Downtown music

Theo Bleckmann + John Hollenbeck : "Static Still"

2012-01-15T04:23:00.000-08:00

(GPE)

The human voice is presumably the most immediate and touching instrument in music. Even more so if it is masterfully flowing between pure emotions and subtle abstractions as it is the case of Theo Bleckmann. The highly distinguished vocalist from Dortmund, who has been based in New York for many years, doesn’t need lyrics to communicate impressive sentiments. In contrast to some of his colleagues in the crossover field of jazz, improvisation and contemporary music, Bleckmann doesn’t identify himself as an artificial vocal acrobat, although he would undoubtedly be capable of doing so technically. Eccentric vocal caprioles have always been used sparingly with Bleckmann; where others get lost in excessive deconstructions, he always keeps the song in mind".

Norbert Krampf

"Defying categorization has become as predictable as any of the old categories ever were. It's simply really: just reference music without committing to any of it. So how beautiful it is to hear two players who explode all boundaries with their embrace-who commit to all, and all at once...a rich and strange world of noise, motion and melody, all of it infused with wit and unerring musicality. The myriad strains are all there, from country to jungle to operatic, but they're drawn out with a tender glance, not a wink."

Mark Fefer (Seattle Weekly)

HERE

Reuben Radding trio : "Intersections"

2012-01-04T05:48:00.000-08:00

(Pine Ear Music, 2005)

Themes are often somber and long-limbed, with large interval leaps that inspire the trio to stretch phrasing and loosen tempo to the point of open-ended entanglements that spontaneously reshape the music from the inside. Matt Moran’s vibes brighten the ensemble palette, whether in rattling, resonating solos, bowed to create hazy, shimmering harmonics, or sparsely yet percussively comping underneath Oscar Noriega’s deft, rhapsodic, slightly tart clarinet. The key to Radding’s compositional approach lies in the program’s final piece—an arrangement of the sixth movement of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, where the extended melody is given a light swing feel and used as a “head” for solos, while motifs are fragmented and abstracted to serve as accompaniment. Throughout the disc, the trio alternates between this chromatic harmonic syntax and Webernesque melodic contours spun like spider webs, upon which they improvise with tightly focused interaction."

Art Lange (Point of Departure)

HERE

Brian Allen trio : "Synapse"

2011-12-24T04:55:00.000-08:00

(Braintone, 2006)

Trombonist Brian Allen brings a burst of energy to contemporary creative music on Synapse (his fifth release), as his trio fits melody, harmony and rhythm into a mixed bag of free-flowing ideas. Tony Malaby plays a major role on this album too, as he helps steer the trio toward more outside adventures. Along with Allen and drummer Tom Rainey, he provides multi- directional flavors that keep the session on edge.
Veterans all, the three artists hail from points west: Rainey from Southern California, Malaby from Southern Arizona and Allen from Southeast Texas. With their free attitude on display, each participates equally, pushing each improvised piece with unbridled passion. The scenes rise and fall as the mood shifts, but the trio never boils over. They control each situation so that impressions remain vocal-like and natural. Malaby's aromatic tenor wafts melodic while Allen drives in circles of animated motion and Rainey colors with aplomb. Cohesive, the trio takes cues from each other gracefully and soars eloquently. With a great respect for poetry in motion, the trio uses most of its energy to work collectively, creating three-way scenes that reflect different impressions. "Tageshif drives powerfully with a forceful manner while "Espancino dances joyfully in celebration of the trio's free spirit. "Tenrayle begins with a quiet lull that morphs gradually into a soulful, vocal-like moan while "Expecade includes bombs from the drummer and wails from the two horns. Unique through its original instrumentation and free through its wide-ranging array of impressions, Allen's trio provides a lively yet integrated program of avant-garde jazz.

Jim Santella (All About Jazz)

HERE

Ben Stapp trio : "Ecstasis"

2011-12-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

(Uqbar, 2008)

It's a prime example of the new globalism. California-born tubist Ben Stapp graduated from UCLA, studied with English tuba master Roger Bobo overseas, then spent additional time studying in Portugal before returning home to record his debut album, Ecstasis. Demonstrating nimble dexterity and a keen melodic sense, the youthful Stapp holds his own in the heavyweight company of saxophonist Tony Malaby and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.
Tuba driven small combos were a favored line-up of saxophonists Arthur Blythe and Sam Rivers during the seventies loft era; the tuba helped reestablish a historical connection between free jazz and the rich polyphony of early jazz styles such as Dixieland and ragtime. Stapp mostly avoids such pre-swing forms however, tending towards a slightly modal pan Asian aesthetic. Malaby's serpentine soprano and muscular tenor musings, Takeishi's scintillating Taiko influenced percussion and the leader's euphonious bass lines congeal into an exotic mosaic of plangent themes and soaring motifs. Modal structures notwithstanding, Stapp also works conventional chord changes, thorny counterpoint, and elastic rhythms into his tunefully accessible, yet harmonically intricate writing.
The trio vacillates between the written and improvised with poised authority and an empathetic rapport that blurs the line between freedom and form. Stapp's melodious variations complement Takeishi's ceremonial fanfares and kaleidoscopic accents, providing the trio with a harmonically solid, yet rhythmically fluid foundation that veers from buoyant to introspective. Malaby reigns in his extroverted tendencies, splitting his time evenly between soprano and tenor, while embellishing Stapp's memorable themes with lyrical restraint.
Despite the limited instrumental palette, Stapp utilizes an array of inventive arrangements to provide the trio with ample space for individual expression. Unaccompanied cadenzas, intimate duets and collective improvisation are all featured alongside more conventional devices, like hypnotic bass ostinatos and concise call and response, keeping the structures malleable and joyously unpredictable.
A credit to both the trio's conversational interplay and Stapp's resilient writing, the session flows with the graceful logic of a suite rather than a collection of disparate tunes. Ecstasis marks the solid debut of a fresh, new voice.

Troy Collins (All About Jazz)

HERE

Dynamite Club : "The legend of tiger mask"

2011-11-29T11:07:00.000-08:00

(Big Sleep records, 2002)

Imagine the sixteen year-old siblings of Mr. Bungle -- still relatively unskilled, far too easily excitable, and frightened by the prospect of a good drugged-out dirge -- fronted by a screamer with nary an intelligent thought in his head. This is Dynamite Club. Self-described kung-fu rockers and purveyors of "retard-core", this New York City trio clearly own most of the Boredoms' recorded output and hold something more than a passing fancy in Zappa at his most obtuse. After dramatic string swells and improvised clanks and clutter, album opener "Cutt Ball" settles into a spastic burst of arty punk for barely a minute before the track concludes. The majority of the selections follow the same trajectory -- just take your pick: "Nicole Kidman Shades", "Pissed Off Pussies", "Suck A Nice Love Song". They all begin as something akin to blues rock, ascend into unrefined jazz-rock and then explode in a massacre of drum rolls and squawking, distorted guitars. Insert quirky, tasteless and often unintelligible lyrics masked in numerous special effects and you've got the formula all sorted out. It's like a shot of caffeine in the middle of a dead sleep, followed by a smack in the head.
Not for the faint of heart, nor for the academic set, The Legend of Tiger Mask is certainly ill-advised for the wee hours of the morning.

Mike Baker (Splendidezine)

This is some questions and responses (?) for (and from) Dynamite Club in 2004 :

HC (« Houston Calling ») : How did Dynamite Club come together?
MP (Mike Pride) : The same radioactive gamma rays that brought Thor and the Incredible Hulk together in 1984.
KS (Kentaro Saito) : I started this when I found out that BFA in Jazz ain’t worth a cent. Mike joined when original drummer was too busy making cocktails. Byrne joined when the bassist of the time decided to search a light in jazz again.
HC: What do consider to be your musical influences?
KS: American music.
BK (Byrne Klay) : Anything that makes me smile.
MP: Jim Hall.
HC: What’s your take on the state of the music industry? Are you for or against the MP3 “revolution”? How are you using the internet as a tool to market the band?
MP: It takes me 20 f***ing minutes to write an email on my sh***y computer. Don’t talk to me about the internet.
BK: It doesn’t matter what we think. Things are the way they are and we all have to adapt. Entertainers are whores.
KS: I would be happy if Santa decided to give me an i-pot.
HC: If you could have any band cover one of your songs, what song would it be and what band?
KS: I would like to see Meat Loaf singing “Spritual.”
MP: Diana Krall doing “Junkies.”
BK: David Lee Roth should sing “Tight Pants.”
HC: How would you describe Dynamite Club’s music/sound to someone who has never heard it before?
MP: Noise-Math-Jazz-International-Seizure Core, or any combination of the 5. You choose. That is what promoters are paid to do.
KS: It’s deep.
HC: What is the one description that you hate to hear about your music?
BK: I don’t know if the music is serious enough to warrant an offensive misunderstanding.
KS: It’s deep. “Hate” sounds as strong as “Love.”
MP: “I think this guy is going through a mid-life crisis.”
HC: What is on your CD player right now?
BK: David Allan Coe, Van Halen, and Megadeth. I’m a redneck at heart.
KS: Devo.
MP: Dust.

HERE

Lucien Dubuis trio : "Tovorak"

2011-11-25T11:52:00.001-08:00

(self-produced, 2005)

Lucien Dubuis answers the musical question which Miles Davis' later bands always sought to resolve. Why can't jazz bands be entertaining like rock bands? Dubuis tackles that one on Tovorak while shaking you, sometimes violently.
Sure sure, jazzbos have injected punk attitude and funk into their music for some time. Think of early Ken Vandermark with Big Head Eddie, John Zorn and Marc Ribot's 1980s Knitting Factory work, and the Lounge Lizards. All shared rock sensibilities, their real musical heritage and upbringing.
Enter Swiss-born saxophonist Lucien Dubuis, who has enough attitude to hold his own with punks, neo-cons and George Clinton! Tovorak is a followup to his trio's 2001 disc Sumo. Powered by the well-placed heavy bass licks of Roman Nowka, Dubuis powers through this disc, alternating between the squawking alto saxophone and the deep notes of his bass and contrabass clarinets. Yes, he fires up sounds from the deep darkness of bass clarinet-ville.
The deep tones raise the reggae beat of "Bal les masques!, making it an especially interesting composition played against the Hammond organ. When he's not mixing unusual combinations, Dubuis brings the funk, as on "Non pas and the P-Funk/blues thriller "Mammouth. The group gets to a Blue Oyster Cult sound on "Insomnia before breaking up somewhere (hopefully) over an open ocean. Boom!
This band isn't just rocking in the free world here; on "Boubouille and "La goutte au nez, the trio pieces together some slow-paced and adventurous sound explorations.
These blues children fashion their basic premise from the blues. Combining heavy beats and an exceptional feel for the deep notes of Dubuis' clarinets, this is a special recording.

Mark Corroto (All About Jazz)

« A tremendous roar of life. Simple and heart-wrenching. Lucien Dubuis' music is the result of new definitions, new horizons. Simultaneously modern and primitive, it achieves to be concept-driven while using a teenage language of revolution. Imagine a chromosomic mingling of a touch of John Coltrane genes and the DNA of the Beastie Boys: the Lucien Dubuis Trio just enjoys playing the jazz stuff, just as Madonna would enjoy sex after a year in jail, with lust! »

HERE

Rick Peckham trio : "Left End"

2011-11-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

(Perfected Music, 2004)

There aren't many jazz guitarists around who'd namecheck Paul Kossoff, Billy Gibbons or (gulp) Ritchie Blackmore as influences, but Rick Peckham's not your average jazz guitarist by a long chalk. Though he's a new name to me, his CV includes work with Dave Liebman, Mike Gibbs and John Medeski, but most suprising is the fact that he's been teaching guitar at Berklee's Jazz department for the best part of 20 years.
While Berklee's come to be associated with a highly technical approach to improvisation that's produced a seemingly endless stream of heavy metal bebop guitarists(Mike Stern's got a lot to answer for), Peckham's music is a joyful, boisterous union of rock, er,'primitivism' and seat-of-the-pants improv.
Peckham's raw, wiry Telecaster lines thrash and ooze their way round the tumbling dialogues of double bass and drums (Tony Scherr and Jim Black respectively). Unlike many of his peers Peckham doesn't go for oodles of techie effects. There's a smattering of delay, a touch of distortion, but that's pretty much it.
Importantly though, Peckham's understanding of rock guitar goes way beyond the application of the odd power chord or turning his amp up to 11. THough his technique's pretty impressive, it doesn't get in the way, and there's a feral energy to his chordal slashes and bluesy, tumbling runs that'd give Marc Ribot a run for his money. Add to that a slightly cerebral approach to soloing (not unlike the off-kilter logic of Bill Frisell at his best) and you've got a pretty potent combination.
Black is the ideal drummer for such a venture; his economical, crisp timekeeping can pack a hefty punch ("Gibbons") or the lightest swish ("Soporific"). Scherr is right behind him, unfazed by the testosterone on display. It's the double bass that gives the music its character; Scherr's agile touch and elastic, resonant toneadds a touch of warmth and space that stops the whole thing turning into power trio cliche.
After tributes to Billy Gibbons and Neil Young, the triohead back towards jazz country with their flying leap at the oblique pleasures of Monk's "Evidence". Black and Scherr play cat 'n' mouse with each other as Peckham whips out a thoughtful, restrained solo.If you're like me, you'll find yourself clapping at the end of it (but make sure no-one's around or they'll laugh at you). Very, very nice.

Peter Marsh (BBC)

HERE

Dejan Terzic' Underground : "Continuum"

2010-10-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

(Gramofon, 2008)

This is the second CD of my work with "Underground" and its inspiration and interpretation of Balkan Folk music.
Wheras the first CD - Underground - deals more with interpreting folk songs and melodies, now this new piece of work is focused on original material. Apart from "Somborska", which has the original title "U tem Somboru" and is an old folk song that I have rearranged, I have written all the music on this CD.
By doing so, I was trying to capture the mood, the atmosphere and the "melos" of old folk songs, since this is the realm I am mostly occupied with. ("melos" in the sense of return to Romanticism, and "occupation" in the sense of Passion).
But what exactly is "melos" in the context of folk songs ? Most of the traditional folk songs are written in a minor key - people from the south region mostly prefer sad songs in minor keys,even if its out of pure joy and happiness.
Neither in folk dances nor in in wedding songs, the minor key - with its intonation of gravity and severity -seems to be inevitable. Even without grief there is always grief,even without wailing the mood is always elegic. Its emotional impact - chastity,joy,cry,laugh,desperation,hate,love - it all seems to be combined in those songs .
By using original material I was trying to present my own musical point of view. Continuum expresses my ongoing obsession and belonging to these musical roots, without its inspiration and impact, no creative activity would ever arise. Sombor was chosen out of pure love to the song - melody,rhythm,structure,lyrics - and without any national or geographical preference whatsoever.

Dejan Terzic

HERE

John Zorn as guest with his warrior soul and game calls

2010-10-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, John Zorn was used to play with many musicians worldwide : in eighties, he could experiment with his horn inventing new musical forms ("Locus Solus" period and his first "file cards" use for example). Perhaps, he was looking his way multiplying meetings everywhere with everyone.
In nineties, he founded a communauty of musicians (such a downtown "all-stars"), one label (Tzadik) and a not-for-profit performance space (The Stone). Actually, it looks like a (very) close environment where it focuses more on personal compositions a bit similar each time, refining them continuously (Masada stuff, Moonchild project, The Dreamers group). Anyway, we can be much less surprised and/or confused today and sometimes, boredom can arise... This playlist suggests to listen John Zorn armed with his saxophone serving others when his attack playing was not yet a... gimmick.

1- "Art Thieves"/Wayne Horvitz
2- "No place fast"/Wayne Horvitz
3- "Augury"/Charles K. Noyes
4- "Bleed for the mind"*/Toy Killers
5- "Improvisation"/Toy Killers
6- "Hand tech"/David Moss
7- "Husk when time"/David Moss
8- "Shuffle boil"/Hal Willner
9- "Happy end"/Hall Willner
10- "Give it to me"/Rochester/Veasley band
11- "Purged specimen"/Blind Idiot God
12- "Koseinenkin Hall II"/Valentina Ponomareva
13- "Rictus"/Slan
14- "Zog"/Slan
15- "Blood sucking freaks"/Torture Garden
16- "JZ/BK"/Buckethead
17- "E.S.T."/Hoppy Kamiyama
18- "Au naturel"**/Hoppy Kamiyama
19- "Improv 1"/Duck Baker
20- "Improv 5"/Duck Baker
21- "I don't like myself"/Sion
22- "I do love you a little"/Seigen Ono
23- "Reached Moon Tower"/Seigen Ono
24- "Law"/Music Revelation Ensemble
25- "Devotion"/Music Revelation Ensemble
26- "Proof"/Music Revelation Ensemble
27- "Backbeat"/Music Revelation Ensemble
28 & 29- "Adon Olom"(instr./vocal)/Gary Lucas
30- "Sandman"/Gary Lucas
31- "The reanimator 1.0"/Raz Mesinai
32- "Macunaima"/Cyro Baptista

notes :

1), 2) from "Simple facts" with Wayne Horvitz, Geordie Gillespie, Joe Gallant, David Sewelson (Theatre For Your Mother, 1980)
3) from "The world and the raw people" with Charles K. Noyes (Zoar, 1982)
4), 5) from "The Unlistenable years" with Toy Killers : Charles K. Noyes & M.E. Miller (guests* : Bill Laswell & Elliott Sharp) (UgExplode, 1982)
6), 7) from "Full House" with David Moss (Moers, 1984)
8) from "That's the way I feel now : a tribute to Thelonious Monk" with Arto Lindsay, Wayne Horvitz & M.E. Miller (A&M, 1984)
9) from "Lost in the stars : the music of Kurt Weill" with Luli Shioi, Bobby Previte, Jim Staley, Guy Klucevsek, Carol Emmanuel & Fred Frith (A&M, 1985)
10) from "One minute of love" with Gerald Veasley, Cornell Rochester, Willie Williams, Uri Caine & Gene Terramani (Gramavision, 1985)
11) from "Undertow" with Blind Idiot God (Enemy, 1988)
12) from "Live in Japan" with Valentina Ponomareva (Leo, 1989)
13), 14) from "Live at the Knitting Factory, vol. 3" with Elliott Sharp & Ted Epstein (Knitting Factory, 1990)
15) from "Devil from the East : a decade of Yoshida Tatsuya" with Torture Garden (Bloody Butterfly, 1991)
16) from "Company91" with Buckethead (Incus, 1991)
17), 18) from "Welcome to forbidden paradise" with Hoppy Kamiyama, Marc Ribot, Sebastian Steinberg, Dougie Bowne, E.J. Rodriguez & Steve Eto (plus Otomo Yoshihide**) (Toshiba Emi, 1992)
19), 20) from "The Ducks Palace" with Duck Baker & Cyro Baptista (Incus, 1993)
21) from "I don't like myself" by Sion with Marc Ribot, Robert Quine, Sebastian Steinberg, Michael Blair & Charles Giodano (Baidis, 1993)
22), 23) from "Bar del Mattatoio" with Bob Stewart, Bobby Previte, Marc Ribot, Jill Jaffe & Maxine Neuman (first track) ; with Hirotaka Izumi & Seigen Ono (second track) (Saidera, 1995)
24), 25), 26), 27) from "Cross Fire" with James Blood Ulmer, Calvin Jones & Cornell Rochester (Diw, 1997)
28), 29), 30) from "Busy being born" with Gary Lucas, Greg Cohen & Jonathan Kane (Tzadik, 1998)
31) from "Cyborg acoustics" with Raz Mesinai, Shelley Hirsch & Tim Barnes (Tzadik, 2004)
32) from "Banquet of the spirits" with Cyro Baptista, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, Brian Marsella & Tim Keiper (Tzadik, 2008)

HERE

NB : This playlist is dedicated to marvelous E-Mile blog. Thank you for the inspiration.

http://e-milesaysongsdothematter.blogspot.com/

Pierre Audétat : "Iota Horologi"

2010-08-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

(Tadeo, 2003)

Pierre Audétat is a swiss musician born in Lausanne in 1968. Pianist-keyboardist, composer and remixer, he has developed a game based on the instrumental sound-sampling in general assigned to studio productions but used in concert as an instrument itself.
At age 6, Pierre is already a self taught pianist. At 11, Gerard Lecoat gave him his first insight of Jazz. He then studied at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern. He played with numerous jazz formations and at age 24, he's a member of the prestigious Piano Seven Ensemble. Surprisingly in 1988, Pierre is more and more attracted by electronic music, specifically by the sampler... In 1991, Pierre joined with rappers to form the group Silent Majority : their sound was a blend of instrumental, sampler, rap, and rhythm. In addition to Pierre, Silent Majority consisted of Marcello Giuliani (Bass), Christophe Calpini (Drums), and regular guest Erik Truffaz (Trumpet). He developed then a very personal way of composing using the sampler as a live instrument like Mark De Gli Antoni (Soul Coughing) or Peter Scherer (Ambitious Lovers). Since then, Pierre is a very thought after musician and he's featured in many projects such as Sens Unik, Nils Petter Molvaer, LTJ Bukem... After a New York trip during six months, he recorded with two fine musicians from downtown scene : Brad Shepik & Mark Feldman. Most recently, he create Stade, a freewheeling electronic duo. In 2008, he write a magnificent soundtrack for the « La vraie vie est ailleurs », a magnetic film by Frédéric Choffat.

nb : this is his commentary about his NYC stay but in french only, sorry !

« Si tu es musulman, tu vas faire ton pélerinage à La Mecque. Quand tu t’intéresse au jazz, c’est tout de même intéressant de faire un pélerinage à New York. Je ne dirais pas que c’est le top, parce que je vois plutôt mon avenir en Europe qu’aux Etats-Unis. Mais j’avais envie de m’imprégner de
l’énergie qu’il y a là-bas, parce que ce n’est pas un mythe. Il faut bien voir que la plupart des musiciens qui vivent à New York sont des individualistes qui bossent énormément et atteignent souvent un niveau musical impressionnant. Il y a aussi un fort sens du partage, ce qui est naturel vu la taille de la ville et le foisonnement de musiques. Il y a trop de gens à rencontrer et d’expériences à faire pour rester chez soi. Les musiciens ont ces deux côtés prononcés: d’une part un énorme travail de pratique individuelle, et d’autre part la faculté de se lancer à l’eau sans problème quand ils rencontrent des collègues. J’ai fait une excellente expérience à New York, où j’ai pu aussi travailler un peu en studio, afin de gagner quelques sous pour payer l’appartement. Les responsables du studio étaient contents d’avoir trouvé quelqu’un qui joue du sampler. Il était intéressant de constater que tous ces studios ont une collection luxueuse d’échantillons sonores. Tout est pré-produit, mais c’est embêtant à utiliser parce que ce n’est pas spontané, alors que dans ma petite boîte personnelle, il y avait peu de choses, mais plus de sons utilisables. Je me suis rendu compte que même à New York, le travail personnel sur l’échantillonnage ne court pas les rues. La norme reste les collections d’échantillons industriels: une section de cuivre bon marché, un batteur bon marché pour remplacer les musiciens. Je n’ai pas rencontré beaucoup de musiciens qui jouent vraiment du sampler. Et le seul avec qui j’ai collaboré m’a confirmé qu’il y avait peu de ressources dans ce domaine ».

HERE

Power Tools : "Strange meeting"

2010-08-04T03:22:00.001-07:00

(Island/Antilles, 1987)

What do Power Tools sound like ? Jazz ? Rock ? Maybe like Tipper Gore on acid inside yo momma's microwave. Or like a thinking person' metal band. A polyrhythmic mélange of modern electronic soul that sorts out and supercharges the multitudinous musical sign-posts and insights of the past 25 years. The way guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Melvin Gibbs & drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson improvise collectively recalls the more innocent, inquisitive days of the late 60's, when fledgling bands like the Tony Williams Lifetime tried (artistically) and failed (commercially) to suggest that John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix could hear ear to ear-were talking the same language. « Well, there's all this music in the air », Bill Frisell opines softly. « It's not even a question of trying to play in a style anymore- I'd like to play them all at once. With Melvin & Shannon, They have a way of modulating through rhythms where all this tonality and movement comes right out of the drum-I can play anything next to that. Some people seem to think I only play in one style based on a lot of the records I've been involved with : « you're an ECM guitarist ». You know, like is that supposed to be an insult or something ? » he giggles. « Power Tools is the first time I've experienced a sense of hearing the way I really play on record ».
Strange meeting contrasts Frisell's elusive, off-speed lyricism, gigantic echoing waves of chords, tolling bell tones, fervent blues cries, with the physicality of Gibbs's alligator-wrestling earth moans and Jackson's fisti-cuffian left-right combos. « Because Bill's sound and concept takes the edge off of a power-trio format, he puts the edge back on », Gibbs smiles. « He brings out the rhythm section, and returns the focus to the drum like in music from Chad and the Cameroon, where the melodicism comes directly out of the rhythm. We're a little like the africans, in that we try to modulate the rhythm, rather than simply modulating the strict meter. Playing like this you really have to listen in a holistic way, be conscious of the democracy of music, It's not about majority rules.
« We're trying to extend phrases rhythmically », Jackson emphasizes, « so, it's not about a 4/4 beat or a ¾ beat, but a compound beat. The Power Tools are orchestrating each other continuously ; if you play rhythms you don't have to be so concerned with strict time. People have told us we sound like Cream or Hendrix. I had to go back to find their music and discover what people were talking about, and I discovered that we all grew up listening to a lot of blues and jazz. But for me, coming from Texas like I do, and having had the experience of working with musicians like Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and James Blood Ulmer, I developed in a different direction. The way melvin and I play together is forceful, but we stay out of your way ».
« It's funny how a lot of my ballad and pop compositions end up in a country mood », Gibbs notes. « Bill's too. But there's that country element in african music as well. That's where the banjo comes from. George Jones is really popular in Africa. « Wadmalaw island » is for my father and it's about where he grew up off the coast of south Carolina. He said it sounds just like home, and people used to listen Jimmie Rodgers there. The first cash-money gig I ever had was at O'Lunney's, a country bar on Second Avenue. I played all my Chuck Rainey and and Jerry Jemmott licks : there was this chick singing and playing autoharp, all fit », he laughs.
Gibbs pauses and reflects slowly on the contrasting intensity of feelings depicted cinematically in his composition « Howar Beach memoirs », the album's anthemic centerpiece.
There's a lot of things going on in New York city that people don't like to talk about, and the violence of that incident brought it to the surface. You're minding your own business and people choose to see you in a certain light which has nothing to do with who you are. And you don't want to react, but you either fight or run or die. « It shouldn't be about hatred. It's about truth. It works both ways on both sides because they're just trying to live their lives too. They haven't deciphered their feelings, though ; having this need to negate your nobility-maybe for no reason other than the nagging suspicion that maybe they haven't got any ».

Chip Stern (Spin magazine, nov-dec. 1987)

HERE

David Torn + Mick Karn + Terry Bozzio = Polytown

2010-08-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

(Cmp, 1994)

Let's talk about the initial seeds of Polytown.

