W. W. W.
People do love lists! Find out:—why?
~
Television Triumphant! How the Digital Utopia Destroys Culture.
Originally published 2019;
corrected text, 2021.
This short book presents an outsider's perspective on the cultural changes wrought by internet media. By "outsider," I mean anyone who is not part of the journalism-academia elite largely based in New York City and Washington. More specifically, I refer to those among that class who obsessively use certain interactive online forums and in turn devise solutions to the problems caused by both their usage of such forums, and more importantly (for them), the ignorant ways that the "lower orders" (however you would like to phrase it) use such forums, in the process ignoring the simpler solution: not using such forums. This solution is what I argue for. Yes, stop using Twitter—and Substack and Reddit and the comments sections of your favorite online publication. Just "stop it"—please. For an exemplar among the many writers who make the mistake of only calling for changes in, or perhaps only contemplation about, these troubling digital platforms, go to L. M. Sacasas and his blog, The Convivial Society.
~
Read ‘A Chronological List of My Works’ for biographical information about me.
~
Also visit the old Wo Wi We and the blog version as everything at those sites is slowly transferred over here.
Approaching Steve Lacy's Discography
A Chronological List of My Work
The Consumer Critic: The Ultimate List of the Best Albums?
Dave Brubeck Changes with the Times
Reads: Robert Darnton's Essays on Google Books for the New York Review of Books
Reads: Tony Judt's Memoirs Series for the New York Review of Books
The Return of the Jewelled Antler
Rock and Soul in the New Millennium
Sonny Rollins: Lauded Early Years, Long Haul
These United States' Digital Libraries
Tonal Views of the Atonal: Twelve Hybrid and-or Variable Sun Ra Albums
Uniform Titling of Anthony Braxton's Albums
When the Neil Young Archives Get Reissued ca. 2050
~
~
Approaching Steve Lacy's Discography
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Anthony Braxton; Sonny Rollins; John Zorn; Dave Brubeck; Evan Parker; Sun Ra. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
Another Jazz artist besides Anthony Braxton whose prolific recorded output may leave the new or returning listener not knowing where to start is Steve Lacy. This is the second essay-discography intended to provide a "way in" to the vast discography of a major figure in modern music.
Lacy, who almost exclusively played the soprano saxophone, is likely to remain most known for the music that he made during three decades spent living and working as an expatriate in Paris, more than twenty of those years collaborating regularly with alto-soprano saxophonist Steve Potts. One can see Lacy as a lesser-known, but significant, addition to the long tradition of American and other foreign artists living and working in the City of Lights. Sadly, soon after Lacy moved back to the States to begin a new phase of his career as a teacher at the New England Conservatory of Music, he fell victim to cancer.
Lacy's work from the beginning of his time in Paris through his period of collaboration with Potts (roughly 1971 to 1994) can be easily split into two parts: what I call the "quintet/ Seventies" and "sextet/ Eighties" phases of his career. Throughout the period, Potts appears regularly on Lacy recordings. During the "quintet/ Seventies" phase, lasting from 1971 through 1979, Kent Carter played bass. Jean-Jacques Avenel took Carter's place for the "sextet/ Eighties" phase, 1980 through 1994. After brief turns on the drum kit by Noel McGuee and Kenneth Tyler, Oliver Johnson served as the drummer for many of Lacy's projects until 1989, when John Betsch replaced him. Irene Aebi on vocals and cello, like Lacy and Potts, is found on recordings throughout these two decades, though not as regularly as the two saxophonists. The sextet was formed by the addition of pianist Bobby Few, there having already been several occasions when the Seventies quintet was joined by pianists Mal Waldron or Michael Smith. With this overarching set-up in mind, one can begin to prioritize Lacy albums during those crucial years.
An album is noted as either a studio or concert recording and then followed by its release date in brackets; also found there is information about reissues and other discographical matters. This is followed by personnel. Lacy plays the soprano sax unless otherwise noted. Instrument abbreviations are those used at Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, right down to the bizarre choice not to abbreviate "cello," one obviously not made with Lacy's work in mind!
--
The first "classic," or quintet, phase is dated here from 1971. Though there are actually only two quartet recordings from that year (plus a solo album), the quartets include Carter on bass, with Aebi on the first, McGuee on the second, and Waldron, an important regular Lacy collaborator, on the second. They can be grouped into the quintet phase easily enough. Albums featuring the quintet are noted in asterisks; those albums on which the quintet are joined by other musicians are also noted.
As much as a new listener may choose wisely to focus on the quintet albums, one can also begin to trace other patterns in Lacy's work by looking at this discography closely. First, Lacy was one of several saxophonists in the world of Jazz and Improvised Music who, in the Seventies, delved into solo performance, an area previously dominated by pianists. Other major figures in this development include Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Joe McPhee, and Anthony Braxton, as well as the guitarist Derek Bailey. (One may prefer "free improvisation" or another term to indicate the post-Jazz music that emphasized "non-idiomatic" improvisation, to use Derek Bailey's preferred term, but for me Improvised Music works best.)
Another aspect of Lacy's Seventies work worth noting are his early collaborations with Japanese musicians, a rare instance in that era of North American or European artists making connections with the budding Japanese Improvised scene. Upon Lacy's passing, Gilles Laheurte wrote two articles about Lacy's Japanese connections for All About Jazz in 2004: 'Steve Lacy and Japan' and 'Steve Lacy's Japan Tours: 1975-2004'.
Fifty albums were recorded in these years, 1971-1979 (at least as currently documented; further archival releases undoubtedly are still to come). That total includes albums credited not only to Lacy or a group led by Lacy but also albums where other artists are given equal "billing," as it were. This total includes the two volumes of Axieme separately, as they originally came out.
The inclusion of albums not credited to Lacy presents the following complication: since another entry in this series will cover Evan Parker, with whom Lacy collaborated on multiple occasions, the number of "Evan Parker" albums there would overlap with the number of "Steve Lacy" albums noted in this article. This complication, rather than avoided, should be embraced, to emphasize the collectivist nature of Jazz and Improvised musics. To look back at the Anthony Braxton article, for example, two "Anthony Braxton" albums (Duo (London) 1993 and Trio (London) 1993) are also "Evan Parker" albums; Parker also serves in more of a "sideman" role on the "Anthony Braxton" album Ensemble (Victoriaville) 1988, and the two of them together serve as "sidemen" on several releases, notably Company and Globe Unity Orchestra albums. These overlapping totals would be rare among the most prolific of artists—the kind we are featuring here—but more so when a broader selection of Jazz artists are brought into consideration: say, if we were to have the discographies of Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark presented side-by-side. Granted, in the case of collectivist-named groups like Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, A. M. M., or Mujician, this set-up of overlapping discographies may not be ideal. Is every Musica Elettronica Viva album, for example, a "Richard Teitelbaum," "Frederic Rzewski," and "Alvin Curran" album at the same time, with other participants (including, on occasion, Lacy) being "sidemen"?
recorded 1971:
Steve Lacy - Wordless concert recording [1971; reissued 2009]
Lacy
Ambrose Jackson (tp)
Irene Aebi (cello)
Kent Carter (b)
Jerome Cooper (d)
Steve Lacy - Lapis studio recording [1971; reissued 1975; reissued 1997 on Dreams - Scratching the Seventies]
Lacy (ss, per, tapes)
Mal Waldron/ Steve Lacy - Journey without End studio recording [1971]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Kent Carter (b)
Noel McGuee (d)
recorded 1972:
Steve Lacy - Estilhaços concert recording [1972; reissued 1996] *QUINTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Irene Aebi (voc, cello, radio, hca)
Kent Carter (b)
Noel McGuee (d)
Mal Waldron with the Steve Lacy Quintet studio recording [1972; reissued 2004 with two bonus tracks] *QUINTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Mal Waldron (p)
Irene Aebi (cello)
Kent Carter (b)
Noel McGuee (d)
The Steve Lacy Quintet - The Gap studio recording [1972; reissued 2004 with one bonus track] *QUINTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Irene Aebi (cello)
Kent Carter (b)
Noel McGuee (d)
Steve Lacy - Concert Solo concert recording [1974; all eight tracks reissued 1996 on Weal and Woe with three additional tracks recorded in 1973, which had been originally released as side B of The Woe/ Crops--see 1976 below; all eight tracks reissued again, 2012, on Avignon and After Volume 1 with nine bonus tracks, four of which also recorded 1972, the other five recorded 1975]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Avignon and After Volume 2 concert recordings, 1972, 1974-1977 [2014]
Lacy
recorded 1973:
Franz Koglmann with Steve Lacy - Flaps studio recording [1973; reissued 2019; four of these tracks reissued 2001 on Opium (credited to Bill Dixon/ Franz Koglmann/ Steve Lacy, and which also included three of four tracks from the album Opium/ For Franz, a Koglmann/ Bill Dixon album that features Lacy among others; that album, like Flaps, was reissued in its original form in 2019]
Lacy
Franz Koglmann (tp, flhorn)
Gerd Geier (electronics)
Toni Michlmayr (b)
Muhammad Malli (d)
Steve Lacy - The Crust concert recording [1973; three of six tracks reissued 1998 on Saxophone Special +; portions of two of the tracks reissued 1999 on the Derek Bailey album Fairly Early with Postcripts]
Lacy (ss, turntable)
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Derek Baily (g)
Kent Carter (b)
John Stevens (d)
recorded 1974:
The Steve Lacy Sextet - Scraps studio recording [1974; reissued 1997 on Dreams - Scratching the Seventies] *QUINTET Plus*
Lacy (ss, bells)
Steve Potts (ts, as, ss)
Michael Smith (p, org)
Irene Aebi (voc, ce)
Kent Carter (b, cello)
Kenneth Tyler (d, fl)
The Steve Lacy Sextet - Flakes studio recording [1975] *QUINTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Michael Smith (p, org)
Irene Aebi (cello)
Kent Carter (b)
Kenneth Tyler (d)
Steve Lacy - Saxophone Special concert recording [1975; reissued 1998 on Saxophone Special + with one bonus track and three of of the six tracks that comprise The Crust—see above]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Trevor Watts (as)
Evan Parker (ts)
Derek Baily (g)
Michael Waisvisz (synt)
Steve Lacy/ Michael Waisvisz/ Han Bennink/ Maarten van Regteren Altena - Lumps studio recording [1974]
Lacy
Michael Waisvisz (synt)
Maarten Altena (b)
Han Bennink (d, per)
recorded 1975:
Steve Lacy - Axieme Vol. 1; Axieme Vol. 2 concert recordings [1978; reissued 1993 as a single C. D., entitled Axieme]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Stalks studio recording [1975]
Lacy
Motoharu Yoshizawa (b)
Masahiko Togashi (per)
Steve Lacy - Solo at Mandara concert recording [1975]
Lacy
Steve Lacy/ Yuji Takahashi/ Takehisa Kosugi - Distant Voices studio recording [1976; reissued 1991 with additional tracks not featuring Lacy]
Lacy (ss, per)
Takehisa Kosugi (vl, fl, vcl, per)
Yuji Takahashi (p, celesta, vib, per)
Steve Lacy - Stabs/Solo in Berlin Side A concert recording; Side B ? [1975]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Torments: Solo in Kyoto concert recording [1975]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Dreams studio recording [1975; reissued 1997 on Dreams - Scratching the Seventies] *QUINTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Derek Bailey (g)
Jack Treese (g)
Boulou Ferre (g)
Irene Aebi (voc, cello)
Kent Carter (b)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Kenneth Tyler (d)
The Steve Lacy Sextet - The Wire studio recording [1977]
Lacy
Masahiko Satoh (p)
Keiji Midorikawa (b, cello)
Yoshio Ikeda (b)
Motoharu Yoshizawa (b)
Masahiko Togashi (per)
recorded 1976:
Steve Lacy/ Derek Bailey - Company 4 studio recording [1976]
Lacy
Derek Bailey (g)
Steve Lacy - Snips concert recording [2000]
Lacy
Steve Lacy/ Andrea Centazzo - Clangs concert recording [?; reissued 2000 with one bonus track]
Lacy (ss, bird calls, synt)
Andrea Centazzo (d, per, vcl, whistles)
Steve Lacy/ Andrea Centazzo/ Kent Carter - Trio Live concert recording [?; reissued 1996]
Lacy
Kent Carter (b)
Andrea Centazzo (d, per)
Steve Lacy - Crops and the Woe [1979; side A's four tracks (concert recordings) reissued 2000 on Hooky: Solo in Montreal 1976 with nine bonus tracks; side B's three tracks (studio recordings), recorded in 1973, reissued 1995 on Weal and Woe and 2012 on The Sun] *QUINTET*
side A:
Lacy
side B:
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Irene Aebi (cello, vcl)
Kent Carter (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy - Straws studio recording [1976, reissued 1997]
Lacy
Steve Lacy/ Roswell Rudd/ Kent Carter/ Beaver Harris - Trickles studio recording [1976, reissued 1991]
Lacy
Roswell Rudd (tb)
Kent Carter (b)
Beaver Harris (d)
Steve Lacy/ Michael Smith - Sidelines studio recording [1977, reissued 1992]
Lacy
Michael Smith (p)
recorded 1977:
Leo Smith/ Maarten van Regteren Altena/ Derek Bailey/ Tristan Honsinger/ Anthony Braxton/ Steve Lacy/ Evan Parker - Company 5 concert recording [1977; reissued 2001]
Lacy
Anthony Braxton (as, ss, cl, fl)
Evan Parker (ts, ss)
Leo Smith (tp, fl)
Derek Bailey (g)
Tristan Honsinger (ce)
Maarten Altena (b)
Leo Smith/ Maarten van Regteren Altena/ Evan Parker/ Steve Lacy/ Tristan Honsiner/ Lol Coxhill/ Anthony Braxton/ Steve Beresford/ Han Bennink/ Derek Bailey - Company 6 concert recording [1977; abridged version, 1991: Company 6 and 7]
Lacy
Evan Parker (ts, ss)
Anthony Braxton (as, ss, cl)
Lol Coxhill (ss)
Leo Smith (tp, fl)
Steve Beresford (p, tp)
Derek Bailey (g)
Tristan Honsinger (cello)
Maarten Altena (b)
Han Bennink (d, vi, banjo)
Derek Bailey/ Han Bennink/ Steve Beresford/ Anthony Braxton/ Lol Coxhill/ Tristan Honsinger/ Steve Lacy/ Evan Parker/ Maarten van Regteren Altena/ Leo Smith - Company 7 concert recording [1977; abridged version, 1991: Company 6 and 7]
Lacy
Lol Coxhill (ss)
Anthony Braxton (as, ss, cl)
Evan Parker (ts, ss)
Leo Smith (tp, fl)
Steve Beresford (p, g, miscellaneous)
Derek Bailey (g)
Tristan Honsinger (ce)
Maarten Altena (b)
Han Bennink (d, vla, cl, bj, miscellaneous)
Steve Lacy - Clinkers concert recording [1978]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Raps studio recording [1977]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Ron Miller (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy/ Alvin Curran/ Frederic Rzewski - Threads studio recording [1977]
Lacy
Frederic Rzewski (p)
Alvin Curran (synt, flhorn, per)
The Steve Lacy Quintet - Follies concert recording [1977] *QUINTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Irene Aebi (ce, voc, vl)
Kent Carter (b, cello)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy & Cie - The Owl concert recording [1977; reissued 1997 on Dreams - Scratching the Seventies] *QUINTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (kora, cheng, autoharp)
Lawrence Butch Morris (cnt)
Takashi Kako (keys)
Irene Aebi (cello, vcl, vln)
Kent Carter (b, cello)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy - Catch studio recording [1978]
Lacy
Kent Carter (b)
Steve Lacy - Shots studio recording [1977]
Lacy
Irene Aebi (vcl)
Masa Kwate (per)
Steve Lacy - Stamps concert recording [recorded 1977-1978] [1979; reissued 2018 with one bonus track] *QUINTET*
Lacy (ss, whistle)
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Irene Aebi (cello, vcl, vln, bells)
Kent Carter (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
recorded 1978:
Steve Lacy/ Maarten van Regteren Altena - High, Low and Order concert recording [1979; reissued 1990]
Lacy
Maarten Altena (b, cello)
Steve Lacy - Points concert recording? [1978]
Lacy
Steve Potts (ss)
Kent Carter (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
recorded 1979:
Steve Lacy - The Way concert recording [1980] *QUINTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Irene Aebi (cello, vcl, vln)
Kent Carter (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
The Steve Lacy Quintet - Troubles studio recording [1979; reissued 1993 and 2016] *QUINTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Irene Aebi (cello, vcl, vln)
Kent Carter (b, ce)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy - Eronel studio recording [1979]
Lacy
Steve Lacy/ Steve Potts Featuring the Voice of Irene Aebi - Tips concert recording [1981; reissued 2015]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Irene Aebi (vcl)
Walter Zuber Armstrong/ Steve Lacy - Duet concert recording [1979; reissued ? as Alter Ego]
Lacy
Walter Zuber Armstrong (bcl, fl, b)
Walter Zuber Armstrong/ Steve Lacy - Call Notes concert recording [1980]
Lacy
Walter Zuber Armstrong (fl)
Steve Lacy - Capers concert recording [1981; reissued 1985 as N.Y. Capers; abridged version, 2000: N.Y. Capers and Quirks]
Lacy
Ronnie Boykins (b)
Denis Charles (d)
--
sextet phase...
recorded 1980:
Steve Lacy - Ballets [recorded 1980-1981] sides A and B, concert recordings; sides C and D, studio recordings *SEXTET* [sides C and D] and solo [sides A and B]
Lacy (ss, voc, gong, bells)
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p, el-p)
Irene Aebi (cello, vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d, per)
recorded 1981:
Various artists - Interpretations of Monk concert recording [1994, four-disc set; reissued 1997 as two two-disc sets, Interpretations of Monk Vol. 1 and Interpretations of Monk Vol. 2; the first disc features Abrams and Riley with Rouse, Lacy, Cherry, Rudd, and R. Davis; the second disc features Harris and Blackwell with Rouse, Lacy, Cherry, Rudd, and R. Davis; the third disc features A. Davis and Riley with Rouse, Lacy, Cherry, Rudd, and R. Davis; the fourth disc features Waldron and Blackwell with Rouse, Lacy, Cherry, Rudd, and R. Davis]
Lacy
Don Cherry (tp)
Charlie Rouse (ts)
Roswell Rudd (tb)
Muhal Richard Abrams (p)
Barry Harris (p)
Anthony Davis (p)
Mal Waldron (p)
Richard Davis (b)
Ben Riley (d)
Edward Blackwell (d)
Steve Lacy/ Mal Waldron - Snake Out concert recording [1982; reissued 1996, as parts of the two-disc sets Live at Dreher, Paris 1981: Round Midnight, Vol. 1 and Live at Dreher, Paris 1981: The Peak, Vol. 2, both reissues also including additional, previously-unreleased material; both sets reissued 2003 as four-disc set, Live at Dreher Paris 1981]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Steve Lacy/ Mal Waldron - Herbe de L'Oubli concert recording [1983; reissued 1996, as part of Live at Dreher, Paris 1981: The Peak, Vol. 2]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Steve Lacy/ Mal Waldron - Let's Call This concert recording [1986; reissued 1996, as parts of Live at Dreher, Paris 1981: Round Midnight, Vol. 1 and Live at Dreher, Paris 1981: The Peak, Vol. 2]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Masahiko Togashi and Steve Lacy - Eternal Duo studio recording [1983]
Lacy
Masahiko Togashi (per)
Steve Lacy/ Brion Gysin - Songs [1981; reissued 1990 and 2006 with one bonus track] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy (ss, voc)
Steve Potts (ts, as)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Brion Gysin (voc)
recorded 1982:
Steve Lacy Feat. Bobby Few and Denis Charles - The Flame studio recording [1982]
Lacy
Bobby Few (p)
Denis Charles (d)
Steve Lacy Seven - Prospectus concert recording [five of eight tracks reissued 1999 as Clichés] [1982] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy
George Lewis (tb)
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (cello, vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d, per)
Cyrille Few (per)
Sherry Margolin (per)
Uncredited artist (per)
Roswell Rudd/ Steve Lacy/ Misha Mengelberg/ Kent Carter/ Han Bennink - Regeneration studio recording [1982]
Lacy
Roswell Rudd (tb)
Misha Mengelberg (p)
Kent Carter (b)
Han Bennink (d)
Steve Lacy - Duets: Associates concert recordings? [recorded 1982-1983, 1985, 1992-1994] [1996, reissued 1997]
Lacy
Masahiko Togashi (per)
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Mal Waldron (p)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Roswell Rudd (tb)
Bobby Few (p)
Derek Bailey (g)
George Lewis (tb)
Ulrich Gumpert (p)
Muhammad Ali (d)
recorded 1983:
Steve Lacy Two, Five & Six - Blinks concert recording [1983; reissued 1997; abridged version, with only the sextet tracks, issued 2011 as Blinks... Zürich Live 1983] *SEXTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Irene Aebi (cello, vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Bobby Few (p)
Steve Lacy/ Derek Bailey - Outcome concert recording [1983]
Lacy
Derek Bailey
recorded 1984:
Misha Mengelberg/ Steve Lacy/ George Lewis/ Harjen Gorter/ Han Bennink - Change of Season: Music of Herbie Nichols studio recording [1985]
Lacy
George Lewis (tb)
Misha Mengelberg (p)
Arjen Gorter [name misspelled on album] (b)
Han Bennink (d)
Futurities concert and studio recording [recorded 1984-1985] [1985; reissued in two parts: 1989, Futurities Part I; 1992, Futurities Part II]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d, gongs, glockenspiel)
George Lewis (tb)
Barry Wedgle (g)
Gyde Knebusch (harp)
Jeff Gardener (p)
recorded 1985:
Steve Lacy/ Ulrich Gumpert - Deadline concert recording [1987]
Lacy
Ulrich Gumpertv (p)
Steve Lacy Sextet - The Condor studio recording [1985] *SEXTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy and Evan Parker - Chirps concert recording [1986]
Lacy
Evan Parker (ss)
Steve Lacy - Hocus-Pocus: Book H of "Practitioners" studio recording? [1986]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Only Monk studio recording [1987]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Solo concert recording [1991]
Lacy
recorded 1986:
Masahiko Togashi - Bura Bura concert recording [1986]
Lacy
Masahiko Togashi (d)
Don Cherry (pocket tp, p, voc)
Dave Holland (b)
Steve Lacy Four - Morning Joy (Live at Sunset Paris) concert recording [1989; reissued 2001 with one bonus track, retitled Morning Joy; 2014 reissued, entitled Morning Joy... Paris Live also includes the bonus track]
Lacy
Steve Potts (ss, as)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy Sextet - The Gleam [1987] *SEXTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (ss, as)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy - Outings studio recording? [1986]
Lacy
Mal Waldron/ Steve Lacy - Sempre Amore studio recording [1987]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Steve Lacy and Steve Potts - Flim-Flam concert recording [1991]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Steve Lacy - The Kiss concert recording [1987]
Lacy
Steve Lacy Quartet Featuring Charles Tyler - One Fell Swoop studio recording [1986]
Lacy
Charles Tyler (as, bs)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
recorded 1987:
Subroto Roy Chowdhury/ Steve Lacy - Explorations studio recording [1987]
Lacy
Subroto Roy Chowdhury (sitar)
Shibsankar Ray (tabla)
Patricia Martin (tambura)
Misha Mengelberg/ Steve Lacy/ George Lewis/ Ernst Reÿseger/ Han Bennink Dutch Masters studio recording [1987]
Lacy
Misha Mengelberg (p)
George Lewis (tb)
Ernst Reÿseger (cello)
Han Bennink (d)
Steve Lacy - Momentum studio recording [1987] *SEXTET*
Lacy (ss, tambourine)
Steve Potts (as, ss, tambourine)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (vln, cello, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy Trio - The Window studio recording [1987]
Lacy
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Steve Lacy/ Steve Argüelles - Image concert recording [1987]
Lacy
Steve Argüelles (d)
Gil Evans/ Steve Lacy - Paris Blues studio recording [1988]
Lacy
Gil Evans (p, el-p)
Eric Watson/ Steve Lacy/ John Lindberg - The Amiens Concert concert recording [1987]
Lacy
Eric Watson (p)
John Lindberg (b)
Steve Lacy and Steve Potts - Live in Budapest concert recording [1988]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
recorded 1988:
Steve Lacy - The Door [1988] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Oliver Johnson (d)
Irene Aebi (vln)
Sam Woodyard (d)
Masahiko Togashi Trio - Voices [1988]
Lacy
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b, kalimba)
Masahiko Togashi (d)
recorded 1989:
Steve Lacy - Anthem [1989] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
La Velle (voc)
Sam Kelly (per)
Glenn Ferris (tb)
Steve Lacy - More Monk studio recording [1991]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Rushes: 10 Songs from Russia studio recording [1989]
Lacy
Irene Aebi (voc)
Frederic Rzewski (p)
recorded 1990:
Steve Lacy + 16 - Itinerary concert recording [1990] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (cello, vln, voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Andreas Kolbe (fl, piccolo flute)
Urs Leimgruber (ts, ss)
Hans Steine (bcl)
Franz Koglmann (flhrn)
Klaus Peham (tp)
Glenn Ferris (tb)
Radu Malfatti (tb)
Raoul Herget (tu)
Burkhard Stangl (g)
Gyde Knebusch (harp)
Sam Kelly (per)
Gustave Bauer (conductor)
Steve Lacy & Mal Waldron - Hot House studio recording [1990]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
recorded 1991:
Steve Lacy - Remains studio recoding [1992]
Lacy
Masahiko Togashi/ Steve Lacy - Twilight studio recording [1992]
Lacy
Masahiko Togashi (per)
Steve Lacy/ Eric Watson - Spirit of Mingus concert recording [1992]
Lacy
Eric Watson (p)
The Steve Lacy Sextet - Live at Sweet Basil concert recording [1992] *SEXTET*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (voc, vn)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
recorded 1992:
Steve Lacy Double Sextet - Clangs studio recording [1993] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Hans Kennel (tp)
Glenn Ferris (tb)
Nicholas Isherwood (voc)
Eric Watson (p)
Sonhando Estwick (vib)
Sam Kelly (per)
Steve Lacy 6 - We See concert recording? [1993; reissued 2002 as We See: Thelonious Monk Songbook with one bonus track]
Lacy
Steve Potts
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Hans Kennel (tp, fhrn)
Sohando Estwick (vib)
Steve Lacy/ Mal Waldron - Live at Jazz In'it: I Remember Thelonious concert recording [1996; reissued 1999]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Lol Coxhill/ Steve Lacy/ Evan Parker - Three Blokes concert recording [1994]
Lacy
Evan Parker (ss)
Lol Coxhill (ss)
recorded 1993:
Steve Lacy Octet- Vespers studio recording [1993] *SEXTET Plus*
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Ricky Ford (ts)
Tom Varner (fhr)
Steve Lacy Quartet - Revenue studio recording [1995]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Keptorchestra Meets Steve Lacy - Sweet Sixteen studio recording [1994]
Lacy
Keptorchestra
Steve Lacy/ Mal Waldron - Let's Call This... Esteem! concert recording [1993]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Antonyms 1 - Established Mode of Speech concert recording [1993]
Lacy
Ned Rothenberg (as)
Roy Nathanson (ts)
Eric Sleichim (bs)
recorded 1994:
Steve Lacy - 5 x Monk x Lacy concert recording [1997]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Findings studio recording [1994]
Steve Potts (as, ss)
Bobby Few (p)
John Betsch (d)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Steve Lacy/ Steve Potts - Steve Lacy Meets Steve Potts concert recording [1994]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as, ss?)
Steve Lacy/ Mal Waldron - Communiqué studio recording [1997]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Barry Wedgle/ Steve Lacy - The Rendezvous studio recording [1995]
Lacy
Barry Wedgle (g)
--
before and after the "Seventies/ quintet" and "Eighties/ sextet" periods...
recorded 1957
Steve Lacy - Soprano Sax studio recording [1958; reissued 1984; some European editions entitled Soprano Today]
Lacy
Wynton Kelly (p)
Buell Neidlinger (b)
Denis Charles (d)
recorded 1958
Steve Lacy - Reflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk studio recording [1959; reissued 1983]
Lacy
Mal Waldron (p)
Buell Neidlinger (b)
Elvin Jones (d)
recorded 1960
Steve Lacy - The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy studio recording [1962]
Lacy
Charles Davis (bs)
John Ore (b)
Roy Haynes (d)
recorded 1962
Steve Lacy with Don Cherry - Evidence studio recording [1962; reissued 1990]
Lacy
Don Cherry (tp)
Carl Brown (b)
Billy Higgins (d)
recorded 1963
Steve Lacy/ Roswell Rudd/ Henry Grimes/ Dennis Charles - School Days studio recording [1975; reissued 1995 and 2002 under the artist name, Steve Lacy-Roswell Rudd Quartet]
Lacy
Roswell Rudd (tb)
Henry Grimes (b)
Denis Charles (d)
recorded 1965
Steve Lacy - Disposability studio recording [1966]
Lacy
Kent Carter (b)
Aldo Romano (d)
recorded 1966
Carla Bley/ Mike Mantler/ Steve Lacy/ Kent Carter/ Aldo Romano - Jazz Realities studio recording? [1966]
Lacy
Mike Mantler (tp)
Carla Bley (p)
Kent Carter (b)
Aldo Romano (d)
Steve Lacy - Sortie concert recording? [1966]
Lacy
Enrico Rava (tp)
Kent Carter (b)
Aldo Romano (d)
Steve Lacy - The Forest and the Zoo concert recording [1967]
Lacy
Enrico Rava (tp)
Johnny Dyani (b)
Louis Moholo (d)
recorded 1967
Steve Lacy - The Sun studio recording; track 8, recorded 1967; tracks 1-7, 1968; tracks 9-12, 1973—these three 1973 tracks also released on The Crops & the Woe and Weal & Woe [2012]
Lacy
Steve Potts (as)
Enrico Rava (tp)
Irene Aebi (cello, voc)
Karl Berger (vib)
Richard Teitelbaum (synthesizer)
Kent Carter (b)
Aldo Romano (d)
Oliver Johnson (d)
recorded 1968
Steve Lacy - Sideways side A, concert recording? 1968; side B, concert recording, 1974 [2000]
Lacy
Richard Teitelbaum (elec)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Michael Waisvisz (elec)
Han Bennink (d)
recorded 1969
Steve Lacy Gang - Roba concert recording [1972; reissued 1997 on Dreams - Scratching the Seventies]
Lacy
Enrico Rava (tp)
Claudio Volonte (cl)
Italo Toni (tb)
Irene Aebi (cello)
Carlo Colnaghi (d)
Steve Lacy - Moon studio recording? [1971]
Lacy
Italo Toni (tb)
Claudio Volonte (cl)
Irene Aebi (ce)
Marcello Melis (b)
Jacques Thollot (d)
Steve Lacy - Epistrophy [1969; some later editions entitled Steve Lacy Plays Monk]
Lacy
Jean-François Jenny Clark (b)
Aldo Romano (d)
Michael Graillier (p)
--
recorded 1995
Frederic Rzewski/ Steve Lacy/ Irene Aebi - Packet [1995]
Lacy
Frederic Rzewski (p)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Steve Lacy - Actuality concert recording [1995]
Lacy
Steve Lacy - Blues for Aida: Sep. 10. '95 Solo at Egg Farm concert recording [1996]
Lacy
Steve Lacy & Irene Aebi - The Joan Mirò Foundation Concert [1995]
Lacy
Irene Aebi (voc)
Steve Lacy & Masahiko Togashi - Eternal Duo 95 studio recording [1996]
Lacy
Masahiko Togashi (d)
recorded 1996
Steve Lacy Trio - Bye-Ya studio recording [1996]
Lacy
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Irene Aebi (voc)
Steve Lacy Plus - Five Facings concert recording [1996; reissued 2008 under the artist name: Steve Lacy/ Five Pianists]
Lacy
Marilyn Crispell (p)
Misha Mengelberg (p)
Ulrich Gumpert (p)
Fred Van Hove (p)
Vladimir Miller (p)
recorded 1997
Steve Lacy - Solo: Live at Unity Temple concert recording [1997]
Lacy
Steve Lacy Trio - The Rent concert recording [1999]
Lacy
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
recorded 1998
Steve Lacy + 6 - The Cry concert recording [1999]
Lacy
Irene Aebi (voc)
Tina Wrase (ss, sopranino saxophone, bcl)
Petia Kaufman (harpsichord)
Cathrin Pfeifer (accordion)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
Daniel Topo Gioia (d)
Steve Lacy - Sands studio recording [1998]
Lacy
recorded 1999
Steve Lacy/ Roswell Rudd - Monk's Dream studio recording [1999]
Lacy
Roswell Rudd (tb)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
Irene Aebi (voc)
recorded 2000
Steve Lacy - 10 of Dukes + 6 Originals concert recording [2002]
Lacy
recorded 2001
Steve Lacy Meets the Riccardo Fassi Trio - Dummy studio recording [2002]
Lacy
Riccardo Fassi (p)
Gianluca Renzi (b)
Ettore Fioravanti (d)
Steve Lacy - The Beat Suite studio recording [2003]
Lacy
Irene Aebi (voc)
George Lewis (tb)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (b)
John Betsch (d)
recorded 2002
Steve Lacy/ Daniel Humair/ Anthony Cox - Work studio recording [2002]
Lacy
Anthony Cox (b)
Daniel Humair (d)
Amid all the chatter of "social media" supplanting anything and everything (conversation, reason, safe operation of automobiles...) in fact much of the web, if not the world of "apps" on internet-connected "phones" (that is, tiny computers/ television devices), comes to us from organizations that exist in the real, "brick and mortar" world: magazines that still publish print versions; research and archival endeavors largely confined to university campuses; journalism and information-access efforts that either print newspapers, serve as community-organizing and politicking efforts, or produce films and television serials intended to be viewed as singular entities, not in fragmented form in one's "social media" feed; and so on.
This list includes some organizations that largely exist online, or at least started online; but mostly consists of sites attached to an entity that does something other than create digital media (most of these: periodicals); in some cases, the connection is not one-to-one, but the material presented at the site definitely developed out of projects that would exist even if the material was not presented online or as part of any sort of screened/ broadcast presentation.
To look at it another way: when abstract-and-indexing services only came in the form of books, nonetheless one would not claim that they existed primarily to be published as books. Rather, they happened to come in book form; in the present day, they largely come to us online. The work done to create those abstracts and indexes was going to be done regardless, as indeed the work is still done today. The difference between such projects and a book, even a book only published in digital form, is clear: an "e-book" is still meant to be read separately from other sources of information, as a singular work, its parts integral to the whole. Indexing-and-abstracting services, however, have not only been purchased en masse by a few companies but are incorporated into broader information-retrieval interfaces.
Granted, periodicals that still publish print editions in many ways find that they have been subsumed by "social media": their articles being accessed only because a person shared a link on some "social media," and the amount of attention that readers devote to the articles being not demonstrably different from that devoted to contributions unique to said "social media," pithy blog articles, "listicles," or caption-accompanied images. That is a good reason why we must persistently remind ourselves to read longer articles that entailed original research and show independent thought and to support periodicals that publish such articles.
Some of these sites I cannot put in either category. The Associated Press, like other news services, runs their own website while providing content to newspapers, news websites, and others. The Poynter Institute is a journalism school that runs a newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times (originally the St. Petersburg Times), but also is involved in other efforts, like PolitiFact, that are exclusively online. Atlas Obscura began online but now publishes books and is used by tourists in much the same way that they use resources both born online (Trip Advisor) and begun as books (Roadside America).
A few sites linked-to at 'Resources Galore' [below] are similarly hard to place in their exact social setting, precisely because that post purposefully highlights non-academic databases (such as my own Greater Books). First Sounds seems to be produced largely by academics, but it is independent of any single organization. Critical Past was born online, but is not significantly different from older services providing audio-video footage of historical import for use by television news organizations, documentarians, and so on. And of course much of the footage to which they provide access was produced by governmental agencies. Muck Rock, too, would have existed as a political-organizing committee of some sorts, but in the age of digital media being remarkably accessible and easy to produce (or, perhaps more important, reproduce) it emphasizes its online repository of government documents. The rest of the websites/ organizations linked-to at the Resources Galore post could be included here.
Some of these links are already listed at the Rock Annual or Greater Books; they are included here because these sites were those that I chose when making a personalized portal page for myself sometime in early 2021. I gave up on the project, because I found that even a portal including only such a limited number of links was too much of a "bad influence."
Aeon
Apollo
Associated Press
Atlas Obscura
Baffler
Bomb
Bureau of Public Secrets
Current History
Dangerous Minds
Diabolique Magazine
Dollars and Sense
Economist
The Fall Online
Fast 'n' Bulbous
First Sounds
Foreign Policy in Focus
Galactic Central
Ted Gioia
Harper's Magazine
Information Is Not Knowledge
Jump Cut
Literary Review
Logos
London Review of Books
Le Monde Diplomatique
The Marginalian
Mondo Digital
Music Aficionado
New York Review of Books
N + 1
Point of Departure
Poynter Institute
Prince Vault
Prog Archives
Pro Publica
Public Books
Quietus
Senses of Cinema
3 A.M. Magazine
Trouser Press
Marv Goldberg's Yesterday's Memories Rhythm and Blues Party
Watching America
WikiLeaks
Wirz' American Music
Words without Borders
World Wide Words
Neil Young Archives
A Chronological List of My Work
Since 1997, I have made simple (some would say, ugly) web sites. Though I have flirted with academia and professional writing, in the end I write for myself, for free, for the internet as it was in 1997. In the late summer of 2021, I was diagnosed with colon cancer, further encouraging the organization of my writing and archival projects; The World's Wide Web is one facet of that effort, alongside a complete catalog of my C. D. collection, which itself impels some of the writing done for the Rock Annual.
This picture is a collage/ cut-up of several photographs of me that I took when asked to provide a picture when I was on the board of the Athens Historical Society, 2021-2022.
2020-present: New online self-published periodical, Rockissue (originally titled The Rock Annual, but that title always really referred to the music lists there—in 2024, finally came up with a good title for the periodical part); plus writings for work (Heritage Room, Athens-Clarke County Library) about using library resources.
March 2024: 'Athens Restaurants of Yore: Charlie Williams' Pinecrest Lodge, Athens: In Time
February 2024: 'Heavy Metal Origin Stories', Rockissue
December 2023: 'A Discography Split in Two: The "Definitive" New Order', The ROck Annual
August 2023: 'Sun City Girls Discographical Dossier', The Rock Annual
August 2023: 'Athens Restaurants of Yore: Rocky's Pizzeria', Athens: I N Time
June 2023: 'Amid Blue Öyster Cult's Fictions, Forsaken Godless Revolutions', The Rock Annual
May 2023: 'Athens' Oldest Restaurants', Athens: In Time
March 2023: 'Many Rivers of Music', Athens: In Time
December 2022: 'Capturing an Era, Evoking a Scene, Making Playlists: What Do Dayton and Athens Have in Common but Nothing?', The Rock Annual
November 2022: 'Seas of Meaninglessness—Lyrics in Rock Music', The Rock Annual
October 2022: 'Making a Chronological Playlist: A Case Study: 1973', The Rock Annual
June 2022: 'The Comings and Goings of the 40-Minute Album/ Reconsidering an (Arguably) Awkwardly-Long Album of the Compact Disc Era: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: No More Shall We Part', The Rock Annual
May 2022: 'Rhythm and Blues Includes Early Rock-and-Roll: Setting the Records Straight', The Rock Annual
April 2022: 'Stage Settings: The Residents' Commercial Album, Lost in Non-Music', The Rock Annual
March 2022: 'Workaday Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn!; Fifth Dimension', The Rock Annual
March 2022: 'Encore! Two Decades of the Georgia Theatre, 1989-2009', Athens: In Time
February 2022: 'Playlist: Lou Reed', The Rock Annual
February 2022: 'From the Periodicals Collection: Boom Magazine', Athens: In Time
January 2022: 'Refining Canons: Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham Albums Reissued, Expanded, and Reconsidered', The Rock Annual
January 2022: 'Before Tyrone's O.C. (Old Chameleon) There Was... the Chameleon', Athens: In Time
--
December 2021: 'The Conoly Hester Papers', Athens: In Time
December 2021: 'Another Hidden History of Blur', The Rock Annual
November 2021: 'Alternate Histories: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes', The Rock Annual
October 2021: 'What's in a Name? Apparently Everything: Nöthin' but a Good Time: The Uncensored Oral History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion', The Rock Annual
June 2021: 'Athens History, Two Hundreds Years In', Athens: In Time
June 2021: 'On Second Note—Not Taking Things Seriously: Pavement: Wowee Zowee', The Rock Annual
May 2021: 'Playlist: The Doors', The Rock Annual
April 2021: 'Box Set Key: The Smiths: Complete. Complete?', The Rock Annual
April 2021: 'Three Businesses, Two Buildings: Bell's, the 40 Watt Club, and the Potter's House, 1989-1991', Athens: In Time
March 2021: 'The Almost-Album: Promoted as a Major Product Yet Comprised Mostly of Recent Singles: The Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady', The Rock Annual
February 2021: 'An Official History of Athens, Georgia, 1951', Athens: In Time
February 2021: 'Singles and Swindles: Morrissey', The Rock Annual
January 2021: 'Alternate Histories: Pavement: Brighten the Corners', The Rock Annual
--
December 2020: 'Histories of Athens', Athens: In Time
December 2020: 'The Station Becomes a Community Center', Athens: In Time
December 2020: 'Box Set Key: Neil Young: Archives Vol. II (1972-1976)', The Rock Annual
November 2020: 'True Examples: What Is Missing and Not Missing from Lists of a Music Artist's Best Albums: Talking Heads: True Stories; Naked', The Rock Annual
October 2020: 'The Continuing Story of 140 East Washington Street', Athens: In Time
October 2020: 'From the Periodicals Collection: Image Magazine', Athens: In Time
October 2020: 'Less Would Have Been More: The Byrds: Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde; Ballad of Easy Rider', The Rock Annual
September 2020: 'From the Periodicals Collection: The Thumb Tack Tribune', Athens: In Time
September 2020: 'A Station That Left the Tracks', Athens: In Time
August 2020: 'Using Newspapers and City Directories to Track Dates and Locations: A Sampling of Athens Restaurants', Athens: In Time
August 2020: 'Using Newspapers to Track Dates and Locations: The Georgia Theatre (1978-1982), Athens: In Time
August 2020: 'The Dick Mendenhall Autograph Collection', Athens: In Time
July 2020: 'Using Newspapers to Track Dates and Locations: The Last Resort and the 40 Watt Club "Uptown" (Part Two)', Athens: In Time
June 2020: 'Using Newspapers to Track Dates and Locations: The Last Resort and the 40 Watt Club "Uptown" (Part One)', Athens: In Time
June 2020: 'Box Set Key: Ray Charles: Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)', The Rock Annual
May 2020: 'Using Newspapers to Track Dates and Locations: The B & L Warehouse/ Buckhead Beach (Part Two)', Athens: In Time
May 2020: 'Using Newspapers to Track Dates and Locations: The B & L Warehouse/ Buckhead Beach (Part One)', Athens: In Time
May 2020: 'Using Newspapers and City Directories to Track Dates and Locations: Bell's Food Stores', Athens: In Time
May 2020: 'Clarence White Takes the Lead: The Byrds: Byrdmaniax; Farther Along', The Rock Annual
April 2020: 'Remember It Better: Michael Jackson: Thriller', The Rock Annual
March 2020: 'Sometimes the B Side Is Just That: B-Grade: A Never-Ending Serial: The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man', The Rock Annual
February 2020: 'Definitely a Project, Hardly an Object: Frank Zappa: The Crux of the Biscuit: An F.Z. Audio Documentary Project/ Object', The Rock Annual
January 2020: 'The Byrds, Over- and Under-Rated: Sweetheart of the Rodeo; The Notorious Byrd Brothers', The Rock Annual
In addition, numerous finding aids written or revised, available at the Heritage Room's archives site. The collections that I organized entirely: the Conoly Hester papers; the Dillard Family collection; the Al Hester papers; the John C. Braswell collection; the Whitehead Media Group and WNGM-TV 34 collection; and the Gayther Plummer collection. Numerous other collections have been revised or expanded by yours truly, or were collaborative works with my colleagues: the Betts Family collection; Athens ephemera; the collection of Athens cookbooks and recipes; the Athens Community Council on Aging's History of the Station collection; the Foundation for Excellence in Public Education collection; the George M. Kozelnicky collection of train memorabilia; the Dick Mendenhall collection; the Beusse Family collection; the Pioneer Hook and Ladder collection; the Athens-Clarke County Veterans Memorial Plaza Committee collection; the Joanna Eppard collection; the J. Tanner collection of Clarke Central High School memorabilia; the Georgia postcard collection; the Athens-Clarke County Veterans Memorial Plaza scrapbook; the collection of Athens High School register books; the Jill Read collection of Morton Theatre productions; the Thomas Textile Company collection; the H. Randolph Holder collection; the State Normal School and Navy Supply Corps School collection; the Northeast Georgia places of worship collection; the Mary Anne Ponds Braswell Cushman photograph collection; and two broad sets of subcollections: small collections and periodicals.
--
2015-2019: Mostly slaving away on what became a book... and on the Greater Books website/ database.
2019: Television Triumphant! How the Digital Utopia Destroys Culture
--
2012-2014: Graduate school for librarianship, Sweet Pea mostly defunct (but still have to finish second part of 'Reconstruction'); begin work on Greater Books, including a second year-long blog, Macroscopic 2013, no longer online, much of the material being repurposed into the Greater Books website as well as World's Wide Web content.
April 2014: 'Reconstruction: A History of Music in the Years Before the World Ended (Part One)', Sweet Pea
--
2013: Macroscopic 2013 blog; daily posts in January, February, April, May, June, September, October, and December. The original content from these posts, in some cases with updates, with the few exceptions of those posted at the original World's Wide Web, are available here as text documents, each covering one month: January; February; April; May; June; September; October; December. Little revisions here and there may be made to these eight documents, either fixing typos after double-checking the basic-transcribed versions of the Greater Books lists posted at the blog against the original books, articles, etc.; or simple design edits to make them more readable.
--
2005-2011: Sweet Pea and accompanying blog, 2009: The Blog/ Blob. The latter will mostly be taken offline, repurposed for The World's Wide Web, either in digest-like posts similar to what has been done with the Macroscopic content or, in the case of the articles noted separately below, as stand-alone posts. Some of the Blog/ Blob material already got repurposed for the 'Aughts' multi-essay mess at Sweet Pea. Also there was a one-off deep dive into political and historical writing, a blog called Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America, in 2007-2008. This has long since been deleted, but most of its essays are being republished here.
