grounded intent. whatever, the record is way worth it for the other 9 tracks. glad to have finally picked this one up. one of the dutch labels is preparing to release all his trio recordings in a box set this december and i've been holding off on purchasing anything by him until that gets released.
and
this sunday a friend gave me tickets to hear andras schiff play the complete WELL TEMPERED KLAVIER by the master of counterpoint, johann sebastien bach. i can't even tell you how excited i am about that. i'll report back after the concert. he's doing a pre-concert talk about the work, which was a landmark composition in its day.
you see, before the time when bach wrote this, the common tuning system was called just intonation, and in those days you couldn't expect a keyboard to be able to play in tune in certain keys ... well, you could, but it sounded funny, so no one ever composed in say, Db minor. well bach came along once the tuning system was developed, and composed this work of preludes and fugues in all 12 keys - there is one set in major and one set in minor keys. its' a classic composition that all the keyboardists work on to prove their worth, glenn gould and the rest have recorded it, along with schiff. although i've never heard his recording of it, i'm a big fan of his playing.
ok, back to work.
oh, i was going to ask for recommendations on what charlotte gainsbourg CD i should pick up, but i went on iTunes and listened to some things and downloaded 5:55 and a track (vanities) from IRM. so far i'm liking the more subdued tracks - the more energy-driven ones sound a little forced. i'm thinking it would be brilliant if brian eno produced her next record and i'd like it even more if she'd hire someone like ikue mori to do her electronics work. in short, she's a bit more pop centered than i prefer, but again, so far i'm pretty much digging all the tracks on 5:55.
forgot to mention (i'm pretty sure no one cares about this crap, but i do!) that i've also been doing a bit of a retrospective listening of the music of karlheinz stockhausen. i'll refrain from composing a lecture on him here, but if you don't know his music, you should probably check it out if you're at all interested in modern classical music. he came out of darmstadt and had the keys to the kingdom (full access to this legendary recording studio in east germany that had all the primo recording gear) in the 50's and made some groundbreaking recordings up until the 1970's, when his work gets a bit wanky, for my tastes. but up until then he was producing countless gems that set the standard for electronic music, graphic scores, and other new notation systems ... he was obsessed with sound placement, and became an important composer in that regard (where the instruments are placed in performance). if you know his work and haven't read the collection of interviews and essays, it is available from schott press. good reading, kids.anyway, i've been listening to KONTRPUNKTE, ZEIT MASZE, STOP, MICROPHONIE (for microphone and gong) and HYMNEN lately. oh yeah, also UNSICHTBARE CHOR (invisible choir) for choir and 8-channel mixer. dang. brilliant, innovative writing and the performances are all masterful - they were originally released on deutsche grammophone, but eventually stockhausen bought back his catalog and created his own label (which is kind of drag, now the stuff is really expensive to get your hands on ... discs from DG that once sold for $12.99 now go for $31.99, etc.). stockhausen died last year or the year before, and i'm hoping something shifts and the recordings will go back to being reasonably priced someday. fortunately, i have most of this stuff on vinyl, and a friend from berlin burned copies of all the works i didn't have in my collection.
anyway, check him out if you have the time. the works range wildly, i'm sure you'll find something you like eventually!
Phillip -- was it Stockhausen who did the string quartet with helicopter?
yes! he also got into a lot of trouble for saying that 9/11 was perhaps the greatest work of art ever.
I feel as if I came from another planet, but reading this thread is always a pleasure (I just wish i didn't need so many hours of sleep).
what are you listening to these days, barbara? any sardinian folk music in your collection? i'm a big fan of the genre.
Unfortunately I haven't any Sardinian folk music – a couple of times I listened it performed live with traditional dances and enjoyed it, but, as usual, can’t remember the name of the groups. I assume you don’t need it, but I could ask the longeval and amazing Sardinian mother of a friend about Sardinian folk music.
… randomly, Zaz, Rajko Orchestra, Hight Tone & Improvisators Dub, Cat Power, Mazzy Star, Lhasa de Sela, Seize Asku (this last discovered thanks to the latest Ozpetek’s movie – and soundtracks, few friends and now also this thread are my almost only sources lately).
ps: it seems your beloved work is pretty demanding lately, Phillip… enjoy the concert!