DT : Mick was originally in the Cloud About Mercury band, but he didn't record with it. He did tour with me though. The star of the show for me at the very beginning was Mick, because I had been just absolutely blown away with his playing in Japan—just knocked out. Harmonically, the lines he was playing inside of music that would be considered pop was so in tune with music that I was writing. So, I found these guys [Karn, Bill Bruford and Mark Isham] and paid them massive amounts of almost no money at all. [laughs] My relationship with Bill continues. We're really good friends. We played together in January at a NAMM show. It was me, Bill, Tony Levin and Chris Botti playing trumpet. We did four tunes and it was great fun. That got the record company all kind of weird about Polytown. They said "You've got to do this! This is the band!" [laughs] They thought it was Cloud About Mercury 2 or whatever. My relationship with Mick has turned into one of the great friendships of my life. I guess it was real obvious that there was great chemistry in that band. The original Cloud band with Mick, Bill, Mark and me had fantastic, fantastic chemistry. The other chemistry with Tony was pretty magical too.
Cloud was certainly the seeding ground for everything that came afterwards. Mark started getting all of this filmwork—I was functionally spending half my time in L.A. working with him. Mark found himself a record deal and decided to put a band together. He had played with Terry [Bozzio] in the past with Group 87. He basically took me, Mick, Terry, Kurt Wortman and David Goldblattt and that was Mark's touring band. Those gigs with Mark involved a pretty controlled set of playing a lot of film music—and playing to the film crowd. But there were two or three spots in the set where Terry and I kind of exploded. [laughs] There were also a couple of spots that were functionally a trio—just me, Mick and Terry. And we started talking at that time and thinking "This is just fantastic! This needs to happen! This needs to be a band!" It just took many years before it came together.

Was there a concept or methodology behind creating Polytown’s music ?

DT : From my side, the concept going into the recording was "Okay. We’re in a remote location, separate from everybody's personal lives. Nobody knows anybody there. We have limited amounts of time in the studio—two weeks to record, one week to mix and nobody comes prepared." [laughs] That was my concept. No preparation at all. None whatsoever. It was "We write together. It's a real band. Everything is split evenly three ways. And that will be that."

Polytown’s album art was spectacular.

DT : It was done by all of us, but I think that the focus for the work side of Polytown was me or me and Mick. The artwork was skewed more towards Mick because the artists were in London. But I came and went a couple of times. They're really great people. Mick and I wanted snake skins and maps. [laughs] We wanted something that at least appeared textural. And Stylorouge [the design studio behind the art] are really fantastic. They came up with 27 different packages. We sat at a table for the last time and rejected all of the packages, except for approving certain concepts. Then Rob [O'Connor]and Stuart [Mackenzie] at Stylorouge completed it. They worked real hard on the Tripping package too. But CMP basically changed the package without telling anyone at the last minute because they needed to get them out to the stores. They couldn't wait for the digipaks to come out. The digipak of Tripping was gorgeous. And it had two more pages of artwork. It was quite different, actually. But the manufacturer wasn't willing to deliver them on time. I doubt you’ll see it unless the record does so incredibly well that I can say "Hey guys? Now, let's put out 10,000 of the original thing that I approved of." [laughs]

Can you elaborate on what you meant by "the work side of Polytown was me or me and Mick ?"

DT : It's supposed to be a band. Functionally, you'll get different stories from different people. But if you talk to Kurt, the engineer or Mick, they'll tell you that I produced the record in every way. [laughs] When it comes to things like organizing the band, getting it together and getting it to be at a certain place at a certain time, it kind of falls to me. For instance, playing this Polytown gig we did in Germany—it was like being whipped constantly. Terry wanted to do it, then he didn’t want to do it. Either it wasn’t enough responsibility or it was too much responsibility. I kind of went fucking crazy. It was a big festival thing and we were interacting with a lot of different musicians over the course of it. Mick had trepidations about it. He has reservations about playing with educated or highly-skilled players.

What’s your take on why he has that tendency ?

DT : It’s background. It’s British schooling and the historical effect of being a star when you're young and unskilled. It's that sometimes very affected British musician attitude that goes "I don't need the skill. I just need the uniqueness." Whereas in America you get "I don't know what uniqueness is. I just need some heavy-duty skills, so I can compete." [laughs] So, when it comes to playing what he views as a formatted idiom like jazz in which people say things like "Okay, you've got four bars, Gm7#11, two bars of..." and have to read charts, he naturally backs down. It's a little bit scary to him. He's a real, honest, self-educated, totally unique player. And Terry was just like that too. I don't know if Terry was just scared to go and play with all of these people or what. So, it's a little bit difficult getting that band together. It's a bit on the hard side for me. There is some personality clash in that band that is really wonderful from a musical perspective. I often find myself in a mediator-type role in a lot of different situations. I think that's one of the reasons why I feel good as a producer of records. I tend to get a pretty good overview of what's going on socially and kind of help people get through it. I think that tension in Polytown is really kind of a cool thing. It doesn't detract from the fact that everybody in the band is quite good friends with one another. But sometimes you have conflicts with your friends. And in music, sometimes that can be really a great thing. It's that push-pull thing. I hope it continues. I would like to do something else with Polytown and not think that it was a one-off project. But it was a lot of work.

...................................................

Your most recent band project was Polytown—a group with a different kind of tension.

MK : Yeah, it was very difficult. It was quite a strain. It was very, very hard going—maybe the hardest album I've ever had to work on. Bruce, our engineer, had a very hard time too. I think a lot of it was because it was the first solo album, I guess, that Terry's really worked on. It's like three solo albums in one. And I think it was irresistible for him to try and take control to a certain extent. Whereas, for David and myself, we'd made albums before and we were a lot more easy-going. So it did make things quite tense. There wasn't a lot of room for experimentation because of the time limit as well. Things may have been very different if we'd had more time. I think it's quite an odd album, but I'm really happy with it—really happy with it. The only thing I wish we'd had was a little bit more time for the mixing. I think that could have been improved on. But, the actual writing, I think, was a real feat of strength looking back on it. The fact that we actually managed to do that in three weeks is unbelievable. I really like putting limitations on myself when I work and the Polytown experience was full of limitations.
Polytown really was a big influence on me too. Working with Terry and David in a three-piece band meant that I really was pushed even more into the position of being the main melody. And David really had to concentrate on the looping, with the odd solo here and there, but basically creating the atmosphere of the pieces. So, I really was left as being the main melody which was a complete revelation to me. It was the complete opposite of what I'd always been led to believe. And the fact that it was done in such a short space of time really gave me the confidence to then go on and do Tooth Mother—not in quite such radical circumstances—but with the same kind of ethics.

Will Polytown record again ?

MK : I would really like to see another Polytown album happen, with a little bit more time. Its sounds as if I'm really masochistic, doesn't it? I like these tense situations all of a sudden. I'd also like to see it happen with a different line-up. I'd really like to see another album with myself, David and guest musicians. But I don't think it would be fair to keep the name Polytown if Terry was not there. But David and I have lots of ideas for albums together.

excerpts from David Torn (DT) and Mick Karn (MK) interviews (http://www.innerviews.org/)

HERE

Bernie Worrell : "The other side"

2010-08-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

(Cmp, 1993)

HERE

James Blood Ulmer : "Wings"

2010-08-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

(Jazz File)

This is a live version of « America, do you remember the love ? » album printed on Blue Note in 1987. Here is one review about the studio record :

An odd but very effective album, this release under Ulmer's name could almost have been issued under Bill Laswell's, so strong is the producer's (and bassist's) presence. With Ronald Shannon Jackson in tow alongside Laswell stable regular Nicky Skopelitis, this sounds more than a little like several of Laswell's late-'80s multicultural discs. The gorgeous pre-chorus line in "Show Me Your Love, America," for instance, sounds like nothing previously written by Ulmer and makes one wonder. Although one would think that this would play against Ulmer's strengths (his rawness and irregularity, for two), it makes for a strangely satisfying effort, corralling the guitarist into a somewhat more relaxed mode where the concentration is more on his vocals and song structure than on his guitar work. His singing here is perhaps the best its ever been, still very indebted to Hendrix in both the soft texture of his voice and, especially, in the casualness of his phrasing, but he injects more than enough of his own persona to create a perfect match to his harsh guitar. Jackson and Laswell are both in fine form throughout, providing a rich, varied underpinning for Ulmer's excursions, even if those excursions are a bit more reined-in than listeners had come to expect. The album ends up sounding polished but not slick, each composition standing solidly and offering varied pleasures. Different from Odyssey but situated alongside it as one of Ulmer's best.

Brian Olewnick (Allmusic)

HERE

Nicky Skopelitis : "Next to nothing"

2010-08-01T08:00:00.001-07:00

(Virgin/Venture, 1989)

"Next to Nothing" was the first solo album by guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, long a member of Bill Laswell's "stable" of musicians and one who contributed a great deal to the unique sound that Laswell developed during the late '80s. The disc, in fact, is somewhat indistinguishable from any number of Laswell-produced albums from around that time, including those of drummer Ginger Baker and guitarist Robert Musso. Which isn't to say that the recording doesn't have its own charms. The wonderful violin and oud virtuoso Simon Shaheen is onboard, giving the Middle Eastern-tinged pieces some solid authenticity. His violin is offset by that of Fred Frith, who takes the lead on pieces that are more blues- and folk-oriented. That divide between Mediterranean exotica and down-home country and blues is the main territory here and makes for some very attractive listening. Skopelitis disdains pyrotechnics, preferring to submerge himself in the music, but wields a remarkably sure hand, providing rich color and accents. Baker's typically heavy drumming may seem leaden to some, but provides both a compelling thrust and enough bedrock to anchor compositions that might otherwise appear a bit on the fluffy side. There's a general laid-back atmosphere here (though the final cut, "Omens," has a nice, edgy undertone) that can draw dangerously near a kind of new agey sensibility, but by and large Skopelitis avoids this pitfall. Fans of Laswell's Hear No Evil will find similar enjoyment here.

Brian Olewnick (Allmusic)

HERE

Last Exit : "Iron Path"

2010-08-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

(Virgin/Venture, 1989)

Elemental, fiery, loud, head-on... Last exit has some power. It has music and sound, dimensions of sound. It's so rare for a listener to hear something that really affects him physically, spiritually, emotionally. Something that can sustain him today, tomorrow, next year, always with the pleasure of hearing something new in it. This band has those qualities. It's virtually the only contemporary band that's really happenin'. I was going to say this, but Ronald Shannon Jackson got in there first. There's no false modesty in Last Exit, no false anything. The group is important precisely because its rush of sound is a heartfelt force. It sweeps away all the fakery that proliferates on both sides of the highbrow/lowbrow cultural divide. Bracing, energizing, sanxtifying, clarifying, Last Exit's emotional range (its « passion & violence » as Brötzmann says) shows what can still be done with a little love, courage and nose-thumbing impudence. By comparison with Last Exit's achievement, most modern music idioms are exposed as etiolated and anaemic. The exhausted terrain of jazz and pop, for example, is cluttered with exhausted professionals playing exhausted nothings, to the mock-delight of exhausted critics. And even improvised music, once a zone you could depend upon, is vitiated by the arrival of a « new generation » of baton-wielding « auteurs » who « compose » by appropriating others' talents. Against this trend, Last Exit righteously rages. The quartet reaffirms the potential, validity and bloody glory of collective music-making. They are improvisers, then ? Yes, in a big way, and have much to improvise on and out of. Shannon stresses the point : « music comes out of life ». Write it in huge block capitals. Last Exit's players have lived to the awashbuckling hilt. They have an enormous wealth of experience and madcap adventure. It's the diversity of their backgrounds and the desire to play together (rare in world of cynically assembled festival all-star groups and manipulated production projects) that makes their music so very special. Half black, half white, three quarters american, one quarter european, the group's ethnic make-up could be seen to be fairly faithfully symbolic of creative music's history. But this would be too glib an overview ; it's as independent, fiercely idiosyncratic intelligences that these players have already made a profound impact on several genres.

Steve Lake (from the liner notes)

HERE

Roger Kleier : "Klangenbang"

2010-07-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

(Rift)

Born in 1958, Roger Kleier is a composer, guitarist, and improviser who began playing electric guitar at age thirteen after discovering Captain Beefheart and Jimi Hendrix on the radio airwaves of Los Angeles. He studied composition at North Texas State University and the University of Southern California, and has developed an unique style that draws equally from improvisation, contemporary classical music, and the American guitar traditions of blues, jazz, and rock. Much of his compositional work involves the development of a broader vocabulary for the electric guitar through the use of extended techniques and creating new works with digital technology.
Roger has performed and/or recorded with Annie Gosfield, Marc Ribot’s Shrek, Elliott Sharp, Fred Frith, Joan Jeanrenaud, Davey Williams, Ikue Mori, Carl Stone, Phil Niblock, Alan Licht, Samm Bennett, Tom Cora, David Moss, Kato Hideki, Chris Cutler, David Krakauer, Chris Brown, Sim Cain, Jim Pugliese and many others.

Yes, a number of these compositions have a NY–underground feel, that combination of jazzy technicality and No Wave or rock–inspired intensity. But others, like Only the Dust Moans are unusual: that one is an ambient piece constructed of overlapping guitar tones and chimings, with minimal keyboards supplied by Annie Gosfield. Kato Hideki's bass guesting on Crabmeat Shag makes a highlight here, as do Christine Bard's strong drumming and Kleier's intricate guitar breaks. Take a Picture––It'll Last Longer is the final track, a sprawling fourteen minute piece that's the only truly solo performance on the CD. Recorded live, it moves from a fairly harsh opening to calmer plucking and scraping sounds, then through strumming into nicely interwoven feedback tones, and odd, ultra–vibratoed notes. An impressive work to conclude an intriguing CD.

Mason Jones

HERE

The Same : "Doing the don't"

2010-07-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

(Rift, 1993)

About Chris Cochrane

Chris Cochrane is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, improvisor and producer. He has performed regularly in bands and improvised with hundreds of players. In addition to his rare solo recordings and work with a number of bands, including the legendary groundbreaking unit No Safety (which he co-founded with harpist Zeena Parkins) and Curlew (alongside George Cartwright), he has played live and/or recorded with an array of musicians : Tom Cora, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, Marc Ribot, Eszter Balint, Kato Hideki, Ikue Mori… and visual artists or choreographers.
Chris and Paul Hoskin did guitar/bass clarinet duos, NYC in 1983. Then, they formed a trio with Zeena Parkins--doing improvisation land. Later that decade, Cochrane and Hoskin join with Ruth Peyser and Evan Gallagher to create The Same--a beyond-tune-improv quartet...

About Evan Gallagher

Evan is born in Jackson, Mississippi, long, long ago in a much less free (music) period. Went to school at University of Southern Mississippi. He met George Cartwright, Bruce Golden, Jeb Stuart with whom he'd work on freeing up Jackson's music scene. Evan did meet the MEV at this time, as he continued his Jackson "freeing-up" project. Travelled to New York City with Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith, met Eugene Chadbourne and John Zorn to record The English Channel. Evan decides that NYC is "more free" musically. In 1987/8, he falls into the Amica Bunker (a NYC improvised music space...weekly performances. Booked by Doug Henderson, Fred Lonberg-Holm, & Paul Hoskin--in its early stages). He falls quite hard. Later, he meets Cochrane, Hoskin and Ruth Peyser--and The Same is formed. A seminal noise/jazz unit. And Evan continues to improvise...

About Paul Hoskin

Paul Hoskin began his musical work with a program of self-education, playing the bass clarinet exclusively. A native of Seattle, Paul lived on both coasts and traveled globally. An accomplished solo performer, Hoskin extends the form both in terms of duration and sonority. Performances take place in venues ranging from jazz festivals in Czechoslovakia to oyster bars in Jackson, Mississippi.
As a New Yorker (1987-1995), Hoskin worked in innumerable ensemble settings as well as developing his skills as a solo performer. This work included the ensemble The Same (Chris Cochrane, Evan Gallagher, Ruth Peyser) and trio Trigger (Fred Lonberg-Holm-cello, Leslie Ross-bassoon). Though improvisation informs the work of these ensembles, compositional form (“language”) is an explicit element.
Returning to Seattle, Paul involved himself with ensembles as well as countless ad hoc formations. After moving to rurality (Clallam Bay and the Olympic Peninsula), Paul “vacates” from urban music life, as he re/hears to re/begin, from 2002 till July 2005. Then, he relocates to Astoria : re/enters land of organizing and presenting exciting music as his own playing develops.
And, Seattle perfomance life also returns...

About Ruth Peyser

Born in Sydney, Australia, Ruth Peyser works as a graphic designer and illustrator in New York City where she has lived since 1978. In her early years, she designed record covers, theater programs, catalogues, logos and more (she's realized cover design and illustration on this disc). And she has been making animated films since her arrival in The Big Apple : her award-winning films have been screened on public television and at hundreds of festivals in the United States and throughout the world.
Ruth Peyser also played guitar in New York's downtown music scene, but after the birth of her second child, she decided something had to give. She now devotes most of her energies to her children and her artwork...

HERE

Phil Haynes : "4 horns & what ?"

2010-07-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

(Open Minds, 1991)

When I first considered forming a second band in late 1986, I was trying to reconcile an interesting set of aesthetics: I wanted a band that could play most situations without amplification, a band that would whisper one moment and raise the roof the next, an ensemble built around the intimate dialogue of a good duet, a small group with wide instrumental color, a big band inspired contrapuntal ability, and a format where I would be challenged to assume equality with the front line. The prospect of combining two brass players with two saxophonists and drums became the irresistible solution.
4 Horns & What? utilizes the African concept of direct conversational interplay between rhythm and melody. By excluding other rhythm section players, the intimacy of the drum/horn dialogue becomes the norm. In this format, harmony returns to its polyphonic roots as an extension of the collective blowing. The result is a wide-open, acoustic, improviser's band, where everyone shares equal responsibility for solos, accompaniment, and time keeping.

Phil Haynes

HERE

Sergey Kuryokhin & David Moss : "2 for tea"

2010-06-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

(Long Arms, 1998)

By 1983, I'd heard his name for several years. We in the New York Improvising scene were always looking for soul-mates, musical partners, & sound-information from other countries. The rumors began trickling in to Morton St. (in the Village) that a pianist named Sergey Kuryokhin was playing wild music and organizing even wilder projects. But it wasn't until 1986 when I came to Berlin to play duos with drummer Peter Hollinger that we first met. It was just after the concert when I saw a guy with very black hair and shining eyes, wearing some kind of military-style jacket walk toward me. "David? David Moss?", he said. "I very happy to meet!" When I found out it was Sergey, we both laughed like crazy - to finally meet here, in Berlin, trying to communicate with his 20 words of English and my faded Russian from university days. But somehow we managed to talk - to share the idea that we wanted to learn about each other and somehow play together.In September 1987, we met again in Berlin and he asked me to sing in his Berlin premiere of Pop Mechanika at the Tempodrome. "Just wear a black jacket and sun-glasses, and I'll tell you when to go onstage and sing", he told me. I arrived backstage at the Tempodrome (a semi-outdoor tent famous for rock music) the next night, ready for anything, and found a huge throng of musicians, Russian & German. There was Africa, Sergey's friend and performance artist, many people dressed in odd costumes, 10 saxophonist, heavy-metal guitarists (quite a few!) and god-knows who else. Sergey seemed nervous or full of intense energy, but that turned out to be quite normal for him. The music began. Pounding drum beats, screaming saxophones, and rhythmic unisons and riffs from the guitarists. Africa tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Go" - I ran onstage and, standing in front of several thousand excited and confused Berliners, began to scream in 10 languages.
As I sang, a parade of Russian performance artists surrounded me with bouquets of flowers and live pigs cradled in their arms. I was in Sergey's world now. I sang until Sergey started a new section on the piano, then I walked off-stage, exhilarated. That was the first time.I saw Sergey 2 or 3 times at different festivals after that, but our next musical meeting (out of which came this CD) was in Dec. 1988 in Miami, Florida at the New Music America Festival. Rumor had reached me that Sergey would be touring the US in December, so I called the Festival director and told him we had a unique opportunity to feature Sergey in a NMA festival. After a little arm-twisting, he agreed. I got the telephone # of Sergey's American tour manager from John Zorn, and called to arrange a solo for Sergey in Miami. That autumn, I spoke to Sergey, and he suggested that we also play a duo as part of his gig. I asked him if he would like to play with other American improvisers in the Festival; he wasn't too excited about the idea, but said "maybe OK I think about it". Sergey arrived in Miami with Alexander Kahn (producer, manager, translator). Our duo was scheduled in an intimate club that seated maybe 150. Meanwhile, the director of the festival was furious when he heard that Sergey wanted to play duo with me. Well, there was a lot of music-politics going on in those days, and to shorten a long story, the director thought I was getting too much exposure if I played a duo with Sergey in addition to my regular gig. Even though Sergey had invited me to play with him, the director was completely, irrationally oppose to the duo, and even threatened to close the club and cancel Sergey's concert. When I told this to Sergey and offered to drop the duo, Sergey refused, saying that either we play together (he didn't want to play with other musicians), or he would cancel. After many calls, threats, & demands from the director, the concert went on as originally planned. I remember just before the show, when tension was at its highest and the director threatened to call the police to pull us off the stage, Sergey said to me, "You know David, it's funny that there is more censorship and problems here in USA to play a concert than normally I have in Russia!" Yes, a funny & prophetic statement about the American culture scene.Well, about the concert (the one you can hear oh this CD). We rehearsed a bit in the afternoon. Sergey had very strong ideas about what he wanted to play. I told him there were several things I could do well, several I couldn't do, and made a few suggestions about energy levels, speed, intensity and the interaction of our voices. We spent the rest of the radio sound-check practicing the piece that grew out of his ideas. All concerts for the festival were being either broadcast live or recorded by Miami Public Radio, and in charge was Steve Malagodi (the radio producer of this recording). We spent quite a while getting a non-distorted level for my voice and electronics, but as you can hear, the sound-quality is generally better on the rehearsal segments. I think the engineers were afraid of getting too "hot" (or uncontrollable) a sound for the performance, and so they reduced the overall levels and lost some of the power that is audible in the rehearsals. As I mention on the rehearsal tapes, this was the only time I played with brushes for any music after 1975. It's surely the only time I was asked to lift a pianist's legs off the ground while he was playing and pull him away from the piano while we sang. Sergey wanted me to play various musical genres, from waltz to pseudo hip-hop, from operatic to lounge music, and so we did. I hadn't played these recognizable styles for years - but if Sergey wanted it, I was happy to do it. In the rehearsal segments, Sergey's commentes show the clarity of his thinking process and ideas.
Then came the concert. Sergey played a long solo that was beyond astonishing in its wealth of ideas and super-virtuosity. I remember thinking, as I was standing there in the back of the club, that Sergeysucceeded in surprising the audience by doing nothing that they expected or desired - none of the spatial attacks, fractured rock, or simplistic minimalism of American new music. It was pure Kuryokhin - intense, non-stop, overflowing with fantasy, referential to Russian folk music and European classical music, and definitely virtuoso Russian piano playing.
Then came our duo. The 12 minutes went by in a flash. Everything worked exactly as we'd planned and rehearsed (with a few surprises of course'). It was an incredible pleasure to play drums with Sergey - both of us had such power, and it felt great to mix it all together in downtown Miami, just a few weeks before Christmas, 1988. After the gig we hugged, and I told Sergey that it had been a dream of mine to play in Russia (my grandparents came from there, so I've always felt a pull), and I would love to do it with him. He said that was a wonderful idea and he hoped to find a way to make it happen.1990, I was practicing in the basement of my house in Vermont when the telephone rang. It was Sergey calling from "Leningrad" inviting me to perform in the St. Petersburg Renaissance Festival - a marathon 24-hour benefit concert (including a 6 hour section of avant-garde performance) to be broadcast 'live' on Soviet television.
As I was about to take off from Kennedy Airport, my Russian contact handed me a package wrapped in plain brown paper to bring along. As I was told that the large parcel was a painting by Robert Rauschenberg - his gift and donation to the festival for the city of St. Petersburg, I must admit, it made me pretty nervous to be carrying a work by such a famous artist - but c'est la Russian vie - aand away I went on Aeroflot. Of course, I had asked how to get this thing through Customs and I was told to say simply, "to kartina", "this is a picture". And IT WORKED no problem, Moss and kartina into Russia. But then at the hotel I got a call from Sergey: "David, the avant-garde part of the festival has been canceled!" My god. I'm in Russia with nothing to do and nowhere to go!! But very quickly Sergey called back and said "Don't worry - you will play - the organizers of this festival have no idea what's going on I told them you will play in the ETHNIC section because you are really a very famous African Folk singer!!!!!" OK let's give it a try.So we went to the Kirov theater where hundreds of costumed performers were milling around backstage (ps. I presented the Rauschenberg to the Mayor of St.Petersburg - Mr. Sobchak). Then after a classic baritone sang Russian songs, I was introduced as the famous African Folk Singer - and I began to sing: a 4-minute vocal solo filled with the intensity, power, and personal songs that are part of my voice - much to the consternation and surprise of the glitterati audience, who clearly had no idea what I was doing, or why. That was my premiere In Russia.
Meanwhile, Alexander Kahn had arranged a concert in a small theater where I played a solo section, and then a duo with Sergey. (I remember other musicians joining in, and a young child singing happily with us). This was a very emotional moment for me. I finally was able to sing my songs and melodies to an interested Russian audience and feel their strong response. Sergey played a small synthesizer keyboard, and we improvised together without any plans or words. I don't think any tape of this concert exists, but if there is one somewhere in St. Petersburg, I would love to hear it - because I'm sure we did some unexpected things together. Then, just before i left, Sergey invited me to sing, and to play some "found" percussion, on a sound-track he was making for a film. We met at a large well-equipped professional studio. Sergey played some tracks, I sang some melodies and noises, and overdubbed rhythm tracks on metal percussion (if anyone knows about this film, or can give me any information, I would appreciate it!). And that was the last time we played together.
In Oct. 1991 I moved to Berlin, and over the next few years met Sergey several times: at a CD shop, at the Akademie der Künste to talk about one of his pieces, at Natan Fedorovsky's Avant Garde Gallery. Each time he was full of ideas, and planning new projects, concerts, films.
Then in October 1995 I was playing at the LaMama club in Tokyo. Just before the gig I walked outside to relax and saw a line of people waiting to get in, and suddenly I heard that familiar voice say, "David!", and there was Sergey, standing with Keshavan Maslak (they were in the middle of a duo tour). I hustled them through the line and into the club and laughed in delight that Sergey and I were together again in another strange city. It was a great feeling to sing and drum with Sergey sitting in the audience. That was the last time I saw him.

David Moss

HERE

David Watson's The Wax : "Wax & wane"

2010-06-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

(Dr Jim's records, 1997)

Bagpipes ? Not known for their prominence in modern music, some may see Wax and Wane by David Watson's The Wax as an attempt to place bagpipes back into a context where they are entirely unwelcome.
The disc could be seen as the imposition of an artefact of imperial Britain onto a worldly improvised scene where its symbolism could clash with the listener's preconceptions of the preoccupations of the other instrument players. On the other hand a lover of bagpipes may see this CD as mockery.
The use of bagpipes in this context has nothing to do with symbols. David Watson may be trying to chart some weird progression from the highlands (via AC/DC?) but his primary concern is sound.
Bagpipes make a lovely sound. The way we listen to them needs freshening up. The essence of their beauty still lies with the drones. Droning's modern tradition began with La Monte Young and has extended through to Sonic Boom and beyond to the point where drone aficianados, exhausted, have now looked back to the ancient world's sources of the original drones: bagpipes, Tuvan throat singing, etc. The other players on this recording contribute beats, bass and noises : Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki are known to Australians through their recording and tours in Peril (with Tony Buck). Ikue Mori, Andrea Parkins and Evan Gallagher are familiar faces in every downtown venue in New York.

