Friday, January 9th, 2005 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM
Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)
The Beth Lisick Ordeal -- "Nancy Druid" -- Pass (DuNord, 1998)
A fave CD from my early days at KZSU, pitting Lisick's poetry
atop a jazzy band including members of Eskimo and bassist George Cremaschi.
Lisick has a new book of stories from her Bay Area upbringing,
Everybody into the Pool, and she's on the cover of
this week's Metro in San Jose.
Tim Berne -- "Huevos" -- Science Friction (Screwgun, 2002)
Tim Berne (alto sax) had already collaborated with Craig Taborn
(electric piano) on The Shell Game, but this track and this album
had a different sound to my ears -- bubblier, I guess. Good catchy stuff
for radio.
* Blaise Siwula and Mike Khoury -- [untitled track 2] -- Eight Duets 2002-2003 (Detroit Improvisation, 2005)
Active sax-violin duets. Siwula is an overlooked guy from the NYC
free-jazz universe; Khoury lives near Ann Arbor, Mich., and keeps the
out-jazz spirit alive there through his own playing and his record label,
Entropy Stereo.
* Mark Dresser/Denman Mahoney -- "Pulse Field" -- Time Changes (Cryptogramophone, 2005)
A quartet album led by Dresser's bass and Mahoney's "Hyperpiano,"
referring to piano augmented by metal bowls and other objects scraped
against the strings for a slide-guitar kind of effect.
* Marc Ribot -- "Truth Is Marching In" -- Spiritual Unity (Pi Recordings, 2005)
* Joelle Leandre and India Cooke -- "Firedance 2" -- Firedance (Red Toucan, 2005)
Very good, often athletic improvs of bass and violin. Yes, the CD
has its quiet/abstract moments, but overall the session sparkles with
"unabashed joy," as fellow KZSU DJ Ben puts it. Great stuff.
* Ensemble En Pieces -- "Short Story" -- Jardin D'exil (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2005)
* Ellis Marsalis -- "Orchid Blue" -- Ruminations in New York (ESP-Disk, 2005)
Another comforting, reflective piece from this disk of solo piano originals.
-- 4:00 p.m. --
* Scott Amendola Band -- "Valentine" -- Believe (Cryptogramophone, 2005)
Great track with some killer violin soloing by Jenny Scheinman.
* John Surman -- "Way Back When" part 1 -- Way Back When (Cuneiform, 2005; recorded 1969)
Archival stuff from Surman, who's most famous for his work on the
ECM record label. This has the same gentle-yet-adventurous feel, with some
very 1969 touches like the electric piano. Call it his psychedelic genesis.
* Roger Smith and Louis Moholo-Moholo -- "Events That Rhyme" -- The Butterfly and the Bee (Emanem, 2005)
* Kneebody -- "Never Remember" -- Kneebody (Greenleaf, 2005)
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic -- "Birdhead" -- Petrophonics (Cuneiform, 2000)
* Rouge Ciel -- "L'occupation" -- Veuillez Proceder (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2005)
The prog-rock set, sort of, triggered by the fact that the Kneebody
track has its prog moments and the entire Rouge Ciel CD has a proggy feel.
That Kneebody track is a keeper, an aggressive/playful/versatile bundle of
happiness that shines on an already excellent album. Kneebody does a great
job melding rock, funk, and dance electronics into a modern, irreverent
jazzy idiom.
* Wayne Shorter -- "Speak No Evil" -- Footprints: The Life and Music of Wayne Shorter (Columbia Legacy, 2004; recorded 1964)
Gotta play the classics now and again. This is a nice 2-CD collection
but about half of it is dedicated to Wayne's fusion and Weather Report stuff
-- understandable, since that's part of the life of Wayne Shorter.
-- 5:00 p.m. --
* Tim Brady -- "Playing Guitar: Symphony #1 -- Movement 3.1: A Really Big Guitar" -- Playing Guitar: Symphony #1 (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2005)
New Classical music created with guitar and sampler. This track is
a sampler solo, actually. Sparkly futuristic waves of noise.
* Assif Tsahar and the New York Underground Orchestra -- "Eleventh" -- Fragments (Hopscotch, 2005)
* Natto Quartet -- "Kinpira" -- Thousand Oaks (482 Music, 2005)
A relatively busy track on an album of thoughtful, often placid,
abstract improv. Philip Gelb (shakuhachi -- Japanese wooden flute), Shoko
Hikage (koto -- Japanese stringed instrument), Chris Brown (piano), and
Tim Perkis (computerized electronics, for a modern touch).
* John Zorn -- "Rituals" part 5 -- Rituals (Tzadik, 2005)
From Zorn's modern-classical bag, a sparse and engaging piece that
includes soprano vocals and a variety of chamber instruments.
* Drew Gress -- "Low Slung/High Strung" -- 7 Black Butterflies (Premonition, 2005)
* Grachan Moncur III Octet -- "New Africa" -- Exploration (Capri, 2005)
Nice suite in a very '60s vein, with gentle horn lines.
* Anthony Braxton and Matt Bauder -- "Composition No. 324b" [excerpt] -- 2 + 2 Compositions (482 Music, 2005)
Relatively sparse and relaxed. I ended up playing more than half of
this 20-minute track. I'd intended to let it go for maybe 5 minutes, then
switch to something else to close out the show, but I got caught up in the
vibe and didn't want to break it.
* = Item in KZSU rotation
! = Pop anomaly
? = Item not in KZSU library
-- Go back to Memory Select playlists.
-- Bay Area free/improv music calendar: http://www.bayimproviser.com.