SOFT WEED FACTOR [HUGH HOPPER/ELTON DEAN/DENNIS GONZALES/JIM MATUS/BILL BUCHANAN] PROCEEDED, ALBEIT ACOUSTICALLY AS PLANNED (see review at bottom) as DMG CONTINUES to PROVIDE NEWLY-RELEASED HEALING MUSICal VIBES!

THREE NEW JEWELS FROM the TZADIK WORLD of WONDERS for AUGUST, 2003!

MARC RIBOT - Scelsi Morning (Tzadik 7089) Featuring a stellar
downtown cast with Jill Jaffe & Rob Thomas on strings, Ned Rothenberg on clarinets, Anthony Coleman & Ted Reichman on keyboards, Eddie Sperry on sampler, Chris Woods on bass, Christine Bard & Roberto Rodriguez on drums/percussion and Marc Ribot on guitar & compositions. Since severing with his (3 cd) tenure at Atlantic
Records, local guitar sensation, Mr. Ribot, has been cutting loose
and blowing minds even more through gigs with the Electric Masada and
his own Mystery Trio (w/ revolving personnel). His recorded
collaborations/interpretations with John Zorn on numerous recent
'Filmworks' releases (especially '14'), as well as on 'Masada
Guitars' also show off his gifted guitar work even further. As a
composer, Ribot has been concentrating on works for dance pieces over
the past few years and 'Scelsi Morning' involves two works composed
for pieces by Wim Vanderkeybus ('Inasmuch as Life is Borrowed') and
Yoshiko Chuma ('Reverse Psychology'). Ribot has continued to refine
his darker tendencies through his writing/playing with Rootless
Cosmopolitans through Shrek and those vibes are even more focused and
affective here. "Bataille" shimmers with eerie suspense as Ned's
clarinets, Jill's violin and Marc's lonely, tortured guitar float
ominously above the gloomy drums. Although there is a minimum of
notes, Marc seems make each one count. On "Pennies from Hell", Chris
Woods' acoustic bass sets the pace, since there is no percussion
here, with the guitar, clarinet and piano being used as shades and
shadows to evoke the mysterious theme. On "Geese", Jill's strings,
Ned's clarinet and Ted's accordion create a spooky acoustic web with
just a handful of swirling notes. The four pieces for "Reverse
Psychology" are even more disturbing with fractured percussion,
violin and sampler/organ blending with Marc's distinctive string
shrapnel/styling. Ribot uses different devices and amp settings to
invoke a wide variety of dark moods and textures. As with his work
with Zorn, Ribot is endlessly inventive creating passion, drama and
strange spirits with his trusty guitar. On 'Scelsi Morning', it is
Marc Ribot's composing that has evolved and matured like fine wine
and cheese. CD release for $14.

JULIUS HEMPHILL - One Atmosphere (Tzadik 7090) Mr. Hemphill was a
legendary saxist and composer whose work stretched the boundaries
through his involvement with the Black Artists Group, World Saxophone
Quartet and his own Saxophone Sextet. This historic release presents
three wonderful works for the Pacifica String Quartet plus piano, a
flute/cello/percussion trio and an all-star woodwinds septet. The
title piece is for a string quartet with the great Ursula Oppens
(Julius' partner and to whom it dedicated) added on piano. "One
Atmosphere" is a rich, rewarding and moody work which moves through
an exquisite and fragile opening section and moves through a series
of intense rhythmic waves. "Savannah Suite" is a trio piece
performed by Marty Ehrlich on flute, Erik Friedlander on cello and
Pheeroan AkLaff on percussion. Julius often collaborated with a
cellist (Abdul Wadud), so his writing here inspires (Masada String
Trio wiz) Erik to stretch out and pluck some crafty lines of notes.
We certainly don't get to here Marty's flute often enough and he also
sounds particularly spirited. The epic length "Water Music for
Woodwinds" features Oliver Lake, Marty again, Tim Berne, J.D. Parran,
Sam Furnace, Aaron Stewart and Bob DeBellis. Julius led his own sax
sextet for the last decade of his life and they were and continue to
be an outstanding ensemble. Julius was also the main composer for
the great World sax Quartet and his writing for both groups was
consistently strong. "Water Music" was first performed in 1976, but
this is the premiere recording of this incredible work. All of the
reeds players here but Tim Berne double on flute, so there is a great
deal of effervescent flutes featured throughout. Rich and haunting
harmonies, layers of interconnected lines and short, inspired solos
flow through the many sections of the long and fascinating work. I
dig the way Julius gets those baritone saxes to jump and dance those
infectious bottom end grooves in the third section. Julius
Hemphill's talents were many and sadly, he passed away in 1995. Less
than a dozen of his projects as a leader are currently available on
cd, so this new treasure is certainly a welcome gift.
CD release for $14.

