“There's a high flyin' bird, flying way up in the sky
And I wonder if she looks down as she goes on by
Well, she's flying so freely in the sky
Lord, look at me here
I'm rooted like a tree here
Got those sit-down, can't cry
Oh, Lord, (are we) gonna die bluesâ€Â
From “High Flyin’ Bird†by Big Ed Wheeler
90 degrees and Hotter Than Hell!
It is the beginning of May, but who could Tell?
Winter to Spring to Summer all in one Weekend
Wishing that a Cool Breeze would come back to Help us
Chill Out To the Sounds of These Sonic Wizards:
Paal Nilssen-Love’s Extra Large Unit! New from Not Two: Alexander Von Schlippenbach & Dag Magnus Narvesen LP! Clifford Thornton Memorial Quartet With Joe McPhee! Szilard Mezei Vocal Large Ensemble! Ramon Lopez / Percy Pursglove / Rafal Mazur! Barry Guy / Agusti Fernandez / Torben Snekkestad! Nate Wooley /TS Duo!
Fernandez / Zakrocki / Olak Trio! New From CorbettVsDempsey: Steve Lacy Quintet 1979 Hat Art Rarity! Beaver Harris / Don Pullen 360 Degree Experience with Hamiet Bluiett! Ken Vandermark & Michael Snow! Mats Gustafsson & Jason Adasiewicz! Fred Lonberg-Holm & Amphibians..! Eugene Chadbourne / Steve Beresford / Alex Ward LP & Dr. Chad Boxholder Sale! Guillermo Gregorio / Nicolas Letman- Burtinovic / Todd Capp & NLB Duo Michael Lytle!
Plus Historic Discs from Alice Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders/Archie Shepp..! Paul Bley Trio! Live Under the Sky Fest: Ornette Coleman & Prime Time..! Spacemen 3! Steve Lacy/Yuji Takahashi/Takehisa Kosugi Rare LP! Mary Halvorson Code Girl on LP! and lots more..!
*****************
Upcoming Sets at Downtown Music Gallery - FREE, every Sunday at 6pm
THE DMG 28TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES OF SONIC CELEBRATIONS Continue with:
Sunday, May 6th:
6pm: NICOLA HEIN and ROBERT DICK - Guitar and Flutes
7pm: THOMAS HELTON and BRANDON LOPEZ - Contrabass Duo
Rare Monday, May 7th:
6:30 pm: LORIN BENEDICT / MARIA GRAND / CAROLINE DAVIS - Voice / Tenor Sax / Alto Sax
7:30 pm: CHRIS PITSIOKOS - Solo Alto Sax
Sunday, May 13th:
6pm: JACKDAW: SEAN ALI / ERIKA DICKER / JOE MOFFETT - Contrabass / Violin / trumpet
7pm: WILLIAM PARKER AQUASONIC ENSEMBLE - ‘Lake of Light’ CD Release Celebration! Featuring: JEFF SCHLANGER/ANNE HUMANFELD/LEONID GALAGANOV/WILLIAM PARKER - Aquasonics
DMG is located at 13 Monroe St. (between Catherine & Market Sts) in a basement below a small gallery. 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 Always Cosy
*******
Starting Off This week’s Newsletter with a Large Ensemble Treasure:
[PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE] EXTRA LARGE UNIT - More Fun, Please! (PNL 040; Norway) Partial personnel: Per Ake Holmander, Jon Rune Strom, Klaus Holm, Mats Aleklint, Christian M. Svendsen, Tommi Keranen, Andreas Wildhagen… This disc features the Extra Large Unit, which is a double sized ensemble with Paal Nilssen-Love’s octet but the Intuitive People (members of the Norwegian Academy of Music or NAM), a 20 piece orchestra. The Large Unit consists of known players like Per Ake Holmlander on tuba, Jon Rune Strom (from Frode Gjerstad Trio) on bass plus Mr. Nilssen-Love (The Thing & various Peter Brotzmann projects) on drums. This CD was recorded live at the Connect Festival in Oslo, Norway in May of 2017. The liner notes by Mr. Nilssen-Love explain at length how he organized, composed and rehearsed for this unique concert, starting with a series of workshops with the members of NAM. Graphic scores which had short instructions (some silly, some serious, some political) were pasted on old album covers (picture enclosed), held up strategically and used to inspire or direct members of the large ensemble. The recording is superb so that we can hear all 27 members, sometimes in solos or within various subgroups. Some of the subgroups consist of 3 accordions, 3 strings, 2 acoustic basses, 4 brass… The results are/is an organic, evolving mass, with certain soloists or subgroups emerging from the silence or simmering undercurrents below. Although some sections erupt into chaos, there is a sense that someone is directing (there are 3 conductors) since there are a number of tight stops and starts throughout. There are a number of highlights here like the trumpet playing of Richard Koster and even some well selected electronics used as sonic seasoning. A good deal of time and thought went into this and it shows righteously so. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG ÂÂ
CD $16
PETER BROTZMANN / PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE - Levontin 7 / Tel Aviv 30th March 2015 (Self-produced; EEC) “If ‘Sex Tape’ (a duo with Heather Leigh) showed the improvising wisdom of Brötzmann in a free-improvised setting, then this documented meeting with Nilssen-Love owes more to their free jazz backgrounds. Brötzmann and Nilssen-Love play regularly during the last decade, beginning in the Chicago Tentet and instantly continuing in different formats, trios - with fellow reeds player Mats Gustafsson, koto player Michiyo Yagi, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, electric bass player Massimo Pupillo and trombonist Steve Swell - and the Hairy Bones quartet, but always returning to the duo format. This live recording from the Israeli, Tel Aviv based Levontin 7 club is their third duo recording, released by Nilssen-Love's mysterious no-label, in a cardboard sleeve designed by Brötzmann.
Both looked quite exhausted before the performance began, taxed by tiresome flights and endless touring schedule, but nothing of this affected their on-stage stamina. Brötzmann began with an intense, wild attack, that was organically yoked to fast-changing, hard-driving rhythmic patterns of Nilssen-Love. Their level of communication was so natural, immediate and profound that no more than a millisecond was needed to shift their rhythmic focus to a different dynamics. The real magic happened when both moved from free jazz whirlwinds to freer terrains, sketching more emotional, lyrical textures. Nilssen-Love alternated between light African polyrhythms and sparser coloring using different cymbals and metal objects, enabling Brötzmann to charge this interplay with beautiful, lyrical melodies, still blended with deep intense shades. Wisely they kept structuring together a multifaceted, nuanced texture, a kinetic architecture that has muscular, tough foundations but its higher, heavenly outlines have some kind of liquid-compassionate qualities. I could have listened to them playing love for hours if not days, but hey had to catch early morning flights.†- By Eyal Hareuveni, FreeJazzBlog.org
CD $20 [LTD Edition/ we have only 5 copies & that’s all we can get]
New from Not Two Records:
ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH / DAG MAGNUS NARVESEN – Interweaving (Not Two MW 958; Poland) Featuring: Alexander von Schlippenbach - grand piano and Dag Magnus Narvesen – drums. Recorded in Studio Boerne in Berlin in July of 2016. Featuring Alexander Von Schlippenbach on grand piano and Dag Magnus Narvesen on drums. After the recent passing of master pianist Cecil Taylor, we are left with just a handful of free/jazz pianists who can play with the same level of intensity and creativity. On the top of the mountain, you will find Alex Von Schlippenbach, who has been playing incredible avant piano for some fifty years, leading several bands as well as the Globe Unity Orchestra. For this fabulous LTD edition album, we find Mr. Schlippenbach playing with Dag Magnus Narvesen, a Norwegian jazz drummer, who has worked with the Kitchen Orchestra, as well as with Johannes Bauer, Fredrik Ljungkvist and leading his own octet.
