For German readers: some thoughts and notes and quotes on the music I'm listening - to be found
on my new blog:
ubus-notizen.blogspot.com

Also check out the great new, independent magazine get happy!?, reporting on music, movies and more:
gethappymag.de

Thursday, May 31, 2007

"Die Fackel" - Karl Kraus's opus magnum auf DVD-Rom für 20 Euro

Posting in german for a change - no one not able to read this will be interested in buying a DVD-Rom containing the full run of Karl Kraus' "Die Fackel", anyway...
The following text is taken from the zweitausendeins site:


Kraus, Karl
DIE FACKEL


Karl Kraus: Die Fackel. Komplett auf DVD-ROM. Nur bei uns.



"Das gewaltige Lebenswerk dieses größten satirischen Schriftstellers unserer Literatur" (Frankfurter Rundschau).

Alle 922 Ausgaben, alle Bilder und Beilagen, alle 24.500 Seiten, als digitaler Volltext und komplette Reproduktion der Originalseiten.

Als Karl Kraus Die Fackel im April 1899 gründete, war er erst 25. Trotz seiner Jugend wurde der Herausgeber der Fackel rasch zu einer Instanz. Für seine Angriffe wurde er gefürchtet und bewundert. 37 Jahrgänge lang steuerte Kraus ein sprach- und medienkritisches Mammutunternehmen, dessen Texte er ab Dezember 1911 ganz allein schrieb (die Jahrgänge zuvor enthielten Beiträge von u.a. Peter Altenberg, Egon Friedell, Else Lasker-Schüler, August Strindberg, Frank Wedekind und Oscar Wilde).

"Im Februar 1936 erschien in Wien das letzte Heft der Fackel, jener giftigroten kleinen Zeitschrift, die 37 Jahre lang immer begeisterte, immer empörte, aber nie laue Leser gefunden hat" (Die Zeit). "Nicht was wir bringen, sondern was wir umbringen, ist das Thema unserer Zeitschrift", sagte der Herausgeber, Chefredakteur und Hauptautor Karl Kraus. "Kaum je hat ein Publizist so feinhörig, so sicher und so leidenschaftlich auf die Verwerfungen des Denkens, Fühlens und Urteilens in der Sprache reagiert wie er ...

Das publizistische Hauptwerk von Karl Kraus, Die Fackel, ist ... in ihrer sprachlichen Form, ihrer Radikalität das größte Monument polemischer Zeitbegleitung in deutscher Sprache und versammelt darüber hinaus einige der Kronjuwelen deutscher Essayistik zu Themen der Moral und der Sprache, der Justiz und der Literaturgeschichte" (Roger Willemsen, Süddeutsche Zeitung). Bis zu seinem Tod", schreibt der Stern, "prangerte er in 922 Einzelnummern ... Politiker und Sprachmissbrauch, Korruption und Gewalt an". In deutschen Bibliotheken überdauerten nur elf vollständige Fackeln NS-Regime und Krieg.

Der Zweitausendeins-Nachdruck sämtlicher Ausgaben brachte die Fackel 1977 wieder ins Bewusstsein einer größeren Öffentlichkeit, sie "galt nicht länger als verschollene Artikelsammlung", so Kraus-Forscher Friedrich Rothe. Der Reprint für seinerzeit 148 DM (74,54 EUR) gehörte mit fast 35.000 Exemplaren zu den großen Erfolgstiteln von Zweitausendeins.

"Ein verlegerisches Abenteuer", schrieb damals Der Spiegel, "das kaum ein Kenner für machbar gehalten hätte". Im Antiquariat kostet ein Fackel-Reprint bis zu 850 EUR. Auf CD-ROM war Die Fackel bisher kaum unter 750 EUR zu haben.

Jetzt erscheinen die 922 Nummern in 415 Heften mit 24.500 Seiten und allen Zeichnungen, Bildern und Dokumenten noch einmal bei uns - in einer zeitgemäßen Form - auf DVD-ROM und zu einem demokratischen Preis, für 19,95 EUR. Zusätzlich zur elektronischen Textfassung enthält die DVD-Rom auch die kompletten Text- und Bildreproduktionen der Fackel-Originalseiten.

