Crazy for you: Takayanagi's Mass-terpiece

Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation, a 1983 record by the late Japanese noise-guitar hellion Masayuki Takayanagi (1932–1991) is one of those albums that always going to be lurking in my attic, so to speak. I can put it away for a while, but it never goes to sleep—it's always calling me. Even if it takes a few years, I'll be back. (As an illustration of this, I obsessed over Takayanagi in a February 2007 post as well.)

It's a bashing, clanging exorcism: two electric guitars (the other played by Ikira Iijima—anyone know his other stuff?) and drum set (played by Hiroshi Yamazaki—how ’bout him?). Been checking out a lot of the earlier Takayanagi stuff from the '70s—specifically, the Archive 1 box set—and I really enjoy it, but it doesn't take me where this does. The presence of flute or sax, or Takayanagi's sparse, Derek Bailey–ish stylings, grounds the '70s music in something I already know: it's "improvised music" or it's "hyperactive free jazz." Mass Hysterism, on the other hand is an explosion. It seems almost quintessentially extreme, like the kind of thing you'd play for someone just to shock them, or to prove how masochistic your tastes really were.

But the ears adjust quickly, and you warm up to the feedback dance like a pet near the radiator. Abuse of machinery. Squalling, elevating shapes. Engines priming. Zapped technology. Screaming light. Completely undifferentiated and yet mega-eventful from moment to moment. This is a musical exercise so easily described—a FREAKOUT in the classic sense, befitting the record title—but what makes it special is the sustained nature of the performance, the diversity of the soundspace, and the frenized love the players display. Throwing themselves violently at the muse and the music, over and over and over, for something like 40 minutes. So much so that when you listen, you don't see the men, can't possibly picture them existing and deciding to do this and then, doing this. Can you imagine what it would've been like to see this live?

There's definitely a historical perspective at work, i.e., this was extreme for its time. These days, you could go to No Fun Fest, or countless similar events in basements and art spaces all over the world, and see bands like Hair Police worshipping the same ugly vibes. Also, it helps the overall mystique that info on Takayanagi is so tough to come by for the non–Japanese speaker.

What scraps of info do come through are tantalizing—see, for example, this survey of recordings by both him and sometime partner-in-crime Kaoru Abe. For one, Takayanagi seems to have been almost insufferably outspoken, intent on alienating any musician not devoted to his ultra-extreme aesthetic agenda. NPR's Lars Gotrich gives some helpful background on Mass Hysterism here, and the temporarily out-of-commission-due-to-malware-attack Destination Out has also featured compelling Takayanagi posts. I can't find any video of Takayanagi working in Mass Hysterism attack mode. There are no readily available interviews online, or step-by-step journalistic accounts of his career. (Though on the latter tip, it's important to note that as with Derek Bailey, Takayanagi did come up playing straight-ahead jazz. For whatever reason this always lends a greater gravity to free music—think of Coltrane—even if that might be dubious logic, i.e., do you really have to prove your bona fides before going off the deep end?) Just a bunch of dauntingly expensive reissues—Mimaroglu seems to have just about every one—scattershot blog posts, etc.

But for starters, all you need is Mass Hysterism: only $8 from iTunes if you're the stand-up sort, or pretty easily locatable elsewhere online if you're not picky. There are so many RIYL clichés I could—and sometimes feel compelled to—trot out when listening to this record. ("If you worship Lightning Bolt...," etc.) But does that really help anyone? Better to say: go for it.

I spun about three fourths of Mass Hysterism yesterday, and while writing this, I checked out the rest. And now I am back to the beginning. Yamazaki has unfurled his jackhammer magic carpet, and Takayanagi and Iijima are singing their apocalypse hymn. I'm not surprised at all by any of this anymore, having heard it a bunch. I'm just pleased by it. You don't have to pretend that "experimental" music is a struggle every time out, that you're some kind of freak who goes back again and again even though it hurts. Try Mass Hysterism—I think you'll like it. May it lurk in your attic for years to come.

