If you read my review of Ornette Coleman’s brilliant recent concert at Carnegie Hall during the JVC Festival, it’s entirely likely that you might have wanted to hear it for yourself. If that’s true, waste no time in heading over to Destination Out, a fine young MP3 blog devoted to outward-bound jazz. The tone is always engaging, the reading informative and the sounds rather hard to come by otherwise. Ornette Coleman is the special feature this week — Chilly Jay Chill and Prof. Drew LeDrew talk up the Carnegie Hall hit in their latest post, but be sure to scroll down to the previous installment and sample the tracks from his impossible-to-find 1985 LP, Opening the Caravan of Dreams, recorded live during the once-invaluable Fort Worth, TX night club’s grand opening festivities. Great stuff — both the music, and the blog, which I’ve added to the newly reorganized blogroll.

Bill Frisell has a new album coming out on August 29 on Nonesuch, bearing the self-explanatory title Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian. It’s a fine, relaxed session that reunites three old friends — Motian and Carter apparently last worked together in the ’60s; the drummer played on Frisell’s second ECM set, Rambler, while Carter’s path crossed with Frisell’s on two Joey Baron-led releases from the end of the ’90s, Down Home and We’ll Soon Find Out (both on Intuition). It’s a much more successful all-star outing than Frisell’s previous set with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones, and well worth checking out.

But if August 29 is too far away, you can sate your appetite for Frisell with a new double live set, Further East/Further West. As the title implies, this is a sequel to the guitarist’s excellent bicoastal live set from last year, East/West. Like its predecessor, this is also a Nonesuch release, but don’t look for it in stores: Further East/Further West is a download-only release available from Frisell’s website. You can purchase the set in MP3 or iPod-ready AAC formats, or, for a few dollars more, lossless FLAC files; cover and traycard are also provided, in PDF format. I purchased the FLAC version a few days ago; it’s a smooth, reasonably quick process, the sound is just fine and the music, well, it’s more of the same. Which is a good thing.

Playlist:

Lamb of God – Sacrament (Epic, Aug. 22 release)

Claude Debussy – Mélodies – Gérard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin (Deutsche Grammophon)

Grateful Dead – Dick’s Picks, Vol. 19: Fairgrounds Arena, Oklahoma City, OK, Oct. 19, 1973 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)

Marc Mellits – Tight Sweater; Agu; Fruity Pebbles; Disciples of Gouda – Real Quiet (Endeavor Classics)

Mexican Institute of Sound – Méjico Magico (Nacional)

Wolfgang Rihm – Chiffre-Zyklus – musikFabrik (CPO)

Bill Frisell – East/West, Further East/Further West and Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian (all Nonesuch)