Friday, June 15th, 2007 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

On a whim, I e-mailed drummer Jeff Arnal to suggest doing an interview. Arnal is one of those artists who's been kind enough to send us his CDs over the years, not just of his own pressing but from labels that don't normally service college radio. I've always liked his stuff and figured it would be nice to take a half hour or so to get to know the guy a little better.

Of course, you can do that yourself by going to his Web page.

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

Jeff Arnal and Gordon Beeferman -- "I Dip My Hands Once Again in the Ocean" -- (Generate, 2001)

As noted here, a set of piano/drums duets that comes across with a bit of a classical air. Nice improvisations.

Previously noted here.

* Declared Enemy -- "Flowers" -- Night of 100001 Stars: A Tribute to Jean Genet (Rogue Art, 2007)

Previously noted here.

* William Parker/Hamid Drake -- "First Communion III-A" -- First Communion/Piercing the Veil (AUM Fidelity, 2006)

Previously noted here.

Transit -- "Cortelyou Q" -- Transit (Clean Feed, 2005)

Previously noted here, an impressive jazz-improv quartet with Jeff Arnal on the drums.

Duets of percussion, piano, and a few other noisemakers (mostly acoustic percussion, it sounds like), recorded in a church in Germany, if I'm remembering Jeff's story right. Echoey and clattery, with its sparse spaces but also moments of violent abandon. And it's a vinyl-only release -- ooh, shiny, black -- in a limited edition. Nice stuff. It's got three tracks -- one comprising all of side A, and then two tracks on side B.

Jeff Arnal -- Interview, part 1

* Tripwire -- "Hearing Device" -- Looking in My Ear (Creative Sources, 2006)

Trio improv with a percussive quality and a heavy, echoey sound (it was recorded in the same location as the Arnal/Eichmann duet, above). Band consists of sax, bass, and drums, creating a prickly and dark environment.

Jeff Arnal and Gordon Beeferman -- "Sanctum" -- Rogue States (Generate, 2006)

Previously noted here.

* Tripwire -- "Constellations" -- Looking in My Ear (Creative Sources, 2006)

During the interview, Jeff mentioned studying under Smith and learning quite a bit from him. As we had this CD in the library, I figured it was a great excuse to give it a spin. We're talking tuned percussion pieces here: Lots of bells, xylophone, marimba, that sort of thing, with multiple players for a forest/sheen effect sometimes. Smith wears a long gray beard,

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

* Reel Change -- "When the Spirit Moves" -- Open in Total Darkness (Evander, 2006)

Previously noted here. This is the album's tour de force, a 25-minute epic. The base is a slowish flute, creating a placid, organic feel that wouldn't be out of place in a modern-classical piece. Slowly springly electronics sounds, possible from an altered lap-steel guitar, spring up to create a more "improv" feel, with a bit of a dark, ominous overtone. The rest is a floating controlled chaos, again not too different from an open-minded conservatory program. Nice work.

Mainstream stuff with a nice progressive attitude.

Previously noted here.

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.