October 29, 2011

Playlist Week Of 10-29-11


* Tristan Perich: 1-Bit Symphony (Cantaloupe Music)
* John Coltrane: Live Trane: The European Tours (d.1) (Pablo 7CD)
* Andrew Hill: Judgment! (Blue Note CD)†/‡
* New Air: Live At Montreal International Jazz Festival (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* New Air: Air Show No.1 (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus: Spirit Of Nuff…Nuff (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Henry Threadgill: Song Out Of My Trees (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Henry Threadgill’s Flute Force 4: Flutistry (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus: Too Much Sugar For A Dime (Axiom/Island CD)†
* Bill Dixon: November 1981 (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Bill Dixon: Thoughts (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Bill Dixon: Son Of Sisyphus (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Bill Dixon: Vade Mecum (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Bill Dixon: Vade Mecum II (Black Saint/Soul Note CD)
* Roscoe Mitchell Trans-Atlantic Art Ensemble: Composition/Improvisation No.1-3 (ECM CD)†
* Evan Parker Trans-Atlantic Art Ensemble: Boustrophedon (ECM CD)†
* Steve Noble/John Edwards/Ingrid Laubrock: BBC Jazz on 3, London, England 2-21-08(FM CDR)
* Paradoxical Frog (Davis/Laubrock/Maneri/Sorey) Vision Festival, NYC 6-11-11 (FM CDR)
* Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: Anti-House (Intakt CD)†
* Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: The Vortex, London, England 1-18-10 (FM CDR)
* Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: Agosto Jazz Festival, Lisbon, Portugal 8-06-11 (AUD 2CDR)
* Ingrid Laubrock Quintet: Red Hook Jazz Festival, Brooklyn, NY 6-18-11 (AUD CDR)
* Mephista: Black Narcissus (Tzadik CD)
* Mephista: Entomological Reflections (Tzadik CD)
* Spring Heel Jack: Masses (Thirsty Ear CD)†
* Spring Heel Jack: Amassed (Thirsty Ear CD)†
* David Torn: Best Laid Plans (ECM CD)†
* David Torn: Cloud About Mercury (ECM CD)†
* Tortoise: TNT (Thrill Jockey CD)†
* Tortoise: Standards (Thrill Jockey CD)†
* The Disco Box (d.1-2) (Rhino 4CD)
* Emmylou Harris: Spyboy (Eminent/ CD)
* Grateful Dead: Musikhalle, Hamburg, W. Germany 4/29/72 (GDP/Rhino 3CD)
* Grateful Dead: Olympia Theare, Paris, France 5/3/72 (GDP/Rhino 4CD)
* Santana: Caravanserai (Columbia/MoFi SACD)
* Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon (Experience Edition) (d.1) (Pinkfloyd/EMI 2CD)†
* Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (Pinkfloyd/EMI CD)†
* Pink Floyd: Animals (Pinkfloyd/EMI CD)†
* King Crimson: Discipline (DGM CD)†
* King Crimson: Beat (DGM CD)†
* King Crimson: Three Of A Perfect Pair (DGM CD)†
* King Crimson: Thrak (DGM CD)†
* Tom Waits: Bad As Me (Anti LP)
* Chris Bell: I Am The Cosmos (Deluxe Edition) (Ardent/Rhino Handmade 2CD)†/‡
* Sonic Youth: Sonic Nurse (Geffen CD)†(‡)
* Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts (Matador 2LP)
* Robert Pollard: Let It Beard Boombox Demos (GBV, Inc. CD)
* Boston Spaceships: Let it Beard (GBV, Inc. CD)†
* Circus Devils: Capsized! (Happy Jack Rock Records LP)
* Those Bastard Souls: Debt And Departure (V2 CD)† (‡)
* Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam (Domino CD)†
* Animal Collective: “Peacebone” (Domino CDEP)†
* Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino CD)†
* Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity (Kill Rock Stars CD)†

†=iPod
‡=car

Commentary:

