Rolling Jazz Thread 2024

"Blakey taught me how to play the drums when I play. Rhythm is it. It’s what makes soloists different, what makes Sonny Rollins or Bird so great. I understood how time worked when I left Art.”

– Branford Marsalis

I've now listened to all 2 hours of the David Murray/Questlove/Ray Angry album 'Plumb' now that it's streaming (what, was I going to buy the vinyl for $150?). It's good! Questlove isn't a jazz drummer, but I like the tension of hearing him in this context, since his whole thing is minimalism and not overplaying or stretching out. And when he plays a groove there's so much detail and weight in it. And just consistency of sound, it's kinda crazy how you can hear every Roots record in his bass drum (but it's also nice to hear the inconsistencies in this mode, he's human too).

Ray Angry is really the mvp, I'd never heard him before. Great keyboard & synth sounds (which is super rare for jazz pianists!), and he's really holding it all together on every cut with the basslines & chords, especially since they're all jams.

Thanks for the thoughts on that, I was curious when it came out but kind of stopped caring when I saw the only option was the $150 vinyl (not even a digital download option either, afaict).

Not to derail the thread, but this particular release (along with a few others I encountered in 2023) irks me where we've come to a point where the options are sort of pulling to the two extremes - either streaming only or catering to the vinyl fetishists at a ridiculous price point, with nothing in between. Like, hey guys, I dig your music and I'd really like to support you with more than the meager portions of pennies my streams will get you, but uh $150 ain't it dudes.

Agree 100%. If I could have bought that release on Bandcamp, I would have. But I wound up only listening to some of that, because when something is only on streaming platforms, my attention span gets a lot shorter — I'll listen to a track or two, then bail. If I put a CD on, I let it play through. Similarly, if I put a Blu-Ray in the player I'll watch a movie front to back. If I pull something up on Netflix, I might watch 15 minutes, get distracted, and quit.

Last year, Concord reissued Woody Shaw's debut album, Blackstone Legacy, on vinyl. It's a long double LP, so they had to cut a couple of minutes out of two of the longer tracks to fit it on a single CD (which I own). But fortunately, HDTracks.com had the digital files for the remastered reissue, giving me everything at full length.

Thanks for posting about Plumb I had no idea it was streaming, it's cool, man I love Murray and Ray Angry is great...not sure it really needs to be 2 plus hours, seems like it could been pretty great album as a normal length cd but what do I know

Jordan otm on Plum--where all the tracks are like 13-14 minutes long, except for all the tracks that are like 4 minutes and change, except for the one that's like 2:30, and it all seems right---can see how you might have to listen in chunks, unperson, but keep goin' back in!

from end of the year Noms thread:

Tracks:
Jason Kao Hwang--Dragon Carved Into Bone
Susan Alcorn, Septeto del Sur--El Derecho de Vivir en Paz
Alex Sadkin--Parker's Mood
Alex Sadkin--Bird of Paradise
(16/40)

JKH: electric violin, electric guitar, drum kit: fluid, fluent, digging in.
SA: pedal steel & combo: Chilean folk melodies x improv, with vocals on this one track, the best, I think.
AS: come for more from jazz pedal steelist xpost Dave Easley and drummer Jay Bellerose, stay for whole crew on "Parker's Mood," where everybody has the blues, especially that violin, and troubled ballad "Bird of Paradise." (For the second half Flight, Sadkin employs different line-up, more conventional-looking, but I didn't listen to much of that.)

From Rolling Psych Freak Drone 2023:

Co-sign on this year's Sunwatchers, fastnbulbous: once again they made my Uproxx ballot, and will be on others. This afternoon at nice quiet library, dipped a toe in two (out of three) of this year's 75 Dollar Bill reissues, from the beginning. A couple ov faves so far:

