DMG Newsletter for January 27th, 2017

My Favorite Signs at the Million Woman March in NYC Last Saturday:
Resistance is Not Futile so Organize and Resist!
What we Want is an Honest Leader, Not a Knucklehead Daily Tweeter!
This is What a Real Democracy Looks Like!

The Sky May Be Gray, But There is a Ray of Sunshine Emanating from These Discs:

Hideo Yamaki / Bill Laswell Dave Douglas! New from Tzadik: Garth Knox & Saltarello Tio - Book of Angels - Vol 30! Tisziji Munoz & Dave Liebman Octet! Gary Lucas New Hungarian Trio! Meredith Monk! Linda Sharrock/Zinman/Rosen/Rechtern!

Jeff Platz & Daniel Carter! Steve Reich & So Percussion! Philip Corner! Renaldo & the Loaf! The Necks! Plus Archival Music from Frank Zappa! Bud Powell! Townes Van Zandt & Guy Clark! My Cat is an Alien & Jean-Marc Montera! Mike Cooper and Much More..!

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

Sunday, January 29th:
6pm: HAG: BRAD HENKEL / SEAN ALI / DAVID GROLLMAN - Trumpet/Contrabass/Snare
7pm: MAKOTO KAWASIMA - Solo Alto Sax
8pm: BLAISE SIWULA / ERIC PLAKS - Saxes & keyboard

Sunday, February 5th:
6pm: GUILLERMO GREGORIO & ART BAILEY - Plus Fluxus Tapes
7pm: VORTKIP: NICO LETMAN-BURTINOVIC/ELIJAH SHIFFER/BRITT CIAMPA

Sunday, February 12th:
7pm: MICHAEL LYTLE / NICK DIDKOVSKY / MATT OSTROWSKI -
Bass Clarinet / Guitar / Synthesizer!

Sunday, February 19th:
6pm: NICK FRASER and INGRID LAUBROCK - Drums & Sax
7pm: MOOSEBUMPS: KARL NYBERG and ANTON JONSSON - Sax and Drums!

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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HIDEO YAMAKI / BILL LASWELL With DAVE DOUGLAS - The Drawing Center [LTD Edition Japanese import CD] (ZiZo Shcz 0060; Japan) Featuring Dave Douglas on trumpet, Bill Laswell on bass & effects and Hideo Yamaki on drums. This disc was recorded last summer (August of 2016) at the Drawing Center gallery in Soho, NYC. Japanese drummer, Hideo Yamaki, has been collaborating with Bill Laswell for nearly thirty years, starting with three great discs from the late 1980’s/early 1990’s: ‘Autonomous Zone’, ‘U.M.A.’ and Yamaki’s own ’Shadow Run’. In more recent times, Yamaki has been coming to NYC and working with Mr. Laswell again live. I caught an incredible set last Friday (1/20/17) at The Stone with three guitarists: Raoul Bjorkenheim, Mike Sopko & Dominic James with Laswell and Yamaki - it was phenomenal! Another more recent project for Mr. Laswell is called Blue Buddha with Louie Belogenis, Dave Douglas and Tyshawn Sorey. Their CD on Tzadik is superb and I have had the good fortune to check them out live on a couple of occasions.
The Drawing Center is a gallery space at 35 Wooster in Soho, NYC, which has been around for forty years. In recent years, the Drawing Center has sponsored several concerts which have accompanied different artwork like drawings, pictures or films. This disc was recorded on the the third occasion the Mr. Laswell as played at the Center. The sound on this disc, recorded by two associates of Mr. Yamaki and edited, mixed & mastered at Mr. Laswell’s studio is excellent. Dave Douglas seems to be using a small amount of echo, giving his trumpet a lush, warm, enchanting sound. At times it sounds as if he also looping some of is lines with a harmonizer. Mr. Laswell also has a distinctive, slightly slippery sound which also adds a hypnotic, buoyant groove underneath. Mr. Yamaki is one of Japan’s finest drummers and is the perfect choice here as well. He keep several lines going on, locking with Laswell’s bass, adding some Tony Williams meets Al Foster propulsion and pulse in the right amounts throughout. When Bill switches to a dub-line midway, Mr. Douglas plays some infectious muted trumpet with more subtle echo-spice. I unfortunately missed this gig myself, but am mighty glad to here the results here as it is one of this year’s best discs and yes, I know it is only January of 2017. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $25


One New One from Tzadik This Month - The Final Book of Angels..?!?

GARTH KNOX and THE SALTARELLO TRIO With AGNES VESTERMAN/SYLVAIN LEMETRE/JULIA ROBERT - Leonard: The Book of Angels Volume 30 (Tzadik 8350; USA) Drawing on his vast experience as viola player of the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble InterContemporain and his close collaboration with many of the today’s leading composers, Garth Knox has become a master of many styles. Presenting a completely new interpretation of the Book of Angels, the beautiful medieval-tinged arrangements produced by Garth Knox and his group capture the folk song quality of Zorn’s compositions with a lovely and intimate ensemble of strings and percussion. Playing viola and viola d’amore, Garth presents these enigmatic compositions in a new and refreshing light. This penultimate installment of the Book of Angels is also one of the most charmingly beautiful.
CD $14


TISZIJI MUNOZ With DAVE LIEBMAN / JOHN MEDESKI / DON PATE / DAVID FINCK / TONY FALCO / ADAM BENHAM / RAKALAM BOB MOSES - Atoms of Supersoul (Anami 070; USA) Studio recording featuring Tisziji Munoz on electric & acoustic guitars & compositions, Dave Liebman on soprano & tenor saxes & flute, Don Pate & David Finck on basses abd Rakalam Bob Moses, Tony Falco & Adam Benham on drums. Some forty-plus discs later, guitar guru Tiziji Munoz is still going strong and releasing great discs like manna from… This is the fifth time that legendary saxist Dave Liebman has recorded with Munoz, going all the way back to the beginning of the first release on the Anami label, ‘Visiting This Planet’ (early 1980’s). Both Munoz and Liebman have been long inspired by the music, spirit and sax playing of John Coltrane, which is most likely why the have continued to work together throughout many years. Another common bond is drummer Rakalam Bob Moses who has been a friend and collaborator with with Mr. Liebman for more than fifty years. Mr. Moses and Mr. Munoz have also been working together for many years as well, recording together (and playing live) on some two dozen discs. The last few years, Munoz has expanded his ensemble to include two bassists and two or three drummers, making it a double band of sorts. Another ongoing Munoz collaborator is keyboard wiz John Medeski who has been on some ten discs with Tiziji over the last decade.
What makes this disc different for other recent Munoz discs is that it begins with a sublime, laid back version of “Leaving This Planet”, a lovely ballad that Munoz has performed on numerous occasions. There is no guitar on this version but Mr. Liebman does play some lovely soprano sax. It is not until the third song, “Don’t Turn Back”, that Munoz’s signature guitar turns up. Munoz begins slowly, concentrating on certain notes, bending them one at a time, making each one count before he increases the tempo/stream, the intensity building as it evolves. When Munoz finally picks up the speed of his cascading lines, we have been able to ease our way into his often lightning-like licks. On the aptly titled, “We will Meet Again in Spirit”, Munoz adds a second guitar part, so that both guitars cascade around one another without getting in each others way. Even with a piano, two bassists, two or three drummers, the rhythm team is unified as one cosmic force joined together. When Liebman’s tenor finally enters, both guitars and sax also join together in a spiritual dance, the vibration levitating all who listen out of their seats. If there is anyone out there who still hasn’t yet the amazing Tisziji Munoz, this disc is a great place to start since Munoz can often be a bit too much for the fainted-hearted listeners. Today (1/25/17) it is sunny out for a change and this disc does a great job of providing some healing medicine for the dark forces that have descended on many of us. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $12