… randomly, Zaz, Rajko Orchestra, Hight Tone & Improvisators Dub, Cat Power, Mazzy Star, Lhasa de Sela, Seize Asku (this last discovered thanks to the latest Ozpetek’s movie – and soundtracks, few friends and now also this thread are my almost only sources lately).
ps: it seems your beloved work is pretty demanding lately, Phillip… enjoy the concert!
paolo angeli, a marvelous guitarist that i have worked with is a specialist in sardinian folk music - he has been giving me lots of recordings over the years. it's unique - especially the vocal tradition. i also like the guitar tradition. the concert won't happen until december - but i did finish the score last night. that's a big load off my shoulders.
good! - doubly.
... I remembered. I was thinking of a concert you are going to listen today; maybe I didn't well understand/remember one of your previous post.
... I remembered. I was thinking of a concert you are going to listen today; maybe I didn't well understand/remember one of your previous post.
http://blog.sinfinimusic.com/paul-mor...Sticking this here because of Morley's jabs at John Williams about 3/4 of the way down. But the whole thing is kind of hilarious, and I couldn't agree more. (Full disclosure: I'm a huge Alan Titchmarsh fan...)
Barbara wrote: "Unfortunately I have any Sardinian folk music – a couple of times I listened it performed live with traditional dances and enjoyed it, but, as usual, can’t remember the name of the groups. I assume..."It's funny you mention Lhasa de Sela. She lived here in Montreal for some time and was very much loved. I recently went to a tribute for her. Love her music.
I also love Cat Power, Feist, Regina Spektor, Ane Brun, Dead Can Dance, Delerium, The Low Anthem, The Barr Brothers...and too many others.
Julie wrote: "I also love Cat Power, Feist, Regina Spektor, Ane Brun, Dead Can Dance, Delerium, The Low Anthem, The Barr Brothers...and too many others. "Delerium!
Have you heard Fulber's other "I'm obsessed with female vocalists" side project, Conjure One? I actually like it even better (though you attach Marie-Claire d'Ubaldo to anything and I'm pretty much automatically sold...)
Julie wrote: "It's funny you mention Lhasa de Sela. She lived here in Montreal for some time and was very much loved. I recently went to a tribute for her. Love her music.."
Yes, music, like many other forms of art, has this wonderful power to reduce distances between people(*).
I’m sorry she had had so little time.
p.s. (*) but I like the feeling to come from another planet, as well...
Yes, music, like many other forms of art, has this wonderful power to reduce distances between people(*).
I’m sorry she had had so little time.
p.s. (*) but I like the feeling to come from another planet, as well...
Robert wrote: "Julie wrote: "I also love Cat Power, Feist, Regina Spektor, Ane Brun, Dead Can Dance, Delerium, The Low Anthem, The Barr Brothers...and too many others. "Delerium!
Have you heard Fulber's other ..."
I hadn't heard of them, thanks for mentioning. I listened to some of their songs on YouTube and liked them, especially the one with Sinéad O'Connor. I will be listening to more of them, I'm sure.
Delerium's new cd, Music Box Opera, is coming out at the end of Oct. Can't wait.
Julie wrote: "It's funny you mention Lhasa de Sela. She lived here in Montreal for some time and was very much loved. I recently went to a tribute for her. Love her music. ..."is that the singer who often just goes by lhasa? i have one of her recordings - it's really good. did she pass away or something?
Phillip wrote: "Julie wrote: "It's funny you mention Lhasa de Sela. She lived here in Montreal for some time and was very much loved. I recently went to a tribute for her. Love her music. ..."is that the singer ..."
