Favorite Street

 

Bruce Ackley

Note: Where possible, I've linked to the artist and recording indicated. If no useful web site appeared from a Google search, I did not provide a link. -- webmaster] 

Artist Title Label
Carlo Gesualdo Five-Part Madrigals Books V and VI Telefunken
Steve Lacy 10 of Dukes + 6 Originals Senators
Miles Davis Dig (1951) Prestige
Albert Ayler Live in Greenwich Village Impulse
Beth Gibbons Out of Season Go Beat
François Couperin 3 Leçons des Ténebres (Alfred Deller, counter-tenor) The Bach Guild Society
Grachan Moncur III Evolution Blue Note
Charles Ives Sonatas for Violin & Piano (Paul Zukofsky/Gilbert Kalish) Nonesuch
Johnny Paycheck 'The Real Mr. Heartache' the Little Darlin' Years Country Music Foundation CD
Benjamin Britten Suites for Cello (M. Rostropovich, cello) London
Warne Marsh Jazz from the East Village (1960) Wave
Dexter Gordon Master Takes -- The Savoy Recordings (1945-47) Savoy or Proper Box
Ornette Coleman Free Jazz Atlantic
Archie Shepp On This Night Impulse
Cecil Taylor Conquistador Blue Note
Sonny Rollins Work Time Prestige
Herbie Nichols Complete Blue Note Recordings Mosaic LP or Blue Note CD Box
John Coltrane Lush Life Prestige
John Coltrane Ascension Impulse
Xenakis Metastasis, Pithoprakta, Eonta Le Chant du Monde
Richard Strauss Four Last Songs (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano) Angel
Beach Boys Surf's Up Brother/Reprise
Roscoe Holcomb The High Lonesome Sound Folkways
Jackie McLean Jackie's Bag Blue Note
Morton Feldman Second String Quartet Ives Quartet HatART
Robert Johnson The Complete Recordings Columbia
Ludwig van Beethoven Op. 110 -- Piano Sonata #31 Maurizio Pollini, piano Deutsche Grammaphon



NOTABLES [a collection of memorable performances that changed my way of thinking about music]:

Evan Parker playing solo soprano saxophone in Vancouver in 1978.

Lyn Hejinian telling ghost stories and reading her work The Guard at the Clarion Café on Mission Street in 1984.

Anthony Braxton Quartet performance with Marilyn CrispellMark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway at Yoshi's (mid to late 1980s).

Mauricio Kagel live interview with Charles Amirkhanian in his Speaking of Music series at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, early 1980s.

John Zorn performance of Against the Funnel (Theatre of Musical Optics piece), my apartment SF, 1977.

Diamanda Galas Wild Women with Steak Knives live in San Francisco, 1980.

Sun Ra Arkestra performing Fletcher Henderson tunes at the Mabuhay Gardens, San Francisco 1978 (same bill with Dead Kennedys and Tuxedo Moon!).

Steve Lacy solo show at the Sweat Shop, Mission Street San Francisco, March 1999.

Shostakovich String Quartet #15 performed by candlelight by the Russian Borodin Quartet at San Francisco State, 1992. 

Roscoe Mitchell solo alto saxophone, Mapenzi Club, Berkeley, 1978.

Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Museum of Modern Art, SF June, 1975.

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Larry Ochs

 

Artist Title Label
Art Ensemble of Chicago Les Stance A Sophie Nessa
Albert Ayler Live in Europe 1964 -1966 Landmark
Orchestra Baobab Pirates Choice WCD
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five Vol 1 Columbia
Lester Young w/ Billie Holiday Lester Young Story: Volume 2 Columbia
John Zorn Locus Solus Eva (CD)
Iannis Xenakis Arditti Quartet plays Musique du Chambre disques Montaigne
Thelonious Monk First European Concert, 1961 Magnetic
Morton Feldman Piano hat Art
Derek Bailey, Tony Williams, Bill Laswel Derek Bailey, Tony Williams, Bill Laswel Arcana
Giacinto Scelsi The Collected Orchestral Works (3 Cds) Accord
Steve Lacy Estilhacos, Live in Lisbon Sassetti (LP)
John Lee Hooker Get Back Home Evidence
Ornette Coleman Love Call Blue Note
Braxton/ Roach One in Two/ Two in One hat Hut
Anthony Braxton Creative Music Orchestra, 1976 Arista
Buddy Guy I Was Walking Through the Woods Chess
Barry Guy Harmos Intakt
Olivier Messiaen Des Canyons Aux Etolies CBS
Sonny Rollins Our Man In Jazz RCA (French)
Mingus/ Dolphy Jazz Festival Antibes Giants of Jazz
The Ace and Deuce of Pipering 1906-1947 Heritage
Art Ensemble of Chicago Baptizum Atlantic
Morton Feldman Crippled Symmetry hat Art
Terry Riley The Harp of New Albion Celestial Harmonies
Frederic Rzewsk People United hat Art
Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland  
Giacinto Scelsi The String Quartets (Arditti) Accord
Edgar Varese Complete Works London

