Rolling 2011 thread where I buy and listen to jazz albums for the first time ever

On The Corner is my favorite jazz album (and one of my favorite albums, period) ever made. Good luck, ilxor.

So, I've played On the Corner once through, and I'd like to give it a couple more spins to process before I post my thoughts. But, I thought I'd share what my little one had to say (she's 8 yrs old, fwiw).

Upon hearing a few minutes of "Helen Butte" this morning: "This is a weird song -- it sounds like they're all going crazy all at once!"

Upon seeing the cover artwork: "And they all look like they're going crazy, too!"

My daughter (16 months old) goes bananas when she hears "Black Satin" -- tries to keep up with the handclaps, loses balance, falls over, smiles the whole time.

ornette coleman's 'ornette!' LP is fantastic and fun to listen to, it doesn't seem like a chore at all, which i find with a lot of jazz

and my favourite is carla bley and paul haines' 3LP 'escalator over the hill' -even outside of jazz its my favourite record. although it's probably not the best starting point at all. carla bley is awesome anyway.

also check out coleman hawkins and jelly roll morton.

That's adorable! xp

Thanks for the recommendations, I definitely have Ornette bookmarked in my mind as someone to get around to eventually; I've heard of Coleman Hawkins, will keep him in mind as well. Haven't heard of the others at all, but happy to pick something up if I run across an interesting looking record by any of them. Cheers!

based on yr likes u gotta get some pharoah sanders records, bro

I saw a Pharaoh Sanders record yesterday, thought about grabbing it... Black something? Hmmmmmm.

Black Unity, right.

i can recommend you stuff anytime ilxor. Pity you cant get spotify as its got an amazing selection of jazz inc most blue note stuff.

hell, you could spend all year just digging into Miles and his sidemen

some fave psychedelic jazz:

Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East
Pharoah Sanders - Karma (xpost destroyer)
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

yeah i can recommend "tauhid," "karma," and "thembi" at minimum but you'd probably dig anything from the 60s-early 70s of his.

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

yeah this is an absolute must

Excellent -- thanks everyone, this is great.

That Mingus record in particular is one I've heard fantastic things about. Will def pick up the first time I see it for a reasonable price.

i think you should just post your daughter's reviews of the jazz canon as they occur

Knowing what you like, Pharaoh Sanders is the way to go. V groovy. You might also want to try Alice Coltrane.

If you're looking for more noisy modern stuff, you might like The Thing or any project involving Mats Gustaffson (horn) or Paal Nilsson Love (drums) (not sure if I spelled those right but w/e)

Definitely will check out Coltranes (John and Alice both) in 2011.

i envy you listening to Karma for the first time

i think you should just post your daughter's reviews of the jazz canon as they occur

Will do. :)

I do like the Mats Gustaffson stuff I've heard, though my knowledge is limited to the collaborative records he did with Sonic Youth (that Patti Smith/Hidros 3 thing), Jim O'Rourke and Yoshimi.

Good luck ilxor! And don't look at bop as boring and trad, cos some of that stuff is total dynamite.

I have an Anthony Braxton collaborative album with Wolf Eyes and it's not really my thing (though as time goes on, I'm increasingly finding myself less into Wolf Eyes and other harshly noisy stuff, so that may be the issue).

And don't look at bop as boring and trad, cos some of that stuff is total dynamite.

I'll definitely poke around in all corners. Happy to take recommendations, of course.

The first jazz records I really got into:

Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane
Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music
Art Blakey - Caravan
Miles Davis - Cookin' (try to get a non-RVG edition if you can)
Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar
Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off

All very much of a certain style/period, but all good. Not sure how I picked them, maybe just via record store listening stations? I feel like those are probably good starter jazz records since they appealed to me as a teenager mostly into rock and hip-hop (though also raised with some classical).

Blue Note in the 1960s is the greatest record label ever. Totally unfuckwithable!

(try to get a non-RVG edition if you can)

Why so?

