DMG Newsletter for March 24th, 2017

The Weeks go by so Fast
We turn around and they're Past
It is Creative Music that Keeps us Alive
So Let’s See what’s in store this week at DMG:

John Zorn Composer Series! Alex Cline Flower Garland Orchestra 2 CD Mini Box-Set! Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures! A Dozen Discs from Clean Feed: Tony Malaby/Mat Maneri/Daniel Levin! Harris Eisenstadt Canada Day Qt! Angelica Sanchez Trio! Michael Attias Quartet!

Rob Mazurek! Samo Salamon/Achille Succi/Julian Arguelles..! Kaja Draksler Octet 2 CD Set! Trespass Trio! Carlos Bica Azul & Jim Black! Zack Clarke Trio! Daniel Levin/Haker Flaten/Corsano Trio! Sebastien Ammann/Michael Attias Qt! The Urge Trio: Tomeka Reid/Keefe Jackson/Christoph Erb! Steve Jansen!

Plus Historic Discs from Eugene Chadbourne & Jimmy Carl Black! Herbie Hancock/Marsalis Brothers/Tony Williams! Freddie King! B.B. King! Prince Far I! Conrad Schnitzler/Pole! Nine More Lovely Music CD Reissues: Robert Ashley/Joan La Barbara! ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny! David Rosenboom & Anthony Braxton! Plus loads of Great Vinyl!

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The FREE DMG Weekly New Music In-Store Series Continues on Sundays with:

Sunday, March 12th: CD Release Set for Rob Price’s New Trio!

Sunday, March 26th Triple Header Starting at 6pm with:
NICOLA HEIN - Solo Guitar
SEAN ALI - Solo Contrabass
VLAD LUCHANSKY & DAVID GROLLMAN

Sunday, April 2nd, 2017:
6pm: LEAP OF FAITH Return!
7pm: MOPPA ELLIOTT - Solo Bass
8pm: LEAP OF FAITH & MOPPA ELLIOTT

Sunday, April 9th:
6pm: GIANT DWARF: MARTIN PHILADELPHY & JEREMY CARLSTEDT
7pm: NICOLAS LETMAN-BURTINOVIC BASS QT: SEAN ALI / ZACH SWANSON

Sunday, April 16th: Easter Sunday, no in-store

Sunday, April 23rd:
6pm: J. A. GRANELLI & MR. LUCKY TRIO with: J.A GRANELLI - Piccolo Bass, Lap Steel Guitar / NATE SHAW - Keyboards / OWEN HOWARD - Drums

Sunday, April 30th:
6pm: NO SIGNAL: AARON NOVICK & JEREMIAH CYMERMAN - Clarinets and AVA MENDOZA & BRANDON SEABROOK - Guitars!

DMG is located at 13 Monroe St. (between Catherine & Market Sts) in a basement below a former Buddhist temple & beauty salon. Take the F train to East Broadway or the 6 train to Canal or the B or D to Grand, or the M-15 bus to Madison & Catherine. Come on Down, the Sunday Music Series is Always Free & the Vibes are Cosy

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JOHN ZORN // MARCO BLAAUW / PETER EVANS / MARCUS ROJAS / JAY CAMPBELL / CHRIS OTTO / STEPHEN GOSLING / TYSHAWN SOREY / et al - There is No More Firmament (Tzadik 8352; USA) There is No More Firmament is a remarkable collection of recent compositions from 2013–2016 that showcase the range, variety and continued creativity of Zorn as he enters his sixties. Connected together with a thread of intensity, magic and madness, the music tells a twisted and complex story of a magical descent into madness. The compositions include two works for brass ensembles, a woodwind quintet, jazz piano trio, string trio and two solo pieces for clarinet and trumpet, with the outrageous trumpet solo Merlin appearing in two realizations—one by jazz master Peter Evans and another by the European classical virtuoso Marco Blaauw.
This disc collects nine works by master composer John Zorn, each performed by a different ensemble or soloist and each very different. Mr. Zorn explains in the liner notes the inspiration(s) behind each piece, so we get a idea of what he had in mind when composing each piece. As Mr. Zorn has continued to explain, he has surrounded himself with a number of master musicians who can play the challenging music he consistently composes. The results of which are/is incredible music, superbly performed and sonically well-captured. What amazes me is the way all of these pieces fit together here, they sound like they are part of one ongoing creative spirit. Mr. Zorn obvious has a vision, a unified voice which comes across on each piece loud and clear.
CD $17


ALEX CLINE'S FLOWER GARLAND ORCHESTRA With NELS CLINE / JEFF GAUTHIER / MAGGIE PARKINS / G.E. STINSON / WAYNE PEET / YUKA C. HONDA / SCOTT WALTON / BRAD DUTZ / et al - Oceans of Vows [2 CD Box Set](Cryptogramophone 148; USA) DescriptionAlex Cline’s Oceans of Vows is a deluxe box set of music drawing inspiration from four poems by Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as excerpts from the Buddhist text known as the Avatamsaka Sutra. It’s performed by composer/percussionist Alex Cline and his all-star 14-piece Flower Garland Orchestra, featuring Nels Cline, Yuka C. Honda, G.E. Stinson, Jeff Gauthier, Areni Agbabian, and many others. Featuring: Nels Cline, electric guitars G.E. Stinson, electric guitars Wayne Peet, electric piano, organ Yuka C. Honda, electric keyboards, samples Scott Walton, bass, keyboard Chi Li, erhu, zhonghu, zheng, qin Jeff Gauthier, electric violin Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, electric 5-string violin Maggie Parkins, cello Will Salmon, flute, recorders Brad Dutz, vibraphone, hand drums, crotales, gongs, percussion Alex Cline, drums, gongs, percussion Areni Agbabian, voice and Vicki Ray, conductor.
When I was speaking with Jeff Gauthier last year, he said that the Cryptogramophone label had runs its course may not release any more discs. I felt sad since they had released so much great music from Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Mr. Gauthier himself and other creative musicians from the L.A. underground. Surprise surprise, we just received a new double disc set from Crypto, a most ambitious effort from Alex Cline, percussionist and composer extraordinaire, who takes his time with each & every release. Alex Cline put together a wonderful 14-piece Flower Garland Orchestra, which features vocals by Areni Agbabian and pre-recorded voices of several Zen practitioners. The music found here is sweeping, peaceful at the center yet there are forces gathering like a distant storm. Certain vibrations are resonating, with several spirits sailing, embracing and dancing gracefully together. Ms. Agabian’s vocals are lovely, low key and kept to a minimum so the music can take us on a sublime journey. The music sounds completely organic like a symphony performed by Mother Nature. All of the music is superbly recorded, warm and enticing on many levels. The music does sound like there is a conductor involved since everything flows as one spirit/force. The mini box-set also includes a couple of lavish booklets with texts, informative information and pictures of the musicians. This music seems to evoke many fleeting spirits and it is not about solos, which are kept to minimum. There are a few stunning solos of course by the irrepressible Nels Cline and others to savor. A transformation is taking place so get on board of the flying carpet and be taken away. If this is the last offering from the fine folks at Cryptogramophone, then it is indeed a perfect way to bring the wonderful catalogue to a grand close. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
2 CD Mini-Box Set $20


