For reference...

Obviously, this blog is dead. I now use my blog name to post at places like Jazz Pour Tous. I also write for Bandoppler and Tiny Mix Tapes. And to plug my own music: Ancient Mariner (solo guitar) and Elephant 666 Orchestra (wacky improv free-jazz/metal/noise ensemble... free album download).

Playlist 12/12/05

Artist "Song Title" - Album Title [Record Label]

Vandermark 5 "Suitcase (For Ray Charles, Elvin Jones, and Steve Lacy)" - The Color of Memory [Atavistic]
John Coltrane "Mr. PC" - Sheets of Sound [Recall]
Pharoah Sanders "Love Is Everywhere" - Love Is In Us All [Impulse!]
Anthony Braxton "R76" - The Complete Anthony Braxton 1971 [Arista Freedom]
Paul Bley "Ballade" - Alone, Again [Improvising Artists]
Eric Dolphy "Iron Man" - Iron Man [Celluloid]
Jin Hi Kim "Core" - Komungo [OO Discs]
Ricci Rucker "4004" - Fuga [Alpha Pup]
Sonny Sharrock "Soon" - Monkey Pockie Boo [BYG]
John Coltrane "Peace On Earth" - Infinity [Impulse!]
Matthew Shipp "The Root" - Equilibrium [Thirsty Ear]

Like I wrote last week, this is my last show. I know I didn't keep up on the writing (mostly due to school, graduation stuff), but I'm now writing for a couple magazines if it should so interest anyone.
+ Tiny Mix Tapes put out a call specifically for free-jazz, avant-garde, and noise writers a month ago. Phillip (Space Is the Place) and I both were accepted. You can already find a couple reviews here and here.
+ Bandoppler will make its triumphant (3rd) return in February 2006. I'm already working on a Peter Brotzmann/Nasheet Waits piece for it. The magazine's approach is a bit more holistic conducting interviews, researching and responding to other critical work, and generally writing more "academic" articles. I'm looking forward to how it will challenge me as a writer.

Oh, and that Pharoah Sanders song I played tonight is just classic. Essential listening if you're into his Karma period.

Playlist 12/5/05 + Goodbyes

Artist "Song Title" - Album Title [Record Label]

David S. Ware "Logistic" - Go See the World [Columbia]
Steve Lacy Sextet "The Condor" - The Condor [Soul Note]
Maulawi "Street Rap" - New Thing! [Soul Jazz]
Peter Brotzmann/Nasheet Waits "Nr. 1" - Live at the 'Bottle' Fest 2005 [Bro]
Don Cherry "Taste Maker" - Where Is Brooklyn [Blue Note]
Jan Garbarek w/ Terje Rypdal "Rabalder" - Esoteric Circle [Arista Freedom]
Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre "Sun Spots" - Forces and Feelings [Delmark]
John Lurie National Orchestra "Ketchak" - Fishing With John (Soundtrack) [Strange & Beautiful]
Sainkho Namtchylak/Sergey Letov "Sainkho With Sergey Letov" - Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz Volume III [Leo]
Roland P. Young "Crystal Motions" - Isophonic Boogie Woogie [Flow Chart]
William Parker Quartet "Wood Flute Song" - Sound Unity [AUM Fidelity]

So if I have any readers left, I graduate in two weeks and the university doesn't let non-students DJ at WUOG. Thus, New Orbit will die. This will make some listeners and DJs undoubtedly happy, but to the dedicated few that'd call up digging on the free-jazz, I might point you in the direction of Phillip's show Space Is the Place, which plays music generally on the weirder (or spacier) end of the spectrum, or Jazz Cafe, which usually mixes up the bop and the free-jazz. Check WUOG's programming schedule come January for times.

Otherwise, I've had a helluva time DJing New Orbit and learned more ravaging the jazz vinyl archive than I could have in a record store. WUOG DJs shouldn't be surprised if I show up with my iBook and an iMic digitally transferring some of the more obscure records.

Next Monday's the last show. Hope you listen in.

Playlist 11/28/05

Artist "Song Title" - Album Title [Record Label]

Lots of Art Ensemble of Chicago-related material tonight.

