NEW ORBIT

For reference...

2006-03-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-05T22:10:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-28T22:12:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-21T22:05:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-15T16:42:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-14T22:33:00.000-05:00

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]

Association P.C.

2005-11-10T15:24:00.000-05:00

Progressive Rock Collectors is offering a free download of Association P.C.'s out of print 1973 live album Erna Morena. It's the droning, improvisational prog-rock/free-jazz I should've played on my Sharrock Is the New Hendrix-themed show this past week. The first track is the most fusion-based of the three well-transferred cuts (that vinyl must've been in peak condition), but it's those latter tracks that kill me. Kinda early Soft Machine but with free-jams channeling late Coltrane.

Download the album here.
More info on Association P.C. here.

A post with links to the latest jazz articles coming soon.

Playlist 11/7/05

2005-11-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Graduation's coming up and last week I didn't have a show because the transmitter was beaming WUOG's signal into microwaves again. However, New Orbit returns in grand fashion with a themed show: Sharrock is the New Hendrix, A Guide to Free-Jazz in Rocknroll. Fusion, noise-jazz, prog-rock, the Japanese.

Miles Davis "Right Off" - A Tribute to Jack Johnson [Columbia]
Sonny Sharrock "Broken Toys" - Guitar [Enemy]
Last Exit "Headfirst Into the Flames" - Headfirst Into the Flames: Live In Europe [Muworks]
Henry Cow "Ruins" - Unrest [Red]
Koenjiyakkei "Wammilica Iffirom" - Angherr Shisspa [SkinGraft]
The Nels Cline Singers "Cause for Concern" - Instrumentals [Cryptogramophone]
The Mahavishnu Orchestra w/John McLasughlin "The Noonward Race" - The Inner Mountain Flame [Columbia]
Pat Methany/Ornette Coleman "Song X" - Song X [Geffen]
I Heart Lung "Wheelchair Graduation" - Blood & Light [Sounds Are Active]
Loren Mazzacane Connors/Jean-Marc Montera/Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo "Mazzacane Connors / Montera" - Mmmr [Xeric]
Borbetomagus "Aftershock" - Songs Our Mother Taught Us [Agaric]
The Flying Luttenbachers "Swarming Cats" - Alptraum [Pandemonium]
Roadside Monument "Cops Are My Best Customers" - I Am the Day of Current Taste [Tooth&Nail]

Playlist 10/24/05

2005-10-24T21:04:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-10-22T20:28:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-10-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-17T21:05:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-10-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-10-09T21:12:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-10-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-03T21:04:00.000-05:00

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.

Bagatellen

2005-09-30T15:56:00.000-05:00

Bagatellen, who I've only mentioned in passing, has a hilarious review on Sean Meehan's Sectors (for Constant), which has sparked a great discussion on approaching art as something different than what we perceive. Few magazines out there allow their readers to comment on their criticisms and those who avidly read Bagatellen are as adept as its writers. This is something I wish more magazines would do. "Letters of the Editor" have already lost steam by the next issue and if there's a response from the writer, it's left there as the definitive end. Then you have magazines like Pitchfork that have completely removed reader response; thus, erradicating any check power. It only reaffirms what forced authority they exert and that's dangerous. Discussion on art is not a dead stop but a continuous, meandering, and annoying conversation.

So I raise my cup to Bagatellen and hope that others will follow suit.

Tonight I'm missing Wolf Eyes in Atlanta, noise's unlikely free-form poster-boys, as I have no money. Not surprisingly enough, that money was spent on records at Agora:
+ Paul Bley/Bill Connors/Jimmy Giuffre- Quiet Song [Improvising Artists]: The softer size of free-improv.
+ Keith Jarrett- The Koln Concert [ECM]: Often considered one of his best. I'm still getting into him, personally, but Jarrett apparently improvised the entire concert, so that intrigues me.
+ Gary Burton/Chick Corea- Crystal Silence [ECM]
+ Anthony Braxton w/Muhal Richard Abrams- Duets 1976 [Arista]: Mainly picked it up for "Composition 40B" and their take on Eric Dolphy's "Miss Ann."
+ Ralph Towner/Gary Burton- Matchbook [ECM]: Classical guitar meets vibes. I've been meaning to pick this up since I first heard Ralph Towner's solo record Diary.

