For German readers: some thoughts and notes and quotes on the music I'm listening - to be found
on my new blog:
ubus-notizen.blogspot.com

Also check out the great new, independent magazine get happy!?, reporting on music, movies and more:
gethappymag.de

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Marin Brown - St. Georgen 1980

r.i.p. Marion Brown

Show #4 of my little tribute to the great Marion Brown.



Marion Brown Quartet
St. Georgen, Germany
February 8, 1980


Marion Brown - alto sax
Hilton Ruiz - piano
Jack Gregg - bass
Freddie Waits - drums

CD1/63:54
1. Sunshine Road (19:06)
2. November Cotton Flower (14:36)
3. Afrodisia (14:46)
4. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (15:25)

CD2/46:16
1. Pleasant Street (15:39)
2. Sweet Earth (14:42)
3. Body and Soul (10:05)
4. La Placita (5:49)

TT: 110:10

Sound: A-

Lineage: sbd > ? > 7" reels of unknown lineage > AKAI GX-4000-D>Numark EQ 2250 20 band equalizer > HHB CDR 830 > cdr > cdr > eac(secure mode) > flac(level 8)

Edits (GoldWave):
- Moved track marks to beginning of tracks (some were early, some late)
- Deleted silence at beginning of Discs and beginning of CD2 #3
- Deleted silence at end of CD2 #4

Friday, October 29, 2010

Marion Brown - Köln 1977

r.i.p. Marion Brown

The third of five sets I'll be sharing for the moment - there are more around, of course, but these five were all shared five and a half years ago on EZT/dime and I figure there must be some interest, after all these years!

Marion Brown Quartet
Köln (Germany), Funkhaus
March 13, 1977


Marion Brown - alto sax
Brandon K. Ross - guitar
Jack Gregg - bass
Steve McCraven - drums

1. 08:15
2. 08:22
3. 12:48
4. 13:38
5. 11:49

TT: 54:55

Sound: varying between A- and B+
Source: fm > ? > cdr > eac(secure) > wav > shntool > flacfrontend > flac(7)

Edit:
- deleted 2 second gaps
- moved mark #0/#1 (#1/#2) (-2 sec)
- added fade out at end of #2 (#3)
- moved mark #3/#4 (#4/#5) (+5 sec), deleted half a second of duplication there, too
- moved mark #4/#5 (#5/#6) (-2 sec), deleted silence after #5 (#6)

Note: omitted fm announcer at beginning and end (#1 and #7 of Flac-files) when
burning (files saved on back-up DVD)

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Marion Brown - NYC 1976

Here's Peter Keepnews' NYTimes obit, also find some more information in my first post dedicated to Brown.

Note that the information below is somewhat more complete than what you'll get in the tags and info-file, so please update those!


Marion Brown Sextet
New York, NY (USA), The Village Gate
August 27, 1976


Marion Brown - alto saxophone
Aurell Ray & Butch Campbell - guitars
Jack Gregg - bass
Chris Henderson - drums
Jumma Santos - percussion

1. unknown (8:22) [inc]
2. Introductions (0:45)
3. Moment of Truth (10:23)
4. La Placita > Announcement by Marion Brown (11:23)

TT: 30:56

Sound: A-
Source: FM broadcast > unknown gen. analog cassette

Lineage:
-Cass >WAV via Sony PCM R500 DAT with SBM as A/D converter
-CoolEdit Pro 2.0 >CD Wave >CDR >EAC (secure) >FLAC Frontend (L8 w/SBA)

Note from EZtree seeder:
Incomplete. A more complete version would be a nice find!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Yusef Lateef - Montreux 1970

Sorry I missed Brother Yusef's birthday... he got ninety 17 days ago (well, make that 18 now that it turned past midnight while I was typing the following).