This is an LP only release and the sound, thick, warm vinyl pressing was done with immense care. The sound is superb, as is the playing by both musicians. The title of this disc is ‘Interweaving’ which is most appropriate since this duo is consistently weaving several layers of their playing together. On “Banging the Barrelâ€Â, the air is filled with suspense as Mr. Schlippenbach slowly adds resonating fragments from inside the piano while Mr. Narvesen bows a cymbal creating an aura of eeriness. Since I hadn’t heard much about Mr. Narvesen before now, I ma most impressive with his playing. He sounds at times like Paul Lovens, who is a longtime member of a trio with Mr. Schlippenbach and Evan Parker. ExtraOrdinary on all levels! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
LP Only $36 [LTD Edition High Quality Vinyl and Cover]
CLIFFORD THORNTON MEMORIAL QUARTET With JOE McPHEE / DAUNIK LAZRO / JEAN MARC FOUSSAT / MAKOTO SATO – Sweet Oranges (Not Two MW 971; Poland) Featuring: Joe McPhee: tenor sax & valve trombone, Daunik Lazro: baritone & tenor saxes and Jean-Marc Foussat: analogue synthesizer and Makoto Sato: drums. Recorded live on July 20th, 2017 at the Nickelsdorf Konfrontationen Festival. Philly-based Clifford Thornton played valve trombone, cornet & flugelhorn and was one of the unsung heroes of the late sixties/early seventies free/jazz scene. He made five albums as a leader in the early seventies, all excellent and worth checking out and all sadly out-of-print. His first album, ‘Freedom & Unity’ was self-produced, released on his own label and included a young Joe McPhee. For his final album, ‘The Gardens of Harlem,’ he fronted the Jazz Composers Orchestra and it was a classic of large ensemble writing and playing. Mr. Thornton spent time in France and recorded with a French rhythm team with pianist Francois Tusques.
Early collaborator, reeds & brass player, Joe McPhee organized this live session, which includes three French-based musicians: Daunik Lazro (bari & tenor saxes), Jean-Marc Foussat (analogue synth) and Makoto Sato on drums. No doubt you recognize the name of Daunik Lazro from his work with Joelle Leandre, Evan Parker & Michel Doneda. Jean-Marc Foussat is widely known as the main recording engineer for the creative music scene in Paris, as well as running his own label: Fou Records. Japanese drummer, Makoto Sato, has been working with another Paris-based player: Itaru Oki and Linda Sharrock.
Like many sets featuring Joe McPhee, there is a spiritual, organic vibe going on here. Starting with valve trombone, bari sax, synth and drums, the music has a most cerebral, spacious quality, building in waves. Instead of having a bass or bottom end, the swirling synth and mallet-work cover this area marvelously. I like the way the synth swirls around saxes and brass, erupting intensely at times, with a strong foundation drum prolusion underneath. Occasionally Mr. Foussat uses his voice (a chorus of echoes) to weave some ghost-like voices into the mix. This has a powerful dose of medicine found within. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17
SZILARD MEZEI VOCAL ENSEMBLE With ERVIN MALINA / ISTVAN CSIK – Hotel America (Not Two MW 965; Poland) This is a large ensemble with some 18 members. The immensely prolific Serbian violist and composer, Szilard Mezei, has some three dozen discs out, from solo to orchestra, many with a host of Serbian musicians as well as collaborations with Michael Jefry Stevens, Frank Gratkowski and Jon Hemmersam. Mr. Mezei’s work with large ensembles are relatively rare as is his work with vocalists. For those who care, the four vocalists here are mostly another section or subgroup from within the eighteen musicians involved. The liner notes mention that Mr. Mezei honors the memory of the innocent Hungarian victims who were murdered by the Partisans in 1944. “Hotel America†became a common requiem for tens of thousands of executed victims. Mr. Mezei composed the music & conducted with texts by four poets. The music is extraordinary, probing and powerful. The large ensemble is tight and focused, well-conducted, with selective bursts free insanity emerged from the waves. The four vocalists sing in a chorus, the words in Serbian I believe, the voices well-harmonized and most enchanting. The poems illustrating what might have been been spoken to one another before the victims were put to death. Th ghost-like voices are most riveting. Whenever the vocals appear, they are accompanied by strong backing. The music is closer to progressive jazz/rock in sound although there are no guitars or rocking’ rage in sight. This disc is long and consistently fascinating. All of the words have been translated into English and can be found on the Not Two website. Another Not Two treasure! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17
RAMON LOPEZ / PERCY PURSGLOVE / RAFAÃ…Â MAZUR - Threefold (Not Two 973; Poland) Featuring Percy Pursglove trumpet, Rafal Mazur on acoustic bass guitar and Ramon Lopez on drums. Unless you are a big Paul Dunmall fan (like myself), you probably don’t recognize the name of British trumpeter Percy Pursglove, who has appeared on five discs by Mr. Dunmall. You know of acoustic bass guitarist Rafal Mazur from his work with Agusti Fernandez or Keir Neuringer. Drummer, Raymon Lopez. is the most visible member of this trio, appearing on more than a dozen discs with a diverse cast: Ivo Perelman, Joachim Kuhn & Sylvain Kassap.Mr. Lopez composed 4 of the six pieces here, the others are group improvs. The opening track, “Three Musiciansâ€Â, is suspense-filled and haunting. I like the sour and playing of Mr. Mazur’s acoustic bass guitar, somewhere in between an acoustic and an electric fretless sound, he bends notes in a slippery (sliding up and sliding down) Jaco-esque way at times, balancing between the soaring trumpet and tight rhythm prolusion of Mr. Lopez’s dynamic drums. The music is often somber and reflective, poised for something to happen. Mr. Lopez, who seems to the the leader or main instigator here, is extremely musical in his approach, never overplays, listens and reacts instantly, the trio seems to thinking as one. Mr. Pursglove seems to be concentrating on different areas or textures, breathing life into diverse terrain. On “Pinyuta 10â€Â, he starts out by carefully bending and twisting this hissing radiator sounds before the trio takes off into a frenzied tempo eruption. “Bacchanal†has one of those great sly bass grooves that makes one smile eventually moving into a great majestic section, the trio tight and swinging with rambunctious verve. The balance between the written and improvised pieces is well thought out since it feels like the improv leads right into the more charted territory just right. All in all, another outstanding offering. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17
Three New Ones from the Listen! Foundation Label:
BARRY GUY / AGUSTI FERNANDEZ / TORBEN SNEKKESTAD – Louisiana Variations (Listen! Foundation FSR 01/2018; Poland) Featuring Torben Snekkestad on reeds (soprano & bass sax & contrabass clarinet usually) & trumpet, Agusti Fernandez on piano and Barry Guy on contrabass. This set was recorded live in Copenhagen in July of 2017. British born contrabass master, composer and leader the LJCO and his own New Jazz Orchestra also keeps busy around Europe, playing with a number of great improvisers. One of Mr. Guy’s best current groups is a trio with Spanish pianist Agusti Fernandez. For this date, Mr. Guy and Mr. Fernandez are joined by Norwegian saxist Torben Snekkestad, who is currently living in Copenhagen, where this disc was recorded. Mr. Snekkestad has several disc as a leader, as well as being a member of the Copenhagen Sax Quartet, Tri O’Trang and working with Maja Ratkje,Hasse Poulsen & Trygve Seim.
