Friday, August 12th, 2005 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

I usually make some remark about a CD in rotation if I've played it for the first time. This time, I had to write these notes a week after the show and didn't have time/energy for saying anything very complete -- so a couple of key CDs (Vijay Iyer, particularly) had to wait til next week for the full treatment. (The short version: Vijay's CD is great.)

Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)

* Lotz of Music -- "Cowboy Game" -- Pendant La Nuit (Loplop, 2005)

Mark Alban Lotz, a flautist who's also known for doing world music. This is definitely on the jazz side but drops some of those "world" elements like hand drumming. The CD consists of 16 snippets, most of them less than four minutes.

* Kahil El'Zabar Ritual Trio -- "Big M" -- Live at the River East Art Center

Great album, mostly casually paced jams. El'Zabar is a percussionist whose band is carrying on in that AACM tradition of great Chicago jazz, here joined by Billy Bang on violing for some extra color.

? Frank Wright -- "Groovin'" -- Uhuru Na Umoja (America, 2004; orig. released 1970)

America is a French label that released some free-jazz discs circa 1969. They've been rereleased in elegant CD softpacks with detailed liner notes -- nice stuff, although reviews have said not all the disks are gems (which may be why America's records aren't as fabled as the Charley/BYG or the ESP-Disk ones.

* ROVA::Orchestrova -- [parts 4,5,6] -- Electric Ascension (Atavistic, 2005)

* Vijay Iyer -- "Phalanx" -- Reimagining (Savoy Jazz, 2005)

F. Vattel Cherry -- "Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit" -- Is It Because I'm Black (Commercial Free, 2000)

Bassist from Philadelphia. This is a solo all-bass performance that spans the disk, nice stuff. "Commercial Free" is Vattel's own label.

Chaos Butterfly -- "Whirl of Suds" -- Threelivingthings (Magnetic, 2005)

Duo of Dina Emerson (vocals) and Jonathan Segel (violin) with both members also playing various "stuff:" electronics etc. They're appearing at next week's S.F. Electronic Music Festival.

* Scott Amendola Band -- "Oladipo" -- Believe (Cryptogramophone, 2005)

Cecil Taylor -- "Chorus of Seed" -- Dark to Themselves (Inner City, 198?)

! Ovipositor -- "Friends and Neighbors" -- Cease the Day! (Arbeit Macht Dinge, 2005)

Very cool local rock band mixing punkish guitar energy with sardonic lyrics and a thoroughly free-jazz backstory. This one's an Ornette Coleman cover, in fact.

* Blaise Siwula and Mike Khoury -- [track 8] -- Eight Duets 2002-2003 (Detroit Improvisation, 2005)

* Fred Lonberg-Holm -- "East of Uz" -- Other Valentines (Atavistic, 2005)

* Alex Cline, Koaru, Miya Masaoka, G.E. Stinson -- "Naming" -- Cloud Plate (Cryptogramophone, 2005)

* John Tchicai, Garrison Fewell, et.al. -- "Basetto" -- Big Chief Dreaming (Soul Note, 2005)

Marc Ribot -- "Body and Soul" -- Don't Blame Me (DIW, 1995)

* Ricci Rucker -- "4004" et.al. -- Fuga (Alpha Pup, 2005)

Turntable art. Rucker crafted the idea for a jazz composition via some turntabling sessions. Then he wrote it down, a real jazz composition (probably more like a suite), and got real musicians to record it, pressing the results to vinyl. Then he took those records -- his own composition, remember -- and spun those, recording the results, and that's this CD. Whew. Overall a "futuristic" feel combining airy and earnest jazz lines with occasional beats and electronics. Very worthwhile.

* Mingus Dynasty -- "Cell Block F 'tis Nazi USA" -- V/A: I Am Three (Sue Mingus Music, 2005)

Gregg Bendian -- "Titled" -- Interzone (Eremite, 1996)

This one's also been reissued by the Atavistic label, circa 2004.

* = 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.