HurdAudio Rotation: Of Funk and Hymn Tunes

Miles Davis: The Complete On The Corner Sessions [disc 1]. 2007. Sony/BMG Music Entertainment. 88697062392.

Miles Davis: trumpet

Dave Liebman: soprano saxophone

Chick Corea: synthesizer

Herbie Hancock: electric piano

Harold Ivory Williams: organ

John McLaughlin: guitar

Collin Walcott: electric sitar

Michael Henderson: electric bass

Jack DeJohnette: drums

Don Alias: congas

Badal Roy: tablas

Billy Hart: wood block, cowbell, percussion

Carlos Garnett: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone

Bennie Maupin: bass clarinet

Dave Creamer: guitar

Lonnie Liston Smith: electric piano

Al Foster: drums

When I was a student it was clearly fashionable within the academic set to revere the music of Miles Davis while exempting everything he recorded after the 1960s.  The dictates of this fashion required that people run a sharp scalpel along anything that was "plugged in" and "funky" as if it were an unfortunate aberration.  This opinion was still expressed at the time accolades and tributes were piled on at the passing of Miles Davis.  But there was this one DJ in Toronto who bucked this sentiment ever so slightly by stating that his aversion to the funk and fusion era Miles Davis was entirely his loss and not formed by a sense of that music being "inferior."  As my ears have steadily absorbed the decades of musical output from the staggering genius of Miles Davis I have concluded that no such separation is called for.  A willful "deaf spot" to any era of his music is a dishonest denial of the complete artistic arc that we are left with.  While these On the Corner sessions are a sprawling soup, they are a delicious sprawling soup.  The energy and texture of this music is enormously attractive in ways that are completely different from the bop, and Kind of Blue eras.  Yet there is that distinctive sense of musicianship that unifies this music with the greatness of those earlier sounds.  This is the sound that gave rise to so much that followed in its wake.  Some of the movements and styles that followed have aged well and some have not.  But On the Corner retains a timeless beauty that transcends its warts.  This box set has become something I look forward to each time it comes up in the rotation.

Charles Ives: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano. 1991. Bridge Records: BCD 9024A, B.

Gregory Fulkerson: violin
Robert Shannon: piano

Sonata No. 1 
Sonata No. 2
Sonata No. 3
Sonata No. 4


An artful and dedicated set of interpretations of these incredibly significant works for violin and piano.  The often dense threads of hymns woven into a fabric that frequently threatens to unravel within these re-imaginings.  "I Need Thee Every Hour" nearly always catches me off guard as it sneaks into the final movement of Sonata No. 3 with chilling effect.  A hymn that also haunts my own memories more than a few generations removed from Ives' New England.  The fact that these pieces will only become more celebrated and more ingrained as a high achievement within the repertoire becomes increasingly obvious each time one take the time to listen.  Gregory Fulkerson and Robert Shannon have set a high standard for bringing clarity to these complex montages of Ivesian memories.


Happy Apple: Youth Oriented. 2002. Sunnyside Communications/Nato Bear Series: SSC 3006.

Erik Fratzke: bass guitar, guitar
Michael Lewis: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, double bass
David King: drums, toys, waterphone, megaphone, mellotron

This is one example of music that has taken root and thrived from the soil of On the Corner.  One of its tastier fruits as this is a funk-heavy jazz record with substantial staying power.  David King's drumming is a particularly strong draw here as this trio brings the same level of polish of his more famous trio; The Bad Plus.  But then the ears are pulled into the considerable gravity of Michael Lewis on saxophone and his ability to carve out spaces within this texture that alternate between foreground and background with equal shimmer.  Within that texture is Erik Fratzke's electric bass anchoring this sound with all the sophistication of a Michael Henderson (from On the Corner) with an updated sense of production.  Youth Oriented is a forceful example of a groove-oriented sound that never falls into an open-ended jam.  Each piece explores its own textural terrain with a healthy sense of variation. 

James Falzone - Music Through Other Lenses

My profile piece on James Falzone is posted over at New Music Box over here.

Narrative Before Music

My New Music Box column about a recent 5th House Ensemble performance is here.

HurdAudio Rotation: The Luminaries

The Wailers: Burnin'. 1973. Island Records: 07314-54889414.

Produced by Chris Blackwell and the Wailers.