This disc was produced by Mr. Snekkestad and is well recorded. The title of this disc is ‘Louisiana Variations’, an odd choice for three European improvisers? The trio is extremely focused and balanced just right. Starting off quietly and spaciously, the trio slowly combine forces and build in intensity. Mr. Snekkestad switches between several reeds & trumpet, concentrating on one at a time, from soprano to contrabass clarinet to bass sax to trumpet, selectively weaving his playing with the diverse piano and bass interplay. Both M. Guy and Mr. Fernanez are well-matched, with Mr. Guy exploring by banging on the strings with objects and Fernandez scrapping the strings inside the piano. Mr. Snekkestad sounds somewhat like Evan Parker when he plays soprano, spinning out notes furiously before settling down to a more minimal web. There is a section midway where Mr. Fernandez erupts and plays some of that Keith Tippett-like intensity pushing the other two players into the stratosphere! This disc is high-end improv at it very best! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17
NATE WOOLEY / TORBEN SNEKKESTAD – Of Echoing Bronze (Listen! Foundation FSR0 2/2018; Poland) Featuring Nate Wooley on trumpet and Torben Snekkestad on soprano sax & trumpet. We haven’t heard much from Downtown trumpeter Nate Wooley in a while so I was pleased to get this disc in the mail earlier this week. Over the past year we’ve seen just a couple of collaborations with Ivo Perelman and one by Mr. Wooley as a leader, ‘KNKNIGHGH’ on Clean Feed. For this disc, Mr. Wooley is collaborating with Norwegian reedsman/trumpeter Torben Snekkestad. Mr. Snekkestad is currently living in Copenhagen and is a member of the Copenhagen Sax Quartet and Tri O’Trang. This disc was recorded live in Copenhagen and starts out very quietly with hushed, breath-like sounds and soft drones hovering around the room. Both men are concentrating, the sounds slowly expanding, slowly resonating. This music evolves very slowly and carefully with both musicians focusing on the nuances of every sound, like scientists staring into a microscope and noticing the slight changes going by often unnoticed. There is a great deal of thought to the way each sound unfolds and is stretched out. For discs like this, it is the silence or space between the sounds that is as important as the sounds themselves. It does take some patience to appreciate this, but the rewards are great once we settle down into this minimal soundscape. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17
AGUSTI FERNANDEZ / PATRYK ZAKROCKI / MARCIN OLAK – Spontaneous Chamber Music (Listen! Foundation FSR 03/2018; Poland) Featuring Marcin Olak on classical & electric guitars, Patryk Zakrocki on viola & trumpet violin and Augusti Fernandez on piano. Over the past couple of years Spanish pianist Agusti Fernandez has been well-documented by this, a newer Polish label called Listen! Foundation with a half dozen discs with assorted personnel, including an ambitious 4 CD set called, ‘River Tiger Fire’. For this session, Mr. Fernandez works with two Polish musicians with whom I am not previously familiar. This disc begins with some dark piano resonance, most hypnotic and filled with suspense. Careful, sparse electric guitar and what sounds like a distant double reed but must be the trumpetviolin?!? Although the piano is the central player here, the other two musicians are well-matched and unpredictable stylistically. Mr. Olak selectively uses pedals/effects on his electric guitar, often shifting through different sounds and doesn’t really sound like anyone else I’ve heard. Mr. Zakrocki is often the wild card switching between viola and that violin-trumpet thing, which seems to combine distant electric strings with wah-wah trumpet sounds. There are 16 pieces here and most of them are pretty short, many flowing from one to the next seamlessly. This keeps the listener on the edge of their seat as we hear one surprising twist after the other. There is a superb acoustic section midway (classical guitar, viola & piano), which is short yet perfectly placed within the extreme electric and/or rubbed strings inside the piano section that follows. Considering that I hadn’t heard of Mr. Olak and Mr. Zakrocki before now, I look forward to hearing them in the future. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17
Five Big Ones from Corbett Vs. Dempsey:
STEVE LACY With STEVE POTTS / KENT CARTER / OLIVER JOHNSON / IRENE AEBI - Stamps (CvsD 045; USA) "Originally released in 1979 as a double-LP on Hat Hut, Stamps was Steve Lacy’s first for the legendary Swiss label, and it remains one of the strongest statements of what he termed the “scratchy seventies.†With the classic lineup of Lacy’s soprano saxophone, Steve Potts on soprano and alto sax, Irene Aebi on cello (and singing on one track), Kent Carter on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums, the recording catches the band live, performing Lacy’s angular, intervallic compositions, using arrangements that leave the rough patina, rather than buffing things to a smooth shine. This is the first time the important music has been reissued on CD, adding a bonus track, all remastered from the original tapes. The double-disc package sports a facsimile reproduction of the gorgeous artwork by Klaus Baumgärtner, with action photographs from the concerts on the interior. A must for Lacy fans and for anyone interested in creative music."
2 CD Set $18
BEAVER HARRIS / DON PULLEN 360 DEGREE EXPERIENCE With HAMIET BLUIETT / RICKY FORD / BUSTER WILLIAMS / et al - A Well-Kept Secret (CvsD 046; USA) "Of all the never-issued-on-CD items in history’s dustbin, A Well-Kept Secret is perhaps the most egregious. The beautiful studio recording, made under the watchful ear of über- producer Hal Willner, was first issued on LP in 1985 on Willner’s own Shemp label. With its unconventional lineup featuring steel drums, Latin percussion, and French horns, along with the co-leaders’ drum-kit and piano, it is among the most wonderful outings of its decade. Pullen was in top form, his inside-outside approach to the keyboard perhaps optimally heard on the exuberant “Double Arc Jake,†where the bright melody suddenly breaks into pieces, snapping back into miraculous shape. The band includes Hamiet Bluiett on baritone saxophone and Ricky Ford on tenor saxophone, along with Buster Williams on bass, Francis Hayes on steel pans, and a special brass section led by Sharon Freeman on the 17-minute “Goree.†All compositions by Harris and Pullen. With the original cover design by Ralph Steadman reproduced in all its glory, the CD was remastered from unplayed vinyl, as the tapes were destroyed in a fire. This is one of the classic records of creative music in the ‘80s, available for the first time in any digital form."
CD $15
KEN VANDERMARK and MICHAEL SNOW - Duol (CvsD 042; USA) "Although he is best known as a groundbreaking experimental filmmaker, one of the architects of structural cinema, and visual artist, Michael Snow has been active as a musician since the 1950s. In Greenwich Village of the 1960s, his loft was the site of concerts by Cecil Taylor and other paragons of free jazz, and Snow’s film New York Eye and Ear featured a soundtrack by Albert Ayler’s group and starred its members. A brilliant keyboardist and occasional trumpeter, Snow was a key figure in Toronto’s improvised music scene, performing and recording with the ensemble CCMC, and as an improvising pianist he’s worked in myriad contexts with many of the world’s leading free players. Saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Ken Vandermark first learned about Snow as a film student in Montreal, where the classic work Wavelength confounded and fascinated him. In 2015, Vandermark and Snow performed together for the first time as a duet, resulting in three astounding long-form improvisations. Snow dug in hard at the piano, with clusters and repeated figures, while Vandermark was explosive on tenor and surgical on clarinet, opting often for the latter. The entire evening’s music is released here, an early painting by Snow adorning the cover, and a still from the concert’s videotaped footage spanning the gatefold interior. "
CD $15
MATS GUSTAFSSON and JASON ADASIEWICZ - Timeless (CvsD 043; USA) "Discussing this impending studio date, the indefatigable saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and intrepid vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz decided to compose new pieces for one another. The resulting tracks – which also include a hallucinogenic arrangement of “Timeless,†dedicated to its composer, the recently deceased guitarist John Abercrombie – show a markedly different side of both musicians. Quiet, at times tender, this meeting-of-like-minds evoked a new kind of tension, not one birthed out of screams and wallops, but instead one marshaling the power of restraint. Gustafsson’s work with groups like the Thing and Fire! Orchestra have made him one of the most renowned figures in contemporary energy music, and Adasiewicz’s joyous noise in his own bands and with Peter Brötzmann, Rob Mazurek, and many others have likewise earned him top status in the pantheon of today’s free musicians. On Timeless, they explore low dynamics, static soundscape, and melodic lyricism, infused with passion and intellect. One track features the wooden-keyed African balafon, coaxing a buoyant response on alto from Gustafsson, while their mutual boyhood love of highly select fusion records provided an unforeseen jumping off point for the whole record. On the cover, a painting by Charline von Heyl; across the interior, a photo portrait of the musicians."
CD $15
FRED LONBERG-HOLM and the AMPHIBIANS OF THE EVERGLADES Featuring GUSTAVO MATAMOROS - Bow Hard at the Frog (CvsD 044; USA) "Never one to shy away from unusual projects, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm set out into the mosquito-infested swamps of Florida’s Everglades in search of a host of amphibious collaborators. In the night air, he bowed and plucked in conversation with the environment, especially the vocalizing frogs, which seemed to take him on as an exotic member of their own. Impeccably documented by the experienced soundscape artist and field recordist Gustavo Matamoros, working like a perverse herpetologist, Lonberg-Holm may have created a whole new genre of experimental audio: outdoor interspecies improvisation. Other features of the evening ambience are warmly embraced – a passing car, mysterious water noises, even the incessant mosquitoes. Determining where these swamp sounds end and the maestro’s cello begins is perhaps the greatest challenge of all. Not something you can say often: ‘Bow Hard at the Frog’ is a genuinely unique sonic experience."
CD $15
GUILLERMO GREGORIO / NICOLAS LETMAN-BURTINOVIC / TODD CAPP - Futura Spartan Suite (Chap Chap 011; USA/Japan) Featuring Guillermo Gregorio on clarinet, Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic on contrabass & effects and Todd Capp on drums. Since moving here from Chicago a couple of years back, clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio, has been playing more often around town but no recording as much as he used to. On the other hand, former French-based bassist, who has lived here for a while now, has left us with a half dozen discs with different personnel on each one. Original Downtown drummer, Todd Capp, was involved in the loft jazz scene of the seventies and then seemed to have disappeared for a long while. Mr. Capp has made up for long time during the past decade, playing and recording with a host of often younger musicians not bound by any one style of genre. More recently Mr. Capp has been working with cornetist Kurt Ralske, as well as a number of electronics/laptop players.