Should I avoid most any RVG-issued stuff I come across, or just this album?

rvg reissues are generally avoided if possible ... one really obvious drawback to having an old man w/ shot ears remastering things is that he doesnt hear very well

lots of good suggestions here. esp pharoah sanders, john & alice coltrane, 70s miles, black saint and the sinner lady.

jazz things i've likes, as a non-jazz person:

charles mingus - mingus ah um and live at antibes '60
mingus & ellington - money jungle
art blakey - moanin'
sun ra - angels and demons at play
don cherry - brown rice

cool thread, I know nothing at all about (non-vocal) jazz but I have recently liked:

Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing, But Not For Me
Mary Lou Williams Black Christ of the Andes

will definitely check out some of the recommendations here (though in general whenever I try to get into jazz seriously I end up really bored...)

Re Pharoah Sanders: Don't start with Black Unity as it's one long song. Start with Tauhid or Jewels of Thought or Thembi, all of which are in the same style but have short, discrete pieces.

Re jazz for little kids: Kids like Thelonious Monk - without being at all disrespectful, the dude was a fucking genius and all, but the way he plays the piano is very Muppet-ish and kids will smile and dance around. They may also like Ornette Coleman's Atlantic recordings (The Shape of Jazz to Come, This is Our Music, and Change of the Century are the proper entry points) for similar reasons - a kind of cartoonish effervescence.

Keep in mind I'm approaching jazz from the standpoint of loving stuff like krautrock, psych rock, "weird" folky stuff that gets a bit drone-y at times. Stuff that moves and breathes and evolves slowly as it unfolds. Not sure if that means my ear will prefer certain jazz stuff, but as full disclosure, that's where I'm coming from.

With background like that, some jazz should appeal to you right away - Pharoah, Sun Ra, Strata East 'spiritual' stuff - but the main current through the 50s - 70s may elude you completely. There is something - or a lot of somethings - about Bop derived jazz that is just not translatable, if your taste was formed by rock/ pop.

If you start looking for what's not there - tunes, emotional expressiveness, rhythmic excitement, you'll hear instead twiddley-ness, lack of affect and stuff that's rhythmically much too complicated to dance to, and that taps the ride cymbal like a hyperactive toddler. It'll probably just annoy, as it does a lot of people.

There is nothing that says you have to like it of course: there's a lot of Jazz you probably will like, even if the Bop continuum leaves you cold, but. like it or not, it is that which all the other streams play off.

What to do?

Mingus or Monk might be better places to start than Miles or 'Trane - Mingus is bluesier, and Mingus Ah Um rocks, and Monk has tunes that aren't 'I Got Rhythm' with a whole bunch of extra chords. Eric Dolphy's 'Out To Lunch' and Oliver Nelson's 'Blues and the Abstract Truth' (Dolphy's in there too).

jazz forms the basis for my understanding of genre & criticism in a weird way -- the amg guide to jazz was probably the first music crit i eve read (thnx ron wynn!) and for a long time i had more 'contextual knowledge' of that genre than any other ... so its hard for me to recommend stuff cuz a lot of it is like, sun ra made sense to me in the context of having listened to lots of duke & basie & not really connecting that much w/ certain styles of free jazz, coltrane's later stuff makes more sense to me having known his stuff w/ miles, etc ... like each album you hear helps create a constellation that becomes more fleshed out over time ... the other thing is that seeing a great live performance will help u understand jazz x1000 than if u just listen to 'historical albums' or w/e

anyway, point is no one ever mentions fats navarro but his double-disc w/ tadd dameron is awesome, from the era just before jazz artists could record >3 min songs

Re Pharoah Sanders: Don't start with Black Unity as it's one long song. Start with Tauhid or Jewels of Thought or Thembi, all of which are in the same style but have short, discrete pieces.

it's funny that you say that. i'd say start with karma cuz it's (mostly) one long song, but it's such a fucking amazing song you won't even notice the lack of discretion.

Eric Dolphy's 'Out To Lunch' and Oliver Nelson's 'Blues and the Abstract Truth' (Dolphy's in there too).

yeah, this

im trying to 'get along better' w ilxors at the moment but suffice 2 say that in an older era i would rmde at ppl recommending 'rock-friendly' jazz records & saying 'on the corner' is the best jazz album ever

but whatever way gets u in i guess

^ how to ryde in like 40 words

The first jazz records I really got into:

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk
Tony Williams - Spring

Things I started out with:

Compilations of Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
John Coltrane - Coltrane
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, In A Silent Way
Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid
Sun Ra - Strange Celestial Road
Last Exit - Iron Path

Re Miles, I'd suggest In a Silent Way (xpost -- more ambient) and Jack Johnson (more rocking) as really accessible points of entry. Also, Herbie Hancock, Sextant and/or Crossings.