HERE

Bob Hoffnar " New music for pedalsteel guitar"

2010-06-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

HERE

Judy Dunaway

2010-06-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

(Lost, 1990)

Judy Dunaway is best known in New York new music circles as being the world's foremost player of the balloon — yes, the common latex rubber balloon, which she uses to make any number of unique and amazingly expressive sounds. Before becoming a full-time balloon virtuoso, however, she was a punk-ish guitarist and writer of some unbelievably funny songs. Accompanied by a group of musicians that populated the downtown free improv scene at the time (Rick Brown, David Shea, Michael Lytle, Evan Gallagher), Judy Dunaway went into the studio and made one for the ages. This « lost » album presents a brilliantly unorthodox songwriter at peak form. Dunaway's no mere jokester, either; her deeply felt lyrics reveal an artist of great perception between avant-garde folk songs and free-improvisations.

HERE

Peter Scherer : "Very neon pet"

2010-06-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

(Metro Blue, 1995)

Peter Scherer is a New York based composer and producer with a multifaceted career encompassing music for film and dance, producing, arranging and playing with other artists from across the spectrum of contemporary music.
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, he studied piano, composition, theory and orchestration, among others with György Ligeti and Terry Riley. Shortly after arriving in New York in the early 80's, he connected with key figures of the New York downtown scene such as Kip Hanrahan, Bill Frisell and John Zorn, collaborating on numerous recording projects and performances. With Arto Lindsay, he founded the Ambitious Lovers, mixing elements of brazilian, experimental, funk and other popular styles resulting in the release of three albums.
In the early nineties, Peter Scherer started to further develop his unique style of sonic arrangements, exploring the potentialities of digital innovation combined with diversified musical traditions and sensibilities.
At the same time, he began working as a producer with such artists as Caetano Veloso, World Saxophone Quartet, Corin Curschellas, Ute Lemper and Nana Vasconcelos. And, as a keyboard player, he has frequently appeared in concert and recordings with Laurie Anderson and has lent his personal sonic fabric to numerous recordings by such artists as Marc Ribot, David Byrne, Marisa Monte, Waldemar Bastos, Cyro Baptista, Seigen Ono, Jun Miyake, Vinicius Cantuaria, Etienne Daho and many others.

"VERY NEON PET is a fascinating excursion through a multicultural dream-state. Building up from pulsating beats, Scherer adds layers of intricate detail with trumpet, sampled voices, spare keyboard figures, guitars, violins and occasional bursts of noise".
(Down Beat)

HERE

Jack Walrath & the Masters of Suspense : "Hip gnosis"

2010-06-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

(Tob, 1995)

Walrath is a bit of a character, no doubt about it. That he so successfully collaborated with the crazed Mingus, is the first clue having titled songs on previous albums "Village Of The Darned", "Revenge Of The Fat People" and "Beer!" further steers him off the shoulder of mainstream jazz. And to this he brought Willie Nelson in to record Hank Williams" "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" during his two-album career with Blue Note --- unfortunately, a shot at the Big Time that never gathered enough listeners to keep him on the label.
Well, he has hardly tempered his direction to gather larger crowds,. Walrath continues to point the middle finger in the direction of those who find him too erratic for their tastes. The trumpeter is incorporating more influences than ever and creatively maneuvering them into stylistic train wrecks that will attract the musically prurient.
"Philosopher Stone" is bass-heavy funk-jazz reminiscent of the Joseph Bowie-led band, Defunkt. The wonderful "Blues Sinistra" offers a minor key theme borrowed from Duke Ellington's moodiest jungle music, then shifts into passionate '70s soul sermonizing by Bowman a la The Last Poets. Speaking of that decade, "Love Enough For Everybody", is soul-rock that could have been, should have been, cut during those years by War. Fiuzcynski's obnoxiously distorted guitar sound on the calypso-is "Mingus' Piano" couples with the equally fuzzy vocal soapboxing by Walrath himself on issues like tap water, food poisoning and Godzilla --- you know the pertinent stuff. "The Games" ends up sounding like one of John Zorn's cut-and-paste stylistic exercised moving from heavy Chicago blues to bebop to psycho country. There's reggae jazz on the disc somewhere too --- I can't find it again, but I know I heard it. The guy's a carnival funhouse presenting a dropping sidewalk on a spinning barrel at every turn. Some will yank the disc out of the carriage due to notions sickness, other will get in line again come the last cut. You'll probably find yourself experiencing one extreme or the other.

Dave McElfresh (Cadence)

HERE

Timothy Young with very special people

2010-03-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

(Endless, 1997)

Guitarist Timothy Young has performed in Seattle rock bands The Scabs, Scallywags and Devilhead. He also plays with great local musicians like Robin Holcomb, Eyvind Kang, Bill Frisell, Julian Priester and Michael White. He collaborates closely with Wayne Horvitz's bands called « Sweeter Than The Day » and « Zony Mash ». And he spent five years touring with Cambodian master musician Dr. Sam Ang Sam performing traditional Pin Peat repertoire.
Here, it's his first solo album and he leads a huge cast in creating a fascinating and kaleidoscopic album somewhere between « Sgt. Pepper’s » and Mister Bungle !

HERE

Napoli 23 = Eyvind Kang + Hilmar Jensson + Skuli Sverrisson + Matthias MD Hemstock

2010-03-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

(Smekkleysa, 2002)

HERE

Eyvind Kang + Tucker Martine : "Orchestra dim bridges"

2010-03-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

(Conduit, 2004)

Orchestra Dim Bridges is the long awaited and much anticipated collaboration between creative minds Eyvind Kang and Tucker Martine. This beautifully crafted recording covers lots of musical ground, from fluid and melodic songwriting to deep and subtle avant-garde sonic explorations. Filled with both delicate and aggressive surprises, each listen of this unique and subtle record reveals something fresh and new.
Violinist, composer, and conceptualist Eyvind Kang is a member of Bill Frisell's Quartet, Secret Chiefs 3, Wayne Horvitz's 4+1 Ensemble, and has worked with John Zorn, Beck, Marc Ribot, Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori. He also has 3 groundbreaking recordings of his own out on the Tzadik label, and is one of today's most unique voices in creative and experimental music.
Producer/Sound Alchemist Tucker Martine is also a member of Wayne Horvitz's 4+1 Ensemble. His own group is called Mount Analog, plenty of atmospheric sound scapes, and he participates with avant-piano man Wayne Horvitz in Mylab project. An accomplished producer and sonic visionary, Tucker's collaborators include artists such as Bill Frisell, Laura Veirs, Robin Holcomb, Jim White and Jesse Sykes. In addition, several records of his field recordings have been released on Sublime Frequencies label, including Bush Taxi Mali and Moroccan Reveries.

HERE

Lesli Dalaba + Fred Frith + Eric Glick Rieman + Carla Kihlstedt

2010-03-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

(Accretions, 2003)

This improv project is a first-time session by three Bay area musicians: composer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Glick Rieman, who initiated this meeting, plays prepared and extended Fender Rhodes electric piano; celebrated guitarist and composer Fred Frith, who had worked Glick Rieman at the Mills College; Tin Hat Trio and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum violinist Carla Kihlstedt: and former New York downtown player, now Seattle-based trumpeter Lesli Dalaba.
All four musicians demonstrate their inimitable attitudes and sensibilities towards their instruments, as if they are not playing in the most conservative sense of this concept but preferring to put their instruments through strange and unpredictable treatments, manipulations and effects, a kind of very free and experimental playful playing. Such an attitude might result in a very serious, academic exercise, but with their shared sense of adventure, idiosyncratic languages and high level of focused interaction, the end result is quite fascinating.
There is no leader on the session. All four musicians work to make form from improvisation, most of the time leaving the pieces without a specific shape until they have exhausted their ideas. Frith, as one might expect, plays all over the guitar, using its strings as a kind of percussion instrument, scratching them and producing sometimes distorted, bluesy lines. Dalaba explores her extended breath control technique, blowing otherworldly long chords and adding her "maniacal laughter" to "Lucy Has A New Pet Kitty." Glick Rieman produces ambient, drone-like sounds from his Rhodes piano, and Kihlstedt proves that she is one of the most promising improvisers to emerge from the Bay area, pushing the range of her violin through high pitch pizzicato plucking as if it were a strange transformation of a Japanese koto, then moving into folk-style playing. Fifty-five minutes of unusual, challenging, exceptional and strange sounds, but most of the time beautiful music.

Andrey Henkin (All About Jazz)

HERE

John King + Electric World

2010-03-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

(Ear Rational, 1989)

John King, composer and guitarist, has presented his unique style of composed and improvisational music in many major festivals worldwide. John King has composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, rock bands, dance, film and theater. He has written three operas to texts by Heiner Müller, Robbe-Grillet and Mallarmé, and worked closely with Merce Cunningham for many years.
He has had many working bands over the last 5 years including ELECTRIC WORLD (with Jean Chaine, David Moss and/or Abe Speller), VIBROVERB (with Nioka Workman and Michael Wimberly), and KING KORTETTE (Jonathan Kane, Nicki Parrott and Christopher McIntyre), all blues/funk/jazz based. He plays lead guitar with the avant-blues group Deep Blue Sea, led by French avant-noise guitarist Jean-Francois Pauvros and art rock drummer extraordinaire Jonathan Kane; and also performed with : William Parker's "Little Huey Creative Orchestra", Butch Morris' "Conduction" Orchestra, Guy Klucevsek's "Ain't Nothin' But A Polka" band and Rhys Chatham's 6-guitar band.
His commissions and collaborations include those for the Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can All-Stars, the string quartet ETHEL and many other famous classical orchestras.
Recently, a new album is available on Tzadik : « He again embraces rock, jazz, blues and other popular styles in an energetic and colorful program for string quartet. Featuring passionate and inspiring performances by the remarkable quartet Crucible with King himself on viola, Mark Feldman & Cornelius Duffalo on violin and Alex Waterman on cello : the music jumps from moment to moment with lightening speed and an organic sense of form ».

HERE

Expanding boundaries : universal conversations in eight acts...

2010-03-07T06:50:00.000-08:00

1) Derek Bailey + Min Xiao-Fen : "Viper" (Avant, 1998) :

I still remember when I was ten years old, my father, Min Ji-Qian - a professor, educator and pipa* master at Nanjing Normal University in China - was teaching one of my classmates. He lent one of his pipas to her, and I immediately got so jealous. Ever since then, I wanted to learn pipa from my father. Seven years later, I passed an important audition with more than 60 other competitors and got a job with the Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra. The orchestra sent me to music school to continue strict, full-time training with my father and other pipa masters. Mostly I learned traditional solo tunes and orchestral repertoire. Four years later, at 21, I became the principle pipa soloist. My life was simple - music, music, and more music. Then in 1993, looking for a new challenge, I moved to San Francisco.
My first experience with improvisation occurred during a concert with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in San Francisco. I had just finished playing "Lake Biwa A Full Moon Pure Water Gold", his composition for solo pipa, and was in the middle of playing an ensemble piece with five other musicians including Wadada. Suddenly he nodded, indicating that he wanted me to jam with him. I had never really improvised before, and I didn't know how. I only remember that moment - my hands got stuck and my heart seemed to stop beating. I was completely lost.
I moved to New York City in 1996. Five months later, I played a solo set at the Knitting Factory's Alterknit Room. John Zorn was there. After the performance, he asked me if I might be interested in making a record for his label. He suggested a first recording of duet improvisations with Derek Bailey. Improvisation was a new thing for me, and I didn't really know much about it. I told John I wasn't comfortable improvising - I was afraid. But John encouraged me and gave me a few of Derek's CDs so I could listen and study.
I started listening to Derek's music. I heard sounds that I had never imagined before. In his hands, the guitar sounds metal and abstract. When I listened more closely, I felt sparks and colors in his music - like a Dali or Picasso painting. I even practiced by improvising along with his records. A week later, I called John and told him I would do it.
I met Derek at Clinton Studio and we started recording. I remember that my playing felt stiff at first, but I told myself to watch, listen and try to a have dialog with him and most importantly to follow my feelings. I still remember, during the middle of one track, Derek broke a string. I thought he might stop, but he continued playing, using the broken string to scratch on the frets. The results sounded incredible. Incredibly, our CD, Viper (Avant), was named one of The Wire magazine's "1998 Albums of the Year". Derek and I went on tour playing concerts in Berlin, Graz and other European cities. I learned so much from him. We released a second recording of duets called Flying Dragon (Incus) and Coda magazine listed it as "2003 Album of the Year".
...
As a traditional musician I was trained not to make changes or play extra notes. It is only now that I play freely, but it takes a lot of experience and practice. I've been lucky to do so many jazz projects and to work so closely with improvisers like Jane Ira Bloom, Ned Rothenberg, Steve Coleman, Billy Martin, Butch Morris, Jason Kao Hwang, Christian Marclay and many others. When I improvise, I feel like I'm creating my own language and music, I'm alive and in touch with my feelings. I still have a lot to learn, but I enjoy being in New York. The freedom here makes my music more creative and colorful.

Min Xiao-Fen (from an AllAboutJazz article)

HERE

2) Jason Kao Hwang + Sang Won Park : "Local Lingo" (Euonymus, 2007) :

« Looking back, I also recognized how I responded to various life events emotionally, like one or both my parents. It is this mass of “micro-learning” ingrained into my personality, not Asian scholarship, that defines my cultural self. These realizations generated insights about the shape, sound and phrase of my violin improvisations and compositions. In my sound was evidence of who I am. What defines “non-Western” is complex and nuanced, far beyond simple markers of musicology, like pentatonic scale.
This perspective inspires my collaboration with Sang Won Park, who plays the kayagum, ajeng (Korean zithers) and also, sings in the pansori (Korean opera) style. In 2006 we released our duo CD, Local Lingo (Euonymus), a strong document of the empathic listening we cultivated throughout performances over the past 16 years. Sang Won is an amazing improviser. The spectacular timbres that emanate from both his plucked kayagum and bowed ajeng (with a resined stick), inspired alternate approaches to my violin. I found colors produced by extreme changes in bow pressure and sounding points created bridges to his sound. Corresponding to his deep “vertical” vibrato, I broadened my violin’s vibrato using a full range of wide arm/hand movements to narrow/rapid finger fluctuations, with a rapidity and combination that spoke in our lingo. This allowed the inflections of our phrases to resonate as one. Through expressive intent and intuition, that is our “vibe,” we also developed our own system of intonation. Though not of Western temperament, we stay “in tune.” For my compositions, the notational elements for Local Lingo are distilled to initiate a full and detailed improvisational development ."

Jason Kao Hwang (from an interview with Mike Heffley)

Through the 1990s, violinist Jason Kao Hwang mined an exploration of East Asian music filtered through the improvisatory language of downtown New York. Primarily with his Far East Band—with Sang Won Park on the stringed ajeng and kayagum and Yukio Tsuji on the flutelike shakuhachi, later augmented by Joe Daley's tuba—Hwang created an avant-garde take on the immigrant experience, representing the so-called melting pot of New York City with ingredients that still retain their individual flavors.
Hwang and Park are now continuing their exploration of Eastern improv as a duo, having performed at the 2007 Vision Festival and now with their first duo CD. But where the Far East Band had a cross-cultural feel, Local Lingo is distinctly Asiatic and with more of a smear of abstraction. The opening piece, "Listen, is built around a call-and-response, with Hwang stating a slow melody line and Park repeating it, bowing his strings down to a detuned growl.
"Ari Rang is a traditional Korean song (a populist movement is even pushing for it to be made the national anthem) plaintively sung by Park and used as a springboard for delicate variation. Over the course of the five tracks, the duo displays a beautiful restraint, slowly engaging (and disengaging) themes with a remarkable compatibility. While the different tunings and scales of traditional Eastern music can sound alien to Western ears, here the increasingly global language of joint improvisation bridges the divide.

Kurt Gottschalk (AllAboutJazz)

HERE

3) Michihiro Sato + John Zorn : "Ganryu Island" (Tzadik, 1998) :

In 1983 Sato decided to break out of the shamisen milieu and operate more freely when it came to performances and collaborative work, much the same way his mentor Yamada had done. Appearing on jazz and rock circuits he also toured abroad. John Zorn invited him to record an album and they recorded "Ganryu Island" during one day. The recording is an unexpected joy for those who appreciate extended instrumental techniques. Zorn blows forth a near-comprehensive sampling of his outrageous sound vocabulary -- bird calls, pattering, thwacking, and more -- in conjunction with the plucking and strumming of shamisen master. Recorded in 1984, just after Michihiro left the traditional shamisen music community to focus more on using the instrument in improvisational settings, Ganryu Island was originally made available as a limited edition release on the Yukon label. This session of bemused wonderment was out of print until Zorn's label, Tzadik, rereleased it in 1998, with the addition of five outtakes. The great, no-holds-barred improvisation is by no means an inchoate whirl -- indeed, the shamisen's rhythmic presence often provides a steady, but flexible structure for the duo's truly imaginative interaction.

Joslyn Layne (Allmusic)

nb : named after a small island off the coast of Japan where legendary samurai master Miyamoto Musashi defeated Sasaki Kojiro in a duel long ago...

HERE

4) Wu Fei : "A distant youth" (Forrest Hill, 2007) :

Wu Fei is a master player of the guzheng, a Chinese string instrument that is more than two thousand years old, and known today mostly as the parent instrument of the Japanese koto. Fei began her musical studies at the age of six in Beijing, later studied composition in Mills College in California, and now splits her time between Beijing and New York. She has collaborated with composers and improvisers such as Alvin Curran, Joelle Leandre, Elliot Sharp, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Ikue Mori, Cecil Taylor and Fred Frith, who featured her in his recordings Eye to Ear II (Tzadik, 2004) and The Happy End Problem (ReR, 2007).
Her debut recording features her original compositions for guzheng and vocal, rooted in the Chinese musical tradition, as well as her contemporary improvisational approach with fellow master improvisers: Fred Frith, violinist Carla Kihlstedt and Norwegian percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken. The latter improvisations are the most striking ones, as they feature the swift and subtle reflexes of Fei and her collaborators, especially Kihlstedt and Frith, who succeed in expanding and abstracting the arsenal of sounds of the guzheng.
Kihlstedt does so beautifully on the opening track "Cloud of Birds," where her sustained touch of the strings triggers a gentle counterpoint approach by Fei. Kihlstedt's wise plucking of the violin strings is a perfect accompaniment for the short vocal piece "Ping Tan." Frith and Kihlstedt begin "Diao Chan" with an unstructured, open improvisation that forces Fei to adapt to Frith's fast, phrase-based percussive approach. Frith leads "Dawn" with economic, evocative guitar lines; and his subtle interaction with Fei and Kihlstedt offers a mysterious cinematic atmosphere. All three are featured on the beautifully nuanced improvisation of "Mukamu."
Frith's affinity for patient and abstract improvisation, his rich vocabulary of guitar sounds, and his adaptability to almost any musical genre are best featured on "Yu Yin" and "For Yuxi," where his guitar sounds like a distorted ancient Chinese instrument. "Nothingness" is a non-idiomatic and thought-provoking improvisation between Fei and Frith, and it's almost impossible to know who produces what sound, as their language has become so close. "Mad Season" features a playful abstraction of a traditional Chinese theme, and Frith challenges Fei for a fast improvisation that leaves behind the original theme. Frith's percussive playing on "Break Away" is answered cleverly by an imaginative Fei. Norbakken, who is featured on one track only, "Hunan," rubs the skins and alternates between rhythms in a way that challenges Fei for a balancing textural answer.
Fei's solo compositions for the guzheng incorporate elements from her Western studies, in the way that she slides and rubs the strings, jumping between what sound like traditional themes to a more adventurous plucking of the strings, or introducing an almost distorted sound of the strings. This is a most original recording by a daring composer and improviser that deserve a wider recognition.

Eyal Hareuveni (AllAboutJazz)

HERE

5) Yumiko Tanaka + Ivar Grydeland : "Continental crust" (Sofa, 2005) :

This music was composed and recorded at the venue Bridge in Osaka on April 17th 2004. Bridge is located high above the ground in the middle of the amusement park called Festival Gate - right between slot machines and the big roller coaster. I don't think Festival Gate is Osaka's hot spot, the park is nearly empty, but Bridge is a nice and spacious venue. With relatively small acoustic instruments we tried to fill Bridge with sound and music that we find interesting. Meanwhile, we could see the roller coaster passing by every now and then - we could also hear it, and feel it. The whole building would shake each time it passed by, like a small earthquake. Maybe this wasn't the perfect recording situation, but listening to the music now I feel it gained an identity of it's own. The music on this CD somehow made me think of plate tectonics.

Ivar Grydeland, Oslo, November 2004 (liner notes)

This is a very successful duo improvisation record – lively communication between the musicians, but enough distance between their approaches to generate healthy tension, so that they achieve unanimity it's worth a lot. Norwegian guitarist Ivar Grydeland wields a steel-strung acoustic with a strong ring to it; Japanese Yumiko Tanaka plays her Gidayu shamisen, the ‘fat-neck' lute traditionally accompanying narrators in the puppet theatre. They recorded last year in Osaka , alongside the slot machines and rollercoaster of the Festival Gate amusement park.
Tanaka is very good at patient exploration of a small musical area. She works hard at one idea, refusing to rush off in search of another one, slowly kindling excitement. Often she seems to challenge Grydeland to play less. Grydeland, a fairly busy player, in fact leaves plenty of space and deals out clear musical statements. Both players occasionally prepare their instruments with sticks, bows, etc, and Grydeland introduces basic electronics, maybe and E-bow, into the picture. By “Young Oceanic Crust”, they are both trading bitter-sweet, almost Baroque tones, and when the energy overflows it sounds like a bull in a Chinese music-box shop. Then they settle in to several minutes of bottlenecked rhythm. When it stops, we hear the amusement park in the distance. Several times the rollercoaster adds its menacing rumble to the mix. The last piece starts with a scrabbling of sweeps and harsh scrapes, and suddenly Tanaka's voice launches into a full-blooded Gidayu narration. Whether Grydeland has seen the puppet theatre or not, he reacts well to the passion and drama in Tanaka's delivery.
So, a fresh and intelligent album, and encouraging to anyone who suspects improvisation might be languishing in a rut. These musicians were even enjoying themselves so much in the soundcheck, they tacked it on as a secret track.

Clive Bell (The Wire)

HERE

6) Kiku Day + Henry Kaiser : "Zen Kaiju" (Balance Point Acoustics, 2007) :

Berkeley-based experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser has gained a justified reputation for his eclectic tastes and the way that he fuses his influences into an idiosyncratic guitar style. He began playing the guitar after listening to seminal free-improv guitarist Derek Bailey and has a deep knowledge of the Grateful Dead's musical journeys, as well as the 1970s electric-era of Miles Davis, as documented in the three volumes of his Yo Miles! band with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. He also has a keen interest in musical traditions from around the world, as his musical tours to Madagascar and Norway with fellow-guitarist David Lindley testify. Tokyo-born and Copenhagen-based, Kiku Day studied the ji-nashi shakuhachi—the bamboo flute that is so identified with Zen Buddhism in Japan---and later improvisation with Joëlle Léandre and Fred Frith, with whom she recorded his dance piece The Happy End Problem (Fred Records, 2007). She first collaborated with Kaiser on Domo Arigato Derek-Sensei! (Balance Point Acoustics, 2006), his heartfelt tribute to the late Bailey.
The title of this stunning meeting of minds supposedly represents what Day and Kaiser bring to the table. It defines a clash between the meditative, serene and introspective side of Zen, and the reckless, vocal, violent mutation of the Kaiju—which translates to strange beast in Japanese and refers to the generic name for Gojira, the famous Godzilla and extended family of mutated/strange creatures that starred in a 1960s wave of monster films. It is clear that Kaiser is also an expert in that field; all twelve pieces portray vivid meetings of extremes between all sorts of Kaiju in times when they are called to reflect upon their deeds, in a kind of spin on the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic concept.
The most amazing thing about this recording is that both Day and Kaiser are able create a new common ground, one that references the disciplined shakuhachi tradition, but moves onto another plain. In their tight and intimate timbral explorations, Day uses the shakuhachi as a drone instrument, while Kaiser bends and sustains notes indefinitely on guitar. When she slurs or shouts on the bamboo flute, he lightly distorts the sound and squeezes the strings as a metallic percussion instrument. While she investigates microtones and multiphonics he caresses and gently rubs the strings, and when he tries to dictate a vague rhythm she offers sympathetic and subtle dance-like sentences. Kaiser plays in a much more restrained manner than usual, opting for more a precise and subtle extension of Day's language; but such a nuanced approach pays off, since it leaves much more room for the colorful and suggestive sounds of both to linger on.
Day and Kaiser are powerful improvisers with a wealth of ideas and an endless need to open new sonic vistas. This unique recording suggests a new way towards a sonic enlightenment—unconventional, selfless and compassionate as Zen enlightenment, but also a liberating one from our sonic or life conventions and costumes, just as Bailey suggested.

Eyal Hareuveni (All About Jazz)

HERE

7) Jin Hi Kim with Elliott Sharp & Henry Kaiser : "Sargeng" (Ear-Rational, 1990) :

Jin Hi Kim is internationally acclaimed as both an innovative komungo (Korean fourth century fretted board zither) virtuoso and for her cross-cultural compositions. Kim has introduced the Korean indigenous komungo for the first time into Western contemporary music scene with her wide array of pioneering compositions for chamber ensemble, orchestra, avant-garde jazz improvisations and multicultural ensembles. She has co-designed the world's only electric komungo : « The literal meaning of sargeng is articulation of attack in reference to the komungo. The komungo is a fourth-century, korean six string board zither played by striking the strings with a bamboo stick. It has six, heavy silk strings and sixteen frets. The variety of playing techniques produce sounds of a very vocal quality with extensive play on microtones and timbres. In the context of this music, Sargeng also means the articulation of an approach to cross-cultural composition and improvisation ».

HERE

8) Miya Masaoka + George Lewis : "The usual turmoil and other duets" (Music & Arts, 1998) :

George Lewis records so infrequently as a leader that any new release featuring him on trombone is itself an event. Here, he is featured on trombone in a series of duets with kotoist Miya Masaoka. (Masaoka's koto is a sort of modified Japanese zither.) The results, as expected, are superb, as Lewis and Masaoka negotiate twelve improvised pieces, swerving, interacting, bouncing, and complementing each other in spectacular ways. Lewis is up to his usual bag of tricks, totally dominating his horn with rapid displays of notes bursting forth like shooting stars, extremely precise phrasing, and extended range. Masaoka is a fine dueling partner, stroking her koto in different avenues, jabbing here and there with atonal forays. While the sound quality suffers a bit on the two lengthy live numbers, Lewis fans will nonetheless savor the extended 'bone solos, not to mention the outstanding koto work of Masaoka.

