Friday, October 20th, 2006 ... 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Still in the process of adding notes for the newly added CDs (and the old ones that didn't previously get notes)....

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

Kakalla -- "Sir Charles's Transmogfication" -- The Seeds of Analog Rebellion (Weltschmerz, 2004)

Very interesting group from Massachusetts playing free jazz with a bit of Klezmer influence. This was their third (?) album, where they've added some electronics to the mix and concentrated on darker, slowly building pieces, as opposed to the bright/fast feel of their earlier albums. Nice.

Previously noted here.

A 2-CD pastiche of modern classical works written by percussionist Hubbard. Tons of variety here, including sound experiments, piano craziness, electronic sounds (think Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research Inc.), sampled voices. Tributes to John Cage and Morton Feldman, too. This particular track is a sax trio, unavoidably reminiscent of ROVA.

Hubbard's last CD before this was his Skeleton Key Orchestra, which featured long free-jazz pieces for large band, really exciting. It seems he's produced a lot of ambitious stuff during the last 10 years.

A project of noise collages, lots of vocals/speaking, guitar and brass, bass and percussion. This track concludes the album; it's a more straight piece, an old time Euro-cafe/circus sound.

New album from Ornette! The first in a decade (or more)! Cool!

Ornette is just as crazy and fluid as ever. This track opens the live concert that comprises the CD, and it starts with a burst of tangled, swirly melody on alto -- intense stuff. The personnel here are Ornette (sax, violin, trumpet), Denardo Coleman (drums), Greg Cohen (bass: pizzacato), Tony Falanga (bass: arco). Great energetic stuff. Now, I just have to make sure and catch Ornette live while he's still with us.

Previously noted here.

Glenn Spearman was a key part of the glorious mid-'90s Bay Area free jazz scene, who passed away in 1998. His double trio put out some nice albums around that time, a nice document of his music. Marco Eneidi, before leaving the area for Vienna, led the "Creative Music Orchestra" with Spearman and carried on the work for a couple of years after Spearman's death; Marco also organized a few annual tribute concerts that featured some great music and emphasized a sense of community for the local scene.

* Peter Brotzmann Group -- "Alarm, Part 2" [excerpt] -- Alarm (Atavistic, 2006; orig. released 1981)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Straight stuff with fusion overtones: Jack DeJohnette (drums), John Scofield (guitar), Larry Goldings (organ and electric piano). It's a tribute to the Tony Williams Lifetime, with a bit of that muted ECM polish even though it's a live session. Some nice stuff here, including covers of Joe Henderson and John Coltrane ("Big Nick"? never heard it before). This particular track gets into some crazy thunder, with Scofield going nuts -- pretty cool -- leading into an epic drum solo that starts out subtle and ends up ferocious.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

There's some saxophone on here, but really this is a set of electronics improvisations, exploring lots of strange sounds accompanied by Hollenbeck's drums and percussion. Fairly aggressive stuff but not that loud; like a low-key sci-fi attack ... or maybe a choppier, edgier kind of new age. Lots of subtle percussion, analog synth blips, jangly autoharp, weird grunty sounds, and occasional sax flurries.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Sonny Rollins -- "East Broadway Run Down" -- East Broadway Run Down (Impluse!, 1966)

Sonny is kicking off the San Francisco Jazz Festival with a show this weekend, so I figured I'd give him props. Great side-long track with Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Elvin Jones (drums), and Jimmy Garrison (bass), the latter two getting nice long solos in there. Sonny gets mentioned sometimes in regards to free-jazz -- that is, someone will toss out all the different stuff he's done, appending "and free jazz" to the list. This track is about as close as he really came, although it does show some sympathies to free jazz, especially during the second half, as Sonny and Freddie kick out the main riff with various squeaks and embellishments. Probably confused a lot of folks back in the day.

Delving through the vinyl, I discovered we've got three versions of "On Green Dolphin Street" on three different Sonny Rollins albums (and a fourth, if you count one on the Reevaluations retrospective album). Someday I'll have to do an all "Sonny Green Dolphin" set; it'll take about 21 minutes total.

By the way, speaking of the different styles Sonny worked ... schlocky '80s jazz is in there too. We've got quite a few of those albums, and they're really a shame. One, with guitarist Larry Coryell, has a total disco/fusion look, and I don't mean that in a good way. It's also got a track called "Disco Monk" that really does deliver the disco -- very dated, and at once amusing and horrifying. Gonna have to spin that one someday, too.

Previously noted here. Nice "world" feel to this one, with Melford on harmonium and a gently chugging rhythm reminiscent of African pop.

Local singer/songwriter with a high, pop voice. The album is full of odd noises -- little scratchy rumbles at the start of many tracks, it seems -- and includes appearances by local jazz/improv folks Carla Kihlstedt (violin) and Scott Amendola (drums). This track features both; there's also a promising instrumental track that Kihlstedt is on.

Shiurba's doing a CD release party this coming weekend for the group's second disc. This first one was very interesting, a free improv session with some bouncing, chamber-like compositions to tether tracks at the beginning.

* = 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.