Lots of people very OTM on this thread!

'kind of blue' remains the one record i will never challop about. lol

perfect music basically

im trying to 'get along better' w ilxors at the moment but suffice 2 say that in an older era i would rmde at ppl recommending 'rock-friendly' jazz records & saying 'on the corner' is the best jazz album ever

but whatever way gets u in i guess

Well, okay, you mentioned Fats Navarro (duly noted!) -- what else would you recommend?

I mentioned that I'm coming from a background in psych/drone, krautrock, offbeat folk, etc. because I can see some parallels between those genres and what I *think* I may enjoy in jazz record (though I've not listened to hardly any jazz yet, so it's hard to say).

Anyway, I didn't mention '80s-'00s hip-hop/rap and pop music in general because I see less of a connection between jazz and those genres in general, but I like plenty of that stuff, too (you should know -- we turn up on the same threads a good bit). So, as someone who's as heavily invested in rap/hip-hop as you are, what jazz records (not necessarily "rock-influenced") do you fancy, and what's the appeal of the records you're into for someone who's also into rap music?

Btw, I owned Kind of Blue back in lolcollege days. Think I played it a couple times, saw it as a "traditional" jazz record but given I have basically zero knowledge of jazz theory/structure/etc. and wasn't invested in exploring the genre as a whole, I clearly need to hear it again with an open, more patient mind.

Btw, one loose rule I'd like to set for myself is that I'm going to avoid reading press/reviews of various albums until I've listened to them and digested the sounds within a good bit.

i don't know about this. you're bouncing to a huge & varied genre with no sense of context or history - i think that reading about the music would really aid in your enjoyment of some of these records. it can be overwhelming at first, but it'll all come together eventually (especially as you find musicians that speak to you and track down their other work, etc.).

I mentioned that I'm coming from a background in psych/drone, krautrock, offbeat folk, etc.

You can do what I did as a teenager and get excited when you look at the track listing and see song lengths over 8:00.

aside from obvious ish like rappers sampling jazz, the real tradition that rap gets from jazz is the density of the ideas/messaging coming across over a short period of time that is simultaneously open for anyone to follow, but works as kind of an insider language for ppl steeped in the music. a lot of folks dont 'get' the jazz canon cuz they're missing the way it plays w/ melody/rhythm, that there's a 'language' going on -- a lot of the best instrumentalists are communicating thru a combination/balance of referentialism (both overt & subtle) with originality. original melodies, original ideas. its the kind of thing u develop an ear for by spending lots of time paying attention to different instrumentalists & beginning to understand their personalities

deej 100% OTM re kind of blue.

see coltrane's giant steps, my favorite things and a love supreme for a few more "way too easy" classic that everybody owes themselves (not as effortlessly perfect as KOB, though).

plus yeah, take brad c.'s advice on early 70s herbie: mwandishi, crossings, thrust, headhunters.

thread is getting unweildy...

To clarify, I'm open to reading about the records I'm hearing, definitely. I think context is important. But as a first-time jazz listener, I'm curious to hear, say, On the Corner before reading a bunch of different critics' opinions and getting an impression of the album before I've heard it. Once I spin anything a couple times, I definitely plan to read up on its background and "importance" and context, etc. But I'd rather approach On the Corner for the first time without the background noise of "THIS IS MILES' [WHATEVER] PERIOD ALBUM AND IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR [XX] REASON AND THIS IS WHY IT IS GREAT" -- at least the first few times I hear something.

Think of it in the way lex reviews records -- trying to avoid reading other critics' comments before he forms his own impressions of any given record. I'd rather form my own opinions/tastes and get impressions without the critical consensus floating in the back of my head beforehand.

Does that make sense?

i think that for people with "rock ears", jazz with a lot of chord changes & harmonic complexity can be the toughest stuff to "hear" and get into. imo that's why the modal/drone-based/free stuff is most popular with non-jazz heads (also why kind of blue is so appealing, besides the amazing solos/vibe...it sounds like most people's idea of swinging modern jazz, with non-challenging changes).

the real tradition that rap gets from jazz is the density of the ideas/messaging coming across over a short period of time that is simultaneously open for anyone to follow, but works as kind of an insider language for ppl steeped in the music.

