Lafayette Gilchrist - Three

In a nod to Zepellin and other rock outfits, Baltimore-based pianist Lafayette Gilchrist has titled his third record Three (it is also a trio record, for what it's worth).

Gilchrist has recently been making subtle waves on the DC-Baltimore circuit as an in-demand sideman. He has also been branching out as a result of his growing association with the saxophonist David Murray, the drummer Steve Williams (who spent the 1980s and 1990s in the trio of the late Shirley Horn) and with

On Three, Mr. Gilchrist investigates deep pockets of groove while maintaining rolling tremolos not unlike those of pianists Cecil Taylor. There is a certain restlessness in Mr. Gilchrist's message and while this heightened sense of activity on a piece like "Visitors" keep's your attention, it fails to do anything terribly surprising. Conversely, using a similar formula on "Spheres of Influence" the pianist roils out a densely rhythmic melody.

I have mixed feelings and will revisit this in a month. Comments are welcome.

RIP Andrew Hill; the bloggers speak out...

Repost from Do The Math

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jerome sabbagh - saxophonist/would-be pop artist (under certain circumstances)

I have been listening a a bunch to Jerome Sabbagh in the past few days and I just wanted to say a couple of things about it before I hit the sack tonight.



Jerome Sabbagh - a French-born, NY-based tenor saxophonist and composer has an absolutely killin' band that plays a melodic grab bag of moods. Sabbagh has spent a good amount of time playing in the bands of Argentinean pianists Pablo Ablanedo and Guillermo Klein (who doesn't seem to have a website of his own at this moment).

Sabbagh originally came to my attention as a member of fellow Frenchman Laurent Coq's band on Coq's 2003 Sunnyside release, Like a Tree in the City.*

Sabbagh and his quartet have recently put out a 2nd album (available April 24 in the US) called "Pogo" following 2004's North (Fresh Sound New Talent). Pogo is available direct from the artist here and through a warehouse here). Pogo is on French indie Bee Jazz Records (distributed in the US by...you guessed it: Sunnyside).

Guitarist Ben Monder's sometimes sparse, sometimes dense, but mostly dark accompaniment and solos are a fitting foil to Sabbagh's bright tone and bouncy lines. Underappreciated bassist Joe Martin (seen very often at 55 Bar and on tour with Kurt Rosenwinkel among others) takes a very nice solo on the opening cut "Middle Earth" (a rarity these days - tunes with bass solos are usually buried deep within the album - I wonder why that is?). And rounding out the quartet is the young phenom out of the Eastman School, Ted Poor on drums (Poor also in the bands of Cuong Vu, Monder and somewhat surprisingly David Berkman - though not if you hear it) who keeps things consistently crisp throughout the recording.

Jerome's melodies on Pogo sometimes reach into poppy and jammy territory when it's almost as if you'd swear the saxophone is a human voice singing a melody or a guitar carving out a simple idea but with a great sense of confidence. This music, though mostly quietly subtle and subdued, begs a question which I frequently find myself thinking.

Can modern jazz appeal to general audiences outside the jazz-obsessed solely based on the merits of catchy melodies without words? Or are words a general prerequisite to get people to pay attention?" Especially when made by musicians who are privy to the last 30 or so years of music-making outside the jazz idiom?

The Bad Plus have arguably done this successfully, though their formula has also included hooking these rather elusive "other audiences" with covers of familiar tunes by dare I say "mainstream" acts (i.e. Nirvana, Rush, Blondie, Aphex Twin, Queen, etc.). Can a band achieve some kind of pop-like acceptance solely on the merits of their compositions without voice or lyrics? I would say in a different time under different circumstances, yes. But not in the current climate where commercial radio and even the indie movement (i.e. what they write about on Pitchfork and Stylus) is almost entirely driven by music with lyrics.

What are your thoughts?

Meanwhile, you can check out streaming samples of the utterly funky "Rooftops" and the medatative but catchy "Pogo" from Sabbagh's new album of the same name due April 24 here in the US.

