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

Boy's day in Japan. Which has nothing to do with anything here, just thought I'd say it.

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

* Agrazing Maze -- "5 a.m. Stroll" -- At the End of the Day (Foxhaven, 2006)

Great discovery by DJ Fo. Brisk modern jazz with a progressive bent and the chops to play both inside and out. This track is a fast-paced piano-led one, with rapid, hard-pounding piano rhythms, mercury-quick tinklings of the high keys, and brisk drumming. I think of this style as modern "New York" bop... I picture that this is what New York is like, with people all over the place just playing this kind of music all night. Don't try to correct me; this is what goes on over there, I know it. La la la, I can't hear you ...

Quartet piece kind of along the same lines, but with a saxophone that creates a heavier sound. Not as brisk and hip as Agrazing Maze (but then, that's not what Kell strives for here.)

Continuing the piano theme that took up nearly the whole first hour, here's a duet of pianist Fernandez -- who's recorded with Derek Bailey among others -- with the late bassist Kowald. Most of the CD is taken up by the title suite, which leans towards quiet sounds and soft textures; this track is one of the louder, more active ones. Catchier stuff for radio. Overall quite nice; these are improvised duets, as you'd expect from the participants' resumes. Some tracks get into sound exploration, and one features Kowald's throat singing, while others like this one stick to "straight" music and come out rather jazzy.

Previously noted here. This particular song starts off slow and beautiful but builds into a strong solo -- still rather slow, keeping the atmosphere, but packed with the tricks and flourishes that elevate Williams' music beyond your normal jazz-club piano trio, IMHO. The ending is that usual finale where they ride out the final chord, and Williams tosses in all kinds of creative tricks and extra, really impressive.

By request from my buddy out in Navajo country, who's become a regular listener via the Internet (his connection to KZSU is that he knows Your Imaginary Friend). Explosive, exciting trio work with William Parker (bass) and Whit Dickey (drums); Matthew Shipp on piano, of course. I think this was around the time that they were the backing band for David S. Ware, the saxophonist ... anyway, if you're familiar with Ware's "Cryptology" CD, this has the same intense feel.

Music for small orchestra and jazz soloists, previously noted here. This is the concluding track of the title suite, and it's got a nice action-packed feel.

Previously noted here. This track is a loping midtempo one with a catchy bass riff at its heart. One of the most memorable numbers from a Goldberg show that I saw at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, about six months before this CD's release.

* Joe McPhee/John Snyder -- "Shadow Sculptures" -- Pieces of Light (Atavistic, 2005; orig. released 1974)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here. This is the darker and less unified of the two tracks on this CD, but still very good. The trio doesn't lock in right away, and as the music starts winding down prematurely, drummer Tom Rainey kicks into a kind of tribal/primitive solo, painting the dark atmosphere for the piece and creating a heady foreground that Tim Berne (sax) and Drew Gress (bass) can support. Great example of an improvising trio working well together.

Previously noted here. This track is the "experimental" one, with a slow pace and an avant-jazzy feel, but still reasonably catchy. Hunter still enjoys playing the funky jazz that made his name, but he's been experimenting a lot more lately; see also his Groundtruther CDs with Bobby Previte.

Previously noted here. This track shows what Lerche can do with a jazz standard. His voice is imperfect and wavers on the higher and lower notes -- particularly the big-finish ending -- but somehow that adds some indie charm here and makes it more authentic sounding. That the session has high production values doesn't hurt either.

Manu is Peter Gabriel's drummer, and being such, would be expected to produce some kind of world-music fusion on his first solo album. Wrong! He's a jazz composer, apparently, crafting this album of originals fitting the mold of straight jazz. Obvious stuff, soft and warm in that ECM mold, sometimes verging on smooth jazz. This track has one of the more creative lines to the writing.

The overall session is helped by a couple of ECM ringers: Jan Garbarek on sax and Tomasz Stanko (with his pianist and bassist also in the band) on trumpet. Stanko in particular goes nuts on a couple of tracks, packing some much-needed adventure into the music. Thumbs up overall, though, just because it's great for the world to finally hear this side of Manu.

Guitarist from Chicago, part of what I've been calling the "indie jazz" scene: musicians with definite jazz chops who write in an Ornette-like mode, leaning less on chords than on unconventional melodies and bright, challenging rhythms. Chicago has been putting out lots of this stuff the past few years, with stellar results. I always try to grab at least one "old" CD to play and was glad to re-stumble across this one in the library.

Solitaire is Mosberg's own label, and I'm not sure he's still doing it. The 482 Music label has been doing a great job documenting this scene of late.

Previously noted here. This is the album's opening track and launches immediately into some ear-splitting scraping on the violin. This was the first song of a set, so I introduced it, telling folks they were about to hear violin and piano, and ... SCREEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXX!!!. Pretty funny in hindsight.

Previously noted here. This track is relatively subdued and gets into some avant noodling ... not the strongest track on the album but still very good and a nice fit for this particular set.

* The Flying Luttenbachers -- Kkring Number One -- Spectral Warrior Mythos Vol. 1 (Ugexplode, 2006)

If you're not familiar with the Flying Lutts: fast hard punk/prog instrumentals informed by free jazz. Great LOUD stuff. Drummer Weasel Walter has moved to the Bay Area and has a few interesting projects going, including a two-bass free jazz quartet that's played around town quite a bit this year.

Played this one as a setup to Moe!

A favorite of the local scene, Moe! plays junk percussion -- loud, energetic stuff that also happens to be technically impeccable; his accuracy and instincts are astounding, and he puts on a great show. Moe!kestra is the name he uses for big group performances of conducted improvisation. Moe! himself ususally sticks to conducting. He gets a group of 10 to 40 musicians and hands out instructions for the piece, which lets them know what to expect and what cues to watch for. During the piece, he'll run himself ragged, sprinting from one section of the band to another as he conducts the piece. So, it's a visual treat as well as an aural one.

Different pieces have different flavors. His "Piece No. 1: Death of a Piano" includes a Zorn-like game with cue cards dictating styles of music to be played (country, indie-rock, classical) for a segment of quick-change fun, and ends with Moe! himself using a sledgehammer to dismantle a piano. Another piece used a chorus of wine glasses for some quieter segments.

Anyway. Moe!kestra happens a few times every year, and I never do enough to promote it. Today I finally at least played some stuff on the air, dishing out about two-thirds of this 20+ minute piece. Moe!kestra is an exciting project, and the kind of thing I'm proud to help promote in some small way.

Hint to bands: When you do a split 7" with another band, it's nice to indicate which band is on which side. Were it not for a Paperlegs CD that came to us around the same time as this, we (or at least I) would be clueles. Nice music, though; a forest of wood-block kinds of sounds.

* Albert Ayler -- "Ghosts" -- Sluggs' Saloon, May 1, 1966 (ESP-Disk, 2005; recorded 1966)

Previously noted here.

* = 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.