Friday, January 27th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

One last long show before an entire February of shorter ones (all due to the Stanford baseball schedule.) The extra time gave me space to preview a number of upcoming shows, so it was a good week to have this.

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

* Hardcell -- "I Do It" -- Feign (Screwgun, 2005)

The latest from Tim Berne (sax), in trio with Craig Taborn (keys) and Tom Rainey (drums). Berne and Taborn have been working together a ton for the past few years, which is interesting because Berne's albums til this point have used pretty much no keyboards. There was a duet album with Marilyn Crispell ... and Django Bates showed up once, I think ... but not much else. Then came the Science Friction band, which had a couple of really exciting CDs and featured lots of Taborn synths.

This disc has Taborn entirely on acoustic piano, a different sound but no less aggressive. These are punchy, relatively short tracks (mostly 4 to 9 minutes) that feature frenetic passages punctuated by slow segments for catching one's breath. Cool stuff as always.

Tim Berne's other recently released album, with the band Paraphrase, will be hitting our rotation in a week or so. Oooo!

* Badlands (Simon Rose, Simon H. Fell, Steve Noble) -- "Society of the Spectacle (Part 2)" -- The Society of the Spectacle (Emanem, 2005)

Euro improv with a sinister feel on several tracks -- or maybe it's the dark cover art that's getting to me. Rose plays a mean, menacing sax when he has to, although he's also bluesy in some spots. Very nice. Fell and Noble accompany on bass and drums.

* Gilfema -- "Akwe" -- Gilfema (ObliqSound, 2004)

Peaceful guitar-led trio with an African feel, probably because guitarist Lionel Loueke hails from somewhere in West Africa. He's joined by Massimo Biolcati (bass: Swedish/Italian) and Ferenc Nemeth (drums: Hungary). Nice stuff ... Loueke added both placid acoustic guitar and fusion-minded electric to Terence Blanchard's recent album, The Flow which I liked (and some critics didn't).

* Mats/Morgan Band -- "Thanks for Flying with Us" -- Thanks for Flying with Us (Cuneiform, 2005)

Prog! Undoubtedly so, with the odd time signatures and fusion-like sound but an overall geekiness that speaks to the prog fan in me.

Nanos Operetta -- "4 Doors in a Dream of the Slaughterhouse" -- (untitled demo EP, 2006)

Kind of modern-classical; I'm told it's a closer comparison to say "garage chamber music." Nice stuff either way, from a local sextet that's playing music akin to modern-classical, with the same kind of complexities and cues, often as backdrop to dance/theater/movie settings. Friendly stuff, but they also cover the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan.

Nanos has been putting on a quarterly show called "3 Drops of Blood" at the Project Artaud Theater in San Francisco, mixing modern classical musicians, some jazzsters (Myra Melford, for one) and modern-dance troupes in a kind of high art variety show.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nanos co-founder Ali Tabatabai last night. He came by the studio to record an interview we'll air on Feb. 3, spotlighting the "3 Drops of Blood" performances on the 3rd and 4th.

One of the "3 Drops" acts for the show mentioned above. Fun stuff: Four bass clarinets, playing different parts as a string quartet would. Led by Cornelius Boots, an interesting and fun sounding guy whose interests cross into heavy metal and the occult. Others in the band are local jazzster types. You have to love groups that don't take themselves too seriously -- especially when they cover Spinal Tap.

Another "3 Drops" performer, a local composer and electric guitarist. This is a piece commissioned by the Olympic Arts Festival, featuring a shifting variety of sounds including, according to former KZSU'er Klee, "a marriage of Eno field recordings and a Steve Reich composition for Thai bamboo xylophone."

Classical music -- and it sounds classical -- written for the theremin (and piano, in this case). Kavina studied theremin from a young age; there's a photo in the CD booklet of her at age 9 with Leon Theremin himself.

* Liz Allbee -- "Fanfare the Goad Offal Ages" -- Quarry Tones (Resipiscent, 2005)

Nice experimental stuff from a local trumpeter and sample artist. This piece inclues a rushing, almost buzzing sound, cut by swooping whoops of distorted trumpet.

A bright-sounding band of sax, two trumpets, and bass & drums, from drummer Eisenstadt. Nice stuff. I picked this track because Eisenstadt is reviving his larger group concept, the Ahimsa Orchestra, for a performance next week.

Improv session led by trombonist Rutherford, who's going to be performing a couple of times with Eisenstadt in small-group settings next week. I have to admit, improv trombone doesn't always appeal to me -- I enjoy the range of sounds less and am bothered by the trombone's relative lack of agility, I suppose. But this CD really impressed me, particularly this 34-minute piece. It has a lot to do with the rich playing of Paul Rogers (bass) and Nigel Morris (drums), but Rutherford turns in a great performance too.

* Mats Gustafsson and David Stackenas -- "Take Your Hand off It" -- Blues (Atavistic, 2005)

* Lionel Belmondo and Yusef Lateef -- "Morning [edit]" -- V/A: French Jazz Essentials (Bureau Export de la Musique Francaise, 2005)

An Ellingtonian swing, at a careful pace with some wonderful sax by Yusef. Another installment from this collection of French jazz.

A charging, lumbering, fast/dark improv of piano and sax. Really nice closer to this album of improv duets.

Andrew Hill -- "15/8" -- Dusk (Palmetto, 2000)
Nels Cline -- "Moth Song" -- The Inkling (Cryptogramophone, 2000)

Nels Cline has put together a sextet for a special night of Andrew Hill compositions at Yoshi's, the Oakland jazz club and restaurant. Bobby Bradford (cornet), Ben Goldberg (clarinets), Andrea Parkins (electric accordion), Devin Hoff (bass), Scott Amendola (drums), and Nelson guitar. Sounds like a great show, and a project worth putting out on CD (fingers crossed).

The Andrew Hill track is from his "comeback" album, Dusk, which preceded the clutch of his archival Blue Note releases that have since gotten more attention. You can guess by the title that "15/8" shows off some of Hill's songwriting complexity. Followed that up with a mellow, thoughtful one from a Cline album; elsewhere on The Inkling, he's got exciting, spiky jazz composing that I've played quite a bit on the show.

Played the final 12 minutes of this colossal 34-minute piece. Great stuff that starts with a quiet segment, gaining steam later. Includes a deft, understated drum solo where Bianco plays blindingly fast on toms but keeps it relatively quiet -- fantastic stuff.

Music written for 7 tracks of recorded tape. Since we had it in rotation, I figured I'd spin it in recognition of the San Francisco Tape Music Festival happening this weekend.

This particular piece, about a character "Er" from Plato's Republic, was written in 1977-78. The excerpt I chose features lots of clattery, rushing sounds. Performed properly, surrounding the listener with speakers, it's probably quite a treat.

* = 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.