* I should mention I met Laurent Coq for the first time in person at the Jazz Standard during IAJE and he handed me his newest CD (currently only available in France) called "Laurent Coq Blowing Trio." The band includes Coq on piano, Olivier Zanot on alto sax and David El-Malek on tenor sax and occasional vocals by Laurence Allison. I had it in my car for weeks and I should mention that it's absolutely KILLIN' and that you should go buy it now if you like good music - well worth the shipping costs. Or email Laurent for another less expensive solution at contact@laurentcoq.com.

putting the internet radio thing in perspective

I just read this article on Salon.com about the apparent impending demise of streaming radio stations in their many formats on the internet and my socks were scared off.

Here is the paragraph that really got to me:

Even at the new rate of $.0008 per performance, applied retroactively to 2006, Pandora is on the hook for "millions and millions" of dollars in royalty payments to SoundExchange, Westergren told Salon -- far more than the company took in as revenue.

If they took away Pandora (an operation I thought was doing everything legit - a service I personally pay for to enjoy!), that means Last.fm would also go away... and most of the not-so-profitable Launch channels, radioio and my ability to hear my alma mater's signal from Pittsburgh to Philly, where I live now or to anywhere I might live in the future.

This all really made me what to scream.

Thanks to Pat for tipping me off to the gravity of this situation. If you care about music discovery and you've ever bought an album because of what you heard online, this is the time to speak out people!

If you haven't already, you can sign the various petitions to keep things reasonable.

Write your congressman/congresswoman about this serious matter. Yes, that means you too.

NOW LISTENING TO DAVID HAZELTINE ON PANDORA

i found it on the internets!

powered by ODEO

Awesome!

Ornett Coleman's Grammy Remarks

Most people out there world don't know that Ornette Coleman actually received a lifetime achievement award at the pre-telecast ceremony during Grammy weekend.

But even fewer people know that Ornette Coleman gave one of the most "out" speeches ever that had most of the crowd muttering, "Who the hell is this guy? What rock did they pull him out from under?"

Anyways, I received this transcription from a person who attended the ceremony which was not televised and only open to industry insiders and award recipients. It starts with an introduction by Charlie Haden, Ornette's longtime musical collaborator.

Ornette Coleman's Lifetime Achievement Acceptance Speech (starting with Charlie Haden’s comments)

CH: Tonight NARAS is presenting an award that goes to the deepest and most beautiful part of music--deep and beautiful like Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Ornette Coleman.

Ornette opened up a whole new world of musical discovery and exploration. That journey of music being born for the first time, continues today in his compositions and improvisation.

Over the years we’ve played many concerts and many, many recordings together and even now, when I play music with him it’s the most exciting and rewarding musical experience of my life. I am honored to present this Lifetime A A to the great Ornette Coleman.

OC: It is really very, very real to be here tonight, in relationship to life and death and I’m sure they both love each other.

I really don’t have any present thoughts about why I’m standing here other than trying to figure out something to say that could be useful to someone that believes.

One of the things I am experiencing is very important and that is: You don’t have to die to kill and you don’t have to kill to die. And above all, nothing exists that is not in the form of life because life is eternal with or without people so we are grateful for life to be here at this very moment.

For myself, I’d rather be human than to be dead. And I would also die to be human. So you can’t die, you can’t die to be neither one, regardless of what you say or think so that’s why I believe that music itself is eternal in relationship to sound, meaning, intelligence…all the things that have to have something to do with being alive because you were born and because someone else made it possible for you to be here, which we call our parents etc. etc.

For me, the most eternal thing is that I would like to live until I learn what it is and what it isn’t…that is, how do we kill death since it kills everything?

And it’s hard to realize that being in the human form is not as easy as wondering what is going to happen to you even if you do know what it is and it doesn’t depend on if you know what is going to happen to you.

No one can know anything that life creates since no one is life itself. And it’s obvious, at least I believe, it’s obvious the one reason why we as human beings get there and do things that seem to be valuable to us in relationship to intelligence… uh, what is it called…creativity and love and all the things that have to do with waking up every morning believing it’s going to be a better day today or tomorrow and yet at the same time death, life, sadness, anger, fear, all of those things are present at the same time as we are living and breathing.

It is really, really eternal, this that we are constantly being created as human beings to know that exists and it’s really, really unbelievable to know that nothing that’s alive can die unless it’s been killed. So what we should try to realize is to remove that part of what it is so that whatever we are, life is all there is and I thank you very much.

------------------------

Well, I think that's as real as it gets. I welcome comments.