Playlist 9/26/05

2005-09-26T21:04:00.000-05:00

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

Roscoe Mitchell "The Little Suite" - Sound [Delmark]
Sam Rivers "Lines" - Contrasts [ECM]
Triptych Myth "All Up In It" - The Beautiful [AUM Fidelity]
Marzette Watts "Play it Straight" - New Music: Second Wave [Savoy]
Tim Berne "7X" - 7X [Empire]
Simon Nabatov/Han Bennink "Es Lauft" - Chat Room [Leo]
Tricolor "Unabashed" - Nonparticipant + Milk [Atavistic]
John Coltrane "Mars" - Interstellar Space [ABC]
Old and New Dreams "Mopti" - Playing [ECM]
Cecil Taylor Unit "It Is In the Brewing Luminous, pt.1 (excerpt)" - It Is In the Brewing Luminous [Hatology]
Cecil Taylor "(track 2)" - Chinampas [Leo]
Anthony Braxton "Comp. 122 (+108A).... (excerpt)" - Quartet (London) 1985 [Leo]
Sonny Simons "Zarak's Symphony" - The Complete ESP Disk Recordings [ESP Disk]

ESP Disk Hooks WUOG Up

2005-09-21T16:18:00.000-05:00

I e-mailed ESP Disk, one of the more overlooked avant-garde jazz & rock record labels making its way back into consciousness, a couple weeks ago to see if they'd send WUOG (we have real-time playlists now! check 'em out) their latest Marion Brown and Sonny Simmons reissues. Imagine my surprise today when Grant (WUOG's current music director) shoots Phillip and I an e-mail saying we got a load of ESP CDs to review! Some we already own and have spun this past summer, so we happily split those up between us, but here's what we got:
+ Marion Brown- Marion Brown
+ Sonny Simmons- The Complete ESP Disk Recordings 2xCD
+ Pharoah Sanders- Pharoah's First Quintet
+ Sun Ra- Heliocentric Worlds Volumes 1, 2, & 3
+ an Albert Ayler live disc
+ Ed Askew (psychedelic folk)
+ at least 6 I don't remember right now

I'm confident this influx of great jazz will infuriate the pop mold of WUOG DJs, but they'll have to deal. Think of it this way: I have to deal with the crappy pale-imitation indie-pop they play. Fair trade, I think.

Ubu!

2005-09-20T20:53:00.000-05:00

At long last, Ubu has returned after a long summer restructuring. Ubu is the finest place on the internet to download (mostly) legal music, movies, and documents pertaining to avant-garde, modern composition, spoken word, musique concrete, minimalism, etc. Their partnership with WFMU (the best free-form radio station... ever) has garnered an impressive collection of music from Glenn Branca, John Cage, Yoshi Wada, and Morton Feldman to movies featuring or written by Roland Kirk and John Cage (which I recommend), Samuel Beckett, and Guy Debord.

Some suggested downloads:
+ Glenn Gould: Radio Broadcasts
+ Yoshi Wada
+ Group Ongaku
+ John Cage Meets Sun Ra
+ The Tape-beatles

You'll probably hear a segment of that Sun Ra download this Monday.

Playlist 9/19/05

2005-09-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

Pharoah Sanders "Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah-Hum Allah" - Jewels of Thought [Impulse!]
Carlos Santana & Alice Coltrane "Angel of Sunlight" - Illuminations [Columbia]
Return to Forever f. Chick Corea "Vulcan Worlds" - Where Have I Known You Before [Polydor]
I Heart Lung "Speedboats for Breakfast" - Castanets/I Heart Lung split 12" [Sounds Are Active]
Don Cherry "Total Vibration" - "Mu" First Part/"Mu" Second Part [BYG/Actuel]
John Zorn "Space Church" - Spy Vs. Spy: The Music of Ornette Coleman [Elektra/Nonesuch]
*Frederic Rzewski "P-JOS 4 K-D-(Mix)" - No Place to Go But Around [Finnadar]
David S. Ware Quartet "Rhythm Dao" - Dao [Homestead]
Gary Peacock "Major Major" - Tales Of Another [ECM]
**Steve Lacy Four "In Walked Bud" - Morning Joy [Hatology]
Keith Jarrett "Angles (Without Edges)" - Treasure Island [MCA]
Sunny Murray "Red Cross" - Sunshine & Even Break (Never Give A Sucker) [BYG/Actuel]
Max Roach/Anthony Braxton "Tropical Forest" - Birth and Rebirth [Black Saint]