A man needs a "Shakey": Neil Young's bio

I need to say something very simple here: Thanks to Jimmy McDonough for writing Shakey. I'm not quite through yet, but I'm reading this book—a 2002 biography of Neil Young—with such awe. It's exactly the kind of work that one wishes existed re: every artist one loves.

It's unauthorized in the strict sense, yet with full access. McDonough interviewed Young himself exhaustively, but maybe more importantly, he interviewed just about everyone who ever worked with Young and brought their opinions to NY for consideration. It's a true 360-degree portrait. (More than 300 interviews—MORE THAN 300!) And all the personality study is in service of the music. There's not a single song or album or bootleg discussed here that you don't want to run out and hear. And McDonough tells it to you straight: what's worth checking out and what's not.

Some of the reviews quoted on the book jacket have been really bothering me. Two of them use the word "maddening." One of them says "unmanageable" and "overzealous." Overzealous? Would we prefer our biographies of monumental artists to be merely zelaous, or underzealous? And what exactly is maddening about leaving no stone unturned? About doing impeccable research and synthesizing it into something lengthy (but not unreasonably so, given that we're dealing with a four-decade career here) and eminently readable? As for unmanageable, how exactly? Maybe if you'd rather read a capsule review or a blog post.

It's so wonderful to check this book out and so sad to think about how alien it seems from most writing on the internet, i.e., most writing that people read. There's no need for a curmudgeonly rant here, but there's something so pre-internet about this book. McDonough flew out to all corners of the country to visit with the major players in Neil Young's life. He worked this thing out over something like a decade, even wrangling with Young's own mixed signals, which nearly sunk the project. This is not a deadline-driven thing. It was obviously open-ended in the best sense.

It might sound "overzealous" but I think this is a heroic act: to try to make sense of a life, specifically one that is not one's own. Not a life that's worth more than other lives, but simply one that is public, that has touched a lot of people as a result of what it has yielded.

What I'm saying is that every great, public artist—every great, public human, really—deserves a Shakey, a passionate and more importantly READABLE primary-sourced guide to the person and the work and the complex solar system of friends, associates, lovers, nemeses and whatnot that made it all possible. A work that's grounded in the facts but that doesn't burden you with them. A scrapbook compiled by a true fan with the wherewithal to speak objectively.

And now, back to the 1991 NY & Crazy Horse triumph, Weld...

Earthbound: Goodbye, Fred Anderson

Photo: Fred Anderson, right, with Robert Barry—by Nathan Mandell

I realized last night that I did not say a proper goodbye to Fred Anderson. I wrote a brief, hasty obituary for the Volume, but there's more to say.

Like Bill Dixon, a contemporary whose death preceded Anderson's by just eight days, Anderson was an artist whose work I returned to obsessively. And as in the case of Dixon, what I kept searching out over and over was a sound. In Anderson's case, a very ripe, robust, steely thing that reminded me of liquid metal.

I also admired the no-nonsense-ness of Anderson's approach. He was a saxophonist who favored freeform improvisation but who was always careful to plot his own architecture as he went. When I listen to Anderson, I don't hear the quasi-religious questing evident in Coltrane and many of his acolytes. I simply hear a man working through some lines on his horn—spiraling off from metric time but always rooted in hard, hard swing and soul. It was as though he were saying to his capital-F, capital-J Free Jazz contemporaries and billmates (frequent partner Kidd Jordan among them): "I respect what you're doing up there in the stratosphere, but I have plenty of material to hash out right here on Earth."

That notion fits almost too conveniently with Anderson's status as a kind of blue-collar stalwart of the scene—staying rooted in Chicago, installing carpet or tending bar to keep his family going while his cohorts in the AACM (with whom, again, he shared very little in terms of style) brought their music to the world. But I think you can hear the humility in the playing. Anderson never doubled on another horn, never experimented much with bandbuilding or compositional form or extended techniques. He was content to write a few stark lines ("Dark Day," "Within," etc.), let those be the guideposts of his career, and just play and play.

