Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Ionian 1% narrow

The E Flat Pythagorean Ionian 1% narrow Scale.

Salt Tea Scale 1 - Improvisation 5

Salt Tea Scale 1 - Improvisation 5

The fifth installment in a series of improvisations featuring the scale used in the first movement of Salt Tea. This particular improvisation is short, with the idea of focusing the ear on a small element of this harmonic pallet.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Ionian 4% wide

The E Flat Ionian 4% wide Scale. An equal tempered "major" scale with enough extra width to pick up almost a full quarter-tone per octave.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Ionian diminished 5 3% wide

The E Flat Ionian diminished 5 3% wide Scale. The push-pull aesthetic of the diminished fifth against the stretched interval space appeals to a sense of balance.

Salt Tea Scale 1 - Improvisation 4

Salt Tea Scale 1 - Improvisation 4

Continuing with a series of improvisations using the tuning system used in the first movement of Salt Tea. The scored first movement from that work sounds completely unlike these piano samples plus effects chain performances offered here. There's a lot of potential in this octave-less harmonic system.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Ionian 2% wide

The E Flat Pythagorean Ionian 2% wide Scale. The otonal intervals grow increasingly wider under the additional 2% width, while the lone utonal perfect fourth is a modest +8.01 cents above the equal tempered version of itself.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Ionian augmented 5 1% wide

The E Flat Ionian augmented 5 1% wide Scale. Augmented fifth, augmented triad, stretched octave. Everything pulls outward with this scale.

Salt Tea Scale 1 - Improvisation 3

Salt Tea Scale 1 - Improvisation 3

The third installment on a continuing series of improvisations using the intonation scheme from the first movement of my Salt Tea project.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Ionian mapped to the Cube-root-of-2-squared

The E Flat Ionian mapped to the Cube-root-of-2-squared Scale. The equal tempered "major" scale packed into an equal tempered minor sixth.

Bringing the Bisbee Deportation to the Red Room

Shelly Blake-Plock @ The Red Room, Baltimore, MD
Saturday, July 12, 2008

Shelly Blake-Plock: guitars, voice, radical
John Dierker: bass clarinet
Amanda Vickers: clarinet
Dick Seabrook: guitar, autoharp


In 1917, more than 1,300 striking miners were rounded up, kidnapped from Bisbee, Arizona by vigilantes representing the mine owners and deported out of state to Hermanas, New Mexico. The United States v. Wheeler decision of the Supreme Court that followed in 1920 determined that the freedom of movement of U.S. citizens was not constitutionally protected. This became the precedent applied toward the internment of Japanese-Americans during the second world war.

With blindfolds on, Shelly Blake-Plock, John Dierker and Amanda Vickers explored restricted freedom of movement with a sensory deprived approach toward free improvisation. As an experiment, I experienced this music with the willful decision to close my own eyes to occupy the same head-space as the performers.

This was followed by some arrangements of Union songs from the era, and a peculiarly effective "audience participation" piece set as accompaniment to an archival home movie documenting one Japanese-American family's internment in Topaz, Utah.

The intermingling of free improvisation with folk tunes and audience participation continued into the second set, culminating in a free improvisation take on a game of musical chairs that added a new performer from the audience each time someone was left without a chair. The tension of getting a group of free improvisers to "stop" playing growing more tenuous as the number of players grew.

The mix of labor history and its associated politics, free improvisation, folk song and social participation achieved a remarkable balance of reverent whimsy. Proving that deep ideas and serious intent can also be fun and unpretentious. Shelly Blake-Plock flashed an unassuming, comfortable stage presence not often found at the Red Room. And as he astutely observed, he also brought the most complete set of "songs" ever performed in that space. It was his sense of temporal proportions (keeping things short) and responsive improvisational flair that ultimately led to a compelling collection of disparate impulses.

HurdAudio Rotation: Songs of Liberty and Bohemians

Terry Riley & Michael McClure: I Like Your Eyes Liberty. 2004. Sri Moonshine: 002.

Terry Riley: music
Michael McClure: poetry

The colorful rantings and mix of verbal words and noises of Michael McClure's poetry reading strike the ears like a lunatic banging on the walls of the asylum. Terry Riley's improvised responsiveness to this poetry transforms the experience from insanity to a charming lunacy. Rich with so many of the qualities that make Terry Riley's music compelling, this one takes on the twin demons of words and collaboration with mixed results. The ears are both drawn in and put off at the same time. The poetry is good. The music is inviting. In the end it feels more like a curiosity than anything else.

Charlie Haden: The Ballad of the Fallen. 1982. ECM: 1248 811 546-2.

Charlie Haden: bass
Carla Bley: arrangements, piano, glockenspiel
Don Cherry: pocket trumpet
Sharon Freeman: french horn
Mick Goodrick: guitar
Jack Jeffers: tuba
Michael Mantler: trumpet
Paul Motion: drums, percussion
Jim Pepper: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
Dewey Redman: tenor saxophone
Steve Slagle: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Gary Valente: trombone

Carla Bley arrangements. An inspiring humanitarian message. Music of defiance and hope. These Liberation Music Orchestra recordings bring the ears to a deeper understanding of love and hope through a veil of tears. One of the great jazz recordings of all time. But what Haden/Bley collaboration isn't? The short arrangement of "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" is incredible and the contributions of each one of these players adds up to a rare level of inspired.

Art Blakey/The Jazz Messengers: The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia Volume 1 & 2. 1955 (Rudy Van Gelder edition released in 2001). Blue Note Records: 7243 5 32148 2 1 & 7243 5 3249 2 0.

Art Blakey: drums
Kenny Dorham: trumpet
Hank Mobley: tenor saxophone
Horace Silver: piano
Doug Watkins: bass

Ideal for those who need a little bop with their Sunday morning coffee. For monophonic source tapes these disc sound amazing. From a era when covering show tunes was neither an ironic gesture or an obligation to the standards repertoire, these wonderful Kenny Dorham arrangements are drenched within the deep, soul-filled wells that show off the vibrancy and life these tunes had before they were embalmed by generations long since removed from the days when Cole Porter was a contemporary pop icon. It's still possible to play great performances of the standards, but the conservative practice of treating them as museum relics rarely attains the gritty panache achieved at Cafe Bohemia in 1955 by these cats. The irresistible gravity of the feeling these players bring makes Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers an enduring fascination with these ears. Then there's that phenomenal presence of Horace Silver at the keys turning in great solo after great solo on the same stage with the great Hank Mobley.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Ionian diminished 5 mapped to the Cube-root-of-2

The E Flat Ionian diminished 5 mapped to the Cube-root-of-2 Scale. I find it interesting how the "augmented second" that opens up between the diminished fifth and major sixth translates into the adjacent equal tempered "major second" and "minor third" intervals when the scale is compacted down into an equal tempered major third.