Friday, November 11th, 2005 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Flew back this morning, early. Woke up at 5:00 a.m. to make the flight. Before that, woke up at 2:30 a.m. for no apparent reason, so I got even less sleep than I'd bargained for. Always makes for a fun show.

Did some show promos as usual, playing some of the artists who'll be performing live locally... but forgot one: the really cool rock/punk/avant band Ovipositor at the Hotel Utah on Tues., Nov. 15, 2005. If you're reading this before that date, considering seeing them -- here's a writeup to whet your appetite.

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

* Enrico Rava -- "Recuerdos" -- Full of Life (CamJazz, 2005)

Soft and mostly '50s-sounding jazz from trumpeter Rava, who made his name with a set of ECM-label records back in the '70s. There's a better track on here, "Mystere," that I'd been meaning to play. It's the closest thing here to the spacy/mellow sound Rava got with ECM, a slow evil-circus-like piece. Ah, someday.

So... I pulled this CD to play, because it's on its last week in rotation (and it's cool). And I'd decided to play the "3 Quiet Men" CD, below, early in the show. Both have trumpets -- in fact, Harris' band here has three of them, plus one sax/clarinet player and Harris on drums. And Enrico Rava, above, plays trumpet. So I decided I'd make it a trumpet sweep for these first tracks, and went to the library in search of local trumpet guy Tom Djll. Oh the wacky games we DJs play.

Improv with Djll on trumpet and Myles Boisen on guitar.

Thus ending the trumpet theme.

One thing about doing a show while fatigued -- it's really tempting to cling to the long tracks and zombie-walk my way through the program. Picking up this CD, the 12- and 16-minute pieces were looking sweet. But I've got a lot of music to get through this week, making up for the truncated shows I've had lately, so I resisted. Plus, this is one of the faster, more ear-catching tracks on this disk -- at this particular moment, I was looking to keep the energy level up and needed something dramatic and punchy. Score one for the home team.

Lots of different sounds on this CD, as you'd expect from a soundtrack album. The movie takes place in Guatemala, so you get some of the native musics here ... also some sound/noise tracks and incidental music. This particular track features lots of E#'s guitar with some nice hammer-on segments -- relatively low-key but with a nice energy.

I've commented on this piano trio before -- stark, fast, hammering stuff informed by dance electronica (even though they're an acoustic trio.) It occurs to me that they play jazz clubs in NYC. I'd love to see the crowd reaction, the stockbroker yuppies who expect "jazz" and hear this stuff instead. Hopefully they love it, but there's humor value if they don't. Anyway, these guys are awesome and fairly accessible -- go see them, if you're lucky enough to have 'em in your town.

Taken from the High Zero festival of 2001, which took place just a few days after 9/11. Brr. High Zero is awesome, a festival of abstract improv where the organizers put musicians in groupings that have never played together before. Lots of out-of-town guests in the mix. I attended in 2000 and had a fantastic time.

Recorded, the label, is putting out CDs of High Zero sessions -- this one featuring Hernandez (violin, voice) in various groupings. Speaking of "long awaited," this one has languished in our "to do" pile for ages; many apologies to the Recorded folks for the delay in getting it on-air.

Strange electroacoustic improv. This is the opening track, featuring a recurring sample of reeds and strings in a somber melody, interspersed with glitch noise, static, samples, etc. Nice stuff, and the reed/string passage, which keeps fading back in, provides some continuity.

* Steve Lehman -- "Demian" -- Demian as Posthuman (Pi Recordings, 2005)

Very interesting and different stuff. Lehman is the saxophonist in Fieldwork (see above) and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, who's on most tracks here, is now the Fieldwork drummer, so there's some similarity to that sound. This CD is mostly short snippets of the two playing together, with Lehman adding various sequencer sounds (usually synthesizer-like tones). It's fairly funky stuff, usually spun in long free-fall tumbling grooves, cascades of notes in a complex logic that reminds me of Steve Coleman.

* Jenny Scheinman -- "The Frog Threw His Head Back and Laughed" -- 12 Songs (Cryptogramophone, 2005)

* Homler Liebig Duo -- "Sidpaho" -- Kelpland Serenades (pfMentum, 2005)

Anna Homler on weird vocals, often electronically treated, and Steuart Liebig on contrabass guitar. Strange, abstract, moody, atmospheric. Liebig has had so many very different projects on pfMentum: a set of chamber-jazz pieces (Pomegranate), a rock project recalling the dusty ghost-town sounds of Stan Ridgway (Locustland), and this. Among others.

* Tryptych Myth -- "A Time To" -- The Beautiful (AUM Fidelity, 2005)

Cooper-Moore (piano), Tom Abbs (bass), Chad Taylor (drums) ... they recorded a CD under just their names, entitled "Tryptych Myth," a couple years back on (Hopscotch, and they've apparently decided they'll be a regular band. Cool. All three have played in abstract, edgy contexts, but here they're emphasizing their jazz roots. Cooper-Moore is the lead voice, often taking casual jazz strolls on the piano, but not afraid to cut loose into hammering pachinko cascades of notes once in a while. Some very pretty stuff on this CD, and it's got a casual back-porch feel, for those of you who keep pianos on your back porch.

Gutbucket -- "Its" -- Insomniac's Dream (Knitting Factory, 2001)

These guys rule, a quartet led by sax and guitar that plays complex, slashing jazz with punk energy but pinpoint precision. Unison lines are just insane with these guys -- tight-locked and perfect. This CD, from four years ago, has trouble capturing that energy, as it's mostly got midtempo pieces. This track is close to their current live sound, though. Anyway, they're playing in San Francisco next week, so I wanted to get them on the air. Great band.

* David Liebman/Ellery Eskelin -- "The Gun Wars" -- Different but the Same (Hatology, 2005)

I've played this one before, and I'll say this part again: I love the way this track shows off Jim Black's high-powered drumming.

*! Minotaur Shock -- "Original Savannah" -- Vigo Bay (4AD, 2005)

* Bjork -- "Ambergris March" -- Music from Drawing Restraint 9 (One Little Indian, 2005)

* Elliott Sharp and Frances-Marie Uitti -- "Mr. TC" -- Hallelujah, Anyway (Tzadik, 1999)

The only track in the library we have of Uitti, who's known for a two-bow cello technique she has pioneered. Played this one because Uitti, Fred Frith, and others will perform tomorrow (12 November 2005) at Mills College in a centennial tribute to modern-classical composer Giacinto Scelsi.

Sort of a local supergroup doing instrumental rock with a chamber-jazz feel. It's a band of strings, but it really can rock, and Devin Hoff (bass) has written some nice pieces here. I was lucky enough to see their first live performance, and I hope it's not the last... but everyone in the group is so busy. Ches Smith (drums) is Hoff's partner in the duo Good for Cows. Carla Kihlstedt (violin) has a busy career of her own, in bands including Tin Hat Trio and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and her own stuff as 2 Foot Yard. Marika Hughes (cello) is in that band and also sings for Jewlia Eisenberg's Charming Hostess. Whew. It would be awesome, though, if the planets and the schedules aligned to let them play more shows, or at least record more.

* Either/Orchestra -- "Amlak Abet Abet" -- Live in Addis [Ethiopiques volume 20] (Buda Musique, 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.