Friday, June 9, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Coming off a trip to Chicago this week, the busiest week of work for my company. Times like this, it's great to have the show to do on Fridays, a really nice way to wind down after a tough week and just enjoy some great music. (It's also a nice time to stick to the CDs in rotation -- because they're easier to get to -- and play some really long tracks.)

While in Chicago, I managed to catch Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, a nine-piece band that plays breakneck modern-bop charts and throws in generous doses of wild abandon in the form of free group improv. Great, great stuff. They've been around for years, playing only occasionally, and hadn't convened in at least a year. (Mazurek, famed for the Chicago Underground Duo/Trio/etc., apparently spent time in South America -?) It was tough to get to, being well off the El-train lines northwest of the Miracle Mile area where we were staying, but well worth it.

The few times I've been to Chicago have all been great fun, even when the Cubs aren't in town, and they've got some fantastic jazz ideas happening out there. More on this below, including a summary (for those who haven't read it before) of the whole Velvet Lounge situation.

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

* Assif Tsahar, Cooper-Moore, Hamid Drake -- "A Falling Leaf" -- Lost Brother (Hopscotch, 2005)

Previously noted here; this piece is a particularly catchy percussive bit.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here. This particular track shows off both the funkiness and the Euro sense of humor that pervade Dubuis' stuff -- it's got a bass clarinet playing the bass notes for the theme (we're talking bass bass notes), then gets into some brightly funky guitar work. Probably loads of fun live.

Poetry and piano; previously noted here. This track is an interesting musing on New York City, in the words of a "homeless (sha)man:" "NY is my nightmare, my dream / It is what is beneath the tracks."

Previously noted here. Abstract improv with a quiet demeanor but an ambitious, soaring feel.

I was lining up the next set of music (which was to include the Charlie Hunter and Virginia Mayhew tracks) and somehow decided I should detour into the abstract stuff now, before it was too... too... oh, I don't know. There's a part of me that wants the show to shift gears as much as possible, even though it's useful to play blocks of a particular mood/subgenre.

Another dose of improv, this time with a noisier group and a more dry, brisk sound. Forgot that this track drops off into near-silence for a couple of minutes, but -- ah, hopefully it still worked on radio. Previously noted here.

Nice set of duets, with Carter on various lead horns (sax, trumpet, clarinet, flute) and Padmanabha on percussion, also adding live loops and on one track, a vocal chant. This particular track is a tumbling sax/drums free-jazz excursion, just 3 minutes long but quite satisfying. Most of the rest of the album goes for darkly ethereal wanderings and quasi-droning spaces, some really nice atmosphere. The centerpiece is a 20-minute tracks that uses loops to create a kind of tribal chant, overlaid by warmly jazzy sax.

* Stochelo Rosenberg -- "I Wish" -- Ready 'n Able (Iris, 2005

Really fast gypsy jazz guitar played by Rosenberg and his brother, Moses. I mean, really fast. Or maybe I just haven't heard gypsy guitar in a while. Anyway, I was impressed. This particular tune is a Stevie Wonder cover, although to uneducated ears (like mine) it comes across as "random Django Reinhardt-type-thing played quite well."

Interesting album. Just 10 tracks -- normal length -- but it's like three albums in one. Three tracks feature Parker on solo bass. Three more have him playing solo doson ngoni, a guitar-like instrument (based on the sound). And four tracks are performed by The Olmec Group, a merengue band with Parker on six-string doson ngoni and Dave Sewelson and Isaiah Parker tearing it up on sax. Those Olmec tracks have a traditional Mexican sound ... "El Puente Seco" is one such, and includes some blazing, furious, free-jazz sax soloing. Cool mix of "world" music and free jazz.

Fun and funky, with a swampier sound than Hunter used to have; previously noted here. This track closes the album in relatively subdued fashion. It's a Monk cover, which I thought set up a cute parallel with the next track.

Sharp, snappy, funk version of a Monk classic. More about the CD here.

I spent the past week in Chicago and finally got the privilege of visiting Jazz Record Mart, just off the Miracle Mile shopping district downtown. Wow! Great store filled with jazz and blues -- much of it vinyl; my co-worker Ray, who had been there before, told me to take note of the smell of the place, that wonderful scent that comes from stacks of vinyl lining the shelves. Wait -- why am I calling this a "privilege?" If I lived near Chicago, these people would be taking all my money on a regular basis!

