Friday, October 27th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Interview with Myra Melford, for the second time (the first being a year ago). She's got a new album out and is performing twice in the coming week or so, with a quintet doing an acoustic suite that includes Myra on piano and harmonium, I would presume, and draws inspiration from the Indian musics she's been studying.

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

* Keiji Haino and Tatsuya Yoshida -- "Houston Street" -- New Rap (Tzadik, 2006)

Crazy, choppy guitar experiments. Propulsive and, in an Escher 8th- dimension way, rockin'. Made a nice transition from Megan's show, which ended just before mine with the Reverend Horton Heat's "Halloween Song."

Upbeat jazzy piece featuring lots of Cuong Vu on trumpet. Peaceful in comparison to the Haino/Yoshida, but I wanted to kick off the first full set with this one, so I could introduce the interview coming later.

Modern opera from Brady, a classical composer whose primary instrument is guitar. This does feature lots of "real" operatic singing, but you've also got experimental interludes like this one, a track opening with lots of confused voices speaking in Spanish (this is happening near Madrid, apparently) followed by an English-speaking narrator reading the evacuation pamphlet. Intriguing modern-classical music builds up in the background -- edgy stuff with a good pulse to it.

Previously noted here. This track has a homey, folky vibe that made a nice contrast with the strident modernity of the Brady piece.

Ingriguing modern-classical ensemble doing music that's upbeat, dissonant, even grooving in that avant-classical kind of way. One frustration, common to a lot of classical music, is that pieces are divided into movements that are 1 or 2 minutes long. To play a whole piece would be cool but involves silent breaks between the movements, which disrupts the flow of the show and isn't "normal" for radio. Still, this is awesome, edgy stuff that I'm hoping to spin quite a bit in weeks to come.

Previously noted here. In hindsight, not the right track to play; I wanted to go out of the fast, swirling Cygnus piece (which ends rather quietly) into a soft start that builds. This one builds fast, and in a choppy way; the gradual crescendo of the track "Crescendo" would have been better, I think (see link above). This is the kind of stuff DJs geek out about.

Two saxophones plus a traditional string quartet, a direct approach at the "third stream" thing, in a way. The whole group gets into some nice jamming in a jazzy vein, although you do get a few "20th-century" classical moments in the composed parts. It's a jazz date overall, though, with some tracks harkening back to Ellington types of swing.

Previously noted here. A couple of sharp, jazzy pieces here. "Peaches" is a nice uptempo groove with solos, including a nice one from new member Corey Wilkes (trumpet). "Odwalla" is of course the classic track, so classic that it's represented twice on this 2-CD set. Ends with comforting poetry recital. Cool stuff.

* Chaos Butterfly and Biggi Vinkeloe -- "fireice 2" -- Live at Studio Fabriken (Eld, 2005)

From the former "MTKJ Quartet," a name where I have to admit I never got the pun. They've spelled it out now, so to speak, for us slowpokes.

This is a nice free-jazz outfit from Southern California; they've been sending us CDs for a few years now, and it's been interesting to track their development. This is a 2-CD live set, where each track consists of two or three compositions strung together -- you get two 20 minute pieces and one 40-minute colossus. Nice stuff with bright sounds, inventive composing, and long stretches of improvisation. Plenty of slow, thoughtful passages help punctuate the pieces.

Nice improvisations from bass saxist Tony Bevan (U.K.) and local blokes Smith (bass) and Looney (piano), one of the earliest releases on Damon's Balance Point label.

Faded in, slowly obliterating the Bevan/Smith/Looney piece. Then, slowly faded out to give way to the gentle piano tones at the start of the Melford piece.

The album's tour de force, IMHO. A big, swirling, stormy landscape that starts out slow and quiet, with gentle piano. This exemplifies the slower, grander feel Melford has developed on her last couple of albums. While it doesn't sound Indian, the influence is Indian, taken from the hour-long ragas that develop in slow, subtle ways. Very emotional piece.

Previously noted here.

* Myra Melford/Be Bread -- "Fear Slips Behind" -- The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone, 2006)

Perky piece featuring Cuong Vu on trumpet (he figured into the interview quite heavily). Nice ear-catching way to introduce the interview.

* Myra Melford/Be Bread -- "Fear Slips Behind" -- The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone, 2006)

Showing off the harmonium, demonstrating some of the sounds Myra picked up while studying in India.

* Myra Melford/Be Bread -- "Equal Grace" -- The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone, 2006)

Displaying some of that slow-developing structure mentioned above, which was the last topic covered in the interview.

(Backdrop for the Concert Calendar reading.)

Previously noted here. Goldberg is the subject of "Improv:21," an interview/performance series, on Monday. The series has Derk Richardson, a journalist who's chronicled a lot of the local jazz/improv scene, interviewing musicians about their work, using performance and recordings to illustrate the discussion.

Previously noted here.

* = 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.