peter gabriel's fourth

peter gabriel's fourth solo album after his departure from genesis, known in the u.s. as security, was released a little over 26 years ago. "the south bank show" on britain's ITV network then broadcast this documentary on the making of gabriel's album. his compositional techniques and processes are fascinating, and it's especially interesting if you know the album to watch the songs germinate from the idea stage through the recording process and into live performance. beyond this, the documentary also touches on other interesting topics, including technology and how far we have or haven't come (on this album gabriel extensively used the fairlight computerized synthesizer, which was essentially the first audio sampler) and appropriation of non-western musics (gabriel was really a pioneer in this respect).

part one (31:18)


part two (17:13)

vintage public image limited

the sophomore effort from public image ltd (john lydon's project after the demise of the sex pistols and his nom de plume johnny rotten) was originally released as metal box and consisted of 3 12-inch 45rpm discs in a film canister, subsequently reissued on 2LPs (and single CD) as second edition. this is arguably PiL at their best: a crack rhythm section anchored by the bone crushing bass of jah wobble setting down the grooves, keith levene's guitar scrapings and prophet-5 keyboard noise-sheeting, with john's caterwauling intonations and hecklings overtop.

"careering" (from the BBC tv show "the old grey whistle test," always a source of excellent viddies)


"poptones" (also from the OGWT)


"death disco"


"chant" (complete with post-performance interview walkoff)

heavy rotation

middle-period genesis as i would call it: the three albums after the departure of peter gabriel and when phil collins took over lead vocals but before they made it big on the u.s. pop charts, namely a trick of the tail (1976), wind and wuthering (1977), and ...and then there were three (1978). being a devotee of the gabriel era, i never took these albums seriously because it was so easy to scoff at them.

now granted, this judgment was all after-the-fact. growing up on a steady diet of mid-1970s FM radio, i knew "follow you, follow me" and of course the big singles from 1980's duke (the ubiquitous "misunderstanding" and "turn it on again"). and the freshman year high school teacher who turned me onto prog in general certainly played us "dusk" from 1970's trespass (the first real genesis album: "from genesis to revelation" is rather expendable as i heard it). but it was precisely may 31 1984 (the date stamp on the price tag is indelible) when i bought a one-dollar used copy of 1972's foxtrot at warped records in lakewood ohio. and when you've been weaned on this one, no genesis lacking peter gabriel will really do.

nevertheless, these middle period records are not without merit. and you can find no better point of comparison between gabriel and collins than trick of the tail's opener, "dance on a volcano" (youtube) and "dancing with the moonlit knight" (youtube) the opener from selling england by the pound (the last truly great gabriel-era album before the enjoyable but completely overblown double-album concept LP the lamb lies down on broadway which gabriel entirely dominated and contributed to his irrepairable rift from the rest of the band). in many ways, trick of the tail was the surviving band's effort at bypassing the excesses of the lamb and going back to redo selling england without gabriel.

problem is -- and make no mistake, collins is a superb, entirely self-taught percussionist and a decent singer -- he sounds so close to gabriel and yet is so far. the lyrics and delivery are just never bizarre and compelling enough tho. and so the attempt to sound like gabriel but just not quite being able to pull it off gives the whole thing the slight air of parody.

but again, i'm finding them no less enjoyable as a result. "dance on a volcano" got the formula down: the acoustic guitar licked, percussion-flourished and multiple key-changed intro leading into the perfectly nimble and driving 7/8-time section that alternates twice with harder and slower 4/4 main theme ("better start doing it right") before drifting into a bit of trippy atmospherics taking us into a new theme -- all of this before we hit 2:30! but it's all a bit formulaic and just does not have the edge of "dancing with the moonlit knight."

the next two tracks on trick of the tail, "entangled" and "squonk," may be the prettiest and most anthematic pieces, respectively, that the band ever put to record. the harpsichord-like 12-string arpeggios and multi-part harmonies of "entangled" are nearly exquisite, and "squonk" gets you diggin in yr pockets for the bic-lighter to hold up in arena-rock fashion with the best of 'em.

i know i borrowed trick of the tail from friends back in the day but never bothered to buy a copy; wind and wuthering i likewise borrowed but may never have listened to more than once all the way through, and even now it still commands my attention least. tho again, the best three tracks seem to be the first three: "eleventh earl of mar," "one for the vine" and "your own special way." this latter apparently charted as a single in england and is often described as the first real genesis "love song" and thus a prelude to "follow you, follow me." again i'm struck by how truly bizarre and wonderful the verse sections are of this, particularly the slightly out-of-tune keyboards that fill in between the acoustic-12-string and collins vocal lines -- all this before the crushingly sentimental title-bearing chorus comes in and nearly wrecks the whole thing.

