I was lucky to see Pharoah Sanders a four times in the early/mid 1990's, including a great trio with Zakir Hussain and William Henderson. Here is a great concert from the 1980's with John Hicks on piano.
I wouldn't be surprised. I forgot to check that one and Chuck Nessa is about as meticulous as they come in preparing his releases.
I once posted about going to Pharoah's 40th birthday party. He came around and served everybody his birthday cake. At one point, he was practicing his horn in a narrow hallway, with his back against one wall, and his feet firmly planted on the other wall, and his head at the ceiling, so that you could duck a little and walk under him, if you needed to get to the bathroom. Watch out that his horn didn't bonk you on the head.
Here’s some good Jimmy Ponder, on Lou Donaldson’s Mr. Shing-A-Ling. Along with Lou and Jimmy are Blue Mitchell, Lonnie Smith, and Idris Muhammad (aka Leo Morris). Part of the always funky Rare Groove series with Peepin and The Humpback as the best tracks although the odd cover of Ode to Billie Joe is growing on me.
By coincidence I picked up the Ornette Town Hall 1962 album this afternoon in one of my regular trips to Ray's Jazz...but I've started off with Ambrose Akinmusire's Origami Harvest. Also picked up his A Rift In Decorum, Roscoe Mitchell Discussions, Bert Jansch The Ornament Tree, and a new recording of Monteverdi Il Ritorno d'Ulisee in Patria by Eliot Gardiner / English Baroque Soloists / Monteverdi Choir. A mixed bag!
Continuing today with the rest of the album from the single I played last night. Karl Hector and The Malcouns: Sahara Swing. I got this one fairly randomly as a substitute for an out of stock title while buying a bunch of Zamrock LPs from Now Again Records. I'm really glad I did, and I'm thinking I need more of Hector and The Malcouns now. The percussion section throughout this album is huge, fun, impressively varied, and really sells the sound for me. Spinning Now Again Records NA5035 2x33 + 7" (Surprisingly great sound quality. This one is a lot of fun to see just how good the bass octaves are in your system.)
Cassandra Wilson "Thunderbird" Blue Note. This one had to grow on me, but it did. Very interesting instrumentation and arranging.
After mistakenly thinking I was listening to Horace Parlan this morning I’ve decided to listen to him for real. Why haven’t I chosen to put on Turrentine’s Look Out which I almost did this morning? I don’t know exactly, I guess I just want to check him out on his home turf to start so I’m going to put on one of his own albums. Horace Parlan: Speakin’ My Piece
NP Felt Me And A Monkey On The Moon Org press Beautiful final lp from 80s band that is so wide reaching I cant really put a category to them for those of you that dont know them. Modern Rock or Alt Rock are categories that just dont do justice to their inventive reach.
Listened to Julius Hemphill's wonderful late '80s big band album this afternoon. Too bad he didn't make more of those.
I've been so preoccupied with work and family complications that I've been unable to keep up with this thread much lately, but the loss of Joseph Jarman brought be back today, figuring that this would be one of the few places I'd find kindred spirits who feel the loss as I do. And I was right. Very sad news, and it's sent me back through some outside-of-the-Art-Ensemble recordings I'd never listened to before, and I'm struck all over again at the range or expression and pure beauty of Jarman's playing. Here's one from 1983 I'm really grateful to have discovered just this morning: L.
I wonder if quality tapes of some of these circulating Ornette Coleman performances from the late '60s and '70s exist. This is a great set with Izenzon and Haden on basses, Blackwell and Ornette from 1968. Really great. There are circulating show on unofficial releases by this band from a set of shows in Italy in '68 Milan by the same lineup the same year. I think I have the Rome show on LP somewhere. I'm going to have to dig it out. But this is great.
Santa Claus brought this Audio Wave version to our house last month. Lovin’ it. When I was young and stupid, I thought of Mr. T as a lightweight or a sellout, based on his work at the time. But now that I worship at the alter of Blue Note, to paraphrase one of our other members, talking about a musician’s magnum opus, Mr. T’s Blue Note years are so legit that everything afterwards doesn’t much matter one way or the other.
The YouTube says it’s from Shelly’s Manne-Hole but the still photo is the Keystone Korner bandstand. Cue Miles Davis: So What?
In addition to thinking about and listening to Jarman today, reading back through the last month of conversation here led me to check out Nicole Mitchell's Artifacts, which for some reason passed me by when it came out. I've been a fan of Mitchell for some time now, since hearing her play in Chicago a number of years ago with the quartet that later recorded as Ice Crystal. I've got a number of her records, and I love most of them, but this one has quickly jumped to the top of my list along with the Indigo Trio: Live in Montreal set that came out on Greenleaf Music in 2006 and the Ice Crystal set, Aquarius (Delmark 2013). Beautiful record! Since the discussion of the record back in December came in the midst of a flurry of posts about Henry Threadgill and Air, here's the version of Steve McCall's B.K. on Artifacts (the tune also appears on Air Mail): L.