Yes; Lhasa died from breast cancer. She was only in her 30s.
i'm subbing for a friend's history of western music class tomorrow and all day i've been doing a bit of research for a section on music of the renaissance. here are some things that are going into the playlist:guillaume dufay - mass for the virgin
josquin de pres - motets
giovanni palestrina - missa brevis
claudio monteverdi - fifth book of madrigals
orlando di lasso - motets and madrigals
william byrd - works for viol
girolamo frescobaldi - arie musicali for two keyboards
john dowland - complete works for lute
and, of course, the bad boy of the renaissance, carlo gesualdo - responses for holy saturday
here is an interesting period in the history of western music, because the composers were trying to lay the foundation for the use and practice of tonal harmony. up until then, chant was the practice of the day, which means composers were writing music with one melodic line only - everyone sings in unison. after 1500, you get all sorts of attempts to establish ways of having more than one melody at a time (which is called polyphony ...). that's when it starts getting interesting, and for my money monteverdi was among the most interesting of the so-called "avant garde" composers of the day - folks who were stretching the rules in interesting ways. but really, all of this music is sublime and worth checking out if you have a mind for getting your early music groove on.
the renaissance was also a time where, for the first time, composers were able to compose works that were secular, or, for entertainment, not purely to glorify the church. so instrumental works come into the foreground. for my money, frescobaldi, byrd and dowland are among my favorite composers for strings and keyboards.
if any of you have checked out the werner herzog documentary on gesualdo, you already know he led a scandalous life. here is a guy who was composing for an aristocrat, the duke of andria, and, after staging a false hunting trip so he might catch them, he came home to discover the duke in bed with his wife and murdered them both.
this didn't seem to upset people all that much, but nonetheless, gesualdo was "exiled" to a castle where he lived out the rest of his days writing music, but only after murdering one of his sons (because he doubted the child's paternity). somehow he inherited a lot of money in the process and lived comfortably. ah, the good ol' days!
what i've been wondering for years is, when are they going to make this into a hollywood movie???
Just picked up the two Sugar remastered reissues of "Copper Blue" and "File Under: Easy Listening." Very nice packages, including some live shows from the 1990s. The liner notes alone are like two hours of reading. One of my all-time favorite bands from the master Bob Mould.
I've been listening to a lot of stuff on my ipod lately, stuff designed to get me through my commute (hellishly overcrowded subway lines handling 4 to 5 times the number of people they were designed to handle) without being driven stark staring mad.Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, and Gavin Bryars have saved my sanity, and probably more than a few lives.
Made curious by the soundtrack of ONIBABA, I found this piece: O-DAYKO by KODO (a Japanese taiko drum group):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7HL5w...
I would really like to attend one of their performances.
http://www.kodo.or.jp/oet/index_en.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7HL5w...
I would really like to attend one of their performances.
http://www.kodo.or.jp/oet/index_en.html
I'm watching I Need That Record!, and holy shit, Glenn Branca is at least twenty years younger than I thought he was. Hell, Thurston Moore looks older...
ha! branca. he's not that young actually. just looks it. and i think that clip of him in that movie is kind of old. ... some of my friends played in that fairly recent performance of branca's composition for 100 electric guitars at red cat in los angeles. if i remember correctly, he wrote that piece in like 1980? i know i listened to a recording of it with my roomie back in 1983 ... so unless he was like 10 years old at the time, he's not that young. i think he's my age (early 50's, maybe a little older?).
i just checked and (the internet!) says he was born in 1948 ... there you go.
but thurston isn't that young any more either. i think kim g. is like 60 now ... i'm thinking thurston must be about the same age.
listed it above, but lately i have been ADDICTED to john dowland's complete works for lute (i have volumes 1, 2, & 5 and they're all fantastic... want to find the other volumes). gorgeous solo string music ... kind of perfect for any weather, mood, time of day ... absolutely impossibly beautiful music. and some of it pretty modern in conception, given that it was written in the early 1600's. the recordings i have are all by paul odette on the harmonia mundi label. check it out.
Yeah, Kim Gordon is almost 60 I believe.I recently got into Thurston's solo albums. Pretty great, almost as good as SY's best IMO. This might be sacrilege to big SY fans :)
Phillip wrote: "but thurston isn't that young any more either. i think kim g. is like 60 now ... i'm thinking thurston must be about the same age. "Moore says at one point during the movie (which was released in 08 I believe) that "I'm almost fifty".
I was always more a Ranaldo guy (and I'm one of the only people I know who just never never never managed to get into SY, not even Daydream Nation), but I think that's because I saw him busking in Central Park on my first visit to NYC back in 93. And if it wasn't Lee, it was someone who looked, and played guitar, exactly like Lee...