My favorite Anderson context is the sax-drum duet. No disrespect to Interstellar Space, which I adore, but since that album has given way to so many carbon copies, it's amazing to hear an artist who approached the form in an entirely different way. And no disrespect to the Anderson's constant collaborator, Hamid Drake, but I feel that Anderson was at his best alongside two other percussionists: Steve McCall and Robert Barry. Vintage Duets, a 1980 duo session with McCall that came out 14 years later on Okka Disk, is a fine release, though the document that really gets me is an unreleased recording of the pair playing at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1986, passed to me by a friend, who got it from a friend. The music is tougher, bolder than the earlier date, yet still with this deep sense of calm. The opening 25-minute version of "Within" might be the finest single Anderson performance I've heard. I love how Anderson doesn't feel the need to ratchet up in intensity as he plays. In other words, there's no sense of that hackneyed free-jazz climax, which inevitably comes too soon and leaves the performance with nowhere to go. McCall cruises, Anderson cooks, and those are the simple revelations of the gig.

(Re: the recording mentioned above, I could easily share it online, but I'm wary of the ethics involved, especially so soon after Anderson's passing. Anyone have any thoughts on that?)

The other towering Anderson masterwork, for me, is Duets 2001, a Thrill Jockey disc featuring Robert Barry. I have pretty much zero awareness of Barry before or after this session. (I know he's worked with Ken Vandermark, but I haven't heard those records; here's a 2008 interview, which I'm going to check out as soon as I'm done with this post.) I can't even tell you how much I used to play this album. Haven't heard it for several years, but it's on now as I type. To me, this is the Truth. A center of calm. Barry heats it up at times, but the greatest moments are the sublimely laid-back tracks, like the opening "bouncing." This is go-where-it-may music, unfolding infinitely. Could stop now, could go on forever. Always swinging. It gives a feeling of air, of buoyancy—quiet, unassuming creativity that is its own reward.

Now I think I'm the one listing toward post-Coltrane-y mumbo jumbo, so I'll stop. If you haven't heard Duets 2001, though, please obtain it. It is jazz of *no school* whatsoever and yet it is most assuredly jazz. That was Anderson's gift to his musical sphere, to exist outside of stream and current and trend and yet not to deprive you of what you loved about bebop and free jazz alike. Taking the lessons he learned from Charlie Parker (seemingly his No. 1 muse), freeing them up and meditating on the results. For a long, long time.

P.S. If you like Duets 2001: Another underrated record that partakes of a similar buoyant, unhurried vibe is William Parker's Bob's Pink Cadillac, also recorded in 2001, and featuring clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Walter Perkins. I can't recommend this highly enough.

Work song: Keelhaul, household chores and the unthinking

"...with rock & roll, the more you think, the more you stink."—David Briggs, quoted in Shakey

I'm currently ensconced in the marvelous Neil Young biography cited above. In one of my favorite passages, Briggs, Young's longtime producer, rants about the pitfalls of modern recording practices ("People realized they could do their part... later. Play their part and fix it later"). Maybe there's cliché at the heart of this sentiment ("Turn off the brain" and whatnot), but is it not so true that rock comes from another place than the mind?

I have all this on the brain today—see? the brain again—at the outset of what promises to be a great holiday weekend. Watched Woody Allen's Alice this morning with my new fiancée (great movie), and then we launched into one of our epic cleaning fits. I always self-assign to doing-the-dishes duty and I actually love it. The reason is that it affords me the perfect opportunity to Rock Out to whatever music I choose for an extended, uninterrupted period.

Re: "the more you think, the more you stink," something I've noticed is that certain music can rule more the less you specifically concentrate on it—like, say, if you're doing the dishes or running on the treadmill while you're listening. Case in point: Keelhaul, a band whom I've often written about before (like here and here) and whom I've become re-obsessed with over the last few days after learning that they're playing Santos Party House in NYC on August 5 (with Unsane, can't wait). Today I blasted their latest album, 2009's Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity, as I soaped and scrubbed all the bowls, forks, knives, cutting boards, whatever. And though it was such a mundane domestic task, there was something beautiful about my ACTIVITY paralleling that of the music.