finally, "down and out" really does open the last of these middle-period records, and then there were three (so-named because guitarist steve hackett left the band too, leaving only collins, keyboardist tony banks and bass/gtrist mike rutherford to soldier on as a trio -- and make probably more money than the band ever had before) in classic driving fashion. "undertow" threatens to muck about in the maudlin until collins gets us to the chorus "the "stand up to the blow" and "let me live again" sections) which are probably just as sappy but i find my ears succumbing to like a complete sucker. and then the other standout, aside from "follow you, follow me" (which actually sounds like a pretty decent tune once you've gotten some distance from it), is "deep in the motherlode" which i take to be almost as anthematic and stadium-swaying as "squonk" but curiously has that "misunderstanding" slow-dance feel to it as well. honestly it's not all that far from the "loving, touching, squeezing" business that the godawful journey brought us. it's "go west young man" injunction, intended however ironically or not, is likewise nearly unbearable. but for whatever reason i find that opening and recurring keyboard figure utterly infectious and can't hear it enough.

the light

closest thing to a near-perfect song i've heard in a while.

april is the latest release from sun kil moon, the current operation of mark kozelek. i don't know why i've never paid much attention to kozelek's initial outfit, red house painters. perhaps someone described them as just another quiet sad and mopey acoustic outfit, but i don't know why that would've been a deterrent in and of itself, as i'm a complete sucker for that genre. though i've also had intense but brief flings with other purveyors of such: i loved the scud mountain boys massachusetts for a while, but at some indefineable point that signature pernice sanctimonious irony became intolerable for me and i haven't played that CD since.

tho as another fellow northeast ohioan -- kozelek is from massilon -- i think it's high time i investigate his back catalog.

i've never been one for the repeat function much, but last night i could've played "the light" 100 times if sleep had not become a necessity. there's something about that simple endless D-to-G chord change with the hammer-ons strummed over the warm slowburn amplifier that's irresistible.

heavy rotation

what i'm most listening to and enjoying lately (and not on my iPod, god forbid -- right now it's either the sansa 4GB mp3 player and headphones or the computer speakers hooked up to my laptop...)

Self-Luminous -- Mark O'Leary (gtr), Mat Maneri (vln), Randy Peterson (dr)
wonderfully muted chattering amplified string and percussion interplay showing free improvisation need not be all furious bluster to be consistently engaging.

Savane - Ali Farka Toure
the malian master's final album, released posthumously a few months after his death from bone cancer in march 2006. did i realize this or just forget? why do i not yet have any of his other recordings? was it that the ry cooder thing made him too "popular"? glad i at least got to see/hear him at the 2003 smithsonian folklife festival.

Wire - 1980s releases (The Ideal Copy, A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck, It's Beginning to and Back Again)
largely maligned when they came out -- too poppy, too synthy, not edgy enough -- these have in fact aged quite well i think. and naturally, their newest release, object 47, seems to be getting a similar rap. perhaps it was hearing a BBC live-in-the-studio performance and interview from just the other day, conducted in obvious promotion of the new release, and an especially nice performance of "boiling boy" from A Bell that made me head back to these records. even "second-rate" wire from 20 years ago sounds better than 90% of today's new music. and i'm also quite certain that colin newman's lyrics impacted my nascent poetics sensibility.

him work here all day
him got his tonsils sprained
him got no time for utensils
or words to that effect
(colin newman, "i've waited ages")

not mind we jolly jack tars i'm in disgrace
the cat sat on the carpet i just lay here like a lump
(colin newman, "life on deck")

drag my canal
you saucy old salt
pale in belief
i'm not without fault
(wire, "free-falling divisions")

new sonny simmons

the jazz world is subject to notable disappearances -- players who take the spotlight and then are rarely if ever seen or heard from again. in fact i'd even argue that structural absences and disappearances are built into the very structure of a commercial marketplace: it's a given that if your recordings are not popular or do not sell, you will experience a social and possibly literal death.

sonny simmons broke into the scene in the early sixties, playing with the likes of mingus and dolphy before leading his own sessions for ESP, something of a rite of passage for anyone who was anyone in the free jazz scene. several more strong releases followed, then after 1970's burning spirits, next to nothing for 22 years. there were recordings in 1982 and 1990 that did not get much notice, but during this period simmons was living mostly on the street, somehow managing to keep some working groups together and making private recordings while battling family problems and substance abuse.

1992's ancient ritual, released on the minor-major qwest label (there's a story that needs to be told, how that record deal came about), marked the beginning of simmons' comeback -- one that has only accelerated as simmons reaches his 75th birthday. just this year we have three new releases: a recent quartet date, a recent solo effort, and a 4CD compilation of recordings from the "lost years." they are reviewed by jeff stockton for all that jazz.



simmons has a brittle, acrid alto tone somewhat reminiscent of jackie mclean to my ears, though he has also studied his coltrane and is capable of brilliant flurries of notes as well. his phrasing is definitely rooted in charlie parker and hard bop but also makes recourse of freer idioms. when doubling on english horn (an oboe cousin), his tone and phrasing tends to take on an eastern air.

