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

* Steve Lacy -- "The Zoo" -- The Forest and the Zoo (ESP-Disk, 2008; orig. released 1966)

A classic 1966 session with Enrico Rava (trumpet), Louis Moholo (drums), and the late, lamented Johnny Dyani (bass). The album consists of two long sides of largely (if not entirely) improvised jazz. On vinyl, it was one song per side, and in perfect Lacy fashion, the sides were titled "The Forest" and "The Zoo."

Both tracks present a light, fast patter that lasts throughout, keeping things upbeat and energetic but not crazed; it's not a sweat-drenched session. The constant chatter of Moholo's cymbals defines the pace and fuels each piece, pushing Lacy and Rava deeper into the jungle on "The Zoo" than on "The Forest," to my ears. It's marvelous stuff, and part of a treasury that ESP is finally able to rerelease on CD.

* Aram Shelton -- "Peltep" -- V/A: Subcutaneous Sound (Mills College, 2007)

Compliation previously noted here. This is one of the jazzier tracks, if you can call it that, in the collection, opening with a trampling of drums. It really picks up when the saxophone and other instruments join the fray.

Among Shelton's recent projects was the trio "Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel," which put out a good album noted here.

Previously noted here, but that's a wholly different context. That's what's neat about this CD: It presents three of Maceda's compositions, showing his work in different environments. Whereas "Strata" combines percussion and chamber orchestra, "Sujeichon" is a more conventionally classical piece, featuring pianos. The two sides get combined in the third piece, appropriately titled "Music for Two Pianos and Four Percussion Groups."

Niblock and Eliane Radigue could be king and queen in the Drone Artists Commemorative Chess Set. Both compose long pieces that seem, at a glance, to consist of a single note or chord, but careful listening (or plain old fast-forwarding) reveals gradual changes over time. They're not the only ones who do this kind of music; I'm pretty sure Pauline Oliveros has had a hand in this sort of work, and you've got plenty of sine-wave artists out there. But Niblock and Radigue often seem held up as prototypical of the genre.

For this album, the source material isn't electronics, but flutes, overdubbed until they can create an air-siren blare. It's not piercing, since these are flutes, but it's an angry sound that you wouldn't associate with the instrument. Other segments abandon the one-note siren for long, lingering chords that can even be lovely.

No, I didn't leave this bass flute piece going for its full 19 minutes, but the listeners paying attention did get to feel the glacial shifts in tone, and those not paying attention didn't have to suffer the "What the-?" effect for too long.

Previously noted here.

* Revolutionary Snake Ensemble -- "Chippie" -- Forked Tongue (Cuneiform, 2008)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here. Different album, but the same brain-shredding craziness.

Favorites of our DJs Gus the Fat and the Peanut Gallery, who hosts Scatterbrain Radio every Friday night (technically Saturday morning, midnight to 3:00 a.m.), spinning some great rock and punk, including a wealth of local stuff, and bringing in a variety of guests for late night fun. Gus organizes an annual AIDS benefit show spanning a couple dozen bands, and it's through this year's event that he got much of our station recruited to The Mumlers' cause.

The band has a striking stage presence, adding tuba, trumpet, or french horn to the usual indie rock mix, and a sound that's got a folky Americana sadness with vague shades of jazz cabaret thrown in. Apparently they're playing at the Red Rock Cafe in Mountain View on Aug. 30, which is going to be quite a trick; it doesn't seem to have the elbow room for a six-piece band, especially one where some members switch between a couple of instruments.

* Ben Allison and Man Size Safe -- "Four Folk Songs" -- Little Things Run the World (Palmetto, 2008)

As modern jazz goes, with its sparkling intensity but laid-back sheen, Ben Allison does stand out. His composing is creative, but the overall environment of his albums doesn't always suit me. I do like the cerebral textures in some of his songs, this one being an example. Plus, you gotta love someone who calls his band "Man Size Safe." (No typo; that's "Size," not "Sized.")

Previously noted here.

More cool stuff from the Japanese shamisen duo that was mentioned here.

Annea Lockwood -- "Thousand Year Dreaming" [excerpt] -- Thousand Year Dreaming (Nonsequitur Foundation,)

My first introduction to Lockwood was The Glass World, an album of glass sounds. Turns out she's had quite a career as a modern classical composer and all-around experimentalist. And she's from New Zealand and she teaches at Vassar.