GARY LUCAS / ENIKO SZABO / TONI DEZSO - Pearly Clouds (Acrobat Music 6514; EEC) Featuring Gary Lucas on guitars, Eniko Szabo on voice and Toni Dezso on alto & bari saxes. Every few years, I get back in contact with Downtown guitar legend, Gary Lucas, and he fills me in on his latest endeavors. I love hearing about his latest exploits around the world and try to stay on top of where he is playing live both locally and everywhere else. This coming Friday, January 27th (2017), Mr. Lucas will play the UN to perform solo acoustic before the General Assembly as part of their Holocaust Remembrance Ceremonies and then later that night at Roulette (8pm), he will be premiering my new live solo score accompanying Orson Welles’ recently re-discovered 1938 silent surrealist comedy “Too Much Johnson”. Last time I met with Mr. Lucas, he had a superfine duo CD out with Peter Hammill from Van Der Graaf Generator.
For this disc, Mr. Lucas collaborates with two Hungarian musicians: Ms. Eniko Szabo on vocals and Mr. Toni Dezso on alto & bari sax. Although most folks who regularly read the DMG newsletter know about guitarist Gary Lucas originally from his work with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley, Mr. Lucas has been involved on more than a dozen discs since then on a variety of labels: KnitWorks, Tzadik and many more. Ms. Eniko Szabo a traditional Hungarian folk singer who has done soundtrack work for Hunagrian director Miklos Jansco. Mr. Dezso has played sax with the Hungarian avant-jazzers Tudosok (a/k/a The Scientists), who opened for Mr. Lucas’ band Gods & Monsters in Germany in 2000. Both Ms. Szabo and Mr. Dezso live in Budapest. Ms. Szabo sings in her native tongue and has a warm, lovely and most enchanting voice. Most of the songs here are traditional Hungarian (or from Moldova…) folk songs and the lyrics are translated into English for the liner notes of this disc. Mr. Lucas often plays acoustic guitar with the selective use of effects to enhance the sound. The songs are often stripped down to just voice, a charming voice, hypnotic, spacey guitar and sly yet minimal alto or bari sax added as sublime seasoning. Lucas alters the sound of his guitar on each piece, giggling each song its own sonic quality. The music itself is a unique blend of folk/rock/psych with ethnic (eastern European) influences. Without a doubt this is one of the most enchanting, subtly mesmerizing discs I’ve heard in a long while. If you ever heard Gary Lucas’ CD of Chinese love songs (‘The Edge of Heaven’), you know what I am talking about as that record remains one of the long lost gems of the mid-nineties. Bravo to Gary Lucas and this fab trio! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15


MEREDITH MONK - On Behalf of Nature (ECM 2473; Germany) For five decades, vocalist-composer Meredith Monk has explored what she calls “primordial utterance,” or non-verbal vocal sound that lay beneath and beyond language, expressing “that for which we have no words.” This exploration has led her to create music that The New Yorker describes as simultaneously “visceral and ethereal, raw and rapt,” an art that “sings, dances and meditates on timeless forces.” With her latest, multivalent ECM New Series album, Monk aimed to address ecology and climate change, she says: “Believing that music speaks more directly than words, I worked to make a piece with a fluid, perceptual field that could expand awareness of what we are in danger of losing. On Behalf of Nature is a meditation on our intimate connection to nature, its inner structures, the fragility of its ecology and our interdependence.” Voices and instruments have equal weight: sometimes each is heard alone; sometimes they are blended to form a new, mysterious sound; sometimes they are combined to create intricate, layered, yet transparent sonic landscapes.
CD $18


LINDA SHARROCK / ERIC ZINMAN / NOAH ROSEN / MARIO RECHTERN - Acknowledgements Not for Sale (Jazt Tapes 049; USA) Featuring Linda Sharrock on vocal, Mario Rechtern on saxes & saxoline and Eric Zinman or Noah Rosen on piano (1 track with both pianists). This disc was recorded in Paris in May of 2013. After retiring from the public’s view for many years, the great avant/jazz vocalist Linda Sharrock has returned with a couple of fine CDs from the Improvised Beings label as well as a rare triple LP which is now out-of-print. “After suffering a stroke in 2009, Ms. Sharrock withdrew from the scene and then returned in 2012” - Wikipedia. Ms. Sharrock has been living in Paris in recent years and has working with Itaru Oki, Eric Zinman (from Boston area), Mario Rechtern and Noah Rosen. You might recall the name of Mr. Zinman, who has worked Francois Tusques, Leap of Faith and the New Language Collective with Ted Daniel.
What we have here is mostly two trios with vocals, sax and piano. The music sounds like it was recorded in large room with the vocals closer to the mic than the piano or sax, the balance is just right. Unlike her early recordings made with her then husband Sonny Sharrock, Ms. Sharrock doesn’t do any screaming yet is equally expressive on a more restrained level. I like that the first trio (with Mr. Rosen), takes their time, slowing building and increasing the intensity as they go. It turns out that this was a live gig in which each pianist plays on two or three pieces with just the goal and sax and with both pianists playing together on the final piece. What I like about this is that the music feels intimate, even calm at the center. Like a thoughtful conversation between three old friends. Mr. Rechtern switches to what sounds like soprano sax on one piece, which works well with Ms. Sharrock’s unique, yet understated vocals. Overall this is a fine session which doesn’t knock you over the head but does find it way to get inside your skin and thoughts. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $12

Rarity back in stock:

NEW LANGUAGE COLLABORATIVE With TED DANIEL/GLYNIS LOMON/SYD SMART/ERIC ZINMAN - Retreat (JaZt Tapes 39; USA) LTD Ed CD-R] With Ted Daniel on trumpet & flugelhorn, Eric Zinman on electric keyboard, Glynis Lomon on cello, voice & aquasonic and Syd Smart on drums. JaZt Tapes is a new limited edition CD-R label in which the artists retain the rights for the music as well as the manufacturing and distribution. More than fifty artists are already involved for future releases. New Language Collaborative (NLC)formed in 2004 as a trio with Glynis Lomon, Eric Zinman and Syd Smart. They asked legendary brassman, Ted Daniel, to join them for this session. You should recognize the names og the trio from prior collaborations: Ms. Lomon (from her work with Anthony Braxton & Bill Dixon), Mr. Zinman (trio disc on Cadence and duo with Mario Rechtern) and Mr. Smart (great quartet with Raphe Malik & Frank Wright). You no doubt know Ted Daniel since he has been an influential trumpeter since the early seventies (Brute Force with Sonny Sharrock plus more than 2 dozen records with Andrew Cyrille, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill & Luther Thomas). An impressive resume all around. There is now leader here although this music is far from formless or totally free sounding. Mr. Zinman sounds like he is playing acoustic piano throughout the long first piece, "Stories we Tell Each Other/Space and Time". While Mr. Daniel often lays back and plays more restrained flugelhorn, Ms. Lomon bows up a storm underneath often taking care of the bottom end. Like Abdul Wadud or Daniel Levin, Ms. Lomon plays with a refreshing intensity. The piano and drums move in crashing waves together in between occasional moments of calm. Mr. Daniel sounds especially tasty on muted trumpet, simmering at times and choosing his notes carefully. On the second piece, "The Truth Still Marches On", Zinman switches to electric piano (which sounds like vibes, eerie organ or harpsichord at times) with all members slowly burning together, comprising a vibrant web of activity. Each of the different keyboard sounds create a different vibe. Ms. Lomon does a bit of twisted vocalizing on this piece reminding me that Halloween is almost here. The third long piece, "Glossolalia" is unfolds organically, building into an inspired section of explosive fireworks. We just a few of these in so grab'em while they last. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $12


