December 18, 2009 • 11:30 am
via Bug Incision Records + Bent Spoon Duo Live on WFMU – WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. Head over there to listen/download the set:
A year or so I go WFMU received a bunch of releases from the Bug Incision label, a small high quality improv label based in Calgary, Canada. Now honestly, I don’t know much about Calgary, but I was transfixed by this scene happening up there being documented by Bug Incision. I have a tendency to root for the underdog and so was intrigued by the label immediately, but the music lived up to all expectations. There seemed to be a wide berth of sounds, sometimes coming from the same people, from your basic free jazz descended improv, to grating noise, skittering improv, toys and “tiny instruments,” an anything-goes mentality that seemed to be free of dogma. On further inspection I noted Bug Incision also released some fine music from Ben Hall’s Broken Research/Detroit orbit, a midwestern noise powwow featuring C. Spencer Yeh and Ryan Jewell, as well as a few things with Jack Wright, somewhat of a teacher/patron saint to many of the leading younger North American free players. In other words, good company they keep.
I contacted Chris Dadge who runs Bug Incision and appears on many of the label’s releases, about possibly doing something for my radio show and while he doesn’t get to the NYC area often he agreed to record a set especially for the program to send to me. I left it up to him and he put together an exceptional improv set by the Bent Spoon Duo, his long running group with Scott Munro. Their set-up is highly portable; a few battery powered amps, maybe a snare drum, small percussion, some tiny Casio keyboards, perhaps a guitar, etc. which is remarkable in its simplicity, and yet belies the group’s sound, so much bigger than the sum of its parts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Please stream or download via the Free Music Archive. Thanks to Chris Dadge and Scott Munro for taking the time to play and engineer this recording.
Filed under: Live, MP3 Bloglinks, Music, Radio , Bent Spoon Duo, Bug Incision, Chris Dadge, Scott Munro
November 13, 2009 • 1:55 pm
A nice “what I learned” post from the Industrial Jazz Group honcho Andrew Durkin, reflecting on the IJG’s recent tour of the northeast. Andrew was kind enough to send me some music to play on the radio from this cool big band. I didn’t have a chance before the shows actually happened (the week before was Singles Going Steady so I was reduced to playing all 7″ vinyl!) Regardless, some great stuff in this post, for example:
3. Hire a professional asshole.
Otherwise known as a “tour manager,” this is the person who would, for instance, proactively motivate any individuals who seem poised to make everyone else late. Alternately, he or she would be a veritable information kiosk for any and all questions about the itinerary, would anticipate occasional unforeseen logistical problems, and so on. (Oh, yeah! He or she would also allow a bandleader to focus on other things — like, well, you know, the music.)
via Jazz: The Music of Unemployment: The top ten things I learned from the Rocktober tour.
Filed under: Live , Andrew Durkin, Industrial Jazz Group
November 8, 2009 • 10:14 am
This amazing free show is happening during this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Anthony Braxton’s 12+1 Tet with over 50 musicians
1/31/2010
12:00 pm until approximately 8:00 pm
Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre (Festival Hall)
181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver
Free (no reservations required)
Ensembles will break apart and reform into new organisms like human cells or societies in this ambitious experiment by American musical visionary and saxophonist Anthony Braxton. For eight hours, more than 60 instrumentalists, including local high school students, will use Braxton’s compositions and improvisational languages to create a living sound world where the audience is free to listen and wander at will. This marks the project’s world premiere as a public performance.
via Anthony Braxton’s Sonic Genome Project – Event Listings : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Filed under: Live , Anthony Braxton, Olympics, Sonic Genome Project
October 19, 2009 • 12:08 pm
via Connections, Disconnections – THE GIG.
From Nate Chinen’s blog, THE GIG, a nice post on free jazz poet Steve Dalachinsky, who collaborated on a new book with photographer Jacques Besceglia called Reaching into the Unknown 1964-2009, printed by the excellent Rogue Art label. Dalachinsky is the de facto resident poet in the downtown NYC free jazz/improv community, a sort of successor to Amiri Baraka.
Dalachinsky wrote a poem for each set of Evan Parker’s residency at The Stone, two of which are reproduced in full in Nate Chinen’s post.
here the boat’s let loose down stream
& thru the rapids – then free falls o’er the falls
the top the peakless o’er it’s light & lamp
& end the plunge as it prevails
its cohesion amongst a spillage of dots.
Filed under: Books, Live, Poetry , Evan Parker, Jacques Besceglia, Nate Chinen, Steve Dalachinsky
October 15, 2009 • 11:26 am
(Photo via the New York Times)
Nice review of Evan Parker’s residency at the Stone. I made it out to see EP with the wonderful Susie Ibarra and was not disappointed. The set was warmhearted and pure and went from maniacal skittering to reflective calm and back again.
