Ironic that my first night out in weeks would be to see a band called Go Home.

Source: Redwood Jazz Alliance

Go Home is a supergroup, at least from a Bay Area fan's POV. Ben Goldberg (clarinet) does the composing for the band, molding songs from Thelonious Monk and Steve Lacy influences and adding a touch of Klezmer. But he's written these pieces knowing that Charlie Hunter is in there on 7-stringed guitar, ready to deliver the funk (as is drummer Scott Amendola), leading to some hard-driving, danceably bluesy songs.

Hunter, Goldberg, and Amendola all have local followings, so it was a receptive crowd tonight, with generous applause after almost every solo. It was fun. Ron Miles was the only unknown quantity to the crowd, being a trumpeter from Colorado, but he won them over immediately with his solo on "TGO," the catchy opener. Everyone got a solo on that one, actually, and it was a nice way to rev up the audience.

I arrived late and had to sit off to the left -- which turned out to be the perfect spot to see Hunter's fingers on the fretboard. Which is cool and also unnerving. He plays bass lines during his guitar solos, and I've had the experience before of verifying this by standing in the front row at Bimbo's 365 Club, watching his fingers. It elicits some strong reactions. Like, "Wow." Or, "Can all jazz guitarists do that? I'm not sure they can all do that." Or, "The five guitar chords I've learned are meaningless, meaningless! My life is a BARREN GODLESS VOID!"

Anyway. The show was good. We already know Goldberg can drive home a solo in a jazzy context, as in the Plays Monk trio or on his Lacy-influenced The Door, the Hat, the Chair, the Fact. But it was a treat to hear him in a Charlie Hunter kind of milieu. One solo had Goldberg skittering along with one high note, letting the guitar changes do their bluesy, blubbling fliips underneath. Fun stuff.

Even the longer, suite-like "All Chords Stand for Other Chords" got rapt attention during the quiet stretches and some hoots and hollers for the busier parts. That one may have gotten the loudest applause of the night, in fact (a hard-grooving Hunter solo probably helped).

It's great, too, to see an audience that doesn't want to sit still when the band is rocking out. Santa Cruz brings out an interesting crowd -- the white-haired jazz lovers were the ones really dancing in their seats, while the goateed students tended more to sit and nod their heads.

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

* Brinsk -- "A Hamster Speaks" -- A Hamster Speaks (Nowt, 2008)

Previously noted here.

Source:

As noted on the blog, this new album has a gentler, mature sound. That's partly because of Joe Morris on guitar, and partly because of the compositional choices of Ware himself. You can hear the then-and-now contrast on "Antidromic," a track from the early '90s. It's got a tougher, more abstract feel to the writing.

David S. Ware is suffering from a long-time kidney problem that's now going to require a transplant. Pleas for potential donors went out early this year, and the community responded; candidates are being screened now. Keep checking the AUM Fidelity site for updates.

* Gang Gang Dance -- "Bebey" -- Saint Dymphna (The Social Registry, 2008)

Awesomely funky stuff, as you'd expect from Hunter. On this album, he's teamed up with drums and organ.

This song and the next three comprise the Go Home set, sampling the four members of that band, which is noted up top.

Previously noted here.

# Ben Goldberg Quintet -- "Song and Dance" -- The Door, the Hat, the Chair, the Fact

Previously noted here.

Miles' more recent albums have been rather floaty and mellow, but this one's got more bite, with rock guitar and even some electronics noise in the mix. This track had a good rhythm that felt a lot like the Go Home set that I saw. Miles more than did his part in that show, taking some great solos and even comping the band with some one-note "chord" backing. Nice stuff.

Random trivia: I'd seen Ron Miles play once before, in Colorado Springs. Tim Berne's trio Paraphrase happened to be in town in a week when I happened to be in Denver on business. Berne and Miles had never met; pairing them up was an idea of the show's promoters. I remember it going quite well.

? Tony Malaby Cello Trio -- "Warblepeck" -- Warblepeck (Clean Feed, 2008)

Source: eMusic

Some tracks, like this one, surprisingly don't sound like anything you'd imagine a "cello trio" being. That's because Fred Lonberg-Holm is plucking away at the strings, while drummer John Hollenbeck is messing around on a marimba or some such. It's got a clicky, poppy sound, maybe influenced by African pop -- or, to a random person in a blind test, it could even have a taste of European dance electronica (in an all-acoustic way, of course). That goes even more for "Jackhat 2," with its electronics and crazed marimba babble.