ADAM RUDOLPH'S MOVING PICTURES With HAMID DRAKE / GRAHAM HAYNES / RALPH M. JONES / KENNY WESSELL / ALEXIS MARCELO / JAMES HURT / DAMON BANKS - Glare of the Tiger (Meta 020; USA) Moving Pictures currently consists of Adam Rudolph on percussion, sintir & composition, Graham Haynes on cornet & flugelhorn, Ralph M. Jones on flutes, saxes & bass clarinet, Alexis Marcelo on Fender Rhodes & Hammond B3, Kenny Wessel on electric guitar, Damon Banks on electric bass and James Hurt on percussion, Fender Rhodes & synth and Hamid Drake on drums & percussion. Formerly Chicago-based percussionist, Adam Rudolph, is always juggling several ongoing projects, as well as collaborations with musical elders like Wadada Leo Smith and Yusef Lateef (R.I.P.). Aside from the Go Organic Orchestra, Mr. Rudolph has run an octet called Moving Pictures since their first recording in 1992. This is the their seventh release, which includes longtime members Hamid Drake and Ralph Jones, plus newer members like Graham Haynes and Kenny Wessel. Oddly enough, the overall sound/approach to Moving Pictures remains constant yet evolving.
“Glare of the Tiger”, the lengthy opening track has an enchanting, electric Miles-like voodoo groove, complete with sly, slinky guitar, (Bennie Maupin-like) bass clarinet & soprano sax, layers of greasy electric keyboards, fat, thumb-tapping electric bass and infectious percussion. Mr. Rudolph does a swell job of writing several interlocking grooves together while someone solos on top. I dig the way Rudolph stacks up the layers with flutes or reeds, electric piano or organ, guitar, bass and percussion. The effect is most hypnotic, a never-ending series if grooves to bathe in with occasional dream-like currents passing through. This session was recorded at Bill Laswell’s studio in Orange, NJ by Laswell’s right hand man James Dellatacoma. Hence, the sound is super! Both Mr. Rudolph and his old cohort Hamid Drake are master percussionists, their sound and playing are especially well-captured throughout. Mr. Rudolph also plays sintir, a North African bass-like 3-stringed instrument also known as a gimbri. The sintir is at the heart of the other long piece here, “Wonderings”, another most mesmerizing, dream-like piece. Graham Haynes’s cornet stands out also and sounds like Jon Hassell with that swell echo added. When the sun finally came out today (3/22/17), even though it is still cold & windy out, the light and warmth were most uplifting. The music here feels the same way after a long, often dark and turbulent winter. This is music as medicine to help get through the day and smile. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $14


A Dozen New Discs from Ambitious Folks at the Clean Feed & Shhpuma labels:


TONY MALABY / MAT MANERI / DANIEL LEVIN - New Artifacts (Clean Feed 412; Portugal) “New Artifacts” documents a thrilling concert in Brooklyn by Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, and Daniel Levin. The performance captured here transformed the listeners in attendance that evening, bringing them into a creative world open with possibilities. Now, with this recording, Malaby, Maneri, and Levin invite you into their narrative of sound. This is music rich in gesture, and a music that is lyrical at its core. Its lyricism does not set itself in song form, yet is deeply reminiscent of the emotional ethos of vocal forms. This lyricism becomes the ground of the compositional field these three artists enter into: It is a field that is open to asides, proclamations, intimate words, and cries across a great space. The human voice is translated to their instruments with great compulsion. We hear Tony Malaby’s voice on his saxophones as a big circle, or perhaps a vibrant sphere in open space, with wind and light inside it – and this shared space is mirrored by the strings. At times, it’s as if Daniel Levin’s cello and Mat Maneri’s viola become saxophones, too, and vice versa. We are lucky to have a document of this special concert, to provide an opportunity for those of us who were not there that night to experience the magic of this music for themselves.
CD $15

HARRIS EISENSTADT CANADA DAY With NATE WOOLEY / MATT BAUDER / PASCAL NIGGENKEMPER - On Parade in Parede (Clean Feed 413; Portugal) “On Parade in Parede” was recorded when Eisenstadt and company played a series of concerts at SMUP, an intimate venue in Parede, a beach town near Lisbon, during their spring 2016 Europe tour. The place inspired the title. An homage to his birth country (he’s lived in the US more than twenty years), Canada Day offers a universal music, not just dedicated to North America, but also to Africa, Cuba, and Europe. Here Eisenstadt reunites Americans Nate Wooley and Matt Bauder with French-German Pascal Niggenkemper. Though Eisenstadt’s flagship ensemble has released five recordings in the last decade (four quintets and an octet), here you have Canada Day’s very first quartet recording. If there’s a good side of present day globalization, this is it.
CD $15

* THE ANGELICA SANCHEZ TRIO With MICHAEL FORMANEK / TYSHAWN SOREY - Float the Edge (Clean Feed 410; Portugal) You can often judge musicians by the company they keep. Float the Edge, the latest album from pianist-composer Angelica Sanchez, features her alongside two of the most sought-after rhythm-section musicians on the scene: veteran bassist Michael Formanek and rising- star Tyshawn Sorey, both acclaimed leader-composers in their own right. To be released via Clean Feed Records on March 25, 2017, Float the Edge sees this earthy, expansive trio perform Sanchez’s compositions, as well as several free improvisations. “A lot of what we do as a trio – and what each of us does living a life in this music – is take things to the edge, taking the risk to jump off without really knowing where you’re going to land,” the pianist says. “When it works, you feel like you’re floating – it’s beautiful.” Even the pieces she composed for the album were relatively spare on the page, giving the players room to imagine the music on the fly. “I didn’t want to have too much information in the tunes – I just wanted to set a mood that would inspire improvisation,” Sanchez explains. “Mike and Tyshawn are players who naturally develop the music on the spot, and I always have faith that they’ll play something better than I could’ve imagined. Also, unlike with a lot of piano trios, it isn’t just the piano leading the way all the time. I know I can play anything and they’ll run with the music, shape it. This album is really about going on a journey – for us and for the listener.”
CD $15

* The Angelica Sanchez Trio will be playing this weekend, Saturday March 25th at 7:30 at Greenwich House in the West Village. Wadada Leo Smith will be joining them for one set!!

MICHAËL ATTIAS QUARTET With ARUAN ORTIZ / JOHN HEBERT / NASHEET WAITS - Nerve Dance (Clean Feed 411; Portugal) Nerve Dance – saxophonist/composer/bandleader/conceptualist Michaël Attias’ sixth album which deals with the aesthetics of spontaneity, the theory of elasticity and the concept of equality in music, is an expansive, spirited debut from Michaël Attias’ new Quartet, featuring Aruán Ortiz (piano), John Hébert (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums). OnNerve Dance, we are regaled with hearing four hearts, minds and bodies hooking up at an extremely high level on nine Attias compositions, and two from Hébert. Each piece exercises a different set of muscles and faculties for the band, and every member of the Quartet carries within them the historical knowledge and a fluency in the multitude of dialects of this music; consequently we hear them free within the compositions, deep into the zone of this collective creation, transcending their respective instruments and completely surrendering to the music.
Attias has been influenced by literature, film, painting, extensive travel, life in general, and of course, a wide spectrum of music, ranging from Moroccan Gnawa rhythms to Renaissance Polyphony, Ligeti, Debussy and the 2nd Viennese School; the AACM, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Steve Lacy, but also Andrew Hill, Paul Motian, Konitz & Marsh, plus the first and lasting loves, Ellington, Coltrane, Monk, Miles and Bird. Attias’ music, while dedicated to “creation” rather than “re-creation”, remains firmly rooted in the avant-garde, conceptualized as the true tradition of this music from its earliest recordings onward. Attias asserts that the revolutionary, adventurous spirit of the major figures of jazz, including his aforementioned influences, made bold strokes of genius that only seem inevitable in retrospect, and have paved the way for the audacious improvisers of today who remain singular and fearless in the face of mass conformity. There exists an instinctual, visceral need in Attias and his cohorts to play music that is honest, that rejects inertness and fully embraces the meaning of creativity and evolution. This music is found on Nerve Dance.”
CD $15

ROB MAZUREK - Chants and Corners (Clean Feed 416; Portugal) Featuring: Rob Mazurek - modular synth, sampler, cornet & piano, on Mauricio Takara on drums, Guilherme Granado - keyboards, synth, sampler & electronics, Thomas Rohrer - rabeca, flutes, soprano sax & electronics and Philip Somervell - piano, prepared piano. Electro-Acoustic Composer, Cornetist Rob Mazurek continues to focus on the Brazilian side of his musical production, and that’s good news. Even better when we notice that “Chants and Corners” is something else than a new São Paulo Underground enterprise – some of the contributors are the same, but the project has another confection and this signifies that it’s multiplying in different perspectives, like the flowers of a plant. Playing a modular synth, a sampler and a piano besides his cornet, Mazurek has as partners drummer Mauricio Takara and keyboardist Guilherme Granado (both involved in the two albums recorded live in Portugal by Pharoah & The Underground, the association with Pharoah Sanders of both the Chicago Underground and the São Paulo Underground bands), and also two musicians who preferred to live and work in Brazil, the Swiss rabeca and saxophone player Thomas Rohrer and the British-Chilean pianist Philip Somervell. Of course, the music has a modern psychotropic atmosphere all over it, in the confluence of a large plurality of influences, going from avant-jazz, free improvisation and post-rock to alternative hip-hop and new music. Yes, Mazurek’s imaginary Brazil of sounds is also a big country.
CD $15

