Friday, October 13th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Skip down to the bottom for my discovery of a wonderfully surprising Monk tribute album from 1984.

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

Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins -- "Friday the 13th" -- Thelonoius Monk/Sonny Rollins (Prestige/Fantasy, 1992; orig. releasd 1955)

Oh, why the heck not. Friday the 13th only comes up a couple times a year, right?

Continuing the "13" theme, although I guess the album title would mean "sounds of 13" rather than "fear of 13." Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Drifting, slightly eerie/droney guitar chords and wordless female vocals -- the usual stuff from Tom Carter and Christina Carter. They've since broken up their marriage but are continuing to tour together(?); they'll be playing in separate units next week at 21 Grand.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

* Ernest Dawkins New Horizons Ensemble -- "Mean Ameen" -- The Messenger (Delmark, 2006)

Previously noted here.

Upbeat gypsy jazz in the style of Django Reinhart and of every other Hot Club out there. Nicely done, though, with some plenty crazy soloing and the usual trick of the occasional weird instrument; the chromatic button accordion, in this case. There's also an 11-minute version of the Godfather theme, which I'll pretty much have to drag out sometime.

Taken from an anthology of West African pop spanning the '50s to the '80s, really joyous stuff. Pino's was a James Brown-influenced funk band, this track being a nicely midtempo funk groove with the group singing "Let 'em talk" as the chorus. Very '70s funk sound. Originally comes from the album Heavy Heavy Heavy, which, based on a quick scan of the Web, is rereleased on a widely available CD.

Previously noted here. This track melds the "jazz" and "Africa" sides particularly well, setting up a normal '60s jazz feel but with solos from instruments like the oud.

They're playing at the Fillmore tomorrow night, so what the heck. Fun stuff that isn't too far removed from Hot Club of Detroit, actually. A quick- paced rock song with fast acoustic guitar and mildly revolutionary lyrics (wasn't able to listen closely enough to pick up the meaning).

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Trilok Gurtu -- "Tillana" -- Crazy Saints (CMP, 1993)

A drummer and tabla player who's made a fine career out of doing the "jazz + world" thing.

Previously noted here. A good 19- minute track featuring lots of horns and some poetry.

Pleasant experimental-music tracks involving live looping. Played these as the soundbed (and epilogue) to the Concert Calendar info I read at 5:30 every week. There was a Y2K6 Looping Festival among the listings (Thursday Oct. 19, 2006, at the Luggage Store Gallery), so I figured I'd do a looping backdrop.

Oh my god, an incredible find in the vinyl section of our library. I was going through the Monk albums, keying the stragglers into our database, and stumbled across this one. It's a Hal Willner two-record set of Monk covers by various artists -- and if you're familiar with Wilner, that means various. Steve Lacy (avant-jazz hero and deep student of Monk's work), NRBQ (cool rockers, with Terry Adams well established as a Monk devotee), Peter Frampton, Joe Jackson, Todd Rundgren, Shockabilly, Was (Not Was) ... what a cool mix. Had to play the Zorn track, which opens up with some popping, smarmy "downtown" improv before moving into a quirky reading of the song. I've only skimmed the album with a few needle drops, and of course not every track looks that promising. This will be great fun to spin in weeks to come.

Previously noted here. This track features Gino Robair doing his bowed-styrofoam noises, very cool (and squeaky!)

* = 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.