ESP-DISK: THE POLL.

my shortlist:
godz 2, first two Pearls Before Swine LPs, 1st Fugs, Paul Bley "Barrage", Alan Silva "Skillfulness", New York Eye & Ear Control, Ed Askew. Do yourself a favor and hear all of the non-free jazz LPs on ESP Disk, and once you've heard all of those, listen to all of the free jazz blow outs.

i've heard very few of these, but i dig the ed askew record quite a bit so it gets my vote

I just realized there's a missing option! ESP 3008, Jim McCarthy "Alien." Damn your incomplete nature, Wikipedia.

"Alien" is probably the LP on ESP most likely to appeal to Randy Newman fans.

The first Giuseppe Logan LP is much better than the 2nd, IMHO.

contact high

Lots of great stuff, but I voted for Patty Waters Sings.

What a great fucking label. I voted for Spiritual Unity, but the Sun Ra discs, the other Aylers, the Paul Bley stuff, Pearls Before Swine, Fugs, Holy Modal Rounders, the Ornette Town Hall concert are all great. Also a lot of stuff I haven't heard - the catalog is larger than I would think.

yeah, many faves here.

i picked cromagnon cause i was at a loss about where to start.
m.

ian plz tell me about ORO sublabel, Jimi Lalumia LP, and Woodstock comp LP.

of what I've heard/have (maybe 12-15 total) the 1st Pearls Before Swine is probably my fave.

Milford Graves, Sunny Murray, Henry Grimes records also all good.

Adore this label. But I gotta go with Fugs Broadside album even though it wasn't originally on ESP-Disk.

A lot of overrated stuff, though, esp. The Godz, yet another band that reads waaay better than they actually sound. I actually prefer the Millennium/Casablanca Godz for sheer shtick value.

And that Crogmagnon album is unlistenable.

Two that I'd love to become acquainted with:

HARYOU Percussion Ensemble – Sounds Of Ghetto Youth

Peter Stampfel & Luke Faust – Wendigo Dwain Story

Can someone shed any light on either of these?

it's been 10+ yrs since i listened to that Haryou album (never realized it was on esp!), but i remember it being a salsa album?

It sounds like something that'd be sampled to death.

the guy that played it for me was a hip hop producer

Rolf Kemp – Daydreamer

I assume this is the guy who wrote "Hello Hooray"?

thanks ian - i'm printing out this list for future reference

The HARYOU percussion ensemble was a sort of funky latin record made by a harlem after school music program, hence HAR(LEM)YOU(TH.) It's been reissued on vinyl and it's pretty good! I never listen to it though. I should.

re; ORO sub-label; I don't know much about it honestly. They put out that sort of Tim Buckley-ish psych record by Bruce MacKay and the HARYOU record, but those are the only ones I'm familiar with. I believe "All That The Name Implies" is a kind of hippie folk record, but I've only heard it once or twice, several years ago.

both the sunny simmons LPs on ESP are pretty great, also. I had them as mp3s long ago but haven't tracked down the vinyl yet. And god, Frank Wright's "Your Prayer" is a brutally gorgeous album.

gotta give props to the Ronnie Boykins LP as well. He's one of my main criteria for determining how much I "need" any Sun Ra record.

can't say i've heard even close to a chunk of these. basically it's a few of the ayler discs and the sun ra ones. probably i'll vote for heliocentric vol. 1

There was a Norman Howard ESP?! Cripes, I gotta find that.

Voting for Milford Graves LP, Alan Sondheim's T'other Little Tune a close second.

http://www.emusic.com/album/Har-You-Percussion-Group-Har-You-Percussion-Group-MP3-Download/10811227.html

eMusic clearly has the wrong album uploaded for song samples

godz 2 for sure, but indian war whoop, barrage, and the early ayler albs are faves too

One Nation Underground is the only one I own (an original copy of).
That would probably be reason enough to vote for it, but it's also my favorite (out of the handful or two I've heard).

One Nation Underground was a life-changing record for me.
I've probably told this story before on ILM, but I have ONE UNCLE, who has normally pretty standard baby boomer/ex-hippy tastes, but when I was like 13 and listening to Sonic Youth and Pavement and stuff, he saw fit to play the first Pearls Before Swine record for me, and then the second one. Very important. Also, the first time I ever heard The Gilded Palace of Sin was in his pickup truck, driving into Manhattan when I was around the same age.

I've heard about six of these. But they all rule.

also lol Godzeunheit

I have a fistful of these and there is no way I could possibly choose one. This may be the cruelest ILM poll of all time.

pbs vs godz is hard

So what off this list isn't jazz or free-jazz besides Holy Modal Rounders, The Fugs, the Godz, Pearls Before Swine, Charles Manson, and Timothy Leary?

OK, and Ed Askew, Jayne County, and Cromagnon. I skimmed over the list really quickly.

