interested & capable presenters please get in touch

eremite's AMS set on new york times & jazztimes music critic nate chinen's best of 2011 list

big thanks to all the artists & labels for pressing on

sorry bamba  volume one 1970-1979  (thrill jockey)
bill callahan  apocalypse  (drag city)
gerald cleaver's uncle june  be it as i see It  (fresh sound new talent)
loren connors  red mars  (family vineyard)
alvin curran  solo work: the 70s  (new world)
miles davis quintet  live in europe 1967  (sony legacy)
farmers by nature  out of this world's distortions  (aum)
father's children  who's gonna save the world  (numero group)
jef gilson  jef gilson  (jazzman) 
william hooker & thomas chapin crossing points  (no business)
rev. charlie jackson  you got to move: live recordings vol 1  (50 miles of elbow room)
eyvind kang & jessika kenney  aestuarium  (ideologic organ)
joe mcphee quintet / earl bostic quartet  live at vassar 1970  (corbett vs. dempsey)
joe mcphee & michael zerang  creole gardens: a new orleans suite  (no business) 
joe mcphee & chris corsano  under a double moon  (roaratorio)
monomono  give the beggar a chance  (soundway)
other dimensions in music featuring fay victor  kaiso stories  (silkheart)
jim o'rourke & oren ambarchi  indeed  (editions mego)
willam parker  conversations  (rogue art) 
william parker  crumbling in the shadows is fraulein miller's stale cake  (centering)
theo parrish uget  (ugly edits)
sao paulo underground  tres cabecas loucuras  (cuneiform)
brian settles  secret handshake  (engine)
kathy sloane keystone korner: portrait of a jazz club  (indiana university press)
warren smith  dragon dave meets prince black knight from the darkside of the moon  (porter)
sun araw  ancient romans  (sun ark)
lobi traoré   raw electric blues from bamako  (kanaga systems krush)
v/a bambara mystic soul raw sound of burkina faso 1974-1979  (anaolog africa)
v/a  opika pende: africa at 78 rpm  (dust to digital)
yob  atma  (profound lore)

stuart broomer gets way into eremite's AMS set in the new issue of pointofdeparture.  "The Aboriginal Music Society belongs to an incendiary time when the boundaries between musics were temporarily falling, and the possibilities of new relationships seemed to exist everywhere. In Sultan’s avowedly social program for recording and disseminating music, there’s also an insistence on the relationships between musical and social structures and the ways they might reflect and affect one another. The special beauty of this set is the way in which it seeks to memorialize that vision."

the 100 copies of the AMS set that include the bonus promo-only 7" of 'dubbed' AMS by joshua abrams are sold out.  copies of the promo single only may still be available for you true radio raheem's out there, give me 20 D energizers!

bill shoemaker grounds the AMS story in hard demographics in the december issue of the wire.

mo' positive internet consciousness on eremite's AMS set at destination out & tinymixtapes.  & check out a seriously epic review at soundcolorvibration: "this release is not just a processed package, it’s a work of art that reflects the quality and time it really takes to produce a historical document and artifact that will last the course of time." 

bill meyer reviews eremite's AMS set at dustedmagazine.com

check out ben ratliff's new york times review of the AMS set. "a cool, collected document of a wobbly, scratchy time."

academy records at 415 east 12th street NYC has the very first AMS sets for sale. 

a nice unpacking of the AMS box set at the wire magazine tumblr

brace yo'self!  father of origin (mte-54/55/56), eremite's box set retrospective of juma sultan's aboriginal music society, appears to be on track for an october release date.  scroll it down for more details on this heretofore lost odyssey of revolutionary free music from a peak historical moment of grassroots cultural & community radicalism in jazz.  meanwhile joshua abrams is deep in the ark finishing a new natural information record for eremite.  featuring contributions from lisa alvarado, michael avery, david boykin, emmett kelly, nicole mitchell, jeff parker, tomeka reid, jason stein, chad taylor & michael zerang.  the record is certain to be a bodacious follow-up to his acclaimed 2010 natural information.  check out abrams & various configurations of the project in performance this fall