Steve Loewy (Allmusic)

HERE

Takashi Kazamaki : "143 Ludlow st. NYC"

2010-03-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

(Dossier, 1988)

143 Ludlow St. was the address of the Lower East Side (Manhattan) apartment of Japanese drummer Takashi Kazamaki during one of his extended residencies in New York. (It was also, I think, previously the domicile of Downtown Scene drummer, Katie O'Looney, who now lives in Southern France.)
On this LP, recorded in 1988, he works in two duos. Side one has Takashi playing with percussionist / electronic percussionist extraordinaire Samm Bennett. This series of brief highly focused duos treads a fine balance between Kazamaki's insistent, mostly acoustic drumming, and Samm's characteristic sampler-voiced playing. Sometimes Samm expands sonically and absorbs Takashi's rhythmic drive into his own more lyrical style; at other times Bennett gets underneath T.K.'s axle and pushes him out front, into some really hot stick-work.
Side two finds Takashi in duo with electric/acoustic harpist Zeena Parkins, who plays accordion on the final track. Here the pieces are generally longer, allowing Zeena to let fly with penetrating blasts and saw-edge staccatos from her wildly transformed harp (It's got a wang-bar on it!). This stands up against Takashi's convulsive snare drum for a music that is elegantly tenacious and virtuostic. Bumped and prodded, the harp speaks in a web of voices, a remarkable complexity of timbres that sound almost wrenched from the instrument with a crowbar at times, with a feather at other times.

(TAKASHIKAZAMAKI / « The improvisor »)

HERE

NB : an other great album called "Return to Street Level" (with Elliott Sharp, Tom Cora, Christian Marclay...) on LUCKYPSYCHICHUT blog : HERE

The Lounge Lizards : "Queen of all ears"

2010-03-01T05:06:00.000-08:00

(Strange & Beautiful Music, 1998)

John Lurie's so-called "non-jazz" approach is in full flower on this fascinating record. The ever-growing (nine-piece at this point) band builds layers of rhythm and melody with unique effect throughout. On "The Birds Near Her House," a serpentine melodic line weaves through a steady rhythmic bed, building to a frenetic climax. "Scary Children" is a foreboding dirge that still manages to exude true humor. Perhaps that is the most significant aspect of this music: it has real character and life. It doesn't just groove — it starts a conversation.

Tim Sheridan (Allmusic)

HERE

Billy Martin & Socket : "January 14 & 15 2005"

2010-02-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

(Amulet)

"With raging distortion, polyphonic-cacophony and speaking in tongues, NYC’s downtown luminaries led by Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin & Wood), channel the “mad” spirits in front of a live audience at NYC’s legendary experimental nightclub, Tonic. Two nights distilled and concentrated into one seriously potent mix of heaven and hell. May these sonic witchdoctors heal the ailing, chase the dragons and cast spells on your world".

HERE

Jamie Saft + Merzbow = "Merzdub"

2010-02-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

(Caminante, 2006)

As Merzbow, Masami Akita has already done "tribute" projects to prog rock (Aqua Necromancer) and jazz drummers (Doors Open at 8 AM), rendering the source material all but unrecognizable. Then, there's Merzbuddha, supposedly inspired by listening to dub artists like Dennis Bovell and Keith Hudson. But Merzdub is something altogether different, even for a Merzbow collaboration album. Here, Masami Akita handed his material over to Jamie Saft, who then overdubbed multiple instruments creating pieces that veer back and forth between noise-drenched dub tunes and noisy soundscapes. Instruments, beats, and voices drift in and out of Akita's murk while the murk itself drifts in and out of the tunes. Much of the time, it's Saft's contributions that are in the forefront, but he does give the focus to Akita at many points throughout. In fact, "Kantacky Fried Dub" and "Dangermix" are almost entirely Merzbow. "Updub" is just plain loopy and "Slow Down Furry Dub" is darn near mellow and very nice...really!! They might not even clear the room if played at a party, and that's saying a lot when it comes to Merzbow. Of course, it would be quite a stretch to call any Merzbow album fun. And while Merzdub only almost qualifies based on sheer perversity, there is clearly an element of humor on display ("Skinning J-Lo" anyone?) and it's as close as you're likely to ever get with a Merzbow release. This could be the most gentle introduction to the world of Merzbow yet.

Sean Westergaard (Allmusic)

HERE

Raz Mesinai : "The unspeakable"

2010-02-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

(Bsi)

Beginning with illbient group Sub Dub, composer, dj and percussionist Raz Mesinai, born in Jerusalem and raised in New York city, crafted shimmering, spacious music that was among the dreamiest — and often eeriest — that the genre had to offer. After Sub Dub's breakup, Mesinai continued on as Badawi, adding elements of his Israeli and Middle Eastern heritage to albums on Roir and Asphodel records. Mesinai's 1999 Badawi album The Heretic of Ether found him moving toward a more orchestral, less overtly dub-inspired sound. This trend continued with 2001's The Unspeakable, which was inspired by Mesinai's love of 20th century composers and his work on the Hellraiser 6 soundtrack — much of which wasn't used because it was "too scary for the movie." Today, his compositions blend electronics, beats and dub effects with acoustic instruments in creating an esoteric musical tapestry filled with new sonorities and a haunting spirituality. Dramatic and mysterious, his third cd for Tzadik features a host of downtown luminaries including violin virtuoso Mark Feldman and saxophone alchemist John Zorn in some of the most complex and soulful electro-acoustic music around.

Heather Phares (Allmusic)

HERE

Paul Schütze + Phantom City = "Site Anubis"

2010-02-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

(Big Cat, 1996)

Paul Schütze devised the preceding scenario of an 800-foot high statue of Anubis standing at the centre of a devastated city as an originating premise for Site Anubis, a hallucinatory, surrealistic vision of apocalyptic dread. Site Anubis is the third piece of a four-part whole, although it’s typically cited as the last part of ‘The Pacific Unrest Trilogy,’ a label coined by writer Biba Kopff. The first piece, New Maps of Hell, appeared in 1992 and draws heavily upon the Miles Davis style found on Agharta-Pangaea. The second, New Maps of Hell II: The Rapture of Metals, carries on the themes of the first but shifts the musical style into a more controlled, gamelan-influenced zone. Site Anubis presents a nightmarish portrait of civilization collapsing, a portrait sonically conveyed by the aggressive attack of the Phantom City collective. The fourth, Shiva Recoil (LiveUnlive), is not included typically with the trilogy but is certainly an extension of Site Anubis, as it takes the ‘virtual band’ and records them performing live at the Tampere Jazz Festival in Finland.
The musicians comprising Phantom City—the name, incidentally, originating from the book title Topology of a Phantom City by French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet—never met for the recording of Site Anubis, as each one recorded in a different studio in a different country: guitarist Raoul Björkenheim in Helsinki, bass- and contra-bass clarinetist Alex Buess in a Basel studio, soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill in London, bassist Bill Laswell at Green Point Studio in Brooklyn, New York, trombonist Julian Priester in Seattle, drummer Dirk Wachtelaer in Brussels, and Schütze himself in London and Basel. Incredibly, Laswell had only Schütze’s electronic backing track to respond to. Wachtelaer had Laswell and Schütze to play against, Björkenheim had drums and bass,—in short, certain players had more information than others. A major challenge (understandably) for Schütze was to make it convincingly sound like people playing together. Eventually, the individual parts were collected and assembled, with the intent being to fashion a coherent whole in the editing room from the bits and pieces. The music is obviously controlled in the sense of being manipulated and assembled yet it still retains an ‘organic’ quality, as if the pieces naturally unfold through the interactions of its players. It’s an illusion of sorts, given the process of creation, but a thoroughly convincing one. The result is a sensuous music constructed using a solid structural foundation to support the pursuit of more liberated improvisational flights. It’s not easy listening, and nor should it be, if it’s intending to aurally evoke states of urban paranoia and technological collapse. Schütze has managed to reign in the radio signals of a dystopian version of our society and made it available as a prescient portrait of our imminent downfall. This theme is further reinforced by WaterFall, Tsunehisa Kimura’s cover image, which depicts the glorious architectural achievements of Manhattan’s cityscape on the verge of obliteration by catastrophe. That Schütze and Kimura were devising this portrait of urban destruction in 1996 is telling, given the all-too-real devastation that was wreaked upon the city in September, 2001.
Music of such quality and detail demands a close reading. The mood is established by Schütze immediately at the outset of ‘Future Nights’ with a prelude of city horns and other ambient city sounds. He functions here as he does throughout, as an omnipresent sound colourist rather than soloist. Schütze is the conceptual orchestrator of the proceedings, his presence always felt but subtly so. Wachtelaer, Björkenheim, and Laswell then enter, Laswell’s bass a resolute anchor to complement the enthralling Wachtelaer who is astonishing throughout; all great bands begin with great drummers and Wachtelaer, like Tony Williams with Miles Davis or Bill Bruford with Robert Fripp, is no exception. Björkenheim’s lines are at one moment cleanly enunciated and the next raw and distorted as befits the mood. ‘An Early Mutation’ deploys a flurry of percussive activity as a base over which multiple layers of guitars, bass, clarinet, and electronics slowly interweave. ‘Blue Like Petrol’ begins more quietly, the instruments emerging as if from sleep until they gradually cohere into a rhythm. Wachtelaer is the standout here as he constantly devises mesmerizingly inventive drum and cymbal patterns, the bass, guitar, electronics, and clarinet circling around him. Julian Priester’s trombone is featured on the cacophonous ‘The Big God Blows In’ atop a broiling, industrial base of drums, squealing guitars, and electronic noise. Schütze’s electric piano and synths assume a central place in the dirge-like ‘Ten Acre Ghost’ but are soon swallowed by the cumulative mass of bass, clarinet, guitars, and drums. ‘Eight Legs Out Of Limbo’ is an apt title for a track that sounds like its players are exclusively pursuing individual melodic strands but is, for all that, no less compelling. At one point, Schütze almost drowns the others in a huge electronic storm but they manage to individually pull themselves out of his undertow. ‘Inflammable Shadow’ is somewhat of a chill-out episode, the proverbial calm after the storm. Even here, however, the quieter volume hardly lessens the mood of dread as the instruments wend their separate ways like snakes slithering through tall grasses. While the listener is recovering from the understandable exhaustion induced by this exhilarating session, it’s worth reiterating that the incredible music of this ‘band’ is largely an illusion, as the musicians never shared studio space for their contributions. That such an illusion is so convincingly and seamlessly maintained throughout is a tribute to the editing genius of Schütze and Alex Buess.
This is a remarkable brand of ‘post-fusion,’ music inspired by the irrepressible exploratory sensibilities of fearless explorers like The Mahavishnu Orchestra in its Between Nothingness and Eternity heyday and the Miles Davis of the Dark Magus era, but in no way beholden to either stylistically. This isn’t some woeful exercise in nostalgia; Schütze is not attempting to revive or replicate the styles associated with the glorious peaks of that era. (Musicians like Mark Isham keep the Miles flame burning, for example, by producing Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Project, and in New York, The Mahavishnu Project revisits the spirit in like manner. There is nothing objectionable about keeping the music of these eras alive and treating, even instating them, as jazz repertory. But when such projects become a substitute for the pursuit of new musics, the exploratory spirit personified so marvelously by those earlier artists dies.) Instead, armed with the technological advances afforded by electronics, he channels the same spirit that fuels the muse towards the creation of provocative new experimental forms. Schütze carried Phantom City further with the live recording Shiva Recoil (LiveUnlive) where the musicians achieve a level of interplay that rivals the heights scaled by McLaughlin and company years ago. For fifty minutes, the musicians create an enthralling maelstrom of sound, an achievement made even more incredible when one discovers that no rehearsals occurred prior to the performance. And then ... nothing—from Phantom City, that is. Schütze has been incredibly prolific in the years since with gallery works and site pieces but the next chapter, regrettably, in the Phantom City project is yet to be written.

Ronald Schepper (www.stylusmagazine.com)

HERE

The Foetus symphony orchestra : "York"

2010-02-22T12:53:00.000-08:00

(Big Cat, 1997)

This recording was conceived by J.G. Thirlwell and Lydia Lunch as a travelogue and exploration of DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), site of the notorious Farragut Housing Projects. These projects have been called the most dangerous in New York City, and J.G. Thirlwell resides and works next to them to this day.
First Exit To Brooklyn (aka York, a reference to the nearby York Street subway stop, also a thematic link to J.G. Thirlwell's obsession with four letter one syllable LP titles) is a meditation and catalogue of DUMBO's crime, it's denizens, it's violence and oppression, it's industrial and human waste based on ten years of first hand experience.
It was performed from a lateral libretto consisting of emotive cues and descriptions of form, format and tempo along with pre-composed music themes, which were then fleshed out and improvisatorily elaborated on by an amazing and eclectic ensemble of musicians. Composed and conducted by J.G. Thirlwell, the musicians also took cues from 9 synchronized kitchen clocks - one per member - and each other.
The musicians involved encompass a veritable who's who of the New York music scene, including Foetus live band veterans Brian Emrich (Furnace), Vinnie Signorelli (Swans, Unsane), David Ouimet (Motherhead Bug, Cop Shoot Cop, Firewater) and Kurt Wolf (Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Loudspeaker, Emma Peel). Aided and abetted by the abundant talents of Steven Bernstein (Lounge Lizards, Spanish Fly), Oren Bloedow (Elysian Fields) and Marcus Rojas (Spanish Fly).
All involved were hand-picked for their empathy, musicality and sensitive, sensuous and swinging sensability; despite the fact that virtually none of them had ever met, the chemistry proved to be spot on. The narrative was written and performed by Lydia Lunch, who resided in DUMBO from 1987 until 1990 with partner-in-grime J.G. Thirlwell who composed and sang the lyrics. Both the narrative and lyrics are based on crimes committed on them, crimes observed, crimes against the neighborhood, criminals both reviled and revered and, in one piece, crimes Thirlwell commits upon himself.
York was recorded at the nearby Brooklyn Anchorage, one of the huge stone pillars which supports the venerable structure that is the Brooklyn Bridge. Within the cavernous pillar, which boasts fifty foot ceilings, are numerous vaults and ante chambers. While having previously being used to store discarded tires, it was taken over several years ago by Creative Time, a New York arts foundation, who have each summer been curating it to stage and display numerous amazing interactive installations, art exhibits, performances, concerts and raves.
Turn off the lights and hide the razor blades.

Enjoy!

(liner notes)

HERE

Stebmo

2010-02-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

(self published, 2008)

Steve Moore is a young multi-instrumentalist from Seattle, Washington, playing amongst others trombone and keyboards. He is accompanied on this album by Doug Wieselman on reeds, Todd Sickafoose on bass, Matt Chamberlain on drums, Eyvind Kang on violin, and the album was produced by Tucker Martine. An all-star line-up of modern jazz, with Martine as a top producer of modern rock. In contrast to much jazz, the main focus of the album is the music on the one hand and the production, with lots of post-editing, on the other, less so on the performance or individual soloing. What you get is dense but light-footed music, conjuring up lots of atmospheric images. Martine's impact is clear, and those familiar with Mylab or some of Bill Frisell's later albums will recognize his influence, but the music is all Stebmo's, using jazz elements, Americana, and sound track-like ingredients with lots of dramatic effects. This is gentle music, intimate and calm, but combining joyful and playful elements with dark and menacing background harmonies or sounds. The first track "Waiting Game" sets the scene perfectly. And on one track, "Majika", I thought darkness and gloom would definitely conquer, but then Wieselman starts playing an almost joyful theme on his clarinet. This is slow to mid tempo mood music, carefully crafted and composed, with lots of attention to detail, and overall hard to compare with other music. But if you like Chris Speed's "Deviantics", Wayne Horvitz's "Sweeter Than The Day", or some of Matthew Shipp's work on his Thirsty Ear label, you start getting a gist of what you could hear here. An excellent debut.

Stef (www.freejazz-stef.blogspot.com)

A scene is only as good as its sidemen. Correction : a scene is its sidemen‚ because otherwise all we've got are songs and the people who wrote them. With jazz‚ the issue of who leads who is especially troublesome‚ as jazz‚ by definition‚ will not work without a conspiracy of many. In fact‚ sometimes it's the most unlikely conspiracies that birth the best music. STEBMO is a case in point. For a while now‚ keyboardist/trombonist Steve Moore has been a hero in the realm of linernotes. Having recorded and toured with artists as various as Skerik‚ Sufjan Stevens‚ Laura Veirs‚ Bill Frisell and sunnO)))‚ he's one of those guys you don't realize you already know and so dig in a creepy MySpace-stalker sort of way. STEBMO is his debutante ball. In a fitting move‚ Moore joined forces with drummer Matt Chamberlain‚ who has himself lurked in the not-so-deep-shadows of Marco Benevento‚ Brad Mehldau‚ Tori Amos and Critters Buggin to record a handful of florid tracks‚ owing perhaps most directly to Benevento's Invisible Baby. Ani DiFranco bassist Todd Sickafoose rounds out the core ensemble‚ but the contribution of string arrangements by Eyvind Kang (John Zorn‚ Laurie Anderson) and woodwind parts by Doug Wieselman render the album a collaborative sonic offering in the manner of which only sidemen are capable. Moore's simple piano tunes form the album's skeleton while architectural offerings on the part of the other instruments fill out its flesh. Favoring supportive collectivity over reaching ambition‚ there are few jaw-dropping solos here‚ only perfectly balanced songs that seem to have grown into precision‚ much like a well-groomed topiary. "Happy Ending" and "Majika" are gorgeous ballads that feature solitary clarinets and humble electronics. There's nothing light about "Dark Circle" or "Holding Pattern" though‚ as Moore digs into his grand piano much like the virtuosos Chamberlain has made his name supporting. Most tracks are gravely mature in their emotional depth‚ but with "Blind Ross" the band proves they can have a good New Orleans-style laugh. At the heart of a burgeoning jazz scene resigned to define its terms in relative obscurity‚ STEBMO is an album that could be easily swept under the rug. As content as these cats would be to mingle with the dust motes though‚ it would be a shame to see this one go by unnoticed.

Josh Potter (www.stateofmindmusic.com)

HERE

David Moss + Michael Rodach = "Fragmentary blues"

2010-02-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

(Traumton, 1999)

"Who could imagine ? A blues album -- a "fragmentary blues" album? Well, I never really imagined it either. But then Michael Rodach and I met in Berlin at a recording session for trumpeter/composer Paul Brody's "American Folk Songs" project. From the beginning we loved each other's sound and style, approach and eccentricities, energy and rhythms. Fate ! Then Michael invited me to play a duo with him (as live music with the old Warner Brothers "Road Runner" cartoons) for a jazz festival. So in December 1997 we played together for the first time: funk riffs, improvisation textures, fast changes, odd sustains, blues quotes, rhythm fragments, odd melodies and (James Brown inspired) screams -- all mixed with that minimalist/repetitive and definitely dada-inspired cartoon bird and coyote. After the concert we both knew it was only the beginning. And Stefi Marcus, of Traumton Studio, who heard us that night, realized the potential of our duo and invited us to record at the studio sometime and "see what happens...". And somehow we both felt that the power of our duo came from an odd mixture of improvisation, noise, fund and blues elements.
Then, after more than a year of schedule conflicts we finally set up at Traumton. We wanted a 'live'-feeling: no headphones, no room dividers, no vocal booths; just the guitar, drums, and voice hearing each other in a room, playing and responding. After 3 days recording, and some vocal and guitar overdubs (we couldn't resist, because so many songs gave us new ideas), this was the result: improvised songs based on our own eccentric perceptions of the blues. Guitar, drums, and voice -- on the one hand, pretty basic; on the other hand, perverse, distorted, fragmentary, transformed.
Through it's lyrics and rhythms, "Fragmentary Blues" pays homage to the blues music that we've heard for years. The words, voices, passion, sounds, noises, beats, fractured blues forms, quotes and warped riffs are playful elements of old and new music, Michael and I found many sounds and ideas that we'd never made before. We certainly never imagined the 20 songs on this CD before we sat down in the room together to discover these fragments and moods. But hasn't "blues" always been about personal voices, life-stories, intense moments and surprises, anyhow ? We both wonder how listeners will react."

David Moss, Michael Rodach, Berlin, June 1999 (liner notes)

HERE

Catherine Jauniaux + Ikue Mori = Vibraslaps

2010-02-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

(RecRec, 1993)

Catherine Jauniaux is a Belgian avant-garde singer. She has been described as a "one-woman-orchestra", a "human sampler", and "one of the best kept secrets in the world of improvised music".
Catherine Jauniaux began her career as an actress in Belgium at the age of 15. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, she sang with several experimental rock groups, including Aksak Maboul and The Work. In 1983 she teamed up with The Work's Tim Hodgkinson (ex-Henry Cow) in London to record her first solo album, Fluvial. Jauniaux and Hodgkinson wrote most of the tracks for the album, which are "imagined folk songs" that include elements of "contemporary art song, African singing, Native American legends, and alien nursery rhymes". The album centres around Jauniaux's voice with additional instrumentation by Hodgkinson, Bill Gilonis (The Work), Lindsay Cooper (ex-Henry Cow) and Georgie Born (ex-Henry Cow).
In the early 1990s, Jauniaux moved to New York City where she became part of the Downtown music scene, performing with a number of musicians, including Fred Frith, Tom Cora, Marc Ribot, Zeena Parkins, Butch Morris and Ikue Mori. Jauniaux founded the duo Vibraslaps with Ikue Mori and later married Tom Cora. In 1995 Jauniaux and Cora moved to Southern France where she continued performing with various European musicians, including Louis Sclavis, Heiner Goebbels, Yoshihide Otomo and Christian Marclay.
Jauniaux works regularly with artists in the field of dance and film, and sang in Heiner Goebbels's opera, Roemische Hunde in Frankfurt in 1991. She is inspired by traditional music, both real and imagined, and her performances mix seriousness and humour. She explores sound, emotion, melody and abstraction, and her vocal improvisations range from "traditional French chansons to breathy folk to Dadaistic glossolalia".

Ikue Mori has been a key member of the downtown music scene since moving to New York from Tokyo in 1977. She began her career playing drums for the seminal "no wave" group DNA, which she formed with guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Tim Wright. After the short-lived but highly influential group broke up in 1982, Mori began improvising live and recording with experimental musicians like Fred Frith, Tom Cora and, most notably, John Zorn. By 1985, Mori had completely abandoned the standard drum set in favor of her own unique drum machine/sampler set-up. Her signature instrument evolved into a highly customized arrangement of three self-programmed drum machines which she could trigger simultaneously to perform live, as well as for use recording.
In 1990, Mori received an NEA grant to work with filmmaker Abigail Child, which marked the beginning of several soundtrack projects for the musician. Throughout the 90s, Mori played and recorded with countless musicians, including projects/albums Death Praxis with vocalist Tenko, Painted Desert with guitarists Marc Ribot and Robert Quine and Death Ambient with guitarist Frith and bassist Kato Hideki. In 1996, Mori released her first solo drum machines album, Garden. Mori continued to work with a myriad of performers in the avant-garde and electronic scenes in the late 1990s, including collaborations with gifted trumpeter Dave Douglas, Mr. Bungle vocalist Mike Patton, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, free jazz bassist William Parker and extensive work with composer/saxophonist John Zorn. Ikue Mori is one of the most respected musicians in the downtown scene, renowned for her abilities as an accomplished composer and improviser and as one of the foremost electronic music innovators.

HERE

Mylab

2010-02-02T02:32:00.000-08:00

(Terminus)

Tucker Martine and Wayne Horvitz have worked together a lot over the last decade or so, with Martine generally acting as engineer (his role in the 4 + 1 Ensemble was "limited" to live processing), but Mylab is their first fully collaborative effort together. The songs started with Martine taking various ancient public-domain folk recordings (from around the turn of the last century), which he then sampled and looped in order to form the basis for new compositions, fleshed out by Horvitz and Martine together. A long list of Seattle's musical luminaries was then brought in for overdubs, sometimes adding new parts and sometimes replacing the part created by the old samples. The result is a thoroughly modern-sounding recording built from the familiar rhythms and melodies of the folk music tradition that country, blues, and rock & roll were built from. It's a fascinating juxtaposition made more interesting by the fact that many of the instruments and the samples themselves were treated further, so sometimes it's difficult to discern whether the source is the old recordings or the recent playing. And given the modus operandi, the amount of stylistic ground covered is impressive. "Varmint" is built on a mournful fiddle figure, with Danny Barnes' dobro adding a further bluegrass flavor, which is tempered by one of several excellent Bill Frisell solos. The next track, "Fancy Party Cakes," is loaded with crazy electronic squelches, programmed (or highly treated) drums, and backward effects. "Phil and Jerry" (an ode to the Grateful Dead?) starts out sounding very African, thanks to the ngoni playing of Kassemadi Kamissogo, then moves into Pharoah Sanders territory with Skerik on sax. The title "Old Days" might be an allusion to Horvitz's old band the President, as the tune strongly recalls that band (with Andy Roth doing his finest Bobby Previte imitation on drums, while Previte appears on several other tunes). Despite the fact that there are a lot of different styles on display here, Horvitz's tonal palette on keys and individual compositional voice really ties all the songs together. Mylab is a unique-sounding project that has succeeded in making an album that is interesting and challenging while being utterly approachable. This is sonic alchemy of the highest order. Well done.

Sean Westergaard (Allmusic)

HERE

Jacek Kochan : "New expensive head"

2010-02-01T06:10:00.000-08:00

(Gowi, 2003)

Jacek Kochan is a monster drummer. Born in Poland, he has been active in the musical scenes of Poland, USA, and Canada since the late 1970s. He is also an arranger, imaginative composer and music producer, but most of all - a superior drummer. His very distinctive modern drumming style is jam-packed and full of rhythmical gradations with stylistic references from the whole history of jazz. He is fully aware of versatile jazz and contemporary music traditions, but at the same time is completely immersed in contemporary fusion, funk, electronic and club beats. He is also very fluent in the language of free jazz, but in contrary to many others modern European drummers, he has no complex of avant-guard. He is a master of sound sampling, and has an exceptional gift of time and style. His smart and intelligent music is filled with nuances, full of space, with layers of acoustic and electronic sounds, and complex textures. As a drummer he does not over-emphasize the role of his instrument, but in contrary he focuses on collective sound, melodies, adventurous arrangements, original harmonies and rhythms.

Kochan's astonishing improvisational creativity makes him one of the most highly regarded and in-demand drummers on the Polish and European jazz scenes. His music engages the listeners, keeps them interested, sometimes puzzled, but always longing for more. Furthermore, Kochan excels in a recording studio environment, where he is able to masterfully utilize many wonders of the modern recording technologies, and at the same time able to restrain himself from the traps of artificial apparatus.