Mick Turner + Six Organs

a fine show at the end this past saturday night, and my second visit to the space. (my first was a WRVU benefit a few weekends ago with a whole mess o' local bands.) located on a stretch of elliston place just a block away from the northern edge of the vanderbilt campus known as "the rock block" because it includes other live music venues (most notable the exit/in) as well as nashville's oldest soda shop, a secondhand bookstore and a number of restaurants and pubs of various qualities and cuisines. proceedings opened a good hour-and-a-half after the door time -- i have yet to determine the proper arrival time for shows in nashville, i think largely because there is no consistent formula. anyway, the cherry tomatoes opened, featuring an amateurish (in the best sense) and whimsical take on the folk genre, which i appreciated although it was at times not terribly to my liking: the swooping vocals would have send joanna newsom fans into rapture.

mick turner was the guitarist for the dirty three, whose sparse acoustic instrumentals provided quite a contrast to most of the recordings coming out on the touch & go label in the mid-to-late 1990s. blue trees, a new release on drag city, caught my eye because of the striking and pleasing cover art, bearing a clear resemblance to the dirty three's cover art because, in fact, turner painted them all. -- and in a quasi-expressionist style full of fuzzy lines and stark color contrasts along with a common mythos (slightly distended mammals against natural landscapes for example). blue trees is a compilation of otherwise hard-to-obtain tracks recorded by turner and tren brothers, the moniker used when he's teamed with former dirty three drummer jim white.

turner was accompanied by a different drummer on this tour (whose name i did not catch), and the formula is even more impressive to witness live than it is on record -- and not only because the live performance is accompanied by a video projection. photographic stills of turner's paintings alternating with video footage of various landscapes shot from inside a moving vehicle provide the image-track accompanying the music, which could have stood alone (and of course does on CD). turner works with a softly amplified and lightly distorted electric six-string (could have been a hollow-body but definitely equipped with a tremolo bar), catch a chord progression or lick in his digital delay pedal and then playing overtop that looped signal. he frequently bows the strings to catch and add a wash of glissandi or harmonics into the mix as well. all the while the drummer reinforces the implied beat or improvises underneath in a seamless blend of premeditation and improvisation.

six organs of admittance headlined, and perhaps by the time ben chasney took the stage (1 am) i was just a little too spent. he opened with a series of solo acoustic numbers, some from his recent drag city offering shelter from the ash, that were deft and resonant. later he was joined by magik marker elisa ambroglio (just friends?) for a nice bit of twin electric caterwaul. it's the times when chasney is reaching for the darkest depths of mordor that his work perhaps least convincing, but otherwise this is inventive post-rock worth keeping an eye and ear on.

Global Music Archive

from the vanderbilt news service:

Three years ago, Vanderbilt University ethnomusicologist Greg Barz realized that American popular culture was sweeping Africa and could very well threaten centuries-old musical traditions.

He traveled to Uganda and Kenya to begin archiving music and performances before they disappeared forever. Barz’s pilot program set the foundation for The Digital Collection of East African Recordings and helped launch the creation of the Global Music Archive at Vanderbilt University.

The Digital Collection of East African Recordings, the first database in a series of databases in the Global Music Archive, is the largest streaming audio archive of East African music. It consists of more than 2,000 musical performances, most of which were recorded in the field by East African musician Centurio Balikoowa. In addition to its size, the archive is unique in that the artists provide written consent, allowing Vanderbilt the freedom to license and share the music with the world via the Internet.

read the full story here. the global music archives is here. the files stream in real audio and are searchable by artist/group, region, district, language, ethnic group and musical instrument.

recent reads

"God is in the details. But there are no details anymore." -- Donald Fagen of Steely Dan on current music production techniques geared towards an MP3-consuming audience. Quote in Robert Levine's "The Death of High Fidelity," in this month's Rolling Stone.

"As we cast our eye over the sheer effulgence of American food, there appears to be no limit to the type and number of food products for those who are motivated by taste, environmental concern, animal welfare, political correctness, or simple virtue." Mark Winne shows the class contours of fight for food in this country: alternet.org runs an excerpt from his new book Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. Fortunately he offers answers beyond his indictments.

upcoming airtime

i'm scheduled to be on the air a fair bit during the upcoming week, before the students all return for the new semester and the station gets its spring schedule set. please note the times given are central standard time:

• thurs jan 3, 3-4pm
  
• fri jan 4, 3-5pm
  
• sun jan 6, 4-6pm
  
• tues jan 8, 4-6pm
  
• thurs jan 10, 4-6pm

go to http://wrvu.org/ and click on "listen to WRVU"
or go directly to http://wrvu.org/sounds/wrvu.ram

it streams in realaudio format.

i'll be playing indie rock mostly -- unless something else strikes my fancy. (sunday will probably be some free jazz.)

solid gold

If Gang of Four's Entertainment! is an all-time top-five album -- and for this listener it very much is -- then their 1980 follow-up Solid Gold has to be considered not simply a close second but very, very near its equal.

One does one's self a disservice not to know both albums. Conventional wisdom is fond of sophomore syndrome, or the follow-up to an often brilliant debut that fails for any number of reasons, usually distillable to either a failure to reach the heights of that first album or not having sufficiently broken new ground from that first album. Does not apply here: where Entertainment!cuts with the quick knife on the front lines, Solid Gold pounds with the sledgehammer and digs into the trenches. Andy Gill's guitar attack is less brittle but just as biting and dirty, the rhythm section as relentless as ever. And the lyrics: wiser and more mebittered than ever.