November 2011: 'The Correspondences: Richard Bishop: March-November 2011', Sweet Pea
--
January 2010: 'A Short Essay by Dave Douglas, the "Blogosphere", and Jazz since 1972', 2009: The Blog/ Blob
--
December 2009: 'The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the (Aural) Arts after Jazz', Sweet Pea
September 2009: 'W. Cullen Hart, Interviewed by J. Kaw', Sweet Pea
August 2009: 'Punk and the Question of "Post-Punk"', Sweet Pea
July 2009: 'Rock and Soul in the New Millennium', 2009: The Blog/ Blog
February 2009: 'At the Big Ears Festival...', 2009: The Blog/ Blob
January 2009: 'Return of the Jewelled Antler', 2009: The Blog/ Blog
--
December 2008: '"Sharity" Doesn't Begin at Home', 2009: The Blog/ Blob
June 2008: 'Thank Goodness Americans Don't Care Much about the Second Bolivian Revolution', Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America
May 2008: 'Specters of Neutrality: Gerald Nye', Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America
February 2008: '2007, 12 and 12: Going to Shows', Sweet Pea
March 2008: 'Song Cycle: The Art of Song, Part Two', Sweet Pea
January 2008: 'The Correspondences: John Fell Ryan: Part 3: July 2007-January 2008', Sweet Pea
--
December 2007: 'Specters of Neutrality: Charles Lindbergh', Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America
November 2007: 'Specters of Neutrality: Kenneth Patchen', Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America
November 2007: 'Specters of Neutrality: Jeanette Rankin', Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America
August 2007: 'William Appleman Williams and Cold War History/ Historiography', Explorations Deep into the Quagmire Known: As the United States of America
June 2007: 'The Artist and His Tools/ Dada, Futurism, and the Problem with Music', Sweet Pea
--
November 2006: 'The Correspondences: Alan Bishop: September-November 2006', Sweet Pea
July 2006: 'The Correspondences: John Fell Ryan: Part 2: July 2006', Sweet Pea
February 2006: 'Song Cycle: Poetry-Sound', Sweet Pea
January 2006: 'The Correspondences: John Fell Ryan: Part 1: January 2006', Sweet Pea
--
December 2005: 'Song Cycle: The Art of Song, Part One', Sweet Pea
August 2005: 'Excepter: Genesis and Exegesis', Sweet Pea
February 2005: 'Song Cycle: The Post-Punk Poet-Singers', Sweet Pea
A list of Collectivist music ensembles, the term (re-)defined by yours truly in the essay 'The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the (Aural) Arts After Jazz', specifically the fifth part, 'A History of Musical Collectivism'.
Air Discogs
Alarm Will Sound Discogs
A. M. M. Discogs
The Art Ensemble of Chicago Discogs
Avarus Discogs
Bang on a Can Discogs
The Bow Gamelan Ensemble Discogs
Burning Star Core Discogs
Caroliner Discogs
Charalambides Discogs
Circle Discogs
Codona Discogs
The Dead C Discogs
The Doo-Dooettes Discogs
Double Leopards Discogs
Either/ Orchestra Discogs
The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble Discogs
Excepter Discogs
Experimental Audio Research Discogs
Furt Discogs
Fushitsusha Discogs
Future Ape Tapes Discogs Deep Leaks, 2017; 1093, 2016; Visuals, 2015; Pyramirrormid, 2014; Lives, 2013; Somnambuland, 2013; Reincarnations>>>>, 2011; Future Eights, 2010; Temples, 2010; D. N. A. Superstar, 2008; Art of Darkness, 2007; Fuck the Future, 2006
Gentle Fire Discogs
Graveyards Discogs
Ground Zero Discogs
Group Ongaku Discogs
Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza Discogs
The Hafler Trio Discogs
H. N. A. S. Discogs
The Human Arts Ensemble Discogs
Intermodulation Discogs
Iskra 1903 Discogs
Jackie-O Motherfucker Discogs
Just Music Discogs
Kemialliset Ystävät Discogs
The League of Automatic Music Composers Discogs
Marginal Consort Discogs
Morphogenesis Discogs
Musica Elettronica Viva Discogs
Music Improvisation Company Discogs
My Cat Is an Alien Discogs
Necks Discogs
New Phonic Art Discogs
The Nihilist Spasm Band Discogs
Nmperign Discogs
Noise-Maker's Fifes Discogs
The No-Neck Blues Band Discogs
No Noise Reduction Discogs
Nurse With Wound Discogs
Oregon Discogs
Organum Discogs
Pelt Discogs
The People Band Discogs
Polwechsel Discogs
The Revolutionary Ensemble Discogs
The ROVA Saxophone Quartet Discogs
The Scratch Orchestra Discogs
The Shalabi Effect Discogs
Smegma Discogs
Sonde Discogs
Son of Earth Discogs
Sonic Arts Union Discogs
The Space Between Discogs
The Spontaneous Music Ensemble Discogs
Supersilent Discogs
The Taj Mahal Travellers Discogs
The Third Ear Band Discogs
3/4HadBeenEliminated Discogs
Thuja Discogs
T. V. Pow Discogs
The Vibracathedral Orchestra Discogs
Voice Crack Discogs
Wired Discogs Karl-Heinz Böttner; Mike Lewis; Michael Ranta; this ensemble is heard on Free Improvisation, a 1974 split triple L. P. with New Phonic Art and Iskra 1903; Wired's eponymous, and only, album is the third of three
Wolf Eyes Discogs
The World Saxophone Quartet Discogs
Zentralquartett Discogs
Zeitkratzer Discogs
Zoviet France Discogs
The Consumer Critic: The Ultimate List of the Best Albums?
Are these the greatest? The American People have spoken.
Compilations omitted. This of course changes the list dramatically, not least in omitting the highest-selling album, the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975). Of especial note is the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, formally speaking a compilation despite it being mostly a Bee Gees album, selling 16 million. Elvis' Christmas Album arguably does not warrant status as a major album, as four of its twelve tracks (in its original edition) had previously been released that year on the E. P., Peace in the Valley, but then again is that not any different from two singles from an album being released before it comes out, and both of the B-side tracks also being on the album? Either way, for me half or a majority of an album's tracks have to been released previously for a single-artist album to be classed as a compilation; by that measure, Elvis's big seller is included.
The Recording Industry Association of America (R. I. A. A.)'s tallies of U. S. sales in millions is provided, the totals of certain double albums adjusted downward to account for the Association's bizarre choice in early Nineties to begin to total some, but not all, of such titles by the number of disks. This has led to the apparent misreporting of sales totals specifically for the Beatles' "White Album" and Pink Floyd's The Wall—at least as far as anyone knows. The R. I. A. A. is not forthcoming about this issue.
Michael Jackson - Thriller - 34
The Eagles - Hotel California - 26
A. C./ D. C. - Back in Black - 25
Led Zeppelin[ IV] - 24
Hootie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View - 21
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - 20
Shania Twain - Come On Over - 20
Garth Brooks - No Fences - 18
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction - 18
Boston - Boston - 17
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U. S. A. - 17
Metallica - Metallica - 16
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill - 16
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon - 15
Santana - Supernatural - 15
Adele - 21 - 14
The Backstreet Boys - The Backstreet Boys - 14
Garth Brooks - Ropin' the Wind - 14
Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston - 14
Carole King - Tapestry- 14
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell - 14
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time - 14
The Backstreet Boys - Millennium - 13
The Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces - 13
Pearl Jam - Ten - 13
Prince - Purple Rain - 13
The Beatles - The Beatles - 12
The Beatles - Abbey Road - 12
Bon Jovi - Slippery when Wet - 12
Boyz II Men - II - 12
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required - 12
Celine Dion - Falling into You - 12
Def Leppard - Hysteria - 12
Eminem - The Eminem Show - 12
Jewel - Pieces of You - 12
Norah Jones - Come Away with Me - 12
Kenny G - Breathless - 12
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory - 12
Led Zeppelin - II - 12
Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone like You - 12
Pink Floyd - The Wall - 12
T. L. C. - Crazysexycool - 12
Shania Twain - The Woman in Me - 12
Adele - 25 - 11
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - 11
Mariah Carey - Daydream - 11
Creed - Human Clay - 11
Celine Dion - Let's Talk about Love - 11
The Dixie Chicks - Fly - 11
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers L .P. - 11
Michael Jackson - Bad- 11
Billy Joel - The Stranger - 11
Kid Rock - Devil without a Cause - 11
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy - 11
NSYNC - No Strings Attached - 11
The Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill - 10
Garth Brooks - Garth Brooks - 10
Garth Brooks - In Pieces - 10
Garth Brooks - The Chase - 10
Garth Brooks - Sevens - 10
Mariah Carey - Music Box - 10
Eric Clapton - Unplugged - 10
Def Leppard - Pyromania - 10
Evanescence - Fallen - 10
Green Day - Dookie - 10
M. C. Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em - 10
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - 10
Whitney Houston - Whitney- 10
Journey - Escape - 10
Madonna - Like a Virgin - 10
George Michael - Faith - 10
Nelly - Country Grammar - 10
Nickelback - All the Right Reasons - 10
Nirvana - Nevermind - 10
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom - 10
NSYNC - NSYNC - 10
Elvis Presley - Elvis' Christmas Album - 10
R. E. O. Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity - 10
Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down - 10
Britney Spears - Oops! I Did It Again - 10
Taylor Swift - Fearless - 10
Usher - Confessions - 10
U2 - The Joshua Tree - 10
Van Halen - Van Halen - 10
Van Halen - 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) - 10
Z. Z. Top - Eliminator - 10
Ace of Base - The Sign - 9
Boyz II Men - Cooleyhighharmony - 9
Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey - 9
Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All - 9
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms - 9
The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over - 9
50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin' - 9
Michael Jackson - Off the Wall - 9
Will Smith - Big Willie Style - 8
Taylor Swift - 1989 - 8
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic - 8
Christina Aguilera - Christina Aguilera - 8
The Backstreet Boys - Black and Blue - 8
Michael Bolton - Time, Love and Tenderness - 8
Toni Braxton - Toni Braxton - 8
Toni Braxton - Secrets - 8
Garth Brooks - Fresh Horses - 8
Mariah Carey - Merry Christmas - 8
Destiny's Child - The Writing's on the Wall - 8
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive - 8
Kenny G - Miracles: The Holiday Album - 8
Faith Hill - Breathe - 8
Michael Jackson - Dangerous - 8
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 8
R. Kelly - R. - 8
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin[ I] - 8
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti - 8
Live - Throwing Copper - 8
Sarah McLachan - Surfacing - 8
Metallica - ...and Justice for All - 8
New Kids on the Block - Hangin' Tough - 8
Nirvana - M. T. V. Unplugged in New York - 8
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream - 8
The Police - Synchronicity - 8
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water - 8
Stone Temple Pilots - Core - 8
Carrie Underwood - Some Hearts - 8
U2 - Achtung Baby - 8
Whitesnake - Whitesnake - 8
Dave Brubeck Changes with the Times
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Anthony Braxton; Steve Lacy; Sonny Rollins; John Zorn; Evan Parker; Sun Ra. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
[In progress...]
I. Fantasy Records
Brubeck's 10-inch albums and 7-inch E. P.s were so confusingly thrown together to form 12-inch albums that track listings for each were necessary for me to delineate their interconnected discographical paths. To help clarify matters, each 10-inch is numbered in brackets like so: "[10LP-1]"; the 12-inch albums numbered in brackets like so: "ALBUM 1," a tally that will continue throughout the discography.
The Dave Brubeck Trio - Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals [10LP-1]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1951, catalog no. 3-1. Also released in the E. P. format [see the above Discogs link]
Eight tracks: side A: ‘You Stepped Out of a Dream’; ‘Lullaby in Rhythm’; ‘Singin' in the Rain’; ‘I'll Remember April’; side B: ‘Body and Soul’; ‘Let's Fall in Love’; ‘Laura’; ‘Indiana’
Recorded 1949 (‘Laura’; ‘Indiana’), 1950 (the remainder)
Combined with four of the eight tracks on the second Distinctive 10-inch to form the 12-inch L. P., The Dave Brubeck Trio [ALBUM 1], Fantasy, 1956, catalog no. 3-204, some later issues alternately titled The Dave Brubeck Trio Featuring Cal Tjader. All eight tracks also included on Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals: 24 Classic Original Recordings, a double L. P. released in 1982 and reissued as a single C. D. in 1990.
Having said all that... these tracks did not first come to us via a 10-inch record. No, they came as old-fashioned shellac 78s, right before that format's dominant place in the music trade was usurped by vinyl 45s and L. P.s:
‘Laura’; ‘Indiana’ originally released together as a 78 in 1949
‘You Stepped Out of a Dream’; ‘Lullaby in Rhythm’ originally released as a 78 in 1950
‘Singin' in the Rain’; ‘I'll Remember April’ originally released as a 78 in 1950
‘Body and Soul’; ‘Let's Fall in Love’ originally released as a 78 in 1950
The Dave Brubeck Trio - Distinctive Rhyhtm Instrumentals [10LP-2]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1951, catalog no. 3-2
Eight tracks: side A: ‘Blue Moon’; ‘Tea for Two’; ‘Undecided’; ‘That Old Black Magic’; side B: ‘September Song’; ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’; ‘Spring Is Here’ ‘'S Wonderful’
Recorded 1949 (‘Blue Moon’; ‘Tea for Two’), 1950 (the remainder)
Again, these tracks were originally released as shellac 78s:
‘Blue Moon’; ‘Tea for Two’ originally released together as a 78 in 1949
‘Undecided’; ‘That Old Black Magic’ originally released as a 78 in 1950
These four tracks also released as an E. P.
‘September Song’; ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ originally released as a 78 in 1950
‘'S Wonderful’; ‘Spring Is Here’ originally released as a 78 in 1950
These four tracks also released as an E. P.
As noted above, four of the eight tracks on this album combined with all eight tracks of the first Distinctive to form the 1956 L. P. The Dave Brubeck Trio. The remaining four tracks combined with all eight tracks of the third Distinctive [see below] to constitute the album, entitled—surprise!—Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals [ALBUM 2], also credited to the Dave Brubeck Trio, Fantasy, 1956, catalog no. 3-205, some later issues alternately titled Brubeck Tjader. All eight tracks included on Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals: 24 Classic Original Recordings.
The Dave Brubeck Trio - Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals [10LP-4]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1952, catalog no. 3-4
Eight tracks: side A: ‘Perfida’; ‘Avalon’; ‘I Didn't Know What Time It Is’; ‘Always’; side B: ‘How High the Moon’; ‘Squeeze Me’; ‘Too Marvelous for Words’; ‘Heart and Soul’
Recorded 1950
These tracks too were originally released as 78s:
‘Avalon’; ‘Perfida’ originally released together as a 78 in 1951
‘Always’; ‘I Don't Know What Time It Was’ originally released as a 78 in 1951
These four tracks also released as an E. P.
‘Squeeze Me’; ‘How High the Moon’ originally released as a 78 in 1951
‘Too Marvelous for Words’; ‘Heart and Soul’ originally released as a 78 in 1951
These four tracks also released an E. P.
As noted above, combined with four of the eight tracks on the second Distinctive to form the album also called Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals. All eight tracks included on Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals: 24 Classic Original Recordings.
To summarize, the final result (one can hope it's final—with the way the music trade endlessly reissues things, a vain hope), the double L. P./ C. D. Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals: 24 Classic Original Recordings includes the contents of two L. P.s, The Dave Brubeck Trio and Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals, both of which contain tracks originally released as 78s and 10-inch albums and issued as E. P.s as well.
--
The Dave Brubeck Octet - Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals [10LP-5]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1951, catalog no. 3-3
Eight tracks: side A: ‘The Way You Look Tonight’; ‘Love Walked In’; ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’; ‘September in the Rain’ side B: ‘Prelude’; ‘Fugue on Bop Themes’; ‘IPCA’; ‘Let's Fall in Love’
Recorded 1950
These tracks originally released as 78s:
‘The Way You Look Tonight’; ‘Love Walked In’ originally released as a 78 in 1950.
‘What Is This Thing Called Love’; ‘September in the Rain’ originally released as a 78 in 1950.
These four tracks also released as an E. P.
‘Prelude’; ‘Fugue on Bop Themes’ originally released as a 78 in 1950.
‘Indiana’ [original title of ‘IPCA’]; ‘Let's Fall in Love’ originally released as a 78 in 1950.
These four tracks also released as an E. P.
Combined with the eight tracks originally released on the two Old Sounds from San Francisco E. P.s [see below] to constitute The Dave Brubeck Octet [ALBUM 7], Fantasy L. P., 1956, catalog no. 3-239.
Old Sounds from San Francisco Volume 1
Fantasy 7-inch E. P., 1954, catalog no. 4019
Three tracks: side A: ‘How High the Moon’; side B: ’Serenades Suite’; ’Playland-at-the-Beach’
Recorded 1948
Combined with Volume 2 to form the 10-inch album, Old Sounds from San Francisco [10LP-3], Fantasy, 1955, catalog no. 3-16. All three tracks reissued as part of The Dave Brubeck Octet.
Old Sounds from San Francisco Volume 2
Fantasy 7-inch E. P., 1954, catalog no. 4020
Six tracks: side A: ‘The Prisoner's Song’; ‘Schizophrenic Scherzo’; ‘Rondo’; side B: ‘You Go to My Head’; ‘Laura’; ‘Closing Theme’
Recorded 1948
As noted above, combined with Volume 1 to form the 10-inch album, Old Sounds from San Francisco. Reissued as part of The Dave Brubeck Octet, which includes a bonus track, ‘I Hear a Rhapsody’ from the same session that produced this E. P.
--
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - The Dave Brubeck Quartet [10LP-6]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1952, catalog no. 3-5.
Eight tracks: side A: ‘Mam'selle’; ‘Me and My Shadow’; ‘At the Perfume Counter’; ‘Frenesi’; side B: ‘Somebody Loves Me’; ‘Crazy Chris’; ‘A Foggy Day’; ‘Lyons Busy’.
Recorded 1951.
All eight tracks reissued as Brubeck Desmond [ALBUM 5], a 12-inch L. P. credited to the Dave Brubeck Quartet Featuring Paul Desmond, Fantasy, 1956, catalog no. 3-229, with two bonus tracks, ‘Stardust’ and ‘Look for the Silver Lining’, both concert recordings, the former from 1954, originally released on the double-E. P. Jazz Interwoven and included on the Jazz Interwoven 10-inch L. P. [see below], the latter from 1952, originally released as a 78 and 45 (catalog nos. 521 and 521X, respectively) and included on the second Brubeck Quartet 10-inch L. P., catalog no. 3-7 [see next entry].
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - The Dave Brubeck Quartet [10LP-7]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1952, catalog no. 3-7
Eight tracks: side A: ‘Stardust’; ‘Lulu's Back in Town’; ‘Alice in Wonerland’; ‘All the Things You Are’; side B: ‘This Can't Be Love’; ‘Look for the Silver Lining’; ‘My Romance’; ‘Just One of Those Things’.
Concert recordings, 1952
Six of eight tracks (excluding ‘This Can't Be Love’ and ‘Look for the Silver Lining’) made part of the 1956 12-inch L. P. The Dave Brubeck Quartet [ALBUM 6], catalog no. 3-230, which instead of those two tracks includes the concert recording of ‘At the Perfume Counter’ originally released on the Jazz Interwoven double-E. P. and 10-inch L. P. ‘Look for the Silver Lining’ made part of Brubeck Desmond, ‘This Can't Be Love’ made part of Jazz at Storyville.
All of the tracks from this set of 10-inch L. P.s and 12-inch L. P.s included on Stardust, a double L. P. released in 1983 and reissued as a single C. D. in 1990, credited to the Dave Brubeck Quartet Featuring Paul Desmond, except ‘This Can't Be Love’, which having been made part of Jazz at Storyville, became part of the Dave Brubeck/ Paul Desmond double L. P./ C. D. compilation [see below].
Note: the liner notes for the Stardust double L. P./ C. D. compilation mistakenly identify ‘Look for the Silver Lining’, instead of ‘At the Perfume Counter’, as recorded in 1954. The Brubeck pages at the Jazz Discography Project confirm this.
The Dave Brubeck Trio and Quartet - Jazz at Storyville [10LP-8]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1953, catalog no. 3-8
Five tracks: side A: ‘Over the Rainbow’; ‘You Go to My Head’; side B: ‘Give a Little Whistle’; ‘Lady Be Good’; ‘Tea for Two’
Concert recordings, 1952
Reissued as a 12-inch L. P. in 1956 also called Jazz at Storyville [ALBUM 8], catalog no. 3-240, with the addition of two tracks, ‘Crazy Chris’, originally released on Jazz Interwoven [see below] and ‘This Can't Be Love’, originally released on the 10-inch version of Dave Brubeck Quartet [see above]. All seven tracks later made part of Dave Brubeck/ Paul Desmond, a 1982 double L. P. compilation later also issued on C. D.
‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘You Go to My Head’ originally released as a 45, catalog no. 4011
‘Give a Little Whistle’, ‘Lady Be Good’, and ‘Tea for Two’ originally released as a 45, catalog no. 4012
Title on the cover of the 10-inch: George Wein Presents Jazz at Storyville. Both the 10-inch and 12-inch versions merely inscribe the names Brubeck and Desmond on the front cover, the name, Brubeck-Desmond, also appearing at times on the disk labels; some disk labels credit the Dave Brubeck Quartet Featuring Paul Desmond.
Dave Brubeck Quartet Featuring Paul Desmond - Jazz at the Blackhawk [ALBUM 3], later sometimes issued as Two Knights at the Blackhawk, with the name, Brubeck Desmond, used on the front cover
Fantasy L. P., 1956, catalog no. 3-210. All tracks later made part of Dave Brubeck/ Paul Desmond [see above]
Eight tracks: side A: ‘Jeepers Creepers’; ‘On a Little Street in Singapore’; ‘Trolley Song (Rehearsal)’; ‘Trolley Song’; B side: ‘I May Be Wrong’; ‘Blue Moon’; ‘My Heart Stood Still’; ‘Let's Fall in Love’
Concert and studio recordings, 1953
‘I May Be Wrong’ and ‘On a Little Street in Singapore’ originally released as both a 78, catalog no. 527; and a 45, catalog no. 4053, the E. P. also titled Jazz at the Blackhawk.
‘Jeepers Creepers’ also originally released on the Jazz at the Blackhawk 45
‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Let's Fall in Love’ originally released as a 45, catalog no. 4014.
‘My Heart Stood Still’ and ‘Trolley Song’ originally released as an 78, catalog no. 530, and a 45, catalog no. 530-X. ‘Trolley Song’ then also released with ‘Trolley Song (Rehearsal)’ as a 78 and 45, catalog nos. 535 and 535X, respectively
The Dave Brubeck Quartet [Paul and Dave] - Jazz Interwoven [10LP-10]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1955, catalog no. 3-20. Also released as a double 45, with ‘At the Perfume Counter’ split between the two sides of the first 45.
Three tracks: side A: ‘At the Perfume Counter’; side B: ‘Stardust’; ‘Crazy Chris’
Concert recordings, 1954.
Front cover credits Paul and Dave; the back cover, the Dave Brubeck Quartet; the back cover also provides a subtitle: Concert Versions. ‘At the Perfume Counter’ later made part of the 1956 L. P. The Dave Brubeck Quartet [see above]. ‘Stardust’ later made part of the L. P. Brubeck Desmond [see above]. ‘Crazy Chris’ later made part of the L. P. Jazz at Storyville [see above].
--
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Jazz at Oberlin [10LP-9] [ALBUM 9]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1953, catalog no. 3-11; 12-inch L. P., 1957, catalog no. 3-245
10-inch L. P. track listing: side A: ‘Perdido’; ‘Stardust’; side B: ‘These Foolish Things’; ‘The Way You Look Tonight’
12-inch L. P. track listing: side A: ‘The Way You Look Tonight’; ‘How High the Moon’; side B: ‘These Foolish Things’; ‘Perdido’; ‘Stardust’
Concert recordings, 1953
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Jazz at the College of the Pacific [10LP-8] [ALBUM 4]
Fantasy 10-inch L. P., 1954, catalog no. 3-13; 12-inch L. P., 1956, catalog no. 3-223
10-inch L. P. track listing: side A: ‘I'll Never Smile Again’; ‘Laura’; ‘Lullaby in Rhythm’; side B: ‘For All We Know’; ‘All the Things You Are’
12-inch track listing: ‘All the Things You Are’; ‘Laura’; ‘Lullaby in Rhythm’; side B: ‘I'll Never Smile Again’; ‘I Remember You’; ‘For All We Know’;
Concert recordings, 1953
To summarize this era of 78s, 45s, and 10-inch L. Ps., the major albums (that it, those released as 12-inch L. P.s) with their Fantasty catalog numbers are as follows:
The Dave Brubeck Trio, 1956, 3-204
Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals, 1956, 3-205
Jazz at the Blackhawk, 1956, 3-210
Jazz at the College of the Pacific, 1956, 3-223
Brubeck Desmond, 1956, 3-229
The Dave Brubeck Quartet, 1956, 3-230
The Dave Brubeck Octet, 1956, 3-239
Jazz at Storyville, 1956, 3-240
Jazz at Oberlin, 1957, 3-245
--
into the L. P. era...
Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond at Wilshire-Ebell [rec. 1953, rel. 1957, Fantasy]
Dave Brubeck Plays and Plays and Plays... [rec. 1957, rel. 1958, Fantasy; reissued 1992, Original Jazz Classics/ Fantasy, with one bonus track]
Brubeck à la Mode [rec. and rel. 1960]
Near-Myth [rec. and rel. 1961]
Jazz at the College of the Pacific Volume 2. Original Jazz Classics/ Fantasy, 2002. Concert recordings, 1953; additional recordings from the same performance documented on Jazz at the College of the Pacific; plus one track, ‘I've Found a New Baby’, a studio recording (to be exact, a recording made in rehearsal room at the College of the Pacific) ca. 1942, featuring Brubeck alone.
II. Columbia Records
Jazz Goes to College [rec. and rel. 1954; concert recordings]
Brubeck Time [rec. 1954, rel. 1955; reissued at times under the alternate titles Instant Brubeck and A Place in Time]
Jazz: Red Hot and Cool [rec. 1954-1955, rel. 1955; concert recordings]
Brubeck Plays Brubeck [rec. and rel. 1956]
Jazz Impressions of the U. S. A. [rec. 1956-1957, rel. 1957]
Dave Digs Disney [rec. and rel. 1957]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet in Europe [rec. and rel. 1958; concert recordings]
Newport 1958 [rec. and rel. 1958; concert and studio recordings]
Jazz Impressions of Eurasia [rec. and rel. 1958]
Gone with the Wind [rec. and rel. 1959]
Time Out [rec. and rel. 1959]
Brubeck and Rushing [rec. and rel. 1960]
Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein [rec. 1960, rel. 1961]
Tonight Only! [rec. 1960, rel. 1961]
Time Further Out [rec. and rel. 1961]
Take Five [rec. 1961, rel. 1962; concert recordings]
Countdown: Time in Outer Space [rec. 1961-1962, rel. 1962]
Brandenburg Gate: Revisited [rec. 1961, rel. 1963; concert recordings]
Bossa Nova USA [rec. 1962, rel. 1963]
Brubeck in Amstersdam [rec. 1962, rel. 1969; concert recordings]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet at Carnegie Hall [rec. and rel. 1963; expanded version, 2001; concert recordings]
Time Changes [rec. 1963; rel. 1964]
Jazz Impressions of Japan [rec. 1960, 1964; rel. 1964]
Jazz Impressions of New York [rec. 1964, rel. 1965]
Dave Brubeck in Berlin [rec. and rel. 1964; concert recordings]
Angel Eyes [rec. 1962, 1965; rel. 1965]
My Favorite Things [rec. 1962, 1965; rel. 1965]
Time In [rec. 1965, rel. 1966]
Anything Goes! The Dave Brubeck Quartet Plays Cole Porter [rec. 1965-1966, rel. 1967]
Bravo! Brubeck! [rec. and rel. 1967; concert recordings]
Buried Treasures: Recorded Live in Mexico City [rec. 1967, rel. 1998; concert recordings]
The Last Time We Saw Paris [rec. 1967, rel. 1968; concert recordings]
Jackpot! [rec. 1966, rel. 1968; concert recordings]
The Dave Brubeck Trio Featuring Gerry Mulligan - Blues Roots [rec. and rel. 1968]
The Dave Brubeck Trio Featuring Gerry Mulligan - Compadres [concert recordings, 1968; rel. 1968]
Live at the Berlin Philharmonie [rec. 1970, rel. 1972; concert recordings]
La Fiesta de la Posada/ The Festival of the Inn: A Christmas Choral Pageant [rec. and rel. 1979]
Since the early Columbia albums came out before the 12-inch versions of some of the Fantasy material, a list collating the Fantasy albums and Columbia albums released through 1957, arranged (roughly) chronologically by release date, may prove helpful:
Jazz Goes to College, 1954, rec. 1954
Brubeck Time, 1955, rec. 1954
Jazz: Red Hot and Cool, 1955, rec. 1954-1955
The Dave Brubeck Trio, 1956, rec. 1949-1950
Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals, 1956, rec. 1950
Jazz at the Blackhawk, 1956, rec. 1953
Jazz at the College of the Pacific, 1956, rec. 1953
Brubeck Desmond, 1956, 3-229, rec. 1951-1952, 1954
The Dave Brubeck Quartet, 1956, rec. 1952, 1954
The Dave Brubeck Octet, 1956, rec. 1948, 1950
Jazz at Storyville, 1956, rec. 1952, 1954
Brubeck Plays Brubeck, 1956, rec. 1956
Jazz at Oberlin, 1957, rec. 1953
Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond at Wilshire-Ebell, 1957, rec. 1953
Jazz Impressions of the U. S. A., 1957, rec. 1956-1957
Dave Digs Disney, 1957, rec. 1957
III. Decca, Atlantic, and A & M
The Gates of Justice [concert recordings, 1969]
Brubeck Mulligan Cincinnati [concert recordings, 1970]
The Last Set at Newport [concert recordings, 1971; rel. 1972]
The Truth Is Fallen [rec. 1971; rel. 1972]
We're All Together Again for the First Time [concert recordings, 1972; rel. 1973]
All the Things We Are [rec. 1973-1974; rel. 1976]
Two Generations of Brubeck [rec. and rel. 1973]
Brother, the Great Spirit Made Us All [rec. and rel. 1974]
Brubeck & Desmond - 1975: The Duets [rec. and rel. 1975]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - 25th Anniversary Reunion [concert recordings, 1976; rel. 1977]
IV. Concord Jazz
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Back Home [concert recordings, 1979; rel. 1979]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Tritonis [rec. and rel. 1980]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Paper Moon [rec. and rel. 1981]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Concord on a Summer Night [concert recordings, 1982; rel. 1982]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - For Iola [rec. 1984; rel. 1985]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Reflections [rec. 1985, rel. 1986]
The 1987 Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo [rec. 1986, rel. 1987]
Moscow Night [concert recordings, 1987; rel. 1988]
V. MusicMasters and Telarc
The Dave Brubeck Quartet with the Montreal International Jazz Festival Orchestra - New Wine [concert recordings, 1987; rel. 1990]
Quiet As The Moon [rec. 1988-1989, 1991; rel. 1991]
Once When I was Very Young [rec. 1991, rel. 1992]
Trio Brubeck [rec. ?; rel. 1993]
Late Night Brubeck: Live from the Blue Note [concert recordings, 1993; rel. 1994]
Nightshift: Live at the Blue Note [concert recordings, 1993; rel. 1995]
Just You, Just Me [rec. and rel. 1994]
Dave Brubeck with Curtis, Dan, Darius and Matthew Brubeck - In Their Own Sweet Way [rec. 1994-1995; rel. 1997]
Young Lions & Old Tigers [rec. 1994-1995; rel. 1995]
To Hope! A Celebration [concert recording, 1995; rel. 1996]
A Dave Brubeck Christmas [rec. and rel. 1996]
One Alone [rec. 1997-2000; rel. 2000]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - So What's New [rec. and rel. 1998]
The 40th Anniversary Tour of the U.K. [concert recordings, 1998, rel. 1999]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - The Crossing [rec. 2000, rel. 2001]
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Park Avenue South [concert recording, 2002, rel. 2003]
Dave Brubeck - Classical Brubeck [rec. ?, rel. 2003]
Dave Brubeck - Private Brubeck Remembers [rec. ?, rel. 2004]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - London Flat, London Sharp [rec. 2004, rel. 2005]
Dave Brubeck - Indian Summer [rec. and rel. 2007]
To come...
VI. Miscellaneous
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Anthony Braxton; Steve Lacy; Sonny Rollins; John Zorn; Dave Brubeck; Sun Ra. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
For the Evan Parker discography, no distinction is made between studio and concert recordings. Recording dates are given in parentheses before the album title. Some may prefer a strictly-chronological list. I would prefer to split the Duos, Trios, and Quartets sections into further categories, for example: collaborations with John Edwards, the bassist for many of Parker's later projects; collaborations with Derek Bailey; and perhaps spliting the "Sideman" section into two, one for smaller groups, one for larger. The artist name is given as it is inscribed on the original release, with the use of slash marks between personal names when names are presented without any punctuation between them. The record label and release date are provided in brackets after the title. Discogs links are provided except in the rare instances for which one does not exist, in which case a link is provided to the album's page at the European Free Improvisation site (sadly no longer online but accessible via the Internet Archive) or at Bandcamp. As with all of these Baker's Dozen Discographies, little primary research was done on my part. Without the aforementioned European Free Improvisation site, not to mention the numerous pseudonymous contributors at Discogs, this discography could not exist. A trirple asterisk at the end of an album's entry indicates that it could in some fashion be considered highly significant to Parker's discography.
I. Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton et al. :: solo/ duo/ trio (or...). 50 albums.
The discographer, and the listener too perhaps, likely begins with "Parker/ Guy/ Lytton," as the trio of Parker on soprano and tenor saxophones, bassist Barry Guy, and drummer Paul Lytton is often called, formally and informally. Here, unlike most discographies of the trio, we expand to include Parker's solo albums and his duo albums with either Guy or Lytton. However, as soon as we consider this approach, since several of the trio albums feature a guest artist, we cannot help but include other albums with small-ish groupings that feature Parker with one of the other two. This approach begins to show the overlapping connections among musicians in the realm of "Improvised Music," with its underlying emphasis on the individual improviser meeting others in an seemingly-endless array of combinations, paving the way for the rest of the discography, not to mention discographies of Guy and Lytton; for example, Guy and Lytton have recorded trio albums with pianist Marilyn Crispell, who plays on two albums with the Parker/ Guy/ Lytton trio. Again, this section limits itself to smaller groupings, so that the many Barry Guy Jazz Composers' Orchestra albums on which Parker appears are not listed here, but are found in the "sideman" section. On the other hand, one of the albums, the five-disc set Mad Dogs, found in the section for larger or variable groupings, should be noted here, since it includes a complete disc of the trio in addition to two other tracks of the trio with Agustí Fernández.
(June 1971, June 1973, July 1974) Evan Parker & Paul Lytton - Three Other Stories [Emanem, 1995]
(April 1972) Evan Parker/ Paul Lytton - Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones) [Incus Records, 1972; Psi, 2002] ***
(October 1972, October 1974, November 1975) Evan Parker & Paul Lytton - Two Octobers [Emanem, 1996]
(January 1975) Evan Parker & Paul Lytton - At the Unity Theatre [Emanem, 1996]
(June, September 1975) Evan Parker - Saxophone Solos [Incus Records, 1976; Chronoscope, 1994, and Psi, 2009, both with the same nine additional tracks, all of which had been released on a cassette included with a 1989 Incus boxed set, titled Collected Solos, of Parker's first-fourth solo albums; one track on that cassette is not included on the C. D. reissues] ***
(June 1976) Evan Parker-Paul Lytton Duo - Ra 1 + 2 [Ring Records, 1976; Moers Music, 1977, retitled Ra]
(April 1978) Evan Parker - Monoceros [Incus Records, 1978]
(August 1978) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Rutherford/ John Stevens - 4,4,4, [View, 1980; Konnex Records, 1993, with two additional tracks, one of which recorded August 1992; Emanem, 2012, retitled One Four and Two Twos, credited to John Stevens/ Paul Rutherford/ Evan Parker/ Barry Guy, with six additional tracks, one of which is the bonus 1979 recording included on the Konnex reissue, three of the remaining five recorded November 1979, the remaining two recorded January 1992]
(October 1978) Evan Parker - NYC 1978 [Relative Pitch Records, 2023]
(November 1978) Evan Parker - Vaincu.Va! Live at Western Front 1978 [Western Front New Music, 2013]
(November 1978) Evan Parker - At the Finger Palace [The Beak Doctor/ Metalanguage, 1980]
(June 1980) Evan Parker - Six of One [Incus Records, 1982; Psi, 2002]
(March 1981) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy - Incision [Free Music Production, 1981] ***
(November, December 1982) Evan Parker - Zanzou [Jazz & Now, 1983]
(November 1982, November 1985) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Ken'ich Takeda/ Onnyk (1985) - To Whom It May Concern: Dedicated to Kunio Nakamura [Allelopathy, 1994]
(January 1983) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - Tracks [Incus Records, 1983] ***
(February 1983) Evan Parker/ George Lewis/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - Hook, Drift and Shuffle [Incus Records, 1985; Psi, 2007]
(September 1984) Evan Parker/ Keith Rowe/ Barry Guy/ Eddie Prévost (1984) - Supersession [Matchless Recordings, 1988]
(November 1985) Evan Parker & Barry Guy - Tai Kyoku [Jazz & Now, 1985]
(January 1986) Evan Parker - The Snake Decides [Incus Records, 1986; Psi, 2003] ***
(December 1986) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - Atlanta [Impetus Records, 1990]
(June 1989) Evan Parker - Conic Sections [Ah Um, 1993; Psi, 2008]
(May 1991) Evan Parker - Process and Reality [Free Music Production, 1991]
(March 1993) Evan Parker/ Paul Dunmall/ Barry Guy/ Tony Levin - Birmingham Concert [Rare Music, 1996]
(March 1993) Parker - Guy - Lytton - Imaginary Values [Maya Recordings, 1994] ***
(April 1994) Evan Parker - 50th Birthday Concert [Leo Records, 1994; the Parker/ Schlippenbach/ Lovens trio featured on the first disc, the Parker/ Guy/ Lytton trio featured on the second disc] ***
(December 1994) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton Trio - Breaths and Heartbeats [Rastacan Records, 1995]
(December 1994) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy - Obliquities [Maya Recordings, 1995]
(June 1995) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton with Guest Joe McPhee (1995) - The Redwood Session [Creative Improvised Music Productions, 1996]
(November 1995) Evan Parker - Chicago Solo [Okka Disk, 1997]
(May 1996) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton and Marilyn Crispell - Natives and Aliens [Leo Records, 1997]
(June 1996) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - At the Vortex (1996) [Emanem, 1998]
(October 1996-June 2001) Evan Parker - Time Lapse [Tzadik, 2006]
(December 1997) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton - At Les Instants Chavirés [Psi, 2002]
(June 1999) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton and Marilyn Crispell - After Appleby [Leo Records, 2000]
(August 1999) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Schlippenbach Trio - 2 x 3 = 5 [Leo Records, 2001; as the title indicates, since Parker is a member of both trios, this recording features a quintet of Parker, Alex von Schlippenbach, Guy, Paul Lovens, and Lytton] ***
(October 2001) Evan Parker - Lines Burnt in Light [Psi, 2001]
(September 2002) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy - Birds and Blades [Intakt Records, 2003]
(May 2004) Sten Sandell / David Stäckenas/ Parker/ Guy/ Lytton - Gubbröra [Psi, 2004]
(March 2006) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton - Zafiro [Maya Recordings, 2006]
(March 2006) Agustí Fernández/ Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - Topos [Maya Recordings, 2007]
(July 2008) Evan Parker - Whitstable Solo [Psi, 2010]
(September 2009) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton + Peter Evans - Scenes in the House of Music (2009)
(January 2010) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - Nightwork [Marge, 2010]
(September 2011) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Lytton - Live at Maya Recordings Festival [NoBusiness Records, 2013]
(July 2016) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton - Music for David Mossman: Live at Vortex London [Intakt Records, 2018]
(October 2017) Evan Parker - Barry Guy - Paul Lytton - Concert in Vilnius [NoBusiness Records, 2019]
(August 2018) Evan Parker - Work in Progress [The Vortex Jazz Club, 2019]
(March 2019) Evan Parker/ Paul Lytton - Collective Calls (Revisited) (Jubilee) [Intakt Records, 2020]
(September 2020) Evan Parker - Winns Win [Byrd Out, 2021]
II. The Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and related groupings. 12 albums.
(May 1996) Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Guy /Lytton/ Philipp Wachsmann/ Walter Prati/ Marco Vecchi] - Toward the Margins [E. C. M. Records, 1997] ***
(May 1996) Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Wachsmann/ Prati/ Vecchi] with Sainkho Namtchylak - Fixing the Fluctuating Idea [Les Disques Victo, 2021]
(January 1997) Evan Parker/ Lawrence Casserley - Solar Wind [Touch, 1997]
(February 1997) Evan Parker/ Barry Guy/ Lawrence Casserley - Dividuality [Maya Recordings, 2001]
(December 1997) Evan Parker with Noel Akchoté, Lawrence Casserly and Joel Ryan - Live at Les Instants Chavirés [Leo Records, 1998]
(December 1998) Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Wachsmann/ Casserley/ Prati/ Vecchi] - Drawn Inward [E. C. M. Records, 1999] ***
(October 2000) Evan Parker Electroacoustic Quartet [Parker/ Lytton/ Casserley/ Ryan] - Concert in Iwaka [Uchimizu Records, 2021]
(October 2002) Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Wachsmann/ Agustí Fernández/ Casserley/ Ryan/ Prati/ Vecchi - Memory/ Vision [E. C. M. Records, 2003] ***
(October 2003) Evan Parker - Set [Psi, 2009; features Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Casserley/ Prati/ Vecchi/ Richard Barrett/ Paul Obermayer]
(November 2004) Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Adam Linson/ Lytton/ Wachsmann/ Fernández/ Casserley/ Ryan/ Prati/ Vecchi/ Barrett/ Obermayer] - The Eleventh Hour [E. C. M. Records, 2005]
(November 2007) Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Wachsmann/ Ned Rothenberg/ Peter Evans/ Fernández/ Casserley/ Ryan/ Prati/ Vecchi/ Barrett/ Obermayer] - The Moment's Energy [E. C. M. Records, 2009] ***
(May 2010) Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble [Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Rothenberg/ Peter van Bergen/ Evans/ Ishikawa Ko/ Fernández/ Casserley/ Ryan/ Prati/ Vecchi/ Barrett/ Obermayer] - Hasselt [Psi, 2012]
III. Duos. 63 albums.
(February 1972) Evan Parker/ Frank Perry - For the Love of... [Qbico, 2002; an abridged version of the two-track titular piece is included on the Frank Perry album Temple of the Ancient Magical Presence, 2001]
(February 1975) Derek Bailey/ Evan Parker - The London Concert [Incus, 1975] ***
(December 1976) John Stevens/ Evan Parker - The Longest Night Vol. 1 [Ogun, 1978]
(December 1976) John Stevens/ Evan Parker - The Longest Night Vol. 2 [Ogun, 1978]
(July 1977) Evan Parker/ Andrea Centazzo - Duets 71977 [Ictus Recods, 2016]
(November 1978) Evan Parker/ Greg Goodman - Abracadabra [Metalanguage/ The Beack Doctor, 1978]
(May 1980) Evan Parker/ George Lewis - From Saxophone and Trombone [Incus, 1980; Psi, 2002]
(October 1980) Derek Bailey & Evan Parker - Arch Duo [Rastacan Records, 1999]
(April, July 1985) Derek Bailey/ Evan Parker - Compatibles [Incus, 1986]
(July 1985) Steve Lacy & Evan Parker (1985) - Chirps [Free Music Production, 1986; Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2022]
(February 1990) Evan Parker/ Walter Prati - Hall of Mirrors [M. M. & T. Records, 1990; Auditorium Edizioni, 2017; reissue includes second album, Pulse recorded May 2016]
(March 1990) Borah Bergman with Evan Parker - The Fire Tale [Soul Note, 1994]
(? 1991) Gianni Gebbia + Evan Parker - Duos [Object-a, 2017]
(June 1993) Evan Parker/ John Stevens - Corner to Corner [Ogun, 1995]
(May 1993) Evan Parker/ Anthony Braxton - Duo (London) 1993 [Leo Records, 1993]
(November 1995) Evan Parker & Agusti Fernández - Tempranillo [Música Secreta, 1996]
(April 1996) Evan Parker & Motoharu Yoshizawa - Two Chaps [Chap Chap Records, 2015]
(May 1996) Evan Parker - Sainko Namtchylak - Mars Song [Les Disques Victo, 1996]
(February, April 1997) Evan Parker & Eddie Prévost - Most Materiall [Matchless Recordings, 1997] ***
(May 1997) Evan Parker/ Ned Rothenburg - Monkey Puzzle [Leo Records, 1997]
(January, April 1998) Evan Parker/ Günter Christmann - Here Now: Solos/Duos [Concepts of Doing, 1998]
(May 1998) Evan Parker/ Georg Grawe - Unity Variations [Okka Disk, 1999]
(May 1998) Evan Parker/ Joe McPhee - Chicago Tenor Duets [Okka Disk, 2002]
(August 1998) John Tilbury & Evan Parker - Two Chapters and an Epilogue [Matchless Recordings, 2000]
(October 1999) Richard Nunns/ Evan Parker - Ranguira [Leo Records, 2001]
(December 1999, January 2000) Evan Parker/ Keith Rowe - Dark Rags [Potlatch, 2000] ***
(March 2000) Han Bennink/ Evan Parker - The Grass Is Greener [Psi, 2002]
(September 2000) Evan Parker/ Peter A. Schmid - September Duos [Creative Works Records, 2001]
(November 2000) Evan Parker/ Patrick Scheyder - Evan Parker/ Patrick Scheyder [Leo Records, 2001]
(? 2001) Evan Parker/ Richard Barrett - 2001 [Strange Strings, 2021]
(April 2003) Parker/ Joe McPhee - Sweet Nothings (For Milford Graves) [Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2022]
(September 2003) Stan Tracey/ Evan Parker - Suspensions and Anticipations [Psi, 2004]
(November 2003) Evan Parker/ Eddie Prévost - Imponderable Evidence [Matchless Recordings, 2004]
(July 2004) Stan Tracey/ Evan Parker - Crevulations [Psi, 2005]
(December 2004) Charles Farrell/ Evan Parker - Glossolalia [World Tribe Music, 2005]
(May 2005) John Tchichai and Evan Parker - Clapham Duos [Treader, 2015]
(February 2006) Misha Mengelberg & Evan Parker - It Won't Be Called Broken Chair [Psi, 2011]
(July 2006) Evan Parker/ Matthew Shipp - Abbey Road Duos [Treader, 2007]
(October 2006) Evan Parker/ Ned Rothenberg - Live at Roulette [Animul Records, 2007]
(February 2007) Urs Leimbruber/ Evan Parker - Twine [Clean Feed, 2010]
(January 2008) Marteau Rouge & Evan Parker - Live [In Situ, 2009]
(May 2008) Evan Parker/ John Wiese - C-Section (Second Layer Records, 2009)
(May 2008) Evan Parker/ Ingebright Håker Flaten - The Brewery Tap (Smalltown Superjazz, 2008)
(June 2008) Uwe Oberg & Evan Parker - Full Bloom [Jazzwerkstatt, 2010]
(October 2008, June 2009, February 2010, February 2011) Evan Parker & Matthew Wright - Trance Map [Psi, 2011] ***
(July 2009) Evan Parker/ Zlatko Kaucic - Round about One O'Clock [Not Two Records, 2011]
(September 2009) Evan Parker & Sten Sandell - Psalms [Psi, 2010]
(November 2009) Evan Parker/ Agustí Fernández - The Voice Is One [Not Two Records, 2012]
(September 2011) Evan Parker - Matthew Shipp - Rex, Wrecks & XXX [Rogue Art, 2013]
(October 2011) Evan Parker/ Georg Graewe - Dortmund Variations [Nuscope Recordings, 2012]
(July 2012) Evan Parker & Joe McPhee - What/If/They Both Could Fly [Rune Grammofon, 2013]
(October 2012) Evan Parker/ Peter Jacquemyn - Marsyas Suite [El Negocito Records, 2015]
(September 2013) Evan Parker/ Sylvie Courvoisier - Either Or And [Relative Pitch Records, 2014]
(May 2014) Fred Frith/ Evan Parker - Hello, I Must Be Going [Les DIsques Victo, 2015]
(September 2014) Evan Parker/ Joe Morris - The Village [Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2019]
(October 2014) Evan Parker/ Seymour Wright - Tie the Stone to the Wheel [Fataka, 2016]
(February 2015) Alexander Hawkins/ Evan Parker - Leaps in Leicester [Clean Feed, 2016]
(March 2015) Evan Parker/ Paul G. Smyth - Calenture and Light Leaks [Weekertoft, 2019]
(March 2017) Evan Parker/ Paul G. Smyth - The Dogs of Nile [Weekertoft, 2019]
(May 2017) Limpe Fuchs & Evan Parker - 28.5.17 [Otoroku, 2017]
(August 2017) Matthew Shipp - Evan Parker - Leonine Aspects [Rogue Art, 2021]
(September 2017) Evan Parker/ Eddie Préost - Tools of Imagination [Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2018)
(December 2021) Henry Dagg & Evan Parker - Then through Now (False Walls, 2022)
