A thread for Sandy Bull

which bach bouree opens the live at the matrix album? anybody know?

After thorough listening and consideration, I am prepared to pronounce "Demolition Derby" his finest moment.

― ian, Monday, November 17, 2008 12:18 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool! just found this record (sans cover) for $5. sounds dope.

I was listening to E Pluribus Unum yesterday, and I am prepared to pronounce it his finest moment.

listened to the live valentines day thing today - some of it is a mess, but some of it is so good. the electric blends = c o s m i c

definitely times where i want to listen to sandy bull and sandy bull only.

Tonight was one of those times for me. I put the "Reinventions" comp on (from Spotify), and when "Blend" got going my wife was like, this is amazing, who IS this? Guy was great.

inventions was the first sandy bull i heard, and it still remains my go-to for him. the 20 minutes of "blend" fly by, every single time, and his "memphis, tn" somehow sounds appropriate in just about any listening situtation.

actually...the "blend" i know is "blend II" from inventions. i'm not sure i've heard the "blend" on the comp! i'll check it out, stat

He was somewhat prominent in the recent Jann Wenner biography--Wenner listened to his music a lot before Rolling Stone was launched, and Wenner's wife Jane had a long involvement with him. Got me to download "Blend," which is nice.

"coming together (a song of peace)" is ultimate stoner feel-good hippy protest jam.

― ian, Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:46 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Does anyone rate his later records, specifically 1991's Vehicles? I ask because this clip from around the time period (and similarly accompanied by Aiyb Dieng) is amazing, and there's a radio show from around this time floating around too that is really good

And I guess KC's documentary about her dad never did get a wide theatrical (or DVD) release, huh? Would love to see it.

i just realized it's dennis charles -- the free jazz drummer who played with cecil taylor in the late 1950s and early '60s -- who's playing percussion on the LP "demolition derby"

what's more, if you look at rick lopez's william parker sessionography, you'll find there's an alleged recording floating around out there which features parker, sandy bull, don cherry, along with ed blackwell AND roger blank.

so that's a total of four (4) legendary free jazz drummers to collaborate with sandy bull, that i know of (including billy higgins on the "fantasias" LP, which gets plenty of mentions upthread).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo-p1oKoNPs

And I guess KC's documentary about her dad never did get a wide theatrical (or DVD) release, huh? Would love to see it.

― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:38 PM (three years ago

i could ask her about it if you are sincerely curious.

okay i need to post one more thing, this was recommended to me by youtube after searching various SB things: his 1992 album, "vehicles"

fuck it's good! just give it a minute until the steel guitar comes in ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSesUxCgqjY

i could ask her about it if you are sincerely curious.

― sarahell, Tuesday, March 15, 2022 3:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Of course! That would be great. I was just wondering what became of it. I'm pretty burned out on music docs in general but I feel like Sandy's is probably a story that actually deserves one

it's only a 40- or 50-min movie anyway, from what i can gather online

Looks like KC Bull posted the documentary on Youtube last year -- missed it til just now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7nSx1oJySQ

Seconding the praise for Memphis, Tennessee. Wish he'd done more in that vein.

thx for the heads up on the doc — been wanting to see that!

hell yeah - i will be watching that soon, thanks

thanks for sharing

Anyone heard this recently released live album?
https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/bull-sandy-live-in-san-francisco-late-1969-lp/TDP.54111LP.html

I’ve pretty much given up on Drag City repressing the rhythm ace record

curious about that SF 69 thing ... but I can't find any info about it (other than the descrip on the FE page and elsewhere). seems like it'd be at least a slightly bigger deal.

biggest surprise of the Jann Wenner bio was Sandy Bull playing such a prominent role being Jane Wenner's longtime romantic partner, even while she was married to Jann. also didn't know he was such a bad junkie.

just when you think sandy can't be any cooler, he cucks jann wenner

and yeah, he was, uh, a committed heroin user for a long time, i think.

but I can't find any info about it (other than the descrip on the FE page and elsewhere). seems like it'd be at least a slightly bigger deal.

idk, is it a bootleg label? the cover photo, pretty clearly from the 80s, doesn't inspire much confidence.

Trading Places appears to be a Radation sublabel, which afaik is legit

https://www.discogs.com/label/1624893-Trading-Places

from Discogs comments:

For those concerned with questions of legitimacy, Trading Places appears to license many of their releases from Cherry Red, who does factually maintain rights to the several releases I checked. Cherry Red / Esoteric Recordings is fully legitimate, and if they grant the license then the releases are legitimate. One may contact Cherry Red to confirm this for themselves. Every Trading Places release I've viewed has some form of licensing claim, whether from Cherry Red or other parties related to the respective release. This does not mean they are legitimate, but are at the very least researching rights holders.

what an amazing doc that was, and so real. loved it.