SAMO SALAMON SEXTET With ACHILLE SUCCI / JULIAN ARGUELLES / PASCAL NIGGENEMPER / ROBERTO DANI / CHRISTIAN LILLINGER - The Colours Suite (Clean Feed 414; Portugal) Here is one more live recording of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, featuring the Slovenian guitarist, and former John Scofield’s student, who is unanimously pointed out as one of the most defying players today in Europe: Samo Salamon. The Sextet is of transnational constitution, putting together the cream of the European scene, namely a British, Julian Arguelles, two Italians, Achille Succi and Roberto Dani, a French-German, Pascal Niggenkemper, and a German, Christian Lillinger. The presence of two drummers was an old Salamon’s aspiration, as it was the desire to have with him, for the first time, an «amazing» (his own adjective) double bassist like Niggenkemper and to continue to work with Succi, who contributed to another album by the composer of “The Colours Suite”, “Ornethology”. Being each one of the participants specially picked for this project, Samo Salamon wrote the suite thinking about the personalities of these musicians. This was the modus operandi of Duke Ellington, and there’s something of that heritage here, namely the combination of complex harmonic and rhythmic motives with open improvisation, the results giving us the «feel of a living organism». In two words: powerful music, not to be missed.
CD $15

KAJA DRAKSLER OCTET With AB BAARS / ONNO GOVAERT / et al - Gledalec (Clean Feed 417; Portugal) It’s no wonder that a pianist with such a large sonic vision of her own instrument has an orchestral way of imagining sound and sonic associations, with her dedications to both the solo and the large ensemble formats complementing each other. Unexpected could be her interest to the song imprint and the voice (here delivered to the singers Bjork Nielsdottir and Laura Polence), because the impulse to work with it comes from other concerns and interests, but the Slovenian artist values timbre and acoustic quality in a special way: her love for vocal music is understandable. Yet, there’s something else in “Gledalec” explaining this new adventure. That “something else” has an extra- musical motive: Draksler’s love for poetry, going the choices in this double album to the words of Pablo Neruda and Andriana Minou. Two horns join the two voices, but that doesn’t mean there are unisons going on. The instrumentation undergoes constant permutations, and the work done by the piano, the double bass and the drums (Kaja Draksler herself, Lennart Heyndels and Onno Govaert, also playing piano when the leader is conducting) isn’t what you would expect from a conventional rhythm section. Much in the same way, violinist George Dumitriu hasn’t a fixed role. The chamber feel of the music keep the songs away from something of pop or folk manufacturing, and that’s particularly intriguing.
2 CD Set $18

TRESPASS TRIO With PER ZANUSSI / MARTIN KUCHEN / RAYMOND STRID - The Spirit of Pitesti (Clean Feed 418; USA) After “...was there to illuminate the night sky...”, “Bruder Beda” and “Human Encore”, this one with Joe McPhee as special guest, Trespass Trio is back to tell us another story without words. There’s a narrative structure developing from start to finish, with a cinematic quality, but everything goes through an emotional level (from rage to a disarming tenderness) and the clear invitation to imagine scenarios, characters and dialogues. Again, that story has political connotations. Pitesti is a Romanian city which got notorious because the local prison was home of brainwashing experiments during the totalitarian regime. In that process of “reeducation” of the prisoners, violence between the inmates was encouraged by the secret police. The procedures got so out of hand that the communist authorities stopped everything five years later. The prison staff was pardoned (of course!), but some inmate collaborationists were condemned to death. Combining composition and improvisation, rigor and passion, minor tones and grand gestures, the music touches us deeply. Trespass Trio became one of the most defying units of the contemporary European jazz and each new opus is a masterpiece. “The Spirit of Pitesti” is no exception. Not to be missed.
CD $15

CARLOS BICA & AZUL With FRANK MÖBUS & JIM BLACK - More Than This (Clean Feed 398; Portugal) It has been twenty years since the release of Carlos Bica’s “Azul”, the Portuguese double bass player’s debut recording with German guitarist Frank Möbus and the American drummer Jim Black. Their brand new album “More Than This” accurately describes their status quo. This new release reflects the same music that their audiences have learned to love since the very beginning and delivers beyond those expectations. The music conjures up old memories while exploring new musical territories. This mature group of musicians has produced an album that opens new doors, looking to discover what’s on the other side.
Bica’s lyricist (or “romantic,” as he himself describes without hesitation) approach to contemporary jazz, combined with elements deriving directly from rock (“A Lã e a Neve”) and from the folk traditon (“Silver Dagger”) offers the listener new sounds and textures to revel in. One can say that this new album sounds almost as if it was the very first time the trio composed and recorded together, but it is rife with the veteran wisdom one earns when acquiring the right to state something, instead of merely “proposing” it. The variety of the themes displayed in “More Than This” sway from direct and good humored (check “Skeleton Dance”) to complex and deep, as on “XY Ungelöst” - in both cases being faithful to Azul’s identity. So, it comes down to this: on their sixth album, the trio has managed to record their best work ever. And yes – it’s a gem.
CD $15

ZACK CLARKE With HENRY FRASER / DRE HOCEVAR - Random Acts of Order (Clean Feed 409; Portugal) Random Acts of Order boldly confronts some of the core questions posed by free music. Working with two of the most dynamic young talents on the improvised music scene, bassist Henry Fraser and percussionist/composer Dre Hocevar, Zack Clarke explores a space between order and freedom that is represented by the polarities of idiomatic expectations and free improvisation. The results are explored through forms that include swing, rock, minimalist, electronic music and solo piano; and while the essential elements of these styles maintain their integrity, the music here challenges their functional use, deconstructing and redefining them to create entirely new forms.
Pianist Zack Clarke was a pupil of renowned keyboard players Jason Moran, Fred Hersch, Danilo Perez and Kenny Werner, and he also studied improvisation with guitarist/double bassist Joe Morris, the author of the liner notes of Random Acts of Order. Morris says it all in his text: “the new generation of jazz musicians here represented by Clarke and his partners Henry Fraser and Dre Hocevar is expected to know everything of what was done before and to change the music in unexpected ways.” Contesting this myth, Morris supports the idea that these young cats simply navigate their own paths, committed to the great adventure of music creativity but adverse to unnecessary expectations. That’s the best way to listen to this recording: without preconceived ideas, freeing the music and the musicians from other agendas that are alien to their own. When it happens, the best of this astonishing album finally erupts: the sense that there are narratives being told, with personas interacting with each other and with its landscapes giving an impression of completeness. Strong pulses, rich dynamics and suggestive melodic phrasings are what you’ll find here, and that’s all you can ask for.
CD $15

ALFORJS - Demons 1 (Shhpuma 029; Portugal) Featuring: Mestre André tenor sax, electronics, percussion, mbira & voice, Bernardo Álvares double-bass & voice and Raphael Soares- drums. The first recording of the project Alforjs, “Jengi”, gave us the idea that, if there’s an urban shamanism, the origins of this magical practice of invocation through music are in the African forests and the Mongolian steppes. A shaman music of the city could only include elements of those ancient world views. In this new album, the Lisbon trio formed by Mestre André, Bernardo Álvares and Raphael Soares gives this a higher evidence: we hear the Baka pigmies behind the obsessive- compulsive beat of the drums and the knife-cutting arpeggios of the double bass, alluding also the krautrock band Can, and we recognize in this hypnotic and enchanting music the spirits of Saint John Coltrane (very present in the interventions of the tenor saxophone), of Lemmy during the times of the psychedelic collective Hawkwind and also of the still very alive Steven Stapleton with the electro-acoustic and industrial Nurse With Wound format. Ritualistic, tribal, neo-primitivist and retro-futurist, Alforjs has a very special place among what is out there of more intriguing and radical in this final stretch of the 21st century’s second decade.
CD $15

Special Order Only:

MIR 8 With WERNER DAFELDECKER / HILARY JEFFERY / TIM WRIGHT / ANDREA BELFI - Perihelion (Shhpuma 028; Portugal) The debut album by MIR 8 on Shhpuma features four cinematic tracks following an abstract narrative through panoramic landscapes, masterfully produced with multi-layered hybrid structures of orchestral strings, trombone, electronics and percussion. "Perihelion" is a solar orbit steered by four seasoned musical voyagers. Werner Dafeldecker has produced new forms as an integral member of Polwechsel, introducing post-minimalist shifts in the improvised and experimental scenes of Vienna, Berlin and beyond. Hilary Jeffery played trombone in Tim Wright's early 90s UK electronica project Germ and they subsequently worked together in the "electro-metal-voodoo-jazz" group Sand, releasing three astonishing albums on Soul Jazz Records. Andrea Belfi's drumming is a time-tested element in radical music of the last twenty years. Together as MIR 8 these four unique musicians have created an album which combines an unusual blend of idioms without any dilution. The listener gets immersed into a genre bending soundscape of lush movie soundtrack strings, pulsating bass driven electronics, polyrhythmic tessellations and introspective melodies unwinding into deep space. The hypnotic structures of MIR 8 unravel through the mind as a real "cinema for the ear" inspired by Hilary Jeffery's travel through the Sahara, Andrea Belfi's percussive divings into the ocean's depths, Tim Wright's evocative journey's into twilight post-rave mind states and Werner Dafeldecker's pioneering orbits of the cosmos, up to and including the event-horizon.
LP $30


DANIEL LEVIN / INGEBRIGT HAKER FLATEN / CHRIS CORSANO - Spinning Jenny (Trost 153; Austria) Beside Trost releasing artists Chris Corsano (projects with Akira Sakata, Massimo Pupillo, Joe McPhee, and Mette Rasmussen, to name a few) and Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten (The Thing), with this new formation, the label works with the active US cellist and composer Daniel Levin. Daniel Levin is "one of the outstanding cellists working in the vanguard arena" (All About Jazz), "ridiculously fluent, virtually overflowing with ideas" (New York City Jazz Record), and "very much the man to watch" (Penguin Guide to Jazz). No matter what setting he plays in, cellist Daniel Levin occupies a musical space bordered by many kinds of music, but fully defined by none of them. The New York Times on Levin: "Demonstrating an impressive breadth of texture and contrast, the cellist Daniel Levin comes well prepared for a career in jazz's contemporary avant-garde." Elements of European classical music, American jazz, microtonal and new music, and European free improvisation all figure prominently in his unique sound. John Sharpe in The New York City Jazz Record: "he invokes all manner of musics with prodigious skill: jazz, classical, improv, noise, vocal chorus. Those with an adventurous streak or interest in the outer reaches of the cello universe will find much to savor." Personnel: Daniel Levin - cello; Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten - bass; Chris Corsano - drums.
CD $17


JOHAN BERTHLING / MARTIN KUCHEN / STEVE NOBLE - Threnody, At The Gates (Trost 156; Austria) Featuring: Johan Berthling: double bass; Martin Küchen: tenor and soprano saxophones, retardophone, flute; Steve Noble: drums and percussion. Recorded by David Carlsson at Gula Studion, Malmö, Sweden, November 1, 2015. Mixed by David Carlsson. Mastered by Martin Siewert.
CD $17


SEBASTIEN AMMANN With MICHAEL ATTIAS / NOAH GARABEDIAN / NATHAN ELLMAN-BELL - Color Wheel (Skirl 034; USA) Featuring Sebastien Ammann on piano & compositions, Michael Attias on alto sax, Noah Garabedian on bass and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums. Pianist & composer Sebastien Ammann had an earlier disc out on the Fresh Sound label which I reviewed a few years back. I don’t know either rhythm section member from earlier recordings although I was recently introduced to bassist Garabedian at a Craig Taborn gig at the Vanguard. Reedsman Michael Attias I know pretty well from his many recordings on Clean Feed, as well as his numerous sets at Cornelia Street Cafe (CSC) leading different groups. I caught Mr. Attias’ current quartet at CSC just last week (3/17/17) and thought they were pretty amazing.
Starting with “One”, the quartet has that circular M-Base like sound going on, with intricate lines which seem to turn themselves inside-out and keep the quartet on their toes throughout. Things quiet down to a most skeletal level on “M”, giving the quartet a soft, quaint, rather dreamy resolve. Things pick up on “The Diceman”, with some great, restrained yet slow burning lines spinning more quickly as they go, on the verge of exploding but never quite getting there. This music takes some patience to appreciate since often things start out very calmly and then take off in an unexpected direction. Pianist & composer, Ammann is often at the center of what is happening, adding odd flourishes and changes in direction when we least expect them. This disc will take some time to fully appreciate since there are a number of buried treasures going on just below the surface. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $14


THE URGE TRIO With TOMEKA REID / KEEFE JACKSON / CHRISTOPH ERB - “Hecha De Today La Aqua” / Live at the Hungry Brain [LTD Ed/ Hand-folded Soft Cardboard covers] (Veto-Records/ Exchange 014; Switzerland) Featuring Tomeka Reid on cello, Keefe Jackson on tenor & sopranino sax & bass clarinet and Christoph Erb on tenor & soprano sax. Former Chicago-based cellist, Tomeka Reid, moved here recently after a number of years being an important part of the Chicago scene, working with Nicole Mitchell, Mike Reed and Dave McDonnell. Another longtime member of the Windy City network is Keefe Jackson, who co-leads bands with Josh Berman and collaborates with Jason Roebke, Aram Shelton and the Lucky 7’s. Swiss saxist Christoph Erb is perhaps a bit less visible but has worked in the Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6 and a trio with Jim Baker & Frank Rosaly.
There is something special going on here, hard to tell who is who since the both reeds and cello deal with similar twisted sounds. Expanding, contracting, erupting, calming down, spinning quickly, tongue-slapping squeaks & honks, bowed strings weaving quickly around the fractured reed sounds. There is section where the deep, low notes of the tenor sax, the modest bass clarinet and rustling, cello waves sound mighty fine, completely focused as one united spirit/voice. The soprano sax and cello weave their lines tightly together, hard to tell them apart. Eventually the cosmic, bent note blend hits its stride. Overall, this set captures the magic of spirited improv at its best. I caught Tomeka Reid’s current quartet the other night (3/20/17) at Roulette and was knocked out. So glad to have Ms. Reid in our town, enriching the evolving scene here. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15


EUGENE CHADBOURNE & JIMMY CARL BLACK With THOMAS HEBERER / BRIAN JACKSON / TONY TRISHKA - The Jack & Jim Show - Live at The Stone, NYC (StrawtoGold MA-02; USA) This DVD captures the best songs from three nights of a Eugene Chadbourne residency at The Stone in 2007. It features Dr. Chadbourne on guitar, banjo & vocals and Jimmy Carl Black on drums & vocals plus one guest per night: Brian Jackson (from Gil Scott-Heron band) on piano & vocals, Tony Trishka (bluegrass legend) on banjo and Thomas Heberer (ICP Orchestra) on trumpet. Only Doc Chadbourne could organize this unique collection of creative musicians from vastly different scenes. For several years, Dr. Chadbourne toured with Jimmy Carl Black, drummer/vocalist/character for the Mothers of Invention and the Grandmothers. Considering the original Mothers were perhaps the most influential progressive/humorous/creative of all sixties rock band and personal favorites of me & many of my friends, it was wonderful to hear Jimmy Carl Black on so many occasions. Out of the 23 songs performed, 19 of them are well-selected, super-diverse covers: besides songs by the Mothers and Captain Beefheart, Jack & Jim & Co. perform songs by Jimi Hendrix, Phil Ochs, Neil Young (“Cortez the Killer”!!!), Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed and Sir Doug Sahm. What I have always dug about the good doctor is the way he chooses songs from many genres, eras & philosophies and connects them musically and lyrically somehow. Throughout, Mr. Chadbourne takes a number astonishing electric guitar solos at a low volume which are no less incredible. Jimmy V Carl Black is a perfect foil, playing laid-back yet crafty drums, adding occasional backing vocals and even singing lead on a few songs. His rendition of “Willie the Pimp” is just phenomenal! This disc is more than two hours long and was consistently compelling throughout. One complaint for those who care is that there is no menu or way to view this without watching the entire program. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
DVD $12