JEFF PLATZ With DANIEL CARTER / DMITRY ISHENKO / DALIUS NAUJOKAITIS - New Cabal (Glitch 006; USA) Studio session from 2016 featuring Jeff Platz on guitar, Daniel Carter on saxes, flute, trumpet & piano, Dmitry Ishenko on bass and Dalius Naujokaitis on drums. Once or twice a year, Boston-based guitarist, Jeff Platz, sends us a few new CDs, often in groups of three at a time with different but related groups. He just sent us one new quartet disc which consists of several members of previous ensembles. No doubt you all know the ubiquitous multi-winds wiz, Daniel Carter, who seems to sit in with just about everyone in the Downtown and other scenes, no matter what their backgrounds are. Bassist Ishenko, we know from his work with John Tchicai and Garrison Fewell. Drummer, Naujokaitis, is a relatively new name for me.
Daniel Carter starts out on flute, playing some sad, haunting and ghost-like notes with the rest of the quartet playing in slow motion around. Mr. Carter picks up one instrument at a time, playing a solo on each one while Mr. Platz provides an ongoing dialogue electric guitar, changing colors as he works with a slide for a short section, rubbing strings a bit, playing quiet jazz lines, rarely staying in one place for very long. This music has a dreamy, laid-back quality at times, yet starts to speed up and fly, escalating, becoming more assured and focused as it goes. Mr. Platz does quite sound like any other guitarists and plays most modestly, rarely breaking a sweat. Even when gets somewhat noisy, he does so at a low volume, bending note fragments along with Daniel Carter’s sly soprano sax on a piece called “Mr. Stone”. Considering that I don’t think the rhythm team has played together just a couple of times, they work extremely well. In some ways, this quartet is speaking the language of improv. There is a bond between all four members which seems to grow stronger as the CD evolves. Jeff Platz usually plays here at DMG every year so let’s hope he comes back soon. In the meantime, you can get this disc and check out his evolving team of improv experts. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $14


SWITCHBACK With MARS WILLIAMS / WACLAW ZIMPEL / HILLIARD GREENE / KLAUS KUGEL - Live in Ukraine (MultiKulti 1035; Poland) Featuring Mars Williams on saxes & toys, Waclaw Zimpel on clarinets, tarogato & shrutibox, Hill Greene on double bass and Klaus Kugel on drums. Thanks to several Polish labels (Not Two, ForTune, 1K & Multikulti), there is a great deal of documentation going on of the ever-growing Polish avant/jazz scene with and without a number of American collaborators. The quartet is a fine example of another cross-cultural exchange: Mars Williams (Chicago), Waclaw Zimpel (Poland), Hill Greene (NYC) and Kalus Kugel (Germany). Mars Williams has been living in Chicago for many years now and working with the NRG Ensemble, Peter Brotzmann and Ken Vandermark. There are two Polish reed players who have been garnering praise for a number of years now: Mikolaj Trzaska and Waclaw Zimpel. Both play with Vandermark in the Resonance Ensemble and both can be found on some two dozens discs each. Hill Greene is one of NY’s busiest bassists and I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Klaus Kugel live with the Ganelin Trio Priority, Perry Robinson and Steve Swell.
This is a mostly improvised quartet date, recorded live at Zaporozhye in the Ukraine. Things kick off with some tight, inspired, high flying clarinet and tenor sax frontline over the swirling rhythm team. Both reeds are playing in a similar range, swerving around one another in a rich, furious tapestry. Eventually the hypnotic drone of a shrutibox comes in as things calm down to a more meditative state. Thinghs build up once again and the tempo increases with some extraordinary interplay between the sax, clarinet, bass and drums, soaring together. There is one section on “Substance from Shadow” where the both reeds play so intricately that when one starts a phrase, the other one completes it just right. This is yet another OUTstanding date from the MultiKulti label. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17


RICHARD PINHAS - Reverse (Bureau B 249; Germany) Richard Pinhas, leader of French space-rock pioneers Heldon in the '70s, has been prolific since returning to the form in the '90s. He has collaborate with Merzbow, Yoshida Tatsuya, Oren Ambarchi, Barry Cleveland, and Wolf Eyes. "Changes in my life really influenced this record," Richard Pinhas tells of his new album Reverse. "The wife of a friend of mine offered to read my Tarot cards... I don't believe in it - I am very materialist, not financially but in my philosophy - so it was very strange that in the year that followed I lost my two parents, broke up with my girlfriend, lost my flat, and moved to Nantes. So the album was done in this confusion, in this chaotic state of having lost all these things." Reverse's dark experimental noise and long repetitive tracks have an intimidating first impression. But listening to the whole 50 minutes leaves one feeling purified. Pinhas even says this album "fixed" and "resurrected" him: "It was a healing process for me to make this album. To get rid of all the negativity that occupied my brain." The main process of the album production was one of construction, with Pinhas and Oren Ambarchi (guitars, "dronz") forming the skeleton. After the initial sessions in Paris, they threw out everything except their own parts and then started searching for "the right parts. Not a drummer, but the drummer, not a bass guitarist, but the bass guitarist." He enlisted the talents of Arthur Narcy (drums), Florian Tatar (bass) along with Masami Akita (analog synths), his son Duncan Nilson-Pinhas (digital synths), and William Winant (percussion). Reverse reflects Pinhas's keen interest in Kabbalah. "Ketter" is an unknowable realm and the music reflects this. We catch traces of elements traversing the spectrum while the whole retains its own mystery. Pinhas's immediately recognizable tone is tempered by Narcy's unique drumming style. "End" reflects the "reverse" of the album title, as sounds double back in on themselves whilst Narcy, frantic on the cymbals, pounds the drums themselves with military precision. "Nefesh" is the first level of the soul, the track's percolating sounds depicting such a pneumatic birth. "V2" brings to mind both Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1973) and David Bowie. It sounds like the aftermath of an enormous futuristic electrical malfunction still lingering over a vast cityscape. Cover art by Yann LeGendre.
CD $17


STEVE REICH SO PERCUSSION - Drumming Live (Dog w/a Bone 007; USA) Drumming Live was recorded live in New York City at (Le) Poisson Rouge in 2013 at the Steve Reich Benefit Concert to support the Aldrich Museum. It features Steve Reich's Drumming performed by acclaimed Brooklyn based quartet, Sō Percussion, and includes a 3 minute version of Clapping Music, performed by Steve Reich and Sō Percussion. Drumming was premiered in 1971 at the Museum of Modern Art. It was the first large-scale piece that Reich wrote and is considered one of the first minimalist masterpieces. 45 years on, it continues to be a fascinating piece of work that keeps listeners intrigued and impressed. Sō Percussion are: Eric Cha-Beach, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, Josh Quillen; featuring on Percussion: Yumi Tamashiro, Mika Godbole, Amy Garapic, Victor Caccese, and Peter Dodds; featuring on vocals: Elizabeth Myers and Daisy Press; featuring on piccolo: Jessica Schmitz. The artwork is by Sol LeWitt, "Five Geometric Figures in Five Colors (S-56)" (1986). Liner notes written by Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winning composer, David Lang. Lang from the liner notes: "Drumming asks for a kind of utopian community, in which a group of people come together without a conductor, building elegance and beauty out of the coordination of their intricate, intense, focused actions."
CD $15


PHILIP CORNER - Gong/Ear: Shaman (The Wormhole 009; UK) Philip Corner (b. 1933) is an American composer, musician and visual artist. A founder member of Fluxus, his teachers include Henry Cowell and Olivier Messiaen, and he has performed with George Maciunas, Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik. While on military duty in Korea in 1960-1961 he studied calligraphy with Ki-sung Kim and many of his works have calligraphic scores. His wide-ranging output includes works for gongs, bells, metal percussion and gamelan orchestra. Philip Corner writes, "Hiah Park - new age shaman, then living in California. My Korea connection interest led me to a workshop she gave in New York; more sessions continued until the opportunity of really working together at the proposed seminar 'Art and the Invisible Reality' to be held in Bavaria. I revisited my old practice of 'metal meditations' specially reinterpreted to go with performance/dance derived from traditional shamanic practices. Then done in Trento in front of the cathedral where we joked about when they burned witches. After the two performances in Europe our association came to an end. Sin Cha Hong, a great friend in New York and a fabulous dancer and choreographer with a truly profound and intense body-incorporated physicality serving a spiritual content in no need of official status. Her Korean-American company she called Laughing Stone; she used my anklung (Javanese bamboo rattles) quartet gamelan Adagio onstage for one of her solos... This recording I made alone in the New York loft with my 'familiar' - the large Paiste tam-tam: while holding her in my mind. The dancer/shamans are, as their names show, from Korea - the country par excellence for this ancient form of religion incarnate. I have had a long a long continuing and most appreciative relationship to that country's culture, from 1960 when shipped as a trombones-man to the American occupying forces there and turned on each afternoon listening to 'National (Kuk Ahk) Music Hour' their theme song 'Su Je Chun' - the most ancient piece from the court repertoire which I have never stopped hearing as the most beautiful music ever made. That, and the breakthrough composition 'Sang-Teh/Situations' which written and performed in Seoul in 1961, made this meeting and working with a genuine Korean shaman a spectacular amplification of my rapport. It was the beginning of the years-long improvisation-meditation practice shared with many other dancers, including most notably Phoebe Neville, soon to become my wife, and still is."
CD $15