My ambitions come to nothing
What I wanted now just seems a waste of time
I can't make out what has gone wrong
I was good at what I did

Could I be happy with something else

Each day seems like a natural fact
And what we think changes how we act

Everything has been cynically shot it's gone

a return to form

...or perhaps a somewhat new form: updates on random topics. otherwise heuriskein as we've come to know it will probably be put into indefinite retirement until i find an appropriate means and manner of keeping people abreast of nashville developments.

* * *

i love the drive between cleveland ohio and london ontario: you can make the whole run in under five hours but the time goes by really quickly because no leg of the trip takes longer than 90 minutes. (cleveland-toledo, 90 minutes; toledo to detroit; 60 minutes; detroit to port huron, 60 minutes; sarnia to london, 60 minutes.) flat farmland punctuated by urban rustbelt. best also to go through the border at sarnia-port huron rather than windsor-detroit so as to use/buy less gas in canada. the 402 is one of the flatest and most desolate highways around. (the photo in the wikipedia entry looks positively lush by comparison). good trip for listening to whole box sets.

* * *

renewed affection for all things london ontario.

freud's bit in civilization and its discontents about how "in mental life nothing which has once been formed can perish -- that everything is somehow preserved and that in suitable circumstances... it can once more be brought to light" -- from which he lauchnes his epic simile comparing the mind to the city of rome with all the buildings that ever stood in it over time all copresent in space -- is never more apt. i'm convinced that through neuroplasticity space hardwires itself not just into our thought process but our physiology as well, proprioceptors or whathaveyou. wandering throught downtown london upon my arrival -- on a weekday summer night it was bound to be a bit barren, but it's fallen on hard times all the same -- heading north on wellington the words "scot's corner" came to mind for the first time in probably twelve years. ten seconds later i turned west onto dundas street and there before me sat one of my favorite old haunts, the scot's corner.

* * *

the range of ontario regional brews otherwise unavailable in the u.s. has grown considerably since i lived there. this is a product line that even the brickskellar in d.c. (which boasts of the largest bottled beer list in the city) is hopelessly clueless about.

go ahead, yanks: visit the beer store (ontario's province-wide retailer) and do a brand search. you will be dumbfounded by the amount and range of beer you've never heard of let alone tasted.

all i could bring back with me was a sleeman's sampler pack. sleeman is the premier regional brewer in the province (located in guelph), running a full line of its own products as well as picking up some other brews (like the upper canada line) from indie brewers that did not survive the consolidations of the late 1990s and early 2000s led by the biggies. sleeman makes a light, premium light, lager, "clear," IPA, dark, porter, and the three that come in the sampler pack: cream ale, honey brown, original draft. the cream ale is very clean, the honey brown nice and malty.

brick breweries of waterloo has managed to avoid selling out to the majors while simultaneously buying up a number of smaller regional brewers and yet still maintaining those product lines. red baron is their lager, and their waterloo dark was always a personal favorite, and the red cap ale was a popular brand in the 1950s that they resurrected. they also do the british-style conners best bitter and formosa springs line of cold-filtered draft products.

other great brews you are unlikely to encounter in the states: wellington brewery in guelph makes an excellent range of british-style ales (arkell best bitter, country ale, special pale ale, iron duke strong, imperial stout); creemore springs (not quite two hours north of ontario) makes a lager, pils and ur bock; and from out-of-province, keith's makes an IPA and amber ale from halifax, while big rock is the calgary microbrewer to beat with their pale and traditional ales along with a grasshopper wheat and warthog cream ale.

* * *

undying affection for pere ubu. could not quite listen to all 5 CDs in the datapanik in the year zero box as i would've liked, and still finding my way through new picnic time and songs of the bailing man (which i've only just heard for the first time recently), but i do think dub housing is far and away the masterpiece. musings from the post-industrial sublime.

* * *

do want to recommend the charlie parker pershing club recordings from chicago in 1950, formerly available only an an obscure 1976 LP release from the zim label of jericho ny (pictured below) but now reissued thanks to the good folks at definitive/disconforme (one of those fine spanish budget-priced reissue labels). the quality of the recordings is lousy and the rest of the band (chicago pick-up band featuring von freeman on tenor) is largely irrelevant sadly. but bird soars. makes me wanna get the benedettis and all the other live dates just for those solos...

ornette wins pulitzer

from the AP:

Ornette Coleman won the Pulitzer Prize for music on Monday for his 2006 album, "Sound Grammar," the second jazz artist to receive the honor.

a small sign that something is right with the world, as i just wrote jessica who sent word of the news. surprising? well, it's one of those things, i think, kind of like when robert duncan won big awards for poetry in 1978 -- major artist releases first new work in ten years -- in duncan's case, the groundwork book. and likewise as duncan's work had circulated privately and in limited editions, so coleman had been touring with his two-bass quartet for a number of year. so anyone who was listening knew this was great music, tho i had no idea there was a CD in the works until it was released. and it as i wrote a while back, it is a pretty special recording.

what's more shocking is that coleman is only the second-ever jazz musician to win the pulitzer, and when wynton marsalis won it in 1997 it was for his three-hour oratorio on slavery. so this is the first time it's ever been won for a jazz work since it was first awarded in 1943!

a little flipper

listen to "sacrifice" (mp3, 7mb) from the 1984 gone fishin' lp by flipper. even more relevant today.