When my guitar part finally breaks form it’s just to signal the end. As for the long track that takes up the whole first side of this tape, it was named in homage to Najeeb, a young Tunisian man with Down Syndrome I’d met a few years earlier while traveling in Kairouan, Islam’s 4th holiest city. Najeeb would hang out at the cafe all day and the other guys would buy him sodas while he’d crack them up with fantastical and occasionally lewd bits about physical love, flying airplanes and tourists. Never missing an opportunity for a send up of the local religious piety, he’d attempt to order a drink you couldn’t get at this cafe, or anywhere as far as I know, وسكي بالحبرورش or “Whiskey with Hail." - CC

https://75dollarbill.bandcamp.com/track/whiskey-with-hail

I had seen Karen and Andrew playing around town and admired their playing, and finally got to meet them while playing amplified strings in a Tony Conrad ensemble circa 2012, right around when Rick and I were starting to play together. They were probably the first people to come rehearse with us and appear here on what has become our most often played (and recorded song) “WZN#3."
Andrew Lafkas: contrabass on "WZN#3"
Karen Waltuch: viola on "WZN#3"

https://75dollarbill.bandcamp.com/track/wzn-3

https://artsfuse.org/285195/the-18th-annual-francis-davis-jazz-poll-the-state-of-our-union-could-be-better/

Jazz critics poll of 2023 releases (with separate breakouts for Latin jazz, jazz vocalists, and more) . reissues . 159 critics contributed.

the top 10 of the top 50 albums list with Lewis at #1

James Brandon Lewis /Red Lily Quintet, For Mahalia, With Love (Tao Forms) 303.5 (47)
Jason Moran, From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes) 226 (32)
Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz, Ex Machina (Pi) 201.5 (30)
Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Continuing (Pi) 191.5 (32)
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension (Nonesuch) 186 (30)
Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden (Constellation) 183 (29)
Kris Davis, Diatom Ribbons Live at the Village Vanguard (Pyroclastic) 179 (28)
Henry Threadgill Ensemble, The Other One (Pi) 159 (27)
Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War)) (International Anthem) 154.5 (23)
Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet, Hear the Light Singing (RogueArt) 133.5 (24)

Chuck Eddy is one of the critics. Didn’t think he was so into jazz.

He has gotten into jazz big time the last few years.

https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2024/01/05/150-best-albums-of-2023/

Chuck Eddy list with 3 of top 4 being jazz ; plus long essay -

Jason Moran From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes)
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra America: The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
Clairvoyance is the Dance Vol. 1 (Huveshta Rituals Belgium)
Lakecia Benjamin Phoenix (Whirlwind)

And oh yeah, there’s jazz too. Which, for all I know, Richard Meltzer might still listen to, to this day. And even if he doesn’t, it never died! I count at least 16 albums on my list (almost 11% — exact same percentage as metal, if you want a horse race), including three (= 75%) of my top four and 10 (= 25%) of my top 40. Read the credits and you’ll deduce that I clearly have a thing for saxophones, which is not to suggest other lead instruments aren’t honored as well.

The top two, especially, are illuminating. 48-year-old Houston pianist Jason Moran’s From the Dancehall to the Battlefield and 69-year-old Long Island (mostly alto) saxophonist Allen Lowe’s America: The Rough Cut are both loaded with blues and rags — you can tell; it’s right there in their song titles. Hillbilly music, too. In other words, they update the rock’n’roll of more than 100 years ago...

Half an hour of Cecil Taylor's big band, which appeared annually at Iridium for about five years in the early 2000s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1eCgBMMkmE

As I discovered when writing my book, this band was amazing, as close as Taylor ever got to Ellington-level orchestration, but no albums have ever been released even though a lot of the shows were recorded.

I was there for some of them!

Not in NYC for any of this weekend's multiple impressive Winter jazz conference gigs or the global ones at Drom & Lincoln Center alas. Today there's an impressive one-- Esperanza Spalding, Brandee Younger, Irreversible Entanglements, The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis. Website doesn't list Shabaka H, but he was listed elsewhere as part of this 6pm gig today at le Poisson Rouge

Sounds good, afraid I will be missing the whole thing once again as per usual.

Question for unperson, anybody: "Someday We'll All Be Free" and another track on on Eye of I sound like they incl. uncredited trumpet---could it be Kirk Knuffke's cornet, not making the Bandcamp annotations---or is JBL overdubbing the high end of his tenor, perhaps with pitch tweaking, other effects?
This and For Mahalia are currently my most played albums of any genre, any year.

Yeah, that's Knuffke. I don't know why he's not credited on the Bandcamp page for the album.