*Written by Anthony Braxton.
**Written by Thelonius Monk.

There may not be much updates this week due to any number of things, but I promise at least one nerdy entry before Monday.

New York Sucks

2005-09-15T23:27:00.000-05:00

Once again, New York has foiled me in its concert listings. The same folks who coordinate the excellent Vision Festival every year, which I got to attend this past summer, have put together a benefit for New Oreans set for September 20th. More of the same New York faces reappear like Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Charles Gayle, Bill Dixon (a solo performance... should be interesting), and any combination of those and the standards of Vision. The surprises, however, are exciting and quite creative: John Zorn's klezmer jazz-punk quartet Masada, a Muhal Richard Abrams solo piano recital, Jazz Passengers with Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry (yes, from Blondie), and what could be amazing or horrible, Yo La Tango with Other Dimensions In Music.

As always, this event will be recorded and we'll have to cross our fingers to see release in the next 10 years (as per standard). Sigh. I still want a copy of the Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Han Bennink/Sabir Mateen and Joe McPhee/Lori Freedman shows.

It's a shorty

2005-09-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

Paris Transatlantic has their September issue up (actually it's been up over a week... I'm a bit late to the game). They review the Spontaneous Music Ensemble reissue (Emanem), the excellent Philip Gayle disc The Mommy Row (though Bagatellen does a better job), and a slew of others. Bagatellen, who I haven't pimped properly yet, reviews the Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, & William Parker collaboration out on Eremite and it sounds great.

Be back later with more music nerdery.

Playlist 9/12/05

2005-09-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

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

Dewey Redman "Tarik" - Tarik [BYG/Actuel]
Marilyn Crispell "Collage for Coltrane II" - For Coltrane [Leo]
8 Bold Souls "The Art of Tea" - Last Option [Thrill Jockey]
Lee Konitz/Paul Bley/Bill Connors "Out There" - Pyramid [Improvising Artists]
Borah Bergman/Peter Brotzmann/Andre Cyrille "The Fourth Idea" - Exhilaration [Soul Note]
Jay Hoggard "May Those Who Love Apartheid Burn In Hell" - Solo Vibraphone [India Navigation]
Bill Dixon "Summer Song One: Morning" - In Italy, Vol. 1 [Soul Note]
Cooper-Moore & Assif Tsahar "The Tortise & the Buzzard" - America [Hopscotch]
Dave Holland Quintet "Shadow Dance" - Jumpin' In [ECM]
Collin Walcott "Moon Lake" - Grazing Dreams [ECM]
Butch Morris "Dust to Dust, second and third parts" - Dust to Dust [New World]
Barry Altschul Trio "Be Out S'Cool" - Brahma [Sackville]
The New York Underground Orchestra "Fifth" - Fragments [Hopscotch]
Art Ensemble of Chicago "Reese" - AACM, Great Black Music/Reese and the Smooth Ones [BYG/Actuel]
Sun Ra "The Shadow World" - Nothing Is... [ESP]

Finnishing off the horns with a mighty blow

2005-09-06T15:09:00.000-05:00

Dusted Magazine has published a very informative article on the Finnish free-jazz label TUM Records. (Dusted just keeps getting better every week I read it.) This is my first introduction to the label, so every last artist on the roster is foreign to me except sax player John Tchicai and trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, the latter who's not Finnish and has worked with Steve Reid, Billy Bang, Sun Ra, and just a mess of great musicians since the '70s. In fact, my knowledge of Scandanavian free-jazz would be practically null without the Dutch drummer Han Bennink.