Vision Festival XII

A Dozen Years Of Visionary Music, Dance, Spoken Word, Film And Visual Art
Tuesday, June 19 through Sunday, June 24, 2007

Angel Orensanz Foundation
172 Norfolk Street, New York, NY
$30 per night in advance / $35 day of show / $150 for 6 night pass
on sale April 5 at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com or 800.838.3006
More Info: http://www.visionfestival.org or 212.696.6681


Vision Festival XII Schedule

Tuesday June 19
Poet/Host Lewis Barnes

7:00 Opening Invocation
Patricia Nicholson / William Parker / Hamid Drake

7:30 William Parker – “Double Sunrise Over Neptune” – World Premiere
Lewis Barnes trumpet / Rob Brown alto saxophone / Sabir Mateen reeds
Bill Cole double reeds / Joe Morris guitar, banjo / Jason Kao Hwang violin
Mazz Swift violin / Jessica Pavone viola / Shiau-Shu Yu cello / Brahim Fribgane oud
William Parker bass / Shayna Dulberger bass / Hamid Drake drums / Gerald Cleaver drums

8:30 Fieldwork
Steve Lehman saxophones, compositions / Vijay Iyer piano, compositions
Tyshawn Sorey drums, compositions

9:30 The Keyboard Project: Cooper-Moore Quartet with Marlies Yearby
Darius Jones alto saxophone / Cooper-Moore keyboards
Nioka Workman cello / Chad Taylor drums / Marlies Yearby dance

10:30 Spiritual Unity featuring Marc Ribot (with special guest Henry Grimes)
Roy Campbell trumpet / Marc Ribot guitar
Henry Grimes bass / Chad Taylor drums


Wednesday June 20 – Bill Dixon Lifetime Recognition
Poet/Host Barry Wallenstein

7:00 Barry Wallenstein and Friends
Barry Wallenstein vocals, poetry / Daniel Carter reeds, trumpet / special guests TBA

7:30 Bill Dixon with the Sound Vision Orchestra – World Premiere
Bill Dixon trumpet, compositions
Graham Haynes trumpet / Stephen Haynes trumpet / Taylor Ho Bynum cornet
Dick Griffin trombone / Steve Swell trombone / Joe Daley tuba
Andrew Raffo Dewar soprano saxophone / Michel Cote reeds / J.D. Parran reeds
Will Connell, Jr. reeds / John Hagen reeds / Karen Borca bassoon
Glynis Lomon cello / Andrew Lafkas double bass
Warren Smith vibraphone, percussion / Jackson Krall percussion

9:30 Co-Pilots: Henry Grimes and Marilyn Crispell
Henry Grimes bass / Marilyn Crispell piano

10:30 Survival Unit III
Joe McPhee reeds, flügelhorn / Fred Lonberg-Holm cello
Michael Zerang drums


Thursday June 21
Poet/Host Alexandre Pierrepont

6:00 New York – Paris Poetry
Tribes, New York
Miguel Algarin, Steve Cannon, Steve Dalachinsky, Post Midnight, Ishle Park
The Weavers, Paris
Thomas Gilson, Mathias Gross, Alexandre Pierrepont, Laurence Pierrepont, Daniel Vassaux

7:30 Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble – Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler
David Young trumpet / Nicole Mitchell flute / David Boykin reeds
Justin Dillard piano / Tomeka Reid cello / Josh Abrams bass
Arveeayl Ra drums / Marcus Evans drums / Mankwe Ndosi vocals

8:30 Hardcell
Tim Berne alto saxophone / Craig Taborn piano / Tom Rainey drums

9:30 Local Lingo
Jason Kao Hwang violin, viola, compositions / Sang Won Park ajang, kayagum, voice

10:30 Jayne Cortez and The Firespitters
Jayne Cortez poetry / Bern Nix guitar / special guests TBA
Al MacDowell bass / Denardo Coleman drums


Friday June 22
Poet/Host David Budbill

5:30 Panel Discussion Part I – Art in America: A Grassroots Struggle

7:00 50 Violins for Leroy Jenkins
Memorial tribute led by Billy Bang, coordinated by Jason Kao Hwang

7:30 Matthew Shipp Solo Piano

8:30 Roy Campbell’s Ahkenaten Suite – World Premiere
Roy Campbell trumpet / Billy Bang violin / Bryan Carrott vibraharp
Hilliard Greene bass / Zen Matsuura drums

9:30 Dance/Music/Art Installation “A State of Mind” by Patricia Nicholson
Dance: Miriam Parker, Julia Wilkins, Gus Solomons, jr
Music: Lewis Barnes, Rob Brown, William Parker, Hamid Drake
Artists: Jo Wood Brown, Katie Martin, Kazuko Miyamoto, Phyllis Bulkin-Lehrer, Lili White