IV. Trios. 44 albums.
(July 1970) Evan Parker/ Derek Bailey/ Han Bennink - The Topography of the Lungs [Incus, 1970; Psi, 2006] ***
(December 1977) Andrea Centazzo/ Alvin Curran/ Evan Parker - Real Time [Ictus Records, 1978; New Tone Records, 1996, retitled Real Time One; portions of this album reissued on In Real Time, which also features a previously-unreleased track]
(December 1977) Andrea Centazzo/ Alvin Curran/ Evan Parker - Real Time Two [New Tone Records, 1998; portions of this album reissued on In Real Time—see above]
(April 1981) Derek Bailey/ Han Bennink/ Evan Parker - Topographie Parisienne: Dunois, April 3d, 1981
(September 1992) Lol Coxhill/ Steve Lacy/ Evan Parker - Three Blokes
(May 1993) Anthony Braxton/ Evan Parker/ Paul Rutherford - Trio (London) 1993 [Leo Records, 1994]
(January 1994) Paul Bley/ Evan Parker/ Barre Phillips - Time Will Tell [E. C. M. Records, 1995]
(January 1995) Evan Parker/ Antonello Salis/ Mauro Orselli - Improvvisazioni [A. D. A., 1995]
(May 1995) Joe McPhee/ Evan Parker/ Daunik Lazro - McPhee-Parker-Lazro [Vand'Oeuvre, 1996]
(May 1995) Evan Parker/ Daunik Lazro/ Joe McPhee - Seven Pieces: Live at Willisau 1995 [Clean Feed, 2016]
(April 1996) Paul Bley/ Evan Parker/ Barre Phillips - Sankt Gerold [E. C. M. Records, 2000]
(June 1997) Mauro Orselli/ Evan Parker/ Antonello Salis - True Live Walnuts [Splasc(H) Records, 1998]
(? 1998?) Thurston Moore/ Evan Parker/ Walter Prati - The Promise [Materiali Sonori, 1999]
(February, July 1999) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Mark Sanders - The Two Seasons [Emanem, 2000] ***
(June 2000, April 2001) Evan Parker/ Phil Wachsmann/ Teppo Hauta-aho - The Needles [Leo Records, 2002]
(September 2000) Parker/ Haslam/ Edwards - Parker/Haslam/Edwards [Slam Productions, 2001]
(? 2004?) Evan Parker with Birds [John Coxon/ Ashley Wales] - Evan Parker with Birds [Treader, 2004, 2018]
(October 2005) François Houle/ Evan Parker/ Benoît Delbecq - La Lumière de Pierres [Psi, 2007]
(August 2006) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Chris Corsano - A Glancing Blow [Clean Feed, 2007]
(February 2007) Herb Robertson with Evan Parker & Agusti Fernández - Parallelisms [Ruby Flower Records, 2007]
(July 2007) Paolo Angeli/ Evan Parker/ Ned Rothenberg - Free Zone Appleby 2007 [Psi, 2009]
(January 2008) Dave Liebman - Evan Parker - Tony Bianco - Relevance [Red Toucan Records, 2010]
(March 2008) John Coxon/ Evan Parker/ Eddie Prévost - Cinema [Fataka, 2012]
(February 2009) Parker/ Barrett/ Vatcher - On Growth and Form [Sound Anatomy, 2016]
(February 2009) Evan Parker/ Wes Neal/ Joe Sorbara - At Somewhere There [Barnyard Records, 2011]
(October 2009) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Tony Marsh - Medway Blues [F. M. R. Records, 2021]
(May 2010) Parker/Lee/Evans - The Bleeding Edge [Psi, 2011]
(May 2011) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Eddie Prévost - Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists Volume 1 [Matchless Recordings, 2012]
(May 2012, January 2013) Sebastian Lexer/ Evan Parker/ Eddie Pévost - Tri-Borough Triptych [Matchless Recordings, 2013]
(September 2012) Evan Parker/ Mark Nauseef/ Toma Gouband - As the Wind [Psi, 2016]
(January 2013) Trance Map [Parker/ Wright/ Toma Gouband] - Trance Map [Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, 2013]
(September 2013) Cymerman/ Parker/ Wooley - World of Objects [5049 Records, 2014]
(June 2014) Evan Parker/ Paul Dunmall/ Tony Bianco - Extremes [Red Toucan Records, 2014]
(August 2014) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Chris Corsano - The Hurrah [Otoroku, 2015]
(September 2014) Evan Parker/ Joe Morris/ Nate Wooley - Ninth Square [Clean Feed, 2015]
(September 2014) Mat Maneri/ Evan Parker/ Lucian Ban - Sounding Tears [Clean Feed, 2017]
(January 2015) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Steve Noble - P. E. N. [Dropa Disc, 2017]
(July 2015) Evan Parker/ Toshi Tsuchitori/ William Parker - The Flow of Spirit (Live Concert Tokyo) [Ryuko Gakusha, 2018]
(? 2015) Parker, Edwards and Day - Parker, Edwards and Day (Terry Day Archives, 2020)
(May 2016) Evan Parker/ Agustí Fernández/ Ivo Sans - Locations [Vector Sounds, 2019]
(September 2016) Evan Parker/ Lotte Anker/ Torben Snekkestad - Inferences [Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2019]
(November 2016) Yoshihide/ Yamazaki/ Parker - 14.11.16 [Otoroku, 2017)
(November 2016) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ John Russell - Walthamstow Moon ('61 Revisited) [Byrd Out, 2017]
(January 2022) Transmap+ [Parker/ Wright/ Robert Jarvis] - Grounded Abstraction [F. M. R. Records, 2022]
V. Quartets. 26 albums.
(November 1976, April 1985) Evan Parker/ Paul Rutherford/ Dave Holland/ Paul Lovens - The Ericle of Dolphi [Po Torch Records, 1989]
(January 1978) Mark Chaig/ Radu Malfatti/ Evan Parker/ Tony Rusconi - Live in Mestre: Teatro Toniolo [W. M. Boxes, 2011]
(December 1980) Evan Parker/ Jon Rose/ Barry Guy/ John Russell - Hypa-Stretch [Fringe Benefit Records, 1981, 2022]
(July 1982) Derek Bailey/ Joëlle Léandre/ George Lewis/ Evan Parker - 28 Rue Dunois Juillet 1982 [Fou Records, 2014]
(August 1985) Evan Parker with Paul Lytton, Paul Rutherford & Hans Schneider - Waterloo 1985 [Emanem, 1999]
(July 1995) Louis Moholo/ Evan Parker/ Pule Pheto/ Gibo Pheto/ Barry Guy Quintet - Bush Fire [Ogun, 1996]
(December 1996) Evan Parker with John Russell, John Edwards, Mark Sanders - London Air Lift
(April 1997) Noël Akchoté/ Mark Sanders/ Paul Rogers/ Evan Parker - Somewhere Bi-lingual [Siesta Records, 1997]
(July 1999) Evan Parker/ Steve Beresford/ John Edwards / Louis Moholo - Foxes Fox [Emanem, 1999] ***
(March 2000) School of Velocity [Parker/ David Tucker/ John Edwards/ Steve Noble] - Homework [GROB, 20001]
(August 2003) Evan Parker/ Philipp Wachsmann/ Hugh Davies/ Eddie Prévost - 888 [F. M. R. Records, 2003]
(? 2004?) Trio with Interludes [Parker/ Ashley Wales/ Mark Sanders/ John Coxon] - Trio with Interludes [Treader, 2004]
(October 2004) Foxes Fox [Parker/ Beresford/ Edwards/ Moholo] - Naan Tso [Psi, 2005]
(November 2004) Dave Green Trio [Iain Dixon/ Dave Green/ Gene Calderazzo] + Evan Parker - Raise Four [Trio Records, 2022]
(January 2006) Tony Levin/ Paul Dunmall/ Ray Warleigh/ Evan Parker - Life of Dreams [Rare Music, 2011]
(September 2007) Max Eastley/ Graham Halliwell/ Evan Parker/ Mark Wastell - A Life Saved by a Spider and Two Doves [Another Timbre, 2008]
(March 2010) McPhee/ Corsano/ Coxhill/ Parker - Tree Dancing [Otoroku, 2019]
(May, August 2010, February 2011) Mark Naussef/ Ikue Mori/ Evan Parker/ Bill Laswell - Near Nadir [Tzadik, 2011]
(May 2012) Evan Parker/ Craig Taborn/ Sam Pluta/ Peter Evans - Rocket Science [More Is More Records, 2013]
(September 2014) Parker/ Trzaska/ Edwards/ Sanders - City Fall: Live at Cafe Oto [Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2016]
(September 2015) Sylvie Courvoisier/ Mark Feldman/ Ikue Mori/ Evan Parker - Miller's Tale [Intakt Records, 2016]
(June 2016) Evan Parker & RGG [Łukasz Ojdana/ Maciej Garbowski/ Krzysztof Gradziuk]- Live @ Alchemia [Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2017]
(May-July, December 2017) Dave Holland, Evan Parker, Craig Taborn and Ches Smith - Uncharted Territories [Dare2 Records, 2018; an out-take from this session, ‘QW3’, was released as a download by the Vortex Jazz Club, 2020]
(February 2018) Evan Parker & Kinetics [Jacob Anderskov/ Adam Pultz Melbye/ Anders Vestergaard]- Chiasm [Clean Feed, 2019]
(June 2019) The Evan Parker Quartet [Parker/ Alexander Hawkins/ John Edwards/ Paul Lytton] - All Knavery and Collusion [Cadillac Records, 2021]
(March 2020) Foxes Fox [Parker/ Beresford/ Edwards/ Mark Sanders] - Foxes Fox [Vortex Jazz Club on Bandcamp, 2020]
VI. Larger groups and albums featuring multiple groupings. 55 albums.
With this section, we arrive at albums that some may not classify as "Evan Parker" albums. For the most part, though, I would like to think that the distinction between even the most collectivist of these albums (such as the Company releases, often categorized under Company or Derek Bailey) and those in the "sideman" category below is clear enough. Like all of the albums above for which the artist name is comprised merely of the names of the individuals involved ("Evan Parker/ Derek Bailey" and so on), each of these albums could be considered "Evan Parker" albums as much as they could be considered albums by the other artists in question.
(May 1970) Instant Composers Pool - Groupcomposing [Instant Composers Pool, 1978; Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2018] ***
(May 1976) Maarten van Regteren Altena/ Tristan Honsinger/ Evan Parker/ Derek Bailey - Company 1 [Incus, 1977] ***
(August 1976) Evan Parker/ Anthony Braxton/ Derek Bailey - Company 2 [Incus, 1979] ***
(May 1977) Leo Smith/ Maarten van Regeteren Altena/ Derek Bailey/ Tristan Honsinger/ Anthony Braxton/ Steve Lacy/ Evan Parker - Company 5 [Incus, 1978] ***
(May 1977) Leo Smith/ Maarten van Regeteren Altena/ Evan Parker/ Steve Lacy/ Tristan Honsinger/ Lol Coxhill/ Anthony Braxton/ Steve Beresford/ Han Bennink/ Derek Bailey - Company 6 [Incus, 1978; four of six tracks reissued on Company 6 & 7] ***
(May 1977) Derek Bailey/ Han Bennink/ Steve Beresford/ Anthony Braxton/ Lol Coxhill/ Tristan Honsinger/ Steve Lacy/ Evan Parker/ Maarten van Regeteren Altena/ Leo Smith - Company 7 [Incus, 1978; reissued on Company 6 & 7] ***
(July 1978) Paul Lytton/ David Toop/ Max Eastley/ Paul Burwell/ Annabel Nicholson/ Evan Parker/ Hugh Davies/ Paul Lovens - Circadian Rhythm [Incus, 1980]
(May 1980) Company [Dave Holland/ George Lewis/ Evan Parker/ Derek Bailey] - Fables [Incus, 1980] ***
(June 1980) Maarten Altena/ Derek Bailey/ Barry Guy/ George Lewis/ Paul Lovens/ Paul Lytton/ Evan Parker/ Paul Rutherford/ Giancarlo Schiaffini/ Philipp Wachsmann - Pisa 1980: Improvisors Symposium [Incus, 1981; Psi, 2004, expanded reissue with three additional tracks and unabridged versions of two of the five tracks on the original release]
(September 1980) The Wuppertal Workshop Ensemble - The Family [Free Music Production, 1982]
(October 1980) Greg Goodman/ Henry Kaiser/ Toshinori Kondo/ Evan Parker/ ROVA Saxophone Quartet - Metalanguage Festival Of Improvised Music 1980 - Volume 1: The Social Set [Metalanguage/ The Beak Doctor, 1981; reissued as part of The Social/Science Set, The Beak Doctor, 2002]
(October 1980) Derek Bailey/ Evan Parker/ Henry Kaiser/ Larry Ochs/ Jon Raskin/ Greg Goodman/ Toshinori Kondo/ Andrew Voigt (1980) - Metalanguage Festival Of Improvised Music 1980 - Volume 2: The Science Set [Metalanguage/ The Beak Doctor, 1981; five of eight tracks reissued as part of The Social/Science Set, noted above]
(December 1983, August 1991) Evan Parker/ Paul Rogers/ Jamie Muir// Evan Parker/ Wolter Wierbos/ Paul Rogers/ Mark Sanders - The Ayes Have It [Emanem, 2001]
(July 1990) Wolfgang Fuchs/ Hans Koch/ Evan Parker/ Louis Sclavis - Duets, Dithyrambisch [Free Music Production, 1990, 2015]
(September 1993) Evan Parker with Jin Hi Kim/ George Lewis/ Thebe Lipere/ Carlo Mariano/ Sainko Namchylak/ Walter Prati/ Marco "Bill" Vecchi/ Motoharu Yoshizawa - Synergetics - Phonomanie III [Leo Records, 1996]
(September 1993) Evan Parker with Ghost-in-the-Machine - Evan Parker with Ghost-in-the-Machine [Leo Lab, 1996]
(January 1997, January 1998, July 2000) Strings with Evan Parker - Strings with Evan Parker [Emanem, 2001]
(June 1998) Evan Parker + Ghost-in-the-Machine - New Excursions [Ninth World Music, 1998]
(October 1999) Evan Parker/ TonArt Ensemble - Brot & Honig [True Muze, 2000]
(September 2000) Jah Wobble & Evan Parker - Passage to Hades [30 Hertz Records, 2001]
(September 2000) Hans Anliker/ Evan Parker/ Peter A. Schmid/ Reto Senn/ Jürg Solothurnmann - September Winds ***
(May 2001) London Improvisors Orchestra// Strings with and without Evan Parker - Freedom of the City 2001: Large Groups
(May 2002) Chris Burn & Matt Hutchinson// Lol Coxhill/ Paul Rutherford/ Ian Smith// Sylvia Hallett// Evan Parker & John Russell// Roger Smith// Trevor Watts & Veryan Weston - Freedom of the City 2002: Small Groups [Emanem, 2003]
(July 2002) John Edwards/ Sylvia Hallett/ Marcio Mattos/ Neil Metcalfe/ Evan Parker/ John Rangecroft/ Mark Sanders/ Philipp Wachsmann - Free Zone Appleby 2002 [Psi, 2003]
(September 2002) Evan Parker and September Winds - Alder Brook [Leo Records, 2003]
(January 2003) Evan Parker/ Kenny Wheeler/ Paul Dunmall/ Tony Levin/ John Edwards - Live at the Vortex, London [Rare Music, 2011]
(May 2003) Evan Parker Trio & Peter Brötzmann Trio - The Bishop's Move [Les Disques Victor, 2004] ***
(July 2003) Tony Coe/ John Edwards/ Alan Hacker/ Slyvia Hallett/ Marcio Mattos/ Evan Parker/ Philipp Wachsmann/ Kenny Wheeler - Free Zone Appleby 2003 [Psi, 2004]
(October 2004) Evan Parker and September Winds - Short Stories [Leo Records, 2005]
(July 2004) Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton/ Evan Parker/ Joel Ryan/ Philipp Wachsmann - Free Zone Appleby 2004 [Psi, 2005]
(September 2004) Evan Parker/ Transatlantic Art Ensemble - Boustrophedon [E. C. M. Records, 2008] ***
(May 2005) Evan Parker Octet - Crossing the River [Psi, 2006]
(July 2005) Gerd Dudek/ Tony Levin / Evan Parker/ Tony Marsh/ Paul Dunmall/ Philipp Wachsmann/ John Edwards/ Kenny Wheeler/ Paul Rogers - Free Zone Appleby 2005 [Psi, 2006]
(July 2006) Philipp Wachsmann/ Rudi Mahall/ Aki Takase/ Alexander von Schlippenbach/ Evan Parker/ Paul Rutherford/ Paul Lovens - Free Zone Appleby 2006 [Psi, 2007]
(January 2007) Urs Leimgruber/ Evan Parker/ Nils Gerold/ Reinhart Hammerschmidt/ Uli Sobotta/ Hainer Wörmann - Striking a Blow [Nur/Nicht/Nur, 2010]
(February 2007) Foxes Fox [Parker/ Kenny Wheeler/ Beresford/ Edwards/ Moholo] - Live at the Vortex [Psi, 2012]
(October 2007) Evan Parker/ Stephen Grew/ Bruno Guastalla/ Dominic Lash/ Philipp Wachsmann - Pent (Spoonhunt, 2021)
(March 2009) Otomo Yoshihide/ Sachiko M/ Evan Parker/ Tony Marsh/ John Edwards/ John Butcher - Quintet, Sextet, Duos [Otoroku, 2014]
(December 2009) Grutonic and Evan Parker - Together in Zero Space [Psi, 2011]
(? 2009) Evan Parker - House Full of Floors [Tzadik, 2009]
(October 2010) Evan Parker & konstruKt - Live at Akbank Jazz Festival [Re:konstruKt, 2011]
(November 2010) Barry Guy New Orchestra Small Formations - Mad Dogs [Not Two Records, 2010; five-disc set; second disc features the Parker-Guy-Lytton trio; fourth disc features two tracks of the trio with Agustí Fernández, and one track of the Parker-Lytton duo]
(July 2011) Mark Solborg/ Mats Eilertsen/ Peter Bruun/ Herb Robertson/ Evan Parker - The Trees [I. L. K. Music, 2013]
(August 2012) Evan Parker/ X-Jazz Ensemble - A Schist Story [JACC Records, 2022]
(April 2013) Evan Parker/ John Russell/ John Edwards/ Pat Thomas// Alison Blunt/ Benedict Taylor/ David Leahy// Kay Grant/ Alex Ward - Mopomoso Tour 2013: Making Rooms [Weekertoft, 2016]
(December 2012) Christof Thewes/ Martin Schmidt/ Hartmut Oßwald/ Paul Lovens/ Alexander von Schlippenbach/ Evan Parker - Live at Spielraum (Trio/Quartet/Sextet) [Gligg Records, 2016]
(May 2013) Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Eddie Prévost// Alexander v. Schlippenbach/ Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Eddie Prévost// Christof Thewes/ Evan Parker/ John Edwards/ Eddie Prévost - 3 Nights at Cafe Oto [Matchless Recordings, 2015]
(May 2014) Evan Parker - Seven ElectroAcoustic Septet [Les Disques Victo, 2014]
(June 2014) Evan Parker and Dissonanzen - Linger like Joy in Memory [Black Sheep Power Desco Music, 2018]
(October 2014) Evan Parker & A. M. M. - Title Goes Here [Otoroku, 2015] ***
(January 2015) Sant'Anna Arresi Quintet by Evan Parker - Fili 'e Ferru [self-released, 2015]
(August 2016) Evan Parker/ John Russell/ Ian Brighton/ Phillip Wachsmann/ Marcio Mattos/ Trevor Taylor - Reunion Live from Cafe Oto [F. M. R. Records, 2017]
(July 2017) Trance Map+ - Crepuscule in Nickelsdorf [Intakt Records, 2019]
(May 2018) Setoladimaiale Unit & Evan Parker - Live at Angelica 2018 [Setola di Maiale, 2019]
(June 2019) Evan Parker/ Zlatko Kauĉiĉ// Evan Parker/ Zlatko Kauĉiĉ/ Massimo de Mattia/ Boŝtjan Simon - Arkosberg [Klopotec, 2020]
VII. The Schlippenbach Trio.
These albums are generally going to be catalogued as "Alexander von Schlippenbach" albums, if one has to choose among the three. But, given our approach of designating an album as, for example, both an "Evan Parker" album and a "Barry Guy" album and the significance of the Schlippenbach trio to Parker's work, these albums need to be given pride of place in any Parker discography. So far, we have a total of 250 "Evan Parker" albums. Here we have another 19 albums, since the 50th Birthday Concert and 2 x 3 = 5 albums are being grouped into the Parker/ Guy/ Lytton category and thus cannot be counted here. In a separate listing for the this trio, or a Schlippenbach discography, we would at least count 50th Birthday Concert. However, in such a discography, America 2003, on which Lytton replaces Lovens, may not be considered a "Schlippenbach Trio" album, as strictly speaking it presents a merging of that trio with the Parker/ Guy/ Lytton trio, with two players absent, as compared to the merging that took place on 2 x 3 = 5.
(April 1972) Schlippenbach Trio - First Recordings [Trost Records, 2014; two of the four tracks previously released on the compilation For Example: Workshop Freie Music 1969-1978]
(November 1972) Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio - Pakistani Pomade [Free Music Production, 1973; Atavistic, 2003, with four bonus tracks] ***
(June 1974-studio, February 1975-concert) Schlippenbach-Quartett - Three Nails Left [also featuring Peter Kowald; Free Music Production, 1975; Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2020; tracks 2 and 3 (the concert portion) also reissued on At Quartier Latin, released 2010 as part of the box set FMP Im Rückblick - In Retrospect and separately 2011] ***
(September 1975) Schlippenbach Quartet - Hunting the Snake [also featuring Peter Kowald; Atavistic, 2000]
(January 1977) Schlippenbach Quartett - The Hidden Peak [also featuring Peter Kowald; Free Music Production, 1977; reissued 2010, retitled At Quarter Latin, part of the box set FMP Im Rückblick - In Retrospect (released separately 2011), with a portion of the first track excised and, as noted above, tracks 2 and 3 of Three Nails Left included as bonus tracks]
(June 1981) Alexander von Schlippenbach/ Evan Parker/ Paul Lovens - Detto fra Di Noi [Po Torch Records, 1982; one track reissued on the compilation Free Jazz West: Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000]
(November 1981) Schlippenbach Quartett - Das Hohe Lied [also featuring Alan Silva; Po Torch Records, 1991]
(September 1982) Schlippenbach Quartet - Anticlockwise [also featuring Alan Silva; Free Music Production, 1983]
(May 1990) Schlippenbach Trio - Elf Bagatellen [Free Music Production, 1990] ***
(June 1991) Schlippenbach Trio - Physics [Free Music Production, 1993]
(April 1994) Evan Parker - 50th Birthday Concert [see above, under Parker/ Guy/ Lytton trio]
(April 1998) Schlippenbach Trio - Complete Combustion [Free Music Production, 1999]
(November 1998) Schlippenbach Trio - Swinging the BIM [Free Music Production, 2000]
(August 1999) Parker/ Guy/ Lytton/ Schlippenbach Trio - 2 x 3 =5 [see above, under Parker/ Guy/ Lytton]
(November 2002) Schlippenbach Trio - Compression: Live at Total Music Meeting 2002 [A/ L/ L, 2004]
(May 2003) Parker/ Schlippenbach/ Lytton - America 2003 [Lytton replaces Lovens; still generally catalogued under the Schlippenbach trio; Psi, 2004]
(December 2004, December 2005) Schlippenbach Trio - Winterreise [Psi, 2006]
(June 2007) Schlippenbach Trio - Gold Is Where You Find It [Intakt Records, 2008]
(November 2009) Schlippenbach Trio - Bauhaus Dessau [Intakt Records, 2010]
(December 2013) Schlippenbach Trio - Features [Intakt Records, 2015]
(October 2015) Schlippenbach Trio - Warsaw Concert [Intakt Records, 2016]
VIII. "Sideman" appearances
These albums, not released in any way as "Evan Parker" albums, are presented here in the same format as the rest of the discography. Doing so, we highlight the collectivist nature of some of the music. But if we do not specify which of the albums below are less the work of a single composer, and thus could be an "Evan Parker" album, this point is moot. More important, what we are doing here, as with all of these Baker's Dozen discographies, is suggesting the interlocking/ interchangeable possibilities of musics that, like Jazz/ Improvised, tend to feature a small number of players. If we used the same format for all 13 discographies, any entry in this list of Parker's supporting roles that is also in, for example, Cecil Taylor's discography can be linked to the corresponding entry in the Taylor discography.
(September, October 1966, March 1967) The Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Withdrawl (1966-7) [Emanem, 1997]
(August, September 1967) The Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Summer 1967 [Emanem, 1995]
(October 1967, November 1970) Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra - Globe Unity 67 & 70 [Atavistic, 2001; Parker plays on one of two tracks]
(February 1968) The Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Karyōbin [Hexagram/ Island Records, 1968; Chronoscope Records, 1993] ***
(March 1968, March 1970) P. Brötzmann Group - Fuck de Boere: Dedicated to Johnny Dyani [Atavistic, 2001]
(May 1968) Peter Brötzmann - Machine Gun [BRÖ, 1968; Free Music Production, 1972, 1990—this 1990 C. D. version includes two additional tracks; these two bonus tracks are also included with another bonus track, a concert recording, on the 2007 Atavistic reissue misleadingly titled The Complete Machine Gun Sessions] ***
(January 1969) The Tony Oxley Quintet - The Baptised Traveller [C. B. S., 1969; Columbia Records/ Sony Music Entertainment, 1999]
(February 1969) John Stevens/ Spontaneous Music Ensemble - John Stevens/ Spontaneous Music Ensemble [Marmalade, 1969; informally known as ‘Oliv’, the name of the composition featured on the album, reissued as Oliv & Familie with the addition of two performances of the piece ‘Familie’, recorded January 1968; Parker only plays on the two versions of ‘Familie’—that is, he is not on the original album]
(April 1969) The Peter Brötzmann Sextet/Quartet - Nipples [Calig, 1969; Atavistic, 2000]
(April 1969) Peter Brötzmann - More Nipples [Atavistic, 2003; Parker plays on one of three tracks]
(June 1969) Manfred Schoof - European Echoes [Free Music Production, 1969; Atavistic, 2002]
(November 1969) The Pierre Favre Quartett - The Pierre Favre Quartett [WERGO-Jazz, 1970]
(? 1969) The Chris McGregor Septet - Up to Earth [Fledg'ling Records, 2008]
(? 1969, ? 1970, ? 1972, ? 1974) - Laurie Scott Baker - Gracility [Musicnow, 2009; Parker performs two solo compositions by Baker; these comprise only a small portion of the entire two-C. D. set]
(February 1970) Tony Oxley - 4 Compositions for Sextet [C. B. S., 1970; Columbia Records/ Sony Music Entertainment, 1999]
(? 1971?) Tony Oxley - Ichnos [R. C. A./ Victor, 1971]
(? 1971, ? 1972, ? 1973, ? 1975) Tony Oxley - Tony Oxley [Incus, 1975; Parker plays on two of six tracks]
(April 1972) Barry Guy/ The London Jazz Composers Orchestra - Ode [Incus, 1972; Intakt Records, 1996] ***
(September 1972, October 1973, May 1974) Paul Rutherford/ Iskra 1912 - Sequences 72 & 73 [Emanem, 1997]
(January 1973) Kenny Wheeler - Song for Someone [Incus, 1973; Parker plays on two of six tracks]
(January 1973) Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath - Travelling Somewhere [Cuneiform Records, 2001]
(March 1973) Globe Unity 73 - Live in Wuppertal [Free Music Production, 1973]
(February 1974) The Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Eighty-Five Minutes Part 1 [Emanem, 1986; reissued 1997, retitled Quintessence 1, with three additional tracks]
(February 1974) The Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Eight-Five Minutes Part 2 [Emanem, 1986; reissued 1997, retitled Quintessence 2, with two additional tracks]
(November 1974) The Globe Unity Orchestra and the Choir of the NDR-Broadcast - Hamburg '74 [Free Music Production, 1979; Atavistic, 2004]
(December 1974) Steve Lacy - Saxophone Special [Emanem, 1975; reissued 1998, retitled Saxophone Special + with four additional tracks, one of which previously unreleased and three of which originally released on the Lacy album The Crust; the previously-unreleased bonus track features Parker but the tracks from The Crust do not]
(? 1974?) Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath - Live at Willisau [Ogun, 1974, 1994]
(January 1975) The Spontaneous Music Orchestra - SME+=SMO [A Records, 1975; Emanem, 2001, retitled Plus Equals, with one additional track recorded January 1974; original album without bonus track also included on Search & Reflect, Emanem, 2016, with additional material]
(March 1975) Globe Unity Special - Evidence Vol. 1 [Free Music Production, 1976; reissued with Into the Valley as Rumbling, credited to Globe Unity Special '75]
(March 1975) Globe Unity Special - Into the Valley Vol. 2 [Free Music Production, 1976; reissued as Rumbling—see note above]
(June, November 1975) The Globe Unity Orchestra - Jahrmarket/Local Fair [Po Torch Records, 1977; ‘Local Fair’, the second of two tracks also included on Baden-Baden '75—see note below]
(November 1975) The Globe Unity Orchestra & Guests - Baden-Baden '75 [Free Music Production, 2011; also released as part of the box set FMP Im Rückblick - In Retrospect
(May 1977) Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath - Processions [Ogun, 1978, 2013—retitled Procession (Live at Toulouse)
(September 1977) Globe Unity - Improvisations [Japo Records, 1978; E. C. M. Records, 2010]
(November 1977) The Globe Unity Orchestra & Guests - Pearls [Free Music Production, 1977; BE! Jazz, 2020]
(January 1978) The Louis Moholo Octet - Spirits Rejoice! [Ogun, 1978; Otoroku, 2019]
(January 1979) Globe Unity - Compositions [Japo Records, 1980; E. C. M. Records, 2010]
(August 1979) Kenny Wheeler - Around 6 [E. C. M. Records, 1980]
(March 1980) The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra/ Barry Guy - Stringer [Free Music Production, 1983; Intakt Records, 2005, retitled Study II/ Stringer, with additional track recorded February 1991; Parker does not play on bonus track]
(? 1980, ? 1983, ? 1984, ? 1985, ? 1986) Jon Rose - Forward of Short Leg [Dosier, 1987; Paker plays on one of 16 tracks]
(June 1982) The Globe Unity Orchestra - Intergalactic Blow [Japo Records, 1983; Free Music Production, 2019]
(February 1984, March, June, October, December 1986, August 1987, April, July, September 1988, February, August, December 1989, June 1990) Peter Kowald - Duos: Europa-America-Japan [Free Music Production, 1991; Parker plays on one track on Europa, one of three albums in a box set; the albums were also released separately]
(March, June, October, December 1986, August 1987, April, July 1988, February, August 1989) Peter Kowald - Duos: Europa-America-Japan [Free Music Production, 1991; despite the title, this is a different release; Parker again plays on one track]
(November 1986) The Globe Unity Orchestra - 20th Anniversary [Free Music Production, 1993]
(November 1987, March 1988) Barry Guy/ Anthony Braxton/ The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra - Zurich Concerts [Intakt Records, 1988, 1995]
(? 1988) John Stevens - Fast Colour: Antwerp 1988 [Loose Torque, 2004]
(October 1988) Anthony Braxton - Ensemble (Victoriaville) 1988 [Les Disques Victo, 1989]
(January-February 1990) Kenny Wheeler - Music for Large and Small Ensembles [E. C. M. Records, 1990; Parker plays on nine of 15 tracks]
(June 1988) Cecil Taylor with Tristan Honsinger & Evan Parker - The Hearth [Free Music Production, 1989]
(July 1988) The Cecil Taylor European Orchestra - Alms/Tiergarten (Spree) [Free Music Production, 1989]
(April 1989) Barry Guy and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra - Harmos [Intakt Records, 1989]
(April 1989) Barry Guy and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra - Double Trouble [Intakt Records, 1990]
(March 1990) Mario Schiano - Unlike [Splasc(H) Records, 1990]
(September 1990) C. T.: The Workshop Ensemble - Melancholy [Free Music Production, 1999]
(September 1990) C. T.: The Quartet - Nailed [Free Music Production, 2000]
(February 1991) Barry Guy/ The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra - Theoria [Intakt Records, 1992]
(August 1991) Joe Gallivan - Innocence [Cadence Jazz Records, 1992]
(October 1991) The Chris Burn Ensemble - The Place 1991 [Emanem, 2001; Parker plays on one of six tracks]
(January 1992) The Dedication Orchestra - Spirits Rejoice [Ogun, 1992]
(March 1993) Barry Guy/ The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra - Portraits [Intakt Records, 1994]
(May 1993) The John Stevens Ensemble - Blue [Culture Press, 1998]
(July 1993) Alexander von Schlippenbach/ The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra - Morlocks and Other Pieces [Free Music Production, 1994]
(? 1980, August 1992, July, August, September 1994, ? 1995) Susanna Ferrar - A Boy Leaves Home [Mash Productions, 1997; Parker plays on three of 13 tracks]
(January 1994) The Dedication Orchestra - Ixesha (Time) [Ogun, 1994]
(September 1995) Wolfgang Fuchs - Bits and Pieces [Free Music Production, 1996; Parker plays on two of 13 tracks]
(September, October 1995) Peter Kowald/ Ort Ensemble Wuppertal/ Evan Parker/ Lê Quan Ninh/ Carlos Zingaro - Cuts [Free Music Production, 1998]
(November 1995) Jon Rose - Techno Mit Störungen [Plag Dich Nicht, 1996]
(December 1995) Barry Guy/ The London Jazz Composers Orchestra - Three Pieces for Orchestra [Intakt Records, 1997]
(December 1995) Barry Guy/ The London Jazz Composers Orchestra - Double Trouble Two [Intakt Records, 1998]
(May 1996) Mario Shiano - Social Security [Les Disques Victo, 1997]
(July, August 1996) The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra - Live in Japan '96 [D. I. W., 1997]
(September 1996) Francine Luce - Bò Kay La Vi-a [Ogun, 1999]
(July 1997) The John Wolf Brennan HeXtet - ...Through the Ear of a Raindrop [Leo Records, 1998]
(July 1999) The London Improvisors Orchestra - Proceedings [Emanem, 2000]
(May 2000) Barry Guy New Orchestra - Inscape-Tableaux [Intakt Records, 2001]
(September 2000) The London Improvisors Orchestra - The Hearing Continues... [Emanem, 2001]
(? 2001?) Spring Heel Jack - Masses [Thirsty Ear Recordings, 2001]
(January 2002) The Globe Unity Orchestra - Globe Unity 2002 [Intakt Records, 2003]
(May 2002) The London Improvisors Orchestra - Freedom of the City 2002 [Emanem, 2003]
(July 2002) Paal Nilssen-Love/ Evan Parker/ Sten Sandell/ Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - Townorchestrahouse [Clean Feed, 2005]
(November 2002, April 2005) Simon H. Fell - Composition No. 62: Compilation IV [Bruce's Fingers, 2005]
(? 2002?) Spring Heel Jack - AMaSSED [Thirsty Ear Recordings, 2002]
(January 2003) Spring Heel Jack/ Matthew Shipp with Evan Parker/ J. Spaceman/ William Parker/ Han Bennink - Live [Thirsty Ear Recordings, 2003]
(February, July, August 2003, June 2007) London Improvisors Orchestra - Improvisations for George Riste [Psi, 2008]
(May 2003, May 2004) The London Improvisors Orchestra - Responses, Reproduction & Reality: Freedom of the City 2003-4 [Emanem, 2005; Parker plays on two of seven tracks]
(September, December 2003) The Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra with Evan Parker - Munich and Glasgow [F. M. R. Records, 2004]
(May, July 2004) Barry Guy New Orchestra - Oort-Entrop [Intakt Records, 2005]
(July 2004, July 2006) The Stan Tracey Orchestra - At the Appleby Jazz Festival [Resteamed, 2007]
(September 2004) Roscoe Mitchell - Composition/Improvisation No. 1, 2, & 3 [E. C. M. Records, 2007]
(November 2004-April 2005) Charles Farrell - Hope Springs Eternal [World Tribe Music, 2005]
(May 2005) Freedom of the City 2005 - Freedom of the City 2005 [Emanem, 2006; Parker plays on the three London Improvisors Orchestra tracks]
(June 2005, January 2011, October, November 2015, February, June 2016) Joëlle Léndre - A Woman's Work [Not Two Records, 2016; eight discs, the seventh of which features a quartet of Léndre, Zlatko Kauĉiĉ, Parker, and Agustí Fernández; the eight features duos, including one track with Parker]
(July 2006) Lawrence Casserley/ Simon Desorgher - Music from ColourDome [Psi, 2007]
(November 2006) Alexander von Schlippenbach/ Globe Unity Orchestra - Globe Unity - 40 Years [Intakt Records, 2007]
(February 2007) The Townhouse Orchestra - Belle Ville [Clean Feed, 2008]
(May 2007) The London Improvisors Orchestra/ The Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra - Seprately & Together: Freedom of the City 2007 [Emanem, 2008]
(May 2008) Barry Guy/ London Jazz Composers Orchestra/ Irène Schweizer - Radio Rondo/ Schaffhausen Concert [Intakt Records, 2009]
(November 2009) Hans Koller - Cry, Want [Psi, 2010]
(August 2010) Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris - Possible Universe [Nu Bop Records, 2014]
(March 2011) The Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra with Lol Coxhill & Evan Parker - Improcherto (For HB) By George Burt [Iorram Records, 2012]
(April 2011) Le Grand Groupe Régional d'Improvisation Libérée avec Evan Parker - Vivaces [Tour de Bras, 2012]
(October 2012) The Konvoj Ensemble Feat. Evan Parker & Sten Sandell - Colors Of: [Konvoj Records, 2013]
(November 2012) Barry Guy New Orchestra Small Formations - Mad Dogs on the Loose [Not Two Records, 2014; four-disc set; Parker plays on three of 16 tracks]
(March 2013) The Barry Guy New Orchestra - Amphi - Radio Rondo [Intakt Records, 2014]
(December 2013, June 2014) The Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra Featuring Marilyn Crispell & Evan Parker - Parallel Moments Broken [F. M. R. Records, 2018]
(March 2014) Black Top - #Two [Babel, 2015]
(November 2014) The Konvoj Ensemble - Mira [Konvoj Records, 2016]
(December 2014) John Russell - With [Emanem, 2015; Parker plays on one of four tracks]
(September, October, November 2015) IMPAKT Meets Lê Quan Ninh/ Eve Risser/ Evan Parker - Live @ Loft Köln [Impakt Records, 2016]
(February, March 2016) Seymour Wright - Seymour Wright with 23.2.16 - Evan Parker/ 1.3.16 - Rie Nakajima [Otoroku, 2016]
(April, September 2016) Hideaki Shimada with Evan Parker and Roger Turner - Kanazawa Duos [Pico, 2019; Parker plays on one of two tracks]
(November 2016) Alexander von Schlippenbach/ Globe Unity Orchestra - Globe Unity - 50 Years [Intakt Records, 2018]
(July 2019) The Natural Information Society with Evan Parker - Descension (Out Of Our Constrictions) [Aguirre Records, 2021]
(January 2020) Jean-Marc Foussat (solo) + J-M. F./ Daunik Lazro/ Evan Parker - Cafe Oto Wed 22 Jan [Fou Records, 2020]
(July 2020) Alexander Hawkins Feat. Evan Parker + Riot Ensemble - Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians [Intakt Records, 2021]
IX. Compilation appearances
In this section, the artist name provided is that which pertains to the track on which Parker appears, unlike all of the entries above, for which, even in the cases where Parker appears only only one or a small number of tracks on an album, the artist to whom the album is credited is provided. That's quite a mouthful. Another way of saying it: this section lists tracks, not albums.
(March 1970) The Peter Brötzmann Group, ‘Fuck de Boere (Ausschnitt)’, Born Free: The 12. German Jazz Festival [Scout, 1970; B.Free, 2015, 9-C. D. reissue, which includes two tracks ‘Fuck de Boere’, (confusingly) both titled such, perhaps a single performance split into two; the original 1970 triple L. P. features an abridged version of (presumably) one of these two tracks]
(March 1971) Evan Parker & Paul Lytton, ‘As It Were’, Not Necessarily "English" Music [Leonardo Music Journal/ Electronic Music Foundation, 2001]
(March or April 1973) The Globe Unity Orchestra, ‘Thin in the Upper Crust’, For Example: Workshop Freie Musik 1969-1978 [Free Music Production, 1978; BE! Jazz, 2019]
(June 1977) Evan Parker/ Martin Joseph/ Eugenio Colombo/ Andrea Centazzo, ‘Church Music #1’, ‘Church Music #2’, ‘Church Music #3’// Lester Bowie/ Alvin Curran/ Giancario Schiaffini/ Evan Parker/ Tony Oxley/ Andre Centazzo, ‘Rebels, Travelers & Improvisers’, Rebels, Travelers and Improvisors [Ictus Records, 2006]
(April 1983) Schlippenbach Trio, ‘Option Abdullah’, Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf (The 20th Anniversary Album) [Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf, 1997]
(October 1991) Evan Paker, Steve Beresford, Arjen Gorter, Han Bennik, ‘The Bear’, October Meeting 1991: 3 Quartets [Bimhuis Records, 1997; this quartet performs one of six tracks]
(? 1991 or ? 1992) Charlie Watts, ‘Blue in the Cave’, ‘Laughing in Rhythm’, Vol pour Sidney (Aller) [Nato, 1992]
(February 1992) Evan Parker, ‘Sonf (For Mr Patak)’, The Saxophone Phenomenon [Slam Productions, 1992]
(October 1996 and January 1997 [1st track] January 1997 [2nd track]) Evan Parker, ‘Voices of Unreason’, ‘Solo 2 (Working Title)’, Gramophone Explorations: Counter-currents In Modern Music, Volume 3 [Gramophone Magazine, 1998]
(? 1996?) Zoviet France & Evan Parker, ‘Improvisation’, Resonance Radio Issue [London Musicians' Collective, 1997]
(December 1997 or January or February 1998) Evan Parker, ‘No. 112 (Ausschnitt)’, 3 Concerts Per a A. T.: In Der Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover [Edition Explico, 1998]
(? 1997?) Evan Parker/ Lawrence Casserley, ‘Work in Progress’, FMR Sampler 3 [Avant Magazine, 1997]
(April 1999-April 2000) Parker/Fernandez, ‘Parker/Fernandez’, IBA 20 Aniversario [Collective I. B. A., 2000]
(September 2000) Evan Parker, untitled track, Deluxe Improvisation Series Vol. 1: 2000 [A. S. E., 2001]
(April 2001) Sam Rivers & Evan Parker, ‘Confluence’, Visions: Performances from the EMIT Series [Isospin Labs, 2002]
(May 2001) Tilbury & Parker, ‘@ 9.15pm’, Seventh of May 2001: Freedom of the City, Radical Improvised Musics [Matchless Recordings, 2002]
(? 2001?) Evan Parker, ‘Mono’, Ringtones [Touch, 2001]
(October-November 2002) 2 x 3 = 5, ‘Pars Pro Toto’; Evan Parker Trio, ‘Chevreul's Pendulum’; Schlippenbach Trio, ‘The Unresolved Remnant’, 2002: Audiology II: 11 Groups Live In Berlin [a/l/l, 2003]
(January 2005) Evan Parker, ‘Solo for Hugh Davies’, Horn_bill: Reed Solos [Matchless Recordings, 2006]
(December 2010) Evan Parker, untitled track, 13 Miniatures for Albert Ayler [RogueArt, 2012]
(September 2017) Evan Parker/ John Russell/ John Edwards, ‘The Hallmark Channel’, Discovery Festival 2017: Channel [Weekertoft, 2018]
(? 2022?) Evan Parker/ John Coxon, ‘Grus Grus’, For the Birds: The Birdsong Project [Search Party/ Downtown Records, 2022]
X. Curio
(? 2000?) Evan Parker - High Tide [Wire Magazine, 2000]
The history of Excepter in the form of a list of the STREAMS, the name given to downloads the band has made available via various sites; in turn other releases by the band that use live recordings as their raw material are incorporated into the list. A few concerts not documented in the STREAMS series are noted as well. The format is as follows: STREAM number or other title - concerts from which the recording derived - the date of said performance. The band's history has been roughly split into different eras determined by the membership.
