Cooper-Moore - "The Box"

[Ennis Snavely]

When I read about this in a DMG newsletter, I knew it was for me. This is a set of 7", 33rpm disks of Cooper-Moore playing, mostly, his invented instruments. It comes in a wooden box with a cover that slides off. Actually, the packaging is identical to the "Goodbye Babylon" box of vintage gospel that was released earlier this year, sans the raw cotton boils.

I've gotten to the first two disks. Beautiful! Very musical, very listenable. This is great stuff. He plays didlybow, hoe-handled harp, Astimba (a mallet instrument) and bamboo fife. This is not off-the-wall "outsider music". It's well played, well presented and gentle. If you are adverse to having to interact with a turntable, then this isn't for you. Also the selections are 2-4 minutes long, so it's not for our modern sensibility of being able to listen to an hour's of music at home without having to get out of our chair.

I actually think he should have gone all the way and released it on 10" 78s.

Anyone have any Copper-Moore recomendations? The only other thing I have him on is William Parker's "The Peach Orchard".

[Gary Sisco]

I'm pleased to say I was customer number one on this one (Root Doctor was number two), bought directly from our man Adam Lore at Vision last summer. Great box, great idea, great price. We were looking forward to it for months and it damned near didn't get ready in time for Vision. Great stuff, and surprising for many, probably, who think they know Cooper-Moore's thing(s). He has many.

Other recent recs, Snavely: "America" and "Triptych Myth" on Hopscotch, and "Deep In The Neighborhood of History And Influence." All should be readily available at DMG. "America" also has the best Assif Tsahar that I've heard. "TM" is a piano trio and a good one. And "Deep ..." is a live piano solo performance. All good stuff. A genuine culture hero, right there.

[Gary Sisco]

PS -- Adam releases excellent stuff in his 50 Miles Of Elbow Room series: two great small magazines of high quality interviews, articles and photos that no one here should be without; number three was a live concert two summers ago to benefit the late Otha Turner's family, so you missed it if you weren't there (and I missed large parts of it even though I was there! that was a full-on punk rock party); and number four is the Cooper-Moore Box. His productions are occasional but always high quality. I'd rec anything with the 50 Miles Of Elbow Room imprint or rec attached.

He's contactable through our good friends at AUM-Fidelity.

[Ennis Snavely]

My box is 380 something of 400, so I almost missed it. That's assuming that DMG's selling them in any sort of order.

[Gary Sisco]

They're not being sold in order. I chose mine based on the wood's grain pattern.

[CYMBALHOLIC]

I have to chime in and add my appreciation and additional recommendation of this box set. I've always considered Cooper-Moore an artist of tremendous depth. Having this box set, at least for me, is like having a small snapshot, framed up, of Cooper-Moore's vision. There is SO much more to his scope, but this box at least acts as a small sampling of his work. For those less familiar with his music other than only his piano music, this box set is evidence of the fact that Cooper-Moore's music isn't hinged on "style"...rather, it exemplifies the deeper *personality* that is Cooper-Moore...(at least in my opinion)

...the Storyteller.

While his instruments are certainly sacred to him...I've always been massively drawn to his story/stories, regardless of which instrument (voice, Ashimba, drums, piano, diddly-bo, flute, etc) he chooses to use. It is that foundation that makes his music so strong and so unique.

He is clear on all instruments and shares a TON of soul...from what feels ancient and yet, new.

Highly recommended. Thanks to Adam Lore for releasing this music and to Cooper-Moore for making it.




Chad

[Root Doctor]

"The Box" is an essential purchase, and I think Adam has a few left to sell.

Ennis, nice eye, re: "Goodbye Babylon." The packaging is made by the same folks.

[Lore]

Hi everybody. I've been lurking here for years. Thanks to all of you for your kind words on the Cooper-Moore set. It's great to hear that it's getting into some welcoming homes.

I do have copies of the Cooper-Moore box set available to sell and you're welcome to contact me directly at milesofelbow at hotmail dot com in order to get the details. I can also refer you to other outlets from whom it could be purchased via credit card.