DOUG WEISELMAN - Dimly Lit (Tzadik 7515) This filmworks series
release features Anthony Coleman & Ted Reichman on keyboards, Jane
Scarpantoni, Jenny Scheinman & Charles Burham on strings, Trevor Dunn
& Don Falzone on basses, Jon Birdsong on tuba, Jim Pugliese on drums
and Doug Weiselman on everything else. Although bi-coastal,
multi-instrumentalist and composer, Doug Weiselman, has been in
numerous downtown bands (The President, Lounge Lizards & Kamikaze
Ground Crew), he often remains in the shadows as a composer himself
and this is his first ever solo effort. 'Dimly Lit' is a rich and
varied collection of some 26 pieces from seven different film scores
that Doug composed from 1996 through 2002. A number of these pieces
are solo recordings in which Doug plays and layers clarinets,
guitars, keyboards, samples and other woodwinds. What is most
magical throughout this is that all of these short pieces evoke a
wide variety of styles and moods. Folky themes, world music
influences, jazz and classical snippets, all unfold through an
enchanting kaleidoscope of subliminally connected threads. Doug does
a beautiful job of evoking dozens of images and enticing spirits for
our inner eyelid movies. A master of subtle elegance is what makes
this entire work a nice change of pace from the often overly intense
downtown spew.
CD release for $14.

Special note to Laswell fans: the Lili Haydn albu,, will be out next
week, but the Tabla Beat Science DVD has been pushed back to late
October. We therefore cannot hold off shipping any packages that have
requested us to wait till that item comes in

FRED FRITH/KEEP THE DOG - That House We Lived In (Fred Records)[2 CD
set] This was Fred's all-star, late 1980's/early 1990's touring band,
which played all over Europe and beyond, but strangely never released
anything until now! They played many songs that Fred had never done
live or not in a long while. The band at the time of these
recordings consisted of Jean Derome (saxes, flute, voice), Fred Frith
(guitar, bass, violin, voice), Charles Hayward (drums, voice), René
Lussier (guitar, bass), Bob Ostertag (sampler) and Zeena Parkins
(accordion, electric harp, keyboards, voice). There are songs from
'Gravity', 'Speechless', 'Cheap at Half the Price', Massacre's
'Killing Time' and much more. "Every Keep the Dog concert was
different. For these CDs I've tried to re-create the feeling of a
typical two-set concert. More than anything, this music demonstrates
the importance of the collective process...the musicians always had
the freedom to twist and turn the music to fit any and every
occasion."- Fred Frith. In stock in a few days! 2 CD set for

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - the meeting (Pi Recordings 07) Featuring
Roscoe Mitchell & Joseph Jarman (hooray!) on reeds & percussion,
Malachi Favors on bass & percussion and Don Moye on drums &
percussion. With the passing of Lester Bowie, trumpet hero, dynamic
performer and original band member, many wondered what would become
the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago, one of the 20th century's
greatest and most influential (ancient to modern) jazz ensembles,
whose performances and early recordings were revered with
near-religious fervor like that of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Dead
and/or P. Funk. The Art Ensemble has been a quintet since 1969, with
Joseph Jarman leaving a decade ago. They became a trio when Lester
passed, but added guest saxists Fred Anderson and Ari Brown for a few
gigs each. Each and every Art Ensemble gig and record is filled with
surprises in direction, so beginning 'the meeting' with a sort of
gospel tune called "Hail We Now Sing Joy", written and sung by
Joseph, is actually a nice surprise. The epic length "It's a Sign of
the Times" features solos from each member and begins with
ritualistic solo percussion which hovers preciously in space. Each
solos members enters one at a time, playing cautious, quirky,
flickering dialogue. The humorously titled "Tech Ritter and the
Megabytes" has a rather twisted, funky groove with both saxes
spiraling together in a grand way. "Wind and Drum" is a long and
winding work for spacious reeds and percussion which starts with calm
suspense and slowly builds with mysterious, drifting ghosts. The
title track is another great Roscoe piece which has some fine bent
double saxes spinning around one another in a furious flurry, while
the rhythm team also swirls their fire dance underneath. "Amin
Bidness" is another piece for playful, free floating sounds while
finally "The Train to Io" continues things into another hushed dream
world. There is an eloquent earthiness to this entire affair which
feels fine, like the organic way that the better Art Ensemble gigs
seem to work.
CD release for $15.

