Friday, February 3rd, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Compressed show due to Stanford baseball -- every show in February will be that way. Finally got to air an interview with Ali Tabatabai of local troupe Nanos Operetta about their 3 Drops of Blood show.

It's been a quarterly event, and Ali and I have missed crossing paths each of the last two quarters, so you could say the interview was 6 months in the making.

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

* MTKJ Quartet -- "Attack of the Eye People" -- Day of the Race (Nine Winds, 2005)

This one's got a nice fast start, with a confusing, spiky theme. Great head-spinning jazz from an adventurous but overall accessible, even swinging, SoCal group.

The opener for this 2-CD set. Combines lots of V5 elements: the bright free-jazz feel, Vandermark's ability to overblow and squawk on sax, and abstract, spacious experimenting. Kind of a schizo piece, i love it. (And the following track is a solid straightforward swingy one, showing they can do that too.)

The obvious "hit single" track, a cover of Spinal Tap. Yeah, I played this last week as well, when we were previewing 3 Drops of Blood. Its ear-catching ability is something you can't ignore when you're trying to get folks' attention on the radio.

These guys are fantastic, by the way. Finally got a chance to sit down and listen to long sections of the CD -- they're not a schtick band, for sure. They're adept and agile on the bass clarinets (a difficult instrument, I'm told). We'll be adding this one to rotation soon.

* Hard Cell with Tim Berne -- "Brokelyn" -- Feign (Screwgun, 2005)

Still loving this one, which pairs Berne's herky-jerky composing with an acoustic piano, a novel sound for him. Great group dynamic, as you'd expect considering these guys have performed together for so long. This track starts quiet and builds into a stormy, dark, tangly space -- really cool.

* The Gift: Roy Campbell, William Hooker, Jason Hwang -- [untitled track 1; final 10 minutes] -- The Gift: Live at Sangha (Bmadish, 2005)

Played the closing section of this 60-minute improv. Not the most fiery segment but still quite intriguing, as you hear the glowing embers as things settle down... Campbell still throwing heat with his trumpet ... Hooker tossing out subtle but insistent drum rolls.

* Enrico Rava -- "Fantasm" -- Tati (ECM, 2005)

Interview with Ali Tabatabai of Nanos Operetta, part 1

Nanos Operetta -- "The Butcher" -- demo EP (self-released, 2005)

Interview with Ali Tabatabai of Nanos Operetta, part 2

Edmund Welles: The Bass Clarinet Quartet -- "Cause and Effect" -- Agrippa's 3 Books (Zeroth Law, 2005)

* Thollem McDonas -- "Ancient Futures" -- Solo Piano (Pax, 2005)

* Donald Harrison, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham -- "Harrisburg Address" -- New York Cool (Half Note, 2005)

Decent straightahead date with sax, bass, drums. I especially liked Ron Carter's bass solos on tracks like this one, full of double-stops and complex turns.

* = 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.