Michael Brecker Tribute Video

A truly touching Michael Brecker tribute video which I found on his fan page on MySpace: WATCH IT HERE!

the days turn into weeks, the months into years - as I fall behind on blogging...

I know. I've been very inconsistent in my blogging habits of late - mainly due to the fact that I have an unprecendented amount of work for my "on the side" gig, doing online and "new media" publicity for independent artists in multiple genres.

I currently have some projects with unlikely artists given my personal taste. But I'm trying right now to seek out music that moves me and makes me want to dance... or at least think about dancing. While I try to keep the artists I work for out of this blog, sometimes its impossible since they are often on my mind a lot - and what else is a blog for if not to unload some of the topics on one's mind?

This week one of these artists is Karl Denson's Tiny Universe whose newish online-only EP entitled Once You're There is a current priority for me. Originally I took it on as a means to make some extra bread, but this funky/electro hook-based music has become a guilty pleasure. It makes me want to dance. And I guess that's a good thing because it probably makes others want to do the same.

So that's that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news:


Pianist Frank Kimbrough playing at Dewey Redman's Memorial Service Sunday Jan. 7, 2007
- I attended Dewey Redman's Memorial three Sundays ago - my first visit to St. Peter's Church in Manhattan (aka the jazz church) - I know I blogged about it in advance of the show on my MOG and Last.fm pages but I don't believe I mentioned it here. Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Geri Allen and Jack DeJohnette gave the most touching performances of the evening. Violinist Leroy Jenkins played a bouncing pentatonic blues, Joe Lovano with his wife Judi Silvano (who was surprisingly good) did a operatic ballad that was amazing and the vociferous/jocular emcee Matt Wilson (who played with Dewey from 1994 on) played in a trio with Cameron Brown and Frank Kimbrough at one point. And I learned a lot about Dewey from the legions of folks who got up to speak about him and a short excerpt of a film about him. Ethan Iverson and Reid Anderson played a tune with Wilson and Dewey's son (Joshua Redman) played too - one short solo piece and then again on the last number with Haden, Metheny and Roy Haynes on the Ornette Coleman blues "Turnaround," which happens to be on the recent Sound Grammar.


- I attended the IAJE Conference in a work capacity from Jan. 10-13 in NYC. I mostly worked afternoons in the press room credentialing journalists, photographers, radio people and others who claimed to be there to write or communicate to different audiences about IAJE.

It was a bit of a drag since most of the good industry track sessions I had taken a roll in planning, I had to miss (i.e. Down Beat 1:1 with Greg Osby interviewing Ornette Coleman, JazzTimes Presents: Producing Miles Davis with producer heavyweights such as George Avakian, George Duke, Bob Belden and Marcus Miller, Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination, The Marketing Nightmare)

Shows in NY that week were insane as was to be expected. Memorable performances include:


- saxophonist/woodwind doubler Steve Wilson with his long-standing quartet of Bruce Barth on keys, Ed Howard on bass (Ed doesn't seem to have a website or I would link to it) and Adam Cruz on drums at Jazz Standard Thursday night



- drummer/composer John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble late night Thursday at the Sheraton Metropolitan Ballroom



- an 11:30 set at Joe's Pub by wunderkind trumpeter Christian Scott (introduced to the world on recording at 16 by his uncle Donald "Duck" Harrison. this cat is the real deal, folks. though extremely haughty, well-dressed and a tad immature.

Mulgrew Miller w/ Bob Hurst @ Smalls - 1:30 AM set
-a late night Friday set at Smalls by Mulgrew Miller and Bob Hurst III with surprise guest Eric Harland (who arrived after this cell phone shot was taken)


Charlie Haden and The Liberation Music Orchestra, Saturday Jan. 13 - Final Performance of Evening Concerts in Hilton Grand Ballroom
-the French Elite All-Stars with Michel Legrand, violinist Didier Lockwood, guitarist Sylvain Luc, accordionist Richard Galliano and others; followed by Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra paying tribute to Michael Brecker and Alice Coltrane

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at Bowery Poetry Club
-I stayed an extra day and night and finally got to see DJA's Secret Society large band in its native environment - the Bowery Poetry Club. it was tight. Saxophonist Mark Small (also of the Michael Bublé Orchestra - yes, that Michael Bublé!), trumpeter Shane Endsley (of Kneebody) and saxophonist Erica von Kleist (of JALC's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra) impressed thoroughly in their respective solos.
the writing was of a very high quality. i could hear the brookmeyer influence. also very relevant song titles that fit the tunes - especially Drift and Habeas Corpus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More recently:

- I began looking in earnest this weekend for a new apartment in Northern Liberties and different places across the Schuykill River (Manayunk, Roxborough or East Falls)

- I saw Greg Osby 4 this weekend in a surprising packed-house at Philly's Zanzibar Blue, an unlikely spot for Greg's music - this coming weekend is Dave Douglas' quintet! Another unlikely booking for ZB. What's going on over there?

And finally... this January is heavy with sadness over the passing of Michael and Alice. and its cold outside.
-

What Michael Brecker's Death Means to Me...

It seems like eons ago that I was marveling at Michael Brecker's solo playing Two Blocks From the Edge, Don't Try This At Home, his killing 1980 collaboration with Chick Corea, Three Quartets, and finally his 2004 large-ensemble masterpiece Wide Angles, which I think represented a shift in where he was headed musically - since his previous 10 albums had been small-group focused.

So many players I love today, I discovered through Michael Brecker recordings - the late Don Alias, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Joey Calderazzo, James Genus and John Patitucci among others.

I guess I just want to say that Michael had a huge influence on me. He made me want to keep playing saxophone when practicing just seemed too hard or futile. Hearing Brecker's flawless technical mastery, angular yet hard-swinging lines, and soulful interpretation of standards inspired more than two generations of saxophone players and hopefully his recorded legacy will continue to inspire musicians to reach new heights through both thorough mastery of their instruments and devotion to masters who came before us all.

I don't know what else to say? Thank you Michael for your music and your spirit.

Michael Brecker Lives!

Stop Making Fun of My Accent

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North   You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

In reality, I was born in Washington, DC and have lived all my life here except the last 6 years of my life, when I've been living in Pittsburgh and now Philadelphia since June.

Dr. Jazz Ph.D. weighs in on DTM's Questionnaire

Recently, The Bad Plus started asking their fellow musicians the following set of questions. Following TBP's drummer (Dave King) and pianist's (Ethan Iverson) answers, TBP's bassist Reid Anderson and composer/pianist Guillermo Klein responded, enigmatic pianists Brad Mehldau and Jason Moran replied, Rosenwinkelian sidemen Jeff Ballard (drums) and Ben Street (bass) gave their two cents, followed by pianists Fred Hersch and Christopher O'Riley, fellow Brooklyn residents bassist Joe Martin and reedist Ted Reichman, Halloween Alaska bandmates James Diers and Ev Olcott and downtown squonkers Django Bates (piano & E-flat horn) and Tim Berne (alto sax and various other reeds),

All the while as is their wont, jazz and "new music" bloggers started listing and emailing their own lists to Ethan @ Do the Math. The lists became so voluminous that Ethan have to compile all the answers into Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Now that I finally have a moment to breathe and truly procrastinate (to the point where composing and formatting this entry have taken me over an hour), Dr. Jazz Ph.D. will add his remarks to the fray:

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:

1. Movie score. "Laura" (David Raskin); "Inside Man" (Terence Blanchard)
2. TV theme. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (Dennis Brown & Chuck Lorre)
3. Melody. "Lotus Blossom" (Billy Strayhorn); "East of the Sun" (Brooks Bowman)
4. Harmonic language. Coltrane on Atlantic and Impulse!; Bill Evans on Conversations With Myself; Paul Gonsalves
5. Rhythmic feel. Chris Potter; Max Roach
6. Hip-hop track. "All for U" (Aceyalone & RJD2); "I've Been Thinking" (Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Cat Power)
7. Classical piece. Clarinet Concerto in A Major K.622 - Adagio (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart); Quartet for the End of Time (Olivier Messiaen)
8. Smash hit. "We Are the Champions" (Queen); "Gonna Make U Sweat" (aka Everybody Dance Now) (C&C Music Factory)
9. Jazz album. Stan Getz - The Dolphin; Charles Mingus - Mingus Plays Piano
10. Non-American folkloric group. Sexteto Electronico Moderno; Amadou et Mariam; Boubacar Traore; Ana Moura
11. Book on music. "Raise Up Off Me: The Autobiography of Hampton Hawes"