I've also got an email list which provides sporadic updates on the fringe activities we engage in + the artists we cover. In the near future, we look to be getting our paws into helping to put together a couple concerts here in NYC, including gospel guitarist/singer Isaiah Owens in early November.

One of my personal favorites in Cooper-Moore's discography (back when he was known as Gene Ashton) is one of the more obscure titles: Alan Braufman's "Valley of Search" LP on India Navigation from ~1975. Really fantastic stuff on there, even if the piano is somewhat buried in the mix.

best,
Adam

Adam, you rock brother!!!(this is the same Adam from Freejazz.org, no?)

Cooper-Moore is the man.

I'm sad that I haven't ordered this gem.

[Lore]

Hey Scott! Yep, it's me, your fellow member of the Cooper-Moore Appreciation Society. You've been busy over here: >5,000 posts!

[Gary Sisco]

Adam! Speak of the devil and he doth appear.

Originally Posted by Lore

Hey Scott! Yep, it's me, your fellow member of the Cooper-Moore Appreciation Society. You've been busy over here: >5,000 posts!

I had a lot to say.

[Lore]

For anyone who might be turning up at the next WFMU record fair, I'll be there hocking my wares on Saturday, November 6. I'll be selling the Cooper-Moore box and a batch of stuff my record collection.

Isaiah Owens will also be performing at the fair that day, so we expect that he'll be at the table to sell and sign his CD.

Info on the fair is at http://www.wfmu.org/recfair/

[Uli]

For people in Chicago. Because of recent interruptions this week's schedule of the Velvet may not be widely known.

Cooper-Moore
Tom Abbs
Chad Taylor

This coming Thursday.

[Jesse]

Wish I could be there. Really dig Triptych Myth.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Really dig Triptych Myth.

Yeah, me too! Just bought it from them Thursday. Playing now! trop 5, minimum. Core to the bone.

Antoher one for my good friend Snavely: Radiance, Susie Ibarra Trio with Cooper-Moore and Charles Burnham. I've tried to hip Reynold's to it since ever it came out.

[Steve Reynolds]

I have a copy of Triptych Myth (care of a generous JCSer) and I like it very much - although I have only listened once

more comments when it has been consumed in full

[Ennis Snavely]

Moore is here in DC tomorrow with Abbs and Taylor.

[Uli]

I think you and Ms Snavely would like it very much.

[Brian Olewnick]

Very nice to meet Adam this afternoon at the FMU record fair (with Captain Hate in tow). Snared the Jim O'Rourke 7" on T of the E (Nitrogen) from his table. I think many of you would enjoy Adam's 'zine, 50 Miles of Elbow Room; interesting interview with Louis Moholo in issue #2, among other things.

[Gary Sisco]

Cool that you guys met up. The circles widen and overlap. Brian -- Totally. I've been rec'ing 50 Miles here for a couple years or more (after being turned on by Root Doctor). It's a great small magazine. If anyone sees #1 or #2, grab them. You won't be sorry.

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Very nice to meet Adam this afternoon at the FMU record fair (with Captain Hate in tow). Snared the Jim O'Rourke 7" on T of the E (Nitrogen) from his table. I think many of you would enjoy Adam's 'zine, 50 Miles of Elbow Room; interesting interview with Louis Moholo in issue #2, among other things.

Yes, it was good to meet Adam too; and also to meet up w/Ollie again of course!! Picked up a coupla things too but had to pass on the Cooper-Moore box 'cause they didn't take plastique and my cash was running low. The 'zine is very well done.

[Lore]

Very nice to meet you fellows as well --- thanks for taking the time to stop by and introduce yourselves. I apologize if I was a bit frazzled as a result of a hectic weekend of shows and record collector overload. In any case, I hope you enjoy your purchases + that we'll see each other again.

