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MORE FROM THE COMPOST HEAP

Here are a few more Cee-Dee-Ares that I got outta the Bill Shute pile I think you might wanna know 'bout. Will try to be short and succinct for the sake of not boring any of you readers outta your skulls (hah!).

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Marion Brown and Gunter Hampel-GESPRACHS FETZEN (Calig, Germany)

A particular rarity that I fer sure never got to lay eyes let alone ears upon and I doubt any of your reg'lar readers have as well. Two of the major madmen of late-sixties freesplat improv get together for this rather sublime free blow, complete with yet another appearance of the seemingly omnipresent Ambrose Jackson! Not what I would call either Brown's or Hampel's most outre recordings extant, but it sure goes down a whole lot smoother'n any of those current-day lounge schomooze jazzers doing their paradiddles expecting us all to look on with rapt attention!

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Carla Bley/Mike Mantler/Steve Lacy-JAZZ REALITIES (Fontana)

Gotta admit that I never did cozy up to either Carly Bley, Carla Bley's hairdo, Michael Mantler nor ESCALATOR OVER THE HILL (a rec of which I barely made it outta side one), but this particular session w/noted communist soprano sax player Steve Lacy amongst the leaders is pretty engaging if perhaps clinical. Comes close to some of the more by-the-numbers ESP-Disk releases that I rarely if ever play, but it works out swell enough.

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Frank Wright/A. Penck-RUN WITH THE COWBOYS

Here's a weirdie that came out as part of a series of albums made by the obscure madman (and visual artiste) A. R. Penck, recorded in England sometime in the eighties with ESP/BYG master of the post-Coltrane sphere Frank Wright as well as euro legend Peter Kowald. All of the records in this "series" (of how many, I do not know) have these weird and loopy hand-drawn covers and they probably also all have Frank Wollny on guitar. Wollny's playing is particularly left-field which is good for him cuz that means those whangy guitar riffs really fit in with the music in general which features Wright on a particularly crazed jag himself as well as some of the most muffled moans passing as vocals I've ever had the pleasure to hear. There does seem to be a faint recollection of cowboy music heard within the aluminum (which would figure considering the debt that the late-sixties avant jazz scene had to the singing cowpoke!) and I really couldn't see any of you who'd've dreamed of a Legendary Stardust Cowboy/AACM collaboration not wanting to hear this easily enough I guess downloadable classic!

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Spontaneous Music Ensemble-KARYOBIN (Island UK)

I've been meaning to play my copy of the Ensemble's ONE TWO ALBERT AYLER more sooner than later, but until I can dig it outta thirtysome years of serious record collecting I'll just settle with this burn which was originally released on Island Records if you can believe it! Far from the prog rock or reggae that Island or any of those chi-chi English labels were known for, KARYOBIN is a slow burner that doesn't erupt into massive emotional release like you probably thought it would, but sorta bobs and weaves in a pleasant enough chamber jazz way. Oddly enough this was recorded by Island regular Eddie Kramer, who had the misfortune of being "lionized" by the Emerson Lake and Palmer faux-boogie woogie numbuh "Are You Ready Eddie" (or was that Eddie Offord?).

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Thanks for the burns Bill. You really are helping to irrigate a musical drought around here!