Thurston Moore has just kinda become ubiquitous over the last 20 years. Hell, I think at this point he's produced and.or mixed more albums in my collection than Steve Albini AND Butch Walker. Maybe even combined.
We're almost into December, so pretty soon it will be time to wipe the mp3 player and populate it only with albums that were released in 2012 so I can start taking a more coherent stab at a top 10 list, though at least one album I fully expect would make it I haven't been able to get my hands on yet (the new Rie Fu disc, which AFAIK has not been released outside Japan, even digitally). I do know that unless something earth-shattering happens, the following have already locked up places on the list:Author and Punisher, Ursus Americanus
Delain, We Are the Others
Mailbomb Solution, FxCx
Protestant, Reclamation
Pray for Teeth, untitled demo
the other five positions are being fought over by a longlist of about twenty acts, mostly the usual suspects. The best thing about 2012: no major disappointments, unlike last year (when three of my favorite bands all released bombs).
and dammit, Sofia Karlsson needs to release a new album. soon.
Yeah among my friends you're either completely, hopelessly enamored with Sonic Youth or don't care one fig about them. Most everyone I know (myself included) are in the former camp. I just got the Lee Ranaldo solo album but haven't listened to it yet.
Speaking of the 1990s...this morning on the commute listened to Belly "Star." Perfect!
I think it may be a function of age... I wasn't quite old enough to hit on Daydream Nation when it originally came out, I was still way heavy into (a) import metal and (b) American hardcore, and didn't really grok more experimental music until the early nineties... which is exactly when SY took their more commercial turn (Goo was, what, 91?). (Not that I'm not still into import metal and American hardcore...)
Goo was 1990, I think...their first on Geffen.But I hear you. The band Everyone loves but I don't grasp at all is Guided by Voices.
Steve wrote: "Goo was 1990, I think...their first on Geffen.But I hear you. The band Everyone loves but I don't grasp at all is Guided by Voices."
oh, god. They're regional (from Toledo?), so ever since I moved to Ohio I have been assaulted by Guided by Voices. I LOATHE them.
Yeah I think they started in Dayton. I've tried to listen to Bee Thousand, well, a thousand times, and I always shrug my shoulders. I love that era (Sebadoh, Pavement, Pixies, SY, etc.), but I just don't get GBV. Could be similar to your reasons for SY...I was into garage punk at the time (Crypt Records, New Bomb Turks, Billy Childish, etc.) and didn't really get into "indie rock" or whatever we call it til after the fact.
'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons.And hearing it play during the trailer of 'The Host' Movie literally made me fall off the chair.
Also, the Pride & Prejudice (by Joe Wright) Soundtrack. Going to be watching it soon too! Woo!
"The best thing about 2012: no major disappointments"...and then I heard the new Swans record...
(OTOH, surprise of the year: Bill Laswell's new one, which sounds like a guy sitting around with a bass writing melodies, it's simple and brilliant and entirely unlike anything I have ever heard Bill Laswell do before.)
EDIT: and dammit, I picked up six(!!) new discs/tapes at that show I went to Saturday night I mentioned in another thread, and of the six, four are worthy of inclusion.
This is the best year for new music since I started keeping a list (1979, Album of the year: Styx, Cornerstone) hands down. I've probably spent more money on music this year than I have in the last three years combined, and I have regretted very, very little of it.
been making a few mixtapes (on CD) for a few of my students ... here are the ingredients:GIRLS CAME AND DOMINATED THE SPACE AND TOOK NO PRISONERS
1) massive attack - paradise circus
2) billie holiday - i wished on the moon
3) souaad massi - shoufa
4) brazilian girls - jique
5) juana molina - rio seco
6) nadezhda voskaboynik - sosna
7) etta james - only time will tell
8) bebel gilberto - samba da bencao
9) pj harvey - the best thing
10) m.i.a. - paper planes
11) missy elliot - slice
12) dinah washington - send me to 'lectric chair
13) lucinda williams - can't let go
14) nancy wilson - save your love for me
15) melt banana - drug store
16) nico - these days
17) las hermanas segovias - lla me voy
18) angie stone - what you dyin' for?