You listen to Keelhaul, in other words, and you want to work. Because what this band does best is work. They are riffsmiths, endlessly churning through labyrinthine math-metallic constructions—a practice that somehow transcends a conventional task like songwriting. Some Keelhaul songs are a minute long; some are seven minutes long. Some have vocals; some don't. Some are unrelentingly brutal; some are downright chill. But what unites all of their music is a sense of drivenness, of single-minded, less-you-think-less-you-stink MOTION.

Enslaving yourself to a riff. Is there any point to it? Well, the point is that it gets you out of your head. I've often found this at STATS rehearsals, as we cycle through repetition after repetition after repetition of a riff. It's not something you'd ever perform (unless you're Cheer-Accident doing "Filet of Nod"!), but you do it for the release, the pleasure of activity and motion and forwardness and non-static-icity and sculpting something out of sound.

That is so often the pleasure of making and listening to music for me—just being on a moving train, or somesuch. Exorcising the demons via vigorous movement. And if you're not playing music, DOING SOMETHING while listening is often the next best thing. So I wish you all activity—unthinking and nonstinking—as well as a great ROCK soundtrack this Independence Day weekend, and in that spirit, here are Keelhaul themselves, destroying the silence and the inactivity with pure WORK music in their hometown of Cleveland just a few weeks ago:

Let the record show

Good readers:

Given (1) that I am Facebookless and possess no real 'net platform aside from DFSBP and (2) that I've already informed family and many close friends of this news, I happily interrupt my typical blogging content to announce my engagement to Laal Fatima Shams-Molkara, my sweetheart of four years and omniplatform collaborator in countless life- and art-related endeavors. Details re: the when and the how of our marriage are yet a mystery to us and to the world, but for now, we simply deem one another, respectively, the One.

RIP Bill Dixon

I wrote up a brief obituary for the Volume. I'm happy at least that Dixon's last years were extremely productive ones. I'll just say here that this man's music has given me enormous pleasure over the years. It was aural quicksand, the kind of thing you wanted to sink into. For pure sound worship, the revelation of texture, Dixon's best can't really be beat. As far as the records go, Vade Mecum--an early-'90s communion with three other audio painters, including the great Tony Oxley--is probably my favorite. Another indispensable Dixon document is Imagine the Sound.

When I interviewed Dixon in 2007, I began an Invisible Jukebox-style activity with him, where I played him a selection of un-ID'd records. The exercise quickly got sidetracked but I'll never forget listening to Booker Little's "Man of Words" with him. When the track--perhaps the most weighty ballad in the jazz literature--finished, Dixon simply said, "Play that again." I did, and when it was over, I asked him if he could identify the artist. "I'm not sure," he said. "But whoever that was has spent a lot of time studying the music of Booker Little."

One idea, three ways: Voivod, Kettle Chips and the unified rock aesthetic

Blown away tonight by Killing Technology, a 1987 album by Quebec prog-thrash overlords Voivod that I picked up this afternoon on LP. As I marvel at the completeness of the vision presented here--everything plays into the sci-fi gestalt, right down to the lyric sheet, which features drummer-artist Away's brilliant ancient-to-the-future calligraphy--I think about a quote that's been springing to mind constantly of late. The source is an interview with the admirably single-minded black-metal duo Bone Awl, itself known for a striking audiovisual unity:

What I first found attractive in Bone Awl and in your label Klaxon Records, were your excellent artworks, which succeed in remaining really black-metalish while moving away from commonplaces... Did you study arts?

All together now! You write one idea in three ways. Once in music, once in words, and once in images.

To me, this is an incredibly profound distillation of what rock aesthetics should be. It's been germinating in my mind for months know, and I see and hear examples of it constantly. Utterly perfect case in point: the work of Glenn Danzig. Think of the imagery, the Misfits, Danzig and Samhain logos; now think of the goth-bluesy sounds; now think of the graphic, lurid, sumptuously dark words. ONE IDEA/THREE WAYS.

Voivod is exactly like that: Piggy's cyborg riffage; Snake's technoparanoid, Philip K. Dick-ian words; Away's gritty-fantastical graphic mania (compiled here in book form). ONE IDEA/THREE WAYS. Can't wait to dig deeper into this particular catalog.

