Friday, March 17th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

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

* Jeremy Pelt -- "Scorpio" -- Identity (Maxjazz, 2005)

I've mentioned before how this is my fave track on this overall nighttime-moody album from Pelt, an up-and-coming trumpeter. It now comes to my attention, thanks to our DJ The Baud of Euphony, that the track is a complete ripoff of Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way." I realized the overall sound was an electric Miles clone but didn't realize how derivative the melody was (I'm not that well versed on "In a Silent Way," my loss). Still a nice track on a pretty good album, but Jeremy .... we're watching more carefully now.

Modern jazz with lots of free ideas and twisty Ornette kinds of compositions, fronted by Jason Robinson on sax and Michael Dessen on trombone -- plus Scott Walton (bass), Nathan Hubbard (drums), and guest Al Scholl tossing out slashing, spattery guitar for an interesting sound bed on some tracks. Cool stuff; there's a lot of interesting, adventuresome jazz down in L.A. and San Diego these days, and kudos to Circumvention and Cryptogramophone for documenting some of it.

* Transit -- "Cortelyou Q" -- Transit (Clean Feed, 2005)

Improv jazz, great stuff with Seth Misterka (sax), Jeff Arnal (drums), Reuben Radding (bass), and Nate Wooley (trumpet). Misterka does slashy punk-inspired work; he's more restrained on many tracks here, but still, there's lots of dark energy and some fierce proto-metal moments among the brighter jazz-minded exercises. Lots of energy and often a sense of humor too; this CD really stands out for me.

... which is not to say that this CD, which I guess you'd say is more conventially free/improv jazz, is at all bad. This is closer to European chamber jazz, with piano/bass/drums keeping a jazzy mode in a set of 10 improvisations. Good stuff, and a nice departure for the Origin label; it's a lot more abstract than most of their releases.

Quite slow, a relaxed Euro-cafe feel. maybe not fairly representative of these guys' creative chamber/jazz leanings, but it's a nice tune.

Ex of Guided by Voices, Pollard came into town late last month and kicked butt. His new band, including Tommy Keene on guitar and keys, was tight. I'd heard they were a big sluggish at the L.A. show the previous night, but in SF they rocked hard. Go Bob!

How do you cram something like this into a "jazz" show? You play a prerecorded PSA before (like sorbet cleansing the palatte, erasing the mood), and segue into something guitar-heavy after.

Starts out as a funky strut with two guitars and organ (Nels Cline and G.E. Stinson on guitars) before blending into the psych-jam atmosphere that permeates this album. Fun stuff.

* Ray Charles Ives -- "Sloj" -- Clandestine Pedestrian (High Mayhem, 2005)

Surprisingly pleasant and funky -- I say it that way because High Mayhem is a New Mexico festival that also celebrates the clattery and loud. At least one DJ here considers this cheesy and derivative; I found it quite worthwhile, though, with some loops and electronics added to a background of repeating funky lines. It does have its ear-candy side, but I think it's deep enough to be worth seeking out.

* Edmund Welles: The Bass Clarinet Quartet -- "Cause and Effect" -- Agrippa's 3 Books (Zeroth Law, 2005)

? Christy Doran, Mark Helias, Bobby Previte, Gary Thomas -- "The Same but Different" -- Corporate Art (Winter & Winter, 2004; orig. released 1991)

My sad attempt at a St. Patrick's Day link. Doran happens to be Irish. (That's it. There's nothing deeper to it.) This is a cool CD with Doran's sharp, angular, funky guitar all over the place.

Has even less to do with St. Patrick's; this one just happens to have a gorgeously green cover. Great CD, just not Irish by any stretch. But it's been on my mind since, like, yesterday, so there.

Eric Dolphy Quintet -- "Green Dolphin Stsreet" -- Outward Bound (Fantasy, 1961?)

Part of an ill-fated ticket giveaway; I figured I'd announce I was playing a St. Patrick's-oriented song -- sort of -- and whoever guessed it would get the tickets. Even played a vocal version, but no one got it. It's just not that recognizable a tune for the casual jazz fan. Ah well, it made for a nice music set: Dolphy's slightly-outside version, Ella singing alongside Joe Pass in a deliciously sparse reading, and then Dom Minasi going all wacko on the guitar in an unrecognizable version.

Dom Minasi Trio -- "On Green Dolphin Street" -- Goin' out Again (CDM, 2002)

* The Vandermark 5 -- "On Green Dolphin Street" -- The Color of Memory (Atavistic, 2005)

* Michel Lambert -- "Labyrinth of Remorse" -- Le Passant (Rant, 2005)

Contrary to the imagery of the title, this is a fast and rollicking one, from Lambert's suite for small symphony and jazz players. I'm really impressed with this CD. More about it another time.

* Assif Tsahar -- "Solitude" -- Solitude (Hopscotch, 2005)

From Tsahar's album of one sax + 4 string players, an appropriately solitary sounding cover of the Duke Ellington tune. There's some madcap free improv on this disk too, but this gentler piece makes for a nice ending to the CD.

Goodhart Allen Powell Trio -- "Waiting for Our Careers to Take Off" -- I Can Climb a Tree, I Can Tie an Knot, I Can Have a Conversation (Road Cone, 2001)

Nice local trio improvs with Josh Allen's "big sound" sax, derived of bebop but scribbling all over the place here. Matthew Goodhart on piano, Garth Powell on drums. Really nice set from them; I played this because Goodhart, Powell and saxophonisht Gianni Gebbia will be performing at Sonoma State next week, under the trio name Zen Widow. Dang, wish I could make it there -- sounds like a cool show.

* = 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.