Even before moving here, Mr Gregorio and Mr. Letman-Burtinovic, had been playing together, rehearsing and working their way through each others compositions and improvisations. Hence, their is a tight bond between them can often be heard or felt throughout this disc. This is, I believe, a studio recording and the sound is splendid, close mic’d, warm and perfectly balanced. The ongoing conversation between the clarinet and contrabass is tight yet spacious, as both players weave their way carefully around one another. Drummer Todd Capp is a great listener, often staying in the background yet also providing an immensely sympathetic cushion of interaction. The clarinet and bass often take their time to stretch out their notes, calm yet focused, It feels as if time is slowing down here as the duo & trio play long tones, cautiously bending their notes together into a distinctive combined sound. There are a number of moments when Guillermo is bending his notes and Nicolas is being his bass, and you can’t tell who is making which sound. The exchange is extraordinary, the blend unique and surprising. Chap Chap is a legendary and hard to find Japanese label which released a number of great free/jazz Cds by Evan Parker & Han Bennink. It seems appropriate that this duo/trio would have their release found here amongst the other giants of provocative music. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $12
NICOLAS LETMAN-BURTINOVIC / MICHAEL LYTLE - Dark Magic (Self-produced; USA) Featuring Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic on acoustic bass and Michael Lytle on bass & contrabass clarinets. This duo played here at DMG last Sunday (5/29/18) and left us with just five copies of this disc, all signed by both players. Bassist Letman-Burtinovic plays here at DMG several times a year and always with different personnel. He also leaves us with different discs from his assorted projects, always solid efforts of creative music. I’ve known clarinetist Michael Lytle for nearly 40 years, since he was an early member of the Downtown Scene. He was in a duo/trio called Meltable Snaps It with George Cartwright and is a founding of Dr. Nerve, NYC’s best long-running progressive band. Mr. Lytle continues to turn up with different improvisers each year, playing at DMG on rare occasion. What I dig about this disc as well as the set last Sunday is that this duo concentrate on the extreme low-end of improv: contrabass and bass or contrabass clarinet are dealing with similar sonic territory. Mr. Lytle explained at the end of their set that they were trying to see who could hit the lowest note that night so both players were reading for the bottom end, a depth few get involved with. The music is carefully constructed so that we can hear each nuance of each sound. It some ways, this reminds me of a stimulating conversation that tow old friends might have while they are submerged in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean with time slowed down and certain sonic fish floating by. It is hard to tell the different between the two players here yet we are truly transported nonetheless. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD-R $15 [LTD Edition of 25 / signed by both musicians]
New from EUGENE CHADBOURNE:
EUGENE CHADBOURNE / STEVE BERESFORD / ALEX WARD - Pleasures of the Horror (Bisou Records 005-U; France) Featuring Eugene Chadbourne on guitar, banjo & vocals, Steve Beresford on piano, multiple keyboards & euphonium and Alex Ward on clarinet, guitar & alto sax. Bisou Records asked Eugene Chadbourne to do an album for children and he proposed an album about horror movies and monsters. Some references are obvious, like "The Thing", "Blacky Lagoony", etc., and some are about strange characters, like "Vampire Tiger Girl†and some are covers (by Sam The Sham & Pharaohs & Shockabilly, Dr. Chad’s previous band). It's probably the best recorded album of Eugene Chadbourne in many years, being able to use a great studio. The other great thing about this is that Doc Chad asked two of the UK’s most diverse and creative musicians, Steve Beresford & Alex Ward, neither of whom are ever bound by any one style, genre or direction. For many of us Doc Chad fans, Eugene often sounds like a child at heart. There is a constant joyous and often silly or humorous vibe running through much of what he does. This album captures that uplifting vibe righteously and has a way of making smile and forget about all the BS we has to deal with day in and day out. On the opening song, “Ca Va Va Voomâ€Â, everything is stripped down to just voice, acoustic guitar, minimal piano and quaint clarinet, a perfect balance of innocence and craft. I get the feeling that Doc Chadbourne has long appreciated science fiction movies and themes, since they capture the ridiculousness of life and every day life does get even more ridiculous. Need to feel better, take a dose of this elixir from Doc Chadbourne’s sonic medicine chest. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
LP $20
Sale on Three out of print Dr. Eugene Chadbourne CD’s:
EUGENE CHADBOURNE With SUSAN ALCORN - Texas Sessions: Chapter Two to Doug Sahm (Boxholder 027; USA) A tribute to Doug Sahm, recorded in Austin, Texas and featuring Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, Walter Daniels on harmonicas, and Texas Tornados sidemen Sparks and Durawa. The great doctor is back with one of the best releases of the year featuring a fabulous band with the incredible pedal steel sorceress Susan Alcorn, Walter Daniels on harmonics and a righteous rhythm team from the Texas Tornadoes - Speedy Sparks on bass and Ernie Durawa on drums. This is a tribute to the late, great Doug Sahm - Tex/Mex rock/r&b legend from the Sir Doug Quintet & Texas Tornadoes. Both Eugene and Susan Alcorn play inspired, insane and breathtaking guitar/steel throughout, the rhythm team also kickin' hard.- Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $10
EUGENE CHADBOURNE With BILL BARRET / DAN CLUCAS / RICHIE WEST / et al - The Hills Have Jazz (Boxholder 046; USA) This wonderful instrumental jazz project features Mr. Chadbourne on acoustic guitar, Carey Fosse on electric guitar, Brian Walsh on tenor sax, Dan Clucas on cornet & flute, Bill Barrett on harmonica and Richie West on drums. This is a successful and serious departure for our good pal, Dr. Chadbourne. The jazz snobs out there love to complain and about jazz vocals in general and Eugene's occasionally silly singing in particular. It is a voice you either find endearing or not. What makes Eugene unique is his ability to combine many opposite streams, the serious & the humorous sides, as well as many jazz styles, rock, bluegrass and classical influences, blending them into his own distinctive thing. 'The Hills Have Jazz' was recorded with a group of players from L.A., dedicated to horror film director & friend Wes Craven, with whom Dr. Chad hung out during these sessions. Eugene has chosen some heavy jazz tunes to cover here, one each from Tadd Dameron, Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra & Coltrane and two each from Oliver Lake and Eric Dolphy. Dameron & Count Basie's "Good Bait" opens and it is a joy to hear Chad & co. do this bop standard relatively straight with some fine acoustic guitar, electric guitar and tenor sax solos. Oliver Lake's "Heavy Spirits" is the title track from an early solo album from 1975 and the quintet quietly take it out into space with some delicate harmonica, squeaky sax, floating guitars and subtle percussion. Mr. Lake's "Saturn" is done in a superb, swirling, and mysterious way with some tasty muted cornet & harmonica, exquisite acoustic guitar and nimble percussion. Eric Dolphy's "17 West" swings righteously and is done in a cool school way with the guitar, harmonica, sax and flute playing tight unison lines together. Another well-chosen cover is Roscoe Mitchell's "Noonah" which is just done as an acoustic guitar & drums duo, free yet focused, with some inspired guitar from our fave out/jazz pioneer, Eugene of course. Sun Ra's "Space Jazz Reverie" is also a great choice with a most appropriate title. Excellent solos from the cornet, tenor sax (which sounds more like a clarinet), harmonica w/ effects, electric guitar and Eugene's brilliant playing holding it all together throughout. Dr. Chad plays Dolphy's "Miss Toni" on his banjo and thus gives this classic a different spin. This swell quintet closes with Coltrane's "Miles Mode", with Chad again on banjo. They do a sublime, laid back and haunting version of this much-covered tune. Who would've thought that instrumentation like banjo, cornet, el. guitar, harmonica and drums could work so well, but they certainly do a most rewarding take on this piece. You are quite right, Lou (Kannenstine, label head), this is one of Dr. Chadbourne's best discs in a while! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
$10
EUGENE CHADBOURNE / JIMMY CARL BLACK / PAT THOMAS - Hearing is Believing (Boxholder 053; USA) This version of the Jack & Jim Show features Eugene Chadbourne on guitar, banjo & vocals, Jimmy Carl Black on drums & vocals, Pat Thomas on Fender Rhodes, organ, other keyboards & cheap electronics and Schroeder on drums, percussion, vibes & electronics. For the last two weeks of August this past summer (2007), Eugene Chadbourne curated The Stone and performed most nights with an assortment musicians from around the planet. Guests included Duck Baker, John Zorn, Barry Mitterhof, Lukas Kigeti, Mary Halvorson & Dave Fox. This Chad Fest ended with three nights of the Jack (Dr. Chad) and Jim (Carl Black) Show with different guests each night. I caught a night with banjo great Tony Trischka sitting in and it was a blast. This disc was mostly done in a studio in Germany with some live material from a festival in Slovenia. The disc begins with a melancholy, laid-back version of "Eleanor Rigby", with Eugene and Jim sharing the vocals and Pat Thomas playing dreamy electric piano underneath Eugene's swirling banjo runs. Next up is the hilarious political satire "Cheney's Hunting Ducks" by Dr. Chad. Mingus' "Pithecanthropus Erectus" gets an odd spy movie sort of treatment with fine fractured el. guitar. Only Jim & Jack would segueway from Dizzy's classic "Salt Peanuts" to a country tune called "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" to a new version of "Girl from Ipanema", called, get this, "Girl from Al-Quaeda." They do a splendid sort-of bluegrass version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On", a most appropriate lyric for current times. Sometimes it sounds as if there are a few songs going on at the same time, swirling around one another. This works very well on "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey", with layers of crazy voices, a kazoo and strange sound effects. One of the highlights here is the lovely, laid-back version of Tim Hardin's "Misty Roses" with some fine electric piano by Pat Thomas. Things comes to close with slightly twisted country standard, "When the Grass Grows Over Me", with some fast spinning tapes and wacky electronics provided by Mr. Thomas. A most effective ending to another delight from the trusty Jack & Jim Show. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $10
MALAGASY GUITAR MASTERS - Volo Hazo (Buda Musique 860323; France) "Malagasy Guitar Masters is the meeting of three musicians from Madagascar. Three generations rub shoulders there: Teta, 'guitarist with the fingers of fairy', undisputed grand master of the tsapiky. Chrysanto Zama, young prodigy guitarist, combines virtuosity, originality and richness of the compositions. Joel Rabesolo, perfectly masters all the styles of the Malagasy guitar."
