Friday, January 11th, 2008 ... 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

(Return to playlists.)

At the last minute, a regular listener named Mark was able to set us up with Vijay Iyer for a phone interview regarding Still Life with Commentator, the latest CD and concert project he's doing with hip-hop poet Mike Ladd. David Leikam helped with the interview.

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

* Myra Melford/Trio M -- "Brainfire and Buglight" -- Big Picture (Cryptogramophone, 2007)

This one made a lot of "best of" lists at the end of the year. It's the trio of Melford (piano), Mark Dresser (bass), and Matt Wilson (drums). Great free jazz that gives lots of emphasis to each of the three -- the opening "Brainfire and Buglight" hands all of them solos in a rapid-fire chain reaction. Most of the tracks rev up into spirited free jazz; a couple of others maintain some sturdy, atmospheric lyricism. Great stuff.

Previously noted here. Third of four spins I gave this CD today.

* Francois Carrier and Michel Lambert -- "Namaste" -- Kathmandu (FMR, 2007)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

* Martin Speicher, Georg Wolf, Lou Grassi -- "Please, Confirm!" -- Shapes and Shadows (Clean Feed, 2007)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

Vijay Iyer -- Interview, Part 1

Iyer is a pianist and composer who's put out a number of jazz CDs. His stuff has gotten increasingly edgy, particularly in settings like the trio Fieldwork (previously noted here). I've always liked his stuff, but he and Mike Ladd really blew me away with their 2003 album, In What Language, which used piano, electronics, and spoken word to create an album of images related to the latent suspicion that follows people of color in the realm of international travel. (Noted here; am I starting to sound like Dave Emory with all these citations?)

Their next project is Still Life with Commentator, an album addressing today's information flow: 24-hour cable news and blogs, and the art of the spin. Iyer explained to us that the album isn't meant to be an indictment of today's media culture, just a series of images. Still, some criticism comes in. "Fox 'n' Friends" is a satire of quick-hit cable headlines, using nonsense language that sounds eerily like the real thing. "Cybernut Bucolia" is a dreamy, breathless piece sung by Palina Jonsdottir, about the idyllic paradise that bloggers think they've created. ("The bees are tinker bells / The sky is giggles .... I am Bambi, dammit / Do not pee on my bliss."

I'm reading Neil Postman's classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death, where he examines how entertainment has replaced real discourse and information flow. This was written in 1986, before cable news, and certainly before the World Wide Web. Postman's is more of an indictment on our culture, which he likens to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but its themes ring through my head when I listen to this album.

Like In What Language?, this album was conceived as a concert production, to be experienced live on stage. In addition to Ladd and Iyer, and Jonsdottir, it's got Liberty Ellman (guitar), Guillermo E. Brown (percussion and vocals), Okkyung Lee (cello), and Pamela Z (vocals, electronics). Lots of synthesizers, programs, and samples all over the place -- quite a different sound from In What Language?, more drifting and surreal. It's a powerful, moving work.

UPDATE: I did get to see the performance of Still Life; notes here.

Iyer described this one as a generic news report from the site of some tragedy -- any tragedy. Part of the point is that you're being made to feel like you're right there, but really, all you're doing is watching something not happening -- the reporter is there in the silent aftermath, or maybe in the stillness before something might happen. Hence, the album title.

? Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd -- "Mount Rather" -- Still Life with Commentator (Savoy Jazz, 2007)

* Splatter 3 + N -- "Selim" -- Clear the Club (Rastascan, 2007)

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

? Tim Berne's Bloodcount -- "Eye Contact" -- Memory Select (JMT, 1995; re-released by Winter & Winter)

I'm playing a Bloodcount song each week; explanation here.

This is their longest song on record, at just more than 51 minutes. It's also the piece you can see in rehearsal and performance on the DVD that comes with the 2-CD collection Seconds, noted here.

It's a multiphased piece, as you'd expect, with sprawling improv spaces divided by some ear-popping composed work. The opening includes a deliciously slow composition, and the blowout ending features one long held note, as if to say, "Yeah, this is really the end."

This is the album whose title I stole for my radio show. I've never asked Berne if that's a problem. The title has no particular meaning for me, nor is it my favorite Bloodcount album ... it just sounds so cool.

* Iannis Xenakis -- "Palimpsest" -- Iannis Xenakis [1922-2001] (BVHaast, 2007; recorded 1979)

A nice little collection of old Xenakis recordings, taken from various sources.

Previously noted here.

Trio Putanesca -- "How About You?" -- Live at Yoshi's (Evander, 1999)

Straight jazz, with Phillip Greenlief (sax), Adam Levy (guitar), and Dan Seamans (bass) -- the project that led Greenlief to launch the Evander label. This album's got five long tracks, jazz standards stretched into casual jams. Nice stuff.

Trippy noise samples and a hint of a beat, plus a lot of general noisiness. From the same well as Vulcanus 68, which I haven't played yet but intend to.

Tommy Flanagan -- "Upper Berth" -- T's Magic (Savoy, 1957)

Closer inspection suggests this might be a Curtis Fuller date, but I could swear the vinyl copy we've got clearly has Tommy Flanagan's name splayed across the front. Either way, a comforting little straight-jazz session. I'd used the album as a sound bed for most of the day and figured I'd give it some proper air time.

Previously noted here.

The cover features some hip-hop looking grafitti, but really it's a quirky jazz set. Some tracks like "Smog Cutter" get a bit funky and delve into some really nice jamming. More often, Carney shows off some gospel-influenced piano a la Keith Jarrett, or a familiarity with New orleans-style dirges. He frequently adds synths for some modern color but that's not always a convincing sound; the compositions stand out plenty well on their own, with plenty of odd twists in numbers like "The Poetry Wall" and "Half the Battle."

Good band on here, with players associated with "out" but not "way out" sessions -- Ralph Alessi (trumpet) and Tony Malaby (sax), also Josh Roseman (trombone), a more inside/funky player. Actually, Malaby's released a towering, impressive free jazz album on Clean Feed called Tamarindo. I've been downloading it track-by-track from eMusic, and it's stunning stuff that I'll have to play on-air later.

* = 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.