"Installation und Handhabung sind ein Kinderspiel" (Deutsche Welle): Die DVD-ROM arbeitet mit den Suchtechnologien der Digitalen Bibliothek. Sie leisten "mittlere Wunder" (Die Zeit).

Karl Kraus "Die Fackel". Alle 922 Ausgaben. Originalausgabe. DVD-ROM. PC: Win 98 bis Vista, 32 MB RAM. Mac: ab OS 10.3, 128 MB RAM.

Nur bei uns. Nur 19,95 €. Nr. 180629. Notieren
Inhaltsverzeichnis zum Herunterladen (PDF, 0,6 MB)

Don Patterson, Booker Ervin & Sonny Stitt on Prestige

I've been buying many, many Fantasy CDs after this great company with its huge available backlist had been taken over by Concord. There were some sales going on, notably on Germany's Zweitausendeins, and I also looked around the web for other stuff, completing for instance my OJC run of all of Yusef Lateef's great Riverside and Prestige albums and getting all four of Randy Weston's early albums (you'll also need the Dawn album "Modern Art of Jazz" if you want to have all of his music preceeding the material collected on the great Mosaic Select 3CD set).



One series that I also started stocking up on a bit is the "Legends of Acid Jazz" releases of mostly (or excusively?) Prestige material by artists such as Don Patterson, Sonny Stitt, Red Holloway, Gene Ammons etc.
The most recent arrival, reaching me two days ago, is the first volume of Don Patterson/Booker Ervin (the second one is called Just Friends and billed to Patterson/Ervin/Houston Person).

The music on these discs is arranged by sessions, rather than just pulling together original albums. Thus the Patterson/Ervin includes the complete May 12, 1964 date, adding "Hip Cake Walk" (from the album of the same name, Prestige 7349) and "Love Me With All Your Heart" (from "Patterson's People", Prestige 7381) to the complete "The Exciting New Organ of Don Patterson" album (Prestige 7331).

So I went checking (on jazzdisco.org - see links) what exactly was on the original "Patterson's People" and "Hip Cake Walk" albums.

"Hip Cake Walk" thus consists of the long title tune, as well as of four titles contained on the Patterson/Ervin/Person Legends Acid Jazz Just Friends - it's thus available in its entirety on Fantasy's CD reissues.

Then how about "Patterson's People"? Things get a bit more complicated there. The jazzdisco site says it contained 5 tracks from 3 sessions "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" from March 19, 1964 with Sonny Stitt, "Love Me With All Your Heart" and "People" from May 12, 1964 with Booker Ervin (huh? why then is "People" not on the Patterson/Ervin Legends of Acid Jazz when that one compiled the May 12 session?) and finally "Sentimental Journey" and "Theme for Dee" from July 10, 1964 (again with Ervin).
Three of the Ervin tracks are on the Just Friends CD, but "People" is missing (although the first Legends of Acid Jazz CD runs only 63 minutes!), and the Stitt track is on the Stitt/Patterson CD The Boss Men (compiling the complete 1965 albums "Night Crawler" and "The Boss Men" with two additional tracks from that March 19, 1964 date of Patterson's, "Please Don't Talk..." and "42639"). That last title is not listed on jazzdisco's entry for "Patterson's People", nor is it listed under the March 19, 1964 date. The rest of that date, originally on "Shangri-La" (Prestige 7332) makes up half of the great Sonny Stitt Legends of Acid Jazz CD titled Low Flame (the other half is a Jazzland album from 1962).

But that's not all yet... Just Friends contains an additional title from the July 10, 1964 date, its title track. That one was released on "Tune Up!" (Prestige 7852). That one also contained "Flyin' Home" (from the August 25, 1964 date with Stitt, Ervin and Patterson, the rest of which was on "Soul People", Prestige 7372), "Blues For Mom" (from June 2, 1969, the rest of which was on "Oh, Happy Day", Prestige 7640 - I don't have it), as well as the title track, from the September 15, 1969 date with Stitt, Patterson and Grant Green (the whole date is on the Stitt/Patterson Brothers-4 CD, originally the rest was on the albums "Brothers-4", Prestige 7738, and "Donnybrook", Prestige 7816).

