WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Blowhole

Blowhole were a prolific and ever-rotating cast of characters spearheaded by Jeph Jerman who played Borbetomagus-style bludgeoning and scraping jazz of the free variety.  They released a steady stream of cassettes and LPs in the early-mid 90s of a consistently high quality.  Despite the shrinking or expanding size of the band or even the instrumentation, Blowhole had a style and a sound, marked by tight-rope improv and the layering of gunk and buzz, and while they never exactly became a household name there are countless examples today of the Blowhole steez (for example, the new Klangmutationen comes to mind), proving they were indeed ahead of their time.  Below find two tracks from the excellent 1990 LP Guerilla Jazz, including their nearly unrecognizable take on Ayler's "Ghosts".

Blowhole - Ghosts

Blowhole - Strung Out

Music is the Healing Force of the Universe

As the election approaches, I find myself being drawn to music birthed of the ol' revolutionary American spirit.  Music with the intention of cleansing the world of corruption and ills with a searing blast of freedom.  I'm talking about Alan Silva's 3LP masterwork on BYG/Actuel, a big band curtain of wailing souls (listen to this one straight through!).  I'm talking about Albert Ayler, Mr. Healing Force himself.  I'm talking about the new freedom of Peter Evans, et al., (especially his two stellar recent collabo documents with Weasel Walter).  I'm talking about Anthony Braxton's new Diamond Curtain Wall bands, intensely controlled compositions laced with electronic drones and scrawling noize.  And I'm talking about Arthur Doyle, he of the direct connection to some other planes of there.  Not much to say other than if you're sick, like our country is, it's high time to get healed. 

Development - a) BaBi Music for Milford & Huge b) Alabama Soul for Arthur c) Ramie & Master Charles of the Trombone - Arthur Doyle Plus 4 (from Alabama Feeling)

November 8th or 9th - I Can't Remember When - Arthur Doyle/Takashi Mizutani/Sabu Toyozumi (from Live in Japan, 1997)

Strike a Pose, There's Nothing to It

I missed this back in August (perhaps because I'm not a subscriber) but the images are striking.  A 16-page Vogue India fashion spread features "average Indians" modeling the latest in luxury trends: a Fendi bib, a Burberry umbrella, a bejeweled Hermes handbag.  (via NY Times)

Jazz Apples, $2.49/lb.

via Chow.

Bird Notes: Bengt Nordström & Don Cherry

Swedish musician Bengt "Frippe" Nordström intersected with many of the American free jazz artists on their travels through his country.  He was blown off the trad jazz course by Ornette Coleman's music, sitting front row for the concert that was released as "At the Golden Circle" on Blue Note. He played a white plastic saxophone like the one Ornette sported.  A few years earlier, Nordström became a key footnote in jazz history when he, in a right-place, right-time bit of luck, recorded Albert Ayler's first LP on his portable recording equipment.  It's a collection of rather staid standards with Ayler backed by a Swedish trio, unheard by many Ayler fans until it resurfaced on the Ayler box released on Revenant a few years back.  Nordström went on to have a successful career and by all accounts had achieved a kind of emeritus status to the free jazz scene in Sweden before his death in 2000.  His last public performance was a guest spot with Sunny Murray and Arthur Doyle.

Back in 1963 though, Nordström had the opportunity to record with Ornette Coleman's trumpeter Don Cherry, only one 12-minute duet of improvisation, that found it's way on to a record from Nordström's own label, Bird Notes.  The piece was curiously bookended by a Bo Skoglund drum solo and an 18-minute Nordström saxophone solo.  There are rumors that only five copies of this record were ever released, in a crude handwritten inner sleeve without a proper jacket.  I kind of suspect that to be collector lore, but no matter.  It is twelve minutes of two boundless spirits making music, and if you weren't one of the original lucky five, (or dozens more who grabbed this from the late, lamented Church Number Nine blog like I did), take a listen below.

