"Music doesn't go seasonable to me." Rolling Jazz Dm7♭5 Thread 2017

^yeah, me too.

As noted elsewhere, spent countless hours listening to his cohort, Ollie Halsall, so should probably give him equal time.

I lasted about 5 songs - two from his first solo album, IOU, and three from Metal Fatigue. He was clearly an amazing player, but his sound and style were totally Not For Me; he basically sounds like a cyborg Frank Zappa. And he picked some of the most faceless, generic vocalists I've ever heard, almost as if he knew he needed a singer for marketing purposes, but didn't want any actual competition for the spotlight.

That said, I have heard him in three different contexts as a sideman - with Soft Machine, with Tony Williams Lifetime, and on Jean-Luc Ponty's Enigmatic Ocean - and liked him fine all three times.

What about Tempest?

Back in 2015 Cuneiform put out a live album by the Holdsworth lineup of Soft Machine; I reviewed it for The Wire:

SOFT MACHINE
Switzerland 1974
Cuneiform CD/DVD, DL
Soft Machine started out as a psychedelic jazz-rock act in the 1960s; their best work was all thick organ washes with stinging horns on top, in the same vein as contemporaneous King Crimson but less disciplined. By the time of this live recording, though, three core members (drummer and sometime vocalist Robert Wyatt, bassist Hugh Hopper, and saxophonist Elton Dean) had departed, leaving keyboardist Mike Ratledge to gradually fill the lineup with players of a more showoffy, fusiony bent. The spongy, trance-like side-long jams of 1969’s Third were abandoned, replaced by a twitchily amped-up prog-fusion-boogie that sat squarely in between the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Fripp-Cross-Wetton-Bruford lineup of Crimson. This live recording from the Montreux Jazz Festival is dominated by guitarist Allan Holdsworth and by material that would appear on 1975’s Bundles, the only Soft Machine album to feature him (and this lineup). It kicks off with the nearly 17-minute “Hazard Profile,” divided into five subsections in the studio but here presented as a solid slab. It moves from a hard-riffing opening, with Holdsworth tearing up the fretboard, to a somewhat delicate Ratledge piano solo, to a spotlight turn for saxophonist Karl Jenkins, and on and on. The rest of the pieces are significantly shorter, generally taking one idea and beating it into the ground in a brutally efficient manner, then moving on, with frequently seamless transitions. “Ealing Comedy” is a particular highlight, a mind-roastingly distorted Roy Babbington bass solo that’ll be as much fun for fans of Japanese garage-rockers High Rise as prog freaks. “Land of the Bag Snake” finds Holdsworth taking an almost cartoonishly fleet solo, while the brief “Joint” is a free-form eruption of synth noises and jackhammer drums from John Marshall. For all its complexity and high energy, though, the music is distressingly unmemorable; both Crimson and Mahavishnu had better melodies, which is probably why Soft Machine’s present-day cult is significantly smaller than theirs.
PHIL FREEMAN

that tempest bbc concert with both halsall and holdsworth is quite fine, though i'm not generally a fan... something about his tone, i don't know.

From Rolling Reissues a while back:

Guitar Legend Allan Holdsworth 12 CD Box Set Collection and Accompanying Double CD Collection
THE MAN WHO CHANGED GUITAR FOREVER Box Set
EIDOLON-a 2-CD Best Of
To Be Released on Manifesto Records on April 7th.

Los Angeles, CA-based Manifesto Records will release a new, complete 12-CD box set by guitar innovator, jazz, and progressive rock legend Allan Holdsworth titled The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever, along with a 2-CD updated and expanded “best of” collection selected by the artist, titled Eidolon.
Manifesto Records referenced the box set’s seemingly portentous title from the cover story title featuring Holdsworth in Guitar Player magazine’s April 2008 edition. Given his humble nature, Holdsworth is a bit embarrassed by the title and finds the notion that he changed “guitar forever,” somewhat overblown—more befitting of names like Orville Gibson, Leo Fender, or Ned Steinberger.
Holdsworth, born in Bradford England in 1946, embarked on a solo career as composer and bandleader exclusively in 1979. Holdsworth’s career as producer, bandleader, and lead composer is documented in this box set, and with the artist’s 28-track selection of favorites in Eidolon. Both packages include extensive liner notes, and an updated 2016 interview with Holdsworth discussing each release, his history, and approach to the instrument.