Lateef was born William Evans Huddleston (no relation to Father Huddleston, I assume) on October 9, 1920 in Chattanooga, TN. His family moved to Detroit in 1925 and that's where he remained rooted for a long time. In the mid and late 50s, he packed his quintet (Wilbur Harden on trumpet or Curtis Fuller on trombone, Hugh Lawson on piano, Ernie Farrow on bass, Louis Hayes or Oliver Jackson on drums) into his car, drove to NYC and recorded some mighty fine albums for Savoy or Prestige, and one for Verve, too. His brand of hardbop belongs to the most exciting committed to record in those years - check out albums like "Yuser's Mood", "Jazz for Thinkers", "Before Dawn", "Other Sounds" or "The Sounds of Yusef Lateef" to hear what I'm talking about.

In earlier years though his career started when - 18 years of age - he started playing professionally and appeared with Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldridge and others, and landed a gig with Dizzy Gillespie's exciting bop band in 1949. The next year, he returned to Detroit and started mingling in one of the finest local jazz scenes in these years of hardbop... Donald Byrd, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers, the Jones brothers (Hank, Thad and youngster Elvin, whom he'd have on drums on one of his finest hours, "Into Something" from 1961), Curtis Fuller, Kenny Burrell, and Lucky Thompson are just the cream of the crop of Detroit's finest from those heady years. Lateef's masterpiece from these years might well be his Riverside release "Eastern Sounds". The sounds are not "other" any longer, but a direction is given by now... Lateef opened up to oriental and Indian sounds early on, becoming one of the (unacknowledged) pioneers of any kind of world-jazz-fusion.

Lateef also played with Charles Mingus (playing da sh*t out of "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" on Ming's great EmArcy album "Pre-Bird") and then joined the band of Cannonball Adderley - enlarged to a sextet on the occasion of Lateef joining in. With little brother Nat Adderley, a youngster from the Austrial alps playing funky piano and going by the name of Joe Zawinul, as well as the seasoned rhythm team and backbone of the band, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes, Lateef was part of the finest band Cannonball ever led. Among the best recordings they left is "Nippon Soul", captured during a series of 1962 concerts in Japan. There's also Lateef's oboe feature on "Trouble in Mind" on the album "Cannonball in Europe" - the meanest oboe playing this side of free jazz!

But Lateef didn't just play tenor sax and oboe. At that time, he was one of the acknowledged masters of the flute - playing in an exciting, non-Western style, chanting and moaning, expanding the common vocabulary of the instrument. He also started playing oriental and far eastern instruments such as the argol/arghul, and he had his band play "exotic" instruments in the fifties already.

In the 60s, Lateef played with Miles Davis, Babatunde Olatunji, and again with Dizzy, and after a series of fine albums on Impulse - including some extraordinary live material captured at Pep's in Philadelphia with Richard Williams and Mike Nock in his quintet - he started recording for Atlantic and his music got more and more eclectic. With new sidemen such as young pianist Kenny Barron (who came from Lateef's former boss Dizzy's band), he recorded a series of concept albums: The Blue, The Diverse YL, YL's Detroit, etc etc. Lateef also wrote works for large bands and orchestras, and founded his own record label, YAL.

His music took another several other turns... he did world music, new age, fusion and CTI-disco sessions, but he remained an imposing, impressive figure. A very deep and soulful person, he was portrayed in Nicolas Humbert & Werner Penzel's film "Brother Yusef", showed in 2005 on the German/French arte TV channel. His playing still gives me chills down the spine and goose bumps all over... a recent excellent release was published in 2005 as well: "Influence", a collaboration with the French brothers Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo and bunch of excellent European musicians.

About a year ago, he was captured (an amateur recording) in concert in Paris, appearing with Archie Shepp and his regular band, as well as Leon Parker on added percussion instruments. And on 22nd of October, he has performed in duo with his longtime collaborator Adam Rudolph in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral.

The most amazing thing is that he's never lost his amazing, huge, rough and earthy, breathy, raspy, gruff, emotional and touching sound on tenor saxophone. Even today, at age 90, he's got a force on his instrument that is very rare.
He will forever remain my favorite among the several Bill Evans' in jazz, that's for sure!

