Friday, November 11th, 2005 ... 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Delayed start, pre-empted by one of three broadcasts of the Dalai Lama's visit to Stanford. He gave a talk this morning and a moderated Q&A session this afternoon on nonviolence, and he's part of a day-long program on Saturday called "Craving, Suffering and Choice: Spiritual and Scientific Explorations of Human Experience," that convenes Buddhist scholars, Stanford neuroscientists, and His Holiness.

Very interesting man, the Dalai Lama. A would-be engineer and fan of technology who believes in a link between modern physics and spirituality. He's also an animated man with a sense of humor -- cracking a joke about falling asleep during meditation, for example.

For the Q&A program, his answers about nonviolence included concessions that violence is sometimes necessary and can have good outcomes, but with the price of lingering, seething resentment that can lead to more violence. Not a clear-cut answer, a refreshing contrast to a media desperate to distill issues into two-sided arguments -- a practice that makes for shallow and inaccurate debate.

In a separate dimension ..... played some Guy Klucevsek, an accordionist with feet in polka, avant-garde, classical, and jazz territories (figuratively; he doesn't have four feet). He's on the bill for tonight's "Three Drops of Blood," a quarterly program combining new music with dance/performance, bringing in different guest artists each time. The series is hosted by the Nanos Operetta, and details are on their Web site: www.nanosoperetta.com.

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

* Ben Monder -- "Still Motion" -- Oceana (Sunnyside, 2005)

Really cool guitar work, some solo (like this track) but mostly with bass and drums. Monder plays a tangly, fluid jazz guitar that's gorgeous and often too complex to really follow, at least for my snail's-pace ears. This track is acoustic solo, for that John Fahey feel, but the rest are on electric. Accessible stuff, but for a real head trip, check out his old CD Flux, on Songlines, a trio session of depth and sophistication where Monder tosses out all kinds of crazy (to my ears anyway) chords. Like a swirling, dreamy trip through space.

What a great document, part of Buda's excellent "Ethiopiques" series documenting modern Ethiopian music. E/O is a Boston-based band that's stuck around for a couple decades now, with long breaks here and there because it's so tough to keep a large group together. Well, they got a chance to travel to Ethiopia and play some shows with local musicians sitting in -- and this 2-CD set shows the results.

The tracks are all Ethiopian songs, some with vocals added, arranged by E/O. The results are surprisingly similar to Latin jazz (maybe not that surprising, as E/O has a streak of Latin in their music anyway).

Guy Klucevsek -- "Disinformation Polka" [Fred Frith, composer] -- Transylvanian Softwear (John Marks Records, 1994)

Fun composition by Fred Frith, almost a traditional polka but filled with stops (false starts, actually) and sporadic shouts of "Hey!" Wouldn't surprise me if the "Hey"s were written into the composition, dictating when they're said. (Given Frith's penchant for uncertainty/randomness, it also wouldn't surprise me if they weren't.) An example of Guy's solo accordion style and of his sense of humor.

It's a shame, but most of our Klucevsek CDs are from this '90s period. We do have, for example, his strings CD on Tzadik, but most of his recent stuff was put out on Winter & Winter, a really cool German label that doesn't send us radio promos. (Stefan! If you're reading, I'm a big fan from the old JMT days! Tim Berne's Paris Concert is the whole reason I got into this! Help us, please!)

* Fieldwork -- "Telematic" -- Simulated Progress (Pi Recordings, 2005)

* Dave Douglas -- "Just Another Murder" -- Keystone (Greenleaf, 2005)

* Greg Burk Trio -- "Borneo Dreaming" -- Nothing, Knowing (482 Music, 2005)

* Positive Knowledge with Ike Levin -- "Crisis to Victory" -- First Ones (Charles Lester Music, 2005)

Local free jazz, spontaneously created, with a feel of spiritual ecstacy (or of thoughtful meditation, for the slower pieces). Oluyemi Thomas (bass clarinet, reeds, percussion), Ijeoma Thomas (poetry and/or wordless vocals, percussion), Spirit (drums), with Ike Levin on sax for this session. The music has a wonderfully rough feel that hasn't fit in the last couple week's shows too well, so I feel like I haven't given this one its due during its three weeks in rotation. Will try to get it on the air more.

* Joe Giardullo -- "No Work Today" -- No Work Today (Drimala, 2005)

* Michael Musillami Trio -- "Archives" -- Dachau (Playscape, 2005)

* = 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.