19) anita o' day - them there eyes
20) nurse with wound - groove grease
21) carmen miranda - unidentified track
THE BLUES ASSUMES MANY FORMS
1) bessie smith - mama's got the blues
2) louis armstrong and the hot 5 - west end blues
3) robert johnson - preachin' blues
4) king oliver's creole band - canal street blues
5) son house - country farm blues
6) duke ellington - the mooche
7) lester young - Db blues
8) mary lou williams - 8th avenue express
9) muddy waters - louisiana blues
10) charlie parker - au privave
11) lightnin' hopkins - evil ways
12) howlin' wolf - ain't superstitious
13) miles davis - trane's blues
14) hank williams - lost highway
15) thelonious monk - bluehawk
16) john lee hooker - old time shimmy
17) fats domino - walkin' to new orleans
18) captain beefheart - dakau blues
19) duke ellington - blues in orbit
20) the beatles - ballad of john and yoko
21) led zeppelin - custard pie
22) pj harvey - ecstasy
23) reverend gary davis - candyman
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EARLY JAZZ (1925 - 1955)
1) jelly roll morton - king porter stomp
2) louis armstrong - struttin' with some barbeque
3) django reinheardt - dinah
4) mary lou williams - night life
5) coleman hawkins - body and soul
6) lester young - i got rhythm
7) duke ellingtons - cottontail
8) count basie - jumpin' at the woodside
9) bennie goodman - i've found a new baby
10) jimmy dorsey - three little words
11) roy eldridge - little jazz
12) charlie christian - seven come eleven
13) peggy lee - why don't you do right?
14) charlie parker - the song is you
15) bud powell - night in tunisia
16) dizzy gillespie - shaw 'nuff
17) dexter gordon - blow, mr dexter
18) gerry mulligan & chet baker - bernie's tune
19) don byas - i got rhythm
20) tito puente - swinging the mambo
21) kenny dorham - afrodisia
22) sonny rollins - i've told every little star
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC (1925 - 2005)
1) pierre henry - symphonie pour un homme seul
2) edgar varese - poem electronique
3) gyorgi ligeti - artikulation
4) iannis xenakis - diamorphoses
5) morton subotnick - 4 butterflies - interlude 1
6) delia derbyshire - synchrondipity machine
7) karlheinz stockhausen - das weltericht
8) vladimir ussachevsky - incantation for tape
9) daphne oram - four aspects
10) luigi nono - omaggio a emilio vedova
11) ata ebtakar - glass lung
12) brian eno - an ending
13) kim cascone - zephirum scan
14) the hub - perry mason in east germany
15) squarepusher - kill robok
16) ikue mori - kaleidoscope
17) nadezhda voskaboynik - roznoi
18) phillip greenlief & covered pages - raskolnikov's attic
19) tim perkis - wrack
20) takuma itoi - intro
seriously! what an amazing conception in his music. one of the first composers to fix on texture and really do something with it. i'm just now making a "brief history of 20th century music" and included one of his piano etudes, which are absolutely stunning.i picked up the four-CD box set of his complete deutsche-grammophone recordings and was so glad i did. i'll burn that for you and give it to you in april, if you don't already have it.
listening to steve reich's "sextet" - one of his works for mallet instruments. this one really rocks, folks.
i had one of the greatest listening experiences ever last night - at tom's place - a local house concert series - karlheinz stockhausen's HYMNEN was presented in four-channel stereo from an original tape source! i am not at liberty to say where we got our hands on this four-channel tape, but it was amazing to hear this incredible, unparalleled work.
HYMNEN clocks in at two hours and is organized in four sections - there was an intermission between regions 2 & 3. the source material for this epic work of tape music are recordings of national anthems from many many countries. then stockhausen takes those recordings, cuts them up and processes them with all the tricky gadgetry he had on hand at darmstadt.
a mind-blowing work. check it out if you have a chance - not easy (or cheap) to even get a copy on CD. i'm still in a rush from listening to it.
Phillip wrote: "i am not at liberty to say where we got our hands on this four-channel tape,"Bastard. I want you to know how much I hate you right now.
But feel free to put those tape-sniffing dogs to the task of finding a print of London After Midnight forgotten in a basement somewhere, would ya?
