HurdAudio Rotation: Varese, Ayler, Feldman

Edgard Varese: The Complete Works. Performed by The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and The Asko Ensemble. Conducted by Riccardo Chailly. The Decca Record Company Ltd: 289 460 208-2.

Tuning Up / Ameriques (original version) / Arcana / Poeme Electronique / Nocturnal / Un Grand Sommeil Noir (orchestral version) / Un Grand Sommeil Noir (original version) / Offrandes / Hyperprism / Octandre / Integrales / Ecuatorial / Ionisaion / Density 21.5 / Deserts / Dance for Burgess

I'm much less taken by the "filler" tracks on this "complete works" collection on this listening. The classic Varese works that are most familiar - Ionisation, Octandre, Deserts, etc. - are such monumental pieces. The gimmicky Tuning Up and the severely short Dance for Burgess feel too light compared to the dense gravity at the core of Varese's sound and aesthetic. I do enjoy Nocturnal and Un Grand Sommeil Noir, even as they strike me as aesthetically disjunct or unfinished when compared to the grand pillars of modern music that makes up the rest of Varese's creative output.

As for those pillars, they are awesome. Chailly directs some inspired, life-filled interpretations of these pieces that leave me hungry for the live experience. This is thick, dissonant music that can come off sounding clinical if the players and the conductors don't invest enough passion and understanding into this music. As a listening experience, this is less "rotation" and more gravitational pull to keep an ear dipped in this reference point. And the Complete Works is a definitive and indispensable take on one of the major figures of American 20th century music.

Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost [box set] - disc 5. 2004. Revenant Records: 213.

Albert Ayler Quintet @ Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany - November 3, 1966
Albert Ayler: tenor saxophone
Don Ayler: trumpet
Michel Samson: violin
Bill Folwell: bass
Beaver Harris: drums

Albert Ayler Quintet @ De Doelen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands - November 8, 1966
same personnel as the November 6 date.

The Netherlands date is the cleanest recording of this great quintet, with Samson's violin sounding clear and positively inspired. (It's Don Ayler's trumpet that shifts in and off mic in this recording). The European crowd seems receptive to the rough sounds of truth aggressively - and beautifully - performed on this date. And the band seems to return and magnify that energy. With some of the best live takes on "Spirits Rejoice," "Bells" and "Truth is Marching In" that I've heard, my ears are pulled to that amazing violin sound from Samson and the unbelievable interplay between all five players as they forge some amazing textures with improvisations and familiar Ayler themes woven into the mass of sound. Ayler's tenor still leads the sermon of that sound, but it's Samson's violin that elevates the whole thing to a higher plane. The roiling, simmering heat that Beaver Harris brings to this session on the drums is yet another source of admiration.

Mark Feldman: What Exit. 2006. ECM Records GmbH: 1928 B0007361-02.

Mark Feldman: violin
John Taylor: piano
Anders Jormin: bass
Tom Rainey: drums

I'm a big fan of Mark Feldman's Music for Violin Alone from 1995, particularly "Elegy." So I was particularly delighted to hear those familiar double-stops that start things off as he revisits that composition with this outstanding quartet. Tom Rainey has long been one of my favorite drummers from the "downtown" scene. Anders Jormin's improvisational talents and tone are a revelation. And this is my first chance to give British jazz pianist John Tayler a close listen. Adding the engaging charm of Mark Feldman's compositions and improvisational talent to these elite players is almost more bliss than my brain can process. But I'll gladly process it again and again.

Scale of the Day: D Sharp Phrygian diminished 4 2% wide

The D Sharp Phrygian diminished 4 2% wide Scale. With the octave stretched just a little wider, the relatively tight spaces of the Phrygian diminished 4 are pulled out somewhat.

HurdAudio Rotation: Dig that Roscoe Mitchell

Matthew Shipp Duo with Roscoe Mitchell: 2-Z. 1996. 2.13.61 Records: thi21312.2.

Matthew Shipp: piano
Roscoe Mitchell: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

At the end of the track listing information - a simple list of 11 movements titled 2-Z-1 all the way to 2-Z-11 - one finds a parenthetical descriptor: (The Physics of Angels). With this suggestion in mind I find my ears focused upon the variation in density of these eleven improvised duos for piano and saxophone. After opening with some incredibly thick textures in the first movement things begin to shift toward an equal extremity of sparseness. And this is the most striking thing about 2-Z as a composition and performance. Matthew Shipp's piano playing is focused, intense and energetic as he covers the enormous range between extremes. Mitchell's contribution is fantastic, often soaring well beyond the reach of the accompanying piano part. In the end, these collaborators sculpt a sound like angels dancing on the head of a pin.

Erik Friedlander: Maldoror. 2002. Brassland: HWY-005.

