Questionnaire.....pt. 4

I think this one of Adrian Sherriff's deserves a post all of it's own....

1. Favorite/particularly interesting jazz albums?

One Down, One Up:Live at the Half Note - John Coltrane, Interstellar Space - John Coltrane, Live Evil - Miles Davis, Miles Ahead - Miles Davis, Out to Lunch - Eric Dolphy, El Corazon - Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell, European Concert - Ornette Coleman, Creative Orchestra Music 1976 - Anthony Braxton, The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Volume 1 - Sun Ra, Inner Mounting Flame - Mahavishnu Orchestra, A Handful of Beauty - Shakti, The Sultan's Picnic - Rabih Abou Khalil, Back From the Gig - Booker Ervin, Extensions - Dave Holland, Solo Monk - Thelonious Monk

2. Favorite/particularly interesting 'world' recordings?

Any recording of Gamelan Selonding from Tenganan. Some selonding recordings are from the Ubud based groups (eg. Mickey Hart). Those sets of instruments don't capture the unique sound of this ensemble to my ears.

Tuva: Voices from the Centre of Asia. I first heard this album in 1992. It blew me away then and is still a favorite. In recent years Huun-Huur-Tu have been creating beautiful albums keeping the essence of this tradition alive.

Any recording by Forward Kwenda the mbira player from Zimbabwe, particularly the solo work. Some of Forward's solo work is reminds me of the energy, drive and multilayered dimensions of the later Coltrane recordings with Elvin.

Any recording by Lazaro Ros, akpwon extraordinaire. Particularly the albums with Olorun. Listening to Lazaro's voice floating over a bata toque is one of life's true pleasures.

3. Favorite/particularly interesting classical recording/pieces?

Metastases (Xenakis), Sirius (Stockhausen), Barstow (Partch), The Dreamer That Remains (Partch), Études sur les mouvements rotatoires (Wyschnegradsky), Sinfonia (Berio), Excerpt from Drift Study (La Monte Young), Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven), Wozzeck (Alban Berg),

4. Name a Jazz recording you're mad about but not many other people would know.

Eu E Eles - Hermeto Pascoal

Live at Montreux - Hermeto Pascoal

Chimarrão com Rapadura - Hermeto Pascoal and Aline Morena

To me Hermeto is such a phenomenal musician that you can only really tell how far beyond us he is on an album like Eu E Eles (entirely solo/overdubbed). Find a picture of the cover to see the instruments that he plays on this album. The duo album is an absolute joy. Check out the clips on their website.

http://www.hermetopascoalealinemorena.com.br/english/escute_dvd.asp

5. Name a (genre other than jazz or jazz) record you're mad about but no one would've thought you'd be into.

Paul Robeson: The Complete EMI Recordings

The Complete Pet Sounds Sessions

6. Give me 3 of your favorite Australian Jazz recordings.

Artisans Workshop (Artisans Workshop) - For me this album is like Cecil Taylor's earlier recordings, only once you know the material well enough to clearly hear the boundaries between the composition and extemporization can you fully appreciate the significance of the work. It probably helps that I played these tunes occasionally and toured with these guys across the early nineties.

Introducting McJad (Hounslow/Gould) - I feel that if we put Keith Hounslow together with Bob Barnard, Australia produced two of the great jazz trumpet players of the last century. In the few encounters that I had with Keith, it was acutely tangible how deeply he was hearing what he played.

Ice Dreaming (Hustas/Keller) - I am not sure what it is about this album, but I must of played it a dozen times in the first few days after I purchased it. Beautifully played, strikingly original music.

7. Most underrated Australian Jazz player?

Bob Barnard/Graeme Lyall - neither unknown but both with gifts that heavily outweigh their level of broader renown.

8. Most underrated non-Australian Jazz player?

Albert Mangelsdorff - his American sidemen on recordings include: Elvin Jones, Jaco Pastorius, John Lewis, Lee Konitz, Don Cherry, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Ed Thigpen and many European great musicians. Developed a unique innovative voice on that trombone that dextrously stretches from hard hitting hard bop (earlier work) to the wooliest free playing (Glove Unity Orchestra) and a very personal approach to composition featuring large intervallic leaps. Released approx. 40 albums as a leader. Probably his biggest flaw is that he sounds like a white German trombone player (he is one) and he didn't choose to move to New York.

Eddie Bert would probably rank as a more underrated great musician but he only really made two well known albums (one with Monk and one with Mingus) and then predominantly worked in the studio scene (moral of the story, don't play the trombone to become famous).

John Gilmore also makes a strong candidate.

9. Name a gig (or two or three) you saw in Australia that really stays with you....

A North Indian classical recital that I saw at Melba Con in 1992. I don't know if it was actually a great gig or who performed, but it was the first time that I saw an Indian classical performance. I cried when they stopped and then floated out of the hall.

Cecil Taylor solo at the Brisbane Festival in 1993. I also played at his workshop a few days previously and then hung out with him and a group of friends until sunrise the day after the gig. Cecil lives and breathes absolute commitment to his music.

Pharoah Sanders at the Prince of Wales in 2005. It is not often that your heros turn out to be almost everything you imagined.

10. Favorite book(s) on music?

Technique of My Musical Language, Olivier Messiaen
Findings: My Experience with the Soprano Saxophone, Steve Lacy
Sangeetha Akshara Hridaya, S. Rajagopala Iyer
Forces in Motion: The Music and Thoughts of Anthony Braxton, Graham Lock
Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, Anthony Cox and Daniel Warner
Recording the Beatles, Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew
Gamelan Gong Kebyar, Michael Tenzer
Enclosure 3, Harry Partch
Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody, Dave Liebman
The Computer Music Tutorial, Curtis Roads
Mastering Audio: The Art and Science, Bob Katz