 10/11 september: guelph, ontario, guelph jazz festival nuit blanche (abrams, michael avery, emmett kelly, lisa alvarado)
16 september: chicago, chicago world music festival, mayne stage (band as above)
12 october: chicago, hideout (abrams & frank rosaly, dbl bill with abrams, jeb bishop, hamid drake, jeff parker)
15 october: cincinatti, loft jazz society  (solo abrams)
17 october: manhattan, clemente soto velez cultural center (abrams, gerald cleaver, ingrid laubrock)
18 october: brooklyn, douglas street music collective  (abrams & ben vida) 
20 october: philadelphia, ars nova workshop @ rotunda  (abrams & chad taylor)
23 october: brooklyn, zebulon  (abrams & chad taylor)
26 october: amherst, solos&duos series @ bezanson recital hall umass  (abrams & frank rosaly)
27 october: cambridge, lorem ipsum books  (abrams & frank rosaly)

big news.  eremite's next release, mte-54/55/56, juma sultan's aboriginal music society father of origin, is entering the final stages of production.  projected release date is late october or early november 2011.  founded by percussionists juma sultan & ali abuwi in woodstock in 1968, aboriginal music society was both a radical arts presenting organization & a killer band.  father of origin focuses on the earliest AMS recordings & features extraordinary contributions from frank lowe (his earliest appearance on record), abdul wadud, julius hemphill, philip wilson, gene dinwiddie & earl cross, among many others.  the AMS concept of open collective improvisation merged with swarming african-inspired drum ensemble work is certain to freak-out even the most jaded collectors & specialists.  the music will be presented in a two album, one c/d set with a fat book of ephemera & texts.  every aspect of the project produced to the highest possible standard!  rather incredibly these are the first AMS recordings ever released. 

"trumpets cussin’, saxophones, rhythm makin’ love, hustlers wearin’ fancy clothes... for me, it’s all the truth to be found, never mind who’s puttin’ it down, jazz ain’t nothin’ but soul!"  once more finitude is in place & eremite grieves the passing of joe lee wilson.  wilson founded the 1970s lower manhattan jazz loft "the ladies' fort," made memorable appearances on numerous archie shepp sides & recorded some seriously wonderful music as a leader.  his 1972 recording livin' high off nickels & dimes is one of eremite's favorite records.

on 8 june the XVI annual vision festival honors peter brötzmann with its "lifetime of achievement" award.  brötzmann joins past recipients sam rivers, muhal richard abrams, edward 'kidd' jordan, fred anderson, & marshall allen in an evolving pantheon of the jazz avant garde.  big respect to brotzmann! it's been an honor, & a pleasure. 

eremite's family gladly includes bee haven honey farm.  bee haven's been using old world methods to conjure its honey from vermont’s champlain islands since straight out of the '70s.  check out their delicious productions here.  free jazz always & eat & drink in your own way. 

"love will awaken all lovely things of the past.  drink to starlight peace."  eremite grieves the passing of billy bang, one of the great lions of the music.  a thrilling instrumentalist & performer, a beautiful composer, an indomitable spirit.  love & respect to billy bang, thanks for everything. 

1948 october 11 life magazine

check out henry english's incredible 1967 film on marion brown

eremite recording artist joshua abrams scored the music for the interrupters, the new film by steve james & alex kotlowitz, makers of hoop dreams, one of the great american films of all time.  the interrupters world premiers at the sundance film festival 21 january. 

over at wax poetics jeff parker cites natural information as one of his top ten discoveries of 2010.  there it is, again, on WFMU's beware the blog favorite sounds of 2010.  all bests for the new year dudes, wishing everyone (paul butterfield's) better days.  as lester young said, "this is later that was when."

michael slaboch & rob sevier of the fantastic numero group label both selected joshua abrams natural information among their top ten records of 2010 for pitchfork's guest list: best of 2010 feature.  so too did beggars group pres matt harmon on matador records blog.  doug mosurock faved it at dusted.   also digging NI as one of 2010's ten finest is clifford allen at ni kantu.  solid.

& now for a list of 25 2010 releases, new or archival, that made a strong impression on eremite. links provided to put your money where the music is.

jason adasiewicz sun rooms (delmark)
bonny prince billy & the cairo gang the wonder show of the world (drag city)
roy brooks & the artistic truth ethnic expressions (jazzman)
john carter & bobby bradford mosaic select (mosaic)
kevin coyne i want my crown (virgin)
daniell/fennesz/buck knoxville (thrill jockey)
formerly fat harry mariachi riff live & free music (shagrat)
edward larry gordon celestial vibration (universal sound/soul jazz)
steve gunn & john truscinski sand city (three lobed)
azar lawrence mystic journey (furthermore)
alan licht & loren connors into the night sky (family vineyard)
t.r. mahaligam mali: essential recordings of carnatic bamboo flute 1969-70 (em)
joe mcphee sound on sound (corbett vs. dempsey)
joanna newsome have one on me (drag city)
orkustra adventures in experimental electric orchestra... (mexican summer)
lee perry sound system scratch (pressure sounds)
radar favourites s/t (reel)
relatives don't let me fall (heavy light)
arthur russell/allen ginsberg ballad of the lights (presspop/audika)
wadada leo smith & ed blackwell the blue mountain's sun drummer (kabell)
cecil taylor/tony oxley ailanthus/altissima (triple point)
rafael toral space elements volume II (tiaga)
vulcan meet your ghost (lysergic sound distributors)
kanye west my beautiful dark twisted fantasy (def jam)
neil young le noise (reprise)

