HurdAudio Rotation: From Big Red to the Fantasy Etudes

Killick: Bull****. 2007. Sol Ponticello: 00261 22074.

Killick: 38-string harp guitar "big red"

Big red is the focal point of this excursion. The vessel constructed for this particular voyage. With an intonation and several timbral forays into territory reminiscent of Harry Partch's Kithara instrument this solo music takes a winding journey that spins a sonic universe entirely of Killick's creation. By the end of the story he tells through steady, yet wide ranging improvisation, my enthusiasm for this music has grown. At turns ugly, at other times bathed in painful beauty, this is an acoustic expression that straddles guitar, harp and double bass with an introspective sense of solo freedom.

Clusone 3: An Hour With... 2000. HatHut: hatOLOGY 554.

Michael Moore: alto saxophone, clarinet, melodica
Ernst Reijseger: cello
Han Bennink: drums

Given the explosive potential found both individually and collectively with the members of this trio there is a remarkable tension in just how restrained this hour of music is. Touching upon original compositions and bird themed tunes by Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Saint-Saens and several others the medleys that make up the bulk of this material offer up a feathering of vibrantly nuanced interpretation. The strummed cello playing of Ernst Reijseger brings an attractively unfretted chordal layer to this rhythm section that allows Moore's melodic lines to take flight and soar.

William Albright/PRISM Quartet: Music for Saxophones. 2007. Innova: 687.

PRISM Quartet:
Timothy McAllister: soprano saxophone
Michael Whitcombe: alto saxophone
Matthew Levy: tenor saxophone, alto saxophone
Taimur Sullivan: baritone saxophone, alto saxophone
with:
University of Michigan Symphony Band
H. Robert Reynolds: conductor
Michael Lowenstern: bass clarinet
Marilyn Nonken: piano
Matthew Herskowitz: piano

Fantasy Etudes for Saxophone Quartet (1993)
Heater: Saga for alto saxophone and band (1977)
Pit Band for alto saxophone, bass clarinet and piano (1993)
Doo-Dah for three alto saxophones (1975)
Sonata for alto saxophone and piano (1984)

This one is a fascinating collection of composed works for saxophone with strong pull toward jazz harmony and idiomatic gestures. William Albright polished these intricate, idea drenched pieces while still leaving space for humor and levity to come through. Fantasy Etudes in particular is an excellent, wide-ranging composition that exposes just how much untapped potential lurks within the saxophone quartet medium. With an uncanny sense of proportion and duration these pieces unfold with surprising variation contained within their economic formal constructions. And the gradual transition between overtly "classical" textures into swing era jazz harmonies and gestures over the course of Heater is incredibly satisfying.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Whole-tone - Lydian Mode - mapped to the Triative

The E Flat Pythagorean Whole-tone - Lydian Mode - mapped to the Triative Scale. The all "otonal" variant of the whole-tone spread out along a just perfect twelfth.

HurdAudio Rotation: Filing Under not THERE

John Cage: Freeman Etudes. 1995. Newport Classic: 85616/2.

Janos Negyesy: violin

Nothing compliments a warm evening with the windows open like solo violin music mingling with the calm breeze. With John Cage the music often resembles nature itself as he plumbs a beauty of wild, abandoned spaces. The first two books of the Freeman Etudes are performed on this double-CD as Janos Negyesy deftly navigates a work that is both difficult and tranquil. The aleatoric details of this music are subsumed by a larger frame of time and soloist. The allure of this sound is found in actively listening without preconceptions about form and melody in much the same way one admires the stark horizons in an unpopulated and unfamiliar landscape, or the star-filled night sky that was in fact the generative source material for this piece.

Tim Berne/Science Friction: Mind Over Friction (collection, the): A re-issue of the classic Science Friction Live and Studio Recordings. 2006. Screwgun Records: SC 700018.

Tim Berne: alto saxophone
Tom Rainey: drums
Craig Taborn: rhodes electric piano, laptop, virtual organ
Marc Ducret: electric guitar, acoustic guitar

Expansive, free-wheeling music that could almost be described as "progressive jazz" if it didn't completely blur the unsteady lines that divide (and conquer) genres. Even the text in the packaging includes a "file under: not THERE" as a self-aware comment on the music found on these three discs. And this is music to submerge one's ears with the generous helpings of Science Friction's rough edges and twisting forms. This excellent quartet sustains long periods of intense creative playing into something defiantly consistent and beautiful through washes of odd transitions, angular melodic lines and mixed meters. It's a good place to start for the ear not yet initiated to the Berne sound.

Brian Auger: Planet Earth Calling. 1981 - re-released in 1987. Garland: GRZ010.

