Friday, January 19th, 2007 ... 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

First show in an extended time slot, now 'til 7 pm! I haven't checked with the PD, but I think the extra hour is meant to make up for the frequent sports pre-emptions I'll be getting during the next three months.

I do plan to make good use of the extra time when I've got it, though, adding more tracks from different genres and giving time to longer pieces.

Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)
Horizontal lines denote microphone breaks.

* Scorch Trio -- "Furskunjt" -- Luggumt (Rune Grammofon, 2004)

One that got lost in the cracks after we'd acquired it for airplay, hence the long-ago release date. Brutal guitar stuff, with a definitely free-jazzy bass and drums backing -- wild and burbling, awesome stuff -- but a definite influence from metal. Couldn't tell you which variety of metal. All I know is, there's a lot of loud, aggressive guitar. Sometimes it's coming from a bluesy vein, as on this track, but it's still quite dark and evil sounding.

* Kyle Bruckman's Wrack -- "Inasmuch As" -- Intents and Purposes (482 Music, 2006)

Previously noted here.

Song-based weirdness. Some elements of seriously warped children's music along with general surreal strangeness.

Previously noted here.

Ellery Eskelin -- "Split the Difference" -- Quiet Music (Prime Source, 2006)

After more than a decade with (Hatology, Eskelin starts up his own label and kicks it off with this 2-CD set. Really nice stuff that combines his usual trio (Andrea Parkins on keys, accordion; Jim Black on drums) with vocalist Jessica Constable and occasional help from Philippe Gelda on keys/vocals. It's not necessarily quiet; often loud and fast, actually. Great combination of tangly heads, floaty group improv, and the occasional driving beat.

Previously noted here.

* Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, William Parker -- "Last of the Chicken Wings" -- Palm of Soul (AUM Fidelity, 2006)

Nice trio session that really highlights New Orleans saxophonist Kidd Jordan, a free-jazz type who's also done great work with the likes of Fred Anderson. Lots of percussion, including three tracks packed with Parker and Drake both playing African percussion behind Jordan. Great twisty sax, in a slow-wailing mode frequently. Very cool session.

* Mark Applebaum -- "Inventory" [part 2 of "Asylum"] -- Asylum (Innova, 2006)

Modern classical stuff from a guy who's apparently a Stanford professor. "Asylum" is a piece for nonet and percussion soloist. This segment features the sound of a typewriter -- an honest-to-goodness acoustic (manual) typewriter with a bell and everything. Whether that's played by the percussionist, I don't know. Beyond that, the track is full of dynamic swooping and sweeping, nice stuff.

Previously noted here. It's not fair, but this is one CD that got hurt by the long track times; four over 10 minutes, and one of 9 minutes. Making up for that a bit, I spun the title track, which clocks in at 17 minutes, the first half of which is slow and exploratory before the more fiery horn jazz comes in.

* Steve Lacy -- "The Crust" -- Esteem (Atavistic, 2006; recorded 1975)

Previously noted here; this is the track with the towering Steve Potts solo that I talk about there.

* Vinny Golia Quartet -- "Monday at Eight, Just Black and White" -- Sfumato (Clean Feed, 2006)

Previously noted here.

* Kris Davis -- "Bloodwine" -- The Slightest Shift (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006)

Previously noted here. This is the opening track, which gets into the "free" stuff quickly.

Previously noted here and here.

Interesting find. I'd dug into the Rastascan "Yearbook" series of compilations CDs, trying to find more improv to toss into the show, and came up with this instead. Using the "plunderphonics" concepts of John Oswald, Djll created this hard-chugging, punk-energy rock track that never really existed. Turned out to be a nice lead-in to The Molecules.

Previously noted in detail here, including notes on the reunion of this band. They're a Japanese-influenced Bay Area group, loud stuff beyond punk and incorporating some crazed jazz ideas, fast, harsh. They were a big part of the scene in the early '90s, until band members went their separate ways. Now they've re-formed, released a new CD of unreleased old stuff, and put together a tour. Click the link above for more; and for the time being, 2007 tour dates are listed here.

