Friday, September 29th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

I've gone back to adding links to artists' names. I'd tried this last year and stopped because I thought it made the page look funny. For whatever reason, I've decided that's not the case any more. Plus, it's not like I'm shooting for any Web design awards here.

I'm still trying to find a good routine for typing up these notes, as it takes a surprising 60-90 minutes. Doing it during the show didn't work, even with the 10- to 20-minute spaces that I'd get during songs. (One problem: We get a lot of business-related phone calls on Fridays, and I'm usually the only one available to take them.) New idea: Putting up a skeleton during the show, and fleshing out the annotations over the weekend. So, in the bizarre event that someone is actually looking up these pages during or right after each show -- the notes will take a day or two to appear. Sorry for the wait! Feel free to e-mail me if you're looking for the title of a particular track you heard : ctm at sonic dot net.

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

* Paul Flaherty -- "Compassion Lost and Found" -- Whirl of Nothingness (Family Vineyard, 2006)

Solo saxophone from the old fireballer. This CD comes from a contemplative, even mournful space, but it's still packed with passion and lots of the aggressive, tangly playing Flaherty is known for.

Great piano-trio session from the late, lamented L.A.-based pianist. "Dark Tree" was also the title track to a colossal two-CD set of Tapscott's on Hatology; great stuff, although I can't play all 20 minutes every show, the way I did here! Tapscott is one of those players who successfully straddled traditional jazz and freer styles, and it's been said that his career might have been bigger had he not opted to remain in Southern California, where he did a lot of community work. (The Web site linked to his name, above, also suggests outspoken social criticism helped shut him out from the music business.) The kind of musician who deserves to be remembered.

Calm flute-led piece. I've meant to play this track a couple of times now but opted for a different track each time, so "Alap" finally gets its say. CD previously noted here.

Previously noted here. Played the first five minutes, which feature low growls from Gratkowski's bass clarinet.

By request, from my buddy Robert in the heart of the Navajo Nation out in Arizona. He's actually a buddy of Your Imaginary Friend, and he tunes into my show once in a while and calls up to talk free jazz. I faded the previous track at a slow, quiet juncture, which made a nice segue into the easy bass riffs that open this one. The track does groove, but in a light, restrained way, closing out the album. Fine stuff.

Ken Vandermark's project of one sax plus two drummers. Larry Ochs of ROVA has tried the same permutation with his Drummercore project, but this is more directly jazz-oriented. This is the second SIA disc, as far as I know, and presents some solid free jazz. I didn't notice the lack of other instruments at first, although that might be a sign that I just wasn't paying enough attention.

* Al Margolis/Bwana If -- "Cicada #5: Version Bohman" -- Rex Xhu Ping (Pogus Productions, 2006)

Strange disc full of different sound experiments. Some are done with actual, you know, instruments... this one, OTOH, uses cut up spoken-word tape of Andrew Bohman (insert unknowing shrug here), in a low-key monologue backed by a continuous low drone (probably his voice distorted) and occasional backwards-run snippets. Creates a dark, lurking atmosphere that was a great lead-in to the Choir Boys track.

Probably the jazziest of the tracks on this dark, electronics-rich improv session, opening with trumpet and clarinets over electronic chiming at gets increasingly harsh. More info here.

Singer/songwriter type, produced by Tucker Martine; our DJ the Baud Of Euphony describes her as a moodier Laura Viers. Some upbeat folky tracks adorn the CD but I went with this one, the gentle and floaty closer, as an outro to the spacey madness of Choir Boys.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here. This track, a tribute to fallen brother Malachi Favors, starts with some upbeat horn lines and eventually lands in that AEC all-percussion territory before seguing into "The J Song." I used this as the start of what would be the "funky" set of the show.

Great one-off improv session with four of downtown NYC's greats. There's a trace of funk to the whole thing, to my ears anyway -- hardly a surprise given Previte's rock-oriented projects (Latin for Travelers, e.g.) and E#'s penchant for tribal rhythms.