[Lore]

Perhaps this should be posted in the classifieds section, but since this thread already exists...Just a quick note to let folks know this has been reissued on CD (same material, slightly different notes), available only at 50milesofelbowroom.com , aumfidelity.com , and from Cooper-Moore as he travels the US on his imminent solo tour of the USA. Hitting the road via public transportation bus --- first stop Detroit, second stop Tupelo! --- this will be something else, so please check out the dates below + help to spread the word:


Cooper-Moore
The Cedar Box Recordings
50 Miles of Elbow Room / AUM Fidelity
CD
$13
Cooper-Moore has been active on the creative music scene for over 30 years. Recordings with artists such as David S. Ware, William Parker, and especially Triptych Myth showcased his considerable skills as a pianist. While this is the source of his greatest notoriety amongst jazzbos, he has also simultaneously developed instruments of his own design and occasionally invention. Inclusion of some of these instruments with the large ensembles of William Parker, Bill Cole, and Butch Morris gave notice to the jazz world that piano is just one part of a much greater whole that is Cooper-Moore's music.

A whole lot more of it comes together in Cooper-Moore’s solo performances, which are remarkable displays of multi-instrumental virtuosity and showmanship. He plays one beautiful handmade instrument after another in imaginative and exciting ways, all the while offhandedly bantering with the audience and offering tall tales that can be disarmingly personal and/or hilarious. The palette and emotional range of the music is quite broad, incorporating free improvisation, composed tunes, and the nether regions in between.

The first commercially available documentation of this music was issued in 2004 by 50 Miles of Elbow Room as a quintuple 7" set of solo recordings wherein Cooper-Moore played a different instrument on each side of each record. The tracks include a diddley-bo lament, a mouthbow hymn, a high energy piano improvisation, an effects-laden banjo romp, the discombobulating sound of the twanger, and plenty more. Minus the story of Reverend Love and the overdubbing on “The Death Queen,” each side of each record features a solo performance on a different instrument. Among the recording locales were a compost heap on Ward’s Island, on a footbridge, at a gig in Bordeaux, on his fire escape, and other places. Housed in a cedar wood box and pressed in an edition of 300, this went out-of-print rather quickly.

Cooper-Moore’s fall 2008 tour of the USA presented a fine excuse for a CD reissue of this material: a silkscreened, hand-numbered edition of 500 with an accompanying 20-page booklet. Co-released with AUM Fidelity, it is available only here, at AUM, and from Cooper-Moore at his gigs. Some reviews of the original release:

“Cooper-Moore is an astounding musician who has recorded far less than he ought to have over the years, and who gets consigned to a few small dustbins when he's consigned at all. He is best known for his piano work with William Parker, and to a lesser extent, with David Ware and Susie Ibarra. But he is probably most interesting as a solo performer, improvising and playing on the instruments he builds from the junk he finds around New York City. The box set “Cooper-Moore” (50 Miles of Elbow Room 5x7”) is packed in a nice cedar box, and has ten examples of him performing on various instruments - diddley bo, horizontal hoe-handle harp, ashimba, twanger, piano, mouth-bow, three-stringed fretless banjo, and so on. It is amazing stuff - really superb, powerful music rising from a variety of unknown traditions, culminating in a fantastic aerial tongue-wrestle that brings together a blinding array of free-cosmo-primitive ideologies and strategies. The set is pressed up in an edition of 300 as the fourth issue of Adam Lore's 50 Miles of Elbow Room fanzine. It comes with a 16 page booklet with art, photos, and an extensive interview, and it represents a new highpoint of something.” [Byron Coley / The Wire]

“Many Other Music customers will be familiar with Adam Lore’s journal 50 Miles of Elbow Room. For those who aren’t, it is simply one of the loveliest and most informative music journals out there, with respectful and in depth interviews and articles on everyone from Otha Turner and the Rev. Charlie Jackson to William Parker. But he's really outdone himself on this latest installment, a five 7-inch box set devoted to instrument builder and noted jazz pianist Cooper-Moore. Limited to 300 copies and housed in a cedar box, there is also an engrossing interview with Cooper-Moore where he recounts a good deal of his history and working methods. Cooper-Moore came up during the loft scene era here in New York (in the early-‘70 he set up an artists live/work space on Canal Street where David S. Ware also lived). Most of the recordings he's done since then have featured his piano playing, so it is very welcome indeed to have so many of his homemade and unconventional instruments documented in one package. He clearly has an affinity for earlier African forms and instruments, through his utilization of adapted banjos and by constructing his own xylophone-esque ashimba. There are also stunning pieces for hand held harp, diddley-bo, mouth-bow, and bamboo fife amongst others. A New York artist through and through, Cooper-Moore has recorded some of these songs outdoors on city bridges, with one session even taking place atop the Ward’s Island garbage dump. It is clear in these performances that Cooper-Moore’s musicality is one that is fully intent on capturing the listeners sense of wonder. The man is clearly a treasure, and this package goes a long way toward securing his important place in today's musical landscape.” [Michael Klausman / Other Music]