This NYT review focuses mostly on the set with Nate Wooley and Chris Corsano, two of my favorite musicians. I am sorry to have missed it.
Instead the emphasis was on real-time reactivity and a shifting locus of tension. Though cast in the shape of a trio, the musicians did much of their strongest work in pairs. Mr. Parker and Mr. Wooley squared off near the end of the third piece, braiding their lines into barbed wire; Mr. Parker and Mr. Corsano often wound up together, tumbling hard but light, making a dizzying lesson of cooperative conflict.
via Music Review – Evan Parker – At the Stone, High-Energy Improvising With a Shifting Cast – NYTimes.com.
Filed under: Live , Chris Corsano, Evan Parker, Nate Wooley
October 9, 2009 • 9:46 am
October 8, 2009 • 8:46 am
From the fine folks at AUM Fidelity some info on an amazing upcoming gig featuring solo David S. Ware (first gig since receiving a successful kidney transplant), Darius Jones celebrating the release of his new debut as a leader, and the always stellar William Parker’s Little Huey Creative Orchestra.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at Abrons Arts Center, NYC
DAVID S. WARE
DARIUS JONES TRIO
WILLIAM PARKER & THE LITTLE HUEY CREATIVE MUSIC ORCHESTRA
David S. Ware has been gearing up for this performance the whole summer and up to the present moment. The one only time I’ve every seen this Master perform solo, it was a breathtaking transporting ascent. Solo is how DSW wanted to return to the stage following his life being saved. We are also very happy that Laura Mehr, who donated her kidney to David in May, will by flying up from Florida and will be in the audience, hearing David perform live for the first time.
Darius Jones so belongs up in here, oh my god, this young man will be bringing it! Some new pieces will be premiered further to selections from his stunning debut album, Man’ish Boy. Read this amazing just posted review of Darius’ album (writer got it!):
http://popdose.com/jazz-dont-hurt-the-blazing-fire-of-a-manish-boy/
William Parker & The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra will be making their first NYC appearance in over four years; their last show at Vision Festival 2005 was one of the most illuminated, dancing, joy-inducing, next level sets at Vision Fest, ever! They’ll be premiering a new Parker composition entitled, “Subsequent Illumination Inscriptions / Light Cottage” (for George Russell).
OK, the deal is this: AUM is renting the Abrons Arts Center in order to manifest this magnificent triple-bill; we need to sell more tickets in order to make the fee we promised to the musicians (and not be in serious debt this season). So we exhort you to please buy tix and be there if you’re in the NYC metro (and beyond..?) and also spread the good word of this event to all available friends who are into transformative live musical performance by some of the musical masters of the present era. Deal? Dynamite! (See full details below the horizontal line to forward to friends with your own pointed preface; thanks!).
Advance Tickets Now Available: $20- (plus $3.50 surcharge is true, but still a little less than $25- at the door!)
exclusively from Theatermania / OvationTix
online here
and by phone 212.352.3101 or 866.811.4111
Filed under: Live , Darius Jones, David S. Ware, William Parker
October 5, 2009 • 10:46 pm
Spearmint Music: Suzanne Fiol.
Sad to hear, a great resource and champion of underground everything NYC/Brooklyn. Read the thoughts of Kurt Gottschalk who knew Suzanne better then I.
Filed under: Live , Suzanne Fiol
October 2, 2009 • 11:33 am
Filed under: Live , Evan Parker
September 8, 2009 • 12:39 pm
I posted some mp3s from DJA’s Secret Society over at BotB:
Long overdue post, busy summer! Back in the middle of July I had the opportunity to record Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC for air on WFMU. DJA’s Secret Society is an 18-piece big band that pairs a healthy adoration of the history of big band jazz with a playful modern sensibility, infusing meticulous arrangements with noise and free passages, Afro-funk beats or minimalism. I was taken with their debut record, Infernal Machines, almost immediately because it represents a freeform approach to a music that has thrown genres into the toolbox only incrementally. Darcy has a large palette to work from and he uses it.
And, you know, let’s face it, it’s ballsy to have a big band in 2009. Despite the fact that this music has some support (the record was partially fan funded), and some favorable press (there was a piece in Newsweek, of all places, not to mention the fawning jazz press), it’s not exactly economical or convenient to tour with a big band, record with a big band, or even play one-off shows. Plus, the logistics of periodically reassembling this cast of excellent musicians, all in demand players with their own projects to boot, is somewhat mindboggling. There is an audacity, a punk rock ethos, and a purpose that pervades this project, and it’s worthy of some appreciation.
That said, the music is also wonderful. Have a listen. And, maybe peruse Darcy’s excellent blog while you’re at it. Special thanks to Le Poisson Rouge and Darcy James Argue for being so accommodating. Engineered by Matt Duane.