To celebrate Lateef's 90th birthday, here's a set recorded forty years back, at Montreux Jazz Festival. Hope you'll enjoy! And hope this will send some of you down memory lane, and prompt some others to (finally!?) explore and discover some of Lateef's great music!


Yusef Lateef
Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux (Switzerland), Casino
July 20, 1970


Yusef Lateef - tenor sax, flute, oboe
Barry Harris - piano
Bob Cunningham - bass
Albert "Tootie" Heath - drums

1. Yusef's Mood (Yusef Lateef) 9:54
2. These Foolish Things (Harry Link, Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey) 8:57
3. Soul Flute (6:11)
4. The Road Back (Yusef Lateef) 7:00
5. Stone Henge (Yusef Lateef) 11:50
6. Off Minor (Thelonious Monk) 5:49
7. (blues) (14:26)
8. Vibration (Yusef Lateef) 8:52

TT: 73:04

Sound: A/A-
Lineage: FM? > ? > CDR > EAC > FLAC

http://www.montreuxsounds.com/detail2006.php?fiche=93

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Noah Howard - NYC 2001

Final Noah Howard post... check out the first of this five-part series for some more information about Howard. This set here features him with the great Alan Silva, playing at 2001's Vision Fest. Bobby Few is on piano and on drums we find Leroy Williams who has played with everyone from Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan and Bill Hardman, to Lee Konitz, Anthony Braxton, Andrew Hill, Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef.

I do hope you've enjoyed the ride and Noah will live on in your hearts and ears!

Noah Howard Quartet
Vision Fest 2001
New York City (USA), Frank Wright Center of the World
May 28 , 2001


Noah Howard - alto sax
Bobby Few - piano
Alan Silva - bass
Leroy Williams - drums

1. (18:43)
2. (13:29)

TT: 32:13

Sound: A-/B+
Lineage: MD aud -- cdr -- flac

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Marion Brown - Esslingen 1970


Beginning my homage to the late great Marion Brown before even closing with the final Noah Howard post... but gee, Brown... he was such a great, lyrical musician. Got to love his music!

First, some food:
Pieces of a Conversation (by Clifford Allen, 2005)
AAJ Fireside Chat (by Fred Jung, 2003)
Online Discography

Then, some music... again, proceeding (roughly) chronological, here's a 1970 set of the band by Brown and Leo Smith, featuring none other than Manfred Eicher on bass. New information suggests it's actually a radio broadcast (SDR, Süddeutscher Rundfunk II, "Leo Smith-Marion Brown Gruppe in Esslingen" 1971-02-12), and took place at Club Laboratorium (Webergasse 22).

All thanks for all the following Brown shares go to the original seeders on dime - mostly c, but also pj and a few others. These were mostly up in a little "flood" in 2005 and it's my pleasure to share them again both over on dime and here, too.

Thank you, Marion, for all the great music you left with us.


Marion Brown
Esslingen (Germany)
December 18, 1970


Marion Brown - alto sax, etc
Leo Smith - trumpet, etc
Thomas Stoewsand - cello, flutes
Manfred Eicher - bass
Fred Braceful - percussion

1. part I [29:30]
2. part II [17:33] (fades out, inc?)

TT: 47:06

Sound: B+
Lineage: sdb? > ? > cdr > xact > flac8

Note from EZtree seeder:
as part of the 'unissued' recordings listing in the marion brown
discography, this possible soundboard document (with traces of static)
is of a rare vintage, made during the same year that brought about the
incredible duets with leo smith as 'creative improvisation ensemble,'
and the larger ensemble opus 'afternoon of a georgia faun.' the use of
small percussive instruments, and in fact, multi-instrumentation in
general; an attention to spaciousness, especially the premium on
carefully place notes, and of course, carefully considered silence;
the active gestures to extend timbre and color, all contribute to
place this performance hotly on the heels of legendary issues such
as 'porto novo,' 'gesprächsfetzen,' and 'in sommerhausen,' though,
i would say, probably not as explicitly incendiary as those earlier
releases. but it burns true with its own distinctive flame ... strongly
recommended, essential, for any admirer of marion brown's and leo
smith's music.