LUCIAN BAN & ALEX HARDING 5TET - Premonition (CIMP 277) Excellent new
downtown modern jazz quintet featuring Romanian pianist Lucian Ban,
Alex Harding on bari sax, Erik Torrente on alto sax, Chris Dahlgren
on acoustic bass and Damion Reid on drums. This is the second CIMP
date for Lucian and Alex, their first was a duo disc and considering
that I just met Lucian here at DMG recently, I am amazed relatively
unknown [in the U.S.] piano great. Alex Harding I know from a number
of fine bands like that sax quartet with Aaron Stewart and Hamiet
Bluitt's Baritone Nation and a couple of the cds Chris Dahlgren had
out on Koch or Enja not long ago. The alto saxist and drummer are
new names for me, but no less strong. "Harmology" opens with a hard
swinging and memorable theme, which reminds me somewhat of one of
those difficult Tristano-like tunes. Alex takes his first powerful
bari solo as Lucian swirls his dynamic sparks at the piano, also
taking a magnificent fine-tuned solo. "Serenade for Andrew" has the
feel of one of those powerful, majestic Blue Note dates from the
mid-sixties with a theme from the dark pen of Wayne Shorter. The
intense piano, bass and drums team lay down a powerful undertow as
Alex's bari sax screams on top, riding them powerful waves. Lucian
is a big fan of Paul Bley and this influence seems apparent as he
glides dynamically up and down the keys. "Mutiny" begins with some
roaring baritone as the piano also erupts with strength of quicksand
pulling us all into its hold, Erik's alto soon sails gracefully above
the turbulent currents below, threatening to swallow him up as the
waves slowly calm down to a more reflective section with a fine bowed
bass solo by Chris, then powerfully ascend again. "Chakra" is a
luscious, elegant and haunting ballad that drifts like a mist across
now calm ocean waters. The final piece, "Collision Theory" is aptly
titled as it erupts open with a strong solo from Erik's inspired alto
sax, soon all hell cuts loose as both saxes and piano swirl with
immense hurricane-like force together, the bass and drums pushing
them higher and higher. Without a doubt, one of the hottest CIMP
dates yet!! This wonderful quintet played at Cornelia Street Café
recently and our pal Peter Cox raved, so pulleaze check them out!!
CD release for $14.

LEONID SOYBELMAN w/ OTOMO/UMEZU/YASUHIRO & SACHIKO M - With Russia
From Love (No Man's Land 0128) Limited edition 25 minute cd-ep
featuring Leonid Soybelman from Nej Zdahli & Kletka Red on guitar,
vocals & casio, Otomo from Ground Zero on turntables, Kazutoki Umezu
on alto sax & clarinet and Yoshigaki on drums. Dedicated to the
late, legendary pianist/composer Sergey Kuryokhin. Live at the Merge
Music Fest in Tokyo. Like Mr. Kuryokhin, Leonid also has a twisted
sense of humor and keeps this quartet on their toes with his
unexpected twists and turns and ridiculous/silly vocal antics.
Russian folk or Broadway schtick tunes collide with noise guitar,
turntable insanity, rambunctious sax and punk rockin' drums.
Completely cool and insanely hilarious. The bonus track is a duo
with Leonid on amplified classical guitar & casio and Sachiko M on
sampler. This piece is more of a sound collage which only erupts
near the end.
Limited edition CD-EP for $12.