Bengt Nordstrom/Don Cherry - Duet (from Bird Notes 03)

Uninhabitable Mansions Live on WFMU

Brooklyn future sensations Uninhabitable Mansions stopped by the WFMU studios to record their jaunty tunes for the Long Rally.  Featuring members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Au Revoir Simone, UM shakes up a frothy combination: 1/3rd early Rough Trade, 1/3rd gauzy New Zealand pop, and 2/3rds classic '90s indie rock.  Wait, that's too many thirds. 

Engineered by Trent.

01 - That's Fine with Me
02 - This Drift
03 - Do You Have a Strategy
04 - I've Been Waiting a Long Time
05 - Watertower
06 - We Misplaced a Cobra in the Uninhabitable Mansion
07 - I Dream So Vividly

The live audio in this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.

 

Frankie Newton Orchestra - Romping

Hooper Piccalero: WTF?

Boston jazz Dadaists Hooper Piccalero (Matt Plummer, bass trombone; Derek Beckvold, bari sax; Lauren Strobel [seen left], trumpet; Danilo Henriquez, trumpet.) will be at Cornelia Street Cafe September 18th as part of Dave Douglas's Festival of New Trumpet Music.  Their brilliant track "What the Fuck" synthesizes the phrase--what else? "What the fuck?"-- into an overlapping and repetitive memorandum, turning the meaning of the words into everything and nothing at once.  When the  interlocking rhythms finally break and the horns make their entrance, the utterance disassembles but the sentiment remains.  The song recalls an insouciant, less topical version of Steve Reich's "Come Out" (Real Audio from DJ/Rupture's show) a 1966 phase-effect piece commissioned for a benefit for the retrial of the Harlem Six, six black teenagers accused of murder during the 1964 Harlem riots.  What the fuck?: the question that is the answer to everything. On second thought, maybe it is topical.

Here's hoping they play the song where they call NPR's Steve Inskeep's phone and leave their horn-centric free scree as the voicemail message (See "No Vignettes" below, recorded live in April 2007).  Still waiting for this to show up on Morning Edition.

Hooper Piccalero - What the Fuck
Hooper Piccalero - No Vignettes

(Thanks to HP for permission to post these!)

Tatsuya Nakatani Live on WFMU

A few weeks back percussion wizard Tatsuya Nakatani stopped by WFMU to record a set (interview from the session on the show archive page).  Known for an unorthodox approach to the drum set, Tatsuya delivered a fully improvised 17-minute mindblower of bowed gongs, singing bowls, and scraping cymbals, which we present to you here in its entirety.  Head over to Tatsuya's website for more information and tour details, and go see him if you have the chance.  Nothing compares to seeing this man do his thing in the flesh.

Tatsuya Nakatani - live improv for WFMU, 08-14-08

The live audio in this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.

Peter Evans/Tom Blancarte/Brandon Seabrook Live on WFMU

Trumpet/bass/guitar (banjo) configuration stopped by WFMU to record a blistering set for the Long Rally.  This group is 3/4 of the Peter Evans Quartet and also an expanded version of the dense improv duo Spärks (Tom Blancarte/Peter Evans), currently celebrating a new record on the Portuguese Creative Sources label.  Catch the Peter Evans Quartet live at DJ Bethany's Stochastic Brooklyn show at Barbes on August 20th, and check for the amazing 4tet record out on the Firehouse 12 label.  They were kind enough to play both Spärks material (see the Spärks score below) and PE 4tet material, Spärks being an improv explosion and the Peter Evans Quartet a kaleidoscopic reconstruction of jazz tunes.  Engineered by Glenn Luttman.

