Hey y'all

Been real busy. Yeah, I know some of my links have died. I'll probably replace them with MP3 links in the near future.

I thank everyone for all their kind comments. If I'm able to turn you on to something that you hadn't heard before, then I'm a happy guy. It'll probably be a few weeks before I get to fixing any links and hopefully finding some new goodies to post.

Cheers!

Scandinavian tribute to Mr. Cherry...

This one's a beauty and a true favorite of mine. Listen to Paal lift his kit off the damn floor. Outstanding playing all the way around by this wonderful trio.
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AMG review by Alain Drouot:

The title of this session will end up being the moniker of this Scandinavian trio comprised of reed player Mats Gustafsson, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. This opus is dedicated to cornetist Don Cherry and includes four expansive explorations of his themes. The frequent high-energy level can be overwhelming, but the sheer power of the music is hard to resist. The sound is dominated by the effusive Gustafsson, who performs with his usual confidence and pungency, but who also shows plenty of lyricism, which adds another dimension to his playing. The trio does an excellent job re-creating the joyfulness of the originals without sounding like copycats -- in fact, their approach is more reminiscent of Albert Ayler. In typical fashion, the heads are mainly a springboard for improvisation. Gustafsson's furious and dense delivery receives great backing from Håker Flaten, who moves effortlessly from pizzicato to arco, and Nilssen-Love, who has the necessary energy to sustain the saxophonist's sonic onslaught. The Don Cherry compositions are complemented by two short collective improvisations. The first starts with an impressionistic scene before Gustafsson and Håker Flaten stretch long notes over a light drum roll. The second is the weakest link in this recording, a blowout that does not add much to the proceedings and proves to be the only trace of self-indulgence on this otherwise excellent outing.

Tracks

1 Awake Nu (Cherry) 5:06
2 Mooti (Cherry) 11:35
3 Cherryco (Cherry) 8:45
4 Ode to Don (Flaten, Gustafsson 3:37
5 The Art of Steve Roney -- Smilin' (Flaten, Gustafsson) 2:38
6 Trans-Love Airways (Cherry) 19:17

(c)2000-Crazy Wisdom

Weird Valley

Disc 1:
Four Moons
The Gears
Mars
Sunset Concerto
Cyclotron
October
Under Capricorn
Venus
Lover Man
Spellbound
Transition
A Lion Lives Here
Timepiece
Gingersnap
The Nearness Of You
Lullaby Of Birdland
Ballade For Guitar
Metropolitan
Newport News

Disc 2:
Summertime
Quadrille For Moderns
Five Impressions Of Color: A. Spectrum Violet/B. Sea Green/C. Royal Blue/D. Ebony/E. Spectrum Red
Life Begins At Midnight
Night Train To Wildwood
Threadneedle Street
Weird Valley
The Set Break
Moonlight In Vermont
Long Ago And Far Away
The Arab Barber Blues
Nice Questions

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Blue Note raids the back of its vaults for all four of Melle's long out of print 10" LPs, plus the 12" Patterns in Jazz, in order to place back in circulation a musician who had been nearly invisible to the jazz world for a good three decades. Though Melle's entertaining self-penned liner notes may be outrageously self-aggrandizing, this collection leaves little doubt that he was (and remains) a marvelous saxophonist and an intriguing composer who hasn't been given his due. On the early sides, Melle plays an erudite, relaxed, always musical tenor sax, and "Transition" marks his recorded debut on baritone, which he uses in a thoughtful, even quizzical manner for the remainder of the set. As a composer, Melle was very much the uncompromising cool bopper, but was also equipped with a fascinating mind of his own. His first session is also the most startling: "Four Moons" is brilliant in its Kentonian harmonic way, with vibraphone striking the chords; so is his most famous jazz composition "The Gears," with its Monica Dell scat vocal lead doubled by vibraphone. Further on in the set, Melle does away with the piano in the cool tradition, but gives the lineup an unorthodox twist by using a guitarist (Tal Farlow, Lou Mecca, or Joe Cinderella) in the keyboard role, and a trombonist (Eddie Bert or the swinging, vastly underrated Urbie Green) or even a tuba (Don Butterfield) on the front line. He also employs consistently first-class rhythm sections, with Max Roach and a young Joe Morello among the drummers. For those super-collectors who may have the extremely rare originals (now worth hundreds of dollars each), there is one unreleased track, "The Nearness of You"; the digitally remastered sound, flaws in the master tapes aside, is excellent.

~Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
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Laid back Northern California sunshine groovin'....

Now here's a totally unique little band from the the Bay Area. The blend jazz, blues, folk, Afro-pop with a little funk thrown in for good measure. If you dig some of Frisell's more recent work or acoustic Bela Fleck, but with a sunny groove with a few odd quirks in the mix, this could be up your alley. Give it a chance. It really grew on me and live these guys are really outstanding. The leader Jack West plays a custom 8 string acoustic guitar. What's remarkable is that at times he's playing bass parts, slide guitar and fingerpicking all at the same time. The band also employs the marimba lumina, a 14 string pedal steel guitar, drums and some percussion. This should be heard for its distinctly original concept.