STEVE JANSEN - The Extinct Suite (SJ Productions 002; UK) With Steve Jansen on drums, Japan enjoyed huge success whilst simultaneously creating a back catalog of music that still inspires today. Fast forward to 2007, after many years collaborating with artists such as Richard Barbieri, Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Bernd Friedmann, Steve released his debut, solo album Slope. Steve Jansen's second solo album Tender Extinction (HEADCOUNT 037LP/SJ 001CD, 2016) was an evocative blend of songs and instrumentals. The Extinct Suite is a reinterpretation of the more ambient and orchestral elements of this last album Tender Extinction. Not a remix by any means, some familiar passages are woven together with additional pieces to create a suite of instrumentals lasting over 55 minutes as one single track. Written, performed, produced and mixed by Steve Jansen. Personnel: Steve Jansen - piano, synths, sampled instruments, string arrangements, sound design; Additional contributors: Melentini Toila - trumpet; Seigen Tokuzawa - cello; Thomas Feiner - background vocals; Stelios Romaliadis - flute; Giorgos Varoutas - guitar treatments.
CD $15


Historic & Archival Recordings:

HERBIE HANCOCK With BRANFORD & WYNTON MARSALIS / RON CARTER / TONY WILLIAMS - VSOP II Tokyo 1983 (Hi Hat 3051; UK) Herbie Hancock featuring Ron Carter, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Tony Williams, live from NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan on May 19th, 1983. Herbie Hancock originally formed his "Very Special One-Time Performance" band in 1976. In 1983, he put together a revised line-up featuring Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Branford Marsalis (tenor and soprano saxophone), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums). That remarkable quintet is featured on this remarkable set, originally broadcast on NHK Radio, Japan. The entire broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images.
CD $17

FREDDIE KING - Ebbet's Field, Denver '74 (Klondike 5061; UK) Freddie King, live at Ebbet's Field, Denver on May 27th, 1974. Colorado's Ebbets Field was a familiar blues venue that had been graced by all and whose audience would never tire of visiting greats. The arrival of Freddie King on May 27th, 1974 in Denver, promised an abundance of euphoric blues picking from a legendary Chicago figure. His early death may have cheated many out of what could have been and while it commands an incredible depth of sadness and reflection, he is remembered for a career that not only carved out a unique style of blues, but hugely inspired those around him, such as Eric Clapton. Klondike present the entire original KCUV FM broadcast of Freddie King live from Ebbets Field, Colorado on May 27th, 1974. Professionally remastered original broadcast with background liners, interviews, and rare archival photos.
2 CD Set $17

B.B. KING - A&R Studios, New York '71 (Klondike 5075; UK) B. B. King, live at A&R Studios, New York on October, 26th 1971. The late 1960s and early '70s announced a new era for the pioneering bluesman B.B. King. The world had woken up to one of America's truest icons and would finally hail his legacy in music. His October visit to New York's A&R Studios was just one of numerous dates that filled King's diary to bursting point that year. Having toured Europe and recorded with the cream of London's blues players at Olympic Studios, and with an appearance on Ed Sullivan's flagship show, it was time to host his latest four album releases. Klondike Records present the entire WPLJ-FM broadcast of B.B. King, live in session at A&R Studios, NY on October 26th, 1971. Professionally re-mastered original FM broadcast with background liners, interviews and rare archival photos.
$17


PRINCE FAR I - Psalms For I (Bond Export DKR 187; USA) CD reissue of the ultra rare 10”-song LP from 1976, Prince Far I's first album. Produced by Lloydie Slim, this unique album finds Far I chanting Psalms and prayers over a tough selection of mostly Aggrovators-backed rhythms. This was reissued once before over a decade ago, now back again with the original artwork, and pressed from new stampers made from the pristine-condition original mother plates, yielding the identical deep and full Jamaican mastering of the original. A truly unique album that deserves a place in every self-respecting collection of deejay records."
CD $15


CONRAD SCHNITZLER / POLE - Con-Struct (Bureau B 243; Germany) Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011), is one of the most important representatives of Germany's electronic music avant-garde. He was a member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster, and also released countless solo albums. Pole, the Düsseldorf-native musician Stefan Betke, looks back on a two decade career in abstract electronic club music. With Barbara Preisinger he created Scape Records and his own mastering studio Scape Mastering. The Con-Struct series is based off of Schnitzler's daily excursions through the sonic diversity of his synthesizers. Finding exceptional sounds with great regularity, he preserved them for use in subsequent live performances, amassing a vast sound archive. Jens Strüver, the producer of the Con-Struct series, came up with the idea of "con-structing" new compositions, not remixes, from the archived material. A few words from Pole on his "con-structions": "To be honest, in earlier times I never quite warmed to Conrad Schnitzler's work. Back then, in the middle of the '80s, we were still occupied with traditional band projects... We still asked ourselves the question: 'How can we actually get away from these instruments and structures?' They seemed so outmoded. Then came my first contact with Conrad's productions: a Tangerine Dream album that he co-produced and on which he played violin, synthesizer and typewriter. It wasn't a good start. I didn't much like the album. Nevertheless, something had happened. I made a unilateral decision for the band, brought a TR-808 and a Minimoog to rehearsal and announced: 'We're going electronic.' After that, everything happened all by itself. I found out more about this Schnitzler from Berlin who always impressed me with his complexity, his humorous nature and almost absurd variety. So years later, when I was asked if I would participate in the Con-Struct series, there was no way I could refuse. His influence had since become too important for me. Contrary to the original Con-Struct concept, however, it was my idea to do it half and half: 50 percent sounds from Conrad and 50 percent from me. The collaboration went according to the following rules: I myself use four things - a modified old rhythm machine, two old synthesizers, and my modular system. From Schnitzler come four complex sounds, which are always run through a modular patch. Coincidence should play an important role. Then I sent everything through my mixer - for dubbing. It worked almost automatically. His sounds led and I joined in."
CD $17


PHILIPPE BADEN POWELL - Notes Over Poetry (Far Out Recordings 196; UK) Philippe Baden Powell (son of Brazilian musical legend, Baden Powell de Aquino) is reinventing Brazilian jazz in the lineage of his father's generation. Balancing the classical with the spiritual, the cinematic with the introspective, and sensitivity with a distinctly Brazilian groove, Notes Over Poetry calls upon the inspiration of the many musical and artistic greats Philippe has been surrounded by throughout his life. A nomadic upbringing - moving between Rio, Paris and the coincidently named German city of Baden - Baden, as well as touring internationally alongside his father and brother, provided boundless encounters with inspirational figures. Touring also gave Philippe his first taste of life in the spotlight: recorded when he was just thirteen, a sold-out show alongside his father and brother at Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio De Janeiro, would become the 1996 album Baden Powell & Filhos. Classically Brazilian in its roots, but global in its outlook, Notes Over Poetry sits as comfortably next to Tom Jobim's 1971 album Wave (LR 349LP) as it does to Robert Glasper's Black Radio (2011). "Vamos Donatear" - a track dedicated to the great Joao Donato - is hot, fluid samba-jazz in the vein of the Brazilian legend himself, while the equally groovy "Chica" hosts punchy horn arrangements reminiscent of masterpieces by Arthur Verocai and Eumir Deodato. With lyrics in English, the title track and the satin-soft "State Of Music" lean toward the cooler climate of North American hip hop and Rn'B, while "For You To Know" is a spellbinding syrup of deep-jazz, flaunting Philippe's talent for writing powerfully emotive melody and harmony. To his father, Philippe attributes key characteristics which have enriched and guided him in his professional life. With his father he also shares an innate pull towards collaboration as key to the creative process. Credit is indeed due to the musicians on the album: French jazz drummer André Ceccarelli, who has worked with Aretha Franklin and Michel Legrande; Belgian jazz vocalist David Linx; and Afro-Brazilian percussionist Ruca Rebordão. Parallel to a global revival of jazz as an art-form capable of traversing its once tired image, new generations of music lovers are rediscovering Brazilian music from the '60s onwards. Philippe Baden Powell's music perfectly reflects Brazil's huge contribution to the global jazz landscape, and with Notes Over Poetry, he presents a milestone release in his career as a torchbearer for a new wave of Brazilian artists.
CD $15


Even More Reissues from the Lovely Music Label:

DAVID ROSENBOOM/ANTHONY BRAXTON - Two Lines (Lovely Music 3071; USA) Two legendary composer/performers, David Rosenboom and Anthony Braxton, join forces on Two Lines to unite composition with improvisation, "new music" with "new jazz". Starting from David Rosenboom's notated score for Two Lines and his musical computer program, these musicians have achieved, to paraphrase Rosenboom, created a composition that is immediately heard. Duets with interactive HMSL software. Includes Rosenboom's Two Lines, plus compositions in collaboration with Braxton: Lineage, Enactment, Transfiguration, and Transference. Personnel: David Rosenboom - MIDI grand piano, HFG (Hierarchical Form Generator), responding sampled piano; Anthony Braxton - sopranino, soprano and alto saxophones, clarinet, flute. 1995 release
CD $13

ROBERT ASHLEY - Atalanta (Acts of God)(Lovely Music 3301; USA) Originally released on Lovely Music in 1985. Robert Ashley makes use of the story of Atalanta - a royal princess, discarded by her family, who was raised by the animals to become the fastest-running human, and who was later reclaimed by her father to marry her off for dynastic purposes - to present the character aspects of the "successful suitor". These three aspects of character are presented in the opera as anecdotes about three extraordinary men of our times: Max Ernst (surrealist painter), Willard Reynolds (shaman storyteller), and Bud Powell (composer pianist). The genius of these three men can be taken to represent three aspects of the opera itself: image, narrative and music. In the imaginary setting of Atalanta (Acts of God), one companion (singer) reminds her of her excellence (the "Odalisque" arias); another recommends to her the characteristics of excellence in men (the "Character Reference" arias); and a third amuses her with anecdotes, as if told to her by each of the three men (the "Anecdotes"). Personnel: Robert Ashley - solo voice; with Thomas Buckner, Carla Tato, Jacqueline Humbert - voices; "Blue" Gene Tyranny - keyboards; Paul Shorr - mixing, electronics. Recorded live at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome; Sung in English and Italian. 1997 release.
2 CD Set $24

JOAN LA BARBARA - Sound Paintings (Lovely Music 3001; USA) Joan La Barbara begins Sound Paintings with a scream that pushes you into an unusual world of vocal sound. Her virtuoso singing style, developed over a 20-year period, can be heard on this disc, which combines some of her earlier works with more recent compositions. She takes her extended techniques, which include multi-phonics, overtone singing, and glottal clicks, and orchestrates them in layered soundscape compositions using from eight to sixteen tracks of material. 1991 release.
CD $13

ALVIN LUCIER - Theme (Lovely Music 5011; USA) Theme features three works from Alvin Lucier. Music for Piano with Magnetic Strings is a work in which the strings of a piano sound by themselves. Several EBows (small electromagnets used primarily with electric guitars) which would cause the piano strings to vibrate and sound are placed on the strings of the piano. The pianist works from a prose score which describes the process and suggests she freely position and reposition five EBows on the piano strings, creating strands of sounds of varying density and texture. Theme features a poem of John Ashbery's set to music. Lucier didn't want to violate the flow of the words of the poem by fragmentation or any other cut-up method. The stanzas seemed musical enough just as they were and he wanted the audience to hear the poem more or less in its pristine state, so, working intuitively and by ear, he wrote out the poem for four readers in the order it was written, repeating words and phrases, overlapping and superimposing them in various ways. To "set" the poem, he inserted microphones into the mouths of various vessels, including a small milk bottle, a sea shell, a vase and an empty ostrich egg, to pick up the words as they were sounding inside the vessels. Theme is performed by: Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert, and Joan La Barbara. For Music for Gamelan Instruments, Microphones, Amplifiers and Loudspeakers, Lucier wanted to make a work for Javanese gamelan, but was wary of using someone else's music in his own work. It wasn't until he started imagining the bowl-shaped bonangs of the gamelan orchestra more as resonant chambers to be sounded than objects to be struck, that Lucier felt he could make a work for gamelan that he could call his own. During the performance four players place bonangs of various sizes over microphones, creating feedback, the pitch of which is determined by the shape and size of the bowl and the resonant characteristics of the room. Three gender players strike the bars on their metallaphones, searching for the pitches of the feedback strands. Since it is virtually impossible that a strand of feedback will match exactly a pitch on any fixed-pitch instruments, audible beats - bumps of sound which occur as sound waves coincide - occur. The closer the tuning, the slower the beating. 1999 release.
CD $13

'BLUE' GENE TYRANNY - Free Delivery (Lovely Music 1064; USA) Some of "Blue" Gene Tyranny's greatest keyboard works/performances can be found here on Free Delivery. The Nocturne With and Without Memory was commissioned by Lois Svard and has also been recorded by her for Lovely Music (LCD 3051CD, 1994). Sunrise or Sunset in Texas is from Philip Makanna's film The Crack of Dawn (1983). Personnel: "Blue" Gene Tyranny - acoustic and electronic keyboards; Timothy Buckley - accordion; Joel Ryan - computer analysis. 1990 release.
CD $13

'BLUE' GENE TYRANNY - Country Boy Country Dog (Lovely Music 1065; USA) A realization of "Blue" Gene Tyranny's How to Discover Music In the Sounds of Your Daily Life, a procedural score for recording and composing with environmental sounds. Eclectic, flowing music alternately gesturing toward impressionism and minimalism. Personnel: "Blue" Gene Tyranny - acoustic and electronic keyboards, field and studio recording, electronic transforms; Timothy Buckley - accordion in "The CBCD Intro"; the Arch Ensemble for Experimental Music, featuring Robert Hughes as conductor. 1994 release.
CD $13

YASUNAO TONE - Musica Iconologos (Lovely Music 3041; USA) A surprising release from the radical Fluxus composer, Yasunao Tone - an encoded description of the visual image in utmost detail. In the mythical future, somebody can translate the sounds of this compact disc back into pictures. Personnel: Yasunao Tone and Craig Kendall - image selection and processing; Craig Kendall - computer programming, digital sound creation, manipulation; John D.S. Adams - assistant producer and audio consultant. 1993 release.
CD $13

THOMAS BUCKNER With JON GIBSON / LEROY JENKINS / JOSEPH KUBERA / et al (Lovely Music 3022; USA) Commissioned works dealing with contemporary social and spiritual concerns, all performed by the baritone, Thomas Buckner. Works written by: Jon Gibson, Annea Lockwood, Leroy Jenkins, Brian Smith, and Robert Ashley. Personnel: Thomas Buckner - baritone; Stefani Starin - flute, alto flute, khaen; Jon Gibson - soprano saxophone; Leroy Jenkins, viola; Joseph Kubera - piano; Bill Ruyle - percussion. 1994 release.
CD $13

BARBARA HELD - Upper Air Observation (Lovely Music 3031; USA) Flutist Barbara Held presents works by Alvin Lucier, Nils Vigeland, and Yasunao Tone and a composition of her own. Known for her collaborations with composers, Held has beautifully chosen and performed this wide-ranging sampling of contemporary musical styles. Vara features Joseph Kubera on piano. 1992 release.
CD $13


LP Section:

MILES DAVIS AND THE LIGHTHOUSE ALL-STARS With BUD SHANK / MAX ROACH / ROLF ERICSON / Et Al - At Last! (Cornbread Records 16028; USA) Recorded at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, CA, on September 13, 1953, this is a historic recording for many reasons, and one of the earliest meetings of East and West Coast jazz artists. While Miles Davis and Chet Baker need no introduction, Harold Rumsey might. He was a West Coast jazz bassist who, in 1949, formed the Lighthouse All-Stars, a longstanding group that performed at the Hermosa Beach club every Sunday night for nearly a decade. Though he might not be a household name, his group's alumni include Jimmy Giuffre, Shorty Rogers, Max Roach, Bud Shank, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes, Shelly Manne, and more. Featuring rousing renditions of "'Round Midnight," "Night In Tunisia," and "At Last," and the killer drum solo from Roach, "Drum Conversation," this is a brilliant window into the 1950s LA scene, and Davis's particular ability to fit into nearly any jazz setting with ease. Features Bud Shank, Max Roach, Lorraine Geller, Russ Freeman, Bob Cooper, and Rolf Ericson. 180-gram vinyl.
LP $21


STEVIE WONDER - Live At The Regal Theater, Chicago, June 1962 (Jambalaya 13013; Italy) Practically the entire world has heard Stevie Wonder's June 1962 Motortown Revue performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago -- they just might not know it. That's because the electrifying hit version of "Fingertips," released the following year, was recorded at that fateful gig. Included here is that hit performance along with the rest of Wonder's show from that evening, a night that he and the backing Motortown band were absolutely on fire.
LP $21