Peter Evans/Tom Blancarte/Brandon Seabrook - Concerto for Brandon Seabrook and Sparks
Peter Evans/Tom Blancarte/Brandon Seabrook - a) The Christmas Song b) Heaven c) Slow 3/4 Song

 

Anthony Braxton Fans are So Full of Shit

I have been on a Braxton kick for some time.  His catalog is so dense and mystifying that when you get going in the investigation, small holes reveal such an exciting world.  I love Istanbul, the city, because of its seeming limitlessness.  The same reason I like New York, actually.  It's a riddle that keeps on expanding in complexity and wonder.  Braxton's music is tough music because there's really not much like it.  It is to be reckoned with alone.  To get to know it, you really have to just listen and listen.

I imagine those Braxton "holes" are different for everyone, but for me they're the musical moments bursting with humor.  To many, even bigtime jazz heads, Braxton is serious as death, solemn, an arch-theorist and an artist beyond recompense.  It's the old thing.  When people don't understand something, they write it off as piffle, or call it Art and elevate it to a status beyond reproach.  Critics generally don't help matters for the listener in this respect, either.  As Braxton says, "Only in jazz is thinking a dirty word."  Of course, he's wrong, but it's a damn good line.

Good art and jazz in particular rarely needs to be discussed to be appreciated.  However, Braxton, in the following interview excerpt, and despite the interviewer's provoking and posturing, reveals himself to have an infectious laugh, an affable disposition and the gift of conversation, which really might make the music less grave to the haters/wannabes. 

Although, listen, that's not really a problem.  Two of my favorite Braxton records, New York, Fall 1974 and The Montreaux-Berlin Concerts, are among those being reissued in the 8-disc Mosaic set, The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton, coming in October.  Another one, Performance (Quartet) 1979, was reissued on Hatology last year.  (Here's hoping Dortmund's next, a sample of which is below).  All feature amazing bands, and a palpable sense of humor, even whimsy.  These four records are openings in the forest, and a long and prosperous journey awaits.

Anthony Braxton - interview excerpted from Quartet (Coventry) 1985
Anthony Braxton - Composition 40 (O) from Quartet (Dortmund) 1976
Anthony Braxton - Composition 6 C from Quartet (Dortmund) 1976

There's a distinct playfulness to the newest Braxton band as well, the Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Trio/Quartet, with the amazing Mary Halvorson on guitar (peep her duo record with Weasel Walter!; see previous BotB/Nash Rose post here), Taylor Ho-Bynum on trumpet and Katie Young on bassoon. There's a recent trio record on Victo. What a band!  Video of a Moscow gig from 2007 after the jump. 

Nate Wooley and Ryan Jewell live on WFMU (MP3s)

Trumpet player Nate Wooley and percussionist Ryan Jewell played a live set with Jesse Kudler at Brooklyn's Issue Project Room earlier this month. They also recorded two great solo sets of free-jazz+noise-informed improv, which aired on WFMU this week, and can be downloaded below.

Nate Wooley
live on The Long Rally w/ Scott McDowell 7/30/08 [view playlist]
Nate Wooley - live improv on WFMU (mp3)

Jersey City local Nate Wooley stopped by the WFMU studios a couple weeks back to record a live set of solo trumpet stylings for the Long Rally.  Wooley manages to simultaneously be of the jazz tradition and to shatter it completely.  He plays often and in various configurations of jazz, improv and noise collaborators, is active in a number of established groups like Melee, Daniel Levin Quartet, and Blue Collar, and is seemingly at home in any improv situation.  In this set, he plays through a guitar amp sans mouthpiece and uses small mouth movements, spit and breath to whip up some noise, fuzz, and feedback into a heady froth.

And somewhat related, more trumpet action from Beware of the Blog posts past here and here. -- Scott McDowell

Ryan Jewell
live on Talk's Cheap w/ Jason S 7/28/08 [view playlist]
Ryan Jewell - live improv "WFMU=PFC" (mp3) engineered by Joe Belock

Experimental percussionist and electronic composer Ryan Jewell hails from Columbus, OH. Jewell performed solo, with a snare drum (but no sticks), Emergen-C in a bowl of water, a microphone in his mouth, and various unnameable instruments. Check out the video excerpt:

Jewell was last here in December, drumming with his housemates in Psychedelic Horseshit (BT posted video here). I posted some of his music on the blog here.  He has released solo work on labels from Chocolate Monk to Teen Action, and his extensive list of collaborators includes C Spencer Yeh, Tatsuya Nakatani and Greg Kelley.

