Free Jazz

by the way, Im set to order Brötzmann's - The Complete Machine Gun Sessions and Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures....so good! and I might throw in Live In Greenwich Village and few other things once I check them out, via DL

oracus wrote: 5) For Alto by  Anthony Braxton I've been meaning to check out some Anthony Braxton for a while. Also, as mentioned, Sonny Sharrok has some shining gems in his discography. He was remarkable and innovative guitarist. He's the reason I mentioned that the not very relevant Herbie Mann + getting a chance to post that image. Stone Flute has some exceptional playing by him.

I was going to mention Jacques Thollot, but while googling him I found a comment on him by  topic starter.

But him (and Sharrock's) playing on a great, freeflowing, but not really brutal Don Cherry album: Eternal Rhythm  from '68. I'll reccomend Brotherhood Suite I & II mainly from the same period as well. Just bought his '75 sometimes selftitled album, sometimes called Brown Rice. Totally fantastic, but more structured.

Thollot's also playing on Sonny Sharrock's ugliest (in a nice way) album Monkey-Pockie-Boo.




Edited by Rocktopus - May 16 2008 at 07:27

Sharrocks plays on three that I got, Live at the Whiskey a Go-Go, Memphis Underground and Stone Flute. The latter is the only one I'd say is essential, although the live one is great too. Mann's normally associated with latin grooves and cozy melodic  jazzstuff, but Stone Flute is different.  (read the great review).


Btw: The legendary ugly cover I posted is Push, Push.


Edited by Rocktopus - May 17 2008 at 08:23

A B Negative wrote: Just got hold of some Masayuki Takayanagi New DIrection Unit, there's some great guitar-based noise there. Still looking for April Is the Cruellest Month, I heard it's one of Takayanagi's best.

I was completely obsessed with Masayuki last year - still am but not quite so heavily - and ended up purchasing a good chunk of his discography, mainly the free-jazz records. Which New Direction Unit material have you listened to? He was an artist that really pushed my boundaries regarding free-jazz and for me is the epitome of this kind of music, tho' I'm sure this maybe my skewed opinions. Thankfully the last few years have seen a decent slice of this work re-issued on eloquently packaged mini-lp discs. April is the Cruelest Month is a every good album can also recommend one of my favourite solo discs: Eclipse. I also recommend to purchase two of the collaboration albums he did with Kaoru Abe (sax) entitled Mass Projection and Gradual Projection. They are two distinctly different albums. Mass is the full on onslaught you'd expect from MT while Gradual is a more restrained effort featuring Masayuki on the gut stringed guitar which he plays exceptionally well for some who only picks up an acoustic once every five years. Kaoru Abe is a master at what he does, he finds one of the most delicate balances between restraint and out burst I have seen, but funnily enough I'm not huge on his solo works but that is matter of taste (I'm not overly fond of sax) rather than quality. Much of the Japanese free-jazz scene from the 70's was highly based 'round this dichotomy between loud and soft and was often very politically minded. If you are interested in this scene another essential is  Masahiko Togashi Quartet and their album Now We Create from 1969, this is a stunning album probably closer to the sound a jazz AMM regarding the spacial awareness; featuring an assortment of winds, strings and percussion.

Masayuki is/was very strict on the theoretical components of composition, which might not be so apparent when listening to some of his full blown pieces of cacophony and often viewed self taught musicians with a certain disdain. From memory there was only one student to make it all the way through his vigorous teaching; I know it was a bassist but I cannot remember his name off the top of my head, I think he played with Keiji Haino throughout the years. Otomo Yoshihide also study under him for a period before pursuing more electronic means, a tribute can be seen from Otomo's rendition of the Lonely Women guitar improvisations. I have also had brief encounters with some of his earlier works with follow the more traditional jazz modes, they didn't really catch my interest so I personally cannot recommend anything from this early period. In his later works he has steered toward using the table top guitar, I've yet to hear any of the results.

oops, that post was a little all over the place. Got a little excited 'bout seeing his name mentioned hear.

Can anyone recommend me similar albums in vibe/style as Sun Ra's "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Vol 1 +2" ?...Im obsessed with this CD! would this even be considered Free Jazz? I don't know, much of it seems composed like Gyorgy Ligeti or some other 20th Century Composers but it also has its moments of scorching improvisation, I love it all though man!  the entire work is brooding and anceint sounding and brimming with a constant feeling of unease...like it wasn't recorded by humans, or perhaps Sun Ra channeled the cosmic spirit of those aliens who created the Great Pyramids! 

Edited by mithrandir - May 20 2008 at 15:02

Rocktopus wrote: mithrandir wrote: Can anyone recommend me similar albums in vibe/style as Sun Ra's "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Vol 1 +2" ? I'd be interested in that too. Found some similar stuff here and there on other Sun Ra albums, but that's about it.

I can't really think of anyone that sounds like Sun Ra on a consistent basis. Even his own work covers a very wide variety of styles, but always with a little something that makes it unmistakebly him.

As far as other Sun Ra records that sound like Heliocentric Worlds. If I remember correctly those were very European avant-garde records, and I think he only did that in smaller doses on other albums.
I will get back if I find anything.

Edited by Easy Money - May 20 2008 at 16:29

Speaking of Conference of the Birds, the band Circle with Braxton, Holland, Altschull and Chick Corea should be mentioned.

And speaking of Corea's wild years, he makes a cameo on another classic - Conflagration by John Surman/Stu Martin/Barre Phillips.

Some additional recommendations:

The Revolutionary Ensemble - Leroy Jenkins/Sirone/Jerome Cooper - violin/double bass/drums. Quite an instrumental line up for a jazz band.

Mario Rechtern - saxophone player. Haven't heard any of his music, but he's supposed to be as good as he is underappreciated.

Ned Goold - another saxophone guy. His music isn't free jazz per se, since the rhythm section is really swing-focused, but he plays the weirdest and really unique things over it.

Bump!

The last few weeks saw the passing of Jimmy Giuffre, who, together with Steve Swallow on double bass and Paul Bley on piano, played the craziest and most compelling music in the early sixties, probably in some ways far ahead of the likes of Ornette and Cecil Taylor at that time. The trio split up after one night where they made only 35 cents each. Figures. Chances are the audience couldn't take a drumless (free) jazz band, so one wonders if even the few listeners free jazz had back then did not turn very conservative in their tastes quite quickly.

That trio could have and probably did influence the birth of the non-idiomatic impro scene in the UK.

Also the vibraphone player Walt Dickerson passed away recently. He played with Sun Ra, among others.

Both are free now and one with their music.