Anyone familiar with Don Friedman's Metamorphosis? Recorded and released in '66 with Attila Zoller on guitar and Richard Davis and Joe Chambers on bass and drums respectively. This is extremely modern sounding to me, so much so that I feel like most would mistake it for something recorded in the last 10 years if listening to it blind. Davis has some great bowed pieces at various points. Some tracks works better than others for me, but I don't remember seeing this one very much on the forum so I'm guessing it's one of those unheralded gems...or maybe folks don't like it at all, who knows. I do find the Friedman and Zoller combo working well throughout the album, esp Zoller who may actually steal the show on this. First time I've ever listened to him as well...
Wonderful album, perhaps the more experimental made by this particular singer. Unfortunately, my copy is an used vinyl release. I'm thinking that might buy this Japanese SHM-CD version.
"Pannonica" and "Crepuscule with Nellie" are two of my fave Monk compositions, so they seem to have had a salutary effect on him.
He had two women (after his mother), Nellie and Pannonica, who devoted themselves to caring for this man. Having an autistic child, I suspect that Monk was somewhat high on the autism spectrum, though he had other illness that afflicted him later in his life. It was his absolute silence (no speaking) for perhaps a decade that amazes me. I know that silence is very challenging, as I was silent (not by choice) for 6 months within a three year period. Most people never contemplate what silence means.
Let us know if you find it. I suspect it is out of print. However the album is on CD within a fairly recent low-priced CD box. The CD edition Of Tim Buckley's Starsailor was one of the most sought after CDs (and highest priced) for many years
I think I read on this forum the version in the new low-priced box is quite similar in sound to the SHM-CD. The SHM-CD from 2010 is very expensive now. All Tower Records Tim Buckley (SHM-)CDs released in 2010, 2011 and 2013 are excellent, though: Happy Sad (WQCP-923, SHM-CD, 2010) Starsailor (WQCP-924, SHM-CD, 2010) Lorca (WQCP-1126, SHM-CD, 2011) Blue Afternoon (WQCP-1402, CD, 2013)
There's a lot to unpack with Monk. I need to read that Kelley bio on him but just via listening to him play part of me thinks there was a severe degree of frustration involved and that snowballed over the years, combining with all the other difficulties he faced. By frustration I mean he was as much born in the right place/right time as wrong place/wrong time where the skilled musicians he was around were still several steps to giant leaps behind what he was communicating via his compositions and playing. Having so few actually "get" him had to be isolating*, and then add to that an almost complete lack of resources as to health care, the involvement of medical quacks after years of either no or incorrect diagnoses, etc. had to become just too much to deal with. Again, just my outsider interpretation having not read that bio... *He wasn't the only artist to suffer this of course, as you can hear it in Coltrane's playing at times as well...and sure there are others.
According to Kelley Monk suffered from Bipolar disorder. Autism isn't mentioned, but seems plausible to me, being on the spectrum myself.
Seen now on Discogs: Tim Buckley - Starsailor (CD) For Sale at Discogs Marketplace. High price copy; very good condition of it. Sought by sixty-nine people, owned by seventeen. If it were near mint...perhaps
$200 (with shipping) is a little ridiculous when the same sound is in a budget CD box. When the CD originally came out and was deleted shortly after, the CD was going for many hundreds of dollars. At that time the used LP was still commonly available for $5. Weird.
Art Pepper - Roadgame, Galaxy – NM 3000, LP, Italy, 1982. Fascinating performance by Art Pepper on quartet during his renaissance of late seventies and early eighties. Stunning version of Everything Happens To Me. On piano George Cables, according to me underrated musician:
My vinyl copy was priced at € 15,00 in November 2015, about $ 16,00 according the change euro dollar of that period.
Yeah, bipolar comes a lot closer to describing his condition. Now Glenn Gould, he would've been diagnosed ADHD or Asperger's.
How's the CD? I haven't heard this version, but on the old LP, easily one of my favorite Sun Ra albums and one of the first ones I ever got my hands on back in the day.
Yeah, they've all been great. The original album was already sonically many cuts above the NYC home-recorded stuff that had preceded it, and the original release on Impulse was worlds better than any of the stuff that had been released on Saturn, so even the original was already a substantial step up from most of the stuff in Ra world, where the new masters have been a revelation. But I think the original was also a quad LP release. I dunno, I try not to spend too much of my relatively constrained resources on music I already have, but I'm quite curious about this one because I do love the album so much.
Yes, lots to love about this one. I only have had a cdr of a rather "loved" copy of the LP before and it did sound pretty good fr what it was, but clearly this is a better sonic experience. Worth picking up as it's a favorite and will be fun to hear in this version.
The original was a studio recording probably out of LA, not a Choreographer's Workshop homemade job nor even a Variety Studios NY job. And it was never out on Saturn, just on Impulse, so it got a pro mastering and pressing job compared to the Saturn releases, so it was one of the best sounding and slickest sounding Ra albums to that point, not that it was an audiophile demo disk, but nothing like When Sun Comes Out or Other Planes of There or Secrets of the Sun or anything, and hearing the new masterings on some of those has been just mindblowing -- like I can hear the horn voicings and the distinct notes what had been just indistinct rumble of bass marimba and bass, it's been like hearing the music for the first time in some cases.
Yes, I've heard great things about the "mastered for iTunes" titles but don't do files so haven't heard them, but have had similar revelatory listens to those that have come out on cd these last few years. . . they really sound very very good.
I've been on a Joe Henry kick lately. I went through a big obsession with his music a few years ago and then left them alone for a while. They still sound good. It's not jazz but he does use some jazz musicians depending on the project. I have a Mexican pork stew in the slow cooker that I put together this morning. Looking forward to dinner.