Wow, thanks! Also, the Glide reviewer keeps referring to Hoffman's "violin,' when credits have only "Cello/Pedals," which is certainly what it sounds like. But is violin on there as well or instead??

I have revived my podcast and interviewed pianist Ethan Iverson, who has a new album out on Friday. (It's good!)

Will listen. I got introduced to Joseph Branciforte on Pablo Held's podcast today, he's a recording engineer who has done a ton of records for Ben Monder, Tim Berne, etc. But he's also made a pair of gorgeous records with Theo Bleckmann where he's doing all the music live in a Max/MSP looping environment he made:

https://josephbrancifortetheobleckmann.bandcamp.com/album/lp2

And here he is covering this crazy Ben Monder tune on Rhodes and Moog, and he's also a ridiculous drummer? Come on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyBQTg3d6u8

Great interview, really enjoyed it. I like the 'singles' from the record too, looking forward to hearing the whole thing. The tunes are the most 'Bad Plus-y' I've heard from him in a long time, but that also makes the drumming sound a bit safe and me want to hear what Dave King would do.

I included some quotes from the podcast in my latest Stereogum column, which just went up. I cover some high-profile albums therein (Mary Halvorson, Keyon Harrold), but there are some lesser-known artists like Muriel Grossmann, Kirsten Edkins, and Tetragone that I hope people will check out, too.

This is coming in April, and as a huuuuuge fan of their first record, the sample bit just got me totally pumped

https://astralahmed.bandcamp.com/album/wood-blues

There's also a 5CD [Ahmed] box set coming out in April on the Swedish label Fönstret. I haven't heard it, but the label head tells me it's coming, so...

All I can see is this:

https://ahmedquartet.bandcamp.com/album/super-majnoon

which is also deeply exciting to me

lol sorry, I got stoned— that last record came out this year! I had no idea because the group has several different Bandcamp pages.

Yeah, the 5CD set hasn't been announced yet, as the band haven't even signed off on the masters. But it's in process.

Cool!!

Jimmy Cobb on this Great Jazz Trio record has the greatest jazz bass drum sound I've ever heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLXieFOtKUM

Gig at LPR was really good, particularly JBL/Messthetics and Irreversible Entanglements. Shabaka was a bit of a snooze though. Really not sure about this wafty new age direction he's going in. Too much of this tasteful ambient jazz about - it has none of the beauty or intensity of the spiritual jazz tradition it claims to be extending.

Lol, I must have been looking at a Discogs page for the wrong album because I kept listening to this going "how the fuck does Jimmy Cobb suddenly sound like Elvin", but of course it's Elvin Jones & Richard Davis on that Great Jazz Trio album. I was pretty blown away by "Eddie Gomez" too, makes much more sense now. What a record.

https://ahmedquartet.bandcamp.com/album/super-majnoon

Just a note that this is an insanely good record, bought it last night.

So I heard a song on the radio last night that I liked and Shazamed it and it was Joey Alexander — who I vaguely remember as the child prodigy who popped up on TV and elsewhere some years back. Didn't realize he had a going adult career. No idea what his critical standing is like, but I liked the vibe of the song. Anyway, this was the track (the studio version).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQM2a350TF4

Got tix to see the Blue Note Quintet on Fri, in addition to Kendrick Scott I'm most looking forward to hearing Joel Ross again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYJMflZEjJo

(some insane playing on this session, first time seeing video of Kush Abadey, I wasn't familiar with him until that new Ethan Iverson record)

James Brandon Lewis has two albums coming out this winter/spring: a new quartet disc on Intakt with pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor (I think it's their third album together), and a collaboration with the Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog and bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, both formerly of Fugazi) on Impulse.

That quartet is absolutely superb - saw them in London in November. Ortiz is such a fantastic pianist - managed to get a seat a foot away from him. Just a marvel too watch. Rest of the band not too shabby either, ha! Chad Taylor is one of the greatest drummers alive, deserves all the flowers.

Yeah, the quartet is great, and Lewis's duo project with Taylor is fantastic, too.