HEADS UP: Ryan Jewell will be performing in a duo with Greg Kelley at Brooklyn's Issue Project Room on September 20th 2008, w/ Cooper-Moore and DJ Brian Turner!

Live audio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license

A.R. Penck: Run With the Cowboys

A.R. Penck is much better known as a visual artist than as a musician, but in the '80s he played drums with some of the best free jazz players around (Frank Lowe, Butch Morris, Peter Kowald, William Parker, Louis Moholo), and released a whole bunch of private press LPs, under the name T.T.T. featuring A.R. Penck and/or attributed to saxophonist Frank Wright. I've been planning a Penck post for some time, but both the LPs and info are pretty elusive and it just never happened.  I was introduced to Penck through a few posts on the dearly departed Church Number Nine blog.  Thankfully, Inconstant Sol has picked up the slack and has been posting a series of Penck LPs (more love for IS, second week in a row!), and all are worth hearing.  At first Frank Wright and A.R. Penck seem an unlikely pairing, but Penck's stilted amateurish but enthusiastic chops are just the thing that makes this stuff interesting (to me at least).  And, if you like post-Ayler head ripping free jazz, and I know you do, then Reverend Frank Wright is your man.  And thankfully, the Rev left a trail of worthy LPs so once you're hooked, there's a lot to absorb.  Be sure to check out the lovingly compiled Penck discog by Rick Lopez (with links to purchase certain CDs/LPs).

The Shamblers live on WFMU (mp3s)

The Shamblers shambled down from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to grace us with a live performance last Wednesday.  Led by husband/wife team of Peter and Jess Speer, and ably augmented by drummer Ben Truesdale, the Shamblers brought their blend of Beat Happening/Home Blitz pop roughness plus classic garage punk action with lyrics to match.  More info at their label site (where you can purchase their 100-song mp3 album) and their blog.  The full set, plus two FCC-unfriendly bonus tracks found below.  Engineered by Trent Wolbe.  You've been shambled.

1. The Shamblers - Shaka
2. The Shamblers - Dog Jobs
3. The Shamblers - We're Streaking
4. The Shamblers - Giant Insect from Mars
5. The Shamblers - Don't Freak Out, Terry
6. The Shamblers - Teenage Belly Dancer
7. The Shamblers - Louie?
8. The Shamblers - Question For You
9. The Shamblers - Once I Was a Knight
10. The Shamblers - Skate Park
11. The Shamblers - Crank Radio
12. The Shamblers - Bay Ridge
13. The Shamblers - Action Pants
14. The Shamblers - You've Been Shambled
15. The Shamblers - Old Man McGinnis
16. The Shamblers - We'll Go Shambling
Bonus Tracks:
17. Monster Truck
18. Copkiller

The live audio in this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license

Hey Cecil!, Blog Edition, Part 4: Cecil Taylor Duo with Tony Oxley at the Village Vanguard

For those of you in the 91.1/90.1 listening area, a chance to see two masters at work today through Sunday at the Village Vanguard, two sets each night.  It is sort of amazing to realize that Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley began their fruitful collaboration twenty years ago and have played as a duo, as well as in fairly established bands with William Parker (the Feel Trio) and Bill Dixon among others, sporadically since then.  I first heard the duo on record from what I think is their first meeting, in Berlin in 1988, collected among the colossal, essential 11-CD FMP box set (scroll down at that link) documenting a month-long run of Cecil (mostly duo) collaborations in that city, and released as a single disc as Leaf Palm Hand.  (The box is long out of print, but the discs in the set have been released separately, and Leaf Palm Hand has been reissued on the JazzWerkstatt label.)  Gary Giddins claimed in his review of the box, that CT is responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall having "loosened bricks and mortar and wrested the barbed wire" with the sheer force of his whirlwind activity in Berlin in 1988.

