Friday, February 9th, 2007 ... 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

The first of what was supposed to be several shortened shows due to baseball. We found out by about 4:30 that the game was rained out, giving me the full time slot back. I'd stacked the early part of the show with lots of plays from rotation, including the CDs that were on their way out this week (I like to give every outgoing CD a send-off spin).

I'd always wanted to prepare a Rainout CD for baseball, so the sports engineer could just slap that on in the event of an unexpected rainout. It would be all pop songs, all with "rain" or "storm" mentioned all over the place. A couple are listed below; they shouldn't be hard to find. "Raining" by The Bears would also make the cut, if such a CD ever were to get made by me.

You'll notice a lot of set breaks around 5:00. Those were for the frequent on-air notifications that the game was cancelled and the make-up game scheduled for tomorrow.

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

* Mark Helias' Open Loose -- "What Up" -- Atomic Clock (Radio Legs, 2006)

Previously noted here.

* Vinny Golia -- "Repetition" -- Sfumato (Clean Feed, 2005)

Previouslly noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

* Charles Tolliver Big Band -- "Right Now" -- With Love (Blue Note, 2006)

Fairly straight big-band pieces, of middling length (about 6 minutes). You could file Tolliver among the forgotten cats of the '60s and '70s, I suppose. He made his mark for sure, getting name-checked by Dizzy Gillespie at one point; see the link above. These are nice mainstream pieces, all at a good clip (even the title track; it's more rollicking than romantic). Some impressive piano solos from Robert Glasper. Tolliver turns in some good solos too ... I've read reviews that say he's not in top form, but on the album's opening track, "Rejoicin,'" he blows the place to smithereens.

A brief mention of this band here. This is the second album for this very interesting improv project from local guitarist Shiurba. Songs open with amusing, bouncy composed lines, a bit reminiscent of Braxton's "Ghost Trance" pieces, and then shift into free, untethered improv. Very nice stuff that blends "serious" music, playful music, and, you know, improv.

Saxophonist Vandermark, a towering figure in the Chicago scene, is a serious student of the free jazz of the '60s, and these "Classics" projects are his attempts to dig into the music of that period. He arranges the tracks of a particular composer -- for Volume 3 it's Sonny Rollins, for Vol. 4 it's Rahsaan Roland Kirk -- for his own band, often tweaking the mood or otherwise adding his own touches to the end result.

Nice stuff, although the liner notes to this 2-CD set have him mulling over what he's learned, and whether he should continue this experiment. He writes: "Maybe investigating the groundwork for the improvised music from the 1960s and '70s taught me that it was time to get off the shoulders of those artists in order to look in another direction. Maybe the point has come when it's necessary to realize the only music worth playing is happening now."

* Sonic Liberation Front -- "First Rain" -- Change Over Time (High Two, 2006)

Kind of like a street jam with a big drum circle -- you know, the kind where dozens of people from who-knows-where show up thumping on tubs and buckets and sometimes even real drums. OK, SLF has a tighter sound than that, but the overall cheery energy, the Latin tinges here and there, and of course the street-artist jazz sound, all add up to the same kind of image for me. A Philadelphia band with a very Berkeley sound. It's good, as was their previous album, but the breaks for LOTS AND LOTS of drums get homogeneous by the end of it.

Violinist Khoury has been sending us some great free improv over the years. This trio disk, with sax and drums, is very good too, but departs from the norm, with pieces that wander into steady rhythms and almost bluesy phrasing. It's a mellow and thoughtful result, with still enough roughness on the edges to work for improv fans.

* Peter Brotzmann, Albert Mangelsdorff, Gunter "Baby" Sommer -- "Instant Tears" -- Pica Pica (Atavistic, 2006; orig. released 1982)

Another good European set rescued from the vaults by Atavistic. This 20-minute track took up Side 1 of the original vinyl release. There's lots of good, even-handed interplay and a nice trombone soloing spot for Mangelsdorff. In the end, Brotzmann caps the piece with some of the shrieky blowout we all know and love. Overall, he doesn't overpower the album; there's some nice balance to go along with some good visceral moments.

* Ellery Eskelin -- "I Should Have Known" -- Quiet Music (Prime Source, 2006)

Previously noted here. This one's mellow and even a bit romantic, possibly the most accessible of the tracks on the 2-CD set.