--
post-Amory/ Corbin:
STREAM 88 - Trans Pecos, Palisades, Bell House, private residence, Trans Pecos—all New York, N. Y.—March 20th, 2016, April 1st, 2016, April 22nd, 2016, May 13th, 2016, July 8th, 2016
ABRIL'14 - Cave 12, Geneva, Switzerland; Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden; WORM, Rotterdam, Netherlands - April 8th, 2014, April 18th, 2014 April 18, April 23rd, 2014
ABRIL20 - Korjaamo, Helsinki, Finland - April 20th, 2014
STREAM 87A/ 87B- Home Sweet Home, New York, N. Y. - May 4th, 2015
STREAM 86 - Trans Pecos, New York, N. Y. - March 20th, 2015
STREAM 85 - Death by Audio, New York, N. Y. - November 7th, 2014
STREAM 84 - Europa Club, New York, N. Y. - August 15th, 2014
STREAM 83A/ 83B - Earwax Records, New York, N. Y. - August 2nd, 2014
STREAM 82 - Body Acutalized Center, New York, N. Y. - June 21st, 2014
STREAM 81A/ 81B - Le Sonic, Lyon, France - April 7th, 2014
STREAM 80A/ 80B - P. M. K., Innsbruck, Austria - April 11th, 2014
Prague - Café V. Lese, Prague, Czech Republic - April 13th, 2014
STREAM 79A/ 79B - Kantine Berghain, Berlin, Germany - April 15th, 2014
STREAM 78A/ 78B - Instants Chavires, Paris, France - April 25th, 2014
STREAM 77 - Baby's All Right, New York, N. Y. - February 24th, 2014
STREAM 76 - St. Vitus, New York, N. Y. - November 15th, 2013
STREAM 75 - Body Actualized Center, New York, N. Y. - November 1st, 2013
STREAM 74 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, N. Y. - October 31st, 2013
STREAM 73 - The Smell, Los Angeles, CA - March 10th, 2012
STREAM 72A/ 72B/ 72C/ 72D - The Wreck Room, New York, N. Y. - July 20th, 2011
--
post-Hougland:
STREAM 71A/ 71B - Shea Stadium, New York, N. Y.- October 27th, 2010
STREAM 70A/ 70B - Silent Barn, New York, N. Y. - September 11th, 2010
STREAM 69A/ 69B - Viaduct Theater, Chicago, Il. - August 21st, 2010
--
sextet:
STREAM 68A/ 68B - Glasslands, New York, N. Y. - March 20th, 2010
- - - Glasslands, New York, N.Y. - February 16th, 2010 ('Presidence' release party)
STREAM 67A/ 67B - Zebulon, New York, N. Y. - January 23rd, 2010
- - - Monkey Town, New York, N.Y. - December 31st, 2009
- - - Student Center, Purchase, N.Y. - November 17th, 2009
STREAM 66/ WKCR Man [disc two of STREAMS 2 Vol. 1] - W. K. C. R. 89.3 F.M., New York, N. Y. - October 25th, 2009
STREAM 65 - Cameo Gallery, New York, N. Y. - October 23rd, 2009
STREAM 64/ Maze of Death - Death by Audio, New York, N. Y. - October 2nd, 2009
STREAM 63A/ 63B - Secret Project Robot, New York, N. Y. - September 26th, 2009
STREAM 62 - High Noon Saloon, Madison, Wi. - September 19th, 2009
STREAM 61A/ 61B - Viaduct Theater, Chicago, Il. - September 18th, 2009
STREAM 60A/ 60B - Division Street Gallery, Detroit, Mi. - September 17th, 2009
'OBOH' - Dionysus Club, Oberlin, Oh. - September 16th, 2009
STREAM 59A/ 59B - Starr Space, New York, N. Y. - August 29th, 2009
'Live at the Bell House' - Bell House, New York, N.Y. - April 4th, 2009
Equinox - Glasslands, New York, N. Y. - March 21st, 2009
STREAM 58/ Zion - 92nd Street Y, New York, N. Y. - February 28th, 2009
Equinox - Issue Project Room, New York, N. Y. - January 17th, 2009
'The Open Well' - Monkey Town, New York, N. Y. - November 4th, 2008 ('Veto Vote')
- - - Le Poisson Rouge, New York, N. Y. - October 22nd, 2008
- - - La Sala Rossa, Montreal, Quebec - June 1st, 2008
STREAM 57A/ 57B - Senior House, Cambridge, Ma. - May 3rd, 2008
Dublab 'Sprout Session'/ Dub Lab [first disc of Streams 2 Vol. 2] - Los Angeles, Ca. - April 27th, 2008
STREAM 56 - Echo, Los Angeles, Ca. - April 26th, 2008
STREAM 55 - Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, Ca. - April 24th, 2008
STREAM 54 - Vanishing Point, New York, N. Y. - December 13th, 2008
STREAM 53 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, N. Y. - November 19th, 2008
STREAM 52A/ 52B - Backspace, Portland, Or. - April 22nd, 2008
STREAM 51A/ 51B - Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, Seattle, Wa. - April 21st, 2008
STREAM 50A/ 50B - Glasslands, New York, N. Y. - March 29th, 2008 ('Debt Dept.' release party)
Punkcast 1189 [alternate link] - Rocky's (Rock Star Bar), New York, N. Y - August 18th, 2007
'OG', 'The Anti-Noah' - Monkey Town, New York, N. Y.- July 14th, 2007 ('A Return from Black Hole')
STREAM 49A/ 49B - [unidentified hotel], Vacaville, Ca. - April 23rd, 2008
STREAM 48A/ 48B - Tobago - June 16th, 2007
STREAM 47A/ 47B - Castaways, Ithaca, N. Y. - March 1st, 2008
- - - Monkey Town, New York, N.Y. - 2008 February 22 ('Science')
STREAM 46A/ 46B - Mug, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. - February 21st, 2008
STREAM 45A/ 45B - Bar, New Haven, Ct. - February 3rd, 2008
STREAM 44A/ 44B - Music Hall of Williamsburg, New York, N. Y. - January 11th, 2008
STREAM 43A/ 43B/ 43C - Issue Project Room, New York, N.Y. - December 7th, 2007
STREAM 42A/ 42B - Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, New York, N.Y. - December 6th, 2007
- - - Silent Barn, New York, N.Y. - October 19th, 2007
STREAM 41A/ 41B/ 41C - Empty Bottle, Chicago, Il. - September 28th, 2007
STREAM 40/ 40,000 Leagues under the SEA - Monkey Town, New York, N. Y. - February 24th, 2007
STREAM 39A/ 39B - Morrow Memorial Church, Maplewood, N. J. - March 10th, 2007
--
quartet:
- - - Bowery Ballroom, New York, N. Y. - January 6th, 2007
- - - Smog, Annandale-on-Hudson, N. Y. - December 10th, 2006
STREAM 38A/ 38B - Casa del Popolo, Montreal, Quebec - December 9th, 2006
- - - Asterisk Art Project, New York, N. Y. - November 4th, 2006
STREAM 37A/ 37B - Hiro Ballroom, New York, N. Y. - November 3rd, 2006
- - - [Big Out of Doors Show II], New York, N. Y. - September 9th, 2006
STREAM 36 - East River Park Amphitheater, New York, N.Y. - August 19th, 2006
- - - Daydream Library, New York, N.Y. - July 29th, 2006
Steps: La Sala Rossa - La Salla Rosa, Montreal, Quebec - June 23rd, 2006
- - - Tonic, New York, N.Y. - June 15th, 2006
STREAM 35A/ 35B - [unidentified location], Sacramento, Ca. - May 1st, 2006
STREAM 34A/ 34B- Hemlock, Sab Francisco, Ca. - May 20th, 2006
STREAM 33 - [Jamnesty], Maplewood, N. J. - April, 2006
STREAM 32 - Knitting Factory, New York, N. Y. - February 25th, 2006
STREAM 31 - Wien Hall, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. - February 14th, 2006
STREAM 3X - Syrup Room, New York, N. Y - December 10th, 2005
STREAM 29 - Webster Hall, New York, N. Y. - November 20th, 2005
STREAM 28 - Cake Shop, New York, N. Y. - November 4th, 2005
STREAM 27 - North Six, New York, N. Y. - October 11th, 2005
STREAM 26 - Vox Populi, Philadelphia, Pa. - September 24th, 2005
STREAM 25 - Knitting Factory, New York, N.Y. - September 16th, 2005
STREAM 24 - Sin-é, New York, N. Y. - September 5th, 2005
STREAM 23 - Rothko, New York, N. Y. - July 10th, 2005
--
quintet:
STREAM 22 - Mains d'Oeuvres, Paris, France, May 8th, 2005
STREAM 21 - Eyedrum, Atlanta, Ga. - April 1st, 2005
STREAM XX/ 'Little Drummer Boy' - [unnamed location] - December 24th, 2004
STREAM 19 - Lit Lounge, New York, N. Y. - November 2004
STREAM 18 - Knitting Factory, New York, N. Y. - "fall 2004"
STREAM 17 - 611 Florda Ave., Washington, D. C. - "fall 2004"
STREAM 16 - Tonic, New York, N. Y. - "fall 2004"
STREAM 15 - Tonic, New York, N. Y. - "fall 2004"
STREAM 14 - Sin-é, New York, N. Y. - "summer 2004"
STREAM 13 - Tonic, New York, N. Y. - "summer 2004"
STREAM 12 - Brooklyn Lyceum, New York, N. Y. - June 18th, 2004
STREAM 11 - Sin-é, New York, N. Y. - "spring 2004"
STREAM 0X - Pianos, New York, N. Y. - "spring 2004"
STREAM 09 - Coral Room, New York, N. Y. - "spring 2004"
STREAM 08 - S5TH, New York, N.Y. - April 18th, 2004
STREAM 07 - [unnamed location], New York, N. Y. - "early spring" 2004
STREAM 06 - Lit Lounge, New York, N. Y. - "early" 2004
STREAM 05 - Tonic, New York, N. Y. - December 12th, 2003
STREAM 04 - Plaid, New York, N. Y. - December 10th, 2003
STREAM 03 - Boogaloo, New York, N. Y.- December 6th, 2003
STREAM 02 - Lit Lounge, New York, N. Y. - summer 2003
STREAM 01 - [studio recording] - later released as 'Heart Beat/ Rock Stepper' on the compilation, OD
Ross Douthat's 'The Fall of the Intellectual' piece for the New Statesman, a response to Tanner Greer's 'Where Have All the Great Works Gone?', in turn impelled at least one direct response, from Nick Burns ('Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?'), conveniently also published at the New Statesman. While it may serve for his detractors as merely another failing among many, this particular essay to me suggests more that Douthat should stick to the subject matter befitting a newspaper columnist: anything topical, controversial, political. The list of writers who, he proposes, could in future decades be considered the great thinkers of our time is, to use a term that could also describe most of the works of these listed persons, a disaster area: "Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, Jordan Peterson, Peter Thiel, Yuval Noah Harari, Steven Pinker, Tyler Cowen, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michelle Alexander, Slavoj Žižek, Andrew Sullivan, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Peter Singer, Samantha Power, my colleague Thomas Friedman." Harari, Pinker, Cowen, Žižek, Dawkins, Singer... yes, they will still be read, as secondary sources, say, 10 years from now, perhaps 20, 30; or, alternately, could indeed stand the "test of time," that is, become one of Thoreau's "eternities" instead of the "times." The remainder are already primary sources: examples of societal and cultural trends, rather than observers of those trends. Opinion writers like Sullivan and Friedman are doing their job; they are not supposed to be offering classic texts to be studied by future scholars. Who still reads Rowland Evans-Robert Novak columns (other than, perhaps, expert practitioners of the newspaper column like Friedman or George Will or Patrick Cockburn)?
Here is a better list (one becomes immodest easily because Douthat's list is so bad) with links provided to official or quasi-official sites. To be fair, some of these writers, though still at work, are quite old, their work mostly done before the Twenty-First Century; and Douthat limited himself to these last twenty years. Some more of these writers arguably reached the peak of their creativity and influence before the millennium's turn. But the same could be said for Pinker and Dawkins. Even given Douthat's demand that the writers in his list possess "substantial audience and recognition," one strains to figure out how he could have excluded Piketty and Zuboff. Since Douthat focuses on non-fiction, I only include a few fiction writers.
--
A few recently-deceased authors (more of these sites not being official) are listed next, with more novelists. While Douthat mentions Morrison and Cormac McCarthy, nonetheless his piece does not make the important point that most lists of "great books" or canons emphasize fiction, poetry, and the theatre; even Oswald Spengler's list, which prompted Greer's essay, is about equally split between non-fiction and fiction. Thus, Douthat's article does not consider how important novelists, poets, playwrights (and screenwriters—why not "screenwrights"?) can be to varied intellectual scenes and the broader cultural zeitgeist.
Please read the essay 'Box Set Key: Ray Charles: Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)' at the Rock Annual for an explanation of the "box set keys."
Heavyweight Champion:
Giant Steps, released Jan. 1960
2-7
2-8
2-2
2-1
2-4
3-4
2-6
Coltrane Jazz, released Jan. 1961
2-12
4-1
3-3
3-6
3-2
3-1
2-10
3-5
My Favorite Things, released Mar. 1961
4-3
5-8
4-7
5-10
Bags and Trane, released Dec. 1961
1-3
1-4
1-5
1-6
1-2
Olé, released Feb. 1962
6-4
6-5
6-6
Coltrane Plays the Blues, released Jul. 1962
5-2
5-6
5-5
5-3
4-5
4-10
Coltrane's Sound, released Jun. 1964
6-2
4-4
6-1
4-8
6-3
5-7
The Avant-Garde, released Apr. 1966
3-7
3-9
3-8
3-10
3-11
The Coltrane Legacy, released Apr. 1970
5-9
6-7
4-6
1-8
1-1
1-7
Alternate Takes, released Jan. 1975
1-9
1-10
1-11
2-9
2-11
2-3
4-9
2-5
Tracks 5-4, 5-1, and 4-2, and the entirety of the seventh C. D., of Heavyweight Champion were previously unreleased.
--
The Classic Quartet:
Coltrane, Aug. 1962
1-5
1-6
1-3
1-8
1-7
The Classic Quartet includes 'Big Nick' (1-4), available on the 1997 C. D. reissue of this album and originally released on The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. One. The C. D. reissue also included 'Up 'Gainst the Wall' (1-11), originally released on Impressions [see below].
Ballads, Mar. 1963
2-2
2-1
1-12
1-13
1-14
1-10
1-2
1-9
Crescent, Jul. 1964
3-1
2-10
3-2
2-8
2-9
A Love Supreme, Jan. 1965
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, Aug. 1965
3-10
4-1
3-8
4-2
The Classic Quartet includes 'Nature Boy (First Version)' (3-7) and 'Feeling Good' (3-11), both available on the C. D. reisssue of this album and originally released on The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. One: Feelin' Good.
Transition, Jul. 1970
5-2
4-4
5-3
The C. D. reissue replaced 'Dear Lord' (4-4) with two tracks originally released on Kul Sé Mama: 'Welcome' (4-6) and 'Vigil' (6-1).
Sun Ship, Apr. 1971
6-5
6-3
6-7
6-4
6-6
First Meditations, Dec. 1977
7-1
7-2
7-3
7-4
7-5
The Classic Quartet includes 'Joy (Alternate Version)' (7-6), available on the C. D. reissue of this album and originally released on The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. One: Feelin' Good--though a version of this track was released with additional material added after Coltrane's death on the album Infinity.
Living Space, Mar. 1998
5-4
5-1
5-5
6-2
4-7
A pointless compilation of tracks, all of them except 'Last Blues' previously released. 'Dusk Dawn' (5-5) was originally released on Kul Sé Mama (a later addition to this quartet's discography, an alternate take of 'Dusk Dawn' was not released until the C. D. reissue of Kul Sé Mama, 2000). The remaining three tracks were originally released on The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. 1: Feelin' Good. Except that 'Living Space' (5-4) was released with additional material added after Coltrane's death on the album Infinity.
In addition, The Classic Quartet includes all five tracks included on the 1993 album Dear Old Stockholm; all five of those tracks had previously been released over the years: 'Dear Lord' (4-4), as noted above released on the original version of Transition; 'After the Rain' (2-4), originally one of the studio tracks on Impressions; 'Dear Old Stockholm' (2-5) on The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. 2; 'One Up, One Down' (4-5) and 'After the Crescent' (4-3) on The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. 2: To the Beat of a Different Drum. For completeness' sake, Dear Old Stockholm's key:
2-5
2-4
4-5
4-3
4-4
The Classic Quartet also includes the other studio track originally released on Impressions ('Up 'Gainst the Wall'); plus the two studio tracks originally released on Live at Birdland:'Alabama' and 'Your Lady'; as well as 'Vilia', originally released on The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. 3 and added to the 1996 C. D. reissue:
1-11
2-7
2-6
2-3
The Classic Quartet came out before some deluxe and super-deluxe versions of a few of these albums, so that box set no longer includes the "complete" recordings of the famed quartet of Coltrane, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and Jones.
These later reissues, with Wikipedia links: Coltrane 2002 deluxe edition, which features on its second disc one outtake, 'Not Yet'; an alternate version of 'Miles' Mode'; four alternate takes of 'Tunji'; two versions of 'Impressions', the second of which was originally released on The Very Best of John Coltrane (a 2001 compilation, that is, released after the Classic Quartet box), in addition to the two bonus tracks that had been included on the 1997 reissue [see above]; except for those two tracks, this material had been previously unreleased (i.e. not inluded in the Classic Quartet box);
Ballads 2002 deluxe edition, which features on its second disc one outtake, 'They Say It's Wonderful'; an alternate take of 'All or Nothing at All'; five takes of 'Greensleeves', including the original version, released as a 7-inch; and seven alternate takes of 'It's Easy to Remember'—all of these tracks except the original 'Greensleeves' previously unreleased (i. e. not included in the Classic Quartet box);
A Love Supreme 2002 deluxe edition, which features on its second disc a four-track concert version of the album; an alternate version and breakdown of 'Resolution'; and two alternate takes of 'Acknowledgement'—all previously unreleased except the alternate take of 'Resolution', which is track 8-4 in The Classic Quartet; and 2015 super deluxe, which again includes the four-track concert version, as its third disc, and on its second disc includes the four bonus studio tracks released on the 2002 deluxe, thus rendering that reissue redundant, in addition to seven other bonus tracks: two vocal overdubs for 'Acknowledgement', an "undubbed version" of 'Psalm', and two additional alternate takes, plus a breakdown and false start, of 'Acknowledgement';
Sun Ship 2013 deluxe edition, which features on its second disc a breakdown, false start, and alternate version of 'Dearly Beloved'; an alternate version, breakdown, and insert of 'Attaining'; a breakdown, alternate version, and insert of 'Sun Ship'; two incomplete versions and three inserts of 'Ascent'; and one alternate version of 'Amen'—all previously unreleased (i.e. not included in the Classic Quartet box).
Disc 8 of The Classic Quartet, except the alternate 'Resolution', seems to be unique to that release; all of the tracks had been previously unreleased at the time the box set came out (1998) at least, and the re-use of the alternate 'Resolution' on the Love Supreme deluxes is the only other instance of those those tracks being issued again that I know of.
Finally, the original 'Greensleeves', as noted above originally released as a 45 (with 'It's Easy to Remember' from Ballads as its B side), is included in the deluxe edition of Ballads; and it is indeed the missing track 1-1 of the box set.
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Anthony Braxton; Steve Lacy; Sonny Rollins; Dave Brubeck; Evan Parker; Sun Ra. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
Sorry—please don't think I have an answer to the question posed in the title. Not as familiar with Zorn's work as I am with Braxton's or Lacy's, I put this discography together to chart my own explorations; more exactly, to catch up with Zorn's prolific output, which around 2003 reached stratospheric levels and, for those not ranked among his devoted followers, became hard to digest.
The links provided take you to the album's page at the website for Tzadik, Zorn's own label, if the album originally came out on Tzadik—otherwise, at Wikipedia or Discogs. If the recording date is different from the release date, it is noted in brackets—if it is known, that is. With recording dates sadly lacking at the Tzadik site, and often not provided in the liner notes anyway, we must rely on other sources that unfortunately do not fill in many of the gaps.
The two plus symbols next to an album's title indicate that Zorn himseslf performs on the album. In recent years, an increasing number of Zorn's releases feature works closer to the Classical standard of a distinct ensemble performing a composer's work without the composer himself performing. In Zorn's case, he at times conducts, almost always is credited as producer, but in the later cases the extent of his involvement likely varies considerably.
Using the search function of your browser, you can quickly organize Zorn's discography by making note of certain ensembles or projects, namely:
Naked City
PainKiller
"quartet Masada"
"first Masada songbook"
the Bar Kokhba Sextet
the Masada String Trio
Filmworks
Electric Masada
Music Romance series
Hemophiliac
Moonchild
the Book of Angels (i. e. the second Masada songbook)
the Dreamers
Alhambra
Nova Express
Abraxas
the Gnostic Trio
Simulacrum
the duo of Julian Lage and Gyan Riley
the trio of Lage, Riley, and Bill Frissell
Book Beri'ah (i. e. the third Masada songbook)
Insurrection
Chaos Magick
Bagatalles
Besides the Tzadik website, an unofficial site, Masada World, is an attractive and helpful resource for Zorn's Masada songbooks.
1978
++ School [rec. 1977-1978; split double album with Eugene Chadbourne featuring three performances of Zorn's ‘Lacrosse’ on sides C and D, all three later reissued with bonus material as Lacrosse, a two-C. D. set part of the box set The Parachute Years and released separately; Zorn plays on some of the tracks of the Chadbourne half]
1980
++ Pool [later reissued as a single C. D., part of The Parachute Years and released separately; that C. D. version includes the track, ‘Pool’, presented here across sides A, B, and C of the double L. P. as a single track plus a bonus track, ‘Archery (Test and False Start)’; the performances of ‘Hockey’ found on side D became part of the separate Hockey single C. D., which contained previously-unreleased material as well, and was first released as part of the The Parachute Years, and later made available separately]
1982
++ Archery [rec. 1981; reissued with bonus material as as a three-C. D. set, part of The Parachute Years compilation and later released separately]
1983
++ Locus Solus [reissued on C. D. with additional material in 1990 and 1997]
++ Derek Bailey/ George Lewis/ John Zorn - Yankees [rec. ?]
++ The Classic Guide to Strategy Volume One [reissued 1996 as part of The Classic Guide to Strategy Volumes One & Two]
1984
++ John Zorn/ Eugene Chadbourne - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms [duo rec. 1977 (concert portion); quartet also featuring Toshinori Kondo and Steve Beresford rec. ? (studio portion)]
1985
++ Michihiro Sato/ John Zorn - Ganryu Island [rec. 1984; reissued 1998]
1986
++ The Classic Guide to Strategy Volume Two [six of seven tracks reissued 1996 as part of The Classic Guide to Strategy Volumes One & Two]
++ The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo [rec. 1985]
++ The Big Gundown [rec. 1984-1985; reissued 2000 with six additional tracks, unknown recording date]
++ Steve Beresford/ David Toop/ John Zorn/ Tonie Marshall - Deadly Weapons
1987
Cobra [rec. 1985-1986; Zorn conducts]
++ Spillane [rec. 1986-1987; Zorn performs on only one track]
1988
++ John Zorn/ George Lewis/ Bill Frissell - News for Lulu [rec. 1987; tracks 1-17 studio recordings, tracks 18-20 concert recordings; reissued 1993 and 2008, the later edition with one bonus live track]
1989
Cynical Hysterie Hour [reissued 1997 as Filmworks VII: Cynical Hysterie Hour]
++ John Zorn/ Tim Berne/ Mark Dresser/ Michael Vatcher/ Joey Baron - Spy vs Spy [rec. 1988]
1990
++ Naked City [rec. 1989; first album by the sextet Naked City: Zorn, Bill Frissell, Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, Joey Baron, Yamatsuka Eye]
++ Filmworks 1986-1990 [rec. 1986-1987, 1990; reissued 1997 as the first volume in the Filmworks series]
1991
++ Pain Killer - Guts of a Virgin [first album by the trio PainKiller: Zorn, Bill Laswell, Mick Harris]
++ Naked City - Torture Garden [rec. 1989-1990; essentially an alternate, or earlier, version of the second Naked City album, featuring nine tracks from the album Naked City and 33 tracks from Grand Guingnol, not released until 1992]
1992
Elegy [rec. 1991]
++ John Zorn/ George Lewis/ Bill Frissell - More News for Lulu [concert recordings, 1989]
++ Naked City - Grand Guignol [rec. 1989-1992; second album by the sextet Naked City; Bob Dorough featured on one of 41 tracks]
++ Naked City - Heretic [rec. 1991; third album by the sextet Naked City]
++ Naked City - Leng Tch'e [fourth album by the sextet Naked City]
++ PainKiller - Buried Secrets [rec. 1991; second album by the trio PainKiller; Justin Broadrick and G. C. Green featured on two of 10 tracks]
1993
Kristallnacht [rec. 1992]
++ Naked City - Radio [rec. 1992; fifth album by the sextet Naked City]
++ Naked City - Absinthe [rec. 1992; sixth album by Naked City, on this release a quintet, without Eye]
++ PainKiller - Rituals: Live in Japan [concert recording, 1991; third album by the trio PainKiller; Keiji Haino featured on five of 17 tracks]
1994
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Alef [One] [first album by the quartet Masada: Zorn, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Beit [Two] [second album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Gimel [Three] [third album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn/ Fred Frith - The Art of Memory [concert recording, 1993; first album by the duo of Frith and Zorn]
++ PainKiller - Execution Ground [fourth album by the trio PainKiller; Japanese edition included bonus concert album, Live in Osaka, which features Yamatsuka Eye on two of five tracks]
1995
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Dalet [Four] [Extended-play C. D. single—three tracks only—by the quartet Masada; rec. 1994; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Hei [Five] [fourth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn's Cobra Live at the Knitting Factory [rec. 1992]
John Zorn's Cobra: Tokyo Operations '94 [rec. 1994]
Redbird [Zorn conducts]
++ First Recordings 1973 [rec. 1973-1974]
Filmworks II: Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill [rec. 1992]
++ Filmworks III 1990-1995 [rec. ?]
++ Mystic Fugu Orchestra - Zohar [first album by the duo of John Zorn and Yamantaka Eye, the latter having changed his name from Yamatsuka Eye]
++ John Zorn & Yamantaka Eye - Nani Nani [second album by the duo of Zorn and Eye; obi names the artists like so, whereas inner sleeve credits Zorn as Dekoboko Hajime]
++ Derek Bailey/ John Zorn/ William Parker - Harras [concert recordings, ?]
1996
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Vav [Six] [rec. 1995; fifth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Zayvin [Seven] [sixth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
John Zorn/ Masada Chamber Ensembles - Bar Kokhba [rec. 1994-1996; varied ensembles performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook, including the Masada String Trio on eight of the 25 tracks]
++ Filmworks IV: S & M + More [rec. ?; one of five tracks is a concert recording]
++ Filmworks V: Tears of Ecstasy [rec. 1995]
++ John Zorn/ Eugene Chadbourne - In Memory of Nikki Arane [rec. 1980; studio recordings?]
1997
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Het [Eight] [rec. 1996; seventh album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ The Parachute Years [rec. 1977-1978, 1980-1981; as noted above, includes the entirety of the albums Archery and Pool and all of Zorn's half of the album School; the individual C. D. sets comprising this box set (Lacrosse, Hockey, Pool, and Archery] later released separately]
Duras: Duchamp [Zorn conducts]
New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands [rec. 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996]
++ Bobby Previte/ John Zorn - Euclid's Nightmare
1998
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Tet [Nine] [rec. 1997; eighth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ John Zorn/ Masada - Yod [Ten] [rec. 1997; ninth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
The Circle Maker [rec. 1997; first disc credited to the Masada String Trio, which had previously been one of several small ensembles featured on the album, Bar Kokhba; the second to the Bar Kokhba Sextet, the first album by that group; both performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
Filmworks VIII 1997 [rec. ?]
The Bribe: Variations and Extensions on Spillane [rec. 1986; Zorn conducts]
++ Music for Children [first volume of the Music Romance series]
++ Masada - Live in Taipei 1995 [concert recording, 1995; tenth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ Eugene Chadbourne/ John Zorn - 1977-1981 [concert and radio recordings, 1977-1981; one track previously released on School; one track previously released on the first Great Duo Live album]
++ Weird Little Boy - Weird Little Boy [rec. 1995]
++ John Zorn/ Wayne Horvitz/ Elliott Sharp/ Bobby Previte - Downtown Lullaby [rec. 1998]
1999
++ Masada - Live in Jerusalem 1994 [concert recording, 1994; eleventh album by the quartet Masada]
++ Taboo & Exile [second volume of the Music Romance series]
++ Masada - Live in Middleheim 1999 [concert recording; twelfth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
2000
Xu Feng: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 1
++ Masada - Live in Sevilla 2000 [concert recording; thirteenth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ Filmworks IX: Trembling before G-d [rec. ?]
++ Fred Frith/ John Zorn/ Onnyk/ Toyozumi Yoshisaburo - Ars Longa Dens Brevis [concert recordings, 1985, 1987]
2001
Songs from the Hermetic Theatre
The Gift [rec. ?; third volume of the Music Romance series]
++ Filmworks X: The Mirror of Maya Deren [rec. ?]
++ Masada - Live at Tonic 2001 [concert recording; fourteenth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
2002
Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2 [rec. ?]
++ Naked City - Live Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory 1989 [concert recordings, 1989; seventh album by Naked City, on this album a quintet, without Eye]
++ Masada - First Live 1993 [concert recording, 1993; fifteenth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
IAO: Music in Sacred Light [rec. ?]
Filmworks XI: 2002 Volume One: Secret Lives [rec. ?; fourth album by the Masada String Trio]
++ Filmworks XII: 2002 Volume Two: Three Documentaries [rec. ?]
Fimworks XIII: 2002 Volume Three: Invitation to a Suicide [Zorn conducts]
++ PainKiller - Talisman: Live in Nagoya [rec. 1994; fifth album by the trio PainKiller]
++ Mike Patton/ Ikue Mori/ John Zorn - Hemophiliac [rec. ?; first album by the trio Hemophiliac]
2003
Chimeras [2003; revised version, 2010]
Masada Guitars [rec. ?; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
Voices in the Wilderness [rec. 2000-2003; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
The Unknown Masada [performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
Filmworks XIV: Hiding and Seeking
Buck Jam Tonic - Buck Jam Tonic [rec. ?]
2004
Masada Recital [performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
Magick [2004]
Masada String Trio - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 1 [concert recording, 2003; Zorn conducts; second full album by the Masada String Trio, the first being the first of two discs comprising The Circle Maker; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ Milford Graves/ John Zorn - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 2 [concert recording, 2003]
++ Locus Solus - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 3 [concert recording, 2003]
++ Electric Masada - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 4 [concert recording, 2003; first album by the octet Electric Masada: Zorn, Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Ikue Mori, Trevor Dunn, Joey Baron, Kenny Wollesen, Cyro Baptista; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ Fred Frith/ John Zorn - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 5 [concert recording, 2003; second album by the duo of Frith and Zorn]
++ Hemophiliac - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol 6 [concert recording, 2003; second album by the trio Hemophiliac]
++ Masada - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 7 [concert recording, 2003; sixteenth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ Wadada Leo Smith/ Susie Ibarra/ John Zorn - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 8 [concert recording, 2003]
++ The Classic Guide to Strategy Volume Three: 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 9 [concert recording, 2003]
++ Yamataka Eye & John Zorn - Naninani II [rec. 2003; third album by the duo of Zorn and Eye, the latter having changed his name from Yamantaka Eye]
2005
++ Yamataka Eye/ John Zorn - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 10 [concert recording, 2003; fourth album by the duo of Zorn and Eye]
Bar Kokhba Sextet - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 11 [concert recording, 2003; Zorn conducts; second album by the Bar Kokhba Sextet; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ PainKiller - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 12 [concert recording, 2003; sixth album by PainKiller, on this a quartet featuring Mike Patton; Hamid Drake replacing Mick Harris]
++ Filmworks XV: Protocols of Zion [rec. ?]
++ Masada - Sanhedrin: 1994-1997 Unreleased Studio Recordings [rec. 1994-1997; seventeenth album by the quartet Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
++ Filmworks XVI: Workingman's Death
Jamie Saft Trio Plays Masada Book Two - Astaroth: Book of Angels Volume 1
Masada String Trio Plays Masada Book Two - Azazel: Book of Angels Volume 2 [third album by the Masada String Trio]
++ Electric Masada - At the Mountains of Madness [concert recordings, 2004; second album by the octet Electric Masada; performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
Rituals [rec. ?]
Masada Rock [the Rashanim trio of Jon Madof, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, and Mathias Kunzli performing compositions part of the first Masada songbook]
2006
++ Filmworks XVII: Notes on Marie Menken; Ray Bandar: A Life with Skulls [rec. 2005]
Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier Play Masada Book Two - Malphas: Book of Angels Volume 3 [rec. 2005]
Filmworks XVIII: The Treatment [rec. 2005; Zorn conducts]
Koby Israelite Plays Masada Book Two - Orobas: Book of Angels Volume 4 [rec. 2005]
Moonchild: Songs without Words [rec. ?; Zorn conducts; first album by the trio Moonchild: Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, Joey Baron]
The Cracow Klezmer Band Plays Masada Book Two - Balan: Book of Angels Volume 5
Astronome [rec. ?; second album by the trio Moonchild]
Uri Caine Plays Masada Book Two - Moloch: Book of Angels Volume 6
++ John Zorn/ Dave Douglas/ Mike Patton/ Rob Burger/ Bill Laswell/ Ben Perowsky - The Stone: Issue One [rec. ?]
2007
++ Six Litanies for Heliogabalus [rec. ?; third album by Moonchild, on this album a nonet featuring Zorn, Martha Culver, Abby Fischer, Ikue Mori, Jamie Saft, Kristen Sollek in addition to Patton, Dunn, and Baron]
Marc Ribot Plays Masada Book Two - Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7
Erik Friedlander Plays Masada Book Two - Volac: Book of Angels Volume 8 rec. ?]
From Silence to Sorcery [rec. 2005, 2007]
2008
Secret Chiefs 3 Plays Masada Book Two - Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9 [rec. ?]
Filmworks XIX: The Rain Horse [rec. 2007]
++ The Dreamers [rec. 2007; first album by the Dreamers, on this album a septet: Zorn, Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Kenny Wollesen, Trevor Dunn, Joey Baron, Cyro Baptista]
Bar Kokhba Plays Masada Book Two - Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 10 [rec. 2007; third album by the Bar Kokhba Sextet]
Medeski Martin & Wood - Zaebos: Book of Angels Volume 11
Filmworks XX: Sholem Aleichem [featuring the members of the Masada String Trio plus Rob Burger and Carol Emanuel]
++ Filmworks XXI: Belle du Nature; The New Rijksmuseum [Zorn conducts]
The Last Supper: Filmworks XXII [rec. ?]
++ The Crucible [fourth album by Moonchild, on this album a quintet featuring Zorn and Marc Ribot in addition to Patton, Dunn, and Baron]
++ Fred Frith/ John Zorn - The Art of Memory II [concert recordings, 1983, 1985; third album by the duo of Frith and Zorn]
++ Lou Reed/ Laurie Anderson/ John Zorn - The Stone: Issue Three [rec. ?]
2009
Alhambra Love Songs [rec. 2008; first album by the trio Alhambra: Rob Burger, Greg Cohen, Ben Perowsky]
Masada Quintet Featuring Joe Lovano Plays Masada Book Two - Stolas: Book of Angels Volume 12
++ O'o [second album by the Dreamers, on this album a sextet, sans Ribot]
Filmworks XXIII: El General [rec. 2008; Zorn conducts]
Femina [rec. 2008; Zorn conducts]
2010
Mycale Sings Masada Book Two - Mycale: Book of Angels Volume 13 [rec. 2009]
In Search of the Miraculous [rec. 2009; Zorn conducts; second album by Alhambra, on this album a quintet featuring Kenny Wollesen and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz in addition to Burger, Cohen, and Perowsky]
The Dreamers Play Masada Book Two - Ipos: Book of Angels Volume 14 [rec. 2009; third album by the Dreamers, on this album again a sextet]
Ben Goldberg Quartet Plays Masada Book Two - Baal: Book of Angels Volume 15 [rec. 2009]
++ Dictée/Liber Novus [rec. 2009]
The Goddess: Music for the Ancient of Days [rec. 2009; Zorn conducts; third album by Alhambra, on this release a sextet featuring Marc Ribot and Carol Emanuel in addition to Burger, Dunn, Perowsky, and Wollesen]
Masada String Trio Plays Masada Book Two - Haborym: Book of Angels Volume 16 [fifth album by the Masada String Trio]
Filmworks XXIV: The Nobel Prizewinner [Zorn conducts]
++ Ipsissimus [fifth album by Moonchild, on this album the same quintet as featured on the fourth album, The Crucible]
Banquet of the Spirits Plays Masada Book Two - Caym: Book of Angels Volume 17 [rec. ?]
++ John Zorn / Fred Frith - Late Works [rec. 2009; fourth album by the duo of Frith and Zorn]
What Thou Wilt [rec. 2009 (first concert portion) and 2010 (remainder)]
2011
++ A Dreamers Christmas [fourth album by the Dreamers, on this album a septet with Mike Patton added]
Nova Express [rec. 2010; Zorn conducts; first album by the quartet Nova Express: John Medeski, Kenny Wollesen, Trevor Dunn, Joey Baron]
The Satyr's Play/Cerebus [rec. 2010]
Enigmata [rec. 2010]
At the Gates of Paradise [Zorn conducts; second album by the quartet Nova Express]
++ The ROVA Saxophone Quartet/ John Zorn - The Receiving Surfaces [concert recording, 2010]
2012
Mount Analogue [rec. 2011; Zorn conducts]
The Gnostic Preludes [rec. 2011; first album by the Gnostic Trio: Carol Emanuel; Bill Frissell; Kenny Wolleson]
David Krakauer Plays Masada Book Two - Pruflas: Book of Angels Volume 18 [rec. ?]
++ Nosferatu [rec. 2011]
Templars: In Sacred Blood [rec. 2011-2012; Zorn conducts; sixth album by Moonchild, on this album a quartet featuring John Medeski in addition to Patton, Dunn, and Baron]
++ The Hermetic Organ - St. Paul's Chapel, NYC [concert recording, 2011]
Music and Its Double [rec. 2011 (concert portion) and 2012 (studio portion)]
++ Rimbaud [rec. 2011 (concert portion) and 2012 (studio portion)]
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz Plays Masada Book Two - Abraxas: Book of Angels Volume 19 [first album by the quartet Abraxas: Blumenkranz, Aram Bajakian, Eyal Maoz, Kenny Grohowski]
A Vision in Blakelight [rec. 2011; Zorn conducts; third album by Nova Express, on this album a septet featuring Carol Emanuel, Cyro Baptista (on four of ten tracks), and Jack Huston (on one of ten tracks) in addition to Medeski, Wollesen, Dunn, and Baron]
The Concealed [Zorn conducts]
2013
Lemma [rec. 2012]
++ Filmworks XV: City of Slaughter; Schmatta; Beyond the Infinite [rec. 2009, 2012]
The Mysteries [rec. 2012; second album by the Gnostic Trio]
Pat Metheny Plays Masada Book Two - Tap: Book of Angels Volume 20
Dreamachines [Zorn conducts; fourth album by the quartet Nova Express]
In Lambeth: Visions from the Walled Garden of William Blake [Zorn conducts; third album by the Gnostic Trio; Ikue Mori featured on one of eight tracks]
Shir Hashirim [rec. 2010]
++ PainKiller - The Prophecy: Live in Europe [concert recordings, 2004-2005; seventh album by the trio PainKiller; Yoshida Tatsuya replaces Hamid Drake]
On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits [one track is a concert recording]
++ John Zorn/ Thurston Moore - @ [rec. ?]
++ Eugene Chadbourne/ John Zorn - The Great Duo Live [concert recordings, 1978-1979, 1983; apparently originally released as a cassette, 1984]
2014
++ The Hermetic Organ - St. Paul's Chapel, NYC [concert recording, 2013]
Psychomagia [rec. 2013; second album by the quartet Abraxas]
The Alchemist [rec. 2013]
Fragmentations, Prayers and Interjections [rec. 2013]
Eyvind Kang Plays Masada Book Two - Alastor: Book of Angels Volume 21 [rec. ?]
Myth and Mythopoeia [rec. 2013 (concert portion) and 2013-2014 (studio portion)]
Zion 80 Plays Masada Book Two - Adramelech: Book of Angels Volume 22
On Leaves of Grass [Zorn conducts; fifth album by the quartet Nova Express]
The Testament Of Solomon: Music from the Sefer Shirim Shel Shir Hashirim [Zorn conducts; fourth album by the Gnostic Trio]
Roberto Rodriguez Plays Masada Book Two - Aguares: Book of Angels Volume 23 [rec. ?]
Valentine's Day [rec. ?]
Transmigration of the Magus [Zorn conducts; fifth album by the Gnostic Trio]
The Last Judgment [rec. ?; seventh album by Moonchild, on this album the same quartet as featured on the sixth album, Tempalrs: In Sacred Blood]
++ Wadada Leo Smith/ George Lewis/ John Zorn - Sonic Rivers
++ David Smith/ Bill Laswell/ John Zorn - The Dream Membrance
++ Eugene Chadbourne/ John Zorn - The Great Duo Live [concert recordings, 1977-1980]
2015
++ The Hermetic Organ - St. Paul's Hall, Huddersfield [concert recording, 2013]
Dither Plays Zorn: John Zorn's Olympiad Volume 1 [rec. ?]
Klezmerson Plays Masada Book Two - Amon: Book of Angels Volume 24 [rec. ?]
Hen to Pan [rec. 2014]
Simulacrum [rec. 2014; Zorn conducts; first album by the trio Simulacrum: John Medeski, Matt Hollenberg, and Kenny Grohowski]
The Song Project Live at Poisson Rouge [rec. ?; Zorn conducts]
Mycale Sings Masada Book Two - Gomory: Book of Angels Volume 25
Forro in the Dark Plays Zorn - Forro Zinho [rec. ?]
The True Discoveries of Witches and Demons [rec. ?; Zorn conducts; second album by the trio Simulacrum]
Inferno [Zorn conducts; third album by the trio Simulacrum]
James Moore Plays the Book of Heads [rec. ?]
The Spike Orchestra Plays Masada Book Two - Cerberus: Book of Angels Volume 26
Yoko Ono & John Zorn - Live on Spinning on Air, WNYC 11/14/12 [rec. 2012]
2016
Madrigals [rec. 2014-2015]
++ The Hermetic Organ - St. Bart's, NYC [concert recording, 2015]
Flaga Plays Masada Book Two - Flaga: Book of Angels Volume 27 [rec. 2015]
The Painted Bird [rec. ?; Zorn conducts; fourth album by Simulacrum, on this album a quintet featuring Kenny Wollesen and Ches Smith in addition to Hollenberg, Medeski, and Grohowski]
Nova Express Quintet Plays Masda Book Two - Andras: Book of Angels Volume 28 [rec. 2015; sixth album by Nova Express, on this album a quintet featuring Cyro Baptista in addition to Medeski, Wollesen, Dunn, and Baron]
The Mockingbird [rec. 2015; Zorn conducts; sixth album by the Gnostic Trio]
Sacred Visions" [rec. 2015]
AutorYno Plays Masada Book Two - Flauros: Book of Angels Volume 29
Commedia dell'arte [rec. 2015]
49 Acts of Unspeakable Depravity in the Abominable Life and Times of Gilles de Rais [Zorn conducts; fifth album by the trio Simulacrum]
++ The Classic Guide to Strategy Vol. 4 [rec. 2012]
2017
Garth Knox and the Saltarello Trio Play Masada Book Two - Leonard: Book of Angels Volume 30 [rec. 2016]
The Garden of Earthly Delights [rec. 2016; Zorn conducts; sixth album by the trio Simulacrum]
There Is No More Firmament [rec. ?]
Brian Marsella Trio Plays Masada Book Two - Buer: Book of Angels Volume 31
Midsummer Moons [rec. ?; first album by the duo of Julian Lage and Gyan Riley]
Mary Halvorson Quartet Plays Masada Book Two - Paimon: Book of Angels Volume 32
++ The Hermetic Organ - Philharmonie de Paris [concert recording]
2018
The Book Beri'ah [11-C. D. box set containing all of the Beri'ah albums released separately in 2019; see below]
++ The Urmuz Epigrams [rec. 2017]
Insurrection [rec. 2017; first album by the quartet Insurrection: Matt Hollenberg, Julian Lage, Trevor Dunn, Kenny Grohowski]
++ In a Convex Mirror [rec. 2017-2018]
Salem 1692 [second album by the quartet Insurrection]
2019
Sofia Rei and JC Maillard - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 1: Keter [rec. ?]
Cleric - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 2: Chokhma [rec. ?]
Spike Orchestra - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 3: Binah [rec. ?]
Julian Lage/ Gyan Riley - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 4: Chesed [rec. ?; second album by the duo of Lage and Riley]
Abraxas - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 5: Gevurah [rec. 2016; third album by the quartet Abraxas]
Klezmerson - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 6: Tiferet [rec. ?]
Gnostic Trio - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 7: Netzach [rec. ?; seventh album by the Gnostic Trio]
Zion 80 - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 8: Hod [rec. ?]
Banquet of the Spirits - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 9: Yesod [rec. ?]
Secret Chiefs 3 - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 10: Malkhut [rec. 2015-2017]
Craig Taborn and Vadim Neselovskyi - John Zorn's Book Beri'ah 11: Da'at [rec. 2017]
++ Pellucidar: A Dreamers Fantabula [fifth album by the Dreamers, on this album a sextet]
++ The Hermetic Organ: For Edgar Allan Poe [concert recording, ?]
The Hierophant [performed by the Brian Marsella Trio]
Nove Cantici per Francesco d’Assisi [first album by the trio of Bill Frissell, Gyan Riley, and Julian Lage]
++ Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus [rec. ?]
++ The Hermetic Organ - St. John the Divine [concert recording, 2013]
++ The Hermetic Organ - For Antonin Artaud [concert recording, 2019]
2020
Beyond Good and Evil [concert recording, 2019; seventh album by the trio Simulacrum]
Virtue [rec. 2019; Zorn conducts; second album by the trio of Frissell, Riley, and Lage]
Calculus [performed by the Brian Marsella Trio]
Baphomet [Zorn conducts; eighth album by the trio Simulacrum]
++ Les Maudits [rec. 2015 (concert portion) and 2020 (studio portion)]
John Zorn/ Jesse Harris - Songs for Petra: Petra Hade Sings the Zorn/Harris Songbook [rec. ?]
2021
John Zorn's Bagatelles [first-fourth volumes (4 C. D.s) in a box set: Vol. 1: Mary Halvorson Quartet; Vol. 2: Erik Friedlander and Michael Nicolas; Vol. 3: Trigger; Vol. 4: Ikue Mori]
John Zorn's Bagatelles [fifth-eighth volumes (4 C. D.s) in a box set: Vol. 5: Kris Davis Quartet; Vol. 6: Brian Marsella Trio; Vol. 7: Brian Marsella; Vol. 8: John Medeski Trio]
Heaven and Earth Magick [rec. 2020; Zorn conducts]
Teresa de Avila [rec. 2020; Zorn conducts; third album by the trio of Frissell, Riley, and Lage]
Chaos Magick [rec. 2020; Zorn conducts; first album by the quartet Chaos Magick: the trio Simulacrum plus Brian Marsella]
Parables [rec. 2020; Zorn conducts; fourth album by the trio of Frissell, Riley, and Lage]
Nostradamus: The Death of Satan [Zorn conducts; ninth album by the trio Simulacrum]
Meditations on the Tarot [performed by the Brian Marsella Trio]
The Ninth Circle: Orpheus in the Underworld [Zorn conducts; second album by the quartet Chaos Magick]
The Garden of Forking Paths [rec. ?; fifth album by the trio of Frissell, Riley, and Lage]
++ Soup with John Zorn - Shinjuku Pit Inn [rec. 2004]
2022
John Zorn's Bagatelles [ninth-twelfth volumes (4 C. D.s) in a box set: Vol. 9: Asmodeus; Vol. 10: Julian Lage and Gyan Riley; Vol. 11: Jim Black Quartet; Vol. 12: Cleric; third album by the duo of Lage and Riley]
Perchance to Dream... [rec. ?]
Spinoza [rec. 2021; Zorn conducts; tenth album by the trio Simulacrum]
++ Fencing 1978: John Zorn's Olympiad Volume 2 [concert recordings, 1978]
Incerto: Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and the Uncertainty Principle [rec. ?]
Multiplicities: A Repository Of Non-Existent Objects [rec. ?; Zorn conducts; third album by the quartet Chaos Magick]
++ John Zorn/ Bill Laswell - The Cleansing [rec. 2021]
plus...
Zorn plays on side B of the Jim Staley album, OTB, and side A of Jojo Takayanagi's Experimental Performance. Both albums put Zorn's name on the marquee, so to speak, but I doubt many consider these to be "John Zorn" albums. We could say the same thing about Square Dance, an album credited to the Intergalactic Maiden Ballet Featuring John Zorn.
The album, Attention Span, by Bob Osterag, features samples of Zorn's playing on one half, Fred Frith's on the other.
A performance of Zorn's ‘Carny’, by Steffen Schleiermacher, is included on the album, Enfrants Terribles. A performance of ‘Forbidden Fruit’ is included on the Kronos Quartet album Winter Was Hard.