Most of my favorite rock fits this bill: Craw (the art inside the first two records enthralls me to this day--the perfect analog for the band's smart-went-crazy flailings), ALL (can you imagine ALL's hyperactive prog-punk without its cartoon mascot, Allroy?), Morbid Angel (those riffs... that LOGO!), Rush (the arcane nobility of the tunes=the Star Man reaching ever higher), Black Flag (Ginn/Pettibon), even something like the Band (that music is inseparable from those classic old-timey photos)--I could go on and on.

I've been thinking a lot about this re: my own band, STATS. I guess what it really comes down to is brand-building, no? And not in a crass way, but you want to use all the media at your disposal to drive home the company message, as it were. That's one reason I decided a few years back to rope in my close friend Remi Thornton as our official cover artist:


































I want a unified look, as though each new release were a new flavor of Kettle Chips--a spin on a familiar template. And I also realized that, as much as I love a lot of instrumental rock, words are important to me. (Don Caballero's publishing imprint said it all: "Not the Only Music You Listen to Music.") Accordingly, vocals and lyrics are making a comeback in the music of STATS. Stay tuned as we attempt to craft ONE IDEA/THREE WAYS.

Kind readers, what are other great examples of ONE IDEA/THREE WAYS in music? Bring 'em on in the comments.

P.S. Just watched Under Great White Northern Lights, a fine recent White Stripes documentary. ONE IDEA/THREE WAYS is all over what Jack and Meg do. (Jack speaks constantly in the film of aesthetic "constriction.")

Have you seen this woman?

As reported on this blog last year, I'm currently working on a book about Ween's Chocolate and Cheese album for the 33 1/3 series. I've conducted many original interviews for the project, speaking to the band and their associates, as well as various people involved in the visual element of the album, including photographers, designers and the man who crafted the immortal Boognish belt. Basically, I'm trying to be as thorough as possible, tracking down everyone who might have an interesting story to tell about their role in Chocolate and Cheese, however minor.

But one person has eluded me, and I'm wondering if anyone out there can help. Yes, I speak of Ashley Savage, the woman whose torso adorns the album cover and who helped the image win Playboy's illustrious Sexiest Album Covers of All Time poll back in 2002. I've spoken to people who knew her at the time of the shoot, and I did manage to find the following unaired Saturday Night Live short--a Seinfeld spoof--in which she appears. (I have confirmation that the woman who plays the waitress--she first appears at :25--is in fact the same Ashley Savage.)



Long story short, I'd love to get a few comments from Ashley Savage for the book, and the clock is ticking. To my knowledge, she's never spoken about the shoot, maybe for a reason. But I'm hoping I could at least get some input re: what it's like to be immortalized in this unique context. So, good DFSBP readers, does anyone have the foggiest idea how I might reach her? I've tried going through all the obvious channels (band, photographer, design company, fellow actors in the short above, even the director of this film, etc.), but maybe there's a connection I'm missing. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you know something I may not. My e-mail address is at the top of the blog.

Time machine and namesake: Dazzling Killmen, live '94

I've often pondered the ever-fun "time machine" query, i.e., what one band or artist whom I never got to witness live would I go back and catch if I had the chance. John Bonham and Walt Dickerson are both near the top of the list, but neck and neck are Dazzling Killmen, one of my most treasured musical entities.

Below is the next best thing. In a fortunate turn of events, a pristine Killmen bootleg vid that I've had on my hard drive for ages has recently found its way to YouTube. This to me is the ideal of rock music. Better than metal, better than prog, better than hardcore -- internalizing the lessons of all while avoiding their pitfalls.

This is probably my favorite Killmen track, the epic centerpiece of their 1994 desert-island masterpiece, Face of Collapse, which I was unlucky enough to discover just after the band had broken up. Now is as good a time as any to reveal that this song, "In the Face of Collapse," is the namesake of my blog. "Dark forces swing blind punches" is simply a misheard lyric from this song (listen closely around 3:20), which I liked enough to let stick. For the record, the line is actually "Don't force it / Swing blind punches," as verified by frontman Nick Sakes, currently living in Brooklyn and prepping his latest project, Xaddax. (Guitarist Tim Garrigan now works as a rootsy solo artist; bassist Darin Gray plays in On Fillmore and various other projects; and drummer Blake Fleming can be heard in Future by Now.)

