(Loop 2.4.3/Thomas Kozumplik)
Repeating vocal samples and distorted vocalizations set to electro-acoustic percussion. Loop 2.4.3 is composed and performed by Thomas Kozumplik (The Clogs). Pulsating rhythms. Chimes and hand drums in time and space.
Stone Cold Lampin’ #14
(Joelle Leandre)
Stone Cold Lampin’ #14
11/5/15
This was the first daytime Stone Cold Lampin’. It was 10a-2p on Thursday, November 5th. I played all jazz. I’ve got jazz on my mind. My last show was the Jazz Collective, and the next show I’m signed up for is another Jazz Collective, on November 20th. I’ve been reviewing a lot of jazz recently. I stayed far out for most of the show. I played several records from the excellent improvising beings record label. I spent almost and hour and a half digging into the works of bandleading bassist Joelle Leandre.
Hour 1: Starts at 1:55 so you get a few minutes of Sally Goodin. I break right into free improvisation and stay there wallowing.
Hour 2: Starts out vocal, then ensemble improv, then I start playing Joelle Leandre.
Hour 3: Joelle Leandre for the hour.
Hour 4: More free improvisation, often with amplified instrumentation.
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 November 19th.
Streams via kfjc.org.
Raw Frame, “Krokovia”
“Elegant and melancholy” Italian jazz trio: guitar, bass, drums. Tracks don’t swing as much as meander. They build up and fall to pieces and change abruptly. Sometimes it’s kitschy.
The guitar has a subtle reverb. The drummer is good and gets quite active at times. I’d be interested to hear it next to the right Jack Diamond record.
Track 9 is a Charles Mingus tune.
West Hill Blast Quartet, “Live At Cafe Oto”
Old school pianoless free quartet. Collective melody is delivered in bleats, trills, and high speed arpeggios. Then, a more lyrical horn statement. Drums are skittishly verbose. Trumpet player overblows. Group freakout, then solo focus, then back. Earnest. Drummer and bassist push hard. Recorded live at a cafe in NE London between a vintage clothing store and a bicycle shop, May 2015.
Part 3 features an extended drum solo with bicycle bells, whistles, and harmonica, before a reedy sax solo.
Part 4 features autoharp and harmonica drum workout.
Part 5 has bowed bass, live delays and members called out by name at the end of the track.
“Indian Music Of The Southwest”, Folkways Records
Songs, with and without drums. Recorded by Laura Boulton, groundbreaking female ethnomusicologist. Album released in 1941.
“The Indian sings with his jaws only slightly open and there is very little change in the position of his jaws or lips while singing.” “Nonsense syllables are common.” Pure melody, no fixed scale, and only occasional heterophony. “When a soloist performs, it is not because he has a beautiful voice and wants to give aesthetic pleasure but because he has a song which has particular value or power.” The singing and drumbeat patterns coincide but do not match. “It is necessary to put aside … fixed concepts in order to understand.” Our predecessors on this land used these songs to deliver rain, prosperity, and victory in battle.
Lisa Mezzacappa & Bait & Switch, “What Is Known”
Mezzacappa is a triple rarity: female-bandleader, female-bassist, and bassist-bandleader. She calls Bait & Switch her “garage jazz quartet.” Collective improvisations, odd meters, jazz cats play rock’n’roll. Guitar tone is distorted, reverbless, sax screams passionately a la Rahsaan, drums subtle and controlled. Reminiscent of James “Blood” Ulmer, Sebadoh, Zappa. #5 Solo bass tune from Air (jazz group). #4 Captain Beefheart tune. #9 Mingus-esque, group wailing session into bass solo.
Aaron Bennett- tenor sax. John Finkbeiner- guitar. Lisa Mezzacappa- bass. Vijay Anderson- drums.
Jen Shyu, “Sounds and Cries of the World”
Very personal folk opera art songs. A Taiwanese-East Timorian out of Peoria, Illinois. Shyu (SHOO) sings a mix of her own writings with traditional songs and poetry accompanying herself on Asian string instruments and backed by a jazz quartet. Microtonal flourishes blur into Western vibrato. Libretto is in English.
Track 9 text based on East Timor’s Report On Reconciliation, a sad saga of rape and torture.
Track 2 a very compelling story about a girl eating and being eaten by a beautiful white flower.
White Out w/ Nels Cline, “Accidental Sky”
White Out is Lin Culbertson on electronics and Tom Surgal on drums and they have gigged with Nels Cline for fifteen years. Recorded in Tom and Lin’s apartment, this is their first album together. Sometimes droning, sometimes percussive, ‘wet’ sounding. Snare drum has the strainer relaxed. Knobs are twiddled. Song titles refer to sky, clouds, mist, and light: images and ideas in constant flux. Active but not aggressive. Songs peter out.
Liberty Ellman, “Radiate”
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.
Jazz Collective #1
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.
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.