Playlist 10/24/05

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

*Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 "Consequences" - Bill Dixon/Archie Shepp [Savoy]
William Hooker "Flow - Rt. 1 [Awake]" - Mindfulness [Knitting Factory Works]
Marion Brown "Njini's Corner" - Afternoon of a Georgia Faun [ECM]
Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" - Hannibal in Antibes [Inner City]
Dewey Redman "Innerconnection" - The Ear of the Behearer [Impulse!]
Beaver Harris "Drums For Milano" - Beautiful Africa [Soul Note]
Enrico Rava Quartet "The Fearless Five" - Enrico Rava Quartet [ECM]
**Dave Burrell "West Side Story Medley" - High Won - High Two [Arista Freedom]
Steve Reid "Lions of Juda" - Nova [Soul Jazz]
Andrew Solovyev "Process (For Four Trumpets)" - Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz, Vol. III [Leo]

*Written by Don Cherry.
**Original compositions/ideas by Leonard Bernstein.

Let the funky free-jazz rain down!

Apparently, the Steve Reid and Kieran Hebden (Fourtet) collaboration is out. I may have to break my "no buying music for a month" to get it because the minute-long samples are too much of a teaser! A few more weeks of boxed meals is worth it... right?

Tradition?

While reading an article by educational philosopher E.D. Hirsch for a class, I saw a link for an interview with neo-traditionalists Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch. The conservative monthly The American Enterprise published a themed issue titled, "Tradition: Who Needs It?" back 1997. I should probably give Marsalis and Crouch some slack because the interviewer definitely had an agenda in mind, but it's hard to ignore stuff like this:

TAE: What happens to musicians who reject tradition or want to run away from it, terrified of ever sounding like anyone else?
MR. MARSALIS: I don’t think that many do that.
MR. CROUCH: I’ve never heard anybody sound like that. I’ve heard people say that. I remember in the ’70s when I was around a lot of guys who were involved in the Lower East Side, and I would go hear them on their jobs, and they would be squeaking. But when I went by their house, they would have Charlie Parker on or Duke Ellington. They would never be listening to anything like what they play. I’d say, "Oh, now they want to enjoy some music."

I don't think they're giving much credit to the "squeaking" musicians. Crouch's comment implies that an innovator can't respect and enjoy the masters when the masters themselves were innovators at one point. Anthony Braxton touches on this in Forces In Motion with his linear idea of reconstructualism.

Oh, and here's a good interview with Sonny Rollins and David S. Ware in All About Jazz.

Playlist 10/17/05

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

Sunny Murray + the Untouchable Factor "Over the Rainbow" - Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions [KnitClassics]
Create(!) "Durindana" - Strata: A Young Person's Guide to Experimental Music [Sounds Are Active]
Evan Parker "Synergetics No. 3" - Syngergetics: Phonomanie III [Leo]
Art Ensemble of Chicago "Theme De Yoyo" - Les Stances a Sophie [Universal Sound/Soul Jazz]
Albert Ayler "The Truth Is Marching In" - Albert Ayler In Greenwich Village [Impulse!]
Heiner Stadler "All Tones" - Brains On Fire [Labor]
Tim Moran and Tony Vacca "Zimbabwe!" - Wizard's Dance [Fretless]
George Adams "Stay Informed" - Sound Suggestions [ECM]
Andrew Cyrille + Maono "Short Short" - Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions [KnitClassics]
Matthew Shipp Duo w/ Mat Maneri "Series of Planes" - Gravitational Systems [Hatology]
Derek Bailey/Cyro Baptista "Rio Branco" - Cyro [Incus]
Arcane V "Abricot - Suivi de Danserie" - Marron Dingue [??]
Sun Ra "Other Worlds" - Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1 & 2 [ESP Disk]

Gold sparkles all over the damn place!

Tonight...

Roger Ruzow's A.C.M.E. and Erik Hinds
Saturday, October 15, 2005, 8:30 pm
Flicker Theatre, Athens, Georgia

Should be a great set. Roger Ruzow is the trumpeter for former Atlanta jazz group Gold Sparkle Band (who's recorded with Ken Vandermark). Erik Hinds will play songs from his Reign In Blood album (Slayer covers performed on solo h'arpeggione) and plans to join Ruzow's band for a free-improv later on.

Peel-o-feel

Although he mostly championed rock bands, I'd still like to note that it's John Peel Day. He basically had the job I dream of.