Paul Thornton, Randy Burns, Lou Killen, Erica Pomerance, Alan Sondheim, Tuli Kupferberg, All That The Name Implies, William Burroughs (anyone heard this one??), Bruce MacKay, Stampfel & Faust, Music From The Orthodox Liturgy, and probably a few more.

I've been thinking about it all day, but I'm still not sure how to vote.

Bill Horwitz is also not jazz, but not very recommended either.

Yeah, I've heard Burroughs, also not an ESP original. Originally released in France by the English Bookstore, as I recall. Reissued on Rhino around '96. Great listen. "You're bringing down the tone of the whole industry!"

Yep, the Burroughs' one is good too!

ESP 1025 - Patty Waters - more soul in her teeth than Duffy has in her whole Burberry overcoat.

After some hard deliberation, Godz II got my vote.

Ooh, good poll! I was listening to Indian War Whoop just last night. Wish I owned/heard more than 27% (estimated) of that catalog, even considering the occasional overrated-due-to-obscurity factor. (And I agree fully with KJB about The Godz - both of 'em actually.)

This'll take some time to decide.

This is like the Sophie's Choice of music polls.

Isn't Archie Shepp's Blase' on ESP? Ah no, Jazz Actuel. n/m.

Actuel = next poll.

Sun Ra "Nothing Is" gets my vote. I've heard only a handful of these though.

I busted out that Patty Waters this morning. maaan, this is like asking a Catholic to choose from the trinity.

Any of these Fugs albums have "Morning Morning" on them?

The fact that the dude who started this label was a lawyer makes me a more excited for law school somehow, even though it shouldn't.

Les Visible and Octopus are pretty un-jazzy too. I went for one of the Sun Ra's in the end but it's impossible to choose really. I think I've only heard about 20 or 30 of thses, must rectify. Did they ever finish reissuing them all on CD?

I interviewed Bernard Stollman (label founder) a year or two back, when he first re-launched. The resulting piece never ran, sadly. At that point he was talking about boxing up all the Ayler stuff...don't know how useful/important that would be, since those are the records that always stay in print. I'm happier to see him reissuing awesome but overlooked titles, like he's doing.

Oh, and speaking of overlooked, I voted for Noah Howard's s/t debut disc. Brilliant, very obviously Ornette-influenced but unique stuff.

That Noah Howard was sort of a disappointment to me, after hearing Black Ark. But you know, still glad I picked it up. Seriously i think Frank Wright's "Your Prayer" is the ESP jazz disc to beat.

Any of these Fugs albums have "Morning Morning" on them?

Yeah, that's on ESP 1028 - one of my contenders

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I've only just seen this poll. It is impossible. I'd usually go straight for the Fugs or the Godz (or Cromagnon, but mainly for the genius of a single song), but Sun Ra? Ayler? Impossible.

YOU MUST VOTE.
ALL MUST VOTE.
IT IS THE WILL OF STOLLMAN.

Right...Nothing Is gets my vote. One of my very favourite Sun Ra recordings, and I still haven't heard the expanded version.

They've been reissuing, like Billie Holiday's Live And Rare Broadcasts--five discs, and I'm up through three. Involves some dif versions if her standards, but with dif personnel, dif moments in her life--so far, very succinct, but vivid (also, songs and dialogue from a whack movie, New Orleans, in which she played a maid; also worth checking is Lester Young, Live At Birdland. More recent reissues include Steve Lacy's The Forest and the Zoo, Ornette's Town Hall Concert, The New York Art Quartet (but even before any of that that, the Amazon download store had like six pages of ESP)

1009 Bob James – Explosions
1015 Milford Graves Percussion Ensemble
1016 Albert Ayler & Don Cherry – New York Eye And Ear Control
1020 Albert Ayler – Spirits Rejoice
1034 East Village Other
1040 Marion Brown – Why Not?
1044 Marzette Watts – Marzette & Company
1049 Gato Barbieri – In Search Of The Mystery
1050 William Burroughs – Call Me Burroughs
2003 Charles Manson – And The Family Sing 13 Songs

all that + the godz, the fugs and the holy modal rounders!

voting for east village other btw (although gato is close) and if "heliocentric worlds" wins i'll lose my lunch

You... voted for the east village other? Is that kind of sick, twisted punch line?

Velvet Underground completist!

i just realized i missed "skillfullness" off that list

that was a philosophical choice - call it a punchline if you will - because it seemed like the only thing that could have been on ESP.

and anyway marzette, ayler, sun ra, gato, pharoah ... well, hell, just about all of the free jazz dudes had tons of better material on other labels. except maybe. i think.

so anyway obviously not the *best* album on ESP but in a way the *ultimate* ESP release

skillfullness and NY ear and eye control also great

yer right about most of the ESP free jazz artists having better LPs on other labels. except maybe Alan Silva. Luna Surface is just a little behind Skillfulness in my book. Also not sue Frank Wright did anything better than his ESP work, and Barrage is probably my favorite Paul Bley (and I've heard a lot of 'em. the only one that comes close is the late fifties live set with what amounts to the Ornette quartet--cherry, haden, ornette and higgins playing on a live session released later under Bley's name.)