Zorn plays on 10 of 23 tracks of Prelapse's self-titled album, which features the band's renditions, with and without Zorn, of several pieces originally performed by Naked City.
Zorn plays on the Andrea Centazzo album Environment for Sextet and one track on the Centazzo album, USA Concerts East. These albums are credited to all of the musicians involved, but as with the Staley, Takayanagi, and Intergalactic Maiden Ballet albums noted above, we would not consider these "John Zorn" albums. We would say the same thing for the three Company albums from 1991; Company albums either get classed on their own or under Derek Bailey. Company 91 Volume 1; Company 91 Volume 2; Company 91 Volume 3.
Zorn is a "sideman" of sorts on an album that, as Discogs notes, is generally thought of as a Material album, but for legal reasons was not released under the band's name: Improvised Music New York 1981. Zorn also serves as a sideman on Lowe and Behold by the Frank Lowe Orchestra; Berlin Djungle by the Peter Brötzmann Clarinet Project; The Technology of Tears by Fred Frith; NekonoTopia NekonoMania and one of the twenty discs that comprise Saidera Paradiso by Seigen Ono; Blue Planet Man and Minor Swing by John Patton; Sacrifist by Praxis; Signals for Tea by Steve Beresford; Hsi Yu Chi by David Shea; Pranzo Oltranzista by Mike Patton; and Lake Biwa by Wadada Leo Smith. These are only a few noteworthy examples. Many more albums feature Zorn on only a few tracks. One can get a handy list of them at the "Featured" section of Wikipedia's Zorn discography.
Accompanying Television Triumphant!... thoughts about teleaudiovideo taking over the world; engaging in "social" media, entering the the proverbial town square, shooting the shit, or so we think—actually creating preserved artifacts, perpetual cultural debris.
--
The intrusion of the social into the cultural sphere has always been problematic, but is especially so when a supposed "social" is not actually social, but takes the form of individuals acting as if they were engaged in social interactions—conversation, debate... yelling at each other?—with such acting taking cultural form: again, preserved artifacts, to be critiqued as if they were writen works (because they are). The negativity that inevitably arises in the social sphere but is quickly forgotten once the heat of the moment has passed (or forgotten once some sort of vengeance is achieved) seeps into, at times takes over, what is supposed to be reasoned discourse. The Trollish nature of "social media" leads to calls for restricted behavior on such formats, and this censoriousness extends to the actual-social sphere. The result is a "lose-lose": depraved culture, repressed society.
--
When a writer only had a writing utensil and paper, or a typewriter, to work with, he did a great deal of manual labor before proofreaders, editors, typesetters, etc., began their work. With the tasks performed by these latter persons also available in inferior form via "word processing" programs, the writer who has a computer is quickly presented with a product that seems more refined than it actually is.
--
Instead of describing what we see, we show photographs, immediately cutting off the imaginary routes required by having only a verbal account. Are new avenues for the imagination opened up, or have they been cut off entirely by such an immediate presentation of a fair simulation of reality? Meanwhile, the ease with which "smart phone" users can take photographs drives them to take such a large number that they worry about how to organize them and store them for future use, even as they find that many of the pictures are of little value.
--
The call of the computer or "smart" phone, its constant glowing warming presence, and the great multitude of things to do with such devices.... They are like people, they are androids, but androids that do not help us read or listen to music (as much as they may try), only help us watch more television, ingest more "feed" of online audiovisual drivel.
--
No surprise that certain "tech" leaders fixate on human longevity (infinitude?). They are money-obsessed. Like many of the fabulously wealthy, they cannot accept that they cannot buy time, the dearest commodity for us mortals. If our society is too cynical to return to the pre-Eighties, and emphasize love, community, liberalism, reason, what-have-you, perhaps we can learn to emphasize time: its scarcity, the need to use it wisely.
--
"Texting" relative to "voicemail": when transmitting a message via the latter method, we feel less in control, over both the sound of our voice (the sonic fidelity) and the content of the message (more improvisation, more live). The choice to take greater control in our messaging, as suggested by the turn toward preferring "texting": how does it relate to the unwillingness to accept offensive behavior? The need for more scripted social conformity?
--
If such an abundance of what we read now takes the form of short articles, closer to "making a point" in conversation than a thorough, edited review of the subject at hand, who will collect and collate all of these snippets of the virtual conversations taking place via "social media"? A great deal of effort could string together articles, posts at message boards and "social media" sites, comments on articles, etc., into a cohesive whole, but this kind of work, we know, is expensive, as seen in "social media" companies resorting to automated processes to censor their users' contributions. Who would pay for such elaborate after-the-fact editing of material, the creators of which seem willing to leave behind, unorganized, unarchived?
From 'Chapter IX: Literary Bibles'; of Albert Guérard's Preface to World Literature [1940], one of the few serious critical studies of the kind of canonization projects documented at Greater Books:
"If you were to be marooned on a desert island, with a single book, which one would you pick out? In the Anglo-Saxon group of civilization, at any rate, the answer, by an overwhelming majority, would be the same as Stanley's: 'The old Bible'. It is obvious that, in most cases, our choice would not be dictated by literary reasons. The sacred character of the Bible would be the first consideration. And the second would not be esthetic either, but national and even tribal.
"But the selection of the Bible as our only companion would be justified also on purely literary grounds. With the Bible, no man in solitude would ever suffer spiritual starvation, even as an artist. For there is hardly any mood of man that is not reflected in these pages; and the variety of its themes and forms is infinite. [...] A man whose list of "classics" were limited to the Bible would be cultured, even in the worldly sense. He would escape from the pettiness of daily cares; he would sharpen and deepen his own experiences; he would ponder, with Job, over the most tragic problems of human destiny; he would have at his command an incomparable store of majestic images and vigorous words, wherewith to give color and sinew to the expression of his own thoughts. [...]
"The sheer convenience of an all-sufficient one-volume library has repeatedly tempted men to arrange other writings into Bibles. [...] What do we mean by a Bible? It is not every chance collection of books that deserves the hallowed name; in most cases, the modest term Omnibus would be more adequate. The test of a genuine 'literary Bible' is two-fold: unity and variety. Variety: no essential need of man must be left unsatisfied. Unity: the 'Bible' must offer from cover to cover the same spiritual atmosphere, even the same material tradition, so as to permit cross-references between its various parts; it must constitute a country of the soul.
"The Holy Bible fulfills these two conditions. So does the Pagan Bible, the epitome of Hellenic culture. [...] Bind together the Iliad and the Odyssey; a full dozen plays by the four great dramatists, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes; three or four of Plato's Dialogues; as a stiffening, the Enchiridion of Epictetus; as an ornament, the delicate poetic blossoms of the Anthology; Lucian, for no Bible is complete without a touch of irony; the historical background, as provided by Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides; Demosthenes as the god of eloquence; perhaps Plutarch, for he made definite for us the figure of the ancient Hero; the result would not be unwieldy, and it would be extraordinarily substantial. Just as the Holy Bible stands by itself, and does not need, in order to be appreciated, the enormous Hebraic and Christian literature that it inspired, so the Hellenic Bible is complete without the glorious train of imitations that it engendered: the whole production of Rome, and large elements in the modern world, down to Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris."
So far, Guérard follows a set-up devised by Richard Moulton—his Pentateuch of Bibles. "As his third Bible, [Moulton] proposes The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost jointly. This suggestion is very tempting. Between the two poets, there is indeed a double bond of unity: the Christian faith and the Classic tradition. The medieval Florentine and the Englishman of the late Renaissance meet at the foot of the Cross, both with Vergil as their guide. It is this, however, that weakens their claim to form a genuine "Bible": intensely original as individuals, they did not discover a new 'country of the soul'. And, even if all their minor works were included, we doubt whether all-sufficient variety could be found in their pages." (49-51)
"As a fourth Bible, we are offered Shakespeare, entire and alone. [...] The unity of this Bible is undeniable; it resides in the personality, mysterious as it may be, of a single author. And there is a Shakespearian 'country of the soul', which is not identical with Elizabethan England. Like English travelers in Tibet or Patagonia, the Shakespeare spirit carries its own atmosphere into believable places: a blasted heath, a balmy night in Venice, Prospero's Island, a tavern in Cheapside, the coasts of Bohemia. It is a new land indeed; it borders on Christianity, Antiquity, and Medieval Romance; it borrows from all three, but it stoutly maintains its separate existence. The variety is that of life itself: a life tragic at the core even in its gayest moments, a life that reaches beyond the visible.
"The fifth Bible, in Professor Moulton's scheme, has for its center, not a man, but a theme: the Faust cycle. It is a wrestling with the eternal problem: What shall it profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul? Faust is one of the three great Romantic myths in whom this conflict is illustrated. The second is Don Juan, and the third Napoleon: for the man of felsh and blood, the realistic administrator and strategist, became a symbol within a decade of his death. All three set out to 'gain the world': through knowledge, through love, through power; three forms of conquests, three forms of selfishness, three ultimate failures. For all three 'lost their souls': at least it is not through their own merits that they are redeemed."
"This would form an admirable nucleus for a Bible. But, as Goethe's Faust might be too slim for the purpose, Professor Moulton padded the collection with Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Calderón's El Mágico Prodigioso, and Bailey's Festus. The result is highly artificial. Why read the same story four times over? And especially, why read Festus at all?
"We beg leave to offer an amendment: keeping as a kernel the Faust motive, we might build round it a Goethean Bible. It could easily be reduced to a single volume of manageable size [...]. The unity would be the Olympian spirit of Goethe. The variety would not consist, as in Shakespeare, in the intense and multitudinous creation of life: it would be found in the encyclopedic character of the work, and in the truly unique blend of Classicism, the Medieval spirit, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and Romanticism. [...] The key note of this Bible would be wisdom and culture; and, deepest of all, at the end of the first Faust, the sense that these, sovereign as they may be in the human sphere, will not suffice." (52-53)
Going beyond Moulton's suggestions, Guérard asks, "Can we descry, in the huge and shapeless mass of our Western writings, other Bibles to rank with the more definite of these? In comparison with our own Holy Bible, or the body of Greek classics, or the complete works of Shakespeare, every collection would seem heterogeneous, or vague, or incomplete. The vast body of medieval romance, with the Arthurian cycle as its nucleus, does indeed form a 'country of the soul'. [...] Medieval romance gives a new quality to the imagination; it creates, not fantastic shapes only, but a fantastic atmosphere, a whole world of make-believe. In a higher sense, romance means passion. Antiquity had known Phaedra and Dido: but it was reserved for the poets of the Tristan story to give us the theme of fateful love, irresistible, justified by its very intensity, driving man and woman to bliss, madness and death. In the highest sense, romance even touches religion, and seeks alliance with mysticism. It takes us beyond humdrum morality, and the cool intellectual intricacies of theology. It gives faith a richer, but a questionable glow; a mysterious radiance, as in the Grail stories, which is in part an inner light, in part a half conscious trick." This Bible "never was embodied in perfect form"; it includes Chrétien de Troyes, Malory, Edmund Spenser, Tennyson, William Morris, Swinburne, Edwin Arlington Robinson, plus Shakespeare again, and the music of Wagner. "Such a Bible, if it were constituted, would have undoubted unity of theme, spirit, atmosphere. So definite is it in these respects that a few lines, like the opening stanza in [Keats's] La Belle Dame sans Merci, suffice to carry us into the magic land." (53-54).
Unfortunately, this Bible "would lack the substantial variety of a true Bible." The "Bible of Romance could not stand by itself, but would need, as its corrective and complement, the Bible of Ironic Naturalism. [...] By the side of high-flown romance [,] mocking tale and cynical farce. And not seldom did romance, in mid-air, suddenly seek the earth, laughing at its own broken flight." Thus: this half-bible's first entrants: Romance of the Rose, Don Quixote, Pascal, Jonathan Swift, Aldous Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza, Anatole France.
Soon enough, though, we're into another bible: with Cervantes, "derision had not wholly destroyed sympathy. And in Anatole France, Irony hardly ever lost touch with her sister muse Pity. [...] If Irony recedes, and Pity assumes command, then we have, if not a new 'country of the soul', at least a new 'climate'. Thus, the Bible of Social Pity: La Bruyére, The Man with the Hole; "faint notes" in Goldsmith's The Deserted Village and Blake; "the short early novels of Victor Hugo, The Last Day of a Man Condemned to Death, Claude Gueux; Dickens; Eugène Sue, Mysteries of Paris"; Les Misérables; Dostoevsky and Tolstoy; Zola's "Germinal the first full-grown proletarian epic"; Gerhart Hauptmann's Weavers; Barbusse's Under Fire; In Dubious Battle; The Grapes of Wrath. The problem with this Bible, is practical: an excess of prolific writers creating an excess of work (55-57). This serves as an appropriate bridge to this chapter's conclusion.
"A man who would work his way through Sir John Lubbock's "Best Hundred Books" diligently, retentively, might yet remain a fool. A laborious fool, a plausible fool, an abundantly informed fool: all the more dangerous for the weapons thus placed in the hands of his foolishness. In this famous list, or in any other catalogue of World's Classics, there is no unifying principle that could serve as the indispensable nucleus of culture. Better one good book, if thought-provoking, than a hundred "best books," laden to the gunwale with dead facts.
"On the other hand, when the process of culture is fairly started, when we are able to turn "a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits," then abundant reading becomes a boon. Culture will not result automatically out of a prescribed course of study: it is an inward operation. But the growth in the soil is prepared and aided by assiduous tilling." (59)
In addition to Trouser Press and Creem now offering full-text scans of their entire runs, scans of other magazines can be found online; in the examples linked-to below, mostly made available by the dreaded Google Books. Reading old periodicals as they were originally published is vastly superior to reading digital versions of them. Some publications, like Harper's, offer full-text scans, while others, like the New York Review of Books, offer only H. T. M. L. versions; in that case, visual content has not been replicated, even when images at times form a significant addition to the article. Digitized versions also remove the articles from their original context (or, for recent articles published simultaneously in print and online, they only present one of two original contexts), the user not able to see advertisements (if applicable).
The Athletic: The Baseball 100: A Project Celebrating the Greatest Players in History
The Atlantic: Henry Wallace: A Divided Mind
Bandcamp--Finders Keepers Records: Strain Crack & Break: Music from the Nurse with Wound List
The Baseball Research Journal: The 20/30 Game Winner: An Endangered/Extinct Species
Bloomberg Businessweek: Rock Riff Rip-Off: The Legal Loophole That May Leave Some of Rock's Greatest Riffs Up for Grabs
British Broadcasting Corporation: Anthropo-Scene
Brooklyn Vegan: 32 Videos of Hal Willner’s ’80s Series ‘Night Music’ That Display His Gift for Weird, Amazing Collaborations
Components: The Chaos Bazaar: Why Is Bandcamp Profitable and Spotify Not?
Curbed: Rock-Star Journalist Lisa Robinson Has Lived in Her Apartment for 45 Years
Julian Dibbell: A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society
Digital Music and News: The Music Industry Has 99 Problems. And They Are...
The Drive: Pilot's Rare Trip around Area 51 Includes Pics of Range Targets, Drone Bases, U. F. O. Legends
Forbes: Now Is Not the Time to Repeal Section 230, but It Should Be Soon
Granary Books: The Ed Sanders Archive
Grantland: The 15 Biggest Plays in Baseball History
Grantland: It's Not Crazy, It's Sports
Grantland: Steve Prefontaine's Last Run
The Internet Archive: Attention K-Mart Shoppers
The Kohler Foundation: St. Eom's Pasaquan
Literary Theory and Criticism: Analysis of Gore Vidal's Novels
National Trust for Historic Preservation: Edge of Tomorrow: The Unexpected Path of Five "Homes of the Future" from 1933-34
New York: Our Trump Dump
The New York Times: The Day the Music Burned
The New York Times: New Yorkers and Their '80s Routines—Block by Block
Open Culture: Orson Welles Narrates Animations of Plato's Cave and Kafka's "Before the Law," Two Parables of the Human Condition
The Outline: Eight Tons of Punk
Palladium: America's New Post-Literate Epistemology
Ian Alan Paul: Antisocial Media
Political Currents: The 100 Greatest Baseball Players Ever
Pro Publica: The Secret I. R. S. Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
Slate: How Do Descendants of Slaves Find Their Ancestors?
Stuff Nobody Cares About: The Original Yankee Stadium - Photographs and Memories
Symbolics.com: Internet History Museum
Town Meeting T. V.: Bernie Speaks with the Community
Vancouver Sun: A Hidden Treasure of 1960s Vancouver Recordings Resurfaces
YouTube: The Samples: Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Vanity Fair: The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Washington Post: How Copyright Law Can Save Dr. Seuss—and the Rest of Us—from Cancel Culture
Abandoned Rails - Arrested Development Wiki - The Atlas of Endangered Alphabets - Ballparks of Baseball - Trevor Barre - Blood Knife - Book and Film Globe - Brilliant Maps - British Fairies - B & S About the Movies - Centuries of Sound - City of Dust - Andrew Clem - A Closer Walk - The Crossing - David's Homepage - Desert Oracle - Dutton Vocalion - Endnotes - English Plus - Flick Lives! Jean Shepherd Web Site - Ghost Towns - Glastonberry Grove - Grammar Underground - Grindhouse Releasing - Troy Hill Art Houses - Honorary Unsubscribe - H. T. M. L. Codes, Editors, and Generators - Humans of New York - Hymag - Emerson Kent - I Know a Spot - Insomnia Theater - Internet Library for Librarians - IRCAM Resource Center - Michael Jackson: Official Versions - Jahsonic, a Vocabulary of Culture - Gabriel Josipovici - Kill Your Television - Let There Be Neon - L. P. Discography - The Madison Music Collective - Merriam-Webster Time Traveler - Malls of America - The Media - Messy Nessy - Mid-Century Modern Midland - Modern Language Association International Bibliography - The Noise-Arch Archive - Hank O'Neal - One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse - The Orbiting Human Circus - Planet Mellotron - Playlist Research - Rapid Tables - Reality Studio - Recurring Developments - Retro Renovation - Reviews from Albums - Roland 808 303 Studio - Robert J. Shea - Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley - Species in Peril - Tangled Web U. K. - This Mortal Coil - Unit Converters - Voice of the Shuttle - Web Exhibits - Wet Magazine - Robert Anton Wilson - W. K. R. P. Song List - Wolfram Alpha - Wolf's Kompaktkiste - The World Peace Group
Reads: Robert Darnton's Essays on Google Books for the New York Review of Books
'The Library in the New Age', June 12th, 2008
'Google and the Future of Books', February 12th, 2009
'Google and the New Digital Future', December 17th, 2009
'How Google Can Save America's Books', November 23rd, 2010
'Six Reasons Google Books Failed', March 28th, 2011
'Google's Loss: The Public's Gain', April 28th, 2011
Reads: Tony Judt's Memoirs Series for the New York Review of Books
January 14th, 2010:
'Night'
February 11th, 2010:
'Joe'
'Bedder'
'Kibbutz'
February 25th, 2010:
'Food'
March 11th, 2010:
March 25th, 2010:
April 8th, 2010:
'Work'
May 13th, 2010:
'Toni'
May 27th, 2010:
~ some academic databases
~ many anthological websites
Music: (Also check out the links page at the Rock Annual.)
Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings
Literature: (Also check out the links page at Greater Books.)
The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry
Light and Dust Anthology of Poetry
A Manual for the Advanced Study of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Film, Television, Theatre:
Journalism, Politics, History, Travel:
Jeremy Norman's History of Information
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
The Return of the Jewelled Antler
Originally published January 2009 at 2009: The Blog/ Blob.
The Great Orthochromatic Wheel, an album by The Blithe Sons: the duo of Glenn Donaldson and Loren Chasse, founding members of the San Francisco-based Jewelled Antler collective, came out in 2008. Only in the new year have I begun listening to it... a curious way to phrase it, yes? I'll listen to it for the rest of my life. Maybe. Here and there.
I had begun to wonder what had happened to them. The first Blithe Sons record, We Walk the Young Earth, and the second, Arm of the Starfish, had come out in 2003 and 2004, respectively, alongside a couple minor C. D.-R. releases. The other Jewelled Antler flagships—Thuja, the Skygreen Leopards, the Ivytree—had not been heard from in two years or longer; in the meantime, new projects had came to the fore (notably, Softwar). But 2008 also brought The Jewelled Antler Library, collecting on four discs the contents of twelve 3-inch C. D.s released in 2003 by the Jewelled Antler label, in addition to some new tracks.
Besides the massive amount of close listening the Library provides (and not just from Jewelled Antler artists, but a few others of different climes, if not different soundscapes, as well) I also have in mind a return to Pine Cone Temples, the 2005 double disc from Thuja, the quartet that features Donaldson and Chasse, plus Steven R. Smith and Rob Reger, who themselves engage in a variety of other projects.... That massive tome of an album, like Pelt's Ayahuasca [2001], dwells entirely within the "free" portion of Free Folk; both rank among the best records of the decade. Pine Cone Temples, though, does not fit as well as the Pelt album within categories like "ambient" or "drone." Indeed, it offers music that, at first blush, the listener might not even categorize as human.
Before we get beyond ourselves, perhaps we could start with some basic description of what indeed we could call a unique genre: the mixture of recordings relatively normal in procedure with those done outdoors, including "field" recordings; with the Blithe Sons, the Skygreen Leopards, and Glenn Donaldson's solo projects (the Ivytree, the Birdtree), songs that one could call pretty or mellow emerging from a ramshackle cluttering of sound; improvisational strategies that recall the Cageian-Fluxus-Minimalist tradition of removing or de-emphasizing the singular composer, but expanded upon by being definitively cast in an ecological and holistic light, so that indeed one could imagine certain sounds within Jewelled Antler music as manifestations of nature itself, or perhaps of humans in situations where they must accept their own place in nature.
My Jewelled Antler listening experiences have not always been satisfying. The music often just sits there, though certainly a lot is going on. The appropriate accompanying image perhaps features yourself, the listener, sitting in the woods. And sometimes, you sing a song. Not much to it... ostensibly at least. But I'm glad these artists engage in this kind of work. They could not care less if the listener says, "this has been done before. The point has been made."
Among the Jewelled Antler artists, Loren Chasse's work offers the most fodder for this discussion. An example: at the Pasture Music Festival that took place in the summer of 2004 about a couple hours away from Madison, Wisconsin (and which also featured Pelt, the Son of Earth-Flesh on Bone Trio, Plastic Crimewave Sound, M. V. and E. E., and Christina Carter) Loren Chasse showcased an installation/ performance under his solo rubric, Of (besides the Blithe Sons, Thuja, and Softwar, he has partaken in a number of other projects/ collaborations, including idBattery and Kyrgyz). A roll of white paper stretched from one end of a dilapidated barn to the other; on the paper he placed leaves, twigs, bark. The music came from Chasse walking on the paper and the debris atop it, and taking a handful of the debris into the audience to rub its varied parts together near one of the ears of each person, among other actions lost to my fragmented memory.
In this piece and elsewhere, Chasse works with and challenges the common distinction between music and non-music (or "noise," if you insist). Certainly, a major facet of Jewelled Antler has been its lack of any meaningful distinction between songs and experimental music, or between music and sound art. But some of the artists published by Chasse's label, 23five, do accept the genre/ field known as "Sound Art," and as such are less compelling to me. As far as I'm concerned, the listener decides what, out of all the things he hears, is music. Thus all "Sound Art" is music and all music is sound art. Again, we come back to the idea that "this has all been done before." The concept might work in describing installation works wherein the sounds are set apart from each other, temporally or spatially, and cannot be thought of as a singular entity, that is, no set composition exists (unlike much Aleatoric music, wherein the dramatic claims of the artists were belied by the continued presence of a score). As such, we enter the world of theatre, of performance art. But all live musical performances already reside there. Intermedia art, then, not "Sound Art" only. But songs are already intermedia. Again, the concept lingers in the mushy purgatory of half-baked thoughts. I do not listen to the Jewelled Antler artists, or write about it as I am doing here, because it's good "Sound Art"—other artists, perhaps, but not them.
How then to explain the appeal of listening to, and thinking about, Jewelled Antler music? First, unlike the Cageian-Fluxus-Minimalist nexus I noted above, these artists de-center the individual composer not as a confrontational rejection of traditional practice (no matter how joyous that rejection was, at least with Cage and many Fluxus artists) but instead as a welcoming embrace of additional sound sources: those of the natural environment surrounding the artists, regardless if the artists manipulate the sources themselves or allow them to project sound as they were doing when "found" or "discovered." Again, these sounds are added, and traditional structures remain, quite distinct from the illusion Cage presented of eliminating the self. Granted, this comparison might not seem fair to Cage and other explorers of "indeterminancy," since they generally tried to "imitate nature in her manner of operation," not include the sounds of nature per se. That said, surely the Jewelled Antler artists do so as well (and some would say that improvising musicians do too, or again that humans are a part of nature anyway). The difference lies in the positive holistic character of Jewelled Antler, captured succinctly in Chasse's notion of the microphone as an extension of the ear, a belief one can buy into especially because (not in spite of) the limitations of what our ears, and what the microphone, indeed captures. (I am somewhat surprised of my implied suggestion that Cage's work was not positive and holistic, until I consider how rarely we listen to his music, an unfortunate reality considering that it's much better than his writing; and then I especially ponder again his crass views on most non-Cage music, wherein dear John did forget that, yes, humans are a part of nature.)
Second, about those unsatisfying listening experiences... the responsibility for those lay, as they tend to do, with the listener. A guitar part repeats itself monotonously, I think to myself, or the singer listlessly strays from his task. Alas, I just wasn't paying heed to other evolving aspects of the music. The unlikely contrasts that characterize Jewelled Antler (those songs that oddly appear, as if you have run into a strange man singing to himself while on a walk in the woods near a suburban housing development, or—going in the opposite direction—the droning, plodding emanations of sound, obviously not sculpted into being by human hands, that seem to interrupt a delicate composed piece) sometimes occur across the course of an album, sometimes within a track. You must listen closely. Never assume you know what's going on. Because, no matter where you are, and what you're listening to, you don't know what you're not hearing—that's why you're not listening to it! So, the question: do we ever just hear?
Rock and Soul in the New Millennium
Originally published July 2009 at 2009: The Blog/ Blog. Revised March 2022.
I recall that the Turtle's Records and Tapes chain once common throughout Georgia and Florida put the bulk of their wares under the double desgination, "Rock - Soul." I have always liked that combination of the two names. The Rock portion does not present many complications, never having thought much of the argument differentiating between "Rock 'n' Roll" (that is, pre-Beatles) and "Rock"; the former, if one wants to cordon it off, is at times Rockabilly, and more broadly just a subgenre of Rhythm and Blues.
The Soul portion, on the other hand, better characterizes the totality of what is referred to generally as contemporary Rhythm and Blues. The recent death of Michael Jackson, and the reissue of Isaac Hayes's Hot Buttered Soul forty years after its original release, got me thinking again about the R. and B./ Soul distinction. As far as many are concerned—both artists and listeners—no such distinction ever existed. In addition, radio stations kept the R. and B. tag, so that in theory one could come across Erykah Badu and Missy Elliott in the Aughts at the same spot on the dial where one heard Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett in the Sixties. Still, the concept of Soul music captures well enough the music of Redding, Aretha Franklin, and so on, and its differences with earlier R. and B., as well as Motown and Funk. Peter Guralnick, for one, kept the term for his book Sweet Soul Music despite discovering its lack of salience for many artists and listeners whom he interviewed. Moreover, the music that came with the Philadelphia Soul of the Seventies, and R. and B. as it has continued to develop, seems to have grown in accord with the shift in vocal styles that we commonly see as the origin of Soul.
The mere mention of Elliott and Badu, though, brings us to the subject of this essay: the slow disappearance over the past decades of music that is artistically high-rank and yet fits within the confines of this very-broadly-defined Rock - Soul; or let us call it Rock and Soul, to state more pointedly the term's superiority to Rock and Roll. Elliott and Badu, like most artists who satisfy the listener's jones for something new that still references, and reveres, the past, also work within the Hip Hop realm. Indeed, the zealous pontifications one hears about the general Hip Hop/modern R. and B. scene as the only hit parade that matters reflect an appreciation of the melding-together of Hip Hop and the electronic-pop mainstream heard as one nears the top of the charts.
Many of said pontificators are indirectly expressing their justified disdain for contemporary mainstream Rock, which compared to R. and B. seems to have completely fallen from grace. I have said to myself and to friends and acquaintances repeatedly over the past few years that no artist who has emerged in this decade has made any great, genre-redefining Rock music. Several artists who came of age in the Nineties certainly have; see: Wilco, Radiohead, Califone, Smog, Ghost, Boris, Sunn, Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U. F. O., Circulatory System, Oneida. But younger ones? No. [By the late Twenty-Teens, this thankfully seemed to have changed, with the rise of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Ought, Tropical Fuck Storm, Fat White Family, Sunwatchers, Protomartyr, et al.]
As in contemporary Soul/ R. and B.—Urban?—contemporary Rock grabs ahold of our attention when it flows seamlessly among standard Rock forms, "Electronica" methods of the House-Techno and Hip Hop lineages, and more-"out", less-"pop" structures reflecting at least a passing interest in musical worlds farther afield. Animal Collective, who of course began in the late Nineties, and whose only recorded in that decade, Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished is also their only record to rely almost exclusively on the standard drum kit, T. V. on the Radio, Deerhunter, and the Fiery Furnaces are perhaps exemplars of this category. Both T. V. on the Radio and Deerhunter pale in comparison to Animal Collective; the latter cover more ground: more experimentation, yet also vocals vastly superior. Deerhunter's salience has grown as they have overcome attempts to make them an Indie one-album wonder (see: The Strokes, Interpol, The Rapture), and as Bradford Cox made his Atlas Sound recordings available, both on the excellent Let the Blind Lead Those Who See but Cannot Feel album and downloads released via his blog, the voluminous, free contents of the latter capturing the "sharity" zeitgeist for better or worse. T. V. on the Radio, meanwhile, offer a bizarre, not altogether satisfying, mix: a muddy base of electronics and samples mixed in with live instruments that started intriguingly-enough with Industrial/ "noise" touches but quickly veered into the contemporary Indie Elevator morass; topped with vocals that, like Bradford Cox's, never escape the emotional deadweight caused by excessive digital/ cheap/ easy effects and double-(triple-quadruple-)tracking. Whereas Cox in his vocals aims for a fan boy's dream of the mythical Rock rebel, T. V. on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone seem to shoot for the blandest takes they can achieve.
The Fiery Furnaces, though, are another matter entirely. As a live act, they are indeed a Rock band: they tour the nightclub circuit as extensively as any other Indie band of recent note, and in such venues their use of electronics and pre-recorded elements never takes a prominent role. Instead, the band persistently rearranges their songs, sometimes interlocking them together to form suites with minimal breaks in the performance. But as recording artists, beyond their first album, Gallowsbird's Bark [2003], they have not confined themselves like so. Matthew Friedberger's role as the principal craftsman in the studio, at times the only craftsman (a nearly-mythological role previously played by Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren, and Prince) surely helped push The Fiery Furnaces away from documentation of a live band, and toward electronics. Widow City [2007] may have featured some thrashing heavy Rock not far removed from what you'd hear at their gigs, but overall it still fits in among the disjointed, layered, intricate soundscapes M. Friedberger had concocted on Blueberry Boat [2004], Rehearsing My Choir [2005], and especially Bitter Tea [2006].
Of course, the easiest defense for my aforementioned claim for the paucity of good Rock in the new millennium comes with the somewhat-advanced age of M. Friedberger, already pushing thirty when the Fiery Furnaces began. Either way, my bold accusation is not meant to be taken too seriously. Obviously enough, plenty of fine Rock bands exist. I live in a city, Athens, Georgia, where a remarkable number of bands, some of them quite excellent, and some of them featuring individuals born after 1979, perform regularly. That said, innovative young producers rarely show much interest; and young artists whose recorded work would otherwise offer compelling sounds instead work with pseudo-professionals who do everything appropriately—and boringly. Also, even good Rock music bores people to death. They do not want to pay to see gigs anymore. They stand, listless and antsy, waiting for the music to end. They do not eagerly await to hear recordings from new bands, having too much to listen to already. In Athens, an increasing number of shows take place at bars lacking proper sound systems, the excessive alcoholism of many of the townies keeping the scene solvent.
Then again, those bands who do "make it"—use Animal Collective as an example—make a living from touring, not recordings. Their shows have achieved "event" status to such a degree they can draw in large audiences. In such cases, the same emotional anxieties, and social warmth, that draws us the bar takes us to the concert venue as well. The recording is, more than ever in the post-Electro/Hip Hop era of popular music, what defines the artist, but it does not compensate him monetarily all that much. So, not only should bands avoid the proscribed routes recording-wise. But also, for the spectacle they need to create to bring in customers, they need get imaginative, get attention: where is the limit there? the routine? Both Rock and Soul musics could find their way in. As could recitation of Russian Futurist poetry and Buddhist scripture, screenings of pornographic film, and displays of minimalist "op" art (just make sure there're some loud sounds, with beats, to keep the loons preoccupied). In other words, no excuses.
Most information you would need to dig deeper into this topic can be found at the The Ultimate Guide to the Rolling Stones.
Key to U. S. albums:
1: England's Newest Hitmakers
2: 12 x 5
3: Now!
4: Out of Our Heads
5: December's Children (and Everybody's)
6: Aftermath
7: Between the Buttons
8: Flowers
^: Got Live If You Want It!
Highlighted tracks are featured on Hot Rocks, More Hot Rocks (or its expanded version [2002]), while the tracks included on the later compilation that could be said to have superseded those two compilations, The Rolling Stones Singles Collection: The London Years, are indicated by an asterisk (*)—this compilation includes later tracks not noted here.
1963
Come On*/ I Want to Be Loved*
Poison Ivy [version 1] / Fortune Teller [this single unreleased except for a small number of copies; both tracks released on Saturday Club compilation]
I Wanna Be Your Man* / Stoned*
1964
Not Fade Away* [1] / Little by Little* [1]
It's All Over Now* [2] / Good Times, Bad Times* [2] [also released in the U. S.]
[U .S.-only release] Time Is on My Side ("organ intro" version, or version 1)* [2] / Congratulations* [2]
Little Red Rooster* [3] / Off the Hook* [3]
The Rolling Stones (E. P., 1964)
Bye Bye Johnny [Bye Bye Johnnie]
Money (That's What I Want)
You Better Move On [5]
Poison Ivy [version 2]
5 x 5 (E. P., 1964)
If You Need Me [2]
Empty Heart [2]
2120 South Michigan Avenue [2]
Confessin' the Blues [2]
Around and Around [2]
The Rolling Stones (L. P., 1964)
Route 66 [1, 5]
I Just Want to Make Love to You [1; titled I Just Wanna Make Love to You for U.S.-only single that featured Tell Me on the A side]
Mona (I Need You Baby) [1]
Now I've Got a Witness [3]
Little by Little [1]
I'm a King Bee [1]
Carol [1]
Tell Me (first pressing had shorter version) [1; retitled Tell Me (You're Coming Back) for inclusion on the U. S. version of Big Hits]
Can I Get a Witness [1]
You Can Make It If You Try [1]
Walking the Dog [1]
1965
The Last Time* [4] / Play with Fire* [4] [also released in the U. S.]
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction* [4] / The Spider and the Fly* [4] [also released in the U.S., with The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man* as B side]
Get Off of My Cloud* [5] / The Singer Not the Song* [5] [also released in the U.S., with I'm Free as B side]
Got Live If You Want It! (E. P., 1965)
We Want the Stones [audience]
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
Pain in My Heart
Route 66 [5]
I'm Moving On [5]
I'm Alright [4]
The Rolling Stones No. 2 (L. P., 1965)
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love [3--alternate (shorter) version; the C. D. version of Now! released in 1986 includes the original, but not subsequent reissues of that album]
Down-Home Girl [3]
You Can't Catch Me [3]
Time Is On My Side ["guitar intro" version, or version 2; the U.S. 7-inch, 12 x 5, and Hot Rocks all feature "organ intro" version, or version 1]
What a Shame* [3] [also released as a U.S. single, December 1964; B side of Heart of Stone]
Grown Up Wrong [2]
Down the Road Apiece[3]
Under the Boardwalk [2]
I Can't Be Satisfied
Pain in My Heart [3]
Off the Hook [3]
Susie Q [2]
Out of Our Heads (L. P., 1965)
She Said Yeah [5]
Mercy Mercy [4]
Hitch-Hike [4]
That's How Strong My Love Is [4]
Good Times [4]
Gotta Get Away* [5]
Talkin' 'Bout You [5]
Cry to Me [4]
Oh Baby [4]
Heart of Stone* [3] [also released as a U. S. single, December 1964, with What a Shame as B side]
The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man [4]
I'm Free [5]
1966
19th Nervous Breakdown* / As Tears Go By* [5] [also released in the U.S., with Sad Day* as B side]
Paint It Black*[6] / Long Long While* [also released in the U. S., with Stupid Girl as B side)
Have You Seen You Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows* [8] / Who's Driving Your Plane?* [also released in the U. S.]
Aftermath (L. P., 1966)
Mother's Little Helper* [8]
Stupid Girl [6]
Lady Jane* [6, 8]
Under My Thumb [6]
Doncha Bother Me [6]
Goin' Home [6]
Flight 505 [6]
High and Dry [6]
Out of Time [8]
I Am Waiting [6]
Take It or Leave It [8]
Think [6]
What to Do
Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (L. P., 1966)
[All of these previously released]
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow
Paint It Black
It's All Over Now
The Last Time
Heart of Stone
Not Fade Away
Come On
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Get Off of My Cloud
As Tears Go By
19th Nervous Breakdown
Lady Jane
Time Is on My Side ["guitar intro" version, or version 2]
Little Red Rooster
U. S. version:
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
The Last Time
As Tears Go By
Time Is on My Side ["organ intro" version, or version 1]
It's All Over Now
Tell Me (You're Coming Back)
19th Nervous Breakdown
Heart of Stone
Get Off of My Cloud
Not Fade Away
Good Times, Bad Times
Play with Fire
1967
Let's Spend the Night Together* [7, 8] / Ruby Tuesday* [7, 8] [also released in the U. S.]
We Love You* / Dandelion* [also released in the U. S.]
Between the Buttons (L. P., 1967)
Yesterday's Papers [7]
My Obsession [7]
Back Street Girl [8]
Connection [7]
She Smiled Sweetly [7]
Cool, Calm, and Collected [7]
All Sold Out [7]
Please Go Home [8]
Who's Been Sleeping Here [7]
Complicated [7]
Miss Amanda Jones [7]
Something Happened to Me Yesterday [7]
1968
Jumpin' Jack Flash* / Child of the Moon* [also released in the U. S.]
1969
Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (L. P., 1969)
[All of these previously released]
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Mother's Little Helper
2000 Light Years From Home
Let's Spend the Night Together
You Better Move On
We Love You [edited]
Street Fighting Man
She's a Rainbow
Ruby Tuesday
Dandelion [edited]
Sittin' on a Fence
Hony Tonk Women
U. S. version:
Paint It Black
Ruby Tuesday
She's a Rainbow
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Mother's Little Helper
Let's Spend the Night Together
Honky Tonk Women
Dandelion [edited]
2000 Light Years from Home
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?
Street Fighting Man
Tracks originally on U. S. albums:
Surprise, Surprise* [3]
One More Try [4]
Look What You've Done [5]
Blue Turns to Grey [5]
I've Been Loving You Too Long [^; this track and Fortune Teller as featured on the U. S., L. P. version of Got Live If You Want It! [see below] included overdubbed audience sound; apparently, until the 2002 expanded More Hot Rocks, the original studio track was not officially released]
It's Not Easy [6]
I Am Waiting [6]
Ride On, Baby [8]
Sittin' on a Fence [8]
My Girl [8]
Live tracks on U. S. version of Got Live If You Want It! (L. P., 1966), at least some of which feature studio overdubs:
Under My Thumb [2002 reissue uses alternate take]
Get Off My Cloud
Lady Jane
Not Fade Away
Fortune Teller
The Last Time
19th Nervous Breakdown
Time Is on My Side
I'm Alright [possibly the same backing track as the version found on the U. K. version]
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
2009: The Blog /Blob, my first blog (some of the material has been removed from it, in case you're wondering—you're not) included a links list of music blogs that upload entire albums of others' music, both because of the essay I wrote about "sharity," as these blogs were called, and the significant amount of music I listened to that year having been obtained through such blogs. Since 2009, though, many of those sites have disappeared, largely due to legal pressures, as discussed in the roundtable discussion at the e-zine, the Awl, 'The Rise and Fall of the Obscure Music Download Blog' [defunct, but still available at the Internet Archive]. Though I miss the ease with which I could, say, hear all 12 discs of the complete works of Bernard Parmegiani, the decline of these blogs, overall, is a positive thing. The number of sites that focused on out-of-print, obscure albums of unknown legal status has always been dwarfed by the sites run by individuals simply copying C. D.s and giving away the music (as with that Parmegiani set), all the while speaking of the process in euphoric tones. Notice how the title and focus of that Awl article attempts to split "obscure music" sites from the larger "sharity" realm: a romanticization of recent history.
A few other issues to consider: first, the assumption that, if an album was released once, but is not currently in print, a listener who happens to own a copy should make it available for others to listen to, as if the denial of consumer demands is a problem needing any possible immediate solution. Of course, the "sharity" bloggers don't speak of consumers, or buyers. It's all about the music, right? Until they complain, as in that Awl discussion, about the plight of users having stored hundreds or thousands of files at sites like Megaupload only to see them disappear. How many of these bloggers and their followers stop to think about the effect of obsessive listening, compared to making music? One of the men behind Mutant Sounds, generally considered to be the most prominent of "sharity" blogs, Eric Lumbleau, had his own label and his own band (Vas Deferens Organization) but is more known now for providing low-quality digital copies of others' music via large conglomerates like Google. In later years, having considered ending the site, the Mutant Sounds crew decided only to post music from artists who have given their permission. More recently, the blog shut down but those involved have a program on the internet radio site, Dublab.
On that note.... Second, you'll notice that, at several of the sites listed below, the bloggers are quick to say that an artist only needs to request that their music not be shared. Does this not sound familiar? You need to opt out yourself, instead of opting in? Much like the user needs to persistently check his account settings at Facebook, Google, etc., to ensure that a modicum of privacy is maintained? (And even then, whatever preferences the user indicates are blithely ignored.) These blogs, justified as they are with grandiose claims of expanding the audience for obscure music, are following the practices of shady corporations.
Indeed, I have updated this article (originally posted at my second blog, Macroscopic 2013, which is completely offline but available in text form [see 'Chronological List of My writings' above], some of the material reworked for this site, much of it more simply the draft versions of what became Greater Books) because the "sharity" phenomenon seems to offer a case study in how those who had grown up in the early years of the Worldwide Web/ internet media were hoodwinked by the largest "tech" companies into all sorts of absurd practices that belied any notion of liberalism or radicalism on their part simply because the products of those large "tech" companies came to them via the same medium and similar formats as all the earlier things about the Web that they had loved so dearly. In short, an entire generation in the Aughts and Twenty-Teens became mindless dupes of a few massive "tech" companies and have never looked back.
So what sites are still active? As with any lists of blogs, this is far from definitive.
Aussie Music Blog [defunct]
Awesome Tapes from Africa [now also an online shop]
The Boogieman Will Get Ya! [private]
Buffalo Tones [seems to be defunct]
The Changing Same [now an online radio program]
A Closet of Curiosities [defunct]
Die or D. I. Y.?
Dr. Schluss' Garage of Psychedelic Obscurities
Down Underground
Dusty Psychic Hut [seems to be defunct]
Experimental Etc. [defunct; replaced by Slowdive's Corner, also defunct]
Freedom Records [defunct]
L'Invitation au Suicide [defunct]
Lossless World [defunct]
Love in Spurts [defunct; offline]
Meet the Music Traveler [defunct; offline]
Mesmirization [defunct]
My Little Bubble... [defunct]
9 Grey Chairs [defunct; offline]
No Longer Forgotten Music
Orgy in Rhythm [private]
Prof Stoned: Rare & Deleted Vinyl
Q Records
Rest in Bits [defunct]
Roots and Traces: Spurensicherung [defunct]
Schwebeablaut [defunct]
Stuck in the Past! [defunct]
Systems of Romance
The Thing on the Doorstep [defunct; offline]
Tyme-Machine [defunct]
We Fucking Love Music [defunct]
Zero G Sound [defunct]
In addition to the the "go legit" approach of Mutual Sounds (apparently also taken, at least partially, by Microphones in the Trees (now defunct) and Ongakubaka (defunct; offline)—both of these sites aided by the sad fact that many of the contemporary artists discussed there already give away their music via Bandcamp and similar sites), several other sites have switched to being reviews sites, or the creators of "sharity" blogs have started new such sites: for example, Another Sucker on the Vine birthed In a White Room [defunct]; and Killed in Cars transformed at some point but is now defunct. Several other blogs, because of the legal crackdown, have also floundered between quitting and refashioning, making a few posts here and there.
The "long Sixties" beginning in 1955, the year following McCarthy's fall and which witnessed Rock-and-Roll's mythical rise and James Dean's death, ending in 1973 after the failure of McGovern's presidential campaign and the Vietnam war finally, excruciatingly wrapping up. These are the books—some obvious omissions undoubtedly are still outstanding—one would need to study, alongside many music albums, films, art books, and retrospective historical accounts, to understand what happened just in the U. S. and U. K. (a few non-Anglo books are included because of their transnational significance). The links are mostly to Wikipedia pages. The works marked with an asterisk are those also found among the 47 lists documented and collated at Greater Books.
1955
Robert Conquest, ed. - Poets of the 1950s [The Movement]
Philip Larkin - The Less Deceived *
Herbert Marcuse - Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud
Vladimir Nabakov - Lolita *
Sloan Wilson - The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
1956
Eugene Burdick - The Ninth Wave
Robert Conquest, ed. - New Lines
Allen Ginsberg - Howl and Other Poems * [Six Gallery reading]
C. Wright Mills - The Power Elite
John Osborne - Look Back in Anger [The Angry Young Men]
William H. Whyte - The Organization Man
Richard Wilbur - Things of This World *
Colin Wilson - The Outsider *
1957
Lawrence Durrell - Justine * (The Alexandria Quartet)
Donald Hall, Robert Pack, and Louis Simpson, eds. - The New Poets of England and America
Richard Hoggart - The Uses of Literacy
Jack Kerouac - On the Road * [The Beat Generation]
Tom Maschler, ed. - Declaration
John Osborne - The Entertainer
Harold Pinter - The Birthday Party *
Nevil Shute - On the Beach
Robert Paul Smith - Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing
Alan Watts - The Way of Zen
1958
Peter Bryant [Peter George] - Two Hours to Doom [U. S. title: Red Alert]
Eugene Burdick and William Lederer - The Ugly American
Gregory Corso - Bomb
Shelagh Delaney - A Taste of Honey
Lawrence Durrell - Balthazar * (The Alexandria Quartet)
Lawrence Durrell - Mountolive * (The Alexandria Quartet)
John Kenneth Galbraith - The Affluent Society *
Lawrence Ferlinghetti - A Coney Island of the Mind
Robert Frank - The Americans
Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums
Stanley Kunitz - Selected Poems, 1928-1958
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
Martin Mayer - Madison Avenue, U. S. A.
Linus Pauling - No More War!