From 1982 through 2003, Holdsworth recorded a dozen albums that have been lovingly put together for The Man Who From 1982 through 2003, Holdsworth recorded a dozen albums that have been lovingly put together for The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever collection. Featured on the box set are eleven remastered studio albums, starting with the 1982 studio release, Allan Holdsworth, I.O.U., and the archival 2003 live release, Then!, recorded live in Tokyo in 1990. All feature additional bonus tracks added for special editions or the original Japan releases, along with the original artwork and studio credits. Also included are the Grammy-nominated Road Games, (1983), Metal Fatigue (1985), Sand (1987), Secrets (1989), Wardenclyffe Tower (1992), Hard Hat Area (1993), None Too Soon (1996), The Sixteen Men of Tain (2000), and Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie (2001).

Holdsworth has been recognized by many of the world’s most accomplished and unique rock and jazz guitar virtuosos. Luminaries including Eddie Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Joe Satriani, Tom Morello universally expressed reverence and astonishment at Holdsworth’s pioneering approach to his playing and vast vocabulary of “uncommon” chord voicings.

He further expanded the guitar’s orchestral potential with a range of electronic effects, then moved on to become one of the early innovators of guitar-based synthesizer controllers. In the nearly five decades Holdsworth has been touring, collaborating, and recording, he has created an immense sonic and musical legacy.

In the ‘70s he played with legendary Miles Davis drummer, Tony Williams and Cream bassist Jack Bruce as the band Lifetime, and toured with Soft Machine. He worked with former Yes and King Crimson drummer, Bill Bruford’s first solo project, Feels Good To Me, and subsequent recordings with Jean-Luc Ponty, and Gong. Bruford suggested Allan for the progressive-rock “supergroup,” U.K., which, along with Bruford, also featured John Wetton and Eddie Jobson.
Both The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever and Eidolon will become precious to those who love the world’s great guitarists. Fans of deeply unique, sonically rich and pristine recordings of great musicians taking their music to the next level and beyond, will also be in awe of these collections.

#####
www.Manifesto.com | facebook.com/allanholdsworthmusic

Given his humble nature, Holdsworth is a bit embarrassed by the title and finds the notion that he changed “guitar forever,” somewhat overblown—more befitting of names like Orville Gibson, Leo Fender, or Ned Steinberger.

https://www.altpress.com/news/entry/limp_bizkits_fred_durst_hosts_a_weekly_jazz_night_in_la

The moniker for the weekly jazz showings? "Fred'z With A Z."

had a look at the recent Ugly Beauty columns - really good stuff!

Thanks! New one coming Friday!

Franck Biyong‏
@franckbiyong1

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"Jazz is the only music where the same note can be played night after night, but differently." - Ornette Coleman

Beyond certain points, if it's still different, gotta be jazz---is the way I take it.

I've really enjoyed Christian Sands Reach album this morn, it is more "nice" than groundbreaking - but I have plenty of room for that. The choice of covering a tune from An American Tail seems odd, but it is actually works fine!

Yeah, that's a good record - I meant to fit it into my Stereogum column, but wound up reviewing it for the NYC Jazz Record instead.

I'm probably selling him short by using the "nice" word, there is at least one hip-hop influenced experiment on there.

https://knockdown.center/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/17349780_10158609256325107_6143989830872634039_o.jpg

(From Luaka Bop---see their site for tickets, album, single below)

Alice Coltrane Tribute show on May 21st!
RBMA Festival New York As you may have heard, we are working very hard on a large celebration of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. This year marks the 80th year since she was born, and the tenth year after she passed to another place. We just announced a large tribute concert and ceremony in her honor, which will take place In New York at the stunning performance and arts space called The Knockdown Center, as part of Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York. The first part of the show (that we are involved with) is inspired by the Sunday ceremonies Alice held at her Sai Anantam Ashram in California. Timed to coincide with sundown, the powerful, spiritual music will be performed by an ensemble led by music director Surya Botofasina, who grew up at the Ashram. The latter half will be a concert led by her son, Ravi Coltrane, featuring an all-star band playing music from throughout Alice's career. Tickets are available here.

