Some things I’ve been listening to:
Barry Altschul – the 3Dom Factor (Tum)
I was fortunate enough to be at Barry Altschuls 70th Birthday concert at Roulette in Brooklyn a few weeks ago, particularly impressed with Joe Fonda‘s bass playing and Jon Irabagon (new to me) on tenor saxophone. I hope this trio sticks together and plays around town more often.
Stephen Haynes – Parrhesia (Engine 2010)
Jamie Saft with Joe Morris the Spanish Donkey (Northern-Spy Records)
Joe Morris and Nate Wooley – Tooth and Nail (Clean Feed)
Joe Morris, Agustí Fernández and Nate Wooley – From the Discrete to the Particular (Relative Pitch)
Joe Morris and Agustí Fernández – Ambrosia (Riti)
Joe Morris – MVP LSD (Riti)
Marshall Allen, Mathew Shipp and Joe Morris – Night Logic (Rouge Art)
Anthony Braxton and Joe Morris – Four Improvisations (Duo) 2007 (Clean Feed)
I caught two nights of the Joe Morris festival at the Stone, NYC in January, this inspired me to pack a pile of his CDs in my traveling bag. He’s the fearless free improvising guitar player of our time, I’m so lucky to be able to hop into NYC to check him out. I missed the shows with the stunning pianist Agusti Fernandez, but caught him with Stephen Haynes (wow), Warren Smith (a master) and as bassist with the Ivo Perelman Qt.
Anthony Braxton – Eugene (1989) (Black Saint)
Anthony Braxton and Max Roach – One in Two, Two in One (Hatology)
Anthony Braxton and Gino Robair (Duets (1987) (Music & Arts)
Twenty five or so years ago, I was digging around record bins and kept seeing these albums with diagrams for titles. This was the music of Anthony Braxton. Vinyl was cheap back then and eventually I was curious enough to start buying anything with his name on it, like all those Arista albums. I was hooked for many years, buying albums as they came out, eventually I couldn’t keep up, but hey – I hung in there past Y2K.
These three are favorites, Eugene is along the same lines as Creative Music (1976) on Arista, an avant-garde big band in the jazz tradition. Duos with percussionists give Braxton the freedom to go anywhere, untethered by the harmonic restraints of other melodic instruments. Robair and Roach are an orchestra by themselves.
Vijay Iyer – Blood Sutra (Artists House)
An old favorite with the kick ass drums of Tyshawn Sorey and the melodic invention of of Rudresh Mahanthapa.
…and of course the new:
Miles Davis – Live in Europe 1969 (Columbia/Legacy)
Wayne Shorter – Without a Net (Blue Note)
I knew I’d be knocked out.
Victor Villadangos – Guitar Music of Argentina 2 (Naxos)
Graham Anthony Devine – Guitar Music from Brazil (Naxos)
Berliner Saxophone Quartet – Renaissance (cpo)
My love of the classical guitar and of the saxophone quartet grows every year, I’m open to anything I can get my hands on.
Joseph Jarman – as if it were the seasons (Delmark)
Michael Formanek – the Rub and Spare Change (ECM)
