Friday, February 17th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Full-length show, as Stanford baseball got rained out.

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

* On Ensemble -- "Zeecha" -- Dust and Sand (self-released, 2005)

Upbeat track from this local group, this time matching taiko drums with turntable percussion. Really cool. I'd love to see these guys live, although they've got so many guest instruments on the CD (Tuvan throat singing, thumb pianos, flutes, the turntablist) that I wouldn't know what to expect.

* Alex Von Schlippenbach, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Tony Bianco -- "Leviathan" [excerpt] -- Vesuvius (Slam, 2005)

Had I known I would have the full three hours, I might have devoted a slab to one of the two half-hour tracks that make up this CD. It's really great quartet improvisation, led by Von Schippenbach's sax and featuring sublime drumming from Bianco. I've been playing excerpts quite often -- alas, I didn't open e-mail in time to see that the baseball game was officially rained out. On the other hand, this will give me time to play a long Larry Ochs track that I'd previously thought I didn't have time for ...

Yes! Another album from the aggressive Italian "jazz" group Zu, this time with saxophonist Gustafsson, who in the '90s was associated with punkish free-jazz playing (and still kind of is, although he can also do artsier, slower stuff -- like his duo album with David Stackenas, which I've been playing quite a bit.) Zu are a treat, fast and explosive, although this track is more slow/loud/aggressive/evil sounding. They did a CD with Eugene Chadbourne a few years ago, called "Zu Side of the Chadbourne," with song titles like "Stairway to Chadbourne" and "Porgy and Chadbourne" and "For Those About to Chadbourne." Gotta love that.

Rent Romus Life's Blood Trio -- "U R the 1" -- Blood Motions (Edgetone, 2001)

Aggressive, bright free-jazz from one of Rent's multiple bands over the years. Lately he's been more into improv/noise stuff with bands like The Abstractions.

Rent and four other artists -- Emily Hay (Los Angeles), Robert Montoya (San Diego), Marcos Fernandez (SD), and Ernesto Diaz-Infante (SF) are gathering on Thursday Feb. 23 to celebrate the release of hay & Fernandez's latest CD on Pax. So, I figured I'd spin some related tracks for this particular set ...

Jumbly piano improv, not really ambient and certainly not new age. One facet of Ernesto's musical diaspora.

Cool CD from flutist/vocalist Hay, collecting tracks from the past several years. Some are abstract improvs; a few, like this one, include beats; one or two are outright rock songs. This track reminds me a lot of Amy X. Neuburg: Ghostly female voice saying "What about" over percussion, followed by an athletic jam on flute.

* Andrew Bishop -- "Fragments in Imaginary Time" -- Time and Imaginary Time (Envoi, 2005)

*! Arthur H. -- "Ma Sorciere Bleue" -- Adieu Tristesse (Polydor, 2005)

I'm not familiar with Arthur H. but fellow DJ Decca is all ga-ga over him, which tells me he must be good. He's kind of a French Tom Waits, especially on this track with its hip/avant '50s-cool feel. Other tracks include jumpier jazz influences and an operatic tangoesque piece.

With a title like that, I had to play this song eventually. A drunken horn theme leads into some midtempo soloing; the middle gets slower, with loose wandering. Cress (sax) and Aaron Novik (clarinetist who wrote this one) are creating some of the most interesting and ear-catching jazz around, with occasional free touches and lots of Klezmer influence. Novik's band Gubbish has an album that's a real treat; we need to get a copy here at the station.

Consisting of Ochs (the "O" in ROVA Sax Quartet with drummers Scott Amendola and Donald Robinson. Nice energetic stuff, apparently not 100% improvised although it's got a loose free-jazz sound. The bright neon yellow cover is appropriate for tracks like this one that are just plain joyous in their attack. It's one of those bands that's hard to convene because everyone involved has careers going, but they managed to get quite a few gigs under their belt. Anyway, Ochs and Robinson are playing as a duet at Cafe Royale in SF on Monday, a rare enough occurance that it was a great excuse to trot out this CD.

Acoustic guitar, accordion, and theremin. How can you resist that combo? Instrumental tracks witha European old-world-folk flavor. Nice stuff, kicking off an accessible three-song set.

Blood is back! A much "tougher" track than the Madagascar, but its quick-hit intro made for a good segue. This one's a low-key blues/rock instrumental with a fast, solid beat.

If I've got the story right, this trio recorded an album called Odyssey way back when and recently convened in the studio for the sequel. Not quite what I expected -- you've got a couple of hard-digging blues tracks, but most of the CD consists of one-chord jams that highlight Blood's guitar backed with Charles Burnham's scratchy violin sounds, creating a great, rootsy, down-home kind of mix. (Warren Benbow on drums rounds out the band.) The musical themes are really surprising to me, getting into folky/country vibes, country-fied funk, and even outright Celtic! Great stuff. I need to learn a lot more about James "Blood" Ulmer.

Great song, dopey title. Minus the title line, the chorus really says something to me, and we'll leave it at that.

* The Vandermark 5 -- "Pieces of the Past" -- The Color of Memory (Atavistic, 2005)

What this band does so well: A fairly straight jazz walk, but with Ken Vandermark's solo swooping and diving into all sorts of free jazz skronking.

* Garage a Trois -- "Bear No Hair" -- Outre Mer (Telarc, 2005)

* E.C.F.A. Quartet -- "Swaps" -- Die Mitte Aus Der Welt (Lenka Lente, 2005)

A chamber-like piece with two saxes and viola, starting off in prim chamber-jazz themes and getting into some crazy group improv. The serious side of the group; leader Carl Smith also goes for some bright jazz sounds that I've played before.

* = 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.