Anyway, listen, watch and marvel, and as a bonus track, here's another recently surfaced Killmen vid from an earlier vintage, crazy cable-access style:

Richard Davis at 80, part II: The archive

[Links below fixed as of Thursday, 6/3/10. They should remain active for another month, but will most likely be gone after that. If you find your way to this site after that time and would like to hear the shows, contact me at the e-mail address above.]

I'm very pleased to announce that the aforementioned Richard Davis 80th-birthday radio tribute, which aired on WKCR on May 9, is now available for download, in a tidied and considerably spruced-up version. What you'll find below: the three-hour original program (featuring various clips from my recent interview with Mr. Davis), my colleague Russell Baker's three-hour preview show--an entirely different set of music--and a selection of bonus tracks and interview clips that were intended for airplay but omitted due to time constraints.

As you can see from the track list that follows this post, we played a few well-known classics, but overall, our focus was on some of the more obscure entries in Davis's vast discography. Even with over seven hours of music, we barely scratched the surface. Any hidden RD gems that I missed? Post them in the comments. Also, NYC readers, don't forget that RD plays live at Symphony Space with Lisle Atkinson's Neo Bass Ensemble on Friday, June 11.

First, the links:

Richard Davis - Jazz Profiles - WKCR - 5.9.10, hosted by Hank Shteamer and Russell Baker:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Richard Davis - Out to Lunch (preview show) - WKCR - 5.5.10, hosted by Russell Baker:

Part I

Part II

Richard Davis - Outtakes:

Bonus tracks

*****

A few quick notes:

1) The main tribute show ("Jazz Profiles") is presented podcast-style, as several lengthy MP3s, while the preview show ("Out to Lunch") and bonus tracks are split up into individual tracks. For these latter programs, I did my best to format everything for optimum iTunes use, but there may be some inconsistencies. Check the track list below for the intended running order.

2) Richard Davis and several of the other featured musicians participated in the making of these programs. (Thanks to L.D. Levy, A. Spencer Barefield, Barbara Barefield, Joel Futterman and Frank Hiehle for their assistance.) Thus, it seems fully kosher to post all of this material for archival review. If anyone feels differently, please drop me a line.

3) These files should be available for a month, i.e, through June 17, 2010. If you find your way to this post and the links are broken, contact me and I'll try to re-upload.

4) Some of the discographical info below is sketchy or incomplete. Let me know if you can fill in any blanks or if you see anything amiss.

*****

The tracks:

Jazz Profiles: Richard Davis

Part I

- Walt Dickerson and Richard Davis - "Always Positive"
Divine Gemini, 2.9.77
RD (b), Dickerson (vb)

- RD on Walt Dickerson

- [Announcement]

- RD on Sarah Vaughn

- Sarah Vaughn - "Stairway to the Stars"
At Mister Kelly's, 8.6-8.57
RD (b), Vaughn (v), Jimmy Jones (p), Roy Haynes (d)

- Ronnell Bright - "The Champ"
The Ronnell Bright Trio, 6.5.58
RD (b), Bright (p), Art Morgan (d)

- Ronnell Bright - "Easy Listening Blues"
[Same as above]

- [Announcement]

- RD on Alan Dawson

- Booker Ervin - "Number Two"
The Space Book, 10.2.64
RD (b), Ervin (ts), Jaki Byard (p), Alan Dawson (d)

- Jaki Byard - "Hazy Eve"
The Jaki Byard Experience, 9.17.68
RD (b), Byard (p)

- [Announcement]

- Eric Dolphy and Richard Davis - "Come Sunday"
Iron Man, 7.1.63
RD (b), Dolphy (b-cl)

- RD on Eric Dolphy

- Andrew Hill - "Premonition"
Compulsion, 10.8.65
RD (b), John Gilmore (b-cl), Freddie Hubbard (tp), Hill (p), Joe Chambers (d), Nadi Qamar (thumb piano), Renaud Simmons (percussion)

- RD on Andrew Hill and Dolphy's encouragement of his arco playing

- [Announcement]