Other Dimensions In Music f. Matthew Shipp "3" - Time Is Of the Essence Is Beyond Time [AUM Fidelity]
Archie Shepp "Suite: There's A Trumpet In My Soul (Part Two)" - There's A Trumpet In My Soul [Arista Freedom]
Leo Smith "Images" - Spirit Catcher [Nessa]
Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble "Jojar" - 3x4 Eye [Black Saint]
Joseph Jarman/Famoudou Don Moye "Nanke Ala (and the Earth)" - Egwu-Anwu [India Navigation]
Andy Bruntel, Jeff Mayfield, Chris Schlarb, Tom Steck, Kris Tiner "Years Waiting" - NOTICE (April 2005) [Sounds Are Active]

Playlist 11/21/05

Tonight's theme... Get On the New Shipp: The Pianists of Free-Jazz

Artist "Song Title" - Album Title [Record Label]

Matthew Shipp "Galaxy 105" - Harmony & Abyss [Thirsty Ear]
Anthony Davis & Jay Hoggard "Ujamaa"- Under the Double Moon [MPS]
Paul Bley/Gary Peacock/Barry Altschul "Japan Suite I" - Japan Suite [Improvising Artists]
Muhal Richard Abrams "1 And 4 Plus 2 And 7" - Things to Come From Those Now Gone [Delmark]
Cecil Taylor "Jitney No. 2" - Silent Tongues [Arista Freedom]
Marilyn Crispell "Lazy Bird" - For Coltrane [Leo]
Steve Kuhn/Sheila Jordan Band "Deep Tango" - Playground [ECM]
Chick Corea "Drone" - Circulus [Blue Note]
Triptych Myth "Spatter Matter" - Triptych Myth [Hopscotch]
Sun Ra "Other Worlds" - Heliocentric Worlds Volumes 1 & 2 [ESP-Disk]
Fieldwork "Trips" - Simulated Progress [Pi]
Matthew Shipp "Vamp to Vibe" Equilibrium [Thirsty Ear]

Leo Records OGG downloads

This past summer Leo Records announced a pretty swank deal where you could download a single album for $4, double for $8, etc, all in OGG format, a bitrate far superior to MP3 and DRM-free. In October, the price went back to $7, three weeks later it was $6, and now it looks like it's down to $5. Like I mentioned before, for import-phobics, this is a great price. (Once again, my only complaint is the absence of liner notes, which they could easily include as a PDF file.) Don't know how long this will last, but I have a feeling the price lowered quickly because jazz nerds must have liner notes (ask any one). I make my own, but that just brings me to a different level of nerdery altogether.


With news of the sale, I've purchased the Abraham Adzinyan/Anthony Braxton 1994 live duo (linked in the image above). I haven't had the chance to listen to it, yet, but I keep finding myself more attracted to Braxton's free-improv recordings. His composed works fascinate the hell out of me as do his musical/philosophical theories, though I seem to take more away from listening to Braxton create from scratch.

Some other downloads I've enjoyed from Leo:
+ Simon Nabatov/Han Bennink- Chat Room: Mostly bop-infuenced pianist Nabatov meets Dutch free-jazz master in what should be a clash of the titans - to borrow a lame phrase - and result in a powerful intuition.
+ Evan Parker- Synergetics: Phonomanie III: Two-discs of master free-improv featuring komungo player Jin Hi Kim, vocalist Sainkho Namtchylak, and electronic wiz Walter Prati.

Playlist 11/14/05

Artist "Song Title" - Album Title [Record Label]

Revolutionary Ensemble "Hu-Man" - The Pysche [Mutable Music]
Ken Vandermark's Joe Harriot Project "Abstract" - Straight Lines [Atavistic]
Julius Hemphill "The Painter" - Dogon A.D. [Arista Freedom]
Phil Hey/Pat Moriarty "Not Complicated (to Noal Moriarity)" - Let Them All Come [Min]
Ornette Coleman "Dough Nuts" - The Great London Concert [Arista Freedom]
Jerome Cooper "Bert the Cat" - The Unpredictability of Predictability [About Time]
John Hollenbeck "Chant for the 2nd Sun" (unreleased track)
Joe McPhee "Shakey Jake" Nation Time [Atavistic]
Steve Reid Ensemble "For Coltrane" - Spirit Walk [Universal Sound/Soul Jazz]
Mahavishnu Orchestra "Birds of Fire" - Birds of Fire [Columbia]