However, what struck me most about the article was the following:
The key, then, is a business perspective as strong as the aesthetic one. In addition to the usual funds that support Finnish music – the Foundation for Finnish Music and the Finnish Music Promotion Center – the White & Case lawyer has procured support for some of his albums from Finnish corporations such the telephone operator Sonera, and the paper manufacturer UPM Kymmene. Other Euro labels, such as HatHut, have enjoyed similar corporate sponsorship.
It's refreshing that the Finnish have organizations that fund the jazz arts so generously and that corporations support it as well. I'm not saying Matthew Shipp or someone like that should seek endorsements from Coca Cola, but labels and artists could work with businesses that appreciate and respect the artform, and the artists still maintain their freedom.

Cadence stocks TUM.

Oh, if anybody actually reads this, please comment. I'd love to get conversation going about these issues.

Playlist 9/5/05 + Why ECM Don't Give Us Play

2005-09-05T20:58:00.000-05:00

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

Frank Lowe "Epistrophy" - Fresh [Arista Freedom]
Paul Bley "Open,To Love" - Open, To Love [ECM]
Ian Smith "Don't Even Think About It" - Daybreak [Emanem]
World Saxophone Quartet "Come Sunday" - Plays Duke Ellington [Nonesuch]
The Vandermark 5 "Auto Topography (for Archie Shepp)" - Acoustic Machine [Atavistic]
Steve Reid "Odyssey of the Oblong Square (Side B)" - Odyssey of the Oblong Square [Mustevic]
Roland P. Young "Velvet Dream" - Isophonic Boogie Woogie [Flow Chart]
McCo "For A.K." - Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz, Vol. III [Leo]
Sun Ensemble (David Wertman) "Dance of the Mid-East Madness" - Wide Eye Culture [Sunmuse]
Steve Kuhn "Oceans in the Sky" - Remembering Tomorrow [ECM]
The Lounge Lizards "They Were Insane" - Live in Tokyo [Island]
Borbetomagus "Bathed in the Blood of the Lamb (excerpt)" - Experience the Magic of... [Agaric]

Spent an hour before the show really digging through the jazz vinyl archive of WUOG. I had certainly perused the library, but never ravaged. I knew our collection was stellar in terms of bop and cool jazz, but we do have some incredible avant-garde material, too. Last week I played some Anthony Braxton (we have some seriously out of print LP box sets, too) and this week I found some Frank Lowe, Paul Bley, Oliver Lake, and Kenny Wheeler, which brings me to the topic: Why isn't WUOG serviced by the mighty ECM Records anymore? First of all, the German label doesn't have a distribution deal with Warner Bros. like they did in the '70s and part of the '80s or with BMG Classics like they had in the '90s. It's indicative of trend: free/avant-garde jazz wasn't the right kind of challenging for major labels anymore. At one point in American music history, free-jazz was a thriving, even lucrative business in the hands of Archie Shepp, later-period John Coltrane (much to the chagrin of his bop admirers), and Pharoah Sanders. But as the late '70s and '80s rolled around, Coltrane - basically the poster boy even though most sax players were already beating him at his own game - had died, people lost interest, and the players in the scene weren't really doing anything revolutionary. I won't say the '80s was a stale or dark time for avant-garde jazz (some incredible records came out in that decade), but we can certainly lay some blame on the lame trad-jazz revivalists like Wynton Marsalis. (Sidenote: Out of this division came specialty imprints like the aforementioned "BMG Classics" that implies avant-garde jazz is only for a select crowd, which might be true in some cases, but it excludes an entire listening audience who might share in that aesthetic.) Plenty's been written on Marsalis's arrogant attitude with jazz critic Stanley Crouch (including a violent breakout between Crouch and pianist Matthew Shipp at a jazz awards show), so I won't delve further (surprisingly his brother Branford would sign David S. Ware to Columbia's jazz label for a couple spectacular albums), but I'd like to think the music never went away, just underground, and became more innovative and challenging in the process. And it's been regaining critical speed somewhat in the past few years with the success of Thirsty Ear's Blue Series (though I could really do without most of their DJ/electronic-jazz collaborations), but there's an incredible wealth of work out there that needs to be heard. (I have a rant about Pitchfork's treatment of jazz for a later time.)