RENALDO & THE LOAF - Gurdy Hurding (Klanggalerie 233; Austria) "Possibly the thing in the world that you never expected to happen, but luckily you were wrong: Klanggalerie are proud to present you the brand new album by Renaldo & The Loaf. 30 years after The Elbow is Taboo, Renaldo & Ted The Loaf have created another fabulous record. 13 songs in classic RATL style with an incredible cover by the wonderful Poxodd. All the RATL trademark sounds are there, but of course technology has not passed unnoticed, so there is a 2016 approach to the music, too."
CD $19


PIT PICCINELLI, FRED GALES, WALTER MAIOLI - Amazonia 6891: Sounds From Jungle, Natural Objects, Echo And Electronic Waves (Black Sweat Records 026; Italy) Black Sweat Records present a reissue of Amazonia 6891: Sounds From Jungle, Natural Objects, Echo And Electronic Waves, originally released on cassette in 1986. The idea to evoke a deep journey in the Amazon rainforest has affected various musicians in the history of popular and experimental music, but compared to other works, this rare Amazonia 6891, released only on cassette in 1986, appears as totally original and extreme in his conception. Here, the interest in ethnomusicology of the expert Walter Maioli (part of Aktuala and Futuro Antico) is linked to a precise and comprehensive ecological, botanical, ethological and ethnographic perspective. In fact, starting from the sound recording of the ethnographer Pit Piccinelli's collection of natural objects, the collected material for this work is re-elaborate in different times by the anthropologist and electronic pioneer Fred Gales and by Maioli himself. The result of this multi-disciplinary approach is a long, concrete poem of plant organisms, field recordings of verses and calls of tropical animals, futuristically mixed with electronic sounds, similar to the great experimental trials of Futuro Antico and Ariel Kalma's 1978 album, Osmose (BS 007LP). Listening to this imaginative collage is like looking into a precious cabinet of antiquities and curiosity, whose wonders of multi-colored cellular fragments are shaped in the synthesis of a single universal sound matter. The merger between the wild jungle, the mysterious voices of the aboriginals and the oscillation of the electronic waves, creates a spasmodic tension between amazing and heavenly moments, leaking obscure paths and alien sequences. Amazonia 6891 is a magic trip into the unknown wild, into abyss of creation of kaleidoscopic floras and faunas, simply a proposal for a synesthetic experience and multi-sensory.
CD $20


ORCHESTRA OPERAIA - Into The 80's (Via Veneto Jazz 111; Italy) "I went to New York to search for jazz, but there was none." It is 1982, and a young Massimo Nunzi is located in a city musically very different from what he expected. Who could imagine that then the seeds were planted for the Orchestra Operaia in New York some 35 years ago? To Nunzi, it was a musical and cultural shock, resulting at first in a sense of displacement that in time was followed by positive, creative opportunities. The artistic sensibility of Nunzi absorbed those stimuli and began to develop a new idea of music, in which definitions in general count for very little. "I owe much to Hal Willner, who in 1981 released an album dedicated to Nino Rota putting together rock musicians and jazz without any prejudice. He was flanked in his work serenely by Bill Frisell and Robbie Robertson, Diamanda Galas and Wynton Marsalis, Iggy Pop and Elvis Costello." Taking inspiration from Gil Evans and Frank Zappa, their stylistic freedom planted a flag in him, and Nunzi completed his art project, crafting Orchestra Operaia with much care and filling it with positive energy. "I seek full, not empty. The suspended atmospheres prefer structure, manic work on composition and arrangement. Music of this kind has never been treated by jazz musicians, and in fact it comes from my extremely varied training. It is a true reflection of my artistic life." This release features collaboration from the Lone Arrangers, four young musicians who could shape the Orchestra as they please, under the watchful eye of Nunzi. "The repertoire forged the Orchestra sound and it is merged within the disc that was composed mostly by me, but in this imaginative journey in my memory there were missing pieces that have enlightened me." Here and there emerge the beautiful voices of Petra Gizzards and Chiara Morucci, to further embellish the story of the album, and one must not forget the voice of the young Marta Colombo. A fascinating journey, which is dedicated to Laurie Anderson with a thoughtful nod to the "Six Memos" of Italo Calvino.
CD $18

ALMAMEGRETTA - Ennenne (Goodfellas 2781; Italy) One of the most accomplished and celebrated bands in the field of contemporary, unclassified pop music, Almamegretta are masters in combining a wide range of elements such as dub, funk, reggae, world and electronica, all filtered through their own deep southern Italian roots. The band from Naples is now back with Ennenne, mixed by the dub master Adrian Sherwood. Sherwood was involved in the band's mid-nineties masterpiece Sanacore (1995). This new work consists of ten tracks, nine originals plus a well-chosen cover of an old Neapolitan hit by Nino d'Angelo transformed into a lovers rock style song. Almamegretta's original line up of Gennaro T Tesone, Paolo Polcari and Raiz is augmented by a great list of collaborators and the result is a strong and multi-layered set made of Afro-funk numbers, reggae ballads, and other riddims, while the British dub influence remains central. The title Ennenne, which means "No Name", is inspired by the acronym used for those who are born from unknown parents. The right title for such a highly dense picture based on the combination of contemporary sounds and social topics. Features Cristina Donadio, Lucariello and Carlo D'angiò. File next to: Massive Attack, On-U Sound, Dub Syndicate, Tricky.
CD $17

BABA SISSOKO - Tchiwara (Goodfellas 2745; Italy) Baba Sissoko is one of the best artists to come out of Mali. Born in 1963 in the capital city Bamako, Sissoko is a poet and singer of the griot tradition and a talented multi-instrumentalist of international fame. He is a missionary to a certain degree, his music a key element in the discovery of the origins of the blues. During his career he met several black icons, like singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, who he wrote the song "Red Earth" for. The meeting with Famoundou Don Moyè and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago was pivotal in trading the "amadran" (the true original form of the blues) with jazz. Just check the two albums Bamako Chicago Express (2002) and Reunion (2003). Further on he met more iconic artists as Youssou N'Dour, Oumou Sangare and the Buena Vista Social Club crew. From 1998 on, Baba has chosen Italy - Calabria in the end - as a proper hometown, while still traveling all around the globe. Tchiwara is necessarily urgent, it shares the same electricity of western rock, an appropriate tendency behind extended jams. With new crew members Angelo Napoli (electric guitar), Dario Triestino (electric bass) and Roberto Coscia (drums), Baba is free to dialogue between the roots of Afro-blues and the most recent hybrid of ethno-jazz-rock. Leading with a solid touch a large ensemble of co-operators - family members Djana Rosa (voice and chorus), Giulia Sokona (violin), and Roberto Madou (keyboards, drums, percussion) - Baba is the harmonic key behind the compositions. He plays traditional instruments such as ngoni, tamani, doun doun, karahnan, kamalengoni, djembe and calebasse, alongside acoustic guitar and bass. Tchiwara is easily one of his most daring works yet, leading the way to bring the African forerunners to their contemporary western followers.
CD $15

GUELEWAR BAND OF BANJUL - Warteef Jigeen (PMG 047; Grrmany) PMG present a reissue of Guelewar Band Of Banjul's Warteef Jigeen, originally released in 1981. "The Guelewar Band Of Banjul are a band quite unlike any other - an explosive mix of soul and funk with local rhythms like bougaraboo and ndaga combined with a defiant insistence on singing in their local language, Wolof. They certainly blew a young Youssou N'dour away. He cites them as his biggest influence. Warteef Jigeen marks the point the band found its groove. The title track sets the tone early with parping horns and psychedelic guitar licks. 'N.T.C. The Gambia' and 'Jilana' seamlessly blend traditional percussion and plaintive sax. 'Leen Te Koun' and 'President Diawara' showcase some of the freakiest synth ever to come out of West Africa. It was Laye Ngom's decision as bandleader to draft his cousin as singer that elevates Warteef Jigeen. Moussa Ngom had paid his dues singing at traditional circumcision ceremonies and his rough, expressive vocals bring a level of melancholy and intensity to the album. It's a melancholy and intensity that can only come from years of watching young boys take this painful journey to Gambian manhood, a journey, in a way, that Guelewar Band Of Banjul made on Warteef Jigeen." - Peter Moor
CD $15


