Between work duties, parental duties, and a summer cold over the weekend, I’ve had little time for listening to music, let along blogging. I’m still here!
Program note: I’ll be on the air for one extra week, so there’ll be a Memory Select show on Sept. 28, 9:00 a.m. to noon Pacific time. Bonus baseball, as they would say if this were, uh, baseball.
Full playlist for my Sept. 21 KZSU show can be found here. Some notes:
John Carter & Bobby Bradford — “In the Vineyard” — Mosaic Select 3-CD box set (Mosaic, 2010; orig. recorded 1969) ….. I’d been meaning to blog about this box set but haven’t had the time to give it a thorough listen. It’s a document of L.A. free jazz circa 1970, and there’s some fantastic stuff in here. This track, like many others, features Carter’s sax/clarinet and Bradford’s trumpet in head-spinning unison lines and/or improvised interplay.
Raphe Malik, Joe McPhee, and Donald Robinson — “Resolving a Quote” — Sympathy (Boxholder, 2004) ….. Dang, it’s been a while since I’ve listened to Malik. He can really spout on the trumpet. I’d bought this one on a whim not just on the strength of the two horn players, but on Robinson’s presence. His strong, light touch on the drums is a sound to be treasured.
For the show’s final hour, I let myself depart strongly from jazz, into weirder experimental material.
(etre) — “We Do Boring Things Together” — Inferno From My Occult Diary (Porter, 2011) ….. A one-(wo?)man artist doing collages of loops and sounds, with piano and acoustic guitar plentiful in the mix. I was worried this might slow things down too much, but this track got a caller, someone interested in tracking down a copy. Calls that that always make a college radio DJ’s day.
Xela — [Side 2, excerpt] — Heirs of the Fire (SMTG, 2009) ….. On vinyl, an experimental piece in two side-long parts. I could have gone with the clamorous, stormy ending, all dark and almost gothy, but I liked the sounds at the beginning of this side, with chimes and wine-glasses and the feel of a cold metallic wind cutting through your soul.
Anthony Davis — “Particle W” [excerpt] — Middle Passages (Gramavision, 1984) ….. A 16-minute piece for piano and tape, composed by Earl Howard. Quoting the liner notes: “The piano part consists of a set of detailed instructions which explain how to improvise each section. All the electronics for ‘Particle W’ were created on a Serge Modulator Music System.” Aside from the tape part here, Middle Passages is a solo piano album with a very classical-music seriousness. At the same time, it’s one of several Davis albums that KZSU owns from the ’80s, and the ‘fro he’s rocking with his conservative black suit is to die for.
Memory Select: Journeys in Creative Music 