Thirsty Ear's Blue Series

I still think the Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp thing is really good, and I don't even like Antipop much normally. They could have taken it farther, but it's nice to hear how Shipp & his crew apply what they've been doing to actual hip-hop tracks with vocals.

Mat Maneri's Sustain is great for really pretty and lush free improv, and the individual member features help switch things up (I still don't think it's as good as Gerald Cleaver's Veil of Names, which is almost the same band).

I was into Guillermo Brown's record when it came out, but I haven't listened to it since then. I remember thinking that the melodies weren't really there for what he was trying to do, but maybe I should go back to it.

I haven't heard David S. Ware's "Threads", the Tim Berne live album, or any of the really recent Shipp albums, although I'd like to at some point (I did get burned out on the Blue Series for awhile).

Favorites:

William Parker Trio, Painter's Spring
Mat Maneri, Sustain
Matthew Shipp, Equilibrium
Matthew Shipp, New Orbit
Spring Heel Jack, Masses
Spring Heel Jack, Amassed
Spring Heel Jack, Live
DJ Spooky, Optometry

The Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp disc, the El-P one, and The GoodandEvil Sessions are all okay, but not great. Threads is dull, as is the Tim Berne disc. I don't remember what the Guillermo Brown album sounded like.

I think you'd be surprised. I know Shipp, we talk on the phone all the time. Bringing in El-P, for example, was his idea and no one else's. He's very into hip-hop; he told me a great story once about getting a phone call from William Parker, asking questions about Notorious B.I.G..

The whole hip-hop/live musicians/jazz thing is really tough. There are parts on the Antipop record that I think were successful, bringing the live drums in and out, overdubbing, both holding it down and filling in. I'd really love to see them take it farther though...make it heavy, make it modern, and work really closely with a hip-hop producer instead of one group treating or adding to the other's tracks after they're done.

I really like Pastoral Composure a lot. Some people seem to look down on it because it is more straight ahead but its very good regardless.

I agree w/ most of Phil's other choices - the live SpringHeel Jack is esp. undervalued, I'd say, and 'Equilibrium' wld be my single pick of all the Thirsty Ear titles too - Shipp shld play/record more often with a vibesman. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the first Craig Taborn alb on TE, Light Made Lighter - a really terrific, semi-free acoustic piano date that includes a stunning deconstruction of 'I Cover the Waterfront'.

I wasn't so thrilled by the Anti-Pop/Shipp alb - the new Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd alb, 'In What Language?', seems like a more convincing jazz/hip-hop mindmeld to me.

Mike Ladd - Negrophilia
Release Date: June 22, 2004
CD/LP
(with Vijay Iyer, Guillermo E. Brown, Andrew Lamb and Roy Campbell)

is there a list anywhere of all of the blue series releases? arent there nearly 30 now? i can barely name 15.

Seeing William Parker and Hamid Drake turn up together anywhere (like on one of those trumpet player led CDs recently reviewed by Francis Davis) at least makes me curious.

But anyway, I expect to at least be trying more things from the Blue Series.

The only other one I'm seriously interested in is Mike Ladd's album, but I have doubts of that coming out in the near (or far) future.

"Blood to the Brain" has parts that keep making me think of Stevie Wonder (not that it sounds anything like Stevie Wonder overall).

It doesn't feel as up to the minute modern as I was hoping for. (I'm being a little unfair since I don't generally require that of music, but it's something I look for in Blue Series type stuff.) A lot of the electronics and effects seem really old to me, too much like things I used to listen to, but grew tired of. The beats don't really do it for me, but I'm not sure how to explain why.

(Listening to this right now, I like "Invisible Light" and "Amino Acid.")

On a slightly related note we also released the DLP version of "Black Cherry" which was the Organic Grooves rework of William Parker & Hamid Drake's "Piercing The Veil?" if you are into the dubbier Codek stuff.

On a more related note I was really taken with the 2nd (megamix) CD of the DJ Spooky "Celestial Mechanix" release (on Thirsty, but not of the Blue Series) and I nearly dispise the Spooky.

And lastly in a barely-related note, saw Hamid Drake & Mr Parker @ the Adventures in Modern Listening gig and was inspired by Hamid's drumming, as usual. He always makes me want to head immediately to the kit and start playing. They did a very cool bit with a frame drum and some North African bass guitar thingie and Hamid singing in some unrecognizable (and perhaps made-up) language.

whoa, guillermo brown is making some pretty interesting & poppy shit these days: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5547

gets into near-saul williams territory at times but way funkier, with a+ production

i got this for a couple bucks, hell of a good bargain bin CD if you ever see it, really hangs together well

http://aentcdn.azureedge.net//graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/0/4/9/969409.jpg

Looks good. The second half of the new William Parker with Cooper-Moore on it is pretty solid. (Not that that's Thirsty Ear as far as I know.)