Friday, April 28th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 5:45 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

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

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

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here. This track is a nice 11-minute piece, opening with a couple minutes of improv intro and then digging in for a nice modern-bop ride.

Trombone-led quartet that does some youthful modern jazz with lots of modern tricks like samples and electronics -- maybe too much, in fact. The opening track is "Trinkle Trinkle" and includes dubbed hyper-samples of Monk himself, and it's just too much -- they make the samples too annoying and distracting. The rest of the album is quite good, though. This is a nice short ditty with electronica-inspired snare playing from the drummer. Good effort overall, but Blue Note (as they've done lately) just tries to hard to make it crossover-hip.

Great new CD from local folks, including Goldberg (clarinet); Carla Kihlstedt (violin), who plays with him in Tin Hat; Rob Suduth (sax); and Devin Hoff (bass) and Ches Smith (drums), who are the band Good for Cows.

The disk ended up being recorded days after saxophonist Steve Lacy's death. In addition to being a legend of the free-jazz community, Lacy was a hero of Goldberg's, and the liner notes here include the heartwarming tale of Goldberg chasing Lacy down to get a lesson. Echoes of Lacy and Monk adorn the album, as do touches of Klezmer influence here and there. This particular track is an upbeat Monk-like original.

Steve Coleman has long fascinated me. His stuff is catchy and funky, often with popping electric bass, but it feels way over my head. I actually saw a transcription once, showing different instruments playing different time signatures -- cool. This CD added some Cuban/Latin musics to the mix, and this particular track included some Spanish spoken word and some English rap.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Before there was The Bad Plus, these guys were being pitched as the new hip thing in jazz, except they didn't have a massive Sony marketing budget behind them. And they were better. I called this a "casual jam trio" when we got it; they're in the same vein as Medeski Martin & Wood but (to my ears) more overtly jazzy than MMW was at the time. Lots of jamming and noodling, but usually tied to a nice groove. Good stuff; the members have since moved on to other projects (actually, one of 'em is in The Bad Plus), so it doesn't look like we'll hear much from them any more.

Local bluegrass, an all-strings band (guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, fiddle). I played this because we had tickets to give to their upcoming show, but really, I've always snuck bluegrass into the show occasionally. Something about it is so organic, it parallels well against acoustic jazz, or so I've always thought.

* Charlie Hunter Trio -- "Swamba Redux" -- Copperopolis (Ropeadope, 2006)

Another album of catchy, funky work from guitarist Hunter. This one seems darker and more complex than his past stuff, adding more experimental touches and getting a step or two further from "regular" jazz, closer to something like instrumental rock. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I like the changes to his sound; this is quite a nice album. Look for Charlie playing normal six-stringed guitar on Bobby Previte's latest, Coalition of the Willing, also on Ropeadope ... we'll have that one in rotation soon.

Previously noted here. I can't believe I played this two weeks in a row. Was last week that long ago?

One of the darker tracks on this improv quartet album, previously noted here. Really nice piece, and a different color from some of the brigher jazz improvs on here.

Previously noted here.

Continuing from the classical feel of the Liebig track, but into sparse abstract territory: Solo voice, sung against solo taped voice. Quite spare, as most of Scelsi's stuff is; this unintentionally kicked off a long, slowish, lurking phase for this show.

Free improv led by trumpet in a peaceful, often sparse environment. It's the second CD of this type we've gotten from Ramanan, and both have impressed me -- he manages to carve out a unique sound from the tools of free improv. The rest of the band includes cello, bass, and drums, which sometimes provide a low-level rustle that the trumpet cuts through. Good late-night surrealism stuff.

* Paper Legs -- "Mouse to Mouse" -- Tent School (Heat Retention, 2005)

* Claudia Ulla Binder, Christian Weber, Dieter Ulrich -- "5th Variation" -- Box (Origin, 2005)

* Dom Minasi -- "Who's Your Dentist?" -- The Vampire's Revenge (CDM, 2006)

* Paraphrase with Tim Berne, Drew Gress, and Tom Rainey -- "Trading on All Fours" -- Pre-Emptive Denial (Screwgun, 2005)

Tim Berne's all-improv trio, which manages to keep the same connections to jazz as you'll hear in his regular stuff. They create long-form pieces in concert, and they've been playing together so long that they're quite good at creating structures from thin air. This track, in particular, starts out sounding like it was planned, with all three musicians diving in with a purposeful sound. It's an impressive track in general, a casual saunter that builds up to a frenzied coda.

* = 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.