― *gets the power* (deej), Thursday, January 20, 2011 8:09 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

boom

thread is getting unweildy...

I love it. Rest assured I'll be compiling a huge list of recommendations from these posts and keeping them in mind as I explore in the coming months. Thanks everyone!

that totally makes sense, but it's a different case since lex is already very familiar with the vocabulary and aesthetics of the genre. but whatevs, just jump in head-first and sort it all out later.

Monk stuff you need:

Genius Of Modern Music Vols. 1 & 2, Brilliant Corners, Monk's Music, and 5 By Monk By 5 are all essential from the early years. Lots of people think his Columbia albums of the 1960s are less essential, but I disagree, so from that period you should hear Monk's Dream, Criss-Cross, Monk., It's Monk's Time, Underground and Straight No Chaser (note: not the movie soundtrack, the album itself).

Note: all of the above are studio recordings. Once you're done with that, dig through the live records - I recommend Misterioso, Thelonious In Action, Monk In Tokyo and Live At The Jazz Workshop.

Angels and Demons at Play / The Nubians of Plutonia (Evidence; 1965/1993)
Fate in a Pleasant Mood / When Sun Comes Out (Evidence; 1965/1993)
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy / Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow (Evidence; 1967/1992)
We Travel the Spaceways / Bad and Beautiful (Evidence; 1967/1992)
Nothing Is... (ESP-Disk; 1970/2005)

I have these on LP, they're all great

My pick of those Sun Ra CDs would be:

Angels and Demons at Play / The Nubians of Plutonia (Evidence; 1965/1993)
Fate in a Pleasant Mood / When Sun Comes Out (Evidence; 1965/1993)
Other Planes of There (Evidence; 1966/1992)
Nothing Is... (ESP-Disk; 1970/2005) [Although keep in mind that this live recording was reissued recently in more complete form, so if you are paying $9 for this and find you like it, you may regret not holding out for the more recent College Tour Recordings or whatever the title of the more extensive version is.]

Others I like but not as much:

Super-Sonic Jazz (Evidence; 1957/1992)[These two are just a little too early/hard bop for me]
Jazz in Silhouette (Evidence; 1959/1992)
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy / Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow (Evidence; 1967/1992) [This is worth hearing, but I honestly haven't found myself going back to it much over the years]
My Brother the Wind Volume II (Evidence; 1971/1992) [Some cool stuff, but kind of a skimpy set overall]

I always forget what this sounds like, but I think it's non-essential:

We Travel the Spaceways / Bad and Beautiful (Evidence; 1967/1992)

And lol I had stopped paying attention to this thread but I clicked on it only to find you are talking Sun Ra again.

I've been meaning to update this thread so badly but have been banned for the past month. Anyway, been playing the heck outta some jazz lately, mostly the following, all of which are absolutely killer and 100% essential listening:

Albert Ayler - New Grass
Ornette Coleman - Change of the Century
John Coltrane - Living Space
Joe Henderson - Joe Henderson in Japan
Pharoah Sanders - Thembi
Cecil Taylor - Conquistador!

surprised you think so highly of joe in japan!

never heard that one, though i do dig some 70s henderson.

Yeah Joe in Japan is good in terms of energy but it's a little choppy at times.

this is my fave 70s henderson (and not just because of the excellent cover)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/Flabbergast/hendersoncover.jpg

might i suggest some anthony braxton?
very rarely does it "swing" but you get some super mathy mentalism ( at least on the early stuff before he started plying his "ghost trance music" ethos). also lots of large bass sarrusophones / contrabass clarinet / sax as large as your house business. he hasn't demonstrated "fire" to me very often but nearly always tickles the synapses to a state of delight & has comedy arsequake raspberry noises.
you can get "this time" & "anthony braxton" (or "B-X2NOI47A"as it's sort of otherwise known)on CD for pennies right now, & also "time zones" w/ richard teitelbaum which is him w/ teitelbaum's radiophonic electronics - amazing. "3 compositions of new jazz" is definitely also worth a shot, but after that you're taking your life into your own hands. "donna lee" does swing, but tends to be pricey. Also henry threadgill is worth a shot, particularly "too much sugar for a dime" & "making a move" which employ a 2xtuba bass section with widdly guitars. also "rag bush & all" which you can pick up cheapish on vinyl - kinda new orleans funeral band which to my ears sounds texturally like a zappa dance jam without the widdle. it's what i imagine "harmolodic" things should sound like.