Leaf Palm Hand might have been the album that pushed me over the edge to full-on screaming obsession with Taylor's music.  I do remember listening to it the first time on headphones and being pretty much riveted for the full hour plus, and feeling dizzy, yet energized, when it finally ended.  Listening again now, as with much of Taylor's music, one is impressed by the stamina of the players, however, the overarching vibe is a cliff-walking sensitivity, a spider-sense, of bursting compacted lyricism.  It's hard to fathom that Oxley is playing "just" drums and Taylor "just" piano, since they both seem to occupy bigger sonic realms.  Taylor does most of the goading, but the improvisational give and take is so quick and deliberate and forceful and instinctual.  The AllMusic.com review aptly calls the performance "soulful": for anyone who suggests avant jazz or improv or whatever lacks "soul", here is all the evidence needed.  The thing is dripping with the stuff, soaked like a rag in gasoline.

To warm you up for the Vanguard gig, here's an excerpt of a radio recording of Taylor/Oxley doing their thing, from Teatro Comunale, Modena, Italy, October 11th, 2007.  Many thanks to the excellent blog Inconstant Sol for posting this (the complete recording can be found over there). 

Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley - Part 2 (from Live in Teatro Comunale, Modena 11th October 2007)

Harry Schmarry Nilsson Schmilsson

If I were to choose recordings desert island style, at the near top of the list would be Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Sings Newman, Stereo Review magazine's Album of the Year for 1970.  Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson share an affinity for goofing around, classic pop arrangements, and soundtracks, but Nilsson, free of his own fastidiousness, seems to tease the desperation and sadness out of Newman's romanticism. I have been somewhat obsessed with the entirety of Nilsson's output over the years, but this one remains the go-to pull for those special life moments.

For this reason I was quite happy to find this post entitled "Nilsson Sings More Newman" on the amazing Nilsson shrine/blog, For the Love of Harry, that compiles the outtakes and uncollected Newman tunes.  If you're even slightly into the enigmatic and tragic songwriting genius of Harry Nilsson, stop by the blog for lots of rare stuff, to buy a "Harry Schmarry" t-shirt, or to finally see the Dustin Hoffman-narrated long out-of-print movie version of The Point. 

And, from around the WFMU webspace, here's a a great post with an mp3 of Harry singing the credits to the movie Skidoo, one on the Nilsson/Keith Moon horror film, Son of Dracula, and Station Manager Ken doing "Everybody's Talkin'" (Real Audio) with the Hoof and Mouth Sinfonia from the 2001 marathon finale (Harry's version of the Fred Neil tune).

The St. James Sessions

Back in the '20s, in order to catch the new thing before rival record companies, labels would set up shop in a fixed location and invite musicians from far and wide to record.  Victor snagged the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers in Bristol.  In 1929 and 1930, Brunswick (with its blues wing Vocalion) chose the St. James Hotel in Knoxville, TN as a recording location and musicians from all over traveled there to sing into the machine. 

A couple years back Lynn Point Records posted a veritable treasure trove of mp3s from the St. James Sessions including tracks from the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, the Appalachian Vagabond, Leola Manning and the Southern Moonlight Entertainers, plus tons of info including a couple great articles by St. James expert Jack Neely.  Below is a short video documentary on the St. James  Sessions, as well. 

Hey Cecil!, Blog Edition, Part 3: All the Notes

Alas, I think Hey Cecil! radio edition will be on hiatus for a bit, as the new WFMU schedule, and particularly my new slot at 11pm-2am on Wednesdays is for some reason a less appropriate venue for weekly 40+ minutes of piano bashing.  So today, check out this pretty amazing clip from the 2006 Cecil Taylor documentary, All the Notes, by filmmaker, Chris Felver, where Cecil plays, dances, and talks Trane, Derek Bailey, gravitational forces, James Brown, the colors of sound, and more.