Alan Sillitoe - Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
1959
Kenneth Anger - Hollywood Babylon
John Arden - Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, an Un-historical Parable
Norman O. Brown - Life against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History
William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Pat Frank - Alas, Babylon
Robert Lowell - Life Studies *
Norman Mailer - Advertisements for Myself *
Delmore Schwartz - Summer Knowledge: New and Selected Poems
C. P. Snow - The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
Terry Southern/ Mason Hoffenberg - Candy
William Appleman Williams - The Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Keith Waterhouse - Billy Liar
1960
Donald Allen, ed. - The New American Poetry 1945-1960
Ansel Adams/ Nancy Newhall - This Is the American Earth
Gregory Corso - The Happy Birthday of Death
Robert Duncan - The Opening of the Field [Black Mountain poets]
Lawrence Durrell - Clea * (The Alexandria Quartet)
Paul Goodman - Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society
Herman Kahn - On Thermonuclear War
R. D. Laing - The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness [Anti-Psychiatry]
Seymour Martin Lipset - Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics
C. Wright Mills - Listen, Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba
A. S. Neill - Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing
Harold Pinter - A Night Out
Sylvia Plath - The Colossus and Other Poems
William L. Shirer - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
Terry Southern - The Magic Christian
Glendon Swarthout - Where the Boys Are [Spring break]
Sheldon Wolin - Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought [The Berkeley school of political theory]
1961
John Cage - Silence: Lectures and Writings
Frantz Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth
Waldo Frank - Prophetic Island: A Portrait of Cuba [The Fair Play for Cuba Committee]
Joseph Heller - Catch-22 *
Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American Cities *
Thomas Szasz - The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct
Richard Wilbur - Advice to a Prophet, and Other Poems
Colin Wilson - Adrift in Soho
1962
Edward Albee - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? *
Daniel Boorstin - The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
Helen Gurley Brown - Sex and the Single Girl
Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler - Fail-Safe
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange *
Rachel Carson - Silent Spring *
Robert Creeley - For Love: Poems 1950-1960
Michael Harrington - The Other America
Ken Kesey - One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest *
Harold Robbins - The Carpetbaggers
1963
Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil *
Leonard Cohen - The Favourite Game
Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique * [The Second Wave of Feminism]
Dag Hammarskjold - Vägmärken
Mary McCarthy - The Group *
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar *
Adrienne Rich - Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law: Poems, 1954-1962
Frederick Seidel - Final Solutions
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle *
La Monte Young, ed. - An Anthology of Chance Operations
1964
Eric Berne - Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships
John Berryman - 77 Dream Songs
Edward Bond - Saved
J. P. Clark - America, Their America
Leonard Cohen - Flowers for Hitler
Robert Duncan - Roots and Branches
Dick Gregory/ Richard Lipsyte - Nigger: An Autobiography
Stuart Hall/ Paddy Whannel - The Popular Arts
Philip Larkin - The Whitsun Weddings *
John Lennon - In His Own Write
Ken Kesey - Sometimes a Great Notion
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Why We Can't Wait [The civil-rights movement]
Timothy Leary/ Ralph Metzner - The Psychedelic Experience: A Manuel Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
Herbert Marcuse - One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
Michael McClure - The Beard
Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
Frank O'Hara - Lunch Poems
Harold Pinter - The Homecoming *
Idries Shah - The Sufis
Wayland Young - Eros Denied: Sex in Western Society
1965
Gypsy Boots/ Jerry Hopkins - Barefeet and Good Things to Eat
Lenny Bruce - How to Talk Dirty and Influence People
Eugene Burdick - The 480
Frank Herbert - Dune *
Pauline Kael - I Lost It at the Movies
John Lennon - A Spaniard in the Works
John McPhee - A Sense of Where You Are
Ralph Nader - Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile
Sylvia Plath - Ariel *
Gary Snyder - Six Sections from Mountains and Rivers without End
Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Tom Wolfe - The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby [New Journalism]
Malcolm X/ Alex Haley - The Autobiography of Malcolm X *
1966
Harry Benjamin - The Transsexual Phenomenon
Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann - The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
Kenneth Burke - Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences *
Leonard Cohen - Beautiful Losers
Tom Hayden/ Staughton Lynd - The Other Side [The anti-war movement]
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
Mark Lane - Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald
William H. Masters/ Virginia E. Johnson - Human Sexual Response [The Sexual Revolution]
W. S. Merwin - Collected Poems
Kenneth Rexroth - An Autographical Novel [San Francisco Renaissance]
Carl Sagan/ I.S. Shklovskii - Intelligent Life in the Universe
Anne Sexton - Live or Die
Susan Sontag - Against Interpretation and Other Essays
Jacqueline Susann - Valley of the Dolls
Robert Venturi - Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
1967
Richard Brautigan - Trout Fishing in America
Stokely Carmichael/ Charles V. Hamilton - Black Power: The Politics of Liberation
Kenward Elmslie - Power Plant Poems
J. William Fulbright - The Arrogance of Power
Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams, and Edward Thompson, eds. - 1967: New Left May Day Manifesto [revised 1968, titled May Day Manifesto 1968, with Williams as editor] [The New Left]
Thomas A. Harris - I'm O. K.-You're O. K.
Tom Hayden - Rebellion in Newark: Official Violence and Ghetto Response
Herman Kahn - The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three Years
Jonathan Kozol - Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools
Marshall McLuhan/ Quentin Fiore - The Medium Is the Massage
William Paddock/ Paul Paddock - Famine 1975! America's Decision: Who Will Survive?
Jonathan Schell - The Village of Ben Suc
Valerie Solanas - S. C. U. M. (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto
Hunter S. Thompson - Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
Howard Zinn - Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal
1968
John Berryman - His Toy, His Dream, His Rest
Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Eldridge Cleaver - Soul on Ice
Joan Didion - Slouching towards Bethlehem
Ed Dorn - Gunslinger
Robert Duncan - Bending the Bow *
Paul Ehrlich - The Population Bomb
Frederick Exley - A Fan's Notes
Free [Abbie Hoffman] - Revolution for the Hell of It [The Youth International Party (Yippies)]
Paulo Freire - Pedagogia do Oprimido
Saint Geraud [Bill Knott] - The Naomi Poems: Book One: Corpse and Beans
James Simon Kunen - The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary
Timothy Leary - The Politics of Ecstasy
Staughton Lynd - The Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism
Norman Mailer - The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/The Novel as History *
N Scott Momaday - House Made of Dawn * [The Native American Renaissance]
Andrew Sarris - The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968 [The Auteur Theory]
Jonathan Schell - The Military Half
Gore Vidal - Myra Breckinridge *
Erich Von Däniken - Erinnerungen an die Zukunft: Ungelöste Rätsel der Vergangenheit
Andy Warhol - a, A Novel [The Factory]
Leonard and Deborah Wolf - Voices from the Love Generation [Flower Power]
Tom Wolfe - The Pump House Gang
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
1969
Penelope Ashe - Naked Came the Stranger
H. Rap Brown - Die Nigger Die!
James H. Cone - Black Theology and Black Power [Liberation Theology]
Brion Gysin - The Process
Abbie Hoffman - Woodstock Nation: A Talk-Rock Album
J [Terry Garrity] - The Sensuous Woman
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross - On Death and Dying * [The Hospice Movement]
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness *
Carlos Marighella - Minimanual do Guerrilheiro Urbano
Joe McGinnis - The Selling of the President 1968
Kate Millett - Sexual Politics
N. Scott Momaday - The Way to Rainy Mountain
Fritz Perls - Gestalt Theory Verbatim [The Human Potential Movement]
Kevin Phillips - The Emerging Republic Majority [The Southern Strategy]
Theodore Roszak - The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition [The Counterculture]
Gary Snyder - Four Changes
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death *
1970
Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull *
Joe Brainard - I Remember
James H. Cone - A Black Theology of Liberation
Shulamith Firestone - The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution
Jerry Farber - The Student as Nigger
Dario Fo - Morte Accidentale di un Anarchico
Stephen Gaskin - Monday Night Class [The Farm]
Lois Gould - Such Good Friends
Albert Hirschman - Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States
Kenneth Koch - Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry
Hal Lindsey and C. C. Carlson - The Late, Great Planet Earth
William H. Masters/ Virginia E Johnson - Human Sexual Inadequacy
Don McNeill - Moving through Here
Charles A. Reich - The Greening of America
Jerry Rubin - DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution
Lynn Schroeder/ Sheila Ostrander - Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain [Pyramid Power]
Telford Taylor - Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy
Eric Weber - How to Pick Up Girls!
1971
Anonymous [Beatrice Sparks] - Go Ask Alice
Ram Dass - Be Here Now
Bob Dylan - Tarantula
Gustavo Gutiérrez - Teología de la Liberación: Perspectivas
J [Terry Garrity, John Garrity, and Len Forman] - The Sensuous Man
Abbie Hoffman - Steal This Book
Stanley Kunitz - The Testing-Tree
Ivan Illich - Deschooling Society
John McPhee - Encounters with the Archdruid [Friends of the Earth]
Michael Murphy - Golf in the Kingdom
William Powell - The Anarchist Cookbook
Colin Wilson - The Occult: A History
1972
John Berger - Ways of Seeing
Alex Comfort - The Joy of Sex
Lois Gould - X: A Fabulous Child's Story
David Halberstam - The Best and the Brightest
Ira Levin - The Stepford Wives
George Leonard - The Transformation: A Guide to the Inevitable Changes in Humankind
Robert Masters and Jean Houston - Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space
Donnella H. Matthews, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III - The Limits to Growth
Nena O'Neill and George O'Neill - Open Marriage: A New Life Style for Couples
Alix Kates Shulman - Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen
Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
1973
The Boston Women's Health Book Collective - Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women
Rita Mae Brown - Rubyfruit Jungle
Jill Johnston - Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution
Erica Jong - Fear of Flying
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions *
Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson, eds. - The New Journalism
Later collections:
L. E. Sissman - Hello, Darkness: The Collected Poems of L. E. Sissman, 1978
James Schuyler - Collected Poems, 1993
Peter Davison - Collected Poems, 1994
Barbara Guest - The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest, 2008
- Musra Al-Gharbi Heterodox Academy
- David Bromwich
- Matt Bruenig Jacobin - People's Policy Project
- Sonny Bunch
- Ben Burgis Jacobin - Medium
- Nick Burns
- Patrick Cockburn Counterpunch
- Freddie deBoer
- Ross Douthat
- Tom Engelhardt, et al.
- Noah Feldman
- Caitlin Flanagan
- Thomas Frank Guardian - Harper's Magazine
- Conor Friedersdorf
- Fred Kaplan
- Annie Lowery
- Matt McManus Areo - Jacobin - Liberal Currents - Quillette
- John McWhorter
- Ian Millhiser
- Peggy Noonan
- Suzanne Nossel
- Adolph Reed, Jr. New Republic
- Luke Savage Jacobin
- Jesse Singal
- Stephanie Slade
- Blake Smith
- Karl W. Smith
- Matt Taibbi
- Olüfẹmi O. Táíwò
- Ruy Teixeira, John Halpin, et al.
- Michael Tracey
- George Will
- Thomas Chatterton Williams
- Wesley Yang Tablet
- Alexander Zaitchik
Sonny Rollins: Lauded Early Years, Long Haul
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Anthony Braxton; Steve Lacy; John Zorn; Dave Brubeck; Evan Parker; Sun Ra. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
One may be surprised to see a guide to Sonny Rollins' discography, relatively a simple one, placed alongside the labyrinthine likes of Anthony Braxton and John Zorn, but a couple factors led me to put this together. One, the extraordinary length of Rollins' career, he and his erstwhile bandmate Max Roach, as well as Dave Brubeck, being major innovators in Jazz during the Fifties, when it attained a level of critical respect unmatched since, who continued working until the Twenty-Teens--roughly seventy years. Second, the unique problem with appreciating Rollins' music: the universal acclaim of his early albums, especially those made through 1958; and the accompanying lack of any critical consensus about his music made since then, and especially after 1966. The release date of each album is provided in brackets. Wikipedia links are provided, if applicable--otherwise, Discogs links.
studio albums:
First of all... the confusing (discographically speaking) era of the 10-inch Long Play (L. P.) gramophone record. Confusing: in the Jazz world at least, because these records were split apart and recombined in all sorts of seemingly-random ways when reissued in the 12-inch format. One record that we may mistakenly think of as a "Sonny Rollins" album from this era is Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk, recorded 1954 and released as a 10-inch L. P. the same year; the 12-inch L. P. Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, released in 1956, includes the first and second of three tracks (side A) of this 10-inch L. P. while the third track, which comprised all of side B, was made of part of the L. P. Moving Out, which is a "Sonny Rollins" album; the rest of the Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins 12-inch L. P. includes tracks from two Thelonious Monk 10-inch L. P.s, Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for L. P. and Thelonious Monk Plays.
The rest of Moving Out consists of the four tracks that had been released as Sonny Rollins Quintet Featuring Kenny Dorham in 1954.
Sonny Rollins Quartet, recorded and released as a 10-inch L. P. in 1952 became the 12-inch L. P., Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet. The latter includes the eight tracks that comprised the 10-inch as well as the four tracks released on an E. P., Sonny Rollins with Modern Jazz Quartet (yes, the Prestige label initially seemed to have quite a distaste for definite articles) and another track that had been first released on a compilation, Mambo Jazz.
--
Having established himself as a sideman for Monk and Miles Davis and briefly playing with the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet before Brown's untimely death, Rollins followed with the four years of prolific studio and concert work. Few artists have recorded so much with such impact so quickly as Rollins did in these years, especially 1956 and 1957.
Work Time recorded 1955 [1956]
Sonny Rollins Plus 4 recorded 1956 [1956; this album essentially being a Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet album, but credited to Rollins due to conditions of a deal between Rollins' label, Prestige, and EmArcy, the label that had signed Brown-Roach's group]
Tenor Madness recorded 1956 [1956]
Saxophone Colossus recorded 1956 [1956]
Tour de Force recorded 1956 [1958]; alternate version of this album, entitled Sonny Boy, omits one track, 'Two Different Worlds', adds another, the track 'Sonny Boy'; C. D. versions of Sonny Boy kept this tracking but C. D. versions of Tour de Force include both 'Worlds' and 'Boy'
Rollins Plays for Bird recorded 1956 [1961]
Sonny Rollins recorded 1956 [1957]; later issues add Volume One to the title, in accord with the other Blue Note album, Vol. 2
Way Out West recorded 1957 [1957]
Sonny Rollins Vol. 2 recorded 1957 [1957]
The Sound of Sonny recorded 1957 [1957]
Newk's Time recorded 1957 [1959]
Freedom Suite recorded 1958 [1958]--at times reissued under the title, Shadow Waltz
Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass recorded 1958 [1958]--often reissued under the title, Brass/ Trio
Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders recorded 1958 [1959]
--
After three years with no new albums recorded, Rollins returned for a short run, his recorded work more of a mishmash of new line-ups and experimentation.
The Bridge recorded 1962 [1962]
What's New recorded 1962 [1962]
Sonny Meets Hawk! recorded 1963 [1963]
Now's the Time recorded 1964 [1964]
The Standard Sonny Rollins recorded 1964 [1964]
Sonny Rollins on Impulse! recorded 1965 [1965]
Alfie: Original Music from the Score recorded 1966 [1966]
East Broadway Run Down recorded 1966 [1967]
--
A long period of regular work, sometimes criticized or merely ignored, began in 1972, much of it released on Milestone Records, one of the few U. S. labels to continue relatively unscathed by the declining popularity of both acoustic and avant-garde Jazz in the Seventies and Eighties (many albums by American artists like Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, the World Saxophone Quartet, Joe McPhee, Cecil Taylor, David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago being released in these years by European labels like Black Saint/ Soul Note, E. C. M., and Hat Hut).
Sonny Rollins' Next Album recorded 1972 [1972]
Horn Culture recorded 1973 [1973]
Nucleus recorded 1975 [1975]
The Way I Feel recorded 1976 [1976]
Easy Living recorded 1977 [1977]
Don't Ask recorded 1979 [1979]
Love at First Sight recorded 1980 [1981]
No Problem recorded 1981 [1981]
Reel Life recorded 1982 [1982]
Sunny Days, Starry Nights recorded 1984 [1984]
Dancing in the Dark recorded 1987 [1987]
Falling in Love with Jazz recorded 1989 [1989]
Here's to the People recorded 1991 [1991]
Old Flames recorded 1993 [1993]
Sonny Rollins + 3 recorded 1995 [1995]
--
At this point, Rollins is definitely more known for his live performances, as eventually documented in the Road Shows series [see below].
Global Warming recorded 1998 [1998]
This Is What I Do recorded 2000 [2000]
Sonny, Please recorded 2005-2006 [2006]
--
Some discographical curios:
Sonny Rollins Plays, despite its title, is a split album, featuring the Sonny Rollins Quintet on side A and Thad Jones and His Ensemble on Side B; recorded 1957, released 1958.
Sonny Rollins at Music Inn/ Teddy Edwards at Falcon's Lair with Joe Castro, recorded and released 1958, is a split album featuring a Rollins-led quartet on four tracks and an Edwards-led quartet on two tracks.
Three studio tracks featuring Rollins with Don Cherry, Henry Grimes, and Billy Higgins (billed as Sonny Rollins & Co.) and recorded in 1963 were released on the compilation 3 in Jazz alongside selections by the Gary Burton Quartet and the Clark Terry Quintet. Reissues of Our Man in Jazz [see below] include these three tracks.
--
Excluding these three split albums, but including Sonny Rollins Quintet Featuring Kenny Dorham (i.e. Moving Out), we have a total of 41 studio albums.
concert albums:
A Night at the "Village Vanguard" recorded 1956 [1957]
More from the Vanguard recorded 1956 [1976; later combined with A Night at the "Village Vanguard" to form a double C. D. release]
Our Man in Jazz recorded 1962 [1962]
There Will Never Be Another You recorded 1965 [1978]
Sonny Rollins in Japan recorded 1973 [1973]
The Cutting Edge recorded 1974 [1974]
Island Lady recorded 1977 [1977]
Don't Stop the Carnival recorded 1978 [1978]
Ron Carter/ Sonny Rollins/ McCoy Tyner - Milestones Jazzstars in Concert recorded 1978 [1979]
The Solo Album recorded 1985 [1985]
Sonny Rollins Plays G-Man and Other Music for the Soundtrack of the Robert Mugge Film "Saxophone Colossus" recorded 1986 [1987]
Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert recorded 2001 [2005]
Road Shows Vol. 1 recorded 1980, 1986, 2000, 2006-2007 [2008]
Road Shows Vol. 2 recorded 2010 [2011]
Road Shows Volume 3 recorded 2001, 2006-2007, 2009, 2012 [2014]
Holding the Stage: Road Shows Vol. 4 recorded 1979, 1996, 2001, 2006-2007, 2012 [2016]
Counting the Vanguard recordings as a single album, we have 15 concert albums.
some compilations and archival albums:
Contemporary Alternate Takes [mostly tracks later included as bonus tracks on C. D. reissues]
The Alternative Rollins, later retitled After the Bridge, made available previously-unreleased studio tracks recorded in 1964
Reevaluation: The Impulse Years
Silvery City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone
albums that are not "Sonny Rollins" albums but which feature Rollins as a sideman or guest artist and which may or may not count towards our total number of "Sonny Rollins" albums:
The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn Volume 2: Guest Artist: Sonny Rollins recorded 1958 [1959]--Rollins plays on two of six tracks
Sonny Side Up, generally cataloged as a Dizzy Gillespie album, features the trumpeter with Rollins and saxophonist Sonny Stitt (thus the album title). It could be listed as a Gillespie, Rollins, or Stitt album.
Dizzy Gillespie Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, as its tiles suggests features Gillespie playing with (not dueting) the two Sonnys, these tracks recorded during the same sessions that produced Sonny Side Up. Two tracks with Rollins, Ray Bryant, Thomas Bryan, and Charles Persip are on side A, two with Stitt and the same rhythm section on side B. This album is hardly likely to be classed as a Rollins or Stitt album, definitely adding to the argument for Sonny Side Up decidedly being a Gillespie album.
Abbey Lincoln with the Riverside Jazz Stars - That's Him! features Rollins on a few tracks.
Having played on the last studio album by the Brown-Roach Quintet, Clifford Brown and Max Road at Basin Street, Rollins played on Max Roach's Jazz in 3/4 Time and Max Roach + 4, these two albums picking up from where that Quintet left off, with Kenny Dorham replacing Brown and either Ray Bryan or Bill Wallace replacing Richie Powell.
Rollins also plays on Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners and on four of six tracks of Kenny Dorham's Jazz Contrasts.
Rollins played on some Miles Davis sessions in that confusing 10-inch era; these tracks ended up on the albums Dig, Bags' Groove, and Collectors' Items. He can also be found on sessions that ended up on the J. J. Johnson album J. J. Johnson's Jazz Quintets (plus Johnson's portion of the split album Trombone by Three), the Bud Powell album The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 1, and the Art Farmer album Early Art.
Despite Davis's Dig often being credited to Miles Davis Featuring Sonny Rollins, no-one ever categorizes it as a Rollins album. I would not categorize the Brown-Roach Quintet albums as "Rollins" albums either; Sonny Rollins Plus 4 was both presented as a Rollins album and featured Rollins' own compositions. In the end, only Sonny Side Up and Milestones Jazzstars in Concert warrant consideration as a joint-leader album—that is, the latter is a Rollins album, counting towards his total number of albums, but also a Ron Carter and a McCoy Tyner. For the reasons noted above, I place Sonny Side Up solely in the Gillespie category. Counting the Milestones album would give Rollins a total of 41 studio albums, plus 15 concert albums; with the addition of The Alternative Rollins [After the Bridge], his total is 57 albums. As with many Jazz artists, a large number of bootleg releases, almost always of live performances, fill out any attempt at a complete picture of Rollins' work. Consult the Jazz Discography Project's Rollins page for more information about many of these boots.
The Conclusion of the first (1908) edition of The Symbolist Movement in Literature by Arthur Symons, from the Fyfield Books/ Carcanet Press edition (2014) edited by Matthew Creasy:
"Our only chance, in this world, of a complete happiness, lies in the measure of our success in shutting the eyes of the mind, and deadening its sense of hearing, and dulling the keenness of its apprehension of the unknown. Knowing so much less than nothing, for we are entrapped in smiling and many-coloured appearances, our life may seem to be but a little space of leisure, in which it will be the necessary business of each of us to speculate on what is so rapidly becoming the past and so rapidly becoming the future, that scarcely existing present which is after all our only possession. Yet, as the present passes from us, hardly to be enjoyed except as a memory or as hope, and only with an at best partial recognition of the uncertainty or inutility of both, it is with a kind of terror that we wake up, every now and then, to the whole knowledge of our ignorance, and to some perception of where it is leading us. To live through a single day with that overpowering consciousness of our real position, which, in the moments in which alone it mercifully comes, is like blinding light or the thrust of a flaming sword, would drive any man out of his senses. It is our hesitations, the excuses of our hearts, the compromises of our intelligence, which save us. We can forget so much, we can bear suspense with so fortunate an evasion of its real issues; we are so admirably finite.
"And so there is a great, silent conspiracy between us to forget death; all our lives are spent in busily forgetting death. That is why we are active about so many things which we know to be unimportant; why we are so afraid of solitude, and so thankful for the company of our fellow-creatures. Allowing ourselves, for the most part, to be but vaguely conscious of that great suspense in which we live, we find our escape from its sterile, annihilating reality in many dreams, in religion, passion, art; each a forgetfulness, each a symbol of creation; religion being the creation of a new heaven, passion the creation of a new earth, and art, in its mingling of heaven and earth, the creation of heaven out of earth. Each is a kind of sublime selfishness, the saint, the lover, and the artist having each an incommunicable ecstasy which he esteems as his ultimate attainment, however, in his lower moments, he may serve God in action, or do the will of his mistress, or minister to men by showing them a little beauty. But it is, before all things, an escape; and the prophets who have redeemed the world, and the artists who have made the world beautiful, and the lovers who have quickened the pulses of the world, have really, whether they know it or not, been fleeing from the certainty of one thought: that we have, all of us, only our one day; and from the dread of that other thought: that the day, however used, must after all be wasted.
"The fear of death is not cowardice; it is, rather, an intellectual dissatisfaction with an enigma which has been presented to us, and which can be solved only when its solution is of no further use. All we have to ask of death is the meaning of life and we are waiting all through life to ask that question. That life should be happy or unhappy, as those words are used, means so very little; and the heightening or lessening of the general felicity of the world means so little to any individual. There is something almost vulgar in happiness which does not become joy, and joy is an ecstasy which can rarely be maintained in the soul for more than the moment during which we recognise that it is not sorrow. Only very young people want to be happy. What we all want is to be quite sure that there is something which makes it worth while to go on living, in what seems to us our best way, at our finest intensity; something beyond the mere fact that we are satisfying a sort of inner logic (which may be quite faulty) and that we get our best makeshift for happiness on that so hazardous assumption.
"Well, the doctrine of Mysticism, with which all this symbolical literature has so much to do, of which it is all so much the expression, presents us, not with a guide for conduct, not with a plan for our happiness, not with an explanation of any mystery, but with a theory of life which makes us familiar with mystery, and which seems to harmonise those instincts which make for religion, passion, and art, freeing us at once of a great bondage. The final uncertainty remains, but we seem to knock less helplessly at closed doors, coming so much closer to the once terrifying eternity of things about us, as we come to look upon those things as shadows, through which we have our shadowy passage. 'For in particular acts of human life,' Plotinus tell us, 'it is not the interior soul and the true man, but the exterior shadow of a man alone, which laments and weeps, performing his part on the earth as in a more ample and extended scene, in which many shadows of souls and phantom scenes appear.' And as we realise the identiy of a poem, a prayer, or a kiss, in that spiritual universe which we are weaving for ourselves, each out of a thread of the great fabric; as we realise the infinite insignificance of action, its immense distance from the current of life; as we realise the delight of feeling ourselves carried onward by forces which it is our wisdom to obey; it is at least with a certain relief that we turn to ancient doctrine, so much the more likely to be true because it has so much the air of a dream. On this theory alone does all life become worth living, all art worth making, all worship worth offering. And because it might slay as well as save, because the freedom of its sweet captivity might so easily become deadly to the fool, because that is the hardest path to walk in where you are told only, walk well; it is perhaps the only counsel of perfection which can ever really mean much to the artist."
These United States' Digital Libraries
California Digital Newspaper Collection
Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection
Florida Digital Newspaper Library
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections
Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Collections Online
New York State Historical Newspapers
North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive
Tonal Views of the Atonal: Twelve Hybrid and—or Variable Sun Ra Albums
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Anthony Braxton; Steve Lacy; Sonny Rollins; John Zorn; Dave Brubeck; Evan Parker. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
Instead of a single Sun Ra discography, multiple explorations of Ra's work are offered here. This is the first.
1. Pictures of Infinity:
1971 L. P.:
‘Somewhere There’
‘Outer Spaceways Incorporated’
‘Saturn’
‘Song of the Sparer’
‘Spontaneous Simplicity’
1991 C. D., retitled Sun Ra and His Arkestra:
original L. P. + ‘The Izard of Was’; ‘Moon in the Seventh High’: actually ‘The Cosmos’ and ‘Of Heavenly Things’, respectively, from The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Vol. 1; these alternate titles used for unknown reasons.
1993 C. D., retitled Outer Spaceways Incorporated:
original L. P. + ‘Intergalactic Motion’
2017 reissue, returning to the original title, Pictures of Infinity:
‘Ankhnaton’ (‘Intergalactic Motion’)
‘Saturn’
‘Song of the Sparer’
‘Spontaneous Simplicity’
‘The Wind Speaks’ (‘Somebody Else’s World’)
‘Velvet’
‘The Satellites Are Spinning’
‘State Street’
‘Nothing Is’
‘Outer Spaceways Incorporated’/ ‘We Travel the Spaceways’
- Tracks 1-4 seem to correspond to the tracks on previous versions. Slight changes in timings and the different recording date given for the 2017 reissue complicate this matter.
- ‘The Wind Speaks’ and ‘Outer Spaceways Incorporated’/ ‘We Travel the Spaceways’ originally released on The Outerspaceways Inc. (A Tonal View of Times Tomorrow, Vol. 3) [see Spaceways (1a) below]
- ‘Velvet’ here is the same track as the ‘Velvet’ included on Janus [see The Invisible Shield (2) below].
1a. Spaceways:
1998 C. D., included as the second disc of the boxed set, Calling Planet Earth; supposedly corresponds to the 1974 L. P., The Outerspaceways Inc. (A Tonal View of Times Tomorrow, Vol. 3), despite variations in titles:
‘Prelude and Shadow-Light World’ [‘Chromatic Shadows’ on the L. P.]
‘The Wind Speaks’
‘We Sing This Song’ [correctly entitled ‘The Satellites Are Spinning’ on the L. P.]
‘Outer Space[ways] Incorporated’
‘We Travel the Spaceways’ [these two tracks combined as ‘Outerspaceways Inc.’ on the L. P.; note that they are combined on the 2017 Pictures of Infinity as well]
2. The Invisible Shield (A Tonal View of Times Tomorrow, Vol. 2):
1974 L. P.:
‘State Street’
‘Sometimes I’m Happy’
‘Time after Time’
‘Time after Time’ [alternate]
‘Easy to Love’
‘Sunny Side Up’
‘Island in the Sun’
‘The Invisible Shield’
‘Janus’
2014 download reissue removes the alternate version of ‘Time after Time’ [a brief track—is it actually a false start? Could it be included on some variants/ ephemera compilation?] but includes the track, ‘But Not for Me’, and does not shorten Island in the Sun like the Janus C. D.
2a. Janus:
1999 C. D.:
three tracks from The Invisible Shield: ‘Island in the Sun’ [abridged]; ‘The Invisible Shield’; ‘Janus’;
+ ‘Velvet’; ‘Joy’, according to the liner notes, both live tracks recorded ca. 1968
2b. Standards:
2001 C. D.:
four tracks from The Invisible Shield: ‘Sometimes I’m Happy’; ‘Time After Time’; ‘Easy to Love’; ‘Keep Your Sunny Side Up’;
+ ‘But Not for Me’, later included in the 2014 reissue of Shield [see above]; and ‘Can This Be Love?’, from Deep Purple [see below]
So what happens to ‘Chromatic Shadows’/ ’Shadow-Light World’ and ‘The Satellites Are Spinning’/ ’We Sing This Song’ (the latter clearly a different recording than ‘The Satellites Are Spanning’ from the 2017 Infinity) from Spaceways; Joy from Janus; and the alternate version of ‘Time after Time’ from the original Shield? Why are ‘Somewhere There’ and the version of ‘Outer Spaceways’ on the original Infinity excluded from the 2017 Infinity? Do these tracks constitute a third final/ official album, after Shield and Infinity, developed out of the varying trackings of these Black Lion-related releases?
That album would at least consist of: ‘Somewhere There’; ‘Outer Spaceways Incorporated’ [1971]; ‘Chromatic Shadows’; ‘The Satellites Are Spinning’ [1974]; ‘Joy’; more than 40 minutes—let’s call it Chromatics.
A third album, though, also emerged with the third disc of the Calling Planet Earth boxed set entitled Calling Planet Earth, consisting of nine tracks apparently recorded in concert, 1971, and otherwise unavailable [until a recent L. P. reissue, which is split into 11 tracks; from seeing only the titles, it would appear that the first track of the C. D. was split into 3, but given its brevity that sounds like an odd approach].
3. Deep Purple:
1973 L. P.:
‘Deep Purple’
‘Piano Interlude’
‘Can This Be Love?’
‘Dreams Come True’
‘Don’t Blame Me’
‘’S Wonderful’
‘Lover Come Back to Me’
‘The World of the Invisible’
‘The Order of the Pharaonic Jesters The Land of the Day Star’
Tracks 1-7 (Side A) included on 1991 C. D. reissue of Sound Sun Pleasure!!; ‘Can This Be Love?’ added to 2001 C. D. Standards [see above]
Tracks 8-10 (Side B) recorded 1973, later part of Cymbals, included in both The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums (Cymbals and Crystal Spears), 2000; and The Cymbals/ Symbols Sessions: New York City 1973, 2018
4. Space Probe
1974 L. P.:
‘Primitive’
‘The Conversion of J. P.’
‘Space Probe’
Alternate pressing, entitled A Tonal View of Times Tomorrow [in case you were wondering what happened to volume one of Tonal View, given that, above, volumes two and three have been noted], lists track 1 as ‘The Primevil Age’ and track 2 as ‘The Conversion’ and flips their place in the tracking order
2011 C. D.:
‘Space Probe’
‘Earth Primitive Earth’
‘Circe’
‘Solar Symbols II’
‘Dance of the Wind’
‘Recollections of There’
‘Destiny’
‘The Conversion of J. P.’
2017 C. D. reissue of My Brother the Wind includes ‘Space Probe’
Without Space Probe, the 2011 C. D. would still be around 34 minutes in length, long enough to justify reclaiming its status as a major album that it seemingly lost when ‘Space Probe’ was added to the 2017 Brother, especially since all of the remaining seven tracks apparently come from the same session. Alas, it would need a new title. I'd vote for Recollections of There.
5. Cosmo-Earth Fantasy
1974 L. P., apparently made available under varied titles (Temple U, Sub Underground, and Cosmo Earth Fantasy) but repressed in 1977 under its original title:
‘Cosmo-Earth Fantasy’
‘Love Is for Always’
‘The Song of Drums’
‘The World of Africa’
5a. What’s New
1975 L. P.:
‘What’s New?’
‘Wanderlust’
‘Jukin’’
‘Autumn in New York’
‘We Roam the Cosmos’
Other versions of this album included side A of the original Invisible Shield as side B instead of We Roam the Cosmos.
2012 C. D. reissue, entitled Cosmo Earth Fantasy (Sub Underground Series Vol. 1 and 2) combining both albums:
‘Cosmo-Earth Fantasy’
‘Love Is for Always’
‘The Song of Drums’
‘The World of Africa’
‘What’s New’
‘Wanderlust’
‘Jukin’’
‘Autumn in New York’
‘Space Is the Place/ We Roam the Cosmos’
2014 download reissue of Cosmo, entitled Sub-Underground #1, returns to the single four-track album; new liner notes confirm that the tracks ‘Love Is for Always’ and ‘The Song of Drums’, though dating from 1974 at Temple University, appear to have been recorded at the university’s radio station; and that, despite ‘Cosmo-Earth Fantasy’ and ‘The World of Africa’ initially listed as being recorded in 1974, in fact both date from the late Sixties.
This begs the question: will there be a Sub-Underground #2 featuring ‘What’s New’; ‘Wanderlust’; ‘Jukin’’; ‘Autumn in New York’; and [‘Space Is the Place/ ]We Roam the Cosmos’?
6. The Sun Myth (African Chant)
2016 download:
‘The Sun Myth (African Chant)’
‘Dawn (Greetings from Others)’
‘The Other Beings’
‘Interplanetary Travelers (Other Worlds)’
Track 1: alternate mix of ‘The Sun Myth’ found on first pressings of The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Volume 2, 1966; another alternate mix, not as significantly different from the final version, was made for second pressings of the album—this mix remains unreissued apparently
Tracks 2-3 previously unreleased
Track 4 originally released on Out There a Minute [see below]; included in Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 3 (The Lost Tapes), 2005; also included on 2017 reissue of The Magic City
7. Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth (and—though less of a hybrid album, or not one at all—Sound of Joy)
1966 L. P.:
‘Planet Earth’
‘Eve’
‘Overtones of China’
‘Reflections in Blue’
‘Two Tones’
‘El Viktor’
‘Saturn’
1992 C. D. reissue (coupled on the same disk w/ Interstellar Low Ways):
‘Reflections in Blue’
‘Two Tones’
‘El Viktor’
‘Saturn’
‘Planet Earth’
‘Eve’
‘Overtones of China’
2015 download reissue returns to the 1966 tracking, provides additional information clarifying similarities and differences with Sound of Joy (1968, Delmark Records):
Tracks 1 and 3: alternate takes from those on Sound
Tracks 4-6: same takes as those on Sound
Track 2 (‘Eve’) only available on this album
Track 7 (‘Saturn’): different mix because of tape-transfer error on Delmark master
Since Planet Earth was released prior to the Delmark album, one could consider the former to be more of a major album in Sun Ra’s discography; however, the Delmark was available to a greater extent (indeed, much greater) until the 1992 Evidence C. D.
Moreover, of Sound’s nine tracks, five are distinct recordings as compared to Earth’s three; though Ankh (one of Sound’s tracks not included on Earth) appears on several other albums, the Sound version was recorded first, as was its version of Saturn. Its version of ‘El Is the Sound of Joy’ was recorded roughly at the same time (same session?) as the version found on Super-Sonic Jazz but arguably is a fuller, superior rendition of that piece. Besides, an album featuring alternate versions does not necessarily count against its status as a major album in an artist’s discography. In short, most versions of Planet Earth feature three tracks—that term used to distinguish a particular recording from the broader term, composition—unique to it (‘Planet Earth’, ‘Overtones of China’, and ‘Eve’), four if you count the restored version of ‘Saturn’ featured on the 2014 reissue, while Sound features five, because, again, from 2014 on, we count ‘Saturn’ toward Planet Earth’s total.
8. Out There a Minute
1989 C. D.:
‘Love in Outer Space’
‘Somewhere in Space’
‘Dark Clouds with Silver Linings’
‘Jazz and Romantic Sounds’
‘When Angels Speak of Love’
‘Cosmo Enticement’
‘Song of Tree and Forest’
‘Other Worlds’
‘Journey Outward’
‘Lights of a Satellite’
‘Starships and Solar Boats’
‘Out There a Minute’
‘Next Stop Mars’
Track 1: alternate version of composition featured on The Night of the Purple Moon, apparently also from the sessions for that album
Track 2: alternate version of composition featured on Interstellar Low Ways, apparently from the Secrets of the Sun session
Track 3: released as ‘The Universe Is Calling’ on The Cymbals/Symbols Sessions: New York City 1973
Tracks 3 and 9 otherwise unavailable
Track 12 almost entirely the same as ‘Hell #1’ included in Singles (The Definitive 45’s Collection 1952-1991); besides being a different re-master, the Out There version contains a few extra seconds of incidental matter at the beginning of the track
Track 8 later included in Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 3; The Sun Myth (African Chant); and the 2017 reissue of The Magic City [see above]
Tracks 5 and 13 originally released on When Angels Speak of Love
Tracks 6-7 originally released on Continuation
Tracks 10-11 originally released on Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow
9. Nuclear War
1984 L. P.:
[Y Records version]
‘Nuclear War’
‘Retrospect’
‘Drop Me Off in Harlem’
‘Sometimes I’m Happy’
‘Celestial Love’
‘Blue Intensity’
‘Nameless One #2’
‘Smile’
[Saturn Records version]
‘Nuclear War’
‘Retrospect’
‘Makeup’
‘Celestial Love’
‘Sometimes I’m Happy’
‘Interstellarism’
‘Blue Intensity’
‘Nuclear War’; ‘Retrospect’; ‘Makeup’ originally released as side A of A Fireside Chat with Lucifer (‘A Fireside Chat with Lucifer’ takes up all of side B)
‘Celestial Love’; ‘Sometimes I'm Happy’; ‘Interstellarism’; ‘Blue Intensity’; ‘Nameless One #2’; ‘Smile’ originally released on Celestial Love (along with ‘Sophisticated Lady and ‘Nameless One #3)
‘Drop Me Off in Harlem’ originally released on on the Y version of Nuclear War, but thankfully included in 2015 download reissue of Celestial Love (released on C. D. in 2020); thus making Nuclear War, the album, finally completely redundant.
10. Just Friends
1983 L. P.:
‘Dreams Come True’
‘Back in Your Own Backyard’
‘Otherness Blue’
‘Pleasant Twilight’
‘Walking on the Moon’
‘Just Friends’
‘Under the Spell of Love’
‘Dancing Shadows’
Track 1 originally released on Deep Purple; included on C. D. reissue of Sound Sun Pleasure!!
Track 2 originally released on Sound Sun Pleasure!!
Tracks 3-5 originally released on My Brother the Wind Vol. II
Tracks 6-7 otherwise unavailable
Track 8 originally released on Nothing Is...
11. When Spaceships Appear (Cosmo-Party Blues) (Children of the Sun)
1985 L. P.:
‘When Spaceships Appear (Ra to the Rescue Chapter 1)’
‘Fragile Emotions Blues (Back Alley Blues)’
‘Drummerlistics’
‘Children of the Sun’
‘Cosmo-Party Blues’
‘Space Shuttle (Ra to the Rescue Chapter 2)’
‘Fate in a Pleasant Mood’
‘They Plan to Leave’
The 1983 L. P., Ra to the Rescue, included Tracks 1-2 and 6-8, plus another track, ‘They Plan to Leave’, clearly making Spaceships the hybrid/ minor album, especially as Ra to the Rescue apparently consists of recordings from a single gig at the Squat Theater, New York city, 1982; that said, since the Spaceship Cosmo Party includes nearly all of Ra to the Rescue, any reissue of these albums could take the form of a single album with the tracks unique to Spaceships appended after the Rescue tracks; at that point, one could stick to Ra to the Rescue as a title; or choose another: since all of the title variants are also names of compositions featured on the two albums, one would strain to argue that any one of the variants warrants precedence over the others. And indeed, in 2022, this is precisely what happened: Modern Harmonic reissued Ra to the Rescue with the appropriate bonus tracks! Thank you.
12. originally a split album—but, with the C. D. bonus track, long enough to be a full album: The Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt Plus the Cairo Jazz Band:
1983 L. P.:
‘Egypt Strut’ [The Sun Ra Arkestra]
‘Dawn’ [The Sun Ra Arkestra]
‘Ramadan’ [The Cairo Jazz Band]
‘Oriental Mood’ [Salah Ragab]
‘A Farewell Theme’ [The Cairo Jazz Band]
1999 C. D. reissue, retitled The Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab Plus the Cairo Jazz Band and the Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble:
+ ‘Watusa’ [The Sun Ra Arkestra]; ‘Music for Angela Davis’ [The Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble]
‘Watusa’ is of sufficient length to constitute an L. P. side. Combined with the original two Arkestra tracks, it makes for a full Sun Ra album (roughly 38 minutes) combined with a short-ish album (roughly 33 minutes) by Ragab and co. Unfortunately, the original L. P. was reissued recently, with no mention of the extra material on the 1999 release, followed by a C. D. version as well.
A compendium of homeless tracks:
from Sun Myth (African Chant):
‘Dawn (Greetings from Others)’
‘The Other Beings’
If not for E. S. P. difficulties, these obviously would work best as bonus tracks on Heliocentric reissues.
from Out There a Minute:
‘Dark Clouds with Silver Linings’
‘Jazz and Romantic Sounds’
‘Journey Outward’
from Just Friends:
‘Just Friends’
‘Under the Spell of Love’
+ the four tracks unique to Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth; the seven Deep Purple tracks; and alternate take of ‘Time After Time’
Finally, the 2014 Roarotrio L. P.-only release, Sign of the Myth has apparently been made into one of these hybrid/ variable albums with the 2018 release of The Cymbals/Symbols Sessions: New York City 1973, as two of the four tracks on the former are, according to sources, included on the bonus (Symbols) disc of the latter. If I ever attain a copy of Sign to confirm that the two tracks in question are indeed also featured on Symbols, then I will make the two albums collectively no. 13 in this list.
The O. J. C.
Saul Zaentz made money as the head of Fantasy Records, because what had been a Jazz label signed a Rock act, Creedence Clearwater Revival, that was very popular. Then, with all that money, Zaentz became a successful movie producer. Legal and financial controversies regarding his dealings with Creedence's John Fogerty and the recent Hobbit film series dogged him until his death in 2014. For fans of Jazz music, though, the music empire that Zaentz made out of the old Fantasy Records label—when it was renamed merely, Fantasy, and held under its wings numerous other Jazz labels, including Riverside, Prestige, Milestone, and Contemporary—is the big story. Part of that story is the Original Jazz Classics reissue series of the Eighties and Nineties. Initially L. P.s, the series lives on largely in the form of used C. D.s that you will find at any store that sells them. The distinctive black-and-white spines pop out, immediately attracting the attention of avid listeners looking for great music at cheap prices. Perhaps hundreds of great Jazz albums are most readily available via this series. Indeed, for many of these titles, often reissued several times in Japan (because Japan is amazing), in the North American and European markets the only C. D. version is still—all these decades later—the O. J. C.
Thankfully the Fantasy operation published a catalog for the O.J.C. series in 1995. At least one additional catalog, published via Tower Records, came in 2000. These books are not terribly hard to find. Much of the 1995 volume is comprised of blurbs and track listings, plus personnel and technical information, for selected O. J. C. titles. In the back, though, is a complete O. J. C. catalog:
Simple math tells us that at the time of this 1995 book's publication, a whopping total of nine-hundred-thirty five O. J. C. reissues had come out. This total does not include the compilations: i.e. the 6000 series or the Prestige sampler. Notice there is no entry for no. 100 (even though there are for 300, 400, 600, 700, and 800), and the five-hundreds are skipped over. That's still a lot of C.D.s. By the mid-Nineties, we were reaching peak-C.D. times, but even when taking that into account, this series was a big deal.
By the time of the 2000 volume (actually a magazine), the series was closer to completion. Moreover, even as O. J. C. releases were still coming out, for a new series the O. J. C. name and logo had been dropped (in the States, that is; as European markets apparently were still presented with O. J. C. versions), these new editions being remastered using "K2 Super Coding" as the covers noted—as if any random listener would know what that means. This series, in total number, never came close to O. J. C. However, more of the "K2" reissues came out in Japan (of course!), in a variety of series. While the Japanese versions, like many Japanese C. D.s that collectors have come to love, came in mini-L. P. packaging, the U. S. versions came in color-coded o-cards (red for Riverside, purple for Prestige, blue for Fantasy, light yellow for Pablo, dark yellow for Contemporary... I'm not sure how far they took this concept; I don't know of any Milestone titles that got the "K2" treatment). An example to point to is Eric Dolphy's Five Spot Volume 1: https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Dolphy-At-The-Five-Spot-Volume-1/release/5005723, the grey o-card corresponding to the New Jazz label.
The later O. J. C. items that came out after the 1995 catalog but early enough to be listed in the 2000 are provided below. There are additional titles in the regular series, the Limited Edition series, and the 6000 series. The Tower book also lists the Original Blues Classics titles. The O. B. C. series included albums originally released on Prestige, Bluesville, and a few other labels. It does not compare to the O.J.C. in breadth or quality, but there are nonetheless several important albums available via these labels, including essential releases from John Lee Hooker, Gary Davis, and Lightnin' Hopkins.