BONUS QUESTIONS:

A) Name a surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician: something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years: Woody Herman - Woody & Friends: Live at the 1979 Monterey Jazz Festival; Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Returns to Berlin; Duke Ellington with Count Basie's Orchestra - First Time: The Count Meets the Duke

B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated: Rich Perry, Billy Pierce, Eric Kloss, Sonny Red

C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn’t, not really): (no answer)

D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer: Billy Hart on This is Buck Hill; Lewis Nash on Renee Rosnes' debut album, Renee Rosnes

DJA makes the NYTimes. Dr. Jazz Ph.D makes new friends.

Ratliff finally smells the coffee. Wish I coulda been there. I heard KADS was drumming.

I wish I could have made the Secret Society gig, but I was at the Mingus Orchestra @ Merkin Hall show. Some nice tunes. Michael Rabinowitz, Seamus Blake and Freddie Bryant stole the show. However Mingus' music is continually refreshing. Check out my more detailed entry here.

After the show, NY Times scribe Nate Chinen (who was there reviewing) introduced me to Simon Rentner, a musical genius with impeccable taste who is partially responsible for booking the 2006-2007 season at Merkin (the other cat is Brice Rosenbloom who used to run MAKOR when it was still around). Nate was escorting his good buddy GW who is looking pretty darn good for his age.

If I ever get around to figuring out how to use GarageBand, I may even start a Jazz Clinic podcast. Simon would make an excellent subject for an episode.

giving thanks

I don't exactly know what "Thanksgiving Echoes" would be like, but hey - it looked pretty funny and wasn't terribly trite as far as the Google image search I conducted to find an image for today's Turkey Day post (note: no turkeys have been harmed in the production of this entry).

Today is the day of giving thanks. So here's an abbreviated list of things that popped into my head:


- I give thanks for being able to sleep two hours on the Chinatown bus to DC this morning.

- I give thanks for all the listeners who called in last night into the wee hours of this morning for my foolishly long midnight to 6 AM shift on WRTI.

- I give thanks that my MacBook's trackpad is working again thanks to a super friendly helper named Dan at the 24-hour Apple store in NYC (more on that at another time).

- I give thanks to DL, BR, SB, DN and EL for putting up with me at work and teaching me a heck of a lot about the PR biz and about life over the last 6 months.

- I give thanks to all my new friends in the blogosphere who have given me props or blogrolled me including Mwanji, Darcy, Doug, Tim, Jon, Jeff Siegel; and to Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press for secretly reading this point of pontification.

- I give thanks to my clients - the artists, without whom I'd be working a shitty desk job at some nameless company eager clock out at 5 every day.

You know it's Thanksgiving day, when you have no work email and 1-2 bloggers are online. Time to nap a little more and then eat some turkey and yes, watch football. Here we go with the decline of the American mind.

Out,
drjazzphd

Now Listening to: World Saxophone Quartet - Bluogracy (Part 1) from Political Blues (Justin Time 2006).

carpe diem

Wednesday November 15

7:48 AM

Wake up. Brush teeth (no shower). Put on shoes (no socks), sweatshirt (w/ hood on). Hop in car. Drive towards Center City. Stop for the regular:

1 large decaf tea (cream and sugar)
1 toasted onion bagel with butter
2 French crullers

Sip tea. Eat crullers. Save bagel.

I'm finally driving downtown, using my morning productively to get my wallet which has been out of my possession for over 11 days. Surprising that I could exist that long without a wallet. Yes, I drove the 1.9 miles to work and back those 11 days without being hassled. Yes, I ate entirely at home and borrowed from fellow employees for little snacks during the work day. Yes, I tried to get it before (but not in the morning).

This was a painfully long commute into the city. I now know there are a world of people who get up every morning and deal with that shit. And I feel for them. I do. But even though most of them have health benefits, and better salaries, I don't envy them in the slightest. I still like my life right now, doing what I love -however unsustainable it may be. But I digress.

I got the wallet right where the guy whose wife found it, told me he dropped it off a week earlier. Want proof? Here!

insirpations

Well America... We did it! We finally beat the Republicans. No more do we have to hang signs like this one:


In other news, for the first time in my life I witnessed Cecil Taylor live last Saturday (Nov. 4). In all honesty, I haven't studied Taylor's music by immersing myself in his body of work. Nor have I ever purchased a Cecil Taylor album.

