Ten Recommendations

So this weekend I threw myself back into the direct downloads and as I was going down my list of links (I finished the M's) I had an idea of building up a list of ten top downloads. So here they are! 1. DJ Celine doing a mix of Afro at A Touch Of Soul

http://djclyn.free.fr/02_dj_c-lyn_eclectic280407.MP3

No tracklisting as yet but very fresh. Always great mixes on this site.

2. From Babe(L)ogue. Always tonnes to choose from, but this jumped out…

''Arabian Waltz is the pinnacle of Rabih Abou-Khalil's achievement as a composer and arranger. It is a sublime fusion of jazz, Middle Eastern traditional music, and Western classical.''

http://babeblogue.blogspot.com/2007/07/rabih-abou-khalil-with-balanescu-string.html

3. From Chocoreve, The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo: Legacy Edition

http://chocoreve.blogspot.com/search?q=byrds+rodeo

4. Zombie Heaven at Discos Ocultos

http://blaucomunicaciones.com/blogs/discosocultos/2007/07/10/the-zombies-zombie-heaven-2/
5. Thurston Moore with Rashied Ali at Big O. There’s also Miles from 59 and 69. Strange I don’t see this on the other blogrolls!!! – have got plenty of good things from here in the past too. One fixed link, scroll down and look on the left for the current ROIOs (Recordings Of Indeterminate Origin)…

http://www.bigo.com.sg/

Here's the write-up, cut n pasted...

With the atonal guitars and fancy guitar tunings, it's hard not to think of Sonic Youth as an improvisation band or an avant-garde band. And when they are really hot, their music comes across like shards of pure white noise.
In an interview with Fred Jung of allaboutjazz.com, this is what Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore said about improvisation and free jazz. [Click here for Thurston Moore's recommendations on free jazz]:
"It wasn't until I met Kim (Gordon), my wife, who plays in Sonic Youth, and she grew up listening to jazz with her friends on the West Coast, John Coltrane, etc. I became interested in it through her. I started really listening to classic Sixties jazz, to Coltrane and Mingus and to Ornette, and became very immersed in it, especially the New York school of it, and reading Leroi Jones' writings on it. Black Music, I believe the book was.
"That really opened up my ears to people like Frank Lowe and Rashied Ali and Milford Graves and some of the more expanded playing ideas. The idea of improvisation in jazz was elemental. I never really thought about it. As far as the way I was approaching music myself, the idea of creating compositions with us getting together and playing free and making composition from ideas that were coming out of this free playing, I never thought it as belonging to any school of improvisation...
"It wasn't until I saw Derek (Bailey) come to town and play a duo with Paul Motian and I saw the level of years and years of sophistication that was going into what he was doing and how pure and how simple it was and how affecting it was and that really sort of blew my mind. I started really getting involved. This is all sort of late Eighties. I just really got involved with tracking it.
"The whole thing about independent, underground punk rock music that I was involved with had to do with a whole do it yourself esthetic, outside of and below the radar of the mainstream with a network of people who were creating their own labels and distribution, which we were very proud of.
"Then I saw that this had been going on at an even more grassroots level with the global free improvisation scene, artists creating their own labels and who were buying these records? Maybe a few academics and radicals like John Zorn, but it wasn't a big music at all. It was catering to each other musically. To me, they were creating documents to communicate with each other, these records, which they would all sort of send to each other to hear."

6. Speaking Of Thurston’s list, the amazing avante-garde jazz blog Church Number Nine upped his favourite (Black Artists Group - In Paris, Aries 1973) from the list which must be worth a look… (Checking it out now as I type the post and, yes, it is excellent.)

http://churchnumber9.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to 15th June (Loads of great looking stuff there though)

7. Its all this man's fault I never get out of the house. Here’s a Gilles mix from Mixes DB dated 28.06.07

http://www.newmixes.com/download/gilles_peterson_-_worldwide-sat-06-28-2007-newmixes.mp3