The Blue Note Quintet show was stunning, highly recommend catching the tour if you can. It's hard to imagine a better drummer than Kendrick Scott, he can play anything but has a Brian Blade level of musicality & restraint. Joel Ross delivered too (especially his dancing when he lays out and goes to the back of the stage). They really sounded like a band too, mostly originals until the last tune, which was a Monk tune smashed up with a Charlie Parker blues worked into the form.

Gerald Clayton kept triggering clips of jazz musicians being interviewed (Wayne Shorter was the only one I really recognized by voice), sometimes it was just a bridge between tunes and sometimes one person would play under the audio. Didn't always work imo, but it was a good way of not having any dead air or having to address the audience until the end. Wonder if they'll make a record.

Have we talked about this record here?

https://billorcutt.bandcamp.com/album/a-mouth-at-both-ends

Friend of mine just played the trio on the radio and it blew my top off.

hmm, will peep

Fuck yeah

(brings back seeing Herlin play this tune from a few inches away a few summers ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI4M7qzOTHo

Really enjoyed this Vinnie Sperazza post featuring legendary jazz drummers on early r&b singles. Heard Billy Hart talking about the same thing recently, how his first gigs were in r&b bands, which led to playing with singers, which led to all of the modern jazz gigs (and how the jazz bandleaders all hired him for his r&b and pop background).

The new Iyer/Oh/Sorey album is predictably great. What a fantastic trio.

Haven’t listened but can imagine.

Yeah, it's good. I've got an interview with Iyer running in my next Stereogum column, which will probably go live next week.

Been going in on some Al Foster records after being inspired by this Dan Weiss clip:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3LYW6kAwbk/

I went back to Joe Henderson's "So Near, So Far" Miles tribute record with Foster and John Scofield, and it's just as great as I remember. Foster is so creative and tight, especially with the hi-hat, I wouldn't be surprised if Bill Stewart got a lot from him.

I got to see Henderson and Foster play together, with George Mraz on bass, in 1997. It was great.

Wow

My latest Stereogum column is up; I interviewed Vijay Iyer, and reviewed new albums by James Brandon Lewis, Sullivan Fortner, and others. Lotta Scandinavians this month, so be warned.

I enjoyed your Rufus Reid interview (tried to go through that complete Monk set but wasn't feeling it for some reason, even though Billy Drummond is great)...it's really something how every musician talks about Sullivan Fortner these days, I've heard the same thing recently from Brad Mehldau, Aaron Parks, etc.

Ah, makes sense.

There are a lot of vibey tracks on here and I'm into that, but 'Booker's Garden' is a highlight. Some really crazy playing around the pulse, but so locked-in and together too.

The Julian Lage acoustic guitar album (w/Dave King still on drums) is really really nice.

I guess it's not all acoustic, but there are a lot of acoustic tracks. And he's been posting live videos of a bunch of the tunes (different takes from the record obv), and most of those are acoustic.

Just found out Emmet Cohen's playing here with his trio this weekend, I'm gonna go.

Ari Hoenig on fire right now!

This Herbie Hancock tour announcement reads like it was written with AI. As someone who used to work with the Relix folks (and even wrote a few pieces for the magazine), this makes me very sad.

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has dropped a new slate of dates, which will take him on the road in the early fall. The impending run of concert appearances will occur throughout the U.S.’s Southern region and up the East Coast. Along the way, the headliner and his unannounced group of instrumental accompaniment will perform 12 concerts, leading up to a tour closer at the esteemed Massey Hall in Toronto on Oct. 1.

Hancock and company’s newly dropped schedule begins on Sept. 13 with the first of three Sunshine State appearances, which will roll out nightly with ensuing into Sept. 14 and 15. From there, the billed act moves onto Auburn, Ala., for a Sept. 17 follow-up at a TBA venue. Descending into the South, the tour will take the notable member of the Miles Davis Quintet to Nashville, Tenn., for an evening at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

From Music City, Hancock’s next live show arrives at the Wilson Center in Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 21, with Sept. 22 presenting another gig, which time in Norfolk, Va. Another pair of North Carolina concerts prelude East Coast dates, following up shows in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, conjuring in Newark, N.J., before the Toronto finale.

