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] 

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 Crispell, Mark 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.

Larry Ochs

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

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] 

Steve Adams

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