So what made me go see Cecil Taylor live? I'm not sure. I felt somewhat of an obligation to myself to see what all the hype has been about. But I also wanted to discover what he and his music were about and more importantly how his playing affected me.

Coming away from last Saturday night's show, it seems as if buying a recording would only do injustice to the Cecil Taylor live experience. Just watching the guy curl and stretch and bang hurriedly across the keyboard in a swath of tempi and dynamics is a visceral experience for the eyes. I felt like my ears were trying to play catch up with what I was seeing. This melodramatic body language was central to the experience. It bespoke his internal struggle to express his personal voice without repeating himself (though he did, many times over).

I would probably prefer to hear his poetry on recording only, as I could barely hear any of his 5 minute monologue which preceeded the music. 95 minute show on the full Bosendorfer grand piano specially ordered for this gig, his first in Philadelphia in over 20 years.

Eyvind Kang's Dying Groud & Other Options

This weekend I didn't really go out except for Friday night when I went to see the violinist/guitarist Eyvind Kang at the Community Education Center in West Philly (Lancaster Ave. @ N 34th St.)

Unfortunately the turnout for the avant-garde show by this former Tzadik DIY artist was less than satisfactory. Including myself there were about 10 people. I'm not entirely sure why this was as I'd heard there was a HUGE turnout to the Dave Burell show the previous weekend (which I believe I noted that I slept through). Some of it had to do with lack of name recognition. (Sorry not sure whom to give credit for this photo. If it's yours please let me know).

But before I harp on why people didn't show up, lemme try to approximate the reason I showed up and stayed. The sounds I heard from Kang (whose bio is here) and his band, Dying Ground were entirely heavy and righteous but lacked something to keep me interested the whole time. A surprisingly impressive drummer, G. Calvin Weston (apparently a local stringer), smashed away while (electric) bassist Kato Hideki both violently and calmly strummed away and bowed his thick bass strings.

Weston and Kato sensitively freaked out in response to Kang's insanely loud amplified guitar with numerous effects applied to it. Kang also played amplified violin, the instrument for which he is more known (especially as a member of John Zorn's Cobra). On drums, while maintaining the music's essence, (one of rather simple melodic loudness with immense rhythmic variation), Weston played with a checked intensity. He had the ears of a Chad Taylor or Hamid Drake with the insanely clean yet powerful execution of a Bennink or Blackwell. Something he repeated a couple times through the performance which totally blew my mind was this move where he would be thrashing away at the toms and then all of a sudden whack the sh-t out of the snare and then instantaneously hit both crash cymbals, creating a shocking effect on the ears and the soul. You had to see it to understand what the hell I'm talking about. Perhaps we can get some video up from my new buddy Mark, who took video footage of this show as well as the DeJohnette show I disliked below.

As far as Kang and Kato are concerned, I seem to have lost my notes on their playing but what I recall in the melodies that Kang wrote was a very deliberate chromaticism coupled with strange rhythms that existed independent of the drummer's beat - a deliberate effort to cast off expectability. I felt that we heard too little in the hour and a half Dying Ground played to learn if we were hearing the group at its best but I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed on the whole. Perhaps I'm not into noise and kitsh as much as I used to be. Despite their unique build-up and release of tension and thorough musicality, I just wasn't totally feeling it.

Perhaps Friday's poor turnout had something to do with a slew of other shows competing for my and other people's money the same night or weekend (especially young professionals and students who don't have much cash to spend in the first place.) That night there was also a rather rare performance by Vijay Iyer's quartet at Princeton University (only a 45 minute drive from Center City Philadelphia).

This was the same exciting quartet which the pianist had assembled for his stellar 2005 release Reimagining, (which you can buy CD Universe).(I am going to recommend CD Universe from now on as they consistently seem to have lower prices than Amazon and offer a wider selection of jazz - especially obscure imports).

On the other hand, there had been another Ars Nova show the night before by what I understand was a terrific group called Tone Collector (w/ Eivind Opsvik and Tony Malaby). So if 40 or so people came out to that, perhaps they felt they were doing their part for the week to support creative music or couldn't bring themselves to come out again the following night.