- RD on Heavy Sounds

- Elvin Jones and Richard Davis - "Summertime"
Heavy Sounds, 6.19.67
RD (b), Jones (d)

- [Announcement]

- RD on Astral Weeks

Part II

- Van Morrison - "Sweet Thing"
Astral Weeks, 10.15.68
RD (b), Van Morrison (g, v), John Payne (flute), Jay Berliner (g), Connie Kay (d), Larry Fallon (string arrangements)

- RD on Bruce Springsteen

- Bruce Springsteen - "Meeting Across the River"
Born to Run, ??.??.75
RD (b), Springsteen (v), Randy Brecker (tp), Roy Bittan (p)

- [Announcement]

- RD on L.D. Levy

- Richard Davis and L.D. Levy - "Little She-Bear"
Cauldron, 1.13.79
RD (b), Levy (flute)

- Andrew Hill - "Blue Black"
Nefertiti, 1.25.76
RD (b), Hill (p), Roger Blank (d)

- [Announcement]

- RD on David Young

- David Young - "Pisces on the Cusp"
David Young, ??.??.71?
RD (b), Young (ts), Sonny Fortune (flute), Virgil Jones (tp), Harold Mabern Jr. (p), Idris Muhammad (d)

- RD on John Lewis

- John Lewis - "Games"
P.O.V., ??.??.75?
RD (b), Lewis (p), Mel Lewis (d)

- [Announcement]

- RD on Song for Wounded Knee

- The Richard Davis Trio - "America the Beautiful?"
Song for Wounded Knee, ??.??.73?
RD (b), Joe Beck (g)

- The Richard Davis Trio - "The Rise and Fall of Tricky Dick"
[Same as above]
RD (b), Beck (g), Jack DeJohnette (d)

- Richard Davis - "Fancy Free"
Fancy Free, 6.30/7.1.77
RD (b), Joe Henderson (ts), Eddie Henderson (tp), Stanley Cowell (electric piano), Billy Cobham (d)

- [Announcement]

Part III

- Richard Davis and Joe Henderson - "On the Trail"
Way Out West, 6.30/7.1.77
RD (b), Henderson (ts)

- Richard Davis - "Oh My God"
The Philosophy of the Spiritual, ??.??.71?
RD (b), Chick Corea (p), Sam Brown (g), Bill Lee (b), Sonny Brown (d), Frankie Dunlop (percussion)

- [Announcement]

- Richard Davis and Tine Asmundsen - "R&T"
Madison, 10.20-21.07
RD (b), Asmundsen (b)

- Richard Davis and John Hicks - "Skylark"
The Bassist: Homage to Diversity, ??.??.01?
RD (b), Hicks (p)

*****

Preview show

Part I

1. Don Friedman - "Wakin' Up"
Metamorphosis, 2.22.66
RD (b), Friedman (p), Attila Zoller (g), Joe Chambers (d)

2. Don Friedman - "Spring Sign"
[Same as above]

3. Don Friedman - "Troubadours Groovedour"
[Same as above]

4. [Announcement]

5. Charles Lloyd - "Sweet Georgia Bright"
Discovery!, ??.??.65?
RD (b), Lloyd (ts), Friedman (p), J.C. Moses (d)

6. Charles Lloyd - "How Can I Tell You"
[Same as above]

7. [Announcement]

8. Clifford Jordan - "Dick's Holler"
These Are My Roots, 2.1,17.65
RD (b), Jordan (ts), Roy Burrowes (tp), Julian Priester (tb), Cedar Walton (p), Chuck Wayne (g), Albert "Tootie" Heath (d)

9. Clifford Jordan - "Take This Hammer"
[Same as above]
add Sandra Douglass (v); omit Wayne; omit Walton

10. Clifford Jordan - "Goodnight Irene"
[Same as "Dick's Holler"]
omit Burrowes; omit Walton

11. [Announcement]

12. Ricky Ford - "Loxodonta Africana"
Loxodonta Africana, 6.?.1977
RD (b), Ford (ts), James Spaulding (as), Oliver Beener (tp), Charles Sullivan (tp), Janice Robinson (tb), Jonathan Dorn (tb), Bob Neloms (p), Dannie Richmond (d)

