A big thank you and a little something else...

Well, this blog has already surpassed what I had imagined it would become. Thanks to Boromir (many thanks!) for some great music, and thanks to you all for the encouraging comments. I feel guilty for not putting up something new for a whole week. That is about to change, and how! I thought it would be nice to post an early Andrew Cyrille album here. I haven't been to too many live shows, but I did get the chance to see Mr. Cyrille in southern California a couple of years ago. He is one of my musical heroes (mainly due to the album associated with this post), and he stuck around after the gig to talk to everybody around the stage. Pretty cool, but he disappeared before I could thank him for his amazing music. As I was walking out of the auditorium, I caught him coming back and actually got a chance to talk to him for about five minutes. I have never been so star-struck in my life! He probably thought I was a little bit out there, but was a real class act and quick to talk about his different projects. Very cool. It's always nice when you get to meet a personal hero and they turn out to be that much more amazing.
Anyways, on to the music. Andrew Cyrille's Metamusicians' Stomp is flat out incredible. I found a copy of it on Amazon and never looked back. The first track has a catchy intro (and a young David S. Ware's smoky sax burns through it all) and it just gets better and better all the way through the last track. Speaking of the last track (Spiegelgasse), there is a point where Ted Daniel's trumpet sounds absolutely other-worldly--just some ethereal trumput floating over it all. If you hear it, you will probably know what I am talking about. Disappointments regarding the album? It's not that long (less than 40 minutes), leaving you wishing they had recorded more! Just listen to it!


Metamusicians' Stomp (1978)
Andrew Cyrille & Maono
Andrew Cyrille: Percussion, Drums, Performer
Ted Daniel: Flute, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Multi Instruments
Nick DiGeronimo: Bass
David S. Ware: Flute, Sax (Tenor)
128 Rate AAC files

1 Metamusicians' Stomp Cyrille 6:41
2 My Ship Gershwin, Weill 7:05
3 5-4-3-2 Cyrille 4:54
4 Spiegelgasse 14: Reflections + Restaurants/The Park/Flight Cyrille 21:44

(Link Removed)

How about some hard to find Ornette?

Here is an out-of-print Ornette album that he made with Charlie Haden. This stuff is pretty nice and I am actually suprised that it has gone by the wayside. The two perform fantastically together, which is amazing considering how much time had passed when they actually recorded this. What more can I say? I'll let the tunes do the talking.



Ornette Colemen/Charlie Haden
Soapsuds, Soapsuds
128 Rate AAC files

1 Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (Coleman) 7:45
2 Human Being (Coleman) 7:49
3 Soap Suds (Coleman) 5:17
4 Sex Spy (Coleman) 9:59
5 Some Day (Coleman) 7:34


(Link Removed)

Enjoy!

Back to the Roots (of my obsession?)

I figured it was about time to post some music that is in my humble opinion truly amazing. There is also a story behind this one as well. Right around 2001, I finally had enough money to actually purchase my own computer (a Mac by the way). A little bit after that I actually was connected to the Internet and started to enjoy all of the streaming radio stations I could find on iTunes. One day was listening to DI.fm, and suddenly a track from Evan Parker and Eddie Prevost came on. At the time, I had never heard of either one (I was "safe" in the realm of Mingus, Ornette and Coltrane) and I just stopped what I was doing at the time and listened. I can't say I was immediately of the mindset of "Wow, that is just the best stuff I have ever heard!," but I was really floored. I had never heard anything like they were playing, with its mysteriousness and creative power. When the track finally finished, all I could think of was how I wished I could have heard it again--and soon! All thanks for the track information streamed along with the station--I immediately wrote it down and began my first real search for a hard-to-find album. I ended up finding a used copy on eBay for about 15 bucks if I remember correctly, but that whole double album completely changed my outlook on music. I still have the postcard photo of Parker with his soprano that came with the liner notes pinned to my fridge. None of my friends could understand what I was so excited about (I wasn't even sure if I knew either, or for that matter still know...), but that album set off something in me that has yet to be quenched. Even though I have found other albums that I like perhaps even better from Parker (still haven't heard anything else by Prevost), this set still gives me the chills. To each their own, but try listening to this by yourself when you are otherwise unoccupied and in an introspective frame of mind. I'm not saying you are going to like it, but give it a chance and you never know what might happen...
J-Bombay



Most Materiall
Evan Parker, saxophones; Eddie Prévost, percussion
128 Rate AAC Files
(Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding if this disappoints you)

Disc 1:

Double truth (of reason and revelation) (19.51)
Knowledge is power (13.36)
Rejecting simple enumeration (13.46)
That more might have been done, or sooner (29.00)

Disc 2:
Nil novum (12.01)
Skill gave rise to chance, and chance to skill (09.26)
Not so much for the sake of arguing as for the sake of living (12.24)
Let us attend to present business (11.19)
Chastise me, but listen (16.42)

Recorded at Gateway Studios, Kingston, England on 23 February 1997 (CD A and B1) and 13 April 1997 (other tracks).
Front cover painting (reproduced above) Djebel nefousa by Brenda Mayo, 1993.

(Links Removed)

Some music to share...

Well, if you manage to drift this way and if you like John Zorn, and if you are okay with AAC files (just download iTunes), you should give this a try. I posted it over at the Crabbit and Daft discussion boards, but I will post it here as well. All of the information should be imbedded in the files. Good stuff! This was actually the first time I tried uploading something to a file-sharing network. If you have any comments or advice, please let me know! If not, just enjoy this stuff anyways! Hopefully now that I have figured out how easy it is to do this, I'll be able to put up some more of my obscure (yet still AAC) stuff. Otherwise I would have to dig my original copies out of boxes at the moment, and that might not be so much fun. Besides, I think it sounds great--someday we will have to do a blind audio test for the bitrate snobs to see if there really is a detectable difference.
J-Bombay

(Link Removed)

Enjoy!

http://www.emd.pl/muzyka/z/zorn_john/jzl1.jpg for the album art...

Practice by Doing

So, I guess rather than just sit here at the blank screen and try to think up something perfect, I might as well just get to typin'. As you can see from my profile pic I am a huge fan of Jim Woodring. If you are at all into graphic art and all things strange and wonderful, you really need to check out his "Frank" work. I am also really into (basically a borderline unhealthy addiction) free/avant jazz. Well, maybe just not free jazz, but creative sounds Some of my favorites include Ornette Coleman, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, Don Cherry, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp--hmmmm, maybe I will have to revisit this idea later and give my favs for each instrument before this post turns into a complete name-dropping session. An example of my favorite albums? Perhaps also for a later discussion, but this last weekend I was listening to Archie Shepp's and Max Roach's duo double album set "The Long March" and was in absolute musical bliss.
Well, hopefully as time allows I'll be able to add some more stuff to this site. Somewhat ego-centric I know, but maybe somebody will actually have read some of this and take the time to leave some of their own opinions.