NIGHTWATCH - Nightwatch (Double Murder Records No #) Nightwatch are a
local duo with Warren Holt on guitar, loops & keyboards and Andrew
Hurst on tape, amp, percussion & synth. Recorded live at Foxhole
Studios in Brooklyn and recently laid upon me by Warren. Fascinating
and disturbing duo with focused layers of distortion, rhythmic noise
samples, ominous industrial loops and drones, dense feedback bursts
and well placed, yet extreme sonic punctuation. There is some sort
of primitive aesthetic involved here, as if modern society has been
broken down and all we are left with is the ruins of our technology.
Everything is falling apart and nothing remains solid or dependable.
Is this the way it really is? I am reminded of Chrome or Factrix or
Smersh (remember them?) or even This Heat, but without the beat. Is
that blurred image on the cover someone playing something or am I
just imagining it?!? Who really knows? Perhaps Nightwatch will play
here at DMG and our neighbors will flip out. Hmmmmmm. Like I said,
fascinating and disturbing simultaneously.
Full length CD for $10.

A SHORT STACK OF RARITIES, REISSUES, RESTOCKS and SALE ITEMS!

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM [DOLLAR BRAND] With DON CHERRY/JOHNNY DYANI/HAMIETT
BLUIETT/CARLOS WARD/TALIB RHYNIE - The Journey: Live At Alice Tully
Hall 9/18/78 (Downtown Sound 1002) Man! Is this a dream line-up or
what! The resurrected Chiaroscuro Records has started a sub-label
called Downtown Sound (whose mission statement includes avant-jazz
releases in the future) and among its first releases (the rest, like
almost all Chiaroscuro albums, are basically mainstream recordings)
is this gem from '78, originally on LP from Chiaroscuro and never
before released on CD. In addition to Brand, Cherry, Dyani, Bluiett,
Ward and altoist Rhynie are drummer Roy Brooks, and percussionists
John Betsch and Claude Jones. Exceptionally well recorded and
transferred: Dyani's immaculate bass playing stands out, as do all
the horns - Don Cherry is in top form here! Don't pass this up!!!
CD only release for $15.

SOFT MACHINE - Bundles (See For Miles 283) Featuring Allan Holdsworth
on lead & acoustic guitars, Karl Jenkins on oboe, soprano & pianos,
Mike Ratledge on organ, el. piano & synth, Roy Babbington on bass
guitar and John Marshall on drums. When this was first released in
1975, it was still a shock to longtime Softs fans, who had come to
expect surprises from a band that changed personnel, sound, direction
and genre with each previous record, seven from 1968 till then.
Fuzz-organ god, Mike Ratledge, was now the only remaining member, was
writing less and not very interested in leading England's best
electric jazz combo. All four other members were previously in
Nucleus, the other leading electric jazz/rock band in the UK. Newest
member was the well respected fleet fingered (fusion) guitar hero,
Allan Holdsworth. He was one the quickest and most astonishing of
all jazz/rock guitar gods and it seems he was in the right spot at
the just right time to truly shine. 'Bundles' opens with the
incredible epic, "Hazard Profile", which Jenkins had debuted on the
first Nucleus album under another name. The repeating line that this
tune is based on is one that is completely gripping, but it is the
long, super-quick, super liquid guitar solo by Holdsworth that puts
him on top of the (fusion) guitar mountain. What is most interesting
is that by this time most of my former fusion fanatic friends had had
their fill of Return to Forever and 11th House and other predictable
high-speed fusion bands. 'Bundles' era Soft Machine proved that
fusion was not completely a bad or boring thing. Karl Jenkins is now
the main composer and writes some superb material for the Softs.
Holdsworth also contributes a couple of exquisite acoustic pieces
which flow perfectly into the other great tunes that Jenkins and
Ratledge come up with. The only thing missing is Mike's customary
fuzz organ solo, which is replaced with a fairly inspired synth solo
instead. For myself and many other this was/is the perfect
intelligent and exciting fusion disc ever. Perhaps it was some
inspiration from the other Canterbury competition that had grown
during the period between 'Seven' and 'Bundles' like Matching Mole,
Hatfield & the North and/or Gong, as pointed out in the liner notes?
Jenkins' oboe and soprano sax also sound superb throughout. I was
fortunate to catch Soft Machine in NYC that same year opening for
11th House & Renaissance, and of course, they blew both of those
bands completely away. This is in fact the last great Soft Machine
disc, the last three pale sadly in comparison. If you don't already
own this, you really should, it is long out-of-print.
Last few new sealed copies to be found anywhere, as See For Miles
sadly went out of business several months ago
Out of Print CD for $20