What a week! I’m still catching up from our trip to New York, processing photographs and slowly going through the batch of rare and wonderful CDs I picked up at Downtown Music Gallery—stuff that is pretty much unavailable anywhere else. Of course, I expected to like the box set of Henry Threadgill’s Black Saint/Soul Note records (and I do!) but I was completely blown away by the Bill Dixon box on the same label, which I bought purely upon the enthusiastic recommendation of a friend. I was mostly unfamiliar with his music until now but, wow, this stuff is beautiful! I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of the trumpet as a solo instrument but Dixon’s playing is superb: moody, dark, spacious, deeply melodious with a rich, burnished tone—and his compositions for improvising ensembles are uniquely compelling, unlike anything else I’ve ever heard. I’m still not through all nine discs, but each one is a masterpiece of understated genius. There’s more great stuff in the pile of discs I brought home but I can barely begin to comment on any of it. Frankly, it’s been a crazy week, what with going back to work after a long vacation (and the intendant backlog), capped off with seeing Adrian Belew Power Trio with Tony Levin’s Stickmen at the Belcourt Theater last night. It was a long evening of prog-rock mayhem and, man, I’m beat! Sometimes, I think I’m too old to rock’n’roll…Anyway, I hope to get back into the swing of writing on the blog next week, so please stay tuned.

3 comments:

  1. Too old to rock n roll? You? NEVER :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, with a playlist like that, I think you're rockin' just fine!

    "Bill Dixon In Italy," vols. 1 and 2 (from last week's list), were the first two Dixon albums I bought, ages ago when they first came out, and they still remain my favorites of his. Moody and deeply beatuiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Digging the NYC pictures!

    Here's my lists from last week:

    Playlist 2011-10-31:

    *Jordi Savall & Rolf Lislevand: 2008-08-18: Concert Prom, London (CDR)
    *Arild Andersen: If You Look Far Enough
    *Charles Mingus: Jazzical Moods
    *Roscoe Mitchell & the Sound Ensemble: 3x4 Eye
    *New Direction (Masayuki Takayanagi): Live Independence
    *New Loft: 2011-08-24 "Wet or Dry?" (wav)
    *Sun Ra: Space Probe (Art Yard)
    *Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues
    *Trio What +1: 2011-09-11 Action T-Shirts, Richmond VA (CDR)
    *James brown: Star Time (disc 1)
    *James Brown: Make It Funky: The Big Payback 1971-1975 (disc 2)
    *Jeff Byrd/Allied Chemical Brothers: Soundz of Comix (1984: VCU Studios)
    *Fela Kuti: Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense
    *Grateful Dead: 1969-04-13 Boulder, CO (selections)
    *Grateful Dead: 1969-04-22 Boston "Dark Star" (CDR)
    *Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 26 (1969-04-27 Minneapolis) "Dark Star"
    *Grateful Dead: 1969-07-07 Atlanta "Dark Star" (CDR)
    *Grateful Dead: 1969-08-30 San Francisco "Dark Star" (CDR)
    *Grateful Dead: 1969-11-02 San Francisco (CDR) disc 2
    *Grateful Dead: 1973-11-23 El Paso, TX (CDR)
    *Mickey Hart and the Hartbeats: 1969-08-28 Family Dog at the Great Highway, SF "Dark Star" (CDR)
    *High Llamas: Live (CDR compilation)
    *High Llamas: Miscellaneous & Related (CDR compilation)
    *Isley Brothers: It's Your Thing: The Story Of The Isley Brothers (disc 2)
    *National Health: Of Queues and Cures (side 1)
    *Tad Thaddock: Struttin' with Judy
    *Temptations: Cloud Nine
    *Thinking Plague: Early Plague Years
    *Thinking Plague: In This Life
    *Various artists: Mojo Presents Well... All Right!

    Reading List 2011-10-31:

    *Draper, Jason. Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution (started)
    *Morgan, Richard K. Market Forces (started)
    *Turow, Scott. Innocent (started/finished)
    *Parker, T. Jefferson. The Border Lords (finished)
    *Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights (transl. Malcolm C. Lyons) Vol. 2 (in progress)
    *Borges, Jorge Luis. Selected Poems, 1923-1967 (in progress)
    *Bradbury, Ray: Bradbury Stories (in progress)
    *Bride of Dark and Stormy, compiled by Scott Rice (in progress)
    *The Complete Shock SuspenStories (EC) (in progress)
    *Lambert, Philip. Inside the Music of Brian Wilson (in progress)

    ReplyDelete