Perhaps it had something to do with the Polish trumpeter and ECM recording artist Tomasz Stanko who was making a very rare US appearance as part of his current East Coast tour in support of Lontano, his latest album on ECM Records. The following night (Saturday 10/21), Stanko would still be at Chris' and Willie Rodriguez and the Bronx All Stars would be playing at the Painted Bride Arts Center in Old City which would be attracting any residual XPN listeners who might otherwise check out some "trippy" music rather than drinking box wine and dancing with their bland partners to salsa music. I shouldn't hate on the Bronx All Stars because the players are cats I respect, but I really feel no remorse in hating on the XPN crowd.


The fragmentation the music community is a lamentable thing but you can't really blame people for differences in aesthetic taste. It's just difficult to program anything when you've got competition on the same night.

Oh well. Comments? I want to see them. I know you're looking at this blog.

attempt to make posts more coherent

I have noticed that I've posted a lot of entries with grammatical errors, run-on sentences and other stupid ramblings. I guess I'd like my loyal readership to know that I am sorry.

From now on, I will be trying to post more coherent entries so that your ready.

DeJohnette/Frisell/Harris

I never thought I'd see Jack DeJohnette at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia but when you unleash the powers of Bill Frisell's booking agent, The Rosebud Agency (possibly one of the oldest websites I've ever seen), anything is possible.

It was sort of an abbreviated set for me, as I awoke from a nap which prevented me from going to the Ars Nova concert I had really wanted to go to at I-House (Dave Burrell, Reggie Workman, Rashied Ali, Muhammad Ali).

Anyways, Frisell was bluesy and generally OK, DeJohnette sounded disturbingly uninspired on the drums (or perhaps simplistic) except when he sang the blues on the encore , Harris the quiet but powerful melodist (is that a word?). An unlikely highlight, seeing Jerome Harris for the first time was the best part for me. Sure it's Harris entered my consciousness fairly recently as the bassist of a recent Paul Motian record called Garden of Eden. His McFerrin-like vocalizations over DeJohnette's emotive Korg piano on which he played endless alterations on two basic arpeggios.

Really underwhelming on the whole. Wish I'd gone to see Burrell/Workman/Ali/Ali. Maybe once I hear the bootleg I'll change my mind.

troubled by Branford & things to come

As many of you probably saw, the New York Times' Ben Ratliff published what I've heard may very well be the last of his "Listening With..." series. This time around the focus was less on listening to records and more about spreading the pedantic generalizations the outspoken saxophonist Branford Marsalis rattled off to Ratliff at an intimate interview at the saxophonist's North Caroline home.
From the caption: Branford Marsalis has enjoyed great productivity as an alto saxophonist and bandleader since moving to Durham, N.C., five years ago. “I just want to play,” he said. “I don’t want to be in magazines.”

Marsalis said some very harsh things and only chose to listen to recordings pre-1955 and no real bebop or post-bop at that, let alone the Coltrane he is clearly trying to approximate on his latest album, Braggtown. Unfortunately, I tended to agree with most of the "damaging" comments Marsalis uttered.

Soon to come, a multi-show review of this week's shows put on by local Philly avant-garde concert presenter Ars Nova Workshop. Last night was Brotzmann-Bennink playing duo. Tonight George Lewis & Matana Roberts play Houston Hall, which I believe is the Student Union at UPenn. The week continues with a performance by a band being billed as The Philadelphia Four: Dave Burrell, Reggie Workman, Rashied Ali, and Muhammad Ali (yes, the drummer with the same Arabic name as Cassius Clay is apparently still alive).

Look forward to some great shots courtesy of Cadence/Jazz Improv Magazine freelancer Ken Weiss, along with my reviews.

Now listening to Donald Harrison - The Survivor (Nagel Heyer 2068). Buy this album at iTunes by clicking the iTunes link below.

current reading

Check out the Bag's tribute to Bill Dixon on his birthday. Very timely Marc and Derek. For some killer photographs that seem to be copy-protected, check out DMG.
Also, see Mwanji's concert review of Soweto Kinch playing in Belgique as well as his slightly more recent rebuttal of Darius Brubeck's scathing appraisal of Ornette Coleman.


















Finally, from the land of 10,000 lakes, a hilarious
situation from the boys at Do The Math.