Friday, March 24th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Paul Motian's 75th birthday is tomorrow, so I thought I'd play lots of his stuff -- including his current CD -- and talk him up a bit. He's been through a fantastic career including sideman work for Keith Jarrett, and he's still in demand as a drummer -- even though he refuses to leave NYC! That's right, if you want him on your album, you gotta come to New York -- not that New York is an unusual stop for jazz guys, but still. It shows what kind of draw he has.

Big regret: Forgot to bring in the album where Motian played for a young Tim Berne. I got my chronology mixed up and thought we had that album in the library -- but it dates from way before KZSU was hip to avant-jazz from New York.

No, wait -- I've got a bigger regret. It's listed below.

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

# Paul Motian -- "Congestion" -- Trioism (JMT, 1993; currently available on Winter & Winter)

One difficulty with the Motian theme: As much as I enjoy his music, it's got a floaty, pleasant quality that doesn't jibe well with the spiky avant stuff I tend to prefer. Early on, I realized I'd have to prevent the Motian tracks from being like "commercials," pauses in the middle of the normal flow. (Whatever "normal" flow there is, that is.)

So, two things: 1) I spread out the Motian pieces and 2) tended to use them at the start of a set rather than the end. That way they had the benefit of what was already a break in the action -- my back-announcing -- and I could talk a bit about Paul and his music along the way. Seemed to work.

* Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Quartet -- "Human Hands" -- Duper Sessions (EMI, 2006)

Lerche is a Norweigan singer/songwriter type who's done a couple of indie rock albums with breezy/jazzy chords to the songs. Here he goes all-out jazz hipster on us, kind of like an indie Harry Connick but with more creative ideas. About half the album is solidly in the jazz camp, including this track (a very nice take on an old Elvis Costello tune); others could qualify as regular indie-pop with a jazz sheen. I liked this album a lot more than I expected, with this track and a Prefab Sprout (!) cover being particularly nice surprises. Lerche's originals, which make up the bulk of the album, aren't bad either and feature some nice athletic lyrics.

*# Paul Motian -- "Mumbo Jumbo" -- Garden of Eden (ECM, 2006)

Motian's current CD, featuring two saxophones (Chris Cheek, Tony Malaby) and three guitarists (Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, Jakob Bro), with Jerome Harris on bass and Motian on drums. It's like an extension of his Electric Bebop Band (two guitars and two saxes). The CD is full of pretty, floaty, dreamy work, lots of gentle chiming from the guitars, some sweet melodies. A nice relaxed space.

* Zimbabwe Nkenya -- "Ornience" -- Zimbabwe Nkenya and the New Jazz (High Mayhem, 2005)

Nice stuff out of New Mexico. A little more than half of the CD is a band fronted by bassist Nkenya, playing Ornette-like jazz with the occasional free breakdown or pensive improv pause. Well done, and the overtly jazzy segments get cooking. The rest of the CD are solo bass tracks, ear-catching stuff. I'm impressed. The sound fidelity is a bit lacking, but considering High Mayhem is a cool festival in the DIY mode, we should forgive them for not having the snazziest equipment at their fingertips. Hoping to hear lots more from Zimbabwe Nkenya.

* Decision Dream -- "Steamroom Variations, Part 1" [excerpt] -- Steamroom Variations (Red Toucan, 2005)

# Paul Motian Electric Bebop Band -- "We See" -- Monk and Powell (Winter & Winter, 1999)

The EBEB, as Motian likes to call it, graces traditional bebop with a light touch, despite having two saxes and two guitars in the lead line (see above). This CD was all covers of Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, this particular track being a nice bright reading of "We See."

EW leader Cornelius Boots will probably be ready to strangle me when he sees how often I played this one. It's a great way to snare listeners in, you have to admit.

Doesn't that title just make you brace yourself for a flood of Hawkwind/ELP pretentiousness? The guitar riffs in the opening kind of suggest a prog direction, but the song doesn't prog out totally, instead reverting to the horn-led modern jazz that makes up most of this CD. Good track that includes a blazing sax solo from Jason Robinson.

* Transit -- "Red Hook" -- Transit (Clean Feed, 2005)

A fierce jam that stays under control. This is a very nice jazz/improv quartet, with Seth Misterka (alto sax, played gutterally), Jeff Arnal (drums), Reuben Radding (bass), and Nate Wooley (trumpet). Glad they got a CD out; from the sound of it, they're onto something special with this group. Here's hoping they keep it going.