Also available while supplies last:
SOFT MACHINE - "Softs" (See For Miles) Out of Print CD for $18
SOFT MACHINE - Alive and Well In London (See For Miles) Out of Print CD for $18

NOAH HOWARD - Patterns (Alt Sax) Incredibly rare vinyl record only
edition! Issued on his own Alt Sax label in 1971, the incredible
"Patterns" session is one of the great mystery spots in the Noah
Howard canon. Featuring Noah Howard on alto sax, bells & shakers,
vocals; Han Bennink on drums/percussion/Tibetan horn; Steve Boston
on congas; Earl Freeman on bass; Misha Mengelberg on piano and Jaap
Schoonhoven on guitar. Recorded at VPRO studios in Hilversum,
Holland in October of 1971!! We only have a few of these incredibly
rare original edition records left!
LP only release $25. (Long out of print, but we found some!)

JAZZACTUEL BOXSET- BYG/Actuel Label Sampler [3CD set] (Get Back 300)
A fantastic box set collection of avant-free/jazz and
psychedelic/early progressive music from the incredible BYG/Actuel
label from 1969-1971 and based in Paris. Featuring well-selected
tracks [one each] from Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, Archie Shepp,
Steve Lacy, Daevid Allen, Dave Burrell, Grachan Moncur III, GONG, Sun
Ra & his Solar Myth Arkestra, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Burton Greene,
Arthur Jones, Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Lyons, Music
Electronica Viva, Jacques Coursil, Andrew Cyrille, Dewey Redman,
Frank Wright, Paul Bley, Clifford Thorton and Alan Silva's Celestial
Communication Orchestra. If you don't already own any or even many
of the incredible BYG titles, this is the perfect collection to start
with. The booklet contains a great essay on all the major
avant-jazzers included here written by Thurston Moore, and the cover
is a great shot of Don Cherry in his copter hat.
3 CD set On SALE FOR $20 (Originally $35-45!!!)

THREE CLASSIC & IMPOSSIBLE-TO-FIND DISCS
FROM OUR MAN ELLIOTT SHARP!
Recently found in a treasure chest in Manhattan's East River!?!

ELLIOTT SHARP - Terraplane (Homestead 215) Featuring E. Sharp on
electric, slide and lap steel guitars, Dave Hofstra on basses and
Joseph Trump on drums. This incredible blues/rock power trio disc
must have come as a shock to those who only knew Mr. Sharp from his
work with Carbon, a colossal, industrial-strength, modern rock
quintet they had their own scary sound. Even yours truly, a longtime
fan and friend, was completely surprised at how well Elliott really
played the blues! Terraplane plays eight blues classics and four
originals with righteous and convincing authority and passion. The
classic blues tunes include "Sitting on Top of the World", "Diving
Duck", "Mystery Train", "Killing Floor" and "Dust My Broom". Even
the originals sound like inspired tributes to the blues greats of the
past. We only got a dozen of these greasy gems, so you best order
today or else you be cryin' the blues in the not too distant future.
Only a handful of copies left
Way Out-Of-PrintCD for $20.

HOOSEGOW is QUEEN ESTHER & ELLIOTT SHARP - Mighty (Homestead 232)
This is the second spectacular blues disc from our man Elliott Sharp
with the sensational vocals of Queen Esther. This time E. Sharp and
the Queen do all (but one) original tunes, with Elliott on various
and often acoustic guitars. Queen Esther has a dynamic voice,
righteous real and convincing as all get-out! Both, Queen Esther's
voice and E. Sharp's guitars, do a great job and reaching deep down
inside of the heart and soul of each of us and unleashing those dark
inner currents and releasing us all from the ball and chain of
everyday life. Queen Esther went on to collaborate with Blood Ulmer
and Mr. Sharp later put together another version of (his blues band)
Terraplane with two other fine (male) singers.
"Four Thumbs Up!" - Mannylunch . Only a handful of copies left
Way Out-Of-PrintCD for $20.