Wonderful place, though, and while I didn't have time to dig deeply through the stacks, I did manage to grab a few titles I hadn't seen before from Chicago locals. Among them, Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, a band that bases its music on the struggle against oppresion, autoritarianism, corporate control, etc. I knew about this CD, from Delmark, but didn't realize they'd put out a few others on Naim, in the U.K. I grabbed one of these -- great disc called Vs. the Forces of Evil -- and was very much impressed. (Didn't realize Rob Mazurek had been with the band back in 2000.)

Anyway, that got me thinking about giving Breeding Resistance a spin today, because I'd been very impressed with that disk, too. "Axe," which has an accent on the "e," means something like "spiritual power" in Yoruba, the language (and people) of a part of West Africa.

I'd toyed with the idea of doing an all-Chicago set or hour, but I figured I play tons of Chicago stuff during the normal course of the show. Labels like Atavistic, Delmark, 482 Music, and Okka Disk, among others, have done a great job documenting some of the really exciting music going on out there.

Previously noted here. This is the centerpiece track, 11 minutes long, with great out-there soloing by both Pope and Michael Brecker.

Another great session from the 70-something saxophonist Anderson, this time in trio format. Four tracks, each about 12-15 minutes, showcasing some fine soloing with deep roots in the tradition.

This track ties in to the Chicago theme, too. Not only is Anderson a big part of the scene there, but he also runs a club, the Velvet Lounge, that's home to some great jazz sessions. That includes free jazz and improv; richly African-styled AACM jazz; and even straight bop, but with an energy and verve you won't find in the more well known clubs.

Alas, the Velvet Lounge is in a South Side neighborhood that's gentrifying (signs for $400,000 condos were up during my walk on South Michigan this week), and its location was demolished. They've secured a spot in a new building being put up, but it's a higher rent overhead, and the moving costs have been steep -- check out the Web page for details and cross your fingers for a 2006-7 return to form for the Velvet.

Joe Henderson -- "Gazelle" -- In Pursuit of Blackness (Milestone, 1971)

Ronnie Foster -- "Kentucky Fried Chicken" -- Two-Headed Freap (Blue Note, 1972)

Funky stuff from Foster, an organ player hailing from Buffalo, N.Y. It's got a great summertime jam feel, a glint of sunny days in People's Park, maybe. (Except that he's from Buffalo, but we can ignore that.)

This is the only LP we've got from Foster, who had a brief and forgotten career with Blue Note during the end of his first life. Like all my great finds at the station, this one happened when I went scanning through the stacks looking for something I hadn't heard of before. All About Jazz has a great summary of his career, where they note that Cheshire Cat, a hard-to-find gem from 1975, is the album to get.

It always feels good to find stuff like this -- both to enrich my own education and to spread to listeners. That's the kind of thing music radio should be for.

Hey, where was this one when I first scanned these tracks? It's got a nicely "outside" feel, the tumbling group-interaction stuff that sneaks some untethered adventure into mainstream jazz. I mean, I know Frisell's got that kind of stuff in him; I just hadn't discovered this track before and had concentrated on the straight-jazz pieces. Previously noted here.

Written by Nels Cline, a nice modern-bop piece. Nels flashes his jazz chops here, tossing out a bebop solo with some avant-jazz angles, great stuff. More details here, if I ever get that playlist typed out.

Trio improvisations, mostly subdued (at least that's my impression after a cursory listen), with bass and drums, and Ullmann on bass clarinet and bass flute, the latter contributing to a quiet aesthetic. Three good, well known players here. Ullmann works on a number of fronts, with the Clarinet Trio and the Conference Call quartet.

Prevously noted here.

Chamber music meets indie-rock; these are pieces with classical instruments (violin mainly) but with drums and bass that set up a post-rock instrumental environment. Added a melodic touch to an otherwise improv-focused set (Ullmann, Belogenis, Clogs, Carrier).

Previously noted here; this 6-minute track is the radio-friendly "hit single" amid the session's other 30-minute pieces. Quite good group work, led by Carrier on sax with Mat Maneri on viola.

Previously noted here. Left this one running as a lead-in to the Voice of Doom, a longtime KZSU DJ who's been one of my mentors at the station. He was doing a one-time guest spot after my show, and he kicked it off with some Balinese music, overlapping it with the jazzy trio improvs of Paraphrase, very cool.

* = 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.