FRANK ZAPPA - Live At The Palladium New York Halloween 1977 (Keyhole KH 9079; UK) By October 1977, Frank Zappa was firmly established as an iconic and iconoclastic rock star. He had recently been preparing Läther (1977), a proposed four-LP set, due for release on Halloween. However, his label declined to proceed, leading to protracted legal hassles. This show, at The Palladium, New York was broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour, was on the album's release date, and finds the great man in superb form, as he tackles a range of material, much of it from Läther. The entire broadcast is presented here with background notes and images.
CD $17

BUD POWELL - Birdland 1953 (Hi Hat 3033; UK) Bud Powell, live from Birdland, New York in 1953, across three performances dated February 7th and 14th, and March 7th. Despite suffering from serious mental health problems and addictions, Earl 'Bud' Powell was one of the leading architects of modern jazz, playing alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and many others, and considerably extended the vocabulary of jazz piano. Recorded at New York's legendary Birdland club, for broadcast on WJZ-FM, the superb performances captured on this set find him at the height of his powers. The entire WJZ-FM broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images.
CD $17

TOWNES VAN ZANDT & GUY CLARK - Live... Texas '91 (Klondike 5072; UK) Townes Van Zandt & Guy Clark, live from the Cactus Café, Austin, Texas on February 16th, 1991. Six years before Townes Van Zandt's untimely death in 1997, his renewed studio activity produced a clutch of new material and re-workings, most of which sadly, still resides on tape. However, recordings such as this, offers fans a valuable opportunity to hear exactly what was going on underneath. His appearance alongside lifelong friend Guy Clark in 1991 at the Cactus Café in Austin, Texas, remains one of his most prized performances of the period. Moreover, it helps to portray how Texas produced one of the modern era's most potent and elegant lyricists this side of Shakespeare. As Lester Bangs once said of the man, his songs come "from a depth of feeling that few men can touch." Klondike Records present the entire original KUT 90.5FM broadcast of Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark performing live from the Cactus Café, Austin, Texas on February 16th, 1991. Digitally remastered original broadcast with background liners, interviews and rare archival photos.
CD $17


Another Couple of Rarities Back in Stock:

BORAH BERGMAN / ANTHONY BRAXTON / PETER BROTZMANN - Eight By Three (Mixtery 01; USA) Pianist Borah Bergman's name is listed first, but this recording is actually a free improvisation session where all three participants share equal weight. While Anthony Braxton and Peter Brotzmann have been active and extremely influential since the mid-'60s in the same general circle, this was their first recording together in 20 years. Both have their idiosyncratic styles, so a head-to-head meeting was likely to yield fascinating results. Throw in Bergman, whose single-mindedness is second to none, and one might expect well incendiary fireworks!
CD $12

SLOW MUSIC [BILL RIEFLIN / ROBERT FRIPP / PETER BUCK / FRED CHALENOR /MATT CHAMBERLAIN / HECTOR ZAZOU] - Live At The Croc, 19 October 2005 (SM 01; USA) As of April 2014, this group has only played about seven shows in 2005-2006, and three this past month as a quintet [minus the late Hector Zazou]. This is the only official recording that was ever released on CD, and except for DMG offering the last few copies here, has only been available at those few shows on the West Coast! Bill Rieflin keyboards & percussion; Robert Fripp guitar, guitar-like things, soundscapes; Peter Buck guitar and things; Matt Chamberlain drums and drum-like things; Fred Chalenor upright bass; and [the late] Hector Zazou keyboards and electronics. Slow Music was formed in 2005 as a way to create live ambient/textural/environmental music in a live context. Rieflin describes how, "openness and stillness become a part of the musical vocabulary, as well as density and activity. It can be both beautiful and surprisingly intense. And, being improvisational in nature, you never know what will happen next, which makes it all the more exciting." Innovators to the core, Slow Music has no website, no band photos, nor commercially available music. The best way to listen is to show up. It'll be worth it. "moments of glacial beauty...Fripp's quicksilver tone could be heard weeping underneath the crescendos and toward the end...Buck added his trademark ringing guitar arpeggios.. - Variety
CD $16


LP Only Section:

THE NECKS - Unfold (Ideologic Ocean 025; France) Ideologic Organ present Unfold, brand-new recordings from The Necks, the legendary Australian trio who excel in bypassing musical cliche whilst exploring and extending the practices embedded within improvisation, jazz, post rock, ambient, minimal, and textural, "sound based" music. The latest document from this long-running ensemble presents itself as a double LP, with four side-length tracks. A deliberate absence of numbered sides hands a substantial swatch of participation over to the listener, allowing her to navigate his own path through the soundscape at hand. The shorter length of the vinyl format, far from being a constraint upon the members of the ensemble, instead offers them a more compact horizon to contemplate, wherein the distance travelled is recalibrated to more immediate and dynamic textural concerns. The immediacy of "Rise" confirms this new path, as the mournful tones of Lloyd Swanton's bass swirl around Chris Abrahams's crystalline piano motif, with Tony Buck's percussion steering proceedings into enlightening free-jazz territories. "Blue Mountain" cuts a swathe through the sonic undergrowth, with soul organ, rattling percussion, whistles, and loping sound-waves all vying for the foreground. "Overhear" retains a sublime melancholic aura as the percussion and keyboards simultaneously embrace and fall apart, whilst "Timepiece" skips along as a gentle gesture of further possibilities. Exactly how The Necks conjure their particular magic - as deceptively simple as it seems - whilst always moving forward, is anyone's guess, but Unfold proves yet again that rules and schools are to be broken and re-formed into patterns and frameworks unlike those already known. Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
2 LP Set $30

MIKE COOPER - Blue Guitar (Idea 027; USA) Mike Cooper's Blue Guitar is a collection that first appeared on Cooper's Hipshot CDr label in 2010 in a limited edition. It is presented here on Idea Records, for the first time on vinyl. Upon its initial release Cooper wrote: "For the past couple of years I have been collating a body of text culled (mostly) from Thomas Pynchon's novels Gravity's Rainbow and V and making cut-up collage pieces in the spirit of William Burroughs, Kurt Schwitters, Tom Phillips and others. Those two particular novels interest me because they are set in the period that I was born, however no reference to that period is intended in my pieces. Hopefully a more contemporary comment was found lurking within the words, lines, pages and paragraphs. Recently my interest in playing the guitar in a more or less 'traditional' manner, but still incorporating various 'extended techniques' (as opposed to using it purely as a sound source) has been re-kindled along with a renewed interest in blues, Greek rembetika, flamenco, Portuguese fado and other traditional and improvised music around the Mediterranean which in turn brought out the singer in me again... I have lived in the Mediterranean region for 30 years and listened to its music and I wanted to make something that would hopefully have some of its spirit without making reference to any of it musically." "Things as they are / are changed upon the blue guitar" --Wallace Stevens, Man With The Blue Guitar (1937) "Sometimes when you cut into the present the future leaks out." --William Burroughs. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Cover design by Tom Recchion. Comes on 180 gram vinyl; Includes a lyrics insert; Includes a postcard insert; Linen Wrapped/Foil Stamped; Comes in an Old Style Tip-On jacket.
LP $24