ELLIOTT SHARP/CARBON - Truthtable (Homestead 202) Carbon were an
evolving project that Elliott Sharp organized during the mid-eighties
that turned into an incredibly powerful avant-rock quintet during the
nineties and continues to evolve and exist as an orchestral ensemble
today. The quintet version of Carbon recorded some half dozen+
powerful releases during their existence and were one of the most
intense and riveting of all downtown rock/noise bands ever. None of
their great releases are currently in print, or even seem to be
reissued anytime soon. 'Truthtable' is from 1993 and features Zeena
Parkins on electric harp, David Weinstein on sampler, Marc Sloan on
electric bass, Joseph Trump on drums and E. Sharp on guitars,
mysterious voice, sampler and computer. KJ is the guest vocalist on
a couple of tracks. Overwhelming, disturbing and immensely powerful
beyond description. Play this sucker loud, so that the neighbors
will really have something to complain about!!! Yeah!!!
Way Out-Of-PrintCD for $18.

HENRY KAISER - Alternate Versions (SST 237) Rare limited edition 4
song 18-minute 3" cd-ep from our fave bay area guitar hero - Henry
Kaiser, from 1988. This features (1) "Mason's Children", a classic
and little known Dead tune that they never recorded on any official
release. Henry's great band includes Tom Constanten, a member of the
Dead around 1968 & '69; (2) an excellent vocal version of Skip James'
"I'm So Glad", made famous by Cream & early Jethro Tull, previously
released as an instrumental (3) a strange synclavier duo with the
late Russian piano legend Sergey Kuriokhin and (4) a traditional
blues duo ditty with slide guitar great Scott Colby. Henry plays
phenomenally throughout, as he always does. Should we be surprised?
Hell no!!
We got about a half dozen of these limited edition CD-EP's for only $9.

CARAVAN - The Battle of Hastings (HTD 520) Canterbury fanatic that I
am, I must admit that after five or six classic gems from 1968-1974,
Caravan records were often good, but no longer great. They finally
broke-up in the eighties, but reformed all four original members in
1990. Richard Sinclair, their original bassist/vocalist, soon left
again for good, but Caravan continued with the five original '70s
main members at the helm. They collaborated and toured with Camel a
few back and even returned to the US to play at NEARFest last year,
for the first time in 27 years. Their handful of cds during the
nineties have been spotty with only a few gems. "The Battle of
Hastings" is one of the better ones. It is a fine studio date from
1975 with the original three - Pye Hastings, David Sinclair & Richard
Coughlin plus longtime [early '70s!] members Geoffrey Richardson &
Jimmy Hastings (Pye's bro), and Jim Leverton (once of Fat Mattress).
No longer a prog band so much, but a melody-strong rock band with
mostly fine, charming songs. Very likely out-of-print, hard-to-find
and a nice treat for all of us Caravan-freaks.
Sale CD for $10. 7for 6 Sale

CARAVAN - Songs for Oblivion Fishermen (HUX 002) Twelve historic
tunes recorded for the BBC at four sessions from 1970-1074, with two
different versions of the band. Half of these tunes are from the
original classic Caravan quartet with Pye Hastings, Richard & Dave
Sinclair and Richard Coughlan, doing songs from the first three and
best Caravan albums. Although these tunes are in mono, they sound
better than the first Caravan record which was a bit muddy. That
original Caravan magic is in abundance - the blessed high vocals of
Pye and the deep vocals of Richard, that wonderful (fuzz) organ sound
and solos by Dave and the ever-enchanting tunes by the entire band.
Inspired and magical versions of "In the Land of Grey and Pink" and
"Memory Lain Hugh" and their classic epic piece, "For Richard". Over
73 minutes of pure Canterbury bliss that some of you may really need!
Sale CD for $10. 7for 6 Sale

For other choices of 7 for [the priceof] 6 CDs go to:

http://DownTownMusicGallery.com/Searching/WWW_DMG_Search.cgi

and click the "CD Sale" category, then hit "search"

A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET - SOFT WEED FACTOR at BOWERY POETRY!!!