As noted above, the Tower booklet/ magazine came only as the series was nearing completion. More titles were still coming, at least in the regular and Limited Edition series. As the Tower book ends with O. J. C. number 1055 (and Limited Edition number 1942), here are Discogs links to later reissues in the series:
1056: https://www.discogs.com/George-Gershwin-George-Cables-By-George-George-Cables-Plays-The-Music-Of-George-Gershwin/release/8970713
1057: https://www.discogs.com/Flora-Purim-Thats-What-She-Said/release/10302438
1058: https://www.discogs.com/Roy-Eldridge-Little-Jazz-And-The-Jimmy-Ryan-All-Stars/release/12688121
1059: https://www.discogs.com/The-Milt-Jackson-Quartet-Soul-Route/release/11629192
1060: https://www.discogs.com/Frank-Morgan-Quartet-Yardbird-Suite/release/4084846
1061: https://www.discogs.com/Etta-Jones-Hollar/release/11661494
1062: https://www.discogs.com/Barry-Harris-Quintet-Newer-Than-New/release/11876469
1063: https://www.discogs.com/Charlie-Byrd-Blues-Sonata/release/9839660
1064: https://www.discogs.com/Red-Garland-Quintet-Reds-Good-Groove/release/5926912
1065: https://www.discogs.com/Herbie-Manns-Californians-Great-Ideas-Of-Western-Mann/release/10868541
1066: https://www.discogs.com/Barney-Kessel-Barney-Kessels-Swingin-Party-At-Contemporary/release/12963136
1067: https://www.discogs.com/Hampton-Hawes-The-Sermon/release/8852127
1068: https://www.discogs.com/Woody-Herman-And-The-Thundering-Herd-King-Cobra/release/12020710
1069: https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Evans-From-The-70s/release/3378463
1070: https://www.discogs.com/Ron-Carter-Hank-Jones-Sadao-Watanabe-Tony-Williams-Carnaval/release/6965860
1071: https://www.discogs.com/McCoy-Tyner-Sama-Layuca/release/1781411
1072: https://www.discogs.com/Ella-Fitzgerald-Cole-Porter-Dream-Dancing/release/17466322
1073 not included on Discogs except being referenced here: https://www.discogs.com/The-Modern-Jazz-Quartet-The-Complete-Modern-Jazz-Quartet-Prestige-Pablo-Recordings/release/4110224; see instead: https://www.jazzdisco.org/fantasy-records/catalog-ojc-1000-series/#ojccd-1073-2
1074: https://www.discogs.com/Arnett-Cobb-Movin-Right-Along/release/9471768
1075: https://www.discogs.com/James-Clay-David-Fathead-Newman-The-Sound-Of-The-Wide-Open-Spaces/release/7767755
1076: https://www.discogs.com/Dave-Brubeck-Quartet-Jazz-At-The-College-Of-The-Pacific-Volume-2/release/5881968
1077: https://www.discogs.com/Joe-Turner-The-Midnight-Special/release/13300487
1078: https://www.discogs.com/Charlie-Earland-Black-Drops/release/16595751
1079: https://www.discogs.com/Roy-Haynes-Cymbalism/release/8341179
1080: https://www.discogs.com/McCoy-Tyner-The-Greeting/release/12687901
1081: https://www.discogs.com/Gene-Ammons-Goodbye/release/12800940
1082: https://www.discogs.com/The-Barry-Harris-Sextet-Bulls-Eye/release/7719654
1083: https://www.discogs.com/Shelly-Manne-His-Men-Shelly-Manne-His-Men-Play-Checkmate/release/12440479
1084: https://www.discogs.com/Herbie-Mann-And-Bobby-Jaspar-Flute-Flight/release/11337454
1085: https://www.discogs.com/Eddie-Lockjaw-Davis-Johnny-Griffin-Battle-Stations/release/691382
1086: https://www.discogs.com/Charlie-Byrd-Trio-And-Woodwinds-Byrd-In-The-Wind/release/3899655
1087: https://www.discogs.com/Shelly-Manne-His-Friends-Modern-Jazz-Performances-Of-Songs-From-Lil-Abner/release/6101196
1088: https://www.discogs.com/Nat-Adderley-Quartets-Naturally/release/9347108
1089: https://www.discogs.com/McCoy-Tyner-13th-House/release/3243778
1090: https://www.discogs.com/Eddie-Lockjaw-Davis-Shirley-Scott-Bacalao/release/14034646
1091: https://www.discogs.com/Ammons-Moody-Chicago-Concert/release/12799026
1092: https://www.discogs.com/Charlie-Byrd-With-Voices-Byrd-Song/release/13310981
1093: https://www.discogs.com/Charlie-Byrd-Solo-Flight/release/15918354
1094: https://www.discogs.com/The-Johnny-Griffin-And-Eddie-Lockjaw-Davis-Quintet-Tough-Tenors/release/2619200
1095: https://www.discogs.com/Tom-Harrell-Joe-Lovano-David-Liebman-Cheryl-Pyle-John-Abercrombie-James-Williams-2-Ray-Drummond-Adam/release/7783522
1096: https://www.discogs.com/The-Louie-Bellson-Drum-Explosion-Matterhorn/release/13089192
1097: https://www.discogs.com/Chuck-Wayne-Morning-Mist/release/12204674
1098: https://www.discogs.com/Monty-Alexander-In-Tokyo/release/9369373
1099: https://www.discogs.com/James-Moody-Moody-And-The-Brass-Figures/release/10911552
1100: https://www.discogs.com/Phil-Upchurch-Feeling-Blue/release/5891437
1101: https://www.discogs.com/Lee-Konitz-Quintet-Peacemeal/release/3407667
1103: https://www.discogs.com/The-Frank-Wess-Quartet-The-Frank-Wess-Quartet/release/15067991
1104: https://www.discogs.com/Johnny-Griffin-Eddie-Lockjaw-Davis-Pisces/release/10669241
1105: https://www.discogs.com/Shelly-Manne-His-Men-Play-More-Music-From-Peter-Gunn-Son-Of-Gunn/release/1041677
1106: https://www.discogs.com/Cal-Tjader-Mary-Stallings-Cal-Tjader-Plays-Mary-Stallings-Sings/release/4513626
1107: https://www.discogs.com/McCoy-Tyner-Passion-Dance/release/17975080
1108: https://www.discogs.com/Mary-Lou-Williams-My-Mama-Pinned-A-Rose-On-Me/release/6435519
1109: https://www.discogs.com/Mose-Allison-Ramblin-With-Mose/release/3232202
Limited Edition Series:
1943: https://www.discogs.com/Lucy-Reed-This-Is-Lucy-Reed/release/4223865
1944: https://www.discogs.com/Lennie-Niehaus-Vol-5-The-Sextet/release/2552628
1945: https://www.discogs.com/Prince-Lasha-Quintet-Featuring-Sonny-Simmons-The-Cry/release/4474436
1946: https://www.discogs.com/Jaki-Byard-Trio-Sunshine-Of-My-Soul/release/2990537
1947: https://www.discogs.com/Charles-McPherson-McPhersons-Mood/release/5977552
1948: https://www.discogs.com/Charles-McPherson-McPhersons-Mood/release/5977552
1949: https://www.discogs.com/Don-Sleet-With-Jimmy-Heath-Wynton-Kelly-Jimmy-Cobb-Ron-Carter-All-Members/release/4392608
1950: https://www.discogs.com/Don-Wilkerson-The-Texas-Twister/release/7788077
1951: https://www.discogs.com/Dave-Pike-Its-Time-For-Dave-Pike/release/11707705
1952: https://www.discogs.com/Johnny-Griffin-Quartet-The-Kerry-Dancers/release/7719614
1953: https://www.discogs.com/Tete-Montoliu-Lunch-In-LA/release/7713672
1954: https://www.discogs.com/Jimmy-Woods-Sextet-Featuring-Elvin-Jones-Conflict/release/2954213
1955: https://www.discogs.com/The-Rod-Levitt-Orchestra-The-Dynamic-Sound-Patterns-Of-The-Rod-Levitt-Orchestra/release/7569647
1956: https://www.discogs.com/The-Bill-Smith-Quartet-Folk-Jazz/release/6291309
1957: https://www.discogs.com/Mundell-Lowe-Guitar-Moods/release/3308574
The Tower Records catalog also includes twenty-nine box sets, most of which are compilations of the individual releases—but not all: for example, the Bill Evans sets The Secret Sessions and The Last Waltz. Here's a list of those boxes:
Count Basie, The Golden Years (4PACD-4419-2)
Miles Davis, Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings (8PRCD-012-2)
Eric Dolphy, The Complete Prestige Recordings (9PRCD-4418-2)
Bill Evans, The Complete Riverside Recordings (12RCD-018-2)
Bill Evans, The Complete Fantasy Recordings (9FCD-1012-2)
Bill Evans, Secret Sessions (8MCD-4421-2)
The Bill Evans Trio, The Last Waltz (8MCD-4430-2)
Ella Fitzgerald, The Concert Years (4PACD-4414-2)
Joe Henderson, The Milestone Years (8MCD-4413-2)
Charles Mingus, The Complete Debut Recordings (12DCD-4402-2)
Thelonious Monk, The Complete Riverside Recordings (15RCD-022-2)
Thelonious Monk, The Complete Prestige Recordings (3PRCD-4428-2)
Wes Montgomery, The Complete Riverside Recordings (12RCD-4408-2)
Joe Pass, Guitar Virtuoso (4PACD-4423-2)
Art Pepper, The Complete Galaxy Recordings (16GCD-1016-2)
Art Pepper, The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions (9CCD-4417-2)
Sonny Rollins, The Complete Prestige Recordings (7PRCD-4407-2)
Sonny Rollins, The Freelance Years (The Complete Riverside and Contemporary Recordings) (5RCD-4427-2)
Art Tatum, The Complete Pablo Group Masterpieces (6PACD-4401-2)
Art Tatum, The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces (7PACD-4404-2)
Lu Watters, Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band (4GTJCD-4409-2)
The Debut Records Story (4DEBCD-4420-2)
The Good Time Jazz Story (4GTJCD-4416-2)
The Prestige Records Story (4PRCD-4426-2)
The Riverside History of Classic Jazz (3RCD-0005-2)
The Riverside Records Story (4RCD-4422-2)
The West Coast Jazz Box (4CCD-4425-2)
There's also a Lightnin' Hopkins box, but we are not listing the Original Blues Classics titles here.
A break of a few years or more in the late Aughts separates the O. J. C./ "K2 Super Coding" reissues and the recent set of reissue series, such as the Orrin Keepnews Collection, released after the Fantasy labels came under the umbrella of the Concord Music Group.
As hinted by the link above, a different approach to the O. J. C. is available at the Jazz Discography Project, somewhat confusingly all listed under Fantasy Records.
One of the Ways One Producer Became One Big Deal
A good number of the O. J. C. titles, especially those originally released on Prestige, were recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at this now-legendary New Jersey studio. Van Gelder mostly produced records for Blue Note, however, and that label toward the end of the Nineties began a massive reissue campaign, offering Rudy Van Gelder Editions of hundreds of their titles, remastered by their namesake.
When the R. V. G. Edition series launched, Blue Note amazingly put out a massive boxed set (a pioneer of sorts in the trend toward such sets, often more than one hundred disks, that has become prevalent in the Classical world) called apparently The Rudy Van Gelder Editions: The Complete Collection. "Apparently" because there seems to be little documentation of this gargantuan release: it has no entry at Discogs. There is still an Amazon page for it: https://www.amazon.com/Rudy-Gelder-Editions-Complete-Collection/dp/B000F8MI02/. We know that there were additional releases in the R. V. G. series after this set, which thus became Incomplete; indeed, given the large number of albums that Van Gelder recorded, we cannot seriously believe that Blue Note (or Capitol, which by this point owned Blue Note) ever intended to limit the number of R. V. G. Editions to those found in the Complete box. Note that on that page there is a link to take you to a "complete list" of the titles in the set. That link no longer works. The funny thing is: it used to work, and my crazy self copied and pasted the list into a document years ago. Here it is: (Those artists with more than three titles have the total number indicated next to their name; this is the only edit I made; the list is otherwise presented as it was at the Amazon page, thus the occasional typographical inconsistency.)
- Somethin' Else, Cannonball Adderley
- A Night at Bridland - Vol. 1, Art Blakey (13)
- A Night at Bridland - Vol. 2, Art Blakey
- Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Art Blakey
- Mosaic, Art Blakey
- Indestructable, Art Blakey
- Moanin', Art Blakey
- Big Beat, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers
- Like Someone In Love, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers
- A Night in Tunisia, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers
- At Bohemia - Volume 1, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers
- At Bohemia - Volume 2, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messenger
- Buhaina's Light, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers
- Free For All, Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers
- True Blue, Tina Brooks
- Memorial Album, Clifford Brown
- Jazz Immortal, Clifford Brown
- Midnight Blue, Kenny Burrell
- Slow Drag, Donald Byrd (6)
- Byrd in Hand, Donald Byrd
- Fuego, Donald Byrd
- Free Form, Donald Byrd
- At the Half Note Café, Donald Byrd
- A New Perspective, Donald Byrd
- Symphony for Improvisers, Don Cherry
- Sonny Clark Trio, Sonny Clark
- Dial S For Sonny, Sonny Clark
- Cool Struttin', Sonny Clark
- At the Golden Circle - Volume 1, Ornette Coleman
- At the Golden Circle - Volume 2, Ornette Coleman
- Little Johnny C, Johnny Coles
- Blue Train, John Coltrane
- Birth of the Cool, Miles Davis
- Miles Davis Vol. 1
- Miles Davis Vol. 2
- Out to Lunch, Eric Dolphy
- Natural Soul, Lou Donaldson
- Una Mas, Kenny Dorham
- Whistle Stop, Kenny Dorham
- Round Midnight at the Café (2CD's), Kenny Dorham;
- A Swingin' Affair, Dexter Gordon (7)
- Getting' Around, Dexter Gordon
- Our Man In Paris, Dexter Gordon
- Dexter Calling, Dexter Gordon
- Doin' Alright, Dexter Gordon
- One Flight Up, Dexter Gordon
- Go, Dexter Gordon
- Am I Blue, Grant Green (7)
- Green Street, Grant Green
- Sunday Morning, Grant Green
- Feelin' the Spirit, Grant Green
- Grantstand, Grant Green
- Goin' West, Grant Green
- Idle Moments, Grant Green
- A Blowin' Session, Johnny Griffin
- My Point of View, Herbie Hancock (6)
- Prisoner, Herbie Hancock
- Inventions and Dimensions, Herbie Hancock
- Speak Like A Child, Herbie Hancock
- Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
- Empyrean Isles, Herbie Hancock
- Our Thing, Joe Henderson (5)
- Mode for Joe, Joe Henderson
- Inner Urge, Joe Henderson
- In 'N Out, Joe Henderson
- Page One, Joe Henderson
- Smoke Stack, Andrew Hill (4)
- Judgment, Andrew Hill
- Black Fire, Andrew Hill
- Point of Departure, Andrew Hill
- Hub Cap, Freddie Hubbard (8)
- Ready for Freddie, Freddie Hubbard
- Breaking Point, Freddie Hubbard
- Blue Spirits, Freddie Hubbard
- Night of the Cookers - Volumes 1 and 2 (2CD's), Freddie Hubbard
- Open Sesame, Freddie Hubbard
- Hub-Tones, Freddie Hubbard
- Dialogue, Bobby Hutcherson
- Oblique, Bobby Hutcherson
- Wizard of the Vibes, Milt Jackson
- The Eminent - Volume 1, J.J. Johnson
- The Eminent - Volume 2, J.J. Johnson
- Blowing in From Chicago, Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore
- A Fickle Sonance, Jackie McLean (7)
- Capuchin Swing, Jackie McLean
- Jackie's Bag, Jackie McLean
- Let Freedom Ring, Jackie McLean
- Right Now, Jackie McLean
- Destination... Out, Jackie McLean
- Action, Jackie McLean
- Down With It!, Blue Mitchell
- Boss Horn, Blue Mitchell
- Thing To Do, Blue Mitchell
- Reach Out, Hank Mobley (8)
- No Room for Squares, Hank Mobley
- Turnaround, Hank Mobley
- Workout, Hank Mobley
- Dippin', Hank Mobley
- Roll Call, Hank Mobley
- Hi Voltage, Hank Mobley
- Soul Station, Hank Mobley
- Genius of Modern Music - Volume 1, Thelonious Monk
- Genius of Modern Music - Volume 2, Thelonious Monk
- Rumproller, Lee Morgan (7)
- Gigolo, Lee Morgan
- Tom Cat, Lee Morgan
- Leeway, Lee Morgan
- Search for the New Land, Lee Morgan
- Sixth Sense, Lee Morgan
- Sidewinder, Lee Morgan
- Let Me Tell You 'Bout It, Leo Parker
- Sweet Honey Bee, Duke Pearson
- Time Waits, Bud Powell (5)
- Amazing Bud Powell - Volume 1, Bud Powell
- Amazing Bud Powell - Volume 2, Bud Powell
- Amazing Bud Powell - Volume 3, Bud Powell
- Scene Changes, Bud Powell
- Heavy Soul, Ike Quebec
- Music from the Connection, Freddie Redd
- Sonny Rollins Volume 1 (4)
- Sonny Rollins Volume 2
- Newk's Time, Sonny Rollins
- A Night at the Village Vanguard (2CD's), Sonny Rollins
- All Seeing Eye, Wayne Shorter (5)
- Night Dreamer, Wayne Shorter
- Adam's Apple, Wayne Shorter
- Speak No Evil, Wayne Shorter
- Juju, Wayne Shorter
- Six Pieces of Silver, Horace Silver (12)
- In Pursuit of the 27th Man, Horace Silver
- Silver's Serenade, Horace Silver
- Horace-Scope, Horace Silver
- Stylings of Silver, Horace Silver
- With the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver
- Horace Silver Trio, Horace Silver
- Cape Verdean Blues, Horace Silver
- Serenade to a Soul Sister, Horace Silver
- Blowin' the Blues Away, Horace Silver
- Song For My Father, Horace Silver
- Finger Poppin', Horace Silver Quintet
- Sounds of Jimmy Smith, Jimmy Smith (10)
- Sermon, Jimmy Smith
- House Party, Jimmy Smith
- Cool Blues, Jimmy Smith
- Softly as a Summer Breeze, Jimmy Smith
- At the Organ Vol. 3, Jimmy Smith
- Rockin' the Boat, Jimmy Smith
- Prayer Meetin', Jimmy Smith
- Home Cookin', Jimmy Smith
- Groovin' at Small's, Jimmy Smith
- Turning Point, Lonnie Smith
- Think!, Lonnie Smith
- Conquistador!, Cecil Taylor
- That's Where It's At, Stanley Turrentine (5)
- Joyride, Stanley Turrentine
- Hustlin', Stanley Turrentine
- Never Let Me go, Stanley Turrentine
- Blue Hour, Stanley Turrentine/Three Sounds
- Time for Tyner, McCoy Tyner
- Tender Moments, McCoy Tyner
- The Real McCoy, McCoy Tyner
- Life Time, Tony Williams
- Unity, Larry Young
This makes for a total of 163 albums. The Amazon page claims 171 discs. Even when accounting for the double-disc sets (besides those noted in the original list: Dorham, Hubbard, Rollins, the following are also double disks: Groovin' at Small's Paradise, Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, At the Half Note Café—again, no one's ever given Amazon an "A" for presentation—or anything, except crappy bootlegs) that count as single albums in our list, our total does not match that, instead we get a total of 169. But before we delve too far into Blue Note...
Are You Packing?
For nutty archivist-collectors such as myself, a pressing concern for both of these series is: how they appeared when first made available in stores. By which I mean, what about the hype stickers? Or the obis and other outer packaging features like o-cards, longboxes, and slipcases? The O. J. C. reissues, at least those that came out early on, did come in longboxes, of at least two varieties, one for the regular releases, one for the Limited Edition Series. Of those that I have seen, all feature promotional blurbs on a white sticker affixed directly to the box. These blurbs, post-longbox, were usually transferred over to C. D. releases in the form of a white-background portion of the back cover. An example of a regular O.J.C. longbox follows:
The images at the Discogs entry for the later, non-longbox pressing show the white-background blurb box being made part of the back cover instead: https://www.discogs.com/release/758663-The-Quintet-Jazz-At-Massey-Hall. Later O. J. C. reissues that never came in a longbox simply included the back-cover version of the blurb (as far as I know). However, there seem to be titles for which the white-background blurb box is not transferred, or only appears on either the European or North American edition. Of course, many buyers never know if they have found a copy that was originally released in a longbox. When you come across an O. J. C. disc that does not have the white-background blurb on the back cover, while it could be an older pressing that originally came in a longbox, it also could be a title that never got a hype/ promo blurb. Or, again, it could that there are versions that have the blurb, and versions that don't. The 1995 catalog noted above includes these blurbs for some O. J. C. titles. So if you come across a disc that does not have the white-background blurb box (perhaps we should call that the W-B. B. B. for short, but we wouldn't want anyone to think we're talking about the old W. B. television network and be disappointed), you could check the 1995 book to see if the reissues in question was featured there. Nice work if you can get it?
As far as I have discovered, there no other hype stickers on O. J. C.s (or the "K2 Super Coding" titles), though unsurprisingly as some of them have been reissued again in recent years by the Concord Music Group, hype stickers have appeared, even on those that replicate the O. J. C. design. (Did I not mention that, having been rejected in favor of the "K2 Super Coding" branding, that in the Concord era some of the O. J. C. titles are once again remastered and reissued under their old branding, with the astounding addition of the subtle use of the color orange? It gets complicated (surprise!) as there is what I call a series sticker for some of these new O. J. C.s, unique stickers for other ones, and, as noted above, other titles became part of the Keepnews Collection or Concord's own series of R. V. G. reissues, each of which have their own series sticker. Examples of these Concord-era hype stickers can be found at the Rock Annual.)
The Blue Note R. V. G. Editions sometimes came with a series hype sticker—to clarify, the same sticker is used on any given release in a series, not having any information on it that pertains to specific releases (this sticker too is scanned and posted at the Rock Annual link above). Some of the R. V. G.s also had unique o-cards. An example of what these looked like can be seen at the Discogs entry for Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch: https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Dolphy-Out-To-Lunch/release/390471. I would like to think that the titles included in the aforementioned giant boxed set and the titles that, when released separately, came in these o-card sleeves, are one and the same. Turns out, though, that perhaps only the titles that were released separately in 1999 had the o-cards. The following titles are those that I own that have their accompanying o-cards, in addition to other titles that I do not own but which I know came in o-cards, because of visual evidence online, either stock photos used by online shops or individual shots posted by sellers at E-Bay and elsewhere. All of these were part of the Complete box, suggesting a direct link. However, as you can see from the release date of each reissue, all of these came out in 1999.
Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else, 1999
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Moanin', 1999
Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue, 1999
Donald Byrd, A New Perspective, 1999
Sonny Clark, Struttin', 1999
Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch, 1999
Kenny Dorham, Una Mas, 1999
Dexter Gordon, Go, 1999
Grant Green, Idle Moments, 1999
Johnny Griffin, A Blowin' Session, 1999
Herbie Hancock, Empyrean Isles, 1999
Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage, 1999
Herbie Hancock, My Point of View, 1999
Joe Henderson, Page One, 1999
Andrew Hill, Point of Departure, 1999
Freddie Hubbard, Hub-Tones, 1999
Hank Mobley, Soul Station, 1999
Lee Morgan, The Rumproller, 1999
Lee Morgan, The Sidewinder, 1999
Bud Powell, Time Waits, 1999
Sonny Rollins, A Night at the Village Vanguard, 1999
Sonny Rollins, Volume 2, 1999
Wayne Shorter, Juju, 1999
Wayne Shorter, Speak No Evil, 1999
Horace Silver, Blowin' the Blues Away, 1999
Horace Silver, Song for My Father, 1999
Jimmy Smith, Groovin' at Small's Paradise, 1999
McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy, 1999
Tony Williams, Lifetime, 1999
Larry Young, Unity, 1999
The Jazz Discography Project only covers Blue Note L. P.s and other vinyl formats, but there are plenty of resources for Blue Note Records, including at least one thorough discography and an excellent resource published just this year: R. V. G. Legacy. The most useful for our purposes here, though, was a copy of a personal list someone posted to a Jazz discussion forum. That list included these '99 releases, plus 10 released in 2000, and 16 released in 2001, all of which are among the 163 in the large "complete" boxed set. Unsurprisingly, some titles were made available in the big box before they were released separately, but a few years down the line—by 2006—the R. V. G. series had moved on to titles that had not been in the box. Looking for evidence online, I cannot find any indication that the individual reissues that came out from 2000 onward came in the o-cards. Another matter to note: some of the reissues are dated 1999 on their packaging, but apparently come out later.
By the way, the series hype sticker was to be found on the shrinkwrap regardless of whether it was one of the 30 that came in o-cards or one of the later releases. However, we can safely assume that at some point the hype sticker disappeared. That tends to happen with all hype stickers; i. e. there are nearly always later pressings without the sticker.
To determine the total number of R. V. G.-related reissues, one would have to do a lot of digging. You have the Concord Music Group's R. V. G. series, for which there should be ample information online. But there are also apparently remasters that Van Gelder did only available on Japanese releases. A total number of the Blue Note R. V. G. reissues, going by the aforementioned list found online, plus Discogs entries, is not too difficult to figure. There are overlapping totals to consider first: the 163 in the box set (assuming that list from Amazon is accurate... and still not accounting for the 171 discs claimed by Amazon), the first batch of individual releases (30 released in 1999, packaged in o-cards)--all of which were among the 163, then the 133 in the box but not among the first 30, then those not in the box. Preliminary research suggests that number is 74, which added to the 163 gives us 237. The 74 total includes Pete La Roca's Basra, a curio of the bunch: apparently only released in Europe, in 2005.
Uniform Titling of Anthony Braxton's Albums
Part of the series, A Baker's Dozen Jazz Discographies. See also: Steve Lacy; Sonny Rollins; John Zorn; Dave Brubeck; Evan Parker; Sun Ra. Those to come, perhaps in 2024: Tim Berne; Peter Brötzmann; Keith Jarett; David Murray; Cecil Taylor; Ken Vandermark.
--
Anthony Braxton's discography is one of the most complex of all modern music, even compared to similar, and similarly-prolific, musicians like Steve Lacy and John Zorn. Some of that complexity derives from his quasi-formalized approach to naming albums. Over the years, a tendency to name albums via the following format: ensemble defined by the number of musicians - (city where the recording took place) - year of recording, has become fairly prevalent, but certainly not officially designated. For those who want a broad overview of his output, applying this formula to all of his albums could be helpful. Here, split into groups by the size of the ensemble, is a list of Braxton's albums with the proposed standardized title listed under the actual title.
Another way of organizing Braxton's albums would be to split the albums comprised of collaborative/ improvised compositions, compositions by the other musicians (usually just one other musician, especially on the duo albums) or standards (more accurately in this case any composition by an artist who is not a performer on the album in question) into one category, separate from those comprised of Braxton's original compositions. However, some albums feature a mix. Here, for now, we use tags to indicate the album's position in this schema. The four options: Originals, Standards, Others, or Collaborations. For the sake of the simplicity of presentation, we will assume an album consists entirely of Braxton originals, so that only those albums which consist entirely of collaborations, standards, or others' compositions, or those with a mix of any of the four options, receive the appropriate tags.
This list-making project would not be possible without the discography featured at the web site, Restructures, now offline but available at the Internet Archive. Other sources of information are Braxton's official Tricentric Foundation website as well as user-generated sites like Discogs, Wikipedia, and Rate Your Music.
Releases under the official Braxton Bootleg label are not included; the Tricentric website includes information about those releases. Or see the Discogs page for the label. Nor are a few quasi-official titles: Circle's Live in New York City; News from the 70s; If My Memory Serves Me Right; Jazz Festival - Ljublujana 2000.
If applicable, a link to an album's official page at Braxton's Bandcamp site is provided.
[album title
proposed title]
first, albums with multiple-sized ensembles (18 albums total, four of them combined into one title in this titling schema):
3 Compositions of New Jazz
Trio-Quartet (Chicago) 1968 *Originals* *Others*
The Complete Braxton [later a single-L. P. abridgement of this double album was released, entitled Steps Out; a different single-L. P. abridgement was released as part of the I Grandi del Jazz series, also released as part of a various-artist box set, Just Jazz Vol. 1, and again on another Just Jazz compilation]
Duo-Quartet-Quintet (London) 1971
Town Hall 1972
Trio-Quintet (New York) 1972 *Originals* *Standards*
Trio and Duet
Duo-Trio (Toronto) 1974 *Originals* *Standards*
New York, Fall 1974
Duo-Quartet-Quintet (New York) 1974
Anthony Braxton with Robert Schumann String Quartet Bandcamp
Solo-Quartet-Quintet (Cologne) 1979
Small Ensemble Music (Wesleyan) 1994
Duo-Trio-Sextet (Middletown) 1994 *Originals* *Collaborations*
GTM (Knitting Factory) 1997
Quintet-Octet (New York) 1997
Nine Compositions (Hill) 2000
Quintet-Sextet (Rossie) 2000 *Standards*
Anthony Braxton/ Sonny Simmons/ Brandon Evans/ Andre Vida/ Shanir Blumenkranz/ Mike Pride
Quintet-Sextet (Middletown) 2003
GTM (Outpost) 2003
Duo-Trio (Albuquerque) 2003
GTM (Iridium) 2007, Vol. 1
GTM (Iridium) 2007, Vol. 2
GTM (Iridium) 2007, Vol. 3
GTM (Iridium) 2007, Vol. 4
Septet-Octet-Nonet (New York) 2007
Two Compositions (FONT) 2007
Quintet-Septet (New York) 2007
Quartet/Quintet (NYC) 2011 Bandcamp
Quartet-Quintet (New York) 2011
12 Compositions (ZIM) 2017
Sextet-Septet-Nonet (Winston-Salem, New Haven, Montreal, London) 2017-2018
solo (25 albums, four of them combined into two different titles)
For Alto
Solo (Chicago) 1969
[see Restructures entry for current consensus about the recording date of this album]
Recital Paris 1971
Solo (Paris) 1971 *Originals* *Standards*
Saxophone Improvisations Series F
Solo (Paris) 1972
Solo (Carnegie Hall) 1972 Bandcamp
Solo (New York) 1972 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo: Live at Moers Festival
Solo (Moers) 1974
Solo (Köln) 1978
Solo (Cologne) 1978 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo (Milano) 1979 Vol. 1
Solo (Milano) 1979 Vol. 2
Solo (Milan) 1979 *Originals* *Standards*
Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979
Solo (New York) 1978-1979 *Originals* *Standards*
Great American Music Hall (San Francisco, CA)
Solo (San Francisco) 1980
Solo (Pisa) 1982
Solo (Pisa) 1982 *Originals* *Standards*
Composition 113 Bandcamp
Solo (Stuttgart) 1983
19 (Solo) Compositions
Solo (Cambridge and San Francisco) 1988 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo (London) 1988
Solo (London) 1988 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo (Allentown) 1991 - Set 1 Bandcamp
Solo (Allentown) 1991 - Set 2
Solo (Allentown) 1991 *Originals* only?; track listing of this release is incomplete
Wesleyan (12 Alto Solos) 1992
Solo (Middletown) 1992 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo (Skopje) 1995 Bandcamp
Solo (Skopje) 1995 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo Piano (Standards) 1995
Solo (New York) 1995 *Standards*
Solo (NYC) 2002 Bandcamp
Solo (New York) 2002 *Originals* *Standards*
Willisau Solo
Solo (Willisau) 2003 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo Live at Gasthof Heidelberg Loppem 2005
Solo (Loppem) 2005 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo (Wesleyan) 2005 Bandcamp
Solo (Middletown) 2005 *Originals* *Standards* [?; track listing of this release is incomplete]
Solo (Victoriaville) 2017
Solo (Victoriaville) 2017 *Originals* *Standards*
Solo in Pietz
Solo (Pietz) 2018 *Originals* *Standards*
duo (57 albums, eight of them combined into four different titles)
Together Alone [Joseph Jarman]
Duo (Paris) 1971 *Originals* *Others*
First Duo Concert [Derek Bailey]
Royal Volume 1 [Derek Bailey]
Duo (London) 1974 *Collaborations* [two different concerts, but combined here so as not to repeat titles]
Elements of Surprise [George Lewis]
Duo (Moers) 1976 *Originals* *Others* *Standards*
Time Zones [Richard Teitelbaum]
Duo (Mount Temper and Woodstock) 1976 *Others*
Duets 1976 with Muhal Richard Abrams
Duo (Woodstock) 1976 *Originals* *Standards*
Donaueschingen (Duo) 1976 [George Lewis]
Duo (Donaueschingen) 1976 *Originals* *Others* *Standards*
Duets with Anthony Braxton [Roscoe Mitchell]
Duo (Toronto) 1976 *Originals* *Others*
Birth and Rebirth [Max Roach]
Duo (Milan) 1978 *Collaborations*
One in Two - Two in One [Max Roach]
Duo (Willisau) 1979 *Collaborations*
Four Pieces [Giorgio Gaslini]
Duo (1981) Milan *Originals* *Others*
Open Aspects (Duo) 1982 [Richard Teitelbaum]
Duo (Ludwigsburg) 1982 *Collaborations*
Six Duets (1982) [John Lindberg]]
Duo (Florence) 1982 *Originals* *Standards*
Szabraxtondos [György Szabados]
Duo (Budapest) 1984 *Others*
Moment Precieux [Derek Bailey]
Duo (Victoriaville) 1986 *Collaborations*
Duets 1987 [Gino Robair]
Duo (Hayward) 1987 *Originals* *Others* *Collaborations*
A Memory of Vienna [Ran Blake]
Duo (Vienna) 1988 *Standards*
Kol Nidre [Andrew Voigt] Bandcamp
Duo (San Francisco) 1988 *Originals* *Others*
2 by 2 [Buell Neidlinger]
Duo (Santa Monica) 1989 *Collaborations* *Standards*
Duets Vancouver 1989 [Marilyn Crispell]
Duo (Vancouver) 1989
Duets Hamburg 1991 [Peter Niklas Wilson]
Duo (Hamburg) 1991
Duo (Amsterdam) 1991 [Georg Gräwe]\
Duo (Amsterdam) 1991 *Collaborations*
Two Lines David Rosenboom]
Duo (Santa Clarita) 1992 *Others* *Collaborations*
Duets (1993) [Mario Pavone]
Duo (New York) 1993 *Originals* *Others* *Standards*
Duo (London) 1993 [Evan Parker]
Duo (London) 1993 *Collaborations*
Duo (Leipzig) 1993 [Ted Reichman]
Duo (Leipzig) 1993
Duo (Wesleyan) 1994 [Abraham Adzenyah]
Duo (Middletown) 1994 *Collaborations*
Duet: Live at Merkin Hall [Richard Teitelbaum]
Duo (New York) 1994 *Collaborations*
11 Compositions (Duo) 1995 [Brett Larner]
Duo (Middletown) 1995
10 Compositions (Duet) 1995 [Joe Fonda]
Duo (Middletown) 1995 *Originals* *Standards*
14 Compositions (Traditional) 1996 [Stewart Gillmor]
Duo (Middletown) 1996 *Standards*
Composition 192 [Lauren Newton]
Duo (London) 1996
Composition No. 249 [Brandon Evans]
Elliptical Atlas 15 [Brandon Evans]
Duo (Middletown) 2000 *Originals* *Others*
Compositions/ Improvisations 2000 [Scott Rosenberg]
Duo (Middletown) 2000 *Originals* *Others* *Collaborations*
Four Compositions (Duets) 2000 [Alex Horwitz]
Duo (Rossie) 2000
Duets (Wesleyan) 2002 [Taylor Ho Bynum]
Duo (Middletown) 2002 *Originals* *Others* *Collaborations*
Duo Palindrome 2002 vol. 1 [Andrew Cyrille]
Duo Palindrome 2002 vol. 2
Duo (Middletown) 2002 *Originals* *Others* *Collaborations*
Organic Resonance [Wadada Leo Smith]
Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace
Duo (New York) 2003 *Originals* *Others* *Collaborations*
ABCD [Chris Dahlgren]
Duo (Middletown) 2003 *Originals* *Others*
Shadow Company (2004) [Milo Fine]
Duo (Middletown) 2004 *Collaborations*
4 Improvisations (Duets) 2004 [Walter Frank]
Duo (Middletown) 2004 *Collaborations*
Duo (Victoriaville) 2005 [Fred Frith]
Duo (Victoriaville) 2005 *Collaborations*
6 Duos (Wesleyan) 2006 [John McDonough]
Duo (Middletown) 2006 *Originals* *Standards* *Others* *Collaborations*
Duo (Heidelberg Loppem) 2007 [Joëlle Léandre]
Duo (Loppem) 2007 *Collaborations*
GTM (Syntax) 2003 [Anne Rhodes]
Duo (Middletown) 2007
Four Improvisations (Duo) 2007 [Joe Morris]
Duo (Middletown) 2007 *Collaborations*
Old Dogs (2007) [Gerry Hemingway]
Duo (Middletown) 2007 *Collaborations*
Toronto (Duets) 2007 [Kyle Brenders]
Duo (Toronto) 2007
Duets (Pittsburg) 2008 [Ben Opie]
Duo (Pittsburg) 2008
Improvisations (Duo) 2008 [Maral Yakshieva]
Duo (Middletown) 2008
Duo (Amherst) 2010 Bandcamp [Taylor Ho Bynum]
Duo (Amherst) 2010
12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 Bandcamp [Kyoko Kitamura; Erica Dicker; Katherine Young]
Duo (Middletown) 2012
Duo (Improv) 2017 Bandcamp [Eugene Chadbourne]
Duo (New Haven) 2017 *Collaborations*
Duo (Bologna) 2018 [Jacqueline Kerrod]
Duo (Bologna) 2018 *Collaborations*
trio (17 albums)
Silence
Trio (Chicago) 1969 *Others*
For Trio
Trio (Chicago) 1977
Composition No. 94 for Three Instrumentalists
Trio (Bologna) 1980
Trio (Pisa) 1982
Trio (Pisa) 1982
Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989
Trio (Amiens) 1989 *Originals* *Standards*
Trio (London) 1993
Trio (London) 1993 *Collaborations*
Eight by Three
Trio (Trumbull) 1996 *Collaborations*
Two Compositions (Trio) 1998
Trio (Middletown) 1998
Composition N. 247
Trio (Middletown) 2000
Triotone
Trio (Cnesa) 2003 *Others* *Collaborations*
Trio (Glasgow) 2005
Trio (Glasgow) 2005
Trio (Wesleyan) 2005
Trio (Wesleyan) 2005
Trio (Victoriaville) 2007
Trio (Victoriaville) 2007
Beyond Quantum
Trio (West Orange) 2008 *Collaborations*
Trio (NYC) 2011 Bandcamp
Trio (New York) 2011
Trio (New Haven) 2013 Bandcamp
Trio (New Haven) 2013
Eight Improvisations (Trio) 2014
Trio (New Haven) 2014 *Collaborations*
quartet (52 albums, 13 of them combined into five different titles)
Anthony Braxton [sometimes this album's title is presented as the title of one of the album's featured compositions; that composition's title being a work of visual art, like all of Braxton's titles, some being simple diagrams, others incorporating photographs, with a host of variations in between; as such, this unfortunate de facto album title actually derives from an incomplete rendering of the title of the work in question (Composition No. 6G, as it should be inscribed as text), and a simple eponymous album title is preferable—ignoring for now the fact that this particular ensemble was collectivist in nature, later using the name, the Creative Construction Company, for a 1970 performance documented on two L. P.s released under that name, and that the other two tracks on the album, 'The Light on the Delta' and 'Simple Like' are compositions by Leo Smith and Leroy Jenkins, respectively]
Quartet (Paris) 1969 *Originals* *Others*
This Time...
Quartet (Paris) 1970 *Originals*
Dona Lee
Quartet (Paris) 1972 *Originals* *Standards*
Four Compositions (1973)
Quartet (Tokyo) 1973]
Live at the Moers Festival
Quartet (Moers) 1974
In the Tradition, Volume 1
In the Tradition, Volume 2
Quartet (Copenhagen) 1974 *Standards*
Five Pieces 1975
Quartet (New York) 1975 *Originals* *Standards*
Dortmund (Quartet) 1976
Quartet (Dortmund) 1976
Peformance 9/1/79 [Performance (Quartet) 1979]
Quartet (Willisau) 1979
Seven Compositions 1978
Quartet (Paris) 1979
Composition 98
Quartet (Ludwigsberg and Bern) 1981
Six Compositions: Quartet
Quartet (New York) 1981
Four Compositions (Quartet) 1983
Quartet (Milan) 1983
Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984
Quartet (New York) 1984
Prag 1984 Quartet Performance
Quartet (Prague) 1984
Seven Standards 1985, Volume 1
Seven Standards 1985, Volume 2
Quartet (New York) 1985 *Standards*
Quartet (London) 1985
Quartet (London) 1985
Quartet (Birmingham) 1985
Quartet (Birmingham) 1985
Quartet (Coventry) 1985
Quartet (Coventry) 1985
Five Compositions (Quartet) 1986
Quartet (Milan) 1986
Six Monk's Compositions (1987)
Quartet (Milan) 1987 *Standards*
Willisau (Quartet) 1991
Quartet (Willisau) 1991
Quartet (Victoriasville) 1992
Quartet (Victoriaville) 1992
9 Standards (Quartet) 1993
Quartet (Middletown) 1993 *Standards*
Twelve Compositions: Live at Yoshi's, July 1993
Quartet (Oakland) 1993
Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993
Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993
Piano Quartet - Yoshi's 1994
Quartet (Oakland) 1994
Knitting Factory (Piano/ Quartet) 1994, Vol. 1
Knitting Factory (Piano/ Quartet) 1994, Vol. 2
Quartet (New York) 1994
Four Compositions (Quartet) 1995 Bandcamp
Quartet (Middletown) 1995
Four Compositions (GTM) 2000
Quartet (Middletown) 2000
Ten Compositions (Quartet) 2000
Quartet (Rossie) 2000
8 Standards (Wesleyan) 2001
Quartet (Middletown) 2001
23 Standards (Quartet) 2003
20 Standards (Quartet) 2003
19 Standards (Quartet) 2003
Quartet (Antwerp, Bergamo, Brussels, Seville, Paris, Nevers, Ghent, Amsterdam, Verona, Rome, Lisbon, and Guimaraes) 2003 *Standards*
2 + 2 Compositions
Quartet (Middletown) 2003 *Originals* *Others*
Quartet (GTM) 2006
Quartet (Middletown) 2005
Standards (Brussels) 2006
Quartet (Brussels) 2006 *Standards*
Quartet (FRM) 2007 Vol. 1 Bandcamp
Quartet (FRM) 2007 Vol. 2
Quartet (FRM) 2007 Vol. 3
Quartet (FRM) 2007 Vol. 4
Quartet (Middletown) 2007
Quartet (Moscow) 2008
Quartet (Moscow) 2008
Quartet (Mestre) 2008
Quartet (Mestre) 2008
Quartet (Mannheim) 2010 Bandcamp
Quartet (Mannheim) 2010
Quartet (Warsaw) 2012
Quartet (Warsaw) 2012
Quartet (New Haven) 2014
Quartet (New Haven) 2014
Ao Vivo Jazz Na Fábrica
Quartet (São Paulo) 2014
Quartet (Standards) 2020 Bandcamp
Quartet (London, Warsaw, and Wels) 2020
quintet (11 albums)
Carnegie Hall (New York, NY) June 27, 1976
Quintet (New York) 1976
Quintet (Basel) 1977
Quintet (Basel) 1977
Eight (+3) Tristano Compositions 1989 for Warne Marsh
Quintet (Los Angeles) 1989 *Standards*
Seven Standards 1995
Quintet (New York) 1995 *Standards*
Six Standards (Quintet) 1996
Quintet (New York) 1996 *Standards*
Quintet (Tristano) 1997
Quintet (Middletown) 1997 *Standards*
Sax Quintet (New York) 1998 Bandcamp
Quintet (New York) 1998
Sax Quintet (Middletown) 1998
Quintet (Middletown) 1998
Eight Compositions (Quintet) 2001
Quintet (Rossie) 2001
Quintet (London) 2004: Live at the Royal Festival Hall
Quintet (London) 2004
Quintet (Tristano) 2014 Bandcamp
Quintet (New York) 2014 *Standards* *Collaborations*
sextet (12 albums, six of them combined into three different albums)
Creative Construction Company
Creative Construction Company Vol. II
Sextet (New York) 1970 *Others*
Sextet (Parker) 1993 Bandcamp
Sextet (Zurich, Cologne, Amsterdam, and Antwerp) 1993 *Standards*
Sextet (Istanbul) 1996
Sextet (Istanbul) 1996
Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005
Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005
Sextet (Molde) 2005
Sextet (Molde) 2005
Sextet (Philadelphia) 2005
Sextet (Philadelphia) 2005
Sextet (Boston) 2005
Sextet (Boston) 2005
Sextet (Piacenza) 2007
Sextet (Piacenza) 2007
Sextet (FRM) 2007 Vol. 1 Bandcamp
Sextet (FRM) 2007 Vol. 2
Sextet (Victoriaville) 2007 [*Originals* only? Track listing is incomplete]
septet (four albums)
Ensemble (Victoriaville) 1988
Septet (Victoriaville) 1988
Septet (Pittsburgh) 2008
Septet (Pittsburgh) 2008
Echo Echo Mirror House
Septet (Victoriaville) 2011
3 Compositions (EEMHM) 2011
Septet (New Haven) 2011
octet (two albums)
2 Compositions (Järvenpää) 1988
Octet (Järvenpää) 1988
Octet (New York) 1995
Octet (New York) 1995
nonet (four albums combined into one title)
Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 vol. 1
Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 vol. 2
Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 vol. 3
Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 vol. 4
Nonet (Oakland) 1997
--
Larger ensembles (10 or more musicians) of course fit in awkwardly with this set-up, as do albums recorded across multiple years. Since Braxton's albums have at times used the word, ensemble, a possible uniform approach to these titles would be to use either Large Ensemble or Orchestra. 39 albums.
Creative Music Orchestra, recorded 1972 in Chatellerault
The Montreux-Berlin Concerts, recorded 1975 in Montreux, 1976 in Berlin [essentially a quartet album; one track features the Berlin New Music Group]
Creative Orchestra Music 1976, recorded in New York
Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978, recorded in Cologne *Originals* *Collaborations*
For Four Orchestras, recorded 1978 in Oberlin
Composition N. 96, recorded 1981 in Seattle
Four Compositions (Solo, Duo and Trio) 1982/1988 [Compositions 99, 101, 107 & 139], recorded in Ludwigsburg and Vienna [partially originally released on the Marianne Schroeder album Braxton & Stockhausen; one of the two solo tracks features Schroeder instead of Braxton]
Eugene (1989)
2 Compositions (Ensemble) 1989/1991, recorded in Frankfurt and Hamburg [one track does not include Braxton]
Composition No. 165 (For 18 Instrumentalists), recorded 1992 in Urbana
4 (Ensemble) Compositions - 1992, recorded 1992-1993 in New York
Comp. No. 175 / Comp. No. 126: Trillium Dialogues M, recorded 1994 in New York
Composition No. 173, recorded 1994 in New York
Ensemble (New York) 1995
Composition No. 102 for Orchestra & Puppet Theatre, recorded 1996 in Middletown
Tentet (New York) 1996
Trillium R: Shala Fears for the Poor: Composition No. 162 for 9 Singers, 9 Instrumentalists and Orchestra, recorded 1996 in New York
Three Orchestras (GTM) 1998, recorded in Middletown
Four Compositions (Washington, D.C.) 1998 [one track does not include Braxton]
Tentet (Wesleyan) 1999, recorded in Middletown
Composition No. 169 + (186 + 206 + 214), recorded 2002 in Ljubljana
Tentet (Wesleyan) 2000, recorded in Middletown
Tentet (Antwerp) 2000
Six Compositions (GTM) 2001, recorded in Middletown
Tentet (Paris) 2001 Bandcamp
Nine Compositions (DVD) 2003, recorded in Berkeley and San Francisco
4 Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005 - Phonomanie VIII [one track does not include Braxton]
Alumni Orchestra (Wesleyan) 2005, recorded in Middletown Bandcamp
9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006, recorded in New York
Composition No. 19 (For 100 Tubas), recorded 2006 in New York
12+1tet (Victoriaville) 2007
Creative Orchestra (Bolzano) 2007
Creative Orchestra (Guelph) 2007 *Originals* *Collaborations*
Ensemble (Pittsburgh) 2008
Trillium E: Wallingford's Polarity Gambit - Composition No. 237, recorded 2010 in New York Bandcamp
Creative Music Orchestra (NYC) 2011 Bandcamp
Echo Echo Mirror House (NYC) 2011 Bandcamp
Composition No. 46 (+168 and Language Music), recorded 2014 in New York Bandcamp
Trillium J: The Non-Unconfessionables - Composition No. 380, recorded 2014 in New York Bandcamp
--
The five albums released by the quartet Circle (Chick Corea, Braxton, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul), either released under that name or Corea's, are listed separately here to maintain their commonly-designated unique position in Braxton's and Corea's discographies.