JEPH JERMAN/TIM BARNES - Versatile Ambience (Idea 019; USA) "On the second side of Versatile Ambience, Jeph Jerman utters an all too accurate observation of our overheated culture, describing us at 'the smithy's forge, replacing art with scrutiny.' Throughout their new record, Jerman and Tim Barnes show us another, alchemical possibility - fusing art and scrutiny together. Across a dozen years, the duo of Jerman and Barnes has offered powerful, minimal music rooted in a shared dedication to the creative act of listening. Jerman is a veteran of the creative music scenes in Denver and Seattle, and in more recent years has been thoroughly investigating the sonic possibilities of the desert southwest where he lives and works. Tim Barnes's resume as a percussionist, engineer, and curator is studded with all-star collaborators including Tony Conrad, Sonic Youth, Ken Vandermark (who appears here as a guest), Royal Trux, and Tower Recordings. Versatile Ambience is their second record in as many years, making this one of the most productive periods in the duo's history. The pieces on Versatile Ambience highlight the ingenuity and intense physical economy found throughout both artists' repertoires. What sonic and performative possibilities are held in these few found objects, in this environment? What music is already here? What music is hidden in the subtly shifting motion of a hand? Explicitly or implicitly, Jerman and Barnes have spent their careers asking these questions. The latest answers are found here, in creative percussive and electronic improvisation by the duo, in the minimal but impactful contributions of a handful of guests, and in field recordings ranging from the call of a stranded cricket to the roar of a distant airport. The spoken section (a first for the duo) sounds as though it is a poetics being conceived, written, recorded, and edited as you are hearing it. But if at first it sounds like a cut-up, passages like 'and you, the anvil? / I am the hammer!' promise at the very least a Mad Libs-worth of structure and play, and quite a bit more depth. Despite its appearance so soon after their last effort, this record feels more considered, more complete than any Jerman/Barnes release to date. Like a snake's path through the sand, if the duo's trajectory holds, Versatile Ambience will soon be seen as a remarkable point along a fascinatingly meandering line." --Aaron Rosenblum Louisville, KY.
LP $24

DAN MELCHIOR - Melpomene (Idea 020; USA) "Dan Melchior has become an unlikely 21st century experimental music icon. As the forms, signifiers and 'experiments' of the last several decades have become increasingly codified, one naturally begins to ask the question what the term in a contemporary setting means to the listener. If the performer and the audience both know what to expect before, during and after a record or performance, can it be considered an experiment? At the start of the century, Melchior was known in NYC as being a studied garage rock provocateur with songwriting palate that was equally insightful, vicious and emotive. This is not mentioned for alt rock bravado but to establish a pedigree that none of his immediate peers can claim, clearly showing a breadth of skill and technique they lack or refuse to engage in. Over the last ten years however, Melchior has continued to strip the edges off his music. On his new album, Melchior finds himself removed from any established school of sound. At times caustic, dubbed out and/or haunting, Melchior recalls obscure records we've never heard. The source sounds were mostly recorded on a little Sony mini cassette recorder. Some is live (pots and pans being hit -- etc.) slowed down on playback using the slower speed on the recorder -- some of it was recorded off of records and tapes, using the same recorder. The source sounds blurred to fit Melchior's tonal needs. Melodies arrive as well, the melancholy ballad 'Mall Walker' evokes images of Satie if he recorded for Vinyl On Demand. The influence of his wife Letha Rodman Melchior is clearly evidenced as well, their combined techniques explored through years of creative collaboration. What is an experimental record? Perhaps the best definition is, an album that you won't know what it sounds like until you drop the needle." --Steve Lowenthal. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Comes on 180 gram vinyl; Comes in an Old Style Tip-On jacket.
LP $24

SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE & MICHAEL ZERANG - Illinois Glossolalia (Feeding Tube 285; USA) Beginning in January of 2011, composer, percussionist and improviser Michael Zerang joined Spires That In The Sunset Rise for a year-long collaboration to explore a broad range of sonic and textural improvisations, in a series of live concerts throughout the year. The collaboration culminated in residency at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, as a part of their Artist Residence Program, where the trio was able to perform and record a massive amount of material. The partial result of this effort is the Illinois Glossolalia LP. Since 2001, Spires That In The Sunset Rise have been unsettling and thrilling audiences with their brand of sonic alchemy. Described by Jack Rose as a "female Sun City Girls," they contributed a different slant to the new folk movement by incorporating various avant-garde and world music influences into their sound. They have been compared to artists ranging from The Raincoats to Meredith Monk to Comus to Harry Partch. Their most recent album, Beasts In The Garden (2015), was described by Marc Masters as "some kind of long-lost Terry Riley/Angus MacLise collaboration, equally devoted to divine repetition and center-seeking ritual." They have eight full length albums, a few side releases, and several solo efforts. The band is now the duo of multi-instrumentalists Kathleen Baird and Taralie Peterson. They have collaborated with musicians in the realm of pure improv, worked with dancers, and been involved in various theatrical productions. Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois, and has been a professional musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. As a percussionist and composer, Michael has over 90 titles in his discography and has toured nationally and internationally to 35 countries since 1981, and works with and ever-widening pool of collaborators. He has performed with Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Joe McPhee's Survival Unit III, Liof Munimula, Musica Menta, Johannes Bauer Berlin Quintet as well as countless other projects with musicians from around the world. Michael has collaborated extensively with contemporary theater, dance, and other multidisciplinary forms and has received three Joseph Jefferson Awards for Original Music Composition in Theater, in collaboration with Redmoon Theater, in 1996, 1998, and 2000. Edition of 400. Includes download code.
LP $19

MY CAT IS AN ALIEN/JEAN-MARC MONTERA - Union Of The Supreme Light (Starlight Furniture 028; USA) "Joining Maurizio and Roberto Opalio on their fourth album for Starlight Furniture Co., legendary French-Corsican guitarist and co-founder of Groupe de Recherche et d'Improvisation Musicales brings his noisy lyricism to three long tracks of oddly sensual and animalistic space howl. As their past collaborations attest, My Cat Is An Alien's self-sustaining biosphere is an environment where the surreal dreamscapes of mavericks and eccentrics flourish. Jean-Marc Montera's home-made guitar table, objects, and electronics forge metallic ribbons that twitch between the distant clangs of gigantic spores, while Maurizio (on home-made double-bodied string instrument and effects) and Roberto (on alien-tronics, effects, and modified electronic devices) set worms adrift in a zero-gravity aviary stocked with narcotized satsuma fowl. Roberto adds disorientation to the trio's fog-blurred horizon with wordless vocalizations that could pass for billowing laments hooted by mutant sea mammals with enoki mushrooms growing on their larynxes."
LP $17

BUZZSAW JOINT - Diddy Wah - Cut 1 / various artists (Stag-o-Lee 091; Germany) Buzzsaw Joint was born of a club offering Londoners the chance to revel in the sounds of good ol' trashy rock n' roll in all its vintage vinyl forms. Club top-cat, Fritz, then took the primitive buzzsaw sounds online with a series of savage Mixcloud mixes created by record fiends from all over the globe. Now, the high-octane energy of Buzzsaw Joint has manifested into the physical form with a run of compilations on Stag-O-Lee. Get your ears around the wild n' weird sounds of the extraordinary and inimitable Buzzsaw Joint! The first cut from the Buzzsaw Joint compilation series comes courtesy of London based music fanatic, DJ and dedicated 45rpm record hound, Diddy Wah. Whether slinging vinyl at his Heavy Sugar club nights or through the NTS Radio airwaves, the man's got good taste - impeccable, even. His open-eared, between-the-cracks approach to music selection suits Buzzsaw down to a tee. Enjoy a glimpse into DJ Diddy Wah's record collection with these sixteen handpicked bliss bombs, all recorded between 1959-1962. Features: Sonny And Premiers, Billy Garner, Bobby December And The Famous Renegades, The Canjoes, Joe Louis Johnson, Dennis And The Menances, The Rumblers, Eugene Blacknell And His Savonics, Sammy Fitzhugh, Gabriel And The Angels, Jimmy Beck And His Orchestra, Johnny Acey, The Egyptians, Rex Garvin And The Mighty Cravers, Bunker Hill, and Ray Vernon & The Raymen.
LP $18