During the last decades, Kochan has played with many of the most important figures of American and European jazz :
in early 80-ties he moved to New York. There he have played and recorded with jazz, funk and r&b bands and studied among the others.with Jaco Pastorius, Mike Clark, Robbie Gonzales.
By the mid 80's, Jacek moved to Montreal, where he further expanded his musical lexicon to include writing for choirs and orchestra (Tudor Singers, Repercussion) as well as playing and recording ethnic music (latin , african , balkan). There he worked with Michel Donato, Karen Young, Andrew Leroux, Yannick Rieu, Oliver Jones, Jean-Pierrre Zanella, Michel Cusson, Katleen Dyson, Helmut Lipsky, Lazaro Saucedo, Geoff Lapp, Johnny Scott and many others, perfoming at the clubs and jazz festivals.
In 1990, after moving to Toronto, he started to work as a leader and sideman in countless live and recording projects with artists like John Abercrombie, Jerry Bergonzi, Pat Labarbera, Kenny Wheeler, Don Thompson, Mike Murley, Neil Swainson, Reggie Schwager, Lorne Lofsky, Bernie Senensky, John MacLeod, Dave Restivo and Brian Dickinson.
In 1995 he returned to Europe where he continues to compose, play, tour and record music with artists like Dave Liebman, Greg Osby, Marc Copland, Gary Thomas, Joey Calderazzo, Palle Mikkelborg, Eddie Henderson, Dave Tronzo, Briggan Krauss, Cuong Vu, Eric Vloeimans, Lars Danielsson, Dave Fiuczynski, Bo Stief, Christian Spering, Michel Benita, Furio DiCastri, Franz Hautzinger, Klaus Dickbauer , Eddie Schuller, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Axel Dorner, Ernesto Molinari, Francois Corneloup, Krzysztof Knittel, Skerik, Tomas Stanko, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Adam Pieronczyk, Piotr Wojtasik, Assif Tsahar, Tomasz Szukalski, Maciej Sikala and Piotr Baron.

(notes from www.polishjazz.com)

HERE

Crack Sabbath : "Bar slut"

2010-02-01T04:38:00.000-08:00

(2004)

Skerik is a bi-coastal man who plays the saxophone. He is a sax lord, a cyclone of skill and activity. His musings are flashpaper origami bulls. Skerik has many musical incarnations : he is Les Claypool Frog Brigade's sax player, collaborates with Stanton Moore (Garage à Trois), Bobby Previte and Jamie Saft (Beta Popes), Wayne Horvitz (Ponga) and Peter Buck from R.E.M. (Tuatara). Four of Skerik’s more active Seattle creations are Critters Buggin, Crack Sabbath, Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet and Dead Kenny G’s :

What do the Dead Kenny G’s sound like ?

Like a free-jazz version of the Melvins.

Could you talk about your sax ?

My saxophone is black, and made of metal, and I only play STRIBORG saxophones and reeds.

Where does all the saliva go ?

It goes into a special de-humidifier that is attached to my soul, I rent it at the tool rental place in White Center. It needs to be emptied regularly.

What’s all this about mouth exercises and embouchure ? Do you do mouth exercises ?

My mouth is pink and is filled with ponies and a castle, the embouchure is connected to the moat in front of the castle, no exercises.

How did you first start playing the saxophone ?

I was forced to play by parents seeking amusement, with a guilt-ridden self-deprecating agenda.

Talk about the mechanics of the sax, how do you play ?

You blow as hard as you can and twitch your fingers fast as possible, that makes the metal heat up under the keys, causing a fissure of undulating magma.

Any special treats for the Crack Sabbath show ?

We will be featuring a regular tirade against ANYTHING by our Jewish organist Ron Weinstein. Because there is right, and there is RON. He makes Rush Limbaugh sound like Martha Stewart. We will also play a cover of the new WEEDEATER song “God Luck and Good Speed”. Every show for us lately has also been a tribute to the MELVINS and CHARLES MINGUS.

(excerpts taken from « Lineout, music & nightlife in Seattle » blog)

HERE

Erik Friedlander : "Skin"

2010-01-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

(Siam, 2000)

Cellist Erik Friedlander continues to explore new vistas of expression in the progressive modern jazz idiom. In alto saxophonist Andy Laster he has a partner with whom to contrast stylistically, while electric bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi and percussionist brother Satoshi create a rhythmic foundation that lives and breathes on its own. The Atlas Cello Quartet is also featured on most of this program. There are five "standards" of the 11 compositions that Friedlander interprets. Henry Mancini's "Susan" is serene and beautiful, with slight Afro-Cuban spice and melody similar to "Invitation." The title track "Skin I" is written by Julius Hemphill with Laster assimilating the writer's signature outcry over kinetic, almost industrial percussion and a 4/4 Afro-groove. "Sahel Va Danya" is a creative raga; "Eclipse" the Charles Mingus moody bell ringer, features Laster again wailing; and a solo cello version of "Golden Dawn" takes the Carlos Santana piece into very different sonic areas from the original. The rest are Friedlander's originals. Balkan measures of 7/4 and 4/4 collapse into no time. Slight snippets of cello, bass, and percussion lead to harder, then deliberate swing with harmonic bass overtones on "Split Screen," Friedlander's most involved writing. There's the urban landscape funk of "Fekunk," and the 6/8 Afro-groove "Life In-Line." The total string package is most prevalent on the pensive "Reflections" and more 20th century, contemporary-natured on "White Mountain." The ensemble is at its darkest during "Doomwatcher," replete with free emotional exchanges. Because Friedlander explores many avenues of improvisation and composition, he can't be pegged; his work doesn't fit into a definable bag. You could call it great modern music, and that would be enough. The sounds are challenging, eminently accessible, and definitely compelling, marking more progress in this marvelous musician's burgeoning career. Highly recommended, and a step beyond his previous CD, Topaz.

Michael G. Nastos (Allmusic)

HERE

Satoko Fujii : "Jo"

2010-01-24T06:32:00.000-08:00

(Buzz, 1999)

Pianist Satoko Fujii has assembled a 15-piece band of intensely fierce improvisers from various sources, including NYC, Boston and Japan. Trumpeter Jack Walrath (ex-Charles Mingus), saxophonists Briggan Krauss and Chris Speed (Knitting Factory stable), trumpeter John Carlson and trombonist Curtis Hasselbring (Either/Orchestra), trumpeter Dave Ballou (Orange Then Blue, among others), trombonist Joey Sellers (a progressive big bandleader in his own right), and countrymen Stomu Takieshi (electric bass) and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura are part of this multi-national, multi-faceted avant-garde improvising unit. Fujii penned six of these eight pieces. "Jo" is apparently a midnight-dancing wolf, as depicted during the stalking title cut, brimming with counterpointed horn layers and a stealthy, slow 10/8 funk rhythm. Drummer Aaron Alexander solos, with Takieshi responding by his carnivorous lonesome. "Kyu" is free New Orleans-flavored funk-rock with urgent, kinetic lines, running dragster-fast over skittering, dodge-car improvisations, while calmer, echoing motifs and Kodo-like drum slams accent Tamura's "Okesa-Yansado," with a quite symphonic coda. The mournful elongated chart of the ballad "Reminiscence" leads to rubato horns pulsing in ghostly fashion. Fujii's voice is her ensemble, but you hear traces of her pianistic personality during the Tamura composition "Wakerasuka" — piano and percussion counterpoint trading places back and forth with sour, long horn tones, then combining forces, followed by group vocal outcries and a hard funk charge. Her inside-the-piano strings clattering inspires gossipy horns chattering amongst themselves for "Around the Corner," and the 13-minute "Sola" is slow-dirge funk, solemn and remorseful, quite mindful of a distinct Gil Evans approach. This is dense music with creative flourishes an occasional Oriental edge sewn in the fabric of richly textured writing and improvisation. Fujii has a unique concept, eluding hard definitions and parameters. Perhaps this is the opening salvo for what could be many expansive and intriguing works to come.

Michael G. Nastos (Allmusic)

HERE

Marc Ribot : "Requiem for what's-his-name"

2010-01-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

(Les disques du crépuscule, 1992)

On his second release as a bandleader, guitarist Marc Ribot is joined by players familiar from his gigs as a hired sideman, including saxophonist Roy Nathanson of the Lounge Lizards and the Jazz Passengers and multi-reed player Ralph Carney from Tom Waits' touring band. Though less swinging and fresh than 1990's Rootless Cosmopolitans, this album's original compositions and renditions of Duke Ellington and Howlin' Wolf tunes still leave plenty of room for Ribot's discordant guitar stylings.

Brian Beatty (Allmusic)

HERE

Vernon Reid + Elliott Sharp + David Torn = Guitar Oblique

2010-01-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

(Knitting Factory, 1998)

"Guitar Oblique" is an avant-jazz, superstar lineup. This guitar trio features Elliott Sharp, Vernon Reid (from Living Colour) and David Torn. Experimental, ambient, and multi-layered, the work of this trio is an otherworldly headspace untethered by a rhythm section. An exploration of dissonance and melody, effected guitars, and the interaction of the dissimilar, this trio's work is an impressive free-guitar alchemy from three of the instrument's most prolific and innovative players.

Tom Schulte (Allmusic)

HERE

Ray Anderson + Han Bennink + Christy Doran

2010-01-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

(Hat Hut, 1994 & 1995)

About AZURETY : A multinational group, trombonist, Ray Anderson, (United States) and drummer, Han Bennink (Holland) are known for injecting wit and whimsy into various musical frameworks. The musicians infuse their playful tendencies into this set also featuring the equally talented electric guitarist, Christy Doran (Ireland). On this release, the trio is simply having a blast as they surge forward with the intensity of your average high-octane, heavy metal rock outfit. Here, Anderson's often-verbose mode of execution rides atop Bennink's rolling thunder, and Doran's quasi free-jazz/hard-rock style licks.
The trio engages in uninhibited dialogue in concert with ominous sounding undercurrents thanks to a rollicking and rolling presentation of pieces spanning bluesy, dirge-like progressions and turbulently executed exchanges. Doran utilizes delay effects amid blazingly fast single note leads, and a few ostinato motifs while Anderson and Bennink frequently trade sprightly fours. The musicians also provide the listener with softly enacted swing vamps along with some downright riotous interplay. Recommended !

Glenn Astarita (Allmusic)

About CHEERUP : This trio's first recording, the wonderful Azurety, met with acclaim by critics and music fans alike for its gleeful abandon, musically astute terrorism, and tunes that were stop-on-a-dime tight. The trio, which was initially together just for a tour, is now a working unit and this second recording proves it. The originals by Christy Doran and Ray Anderson were written specifically to the strengths — and current obsessions — of each musician. Doran wrote "No Return" — with its crunchy New Orleans funk — with Han Bennink in mind (the drummer had just returned from West Africa and developed a jones for using bells). For his part, Anderson composed "My Own Children Are the Reason Why I Need to Own My Publishing" — which is all but humorous — as a bluesy wonder for his trombone's lyrical swing and Doran's trademark atmospheric shading. It's late-night lounge blues with a purpose, which is, it seems, a tender and loving paean to Anderson's kids. The free stuff ("Tabasco Cart," "Buckethead," etc.) is so playful it's hard to notice at first all the maneuvering that's going on between the three. Bennink is ripping the skins off in an attempt to make Doran push himself beyond his usual Jimi Hendrix machinations and match him in percussive expression. The title track is more bells from Bennink and whistles, and Doran using an African folk song as his root melody for Anderson to cruise through the registers on the tuba. It's a joyous dance of melodic invention and polyrhythmic grace. The overtones created by Doran's riffing play an excellent invertible counterpoint to Bennink's bells and whistles. When it slides into guttersnipe funk and slips into an off-kilter Cuban mambo, Doran takes off Robert Fripp style, and carries the band into the stratosphere. This date is killer — a blast to listen to. Guaranteed to cheer you up, even if you don't need it.

Thom Jurek (Allmusic)

Fredy Studer : "Seven songs"

2010-01-10T07:59:00.001-08:00

(Verabra, 1991)

"...Studer has created an extraordinary polycultural musical experience for open-minded listeners..." (JAZZIZ)

Fredy Studer was born in Lucerne, Switzerland where he still resides. He is a self - taught drummer and percussionist, one of the few who incorporate open improvisation as well as straight rock beats into his style, who's experiences as an active musician since the seventies are as various as playing with musicians from "A" like Abercrombie to "Z" like Zorn. For example :
In 1972, he was a founding member of the group "OM", along with Christy Doran, Urs Leimgruber and Bobby Burri (Japo). In 1977, he participated in the project "Percussion Profiles" with Jack DeJohnette, Pierre Favre, Dom Um Romao, David Friedman and George Gruntz (Japo).

During the eighties, he recorded several albums for ECM with Rainer Brüninghaus & Markus Stockhausen (1984), the Pierre Favre ensemble with Paul Motian and Nana Vasconcelos (1984) and Stephan Wittwer & Christy Doran (1987). Studer has also been in the percussion ensemble of Robyn Schulkowsky, performing compositions of Charles Ives, Steve Reich, John Cage and Edgard Varèse.

During the nineties, he was involved in the "Doran / Studer / Burri / Magnenat" quartet (Ecm, 1991), the "Doran / Studer / Minton / Bates / Ali » quintet playing the music of Jimi Hendrix and the power trio "Race the time » (with Christy Doran and Jamaaladeen Tacuma). Today, current groups include the hardcore chamber music trio "Koch - Schütz – Studer"(Intakt). Studer is also developing his series of duo recordings among others with female musicians : Jin Hi Kim, Joëlle Léandre, Amy Yoshida, Lauren Newton, Saadet Turkoz...

HERE

Christy Doran + Fredy Studer + Phil Minton + Django Bates + Amin Ali : "Play the music of Jimi Hendrix"

2010-01-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

(Verabra, 1994)

HERE

Christy Doran + Fredy Studer + Jamaaladeen Tacuma : "Race the time"

2010-01-10T05:54:00.000-08:00

(MGB, 1997)

The Irish-born Doran has lived in Lucerne, Switzerland, since he was a child. His first exposure to music came through his father, a singer of Irish ballads. In the '70s, Doran helped found the band OM, with Fredy Studer, Urs Leimgrumber, and Bobby Burri; the band recorded several times for the Japo/ECM label. Although not particularly well-known in the United States, Doran has played with a good many first-rate American experimental and free jazz musicians, including saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, flutist Robert Dick, trombonist Ray Anderson, and composer Carla Bley, among others. With Studer, Doran initiated a project celebrating the music of Jimi Hendrix; the band also included Amin Ali, Django Bates, and Phil Minton. The group toured and recorded in the mid-'90s. Doran's collaboration with Anderson dates to 1989; the two men combined with drummer Han Bennink to form a trio which performed occasionally through 1997. Doran has led record dates for the hatART, Synton, Intuition, and Planisphere labels. He is a prolific collaborator; in addition to those named above, he's also worked with trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, clarinetist Louis Sclavis, percussionist Marilyn Mazur, trumpeter Herb Robertson, pianist John Wolf Brennan, bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, to name just a few. Doran formed the group New Bag in 1997; from 1998-2000 the band toured the world, playing dates in North and South America, Africa, and Europe. In 2001, the band toured to promote their CD Black Box (On Cue Records), which featured the Indian master drummer Muthuswamy Balasubramoniam. Doran teaches at the Musikhochschule of Lucerne. He's also given many workshops, lectures, and clinics.

Chris Kelsey (All Music)

"...As a trio, however, this group has some power...Doran races through the gamut of jazz rock styles, but with commitment, and his interplay with the formidably agile Studer bears the imprint of many years spend playing together. This trio is a perfect setting for Tacuma's harmonically and rhythmically elastic playing..." (Simon Hopkins, THE WIRE)

HERE

Joe Gallant Illuminati : "Skin"

2010-01-09T10:33:00.001-08:00

(Scratchy, 1990)

1- The Chilling tide (for Frank Smith)
2- Sacred heart (for Kathy Chambers)
3- Courtship
4- Metanoia (for prof. Lesh)
5- Centre street (for the Micros)
6- Belladonna (for Margaret Vititow)
7- Simulacrum (for Helen, Suzanne and Nina Gallant)

musicians :

Joe Gallant : bass
Tomas Ulrich : cello
Michelle Kinney : cello (1,3,5,7)
Phillip Johnson : sax (1,3,5,7)
Hagit Rosmarin : flute (1,3,7)
Steven Bernstein : trumpet (1,3,7)
Denise Puricelli : piano (1,3,7)
Ellen Christi : voice (1,3,7)
Tom Judson : accordion (1,3,7)
Vito Ricci : synthesizer & wrench guitar (1,3,7)
Dick Weller : drums (1,3,7)
Skip Reed : percussion (1,3,4,7)
Mark Feldman : violin (4,5,6)
Dennis Charles : drums (4)
Rashied Ali : drums (4)
Bern Nix : guitar (5)
Joel Forrester : piano (5)
David Hofstra : bass (5)
Richard dworkin : drums (5)
Suzanne Gallant : percussion (1)

Denise Cridge : viola (2,4)
Alex Zisk : violin (2)
Marina Zisk : violin (2)

HERE

When I first heard about Gallant's music, it was described to me as "avant-garde big band music." Although this cheeky description is in some ways accurate, like any label it fails to describe the breadth and flight of his compositions. Best known to Deadheads for his big band arrangements of the Grateful Dead albums "Blues For Allah" and "Terrapin Station," Gallant has also created several non-Dead related music projects of unusual beauty. With his band Illuminati, he released "Skin" in 1990, an early effort which evokes the tone poetry of the impressionist composers Debussy and Ravel and draws upon the thrills and difficulties of transforming one's life utterly, that period of transitional limbo and the entry into one's true destiny.

BS: How did music enter your life and consciousness?

JG: The big encounter was hearing a chamber ensemble when I was about 6 years old. They were playing a modern-sounding piece that was like an invitation from my future. I was completely transfixed. It was brilliant-sounding, like a laser lightsource. I took piano lessons at six, guitar lessons at ten, but I didn't hear those instruments inside me enough to embrace them. The next big encounter was my first rock concert: December 30, 1971, The Band at the Academy of Music on 14th street. It blew my mind. I was thunderstruck by the exotic, gypsy-circus vibe, the patchoulli/pot smell, the lights, the awesome hippy chicks! The Band just rocked that night. I knew I wanted to be a part of whatever magic was capable of happening on a stage full of musicians.

BS: And how did you hook up with the bass?

JG: I started "hearing" the bass in Freshman year High School and started playing upright and electric at the same time.

BS: Which bass players have turned you on and inside out over the years?

JG: Starting in 1972: The bass player with Steppenwolf, and Larry Taylor with Canned Heat. Then a few months later, Phil Lesh because I completely dug his approach and tone. He's the first of two bassists who changed and codified the course of my life, without a doubt. I had started trying to plunk out his bass lines on acoustic guitar the year before. Bruce Barlow, from Commander Cody is another important figure. On upright: Charles Mingus, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Alan Silva, Dave Holland, Ray Brown, George Duvivier, Charlie Haden. And, on electric, of course: Jaco Pastorius. What can you say? He changed it all up for all of us. In 1987 I heard my second most important bass influence: Anthony Jackson, a virtuoso who invented the 6-string bass. He's become a friend and teacher. I guess it's fair to say that if you want to hear where I really come from bass-wise, listen to Phil Lesh and Anthony Jackson.

BS: Which composers have particularly influenced your vision?

JG: First, Ingolf Dahl. His "Concerto a Tre" is my favorite composition of all time. Karlheinz Stockhausen, arch experimentalist, working in so many different genres. My favorite pieces are "Zeitmasse," "Telemusik," "Hymnen," and the remarkable "Adieu." I also like Schoenberg, Bartok, Berg, jazz composers like George Russell and Carla Bley and Cecil Taylor, a shimmering landing field of energy and ideas. Bach was a huge influence. Because I didn't study formally with a teacher for the first six years of playing, I would read through the Inventions and Cello Suites and try to imitate that contrapuntal, chordal style on electric.
...

BS: Why the name Illuminati for your band?

JG: I decided on the name in May of1982, while living on East 3rd Street, deriving it from the word "illumination," as used specifically in a text written by the philosopher Francis Bacon: "The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense. The last was the light of reason, and his Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his spirit." I wasn't aware of the Robert Anton Wilson "Illuminati" books at that point. A friend turned me onto those books when I told him my choice for a name. I really didn't get much of an initial impression from the actual writing in the books. It seemed too pothead wink-wink for such a seemingly important subject. But I was very intrigued and went on to devour information about the history and legacy of those ideas, which led me through studies of the early Gnostic tradition, Rosicrucian, Masonic and Knights Templar philosophies, and lastly into a very deep and ongoing interest in Alchemy. I collect and read as much on the subject as I can, buying texts wherever I travel and ordering books from all over the US and Europe on a regular basis. Illuminati's music was always meant to be an expression of the spirit, at its metaphysical level, as well as being a continuing diary...
All of my solo CDs are very much about where I was at the time of their writing, gigging and recording. "Skin" (1990) was essentially a smaller-scale chamber writing/jazz disc, with a lot of melodic ideas and modernist string arranging, a bit on the poignant side, Ravel-esque, reflecting my love for my two French Impressionist heroes--Ravel and Debussy--in some of the harmonic aspects. Its music mirrors the period between 1987-90, when I was putting Illuminati back together relatively early in sobriety. It's sort of tenuous and fragile, but well-crafted.

BS: In your opinion what's the most interesting thing happening in the New York City music scene these days?

JG: There's no real high-octane launching-pad scene in NYC at the moment, where you feel swept up in a deep, spontaneous and fertile mission with people on similar explorations. Certainly nothing currently exists in Manhattan as an energy conduit, like, for example, Bebop in the '40s-'50s, or Abstract Expressionism in the '50s, or 1964-66 Warholesque, exploding-inevitable pop and happenings-into-the-free-jazz/'politics of revolution. Remember when there was sincere talk of necessary change for real, from a lot of different corners, in the national air? There's nothing now like the NYC Loft Movement of the late '60s or Punk/New Wave/'No New York in the '70s-early '80s, or the downtown, angular shriekback white hipster arrhythmia of the mid-'80s-The Present. These all began with ideas in fairly pure form, and became codified into scenes in a time of affordable housing (as necessary as laboratory Latin . . . work and prayer space, for committed working artists).
Astronomical rent increases in the mid-'80s, the arrival of yuppie-worship, Eurotrash and dotcom infection, the twisted cancerous fascism of the current mayor, and a generally distracted, disconnected national mindset (suffering from psychic hearing damage caused by the shrill desperate screaming hype of media) all helped kill or stultify anything as fragile (and potentially dangerous) as a new movement.
None of the truly important scenes of recent history would get very far if they were just beginning today, in this climate. I don't mean to sound like an old crank yelling at street signs, and I'm also not announcing anything that's unknown here. These scenes had a very multi-disciplinary mulch bed in which to cross-fertilize--painters, writers, musicians, poets, mixed-media artists, responding organically to the culture, politics and economics of their time, as do all ground zero environments of spontaneous artistic commonality and shared awareness defining a SCENE, as seen for example in the dazzling alembic of post-Beat San Francisco and its historic, never-to-be-repeated development, 1963-69.
...

article (excerpts) by Barry Smolin (2001/09/19 on www.jambands.com)

Peter Herbert + David Tronzo : "Segmente"

2009-12-05T15:07:00.000-08:00

(Aziza Music, 1999)

New York has quite a number of enabled improvising musicians, indeed it is a place of strong live interaction, where artistic participation seems to be the given. Yet within artistic dynamics there remains a fundamental interaction which enables an exciting setup of musicians to tick. It is the simple matter of chemistry. Peter Herbert and David Tronzo recognized this key element within the music they created together, allowing this "chemistry" and their unique perspectives to be present from the first session they did together more than 10 years ago in NYC's East Village, where they both reside.
Their backgrounds and influences are diverse -- Tronzo's re-invention of the slide guitar encompasses world folk, modern classical and free jazz forms; Herbert has courted two enormously rich careers simultaneously: one as a classical composer and performer, the other as a modern jazz bassist of great demand. This duo differs from others. Each voice is un-mistakenly recognizable, containing its own distinctly personal sound and language, which both musicians have developed on their own over the years. A quality, that is not necessarily a given anymore. Together, they create an entirely fresh sound. Their concept of using mostly acoustic sound altering devices (tools and toys), extends the acoustic playing capacities of their instruments, tickling sounds from their instruments from head to toe. These "extended techniques" distinguishes them from other, more elaborate "tech" setups. Besides, a duo is the most intimate setup for improvised music, which requires a maximum of trust, including being able to stay silent and listen, if the music calls for it.
Best described perhaps as acoustic ambient music, the Tronzo/Herbert duo walks a highly energized tightrope which draws the audience into the visceral 'experience' of great live music making.

HERE

Frances-Marie Uitti + Elliott Sharp : "Improvisations"

2009-12-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

(JDK, 1997)

First Sharp's musical movement : like a blacksmith he strikes and creates a sound module, uneven, and brutal which he then catapults in an accelerated net of transformations and evil modifications. Looking for the perpetual movement. The initial formula gives birth to another, each formula goes forth, recycles the magical fuel, the energy of the next formula, like one would tune the energy of a star in the far distance. Music full of radiations. Whether he plays very expansive or reserved he builds on ramifications, tentacular variations which go very fast. And this is very masculine in its attempt to explain-express a total and original conception of his proper musical movement.
Frances-Marie Uitti is not very often playing with Sharp. She is rather uncessantly cutting his trajectories. She plays between sharpian ramifications. The dynamic comes from always trying not to be swallowed by the net. As if she was taking on the task to fill, inhabit the spaces he only goes accross and leaves behind. Her strings find the time and space to sing where Sharp dazzles with his ephemerous formulae. Even if sometimes she has to become a fury, play with a consuming physical commitment, in order to preserve her autonomy. She seems also more receptive to what the other is doing, sensibly developing themes he drew only the cabalistic sketches of. So doing she brings out emotional paths barely touched upon by the sharpian conquest for the perpetual movement. She takes all the risks for these emotional conflicts. There their routes are imbricated. Moreover, in the improvised engagements of Uitti can be heard an in-depth work on the relationships between the works written for her by the classical composers and the research for a personal language that no score will ever capture. A space of freedom, breathing, research necessary for her to keep personality in the interpretation when she goes back to the universe of the classical.

Pierre Hemptinne (Médiathèque de Mons, Belgique)

Combining the occasional extreme brutality of Elliot Sharp's non traditional double-necked guitar with the equally non-traditional, double bowed cello playing of Frances Marie-Uitti surely creates an explosive device waiting to detonate. Never quite playing together, they instead each take turns interjecting fragments and filling spaces with improvised textures. Uitti's cello at times seems to take the role of the sweet submissive vocalist as Sharp's guitar strong-arms other parts of the pieces. The dynamic between the two players allows for Uitti to elaborate on the roughly-hewn sketches that Sharp tosses into the work.

(from Listen.com)

HERE

Rob Schwimmer + Uri Caine + Mark Feldman : "Theremin noir"

2009-12-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

(November, 2000)

So many years after its invention, the theremin (an electromagnetic instrument triggered by hand gestures) remains cruelly underexposed, but consequently has kept its aura of mystery. This session involving theremin virtuoso Rob Schwimmer, pianist Uri Caine, and violinist Mark Feldman is therefore a highly unusual one. Most of the material was written by Schwimmer or arranged by him from Bernard Herrmann's film scores. A few tracks were collectively written or improvised. The instrument's innate ability for eerie glissandos secured it a recurring role in horror/suspense movies. Herrmann was one of the first to understand its potential and used it in his soundtracks for Alfred Hitchcock, especially in Vertigo. Schwimmer picked the best moments ("Carlotta's Portrait/Farewell," "The Nightmare/The Tower"), reaching the CD's highlight in his arrangement of "Scene d'Amour," a gripping number where all three musicians showcase their talents, building to an irresistible climax. The theremin's wail can mimic the human voice (a ghostly, haunting one) or string instruments (either violin, viola, or cello, depending on the register used). Many times the listener isn't quite sure who is playing the melody. To complement the theremin's range of expression, the leader occasionally uses effects or turns to the harsher daxophone. The music varies from foggy cabaret jazz numbers (Uri Caine's personal touch) to cinematic music crossed with contemporary classical. Highly lyrical, always firmly tonal and melodic, even though the instrumentation makes it feel off-the-wall and avant-gardist, Theremin Noir is inhabited by an uncanny beauty. A moody, delicate, and highly original album. Strongly recommended.