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"[Big Ideas is] a remarkable outing of cool curves, gently sloping musical parabolas, & wondrous bends in compositional structure. With rhythm at the fore West offers unusual sound colors, fluid slide work, & percussive attack" - Down Beat

"A fertile blend of acoustic blues, progressive jazz, and an international folk music feel, Curvature's music bristles with instrumental virtuosity and a freewheeling improvisational spirit." - SF Bay Guardian
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Curvature's new release, Around About Now, is a dynamic collection of smokin' tunes - definitely Curvature at their most gregarious. Produced by Jack West with generous assistance from Lee Townsend, Curvature's fifth CD showcases seven of West's new compositions presented by the ensemble on unusual and wonderful instrumentation. Around About Now integrates West's unique take on acoustic jazz and blues with elements of country, electronic music, hip/hop and gospel brought in by the ensemble. Featuring Jack West on 8-string acoustic guitar, Joel Davel on electronic marimba, David Phillips on 14-string pedal steel, and drummer Darian Gray. These world-class musicians have developed masterful improvisational techniques and tight ensemble timing.

Although West is hesitant to categorize his music, he defines it as "modern American music by a musician from Georgia that's living in the diverse cultural landscape of California." Residing in the San Francisco Bay Area has allowed Jack to experiment with unusual combinations of instruments that give shape to his compositions and have helped him develop his style. It has also given him a chance to work with a slew of top Bay Area artists: Mike Marshall, Calder Spanier (formerly with Charlie Hunter Quartet), Scott Amendola, Jon Evans, George Brooks (Zakir Hussain's Rhythm Experience), Jenny Scheinman, Mark Summer (Turtle Island String Quartet), and many others.

Make no mistake, Jack West is on the path less taken. It's not only that he plays the eight-string acoustic guitar, a unique instrument that he had specially constructed while searching for the sounds he had been hearing in his mind. West is a musician dedicated to exploring uncharted territory, mapping stunning, minutely detailed soundscapes that feel uncannily familiar and yet completely fresh. This is heady music and there is a rigorous sense of structure to many of West's tunes. But in the fine-grained textures he creates with his quartet, there's also an intuitive sense of interplay and generosity of spirit found in the finest jazz ensembles.

"My main goal as a writer has always been to try and create music that sounds like something I haven't heard," says the Oakland-based guitarist. "For me, song writing is usually a process of following. I never sit down to intentionally write a tune-I just start to play, then as new ideas happen, I try to follow the ones that surprise me...the ones that don't sound like anything I've ever heard before."

A mostly self-taught musician, West, 35, grew up in Savannah, Georgia and moved to California for college. After 7 years of playing mostly original rock, blues, and Afropop, he decided to work in an acoustic vein. Even before he hired Santa Cruz guitar-maker Jeff Traugott to build his eight-string instrument, West had developed a highly personal sound using unusual tunings and a dazzling combination of bluesy slide work, finger-picking, and unorthodox percussive techniques. The extra strings, a low A and a high A, have enabled West to further expand his bag of tricks, for instance slapping a percussive line on the extra bass string while simultaneously playing slide or creating screaming-high octave slide runs with his first and third strings.

West's innovative yet accessible compositions combined with Curvature's dynamic concert performances are rapidly creating a buzz on both coasts. Though he may be an artist with big ideas, there's nothing academic about Curvature's sound. West's music is as emotionally vibrant and pulsing with life as any being created today. And his rapidly growing fan base in the jazz, acoustic, and jam communities is a testament to the timeless appeal of the curved musical reflections of this honest and talented rising star.
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1. Backwards Over Bend
2. Deliverance
3. Balance Like This
4. Conversation #3
5. What Next To What?
6. Not What You Think
7. Christina's Song


Jack West: 8-string acoustic guitar, slide
Joel Davel: marimba lumina, percussion
David Phillips: 14-string pedal steel guitar
Darian Gray: drums
Peter Valsamis: percussion

A Pool of Rivers...

Sam the man.

More madness from Norway...

For all you Atomic fans out there. This is one sweet little avant-bop trio.

LSB-Fungus
Released 14/11, 2003

Fredrik Ljungkvist: Tenor & Baritone Sax, Clarinet
Raymond Strid: Drums
Johan Berthling: Bass
01.Fredriks Hörna
02.Muskarin
03.Funghi
04.Utah
05.Broken Shadows
06.Riska
07.Kremla
08.Mothers of the Veil
09.LSB-Vals

All songs by LSB except #1, 9 by Fredrik Ljungkvist; #4 by Steve Lacy and #5, #8 by Ornette Coleman.
Recorded at SAMI June 5-6, 2003
Recorded by Gert & Erik Palmcrantz
Mastered by Andreas Berthling
Cover Art by Inger Arvidsson
Graphic Design by Mattis Cederberg
Produced by LSB
Executive Producer: Jonas Kullhammar

Bill Evans gone groovy...

Living Time (with George Russell Orchestra)
1972 CBS/Sony Group (Tokyo)

The sound on here is a little iffy and I'm not so sure you could classify this as a bonna fide jazz classic, but it is certainly an interesting aside in the career of Bill Evans.



Check out Bill on Youtube talking about Living Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Wq9PFktzY