Friday, September 16th, 2005 ... 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Fo was out of town for his Friday a.m. show, "No Cover, No Minimum," and I had hoped to come in early to sub for him. But then I took the late-evening shift yesterday, and I was too wiped out to get up early. I did manage to get to the station in time to get a little bit on the air.

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

* Big Neighborhood -- "Manic" -- Neighbors (Origin, 2005)

* 3 Quiet Men -- "Trump'n'drum'n'bass" -- Trump'n'drum'n'bass (CMC, 2005)

Wacky Italian trio: trumpet, drum, and bass, as you might infer. Quick cartoony quips full of jazz, improv, rock, and European hipness. This is one of those CDs that just came over the transom, and it was a fun discovery.

From versatile drummer Eisenstadt, a horn-packed CD that dwells on minimalist themes -- not quiet ones, but "minimalist" as in, riding a simple phrase or even one note for lengthy periods. Think Philip Glass in a freer, more energetic context. Here's the cool part: the band is four horns plus Eisenstadt on drums. No chord instruments. So, he's got the horns punching out these patterns of notes, creating one big field of music. And then the dive into some soulful free-jazzy soloing, of course. Big and bright sound, admittedly stiff at times but very nice.

* Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia -- "Alabama Song" -- Round About Weill (ECM, 2005)
Amy X. Neuburg and Men -- "Alabama Song" -- Sports! Chips! Booty! (Racer, 1999)

Two versions of the Kurt Weill classic that most scrubs (me included) know only because The Doors covered it. Both bands goof around with the song a bit. Trovesi and Coscia do a very Euro-sidewalk-cafe version with clarinet and accordion, keeping the pace light and tricky for the verses, then getting all melodramatic for the "mooooon of Alabaaaamaaaaa" part.

Neuburg and her former band are awesomely quirky, mixing avant-rock with cabaret music. Sports! is a favorite of mine. Amy and guitarist Herb Heinz were kind enough to be guests on my show once, back when I didn't notice I was misspelling her name repeatedly.

Local jazz project headed by bassist William Noertker, with compositions that launch from the '60s jazz tradition. This one's a peaceful flute-led track.

Gritty, gutty free jazz from the '60s. This put me in the mood for more of the same, so I dug up an Ornette track ... but with the top of the hour coming up, I had to find something shorter than "Doughnut," my selected target. We have to play a station ID near the top of each hour, and while I could just play the ID over the song, I try to avoid that. So:

This fit the bill nicely. Fast and manic and avant but with composing that swings a bit.

Ornette Coleman -- "Doughnut" -- Town Hall, 1962 (ESP-Disk, 1964?)

Actually played on the ZYX-Music CD release of this album. ZYX was one of a few outfits that licensed the music from ESP-Disk over the years. ESP founder Bernard Stollman is back in control of the catalogue, putting out rereleases like this one.

Large band that combines the crystalline chamber-jazz leanings of Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet with the power and bombast of, well, having a large band. This is the big energy burst of the CD. Some tracks are louder, and one in particular might be faster -- but neither are as loud and fast and forceful as this. The title track is a whole other setting -- slow, airy, comforting, a 16-minute unfolding sunrise. You'll probably see me repeat that metaphor when I play that track someday.

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

Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet with The Ojai Camerata -- "Introitus" [Part 1 of "The Alchemical Mass"] -- The Alchemical Mass (pfMentum, 2004)

Big, crashing large-ensemble piece with choir, the latest project from Kaiser's 17-piece band. I prefaced this one by reading from the review in Signal to Noise magazine, an excellent quarterly out of Vermont that covers avant-jazz as well as experimental rock and forward-thinking hip-hop. Reading the reviews on-air is something I'd like to do more of; it paints some context for listeners, which I think is particularly key for these lesser-heard kinds of musics.

* Anthony Braxton and Milo Fine -- "Part 8" -- Shadow Company (Emanem, 2005)

* Ricci Rucker -- "Tension and Release (The Journey to Fuga)" -- Fuga (Alpha Pup, 2005)

* Yuma Nora -- "Garnet Radon" -- Jewels in the Snakepit (Not Not Fun, 2005)

Avant-jazz/noise craziness. One KZSU DJ likens this track, in particular, to Sun Ra's "Kohoutek" concert.

Gregg Bendian -- "Debacle" -- Interzone (Atavistic, 2005; orig. released on (Eremite, 1996)

Vibraphone-led quartet with Nels Cline on guitar. Lots of quick-footed jazzy playing with occasional touches of Gentle Giant prog rock. We have the original CD in our library. I've put it in our "reanimation" pile due to its reissue on Atavistic. "Reanimation" is a group of archival CDs and reissues that we want to highlight for fellow DJs.

* Greg Burk Trio -- "Blink To Be" -- Nothing, Knowing (482 Music, 2005)

The Lost Trio -- "Strange" -- Remembrance of Songs Past (Evander, 1999)

Nice cover of a Mel Tillis/Fred Burch tune. This CD is an amalgam of jazz covers (Ornette, Billy Strayhorn, Monk) and country tunes like this one, done up in a light jazzy style. The trio has been a nice vehicle for Phillip Greenlief's sax playing over the years. They're still active and play around town quite frequently; it's a CD I should spin more frequently.

* Thollem/Rivera (featuring pianist Thollem McDonas) -- "Waves, Webs, Indigena" -- Everything's Going Everywhere (Edgetone, 2005)

* Enrico Rava -- "Happiness Is To Win a Big Prize in Cash" -- (Cam Jazz, 2005)

Happy, poppy, very '50s-sounding piece. It's characteristic of this CD. From what I've heard, Rava's more recent career has been focusing on his old jazz influences, as opposed to some of the spacier, more expansive work he tried on his old ECM records. It could be that I'm not remembering his old (or new) stuff in enough detail, though.

A real treat from my early days at KZSU (these shows the past couple of days are really pulling at that theme). The CO2 is a modern big band, very accessible stuff but with members unafraid of the occasional free improv or wild solo. Based in Austin, TX, they're the kind of DIY group that gets to record only rarely and tours even more rarely. One such occasion came in 1998, and I was lucky enough to catch them at Beanbender's in Berkeley. Marvelous stuff.

This particular track is a nice suite: celestial spoken-word above floaty abstract improv; fast swingy straight jazz; and a mellow, flowing groove, with Marsh singing a calming, wordless melody. Really nice stuff. The principal CO2 organizers seem to have moved on to other things -- it's tough to organize, rehearse, and record a fundless big band, after all -- but they've left behind a couple of wonderful CDs.

Some rock to lead into the sports broadcast. I might start doing this regularly; it's fun. This CD, by the way, is actually a two-man affair, with songs written by Lee and Ben Mink, a multi-instrumentalist who's played violin on some of Rush's albums.

* = 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.