The Flying Luttenbachers -- "Kkringg Number One" -- Systems Emerge from Complete Disorder (ugEXPLODE/Troubleman, 2003)

Drummer Weasel Walter has been very active locally, playing lots of shows including many with his quartet/sextet, which I understand to be superwild free jazz (sadly I've been too lame to actually attend a show). Need to give him his due on the show more often.

Dark, heavy experimental rock, with thickly noisy guitar and some creepy insane vocals ... on this track, they're "sung" at a slow, groany level that makes the words almost indistinguishable. Definitely not sunny pop.

Hardcore jazz from Switzerland, a classic band that I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of. An obvious precursor to John Zorn's Naked City, with sax so crazy it sounds like pieces are flying off. Elsewhere in the collection are some electronics and "industrial noise," according to the promo materials ... I'm going to have to dig into this one a lot more.

That title, by the way ... it's built from the names of two albums (16-17 and When All Else Fails) plus two EPs (Buffbunker and Hardkore).

* Stephan Crump -- "Ingenue" -- Rosetta (Papillon, 2006)

Previously noted here.

We're getting a ... lot ... of CDs that use the Hurricane Katrina disaster as a theme. (Trying to avoid the "fl-" word there.) It's certainly a worthy theme, but it's getting overdone. Still, you have to give some leeway to the musicians who really are from New Orleans, Kidd Jordan among them. He's mentioned above, by the way.

Fasteau is a multi-instrumentalist -- mainly reeds, piano, percussion -- who's sent us quite a few CDs over the years. She's got a bit of a new-age look but her stuff is good free jazz (OK, sometimes getting a bit "ethereal" in its aesthetic). Her discs are mostly collaborations with the feel of some close friends who relax in the living room for an enjoyable but deadly serious evening of music.

There's plenty of excitable, jumpy free jazz on this disk but also an overall tension, sadness, or anger to some tracks, given the subject matter. If you know your Katrina conspiracy theories, you won't be surprised to find out which category this one's in.

Luis Gasca -- "Street Dude" -- Luis Gasca (Blue Thumb, 1972)

Interesting pull from the vinyl collection. It's an LP of four songs, two of them at 11+ minutes that dominate the session. At the first needle drop, I heard lots of Latin percussion, some McCoy Tyner-esque piano, and great bubbly sax playing, so I went in and gave this a spin. But I didn't play that track; I played the other long one, which turns out to be basically a Santana-like jam. Disappointing but still decent music ... and look! It's got Carlos Santana on it, along with Neil Schon, George Cables, and Stanley Clarke. Gasca himself is a trumpeter; I don't know anything else about him, and he doesn't appear elsewhere in our library as a leader.

World-music improv. Traditional Turkish/Persian instruments -- guitar- and lute-like things -- applied to an album-length improvisation. It sticks mostly to traditional Persian forms, but there's a nicely adventurous edge to some tracks.

Mei Han and Paul Plimley -- "Dancing on Hot Colds" -- Ume (Za, 2006)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Really fun band from the mid-'80s "downtown" NYC scene, but not as avant and free-jazz as John Zorn (although he does appear on two tracks as a guest). Fast "big-band" kinds of charts with lots of modern touches in the composing and plenty of humor. It's tightly played stuff brimming with energy, and it's infectious -- the more you hear, the more you want to hear. Plenty of craziness in the solos, too, for some free-jazz cred.

This particular track opens with a narrator announcing the title "movie," in the voice of one of those late-night horror movie hosts. Pretty cool

* Albrecht Maurer and Norbert Rodenkirchen -- "Nibbio" -- Hidden Fresco (Nemu, 2006)

Previously noted here.

A three-piano trio, wow. The session is European free improv, of course, so you get a grand cascading of piano sounds, sometimes quiet, sometimes gloriously loud and messy. The three pianists are split left/right/center, so you can tell who's who. And there are some tracks with "prepared" piano (putting objects into the strings for a muffled sound, or a ringing metallic one) -- this one being an obvious example.

This track happens to be the longest, at 21 minutes. Not having that kind of time left in the show, I did the shallow thing and excerpted a louder, faster segment. Good stuff, though.

Previously noted here. Lots of vocal noises on this track to accompany the "air through the horn" sounds, so it's got an amusing touch to it.

* = 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.