Your favourite little known musician? *

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Valentine. Awesome Dutch genius.

 

Sorry, but in their field, none of these people are "little known". They're the figurehead of their chosen form. It's impossible to have even a passing interest in improvisation and not hear about Evan Parker or Peter Brötzmann (note spelling).
Besides, some of these people (Evan Parker, Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustaffson, notably) have even gotten recognition out of the avant-garde circles by doing pop work. They are known all over the world, far beyond their original community.

 

As good as anything gets. I don't know why it's not better known.

 

Good call. I know nothing about him apart from seeing him play with John Hiseman’s Tempest, a power trio, in the early ‘70s. My main memory of the set was his high octane rendition of Paperback Writer.

 

The late Nicky James.

 

Patrick Sweany



Awesome guitar player and and amazing set of pipes. He puts on a great live show. Last time I saw him he did half the show solo acoustic, and half with a band. He's touring around US in March, April and May.

 

Rev Hammer.

 

Point well taken but you may be surprised how small the actual circles are. Do you know what kind of audience shows up for a Ken Vandermark small group or a Tony Malaby or Darius Jones band even on a weekend? I think you underestimate how much known even Evan Parker is. I know that despite being on the scene for 50 years that Parker’s name is met with little more than a shrug by those outside of a very narrow circle of free improvisation listeners.

 

Having attended my fair share of Evan Parker concerts over the years, I think my estimations have a solid basis in reality. I also saw Peter Brötzmann twice, once in France with his son Caspar (not Paris !), once in Atlanta with the Chicago tentet, including Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustaffson, both in large venues (and on weekdays !), both shows were full. The circle is not nearly as narrow as you might think. Not only that, it's thoroughly international, in ways that a lot of rock scenes are not.

 

I’ve seen the Brotzmann Tentet twice (don’t mid the spelling / my phone or me doesn’t print the “o” with the dots - I suppose I could use the other correct spelling - Broetzmann) and there is a big difference between large groups and small groups. Peter does bring a crowd - certainly his bands when featured at Vision Fest in NY have filled up the halls - but they are still crowds that number a couple of hundred at best. Evan Parker weeks at The Stone in 2009, 2013 & 2014 were filled but that is a capacity of 75. I’m sure he could draw a bit more but it’s still a very small audience. Plus those are the 2 most famous longest tenured free jazz/free FYI improvisation saxophonists period. So in relative terms especially on this board - almost completely unknown.

I’ll be seeing Malaby this Friday night at Cornelia Street with a great quartet and I’m sure it will be a decent crowd for the first set but few are knocking down doors to hear abstract improvised music.

 

Carl Saunders - maybe the very definition of an underrated musician; by far the best trumpet player you've never heard of.

BTW the ensemble section is also Carl, on all the trumpet parts.

 

But that's where I think you're wrong. Relative terms are fine, but using the SHF stalwarts as a measure is no use to anyone. Evan Parker will never fill a stadium, sure. The fact is, his concerts are packed to capacity everywhere he plays, and he plays all over the world.
I'll add that I've attended many concerts by improvisers of less international renown, shall we say, such as Daunik Lazro, Michel Doneda, Voice Crack or Fred Van Hove, just to name some that I remember especially enjoying, and they were all decently attended. In a small French city no less.
What's more, all these people have sizeable discographies, and continue to record.
None of this spells "little known" to me.

 

I attend shows in NYC (and sometimes at other nearby locations and “well known” musicians such as Tim Berne or Marty Ehrlich can sometimes have as few as 20-30 people in the audience. William Parker is well known yet a concert appearance last year in Brooklyn by his incredible quartet with Cooper-Moore, Rob Brown and the *great* Hamid Drake was sparsely attended with the second set attendance even less. Very dissapointing but expected in my experience. Only the far less inviting (to me) city wide Winter Jazz Fest seems to draw crowds. Most of the mainstream jazz clubs attract tourists or pseudo serious listeners. The amount of serious listeners to improvised music here in the States is pretty low. I have been surprised by good attendence at The Jazz Gallery when Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double played but I’ve also been at a show when Josh Sinton’s amazing Ideal Bread Quartet (playing the music of Steve Lacy) when I was maybe 1 of 12 or 15 people at the show.

I am probably incorrect to reference SHF in regards to popularity when discussing improvised music.

 

I always say George Russell might be the most significant person in Jazz that you've never heard of. Although one of his albums, "Ezz-Thetics," shows up on many critics' all time lists, so maybe he isn't so unheard-of. All his recordings are worth a listen, but I would also highly recommend the 80th birthday concert double CD. That's right, eighty years old and still leading one of the most kick-ass bands on the planet.

 

far and away...terence boylan...2 wonderful solo records and then complete disappearance for the music scene.

 

My favorite of all of the numerous lesser known musicians I listen to (who are all improvising musicians at their cores) would have to be the late, great Joe Maneri, father of Mat.

Born 1927 with his first real break into being able to record and play live happening starting in 1993 in Boston the results which can be heard on my namesake on hatART Records, the stunning wholly improvised “Dahabenzapple” as well as the equally brilliant quartet recording “Coming Down the Mountain”

Both bands include Joe on alto & tenor saxophones as well as b- flat clarinet and some idyiosyncratic touches on a grand piano, Mat on violin, Randy Peterson on drums and Cecil McBee on double bass on the former and John Lockwood on the latter.

When I saw the quartet with McBee live in 1998 @ Tonic in NYC, the great man exclaimed to his son after I introduced myself that “this guy buys our records!!” After bearing one of the greatest sets of music I would ever experience from ~ 10:15 to maybe 11:15, Papa Joe told me that “it was gonna be huge”.

Saw Randy 2 weeks back and I’m seeing him Friday night and I’ll hopefully be seeing Mat with his quartet end of the month or mid March - also with Mr. Peterson on drums. Glad to see these guys quite often over the past 8-9 years and was blessed to see Joe 5 times between 1998 and 2002. He retired from playing after 2005 and continued to teach at the New England Conservatory for a few more years (as he had for over 35 years) until he passed away in 2009 @ 83.

No musician has ever had the affect on the way I listen to music that Papa Joe had. I’ve never heard him play a rehearsed note, phrase or sound. Pure improvisation. No one has ever sounded anything remotely like him.


Get Ready to Receive Yourself

 

Milt Ward was -- at least from the evidence of this one and only leader-date of his from about 1976 (and one of less 3-4 dates he ever even recorded on as a sideman) -- apparently one hell of a player, writer (composer), and arranger.

 

Michael McNevin - If you like acoustic singer/songwriters, listen to his album "Sketch".
https://www.amazon.com/Sketch-Micha...r=1-4-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=mcnevin
Michael McNevin - Mudpuddle Music & Michael McNevin

 

Finally getting around to listening to a few of these! Picked up Poco’s Legend (@Hadean75) and am enjoying that. I’ve got Colin Scot on order (@Malc), and will definitely be picking some Halfway up at some point soon (@keyse1)!

 

George Borowski. The bloke's a pop genius.

 

That's great!

Be sure to check out their earlier albums with Ritchie Furay, Timothy B. Schmit, and George Grantham. Fantastic music.

 

Head Over Heels, Rose of Cimarron, Indian Summer... stunning trilogy !

 

Agreed!

Head Over Heels is my absolute favorite Poco album.

Timothy, Paul, and Rusty were all on fire with their songwriting on this album.



Lovin' Arms

Georgia, Bind My Ties

 

My favourite too!

 

@keyse1 Any recommendations for my first Halfway purchase, thinking about Any Old Love or Farewell to the Fainthearted.