CD $16
RAGNAR JOHNSON - Crying Bamboos: Ceremonial Flute Music from New Guinea Madang (Ideologic Organ 030; France) Crying Bamboos is a translation of the pidgin description of the sound of sacred flutes: "Mambu i cry, i cry, i cry". Sacred flutes are blown to make the cries of spirits by adult men in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea. Pairs of long bamboo male and female flutes are played for ceremonies in the coastal villages near the Ramu River. There are seven male initiation flute cries from Bosmun, four flute cries from Bak: Borai with occasional single garamut percussion and two flute cries from Kaean, one with vocals and hand drums. The flute players were of the last generation to have learned this skill during a complete cycle of male initiation. These previously unreleased recordings were made by Ragnar Johnson in 1979. Notes by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer; Photographs by Ragnar Johnson. Tape to digital transfer and mastering by Dave Hunt at Dave Hunt Audio, London; Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.
2 CD Set $25
GUNESH - Gunesh (Óуýõш)(Everland Jazz ELJ 013; Austria) Everland Jazz present a reissue of Gunesh's Óуýõш = Gunesh, originally released in 1980. The Gunesh Ensemble was founded in 1970 in Ashkhabad, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, then part of the Soviet Union. They started out as a vocal group with supporting musicians from Turkmenistan State Radio and TV. Later several young musicians came to play with them and the band's music became much more modern. The group began to play jazz-rock tightly intertwined with traditional Oriental music. With that new musical style, the band participated in some popular festivals around the Soviet Union. They received various awards and became very popular. Gunesh was always in the process of developing and they were one of the first and best local jazz-groups to organically combine the principles of jazz and melodic improvisation. The remarkably beautiful arrangements and polyrhythmic compositions were always further developed thematically. This process was highly praised at the Moscow competition With A Song On Life in 1977 where the ensemble became a prize-winner. The Organizing Committee of the Festival Spring Rhythms in Tbilisi (1980) named members Rishad Shafi the best drummer and Stanislav Morozov the best saxophonist. This album, their very fine first LP, was originally released in 1980 on the Soviet state label Melodyja and contains traditional Central Asian music in jazz-rock arrangements along with the appearance of a Vietnamese singer. The line-up has changed many times. Around 65 musicians have been a member of the group at some point in time.
CD $15
AROVANE PORYA HATAM - Organism & Organism_evolution (Karl Records 041-051; Germany) Two albums by the Berlin-based electronic musician Arovane and Porya Hatami, one of the main protagonists of the vivid Iranian electronic underground, on a special double CD: experimental, field recording-based ambient sounds with elements of electro-acoustic music and musique-concrète. Since his return from a nine-year long hibernation in 2013, the Berlin-based electronic artist Uwe Zahn, alias Arovane, has been more productive than ever and released a dozen of solo and collaborative albums. Porya Hatami, one of the main protagonists of the vivid Iranian electronic underground, released several albums on labels like Hibernate and introduced himself as a skilled experimental sound artist exploring the balance between electronics and environmental sounds. 2017's Organism was the duo's fourth collaboration. The 19 tracks, created using processed acoustic and electronic sources as well as field recordings, bring together the best of the two musicians: sophisticated electronic music of peaceful, even zen-like atmosphere with experimental twists. The brand-new Organism_evolution, as the title points out, develops further the aesthetics of Organism and reveals influences of musique-concrète and electro-acoustic music that place the tracks in a more experimental field. Using techniques like modular synthesis, granular synthesis, spectral processing, granular, resynthesis and resonator/modal synthesis, Arovane and Hatami used many different layers of processed sounds and field recordings to create depth and complexity -- with every new encounter, the listener will discover new sonic aspects and dive deeper into the multifaceted structures of the masterly sound-designed 23 compositions. Both albums, each a digital-only release originally, are bundled here as a limited edition two-CD in a special gatefold digisleeve. Mastered by Porya Hatami. Original artwork designed by Salah Ebrahimi.
2 CD Set $22
TABOR RADOSTI - Havamal (Klanggallerie 249; Austria) "Tábor Radosti is a fantastic band from the Czech Republic. Their debut album came out in 2001 as a self-released CDR that is now totally impossible to find. Tábor Radosti have created a very unique sound that includes drone, voice, samples, but also beats and analogue instruments. Their visuals and lyrics are very much centered around occult themes, if you have ever seen them live you will have been stunned. Klanggalerie is now very proud to start a re-issue program for the first two albums. Many of you have probably not heard of them before, but it is time that they gain popularity outside of their home country. The vocals are spoken in Czech - to Western European or American ears there is a certain similarity to early Laibach, they share the same roughness, but Tabor Radosti also include electronic beats which again is reminiscent of present day Laibach. On this re-issue, we bring back the second album Havamal with also updated artwork and some bonus tracks. NB: We at Klanggalerie stumbled across Tabor Radosti at Castle Festival in Moravia and were so impressed by their performance that we signed them immediately."
CD $18
Historic & Archival Recordings in Stock Next Week:
ALICE COLTRANE With PHAROAH SANDERS / ARCHIE SHEPP / JIMMY GARRISON / CECIL McBEE / CLIFFORD JARVIS / ED BLACKWELL / KUMAR KRAMER - Carnegie Hall '71 (Hi Hat 3093; UK) Alice Coltrane, live at Carnegie Hall, New York on February 21st, 1971. On Sunday, February 21st, 1971, a benefit was held in New York's Carnegie Hall for Swami Satchidanda's Integral Yoga Institute, featuring Laura Nyro, the New Rascals, and Alice Coltrane's All-Stars. The latter band was a remarkable coming-together of talent, with Lady Trane joined by legends such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Jimmy Garrison on stupendous form (with a little assistance from members of the Yoga Institute). The astounding performance of John Coltrane's "Africa" on this set, finds them improvising thrillingly. Includes the entire WQXR-FM broadcast, digitally remastered and accompanied by background notes and images. Also features: Kumar Kramer (harmonium), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Cecil McBee (bass), Clifford Jarvis (drums), and Ed Blackwell (drums).