ELMER BERNSTEIN - To Kill A Mockingbird (Doxy 136; Russian Federation) Doxy present a reissue of Elmer Bernstein's soundtrack for To Kill A Mockingbird. The film, directed by Robert Mulligan, was originally released in 1962. Between 1951 and 2002, Elmer Bernstein composed over 200 scores for films and TV programs. Among the great film scores he composed from 1955 to 1965 - including 1960's The Magnificent Seven, 1963's The Great Escape (DOC 105LP), and 1956's The Ten Commandments - the one Bernstein picked as his favorite was To Kill A Mockingbird (1962). This has one of the simplest and most delicate film scores ever composed. The opening main title features a delicate waltz tempo mixed with a more expansive theme which beautifully sets the mood for this drama of innocent childhood and racial prejudice. This is a masterpiece of subtle film scoring and one of the greatest from the past sixty years.
LP $21


SPLITTER ORCHESTER/FELIX KUBIN - Shine On You Crazy Diagram (Gagarin 2036; Germany) Triggered by the 2015 edition of the Labor Sonor Festival "Translating Music" in Berlin, this split album between the Splitter Orchester and Felix Kubin offers two sides of the same coin, sometimes appearing like the rendering of an identikit picture. Taking up side A of the album, the Splitter Orchester remains faithful to its trademark technique of improvised composition. Their sound carries the spirit of artists like Jani Christou, John Cage, Franco Evangelisti, and the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, taking it further to the 21st century and strictly avoiding any scores. Specially built and prepared instruments add to the complexity of sound layers that slowly unfold, filling both an imaginary and physical space. Starting with a short piano loop, "Diagram 1" turns into a darker drone cut by crashing glasses, giving it an almost Hörspiele-like character. "Diagram 2" is a piece about transformation and metamorphosis which starts with airy highest tones that unravel into a sort of chanting before slowly descending downwards, reaching deeper realms of rumbling which culminate in brutal noise. On side B, Felix Kubin reinterprets these tracks, creating a physically closer and blunter atmosphere, which turns the distant dreamlike atmosphere of side A into a state of awakening. His two versions present a more systematic technique, counteracting the subconscious swarm composition of the Orchester. For his take on "Diagram 1", under the title "Lückenschere", he uses a sequenced sample of the piano loop which generates different dynamics, spiraling over sequencer variations. Much rawer and with aspects of minimal music is "Lichtsplitter", a pure electronic blueprint of "Diagram 2", that involves a black and white score drawing turned into sound with an eight-channel light scanner. The Splitter Orchester, founded in 2010, is a Berlin-based collection of internationally respected composer-performers which draws inspiration from many genres, most noticeably contemporary/improvised music. Splitter Orchester originates from the "Echtzeitmusik" scene, which emerged in Berlin in the mid-1990s - a locally based and globally networked experimental music scene and long-term platform for the exchange of artistic ideas.
LP $26


SERGE GAINSBOURG - Du Chant A La Une! Volume 1 & 2 (Rumble Records 2011135; EEC?) Rumble Records present a reissue of Serge Gainsbourg debut 10" Du Chant A La Une! and its immediate follow up, recorded with Alain Goraguer Et Son Orchestre, originally released in 1958 and 1959. The two 10" records belong to Gainsbourg's chansonnier period, and they're far from that style that gave us his late minimalistic pop atmospheres for which he is well known. But they are already a nice take on Gainsbourg's future smoky night club attitude that later helped consolidate his maudit character, that sleazy sexy mother that seems to be encrusted in the grooves of each of his most famous scratchy vinyl of the seventies. Rumble collect both of these rare gems with Du Chant A La Une! Volume 1 & 2.
LP $21

RAY CHARLES - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (Rumble Records 2011102; EEC?) 1962's Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is regarded by many as Ray Charles's finest studio album. A departure from his earlier work for ABC and Atlantic, this LP features Charles's reworkings of country standards in his inimitable pop-R&B style. In addition to being a damn fine album, it was also a landmark release as it bridged the racial divide between country music and R&B and marked one of the earliest albums on which a black artist had complete control over his own recordings. A truly monumental piece of 20th-century American music history, one that is essential to any collector of R&B or country!
LP $21

CLARINETTE - The Now of Then (Feeding Tube 314; USA) "In the 15 years since Thurston and I released the first Clarinette LP, Haze (E#60, 2002), Dan Vallor has continued to produce music unabated. Most of it has been released in very limited editions (on CDRs, cassettes, and lathes), but it has been a consistently cool flow of drone accrual and invention from a guy we still sorta think of as pop-oriented. Dan's best known work probably remains his archival activities inside the archives of the late songwriting genius, Scott Miller, although others may know him from his efforts to catalog the output of the NZ lathe underground. Clarinette is a long running solo project that began in the '80s, that went dormant until early in the 21st Century. The music is largely based on electric guitar huzz and hum, but there are plenty of sound events that pop up throughout the record, disturbing and enriching the surface with sproings, rasps, and groons. The pieces on The Now of Then are all fairly reflective, and probably more suitable to stoned drifting than freak dancing, but hey -- it never pays to second guess audience reaction. If you feel the urge to freak, so be it. Clarinette's music definitely twangs the freak register. Who are we to say you should remain seated?" --Byron Coley, 2017
LP $16

Back in stock:

MASSACRE [FRED FRITH / BILL LASWELL / FRED MAHER] - Killing Time (Spittle Records 067; Italy) Spittle Records present an expanded reissue of Massacre's Killing Time, originally released in 1981. Following the breakup of Cambridge's avant-rock legends, Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith moved to NYC in 1979, and soon found himself deep in the heart of the city's robust post-punk and free-jazz scenes. He performed with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, from the group Material, as a power trio of sorts under the moniker of Massacre. The group quickly garnered a reputation around town, and around the world for that matter, as a heavy and heady band that experimented greatly with rhythm, time signatures, and tone. As Frith himself put it, "the group was a direct response to New York. It was a very aggressive group, kind of my reaction to the whole New York rock club scene." Massacre released one album, Killing Time, before disbanding for nearly 20 years. Their first wave as a group crashed fast and furiously and this one album, recorded in part live in Paris, and in part at Brooklyn's OAO Studio, is a perfect encapsulation of early '80s NYC. In addition to the original album, first released on Celluloid in 1981, this deluxe three-sided double LP includes eight bonus tracks recorded live between '80 and '81 in San Francisco and at Inroads and CBGB in NYC. Avant-jazz-post-punk-noise of the highest order from several legends and one of the most important projects Frith and Laswell were ever involved in.
2 LP Set $28


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Bruce Lee Gallanter’s Recommended Gig List for March of 2017


THE STONE RESIDENCIES - ROBERT DICK - MARCH 21–26

3/24 Friday
830 pm - The Time Between Us - Stephanie Griffin (viola) Ned Rothenberg (alto sax, bass clarinet, shakuhachi) Satoshi Takeishi (drums) Robert Dick (flutes)

3/25 Saturday
830 pm - Bermuda Rectangle - Vince Bell (spoken word, vocals) David Mansfield (pedal steel, banjo, guitars) Ratzo B. Harris (bass) Robert Dick (flutes)

NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY PRESENTATION - SUNDAY AFTERNOON—ONE DAY ONLY!
MARCH 26 from 2PM to 6PM
A Special Presentation of music performed by students and faculty of New England Conservatory. - NEC FESTIVAL
Maestro Day: Henry Fraser (bass) Conor Baker (drums, percussion) Joe Moffett (trumpet) Sam Weinberg (alto sax)—Kim Anderson (voice, composition) Pete Moffett (drums) Lucia Stavros (harp) Michael Sachs (clarinet) Sam Decker (tenor sax)—Ted Reichman (accordion, composition)—Leo Hardman-Hill (trumpet, composition)—Steven Long (piano solo)—Rubin Holbein (trumpet solo)—Utsav Lal (piano solo)—DoYeon Kim (gayeguem solo)—Greene trio: Will Greene (sax, composition) Sam Freibush (piano) Jon Starks (drums)—Christmas Gridlock: Eric Stilwell (trombone, composition) Andres Abenante (guitar) Eladio Rojas (drums) Tree Palmedo (trumpet) Zach Lavine (bass)—Ruthless Moon: Caroline Kuhn (voice, banjo) Sam Talmadge (guitar) Dan Klingsberg (bass) Elise Leavy (voice, accordion)—Aradia: Drew Wesely (guitar, composition) Dan O'Brien (reeds) Utsav Lal (piano) Burcu Gulec (voice); The program: Maestro Day—Kim Anderson—Ted Reichman—Leo Hardman-Hill—Steven Long—Rubin Holbein—Utsav Lal—DoYeon Kim—Greene trio—Christmas Gridlock—Ruthless Moon—Aradia