10:15 Fred Anderson Trio
Fred Anderson tenor saxophone / Harrison Bankhead bass
Hamid Drake drums

11:15 Spindrift for Leroy Jenkins
Myra Melford piano, melodica / Mark Taylor French horn
Brandon Ross guitars / Shuni Tsou di-zi


Saturday Afternoon June 23

2:00 Michael Bisio Quartet
Stephen Gauci winds / Avram Fefer winds
Michael Bisio bass / Jay Rosen percussion

3:00 SYNERGY Sight and Sound
Amir Bey costumes, set design / Saco Yasuma alto saxophone, compositions
Ras Moshe reeds / Dave Ross guitar / Christopher Dean Sullivan bass / Lou Grassi drums

4:00 Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone
Mary Halvorson guitar, vocals / Jessica Pavone viola, vocals

5:00 Corey Wilkes Quintet
Corey Wilkes trumpet, flügelhorn, vocals / Kevin Nabors tenor saxophone
Junuis Paul bass / Isaiah Spencer drums / Jumaane Taylor dance


Saturday Night June 23
Poet/Host David Budbill

7:30 Ganelin Trio Priority
Vyacheslav Ganelin piano, synthesizer, percussion / Petras Vysniauskas soprano sax
Klaus Kugel drums, percussion

8:30 Eddie Gale All-Star Band
Eddie Gale trumpet / Prince Lasha reeds / Kidd Jordan tenor saxophone
Valerie Mih piano / William Parker bass / Alvin Fielder drums / Patricia Nicholson dance

9:30 Rob Brown Quartet
Rob Brown alto saxophone / Lewis Barnes trumpet
Todd Nicholson bass / Guillermo E. Brown drums

10:30 Whit Dickey Trio
Sabir Mateen reeds / Todd Nicholson bass / Whit Dickey drums

11:30 Amiri and Amina Baraka’s Blue Ark
Amiri Baraka poetry / Amini Baraka poetry, vocals
Dwight West vocals / Rene McLean reeds / Adegoke Steve Colson piano
Curtis Lundy bass / Pheeroan akLaff drums


Sunday June 24
Poet/Host Alexandre Pierrepont

3:30 Panel Discussion Part II – What Is “Serious” Music or Art?

5:00 T.E.C.K. String 4tet
Tomas Ulrich cello / Elliott Sharp acoustic guitars
Carlos Zingaro violin / Ken Filiano double bass

6:00 Hamid Drake now
Hamid Drake drums / Paolo Angeli prepared guitar
Sabir Mateen reeds / Patricia Nicholson dance

7:00 Thomas Buckner Trio
Thomas Buckner vocals / Jerome Bourdellon flute / Roscoe Mitchell reeds

8:00 Daniel Levin Quartet
Daniel Levin cello / Nate Wooley trumpet / Joe Morris bass / Matt Moran vibraphone

9:00 Louis Moholo and Friends
Kidd Jordan tenor saxophone / Dave Burrell piano
William Parker bass / Louis Moholo drums


Visual Art at The Vision Festival
A State of Mind
Dialogue Amongst the Arts

Amir Bey – installation
Jo Wood Brown – installation
Kazuko Miyamoto – installation
Yuko Otomo – installation
Maura Sheehan – installation
Cassie Thornton – installation

Bill Mazza – live drawings
Jorgo Schaefer – live drawings
Jeff Schlanger – live drawings

Bill Dixon – painting
Robin Kahn – painting

Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer - video
Katy Martin – video
Lili White – video

Peter Gannushkin – photographer
Luciano Rossetti – photographer
Michael Wilderman – photographer

Library of Congress Jazz Film Series

April 2-30, 2007
Mary Pickford Theater
James Madison Building
Library of Congress

All programs are free, but seating is limited to 60 seats. Reservations may be made by phone, beginning one week before any given show. Call (202) 707-5677 during business hours (Monday-Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm). Reserved seats must be claimed at least 10 mins before show time, after which standbys will be admitted to unclaimed seats. Programs subject to change without notice.

Monday, April 2 (7:00 pm)
Cecil Taylor: All The Notes (2003)
directed and produced by Christopher Felver (73 mins)
This insightful portrait of the avant pianist, composer and poet Cecil Taylor finds the free-jazz firebrand playing, dancing, reciting, performing with a big band and talking about life, art, music and memories.

Monday, April 9 (7:00 pm)
Home (2005)
directed and produced by Dorothy Darr (72 mins)
Just two months before his death in 2001, drummer Billy Higgins visited saxophonist Charles Lloyd at his home where they recorded a series of duets eventually released as the two-CD set Which Way Is East. The artist and film maker Dorothy Darr rolled both audio tape and video, revealing an intimate celebration of spiritual connection between two musical giants.

Monday, April 16 (7:00 pm)
Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation (2005)
directed and produced by Mike Dibb (85 mins)
Pianist Keith Jarrett discusses his creative life in music with rare clips, interviews and performances featuring his American and European Quartets, Gary Burton, Chick Corea, the Standards Trio and producer Manfred Eicher.