News of Hancock’s September 2024 tour arrives after the announcement that the artist will pay tribute to 50 years of Head Hunters on Wednesday, August 14, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Adding to the intrigue, the event is billed to include a reunion lineup featuring Harvey Mason, Bennie Maupin, and Bill Summers, with Marcus Miller standing in for the late Paul Jackson.

holy shit, someone should get fired for that

Can you fire AI?

much like a bad middle manager, everyone hates AI, AI does a terrible job over and over again yet keeps getting chances and continues to fail upward

A collaborative program subtitled “Weaving Strands of Sound from Addis to Chicago,” that might answer the equation of AACM x Ethiopiques. The evening features an expanded version of cellist Tomeka Reid and double bassist Silvia Bolognesi’s Hear in Now group (bonus all-stars: violinist yuniya edi kwon and drummer Chad Taylor), in musical conversation with Qwanqwa, a supergroup of Ethiopian experimentalists. This could get great. (Wed 4/3, 8p @ Roulette, Downtown Bklyn - $25/$30)

Saw this on the Dada Strain email. I saw Ethiopian group Qwanqwa on their last US tour 2 years ago by themselves and they were great. This collaboration with them was probably good too. Qwanqwa are touring the US now too. Gonna see them in Alexandria, Virginia near Washington DC.

they are playing minneapolis later this month, i'm definitely considering going

with Marcus Miller standing in for the late Paul Jackson

Is this meant to imply that Herbie normally tours with a dead guy on bass?

RIP Tootie Heath

Oh! RIP. Great musician and very funny person.

new shane parish solo acoustic record (cf. tompkins sq. thread) w/ covers of "lonely woman" and "journey in satchidananda"

https://shaneparish.bandcamp.com/album/repertoire

RIP Tootie

voodoo chili recommended the new Josh Johnson album on a different rolling thread, but anyone who liked that rad Anna Butterss album or recent Jeff Parker stuff (JJ plays on the Enfield Tennis Academy record) would prob dig this: https://joshjohnsonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/unusual-object

The Emmet Cohen Trio show last weekend was fantastic, truly. He told some good Tootie Heath stories too (although of course he kept saying that all the best ones were wholly inappropriate to tell on stage).

Also really enjoyed watching this set w/Tootie, for the stage banter alone. He really had some deep New Orleans elements in his playing, moreso than any of the other famous Philly drummers, it's interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgAkz3uM-pM

Also had a good time going through the recordings Vinnie Sperazza mentions here:
https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/for-albert-tootie-heath

That Josh Johnson album sounds great so far, a lot like Sam Gendel except less anti-jazz.

I'm liking it exponentially more than that new Kenny Garrett electronic record, sorry Kenny.

I went to see (ahmed) tonight, last night of a four-night residency at Cafe Oto in London. They were incredible and relentless.

very jealous

I do hope they reissue those earlier [Ahmed] LPs

Did anyone get that CD box set? I thought at first it was a straight reissue of the aforementioned LPs but I guess it's actually a recording of a 2022 residency.

I bought one at the show but haven’t unwrapped it yet. A friend who’s heard it was raving about it.

I saw Makaya McCraven and Greg Ward in a local dive bar the other night, playing highlife, it was a treat. They were reviving this band:
https://occidentalbrothers.bandcamp.com/album/likambo-te

(the guitarist Nathaniel Braddock was really great too, he was working hard since they didn't have a vocalist)

Oh I remember Occidental Brothers. I just did an an ilx search to further refresh my memory (!) and saw I wrote in 2009 that the group did a kitschy but nice highlife version of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle."

Too bad they didn't have with them the vocalist who is on a number of cuts from that new Bandcamp album release - Samba Mapangala. He's Congolese but later moved to Uganda, Kenya, and then the US

Another major historian and curator, Michael Cuscuna, has passed away. (He was being treated for cancer for a while.) Good guy, and given the work he was doing until the end and his wealth of knowledge (much of which was gained from his own research and lifelong experiences), it feels like a major loss.

Yeah it really is a loss to jazz (as the owner of so many records he produced, reissued, etc.)

My latest Stereogum column is up. It includes an interview with Kenny Garrett and reviews of new albums by Jeremy Pelt, Matthew Shipp, Isaiah Collier, Dave Douglas, Melissa Aldana and others. Plus a gratuitous shot at Bill Frisell!

