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Liberty Ellman, “Radiate”

pi60_500

Pi recordings, Jazz CD
Tuba solo is on track three.
Jagged spectral funk from Brooklyn guitarist associated with Henry Threadgill/Zooid, and M-Base. Prolific studio engineer, a nice recording. Bay Area-raised, played early gigs with The Coup. Part groovin’, part advanced compositions. Rhythm section bass, drums and tuba.
Tracks 1,3,5 hit harder. Tracks 2,4 more exploratory. They’d be good two in a row. Track 9 has breakcore drum programming.
Previous- Ophiuchus Butterfly (Jazz CD)
Sideman/engineer- Henry Threadgill/Zooid, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer
Also on Pi Recordings- A lot. Steve Lehman, plays sax here and leads his own group.

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Jazz Collective #1

one-night-in-chicago

Jazz Collective #1
10/9/15

This was my first time hosting the Jazz Collective, a long-running show hosted by an ever-evolving platoon of KFJC DJs. From a programming perspective, you are expected to choose from the Jazz library or new Jazz releases. You don’t have to play 35% current releases, which is usually the case when you are programming at KFJC. This made it easier to program. It was my first daytime shift. It was during fundraiser. There were more breaks than I’d taken before and more work in the booth, faster record juggling, and more on-mic presentations. It was kind of stressful.

Hour 1: Starts at 1:55 so you get a few minutes of Sally Goodin. I started out with a Charlie Parker album, and moved through Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Gerry Mulligan, featuring saxes throughout the hour.

Hour 2: Clifford Brown, Ben Webster, and then more modern with Steve Lehman, Yoni Kretzmer, and Lisa Mezzacappa.

Hour 3: Lisa Mezzacappa skipped as soon as I went to the bathroom! Then I explored a more Eastern take on jazz.

Hour 4: Further and further afield.

Here’s the playlist.

Each mp3 is 70 minutes long and starts a few minutes before the hour, and ends a few minutes after.
Streams will be available until October 2.

Streams via kfjc.org.

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Stone Cold Lampin #13

Stone Cold Lampin’ #13
9/26/15

This show marks a milestone. I’ve completed 13 graveyard shifts, and I can move on to daytime shifts. I’ve had a good time working the graveyard shifts and I will miss it. My family won’t. I’d go to bed around 7 PM the night before, wake up by alarm at 12:20 AM, and head in to the studio. Nami left me a banana, some granola, and a pot of coffee in a thermos. It worked pretty well. I didn’t get tired and I was often able to get calm enough to really contemplate the sound. I played some spaced-out music. I told my friend that I felt like a man holding a torch next to a vast ocean, surrounded by the dark night. I let the sound ring out into the darkness. Embers fell from my torch. When I got home, I napped for an hour or two right after breakfast.
For my last shift, I tried to find out something about contemporary composers. I played music of stringed instruments. I took a trip around the world.

Hour 1: Starts at 1:55 so you get a few minutes of Goodwrench. After a short stop at Norcal Noisefest 2000, the hour is bookended by Ligeti, older and younger. In between, traditional sounds from Korea, North America, Japan, Morocco, and Mexico.

Hour 2: Twentieth- and twenty-first-century sounds, the results of an inquiry into contemporary western classical music.

Hour 3: Sun Ra and Voicehandler set the tone for the second hour of inquiry about a contemporary.

Hour 4: I just had to figure it out, “What does classical music sound like now?” No conclusion.

Here’s the playlist.

Each mp3 is 70 minutes long and starts a few minutes before the hour, and ends a few minutes after.
Streams will be available until October 2.

Streams via kfjc.org.

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Stone Cold Lampin’ #12

Stone Cold Lampin’ #12
9/19/15

Started out on a jazz trip, into a mix of international sounds from Japan, Mali, and South America. Western classical music rears its pretty head, Agnes Martin On Not Thinking, wrapping up strangely.

Hour 1: Starts at 1:55 so you get a few minutes of Goodwrench. Then it’s a Jazz trip for the first hour.

Hour 2: Jazz rolls on for twenty odd minutes, then Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Makoto Kawabata, then Tibetan exorcist chant.

Hour 3: Blues-pop from Mali. South American guitar instruments, blues, gospel, Schubert played by Peter Serkin.

Hour 4: Satie played slowly by Philip Corner, Agnes Martin speaks, Robert Crouch, Sibelius

Here’s the playlist.

