Thirsty Ear Blue Series

[bombastic]

I picked up "Thirsty Ear Blue Series" Sampler-The Shape Of Jazz To Come-It features some really cool music including Matthew Shipps "Cohesion"-Tim Bernes-"Jalapeno Diplomacy"- William Parker Violin Trios-"Scrapbook"-and lots of other great tracks. Any other fans of the "Blue Series" here. Some of the electronic stuff seems a little overbearing, but most of it is pretty well done. I would recommend this sampler. You can pick it up for 7 bucks, where the individual discs sell as high as 20.00, and the sampler is 70 minutes long. I can't stand getting ripped off on these 20.00 discs, and you put it in the player, and it's 36 minutes long! Doesn't that piss you off?!

[maygar]

The Thirsty Ear stuff is, on the whole very good. I've never been put of by the duration, I don't buy music by the yard; to use another medium as a comparison, is a large painting better value than a small one?

[bombastic]

Maygar, You've got a point about the length of the cd, if the music is really great, like "A Love Supreme" for example. I guess i was just letting others know that they could hear alot of good stuff from this label on one disc. Quantity doesn't always equal quality though, you're right.

[Joel]

I might check out that sampler , 70+ minutes for 7 bucks is an attractive offer.

on a sidenote, I'm aware of that "Quality is not quantity" or its about the "Art and not about Money".....but we shouldnt really be fooled by it.
A CD Media holds over and hour's worth of music and every artist should utilize that length to the fullest.

an "LP to CD classic jazz remaster" is okay since the LPs only averaged 45 minutes (more or less) in the old days.

Luckly, I only own one album which was only 36 minutes, Metheny's American Garage.

[omar zamora]

Originally posted by Joel
A CD Media holds over and hour's worth of music and every artist should utilize that length to the fullest.

I kinda have mixed feelings about that. I understand what you're saying, but I disagree. There really are some musicians who tend to overdocument. Actually, there are record labels who'll cram a cd full of odds and ends just to fill up space. Emanem does that a lot. Frankly, they get tiring after a while. I'd rather hear a succint 40-45 minutes of well-crafted music that delivers the message the musician really wants to communicate rather than a 70 minute cd in which you really forgot what you're listening to by the 60 minute mark (he says that as he listens to the fourth version of 'Willie Nelson' from the Jack Johnson box). Cecil Taylor, for example, will put out a 50 minute continuous piece and then a couple of miniatures. The funny thing is in Cecil's case the shorter pieces are usually more interesting.

Although, anything less than 40 minutes is kinda pushing it, and the musician or label should consider maybe releasing the material as 3-inchers (about 20 minutes of music) or something.

As far as Thirsty Ear, the three Spring Heel Jacks but especially the live one, Tim Berne's "The Shell Game", Mat Maneri's "Sustain" (moreso than the previous one), and William Parker's "Raining on the Moon" come to mind as particularly interesting recordings. I think I'll skip the Guillermo Brown, and I haven't been too interested in Matt Shipp lately, but I should give the new one a chance. Or maybe the collab with Anti-Pop Consortium.

[FunkyGhost]

Maybe this is a good place to post for me:

I really have a lot of trouble with Guillermo Brown. I recently got two CDs where he is playing drums (DJ Spooky "Optometry", and Davis S Ware "Surrendered") and I just don't get, what this guy is doing on the drums.
To me his playing sounds rather chaotic and not really in time, especially when he tries to do complicated things. Listen for example to "Gloryfied Calypso" on the Ware-CD. To me it sounds like Brown is really destroying the groove.
But then there must be something to him, since he is playing with many great musicians and I never heard someone complaining about him.

So I would like to know what people here think about him as a drummer.

[sal]

I love the Blue Series. I think that Matthew Shipp has put out some of his best music on this label. His newest "Equilibrium" is very good...very progressive. And his previous releases "Pastoral Composure" and "New Orbit" are superb. I've enjoyed pretty much every Blue Series album I've purchased. William Parker's "Scrapbook" is one of the best of the year.