Anyway, with all that said... ECM Records, send WUOG CDs. The Dave Holland and Steve Kuhn reissues, the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble CDs... just no Keith Jarrett. :)

Triptych Myth

2005-09-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

So I don't know about y'all, but I'm extremely excited about the new Triptych Myth CD, The Beautiful, out on AUM Fidelity. I've yet to hear the disc, and since the label's been good about getting material to WUOG, I'll wait until then... but after 2003's unbelievable self-titled debut on Hopscotch, it definitely left me wanting more. The trio's comprised of veteran Cooper-Moore on piano whose sudden explosions on the keys are the stuff of jazz legend, the fierce Tom Abbs on bass, and Chicago Underground member Chad Taylor on drums. After his unfortunately forgettable work on Marc Ribot's should-have-been-mind-blowing Spiritual Unity, I'm going to be really glad to hear Chad Taylor working with these folks again. Simply, Triptych Myth is the most exciting (and stable) trio in avant-garde jazz right now... no, in jazz period right now. They swing hard without convention, but can just as easily play on air with the same "hardness." I forsee The Beautiful as a Top Ten without doubt.

Hat Hut wants your non-Swiss money

2005-09-04T13:14:00.000-05:00

So in my daily poking around the interweb, I've come across more ways to spend money. The remarkably consistent Swiss label Hat Hut has posted a sale at JazzLoft: buy two mid-priced CDs and get the third free. Considering most of their output is $20/pop, it's a deal. It gives you a chance to stock up on both the label's avant-garde jazz and modern composition CDs like Matthew Shipp's Gravitational Systems with Mat Maneri, Myra Melford & Han Bennink's Eleven Ghosts, Cecil Taylor's It Is In the Brewing Luminous, and a few from James Tenney.

This Monday night, I'm going to dig into the station LP archive to see what I can find after last week's exciting Marion Brown and Anthony Braxton cuts.

Yur-a-peein'

2005-09-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Besides the online music stores that tempt me with UK imports, out of the links to the right, I spend most of my time at the European Free Improvisation site. What it lacks in design and layout (recalling those bad cut-and-paste HTML codes from Geocities), it more than makes up for in content. The site supplies every free-improviser and avant-garde jazz player of note with an extensive discography and biography. If this information were not enough, Peter Stubley - the site's maintainer since 1996 - also provides articles and interviews (translated into English where need be), MP3s and excerpts, and links to notable websites and an enormous listing of European, Asian, and American record labels with descriptions. While the All Music Guide certainly is a recommended resource, the amount of material at the European Free Improvisation site is invaluable when it comes to things across the Atlantic.

Anyway, I noticed a week ago, Stubley (who constantly updates the site) put up his Best of Half the Year list for 2005. I should mention only one of those releases is not an import to the US: The Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet's Be Music, Night on Okka Disk, which I happen to own. Looking at his list, I'm most intrigued by the Roger Smith (guitar) & Louis Moholo-Moholo (percussion) album, The Butterfly and the Bee on Emanem Records. I've heard clips of Smith's work and could only imagine what he and Moholo-Moholo cooked up.

Speaking of, Stubley also posted an article on Moholo-Moholo translated from the French magazine Improjazz.

Setlist 8/29/05

2005-08-29T21:09:00.000-05:00

Setlist 8/29/05

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

Anthony Braxton "Cut Three" - Five Pieces 1975 [Arista]
Joelle Leandre & India Cooke "Firedance 3" - Firedance [Red Toucan]
Homo Liber "In Memory of Andrey Tarkovsky" - Golden Years of Soviet New Jazz Vol. III [Leo]
Joe McPhee "Sweet Dragon" - Tenor & Fallen Angels [Hat Hut]
Marion Brown & Leo Smith "Njung-Lumumba Malcom" - Marion Brown Duets [Arista]
Talking Pictures "Deep Pocket" - The Mirror With A Memory [Red Toucan]
Steve Reid "Odyssey of the Oblong Square (Side A)" - Odyssey of the Oblong Square [Mustevic Sound]
Steve Beresford / Pat Thomas / Veryan Weston "Bermondsey" - 3 Pianos [Emanem]
Evan Parker "Synergetics, No. 5" - Synergetics: Phonomanie III [Leo]
Sainkho Namtchylak with Mikhail Zhukov "[Untitled]" - Golden Years of Soviet New Jazz Vol. III [Leo]