ISHQ KE MAARE - Sufi Songs from Sindh and Punjab, Pakistan / various artists (Sublime Frequencies 108; USA) A searing assemblage of Islamic Sufi spiritual music from the hinterlands of Sindh and Punjab, this compilation marks Sublime Frequencies' debut release of field recordings from Pakistan. Recorded and compiled by Arshia Fatima Haq, founder of Discostan - a collective of artists from an imagined federation of states from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay - this is a rare, unfiltered collection of devotional music ranging from hypnotic solo instrumentals and vocal lamentations to euphoric ensemble qawwalis. Presenting voices that are imperiled in the country's contemporary political landscape - where renowned singers are assassinated in broad daylight and performance spaces are regularly bombed - this record continues Haq's ongoing project of engaging complex and controversial Islamic practices and rituals that operate in resistance to religious orthodoxy. "During my travels, I recorded both well-known musicians who made regular appearances on Pakistani televisions, and unknown, untrained singers who traveled from shrine to shrine with no possessions, intoxicated in the pursuit of the divine. I recorded in intimate living rooms, in crumbling concert halls, and in remote interior areas where I had to travel with a police escort. From the vertiginous falsetto harmonies of men singing in the female gender to give voice to those who carry the wounds of society, to the sparse and piercing a capella deliverances of itinerants, singing in the spaces of shrines where the doves coo in liturgies to the saints buried therein, this is music of 'unbridled bridledness', collapsing the divide between the divine and the profane. In masterful, often improvised performances on the harmonium, alghoza, been, and bulbul tarang, these songs unfold into an organic recursion of longing and despair, redeemed by an almost erotic promise of reunion with the divine entity. The singers themselves are 'ishq ke maare' - in the throes of love. Their visionary, intuitive form of devotion is in sharp contrast to the rising tide of mathematical and legalistic approach to faith called Wahhabism seen across the Islamic landscape today. These songs are iconoclastic and anarchic, transcending systems of law and social order, to approach what is truly divine in the rawest possible form."--Arshia Fatima Haq. Features performances by Ustad Aacher and Company, Kalyam Sharif Qawwali Troupe, Meeh Wasaiyo, Fatah Daudpoto, Latif Sarkar, Basheer Haidari and Nazira Bano, Shazia Tarannum, Babu, Sain Juman Shah and Fakirs, Ghulam Arshad, and an unknown singer.
LP $19

ERIC ARN - Orphic Resonance (Feeding Tube 281; USA) "Near the end of his days, John Fahey told me he was sick and tired of solo guitar records. This statement was partly designed to take me aback (as was often his tact), but it was also true. He seemed genuinely bored by most guitar players, especially those who were traveling in the shoes he'd first worn on his own early records. That said, I'm pretty sure he would have loved Eric Arn's Orphic Resonance. The first time I ever saw Eric play was as part of the classic second line-up of Crystalized Movements. He was a monster of raunch-stun binary-functionalism, and this continued as he moved out of New England for forays with the LA/Boston/SF/Austin/Vienna-based Primordial Undermind and California's The Outsideinside. After that, he moved to Austria, where he lives today, and began performing and recording in a more overtly avant-garde direction. The set I caught at 2015's Festival Of Endless Gratitude in Copenhagen was a lovely buzzing, shimmering web of sound. Parts of this new LP are like that, other parts are absolutely different. On Orphic Resonance, Eric moves through vast style fields with absolute surety. He can generate massive drone-throbs that would make even that old crank Fahey smile. He can play with sound sheets in a way that moves even deeper into experimental realms. He can play acoustic fantasia sprawls that would have made Fahey swear. He can throat sing better than John ever did. Making for one hell of a dandy album, and one that has a surprise lurking around each and every corner. This is the first of Eric's solo sides to make it to vinyl, and we sincerely hope there are many more to comes. Discerning listeners are sure to say the same." - Byron Coley, 2016. Edition of 300.
LP $18




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


THE STONE RESIDENCIES - SYLVIE COURVOISIER - JAN 24-29

1/27 Friday
9 pm - QUARTET with Mark Feldman (violin) Sylvie Courvoiser (piano) Tom Rainey (drums) & Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax)

1/28 Saturday
9 pm - «Engrenages» Large Ensemble for 9 musicians - Mark Feldman, Carolin Pook (violins) Okkyung Lee, Mike Nicolas (cellos) Nate Wooley (trumpet) Brian Drye (trombone) Kenny Wollesen (drums) Kim Cass (bass) Kris Davis (piano) Sylvie Courvoisier (conduction, composition)

1/29 Sunday
9 pm- Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Kenny Wollesen (drums) & Drew Gress (bass)

THE STONE RESIDENCIES - SIMON HANES - JAN 31–FEB 5

1/31 Tuesday
9 pm - Trigger - Will Greene (guitar) Simon Hanes (bass) Aaron Edgcomb (drums)

2/1 Wednesday
9 pm - ANONYM - Sami Stevens (voice) Simon Hanes (guitar) Joanna Mattrey (viola) Evan Allen (pump organ)

2/2 Thursday
9 pm - Trio w/Greg Fox and Matt Hollenberg - Matt Hollenberg (guitar) Simon Hanes (bass) Greg Fox (drums)

2/3 Friday
9 pm - Tredici Baci with special guests - Sami Stevens (voice) Abigail Reisman (violin) Abby Swidler (violin) Joanna Mattrey (viola) Ezra Weller (trumpet) Daniel Pencer (tenor saxophone) Marie Abe (accordion) Evan Allen (keyboards) Jesse Heasly (bass) Simon Hanes (guitar) JG Thirlwell (voice) Ryan Power (voice)

2/4 Saturday
9 pm - Tredici Baci plays Morricone, Rota, Trovajoli, Thin Lizzy and More
Sami Stevens (voice) Abigail Reisman (violin) Abby Swidler (violin) Joanna Mattrey (viola) Ezra Weller (trumpet) Daniel Pencer (tenor saxophone) Marie Abe (accordion) Evan Allen (keyboards) Jesse Heasly (bass) Simon Hanes

2/5 Sunday
9 pm - Tredici Baci plays Contemporary Works - Sami Stevens (voice) Abigail Reisman (violin) Abby Swidler (violin) Joanna Mattrey (viola) Ezra Weller (trumpet) Daniel Pencer (tenor saxophone) Marie Abe (accordion) Evan Allen (keyboards) Jesse Heasly (bass) Simon Hanes (guitar)

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 Jan 27
6:00PM REBECCA SULLIVAN - Rebecca Sullivan, voice, compositions; Leonor Falcón, violin, backup vocals;Juanma Trujillo, guitar; Andrew Schiller, bass; Robin Baytas, drums
9:00PM BRAZIL FEST: RUBENS SALLES GROUP - Rubens Salles, piano; Leco Reis, bass; John Clark, french horn; Kaoru Watanabe- flute; Kenny Grohowski, drums
10:30PM BRAZIL FEST: FELIPE SALLES QUARTET - Felipe Salles, saxes; Nando Michelin, piano; Frank Ojeda, bass; Steve Langone, drums

Saturday Jan 28
6:00PM MACKENZIE SHIVERS AND FRIENDS - Mackenzie Shivers, piano, vocals; Lance Breakfast, guitar, vocals; Kenyon Phillips, vocals; Yuka Tadano, bass
9:00PM BRAZIL FEST: BILLY NEWMAN QUINTET - Billy Newman, guitar; Eric Schugren, tenor, sopranino sax; Evan Francis, alto sax, flute; Leco Reis, bass; Kenny Grohowski, drums
10:30PM BRAZIL FEST: SERGIO KRAKOWSKI TRIO - Sergio Krakowski, pandeiro, electronics; Todd Neufeld, guitar

Sunday Jan 29
6:00PM WORLD MUSIC BOUTIQUE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS THE FLAME: FLAMENCO INFUSED JAZZ - Antonio Lizana, sax, vocals; Adriano Lozano, guitar; Epi Pacheco, percussion
8:35PM - PATRICK CORNELIUS OCTET - Patrick Cornelius, alto sax; Riley Mulherkar, trumpet; John Ellis, tenor sax; Nick Vayenas, trombone; Miles Okazaki, guitar; Glenn Zaleski, piano; Peter Slavov, bass; Paul Wiltgen,

Tues, January 31st:
6:00PM NOA FORT & BAND - Noa Fort, music, voice, piano ; Ronen Itzik, drums; Jakob Dreyer, bass
8:00PM MIKE BONO, NATALIE CRESSMAN DUO - Mike Bono, guitar; Natalie Cressman, voice
9:30PM SONG YI JEON TRIO - Song Yi Jeon, voice, composition; Vitor Goncalves, piano;