* Rob Reddy's Gift Horse -- "One" -- A Hundred Jumping Devils (Reddy, 2006)

Previously noted here. While the whole album is rather accessible, this closing track carries a mildly unsettling air. It's got lots of flourished acoustic guitar, in kind of a Spanish setting, but the whole melody isn't quite pretty. It's relaxed and crystalline, but also off. It's an impressive effect, and a nice capper for an album that's unusual sounding to begin with.

From not-quite-pretty to downright menacing. Previously noted here; this track goes from horror-film guitar arpeggios (gentle, unsettling) into screamed verses. Decidedly dark stuff.

Previously noted here.

* Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell -- "Streaming" [cont'd]

! Continental Drifters -- "The Rain Song" -- Vermillion (Razor & Tie, 1999)

An old pop favorite, one that I've always wanted to pull out during a baseball rainout. The band is sadly broken up AFAIK, but they left behind some awesome music.

Classical-music tangos, elegant stuff with polished violin and vocals. It really is all Finnish, with the pieces written by various Finnish composers throughout the 20th century. This one dates from 1984, penned by Reino Markkula and Juha Vainio.

* What We Live -- "Arvak (The Spirit)" -- Sound Catcher (Fire Museum, 2006)

Previously noted here.

William Parker Quartet -- "Raining on the Moon" -- Raining on the Moon (Thirsty Ear, 2002)

A nice mid-level groove that goes on for 14 minutes, with a vocal by Leena Conquest singing about a parallel universe led by Native Americans, where Geronimo is president, living in the Red house, and his birthday is a national holiday. It's fantastical but fun, and it does make you think ... Duke Ellington, for example, is named Minister of Culture, and there's no reason why that couldn't have been a closer reality in this world.

* Kris Davis -- "Once" -- The Slightest Shift (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006)

Previously noted here.

... but we all know it's really the B-side to "Paperback Writer," from 1966.

Previously noted here. On this one, the "gothic fiddle" comes out sounding more country-folk. It's quite fun.

*! Jahuta and Carl -- "3-23-2003" -- Jahuta and Carl (Little Joe Peep, 2005)

Coupla weirdos with what sound like basement pop recordings: Guitars, casio synths, really weird warbly vocals. Mostly pop-based, with lyrical themes of love and whatnot, plus a track called "What's That Dripping on My Head." Oh, and then there's the 10-minute sampler/synth experimental track.

My review for the station likened this particular track to Adrian Belew. No idea where that came from, other than the vocals getting into his range.

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

Previously noted here.

Really nice, soft, quiet track, kind of a ballad feel. From a solid quartet CD with Morris on guitar and Brown on alto sax, and William Parker on bass and Jackson Krall on drums.

Previously noted here. This is the track with John Zorn guesting (there's a second one, but it's about 1 minute long and you can't hear Zorn much, IIRC). It's a straightforward crazy-swing piece like most of the Microscopics' work, and then all of a suddent you get that fleeting clickety SQUAWK that tells you Zorn's in the house. Big fun.

So, part of the reason the set came together was because we have a Zorn Filmworks disk in rotation right now, alongside the Microscopic Septet. But both of those are very accessible projects; if I'm gonna do a John Zorn set, I have to include some of his celebrated artsiness. The CD is what you'd expect, a set of improvised sound explorations on sax and guitar.

Previously noted here.

Masada is an exciting blend of bop jazz and Klezmer scales. Catchy stuff, sure to please newcomers who are afraid of the Naked City stuff. Kind of noted here.

Daled was the fourth of the 10 original Masada albums. It's a three-song EP, and apparently was initially available only through a mail-order deal. It was tricky. The Masada CDs were Japanese imports on the fine DIW/Avant label. The way I was told the story, you had to be able to read the Japanese writing on those little spine tabs -- you know, that strip of paper that hugs the side of the CD case, that you never know what to do with because it comes loose when you take the shrink-wrap off. You had to mail in the three tab thingys from the first three Masada disks, apparently. The disk was later made available through normal commercial channels, but it was a real treasure for a while.

* Pierre Cartier - "Dedicace de la Belle Esperance" -- De la Belle Esperance (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2006)

Previously noted here.

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.