Erik Friedlander: cello

The point of interaction between poetry and music takes a turn toward abstraction as Erik Friedlander applies intuition and raw cello improvisation talent toward the interpretation of the words of Comte de Lautreamont as translated by Alexis Lykiard. One does not hear the literal in Friedlander's playing, but the spirit of these dark, surreal poems do emerge in this substantial favorite of the HurdAudio rotation. While at times lyrical, the economy of gestures and brevity of expression matches the poetic roots without becoming song.

Roscoe Mitchell Sextet: Sound. 1966. Delmark Records: DE-408.

Roscoe Mitchell: alto saxophone, clarinet, recorder
Lester Bowie: trumpet, flugelhorn, harmonica
Lester Lashley: trombone, cello
Maurice McIntyre: tenor saxophone
Malachi Favors: bass
Alvin Fielder: drums

For those of us in awe of the music of Chicago's AACM, and Roscoe Mitchell in particular, this recording is one of the reasons why. As the first recorded offering from the AACM and the debut release from Mitchell as band leader this is an indispensable document of improvisational beauty setting the tone for so much creative music that would follow in its wake. "The Little Suite" shows flashes of humor (along with Lester Bowie on harmonica, he is still sorely missed) while the two versions of "Sound" on this release present two large-scale canvases tastefully covered with the collaborative raw material of sound to create some vibrant, yet spare textures.

Scale of the Day: D Sharp Pythagorean Phrygian 1% wide

The D Sharp Pythagorean Phrygian 1% wide Scale. Stretching intervals by a small percentage like this takes on an interesting quality with the "unequal" just scales such as the 3-limit (Pythagorean) Phrygian. The stretched minor sixth becomes a startlingly close approximation of the 800-cent equal tempered minor sixth at 800.10-cents.

Scale of the Day: D Sharp Phrygian mapped to the Cube-root-of-2

The D Sharp Phrygian mapped to the Cube-root-of-2 Scale. The equal tempered version of the "darkest" minor scale squeezed into the space of the equal tempered major third. This scale makes use of 6th-tones, which are 33.33-cents wide and have some interesting sonic properties, particularly when used as tight, beating dissonances.

HurdAudio Rotation: Fugitive Axis and Prog

Reuben Radding: Fugitive Pieces. 2006. Pine Ear Music: PEM 002.

Reuben Radding: double bass
Matt Bauder: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Andrew Drury: percussion
Nate Wooley: trumpet

There's a quiet expansiveness to the music of Fugitive Pieces as this quartet of improvisers apply extended techniques toward mining sonic textures of microscopic detail. It evokes the open, unpopulated spaces of an Ansel Adams photograph along with a similar entrancing depth and beauty. These four individuals nearly fuse into a single entity as the all acoustic instrumentation yields such a focused, other worldly sound.

Jim Black: Alasnoaxis. 2000. Winter & Winter: 910061-2.

Jim Black: drums
Hilmar Jensson: electric guitar
Chris Speed: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Skuli Sverrisson: electric bass

Brief, episodic compositions arranged in a manner that keeps me smiling. This band is fluent in any number of genres and they're stylistically omnivorous enough to convincingly switch things up without falling into the jazz "postmodern" abyss that's been getting some discussion around the blogosphere. Instead, it feels like an extension of Jim Black's unique style of drumming translated into a compositional sensibility as the mixing of disparate elements sounds less deliberate than natural. Sverrisson's work on the electric bass is a wonder to behold on this one.

The Bad Plus: Prog. 2007. Do the Math Records/Heads Up International: HUCD 3125.

Reid Anderson: bass
Ethan Iverson: piano
David King: drums

With about 100-times more energy than Tears for Fears ever had, The Bad Plus breathe intoxicating vigor into "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." And the odd choices for covers goes on with David Bowie's "Life on Mars," Rush's "Tom Sawyer" and Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's in Love with You." But it's the originals on Prog that keep the foot stomping and the brain wrinkled up with intrigue as "Physical Cities" by bassist Reid Anderson hits a real sweet spot of groove with plenty of detail and variation that appeals directly to my own sensibilities. And drummer David King's "1980 World Champion" ends this collection with some serious punch. The Bad Plus have found a jazz vitality that resonates with contemporary, real world influences that feels like the re-birth of a new cool.

Scale of the Day: D Sharp Phrygian diminished 4 mapped to the 3/2

The D Sharp Phrygian diminished 4 mapped to the 3/2 Scale. The standard minor/major ambiguity that the diminished fourth introduces to minor scales (being the enharmonic equivalent of a major third) takes on a different hue in the compressed space of a 3/2 perfect fifth. Now the third and fourth degrees offer two different flavors of a "major second" - one flat and one sharp - before opening up to something just wide of an equal tempered "major third" for the fifth scale degree. This makes for an interesting harmonic contour.