Got lots of calls on the Steve Reid, especially since it's mad out of print. I'm gonna play Side B next week to get it on CD like I did with Side A. Nova and Rhythmatism, however, have both been reissued by the fine folks at Soul Jazz Records. Yes, I know, more imports, but you can find decent prices at hip record stores and distributors like the ones lifted on the right side of the site.

Red Toucan goodies

2005-08-27T15:28:00.000-05:00

The mailman's been feeding the box quite heavily and happily this past week. A bunch of new records for yours and my enjoyment on New Orbit (I'm back this Monday 10PM-12AM EST). Here's a quick rundown of what I got:

Compilations are rarely worth mentioning. They're incoherent, self-congratulatory, and fail to represent the discography of a particular artist's career. Maybe Red Toucan's 2-disc retrospective, Amalgam(e): 10 ans de Red Toucan, is not much different, but after ten years of solid releases, the French label's earned their right to a 142 minute collection. From what I've listened to so far, every track's been stellar. While it's a good sampling of French free-jazz scene, the Toucan's sound reaches all over Europe and Canada. Just to name a few: Marilyn Crispell (piano), Glenn Spearman (tenor sax), Achim Kaufmann (piano), Joelle Leandre (contrebasse), the Laura Andel Orchestra, Dylan van der Schyff (percussion), and George Graewe (piano). Admittedly, most of the names on here are new to me like Talking Pictures from Vancouver, a group you should really check out if you're a fan of the Chicago Underground Duo.

Both Joelle Leandre (contrebasse) and India Cooke (violin) were also unknown to me when I attended the Vision Festival this past summer, but their performance left a permanent mark on me as to how a jazz musician can play live. With a style so impassioned yet playful, the duo engaged the senses of the audience. Firedance is a live recording and it shows. Lucky for them the acoustics of the Guelph Youth Music Centre were a great match for contrebassist Leandre's low, ambient, and violent bowing and Cooke's joyful, disjunct fiddlin'. Their free improvisation is full of powerful energy, yet - dare I say - fun.

Cadence stocks Red Toucan.

Also downloaded more OGG files from Leo Records. More on those later.

Mindfulness

2005-08-25T15:05:00.000-05:00

William Hooker's a name more associated with the noise spectrum of avant-garde jazz; thus, mentioned less often around the bigger current names like Ware, Shipp, and generally the whole Thirsty Ear roster. This brings up an interesting point because there was the mostly boring, yet supposedly groundbreaking, Optometry (DJ Spooky) on Thirsty Ear collecting the talents of William Parker, Craig Taborn, Tim Berne, et al remixed and interspersed with DJ Spooky's beat-based turntablism. Yet on drummer William Hooker's Mindfulness (1997), DJ Olive clearly holds the reigns of free-turntablism. Granted, it's not the same aesthetic as Spooky, but Olive's putting the records through a series of processors that render any possible aural connection to "scratching" moot. This live recording (which also includes the talents of reed-man Glenn Spearman) is the most inspired I've heard out of turntablism in avant-garde jazz because the DJ isn't some cheap afterthought, but a fully integral part of the work. Brian DiGenti's article in Wax Poetics points this out quite succinctly and is worth the read.

I'm looking into finding a place to host MP3s or MP3 excerpts of the albums I write about. Don't know when this will happen, but soon, I hope.

Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz, Vol. III

2005-08-24T21:04:00.000-05:00

I mentioned the OGG-download purchase in the last post and after some difficulties with Paypal, all 4 CDs worth of the Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz Vol. III boxset was on the hard-drive. I've only had the chance to listen to 3 of the 4 discs (really easy to transfer to CD even on iTunes... more on that later), but everything has been a treasure. Leo Records splits the discs into essentially 4 or 5 sets of musicians. From what I've heard so far Homo Liber is by far the most interesting (and most rarely recorded). "In Memory of Andrey Tarkovsky" (the Russian filmmaker) is a saxophone and pipe organ stepping the bounds between apocalyptic church music and the aural equivalent of taking a gun to the temple. The Vladmir Chekasin Big Band tracks remind me a lot of what William Parker's Litttle Huey Creative Music Orchestra does today: bombastic big band with alternating sections of bop, chaotic free music, and horrible noise accentuated by vocalist Elvira Shlykova. The split disc between vocalist Sainkho Namchylak and Tri-O has been the most spun so far. Namchylak is the ultimate free vocalist both reacting and counter-acting those around her in cadence, rhythm, pitch, and tone. At times, I can barely distinguish her voice from the sax. The only tracks I haven't gotten to have been those from Andrew Solovyev, Igor Grigoriev, and Vlad Makarov all under different group names.

For other Mac users, once you have downloaded the OGG decoder, iTunes automatically recognizes the tracks and will burn them to CD-R, though it takes longer than burning MP3s. The wait is worth it, though, because the sound quality is top rate. I'd suggest immediately burning OGG files to CD-R immediately since they take a chunk of your RAM (causing pauses and such while playing).

There are 4 volumes in the Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz series. It's quite an invaluable document of the avant-garde/free-improvisation scene in '80s Soviet Russia and the surrounding countries. My only complaint with the download is that it doesn't include the extensive liner notes. I wouldn't mind a printable text document or PDF file because like most jazz folks, I'm a nerd and love to read up on the obscure artists.

Thanks to Phillip for DJ-ing New Orbit this past Monday. I heard some David S. Ware and he apparently played Rova's 50 minute version of John Coltrane's Ascension. Good man.

Pop-Punk Dixon

2005-08-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

My friend Phillip will DJ New Orbit this Monday and like I wrote, he's the only one at the moment I'd trust with it. Expect to hear the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, and Steve Reid (this guy, not that guy).

I was googling Bill Dixon last night after I mentioned Paris Transatlantic's diss on his Vision Festival performance and I came across an odd, yet refreshing review for Odyssey, the 6CD box set of his solo material. Of all people to write about Dixon, I never expected one of the guys from pop-punk band J-Church to shell out the $100+ for hours of Bill's negative space free-jazz, much less any of the sort. You can read his review at the bottom of this page, and it's not a bad one. Maybe one day I'll have the money for it, but that won't happen until it's outrageously out of print and selling on eBay for twice the price.

Getting some new records in the mail from Red Toucan and a download from Leo Records soon. More on those later.

Speaking of, Leo Records is offering $4 OGG downloads of their catalog until the end of the summer. For those of us in USA not wanting to pay import prices, this is an amazing deal. True, we're missing out on the artwork, but OGG files have great sound quality. (iTunes users like myself have to decode the OGG, though. Find out how here or here.)

Sweet Dragon

2005-08-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

I may or may not host New Orbit this coming Monday (rest assure, I have a competent sub in mind), but if you're up for a good read, check out Paris Transatlantic's Vision Festival X review (though I disagree with his critique on the Bill Dixon performance). It's one of the more articulate (if a bit prude-ish) avant-garde jazz/modern composition magazines I've read, so it comes with my recommendation. I also reviewed the Vision Festival at Opus a while ago.

Here are a few recent additions to my personal collection that'll get some spins on the show:
+ Joe McPhee- Tenor & Fallen Angels (Hat Hut): Reissue of the 1976 solo release. As bloody brilliant as you'd expect it to be.
+ Rabbincal School Dropouts- Cosmic Tree (Tzadik): Yay for klezmer jazz.
+ Raz Mesinai- Resurrections for Goatskin (Tzadik): More on the modern composition side, but who else is going to play it?
+ Milford Graves/John Zorn- 50th Birthday (Tzadik): Still hasn't come in the mail.

Yeah, lots of Tzadik love, but I found a guy on eBay with a bunch of it.

Test

2005-08-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

First show of the fall semester is this Monday, August 22nd.