So that leaves us with an incomplete session (May 12, 1964 - missing "People", logically it should have been part of the Patterson/Ervin Legends of Acid Jazz), an incomplete album ("Tune Up!" - missing the one track from 1969, I assume it would best fit onto a CD with the rest of that date) as well as a tune not listed in the crappy disco at all, "42639" (what a weird title... that - so says the "Boss Men" CD - had been part of the "Patterson's People" album, originally).
The "Boss Men" blurb on the back of the disc has a goof, too: it states that the two 1964 numbers are taken from "Shangri-La" (on Sonny Stitt's Legends of Acid Jazz titled "Low Flame").
(And just in case: "42639" is NOT the missing track with Booker Ervin, but indeed it sounds all like Sonny Stitt there!)



The Stitt/Ervin/Patterson Soul People CD contains a bonus track, "There Will Never Be Another You", from another session (August 5, 1966, released on Don Patterson's "Soul Happening" - another one I don't have). That bonus track is not listed on jazzdisco.org, either.


And just in case you wonder, there are a few more recommended Stitt CDs that seem to be ok, discographically spoken:

Sonny Stitt's first Legends of Acid Jazz entry (1971's "Turn It On!" and "Black Vibrations", mostly with Leon SPencer on organ, whom old buddy Patterson replaces for a couple of tune)

Sonny Stitt's Night Letters (pairing the 1963 "Soul Shack/Sonny Stitt with Jack McDuff" with 1969's "Night Letter" - Patterson isn't present there, at all, but it's a very good one!)

Then, there's also Stitt/Patterson's Legends of Acid Jazz Vol. 2 (I guess Vol. 1 would be the 1971 Stitt pairing?), compiling two great albums from 1968: "Funk You!" w/Charles McPherson and Pat Martino and "Soul Electricity" with Billy Butler on guitar. (Note that jazzdisco fails to list the track "Stella By Starlight" from the second album!)

Another fine one is Stitt's Goin' Down Slow, but that one's in a different bag: an album with strings and a quartet date with Hampton Hawes, both from 1972.


Not to forget: Billy James is the drummer on almost all of these dates!
(That is all except the two albums on "Night Letter" and Stitt's Legends of Acid Jazz and "Goin Down Slow" discs)

Qwat Neum Sixx - Vandoeuvre les Nancy 2007 - now on dime



I just put up a new seed on dime (as usual you've got to log-in/register to be able to view this link), this time a free improvisation affair, namely a set by the Quartet "Qwat Neum Sixx" recorded at the Festival Musique Action at Vandeouvre les Nancy in France earlier in May.

This quartet consists of the great French sax player Daunik Lazro - check out, for instance, the two discs he's involved with on Potlatch: "Madly You" and "Hauts Plateaux", both with Carlos Zingaro, the first one also with Joëlle Léandre and Paul Lovens -, pianist Sophie Agnel, violinist Michaël Nick, and Jérôme Noetinger on electronics.

Here's the full programme of the 2007 edition of the Festival Musique Action.

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Qwat Neum Sixx
Festival Musique Action
Vandoeuvre les Nancy (FR), Salle des Fêtes
May 18, 2007

Daunik Lazro - saxophones
Sophie Agnel - piano
Michaël Nick - violin
Jérôme Noetinger - electronics

1. FM intro (3:46)
2. Improvisation (39:49)
3. FM talk (3:03)
4. Improvistaion (10:13)
5. FM outro (1:17)

TT: 58:10

Sound: A
Source: France Musique "A l'improviste" (Anne Montaron) / 2007-05-30
Lineage: FM > HD > Cool Edit Pro > FLAC (8,asb,verify)
Recorded & seeded by ubu


blurb from radiofrance.fr site:

Réunis pour la première fois à l'occasion du festival Muzzix (Lille-07), les membres de "Qwat Neum Sixx" se connaissent pour avoir collaboré indépendamment les uns avec les autres à de nombreuses reprises.
Depuis plusieurs dizaines d'années, Daunik Lazro promène son énergie aux limites des possibilités de son instrument. Saxophoniste en constant renouvellement, il propose ici ce projet inouï, composé de la pianiste-exploratrice Sophie Agnel (partenaire par ailleurs de Phil Minton, Paul Lovens, Bruno Chevillon...), de l'electro-acousticien, activiste de la scène improvisée Jérôme Noetinger (Les 120 jours, Le Cube, Metamkine...) et de Michael Nick, violoniste officiant ausi bien dans le jazz, la musique improvisée que la musique contemporaine (Quatuor Aérolithe)

http://www.centremalraux/ma/

(source: http://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/em/improviste_concerts/emission.php?e_id=30000030)


**************************************************************************

I apologize for the inconvenience of these double-postings, but the first post went wrong somehow (the text wouldn't fit into the field it ought to be in but rather continued on the right side, being cut off in the middle - no idea what went wrong).