For some reason, this timeless classic sounds even better on vinyl. "Get Up, Stand Up" is an incredibly important song that captures both the moment of rising up against injustice with determination and the inevitable sense of victory of being on the right side of history. A song that speaks to oppression of 1973 (the year of its release) and the current age of the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement. Not to mention the slow and steady victories toward realizing equality for people regardless of race, gender and orientation. It's the song I hear in my head almost involuntarily whenever social justice wins out. That's a transcendent quality few songs achieve. And then there's "I Shot the Sheriff" and the extensive life that song has taken on. And to my ears, "Pass It On" has an earnest, faith affirming quality that lingers with equal force. It's relatively easy to look backward from this perch in the early twenty-first century and acknowledge the significance of this record. It made the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2007 and its resonance is still ringing clear.

Thelonious Monk: The Complete Riverside Recordings [disc 3]. 1986. Riverside Records: RCD-022-2.

Thelonious Monk: piano
John Coltrane: tenor saxophone
Wilbur Ware: bass

Much of this disc presents Thelonious Monk, alone at the piano at the recording studio. Multiple takes of his own tunes reveal the composer working through new pieces at a time before they were enshrined as standards. There's seven takes and nearly a half hour of "'Round Midnight" with many false starts as Monk finds his way into the heart of one of his most beloved tunes. As startling as it is to hear the composer feeling his way around this great standard, it's even more surprising to hear him get there so completely on the final take. It's a revelation of process that recordings rarely reveal so starkly. The final takes of "Monk's Mood" bring in John Coltrane and Wilbur Ware for another dose of what this music sounded like at its Genesis. This particular disc is a wild ride that spans a wide range of "wrong notes" made right and jazz history changing course along the way.

Olivier Messiaen: Messiaen Edition [disc 2]. 2005. Warner Classics: 2564-62162-2.

La Nativite du Seigneur (1935)
Le Banquet celeste (1928)
Apparition de l'eglise eternelle (1932)

Marie-Claire Alain: organ

Several things stand out on this focused recording of these early organ works of Olivier Messiaen. First is the outstanding interpretation given to this music by Marie-Claire Alain. The dynamic range and evocative passion of this music is laid bare in this performance. Next is the outstanding sound of the organ of the Hofkirche in Lucerne as well as the quality of the recording from this setting. These elements speak to a sense of care and consideration for this session that these ears appreciate. I can only wish that the online database for this disc (as referenced by iTunes) exhibited a similar care in noting that these pieces were composed by Olivier Messiaen as opposed to "Messiaen Oliver." But then listeners of classical works within the iTunes environment are no strangers to having everything labeled as "songs" and track information riddled with the errors of philistines. Puncturing the air with the exquisite sound of La Nativite du Seigneur does more than make up for the annoyances of twenty-first century life. This music is clearly from the twentieth century while still maintaining its liturgical roots. Harmonically and rhythmically engaging while still indulging in an expressiveness that doesn't fall into the chasm of Romantic indulgences.

HurdAudio Rotation: Pianos, Theatrics and Two-by-fours

Leah Kardos: Feather Hammer. 2011. LeahKardos.com.

Leah Kardos: piano, electronics

Leah Kardos cites a diverse range of influences that go into Feather Hammer; Bjork, the prepared piano music of John Cage, Amon Tobin, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Graham Firkin and Brian Eno just to name a few. The qualities of those forebears are crystal clear in the music. And yet there's a complete lack of emulation of any of these musicians standing in the way of the deeply personal sound and identity wrapped up within Feather Hammer. This is a studio recording that carefully crafts a piano-centric world with multiple layers of sonic manipulation. And yet for all its post processing and carefully crafted grooves and textures there emerges this amazingly heavy lightness to the whole recording. The craft and the ideas in this music run deep without overwhelming the sound. It's a startling quality and it's one that invites multiple listening to an expression that explores new directions in studio composition. Leah Kardos is a talent to keep an open ear for.

Various Artists: High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music: 10th Anniversary DVD + CD. 2008. Recorded: 024.

Featuring:
Greg Kelly, Evan Rapport, Jerry Lim, Tom Boram, Neil Feather, Michael Johnsen, Katt Hernandez, Ben Manley, Daniel Carter, Nate Wooley, Michael barker, Edgar Um Bucholtz, Chiara Giovando, Dan Breen, John Eaton, Bhob Rainey, Charles Cohen, Sean Meehan, Will Redman, Scott Moore, Todd Whitman, Michael Johnsen.