Studio recording with various combinations of the following:
Brian Auger: hammond organ, yamaha CP 70B, electric grand piano, prophet 5 synthesizer, rhodes electric piano, acoustic piano, miniMoog, cabasa, gogo bells, freeman string dymphoniser, tambourine, vocals, cowbell
Ho Young Kim: guitar
George Doering: guitar
Dave McDaniels: electric bass
Dave Crigger: drums
Steve Evans: electric bass
Tom Donlinger: drums
Terry Baker: drums
Michael Barsimanto: drums
Alex Ligertwood: vocals

This is the third spin through the rotation for this disc and I've expressed disappointment each time. There is some good in this music. The band is excellent. And a number of the Brian Auger solos do in fact "rock." The sadness comes as the whole thing careens into the nausea of something between smooth jazz and disco. Too gentle and unchallenging on the ears to allow the rockin' musicianship to redeem the experience.

Sitting Close to the Sun, Where Weasel Could Eat Your Flesh

Marshall Allen/Weasel Walter Duo @ Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Marshall Allen: alto saxophone, flute, electronic valve instrument, keyboard
Weasel Walter: drums, percussion, clarinet mouthpiece, primal yells

"I'm actually 48. They got the numbers backwards." - Marshall Allen.

May 25th marks the anniversary of Marshall Allen's presence on Earth. A tenure stretching back to 1924 that includes 40 years as a member and leader of the venerable reed section of the Sun Ra Arkestra. A long apprenticeship that had Allen at the forefront of the Free Jazz movement where he developed his own voice as a leading figure of both the avant-garde and the ways of Saturn. As the leader of that great Arkestra - succeeding both Sun Ra and John Gilmore - Marshall Allen has sustained a remarkable extra-terrestrial connection to one of the most vibrant, colorful and rich jazz traditions ever known. Each anniversary of this creative force is a cause for celebration and intense performances such as this duo at the Philadelphia Art Alliance proves that the celestial fires continue to burn strong within this great soul.

The jazz punk drumming of Weasel Walter added yet another dimension to this sound as his heady brutality achieved an unusual balance of thoughtful introspection and energetic release. With fearless and deliberate double-kick technique combined with a fluid sense of dynamic texture Weasel alternated between instigator and reactor to the sample-and-hold material of Allen's Electronic Valve Instrument and sheets of alto saxophone sound. Marshall Allen proved to be an equal collaborator as he deftly wove his space-age stylings within the fire hose of noise from Weasel and propelled the music to multiple planes of visceral and sonic altitude. This was a kinetic performance that draws few comparisons and delivers exactly the live experience that keeps these ears hungry.

The transformation of the analog wave-forms of the electronic valve instrument into a sonic pallet of wide register and creative expanse in the hands of Marshall Allen was remarkable. In an age of digital precision and pitch-corrected obsession this was a powerful reminder that sound in the service of good ideas trumps all. The layers of delayed sawtooth waves and sweeping portamento drew upon an almost retro-sounding sense of science fiction when the future was viewed with wide-eyed optimism that feels more vibrant and necessary than ever. The jagged, monophonic lines coming from the small keyboard that Marshall Allen played with his knees half bent as he surveyed the audience held a strong echo of the ideas and mannerisms learned from the great Sun Ra as his costume and demeanor neatly channeled the intoxicating abandon and exuberance of so many Arkestra performances. If "El is the Sound of Joy" then Allen is the long tail of that joy filled sound. And at 84, he is a vital connection to a rich jazz tradition that he continues to excel at as a spry, forcefully creative performer. Planet Earth is considerably richer because of him.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Whole-tone - Ionian Mode - mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The E Flat Pythagorean Whole-tone - Ionian Mode - mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale. The square-root-of 16/9 (which happens to be the same as the 4/3 just perfect fourth) is the solitary utonal interval that makes this scale Ionian Mode.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Whole-tone - Mixolydian Mode

The E Flat Pythagorean Whole-tone - Mixolydian Mode - Scale. The two utonal member pitches of 128/81 (the Pythagorean minor sixth) and 16/9 (the Pythagorean minor seventh) give this scale its mixolydian mode as a slightly darker shade of this whole-tone scale.

A Meme Stronger Than Itself

When Brian Sacawa isn't making a cinematic noise or putting a Mobtown Modern concert together he's been known to toss a hot meme over to a fellow Charm City blogger.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

I am thrilled to have George E. Lewis's recently completed A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music at hand:

"We are playing to the public, you dig, and it's time for some new music. You say that the Japanese know more about our music than we do? That's cool -- but we made it."

The meme shrapnel from this one now gets spread to The Well Tempered Blog, the fretted free thinking of The Improvising Guitarist, the percussive insights of Stochasticactus, that stellar member of the Meredith Monk M6 Ensemble at The Standing Room and the good Doctor Detecto over at the fine Mariner's blog Detect-o-vision. This one is courtesy of Sounds Like Now from the meme streets of Baltimore.