François Couture (All Music)

HERE

Briggan Krauss : "300"

2009-11-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

(Knitting Factory, 1998)

Immerse head in big bucket of New York downtown saxophone skronk. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. That's kind of what listening to Briggan Krauss' 300 is like. Krauss is a bit of a madman on the alto saxophone, even by the standards of the downtown scene, which — after all — is not populated by a bunch of shrinking violets. Leading this two-session recording with keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and drummer Kenny Wollesen, Krauss is positively unhinged a good deal of the time; most of his work with groups like Babkas, Pigpen, Sex Mob, and even the Andrea Parkins Trio (which also features Wollesen) is comparably restrained. He cuts loose with scalar runs that permute into screams, wails, and gravel-voiced roars — as well as mews, sputters, flutters, and burrs that seem to mimic a variety of fantasy forest creatures (or bizarro aquatic denizens, as in "Sea Monster"). On the DX-7, Horvitz unleashes his own assault of funkified synth distortion, while the always inventive Wollesen contributes everything from wild thrashings to subtle colorations to spot-on delivery of the rhythmic pulse. 300 moves through sometimes wrenching mood shifts from one piece to the next: Horvitz's "Bingo," an understated piano and saxophone duet with a lovely melody, is followed by the sheer hysteria of "Some Woman's Strange Laugh," with its flurry of low-register sax notes followed by a high-pitched downward glissing squeal, over and over again (that's some laugh all right). Most of the tunes are improvised by the band, and a third are composed by either Krauss or Horvitz. Scored or not, many of the pieces are like sonic snapshots rather than extended-form cinematic excursions; Krauss and his bandmates don't usually roam far afield from the beginning to the end of a tune, choosing instead to discover and fool around a while with particular (sometimes lunatic) ideas that will either tickle or drill into your ears, and then abandon them before they've worn out their welcome. Krauss does actually display a sensible streak, at least knowing how long to push his repetitions before they get too bonkers, unless of course getting bonkers is the point. Then after working up a thick lather, Krauss will rinse it all away with a touch of simplicity and beauty — before dumping the crazy stuff all over your head again. And when you step out of his shower of saxophone squeals, your ears will be squeaky clean.

Dave Lynch (All Music)

HERE

Andrea Parkins : "Slippage"

2009-11-26T12:58:00.000-08:00

(Knitting Factory, 1996)

Multi-Instrumentalist/composer Andrea Parkins plays a significant role within the adventurous, often cutting edge New York City Downtown scene. Here, along with fellow New York Downtown constituents, Kenny Wolleson (d) and Briggan Krauss (saxes), Parkins continues her unique conceptual approaches with the follow up to her previous Knitting Factory release “Cast Iron Fact”.
On “Slippage”, Parkins pays a bit more attention to compositional and thematic development in contrast to “Cast Iron Fact” which dealt more with “free” improvisation and placed more emphasis on abstractions, disparate sounds and unorthodox voicings. An interesting approach, which worked well; however, Parkins and company seem to convey a bit more self-assurance and focus on this new release. “Slippage” does not forgo the exploratory dialogue and improvisational techniques utilized in “Cast Iron Fact”; however, the compositions are slightly more structured and attain a richer balance of continuity and direction. Ultimately, the overall flow fares well on this project.
The opener, “Remarkable Spectacle of a Frozen Cataract” features Ms. Parkins on sampler and piano. The music is fitting for such a bizarre notion of witnessing a frozen cataract and sounds menacing or perhaps even scientific. “Local Cosmography” is at times surrealistic as Parkins utilizes her sampler to invoke circus-like themes. The title cut “Slippage” is a free jazz piece where Parkins’ piano work treads waters that touch on Cecil Taylor and features creative and spunky dialogue with saxophonist Briggan Krauss. Kenny Wolleson’s drumming fills in the gaps and generates off meter tempos to offset the conversational motifs between Parkins and Krauss. “Beautiful Animal” features Krauss’ furious clarinet work as he paints a vivid picture to coincide with Parkins’ brief fragmented statements on the piano. The overall tone of this composition appears to mimic a chamber-esque like environment as the recurring theme provides the foundation for otherworldly forays into meaningful yet rampant dialogue. On “Early TV”, Parkins picks up the accordion as this tune summons imagery of TV pioneer and funnyman Milton Berle’s goofy slapstick routines or the comedic banter of Sid Caesar. “Early TV” is a gas! The playful nature hints at comedic TV in the 1950’s as Parkins explodes with gobs of imagery and clearly engages her innermost thoughts and creative wherewithal. Here, the movements segue into a fantastic ambient-electronic interlude, which could draw some comparisons to some of the well-known Germanic gods of electronica ala Cluster or Peter Namlook. Here, the band deterministically portray the increasing presence of Television in our lives, as Wolleson moves forward with a straight-four style backbeat. The main theme resurfaces and serves as the finale or coda. “Lost Lure” is a hard-edged rocker as Krauss shows commanding presence with his baritone sax. Parkins goes it alone on the solo piano piece titled “Capture” complete with huge block chords, thematic developments that hit you in spurts and an overall inquisitive style of play as detected by the linear voicings in her compositional evolution. The final track, “Story Of An Eye” (you have to love these titles) features more sampler articulations that once again straddle a quasi ambient-electronic feel, complete with firm backbeats and Parkins subtle accordion maneuvers which adds a dash of nuance.
Andrea Parkins hits the mark with Slippage as she mirrors concepts and styles that may seem familiar yet her patented artistic voice serves as the focal point and the results are imminently rewarding. Also, Ms. Parkins reaps numerous benefits from her equally gifted peers, Briggan Krauss and Kenny Wollesen.

Glenn Astarita (All Music)

HERE

"Secular steel"

2009-11-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

(Gaff Music, 2004)

In the late '90s Arhoolie Records' Sacred Steel series finally exposed the joyous gospel tradition of steel guitar to a wider audience, proving that country and Hawaiian music were not the exclusive domain of pedal and lap steel guitars. Inspired by that series, Elliott Sharp decided to join in the fun and asked a bunch of steel players to contribute to Secular Steel, a fascinating and freewheeling demonstration of just how far these instruments can be taken. In fact, there are tracks where the listener would be hard-pressed to correctly identify the instrument being played, as on "Leslie the Alien" or "Slow Lights." Eugene Chadbourne plays a traditional (?) tune on what sounds like a prepared lap steel, while Bob Hoffnar summons droning howls, surpassed in terms of menace only by Mark Dagley's powerful and almost frightening "Steel Guitar Moan." "Orion on the Horizon" is also built on a drone and has a slightly Middle Eastern sound, which is more pronounced on Andy Marshall's "East by Southwest," where he adds dumbek, saz, and oud to his lap steel to great effect. Henry Kaiser plays a sly double tribute with "Ahoy Sonny," a tip of the hat to Sonny Sharrock's deranged slide playing where Kaiser uses the same freaky guitar effect as Frank Zappa on "Ship Ahoy." Oddly enough, Lucky Oceans, steel player for Western swing revivalists Asleep at the Wheel, turns in one of the most "out there" pieces, while that of guitar maverick and curator Elliott Sharp is among the most conventional sounding. Despite being dedicated to the undersung bluesman Earl Hooker, David Toop's track is another one of the more avant-garde-sounding pieces, while Joe Goldmark and Stephen Ulrich contribute what one might first expect from a steel guitar compilation. Secular Steel has a little something for everyone interested in steel guitar, from pretty straight-up country to completely avant-garde free improv and a healthy dose of good humor that runs throughout. The pacing of the album is excellent, such that the outer limits never gang up on more timid listeners, but there are more than enough risks taken so that listeners coming at this from the Sharp camp won't be disappointed. Steel guitar fans really ought to check this one out.

Sean Westergaard (All Music)

HERE

John Hollenbeck : "The Claudia quintet"

2009-11-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

(CRI, 2001)

... In the Claudia Quintet's drum chair, John Hollenbeck often locks into a rhythm and gradually builds the intensity of his attack, taking his own sweet time to reach the dynamic peak in a piece of music. He also propels the music forward with a crisp and clean style that doesn't overwhelm his bandmates, including Chris Speed, the noted N.Y.C. reedman who tends to prefer subtle expressiveness over displays of high-volume bluster. On this debut CD by the band, Claudia pursues a cool after-hours chillout vibe much of the time, and the instrumentation should suggest what Hollenbeck is after: aside from Speed (contributing a bit of tenor sax in addition to clarinet), the quintet features vibraphonist Matt Moran, accordionist Ted Reichman, and ubiquitous upright bassist Drew Gress.
This lineup doesn't require listeners to stuff cotton in their ears to prevent hearing damage. The inclination is rather to pull out the cotton in order to best appreciate the clarity and nuance of this ensemble — the round tones of the clarinet, shimmer of the vibes, earthiness of the accordion, and deep resonance of the bass. All the instruments are afforded room to breath, as unembellished melodic lines and shifting harmonics are drawn out across the sure and steady pulse and gathering rhythmic energy of "Meinetwegen" and the first and third of the album's "Thursday" compositions. Modalism and momentum are traded for spacy atmospherics on the second "Thursday" piece, with its ringing and sustained tones courtesy of Moran's bowed and struck vibes. But don't think The Claudia Quintet is entirely a space cruise, as the album includes the lovely downtempo ballad "Love Song for Kate," the swinging tenor-driven "Burt and Ken," the nearly cacophonous riot of voices during the improvised middle section of "a-b-s-t-i-n-e-n-c-e," and the angular stop-and-start "No D," in which Reichman fires off a solo on accordion that sounds about as wild as one could get without breaking the thing. Auspicious debut, indeed. One senses that a new and important voice has emerged on the New York creative music scene.

Dave Lynch (All Music)

HERE

"New York guitars"

2009-11-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

(CRI, 1995)

The electric guitar was born into a hostile climate… When the first amplified guitars were put on the market in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the first significant public campaigns against ever-increasing city noise were also taking place. Among the anti-cacophony mottos: “The silence of each assures rest for us all.” Thus, from its inception, the electric guitar was a symbol of noise, imprecision and rebellion. Its weapon: amplification, the enemy of restful sleep. Though the New York composers and improvisers on this record coax everything from dissonance and drones to blues and jazz out of their guitars, they all have one thing in common: they are by nature defiant, undermining so-called serious music by making it on an electric guitar.
Playing avant-garde music on an electric guitar is nothing new. The tradition in New York goes back at least to minimalist composer La Monte Young writing For Guitar in 1958 (which was later transposed to electric guitar) and Sonny Sharrock making a name for himself as a free-jazz guitarist in the 1960s. What sets the composers here apart is that they grew up in an era of rock and roll. Some of them were even playing in rock bands before finding other outlets for their musical experimentation. With all the baggage of rock history now attached to the electric guitar, separating it from the tradition of rock (or blues or jazz) has become not an act of appropriation but subversion. So when Mark Howell flips through sixty-five years of guitar styles and techniques in nine minutes and Judy Dunaway composes with the noise inherent in the technology of amplification, they are not celebrating the history of guitar music and technology but exploring its limits.
Is there a “New York Guitar” school of style? Some would like to think so. After all, New York became a melting pot of influential experimental guitarists in the late 1970s, with guitar symphonists Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, noise makers Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of the acclaimed underground rock band Sonic Youth, mathematically-based composer and improviser Elliot Sharp, and no-wave cacophonists Arto Lindsay and Pat Place, all circulating in the same scene. But here, you’ll find no discernible line linking John Kings’s blues, David First’s microtonal play and Loren MazzaCane Connor’s abstractions.
If there is anything these New York composer/guitarists have in common it is the environment they live in, not the musical terrain they’re mapping. The noise of the city—which continues unhindered despite the noise-pollution fighters of the 1920s and 1930s—has a significant effect on the psyche of musicians. It raises their threshold for extreme sounds while exacerbating their need to avoid them. The result is that composers either incorporate the cacophony of the city into their pieces or try to escape from it altogether. Examples of the former are Ken Valitsky merging guitar, typewriter, ringing phones, sirens, and other computer-modified sounds in Meaning-Less, Phil Kline evoking the Doppler effect created by passing car horns in A Fantasy on One Note, and Nick Didkovsky building a distorted, pointillist collage in Flykiller. Examples of the latter are Carolyn Master retreating into the colors of the inner world that is En Masse and Brandon Ross meditating on the purity of the jazz saxophone in O, People. As the lyrics to one anonymous blues tune go:

You can take the guitar outside,
You can take the guitar inside
Jes don’t take it no place, young man,
Where there ain’t no ear open wide.

Neil Strauss

HERE

Lesli Dalaba : "Core samples"

2009-11-23T07:48:00.000-08:00

(Ear-Rational, 1991)

One of the most distinctive trumpet players in improvised music, Lesli Dalaba combines a mastery of unorthodox playing techniques with a delicate, moving lyricism. Lesli began performing in California in the 1970’s with Wayne Horvitz. In 1978 she moved to New York, where she formed her own quartet and performed for 10 years as both a soloist and ensemble player, traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe. Lesli was a member of Wayne Horvitz’ and Robin Holcomb’s New York Composers Orchestra, Elliott Sharp’s Carbon, and the Balkan brass band Zlatne Ustne, which was twice invited to perform in Yugoslavia. Other musicians Lesli has worked with include Derek Bailey, Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith, George Lewis, and LaMonte Young. Lesli’s final New York project was Core Sample, a CD of her own compositions.
Lesli has been living in Seattle since 1989. She has been a steady member of Jeff Greinke’s LAND since its inception in 1994. LAND’s tour of China in 1996 inspired the formation of Radio Chongching, her other current project is a looping, electronic trio with Greg Gilmore and Fred Chalenor. Lesli is also a member of Fred Frith’s quintet, Tense Serenity, which toured Europe in ’98 and ’99. In addition to her musical activities, Lesli works as an acupunturist and practitioner of Chinese Medicine.

HERE

David Moss Dense band : "Live in Europe"

2009-11-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

(Ear-Rational, 1988)

In 1985, David Moss released ''Dense Band,'' an album that distilled downtown noise improvisation into song-length chunks and added a funk beat now and then. It was a showcase for Mr. Moss's precise, clattery drumming and his peculiar specialty: improvised vocal gibberish that can evoke anything from a newscast in Lithuanian to a soprano wrestling a hyena.
Two years later, he is touring with a group called Dense Band; the group made its American debut Wednesday at the Whitney Annex.
The current Dense Band includes Wayne Horvitz on keyboard, Jean Chaine on electric bass, Christian Marclay on turntables and John King on guitar. It was a showcase for both Mr. Moss and Mr. Chaine, who made an impressive New York debut with ultra-fast funk patterns, whizzing melodies and strummed and plucked chords that took the innovations of the late Jaco Pastorius a step further.
Nearly a dozen concise, varied pieces used stop-start patterns, rock and funk riffs, bursts of loud noise and relative quiet, and Mr. Moss's own sense of timing and timbre -part funk, part slapstick. He uses a drum kit that features bent-up, clanking cymbals as well as conventional ones, so a steady beat can sound like it suddenly collided with a garbage truck.
Mr. Horvitz's bell-like keyboard sounds, Mr. King's guitar twangs and Mr. Marclay's selections from records - mostly swelling orchestral chords and operatic voices, rendered silly by their context - also contributed to the poised, cheerful cacophony. The only problem was the Whitney Annex's acoustics; the echoing concrete-and-glass room muddied the music.

Jon Pareles (New York Times, 1987)

HERE

Frigg : "Dust diary"

2009-11-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

(99 records, 1997)

HERE

note : other great Frigg albums on Lucky blog : HERE

"The alt.coffee tapes"

2009-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

(Katahdin, 1998)

the alt.coffee story :

In 1995, I had just moved to East 3rd Street and was thrilled by the East Village’s then vital music scene, but I was still spending a great deal of time working with Anthony Braxton and various other people from his community. I loved working with Braxton, but I also was on the lookout for some people who were closer to me in age (21) and in aesthetic.
The first time I played with Reuben Radding and John Hollenbeck at John’s rehearsal space near Times Square I was utterly unprepared to meet two musicians who fit the bill so perfectly. Reuben, who I met at my first and only concert at the old Knitting Factory (a duo with Anthony Coleman in the Knot Room), shared my musical obsessions, which at the time were free jazz, field recordings of traditional world musics, and post-punk of the Minutemen/Hüsker Dü type. I had never even heard Hollenbeck before. Of course, he was and is a unique virtuoso, and before he discovered yoga, meditation, and Meredith Monk, he was rather intimidating as a player and as a person. His fiery, unpredictable playing combined with his implacable demeanor gave a mysterious first impression. I wanted to work with them, and Reuben seemed amenable to the concept, but John’s reaction was unreadable. As Reuben and I headed to the F train, I asked him, “Do you think John liked it?” Reuben seemed confident that he did.
So we had a band, but we needed a gig. I also had recently met a couple of young go-getters named John Scott and Melissa Caruso. John was exploring an amazing new technology called “the internet.” He was convinced that it was going to be big. Melissa, a native Lower East Sider (I have often thought of the Fugs song “Slum Goddess” when around her), observed that the rapidly gentrifying East Village needed a low-key, comfortable space where students, drifters, writers, musicians and stray celebrities could lounge for hours on flea market sofas. So they rented a vacant dentist’s office on Avenue A between 9th Street and St. Mark’s Place, installed some T1 lines and an espresso machine and created alt.coffee. Defying logic, John and Melissa decided that what they really needed to attract a sexy young clientele was some avant-garde accordion music. They asked me if I’d be interested in playing there once a week.
It is not hard to get gigs in New York. There are plenty of venues that book unknown musicians who are willing play for the door, for tips, or for no money at all. In the hardscrabble New York jazz world, many artists struggle for years to develop a musical concept playing random one-off gigs with ad-hoc groups of freelance musicians. While this can be a rewarding experience on some (mostly non-monetary) levels, the only way to coalesce a band’s musical identity, start to develop a devoted audience, and maybe even generate some much-needed buzz in one fell swoop is a regular gig with the same people in the same place for an extended period of time. Many of the artists and groups who dominate creative music started with the assistance of regular gigs (Medeski Martin & Wood = Village Gate, Masada = Mission Café & Mogador, Dave Douglas Tiny Bell Trio = Bell Caffe). Having only been in town for a few months, I didn’t realize what a rare and special opportunity John and Melissa were offering me, but Reuben and John, crusty veterans that they were, knew all too well. When I called and pitched them the idea, they jumped at it.
Soon enough, one fine Monday night I was rousing people in varying degrees of stupor from their thrift store sofas, a process which was to be dubbed “harshing mellows.” After pushing aside the larger pieces of furniture and setting up the drums right in front of the window, we looked out onto Tompkins Square Park and Avenue A’s endless stream of humanity. It was clear that this would not be a normal gig. Unlike most jazz clubs where the band is snugly ensconced in the most isolated, cloistered area of the building, so that the pristine listening environment will not be disturbed by ambient noise, we were pushed right up against the street. Our mise-en-scene was permeable to both outside noise and outside people. Everyone passing by heard us, and thanks to free admission, our audience often included random passers-by who would not normally be encountered in the sheltered environment of the jazz club. As one elder musician commented after a particularly disturbing encounter with the outside world (a pair of East Village lunatics came in to provide some thoroughly whacked-out criticism), “I’ve played for the door, but I’ve never played near the door.”
Then, a truly remarkable thing happened. Week by week, more and more people started coming to the gigs- and not just random street maniacs. By the winter of 1996, Monday night at alt.coffee felt… happening! It must have been rather shocking to stumble into a slightly grungy café where three nerdy-looking guys were playing spunky versions of Sun Ra grooves and Turkish folk songs to a rapt (or maybe just nodded-out) crowd of East-Villagers, plus a bunch of oblivious ‘net surfers. Some press coverage followed, and Monday night at alt.coffee became an institution. Even a few uptowners began showing up: clarinetist David Krakauer started sitting in, becoming a regular featured guest and drawing in many more people with his pied-piper-like Klezmer wail.
But as all “Behind the Music” viewers know, success in the music business, even on our stratospheric level, is always accompanied by crushing interpersonal strains leading to an inevitable implosion, after which some band members carry on, in a pathetic attempt to salvage their careers. For Reuben, the stress of leading his Sun Ra tribute band Myth-Science through its rather problematic Knitting Factory-booked tour of European jazz festivals, combined with his crushing schedule of free jazz gigs and his budding career as a freelance porn scribe, led him to a logical and understandable decision: move to Montana. John, knowing that the situation at alt.coffee was too good to lose, formed the Claudia Quintet with Drew Gress, Matt Moran, Chris Speed and me. Since the members of the CQ were too busy to perform every Monday, I transformed Monday night at alt.coffee into a normal concerts series. Our friends like Matt and Theo Bleckmann started playing, as did elder statesmen of the East Village like Tim Berne, Anthony Coleman and Eugene Chadbourne.
As the cachet of a gig at altdot increased, so did the traffic on my answering machine. I became burned out from an endless stream of phone calls from my fellow musicians seeking gigs. John and Melissa started to work on new ventures and spend less time at altdot, and the new staff was less sympathetic to our music. I have a vivid memory of the night when one of the greatest improv performances I have ever witnessed (by John, Matt, Theo, and Skuli Sverrisson), was given the hook by a clueless counterperson. The band seamlessly continued its performance while breaking down its gear, maintaining the same level of intensity until the last drumstick was put away. In some ways I feel like that music never really ended...
Of course, the “new ventures” John and Melissa were working on proved to be more important than we could have imagined. Inspired by alt.coffee’s success, John and Melissa rented the former Kedem kosher winery on then desolate Norfolk street and opened Tonic. In the beginning, Tonic featured a beauty salon in front and a rotating schedule of entertainment including a Wednesday night music series curated by yours truly, an expansion of the alt.coffee booking policy. The first gig at Tonic was Mark Stewart of the Bang on a Can All Stars, Polygraph Lounge, and Paul Simon’s band, playing the daxophone to the horror of a chihuahua. But the Tonic story is one for another day.
Thankfully, the music of alt.coffee survives on this CD, which I produced in an optimistic moment in 1998. Flush with cash from a part-time job at an Internet company (are you feeling the waves of nostalgia yet?), I printed up these CD’s, which sold approximately… bupkis. But now, thanks to the world-wide blockbuster success of my record “Emigré” and those of the Claudia Quintet, maybe the world finally is ready for the music we made on those Monday nights.

Ted Reichman

HERE

Wayne Horvitz-Butch Morris-Bobby Previte : "Nine below zero"

2009-11-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

(Sound Aspects, 1987)

Nine Below Zero is a relatively early recorded example of all three of the players involved and, interestingly, one of their freest and most rewarding. Horvitz and Previte, in particular, would go on to much more thematic music, drawing heavily from rock, jazz, and fusion, though hints of those borrowings certainly show up here. These pieces are somewhat closer, in miniature form, to the "conductions" which Butch Morris would champion in oncoming years, striking a delicate balance between composition and free improvisation. The general mood is subdued and introspective, Horvitz' signature keyboard sound playing very nicely off Morris' lovely, melancholy cornet. The pieces, with the exception of two typically gorgeous numbers by Robin Holcomb, are all by Horvitz and, when the melody eventually surfaces, have his sense of off-kilter, slightly poppy feel to them, as though rescuing the lone delicious kernels from an otherwise forgettable Top 40 ditty. A couple of tracks feature the unfortunate sound of mid-'80s drum machines, prevalent at the time among with a number of musicians experimenting with new technology, but sounding shallow and trite 15 years hence. Still, as Horvitz and Previte especially have garnered larger followings in the ensuing years, Nine Below Zero is a very worthwhile picture of one aspect of the roots and a fine recording in general.

Brian Olewnick (All Music)

HERE

Jim Staley : "Northern dancer"

2009-11-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

(Einstein, 1996)

Jim Staley occupies a unique position among trombonists, crossing genres freely between post-modern classical music and avant-garde jazz. He boasts spectacular technique, including the ability to spit forth clusters of notes at rapid speed. Usually concentrating in the mid-to-lower registers of the trombone, his big, gruff tone hearkens to an earlier era, though his wondrous abilities and style plant him firmly in the free music world. Raised in Illinois, Staley served in the armed forces as a member of a U.S. Army Band in Berlin, before receiving Bachelor and Masters degrees in music from the University of Illinois in the late 1970s. Since 1978, Staley has lived in lower Manhattan, where he has actively performed and recorded with many cutting edge innovators.

Recorded nearly a decade after the epochal Mumbo Jumbo, and using some of the same musicians, Jim Staley continues to effectively utilize the trio format, although he adds an effective duo piece with John Zorn (again on alto sax) and a deliberative solo statement on trombone. Every one of the nine tracks has its moments, but the emphasis on longer pieces and greater atmosphere mitigates the edge that made the earlier release so compelling. Still, admirers of Staley's gorgeously subversive trombone will not be disappointed, as he continues to impress with knotty runs, fat, globular splats, and riveting, muted jabs. The two tracks with electric harpist Zeena Parkins take awhile to get moving, but the attractive work of Ikue Mori on drum machines and Davey Williams on guitar adds nicely to the mix.

Steve Loewy (All Music)

HERE

Zeena Parkins : "The opium war"

2009-11-22T06:35:00.001-08:00

(Einstein)

This fascinating radio play about the opium trade in New York at the turn of the 20th century is such a confounding, brilliant assortment of fragmented narrative — that tracks wonderfully for those who pay attention — and instrumental prowess it's a wonder of the soundscape form. Zeena Parkins has enlisted the aid of some of Downtown's finest to help realize Ana Maria Simò's text, produced the record, and turned over the entire project to Linda Chapman to direct. Centering on one family in transition in New York, the Parkins/Simò collaboration uses seven cast members to tell a conflicting tale of love, race relations, commerce, and the shifting perception of the narcotics trade in early-20th century New York. Parkins scripted sections for each of the instrumentalists here to play in tandem with one another or solo as an accompaniment to the narrative. DJ Olive, Margaret Parkins, Ikue Mori, Tenko, Chris Cochrane, David Shea, Jo Trump, D.D. Dorveillier, and Jonathan Bepler all lend hands toward creating a non-instructive, yet instrumentally and sonically compelling, musical narrative that suggests the narrative forward. Different sounds become associated with different characters; they appear whenever the character speaks. The play itself is a study in narrative brokenness, with the entire tale being revealed without a narrator. Tensions become nearly unbearable as they reflect the separation and brokenness in human relationships when economics becomes an equation for power within a household, within a neighborhood, within a city. This is arresting stuff. It may not be for everybody, but for those who are patient enough to take it in, it offers great rewards.