Baaa- HAHAHAHAHA!! That's an evil laugh, if you didn't know. Back in 1982, Sparks appeared on Saturday Night Live with two bouncy, overly poppy songs: "Mickey Mouse" and "I Predict." I was hooked, and I spent the next several years tormenting friends by insisting Sparks was good. They are! If you're not aware, the band consists mainly of Ron and Russell Mael, from L.A. Staring around 1972 they pioneered the glam-rock sound that Queen would eventually make famous (Queen once opened for them). In the late '70s, they were among the first non-disco bands to get take disco beats a la Giorgio Moroder, creating an early version of '80s synth-pop. And by 1982, they'd gone back to guitars for the sound that caught my ear. Never big in the U.S., except for the "Cool Places" single with Jane Wiedlin, they've had enough hits in Europe to be fondly remembered over there.

Imagine my delight at discovering Sparks is still around! They never stopped making records, and their 20th, Hello Young Lovers, came out just this week in the U.S. I've been reading all kinds of U.K. news about it (the U.K. release was in February, with a small tour) and had heard the first two tracks over the Web. Their current sound is more serious than in 1982, with lots of synths doing pretty good imitations of stringed instruments -- it's like pop infused with chamber music. The lyrical repetition gets a bit maddening -- maybe it just stands out more in a less pop-sounding setting -- but the creativity and sly humor are all there.

Best track on the CD is the opener, "Dick Around," which starts in operatic/chamber mode and eventually adds hard chunky guitar courtesy of Dean Menta (Faith No More (no, seriously, he's been on their last two albums)). But the FCC is *really* sensitive these days, and even an innocuous phrase like "dick around" is an unwise choice for Friday afternoon airplay. So, I settled on this one, the first single from the album. It rattles off 30 women's names and 30 perfume brands, and has a jazzy keyboard riff cutting through. A less ambitious song than "Dick Around," but so catchy that I haven't gotten it out of my head for weeks.

Best of luck to Sparks on the new release. I saw a nice stack of them in the store on Tuesday, so the interest is there.

All week long, I envisioned playing a fast-driven tenor-sax post-bop to follow up Sparks. A band with sparkly fast piano in it, too. When the time came, nothing suitable was at hand -- the combination just didn't work as well as I'd thought. What did work was this track, which opens with a hard-driven blast from the piano, sax, and drums that make up this trio. Vijay Iyer is the pianist, and I've written before about how impressed I am with him and with the two Fieldwork CDs so far.

Played this one because these guys will be in San Francisco this weekend, a rare appearance. ICP = "Instant Composers' Pool," it's a Dutch outfit that's featured some of Amsterdam's star players including Misha Mengelberg (sax) and Han Bennik (drums). The band improvises everything but grounds itself in the American jazz tradition. Lots of Dutch musicians have followed that tactic to great success (artistically; I hope they've made money on it, but this is jazz, after all). Try out Willem Breuker or the aforementioned Mengelberg and Bennik; you'll be opening yourself to an enormous catalogue of great stuff, often played with a sense of humor.

# Keith Jarrett -- "Mushi Mushi" -- Bop-Be (ABC Impulse, 1978)

To exemplify Motian's sideman work, I picked the Jarrett quartet from the late '70s: Jarrett (piano), Motian (drums), Charlie Haden (bass) and Dewey Redman (sax). Man, they cranked out some great albums back then, stuff nearly forgotten but thankfully released in box-set CD form, IIRC. Many of their tracks, like this one, are just flat-out great bebop, lots of energy, crisp rhythms. But...

John Raskin Quartet -- "Third Path to No Where" -- The Bass and the Bird Pond (New World, 1999)

Raskin, of the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, did several gigs of his own stuff in the late '90s. Awesome stuff. The one that got recorded featured Tim Berne on sax and Michael Formanek on bass -- they were visiting from New York -- and then-local drummer Elliott Kavee. I was lucky enough to see one performance, my first time seeing Tim Berne live. This CD is the other performance they did that week. Ah, well.

The music includes Raskin originals and one Berne piece ("Bloodcount"). They're all long suites with lots of energetic soloing and a tasty modern jazz feel. Well worth seeking out.

This one opens with a big, messy, attack of strings. Great way to start an album. I wrote another quick note on this one here.

* = Item in KZSU rotation
! = Pop anomaly
? = Item not in KZSU library
# = Track with Paul Motian on drums

-- Go back to Memory Select playlists.
-- Bay Area free/improv music calendar: http://www.bayimproviser.com.