A few weeks prior to that, we will be releasing the compilation of her spiritual music, which we told you about last time. Titled World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, it features a lot of beautiful artwork, photos and essays. You can pre-order it here.

Ps. if you have read this far, you may also find it interesting to learn that we have a handful of the very limited Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda 7"s we made for the "Come Together" Record Fair last weekend. If you would like to order one, you can do so

i'm pretty psyched about that show, dunno if i can make it tho

I've talked about this trio before, here's a tour plan that might give you a chance to see them live:

http://i.imgur.com/loWzaGJ.png

Going to see Vijay Iyer's trio at the Village Vanguard in a couple of weeks (writing a story on him).

Cool. Remember to ask him about the Fibonacci numbers.

My latest Stereogum column is live. I talk about Arthur Blythe, the Bad Plus (and Orrin Evans), the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, jazz Record Store Day releases, and a whole lot more.

another good column

but I think maybe I don't like hard bop :'(

Yes, very well done.

friend in CPH is re-issuing this marc levin lp. i'm stoked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p-6NkzK47g&feature=share&app=desktop

marc levin doesn't have his own thread here !! c'mon guys let's start a thread and go through his discography and talk about how cool bill dixon is and stuff it'll be great yeah ??

So, turns out the aforementioned Alice Coltrane comp out next month draws from four cassettes that Alice released between 1982 and 1995 on a tiny local label devoted to Vedic teachings. The music is astounding.So says Hua Hsu here (with good overview of her work):http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/24/alice-coltranes-devotional-music Apparently her kids got her into synthesizers, extending her range, rather than replacing the other instruments.

Yeah, three of the four cassettes have previously been released on CD in their entirety - I own two - and the rumor I read somewhere is that the compilation is a prelude to reissuing all four. I hope that's the case, 'cause the music is fantastic.

Whoa

marc levin doesn't have his own thread here !! c'mon guys let's start a thread and go through his discography and talk about how cool bill dixon is and stuff it'll be great yeah ??

Fun fact: all of the percussion on Dixon's Intents and Purposes was completely notated, right down to the sticking patterns.

Apparently, Mosaic Records is not doing too well at the moment. The following was posted on the Organissimo and Steve Hoffman forums:

A few years ago I had promised myself never to post here again (hm, never say never...), but this is too important in my opinion: earlier today I've been in contact with Mosaic's Scott Wenzel and he told me that they're in very bad shape. Their customer base is dying and, of course, downloading isn't helping - for those wondering why downloads aren't offered by Mosaic: no record company, big or small, is allowing them to offer downloads, the licensing agreements are for CD only. And as for vinyl releases, it seems some (most?) of the record labels they're dealing with are hesitant to license stuff for release on LP. Jazz is a niche market and apparently younger people are not that interested, even less so because of that download situation. Let's hope this is not going to be end of Mosaic after 34 years... By the way, before anyone starts wondering if posting this is a good idea, Scott explicitly asked me to tell everyone I know about their situation.

Ugh. Their sets are fantastic (the Braxton box finally cracked his music open for me), but they definitely don't do a good job of marketing them.

their website led me to an interview wherein i learned that jack black is charlie haden's son-in-law.

FPing you for not knowing that before

j/k

If it wasn't for them, I would never have known who Denny Zeitlin was.

(NB He is a real person, not a creation of Alex in NYC)

but they definitely don't do a good job of marketing them.

Yeah, it used to be they could just put a single ad in DownBeat to reach 90% of their customer base. They didn't need to know much about marketing.