Wednesday Feb 01
8:00PM TOBIAS MEINHART QUINTET, NATURAL PERCEPTION - Tobias Meinhart, tenor sax, ewi; Ingrid Jensen, trumpet; Yago Vazquez, piano; Phil Donohue, bass; Jesse Simpson, drums
9:30PM MATT MARANTZ QUARTET - Matt Marantz, sax, ewi; Luke Marantz, keyboard; Rick Rosato, bass; Adam Arruda, drums

Thursday Feb 02
8:01PM STEVE SANDBERG & ALAYA - Steve Sandberg, piano, voice; Mark Feldman, violin; Michael O'Brien, bass; Mauricio Zottarelli, drums

Friday Feb 03
9:00PM & 10:30PM AUBREY JOHNSON GROUP - Aubrey Johnson, voice, comp.; Tomoko Omura, violin; Michael Sachs, bass clarinet, alto sax; Glenn Zaleski, piano; Matt Aronoff, bass; Jeremy Noller, drums

Saturday Feb 04
9:00PM & 10:30PM GEORGE GARZONE, BOSTON COLLECTIVE - George Garzone, tenor sax; Phil Grenadier, trumpet; Leo Genovese, piano; Dave Zinno, bass; Bob Gullotti, drums

*****

I-Beam Presents:

Saturday, January 28th 8:00 PM
Jagged Spheres Marc Hannaford Trio
Jagged Spheres:
Anna Webber (sx)
Elias Stemeseder (pn)
Devin Gray (dr)
Marc Hannaford Trio:
Marc Hannaford (pn)
Simon Jermyn (bs)
Satoshi Takeishi (dr)

Monday, January 30th 9:00 PM
Harvey Diamond Quartet
Harvey Diamond. piano
Marcus McLaurine. bass *1/30
Sean Smith. bass **1/31
Brian Adler. drums
Richard Tabnik. saxophone

Tuesday, January 31st 9:00 PM
Harvey Diamond Quartet
Harvey Diamond. piano
Marcus McLaurine. bass *1/30
Sean Smith. bass **1/31
Brian Adler. drums
Richard Tabnik. saxophone

Friday, February 10th 8:30 PM
Anti-Social Music Charlie Waters
8:30 pm - Anti-Social Music Drinks Alone
9:30 pm - Charlie Waters presents PEACE FORMS ONE(horn trio) - Josh Sinton & Matt Lavelle

Saturday, February 11th 8:30 PM
8:30pm - YSC’s Owls At Night
Yoon Sun Choi – voice/piano
Dana Lyn – violin
Vinnie Sperrazza – drums
10:00pm - Dana Lyn’s Mother Octopus
Dana Lyn – violin/compositions
Clare Kennedy – cello
Mike McGinnis – clarinet
Ty Citerman – guitar
Vinnie Sperrazza – 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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Shapeshifter Jan/Feb 2017:

January 30th 2017—
ShapeShifter presents: New Forum
Improvisation Circle - 6 PM:
1 Mat Muntz-Bass
2 Mark Ballyk-Drums
3 Theo Walentiny-Piano
4 Sasha Berliner-Cajon
5 Morgan Guerin-EWI
6 Evan Lane-Trumpet
7 Kalia Vandever-Trombone
8 Magdalena Abrego-Guitar
9 Zosha Warpeha-Violin
10 Kalun Leung Trombone
11 Sara McDonald-French Horn
8pm: Just Below the Sonic Level of Sense Making - Charmaine Lee
9pm: Contemporary Prospects - Carlos Cordiero presents a program of new music for clarinets and electronics.

Shapeshifter is located at
18 Whitwell Place in Brooklyn, NY
R train to Union stop

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Friday, January 27th 2017
New Music For the New Year at The Brooklyn Firehouse Space
Featuring: Ras Moshe Burnett The New Language Collaborative Edith Lettner
7pm - Ras Moshe Burnett - Tenor Sax, Alto Sax & Flutes
The New Language Collaborative with
Glynis Lomon - Cello (from Leap of Faith)
Syd Smart - Drums
Eric Zinman - Acoustic and Electric Piano
8pm - Music Now! The New Language Collaborative Edith Lettner
Ras Moshe Burnett-Reeds
Larry Roland-Bass
Matt Lavelle-Trumpet & Bass Clarinet
John Pietaro-Vibes
Stephanie Griffin-Viola
Edith Lettner-Alto Sax

$15 for both sets. Refreshments available.
The Brooklyn Firehouse Space - 246 Frost St. Brooklyn, NY.
(The L train to Graham Ave, walk down Graham Ave in the direction of the BQE, turn right on Frost St. The Firehouse is on Frost and Woodpoint Rd.)

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Spectrum January 2017:

Friday 27 January
7 PM - Arranged Marriage: Mustafa Bhagat – Sitar; Jerry Adler - Guitar/Synth
8:30 PM - Bright Dog Red an improvising collective from Albany, New York, fuses free improvisation, electronica, jazz, hip hop, psychedelia, and noise music into a proliferation of beats, bars, and blasts of sonic energy.
Electronic musician Palmen (https://palemen.bandcamp.com/); Guitarist Michael “MK” Kemmlein (https://www.mrbreakdown.com/info.html)
Guitarist Zak Westbrook of Squid Parade (https://www.squidparade.com/)
Bassist Anthony “The Colonel” Berman (https://albanyjazz.com/musicians/tonyberman.html).

Saturday 28 January
7 PM - Atonal Hits: Illya Filshtinskiy (piano) and Katha Zinn (violin)
9 PM - Marcella lucatelli/Bernardo's Barros/ Lester St. Louis

Sunday 29 January
3 PM - Erika Dohi: Blueprints Piano Series: Fantasy and Fugue in A minor, BWV 904, by J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
performed by Joseph Liccardo
Sequenza IV, by Luciano Berio (1925-2003)
performed by Erika Dohi
Ishi's Song, by Martin Bresnick (1946- )
performed by Lisa Moore
------intermission--------
Variations on an Original Theme in D major, by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
performed by Daniel Anastasio
Improvisation, performed by Jeremy Jordan
Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, by Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) performed by Lisa Moore

Sunday 29 January
7 PM - Live 45 Series, presented by Michael J Vince
Composers
Andrew Noseworthy
Phong Tran
Performers
Miki Sawada, piano/melodica
Elizabeth Fleming Martignetti, horn

Spectrum is at
121 Ludlow, Second Floor; New York NY 10002
Essex stop on J, M and Z trains; Delancey stop on F Train
www.spectrumnyc.com

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GREENWICH HOUSE SOUND IT OUT SERIES:

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

Friday, January 27, 8:00 p.m. – A pianist’s pianist!
Frank Kimbrough with Masa Kamaguchi & Kirk Knuffke
Frank Kimbrough, piano; Masa Kamaguchi, double-bass; Kirk Knuffke, cornet

Saturday, February 4, 7:30 p.m. – Vivid double-bill!
Taka Kigawa Sebastien Ammann’s Color Wheel
Taka Kigawa, piano, Sebastein Ammann, piano; Michaël Attias, alto saxophone; Noah Garabedian, double-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell, drums

Saturday, February 11, 8:00 p.m. – Rocking guitarist!
Nick Millevoi’s Desertion Trio - Nick Millevoi, guitar; Johnny DeBlase, bass; Kevin Shea, drums

Saturday, February 18, 8:00 p.m. – Special ECM duo show!
Francois Couturier, piano & Anja Lechner, cello

Saturday, March 4, 7:30 p.m. – Two sets of classical meets jazz!
Michael Bates’ Shostakovich Project- Michael Bates, double-bass/arrangements; Russ Johnson, trumpet; Greg Tardy, saxophone/clarinet; Russ Lossing, piano/Fender Rhodes; Michael Sarin, drums

Thursday, March 16, 7:30 p.m. – Double-bill of duos!
Sylvie Courvoisier Mary Halvorson & Mark Feldman
Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Mark Feldman, violin

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.