While I figure out how to work Musescore, here’s some Art Ensemble of Chicago. My German friends told an interesting story last year about how they got all of this Paiste gear… by some rather […]
Category: avant-garde
Very occasional quote of the day: mistakes
“The idea of a mistake is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is.” – John Cage
Daily best music in the world: Ronald Shannon Jackson with Albert Ayler
Ronald Shannon Jackson playing with Albert Ayler on the Live at Slug’s Saloon album, recorded in 1966. Jackson wasn’t recorded a lot at this stage of his career, and it’s really interesting to hear him […]
MY NAME IS PABLO PICASSO
Digging through my old cassettes I found this rather hilarious avant-garde thing I composed in 1991 on a then-fancy HR-16 drum machine, doing with it things entirely unintended by the technicians at Alesis. It’s called MY […]
Paul Motian podcast
Here’s one you’re going to want to follow: Uncle Paul’s Jazz Closet. The caretaker of Paul Motian’s recorded archives has made a podcast that includes selections from his recordings— released and unreleased, live performances, rehearsal […]
Daily best music in the world: Andrew Cyrille with Grachan Moncur III
Just a nice track from a record I’ve never heard, by Moncur, a famous trombonist, with Andrew Cyrille on the drums:
Ornette live in ’58
Here’s something remarkable: Ornette Coleman recorded live in LA in 1958, just before his big national exposure in New York. The band includes the musicians in his famous quartet: Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy […]
From the zone: The Wizard, by Albert Ayler
I’ve been preoccupied the last few days whipping into shape the 2013 Cruise Ship Drummer! Book of the Blog (available for order next week), so here’s a quick little something from my old notebooks: a […]
Sunny Murray, the bebop tradition, and Milford Graves
“Take it easy, now… there’s no work in this shit, they’re gonna jump on your ass…” — Sunny Murray to a young, interested, Hans Bennink Here’s an interview by Dan Warburton, with one of the […]
Transcription: Ed Blackwell solo — Tarik
Oh, what the hell, happy Saturnalia— I went ahead and transcribed the solo from the GOTD of a few days ago, Tarik, by Ed Blackwell, from Dewey Redman’s album of the same name. It’s a […]
A treasure trove: WKCR Soundscape project
I just googled this up, from the WKCR 89.9 New York radio site: a duo performance by Ed Blackwell and saxophonist Charles Brackeen, recorded in 1980 at: Soundscape[,] a New York performance venue founded and […]
DBMITW: more Cecil
This is from my other favorite Cecil Taylor record, Looking Ahead!, with Denis Charles on drums. Charles plays his cymbal (in 1950’s, at least) in a way you would have a hard time getting away […]