Pretty good. Been keeping busy with the jazz fan / instrument builder / English teacher thing. How are things back in Slovakia?



I've always had the best luck converting skeptical rock fans with Ken Vandermark's various projects. School Days and the Vandermark 5 are two great free leaning bands that have roots firmly in jazz tradition. The Scandinavian group Atomic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtUunKmshBs) is another good one.
For whatever reason I think Chicago's jazz scene tends to be a lot more accessible than other parts of the world. Check out the aforementioned Ken Vandermark, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Fred Anderson, Peter Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtWHFDb193Q) etc. etc. etc. The Sun Ra Arkestra also have pretty strong roots in Chicago.
I think Billy Bang from New York is another good person to start with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twXG6YAiWFQ
Misha Mengelberg and his ICP Orchestra are also instantly likable.

Toilet and Bowels recommendations are pretty solid too.

Maybe if you get into that stuff go back to the originators and give Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor a try.

Tokyo also has a pretty fantastic and unknown young jazz scene.

Some favorites:
Shibusa Chibizu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwSJv...eature=related
OKHP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knoC3...eature=related
Suga Dairo (also in above clips): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0zzghIiAco
The Space Baa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJNC0FnWA-M
Oncenth Trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaLDhwBLnEo

very good, thanks.

Katarina says hi to you as well.

Just found Heddy Boubaker on soundcloud. I'm really enjoying it. It's legions away from free jazz, ostensibly, but I think it illustrates well quite how far we've come from free jazz in the last 40 years or so. Terrible songnames, but the work on Proletarian Revolution is pretty amazing - there's some lovely melodies buried in there.

Fuck, this is my favourite thread recently.

ok i meant to post here yesterday but things got busy.

nice to see hevusa did a 180 on the subject. as t&b recommended, go see some jazz live. in dc there's HR57 which is a nonprofit for jazz preservation-- used to be on 14th street, not sure today. they get all kinds of musicians. also, bohemian caverns has jazz but i don't know what's the lineup. a number of places in dc used to have live jazz, especially around the U street area-- you gotta explore and follow a bit, but i even saw live jazz in a pizzeria in takoma park. i used to be in the mailing lists of various musicians when i lived there. DC is a jazz town-- still, it's not going to be that easy to find free jazz, but you might get lucky.

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so for the rest of you-- wonderful links! will take me a day and a half to explore.

if you're interested in writing reviews/ stories/ news/ profiles/ interviews/ personal anecdotes/ random stuff in a free-jazz related blog please drop me a PM.

of course we don't have any money to pay, but there might be a little bit further down the road, if things pan out (who knows-- it's an experiment). but even if we go broke-- do it for the glory (or simply for the mercenary reason to get links to your website/music project/etc).