Playlist 8-22-09

* Carl Smith: Tudor Organ Music (Naxos CD)
* Uccellini: Sonatas (Romanesca) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Schmelzer: Unaram Fidium (Holloway/Assenbaum/Mortensen) (ECM CD)
* Biber/Muffat: Der Türken Anmarsch (Holloway/Assenbaum/Mortensen) (ECM CD)
* Holloway/ter Linden/Mortensen: Garrison Church, Copenhagen 4-8-08 (FM 2CDR)
* Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue: Chamber Works (London Baroque) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* J.S. Bach: Motets (La Chapelle Royale/Collegium Vocale/Herreweghe) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Boulez: Repons (Ensemble InterContemporain/Boulez) (DG CD)
* Feldman: Piano and Orchestra (RSS/Zender/Woodward) (CPO CD)
* AMM: BBC Studios 4-23-79 (FM CDR)
* AMM: Ravensberger Spinnerei, Bielefeld, Germany 5-16-94 (FM 2CDR)
* AMM: International House, Chicago, IL 4-15-01 (AUD CDR)
* Evan Parker Transatlantic Art Ensemble: Boustrophedon (in Six Furrows) (ECM CD)
* Bill Evans: Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Riverside/JVC XRCD)
* Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues (1201 Music CD)
* Anthony Braxton Quartet: (Birmingham) 1985 (Leo 2CD)
* Sun Ra: The Night of the Purple Moon (Atavistic CD)
* The AACM Great Black Music Ensemble: Umbria Jazz Festival 7-14-09 (FM 2CDR)
* Matthew Shipp: Equilibrium (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Antipop Consortium: Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Fela Anikũlapo-Kuti: Original Sufferhead (Capitol LP)
* Bob Dylan: A Tree with Roots (Complete Basement Tapes) Vol.2 (fan/boot 2CDR)
* The Band: Music from Big Pink (MFSL SACD)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol.2, No.3: Wall of Sound (June 1974) (GD 3CD)
* Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.’s Desert Origins (Matador 2CD)
* Sonic Youth: The Eternal (Matador CD)
* Wilco: Wilco (the album) (Nonesuch CD)
* Guided By Voices: Alien Lanes (Matador LP)
* Robert Pollard: Elephant Jokes (GBV, Inc. LP)

Commentary:

I only recently heard the baroque violinist John Holloway thanks to the lovely Garrison Church 4-8-08 broadcast (which lives permanently on my iPod). I subsequently obtained his ECM recordings and they are ravishingly beautiful. The organ/harpsichord continuo may or may not be historically accurate, but it’s a luscious texture nonetheless. At the other extreme, AMM is capable for producing some bone-chillingly terrifying music, so I’m often scared to listen to them. How silly! These particular live performances were very enjoyable – especially the Bielefeld concert which features compositions by Cardew, Wolff, Cage, and Skempton as well as a thirty-minute, typically non-idiomatic improvisation. More AMMusic is on my to-do list.