13. Ricky Ford - "Blues Peru"
[Same as above]

14. Ricky Ford - "My Romance"
[Same as above]

15. [Announcement]

16. Eddie Harrs - "Smoke Signals"
Silver Cycles, ??.??.68
[Personnel announced after the tracks]

17. Eddie Harris - "I'm Gonna Leave You All by Yourself"
[Same as above]

18. Eddie Harris - "Little Bit"
[Same as above]

19. [Announcement]


Part II


20. Earl Hines - "Bye Bye Baby"
Spontaneous Explorations, 1.17.66
RD (b), Hines (p), Elvin Jones (d)

21. Earl Hines - "Smoke Rings"
[Same as above]

22. Earl Hines - "Shoeshine Boy"
[Same as above]

23. Earl Hines - "Bernie's Tune"
[Same as above]

24. [Announcement]

25. Ben Webster and Joe Zawinul - "Too Late Now"
Soulmates, ??.??.63
RD (b), Webster (ts), Zawinul (p), Philly Joe Jones (d)

26. Ben Webster and Joe Zawinul - "Come Sunday"
[Same as above]

27. [Announcement]

28. Eric Kloss - "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise"
Grits & Gravy, ??.??.66
RD (b), Kloss (as), Jaki Byard (p), Alan Dawson (d)

29. Eric Kloss - "You Don't Know What Love Is"
[Same as above]

30. Eric Kloss - "Milestones"
[Same as above]

31. [Announcement]

32. Andrew Hill - "Two Lullabies"
Lift Every Voice, ??.??.69
RD (b), Hill (p), Carlos Garnett (ts), Woody Shaw (tp), Freddie Waits (d) + vocal choir conducted by Lawrence Marshall

33. Andrew Hill - "Love Chant"
[Same as above]

34. Andrew Hill - "Ghetto Lights"
[Same as above]

*****

Bonus tracks

1. Elvin Jones - "Everything Happens to Me"
Dear John C., 2.23.65
RD (b), Jones (d), Charlie Mariano (as)

2. Dizzy Gillespie - "Birk's Works"
Live at the Village Vanguard, 10.1.67
RD (b), Gillespie (tp), Pepper Adams (bs), Ray Nance (violin), Chick Corea (p), Elvin Jones (d)

3. Thad Jones/Mel Lewis - "The Waltz You Swang for Me"
Monday Night, ??.??.68
RD (b), Jones (flugelhorn), Lewis (d) + full personnel here

4. Richard Davis and Freddie Hubbard - "Muses for Richard Davis"
Muses for Richard Davis, ??.??.69?
RD (b), Hubbard (tp)

5. Richard Davis - "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise"
[Same as above]
add Roland Hanna (p), Louis Hayes (d); omit Hubbard

6. Richard Davis - "Julie's Rag Doll"
Dealin', 9.14.73
RD (b), David Spinozza (g), Paul Griffin (organ), Freddie Waits (d)

7. Phil Woods - "Samba du Bois"
Musique du Bois, 4.14.74
RD (b), Woods (as), Jaki Byard (p), Alan Dawson (d)

8. Richard Davis - "Take the A Train"
Harvest, 5.3,16.77
RD (b), James Spaulding (as), Marvin Hannibal Peterson (tp), Ted Dunbar (g), Bill Lee (b), Billy Hart (d)

9. David Murray - "Santa Barbara and Crenshaw Follies"
The Hill, 11.29.86
RD (b), David Murray (ts), Joe Chambers (d)

10. A. Spencer Barefield - "Raise Four"
After the End, ??.??.87
RD (b), Barefield (guitar), Oliver Lake (as), Hugh Ragin (tp), Andrew Cyrille (d)

11. Joel Futterman - "I Never Knew Her Name"
Vision in Time, ??.??.88
RD (b), Futterman (p), Joseph Jarman (ts), Robert Adkins (d)

12. RD on Booker Little

13. RD on Coltrane, Ayler

14. RD on Stravinsky

15. RD on the Retention Action Project