Friday, October 7th, 2005 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)

* Thollem/Rivera -- "Phasing Out, Sliding Down" -- Everything's Going Everywhere (Edgetone, 2005)

* Greg Burk Trio -- "Borneo Dreaming" -- Nothing, Knowing (482 Music, 2005)

* Anthony Braxton and Milo Fine -- "Part 7" -- Shadow Company (Emanem, 2005)

* Brad Dutz and John Holmes -- "Tribute to Elvin" -- My Bongo (pfMentum, 2005)

Like the title says, a tribute to Elvin Jones, an unaccompanied six-minute solo on the drum kit (I think it's just Dutz on this track, no Holmes). Nice stuff in a tasty jazzy vein. The rest of the CD, by the way, consists of various percussion duos, featuring xylophones, maribmas, and the like, for a perky sound. Some nice compositions and lots of improvisation.

Big and loud! Hollenbeck is the leader of the Claudia Quintet, which can get loud themselves but is more of what I've pigeonholed (unfairly) as chamber jazz. The Large Ensemble treads a lot of the same turf, including the minimalist-inspired pecking at the start of this track, but they do it in a grand fashion with the volume cranked up. Hollenbeck also veers into what sound more like traditional big-band forms, letting the horns blare away at tight jazz riffs. Interestingly, the opening track is a 16-minute meditation, placid, gradually building and unfolding like a sunrise.

A solo soprano saxophone tribute to Steve Lacy, who was famous for that format. Giardullo spins several original improvs, usually starting with the bouncy Monk-like atmosphere Lacy favored. Couple of Lacy covers on here as well, and liner notes that do a nice job explaining the challenges of solo performance.

Haven't had a chance to hear this all the way through yet, but it's great to see these guys still convene. Nice free-form jazz often rooted in bluesy sax from McPhee.

A swingy, early-bop-minded band led by local bassist Bill Noertker. They've been playing quite frequently for the SIMM series, a regular set of shows at the Musicians Union Hall in downtown San Francisco (116 9th St. near Mission). According to calendar info for the upcoming Oct. 9 show, Noertker has another band, The Jugglers, that does electric funky stuff a la The Meters, Fela Kuti, or electric Miles Davis. Here's hoping they put out a CD.

Duets of guitars and guitar effects, combining shimmery ambient stuff with occasional metal-like licks and screeches. Ragnar of Ravensfjord, our resident patron of both metal and Norweigan music, went ape over this.

* Greg Osby -- "Mob Job" -- Channel Three (Blue Note, 2005)

* David Liebman and Ellery Eskelin -- "You Call It" -- Different but the Same (Hatology, 2005)

* Frogtoboggan -- "Loose Canon" -- (Anticlock, 2005)

Weird faux-classical stuff with a woodwind trio at its core, but a brash and avant-garde sound. Operatic vocals grace some tracks, and then there's this one, with a male spoken rant about "life forms" in a regal but insane posture. Very cool. I love tossing stuff like this into the mix.

OK, so one of our own DJs is in this band. They're still legitimately good and worthy of airplay. Instrumental stuff somewhere between improv, free jazz, prog, and drone. The band members switch off on guitar, keys, drums, and the occasional sax or violin or cornet. Lots of guitar effects and pedals, also lots of loops. Overall effect is spacey but rocking, even catchy, and very compelling. Played a couple tracks to announce the CD release party, which is tomorrow night at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco.

Sam Rivers, Adam Rudolph, Harris Eisenstadt -- "Capacious" -- Vista (Meta, 2004)

Michael Formanek -- "Diesel Shortbread" -- Am I Bothering You? (Screwgun, 1998)

Solo bass! But these are compositions, not just free improvs, which helps with the attention-span factor. Nice stuff.

Emily Hay -- "Crooked Hopscotch" -- Like Minds (pfMentum, 2004)

Positive Knowledge featuring Oluyemi Thomas and Ijeoma Thomas -- "Secrets of Imperfection" -- Live in New York (Edgetone, 2003)
The Joel Futterman/Ike Levin Duo -- "Night Owl" -- The Present Gift (IML, now called Charles Lester Music, 2001)

Oluyemi Thomas (bass clarinet/sax) and Ike Levin (sax) are performing a duo set on Oct. 13 at the Luggage Store Gallery, so I figured I'd play a selection featuring each of them.

Selections from this piece will be performed at Mills College tonight by Quartet San Francisco. Decided to have some fun here. The other selection on this CD is an electric guitar quartet with movements intended to be played in random order. So, I used random.org to help me pick a random sequence of movements here. It worked surprisingly well, starting with the spiky aggression of the 4th movement followed by the smooth, gentle waves of the 9th movement -- following that classical patter of fast/slow/fast. Probably should have ended it after the 8th movement played, but oh well.

* = Item in KZSU rotation
! = Pop anomaly
? = Item not in KZSU library

-- Go back to Memory Select playlists.
-- Bay Area free/improv music calendar: http://www.bayimproviser.com.