No, it was not the average Thursday here at DMG. Usually, I am
home in Jersey but this time I came in order to prepare for our big
gig tonight with a couple of our heroes from Soft Machine & friends
and meet with my partner, Manny, in order to sign papers to begin our
own DMG ARC label [re-issues of rarities..at first]. We should have
our first gem - LAST EXIT Headfirst Into The Flames -out by late
September-early October.

We then came back to help deal with the usual chaos that makes DMG
such an exciting and insane play to work or visit: international
e-mail, fax and phone orders; an endless providing of
recommendations, histories, discographies, and other detective work;
a handful of magazines, books, videos and dvds, opinions, arguments,
the occasional thief, visits from the stars (from Matt Shipp to
Daevid Allen). But on this not-so-average Thursday, somebody upstairs
had some other plans for us.

Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean & Dennis Gonzalez stopped by at
different times on their way to a 4pm soundcheck. with Manny carting
the equipment over. I was just about to go out to buy refreshments
for our after-the-gig signing party back here. Two friends/customers
of ours had just arrived from Philly for this historic occasion when
suddenly the lights suddenly faded, the AC cuts off in 90+ hot &
humid weather. No electricity, no credit card machines, no nothing.
Turns out, its like this all over - NY state, Michigan, some of New
England and Canada and as far west as Cleveland. No traffic lights,
no subways, no trains, folks stuck in elevators, chaos in the streets.
We decided to persevere and go on with the show, perhaps the only
club in NYC that went on without electricity (much thanks to Bowery
Poetry Club honcho Bob Holman, who knows the difference between
anarchy and anarchism, and allowed us to proceed within his beautiful
club).

And you know, it really worked! Elton Dean played his trusty
saxello and alto sax sitting down and peeling off warm lines of notes
with his delectable, distinctive serpent-like tone. Dennis Gonzalez
played his mighty trumpets, consistently sailing with and weaving
lines around Elton's magical sax. Jim Matus, from the great
Paranoise, played lute, certainly a rarity to hear one live and he
would also weave lines and swirl rhythms along with Bill Buchen (from
that 'Revelator' cd) who played tablas, also sailing and navigating
his exotic rhythm pulses and dances. Obviously Hugh couldn't play
his customary electric (fuzz) bass guitar, so our good pal Virginia
schlepped some 30 hot & sticky blocks to bring him her acoustic
guitar. So, Hugh Hopper played his phenomenal, hypnotic, central
pulse bass lines on an acoustic guitar. The only lights were a
distant emergency light way above back of the stage (Pink Floyd
lighting!) and a couple of flashlights. The Soft Weed Factor Quintet
(first and only gig; Dennis had toyed with the name Soft Mechanism)
played an enchanting hour and a quarter set to about 35 folks at the
Bowery Poetry Club, including a couple of guys who trusted that we
were nutty enough to proceed and without confirmation walked the 12
miles down from the Bronx on that long-shot. This during the blackout
on August 14, 2003, when the city and connected international
electrical grid came to a complete halt!

Pretty f**king strange. Afterwards, all band-members, Virginia,
Manny & me went back to DMG to drink soda in the dark and tell
stories. Oh yeah, Manny sprayed water onto numerous passersby who no
doubt needed it and otherwise administered it to those in need of
drinks passing by on their long treks home, It was certainly a night
we will never forget.

Thanks to everyone was brave (and trusting) enough to get there and
very special thanks to Elton, Hugh, Dennis, Jim, Bill and Virginia T,
and Bob H for everything else!

JUST A FEW RECOMMENDED GIGS FOR AUGUST 15th to AUGUST, 2003:

Saturday August 15th-
RON MILES BAND at Tonic at 8pm - excellent & diverse Colorado based trumpeter!!
OTHER DIMENSIONS IN MUSIC are ROY CAMPBLL/DANIEL CARTER/WILLIAM
PARKER.RASHIED BAKR at Tonic at 10pm - always dynamite local all-star
heroes!!