Next up: an exclusive bit from the Nouveaux Monstres, and later some bits of chubby Mildred singing!

A l'improviste & other shows of interest on France Musique

My latest seed on dime (see next post!) comes from the "concerts extérieures" part of Anne Montaron's great show "A l'improviste" on Radio France (France Musique, to be exact - the link's right there, to your right...). I am a big fan of the regular show (which is held bi-weekly in the studios of of Radio France and before the "concerts extérieurs" were added, also on location, always with an audience present and with Madame Montaron doing some interviews that are often quite enlightening. The "concerts extérieurs" only are on the air since last September - alternating bi-weekly with the in-studio show - and are a very nice addition to the show, even moreso since it now takes place once week!
But then, a couple of months ago the powers at Radio France wanted the show to have an end, creating a bit of stir - a petition was started on Citizen Jazz and it seems for the the danger is banned. The latest letter, right on top of the petition-site, indicates that the show will soon be held at the same time, weekly (the "concerts extérieurs" so far were held on Wednesdays from 3-4 p.m. - good thing I only work part-time...), which is really good news! So I propose all fans of improvised music and even more so all fans of Mme Montaron's great radio show, "A l'improviste", pop up a bottle of their favourite booze (or lemonade) to celebrate!

By the way, for those not partial to the dime way of life, the shows on France Musique can be heard as a webstream for a while after they've been broadcast. It seems however, that what had been possible for a whole week is now restricted to 24 hours, only, thus you have to act fast if you're interested. Some shows of interest:


Xavier Prévot's "Le jazz, probablement..."
(Monday, midnight to 1 a.m.)

Anne Montaron's "A l'improviste" (l'émission)
(Wednesday, midnight to 1 a.m. - bi-weekly)
Anne Montaron's "A l'improviste"
(les concerts extérieurs) (Wednesday, 3-4 p.m. - bi-weekly)

Philippe Carles' "Jazz à contre-courant"
(Sunday, midnight to 1 a.m.)

Claude Carrièrre & Jean Delmas' "Jazz Club"
(Friday 11 p.m.-Saturday 1 a.m. - not sure this can be streamed!)

Alex Dutilh's "Jazz de coeur, jazz de pique"
(Friday, 7 p.m.)

Xavier Prévost's "Jazz sur le vif"
(Wednesday, 4-5 p.m.)

Franck Médioni's "Jazzistiques"
(Friday, 1:40 p.m.)

Alain Gerber's "Le Jazz est un roman"
(Monday-Friday, 6-7 p.m.)

And last but not least:
Arièle Butaux's great "Un mardi idéal"
(Tuesday, 8-10 p.m.)


The shows I regularly listen to (or download from dime) are those where (commercially unreleased) live music is involved, mainly: "Jazz Club", "Jazz sur le vif" and "Le jazz probablement" in the jazz area, plus "A l'improviste" (both shows if possible!) and "Un mardi idéal", where usually you have some classical musicians, some jazzers, plus any others, ranging from chanson to world, Chopin to gypsy jazz... that show, as "A l'improviste (l'emission)" also has interviews between the music.

Clicking through the sites, it seems that none of the shows can still be heard for a whole week after they took place, and quite possibly some can't be re-listened later at all. I guess all of this may have legal reasons... anyway, the web-radio savvy will have to listen to these shows live as they take place, if they're interested! Of course good ole cable radio as I use it is another option in superior sound... (I assume DAB might be nice, but I don't feel at all like getting into that, now!)

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Thierry Lang "Lyoba" - Cully 2007 - now on dime


Thierry Lang - one of the few Swiss jazzers on Blue Note

Plugging my latest dime-seed here:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=148700
(you'll need to sign-in / register with dime to be able to view this)


A rather unlikely affair: a jazz pianist, with two good friends on flugelhorn and double bass, as well as a quartet of violoncellos, doing traditional songs from the Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
In my opinion, the concert turned out beautifully! I hope some of you take the plunge and give this a chance!