bonus listing
sons of negus freedom sounds (dynamic)

all best holiday regards from eremite records. eremite is chuffed to see that the wire has selected joshua abrams natural information, eremite-53 in its forthcoming 2010 rewind issue as one of the best fifty records of the year in any genre.  good taste is indeed timeless yo'.  along the same lines eremite's juma sultan aboriginal music society box set is merging nicely for spring 2011 release.

meanwhile happy yule, hanukkah, christmas, kwanzaa, chinese new year, bodhi day, etc.  

"Settle your differences, put faith in the structured wilderness of ideal and heart and love and life.

Those who will change, will change, carry me over success or failure as a matter of course, as a matter of course.

The humble sinners’ donkeys awaiting the start of a loving race without end, without end, without end through the Christmas, through the cuts, through the stares, through the jokes, through the jokes, the awful jokes, cry, cry your tears and renew your strength and renew, renew your strength.

Do beggars exist in modern cities? Can you help them? Can you smile at them? Can you charge them? Do you know them? Do you care? Somebody cares. God.

I shall never stop loving even when familiar darkness breaks wondrous happiness and pulls me to my knees.

Saints pray in their own way, pray. Let your sincerity ring, while arid eccentrics laugh for joy, dancing, dancing, helping love, help love and do it, help love and do it, sister woman sister, brother man brother, child giant children, help love, love helps the glorious wonderful wilderness, of machines, of men, speaks volumes for the white clouds of divine reason.

Saints walk past the home of eternal love, eternal love. Butchers wield holy cleavers, marchers march for truth, in the sacred cinema sits the children of the past made new by the future.

God bless the nurse, the handyman, the meter-reader, the policeman, the bar keeper, all who try for truth, for truth. God bless the proud father so that he might feel the truth about himself, dig inside till it hurts, remembering that hurt hurts, God knows everything, listen, listen. His brilliance is not a shadow, a mere reflection in a pool, He who made me fashions the minutes and minds my soul for me, bless Him. Bless Him. Settle your differences, settle your differences, settle your differences, God, settle your differences, no-one knows everything, everything." kevin coyne, "wonderful wilderness"

eremite grieves the passing of one of our favorite musicians, marion brown.   like eremite marion brown lived many years in western massachusetts.  check out this piece from today's daily hampshire gazette, with comments from numerous "valley" jazz characters.  love & respect to marion brown, thanks for everything!

stuart broomer weighs in on joshua abrams natural information

abrams natural information society autumn 2010 tour
21 october: toronto, music gallery
22 october: ann arbor, elk lodge
25 october: cambridge, harvard school of design with theaster gates sermons of the city 
27 october: montreal, casa del popolo
28 october: brooklyn, issue project room with c. spencer yeh
29 october: pittsburgh,  garfield artworks

meanwhile eremite is really digging mike watt's comments upon hearing john coltrane's "welcome" in october 2010 wire magazine invisible jukebox feature. watt says "[whispering] He just seemed like a true believer.  He really believed.  & lived it.  Took the train when I was 40.  Found out where he was buried.  Train stops off there.  Madison Square Garden to Long Island Railroad.  Had to go twice.  First time I thought I would just find it.  Amongst 2000 other graves.  Next time the gardener guy told me.  I found 'em.  & i just laid there.  Laid back on him.  Face up [laughs].

I went to the Louvre.  By accident i got first in line at a gate & i got to stand in front of the Mona Lisa & after a while start takin' (sic?) away at her face, to just her eyes.  & they were John Coltrane's eyes.  He's just somebody.  He's just a dude 'n' shit.  But the music thing, there is something about it.  Not to push others away.  It's to bring everyone on.  He was...something about it.  Beyond.  It's a promise of something.  Nobody's gonna get hurt here, nobody's going to get hated.  Everyone is going to dream their most intense dream & not be scared.  Not try to push it all the fuck away.  Ya know? Of making & creating.