I've never run across Anthony Braxton in the shops here. I have his live collaboration with Wolf Eyes (which is basically a Wolf Eyes set featuring Braxton as a side player). I'll poke around as I shop for the ones you mentioned, though. Thanks!

HOOS: I haven't heard any other Henderson yet, maybe that's why In Japan is so great... I've nothing to compare it to!

I've been meaning to update this thread so badly but have been banned for the past mont

?! ilxor gets banned, but geir does not. the mind boggles.

Whoops... self-banned, I should have clarified.

A little time away does me some good once in a while!

Came across and bought the following this week:

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin'
John Coltrane - Sun Ship
Weather Report - Sweetnighter
Weather Report - Heavy Weather

I have one other Blakey album that I like (from '59, forget the name), and I'm deep into Coltrane—haven't found a Coltrane album on Impulse that isn't somewhere between "pretty damn good" and "fucking fantastic."

Totally new to Weather Report. All I know is Shorter's in the band, more or less. Played the first couple tracks on Sweetnighter and it sounds like these guys are generally on a post-Bitches Brew trip, is that somewhat right or am I off the mark? And what are their best records?

moanin deserves its classic status -- top 10 hard bop records of the 50s, not a bad note on it. weather report is more composed/much less improv-y than bitches brew (at least heavy weather is, haven't heard the other one). i dunno, beyond the first couple weather report records, i haven't gotten too much into them.

I like Heavy Weather okay, but Mysterious Traveller is my favorite of their mid-70s highly composed period. If you want to hear their weirdest shit, pick up the 2CD set Live in Tokyo.

top 10 hard bop records of the 50s, not a bad note on it.

What are the other nine...?

JAZZ IS LIKE HEROIN TO ME ! ! ! ~~~~ ILM POST-1945 JAZZ ALBUMS POLL - THE RESULTS COUNTDOWN ~~~~

hmm i think that one links to an actual post
this one should link you to the thread
JAZZ IS LIKE HEROIN TO ME ! ! ! ~~~~ ILM POST-1945 JAZZ ALBUMS POLL - THE RESULTS COUNTDOWN ~~~~

Total # of jazz albums bought in 2011.... 130.

Here's the count:

26 - John Coltrane
22 - Miles Davis
10 - Sun Ra
7 - Thelonious Monk
6 - Albert Ayler
5 - Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus
4 - Ornette Coleman, Pharoah Sanders
3 - Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Mats Gustafsson, Joe Henderson, Andrew Hill, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor
2 - Derek Bailey, Art Blakey, Peter Brötzmann, Eric Dolphy, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter
1 - Duke Ellington, Johnny Hartman, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Oliver Nelson, Sonny Sharrock, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams

Pretty much picking up anything I see on Blue Note in the '60s at this point, and anything Blue Note or Impulse! related. But I wonder if I'm not pigeonholing myself.... I'm not listening or aiming much for pre '60s jazz as a general rule (with exceptions being Blakey and Monk and maybe a couple others) and most of this stuff falls into 60s or early 70s jazz, leaning toward free jazz (Sun Ra, Ayler, Cherry, Ornette) and spacey stuff (Pharoah, Alice, Hancock fusion era).

What else am I missing? I have a pretty good idea of my "tastes" at this point but still of course desire to (A) step outside the box to some degree, now that the box has formed, and (B) continue to find tons of really great albums within the box.

did you get mccoy tyner's "enlightenment"?

If you dig both the 1960s Blue Note hard bop and free/avant garde, you should definitely check out Charles Mingus. He did both some cool avant garde stuff and groovy-as-hell bluesy numbers. Blues & Roots, Tijuana Moods, or Mingus Ah Um are good places to start, though pretty much all of the official albums he released between 1956 and 1963 are great.

Um, it says right there he bought five Mingus records

A band I just discovered last year was David Murray's Octet. A great mix of hard-swinging bluesy bop and outbursts of free blowing. Their five albums have been reissued in a budget-priced box that's totally worth getting. Killer stuff.

