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

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

The latest from Mosaic (via their mailing list):

Dear Mosaic Friend,

In this time and place, the Mosaic business model is becoming harder and harder to sustain in this rapidly changing world. We aren't sure what the future will hold for us, but we want to let all of you know how much we appreciate that your support has allowed us to constantly make our dreams come true with set after set and that we intend to persevere. The way we operate may change but our mandate remains steadfast.

Charlie Lourie and I started Mosaic Records in 1982 and our first releases were in 1983. The company was almost an afterthought. The idea of definitive boxed sets of complete recordings by jazz masters at a crucial time in their careers was a small part of a proposal that we made to Capitol Records in 1982 to relaunch the Blue Note label. Even before Capitol turned us down, it occurred to me one night that the release of these boxed sets could be a business unto itself if we made them deluxe, hand-numbered limited editions sold directly to the public.

Our first release was The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk, which came about because I'd found about 25 minutes of excellent unissued Monk on Blue Note. It was too short for an album and I was obsessed with how to get this music released. . It then dawned on me that all of this important material needed to be retransferred and assembled in chronological order as a significant historic document. I solved my problem of releasing those 25 minutes of Monk music and Mosaic Records was born. We had a wonderful run of projects. The Tina Brooks, Herbie Nichols, Serge Chaloff, Count Basie and Nat Cole sets were among those that were especially near and dear to our hearts.

Charlie was my best friend and working together was a joy. Mosaic was slow getting started and it took a few years before we could even draw a meager salary. I remember during those lean years worrying if we could afford to put out a Tina Brooks set. Charlie looked at me in amazement. "Isn't that why we started this thing - to do what's important without anyone telling us no?!" He only had to say it once.

In 1989, we moved out of Charlie's basement and into our own facility. Scott Wenzel joined us in 1987. We added employees as the business grew. We started issuing sets on CD as well as LP and eventually had our own website.

We lost Charlie to scleroderma on December 31, 2000. We managed to keep the tone and spirit of the company up to the level that Charlie created and continued to put out thoroughly researched vital sets of importance in jazz history. But in the early 2000s, the record business began to shrink and morph for a variety of reasons and we were forced to downsize our staff, move to smaller quarters and reduce the flow of sets.

We've always tried to be diligent about warning you when sets were running low so you wouldn't miss out on titles that you wanted. But at this point, some sets which are temporarily out of stock may not be pressed again. We are not certain how Mosaic Records will continue going forward or how many more sets we will be able to create and release. We've got a lot of great plans but few resources.

Scott and I want to thank every single person who has supported us, made suggestions, given advice and shown us such love and affection. If you are thinking about acquiring a certain set, now's the time.

- - Michael Cuscuna

The next JD Allen album, Radio Flyer, features his regular trio (Gregg August on bass, Rudy Royston on drums), plus Liberty Ellman on guitar. I'm pretty excited.

Also, Ambrose Akinmusire's upcoming double CD features all new songs recorded live at the Village Vanguard. I've heard about half of it so far; it's strong.

^^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.

― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, April 27, 2017 4:28 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Listening to the Real Gone Jazz 4CD Hank Mobley Eight Classic Albums. Dirt cheap, sure, but one of the albums was apparently mastered from a skipping CD, and another from a low-bitrate MP3 source. I'm not enough of a Mobley fan to shell out for the Mosaic set. Caveat emptor with these public domain dealies.

(I didn't have any such problems with the Real Gone 10CD Art Blakey 19 Classic Albums, fwiw.)

My Stereogum column (which goes up tomorrow) talks about the Mosaic news, and the public-domain-cheapo-boxes thing. I'll post a link when it's live.

As promised, my latest Stereogum column. Pay particular attention to that jaimie branch album, 'cause it fucking rules.

You're right about the Branch. I just bought it. The Montgomery/Kelly track sounded really good too. I look forward to the rest, esp Cuong Vu.

scrolling through Bandcamp's jazz releases...new Matthew Shipp on a Polish label?

http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/not-bound

first track is tremendous, a lot of room & air in it -- flute, piano, drums and bass -- just really wonderful

http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/not-bound

there is loads of good stuff on this thread + the linked column, would also vouch for the Montgomery/Kelly(I especially love this one right now), Cuong Vu/Frissell and Nicole Mitchell recent live albums.

Ha-ha. wow: the best and maybe only relatively longform jazz commentary by xgau I've ever come across---I don't agree with all of these opinions as such, and maybe he wouldn't either now, but certainly finds and builds on a groove. which is 1971 as hell, lemme tellya (and his descriptions do make me want to check out all of the albums here that I still haven't heard, esp. that last Coryell he digs)
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/jazz-71.php

Going to the Vision Festival tomorrow night, 20 years after the first time I attended. Looking forward to it.

would love to hear how that goes! Report back!

Saw Andre 3000 at the Vision Festival tonight (attending, not performing).

Went back to the Vision Festival last night, saw drummer Whit Dickey's trio with Matt Shipp on piano and Mat Maneri on viola. They've got a really great new album out on AUM Fidelity which they were celebrating.

There were some last-minute substitutions in the lineup: poet Tracie Morris was supposed to appear with guitarist Marvin Sewell, but he dropped out and Vijay Iyer subbed in (on piano). Also, the final act of the night was supposed to be a trio of Charles Gayle on sax, William Parker on bass, and Marvin TA Thompson on drums, but Gayle (who lives in Buffalo now) didn't show up, allegedly because his plane was delayed a half hour and he got impatient and went back home. So Joe McPhee took the sax spot, and Matt Shipp joined, making it a quartet.

The headline GQ slapped on this Christian Scott interview is awful, but the piece itself is great. He really gets to explain his persona and his art in detail. Well worth a read.

Also, the final act of the night was supposed to be a trio of Charles Gayle on sax, William Parker on bass, and Marvin TA Thompson on drums, but Gayle (who lives in Buffalo now) didn't show up, allegedly because his plane was delayed a half hour and he got impatient and went back home. So Joe McPhee took the sax spot, and Matt Shipp joined, making it a quartet.

what a quartet!!!

yeah, sounds fun!

Just bought 2 of the 3 albums Jason Moran has for sale on Bandcamp - the live trio date from the Village Vanguard, and the one with Mary Halvorson on guitar and Ron Miles on cornet. Gonna be interviewing him for the site soon.

he's the best; i can't think of anytime i've seen him live where i haven't been impressed.