This is where the set really started delivering the funk. These guys are a straight pop-jazz outfit doing catchy, funky stuff -- and showing enough chops that I was compelled to put them in rotation. Strangely, the CD's gone mostly unnoticed by our DJs -- too bad, because there's some fun stuff on here. (Also, admittedly, some stuff that smacks of TV commercials or the background filler of the modern "music-comes-second" MTV). A couple of tracks add rap with results that aren't as embarrassing as usual. (I've discussed that with M-Smooth, our hip-hop director: Projects that mix hip-hop and jazz seem to always take the worst elements of both sides to come up with something unbearably cheesy. It's stunning how unsuccessful that mix can be.)

* Chicago Afrobeat Project -- "Talking Bush" -- Chicago Afrobeat Project (self-released, 2005)

Exactly what you'd think: a project of hard, funky grooves with plenty of dance energy and packed with "world" music elements. Fun, fun stuff. A proud ending to the funky set.

Another archival gem in the Unheard series. This one features a large group doing surprisingly accessible work. "Alarm" starts with unison blares from the horns, like, you know, an alarm. Then it dives into a brilliant piano attack from Alex Von Schlippenbach. It's a long piece with lots of the usual free-improv elements. Elsewhere on the disk, you've got some surprisingly straight Mingus-like jazz.

From Chicago, an interesting project of long, lingering spaces. It's got enough piano to count as "jazz," and the Southport label is a jazz label specializing mostly in Chicago's mainstream scene. But you could also call this experimental sound, often gloomy and dark, with strange electronics creating a nifty late-night feel. Oh, there's guitar in there too. Nice stuff.

Yet another Ken Vandermark-related project, this one a quartet that slides between bright modern jazz with free touches, and stately museum-like serious pieces -- sometimes mixing the two moods in one track. Lots of energetic free-jazz soloing throughout, and an electrified bass that sometimes dishes out rock-guitar-like sounds. Quite a successful project.

Previously noted here. The Lost Trio, with Phillip Greenlief on guitar, Dan Seamans on bass, and Tom Hassett on drums, still plays regularly, and I like to spin the CD to promote their gigs once in a while.

The inherent unfairness of radio: Because only one song at a time gets played (usually), only one mood of a CD can be shown to the listener at once. And since listening habits tend to focus on spurts of attention, a listener can get a permanent image of an artist based on a few unrepresentative seconds of music.

Put another way -- this CD has some pretty and pastoral guitar-led tracks, and some heftier songs that touch on prog-rock guitar territory for an edgier, more creative sound. This track is kind of neither; it's a 3-minute interlude of creepy, floaty, otherworldly guitar -- edgy, but not as overt and ear-catching. It fit my needs for this set but doesn't really represent what the CD sounds like.

One could argue, then, that I haven't done McCann any favors with this particular spin. Still, it's a good track, and it shows off some of what he can do, and maybe it did catch the ear of someone who might not have paid attention otherwise. Hard to say. In any event, I dig the rest of the CD (especially the edgier stuff) and plan to make this up to McCann by playing some of the more obvious radio tracks. I do wonder, though ... If he heard this set on the radio, would he be happy? Tough to say.

The local duo of Dina Emerson (who's done vocals for Cirque de Soleil) and Jonathan Segel (ex of Camper Van Beethoven). They play tons of stuff in their improvised sets -- both do all sorts of sounds and samples on computer laptops, plus vocals and wine glasses (Dina), and guitar and violin (Jonathan). The results are fascinating soundscapes, sometimes with stream-of-consciousness wording from Dina. Late last year, I did a writeup of them for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, with more detail. They really are impressive, and I hope they keep at this for a long time to come.

Eld, by the way, is a Swedish label whose small catalog includes some Bay Area artists -- Chaos Butterfly here, and a disc including drummer Donald Robinson elsewhere. (Robinson, along with Biggi Vinkeloe, is on the CBD disc mentioned above).

* = 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.