Top 100 improvised albums

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I know next to nothing about improvised music. I've listened to some Derek Bailey and didn't really get into it at any point. I'm really curious about it all at the moment but I don't know where to begin.

Over to you.

― hmmm (hmmm), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 21:39 (nineteen years ago)

Try Bardo Pond - Cypher Documents. I'm not sure if it's really improvised but the shit is jammy as fuck.

― yours fondly, harshaw. (mrgn), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.picturetrunk.com/uploads/1f7fb83579.jpg

from AMG:

a double-quartet format, split into one quartet for each stereo channel: Ornette, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Billy Higgins on the left; trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell on the right. The rhythm sections all play at once, anchoring the whole improvisation with a steady, driving pulse. The six spotlight sections feature each horn in turn, plus a bass duet and drum duet; the "soloists" are really leading dialogues, where the other instruments are free to support, push, or punctuate the featured player's lines.

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

I would also suggest not to try to follow too closely. Just let it hit you.

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

ok.

― hmmm (hmmm), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 21:58 (nineteen years ago)

Free Jazz + Headphones = A Whole Lot More Welcoming.

― breathny spears let me see the sex that you did. (noodle vague), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 22:25 (nineteen years ago)

This thread might help get you started:

FREE JAZZ: Pick Only Ten

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT

― electro-acoustic lycanthrope (orion), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 22:38 (nineteen years ago)

Borbetomagus, Barbed Wire Maggots. The louder you play it, the better it feels.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

Evan Parker & Paul Lytton - Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones)

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

Derek Bailey - Aida

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 00:08 (nineteen years ago)

Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Summer 1967
AMM - AMMMusic
Brötzmann/Bennink - Schwarzwaldfahrt

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

I listened to the first track from Coltrane's Interstellar Space last night and it utterly blew my mind. outstanding.

― hmmm (hmmm), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 08:55 (nineteen years ago)

How many times have we done this before?

Er...the usual suspects.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 09:41 (nineteen years ago)

I did do a search for 'improv' and 'improvised' as parts of thread titles but nothing satisfactory came up.

― hmmm (hmmm), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 10:05 (nineteen years ago)

Schlippenbach Quartet: Three Nails Left
New Phonic Art: New Phonic Art
Bailey, Bennink & Parker: Topography of the Lungs
Spontaneous Music Ensemble: "So, What Do You Think?"
Peter Brötzmann Octet: Machine Gun
Parker, Rowe, Guy, Prévost: Supersession
Globe Unity 73: Live in Wuppertal

― Mats Blomqvist (Blomqvist), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

Topography Of The Lungs is coming out on CD later this month, with additional tracks mmmm.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

In fact, it came out on Monday.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

Excellent Marcello. Thanks for the tip!

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 14:22 (nineteen years ago)

John Russell & Roger Turner - The Second Sky

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

Right now I'm in love with Critical Mass by Augusti Fernandez & Mats Gustafsson. Piano + reeds.

― socks b. (socks b.), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra - same title, will reduce you to a blubbering puddle of lard.

― tolstoy (tolstoy), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

Anthony Braxton - Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005
Misha Mengelberg - Senne Sing Song
Sun Ra Arkestra - Sunrise in Different Dimensions
John Zorn - Moonchild
Myra Melford - Dance Beyond the Color

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 17:01 (nineteen years ago)

Sainkho Namtchylak - Lost Rivers

― Sundar (sundar), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

Keith Rowe - A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality

― Sundar (sundar), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:06 (nineteen years ago)

Supersilent! (1 through 7)

Anthony Braxton's Sextet (Victoriaville) is not improvised.

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

Blonk/Makigami/Dutton/Minton/Moss - Five Men Singing

― Sundar (sundar), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

Anthony Braxton's Sextet (Victoriaville) is not improvised

It contains a large element of improvisation.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

Pretty much all the albums I listed are at least partly composed. I'm not restricting myself to a purist definition of free improvised music. Any music that contains a "significant" amount of improvisation is fair game for me.

For more on the Accelerated Ghost Trance music that is played in that Victoriaville recording, and a good detailed exegesis of the relative roles of improv and composition in it, I recommend this astute article:

http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/frontpage/001062.html

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

Rova::Orkestrova - Electric Ascension (features Fred Frith, Nels Cline, and Otomo Yoshihide amongst others [along with the Rova Sax Quartet, of course.] Really something else, a total reinvestigation of Coltrane's Ascension that gets the spirit with a new sound world.)

Fred Frith/Rene Lussier - Nous Autres

― Sundar (sundar), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

all music is improvised. you can't play the same thing exactly the same way twice. and ultimately, what difference does it make if a piece is improvised or not (especially when one can't always or easily tell)?

having said that, bill dixon's vade mecum volumes 1 and 2 are absolutely essential. the most daring of the new music to come out in the last 30 years or so.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Thursday, 8 June 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

I'm STILL pulling suggestions off this thread: free jazz - duo/solo sessions POX c/d

― mcd (mcd), Thursday, 8 June 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

The free jazz/improv threads always make wish I was rich.

― mcd (mcd), Thursday, 8 June 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

indeed. i just grab what i can from uni. i don't have much of a desire to own much of this kind of stuff, once i've listened to something 2 or 3 times, i tend to let it go. although i do find the more composed/structured something is, the more likely i am to keep it and come back to it.

i find the similarities between a lot of the free noiZe and free noiSe interesting. they seem to get really different crowds here, even though they're both doing very similar things.

its a real shame they don't merge a bit more. i get the impression lots of places are like this. talking to some people in the noize scene they seem to hate the intellectual approach to things, its not physical enough for them. while the jazzers want to stimulate some sort of physical response from people, but the audiences seem to be happy sitting with a glass of red wine.

anyway, back on topic, i really like the evan parker electro acoustic ensemble's memory vision cd. especially what barry guy is up to. and some live recordings of what chris corsano has been up to recently have been really inspiring. i have to resist the urge to force him upon every drummer i know.

― TomTomGo!!! (TomTomGo!!!), Thursday, 8 June 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

Speaking of Victoriaville, isn't that where Brax played with Wolf Eyes last year?

― mcd (mcd), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, that set has also been released on Victo, I believe.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

James - Wah Wah. It's certainly not in the category of free jazz, still, one can't help but notice the collectives' oozing juices within a very pallatable alternative rock fare.

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000262WI.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Friday, 9 June 2006 05:46 (nineteen years ago)

Bruce Palmer - The Cycle Is Complete (w/ Rick James!)

― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 9 June 2006 05:51 (nineteen years ago)

Where;s the best place to start with Chris Corsano's stuff?

― hmmm (hmmm), Friday, 9 June 2006 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

lightning bolt "ride the skies " for sure

― bob smelser (monsterforaday), Saturday, 10 June 2006 02:18 (nineteen years ago)

"GIL E JORGE"

― Two Scoops (Magic Duster), Saturday, 10 June 2006 02:28 (nineteen years ago)

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