Chick Corea - Circulus, recorded 1970 in New York *Collaborations*
Chick Corea - Circling In, recorded 1970 in New York *Originals* *Others* *Collaborations* *Standards*
Circle - Live in Germany Concert, recorded 1970 in Iserlohn *Others* *Standards*
Circle - Paris-Concert, recorded 1971 *Originals* *Others* *Standards* [the "Duet" credited to Braxton and Corea is apparently Composition 6L]
Circle - Gathering, recorded 1971 in New York *Others*
--
The following albums feature Braxton compositions performed entirely by other musicians, but released under Braxton's name, a practice common in the Classical world. Even if Braxton was served as a conductor on an album, the album is included in the above lists, not here. Recordings of Braxton originals not released under Braxton's name, even of multiple pieces or entire albums devoted to them, are not listed here. 14 albums.
For Two Pianos, duo [Ursula Oppens/ Frederic Rzewski] recorded 1980 in Milan
Composition No. 174, recorded 1994 in Tempe
Piano Music (Notated) 1968-1988, solo [Hildegard Kleeb] recorded 1995-1996 in New York
Compositions 10 & 16 (+101), quintet [Guillermo Gregorio, Gene Coleman, Jim O'Rourke, Michael Cameron, and Carrie Biolo] recorded 1997 in Chicago
10 [Solo Bagpipe] Compositions 2000 - Performed by Matthew Welch, solo recorded 2000 in Middletown
Two Compositions (Orchestra) 2005, recorded in Middletown Bandcamp
Piano Music (1968-2000), solo [Geneviève Foccroulle] recorded 2004-2005 and 2007 in New York
Composition 30, solo [Cory Smythe] recorded 2011 in New York
Syntactical GTM Choir (NYC) 2011 Bandcamp
Ensemble Montaigne (Bau 4) 2013, recorded in Altbüron
Composition No. 146 (Moogie and Stetson), recorded 2014 in New York Bandcamp
Anthony Braxton's Language Music, solos [Matthew Welch; Aaron Siegel; Chris McIntyre; Anne Rhodes; Ingrid Laubrock; Katherine Young; Adam Matlock; Joe Morris; Tomeka Reid; Jason Kao Hwang; Carl Testa; James Fei; Kyoko Kitamura] recorded 2016 in New York
GTM (Syntax) 2017, recorded 2017 in New York Bandcamp
Ghost Trance Solos, solo [Kobe Van Cauwenberghe] recorded 2020 in Albi
--
At this point, we have a total of 260 albums that could be categorized as Braxton albums, though many could subtract the five Circle albums. Many of the duo albums could be categorized under either Braxton's or his collaborator's name.
--
The album, Concept of Freedom, features one performance of a Duke Ellington piece and one of a Braxton by a quartet [Roland Dahinden, Hildegard Kleeb, Dimitris Polisoidis, and Robert Höldrich] recorded 2003 in Graz.
The following albums feature performances of Braxton compositions that neither feature Braxton as a musician nor were released under his name. This list should not be considered complete:
Frederic Rzewski - No Place to Go but Around, recorded 1975 in New York
The Cygnus Ensemble - Broken Consort, recorded 1999 in Purchase
--
The following albums feature Braxton fitting more of the "sideman" role, in some cases only playing on selected tracks. Unlike the lists above, these albums include compositions by other composers except as indicated. The recording dates and locations may only refer to the portions of an album that include Braxton.
Richard Abrams - Levels and Degrees of Light, recorded 1967 in Chicago; reissued under the artist name, Muhal Richard Abrams
Gunter Hampel - The 8th of July 1969, recorded in Nederhost den Berg
Instant Composers Pool, recorded 1969 in Nederhost den Berg
Jacques Coursil - Black Suite, recorded 1969 in Paris
Alan Silva and His Celestrial Communications Orchestra - Luna Surface, recorded 1969 in Paris
Archie Shepp & Philly Joe Jones, recorded 1969 in Paris
Marion Brown - Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, recorded 1970 in New York
The Celestrial Communications Orchestra - My Country, recorded 1971 in Royan
Gunter Hampel/ Jeanne Lee/ Anthony Braxton - Familie, recorded 1972 in Paris
Dave Holland - Conference of the Birds, recorded 1972 in New York
Dave Brubeck - All the Things We Are, recorded 1974 in New York
Leroy Jenkins/ The Jazz Composer's Orchestra - For Players Only, recorded 1975 in New York
Gunter Hampel - Enfrant Terrible, recorded 1975 in Woodstock
The Globe Unity Orchestra and Guests - Pearls, recorded 1975 in Baden-Baden
The Globe Unity Orchestra and Guests - Baden-Baden '75 [includes one Braxton original]
The New York Section of Composers of the 70s - New American Music, Volume 3, recorded 1975 in New York
Evan Parker/ Anthony Braxton/ Derek Bailey - Company 2, recorded 1976 in London
Roscoe Mitchell - Nonaah, recorded 1977 in Chicago
Woody Shaw with Anthony Braxton - Iron Men, recorded 1977 in New York
Company 5, recorded 1977 in London
Company 6, recorded 1977 in London
Company 7, recorded 1977 in London
Dave Holland - Emerald Tears, recorded 1977 in Oslo [includes one Braxton original]
Muhal Richard Abrams - 1-OQA+19, recorded 1977 in New York
Ran Blake - Rapport, recorded 1978 in New York
Roscoe Mitchell - L-R-G/ The Maze/ SII Examples, recorded 1978 in Chicago
The Reform Art Unit - Impressions, recorded 1978 in Krems [includes two collaborative works; also confusingly quasi-officially released under the artist name Three Motions]
The Roscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra - Sketches from Bamboo, recorded 1979 in Paris
The Leo Smith Creative Orchestra - Budding of a Rose, recorded 1979 in Paris
Neighbors with Anthony Braxton, recorded 1980 in Innsbruck
Walter Thompson - Four Compositions, recorded 1980 in Willow
Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble - Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin' Shoes, recorded 1980 in Chicago
The Creative Music Studio - Woodstock Jazz Festival 2 [expanded version entitled The Song Is You], recorded 1981 in Woodstock
Charlie Mariano Meets Anthony Braxton - Elegy for a Goose, recorded 1981 in Paris [apparently includes one Braxton original; the title of the piece ('Goose Suite') does not indicate its position in Braxton's oeuvre]
The Vienna Art Orchestra - From No Time to Rag Time, recorded 1982 in Rubigen [includes one Braxton original]
The Paul Smoker Trio - Q.B., recorded 1984 in Iowa City
György Szabados - Szabraxtondos, recorded 1984 in Budapest
John Lindberg - Trilogy of Works for Eleven Instruments, recorded 1984 in New York
Richard Teitelbaum - Concerto Grosso, recorded 1985 in Cologne
Anthony Braxton/ The ROVA Saxophone Quartet - The Aggregate, recorded 1986 in San Francisco, 1988 in Oakland [includes one Braxton original] Bandcamp
The London Jazz Composers Orchestra - Zurich Concerts, recorded 1988 in Zurich [includes four Braxton originals]
Douglas Ewart and Inventions Clarinet Choir - Angles of Entrance, recorded 1990 in Atlanta
Frederick Longberg-Holm - Theory of Motion, recorded 1990 in Oakland
Jon Rapson - Dances & Orations, recorded 1994 in Middletown and Van Nuys
Roland Dahinden Trios - Naima, recorded 1995 in Paramus
Joe Fonda - From the Source, recorded 1996 in New York
Seth Misterka - Middletown Experiments 1996-1999, recorded 1996 in Middletown [includes one collaborative work]
Brett Larner - Itadakimasu: Improvised Duets 1994-2000, recorded 1996 in Middletown [includes one collaborative work]
The Kevin Norton Ensemble and Anthony Braxton - For Guy Debord (In Nine Events), recorded 1998 in New York
James Fei - Alto Quartets, recorded 1998 in New York
Andre Vida - Child Real Eyes, recorded 2002 in New York
John Shiurba - 5x5 1.2=A, recorded 2003 in Oakland
Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton - Black Vomit, recorded 2005 in Victoriaville [two collaborative works]
Misha Mengelberg - Afijn, recorded 2005 in Amsterdam
Andre Vida - BRUD: Volumes I-III, recorded 2008 in Berlin
--
Finally, some compilation appearances:
Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions, Vol. 2, septet recorded 1976 in New York [one Braxton original]
Creative Music Studio — Archive Selections Volume 2[one collaborative work]
Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf: The 20th Anniversary [one Braxton original]
Music from Mills: In Celebration of the Centennial of the Chartering of Mills College 1885-1995, duo recorded 1986 in Oakland [one Braxton original]
Bidi, Bidi, Bidi, trio recorded 1986 in Oakland [one collaborative work]
October Meeting 1987, large ensembled recorded 1987 in Amsterdam [one Gerry Hemingway original]
The Virtuoso in the Computer Age - I [one Braxton original, one David Rosenboom original]
October Meeting 1991, quartet recorded 1991 in Amsterdam [four standards]
--
And there are a few compilations that only reissue old recordings, most notably The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton and The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note. Also in this category are Freedom Years and Die Braxton Box.
I would like to think that countless booksellers and librarians, especially if they understand the superiority of printed resources, imagine the perfect newsstand. The right magazines and newspapers, and perhaps also cheap paperbacks, positioned the right way in a shop that sells little else—most newsstands, "back in the day," also selling comics, baseball cards, tobacco products, candies and other snacks, plus "blue books" and similar school items if located in a college town (as was the case with Barnett's, the great newsstand of downtown Athens, Georgia, that closed in 2008). These shops, devoted newsstands, are dying off, even in New York, where the famed Gem Spa is no longer with us. But we can always dream of a day when Americans awake from their "smart phone" slumbers and realize that they would be better off reading a few sources closely and consistently, plus sampling here and there many others, as contrasted to their current predicament: receiving bits and pieces of who-knows-what via trashy websites like... Twitter? Facebook? Their names themselves are all vainglorious ridiculousness (sort of like the World's Wide Web—oops!) I cannot wait for... Bark? Chinese Whispers?—or is that Tik Tok? Facebook originally called their news feed a "wall"?
While I could make a handy list of links to my favorite publications, these personal preferences likely do not match what I would put up for sale at a book shop or perusal at a library. Some older publications are the obvious choices to begin with in such a scenario. Here are many of the oldest, non-academic, non-governmental English-language periodicals, with their founding dates provided. With regard to newspapers, the history is longer and more complicated. A handy Wikipedia page provides some basic information.
The Spectator, 1828
The Economist, 1843
Scientific American, 1845
Harper's Magazine, 1850
The Atlantic, 1857
The Nation, 1865
Popular Science, 1870
Publishers Weekly, 1872
Good Housekeeping, 1885
Sports Afield, 1887
National Geographic, 1888
Vogue, 1892
Billboard, 1894
Field and Stream, 1895
Outdoor Life, 1898
M. I. T. Technology Review, 1899
Popular Mechanics, 1902
Maclean's, 1905
Variety, 1905
The Christian Science Monitor, 1908
America, 1909
The Progressive, 1909
Art in America, 1913
The New Statesman, 1913
Vanity Fair, 1913
Current History, 1914
The New Republic, 1914
Forbes, 1917
Better Homes and Gardens, 1922
Foreign Affairs, 1922
Science News, 1922
Reader's Digest, 1922
Time, 1923
Commonweal, 1924
The New Yorker, 1925
Advertising Age, 1930
Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 1930
Hollywood Reporter, 1930
Esquire, 1932
Sight and Sound, 1932
Kirkus Reviews, 1933
Newsweek, 1933
Downbeat, 1934
Woman's Day, 1937
The Humanist, 1941
The Paris Review, 1953
Dissent, 1954
The London Magazine, 1954
National Review, 1955
At some point—I remember not how—I became aware that Art Garfunkel has kept a list of every book he has read since the Sixties.
After attaining my library degree in 2012, I decided that, being done with formal schooling forever, I would no longer start reading books then fail to finish them. In my opinion, this tendency, however much it resulted from attention-span problems typical of anyone who grew up watching an excess of television, was exacerbated by time spent in academia: too many journal articles, but most of all too often quickly reading the introductions of books then skimming the remainder, because the teacher of the seminar never expected the students to read the whole book. I decided that year to finish every book that I started reading, no matter what. I have held to that, with a couple of exceptions that I hope to return to soon enough (Blood Meridian and All About H. Hatterr).
Inspired by Garfunkel's list, in 2014 I began keeping a list of every book that I read, regretting that I had not already done so for 2013, the first full year of my new commitment to full-book reading. Here's the list. An asterisk next to the title indicates that I had read the book at least once before. The highlighted books are those that I enjoyed the most and would like to re-read in the future. Few of these books, I would strongly not recommend. Anna Weiner's Uncanny Valley, definitely—an utter bore—though I am biased against memoirs—even James Walcott's was a bit of a drag. John McWhorter's Woke Racism is spot-on intellectually and ideologically but sloppily argued and breezily written. Neil Young's To Feel the Music could have just been a magazine article and relies on unscientific claptrap from the "vinyl sounds better" school of thought. Unsurprisingly, Damon Krukowski's The New Analog suffers from a similar problem and, overall, cannot be said to have "staying power" (to quote a Neil Young song). The current trend of writing histories of Rock music that only cover a single year (1965, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1984—enough already!) is not worth devoting much attention to, and several of the many histories of popular music that I read for research purposes are not recommended, for example David Stubbs' Future Sounds, a grab-bag of what were presumbly articles, or meant to be articles, thrown together to serve as a history of electronic music.
2024
1) Franz Kafka, The Castle
2) Chad Radford, Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History
3) Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture*
4) Aleister Crowley, Diary of a Drug Fiend
5) Graham Greene, The Comedians
6) J. G. Ballard, Super-Cannes
7) Eddie Trunk, Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal
8) Eddie Trunk, Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Volume II
9) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
10) Ian Christe, Sound of the Beast: A Headbanging History of Heavy Metal
11) Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
12) John Christopher, When the Tripods Came
13) Ian Fleming, Doctor No
14) John Christopher, The White Mountains
15) Robert A. Heinlen, Stranger in a Strange Land
16) Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan, Faith, Hope and Carnage
17) Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt
18) John Christopher, The City of Gold and Lead
19) Jeff Tweedy, World within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music
20) John Szwed, Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith
21) John Christopher, The Pool of Fire
22) Benjamin Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World
23) Richie Unterberger, Won't Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lifehouse to Quadrophenia
2023:
1) Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
2) Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
3) Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet
4) David Lee Roth, Crazy from the Heat
5) Stuart Isacoff, Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization
6) Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
7) Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
8) Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Volume VI: Time Regained
9) Robertson Davies, The Cornish Trilogy
10) Kembrew McLeod, The Downtown Pop Underground: New York City and the Literary Punks, Renegade Artists, D. I. Y. Filmmakers, Mad Playwrights, and Rock 'n' Roll Glitter Queens Who Revolutionized Culture
11) Raold Dahl, The B. F. G.
12) Idries Shah, The Sufis
13) William Bengston, The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing
14) Stephen King, The Shining
15) Bret Easton Ellis, White
16) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
17) Raold Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
18) Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward 2000-1887
19) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
20) Charlie Gillett, The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll
21) Raold Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox
22) Raold Dahl, The Magic Finger
23) Raold Dahl, The Twits
24) Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
25) Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
26) Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
27) Graham Greene, Orient Express
28) James Wood, The Nearest Thing to Life
29) Jerrod Seigel, Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930
30) George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society
31) Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy
32) Hugh Kearney, The British Isles: A History of Four Nations
33) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
34) John Gunther, Death Be Not Proud
35) François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel
36) Henry James, The Golden Bowl
37) J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
38) Paul Auster, City of Glass
39) J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
40) Paul Williams, Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles
41) Scott Creney/ Brigette Adair Herron, The Story of the B-52s: Neon Side of Town
42) Questlove, Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation
43) Paul Auster, Ghosts
44) Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
45) Paul Auster, The Locked Room
46) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
47) Hisham Matar, A Month in Siena
48) Ursula K. Le Guin, Catwings
49) J. G. Farrell, Troubles
50) Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis
51) John Le Carré, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
52) Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin
53) Robert Graves, Good-Bye to All That
54) James Harvey, David Hine, and Max Prentis, Life House: The Graphic Novel
55) C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
56) Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
57) Thurston Moore, Sonic Life
58) Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
59) Simon Reynolds, Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century
60) G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
2022:
1) Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
2) Richie Unterberger, Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Illustrated History: What Dreams Are Made Of
3) Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Volume I: Swann's Way
4) Thomas de Zengotita, Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It
5) Amanda Sewell, Wendy Carlos
6) Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
7) Michael Nesmith, Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff
8) Ben Burgis, Cancelling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique of the Contemporary Left
9) C. S. Lewis, Perelandra
10) J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
11) Adam Clair, Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery
12) Truman Capote, The Grass Harp
13) Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception
14) Scott Timberg, Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class
15) Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Volume II: Within a Budding Grove
16) Toni Morrison, Jazz
17) Nevil Shute, On the Beach
18) Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
19) Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
20) Bill C. Malone, Country Music U. S. A.
21) Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, The Medium Is the Massage
22) Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
23) Ian Shirley, Never Known Questions: Five Decades of the Residents
24) Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
25) John McWhorter, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
26) Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Volume III: The Guermantes Way
27) James Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977
28) Christopher Lasch, Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged
29) Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story
30) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book 1: The Magician's Nephew
31) David Servan-Schreiber, Anticancer: A New Way of Life
32) Christopher Lasch, The Minimal Self: Psychic Survival in Troubled Times
33) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book 2: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
34) Christopher Lasch, Women and the Common Life: Love, Marriage, and Feminism
35) W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
36) Thomas Pynchon, Vineland
37) Rich Cohen, The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stones
38) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book 3: The Horse and His Boy
39) Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels
40) Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
41) Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Volume IV: Sodom and Gomorrah
42) Mary McCarthy, The Group
43) Ed Ward, The History of Rock and Roll Volume One: 1920-1963
44) Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
45) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book 4: Prince Caspian
46) Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God Vol. I: Primitive Mythology
47) J. G. Ballard, The Drought
48) Dean Radin, Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe
49) J. G. Ballard, Crash
50) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book 5: The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader"
51) Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Volume V: The Captive & The Fugitive
52) Kim Simpson, Early '70s Radio: The American Format Revolution
53) Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun
54) C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength
55) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book 6: The Silver Chair
56) George Scialabba, Slouching towards Utopia: Essays & Reviews
57) Goethe's Faust Translated and with an Introduction by Walter Kaufmann
58) C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia Book Book 7: The Last Battle
2021:
1) Albert Camus, The Plague
2) George Sand, Indiana
3) Plautus, Pseudolus
4) James Hilton, Lost Horizon
5) William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch*
6) Colin Escott, ed., All Roots Lead to Rock: Legends of Rock 'n' Roll
7) Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley
8) Robert MacFarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
9) Philip K. Dick, Dr. Futurity
10) Raymond Queneau, Exercises in Style
11) Preston Lauterbach, The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll
12) Robert Anton Wilson/ Robert Shea, The Illuminatus! Trilogy
13) Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay
14) Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
15) Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley
16) Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
17) Albert Murray, The Omni-Americans: Some Alternatives to the Folklore of White Supremacy
18) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
19) Mahmoud Darwish, Mural
20) Philip K. Dick, The Man Who Japed
21) Andrew Grant Jackson, 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
22) Wanda von Sacher-Masoch, The Confessions of Wanda von Sacher-Masoch
23) Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
24) David Browne, Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, C. S. N. Y., and the Lost Story of 1970
25) Woody Allen, Apropos of Nothing
26) David Stubbs, Future Sounds: The Story of Electronic Music from Stockhausen to Skrillex
27) Michael Bracewell, Re-make/Re-model: Becoming Roxy Music
28) Stephen Tow, London, Reign Over Me: How England's Capital Built Classic Rock
29) Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
30) Tom Beaujour/ Richard Blenstock, Nöthin' but a Good Time: The Uncensored Oral History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion
31) Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for None and All
32) Wesley Yang, The Souls of Yellow Folk
33) Rudyard Kipling, Kim
34) John McWhorter, Nine Nasty Worlds: English in the Gutter Then, Now, and Forever
34) Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
36) Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
37) Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
38) Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
39) Tennessee Williams, Suddenly Last Summer
40) H. P. Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft Goes to the Movies
41) Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why
42) Michelangelo Matos, Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year
43) Candice Dyer, Street Singers, Soul Shakers, Rebels with a Cause: Music from Macon
44) Philip K. Dick, Dr. Bloodmoney
45) William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!
46) Evan Eisenberg, The Recording Angel: Music, Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa
47) Stephen King, Pet Sematary
48) Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
49) James Nice, Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records
50) John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
51) Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
52) William Congreve, The Way of the World
53) Paul Youngquist, A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism
54) Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
55) Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma
56) Stuart Maconie, The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Songs
57) George Eliot, Silas Marner
58) Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
59) Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
60) Mark E. Smith/ Austin Collings, Renegade: The Lives and and Tales of Mark E. Smith
61) Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town
2020:
1) Haruki Murakami, The Elephant Vanishes
2) Philip K. Dick, Counter-Clock World
3) Iris Murdoch, The Good Apprentice
4) H. Rider Haggard, She
5) Peter Schaffer, Equus
6) Natsume Soseki, Kokoro
7) Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature
8) Jason Heller, Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded
9) Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe
10) C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
11) Gore Vidal, Empire
12) Philip K Dick, Lies, Inc.
13) J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition
14) Gore Vidal, Hollywood
15) Tim Lawrence, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
16) George Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest
17) Susan Orlean, The Library Book
18) Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
19) Willa Cather, A Lost Lady
20) Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year
21) J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
22) Anthony J. Gribin and Matthew M. Schiff, The Complete Book of Doo Wop
23) Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
24) Saul Bellow, Herzog
25) Will Hermes, Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever
26) Gore Vidal, The Golden Age
27) Paul Bowles, The Spider's House
28) Andrew Grant Jackson, 1973: Rock at the Crossroads
29) George Sand, Mauprat
30) Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times
31) Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington
32) Raymond Carnver, Where I'm Calling From
33) Molière, The School for Wives
34) Phil Baker and Neil Young, To Feel the Music
35) Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
36) W. B. Yeats, The Death of Cuchulain
37) Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea
38) Ted Templeman and Greg Renoff, Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life in Music
39) W. B. Yeats, Purgatory
40) Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
41) Paddy Chayefsky, Altered States
42) J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
43) Cormac McCarthy, The Road
44) Simon Ford, Hip Priest: The Story of Mark E Smith and the Fall
45) Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History
46) Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo
47) Stephen King, Christine
48) Chris Frantz, Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina
49) Ian Fleming, Thunderball
50) David N. Howard, Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings
51) Hermann Broch, The Sleepwalkers
52) Rob Young/ Irmin Schmidt, All Gates Open: The Story of Can
53) Albert Camus, The Fall
54) Barney Hoskyns, Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, the Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock
55) Gottfried Ephraim Lessing, Laocoön
56) Karl Hagstrom Miller, Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow
57) Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
2019:
1) Gore Vidal, Burr*
2) Jay Parini, The Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal
3) Ben Yagoda, The B Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song
4) William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead
5) Gore Vidal, 1876*
6) Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
7) Daniel Clowes, David Boring*
8) Patti Smith, Just Friends
9) Petronius, Satyricon
10) Xhenet Aliu, Brass
11) Stuart Kelly, The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read
12) Gore Vidal, The Judgment of Paris*
13) Sven Birkerts, Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age
14) Patti Smith, M Train
15) Philip K. Dick, A Maze of Death
16) Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell to Earth
17) David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America
18) Willa Cather, My Mortal Enemy
19) Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society
20) Vladimir Nabokov/ Alfred Appel, Jr., The Annotated Lolita
21) Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
22) Euripides, Bacchae
23) Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
24) Aristophanes, The Birds
25) Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles*
26) Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist
27) Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
28) William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
29) Graham Greene, Brighton Rock
30) Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
31) Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
32) Iris Murdoch, The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artists
33) W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge
34) Robert Graves, I, Claudius
35) Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things
36) Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa
37) Milan Kundera, The Festival of Insignificance
38) Wim Mertens, American Minimal Music
39) Will Self, Umbrella
40) Roberto Calasso, Literature and the Gods
41) Gore Vidal, Lincoln
42) Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine
43) S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
44) Richie Unterberger, Turn! Turn! Turn! The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution
45) Ric Menck, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
46) Damon Krukowski, The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World
47) Helen DeWitt, Lightning Rods
48) Maurice Bowra, The Greek Experience
49) Gordon Lamb, Widespread Panic in the Streets of Athens, Georgia
50) Charles Eidsvik, Cineliteracy: Film among the Arts
51) Ted Gioia, Music: A Subversive History
52) Irina Odoyevtseva, Isolde
53) Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
2018:
1) Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock
2) J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
3) Kingsley Amis, The Green Man
4) Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck
5) William Golding, The Lord of the Flies
6) Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading
7) Vladimir Mayakovsky, The Bedbug
8) Lance Strate, Amazing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman's Brave New World Revisited
9) Samuel Butler, Erewhon
10) Daniel Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
11) William Golding, Pincher Martin
12) Natsume Soseki, Botchan
13) Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)
14) Frank Herbert, Dune
15) Mike McGonigal, Loveless
16) Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
17) Ed Sanders, The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion
18) Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge
19) Mario Puzo, The Godfather
20) José Saramago, Blindness
21) Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction*
22) Doris Lessing, Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949
23) Italo Calvino, Marcovaldo or The Seasons of the City
24) Heinrich Böll, And Where Were You, Adam?
25) Franz Kafka, The Trial
26) Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
27) Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country
28) Philip K. Dick, Martian Time-Slip
29) Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
30) David McLellan, Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thoughts of Simone Weil
31) Milan Kundera, Ignorance
32) Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent.
33) Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon
34) Melvyn New, Tristram Shandy: A Book for Free Spirits
35) Rupert Thomson, The Book of Revelation
36) Nicholson Baker, The Everlasting Story of Nory
37) Geert Mak, Amsterdam
38) Elizabeth Smart, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
39) James Vance Marshall, Walkabout
40) Elie Wiesel, Night
41) Don DeLillo, Libra
42) Nicholson Baker, The Fermata
43) Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
44) Henri Bergson, An Introduction to Metaphysics
45) Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses
46) Bernard Malamud, The Natural
47) Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard
48) Bernard Gendron, Between Montmarte and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde*
49) Anthony Kenny, Ancient Philosophy: A New History of Western Philosophy Volume 1
50) Mark Greif, The Age of the Crisis of Man: Thought and Fiction in America, 1933-1973
51) Raold Dahl, Matilda
52) Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea
53) Alfred Jarry, Caesar Antichrist
54) J. D. Salinger, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and Seymour: An Introduction
55) Horace, The Odes
56) Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics
57) Apuleius, The Golden Ass
58) Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends*
59) Tom Wolfe, The Painted Word
2017:
1) John Hersey, Hiroshima
2) Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage
3) Walter Lippmann, Preface to Morals
4) Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
5) Comte de Lautéamont, Maldoror
6) Muriel Spark, Memento Mori
7) Tim Lacy, The Dream of a Democratic Culture: Mortimer J. Adler and the Great Books Idea
8) Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education
9) Tad Hershorn, Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice
10) Louis Auchincloss, The Rector of Justin
11) Georges Bataille, The Story of the Eye*
12) Alex Beam, A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books
13) James Joyce, Dubliners*
14) Doris Lessing, A Ripple from the Storm
15) Doris Lessing, Landlocked
16) Anthony Haden-Guest, The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
17) Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles
18) Paul Griffiths, Modern Music: A Concise History
19) Philip Ennis, The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music*
20) Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
21) Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
22) Frederick Exley, A Fan's Notes
23) Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler...
24) Sophocles, Antigone
25) Anthony Kenny, The Rise of Modern Philosophy: A New History of Western Philosophy Volume 3
26) Douglas Adams, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
27) Nick Norby, High Fidelity
28) Robertson Davies, The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest Tost
29) Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said*
30) Robertson Davies, The Salterton Trilogy: The Leaven of Malice
31) Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
32) Robertson Davies, The Salterton Trilogy: A Mixture of Frailties
33) Doris Lessing, Prisons We Choose to Live Inside
34) Sam Bully-Thomas, Cane
35) Stephen King, The Green Mile
36) Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
37) Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
38) Scott Frost, My Life, My Tapes: The Autobiography of F. B. I. Special Agent Dale Cooper
39) Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road
40) Doris Lessing, The Four-Gated City
41) Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno*
42) Benjamin Piekut, Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits
43) Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes
44) Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
45) Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine
46) Nicholson Baker, Vox
47) William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
48) Mark Frost, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier
49) David Hepworth, Never a Dull Moment: 1971—The Year Rock Exploded
50) H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
51) Dante, The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio
52) Neil Young, Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life and Cars
53) Milan Kundera, Life Is Elsewhere
54) Colette, Cheri
55) Dante, The Divine Comedy: Paradiso
56) Colette, The Last of Cheri
2016:
1) Philip K. Dick, The Game-Players of Titan
2) Joseph Heller, Catch-22
3) William Shakespeare, King Lear
4) Arthur Symons, The Symbolist Movement in Literature
5) Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow
6) James S. Shapiro, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606
7) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
8) Milan Kundera, Testament Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts
9) Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business
10) Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy: The Manticore
11) Jed Rasula, Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century
12) Gore Vidal, Messiah*
13) Lawrence Durrell, Justine
14) Edgar Wallace, Four Just Men
15) Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy: World of Wonders
16) Hans Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art
17) Bob Gluck, The Miles Davis Lost Quintet and Other Revolutionary Ensembles
18) Peter Richardson, No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead
19) Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991
20) Yukio Mishima, Runaway Horses
21) Philip K. Dick, We Can Build You
22) Robert Palmer, Rock and Roll: An Unruly History
23) Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
24) Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
25) Italo Calvino, The Cloven Viscount
26) Italo Calvino, The Non-Existant Knight
27) Lawrence Durrell, Balthazar
28) Henry James, The Turn of the Screw*
29) James Joyce, Ulysses
30) Stuart Gilbert, James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study
31) Yukio Mishima, The Temple of Dawn
32) Al Dixon, The Real Pleasure in Life
33) David J. Haskins, Who Killed Mister Moonlight?: Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction
34) William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Origins of Culture
35) David Stubbs, Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany
36) Lawrence Durrell, Mountolive
37) Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls
38) Yukio Mishima, The Decay of the Angel
39) Ovid, Metamorphoses
40) Doris Lessing, Martha Quest
41) Voltaire, Candide
42) Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native
43) David Keenan, England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground
44) Milan Kundera, The Farewell Party
45) Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead
46) Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
47) Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
48) Lawrence Durrell, Clea
49) Jacob Silverman, Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection
50) Stephen King, The Dead Zone
51) Mark Frost, The Secret History of Twin Peaks
52) Beowulf
53) Plato, The Republic
54) Owen Hatherley, Uncommon: An Essay on Pulp
2015:
1) Natsume Soseki, I Am a Cat
2) Michael Chanan, Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music From Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism
3) Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter
4) Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
5) George W. S. Trow, Within the Context of No Context*
6) Georges Bataille, Theory of Religion
7) D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love
8) Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
9) John Knowles, A Separate Peace*
10) Graham Greene, The Lawless Roads
11) Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
12) Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt
13) Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust
14) Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods
15) Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting*
16) Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel
17) Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts
18) Craig Harrison, The Quiet Earth
19) Matsuo Basho, The Narrow Road to the North
20) Charles Jackson, The Long Weekend
21) Neal Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
22) Longus, Daphne and Chloe
23) Yukio Mishima, The Sound of Waves
24) Virginia Woolf, Flush
25) Eleanor Duckett, Death and Life in the Tenth Century
26) J. G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun
27) Richard Adams, Watership Down*
28) Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
29) Stephen Witt, How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy
30) Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
31) Milan Kundera, Encounter
32) Alberto Moravia, The Conformist
33) Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho*
34) Philip K. Dick, Galatic Pot-Healer
35) Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
36) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions
37) Isis Aquarian, The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and the Source Family
38) Jack Kerouac, On the Road
39) Jack Kerouac, Big Sur
40) Perry Anderson, The Origin of Postmodernity*
41) Charles Jencks, What Is Post-Modernism?
42) Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
43) Milan Kundera, Identity
44) Ian Svevonious, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group
45) Renato Poggioli, The Theory of the Avant-Garde
46) Graham Greene, The Quiet American
47) Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
48) Jaron Lanier, Who Owns the Future?
49) Charles Baudelaire, A Season in Hell
50) E. M. Forster, The Longest Journey
51) Jan Morris, Last Letters from Hav
52) Jan Morris, Hav of the Myrmidons
53) Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress
54) Scott Faragher, Music City Babylon: Inside the World of Country Music
55) Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
56) Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
57) Kyle Gann, No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33''
2014:
1) Tony Fletcher, A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths
2) Kate Chopin, The Awakening
3) Maxim Gorky, My Recollections of Tolstoy
4) James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a Detail of Curious Traditionary Facts and Other Evidence by the Editor
5) Anthony Kenny, Philosophy in the Modern World: A New History of Western Philosophy Volume 4
6) Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter
7) Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Children
8) Homer, The Iliad
9) Eugène Ionesco, Rhinoceros
10) James Walcott, Lucking Out: My Life Getting Down and Semi-Dirty in Seventies New York
11) André Malruax, Man's Fate
12) Dave Tompkins, How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II to Hip-Hop: The Machine Speaks
13) Shelagh Delaney, A Taste of Honey
14) Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
15) C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
16) Billy James, Necessity Is—The Early Years of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
17) George Eliot, Middlemarch
18) Mark Richardson, Zaireeka
19) Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
20) Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
21) Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest*
22) Gunnar Ekelöf, Guide to the Underworld
23) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
24) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
25) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
26) Alain Robbe-Grillet, In the Labyrinth
27) Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio
28) Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
29) Michael Murphy, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons
30) E. M. Forster, Maurice
31) E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel
32) Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism
33) Italo Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies
34) Bob Dylan, Chronicles Volume One
35) Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
36) Pierre Schaeffer, In Search of a Concrete Music
37) S. Alexander Reed, Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music
38) James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime
39) Milan Kundera, Immortality
40) H. P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
41) William Irwin Thompson, Passages about Earth: An Exploration of the New Planetary Culture
42) Henry Fielding, Tom Jones
43) Milan Kundera, The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts*
44) David Grubbs, Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties, and Sound Recording
45) Arthur Miller, The Crucible
46) Doris Lessing, Ben in the World
47) Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
48) L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
49) H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds
50) H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man
51) William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
52) Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol
53) Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey
When the Neil Young Archives Get Reissued ca. 2050
Neil Young's Archives releases include two large box sets, Archives Vol. I and Archives Vol. II, as well as the Performance Series, the Special Release Series, and the Official Release Series. The first and second categories consist entirely of archival albums not previously released, whereas the third category, as the title suggests, reissues Young's regular releases.
The release of the Official Release Series Discs 5-8 boxed set in 2014 confirmed that, having already not included the soundtrack to his 1972 film Journey through the Past in the first Archives box set in 2009, Young has designated Time Fades Away as Official Release Series Disc 05, instead of Journey. Some observers have surmised that the soundtrack's inclusion of music by other artists has made its reissue legally complicated.
To me, Young and his team seem to have made a big mistake when they decided to number items in the three Archives series chronologically by date of original recording, instead of simply numbering them as they were released. Albums in the Performance Series that, we can only assume, were not initially planned for end up receiving numbers like Disc 00 (Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968) and Disc 2.5 (Live at the Cellar Door). Since this approach was extended to the Offical Release Series, with Long May You Run being Disc 8.5, it would allow Journey to become Official Release Series Disc 4.5. Video releases could comprise a separate series, of which the Journey film would be Disc 01 (or Disc 00? 0.5? Give us a break). Perhaps the fractional numbering was planned for; but, if so, would we not see a 1.5 in the Performances Series (which we don't have yet) as well as a 3.5 (the 2021 Young Shakespeare release)? We shall see.
Neil Young's Official Release Series as it currently stands (to be updated as need be):
1) Neil Young
2) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
3) After the Gold Rush
4) Harvest
5) Time Fades Away
6) On the Beach
7) Tonight's the Night
8) Zuma
8.5) Long May You Run
9) American Stars 'n Bars
10) Comes a Time
11) Rust Never Sleeps
12) Live Rust
13) Hawks & Doves
14) Re-ac-tor
20) This Note's for You
21) Eldorado
22) Freedom
23) Ragged Glory - Smell the Horse (designated as "23+")
24) Weld
25) Arc
30) Dead Man
This leaves, presumably, Trans as no. 15, Everybody's Rockin' no. 16, Old Ways no. 17, Landing on Water no. 18, Life no. 19, with no whole number allotted for the video releases In Berlin and Solo Trans. Harvest Moon as no. 26, Unplugged no. 27, Sleeps with Angels no. 28, and Mirror Ball no. 29, with, again, no whole numbers allotted for video releases.
Consult the Wikipedia page for the Neil Young Archives for lists of the Performance Series and the Special Release Series.
My list of what the Official Release Series numbering should have been. The left-hand numbers indicate the title's place in my imagined series, while the numbering to the right indicates its place in various sub-sets described at the end of this post. Note that a few items one may expect to be part of the Archives have actually—at least not yet—been given a number in the Performance or Special Release series. See, notably, Muddy Track.
1) Neil Young (1)
2) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (2)
3) After the Gold Rush (3)
4) Harvest (4*)
5) Journey through the Past: Original Soundtrack Recordings (minor1)
6) Journey through the Past (movie1)
7) Time Fades Away (*1)
8) On the Beach (5)
9) Tonight's the Night (6*)
10) Zuma (7)
11) American Stars n' Bars (8)
12) Comes a Time (9)
13) Rust Never Sleeps album (*2)
14) and film (livemovie1)
15) Live Rust (live1)
16) Hawks and Doves (10)
17) Re-ac-tor (11)
18) Human Highway (movie2)
19) Live in Berlin [alternately titled: In Berlin] (livemovie2)
20) Trans (12)
21) Solo Trans (livemovie3)
22) Everbody's Rockin' (13)
23) Old Ways (14)
24) Landing on Water (15)
25) Life (*3)
26) This Note's for You (16)
27) Eldorado (minor2)
28) Freedom (17*)
29) Freedom: A Live Acoustic Concert film (livemovie4)
30) Ragged Glory (18*)
31) and video comp (movie3)
32) Arc-Weld (live2)
33) Weld film (livemovie5) and Weld: Buffalo film (livemovie16)
34) Harvest Moon (19*)
35) Unplugged album (live3)
36) and film (livemovie6)
37) Sleeps With Angels (20)
38) The Complex Sessions (livemovie7)
39) Mirror Ball (21)
40) Dead Man (minor3)
41) Broken Arrow (22)
42) Year of the Horse album (live4)
43) and film (livemovie8)
44) Silver and Gold album (23)
45) and film (livemovie9)
46) Road Rock, Vol. 1 (live5)
47) Red Rocks Live [Vol. 2?] (livemovie10)
48) Are You Passionate? (24)
49) Greendale album (25)
50) and film (movie4)
51) and documentary, Inside Greendale (movie5)
52) and concert film (livemovie11)
53) Prairie Wind (26)
54) Heart of Gold (livemovie12)
55) Living with War (27)
56) Living with War: "In the Beginning" (minor4)
57) Chrome Dreams II (28)
58) Trunk Show (livemovie13)
59) Fork in the Road (29)
60) Le Noise (30)
61) and film (movie6)
62) Journeys (livemovie14)
63) Americana (31)
64) Psychedelic Pill (32)
65) A Letter Home album - both versions + bonus 45 (33)
66) and film (movie7)
67) Storytone (34)
68) Solo Storytone (minor5)
69) Mixed Pages of Storytone (minor6)
70) The Monsanto Years album (35)
71) and film (movie8)
72) Earth (minor7)
73) Peace Trail (36)
74) The Visitor (37)
75) Paradox film (movie9)
76) and soundtrack album (minor8)
77) In London concert film (livemovie15)
78) Colorado album (38)
79) and film (movie10)
80) The Times (minor9)
81) Timeless Orpheum (livemovie17) ["livemovie16" is Weld: Buffalo, noted above]
82) Muddy Track (livemovie18)
83) Barn (39)
84) A Barn A Brotherhood A Barn (livemovie19)
85) Noise and Flowers album (live7)
86) and film (livemovie20)
87) World Record album (40)
88) and film (movie12)
88) Harvest Time (movie11)
89) BBC in Concert (livemovie21)
90) Before and After (41)
91) and film (movie13)
92) Fu##in' Up (live8)
Studio albums (including albums with only one live track, noted with an asterisk after their number): 41.
Concert albums that are also major albums, noted with an asterisk before their number: 3 (Time Fades Away, Rust Never Sleeps--two of nine tracks are studio recordings; and Life--two of nine tracks are studio recordings).
Other concert albums: 7 (Live Rust, Arc-Weld, Unplugged, Year of the Horse, Road Rock Vol. 1, Return to Greendale, Noise and Flowers, Fu##in' Up).
Minor albums: 9 (Journey Through the Past: Original Soundtrack Recordings, Eldorado, Dead Man, Living with War: "In the Beginning", Solo Storytone, Mixed Pages of Storytone, Earth, Paradox, The Times) unless Arc counts separately, in which case I would put it here; and, as seen in the Official Release Series, Young list Arc seprately, counting it as a major album.
Films: 13 (Journey through the Past, Human Highway, Ragged Glory video comp, Greendale, Inside Greendale documentary, Le Noise film, A Letter Home film, The Monsanto Years film, Paradox film, Colorado film, World Record film, Harvest Time, Before and After film).
Concert films: 21 (Rust Never Sleeps film, Live in Berlin, Solo Trans, Freedom: A Live Acoustic Concert, Weld film, Unplugged film, The Complex Sessions, Year of the Horse film, Silver and Gold film, Red Rocks Live, Greendale concert film, Heart of Gold, Trunk Show, Journeys, In London, Weld: Buffalo, Timeless Orpheum, Muddy Track, A Barn A Brotherhood A Barn, Noise and Flowers film, BBC in Concert).
And what about singles? If added as bonus tracks to the albums, then should Eldorado not count as a minor album? (If so, this would conflict with Young's decision to count it as a full number in the Official Release Series—yet another weird choice on his part, given, for example, that the Stills-Young Band album gets only a half-number) Should The Complex Sessions also merely be an E. P., obviously attached to Sleeps with Angels? This approach would not work as well for The Times. The Smell the Horse addition to Ragged Glory making the latter "23+" instead of "23" could provide a solution. (The bonus tracks on the anniversary edition of After the Gold Rush would be another "E. P." in this vein.) However, the Harvest Outtakes disc included with the box-set anniversary edition of Harvest did not receive such a mark, as the entire box, including the film Harvest Time, was given the same Original Release Series 04 designation that the orignal album already had. (This is the reason, by the way, that both Harvest Time and the B. B. C. concert included in that box are counted as part of the Original Release series.)
And promotional videos? If they're also going to be bonus tracks, then should the Ragged Glory video lose its status as a separate release? There's also another E. P. of sorts with the audiovideo portion of the D. V. D. bonus disc that came with the limited-edition version of Fork in the Road.
Compilations could be minor albums, especially since Decade was promoted heavily and featured a few previously-unreleased tracks. The other two are Lucky Thirteen and Greatest Hits. Another potential minor release is the Where the Buffalo Roam soundtrack album, to which Young contributed eight of 15 tracks. Ideally, a compilation of rarities, such as compilation appearances or tracks found only on singles, would also eventually see the light of day.
--
The Special Release Series commenced in 2017 with Hitchhiker. Uncut magazine's cover story of September of that year offers potential track listings for nine unreleased Young albums, based as they say on "research, speculation and pure guesswork." I ignore their Odeon-Budokan, though it has subsequently seen the light of day as part of the second Archives box set (titled Odeon Budokan), because it is a concert album consisting of alternate versions of songs (mostly) available as studio tracks on other albums. As such, putting it with the other unreleased albums beclouds the primary discographical conundrum here: studio versions of songs on more than one album, a problem solved in some cases by differing recordings (to start, for example, the two versions of 'Powderfinger' currently available on Hitchhiker and Rust Never Sleeps). Granted, Rust Never Sleeps consists of mostly live tracks, and generally Young has been willing to include live tracks on otherwise-studio albums, but there is nonetheless an important distinction between a song that only exists as a live track on one of Young's major albums and a live version of a song otherwise available as a studio track, and Odeon Budokan, as Uncut imagined it and as it eventually came to be, only includes examples of the latter with the exception of 'Stringman'. The version of that song found on Odeon Budokan is the unadorned live recording that Young later added overdubs to, forming the final version also unreleased until the second Archives box set came out in 2020. Another song heard on Odeon Budokan, 'Too Far Gone', also did not have its studio version, recorded in 1975, officially released until the 2020 box included it.
Homegrown:
1) Homegrown
2) Star of Bethlehem
3) The Old Homestead
4) Love Is a Rose
5) Love Art Blues
6) Homefires
7) Give Me Strength
8) Deep Forbidden Lake
9) Try
10) Pardon My Heart
11) Kansas
12) White Line
In 2020, Homegrown finally came out. The actual tracking:
1) Separate Ways
2) Try
3) Mexico
4) Love Is a Rose
5) Homegrown
6) Florida
7) Kansas
8) We Don't Smoke It No More
9) White Line
10) Vacancy
11) Little Wing
12) Star of Bethlehem
Uncut was half right.
The others:
Chrome Dreams:
1) Pocahontas
2) Will to Love
3) Star of Bethlehem
4) Like a Hurricane
5) Too Far Gone
6) Hold Back the Tears
7) Homegrown
8) Captain Kennedy
9) Stringman
10) Sedan Delivery
11) Powderfinger
12) Look Out for My Love
Oceanside—Countryside:
1) Human Highway
2) Goin' Back
3) Sail Away
4) Pocahontas
5) Lost in Space
6) Little Wing
7) Already One
8) Peace of Mind
9) Comes a Time
Island in the Sun:
1) Little Thing Called Love
2) Hold On to Your Love
3) Bad News
4) If You Got Love
5) Raining in Paradise
6) Soul of a Woman
7) Big Pearl
8) Like an Inca
Old Ways [first version]:
1) Old Ways
2) Depression Blues
3) That's Alright Mama
4) Cry Cry Cry
5) Mystery Train
6) Wonderin'
7) California Sunset
8) My Boy
9) Are There Any More Real Cowboys?
10) Silver and Gold
Times Square:
1) Eldorado
2) Someday
3) Crime in the City
4) Box Car
5) Don't Cry
6) Heavy Love
7) Wrecking Ball
8) Cocaine Eyes
9) On Broadway
Toast:
1) Quit (Don't Say You Love Me)
2) Goin' Home
3) When I Hold You in My Arms
4) Standing in the Light of Love
5) Mr. Disappointment
6) The Gateway of Love
In 2022, Toast finally saw the light of day after many delays. The track listing:
1) Quit
2) Standing in the Light of Love
3) Goin' Home
4) Timberline
5) Gateway of Love
6) How Ya Doin'?
7) Boom Boom Boom
And the Cinematic Canon. Thanks for visiting...
Photograph comes from the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, 2018, during the installation there of Giorgio Andreotta Calò's Anastasis.