CD $17
PAUL BLEY TRIO With MARK LEVINSON / BARRY ALTSCHUL - Bremen '66 (Hi Hat 3110; UK) Paul Bley Trio, live from Lila Eule, Bremen, Germany on September 27th, 1966. The young Paul Bley earned his spurs playing with legends including Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Jimmy Giuffre, Ornette Coleman, and Bill Evans. As the 1960s progressed, he increasingly embraced the avant-garde, with arguably his greatest successes coming in the piano trio format. Originally broadcast on Nordewestradio in the autumn of 1966, and featuring material by Bley and his wife Carla, this fiery set typifies his approach at the time. Includes the entire Nordewestradio FM Broadcast, digitally remastered and accompanied by background notes and images. Personnel: Paul Bley - piano; Mark Levinson - bass; Barry Altschul - drums.
CD $17
ORNETTE COLEMAN & PRIME TIME / HERBIE HANCOCK QUARTET/ CHICK COREA ELEKTIC BAND / WAYNE SHORTER QUARTET / et al - Live Under The Sky '86 '87 (Hi Hat 3058; UK) Live Under The Sky Festival of 1986 and 1987, at Yomiuri-Land Theatre East, Tokyo, Japan. From 1977 to 1992, Live Under the Sky was one of the top jazz festivals in Japan, presenting legends from around the world. This two-disc set features performances from the 1986 and 1987 festivals at Yomiuri-Land Theatre East, Tokyo, Japan, broadcast on NHK BS Channel 1, including selections from Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Ornette Coleman & Prime Time Band, Wayne Shorter Quartet, Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell, and Miles Davis. Also features The Chick Corea Elektric Band and Herbie Hancock Quartet. Digitally remastered for greatly enhanced sound quality, this set includes background liners.
2 CD Set $24
SPACEMEN 3 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To (Space Age 056; UK)
Space Age present a reissue of Spacemen 3's Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To, originally released in 1990. Re-release, digitally re-mastered featuring Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce. The original appearance of Taking Drugs was a bootleg on the legendary/notorious Father Yod imprint in 1990, later supplemented with contemporary outtakes and cuts for the Bomp reissue in 1994 and one further song for the Space Age version in 2000. The original seven tracks, dated January 1986 and the first recordings to feature Pete Bain on bass, are collectively known as the Northampton Demos. Both Sonic and Pierce have been on record as long preferring these takes to the eventual versions that surfaced for the most part on "Sound Of Confusion". Certainly it's a fine set of performances, showing a definite step toward the more familiar sound of the group and away from the rougher takes on 1995's For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World (ORBIT 039CD). "The Sound Of Confusion", aka "Walkin' With Jesus", rips along with fierce energy, Pierce's singing and the rampaging, primitive wail and rumble of the band just wonderful. "Losing Touch With My Mind" takes things to an even higher level, a huge wallop of feedback and beat (Natty Brooker's drumming in particular delivers just what the doctor ordered), Pierce delivering the lines with a flat, cutting drawl. On the slightly lighter tip, "Come Down Easy" is more or less fully in place (aside from singing about it being 1986!), possessing a more upfront but less vocally distinct feel than The Perfect Prescription (1987) take. The tracks that surfaced on the later reissues come from a variety of different sessions, including the original take on "Feel So Good" and a good live version of "Things'll Never Be The Same", one of several cuts featuring Brooker's drumming replacement Rosco.
CD $16
LP Section:
STEVE LACY, YUJI TAKAHASHI & TAKEHISA KOSUGI - Distant Voices (Aguirre Records ZORN 051; Belgium) Aguirre Records present a reissue of Distant Voices, Steve Lacy's rare Japanese collaboration album, originally released in 1976. Renowned for remarkable solo concerts that confirmed his mastery of the soprano horn and that carried its instrumental language into previously unexplored regions, Lacy also loved to collaborate with musicians who could inspire him to stretch the boundaries of his own artistry. During the summer of 1975 Lacy toured Japan, and on June 24th he entered a Nippon Columbia studio in Tokyo with Yuji Takahashi and Takehisa Kosugi, two adventurous kindred spirits, guaranteed to fire Lacy's creative imagination. The fascinating outcome of that dynamic session is Distant Voices, an album without parallel in Lacy's extensive discography. Composer Iannis Xenakis was so impressed when he heard Yuji Takahashi playing piano in 1961 that he later wrote music especially for him. His repertoire extends back to Bach and Purcell yet for Takahashi, music has remained an open quest and a process of discovery. Takehisa Kosugi on the other hand has been a legendary figure in the international avant-garde since the mid-1960s when his work was endorsed by the fluxus movement. In Japan he was by then already well established as leading practitioner of experimental music and intermedia performance art. At the time Distant Voices was recorded Kosugi had also developed a following for his electric violin playing with the Taj Mahal Travellers, a group whose sound had strong stylistic affinities with psychedelic rock and space music. Subsequently other audiences worldwide came to know Kosugi through his long association as a composer, performer, and musical director with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. On 24th June 1975 Takahashi sat at a grand piano, with celeste and vibraphone alongside him and small bells attached to his hands. Kosugi was equipped with violin, flute, mouth organ, an electronic modulator, porcelain bowls and at times he used his voice. Lacy played soprano saxophone, of course. Now and then he pressed the mouth of the instrument against the skin of a kettle drum. He occasionally fiddled with a transistor radio, and also found uses for a stepladder, a toothbrush, and a spinning wheel. This was in no sense a routine musical session. Distant Voices preserves a unique occasion when three singular musicians joined together to embrace the unknown. Licensed from Columbia Japan. Remastered and lacquer cut by Rashad Becker. 180 gram vinyl.
LP $32
MARY HALVORSON With AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE / AMIRTHA KIDAMBI / MICHAEL FORMANEK / TOMAS FUJIWARA - Code Girl (Firehouse 12-04-01-027’ USA) “Each of Mary Halvorson’s ‘main’ records where the ingeniously quirky composer and guitarist heads up a small ensemble represents a tweak on the group’s configuration. She does this to reveal a new facet in her original, pliable compositions; for that reason, every album is its own, standalone chapter in the still-evolving Book of Halvorson. For Code Girl (March 30 2018, Firehouse 12 Records), Halvorson uses a whole new crew apart from the one that’s always been anchored by the Ches Smith/John Hébert rhythm section. Well, not exactly new: The collective Thumbscrew trio of her, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and bassist Michael Formanek is expanded with Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) and Amirtha Kidambi (voice), and she’s fully in charge. The term “code girl†came randomly out of the mouth of Halvorson’s primary mentor Anthony Braxton but it could have easily been directed at Halvorson herself and her approach to composition: a calculating, mathematical approach where the math is advanced algebra. She sets up each song to solve for x, always arriving there via a path no one could anticipate or readily decipher but the journey is worthwhile just for the exotic places it takes you. Just to pick out one example, “Possibility of Lightning†is typical of that Halvorson brand, marching, literally, to the beat that could have only come from her head. But now, Halvorson introduces lyrics that are found in all but a couple of songs on Code Girl. Singing isn’t a new thing on Halvorson’s material, she’s done this on her collaborations with Jessica Pavone. This time though the lines are all delivered by Kidambi. Adopting an approach that’s the opposite of probably most songwriters, the lyrics were written first and the music was built around it. In the end, the words don’t alter the general thrust of Halvorson’s music but it serves to sharpen the edges of it a bit. “My Mind I Find In Time†begins with Halvorson alone in a dreamy aside that reminds me of how her originality is only magnified when she’s all alone. However, the whole band acts as an effective extension of her fertile mind when they come on board, including even another true original of the current generation, Akinmusire. The trumpeter provides the expected contrast but when the two play as a unit as they do on “Pretty Mountain,†they find common ground in their disparate approaches. He gets an unaccompanied spotlight on “Deepest Similar†that’s all pure tone goodness and emits a voice-like moan on the short “Armory Beams.†We also witness the duality of Halvorson’s artistry: the clearly defined shapes accentuated by flourishes of atonality in the precise dose it takes to make you sit up and pay attention. Formanek’s direct, woody upright frames the gently prancing “Off The Record,†a non-vocal selection that instead presents Halvorson playing her customary clean lines mixed with the delayed backwash eccentricities coming from delay and her unique use of an effect pedal. Not every song is densely charted: “Storm Cloud†lumbers along with extended notes and it’s subdued to the point that for much of the song, it’s just Halvorson, Kidambi and Formanek (playing arco), sounding close to a rock ballad. “Thunderhead†lumbers forward on Formanek’s creeping bass figure as Akinmusire and Halvorson put forth thoughtful, unhurried phrases. For most of this fare, Kidambi’s voice blends in with the band, but for “Accurate Hit,†her singing is accompanied only by Halvorson rhythm guitar stridently strumming a cyclical pattern, a song that would fit in perfectly on an indie rock album. However, it’s on the Spanish-styled melody “The Unexpected Natural Phenomenon†where the vocalist gets her most expressive and passionate (matched later on by Fujiwara’s own fervent showing). Stretching across an hour and a half, fourteen tracks and two discs, there’s a lot here to digest but more Mary Halvorson is preferable to less. Adroitly summoning up all of her powers and the ample powers of her band, Code Girl is Mary Halvorson’s most wide-ranging effort yet.†- S. Victor Aaron, Something Else
2 LP Set $44
ELECTRONIC MODULAR ORCHESTRA - Electronic Modular Orchestra (Soave 013-14; Italy) Electronic Modular Orchestra: from Neil Young to Stravinsky. Curiosity is the element that allowed the birth of this project. Gabriele Bombardini, Nicola Peruch, Matteo Scaioli, and Max Vicinelli are musicians who have decades of experience in all fields of music. The desire to combine seemingly distant sounds such as the use of old analog synthesizers, a pedal steel that recalls the American folk tradition, and the modular synthesis that leads back to the so-called concrete musical research, was the challenge to face. Freedom of expression, contemporary quotations, improvisation, Stravinsky, Bartok, Reich, psychedelic rock, jazz, all that is musical emotion is taken as a stimulus for this research.
