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

Audio example of the D Sharp Phrygian mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale.

see also:
D Sharp Phrygian mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale notated
D Sharp Phrygian mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale interval analysis

HurdAudio Rotation: Spiritually Impious

Joe Henderson: Page One. 1963. Blue Note Records: CDP 7 84140 2.

Joe Henderson: tenor saxophone
Kenny Dorham: trumpet
McCoy Tyner: piano
Butch Warren: bass
Pete La Roca: drums

The jazz loving ear is enticed from several different directions from this one. Joe Henderson is a known entity of excellence in tenor saxophone playing from this era of Blue Note Records. But just lurking beneath that band leader draw is a dose of Kenny Dorham's trumpet and arranging chops. Add in the ivory stylings of McCoy Tyner and this one shapes up to be a straight ahead classic that does not disappoint.

Satanized: Sickness and Hellth: The Secular Chansons of ... 2007. Badmaster Records: BM010.

Andrew Gaspar: voice, turntable
Alex Nagle: guitar
Evan Lipson: bass
Pete Angevine: drums

"Purple Pickle" deserves hit status in the world of lewd-core music. Satanized is an indulgence of Philadelphia's collision of noise, rage and creativity. Alex Nagle's guitar dominates my impression of this collection of jams and screaming this time through. And of course, I came back for seconds on "Purple Pickle."

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

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

Perhaps too much is made of choice of cover tunes featured by the Bad Plus. Perhaps a generation raised on show tunes as the body of accepted jazz "standards" has not yet comprehended the straight parallel of a piano trio interpreting Tears for Fears or David Bowie. What is apparent in this music - most of it originals composed by the members of The Bad Plus - is a polished, tightly realized music from this world. Ethan Iverson hears around the confines of didactically defined jazz and draws out a sound that grooves, pounds and finds pools of carefully placed lyricism. Making direct references to Rush or Burt Bacharach with the same rhythmic crispness of Thelonius Monk brings a refreshing respect to all music regardless of its position on the spectrum between sacred and profane.

Collective Ears

The Emergency String Xtet/The Spirit Moves Us @ Studio 1510, Oakland, CA
Sunday, May 10, 2009

Emergency String Xtet:
Angela Hsu: violin
Adria Otte: violin
Leif Shackleford: viola
Doug Carroll: cello
Bob Marsh: cello
Tony Dryer: double bass

The Spirit Moves Us:
Jim Ryan: flute, saxophones, kalimba
Bob Marsh: cello
Spirit: percussion

Assembling a group of musicians and turning them loose in a free context quickly reveals the ears involved. The larger the ensemble, the more ripples in the texture each pair of ears brings to the overall sound. With the Emergency String Xtet, a sextet of strings turned their ears toward a collective realization with beautiful results. The small room adding a proximity to an intoxicating live sound rich with overtone and timbral variance expanded by the extended techniques of Tony Dryer's bass. The bass often set the overall sound in motion with a large gesture that dissipated through the ensemble.

With The Spirit Moves Us, it is indeed Spirit operating at the core of the trio sound with a drum kit assembled from undersized drum heads and a roto-tom. The percussive bed providing an inviting texture for free improvising flights. Jim Ryan occupied a layer near the top end of this sound while Bob Marsh added electronic processing to his cello for a sound woven tightly to the Spirit driven fabric.

Scale of the Day: A Phrygian diminished 4 mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The intervallic content of the E Phrygian diminished 4 mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale.

An Evening with Evangelista

Karl Evangelista Thesis Recital @ Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Saturday, May 9, 2009

Karl Evangelista: guitar, voice
with:
Margaret Rei Scampavia: piano, flute, accordion, voice
Christopher M. Skebo: trumpet
Luigi Marino: zarb
Andrew Conklin: guitar
Jason Hoopes: bass
Jordan Glenn: drums

The collaborative duo of Karl Evangelista and Margaret Rei Scampavia (known formally as Grex) presented a suite of short pieces drawing upon a range of stylistic materials. Scampavia shifted from one instrument to the other as Evangelista's electric guitar mined a similarly broad range of sonics. The striking thing about this music was its stubborn refusal to eschew any element in favor of another. There were comfortable grooves along side stretches of pulse-less sound. Textures of song mixed between slabs of instrumental exploits. Musical quotations interspersed within original ideas. Noise co-existing nicely along side tonality. Each offered with a headlong creative urge that made the unexpected turns and sequences into a joyful expression.

Also featured on this thesis recital were brief performances of Evangelista's electric guitar improvisation along with its inclusion in a trio of guitar, trumpet and drum and a brief set from the two-guitar quartet called Host Family that mixed elements of free jazz molded around Evangelista's charts. The range of ideas drawing upon a passionate and grounded sense of materials available to the creative musician was a glimpse of the ecclectic forces being assimilated through a healthy mix of formal study and ear-driven play.

Scale of the Day: E Pythagorean Phrygian mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The E Pythagorean Phrygian mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale.

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Back after a slightly longer-than-planned-on hiatus (and move).

Scale of the Day: D Sharp Phrygian diminished 4

Audio sample of the D Sharp Phrygian augmented 4 Scale

see also:
D Sharp Phrygian augmented 4 notated
D Sharp Phrygian augmented 4 interval analysis