A celebration of ten years of the High Zero Festival in Baltimore released just ahead of the 2008 incarnation of that unique celebration. That year happened to be my last High Zero as I moved out of Baltimore in early 2009. But in my time there I did soak in the vibrant and active experimental improvised music scene and can easily see the beloved Baltimore-isms that this DVD and CD explore. Though I am struck by just how theatrical and dramatic the music from this scene actually is. I hadn't focused on that aspect of it while living there, but the interviews on the DVD and the musical sets drive home the role of theater in this music. Like much of the music, the theatrics is like an antidote to nearly all other entertainment. It is music and theater that revels in its own discomfort factor, rather than being a commodity that is calculated to appeal to a target audience in the way so much media is produced and marketed. The High Jinx street performances are often geared specifically toward knocking the unsuspecting public out of their comfort zone. And the nights and days of concerts that are part of the yearly High Zero experience are often challenging both sonically and socially. And yet every one of those live shows are sold out. There is an audience hungry to be challenged and appreciative of art that doesn't pander. There is, for lack of a better word, a "market" for this music that thankfully evades marketing. The documentation presented in audio and video form here actually falls short of the delirious energy that pulsates through the communal experience of a High Zero Festival. But it does give an honest account of so much of the good that this "fringe" community in Baltimore has supported in this overwhelmingly positive way.

Michael Gordon: Timber. 2011. Cantaloupe: CA21072.

Slagwerk Den Haag:
Fedor Teunisse, Marcel Andriessen, Niels Meliefste, Pepe Garcia, Juan Martinez, Frank Wienk: percussion

I picked up this disc at a live performance of this piece. Harboring some doubt about the recording doing full justice to the visual presence of six percussionists wailing away on two-by-fours with contact mics attached. It turns out that a great piece of music is still a great piece of music even without the idiosyncratic presence of these performers. It doesn't hurt that this one is so well recorded. The near-minimalist formula of carving out a singular timbral space as the sonic universe for an hour long work brings its own unifying qualities. As a study of wood as media, Michael Gordon focuses on rhythm, pulse and dynamics. The qualities that make his compositions so compelling - rooted in the Bang on a Can embrace of totalism and minimalism - are completely audible. In many ways, those qualities are more transparent with the stripping down of timbral materials to such an elemental, percussive sound. It's the amplification from those contact microphones that allows this material to soar. The limited range feels anything but limited given the wide berth of variations that emerge from the microscopic details of vibrating boards. It turns out that the recording packs as much (if not more) thrill as the live experience.

I Hear the Gongs Singing - Percussive Adventures in Chicago

I review a pair of recent percussion performances here.

HurdAudio Rotation: Oldies Station

Shonen Knife: Happy Hour. 1998. Big Deal: BD 9055.

Naoko Yamano: lead vocals, guitar

Atsuko Yamano: drums, bass, vocals

Michie Takatani: bass, vocals, keyboards

A quick blast from the period when Shonen Knife's shtick was starting to wear a little thin. Even as Happy Hour does deliver on much of the light subject materials of food, cloned sheep, parties and dreaming it does fall short from the chaotic, crazy promise of the opening track "Shonen Knife Planet." A place where one must wake up in time not to miss happy hour. After the initial production (and deliberately "bad" sounds) of that initial wake up the rest of the disc settles into the familiar, punk inflected language of Shonen Knife. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a let down after being jolted into the early promise of a concept album. Their cover of the Monkee's "Daydream Believer" does bring a smile even if it isn't exactly a sterling rendition. Happy Hour does manage to cleanse the aural pallet of heavy listening that goes into the rotation.

Elliott Sharp/Bootstrappers: GI=GO. 1992. Atonal: ACD 3014.

Jan Kotik: drums, percussion

Thom Kotik: prepared bass

Elliott Sharp: guitar, bass clarinet, processing

This offering has aged surprisingly well. Much of it built on the early timbral soundscapes that inspired me back in the day. Now it strikes my ears as a chance to hear Elliott Sharp's electric guitar playing over a seriously rocking rhythm section that is locked into Sharp's musical direction. The titles for these pieces have aged less gracefully than the music they're associated with. "Optimize My Hard Disk, Baby," "Command Z" and "Heapfix" strike an ironic, geek humor pose that simply isn't reflected in the music that remains undeservedly neglected.

Dave Douglas: Freak In. 2003. Bluebird/RCA Victor: 09026-64008-2.