[omar zamora]

FunkyGhost,

You're not alone in your aversion to Brown's playing. There are Ware quartet fans who prefer the Whit Dickey years and there are fans who prefer the Susie Ibarra years, but I think very few prefer the Ware band with Brown. In fact, a lot of folks think he ruined it.

Me, I'm not that harsh. When he first started with the group, I heard some promise in his playing that has yet to really materialize, but I'm an optimist.

But Susie is still is da bomb

[bombastic]

I don't know any thing about drum technique, but i've had the album "Surrendered", and that was my least favorite Ware disc. I've heard him on other things as well as this sampler and hear nothing unusual, other than he sounds like a great drummer. That's all I discern.

[todda]

Part of the problem is that Guillermo is a young guy from a rock and hip hop background and he initially did not mesh well with Parker. Corridors and Parallels seemed to be the recording that gave Brown a chance to display his funk background and that was the first recording that I really took notice of his talent. On Freedom Suite, he smartly allows Parker to set the rhythm and differs to the bassist for direction. It's obvious from his solo release that he's brimming with ideas, he just needs a chance to find his own sound and playing with Ware may not be the best way to do that.

I'm patiently waiting for the day when Hamid Drake is invited to fill the drum chair.

[bombastic]

You guys should get this sampler. It's at Borders for 7.00 and it has a track also from Wares new release, although his sax isn't on the track, it's a string track. Tim Berne's track with "Science Friction Band" is great. Spring Heel Jack is good too.

[maygar]

For my money, Brown is the best player I've heard with Ware, Ibarra was good, but her a touch a bit light and pastel toned for Ware's force. Dickey I dislike, just fussy and stressful. Apparently Hamid Drake filled in on some dates this summer in Europe, which I imagine would have been spectacular!

[xNils]

Originally posted by todda
Part of the problem is that Guillermo is a young guy from a rock and hip hop background and he initially did not mesh well with Parker.

those two players have not ever had any trouble meshing, best i can tell from having talked to the source. i think it's fair to criticize guillermo based on his thirsty ear solo release, "Soul at the Hands of the Machine," which was most definitely an exercise in distraction. i liked it, but i can see how lots of people might find it scattered.

but with these other groups he seems to be pretty good at finding the right place to play. you have to bear in mind that these "jazztronic" thirsty ear records feature production and the drummers are not necessarily playing all the hits, live, or even deciding where they will go on the finished product. you gotta be careful where you point the finger.

listen to "surrendered" or "the freedom suite" if you want to hear more than enough evidence that GEB fits like a glove with the david s. ware quartet. if you can find something on either of those discs that contradicts his skills at "jazz" or "free" playing, good. i can't. he's fucking great. "corridors & parallels" is mucked up with electronics in places so it's sometimes hard to tell exactly what guillermo is doing to fill the space.

I'm patiently waiting for the day when Hamid Drake is invited to fill the drum chair.

we can all wait for that. sure. if you look at the drummers before "surrendered," you'll see some major differences in style. but i don't think it's fair to discuss competence. susie ibarra is a rainbow of color, very subtle, man. guillermo can do color but he's much better playing forward, in and around the beat. my opinion, of course.

just get the context right. on his own, guillermo is more than a bit mixed up. but i think that just reflects his chameleonship more than anything else. maybe some folks are disturbed that a free jazz drummer can rock the backbeat.

nils

[clifton]

To return the topic to samplers, it seems to me that buying a sampler and skipping entire albums just to save a few bucks is counterproductive. Why not buy the whole album, hear the full scope of the artist's music and intent, and better support the artist? Just my opinion. Getting back to Guillermo Brown, I like his drumming with Ware, in that he seems to let Parker establish the groove, and then Brown seems to play the spaces between the beats. Ware's music has a lot of power, of course, so sometimes I wish Brown would play with a heavier feel or touch.

[marxmarvelous]

But Susie is still is da bomb

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!