Friday, January 26th, 2007 ... 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Main event: Electronic "classical" music, in advance of SFsound's annual San Francisco Tape Music Festival, which this year includes a lengthy piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen and a world premiere by Brian Eno!

Also gave some love to Kipple, who are doing a show this coming Wednesday night at the Hotel Utah. More about them here.

Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)
Horizontal lines denote microphone breaks.

* Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis And Roscoe Mitchell -- "Bound" -- Streaming (Pi Recordings, 2006)

Very interesting album of 10- to 18-minute improvisations by a trio of free-jazz greats. In addition to piano, trombone, and sax (respectively) and a mass of percussion from Mitchell, there's a laptop computer wielded by George Lewis, giving some tracks a whole other personality. The improvs tend to be more thoughtful than vicious, painting long, sensitive dialogues. Great stuff. This particular track keeps to a droney mood throughout, anchored by laptop electronics.

* Mark Helias -- "Subway" -- Atomic Clock (Radio Legs, 2006)

One of the cogs of the "downtown" scene in NYC during the '90s. Helias, a bassist, does music along the lines of Tim Berne, but in a more accessible vein. It's not that Helias eschews free playing; his band "Open Loose" with Ellery Eskelin was all about freedom. But his compositions tend to the more accessible, albeit complex, side; that's part of who he is, and I don't mean it as a put-down.

I've enjoyed his past albums a lot, and requested a copy of this one, which Helias was kind enough to send. It's on his own label, Radio Legs. Trio stuff with Tony Malaby on sax (another NYC'er who I find to lean toward the "accessible" side) and Tom Rainey (Tim Berne's drummer of choice) on drums. Eskelin makes a showing on one track for a fine duet with Malaby. Tracks are relatively short (5 to 7 minutes), showcasing Helias' composing. Great stuff.

I used this opener -- which launches you right into an exciting, scribbly tune -- to kick off a "Downtown" set. What the heck.

Another of those CD-long pieces by Sharp, performed with an orchestra heavy on the horns. Good stuff as usual, with (based on a quick superficial listen) more emphasis on horns, less on the driven beats and pulses that characterize some of E#'s work.

Previously noted here. This track highlights Andrea Parkins on keys. It's not Latin sounding, like the title might suggest, just nice twisty avant-jazz.

Electronics-minded improv group, a Bay Area trio with Jacob Lindsay (clarinets), Scott Looney (electronics), and Gino Robair ("energized surfaces," which I'm taking to mean drums, theremin, and other noisemakers). Nice and abrasive in places, with Looney and Robair trading off all manner of unidentifiable sounds. Lindsay chimes in with jazz motifs often delivered in small, loud grenades, one chunk at a time amid the dry shufflings and rumblings of the other two.

Previously noted here.

Phillip Greenlief and Joelle Leandre -- "1st Variation for Alto Saxophone and Contrabass" -- That Overt Desire of Object (Evander, 2006)

Previously noted here.

* Stephan Crump -- "Carrousel En Verre" -- Rosetta (Papillon, 2006)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

* Charles Gayle -- "I Can't Get Started" -- Shout! (Clean Feed, 2006)

Solo piano. As this was the CD's final week in rotation, I felt like I had to give this one a spin. Awesome stuff, definitely born of the jazz tradition but with lots of towering free jazz elements.

* Vinny Golia Quartet -- "All Together Now" -- Sfumato (Clean Feed, 2006)

Previously noted here.

Fuzzed-out "drug" psych, recalling the '70s. This one's noisy and quick; other tracks feature a touch of soul.

? Kipple -- "The Excess Is Novel" -- Flashes of Irrational Happiness (Evander, 2006)

As mentioned above, they're playing this coming week, so what the heck. But then I decided to give them a second spin -- and by the time that was done, true to this track's title, it felt like "excess." A bit unfair, I guess, but what he heck, it's good music.

More on Kipple here.

? Kipple -- "The Excess Is Novel" -- Flashes of Irrational Happiness (Evander, 2006)

# Iannis Xenakis -- "Diamorphoses" (1957) -- Electronic Music (Electronic Music Foundation, 1997)

Now beginning the "Tape Music" segment, starting with a very "technological" sounding piece from Xenakis: big shifting sky/metal sounds.

Empreintes Digitales is a label that specializes in this kind of digital "musique concrete" ... I don't know what to call it, but they support lots of crazy collage-like electronic musics.

# Newman Guttman -- "Pitch Variations" (1957) -- Computer Music Currents 13 (Wergo, 1995)

Showing what some of the 1950s electronic music sounded like. In some ways, it's the same as today -- lots of metallic and/or liquidy sounds. This one's an abrasive buzz that shifts in volume (and pitch, I suppose) sporadically. A quick 1 minute piece.

Clocking in at eight minutes, a more famous piece by Cage -- DJ Chauncy Sutherland, who was in the wings preparing for his show, recognized it immediately. Sweeping, slow sounds that do evoke the idea of a vast landscape. The sounds are surprisingly similar to what you'll hear from some laptop artists today.

This one's on the "Early Modulations" compilation, too. A synthesizer plays the song, then a computer voice sings it -- a simple, "pop" demo of technology, basically. You have to wonder if it inspired that HAL scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

# Vittorio Gelmetti -- "Treni D'onda a Modulazione d'Inensita" -- V/A: Early Modulations: Vintage Volts (Caipirinha, 1997?)

I was going to end the segment but in the liner notes of this compilation, I caught mention of Gelmetti, a pioneer whose output is scarcely on disk. The passage went on to note how he became a tape composer in DIY fashion, cutting up tapes in a home lab ... something about that image was just perfect; it was just what I wanted to conjure when describing this kind of music. I read the passage on-air and gave Gelmetti a spin.

Closing out the segment with another Empreintes Digitales disc. This track (although not this whole CD) seems to be constructed from human voices, sent through various sound processing to sometimes become unintelligible. I say "voices," but really it's sounds -- there's a sneeze in there, and tongue clicks, as well as the expected hums and babblings.

Bobby Hutcherson -- "Catta" -- Dialogue (Blue Note)

With Andrew Hill on piano, a great Hutcherson album that covers a lot of ground, including the spacious title track. This is a jumpy figure in 8/8 time (a complicated 4/4, basically; I'm stealing the term from the liner notes). A personal fave.

Another CD about Hurricane Katrina. A sax/bass/drums trio doing some brisk free jazz, mostly energetic and spirited, although there are two nice tracks in more of a meditative mode, sort of spiritual and mourning, perhaps. And then there's "Dyes and Lyes," an upbeat number with some sarcastic spoken word: "Mother Nature just staged a terrorist attack on our ass, and ... not a muslim was blamed." Cool stuff.

* Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, William Parker -- "Living Peace" -- Palm of Soul (AUM Fidelity, 2006)

Previously noted here.

* Kris Davis -- "And Then I Said ..." -- The Slightest Shift (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006)

Previously noted here. Picked one of the more mellow tracks, although the piano gets weird right from the start.

Previously noted here.

Gotta love that title (I'm assuming Howe is white). Straight Latin jazz, although it's got a soulful touch that really won me over. Laid-back feel with elements of rock (a Hendrix fuzzbox sound here and there, e.g.) This particular track is just straight-up.

World -- "Now Is Forever" -- World ( Marriage, 2006)

Gentle, droney instrumental noise jams, kind of a psych attitude but done with sparse atmosphere. Banjo and bells, touches of female vocal, some electronics including ambient drones in the background. Three long tracks, each one meandering in a different way. Interesting stuff, probably a great late-night listen.

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