Thierry Lang's modest website
(note that there's a - crappy! - multi-part video of Lang's Trio gig at Montreux Jazz Festival 2000 there - this site: does not have a 2000 gig, but only several from the 1990s listed, though...)
Heiri Känzig's website
Matthieu Michel's website
Cully Jazz website

I *might* have more material from this to post here, not on dime (lossy/LP4-recording) from the live broadcast of this same concert. (The dime-seed comes from Monday's re-broadcast.)

In general, I'll have more from Cully to share in the near future, both on dime and here. Among others, concerts of Dee Dee Bridgewater's Mali Project (hey, that's a nice one! I don't like her that much otherwise...), Colin Vallon's fantastic piano trio, Sibongile Khumalo with Jack DeJohnette and more.

*********************************************************************

Thierry Lang - Lyoba
Cully Jazz 2007
Cully (CH), Chapiteau
March 28, 2007

Thierry Lang - piano, arrangements
Matthieu Michel - trumpet, flugelhorn
Heiri Känzig - bass
Daniel Pezotti, Andy Plattner, Daniel Scherrer, Ambrosius Huber - cello

FM intro (2:22)
1. L'immortelle de Jean (Jean Bovet) 11:53
2. Nouthra dona di maortse (Jean Bovet) 12:18
3. Chante en mon coeur pays (Pierre Kaelin) 10:20
4. Adyu mon bi payi (Pierre Kaelin) 10:52
5. Le ranz des vaches (Jean Bovet) 12:32
6. Nan (Thierry Lang) 4:57 [encore]

TT: 62:54

Sound: A
Source: RSR 2 "JazzZ" / 2007-03-28
Lineage: FM > HD > Cool Edit Pro > FLAC (8,asb,verify)
Taped, transferred & seeded by ubu

Nicolas Simion Group feat. Zoltan Lantos - Berlin - 2000-06-17

Here then is my first share on the blog, a nice radio broadcast by the Nicolas Simion group with Zoltan Lantos on violin. Both musicians are eastern european, though Simion has been based in the western part. I first heard Simion on the ORF produced CD of his and the great Iancsi Körössy's. They led a quartet together a few years ago, likely just for that one tour that ORF recorded in Graz. On that occasion, they also had Lee Konitz sitting in as a guest.
I have a live recording from Bucharest from that fall 2001 tour, sans Lee, that I could post later if there's interest.

***********************************************

Nicolas Simion Group
featuring Zoltan Lantos
Berlin (DE), Haus der Kulturen der Welt
June 17, 2000

Nicolas Simion - tenor & soprano sax, bass clarinet
Zoltan Lantos - violin
Norbert Scholly - guitar, Wald-Zither
Martin Gjakonovski - bass, oud
Johannes Bockholt - drums, percussion

1. (14:08)
2. (6:58)
3. (5:27)
4. (9:19)
5. (11:14)
6. (6:39)
7. Lullaby (2:11)

TT: 55:59

Sound: A/A-
Source: OE1 "Jazznacht" / 2006-06-18
Lineage: FM > Minidisc > analogue to HD > GoldWave > FLAC (8,asb,verify)

burned at end:

FM intro (1:41)
FM outro (0:31)

TT (all): 58:13

***********************************************

http://sharebee.com/71d3381c

***********************************************

As mentioned before, this was recorded to MD in longplay (LP4, to be exact) mode. I decoded the FLAC files w/FLAC Frontend and created MP3s @ 320 kbs with CDex, using lame encoder.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Welcome to my blog

This blog will be used to post music in high-quality MP3 format. Jazz music, that is, in most of the cases.

Live music and rarities only, usually no full albums, maybe a favourite track taken from a disc or a platter once in a while, but mainly so-called R.O.I.O.s: "Records of Indeterminate Origin".

No requests shall be accepted. This is simply for my own fun, so please accept what you'll get and don't bug me for more!

Also this will be material I do not post in lossless format over on www.dimeadozen.org, because it was taped originally in longplay format on minidisc (and thus considered lossy and not allowed on dime), yet I still feel like sharing it since it sounds good to me and the music's worth being heard, too.

I hope you'll enjoy!