Ellery Eskelin - The Sun Died
Mihaly Dresch - Egyenes Zene
William Parker - Double Sunrise over Neptune
Jenny Scheinman - 12 Songs
Dinah Washington - Dinah Jams
Charlie Parker - Dial Masters
Max Roach - Deeds Not Words
Horace Silver - Song for my Father
Cannonball Adderley - In San Francisco

Oh, and Henry Threadgill too: "Everybody's Mouth a Book" and "Up Popped the Two Lips" are both recommended.

did you get mccoy tyner's "enlightenment"?

"The Real McCoy"—only one i've found so far.

Um, it says right there he bought five Mingus records

mingus ah um, mingus x5, mingus plays piano, oh yeah, black saint :)

thanks for the rec's o. nate!!

David Murray's Octet

yess Ming is a classic album

I like o. nate's eclectic approach

just bought -

Art Blakey - Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk
Grant Green - Idle Moments
Charles Mingus - Blues and Roots
Thelonious Monk - Monk.
Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer

really getting into the Atavistic reissues on their Unheard Music Series, i've picked up all of the following recently:

Peter Brotzmann Sextet - Fuck de Boere
Globe Unity Orchestra - ??? (forget the name of this one)
Haazz & Company - Unlawful Noise
Mount Everest Trio - Waves from Albert Ayler
Luther Thomas & Human Arts Ensemble - Funky Donkey
Luther Thomas & Human Arts Ensemble - Banana

other recent stuff i've picked up:

Albert Ayler - Holy Ghost (box set... fucking amazing)
Ornette Coleman - Town Hall 1962
John Coltrane - Live in Seattle (double disc edition)
Art Blakey - A Night in Tunisia
Peter Brotzmann & Bill Laswell - Low Life

Can anyone please suggest contemporary ('90s - '00s), somewhat avant-garde & interesting modern jazz musicians-- in the vein of Mats Gustafsson and The Thing, Ken Vandermark / Vandermark 5, Colin Stetson, Fire! with Jim O'Rourke, the Peter Brötzmann Tentet, etc.?

Thanks...

You might like Zs. It's not really jazz, but neither is Colin Stetson arguably.

You might also like Mostly Other People Do the Killing -- Kevin Shea on drums

oh, would also check out Ches Smith's projects -- Good for Cows (metal influence upright bass/drum duo) and These Arches (featuring the awesome Mary Halvorson on Guitar).

Oh and you kind of need to listen to William Parker/Hamid Drake if you don't already

Thanks much! i've already got Parker/Drake on my radar, heard Zs a bit but never really listened, but the others are new to me...

anyone else help out?

Vijay Iyer? David S. Ware?

They're not quite like the people you mentioned now but, based on your other descriptions of what you like ("stuff that moves and breathes and evolves slowly as it unfolds"), E. S. T. (Esbjorn Svensson Trio) and Steve Lehman Octet might appeal to you.

Do you know Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Nels Cline?

See if you can find some Tim Posgate.

If you want something really slow and druggy, maybe try Tord Gustavsen.

Evan Parker of course. His trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton is killer.

really enjoyed the performance by lllλ - seymour wright on sax, paul abbott on drums, Daichi Yoshikama on electronics - that i saw recently, dunno if they've got any recs out yet - super-crunchy free jazz pummelling

Oh, and Evan Parker made a great trio recording with Eddie Prévost out of AMM and John Edwards, All Told.

I don't think I've ever heard Evan Parker's actual jazz recordings. I've only listened to his non-idiomatic improv stuff + the disc with Jah Wobble.

Today, I'm pulling out this relatively unsung Swedish album from 2004 that I really enjoyed and it still holds up quite well (besides also reminding me of a time when I went to see live music): http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7681280&style=music

They put on a great performance in Ottawa that year, described pretty well here: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=14138&pg=5#.Ub-ifhaJzZg

Parker/Drake in general deserve attention. Associated with that crowd, I would also pick out Matthew Shipp. sund4r mentioned E.S.T. I particularly liked Leucocyte.

I'm still a fan of 2003's Assif Tsahar/Cooper-Moore album America (but you might like those two in general).

Maybe a bit off topic, but I've been finding myself going back to Richard Gallo's Urdimbres y Maranas and thinking it's almost as good as I initially thought it was.