 

Ochs bonus lists:

(1) favorite Rova CDs: (no particular order)

Ptow! (Victo) great set of short Rova pieces seem to complement each other perfectly
Figure 8: (Black Saint) sax octet blows the house down
Resistance (Victo) - beautiful extended work by Wadada Leo Smith coupled with one of my favorite Rova extended works, the title track.
As Was (Metalanguage) - my favorite of the early lps

(2) favorite Rova collaborative CD:

tie: Electric Rags 2 w/ Alvin Curran (New Albion)
The Aggregate w/ Anthony Braxton ( Sound Aspects)
Electric Ascension

(3) today's favorite recently released non-Rova CD:

Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core: Stone Shift (2009) on Rogue Arts

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Jon Raskin


[Note: Where possible, I've linked to the artist and recording indicated. If no useful web site appeared from a Google search, I did not provide a link. -- webmaster] 

Artist Title Label Comment
Peter Brotzman 14 Love Poems FMP Great solo music from the great German Tenor Master
Kyle Bruckman Gasps & Fissures 482 Music solo oboe music, quiet sounds recorded really hot
Django Reinhardt The Best of Django Reinhardt Capitol/Blue Note Nice compilation of an unbelievably great guitarist
Rahsaan Roland Kirk Rip Rig & Panic/ Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith Polygram Records Essential discs from this wonderful multi instrumentalist
Sun Ra Standards 1201 Records A real delight to hear Sun Ra approach Jazz Standards
Pixinguinha Brazilian Choro Master Iris Music Pixinguinha is one of the creators of Choro which is a roots music for much of Brazilian music and can be likened to Louis Armstrong on his impact on Brazilian music.
Big Men Rai Meets Reggae Taoul/General Pattern Records A surprising blend of Rai and Reggae. They really found common ground in this meeting of very different popular musics.
John Lee Hooker Live at the Café au Go Go and Soledad Prison MCA An amazing live blues recording with Muddy Waters and Otis Spann.
Cheikha Rimitti Novar Gafaiti/Sonodisk a wonderful Rai singer
Compay Segundo Compay Seguno Antologia Nueva Sociedad Lirica An anthology of 34 songs by the amazing Compay Segundo.
Tribalistas(Arnaldo Antunes, Corlinhos Brown and Marise Monte)   Blue Note Records Modern Brazilian Pop music at its best
Rromano Suno Gypsy Music from the Balkans Passion Discs Balkan Gypsy compilation put together by Bojan Djordjevic, a knowledgeable source on the Serbian Gypsy scene and manager of Boban Markovic Orchestra.
Bebo Valdes & Diego Cigala Lagrimas Negras Calle 54 Records A fantastic Flamenco Singer with an outstanding Cuban pianist
Iannis Xenakis harpsichord solos Oophaa (1989) - harpsichord, percussion
Naama (1989) - harpsichord, percussion
Khoaï (1989) - harpsichord, percussion
À l'île de Gorée(1989) - harpsichord, percussion
Xenakis - Orchestral & Chamber Works A friend put together a CDR of them and they are amazing. Karen, Jalons, Phlegra and Thalleïn are on this particular CD but were not in my rotation but will be as soon as I find this CD.

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Steve Adams

 

Artist Title
The Best of the JB's Pass the Peas
Vinny Golia A Gift for the Unusual - Music for Contrabass Saxophone
Prokofiev & Shostakovich - Violin Concertos No. 1 Violin Concertos No. 1 - Vengerov/Rostropovich/London Symphony Orchestra
Brad Mehldau Solo Piano Live in Tokyo
Miles Davis On the Corner
David Shea The Tower of Mirrors
Hal Willner Weird Nightmare - Meditations on Mingus
Hal Willner Lost in the Stars - the Music of Kurt Weill
Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Big Band featuring Zoot Sims 1960 Zurich
Karlheinz Stockhausen Hymnen (with soloists)

 

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