"Sound is made from the same matter of dreams that, as the sun rises, evaporate and leave a feeling of uncertainty. Just as when in proximity of a secret that will not be completely solved and won't allow you to retrace the succession of emotions that brought you to it. Instead we must learn to hold on to them, cultivate them, be able to understand and recognize them. To trust them. Sound, its colour, the essence of its tone, the vibrations that it leaves in the air. None of these can be described in words: the necessity to physically listen is ineffable. We can write a melody, a rhythm, a harmonically complex structure, an arrangement... But never the colour and taste of sound. In Electronic Modular Orchestra's music you will find certain harmonies, melodies, rhythms, sounds and layerings of every kind. All of these spring from the sound that gives it life and most profound meaning. It is for this reason that listening to this work requires an intimate complicity from the listener to be able to appreciate the essence of the tale that the artists wished to create. Perceiving the 'voice' even before form and other structural and musical elements that we are accustomed to recognize. There is no use to dwell on single tracks. Everyone will find his own personal vision and the road to their own emotions. The influences of this music are numerous: precise and restless geometries, celestial shades, the metaphysical, chaos, energetic sounds, cutting sounds, unpredictability and scrape. Listen to this disk on a good sound system, so not to frustrate the musician's intent. Take the necessary time to listen, and re-listen." --Franco Ranieri
2 LP Set $38
LOUISE BOCK - Repetitives in Illocality (Feeding Tube 374; USA) "Louise Bock is one of the performing names worn by Taralie Peterson of that most excellent duo, Spires That in the Sunset Rise. And the music on Repetitives in Illocality recalls a few aspects of Spires' recent live shows. It's akin to a dreamily aggressive take on the outer fringes of early ECM-style improvisation. A lovely hover between out-chamber-jazz, new music and the unknown tongue. Using cello, sax and treated lap harp, Louise Bock creates surfaces that are sometimes as chopped as ice sculptures made with a chainsaw, and at other moments as smooth as the soft expanse of Brian Eno's forehead. Those passages where the cello takes the lead are the most serious. Some passages, with their mournful sweep, almost sound like the slower parts of Kodály's 'Solo Cello Sonata.' The treated lap harp has resonance qualities not unlike a jaw harp at times, enabled to produce long tone lines, as well as to wobble like a jaw full of loose teeth. When Taralie's voice comes in, it can almost seem like Martin Rev is playing a solo on an old pushbutton phone while Judy Nylon blows clouds of aether into his wig. But the vocals combine with the sweet saw of cello in an entirely different way. Suggesting snippets of not-yet-discovered operettas about life elsewhere. Meanwhile, lap harp and sax appear to exist in a post-progressive universe where early '70s Gong may have actually had some serious moments. And this is some seriously amazing stuff -- solo, duos, trios and quartets drawn from the deep well of Louise Brock's imagination. Defy illocality. Come close and listen." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300.
LP $18
TOMMY JAY & THE GENERAL - Florida Songs (Feeding Tube 379; USA) "Tommy Jay and The General have been kicking around the Columbus scene (and various points on the map of that scene's diaspora) since the days of the True Believers (the ur-group in the history of Columbus underground hubbub). And this newly recorded album shows them to be at the height of their own amazing arc. Florida Songs is only Tommy's third proper LP under his own personal name and it's a killer. Recorded with help from a few old friends, including Nudge Squidfish, Florida Songs is a classic raunchy rock formulation by every known standard. Although the mood and tone shift mightily from song to song, the main thrust of the music here is brain-spattering ROCK of the pre-punk variety. Regardless of the fact these guys basically invented the template for several generations of punk>indie musicians, what they offer here is a survey of the roots of that music. You can hear shards of everything from the emotional bombast of Armand Schaubroeck Steals to Andy Zwerling's folk-rock readymades to the laid-back fury of the Stalk-Forrest Group to spurts of Roky Erickson phrase-howling at its gnarliest and onward and upward. These guys even throw in little production touches worthy of Bob Ezrin's work on Berlin. I shit you not. As anyone who's been lucky enough to catch Tommy's band live recently can tell you, Mr. Jay and cohorts are firing on all cylinders. And if this album is not hailed as a chunk of modern form genius at the apex of high, then all is f*cking lost." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 250.
LP $18
ZACH PHILLIPS - How To Slip Away (Feeding Tube 3383; USA) "Although I am not a painter, I urge you to sit down and listen to this, as if it were a game show, on prime time 'I Won The Prize, Ring The Bells' somewhere between an interview and the world's greatest puzzle someone would sing your songs for you regarding self-reference and identity an horsepower engine cruiser where it lacks in bathetic synth vortismuto in the afternoon it locks in an aplomb power balled tour d'fourths THE FOURTH WALL IS ON THE LANDSCAPE'S STAGE. Don't you re-contextualize the tritone add variety of style/attitude including will, weal, wheel, the liner notes you'll def. Want to read, the heartbeat of this music is Constantine." -Billy McShane Edition of 250.