Photos, links, mp3s, more info at the original post:
via WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Live at Le Poisson Rouge on WFMU.
Filed under: Live, MP3 Bloglinks, Radio , Darcy James Argue, Secret Society, The Long Rally, WFMU
My latest post on the WFMU blog with mp3s from the live performance. Click through for the whole post. Audio is also downloadable/streaming on the Free Music Archive.
About a year ago, when I started in earnest to feature live improvisational music on The Long Rally, I had a grandiose vision of how it might ultimately go down. I imagined a weekly rotating door with musicians of all genres and personalities coming by to improvise live at 11pm in casual self-appointed groups: locals with out-of-towners passing through, adventurous rockers and noize dudes with straight up jazz musicians, the drone with the lyrical, the acoustic with the electric and electronic, the classically-trained with the self-taught. Sometimes a gumbo’s just a gumbo, and sometimes it’s the best fucking food you’ve ever tasted in your life.
Last night is the closest I’ve gotten to my fanciful and somewhat naive dream when a cast of NYC’s best and brightest made the trip out to our humble Jersey City home. Jeremiah Cymerman, who played a solo clarinet/electronics set on the show last year, assembled the group of musicians, and together we came up with a loose concept of configuring them in little ensembles for short improvisational pieces. Neither the musicians nor I knew what the formations would be or what would be played until a few minutes before kickoff. Between pieces whoever wasn’t setting up would join me in the studio for some chat, and we’d end with the full group going at it.
The result was a relaxed and convivial atmosphere, some unexpectedly wacked out high points, and ultimately a wonderful set of live and spontaneous music! Catch all of these folks at the Telluric Currents Series at Ibeam in Brooklyn this weekend. I’m off the schedule for the summer, but who knows, maybe my live improv dreams will come true in the fall, after all. Thanks to Sean Austin for engineering.
via WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Aaron Siegel, Katherine Young, Alex Chechile, Woody Sullender, Matt Bauder, Jeremiah Cymerman Live Improv on WFMU (mp3s).
Filed under: Live, Radio , Aaron Siegel, Alex Chechile, Jeremiah Cymerman, Katherine Young, Matt Bauder, The Long Rally, Woody Sullender
via WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evans Live on WFMU. Songs posted plus tons o’ photos and links…
A year or so ago I briefly exchanged e-mails with Weasel Walter about possibly doing a live improv set for WFMU on one of his whirlwind trips through NYC. I have long been a fan of the Flying Luttenbachers and also many of the other more aggresive “punk” “rock” projects he’s been a part of including XRBRX, Burmese, To Live and Shave in LA 2, etc.
For the past few years Weasel’s musical involvement has been strictly in full-on improvisational settings with a who’s-who of collaborators in the Bay Area like Damon Smith, Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Henry Kaiser, and in NYC with bassist Reuben Radding and trumpeter Nate Wooley. So when our esteemed music director Brian Turner wrote me to say that Weasel was interested in doing something at the station on his next trip through town, I jumped at the chance and left it up to Weasel as to who he wanted to invite along. I could not have been more ecstatic with his selections–Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Peter Evans (trumpet)–two artists who have played on my show in the past, and are both on my shortlist of the finest instrumentalists/improvisors/composers working in music in ‘09.
I expected a serious improv tussle from three total pros (at one point I asked Weasel if he needed a music stand and he just giggled!), but what I didn’t expect was the pure sense of camaraderie and common vision that is evident from the first note. After all, these three seldom play together as a group and this was their first meeting on this trip (there is a multi-camera DVD coming of one of their gigs, as well as an extremely limited CD-R of a handful of performances from last year, both on ugExplode). After the set they embarked on a week of shows in Europe and I can hardly imagine the type of transcendence and lucidity they must have achieved by the end of the week, considering where they started on this night. Thanks to Weasel for setting this up and to Mary and Peter for killing it! Special thanks to Jason Sigal for coming through in the clutch and engineering.
These tracks are also streaming/downloadable from the FMA, as is a track from Weasel Walter & Mary Halvorson’s duo release, Opulence. There are also two releases with Peter Evans & Weasel Walter available from Weasel’s ugExplode label (Oculus Ex Abyssus duo LP and Evans/Fei/Smith Walter CD-R), and I recommend them both without reservation, as well as the Mary Halvorson Trio release Dragon’s Head, and The Peter Evans Quartet. And speaking of the FMA, both Mary’s set and Peter’s set from past episodes of the Long Rally are available there as well. And, in case that wasn’t enough, check out the new solo trumpet double CD from Peter Evans, Nature/Culture, on Evan Parker’s Psi label. Whew! More photos after the jump.
Filed under: Live, MP3 Bloglinks, Radio , Mary Halvorson, Weasel Walter, Peter Evans