Tracklist…

1. Dick Griffin – Peaceful Thinking (Trident) 2. Gerado Frisina – Stardust For Tomorrow (Sun Ra Mix) (Test) 3. Jazzistics – Untitled (Stones Throw) 4. Mtume – Yebo (bbe) 5. Tiombe Lockhart – Don’t Understand (Jazzy Sport) Tawiah Live in Session 6. Tawiah – Watch Out (Live In Session) 7. Ben Mi Duck – Stepping Back (White) 8. John Legend & Jack Splash – We Don’t Care (Test) 9. The Politik - She’s Gone (Antipodean) 10. Walter Murphy – Afternoon of A Faun (Extended Pleasure) 11. Moodymann – Freaky Mother (Test) 12. Timmy Regisford – The Poem (Restricted Tracks) 13. Maria Joao Quintet – O Ronco Da Cuica (Nabel) 14. Ithamara Koorax – Escravos De Jo (Irma) 15. Jazztronik – Bra Step (White) 16. The Mexican Institute of Sound – La Kebradita (Le Hammond Inferno mix by Holger) 17. Eva Be ft Joe Dukie – No memory of Time (Sonar Kollektiv) 18. Assim Assado - Viva Crioula (Cid) Gilles Peterson Slightly Psychedelic Mix 19. US 69 – 2069 A Spaced Oddity (Buddah Records) 20. Fifty Foot Hose – Rose (Limelight) 21. The Heavy – Bruk Pocket Lament (White) 22. The London Experimental Jazz Quartet – Destroy The Nihilist Picnic (Library) 23. Cortex – Mary et Jeff (Dare-Dare) 24. The Dragons – Are You There? (Ninja Tune) 25. Brian Auger – Straight Ahead (Rca) End of Mix 26. Kashmere Stage Band – Super Strut pt 1 (Kenny Dope Re-edit) (Now-Again) 27. D’Angelo & Questlove & Christian McBride – Funky Drummer (White) 28. Tiombe Lockhart – G.P. (Jazzy Sport) 29. The Dinner at The Thompson’s – Untitled (Earth & Wake Records) 30. The Portico Quartet – Kontiki Expedition (White) 31. Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage (Blue Note)

Which leads me here and evidently to a great new source for Gilles mixes!!!

http://www.newmixes.com/

8. And some more GP, a 2001 vintage with a big live set from Alex from Jazzanova. This was posted by Rypy at Brownswood.

http://brownswood.5.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=12953&hl=

Tracklistings - 11/4/01 (One Live In London)
Gilles Peterson
Bugge Wesseltoft - 'Changes' (Universal(White))Block 16 feat. Jhelisa Anderson - 'Find an Oasis' (NuPhonic (White))DJ Gregory - 'Block Party' (White)Osunlade - 'Ocho' (Soul Jazz White)

Alex Jazzanova
Blaze - 'Get Up' (Motown)King Britt Presents Sylk 130 feat. Capitol A - 'All the Way' (Live) (Six Degrees)Voom Voom - 'Ginger & Fred' (Compost)Jazzanova - 'That Night' (Acetate)Frank Zaffa - 'By Garsaaidi' (Orange Egg)Underwolves - 'In The Picture' (BBE)Eternal Sun - '6/8 Drumz' (Pathless Remix) (Talkin' Loud)Vikter Duplaix - 'Messages' (acapella) (MAW)Victor Davis - 'Sound Of The Samba' (Afro Gigolo/JCR)Zito Righi - 'Berimbeau' (Hot)Plaid - 'Scoobs In Columbia' (white)Nebraska/ Russ Gabriel - 'My Father' (Player)Izm - 'Outa Space' (Meitz Remix) (White)Unknown - 'Spritual' (Late nightclub dub) (Papa)E.W. Wainwright - 'The Healer' (Beatless remix) (Ubiquity)Unknown - 'Untitled' (White)Jazzanova - 'To Come' (Acetate)Bahamadia - 'I Confess' (EMI)Phoojun - 'Rainbow' (BBE)

Gilles Peterson
Petalo 86 - 'Este Lado' (Novaphonic)Cara - 'O Sapo' (RCA Victor)Big Bossa - 'Carnival Espirito' (Viktor)

9. JOHN FAHEY & CUL DE SAC The Epiphany Of Glenn Jones over at Musikalia

http://musikalia-unkle.blogspot.com/2007/07/still-life-dreaming.html

10. And the Incredible String Band at My Generation.

http://mygeneration60s.blogspot.com/2007/07/incredible-string-band-5000-spiritts-or.html

Respect and love to all the rippers and mixers. I’ll be back with more recommendations another time.