Monday, April 23 (7:00 pm)
Los Zafiros: Music From The Edge of Time (2004)
directed and produced by Lorenzo DeStefano (79 mins)
Music, emotion and rarely seen archival film clips from Cuban television fuel this bittersweet, award-winning tribute to the beloved vocal group Los Zafiros (The Saffires), known as the Beatles of 1960s Cuba. Thirty years after their breakup, the two surviving band members, Manuel Galbran and Miguel Cancio, reunite in Havana sharing songs, celebrations, memories and tears.

Monday, April 30 (7:00 pm)
Irene Schweizer (2005)
directed by Gita Gsell; produced by Franzika Reck (75 mins
Swiss pianist, composer Irene Schweizer has performed and recorded with many of the most important American, African and European improvisers. Since the 1980s, she's been associated with both the Feminist Improvising Group and the European Women's Improvising Group, as well as the collective trio Les Diaboliques, with Maggie Nichols and Joelle Leandre. Gita Gsell's stylized, visually stunning documentary features Schweizer talking about her work and performing with Les Diaboliques, Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, Han Bennink, Louis Moholo and others.

This screening is co-sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland.
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Series curated by Larry Appelbaum
For press details or further information: lapp[at]loc[dot]gov

dietrich's ecclecticism

adam sends this link to a podcast of favorite tunes by john dietrich of deerhoof, a band i've recently discovered (thru adam) and immediately like without having delved to far into the recordings.

i have to admire mr. dietrich's taste which is far more ecclectic than even my own. of the 22 artists/titles listed i have knowledge of only the following 7:

1. fiery furnaces - i thought blueberry boat was a strange and largely unappealing uptake on 70s rock-theater.
   
2. bill dixon - clearly a modern trumpet master - why are there so many saxophone gods and so few trumpet gods?
   
3. us maple - noisy, right? i think i would like & need to hear more
   
4. bartok - dunno what "tale" is but his 6 string quartets are some of the best music of all time
   
5. satie - is it possible his reputation is far greater than the music actually warrants?
   
6. marc ribot - i still know only through his masterful work on the classic mid-1980s tom waits albums - what's his one leader date to hear?
   
7. patty waters - vintage ESP era improv stuff, right? never actually heard tho.

otherwise i'm stumped, any and all help appreciated...

the unofficial velvet underground

once again bill has bestowed upon me a musical treasure trove, this time in the form of 12 CDs of "unofficial" velvet underground recordings. of course there is a lot of inessential material here, but i've begun going through it and can now report my initial findings. my suspicion is that the essentials can be sweated down to 2, maybe 3 CDs worth of stuff (depending, for example, on how many 20+ minute live versions of "sister ray" you need...) details on each of the following sets can be found at olivier landemaine's webpage.

in general i would say that the stuff breaks down as follows:

1. live versions of officially released songs -- these naturally vary a great deal depending on performance and recording quality, and should be measured against officially released live material such as that on the live albums and the quine tapes;
   
2. live material not otherwise officially available -- these vary quite a bit as well, but some of it (such as "the nothing song," see below) immediately strike me as being essential listening;
   
3. demos and rehearsals -- much of this stuff has since been released on the 5CD peel slowly and see box set, but again some has not and is quite essential (see "loop" below);
   
4. live, studio or radio broadcast performances of post-VU material -- lou reed solo, velvets reunions, etc. -- that is generally not essential;
   
5. interviews -- some of this stuff is interesting but not necessarily worth listening to more than once; some producers of these unofficial releases have mixed interviews in with live performances in a way that does not make them very interesting or accessible.

NOTE: i've not gone through ALL this stuff yet, so there may be some live performances from category 1) above that i've not yet discovered, but otherwise here's the report.

searchin' for my mainline is a 3CD set that contains the following essentials. "loop" is a fantastic feedback drone/phase piece that was recorded and released in 1966 as the locked-groove b-side of a flexi-disc that came with the magazine aspen #3. of course, ubu.com has the file here (scroll down). this recording is crucial to the history of feedback, far moreso than the beatles' "in my life" and perhaps second only to the "fontana mix - feed" of max neuhaus (also 1966). disc 1 also features an acoustic version of "heroin" credited to "rehearsal, paris 1/25/72" and is unlike any version i've heard before. disc 2 contains live versions of "what goes on" and "run run run" from the hilltop rock festival, rindge, new hampshire, august 2, 1969 (my second birthday!) that are absolutely smoking: "run run run" in particular contains some of reed's most blistering feedback-drenched guitar soloing ever, second only to his work on "i heard her call my name" which is of course one of if not the greatest rock guitar solos ever.