Sunday August 16th-
SEBASTIAN NOELLE & MATANA ROBERTS wonderful guitar & alto sax duo
right here at DMG at 7pm for free - two strong up & coming downtown
wizards worthy of (y)our time!
DEE POP'S SUNDAY NITE FREESTYLE FEST at CB's Lounge starts at about 7pm w/

Tuesday August 19th-
MARC RIBOT MYSTERY TRIO at Tonic at 8 & 10pm! Always a blast with the
great guitar hero Ribot, but who will be the rhythm team this week?

Wednesday August 20th-
DAVE BALLOU BAND at Tonic at 8pm - diverse trumpet hero seems to pop
up all the place!
JOHN McNEIL QUARTET at Tonic at 10pm!

Saturday August 23rd-
DAVE DOUGLAS/ROSWELL RUDD QT. at Tonic at 8pm - another fabulous new
project from consistently excellent Masada & multiband trumpet star
w/ Ros Rudd, one of the most fabulous of all trombonists, since the
sixities!!
CUONG VU UNIT at Tonic at 10pm - Cuong is another great trumpeter who
is currently playing with Pat Metheny, but whose own releases
incorporate some odd looping devices!

--
Hi, we're Downtown Music Gallery and in addition to the retailing and
mail-order of an amazing assortment of jazz, improv, and progressive
rock/pop obscurities, we also do all the mail-order for the Tzadik
and Avant labels.
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For a current list of our NEW/SEALED VINYl [LPs, EPs, 12"ers], click
on or go to:

http://DownTownMusicGallery.com/WWW_DMG_Search.cgi?stocklps

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For an alternate NYC gig listing of great jazz and improv, go to

http://www.jazznewyork.org

a work of love produced and kept up-to-the-minute by Margaret Davis!

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OUR WEBSITE (DTMGallery.com) NOW HAS A SEARCH ENGINE!
Since Oct 26th '02 you are now able to search for items by
Artist Name, or Title, or Keyword In Description text (or
an"Everything Search" which encompasses these first three searches),
and/or Label, as well as othersub-search features like which items
are LP/Vinyl, or only items included in the "Buy 6, get 7th CD Free"
Sale, etc, etc, Or ANY COMBINATION OF THESE SEARCHES!
We've only loaded a small portion of the cornucopia to be found when
one visits the store - most of the recent 25 newsletters and the
complete catalogs of many of the main labels which we specialize in
and/or represent. We hope to add at least 200 items from our current
stock each week (including the contents of each latest newsletter)
until we catch up with our basic available stock somewhere in the
next few months.

You may begin using this immediately to search for stuff you remember
reading about in our newsletters (the information/compiled
newsletters at the site have never been in a [re]searchable order)
and we welcome your comments and criticisms as to how helpful you
find it.

The search page is found at
http://DownTownMusicGallery.com

____________________________________________________________

Ask to be put on our eMail Newsletter list**. We think you won't want
to miss out knowing about the unusual and hard to get Avant / Jazz /
Out / contemporary classical / and Ultra Off-beat CD and LPs we get
from the world over and report on each week.

Visit our website to see what we our collected offerings are:

http://www.dtmgallery.com/

Regards,

--DMG.

** you may unsubscribe at any time by emailing us with "unsubscribe"
in the subject.

____________________________________________________________

PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE CHANGED OUR ADDRESS!
(We are 2 blocks south of our previous location)

Downtown Music Gallery
342 Bowery
New York, NY 10012-2408
USA

(located on Bowery [aka Third Ave] between Great Jones [E. 3rd st.] &
Bond [E. 2nd st.])

Closest Subway stops:
"N" to 8th street [& Bdwy.]
"F" to 2nd Ave [& Houston]
"6" to Astor Place [aka E. 8th st. & Fourth Ave.]

Tel: 212 473-0043 / 800 622-1387
Fax: 212-533-5059

www.dtmgallery.com

dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com

Hours:
Sun. - Thurs. 12 noon 'til 9pm
Fri. & Sat. 12 noon 'til 10pm.

Closed Independence Day (7/4), Thanksgiving, Christmas (12/25), New Years Day

Sundays we have in-store concerts from 7 to 8:30, please
don't call then.