Another extensive review is found at Michael J. Kramer’s blog, Culture Rover: http://www.michaeljkramer.net/cultur...opermoore.html

(soundclips at http://50milesofelbowroom.com/new.html )

THE COOPER-MOORE SOLO TOUR OF AMERICA:
SEPTEMBER
26-FRI – Detroit, MI – Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit
28-SUN – Tupelo, Mississippi – The Link Centre
29-MON – Tupelo public school workshops
30-TUE – Tupelo public school workshops
OCTOBER
9-THU – Portland, OR – workshops in Portland
10-FRI – Portland, OR – galleryHOMELAND
11-SAT – Eugene, OR – The Jazz Gallery
12-SUN – Eugene, OR – venue TBA
14-TUE – Oakland, CA – The Noodle Factory
16-THU – Long Beach, CA – {open} books.music.magazines.art
19-SUN – Reno, NV – California Building in Idlewild Park
25-SAT – St. Louis, MO – Joe’s Cafe
29-WED – New Orleans, LA – venue TBA
30-THU – New Orleans, LA – venue TBA
November
1-SAT – Chicago, IL – The Velvet Lounge
13-THU – Mexico City, MEXICO – Festival & workshops
14-FRI – Mexico City, MEXICO
15-SAT – Mexico City, MEXICO
19-WED – Cambridge, MA – Longy School of Music
22-SAT – Philadelphia, PA – venue TBA

[Gerardo A]

Awesome! I think Cooper Moore is going to Mexico city because my friend Remi Alvarez (the tenor saxophone player) invited him to the Tlalpan Jazz Festival. Remi invited a lot of cool people from the U.S., including Dennis Gonzalez and Chris Cogburn. Anyway, hope I can catch Cooper Moore in Oakland!

[Lore]

Originally Posted by Gerardo A

Anyway, hope I can catch Cooper Moore in Oakland!

Just so you know, the venue has changed for this one, now at Mama Calizo's Voice Factory, 1519 Mission Street in San Francisco:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/45956

A second show has also been added for St. Louis at the Scott Joplin House's Rosebud Cafe on Sunday, Oct. 26, sponsored by BAG II:

http://stljazznotes.blogspot.com/sea...l/Cooper-Moore

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

I'm loving this!

Here's what I posted after a first listen on the WAYLT thread:

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

Cooper-Moore -- The Cedar Box Recordings (A beautiful album and a brilliant tour-de-force, Cooper-Moore playing solo, mostly small instruments he has made himself out of materials on hand. All of it is wonderful and some of the pieces (the bamboo fife ballad, the diddley-bo lament, and the old mouth-bow spiritual come to mind first) are magnificent. There's a real sense of connectivity in this music, to the physical world, to the community... This is a CD reissue of what was originally available as six 45s in a cedar box, with first rate liner notes and interviews by Adam Lore. I think this may be the fourth issue of Adam's journal, http://www.50milesofelbowroom.com/new.html. A very special and highly recommended document!)

On the second listen, the pieces on the Twanger and 3 string fretless banjo also stood out, but the whole album is a joy.

[Gary Sisco]

I'm happy to say I have one of those boxes of 45's.

[Lore]

Thanks a lot, Steve! I thought it would be up your alley and naturally I'm glad to hear that it is.

And of course thanks to Crispo for being customer #1 on the original box.

[Gary Sisco]

Roots must've been number two, then, because we each bought one at the same time.