I only hear about new sets by lurking on the Steve Hoffman forums or just by checking the Mosaic site every couple of weeks.

the thing is, maybe jazz is a niche market, but i think young people are definitely interested in purchasing jazz in a variety of formats.

i just think it's particularly hard to sell "the complete X recordings of Y on the Z label in chronological order [year]-[year]" (especially the pre-war stuff)

I'm on their email list. I definitely agree that the chronological boxes seem designed for archivists, not music fans, but there are some sets they have out now that I'd love to own (the Oliver Nelson big band one, the Ahmad Jamal one, the Mingus live one), and those are things where a well-placed Pitchfork review could really move some copies.

maybe i'm an anomaly, but i spent a lot of time and money when i was a teenager buying new cds. i was something of a completist and i felt that it was important for my jazz self-education to have the complete charlie parker on savoy/dial, all the early louis armstrong i could get, and tons of compilations on document of old blues and hillbilly music. plus all the yazoo / shanachie stuff like eddie lang, et al.

it's funny that the post upthread says "apparently young people are not that interested" -- bc it was precisely my youthful exuberance that made me feel like i needed to have all this stuff (which i guess i did need, idk)

anyway, nowadays there's such an inundation of "previously unreleased recordings from X" that i'm overwhelmed, and i wouldn't say mosaic is presenting the most compelling stuff of that ilk. my local jazz station has a good amount of specialty shows that deal with pre-war stuff, very nerdy like, all this "kai winding on the obscure X label from may 17, 1936, with so and so on piano. later that year, the same arrangement would be recorded for the Y label, which had better distribution and today it's the one most people are familiar with, though so and so on piano was unable to record for that date, and for that reason the earlier recording is etc etc etc"

so that's how i get my kicks on pre-war jazz, and i wouldn't say pre-war jazz is an area i'm especially interested in exploring via specialty cd box sets when there's all this other crazy stuff coming out (ayler's unreleased recordings for bird notes e.g.)

the oliver nelson and mingus for sure!

i'm surprised by how many millennials i meet, or say people under 22, who come into record stores and for some reason NEED to have "the abstract truth" or "mingus ah hum" (on vinyl of course). i definitely think a "best new reissue" would do a lot for some of the (perceived as) hipper not-old-timey things that mosaic is putting out.

it's funny that the post upthread says "apparently young people are not that interested" -- bc it was precisely my youthful exuberance that made me feel like i needed to have all this stuff (which i guess i did need, idk)

Yeah, I'd think younger people would be more of a target audience. Older folks might be more likely to take a pass, e.g., "I already have the early '60s Art Blakey Jazz Messengers records; what do I need a box with six alternate takes for?"

I definitely agree that the chronological boxes seem designed for archivists

But also this. "Why do I need all the alternate takes of 'The Chess Players' on CD when I have this cool original vinyl pressing of The Big Beat?"

ts: $100 for 6 x cd set of complete 1950s hank mobley cuts on blue note / $100 for og '57 mono blue note press of s/t

Another wrinkle is the public domain sets. There's a couple of Real Gone boxes that add up to a good portion of the Mosaic Mobley set, for about $75 cheaper.

^^Just what I was going to mention, the public domain stuff - in the UK at least, there is SO MUCH great jazz on CD that is public domain and/or totally dirt cheap, enough listening for a lifetime, that full price specialist import CD box sets really seem like an unnecessary expense, no matter how great.

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/27/525541596/first-listen-the-ecstatic-music-of-alice-coltrane-turiyasangitananda
^ does what it says on the tin

one track in and holy fuck

A lot of good points about Mosaic on this thread---in the late 80s, they used send me catalogs and newsletters which seemed lavish---the slick paper, the fonts, the layouts, incl. big amazing photos---the only thing I ever bought (since, for instance, I already had all those Mingus LPs for 99 cents each, via the Great Vinyl Dump of that era) was The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols, on three CDs, with an incredible book, of course---it was and is everything I hoped for and more, after reading Four Lives In The BeBop Business.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91fa5pO1jSL._SL1500_.jpg