the two middle discs of the caught between the twisted stars 4 CD set are most noteworthy. disc 2 features "the nothing song," a nearly 30-minute mid-tempo trance-jam soundtrack recorded at an exploding plastic inevitable show at the valleydale ballroom, columbus ohio, november 4, 1966. essentially during a typical EPI performance of the time, the VU would provide live instrumental accompaniment to the multiple andy warhol films that would be projected simultaneously before doing their own set (which of course also involved film projections, often of the band members' faces for example). like "loop," "the nothing song" taps into the lamonte young drone minimalism that john cale helped bring into the band's sound, in this case also featuring processed vocals from nico that float hauntingly over the proceedings and give the piece an eastern feel. disc 3 also goes in for extended jams, clocking in not only with a 25-minute "sister ray" but also with a 39-minute version of something called "sweet sister ray" which, as the title suggests, was performed as a mellower and (if i recall correctly) largely instrumental prelude to "sister ray" proper. all essential listening for a full appreciation of the VU's music.

finally, a walk with the velvet underground runs 5 CDs. this set features what i believe are pop songs lou reed wrote for the pickwick label that were recorded by other bands before the VU formed, as well as the infamous songs "sneaky pete" and "(do) the ostrich" recorded by the primitives, an early reed-cale proto-VU. there is also a more complete (6:49) version of "loop" (still a shorter run time than the version on ubu but i've not compared the two). there are a lot of demos and mono mixes here that are either inessential or otherwise available. there are also recordings from EPI performances and warhol movies that, unlike "the nothing song," aren't recorded very well and have all the film dialogue mixed into the track as well, which makes for rather muddied and/or pointless listening. there are some nice versions of "loaded" material identified as "robinson's apartment sessions" as well as some post-VU live recordings, at bataclan (29/1/72) and fondation cartier (paris 15/6/90) but i don't know enough about these (except that the latter is obviously a reunion tour).

more to come...

poetry meme

jessica tagged me on this poetry meme. you're supposed to respond to the following prompts.

The first poem I remember reading was...
I was forced to memorize numerous poems in school and...
I read poetry because...
A poem I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem...
I write poetry, but...
I find poetry...
The last time I heard poetry...
I think poetry is like...

i have so little to say in response to any of these. i mean, WOW i can't believe how little i have to say about these. i memorized all the u.s. presidents in sixth grade (we only had to do the first 8 but i was a little overachiever), and in high school i memorized the first ten lines of homer's odyssey (in greek). i can still remember the presidents, about the first 3 lines of the odyssey, the first sentence of caesar's gallic wars in latin, and also the first 5 or six lines of pound's canto one, and clark coolidge's "the so (part two)." this is the sole extent of my existing and surviving memorization. i think memorization is a good thing and that i should do more of it.

i read and write poetry for the same reason: because i have not yet found the poetry that i think must or could or should exist somewhere or at some point.

right now i'm far more excited about bohor (1962) by iannis xenakis, far and away the most amazing piece of modern composed music i've heard in quite some time. it could very well be lou reed's metal machine music scored for processed tubular bells or something. seriously amazing.

my name is albert ayler

My Name Is Albert Ayler (directed by kasper collin, 2005; 79 minutes) is worth seeing not only because it's the first documentary about this crucially important musician who helped revolutionize jazz in the 1960; it's also an incredibly moving piece of work that celebrates the joys and tragedies of visionary art.

growing up in a middle-class home in cleveland (just below shaker square, if i'm interpreting the reference to the family's home on "ripley" correctly), a good-looking guy with a taste for stylish clothes, soft-spoken but highly articulate, ayler had to go to sweden after a stint in the army to find an audience that appreciated his music. the stark economic and racial injustices that faced the creative musician back in america, however, clearly took a mental and emotional toll on ayler and his trumpet-playing brother donald. throughout, ayler remained committed to the rightness and necessity of his music.

collin draws heavily on recorded audio interviews ayler made 1963-1970 (the year of his untimely death by drowning in the east river of NYC), as well as surviving fellow musicians (like sunny murray), friends and family members (ayler's father and brother). there are some great anecdotes, like how when ayler first walked onto the stage to play with the cecil taylor unit, taylor literally jumped off his piano bench. there is some use made of live performance footage, though it is not extensive and it is often run slower than the corresponding audio; it's an interesting effect and though i'd rather seen more live performance footage and more in sync with the audio, the end result seems to de-emphasize and not fetishize performance and technique.

what comes through most clearly is ayler's passion for and committment to his singular vision for music and the world. it's something he knows won't be understood, and in the early stages of his career he himself clearly did not understand it. there's a brilliant moment when the film is covering, i think, the recording of the spiritual unity album, and it's the first time in the film where the viewer really hears an extended ayler tenor solo, and an ayler voiceover comes in insisting that the music is not trying to convey anger but peace, and wollin cuts shortly to footage of race riots in the american city streets. but through all the misunderstanding, the grinding poverty, and the tolls these take, ayler persevered, he endured. the film conveys this without mythologizing him, as the mysterious and still unresolved issues surrounding his death (and really the last few years of his life).

particularly haunting is the use of deep-green-tinted footage of a bare-shouldered ayler gazing quite directly into the camera -- a sequence which recurs like a leitmotif throughout, as if he's saying to us, now, 25 years after his death, that we need to start listening, as james baldwin put it with reference to the title character of his story "sonny's blues,"

with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.

there is an excellent review by jack gold at all about jazz. the film is scheduled to tour the united states in spring 2007.