Playlist 10/10/05

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

Susie Ibarra "Human Beginnings" - Flower After Flower [Tzadik]
Pat Methany/Ornette Coleman "Endangered Species" - Song X: Twentieth Anniversary [Nonesuch]
Delirium "Drive Thru" - Eclexistence [Tum]
Joelle Leandre/India Cooke "Firedance 7" - Firedance [Red Toucan]
Eric Dolphy "Burning Spear" - Jitterbug Waltz [Douglas]
Circle "Lookout Farm/73 Kalvin Variation 3" - Paris-Concert [ECM]
Anthony Davis/James Newton Quartet "Sudden Death" - Hidden Voice [India Navigation]
Jazz Passengers "Decomposer By A Neck" - Live at the Knitting Factory Volume One [A&M]
John Coltrane "Joy" - Infinity [Impulse]
Ilmilieki Quartet "ICO" - March of the Alpha Males [Tum]
Painkiller "Executioner" - Buried Secrets [Earache]

Unearthed Peter Brotzmann/Han Bennink recordings!

This Tuesday, Atavistic will release a 2xCD set of Peter Brotzmann and Han Bennink improvising in the Black Forest... literally. Recorded in the late '60s/early '70s, the two would set out into the woods at the end of winter and record duets in which Bennink, who didn't bring his drums, would play on trees and stones. Rarely am I one to be more interested in the the context of the recording, but unlike most who record in non-studio spaces, this sounds like the landscape is actually an integral part of the music. Hope I get to hear it because I've put myself on a one-month music-buying ban.

(Oh, and check this out:But when John Corbett played it at a festival in Athens, Georgia, a couple of years ago I was very surprised about the freshness of the music and the process we used to make it. That means they talked about the recording during the ACME Festival right here in Athens. I don't know what kind of convincing I need to do to bring that festival back.)

New Orbit may or may not be on tomorrow night due to a broken transmitter. We'll see. I have some Archie Shepp and the Pat Methany/Ornette Coleman Song X: Twentieth Anniversary (more on that later) I wanna spin.

Go somewhere else!

I've been slacking off a little, then again I wonder if anyone actually reads this. Well, I just have some linky links today:

Anthony Braxton turned 60 this past year, so he's giving a series of concerts for the rest of the year at Wesleyan. The September show featured a solo performance, a 7-piece world premiere for Composition 103, and one of his Ghost Trance performances. November 16-20 consists of his piano works played by Genevieve Foccroulle. December 7-10 is more of his large ensemble compositions. All include lectures by Braxton and other music scholars. I'd be at that December series if I wasn't graduating. More info here.

Paris Transatlantic has their October issue up. That new Mark Dresser solo album sounds mighty tasty. Modern composer/avant-gardist Raz Mesinai engineers it in his home studio (check out Resurrections for Goatskin).

And I forgot to link this Dusted label feature on Creative Sources a couple weeks ago. They also reviewed the new Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble CD, which nearly always sound like horror soundtracks (a good thing and I'm sure unintentional).

Playlist 10/3/05

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

Reggie Workman "What's In Your Hand" - Cerebral Caverns [Postcards]
George Russell "Event II" - Vertical Form VI [Soul Note]
Billy Bang Quintet "Yaa - Woman Born On Thursday" - Rainbow Gladiator [Soul Note]
Joelle Leandre, Hasse Poulsen, Francois Houle "C'est ca #7" - C'est Ca [Red Toucan]
John Surman "Phoenix and the Fire" - The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon [ECM]
Masahiko Togashi "On the Footpath" - Spiritual Nature [Inner City]
Ken Nordine "Yellow" & "Cerise" - Colors [Asphodel]
Hannibal & Sunrise Orchestra "Forest Sunrise" - New Thing! [Soul Jazz]
Steve Kuhn "Trance" - Trance [ECM]
*Anthony Braxton w/Muhal Richard Abrams "Miss Ann" - Duets (1976) [Arista]
Ronnie Boykins "The Will Come, Is Now" - Ronnie Boykins [ESP Disk]
Milford Graves/John Zorn Duo "Calling In Proceed" - 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 2 [Tzadik]
The Peter Brotzmann Tentet f. Mike Pearson "Part 2 (excerpt)" - Be Music, Night [Okkadisk]

*Written by Eric Dolphy.