Leave Bill Frisell alone!

That Jeremy Pelt track sounds great, will have to check that one for sure. That Miles Davis interview at the bottom hits hard (the endless debate).

A little Frisell goes a long way

Could probably pick a few threads to post this in, but excited to check out the debut from Beings, There is a Garden, out on No Quarter soon:

https://beingsnyc.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-a-garden

I mean, this lineup!

Zoh Amba - saxophone, vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonium, piano
Steve Gunn - electric guitar
Shahzad Ismaily - bass, synth
Jim White - drums

wow!

Saw Terence Blanchard with the E-Collective, Turtle Island Quartet, & guest opera singers Justin Austin & Adrienne Danrich. The night was billed as "Fire Shut Up in My Bones: Opera Suite in Concert. The main portion of the night was pieces from the opera with backing visuals , but the concert opened and closed with Blanchard and the musicians doing other compositions. He made a reference to Wayne Shorter re the first one. Blanchard's trumpet sounded strong throughout and especially touching on the operatic suite. Blanchard's jazz and the operatic vocals ended up meshing together pretty well. I wasn't wowed by electric guitarist Charles Altura whose playing was more prominent on the non - opera suite efforts. Too '70s rock-jazz fusion for me. Longtime drummer Oscar Seaton seemed better when he was trying subtle things as opposed to just pounding hard. Would like to see the full opera version with dancers, orchestra, costumes and sets.

"Fire " the opera recently re-opened a few weeks ago at the Met in NY (after its initial 2021 run) and got a mixed review

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/arts/music/met-opera-fire-shut-up-in-my-bones.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk0.6ll_.FitoGw3e1o-i&smid=url-share

I think “Fire” was filmed by the Met for its Live In HD Program so it may rerun at a movie theater near you or a DVD come out.

I would have gone but I saw Marc-Andre Hamelin play at the Library of Congress last night doing Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, an essential trip for me.

Not particularly interested in the opera but I've enjoyed Blanchard's last couple of albums with his group.

I wrote about the new Tomeka Reid Quartet album in this week's Burning Ambulance newsletter.

"I like in and out."

me too! lol

I interviewed Kamasi Washington for Stereogum. I love the fact that the longest section of this interview is him talking about working with Gerald Wilson.

Nice.

I don't know if I've ever seen this much effort put into a video by a jazz (adjacent) group:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VABfAOXrQgQ

All my Bandcamp purchases today are old albums from the 80s on Italian jazz labels:

Hamiet Bluiett, Resolution
Baikida Carroll, Shadows And Reflections
Billy Harper, Black Saint and In Europe
Beaver Harris, Beautiful Africa
The Leaders, Unforeseen Blessings
Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Peace And Blessings
Dannie Richmond, Dionysus
Woody Shaw, Time Is Right

not from this year but i'm digging pianist Rodney Franklin's album In the Center. i had never heard of him. sounds like he veered pretty quickly to smooth jazz, but this album, his first, is really cool and varied. most of it would fit well with late 70s soul jazz like lonnie liston smith - some disco-funk, one with vocals, a couple spiritual jams. the closer, "life moves on" is a killer

Does Tomeka Reid still live in DC? Had no idea she released something on Cuneiform.

I saw Reid a couple weeks ago doing a great composed tribute to Duke Ellington at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater.
Right now I’m in Brooklyn at the Long Play festival and saw a fantastic set by Darius Jones doing his Fluxtet music. He killed it was so great. At the end he did some Pentecostal vocalizations over a string ostinato. Very moving.

Having dinner right next to Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey

!

Incredible interview with Charles Gayle from a Buffalo, NY newspaper in 1970(!). Reveals more about his early life than I ever knew before. I wonder if the tapes he talks about are still in the ESP archives?

RE: Laubrock/Rainey, I was in Brooklyn for Bang On A Can's Long Play Festival, where both were on the bill: Rainey in the DoYeon Kim Quartet and Laubrock had written a string quartet that was premiered there. Great festival, a smaller more manageable Big Ears in a cooler city (Sorry, Knoxville).