Warblepeck does have its moments of "regular" cello trio-ness, with sax, bowed cello, and drums. "Two Shadows" does this to a strong and rocking effect (OK, it's not quite normal; Lonberg-Holm's cello is run through a guitar amp or some such, to help them rock out). Some of the more interesting tracks do more messing with the format, though. Take "Waiting Inside," with its slow and sometimes dissonant atmosphere -- it's the accordion (played by Hollenbeck) that's doing the atmospheric chords, while Lonberg-Holm plucks delicately at the cello.

* Dave Holland -- "Double Vision" -- Pass It On (Emarcy, 2008)

Previously noted here.

* Colter Frazier Quartet -- "Late Again" -- Colter Frazier Quartet (pfMentum, 2008)

Previously noted here.

Hard to describe; it's instrumental but not directly jazz. Pop instrumental? There's an indie-rock feel to the album, a nod to video game sounds on one track, some cheesiness, some experimental turns. Thumbs up, overall. Benevento is enjoying a residency at Yoshi's Oakland, playing every Tuesday night this month with a different band.

Previously noted here.

* Mostly Other People Do the Killing -- "Two Boot Jacks" -- This Is Our Moosic (Hot Cup, 2008)

Previously noted here.

Source: MySpace

Interesting quasi-electronica experiments, where the sound sources tend to be cut-up acoustic instruments. So on this track, you start with a loud guitar chime (several guitars together, probably) and some accordion later. "Come To Me" is more cut-up, with lots of little guitar sounds put together. "Rosa Luxemburger," which I almost played here, is more directly electronic, the "normal" blip/bleep sounds put to a laid-back little beat. Mostly, though, the album is characterized by ringing, jangling sounds. I'm liking the ideas here.

I just don't play Evan Parker enough, and some days you just gotta dig into the library and grab something new. Parker himself is rather masked on this track, if not this whole album, by the eight- or nine-piece group, and this particular track has George Lewis' trombone front-and-center anyway. Still, it was good to toss a bustling group-improv piece onto the air. We've had fewer of those in rotation lately, because labels like Leo and Emanem have been less willing to service college radio -- or us, at any rate. Can't blame them. The economics of sending the stuff out, versus the minimal payback, can't be balancing out well. We at KZSU are crossing our fingers for high-quality digital downloading to become the industry norm... but I can understand why labels wouldn't want to make that available.

Previously noted here.

Bill Horist with Eveline Muller-Graf -- "Epilepticify" -- Soylent Radio (Unit Circle Rekkids, 1997)

Horist is a guitarist from Seattle who paints ghostly sounds and noisy washes with his instrument. This album is a set of duets with a few different musicians -- clinky metal percussion here, moody synth washes elsewhere.

Previously noted here.

Previously noted here.

* Rent Romus/Jazz on the Line, with Chico Freeman -- "Moons of Neptune" -- Thundershine (Edgetone, 2008; orig. released 1994)

Previously noted here.

Source: lisamezzacappa.com

Before and After is Mezzacappa's free-jazz quartet: the same people as Go-Go Fightmaster but repermuted with the bass as the leader, playing her compositions. It's got a very loft-jazz influence, harkening back to some of Ornette Coleman's styles, maybe with a heavier dose of European free improv in the playing style.

I keep missing this band's gigs. Hoping very much to catch them at Berkeley's Jazzschool tomorrow.

Previously noted here.

Source: Edgetone

Straight-up contemporary jazz led by violin, usually electric 5-stringed violin. Nicely melodic compositions with some active, grooving soloing space. Relaxed jazz guitar, peppy sax.

What's interesting about this album is that the violin isn't always front-and-center; many themes are left to the sax and guitar. Yehudit's solos have a clear, airy feel, with plenty of double-stops (two-stringed playing) for some nice dissonant moments.

* Australian Bebop Ragas -- "Bollywood Fantasia" -- Snakes and Ladders (Family Tree, 2008)

Previously noted here.

* = Item in KZSU rotation
! = Pop anomaly
? = Item not in KZSU library
# = the Go Home set!

-- Go back to Memory Select playlists.
-- Bay Area free/improv music calendar: http://www.bayimproviser.com.