8:30 pm - Our Cells Know - Robert Dick (contrabass flute solo)

THE STONE RESIDENCIES - STEVEN BERNSTEIN - MARCH 28 – APR 2

3/28 Tuesday
8:30 pm - Diaspora Special Edition - Arturo O'Farrill (piano) Peter Apfelbaum (sax) Brad Jones (bass) Billy Martin (drums) Steven Bernstein (trumpet)

THE STONE COMMISSIONS - NICOLE MITCHELL
In collaboration with National Sawdust The Stone presents a series of World Premieres the last Wednesday of every month through 2017.
7pm at National Sawdust in Williamsburg. For details check https://nationalsawdust.org/event/jazz-stone-commissioning-series/ - $25

3/29 Wednesday
8:30 pm - Sexmob - Briggan Krauss (sax) Tony Scherr (bass) Kenny Wollesen (drums) Steven Bernstein (trumpet)

THE STONE AT RUSS AND DAUGHTERS CAFE!
THURSDAY MARCH 30: BEN GOLDBERG
ONE SET AT 8PM—ADMISSION FREE!
The Stone is proud to present music at Russ and Daughters Cafe at 127 Orchard Street the last Thursday of every month! Drop by for smoked fish, pickles and great music!

3/30 Thursday
8:30 pm - Millennial Territory Orchestra - Doug Wieselman (reeds) Peter Apfelbaum (reeds) Erik Lawrence (reeds) Curtis Fowlkes (trombone) Charlie Burnham (violin) Matt Munisteri (guitar) Ben Allison (bass) Ben Perowsky (drums) Steven Bernstein (trumpet)

3/31 Friday
8:30 pm - Spanish Fly - Steven Bernstein (trumpet) Marcus Rojas (tuba) Dave Tronzo (guitar)

4/1 Saturday
8:30 pm - Blue Campfire - Steven Bernstein (trumpet) Dave Tronzo (guitar) Larry Campbell (guitar) Steve Cardenas (guitar)

4/2 Sunday
8:30 pm - Universal Melody Brass Band - Frank London (trumpet) Steven Bernstein (trumpet) Art Baron (trombone) Curtis Fowlkes (trombone) Matt Darrio (sax) Oscar Noriega (sax) Marcus Rojaz (tuba) Billy Martin (drums)

There are no refreshments or merchandise at The Stone.
Only music. All ages are welcome.
Cash Only at the door. There is no phone.
There is no food or beverage served or allowed
just a serious listening environment.
The Stone is booked purely on a curatorial basis

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The CORNELIA STREET CAFE - 212-989-9319
29 Cornelia St in the heart of the West Greenwich Village, NYC

Friday Mar 24
9:00PM & 10:30PM GILAD HEKSELMAN ZUPEROCTAVE - Gilad Hekselman, guitar; Sam Yahel, keyboards; Kevin Hays, piano; Kush Abadey, drums

Saturday Mar 25
6:00PM THE ROGUE DIPLOMATS - Brian Donnelly, guitar, vocals; Matthew Cullen Breiner, bodhrán/tin whistle/vocals; Patrick Marran, Irish bouzouki/guitar/vocals; Nate Diehl, accordion/vocals; Christine Scharf Breiner, vocals
9:00PM & 10:30PM GILAD HEKSELMAN ZUPEROCTAVE - Gilad Hekselman, guitar; Sam Yahel, keyboards; Kevin Hays, piano; Kush Abaday, drums

Sunday Mar 26
8:35PM BEN PEROWSKY TRIO - Chris Speed, tenor sax, clarinet; Michael Formanek, bass; Ben Perowsky, drums

Monday March 27th:
8:30PM OSCAR PEREZ CUBAN AFRO-FUSION - Oscar Perez, piano; Endea Owens, bass; Ronen Itzik, drums; Emiliano Valerio - percussion; Lance Bryant, sax & flute

Tuesday Mar 28
8:01PM STREAMS FEATURING BILLY DREWES - Yago Vazquez, piano; Billy Drewes, saxophone; Scott Lee, bass; Jeff Hirshfield, drums
Streams Featuring Billy Drewes image

Wed March 29th:
8:01PM ANDREW RATHBUN QUARTET - Andrew Rathbun, tenor sax; Tim Hagans, trumpet; Matt Pavolka, bass; Tom Rainey, drums

Thursday Mar 30
8:01PM KYLE NASSER SEXTET - Kyle Nasser, tenor, soprano sax; Loren Stillman, alto sax; Jeff Miles, guitar; Dov Manski, piano; Nick Jost, bass; Allan Mednard, drums

Friday Mar 31
9PM & 10:30PM VINNIE SPERRAZZA QT, CD RELEASE: JUXTAPOSITION - Chris Cheek, tenor sax; Bruce Barth, piano; Pete Brendler, bass; Vinnie Sperrazza, drums
Saturday Apr 01
9:00PM & 10:30PM ADAM KOLKER'S AUGMENTED TRIO - Adam Kolker - woodwinds; Steve Cardenas, guitar; John Hebert, bass; Billy Mintz, drums; Jeff Schiller, flutes; Jeff Nichols, clarinet; Jackie Henderson, bassoon

Sunday Apr 02
8:35PM DJANGO AT CORNELIA STREET, DOMINIQUE CARRÉ - guitar; Koran Agan, guitar; Josh Kaye, guitar; Eduardo Belo, bass; Raphael Pannier, drums


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I-Beam Presents:

Saturday, March 25th 8:30 PM
8:30 Zeena Parkins & Mary Halvorson
9:30 Zeena Parkins & Leila Bordreuil

Saturday, April 8th 8:30 PM
Susan Alcorn & Sylvie Courvoisier
Susan Alcorn – Pedal Steel
Sylvie Courvoisier – Piano

Monday - April 3rd 9:30 PM
Nate Wooley – Solo Trumpet

Saturday - April 8th 8:30 PM
Susan Alcorn – Pedal Steel
Sylvie Courvoisier – Piano

Friday - April 28th 8:30 PM
Vinnie Sperrazza – Solo Drums

I-Beam is located at 168 7th Street in Brooklyn, NY 11215 - Directions: SUBWAY: Take the F or R trains to 4th Ave & 9th Street. Walk down 4th ave to 7th street. Make a left on 7th and walk past 3rd ave. We are located on the ground floor, the grey doors to the right of the stairs of #168.

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GREENWICH HOUSE SOUND IT OUT SERIES:

Sound It Out series @ Greenwich House – Concerts, January-June 2017

Saturday, March 25, 7:30 p.m. – All-star double-bill!
Wadada Leo Smith & Angelica Sanchez Angelica Sanchez Trio w/ Michael Formanek & Tyshawn Sorey, Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet; Angelica Sanchez, piano

Friday, March 31, 7:30 p.m. – Cross-generational double-bill!
Ralph Alessi solo Alex Koo, Mark Turner & Ralph Alessi - trumpet
Alex Koo Derudder, piano; Mark Turner, tenor saxophone; Ralph Alessi, trumpet

Greenwich House Music School:
46 Barrow Street, just west of 7th Avenue South in
New York City’s West Village;
www.greenwichhouse.org / 212-242-4770

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BENEFIT for the BROOKLYN DEFENSE COMMITTEE!

Attend a fundraising event for a much needed Sanctuary Program in our community! The Brooklyn Defense Committee (BDC) is a community-based group working to build a network of sanctuary spaces in Brooklyn, especially in neighborhoods with high concentration of immigrants. BDC needs your support to continue their crucial work.

Saturday, April 8th at 2pm
at Union Pool
484 Union Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Marc Ribot & Sofia Rei duo
Chelsea Reject
Kill Alters

$20 (all proceeds going to Brooklyn Defense Committee)