Thom Jurek (All Music)

HERE

NB : one fabulous (out of print) album by Zeena Parkins (with Christian Marclay, Tom Cora, Samm Bennett, Iku Mori, Wayne Horvitz...) on LAFOLIEDUJOUR blog : HERE

Aki Onda : "Beautiful contradiction"

2009-11-22T05:21:00.000-08:00

(All Access, 1998)

... If anyone who deserves to inherit Ryuichi Sakamoto's role as rootless cosmopolitan, it's Onda. 1998's Beautiful Contradiction CD shares Sakamoto's aesthetic delicacy and networking capacity, with a cast list that includes Brixa Bargeld, French Improv guitarist Noël Akchoté, soundtrack composer Simon Fisher Turner, and on the extraordinary "Do You Remember?", singer Linda Sharrock, wife of the late electric jazz guitarist Sonny. "I was inspired by her voice for a long time," rhapsodies Onda. "It consists of strength and weakness, a fever and ice cold sadness - I thought her voice was a 'beautiful contradiction' in itself. Perfect voice for me. Normally it's not difficult to find someone to work with. If I listen to their sound carefully, I can know them immediately. I just follow my intuition. I saw Noël Akchoté in 1996 or 97, his music was so brilliant and I assumed this guy has a sense that is very close to mine. He knows how to reflect himself in music - he's not just a guitarist."
...
Onda's project sure clock up the air miles: he records in London, Tokyo, Paris, New York. Does he need be on the move to make music? "My imagination is developed in an imaginary space," he muses, "not in a physically existing city such as Tokyo, London, or Paris. Somewhere between two cities. A place maybe existing in a film. Milan Kundera, a Czech writer who now lives in France, his books gave me a good suggestion on this."
...
Escaping into an aesthetic universe revealed to him by his painter mother, and mindful of the hardships he witnessed in Nara's Buraku ghetto of displaced ethnic folk, he bypassed the plasticity 80s New Wave by taking refuge in the free jazz of Albert Ayler, Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Don Cherry. After a few years in London he moved to Osaka, had his mind blown by seeing Otomo Yoshihide's Ground Zero ("The furious sound was so desperate!"), and fell in with screaming singer Yamatsuka Eye (whose group, Boredoms, Onda had once photographed as a teenager) and electronics expert Nobukazu Takemura, forming Audio Sports in 1990. "The mood in Osaka was completely different from Tokyo's: more lively and crazy," he says. "It was a small society and everyone knew each other."
Audio Sports grew from the skewed HipHop of their 1992 debut Era Of Glittering Gas, to the psychotropic brew on 1996's mini-album Strange Emotion, which featured Otomo, rapper D-zine, saxophonist Greg Osby and gender-bending synth player Hoppy Kamiyama. By 1998 onda was ready to strike out on his own; his solo work opens out a space where musicians can spool their contributions into a sound pool. "When I work with musicians in the studio," he says, "I always bring a master plan and try to fix it with them. But sometimes the others have a better idea. And if it's better than mine, I definitely take it. i don't have an interest in a world where everyone has the same idea. I'm not an egoistic tyrant."
"The most important thing in my music," he continues, "[is that] I'm always describing 'personal politics' between individuals. My music exists where their gaze and my gaze cross. When it happens in a studio, I catch it quickly and record it onto a tape. I collect such fragments that really connect to our experience. I try to create a space where voices mingle and overlap. So I think I'm just describing our daily life. I'm always watching for something 'behind the sound'".
If the content of so much electronica refers back only to the tools that constructed it, Onda's poetic sensibility suggests a new expressive range. "I've been questioning whether music evolves from music itself. I stopped thinking about this possibility in 1996. That's why I stopped using the project name Audio Sports. I was playing musical experience and eclectic styles anonymously: a sound game, I think. But what I'm doing now is a mind game."

Rob Young (excerpts from an article in The Wire, September 1999)

HERE

Michael Shrieve : "Fascination" + "Flying Polly"

2009-11-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

(Cmp, 1994)

Progressing with guitarist Carlos Santana from his early Afro-Cuban rock and pop-based successes to his experimentation with jazz fusion, drummer Michael Shrieve subsequently released a string of fine solo recordings of his own. These two features guitar hero Bill Frisell and the ever-inventive organist Wayne Horvitz for a rather divergent set featuring ethereal soundscapes, loose grooves, and crunching opuses. Here, Shrieve provides sturdy backbeats to coincide with some nicely placed fills and his acute implementations of the dynamic. This effort highlights Frisell's wily and rather slithery guitar work, enhanced by the glowing sonic characteristics of the production, when viewed upon as a whole. The band is apt to soar skyward via climactic overtures in concert with a crash-and-burn methodology. Needless to say, this affair represents a potent concoction of jazz fusion melded with folksy themes and an avant-garde-type swing vamp, evidenced on "The Glass Tent." Yet, after a string of enterprising solo outings, Shrieve's solo career quieted down to a near whisper during the late '90s and into the new millennium.

Glenn Astarita (All Music)

disc 1 : HERE

disc 2 : HERE

Swami LatePlate : "Doom Jazz"

2009-10-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

(Veal, 2007)

Although Jamie Saft is best known as a jazz pianist, especially for his work with various Masada projects, he's a rocker at heart who lists ZZ Top among his favorite bands. Swami LatePlate—his duo with drummer Bobby Previte—seeks to a degree to cross the divide. In one sense a piano trio, with Saft doubling on electric bass, the project borrows as much from heavy rock sensibilities. Their debut album and the first on Saft's new label Veal, falls closer to the jazz side, but the title indicates the process that got them there.
Using doom—a slow, foreboding style of heavy metal—as a template, the duo crafts a set of songs that creeps along powerfully. The themes are simple, generally carried by subdued bass lines and ornamented by the piano like salt on a glacier. What jumps out most is Previte's drumming. Every cymbal vibration and snare snap leaps to the foreground and, with rare exception, decays before the next strike, as much a testament to Previte's assured playing as Saft's engineering. The sound throughout is bright and super present.
Ultimately, the record bears more than a little resemblance to the great and longstanding Australian trio The Necks. Each moment is its own event, each note frozen in amber. Regardless of the rock modeling, the disc is likely to satisfy Saft and Previte's audiences; and given the elegiac, actually beautiful work of some doom bands (the solo piano on Corrupted's "Llenandose de Gusanos," for example), it could appeal to fans of the fringes of metal as well.

Kurt Gottschalk (All About Jazz)

HERE

The Bang : "Omonimo"

2009-09-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

(Nueva, 1991)

HERE

Pigpen : "Daylight"

2009-09-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

(Tim/Kerr, 1997)

I had been living in Seattle a short time when Jerry Granelli, the great drummer, who was teaching at Cornish at the time, called me up. He was making a record with Anthony Cox, Bill Frisell, Robben Ford and Kenny Garrett and he wanted me to write an arrangement or two. He was thinking about the book Coming Through Slaughter, the great novel about Buddy Bolden, so I wrote a tune for him called In That Number. The tune was a bit tricky, so Jerry asked if he could come over with a couple of local guys and rehearse it ahead of time, since the “real” band wouldn’t be arriving until the day of the recording. He arrived with Phil Sparks, a Seattle bass player I have worked with many times since, and Briggan Krauss, who arrived with blue hair as I recall. Briggan and I became fast friends. I was and still am a huge fan of his alto playing, and I think that he may have the most original concept on the alto of anyone of his generation. Through Briggan, I met a whole crew of folks that were going to Cornish at the time, all of whom became musical partners in time…Tim Young, Geoff Harper, Mike Stone, Eyvind Kang, Reggie Watts and more.
I met Fred Chalenor through Fred Frith and Amy Denio, and he was floating between Portland and Seattle. He had been the last bass player in The President, and I was ready to put that band to rest and start something based in my new hometown. Briggan recommended Mke Stone. Musically, Pigpen was influenced by my tenure in Naked City, and my long time association with John Zorn more than any other project I have ever had. Actually I take that back – it was Naked City, and not my long time association with John. I played piano in jazz and blues bands, but keyboards and organ for me were mostly instruments I had come to use in more open situations. I had developed a language that I was very comfortable with, but in Naked City I was called upon to play keys on all styles of music, often following some stellar solo by Frisell, and on a DX-7 to boot. By the time the band broke up I felt I was just getting the hang of it. Also we had so many tunes that we often didn’t get a chance to dig into any of them, which was a blast, but also very challenging. So when I started writing for Pigpen I wanted to keep working on these challenges, and I also had in mind the aesthetic of the other guys in the band, and especially Mike and Briggan who were very young.
I found this generation curious (they were all about 15 years my junior) because they were very literate about jazz through Coltrane, and familiar with current trends at the time, including my own work and other “downtown scene” types, but they tended not to know a lot about the AACM, Art Ensemble, Cecil Taylor, or for that matter all the important Dutch, English and other international improvisers. Also we came from two very different eras of rock music, so I was suddenly surrounded by Black Sabbath and AC/DC fans. Mike Stone was particularly well versed in this milieu, having grown up in Bremerton WA, home to the naval base. When he conjured up the spirits of what he so eloquently termed “butt-rock” it rang true in a way that many similar attempts by various jazz drummers sometimes didn’t.
We made an EP, 2 full length CDs and a live CD for Tim Kerr – Halfrack, Miss Ann, Daylight, and Live in Poland. We also did a 7 inch for Tim Kerr, and V as in Victim for the AVANT label. Pigpen performed a few European tours, and some gigs on the East Coast, but mostly we played in the Northwest and down into California.
Over time the Naked City influence seemed to wear away and I think both Miss Ann and Daylight really represent my favorite work the band did, although a lot of fans are especially fond of Live In Poland. My daughter’s favorite track is Kind of Dead which is the A side of the 7”. The piece used a sample from the first Grateful Dead album and some chords from Kind of Blue…hence the title.
And yes, PIGPEN was named for the keyboard player in the Grateful Dead.

by Wayne Horvitz himself on his blog.

HERE

Elliott Sharp + Bobby Previte : "The prisoner's dilemma"

2009-09-29T13:40:00.001-07:00

(Grob, 2002)

They have known each other since 1973 and since then have played together in numerous groups and ad-hoc combination, there have been countless recordings and still they have never made a duo record together. We're taking about Elliott Sharp-guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and composer-and Bobby Previte-drummer and percussionist.
That is reason why The Prisoner's Dilemma sounds like a conversation between old friends about plans for the future and stories from yesterday, but at the same time sound new and unheard-of. It is a conversation that has never been carried out in public before in this breadth and with this love of details.
Of course, neither Previte nor Sharp care about trends or hip attitudes, they know each other too well to do that. And moreover, they draw their music from an extremely rich history. Both are influential figures of the New York Down Town scene-from the very beginning. They haven't just played with the greats (John Zorn, Bill Laswell ...), but they themselves count among these musicians, without exception. In addition they have proven themselves as band leaders, label makers and composers, they helped make The Knitting Factory what it now is, and now, where they have passed their 50th year in the best health, they have enough energy to take on new large project.
The Prisoner's Dilemma is such a project. In the foreground is the groove. No, in the foreground is the layering and condensation of rhythms and sounds. Or does one have to speak of sublime flow that they celebrate and that reminds one of Can or on the abstract projects of the SST family?
The Prisoner's Dilemma cannot simply be typecast; too much happens, too much rocks at the same time. Never does the music, however, at any point in time, take on an arbitrary character. Seldom has one heard a grooving improvising duo play so resolutely. They don't make any false compromises. If the consequence out of their interaction means "noise," then they take it up and the music is exactly that: an outbreak of energy, a first-class power play. Bobby Previte and Elliott Sharp can also let the things run, laid back, they can allow themselves to cite musical-historical references without seeming so obvious or eclectic. As said, both have a lot to tell. The Prisoner's Dilemma presents the highlights of their conversation.

(from GROB site)

HERE

Steven Bernstein + Marcus Rojas + Kresten Osgood : "Tatoos & mushrooms"

2009-09-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

(Ilk Music, 2008)

Featuring Steven Bernstein on trumpet & slide trumpets, Marcus Rojas on tuba and Kresten Osgood on drums. Multi-bandleader, arranger and trumpet hero Steve Bernstein never seems to rest. Besides running Sex Mob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra, he has four fabulous discs on Tzadik and has worked with Lounge Lizards, Kamikaze Ground Crew, Max Nagl's Big Four, Satoko Fujii and Mario Pavone. He was also a member of an early downtown trio called Spanish Fly with Dave Tronzo and Marcus Rojas, who still get together on occasion when Tronzo is in town. Since Mr. Tronzo has relocated to the Boston area, Spanish Fly plays gigs with guest members like Ned Rothenberg. Hence this new trio with Marcus Rojas and Danish drum wiz Kresten Osgood, who seems to get around and appears on more discs than I can count. It is Kresten who is the main composer on this disc.
The very first sound you hear on this disc is Marcus playing his tuba like a dijeradoo, making this spooky hum/growl. Besides four originals by Kresten, there are a few select and diverse covers by Charles Brackeen, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus and Hank Williams. Charles Brackeen's "Prince of Night" starts things off and is a perfect opening piece. It has a peaceful, spiritual vibe and a delicate, somber melody. Kresten's skeletal yet seductive "Hope for Denmark" shows how to set the scene with a minimum of notes. It reminds me of how the blues works best with a handful of select notes, where each one counts. Marcus Rojas is a master tuba player with his own distinctive sound and approach. He starts Monk's "Thelonius" by rubbing and tapping on his tuba while he hums of just plays a certain eerie notes. When he switches to the bass line, he sounds totally old school and filled with friendly swagger. "Scaramanga" is an eerie, spacy improvised trio that floats freely and thoughtfully. Kresten's drums are recorded with breathtaking care and are at the center of "Abington". His mallet use is sublime and works well with Steve's haunting muted trumpet and Marcus cosmic droning tuba. Initially I thought that there is nothing that connects Mingus' "Eastcoasting" with Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". Both were written in the fifties and played next to each other, they both evoke a certain timeless quality, especially the way the trio turn Hank's song inside out and sent it to the outer space. The feeling that I get from this gem is that it is Kresten that called the shots and organized to session. This is indeed a wonderful job from all three members of this phenomenal trio.

Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

HERE

Michael Moore trio : "Holocene"

2009-09-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

(Ramboy, 2008)

As a member of Amsterdam's venerable ICP Orchestra, saxophonist Michael Moore's musicianship and playfulness can be assumed, a part of the raconteur spirit that unites the members of Misha Mengelberg's ensemble. Outside the ICP, Moore is involved in a number of projects, as diverse as they are satisfyingly, realized. From the Bob Dylan interpretations of Jewels & Binoculars to the offbeat Available Jelly and his longstanding Clusone Trio with Han Bennink and Ernst Reijiseger, Moore's wide-ranging interests never lack a sense of full commitment to the project.Moore seems to enjoy three-piece settings. Along with Clusone and Jewels & Binoculars, Moore has released two records (on his Ramboy label) with Fred Hersch and Mark Helias, and now premieres a great triad with Guy Klusevcek and Erik Friedlander. The title, Holocene, comes from the Greek word meaning "entirely new," but as Moore explains in the brief liner notes refers here to the holocene epoch, the geological period between the last ice age and the current day. It's a lot of temporal ground to cover, but the 13 tunes here, all composed by Moore, are sweepingly romantic. The rich, wet midrange of clarinet, accordion and cello can't help but evoke rainy afternoons and red-wine dinners, melancholy and nostalgia, and Moore is deft enough to hide his sentiments inside the music, rather than smearing them across its face. Moments of abstraction are mirrored by segments of sheer loveliness.

Kurt Gottschalk (All About Jazz)

HERE

The Fell Clutch

2009-09-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

(Animul)

The Fell Clutch feature Ned Rothenberg on bass & regular clarinets & alto sax, Stomu Takeishi on fretless electric bass, Tony Buck on drums and Dave Tronzo on slide guitar (3 tracks only). There was rave review of this quartet playing live in Brooklyn last year by Andre Henkin in All About Jazz, so I've been eagerly awaiting this disc to arrive. And what an amazing and unlikely downtown all-star quartet this is. I recall Ned Rothenberg sitting in with Spanish Fly (Tronzo, Steve Bernstein & Marcus Rojas) in the recent past and fretless bass god, Stomu Takeishi (Threadgill's Make a Move & Myra Melford) has been a longtime partner with Tronzo in his trios/duo throughout the years, so that's where these connections were made. Australian drum wiz, Tony Buck (The Necks), has been coming to town pretty often in the last few years and has played at a couple of Zorn's monthly improv sessions at The Stone, which is where this quartet first played together. Enough history. Which brings us to this colossal trio and quartet date.
The Fell Clutch love to twist its grooves inside-out. Ned establishes the groove on the opening piece, "moment of reloading" on his bass clarinet with Tony playing skeletal drums, Stomu throbbing those cool bass swirls and Dave playing his fractured slide sounds. Stomu's sly, distinctive fretless bass sound starts off "life in your years" with Ned's sumptuous clarinet and Dave's haunting slide slowly swirling around one another, a superb gem. What is most wonderful about this disc is that although it is mostly improvised, this trio or quartet sound as if they are playing mainly charted pieces, so focused is the overall sound. On "food for a rambling", Ned sets up an odd groove with a bent sax -line that he repeats and twists into odd shapes as he circular breathes with the bass and drums punctuate his groove. It's always great to hear Tronzo make his guitar talk, which he does on a number of these pieces with his wah-wah slide playing. I dig the way the guitar, bass & drums often set up these great little grooves, sometimes a bit bent but always infectious in one way or another. "epic in difference" is in fact an epic-length piece that begins with immense suspense, floats eerily with Ned playing dijeradoo-like bass clarinet. The bass and guitar sound like mutant ghosts as Tony plays alarm clock-like cymbals. It builds in intensity as it develops, feeling like some sort of ritualistic dance of the spirits. This is a most mesmerizing journey through some dark lands. An awesome endeavor from a fine quartet downtown's best.

Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

HERE

Joey Baron + Elliott Sharp + Roberto Zorzi : "Beyond"

2009-09-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

(Auditorium, 2001)

Recorded in New York in 2000, this trio perform some exceptional avant-garde improvised music, using electronics and loops, featuring both electric and acoustic moments. The trio features two of downtown N.Y.C.'s finest avant-garde musicians of the '80s and '90s; composer and multi instrumentalist Elliott Sharp is a ubiquitous "downtown" player, and John Zorn's favored drummer, Joey Baron, is outstanding on this candid session. The trio is completed with Italian guitarist Roberto Zorzi, who is a unique and distinctive musician, seemingly unlimited by string instruments. With Joey Baron providing angular beats and electronic rhythms, Elliott Sharp and Roberto Zorzi exchange between sundry instruments — eight-string bass and acoustic guitar, soprano sax, and loops, dobro, and electric bass. Recorded and mixed by Sharp, the ten tracks on this CD exhibit some highly inventive music that sits on the improvised/post rock/experimental axis.

Skip Jansen (All Music)

HERE

Elliott Sharp : "Beneath the valley of the ultra-yahoos"

2009-09-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

(Silent, 1992)

"Melding shards of avant garde, jazz, mainstream pop, etc., Elliott Sharp has concocted a visceral combination between Russ Meyer's phobic visions of American sexuality and violence with 'Gulliver's Travels' in the land of the savage yahoos, resulting in a humorous and excoriating soundtrack to the American landscape. Features Samm Bennett, Eugene Chadbourne and Anthony Coleman".

1/ Music Of Amrka (2:15)
2/ Biblebelt In The Mouth (2:00)
3/ Blinders (3:05)
4/ Pornshards (3:04)
5/ Iced (2:42)
6/ Splatter Dub (2:42)
7/ Triumph Of The Won't (2:52)
8/ Return Of The Pharm Boys (2:38)
9/ Obedience School (2:39)
10/ X-plicit (5:06)
11/ Top Ten (2:37)
12/ Semtex (letter to the court) (3:27)
13/ Golfgames (2:01)
14/ Late Capitalism Sexual Practices (2:42)
15/ Soylent Verde (1:23)
16/ Silenced (2:41)
17/ Fax or Fiction (1:51)
18/ The Pledge (3:26)

musicians :

Elliott Sharp : guitars, bass, sampler, voice, alto sax, computer
Samm Bennett : drums (1,2,3,4,6,11,12)
Anthony Coleman : organ (3,9,18)
Eugene Chadbourne : voice, piano (8), dobro (18)
Alva Rogers : voice (3)
Poison-Tete : voice (5,11)
Sussan Deihim : voices (10)
Shelley Hirsch : voice (12)
Barbara Barg : voices (13)
KJ Grant : voices (16)
Lee Ann Brown : voice (18)

HERE

Elliott Sharp orchestra Carbon : "Radiolaria"

2009-09-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

(Zoar)

This is E#'s fourth self-produced Orchestra Carbon release and it features an all-star downtown cast with Ned Rothenberg, Andy Laster, Evan Spritzer & Tim Smith on reeds; Steve Swell & Julie Kalu on trombones; Brian McWhorter & Eric Shanfield on trumpets; Zeena Parkins, David Weinstein & Luke Dubois on samplers, Jim Pugliese on percussion and Elliott Sharp on soprano sax, computer, composition and direction. It was recorded live at Tonic in March of 2001 by yours truly, DMG founder (and NY Downtown scene archivist) Bruce Gallanter! 'Radiolaria' begins with Elliott's snaking charming soprano sax which introduces that sly undercurrent of things to come. Elliott's highly idiosyncratic music has unique rhythmic sense, as well as some bizarre, alien harmonies which seem to push the saxes and horns in waves which both collide and connect as they slide through some strange exotic scale. Each part of this seven section work, seems to deal with different textures and combinations of difficult harmonic layers. I dig how on the third section, what sounds like the random rhythmic placement buzzing fragments, begins to evolve into a recognized pattern before it ends. There segments which I could quite get the first few times I heard this, but which are finally beginning to make more sense as I dig deeper into the undercurrent of connection. The fourth part features those morse code-like staccato horn parts that I find fascinating in the works of Xenakis or Penderecki. Part five reminds me of the Mothers when they start stretching those notes in a twisted, yet humorous way. The final section is the most startling, the shimmering, somewhat scary mass of shifting horns and saxes radiates a breath-taking wall of dense textures which create a challenging environment of refracted images like a twisted mirror or lens. If I played it too loud, my next door neighbors might freak-out, but at a more tolerable volume, it becomes a kaleidoscope or swirling colors. A must for the scientists and true explorers among us.

Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

HERE

Yeah No : "Swell Henry"

2009-09-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

(Squealer, 2004)

There goes Chris Speed again, hogging the spotlight and never giving his bandmates any opportunities to shine. The preceding remark is intended as a joke. In actuality, Speed might be one of the least ego-driven jazzers around today, and if one measure of greatness in a creative musician is a demonstrated ability to bring out the best in his or her collaborators and unite them in a singular artistic conception, then Speed is indeed one helluva great creative musician. In fact, on Swell Henry, Speed's fourth CD leading his yeah NO quartet, the tenor saxophonist and clarinetist seems to have been fully absorbed into the band as a member equal to the others, although he wrote or co-wrote all but one of the recording's ten tracks. His name doesn't even appear on the outside of the CD booklet or back tray card; Swell Henry is presented as a recording by a group called yeah NO. And yet Speed's artistic persona comes through with full force, strength, and assurance on this release, even as the reedman steadfastly refuses to relegate his sidemen to the role of, well, mere sidemen. Speed's yeah NO bandmates — bassist Skuli Sverrisson, drummer Jim Black, and trumpeter Cuong Vu — are more akin to full partners in sculpting the group's overall sound, and are as committed to that sound as Speed himself. In fact, these days the likeminded musicians of yeah NO seem to be moving a bit closer to the sonics and spirit of Pachora, the Balkan/Mediterranean-themed quartet that also features Speed, Black, and Sverrisson. Pachora has no "leader" per se, and has continued to twist its traditional-inspired music into more forward-thinking shapes with each successive release. Meanwhile, the more open-formatted yeah NO appears to be headed in Pachora's direction, on Swell Henry often drawing inspiration from Balkan and Eastern European modes and combining the talents of all the participating musicians into a truly collaborative sound.
Given the uniformly high quality of the material here, it's nearly meaningless to single out highlights, but certainly deserving mention are "Last Beginning"'s slow and dramatic build to an anthemic, rockish bridge and solo tenor break; the freewheeling clarinet that dances over Black's crisply driving rhythm in "Born in the Air"; and the Speed/Vu spirited interplay over "Camper Giorno"'s mid-tempo vamp. Reminiscent of "Drifting" from Pachora's Astereotypical, the virtuosic Sverrisson's moody neo-classical "Cloud Stopper" further proves the bassist's skill as a composer of strikingly beautiful music. And the fiery quasi-fusion of "Flanked" and skittering free jazz of "He Has a Pair of Dice" are full-bodied demonstrations of the chops these guys possess. Throughout the disc, the plaintive and melancholy qualities of Speed's tenor phrasing and tone add both subtlety and emotional depth to even the most groove-oriented tunes, while Vu continues to perfect his explosive, distortion-laden crescendos. And adding warmth to the proceedings is the lovely accordion of guest Rob Burger on five tracks, while additional guest Jamie Saft contributes some Mellotron here and there that might have listeners of a certain age flashing back to Starless and Bible Black-era King Crimson, of all things.

Dave Lynch (All About Jazz)

HERE

Roy Nathanson : "Fire at Keaton's bar & grill"

2009-09-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

(Six Degrees, 2000)

Roy Nathanson has always been a storyteller. In the late 1980s, his band with Curtis Fowlkes, called the Jazz Passengers, echoed the voices he heard from his New York streets. Deranged and Decomposed and Broken Night/Red Light, both nearly impossible to find recordings, spoke of multi-ethnic ramblings, preachers, and strange drugs. Nathanson also wrote music for performance artist David Cale, accenting his tales. Later work with the Lounge Lizards and the nineties reincarnation of the Jazz Passengers with vocalist Debbie Harry of Blondie fame, further broadened Nathanson's musical palate. He is a showman with an inclination for burlesque, a joke and a good time.
Fire is the full realization of his storytelling. He constructs an imaginary tavern, with an assemblage of patrons and odd characters that include Deborah Harry as Cups, the bartender everyone lusts for, Elvis Costello the narrator, Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs as the would be arsonist, and various patrons that include a micro and a macro physicist. Not since The Who's Tommy or, well...The Van Trapp families exploits has musical theatre captured my imagination. Nathanson's theater is all about the bar's characters. Scored with tangos, a saxophone quartet, funk, organ grease, and Jazz Passengers circus music, the musical vignettes shed light on the tragic night of the fire, hint at relationships and turmoil, before disappearing into the smoke.
Nancy King and Kenny Washington sing/scat "Bar Stool Paradise" ala' "Moody's Mood For Love" at true lush life where a few drinks create eternal love, at least for tonight.
Nathanson casts his musical theatre with top musicians and eclectic styles. Where else can a B3, as if in a make believe jazz night, play opposite a cello and Dobro "kid song" next to a love song between two gay particle physicists? Somehow Elvis Costello's voice has become the narration of our times and Harry's graduation from Blondie signals a collective call for all of us to grow up already. Nathanson has given us the postmodern-Cheers, then burned it to the ground. See, jazz can be fun music, it can be theatre, and it can tell stories.

