Desert Island Listening Library

HENRY KAISER
8/20/98

1) RAGA MARWA & SHREE RAG, Ali Akbar Kahn (out-of-print 2 LP set on Japanese Phillips - reissue of 2 Conoisseur LPs)
2) RAGA CHARUKESHI, Shujaat Khan & Tejendra Narayan Majmdar (India Archive, CD)
3) TROUT MASK REPLICA, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band (Warner CD)
4) SHRI CAMEL, Terry Riley (Columbia CD)
5) ANTHEM OF THE SUN, The Grateful Dead (Warners - orignal LP mix)
6) MALAGASY GUITAR, D'Gary (Shanachie CD)
7) AIDA, Derek Bailey (Dexter's Cigar CD reissue of Incus LP)
8) MOST MATERIALL, Evan Parker & Eddie Prevost (Matchless 2 CD)
9) QUINTESSENCE 1, Spontaneous Music Ensemble (Emanem CD)
10) A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON, Miles Davis (Sony Mastersound CD)
11) MALAGASY GUITAR, D'Gary (Shanachie)
12) THE FALCONER'S ARM, Robbie Basho (forthcoming 2 CD on Takoma)
13) ANTHOLOGY OF CHINESE TRADITIONAL & FOLK MUSIC: A COLLECTION OF MUSIC PLAYED ON THE GUQIN, varius artists (Carol 8 CD set)
14) BOX SET OF KOREAN TRADITIONAL AND FOLK MUSIC, various artists (out-of-print Jigu 50 LP set)
15) BABA'S SUBLIME SAROD, Ustad Allauddin Khan Saheb (SCI - All India Radio Archive Release 5 CD set)
16) RAGA BAIRAVI, Ustad Vilayat Khan (India Archive CD)
17) CECIL TAYLOR IN BERLIN '88, Cecil Taylor (FMP 12 CD set)
18) PURE GABBY (Hula original 2 LP)
19) STUDIES FOR PLAYER PIANO VOL. III & IV, Conlon Nancarrow (Wergo 2 CD)
20) LIGETI BOX SET, Gyorgi Ligeti (Wergo 5 LP or 4 CD box set)
21) MY KIND OF BLUES, B.B. King (out-of-print United Superior LP)
22) REMINISCIN' IN TEMPO WITH BALLA ET SES BALLADINS (Popular African Music CD)
23) RETURN OF THE REPRESSED, John Fahey (Rhino 2 CD)
24) VALIHA MADAGASCAR, various artists (out-of-print Ocora LP)
25) ONE TIME, Derek Bailey, John Steven & Kent Carter (Incus CD)
26) THE MUSIC OF ISLAM, various artists (Celestial Harmonies 15 CD set)
27) THE COMPLETE STAX SINGLES 1959-1968, various artists (Atlantic 9 CD set)
28) IN AN AUTUMN GARDEN, Toru Takemitsu (JVC CD)
29) ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC, (various artists edited by Harry Smith (Smithsonian Folkways 6 CD set)
30) BEAUTY IS A RARE THING, Ornette Coleman (Atlantic 6 CD set)

Comments:

Keeping in mind that the fantsy of this is that this is all that I would have to listen to for the next ten years, I tried to select things that I knew would not become boring with repeated listenings. These are recordings that I believe that I could continue to discover new things in forever. Also music that is a kind of spritual food for the soul gets a heavy bias for selection here. I tried to pick several big boxes of CDs and LPs to get more stuff to listen to also. Notice how many recording of North Indian Classical Music are here? Does that mean I value that music the most of all? Maybe.....

-Henry Kaiser

Paul Bley - getting the story straight

One night Billy Higgins said, “a friend of mine, Don Cherry, brought a saxophone player and wants to sit in”. I normally never let anybody sit in, we sent them all to Monday night and gave them to Les McCann, but because it was somebody in the band and they almost never made any recommendations for somebody to sit in we said “no problem”. After playing one set with them Charlie and I went out in the back yard and had a confrontation. We said. “Look, we have been working in this club for a long time and most probably could stay here as long as we wanted. If we fire Dave Pike and hire Don and Ornette we won’t last the week. We’ll be lucky to last the night. What shall we do?” And we looked at each other and said — “Fire Dave Pike!”

Bill Smith interviews the master pianist. Great perspectives on early free jazz straight from the horse's mouth.