This album's more in a jazz/improv vein, creating a single 43-minute track that combines indigenous instruments (didjeridoo, conch shells) with modern ones (oboe, saxophones, etc.) While drums are absent, or at least not prominent, the piece has the feel of a drum circle. It starts in near silence, with faint hums and rattles of some of the instruments, and occasional spikes of sound. More active improvising emerges later, the climax being a long didjeridoo-led segment that's bracketed on either end by oboe improv. It all winds up in a neat little flourish. The early parts of the piece take a lot of patience, but it's worth it.

Local cabaret pop duo that performs in flighty, frivolous, faux-Victorian costumes. Lots of them; apparently they flit through different instruments and a thrift-store closet of costumes throughout their live show. Theatricality aside, their harmonized vocals are terrific.

I picked an atypical song from them, but one that fits the temper of my radio show well. It's a weird interlude of creepy music-box chimes with a spoken narration that seems to imply something about a little girl burning a house down, maybe on purpose. Actually, that description fits a lot of their more downcast songs quite well.

Previously noted here.

* Achim Kaufman, Frank Gratkowski, Wilbert De Joode -- "The Heart of All" -- Palae (Leo Records, 2007)

Previously noted here.

A piece for three choirs and nine vocalist soloists. It's got a scary, sometimes shrill sound to it, although we're still talking about choir music. They don't scream; they sing. It's just that the composition has a haunting quality to it, and the reverberations of the surrounding cathedral heighten the effect.

The sound might be unconventional, but the arrangement, even if it involves 120 singers, is tame by Masaoka's standards. She's done compositions that involve bees or overhead passing planes.

? (Tim Berne's) Bloodcount -- "Scrap Metal" -- Seconds (Screwgun, 2007; recorded 1997)

Previously noted here.

Sadao Watanabe -- "Pastoral" -- Round Trip (Vanguard Recording Society, 1974)

Watanabe is known for some solid bebop and some cheesy-looking '80s albums that verge on smooth jazz. Neither side has particularly grabbed my attention. Here, though, we've got a gem from the KZSU vinyl library that shows Watanabe in a power-packed free jazz session, on an album featuring three long tracks.

Did I mention the rhythm section? Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous, and Jack DeJohnette. Nice. This was 1974, remember, when those guys were at the peak of creativity and daring, and before they got molded into the ECM sound. (Don't get me wrong; I love ECM stuff, but there's a certain quilted sound that dominates their jazz work.) And way before Chick went Elektrik.

It's impressive work. I'll have to give Sadao's bebop stuff a good listen. Still can't deal with the '80s pop albums, though.

When our station received Nellie McKay's debut CD in 2004, the press materials were quick to point out her "influences" list included Eminem, even though she was being marketed as a jazz singer. Call it post-Norah Jones syndrome; McKay's identity as a singer and pianist gave Columbia the idea to cast her in the same crossover-diva role, I suppose. Didn't work for me, but it got McKay's career going, and she has the talent and attitude that's deserving of a good career.

Her stuff strikes me more as singer/songwriter pop with a piano rather than a guitar, and a sense of cabaret flair that's no doubt derived from jazz. And yes, she can perform jazz standards.

The hip-hop influence is real, though, as evidenced by this song, with its rapid-fire lyrics and manic rhyming. It's not about Columbia the label, but about the school, and the use of animals in lab tests. Read for yourself.

McKay has appeared live on KZSU before, although I can't seem to locate our CD recording of that session. We had the opportunity to bring her into the studio here again; I considered taking her publicist up on it, but I'd caught wind of the notice too late to make the arrangements for it.

By the way, a word on Norah Jones. Her breakthrough debut album was considered such a surprise by so much of the media, but our li'l old station got no less than five copies of that album -- probably twice as many, considering I didn't see every single copy -- delivered at different times over several weeks, addressed to as many DJs as they could identify, especially the ones known to play jazz. Surprise, my foot. They marketed the hell out of her.

* Shot x Shot -- "Scans" -- Let Nature Square (High Two, 2008)

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.