Dark Summer: Chris Welcome Quartet & Alfredo Costa Monteiro

I don't know what it is about summer.  The last several weeks I've either been listening to reggae (mostly the Studio One comps on Soul Jazz), or Black Mayonnaise or Merzbow or my Joy Division Zune (dude, I'm joking!).  The reggae thing is understandable, but until the NJ heat got officially oppressive a few days ago, the blackness less so.  Two of my other favorite releases to come through the WFMU new bin of late have been pretty dark as well so we'll just go with it.

Well, to be fair the Chris Welcome Quartet album (on the terrific Tigerasylum label), simply called Quartet, is not so much dark as it is plain spooky in the Hitchcockian sense.  This record comes out of the free jazz tradition, at least I think so, but it has such a refreshingly light touch to it; it is slow burning and almost quiet, as opposed the the Arthur Doyle school: The Birds vs. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Also, one gets the sense that the compositions, simply numbered 1-15, are more of the game here than the deft musicians are letting on, a series of mini controlled explosions, putting all senses on heightened alert.  Chris Welcome, who plays guitar, is content to gently supply the mystery, while the saxophone (Jonathan Moritz on tenor and soprano) darts around rootlessly, adding to a mounting ennui.  The rhythm section (Shayna Dulberger, bass and John McLellan, drums) is impressively reactive and almost stilted, there's hardly a steady groove to be found, creating a sense of suspense akin to wondering what that noise is in the woods, is it coming closer and will it kill me.

MP3: Chris Welcome Quartet - #1+2 (from the album Quartet on Tigerasylum)

I knew nothing much about Alfredo Costa Monteiro until I put together this post on Ruth Barbaran a month or so ago (the two often collaborate along with Ferran Fages).  The Portuguese by way of Barcelona musician/installation artist exists in the space between European free improv and noise, and I'll be damned if his record Épicycle on the excellent Etudes label isn't a doom metal album in art wrapping paper (that's not a judgment on the CD packaging, by the way, which is beautiful).  The thing is about dynamics, quiet drone filled with alien and unearthly shocks of vicious sound made with the most earthbound instruments of them all: the human voice.  In fact, the whole piece is apparently created with nothing more than Alfredo's voice as the source material, giving it a disconnected late night shortwave radio quality, not unlike the Conet Project or Tod Dockstader's Aerial series (made from the bits of static and hum of lost radio waves).   It's alternately desolate and horrifying, and composed with just the right amount of ebb and flow to make it a bit more than, well, another noise album. Highly recommended!

MP3: Alfredo Costa Monteiro - Épicycle (excerpt) (from the album on Etudes Records)

Many thanks to Chris Welcome and Alfredo Costa Monteiro/Etudes for their permission to post these tracks. 

 

Wings of the Delirious Demon

Speaking of clarinets, last week's post prompted me to pull out what I thought was one of my favorite (only?) processed clarinet records, Ilhan Mimaroğlu's Wings of the Delirious Demon (and Other Electronic Works).  But now I'm not sure if it's even clarinets that are getting the sonic screw or not, such is the decomposition occurring in the grooves. 

Turkish composer Mimaroğlu was a pioneer of analog synth and tape experiments and affiliated with the Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Center.  He also was a radio DJ at WBAI for several years and produced jazz records for Atlantic, a relationship that culminated in his collaboration with Freddie Hubbard on the twisted album "Sing Me a Song of Songmy" (which has been played quite a few times on WFMU).  Wings of the Delirious Demon was originally released in 1971 on Mimaroğlu's Finnadar imprint, a killer label which also released music by Stockhausen, John Cage, Eric Salzman and Jean DuBuffet, among others.  To my knowledge Wings has never been officially reissued, but was given the Dolor del Estamago treatment a few years back. 

Ilhan Mimaroğlu - Wings of the Delirious Demon