Coltrane's thing is about those eyes, that horn, that sound.  Just wants to make it safe for us to go crazy.  I've got a lot of interview of him talking.  He was kinda country.  North Carolina.  Real gentle with his answers.  Lotsa time he'll preface it with 'I could be wrong.'  How about that?  & ten, 12 hours of practising, like that.  This guy I played a show with, he went to the Hiroshima show & Trane's been blowing for three hours.  Guy wants to get his album signed, goes backstage & Trane's got a towel on his head, practising!  After the gig [laughs]!  Miles writes about Trane practising after a gig.  Rashied [Ali] said he'd be at the airport & pull out the flute!  He says, 'Why? He was so good.'  I could be wrong but i think i know why.  He'd get going on something & it'd lead to other things.  He'd chase them down.  So to me, there is something about it.  Music is real strong on me.  Something about it changed my life, big time, this thing with D. Boon.  This thing.  Coltrane gave it to us.  He's a big symbol in a lot of ways.  Not a boss.  I listen to him everyday, but i cannot memorise it.  My brain is a housing barracks organizing that math of the bass --liberated." 

joshua abrams natural information society plays consecutive nights in chicago, opening for bonnie 'prince' billy & cairo gang 28 september at ronny's & 29 september at lincoln hall.  more info at drag city

joshua abrams' natural information continues to receive super-positive notices in the press.  read ben ratliff's 19 september new york times "playlist" review & brian morton's review in the october issue of the wire

michael lucio sternbach, a friend dating back to the halcyon days of eremite's amherst unitarian meetinghouse concert series, directed a cool profile of peter brötzmann that includes live footage & an interview with pb from the early 2000s.  see it here

apparently rahsaan roland kirk requested that after death his ashes be mixed with the finest gage & smoked by his friends. here's another inspired option for when the album that is life finally reaches the end.

scope the glowing early reviews of joshua abrams new eremite l/p natural information. dustedmagazine.com calls it "easily one of the best records 2010 will see."  to mark the occasion of NI's release eremite is massively discounting its last two premium vinyl releases, sunny murray's big chief & solidarity unit inc's red black & green.  buy these dudes for $17.50 rather than $25, now.  available at this special price for one week only.

eremite is delighted to see that two weeks out from its release date joshua abrams natural information tops the week's charts at CKUT in montreal, confirming yet again the city & the station's good taste.   abrams will play montreal's venerable casa del popolo october 27 on a natural information tour of the northeast, complete tour schedule to be posted soon.   thanks montreal, & see you again in "the future." 

producing small edition specialist l/ps to quality-freak standards doesn't make for meaningful promo budgets.  all the same eremite loves to hear from radio stations & programmers.  send your cool playlists & i will do my best to work with you.

best summer regards from eremite.  eremite is thrilled to be working with living legend juma sultan on a project devoted to the music & history of his band aboriginal music society.  dating from the late '60s --when juma played in jimmy hendrix's gypsy sun & rainbows--  & early '70s, the recordings feature (among others) frank lowe, abdul wadud, julius hemphill, philip wilson, gene dinwiddie, earl cross, ralph walsh, ali abuwi & rod hicks. the material is drawn from midnight concerts at tinker street cinema in woodstock, studio sessions, & new york city lofts.  organizing strong solo voices & dense collective improvisation around the elemental, downright spooky grooves emanating from the percussion section of sultan, abuwi & wilson, AMS achieved something truly unique & heavy, a supremely zoned & incantatory form of "spiritual" jazz.   the music will be presented in a two album, one c/d set with a fat book of ephemera & texts.   rather incredibly these will be the first AMS recordings ever released.  check out the vibe here: juma sultan aboriginal music society

meanwhile eremite eagerly awaits the 07 september release of joshua abrams seriously fantastic natural information l/p, see here for details & pre-order info joshua abrams natural information

finally, for now, wolfgang's vault has been posting some stupendous shit from various editions of the newport jazz festival, including 1964 concerts by george russell (with john gilmore) & max roach & the late abbey lincoln...  & today, no way!, the 03 july 1969 set by sunny murray's septet!? great performances & sound quality, unfortunately wolfgang's vault fades out "flower trane." in any case you can stream it free here: sunny at newport

video of the April 18, 2010 Peter Brötzmann / Hamid Drake duo concert at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center's SEA Theater in NYC:

	peter brötzmann/hamid drake live at the SEA Theater, NYC april 18 2010 (part one)
	peter brötzmann/hamid drake live at the SEA Theater, NYC april 18 2010 (part two)

thanks for your interest in eremite records.  mail order operations have resumed.  buy the new tour-only brö release, brö-d, here at eremite.com while supplies last, or from brötzmann & drake during their 2010 u.s.a. tour.  packaged in the same recycled heavyweight cardstock gatefold-style sleeve as earlier brö letter series c/ds, this time with hand pulled screen printed covers by our friend alan sherry/siwa records.  numbered edition of 525 copies.   best  2010 regards, eremite records