Noah Howard - NYC 1997

There's a great tribute to Noah over on Streams of Expression. Here's the penultimate set of my own little tribute, featuring Howard at the Knitting Factory with the great Wilber Morris on bass.
All thanks go to N_n who shared this one over on dime, several years ago.

Noah Howard Quartet
New York City (USA), Knitting Factory, Tap Bar
June 16, 1997


Noah Howard - alto saxophone
Chris Chalfont - piano
Wilber Morris - bass
Calyer Duncan - drums

1. (24:05)
2. (6:37)
3. (7:25)

TT: 38:07

Sound: A/A-
Source: FM
Lineage: fm > ? > cd-r > eac(secure mode) > wav > flac(7)(asb)

Note: a very short fm intro preceeds #1

Friday, October 22, 2010

Noah Howard / Bauer-Parker-Moss / Howard-Carl-Schweizer - Stuttgart 1984

More Noah Howard... and in the meantime we had to learn of Marion Brown's death. A little series dedicated to his music will follow (as will the promised Bill Dixon sets).

This one here features Howard in a solo performance (one of Marion Brown's specialties, btw!) as well as in a trio with Rüdiger Carl and Irene Schweizer. In between, you'll hear another trio with whose members I'm sure you're all familiar as well!

Nat Dove & Noah Howard in Jazz Concert, at Dore Theater CalState Bakersfield June 22, 2007 

Noah Howard
Johannes Bauer / Evan Parker / David Moss
Noah Howard / Rüdiger Carl / Irene Schweizer

Stuttgart (Germany), Akademie der Künste/Kunstakademie, am Weissenhof 1
November 21, 1984


Noah Howard - alto sax
1. (15:49)

Johannes Bauer - trombone
Evan Parker - tenor sax
David Moss - percussion, noise instruments
2. (27:36)

Noah Howard - alto sax
Rüdiger Carl - tenor sax
Irene Schweizer - piano
3. Dedicated to Albert Ayler (29:05)

TT: 72:29

Sound: A/A-
Source/Lineage: ECM 155 - Sony TCD-5M - Edirol R09 - HD - MAGIX XXL 2008 (mastering) - flac - dime

the beginning of a very special event at the Kunstakademie, am Weissenhof 1, Stuttgart (Germany), November 21, 1984: The Louis Moholo Workshop (which I don't have... anyone?)

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Bill Dixon...

...would have been 85 years old today.
And just today, I received my copy of the new CAM box collecting all his Soul Note albums.

Read Ben Ratliff's NYTimes obit, Ben Young's official obit, and Clifford Allen's post about Dixon's funeral and check out his other blog entries on Dixon (hopefully more are going to come).

Me, I hope to be able to post some of Dixon's music in the coming days or weeks, but real life interferes again these days - just too busy to spend time here.
For starters, I recommend you check out this Verona 1980 concert.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Spirits Rejoice - Guy Kopelowicz' Photographs














 

 
Check out the amazing photos Guy Kopelowicz took during Albert Ayler's "Spirits Rejoice" session at Judson Hall in NYC.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Noah Howard - Stuttgart 1977

Thanks go out to jazzrita who shared this fixed version of a show by the same band as on the SAJ album "Schizophrenic Blues" (recorded in Berlin a few days later).

This is #3 of the little Howard memorial series.












  
Noah Howard Quartet
Stuttgart (Germany)
May 11, 1977


Itaru Oki - trumpet
Noah Howard - alto sax
Jean-Jacques Avenel - bass
Oliver Johnson - drums

1. (20:36) [fade-in]
2. (15:57)
3. (5:32)

TT: 42:07

Sound: A-/B+
Lineage: fm > cdr trade > remastered with wavelab > flac > dime