Dave Douglas: trumpet, keyboards, voice

Jamie Saft: keyboards, loops, programming

Marc Ribot: electric guitar

Karsh Kale: tabla, additional drums

Joey Baron: drums

Romero Lubambo: acoustic guitar

Brad Jones: ampeg baby bass, acoustic bass

Ikue Mori: electronic percussion

Seamus Blake: saxophone

Chris Speed: saxophone, clarinet

Craig Taborn: fender rhodes

Michael Sarin: drums

This is an enormously important recording in the Dave Douglas catalog. It's his equivalent to Miles Davis' On The Corner and one day it will be revered as such. The electronic layering, the funky grooves, the explosive turns and the high production values bring an immediacy to this recording that nearly blinds one to the fact that the musical basics of melody and humanity are still at the foundation of this beautiful cacophony. "November" is as beautiful and soul filled as any melodic composition. It would slice to the heart if it were played by Dave Douglas playing over a simple jazz rhythm section or the electronic percussion of Ikue Mori as it is here. Freak In is a reliable thrill ride from start to end that continues to reward the listener with its depth and polish every time.

HurdAudio Rotation: Letting Go

Interplay: Apology to the Atonists/Tritone Suite. 1990, 2006. Porter Records: 4009.

Elliott Levin: poetry, flutes, saxophones

Rick Iannacone: guitars, electronics

Keno Speller: flute, vocals, percussion

Ron Howerton: cuica, percussion

Ed Watkins: percussion

The extended, improvisation driven Tritone Suite is the focus of this collection. Taking up all but the opening five minute Apology to the Atonists. The two performances separated by sixteen years retain a remarkable continuity. With Levin's poetry drifting well out of the foreground it occupied in the shorter work and allowing for the free form materials to evolve along more abstract lines. The longer movements of the Tritone Suite develop along remarkable lines and are the most interesting of the set. While the percussion heavy sound does meander a little bit, the performance as a whole holds together even as it drifts into some decidedly psychedelic territory. This disc did not leave a particularly deep impression on its first time through the rotation. But on this return listen I'm finding plenty to like about this music.

Mark Helias' Open Loose: Atomic Clock. 2006. Radio Legs Music: RL 012.

Tom Rainey: drums, percussion

Tony Malaby: tenor saxophone

Mark Helias: bass

guest Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone

There's a lot going on with this incredibly solid free jazz outing from Mark Helias' Open Loose. First off, it's a saxophone trio with the bassist leading the group. Giving this music a slightly different focus even as Tony Malaby's chops and improvisations are focal points at many times along this recording. But the pulse and compositional force of this trio is clearly with the bassist. There is also the often remarked upon (in this blog) "Tom Rainey effect." The two laws of the "Tom Rainey effect" are 1) there are no bad recordings with Tom Rainey, and 2) Tom Rainey makes every group exceed expectations (which are already high, it is Tom Rainey in the group after all). The Tom Rainey effect is in full force on this set. The fact that the guest tenor saxophone for one of these tracks is Ellery Eskelin (one of the best, in my opinion) indicates what kind of talent pool Mark Helias is swimming in. All of this quality shows up on Atomic Clock. But the real gem of this listening experience is the original compositions that Helias brings to the set. Many of these pieces practically beg to be interpreted many different ways. Leaving me wondering of any attentive ears have caught on to a track like "Chavez" or "Momentum Interrupted" and felt the tug to realize their own performance of this music. I'm contemplating working up a piano interpretation of "Chavez" myself.

John Cage: In a Landscape. 1994. Catalyst: 09026-61980-2.

Stephen Drury: piano, toy piano, prepared piano, electronics, organ

In a Landscape (1948)

Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947)

Souvenir (1983)

A Valentine Out of Season (1944)

Suite for Toy Piano (1948)

Bacchanale (1938)

Prelude for Meditation (1944)

Dream (1948)

At some point the music of In a Landscape entered into my bloodstream. It became a deeply familiar piano work from an earlier Cage obsession. Stephen Drury gives this tranquil work an exquisite interpretation. One that reaches the through the veins and arteries to find the pulsating heart of the music. A similar quality found in all of the performances on this disc. Some of them are familiar works. Some of them are revelations. I was less familiar with Souvenir - a solo organ piece of haunting, introspective beauty that traces a continuous line between the serene pieces of John Cage in the 1930s and 1940s and into the 1980s. Also remarkable is how the temporal distance between the Bacchanale and Prelude for Meditation is surprisingly small. That the alluded act of wild abandon and meditative contemplation both reference the same qualities of letting one's self go. All told, this is a fantastic set of keyboard works given just the right balance of discipline, dedication and love that allows this music to resonate.