Robert wrote: "Bastard. I want you to know how much I hate you right now."i can handle it! the experience was well worth the scorn it has invited.
discovering LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT - that would be marvelous.
you have no idea how amazing it was to hear HYMNEN from an original source tape - the clarity was amazing. i know it's a copy of the original tape, but still, there's almost 0% generation loss that comes with reproduction.
and someone had a score of the work at the show last night - pretty fascinating to see it. it is, of course, a "transcription", and not something stockhausen produced himself - but rather was accomplished by a team of his assistants. nonetheless, most informative.
Phillip wrote: "and someone had a score of the work at the show last night - pretty fascinating to see it. it is, of course, a "transcription", and not something stockhausen produced himself - but rather was accomplished by a team of his assistants. nonetheless, most informative."Oh, man, I can't even imagine. I want one!
They're probably even more expensive than the ridiculously-priced CDs...
the "study score" (pocket score) is $79 from stockhausen's website. the full score is $144. the full size score is small enough! it has the four tracks listed as four musical staffs ... and it's really cool how the stuff is notated. wish i had more time with it.regarding the tape: a friend who works with the san francisco tape music festival purchased it from the stockhausen institute for purposes of a performance of the work at the festival ... it wasn't supposed to be used again for public exhibition. i doubt anyone from the stockhausen institute is lurking on these threads ... forgive me for being paranoid earlier.
Phillip wrote: "been making a few mixtapes (on CD) for a few of my students ... here are the ingredients:GIRLS CAME AND DOMINATED THE SPACE AND TOOK NO PRISONERS
1) massive attack - paradise circus
2) billie hol..."
A great list just saved it. Thank you!
Been waiting since christmas day to post this pic, but my wife can't find the cord to her camera, so we just retook it tonight...http://vareverta.wordpress.com/2013/0...
Excuse me, sir, Nels fucking Cline? Add one more person to the extensive list of people you've played with that make me drool in envy.
nels is a dear friend - we both grew up in los angeles - he is about eight years my senior, and was therefore always a kind of mentor. he ran the infamous monday night concert series at the alligator lounge in santa monica for years - his trio with bob mair and michael preussner played the last set each week and usually blew the roof off the place. my mom never missed an opportunity to go down there with me and would give nels a lot of shit if she didn't think the music was right .. which was rare. normally she would just run up and hug him, covered in sweat, after the show. their friendship was great to observe.we started playing together soon after we met and i introduced him to scott amendola and trevor dunn - two fellows who traveled with me to southern cal to play at the alligator - that night we played as a trio and then we played as a sextet with nels' trio and tore the place up! now, the rhythm section for the nels cline singers is scott and trevor. true story and a little bit of west coast post-free jazz history.
yes - nels, g.e. stinson and vinny golia, all powerhouses, played on my CD russian notebooks. i spent my 40th birthday in the studio making that record and i don't think i've ever had so much fun over two days in the studio as on that date!
that photo is a scream! i hope the music helps in your recovery - get well soon!!!!!
gene ammons - boss tenor - a classic from another one of the big-toned texas tenors, although on this date he is sounding less like texas and more like dexter gordon, with whom he collaborated with over the years. a fine date, to be sure.
sonny rollins, blue note, volume 2 ... i've been listening to sonny for decades, and he remains my favorite tenor player - but somehow, despite the fact that i've worn out a few copies of "volume 1", i've never owned and only rarely heard, volume 2 ... more blistering bliss from the only true improviser in modern jazz. sonny is constantly searching and challenging himself to push beyond into new territory, and while he may seem the more conservative, when you compare his late 60's work with coltrane, for example - sonny is deceptive ... if you were to listen to him on seven different recordings of the same song, you would never hear him play it the same way twice. i could rant all day about this guy.
teddy edwards - together again - edwards was one of my mom's favorite saxophone players, but there's nothing sentimental about my appreciation for his sound and approach - he lived in los angeles, and mom and i went out to see him a few times whenever i was in town and he was playing. this is one of his best records, he's teamed up with howard mc ghee (trumpet - a frequent collaborator), tommy flannagan (piano), ray brown (bass) and ed thigpen (drums), but the real revelation is phineas newborn jr on piano - wow, he is seriously tearing it up every second he is playing on this record. a really nice find - out of print - so glad to have it.