Mark Corroto (All About Jazz)

1- Fire suite 1
2- Fire suite 2
3- Fire suite 3
4- Bar stool paradise
5- Last call
6- Jazz night at Keaton's
7- A bend in the night
8- Carol Ann
9- Toast quartet
10- Loss
11- Cups
12- Fire suite reprise

musicians :

Roy Nathanson : alto, tenor & soprano sax (2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12)
Bill Ware : vibes, piano, hammond B3 (3,8,11,12)
Brad Jones : bass (1,3,5,8,12)
EJ Rodriguez : drums, percussion (1,3,5,11,12)
Marc Ribot : guitar (3,4,11)
Erik Friedlander : cello (1,10)
Jay Rodriguez : tenor sax (2,3,6,9)
Curtis Fowlkes : trombone (5,6,11)
Ben Perowsky : drums (3,6,8)
Anthony Coleman : piano (7)
Sam Furnace : baritone sax (2,3,9)
Ned Rothenberg : alto sax (2,3,9)
Rob Thomas : violin (5,6)
Charles Earland : hammond B3 (4,6)
Marcus Rojas : tuba (11)
Deidre Rodman : piano (5)
Cyrus Chestnut : piano (1)
David Gilmore : guitar (8)
Hector Del Curto : bandonion (5)
Danny Blume & Chris kelly : programming (8)
Mike Marshall : dobro (10)
Rob Johnson : trumpet (6,11)
David Driver & Darius de Haas : vocals (7)
Nancy King : vocal (4)
Kenny Washington : vocal (4)
Juan "Coco" de Jesus : vocal (10)
Corey Harris : vocal (8)
Deborah Harry : vocal (11)
Richard Butler : vocal (5)
Elvis Costello : vocal (1,3, 12)

HERE

Auktyon (АукцЫон) : "Girls sing" ("Девушки поют")

2009-09-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

(Geometriya, 2007)

Veteran russian rockers Auktyon have enlisted the help of several notable american musicians on their latest release, so the music may well reach a wider audience than usual. But augmented or not, Auktyon's sound remains as curious and kinetic as ever.
Guitarist Marc Ribot, who appears on "Girls Sing" with fellow recruits John Medeski on keyboards, Frank London on trumpet and Ned Rothenberg on alto sax and flute, recently called Auktyon "punk rockers with a surrealist edge." Although that description sums up the eight-piece band's temperament and theatricality as well as any, "Girls Sing" is label-defying.
"Profukal" kicks off the album with frenzied Slavic funk: Ribot lays down chunky chordal riffs, Medeski scribbles away on a hammond organ and drummer Boris Shaveinikov vigorously assumes the role of pile driver until the atonal fade. In sharp contrast, the eight-minute-plus "Tam-dam" unfolds slowly and hauntingly, accented by Japanese flute and rustling percussion.
The remaining performances tend to fall somewhere between those sonic strategies, though the energy level never flags for long. Eastern European dance music, Gypsy guitar traditions and fusion jazz tints play a role in the mix, as does Auktyon's trademark (and frequently unhinged) blend of brass, reeds, percussion, vocals, strings and showmanship.

Mike Joyce (The Washington Post)

1. Profukal
2. Padal
3. Zhdat
4. Rogan Born
5. Tam-dam
6. Slova
7. Debil
8. Vozle menya
9. Dolgi
10. Devushki poyut

musicians :

Маrс Ribot -Harmony Stratatone, Аuditiоп (electric), Silveгtone
John Medeski - Hammond, Piano, Melodica, Chamberlin, Faгfisa
Ned Rothenberg - alto sax, Shakuhachi
Frank London - trumpet
Vladimir Volkov - double-bass, percussion
Victor Bondarik - bass
Boris Shaveinikov - drums
Nikolai Rubanov - bass clarinet, bass sax, soprano sax
Mikhail Kolovskiy - tuba
Dmitriy Ozerskiy - keyboard, vocal
Leonid Fedorov - vocal, guitar, percussion
Oleg Garkusha - vocal, percussion

HERE

Jacek Kochan : "Double life of a chair"

2009-09-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

(Gowi, 2002)

Polish drum wiz, groove-king and multi-bandleader has upwards of a dozen discs out, each with different personnel from around the world, as well as some of downtown's best (Tronzo & Krauss here). Jacek seems to dig trumpet players and has worked with Kenny Wheeler, Cuong Vu, Eric Vloeimans, Franz Hautzinger and here he uses ECM great Palle Mikkelborg. This disc features a fine seven-piece band, the largest assemblage Jacek has recorded so far. Jacek works his wonders setting up sly, spacey, somewhat funky grooves that players can add their tones and colors to and solo on occasion. Often these slamming grooves push the soloists to come up with something different than what they are use to in their own situations. With so many fine musicians Jacek often selects melodic patterns that violin and accordion or the guitar and sax can add their harmonies to. Both Tronzo and Briggan Krause contribute one short piece each, mainly a solo interlude. On a couple of tracks Jacek sets up a quiet, spacious, slow groove so that Palle's muted trumpet and Tronzo's ultra subtle guitar can float on top. Rather than just set up some all-star jam sessions, Jacek works out each piece in advance so that the groove and background textures or loops provide a different challenge on each piece. I find Jacek Kochan to be more consistently successful than Nils Petter Molvaer who often provides a similar set-up, yet his results I find often less-than-engaging.

Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

"Double life of a chair" is certainly one of the more interesting disks of the last years.... Jacek Kochan ...(has)... an obvious inclination to the leadership that agrees to put him in field with a project of large beauty... The attractive music of this album is not easily classifiable...

Maurizio Comandini (All About Jazz)

HERE

Jim Staley : "Mumbo Jumbo"

2009-09-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

(Einstein, 1993)

Jim Staley is one of the best trombonists you've never heard. His playing combines the technique of George Lewis with the playfulness of Jack Teagarden to produce wonders on his instrument. This recording is a series of four trio groupings with elite members of New York's downtown crowd in the mid-'80s, and fairly represents some of the state-of-the-art performances at the time. Among Staley's partners are John Zorn (alto saxophone), Bill Frisell (guitar), Shelley Hirsch (vocals), and Elliott Sharp (double-neck guitar/bass and soprano saxophone). While the novelty of these unions has paled somewhat over time, the playing is first-rate, and the self-effacing, under-recorded Staley is featured throughout. Most of the pieces sound like snippets, without melody or linear development. Still, they are fascinating structures, both for the quality of improvisation and for capturing a slice of an important freestyle genre.

Steve Loewy (All Music)

HERE

Tim Berne + Hank Roberts : "Cause & reflect"

2009-09-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

(Level Green)

What would you make of a 1998 meeting between longtime vanguard jazz buddies like saxophonist Time Berne and cellist Hank Roberts? It'd be a skronk-fest, right? Wrong. This gorgeous duet album between Berne and Roberts explores improvisation to be sure, but more than that it picks up where their phenomenal collaboration left off in the early '90s. Cause & Effect explores the limits of compositional structure, as well as exploring their expansion via dynamics, phrasing, tonal equations, harmonic extrapolations, modular architectures, and intervallic episodes. Is it jazz? Yes, and much more; this is a dialogue, so symbiotic as to be almost uncomfortable. This pair can delve into the instinctual vibe so deeply that they surprise one another by predicting what the other will play. These written-out sketches offer the framework for one tonal or modal idea that can be expressed in numerous ways before being drafted out and stretched to the contrapuntal and harmonic limits before they have to give way to something else, which is as anguishing as it is breathtaking. The notion is that neither man wants to exhausts the inherent improvising capabilities inside a particular architecture. The absolutely wrenching "More Than One Dance" is one example, and "In Other Worlds" is another. That's not to say there isn't humor here. Berne's too loopy to leave it totally out: "Showdown!," with its striking western motif, and "Invasion of the Freudian Shrimp," with its nod to Wagner at the circus, is another. In all, this is a pure delight, and leaves listeners wanting to hear as much of this fruitful collaboration in the future as we have in the past.

Thom Jurek (All Music)

HERE

Hank Roberts trio : "I'll always remember"

2009-09-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

(Level Green)

A trio outing recorded with bassist Peter Chwazik and drummer Bill King, "I'll Always Remember" is another worthwhile addition to the Hank Roberts catalog; intuitively fusing jazz, prog-rock, classical and avant-garde sounds, the music defies easy categorization, with Roberts' original compositions (like the excellent "Living Bicycles/Jersey Devil") as well as the group's improvisational pieces infused with real energy.

Jason Ankeny (All Music)

HERE

Hilmar Jensson : "Dofinn"

2009-09-14T03:52:00.000-07:00

(Jazzis, 1995)

HERE

Ponga

2009-09-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

(Loosegroove, 1999)

Entirely improvised from start to finish, this collection of what were essentially jam sessions (both live and in the studio) captures some moments of extremely heavy jazz. On Ponga, fusion giants Wayne Horvitz (keyboards) and Bobby Previte (drums) are joined by two relatively upstart Seattle musicians Skerik (sax) and Dave Palmer (keyboards). All four players had credible resumés when Ponga was assembled in the late '90s, but nothing they had done (especially recently) suggested the power and rare musicality of this eponymous debut. The music is difficult to describe and the word fusion comes to mind most often, but with so much wrongheaded jazz and barely salient prog titles often listed under the lowly rubric, well, it wouldn't be a fair description. The minimal "Awesome Wells" is a standout only for its spacious, bluesy texture that effectively gives the listener a break from the full-tilt progressive and noisy jazz that comes before and after. Cacophonous but utterly musical, Ponga is first-rate funk, experimental racket, and free jazz combined into one righteous package.

Vincent Jeffries (All Music)

HERE

Alessio Riccio + David Shea + Ellery Eskelin : "Drawing - Opus 2, Paul Klee"

2009-09-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

(Unorthodox recordings, 2003)

On this extraordinary trio effort Ellery Eskelin plays tenor sax, David Shea plays samples & other keyboards and Alessio plays drums, loops, a wide variety of odd percussion (gong sculptures, water drums and metals, etc.) and tapes. Nice to hear something new from former downtown sampler wiz David Shea, who seemed to have disappeared from this scene in recent years. I know that he spent time in Italy a few years back recording for Sub Rosa, but even those discs have disappeared as well. Alessio's fabulous drumming is at the center of this trio, spinning and weaving his layers of rhythmic schemes as Ellery plays marvelously on top and David swirls mysterious samples and keyboard sounds around the mesmerizing blend. The artwork of Paul Klee graces the CD cover and booklet and was an inspiration for the great disc. About 69 minutes long and completely fascinating throughout !

Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

HERE

Nicolas Collins : "It was a dark and stormy night"

2009-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

(Trace Elements, 1992)

A former student of Alvin Lucier, composer Nicolas Collins has been at the forefront of electronic music innovation since the mid-'80s. This disc contains three outstanding examples of his distinct and innovative approach. The first piece, "Broken Light" for string quartet and "hot-wired CD player," places the Soldier String Quartet in the position of interacting with skipping and otherwise damaged CDs containing the music of Corelli, Locatelli, and Torelli. The music is alternately frenetic and stasis-filled and, as Collins mentions in his liner notes, a nod toward Terry Riley's landmark composition "In C." "Broken Light" also displays an eerie sense of synchronicity between the players and the discs. "Tobabo Fonio" features Collins in the role for which he's achieved the most renown, that of the player of a trombone from which no trombone sounds emerge. His trombone contains a CD player and other electronics so that, when he puts lips to mouthpiece, one might hear a vocalist, an orchestra, a rock group or, in this case, a Peruvian brass band. By altering his breath pressure and manipulating his slide (and who knows what other machinations), Collins is able to widely vary the sounds emitted, so much so that the actual source may be only intermittently apparent. Here, he takes minute slices of original material and splays them out into fascinating drone patterns, only allowing the brass band to bloom in full force toward the end of the composition. The title track revolves around campfire stories nested into one another, beginning with and eventually reintroducing the title words as part of each embedded story. The voice triggers various electronic sounds wherein the words might disappear under an oddly syntactic rush of drumbeats or metallic pings. Collins uses some of the same music as in "Tobabo Fonio," both as a tape source and played live by the ensemble. The texts utilized generally have something to do with the themes of fraud (the art forger Van Megeren), misinterpretation, and appropriation, making ironic reference to Collins' own subversive use of found material. Its unusual combination of extreme and surprising sonic events with an underlying sense of Americana (storytelling around the campfire) make for a wonderfully rewarding and unique listening experience. Very highly recommended for adventurous listeners.

Brian Olewnick (All Music)

HERE

A confederacy of dances vol. 1

2009-09-10T07:09:00.000-07:00

(Einstein, 1992)

Based in New York City since the late '70s, the Roulette collective has been sponsoring new music events for years. By the time this compilation was released in 1992, Roulette had organized nearly a thousand performances, many featuring some of the most outrageous cutting-edge music. This CD collects excerpts from some of the best concerts during a seven-year period, and unsurprisingly, the uniformly stellar performances sparkle with excitement. Whether a Billy Bang solo violin tribute to Albert Ayler, the premiere of one of John Zorn's game pieces, David Weinstein's deconstruction of national anthems, or the shimmering beauty of vocalist Jeanne Lee and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in tandem, the 14 tracks should delight anyone open to adventurous sounds.

Steve Loewy (All Music)

notes :

*1) : Bill Frisell, guitar & effects (16/04/1988)
*2) : Christian Marclay, turntables (14/03/1987)
*3) : Tohban Djan : Ikue Mori, drums & drum machine. Luli Shioi, voice & bass. Hahn Rowe, violin. Davey Williams, guitar (12/11/1989)
*4) : Zeena Parkins, electric harp & electronics (22/03/1990)
*5) : Billy Bang, violin (26/02/1988)
*6) : Anthony Coleman, sampling keyboards. Jim Pugliese, drums & sampler. Don Byron, clarinet. Guy Klucevsek, accordion (30/03/1990)
*7) : David Weinstein, sampling & electronic keyboard (27/04/1989)
*8) : Chris Cochrane, guitar (14/11/1987)
*9) : Ron Kuivila, home-made electronics & microcomputer (25/10/1987)
*10) : John Zorn, reeds. Vicki Bodner, oboe & english horn. Carol Emanuel, harp. Wayne Horvitz, electronic keyboard. Robert James, tapes & sfx. Arto Lindsay, voice & guitar. Christian Marclay, turntables. M.E. Miller, drums. Ursula Oppens, piano. Robin Holcomb, prompter (27/04/1984)
*11) : Mary Rowell, violin. Erik Friedlander, cello. Jonathan Storck, doublebass (23/03/1991)
*12) : David Weinstein, sampling & electronic keyboard (27/04/1989)
*13) : Shelley Hirsch, voice. Ikue Mori, drum machines. David Shea, turntables. Jim Staley, trombone (18/07/1991)
*14) : Jeanne Lee, voice. Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet (21/10/1989)

HERE

David Shea : "Prisoner"

2009-09-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

(Sub Rosa, 1994)

Prisoner is Shea's homage to Patrick McGoohan's paranoid BBC TV spy series from the 1960s (as well as other spy/adventure shows from the same period), and liberally uses samples from the show. He continues working with additional musicians after the solo effort of I, but the musicians are used to better advantage than his debut work Shock Corridor. He has compared the work to sound cinema, and the description is particularly apt in the way that he transitions from one scene to another, and where the later pieces in the suite harken back to the earlier ones. Each piece has its own character, but the transitions between them occur in a cloud of brief, noisy segments, mixing Shea's turntable work and instrumental improvisation. The instrumentalists get opportunities to solo without dominating the work, especially guitarist Mark Ribot (who gets a long solo on #2 and some great feedback noise on #6) and Cyro Baptiste, whose Brazilian percussion dominates #5. The four pianists get a long workout on #4, which includes a beautiful stretch of neo-classical piano writing. The paranoia of the show is reflected in the alternation between circus music and ominous sampled voices and sombre string music. Prisoner shows Shea moving away from the cacophony of Shock Corridor and working with longer forms, towards his excellent later suites, Hsi-Yu Chi, Tower of Mirrors, and Satyricon.

Caleb Deupree (All Music)

HERE

Under Cover Collection Band

2009-09-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

(Knitting Factory, 1995)

HERE

Kenny Wollesen + Danny Frankel : "Balloon drum duets"

2009-09-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

(Sound of Skin, 2004)

Addi Somekh is recognized as one of the most innovative, prolific and well-traveled balloon artists in the world today. A self-taught balloon twister, his style incorporates improvisation, abstract design, and comic delivery, culminating in custom-made headdresses that have an uncanny ability to reflect the wearer’s personality.
In the spring of 2004, Addi made 50 different balloon drums and then invited two of his favorite drummers to record a set of improvised duets : a much in-demand session drummer, Los Angeles–based Danny Frankel has recorded with the likes of Fiona Apple, Bebel Gilberto, and Lou Reed. He is also a regular member of KD Lang’s ensemble as well as the Dakah Hip Hip Orchestra. Danny is particularly renowned for his bongo playing. In addition to his recurring road gigs with Steven Bernstein’s Sex Mob, Bill Frisell, and John Zorn’s Electric Masada, Kenny Wollesen has recorded with Norah Jones and Tom Waits. He also leads his own sextet, The Wollesens.
Although Danny and Kenny had known one another for nearly 20 years, they hadn’t played together before teaming to record the Balloon Drum Album. Explains Kenny: “The balloon drums have so many different types of sounds that we were learning how to play them as we were recording. So it was a really fun and challenging musical conversation.”“Kenny has such great energy,” says Danny. “We never even talked about what we were going to play. We just started playing, and it was like ESP.”

HERE

Butch Morris : "Current trends in racism in modern America"

2009-09-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

(Sound Aspects, 1986)

Alessandro Cassin: What does the improvising conductor do, provided words like conducting, arranging, composing, qualify to describe the work ?
Butch Morris: The improvising conductor arranges the extemporized material of improvisers. He has a vocabulary of signs to instigate the events: I'm not conducting in the traditional sense, I'm provoking or asking for certain things to happen, but even of those things I have no idea until I hear them.
AC: Would you say of what you do that it's something between arranging and composing ?
BM: Actually I wouldn't truly call it composing, but I could call it arranging, yeah, granted that you cannot start to arrange anything before you hear the material, before you have the material at hand.
AC: As to the simultaneous process of listening and doing something with what you've listened to, how different is it from what a regular conductor does, and what about the risks of speed in this process, and the power trip which I guess shaping a whole ensemble should entail ?
BM: At certain times it does create a sensation of power, yeah. The power trip didn't start with me, it started with the idea that someone had to stand before an orchestra. There is a certain kind of aura, of position of authority that conductors themselves have created over the years. However, what I'm doing is similar and different. It's similar in the sense that I'm keeping a number of people in line and I'm giving my view of direction, particularly direction of music. Of course with me you have no idea what direction the music will take. The traditional conductor instead knows the direction of the music, what it's going to sound like. I have no idea of what a person is going to do, or play, or what the first sound is going to be, the second sound or any sound. But I know that as soon as I hear it, if it needs a certain kind of care I have to shape it.
AC: How is chance at stake here ?
BM: Chance is a word John Cage has used a lot in his writing. I don't like to see it as chance, I like to see it as risk. I think risk insinuates also a certain kind of challenge. Chance doesn't necessarily do that to me.
AC: Do musicians resist your method, what are the most common questions raised by people at work with you ?
BM: I have had resistance to the method, though that's generally when I'm called to work with an existing ensemble that doesn't know quite what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. One of the most common questions or statements is, yes — why am I doing it ? and — if you want me to do it why don't you just write it down ? What I'm trying to bring about is ensemble spontaneity; there are still a lot of people resisting any kind of total improvisation.
AC: Would you rather work with the same musicians on a regular basis, or do you envision being so familiar with the method as to be able to conduct improvisation with little or no rehearsals?
BM: I do have a core group in New York of about five or six people that I use all the time not only for conductions but for notated compositions and other kind of projects. It makes my ensemble more flexible when I hire people that read music well. Believe me, I like a lot of different kinds of music, and I like to write it, and I also like to improvise. One of the reasons I even started thinking of this conducting was really to control, make more flexible and lucid my notated music.
AC: Let's get to the second part of the question, do you envision being so familiar with the method as to be able to conduct improvisation with little or no rehearsals ?
BM: I would like that very much, I hope it's coming to that. That I could call up three people in every country I've ever been, but there is not really that kind of familiarity at this point and I feel obligated to at least run through the vocabulary one more time.
AC: You have been conducting for twenty years. How does progression in your work contemplate evolution ?
BM: It still feels very young to me and it still feels very fresh, Conduction #1 is completely different from Conduction #31. I think there's a long way to go... I want to take it a lot further, a lot. There's only been one composer to write for my particular talent, that was Misha Mingelberg in '87. He wrote a piece for me to conduct and it really worked quite well. His identity was still in the music, it didn't sound like me, I think this could be a problem with some composers thinking they are bound to loose their musical identity.

HERE

Zeno De Rossi Kriminal Museum : "The legend of Sleepy Hollow"

2009-09-03T15:23:00.001-07:00

(Punto Rojo, 2005)

HERE

Phil Haynes & Free Country

2009-09-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

(Premonition, 2000)

On Gordon Bok’s “Rosin The Beau”, the great cellist Hank Roberts performs vocal harmonies with his earthy and wooden toned Cello lines as guitarist Jim Yanda kicks the proceedings into an affable all acoustic jazz motif. This and other imaginative renditions of Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susannah”, “Beautiful Dreamer” along with American traditionals such as “She ’ll Be Coming Down The Mountain” and “Shenandoah” comprise some of the 13 pieces on drummer Phil Haynes ambitious and thoroughly refreshing new release titled, Phil Haynes & Free Country.
Phil Haynes is a well-known drummer who has performed with the creme de la creme of modern jazz stylists such as saxophonists Ellery Eskelin, Gebhard Ullmann and many others too numerous in scope to cite here. Along with fellow New York City Downtown/modern jazz musicians - bassist Drew Gress, cellist Hank Roberts and acoustic steel string guitarist Jim Yanda, “Free Country” fuses grassroots Americana with hip, upbeat arrangements that toggle jazz, bluegrass and country. Wonderfully recorded direct-to-stereo, sans amplification Haynes and his cohorts extend or in some situations parallel concepts actualized by guitarist Bill Frisell with his recent forays into Country & Western and Bluegrass.
Sterling resonance and soulful interplay witnessed on “Old Joe Clark” serves as a prime example of the striking sonic characteristics of this recording as Gress’ heavy and explicit bass lines in tandem with Haynes’ equally wooden toned drums emit a gorgeously radiant environment. Throughout, Haynes & Free Country breathe new life into American heritage and traditionalism with this joyous and to a greater extent, ingenious and immaculately executed outing.

Glenn Astarita (All About Jazz)

"When I first performed with cellist Hank Roberts on Andy Laster’s CD Twirler, I thought how Hank’s Appalachian barn dance roots - performing bluegrass with his fiddling grandfather - would be a perfect match with guitarist Jim Yanda’s Iowa-grown country & western dance hall beginnings. A few years later, my good friend Christian Kvech said “Why don’t you get a string band together to play all of that old pre-1900 American Folk music you wanted to arrange for 4 Horns & What? It might very well gain a wider ‘non-jazz’ audience and become a popular success.” At that moment, Free Country was born.
Either Hank Roberts or Jim Yanda should have put this band together for themselves as it is a unique expression of their earliest musical influences. My leading role here as a producer, arranger, and drumming “sideman” in this romantic context creates a “looking glass” at our American roots, as well as our future. How could the “NPR crowd” resist?"

Phil Haynes

HERE

Andy Laster : "Twirler"

2009-09-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

(Sound Aspects, 1990)

Alto/baritone saxophonist and composer Andy Laster was born in 1961, grew up on Long Island, and studied jazz at Seattle's Cornish Institute before moving to New York City in 1985. His first recording, "Hippo Stomp," appeared on the Sound Aspects label in 1989. This album was followed by two more Sound Aspects releases, Twirler (1990) and the first eponymously named CD by Hydra (1994), one of Laster's key ongoing projects. During the 1990s Laster emerged as a unique and significant voice on the so-called "New York downtown music scene" that has also served as a launching pad for musicians like Dave Douglas, Tim Berne and John Zorn. In 1995 the Songlines label released Polyogue, the second Hydra recording; next came another Songlines CD by Laster's Interpretations of Lessness Band in 1997. Soft Shell followed three years later. While leading these two groups Laster also appeared in collaborative ensembles Orange Then Blue and New and Used, as well as Erik Friedlander's Topaz; the Julius Hemphill Sextet; the Pink Noise Saxophone Quartet; Bobby Previte's Weather Clear, Track Fast; and Ballin' the Jack. He has also performed with Mark Helias, Hank Roberts' Birds of Prey and Lyle Lovett. Laster has developed a unique compositional style that often draws from techniques employed in modern classical chamber music, with highly scored passages that serve as a backdrop for or intertwine with soloists. While often complex, the music is also spacious, rhythmically open and expressive, with considerable appeal to fans of well-executed contemporary jazz and creative improvisation.

Dave Lynch (Allmusic)

nb : there is a hidden (or bonus) track not mentioned on the cd : track 8 = "Lyleland" !

HERE

Trevor Dunn's trio-convulsant : "Debutantes & centipedes"

2009-09-03T04:49:00.000-07:00

(Buzz, 1998)

San Francisco Bay Area bassist Trevor Dunn gets around. Dunn has worked with a vast array of such diverse artists as the Kronos Quartet, Tom Waits, Ben Goldberg, Wayne Horvitz, Mike Patton and Buzz Osbourne of the the slash and burn rock band, The Melvins. Dunn is also a co-founder of the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle. As one might detect from his broad resume, Dunn is equally at home playing Rock, Free Jazz or disciplined Chamber-esque charts. Here, with his “Trio Convulsant” Dunn provides a glimpse or two of his diverse musical talents which includes pieces that perhaps disclose his sophisticated mindset towards compositional approach. Along with the electrifying session guitarist Adam Levy and New York City Downtown Scene Drummer Kenny Wolleson, “Debutantes & Centipedes” is unconventional yet for the most part is gregarious, arousing and slightly tempestuous.
“Perfumed With Crime” melds jazz-swing with loud grunge type guitar chords. Eventually matters settle down as Dunn and Levy become almost sheepishly conversational through their respective instruments. Dunn’s acoustic bass has a deep resonant wooden sound and there’s no doubt about his technical gifts. Moments of free improvisation, swing and death metal intermingle on the explosive “An Attempt At Jealousy” yet the brief moments of bombast eventually give way to serious dialogue. Kenny Wolleson covers the full spectrum of drumming and proves why he is such an in demand session musician within the “new” jazz scene. On “Ann-Margret” The boys partake in a manic, hard-core free-style romp. Adam Levy twists his guitar into knots aided and abetted by distortion-fuzz-wah-wah techniques and implementations. Again, as in most of these tracks the themes resurface in various forms and at times the Trio re-work these motifs into call and response settings and pursue dialogue which is insightful and quite interactive. “Premonitions” commences with an intentionally slow yet effective drag beat. Dunn continues to be inventive with proficient and skillful bass maneuvers. More dynamics from Levy and Dunn coalesce into interludes that may suggest mystical or spiritual reckoning. These fellows are definitely on to something here. “Echidna” features modern jazz motifs as Dunn shows amazing dexterity with more fleet fingered bass work. Levy shreds his guitar to bits with fast single note runs and “nasty” hard-edged chord progressions. The proceedings wind down as the boys take a well-deserved break via a slow ballad titled, “Aromatherapy”.
Comparisons? A difficult proposition for sure. “Debutantes & Centipedes” is sure to delight advocates of the New York City Downtown and San Francisco Bay Area scenes where “new” music is at the forefront defying stereotypes and classifications. Trio-Convulsant blend free and mainstream jazz, sub culture grunge rock or at times heavy metal as the overabundance of innovative ideas and impeccable musicianship makes this alliance a triumphant success.

Glenn Astarita (All About Jazz)

HERE