Each mp3 is 70 minutes long and starts a few minutes before the hour, and ends a few minutes after.
Streams will be available until October 2.

Streams via kfjc.org.

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Stone Cold Lampin #11

Stone Cold Lampin’ #11
9/12/15

Starting out digging in the reggae library, the show takes a left turn at the new William Parker CD, spends some time with Hector Villalobos and Henry Brant, ending up with some international vocal music and long-form Robert Crouch.

Hour 1: Starts at 1:55 so you get a few minutes of Goodwrench. Then it’s a reggae vibe for forty minutes

Hour 2: Villalobos, Wet Hair, Kyoto Nohgaku Kai.

Hour 3: Villalobos, Henry Brant.

Hour 4: Jazz, international vocal, ambient.

Each mp3 is 70 minutes long and starts a few minutes before the hour, and ends a few minutes after.
Streams will be available until September 26.

Streams via kfjc.org.

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Japanese Noh Music

Japanese Noh Music

Lyrichord LST 7137
by Hemroid The Leader

In the 6th century, ancient music and dance came to Japan from the Kingdom of Kudara in what is now Korea.  In the 8th century the Chinese circus came to Japan, with acrobatics, pantomime, and comedy.  These influences, in combination with indigenous rituals related to the passing of the seasons or cultivation of rice, form the basis for Noh theater, which took on its present form in the 14th century.

Noh theater troupes are led by a Grand Master and all members are blood relatives or adopted.  Sons reprise roles of their fathers.  Small gestures are mimicked through generations, eventually commanding much of the audience’s focus.  The audience is made up of the Shogun, feudal lords, sophisticates and wealthy commoners.

This record features members of the Kyoto Noh Theater, designated as an Important Intangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government in 1957.   It may seem like not much is going on.   A wooden flute plays an ancient pentatonic melody, taiko strike here and there, a woodblock plays a slow roll as characters enter and exit the scene, dancers move in exact synchronization.  The main character wears a wooden face mask, an ornate robe, and speaks in Old Japanese.  A ceremonial tone pervades throughout.

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Of Viff and Other Words That Have Gone the Way of the Dodo Bird

I wrote about Viff in the post about the aquarium.  I was too late on that one, too.  By the time we drove home from the aquarium, he was already saying Fish correctly.

John John pointed to my shoulder recently, and said definitively, “Butt.”  I looked at my shirt; he was pointing to some decorative buttons.  “Button,” I said.  “Can you say, ‘button?'”

“Butt,” he told me.

I kept meaning to make a little post about this because I thought it was cute.  There have been many moments of this, pointing to his pants button, and announcing, “Butt.” Or my collared shirt: “Butt.”

Today, he said, “Button,” and I knew my chance of posting in the moment had slipped by.  But while the iron is still hot, I wish to strike two more times: mokosyll & keemah.

It’s great that he is developing, but I’ll be just a little sad when he finally says motorcycle and cucumber.

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Stone Cold Lampin #10

Stone Cold Lampin’ #10
9/5/15

Starting out percussive and textural, the show gets more centered towards out jazz as it goes on.

Hour 1: Starts at 1:55 so you get a few minutes of Goodwrench. Ritual drumming, Haitian Vodou, minimalism.

Hour 2: Biff Rose, Brahms, contemporary jazz.

Hour 3: 70s jazz, out jazz, extended technique sounds, Oranges.

Hour 4: Uruguayan organ, vocal jazz, French, Brooklyn saxophone, Middle Eastern, Somniloquy.

Each mp3 is 70 minutes long and starts a few minutes before the hour, and ends a few minutes after.
Streams will be available until September 19.

Streams via kfjc.org.

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Our Escapist Weekend

A few weekends ago, the weather forecast showed temperatures in excess of 100 in San Jose both Saturday and Sunday, so we got out of Dodge and had two days of family adventure:

Saturday in Santa Cruz @ Harvey West Park
imageJohn John is proud of his walking stick.

imageThere was as event being set up for a Boys and Girls club, which meant we eventually left amid the booming bass of a sound system manned by a millenial (as indicated by musical selection and order), but while the morning was still cool-ish, and quiet, John John had fun with this enormous beach ball, the likes of which he’d never seen.

Sunday in Mill Valley
imageThrowing rocks in to streams with friends.  John John later tried to scale that rock.

imageThis photo was followed by naked romping in the water. A good way to cool off!

imageRefreshed after a much needed bath to remove mud and grime, having some cheese on Papa’s lap.