LP $18
************
Bruce Lee Gallanter’s Recommended Gig List for March & April of 2018:
MICHAEL FORMANEK - MAY 1–5
5/4 Friday
8:30 pm - Marty Ehrlich (alto sax, clarinets) Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet) Angelica Sanchez (piano) Michael Formanek (bass) Pheeroan AkLaff (drums)
5/5 Saturday
8:30 pm - Tim Berne (alto sax) Ralph Alessi (trumpet) Michael Formanek (bass) Ches Smith (drums, percussion)
THE STONE RESIDENCIES - ADAM RUDOLPH - MAY 8–12
5/8 Tuesday
8:30 pm - The Unknowable Dave Liebman, Adam Rudolph, Hamid Drake  CD release concert; Dave Liebman (soprano and tenor saxes, piano, flutes, piri and bamboo flutes) Adam Rudolph (handrumset, kongos, djembe, tarija, thumb pianos, sintir, udu drum, multiphonic vocal, percussion, electronic processing) Hamid Drake (drumset, vocal, udu drum, frame drum, congas, bata)
5/9 Wednesday
8:30 pm - Hu: Vibrational - Adam Rudolph (compositions, bata, slit drum, rebolo, gankogoui, udu, percussion) Joe Hertenstein (gongs, cymbals, udu, percussion) John Hadfield (frame drums, udu, percussion) Rogerio Boccato (pandero, zabumba, percussion) Tripp Dudley (frame drums, percussion) Dan Kurfirst (cajon, frame drums, percussion, Hamid Drake (frame drum, percussion) Alexis Marcelo (electronic keyboards) James Dellatacoma (electronic processing)
5/10 Thursday
8:30 pm - Galaxies Sextet - Bill Laswell (bass, electronics) Nels Cline (guitars, electronics) Hamid Drake (drumset, frame drum, bata) Adam Rudolph (drum machines, electronic processing, electric keyboards, handrumset, kongos, djembe, tarija, thumb pianos, multiphonic vocal, percussion) Ralph M. Jones (soprano and tenor saxes, c and alto flute, bass clarinet, hulusli, ney, bamboo flutes, sibsi) James Dellatacoma (electronic processing)
5/11 Friday
8:30 pm - Karuna Trio - Ralph M. Jones (soprano and tenor saxes, c and alto flute, bass clarinet, hulusli, ney, bamboo flutes, sibsi) Hamid Drake (drumset, vocal, udu drum, frame drum, congas, bata) Adam Rudolph (handrumset, kongos, djembe, tarija, thumb pianos, sintir, udu drum, multiphonic vocal, percussion, electronics)
5/12 Saturday
8:30 pm - Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures - Adam Rudolph (compostions, handrumset, kongos, djembe, tarija, zabumba, thumb pianos, sintir, multiphonic vocal, percussion, electronics) Hamid Drake (drumset, vocal, frame drum, congas, bata) Ralph M. Jones (soprano and tenor saxes, c and alto flute, bass clarinet, husli, ney, bamboo flutes) Kenny Wessel (el. guitar, electronics, banjo) Alexis Marcelo (fender rhodes, piano, percussion) Damon Banks (el. bass, electronics)
THE (NEW) STONE is located in The New School’s Glass Box Theatre
55 West 13th street - near 6th ave
All Sets at The New Stone start at 8:30pm Tickets: $20
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
*********
The CORNELIA STREET CAFE - 212-989-9319
29 Cornelia St in the heart of the West Greenwich Village, NYC
Friday May 04
8:35PM PETROS KLAMPANIS DUET, FEATURING GILAD HEKSELMAN - Gilad Hekselman, guitar; Petros Klampanis, bass, voce, ankle bells, looper
Saturday May 05
8:35PM PAUL SHAPIRO’S RIBS & BRISKET REVUE - Paul Shapiro, sax, clarinet, voice; Cilla Owen, voice; Dan Rosengard, piano; Booker King, bass; Aaron Alexander, drums
Sunday May 06
6:00PM ENTERTAINING SCIENCE: ROUNDWORMS & SMALL HANDS - Roald Hoffman, Dave Soldier, hosts - Evan Eisenberg, satirist; Steve Brodner, illustrator; Elodie Ghedin, biologist; Rob Schwimmer, pianist
Entertaining Science: ROUNDWORMS & SMALL HANDS image
8:01PM DJANGO AT CORNELIA STREET: KORAN AGAN AND TIM CLEMENT - Koran Agan, guitar; Tim Clement, guitar; Eduardo Corrachio, bass
Monday, May 7th:
8:30PM AMRAM & CO - David Amram, piano, french horn, flutes, comps, Kevin Twigg, drums, glockenspiel; Rene Hart, bass; Elliot Peper, bongos
Tues May 8th:
8:01PM RYAN KEBERLE & CATHARSIS - Ryan Keberle, trombone, keys; Camila Meza, voice, guitar; Will Vinson, soprano, alto sax; Jorge Roeder, bass; Eric Doob , drums
Wednesday May 09
8:00PM MAREIKE WIENING QUINTET - Mareike Wiening, drums; Rich Perry, tenor sax; Glenn Zaleski, piano; Alex Goodman, guitar; Johannes Fälscher, bass
9:30PM YUHAN SU QUINTET - Yuhan Su, vibraphone; Matt Holman, trumpet; Alex LoRe, alto sax; Petros Klampanis, bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell, drums
Thursday May 10
8:00PM JESS KORMAN, “STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS†- Jess Korman, piano, voice, comp.; Mark Wade , bass
Friday May 11
8:35PM MARIO PAVONE, DIALECT TRIO - Mario Pavone, bass, comp.; Matt Mitchell, piano; Tyshawn Sorey, drums
Saturday May 12
8:35PM JACOB SACKS QUARTET - Jacob Sacks, piano; Ellery Eskelin, tenor sax; Michael Formanek, bass; Dan Weiss, drums
Sunday May 13
8:01PM DAVID AMBROSIO QUARTET - Tim Hagens, trumpet; Joel Frahm, tenor sax; David Ambrosio, bass; Billy Mintz, drums
**********
I-Beam Presents:
Saturday, May 12th 8:30 PM
Lena Bloch’s Feathery
Lena Bloch – tenor sax
Russ Lossing – piano
Cameron Brown – bass
Billy Mintz – drums
Friday, May 25th 8:00 PM
Hank Roberts Sextet Stunt Chicken
8:00 pm - Hank Roberts Sextet
Hank Roberts – Cello
Brian Drye – Trombone
Mike McGinnis – Clarinet
Dana Lyn – Violin
Vinnie Sperrazza – Drums
Jacob Sacks – Piano
9:30 pm - Stunt Chicken
playing music from the golden age of Sesame Street
Joe Fiedler – Trombone
Jeff Lederer/Tenor and Soprano Saxophones
Sean Conly/Electric Bass
Michael Sarin/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.
********
SHAPESHIFTER - May, 2018:
May 5: ÂÂ
Loop Troupe Presents in association with Con TemplateÂÂ
MR MALFUNKTION STEALS THE GROOVEÂÂ
Featuring BlackJeansÂÂ
Kim Berg as Honey MamaÂÂ
Gabi Riel as Lady YoodooÂÂ
Jay Figueredo as Don Amante El GalanteÂÂ
with special guest appearance by The Zuli Boys as 'The Hunky Funks'ÂÂ
and your house band, Loop Troupe Family Band ÂÂ
May 6
7pm: "La Tierra Llama†- Ensemble Ipse Presents a Concert of Latin American Composers
Guest curated by Ricardo GalloÂÂ
PROGRAM:
-Igor Santos - “Lamento†(2018 Call for Scores Selection)
-Gabriel Bolaños -“Sonorita" (2018 Call for Scores Selection), NY PREMIERE
-Cecilia Pereyra -“Réplicas"
-Patricia MartÃÂnez - "Los Tiempos Del Almaâ€Â
-MatÃÂas Hancke – New Work – IPSE COMMISSION & WORLD PREMIERE
-Ricardo Gallo “Prismá volador†- IPSE COMMISSION & WORLD PREMIERE, featuring guest Chilean poet/performer Cecilia Vicuña
May 8:ÂÂ
8pm: Brooklyn College’s: Broko Mass: Arturo O'Farrill – Big Band Jazz Ensemble
May 9ÂÂ
8pm: Brooklyn College: Wind Ensemble (Marianne Gythfeldt)
May 13
7pm: Jinjoo Yoo Trio double bill with Kihong Jang Trio
9:30: Bob Gingery Group
Bob Gingery - bass,ÂÂ
John Irabagan -saxophone,ÂÂ
Mike Baggetta - guitar,ÂÂ
Jeff Hirshfield -drums
************
Downstairs @ Bushwick Public House
Monday May 7th
7pm Raf Vertessen - drums
Drew Wesely - guitar
Hery Paz - tenor saxophone
8pm Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Sandy Ewen - guitar/electronics
Adam Lane - bass
Kevin Shea - drums
9pm Tiffany Chang - drums
Robert Dick - flute/electronics
9:30pm Florian Herzog - bass
David Leon - alto saxophone
Stephen Boeghold - drums
10:30pm Eli Wallace - piano
Chris Pitsiokos - alto saxophone
Andrew Smiley - guitar
Jason Nazary - drums
11:15pm Ethan Primason - drums/electronics
Justin Frye - bass/viola/tape loops
Arian Shafiee - guitar/lap steel
Monday May 14th
7pm Lior Milliger - tenor saxophone
Welf Dorr - alto saxophone
Adam Lane - bass
Jeremy Carlstedt - drums
8pm Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Sandy Ewen - guitar/electronics
Adam Lane - bass
9pm Andrea Wolper - vocals/electronics
Lauren Lee - vocals/electronics
9:30pm Shawn Lovato - bass
Todd Neufeld - guitar/electronics
Colin Hinton - drums
10:30pm Michael Larocca - electronics
Tristan Pollack - guitar/electronics
Zac Jaffee - electronics
Aaron Rubenstein - guitar/electronics
11:15pm Rodrigo Recabarron - drums
Justin Wert - guitar
1288 Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick / bushwickpublichouse.com
(Across the street from M train Central Ave stop)