I hope Erica Pomerance's LP gets at least one vote.

are those bud powell things worth getting? they seem pretty cool, but is the sound quality ultra-crappy or what?

i forget if i voted fugs albert ayler or cromagnon.

I hope Erica Pomerance's LP gets at least one vote.

rest easy, that's what I voted for.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

1071 Paul Bley – [never issued double album] 1

looooool

pretty solid three way tie there, though i prefer the fugs first album.

Emerson's Old Timey Custard Sucking Band update of "Sittin on Top Of The World" is brutal. Chilling.

Also, VESTIBULE BULLY.
This record has taken me a while to get into, but for right now A+. Still not up there with the Holy Modal Rounders first two records (on Prestige) but thinking of Emerson's in that context helps me appreciate it in a different way.

hey, this is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Axj6IIZDy4

the album itself has a nice wide-eyed paxtonish air to it. on the whole, think i prefer it to his later psychier stuff (though some of that has its moments too). he could get pretty lugubrious, though.

also really like his cover of eric andersen's thirsty boots on that first album.

1085 Lou Killen – Sea Chanteys (aka Folk Songs)

3014 Peter Stampfel & Luke Faust – Wendigo Dwain Story

^would love to hear these, though not sure if the stampfel/faust actually exists!

Cool that Patty got some votes.

films in nyc tom'w

http://www.lightindustry.org/esp

Oh man, want to go.

just realized I can't make this, oh well

i'm gonna try and make it. hopefully it doesn't start promptly at 7:30 or sell out. i work til 8 a few blocks away.

ive been there once before, yr best bet is there is a scholarly intro, ian.

Sad news from Steven Krakow that Ed Askew has passed. Hell of a second act, though!

https://edaskew.bandcamp.com/

fantastic idea to do some digging into this label's catalog.

They have a presence on Bandcamp.

https://espdisk.bandcamp.com/

My wife's designed album covers for a bunch of their releases:

https://aminabaraka.bandcamp.com/album/amina-baraka-the-red-microphone
https://stephendydoandalansondheim.bandcamp.com/album/dragon-and-phoenix
https://matthewshipp.bandcamp.com/album/zero
https://mattlavellereggiesilvester.bandcamp.com/album/retrograde
https://matthewshipp.bandcamp.com/album/signature
https://whitdickeyesp.bandcamp.com/album/morph
https://matthewshipp.bandcamp.com/album/the-unidentifiable (this one's a particular favorite of mine)
https://michaelbisiokirkknuffkefredlonberg-holm.bandcamp.com/album/the-art-spirit
https://wefreestringsesp.bandcamp.com/album/love-in-the-form-of-sacred-outrage (I really like this one too)

I met Ed Askew once, we were playing on the same bill. He was very frail, with shaky hands, and told me that he wasn't sure he would be able to play through the pain. I think he was super nervous about it actually. That was 15 years ago.

after the stroke (2 years ago) i found i could not finger pick, though i still try. so this is a set of loops. with me singing and strumming the tiple. enjoy.

Unreal

Just pulled up this writeup about ESP releases on bandcamp:
https://daily.bandcamp.com/label-profile/esp-disk-primer

heh, I briefly played in one of the bands featured here, but i read through the blurb and played the audio file and everything and *still* didn't make the connection until i did the magic eye thing of unfocusing my eyes and finally noticed the name. had no idea they were still going (as of 5 years ago)

Best thread revive in long, long time!
I believe that unperson said his wife also did the art for this 2021 Red Microphone album, as well as the one they did w Baraka (they've puy another on Bandcamp since).

Bandcamp intro:Following up on their well-received 2017 ESP-Disk' album backing poet Amina Baraka, The Red Microphone added guitarist Dave Ross to its roster and went into the studio with Ivan Julian (guitarist of punk icons Richard Hell & the Voidoids). A few other veterans of the downtown NYC jazz scene joined in to help accompany the provocative, political poetry of John Pietaro, who doubles on voice and drums.

credits

released April 23, 2021
my take:
The Red Microphone's And I Became Of The Dark is so much thee 2020s incarnation of a certain kind of 1960s ESP-DISK, a funky, stimulating harvest of beatnik verbiage, hipster humor, and jazz resources, maybe with some busking experience to keep it engaging and freewheeling. Thee congregantz, incl. several multi-instrumentalists and a couple of guests, who don't overstay their welcome, on viola and bari, are always tight and exuberant; don't know how much of the de facto arrangements come from good drummer Pietaro, who is also listed as musical director, but they are usually worth listening around his voice when need be. He's better the closer he gets to actual singing and emphatic chanting, but even when he's just intoning, he never gets in the way that much. "Revenge of the Atom Spies" is perfect opener, should be the single. Gotta check their album with Baraka, which I think is on the ESP-DISK bandcamp. Nu Cantu En Esperanto! https://theredmicrophone.bandcamp.com/