342 Bowery, New York, NY 10012-2408
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JUNE OPENS with FOUR NEW TZADIKS, WRIGHT/DONEDA TRIO, MARTIN SIEWERT, PAUL PANHUYSEN, BILL WELLS & MORE!!!
but first...
BRUCE LEE GALLANTER'S 50th BIRTHDAY PARTY & DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY'S 13TH ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE CELEBRATION
Friday June 18th at 8pm at Tonic - 107 Norfolk St
Look at this amazing lineup!!!
TISZIJI MUNOZ HEART-THRUST w/ BOB RA-KALAM MOSES & DON PATE!
JOHN ZORN'S MYSTERY MASADA!
ELLIOTT SHARP'S RAW MEET TRIO w/ MELVIN GIBBS & LANCE CARTER!
You'd have to be crazy to miss this..all for one admission!!!!
And Now, the STUFF..
THE NEW TZADIKS!...
JOHN ZORN [MASADA 10 YEARS VOL 4: MARK FELDMAN & SYLVIE COURVOISIER] - Masada Recital (Tzadik 7190) Virtuosic fireworks and heartfelt lyricism from two of the most amazing musicians in new music. Performing a dozen compositions from the vast Masada repertory, including the world premiere of a piece never before performed, Masada Recital is another new interpretation of the now classic book of compositions expanding on the Jewish tradition. RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES
CD for $14
LUKAS LIGETI - Mystery System (Tzadik 7099) Lukas is a wonderful drummer and a gifted composer. Son of the great composer Gyorgy Ligeti, Lukas was raised in Vienna, has lived in Africa, as well as in the Bay area, where he worked in numerous projects with Henry Kaiser. He now lives in NY and has a great duo with Raoul Bjorkenheim, which is currently on tour. 'Mystery System' features five adventurous pieces of Lukas' performed by the Amadinda Percussion Group. Ethel (NY-based string quartet) and pianist Kathleen Supove. A fine mix of hypnotic repetition, complex cross rhythms and a sly sense of humor. TZADIK COMPOSER SERIES
CD for $14
SEPTETO RODRIGUEZ [ROBERTO JUAN RODRIGUEZ] - Baila! Gitano Baila! (Tzadik 7189) Featuring Matt Darriau on clarinet, kaval, flautin irlandes & trompeta china; Curtis Hasselbring on trombone, Ted Reichman on accordion & Hammond organ; Meg Okura & Sam Barfeld on violins, Mary Wooten on cello, Brad Jones on bass and Roberto on percussion with special guest Roberto "L." Rodriguez trumpet, trombone and bombardino. Another charming release of music from the imaginative mind of composer/performer Roberto Rodriguez, whose first CD El Danzon de Moises is one of Tzadik's best sellers. Celebrating the elusive Jewish community of SIEWERT, MARTIN: No Need To Be Lonesome CD (MOSZ 002CD). "Martin Siewert«s first solo record, which is not only his first solo recording, but also what we would call another side of Martin Siewert: In contrast to his work to date, No Need To Be Lonesome focuses on melodies and, most importantly, grooves, and can be considered popmusic to a certain degree. Basically generated in the studio with an obscure selection of analogue synthesizers, electronical equipment and guitars, this album is more about the beauty of songlike structures than about abstraction itself. This might be confusing for the ones who know Siewert«s discography, but simply shows an artist, who is active in different domains of contemporary music." a hot new band and brilliant new compositions Roberto's new CD is as soulful as it is danceable.
RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES CD for $14
DAVID SIMONS - Prismatic Hearing (Tzadik 8001) David Simons is a composer/performer who combines percussion, theremin, digital electronics, and World Music in strikingly original compositions that defy classification. A close collaborator of vocalist Shelley Hirsch, David has toured with Samul Nori, Gamelan Son of Lion, Samm Bennett, Denman Maroney and the Estonian Perception Unit. His first CD for Tzadik presents the full range of his work, and is a fascinating compendium of experimental pieces, both acoustic and electric. TZADIK COMPOSER SERIES
CD for $14
MORE NEW STUFF..
VANDERMARK 5 - Elements Of Style, Exercises In Surprise [Ltd 2 CD set] (Atavistic 150X; USA) Chicago's (and perhaps America's) most powerful new jazz quintet [reedist Ken Vandermark, who founded the group in 1996, now with saxophonist Dave Rempis, trombonist Jeb Bishop, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Tim Daisy] have created an array of musical themes & structures destined to blow the roof off the/your house with a superb balance of post-bop & avant-garde material. Ken Vandermark's premiere project has been touring the planet relentlessly, and has never sounded more big time, complete or sublime. SPECIAL!: The first 1500 copies are presented as a limited-edition double-cd, featuring FREE JAZZ CLASSICS VOL. 4: "Free Kings- The Music of Roland Kirk"
Ltd. 2 CD set for $17
JACK WRIGHT / MICHEL DONEDA / TATSUYA NAKATANI - From Between (SOS Editions 801) There's been a deafening buzz in the free improv world about these recordings ever since they were made last fall and this spring. The convergence of Jack Wright and Michel Doneda in 2002 and their subsequent US tour in 2003 is one of the mythical events in the history of avant-garde music, two men who had been following parallel paths in the personal reinvention of their instruments and the existential premises of music-making, finding each other like long-lost brothers. At the age of 61 Wright finally found his match.
Stacking miracle on top of miracle, they not only found ideal collaborations with the revelatory duo of Serge Bagdassarian and Boris Baltshun, but also one of the two percussionists whose paths were tangled with both men to the point of inexplicable intrigue, Tatsuya Nakatani (the other being Le Quan Ninh). Wright's previous encounters with this Boston improv emigree were case studies in sublime compability left unrealized in the fray of divergent personal evolution, but by the time of these recordings, Nakatani's intense period of post-Boston exploration and stylistic expansion in the NY improv scene had brought him to surprising levels of confidence and virtuosity, and it was impossible for him to stray off-course in the presence of Doneda's gruelling, hyperfocused micro-catharticism.
Although nearly all his recordings capture unique and successful musical situations, I would argue that this is the fourth major landmark recording in Nakatani's career (following the first Nmperign, the "au-un" duo with Kenta Nagai, and the "13 Definitions of Truth" duo with Peter Kowald), in the sense of crystallizing a component of his artistry, and the only one that adequately represents his current capacities in the area of abstract ritualism. His isolated strikes upon objects are resonant, sparse, irregularly spaced, and dynamically varied; his scraping, rattling, and poly-attack textures are oblique (cliche-free) and merge with sustained saxophone textures; and his bowed metal tones rival the saxophones in their richness and precision.
There are precedents for this recording in Doneda's past collaborations with Le Quan Ninh and saxophonist Daunik Lazro, but this disc gives the impression of a totally new musical language born from the Wright/Doneda synergy. To my ears, the most salient structural innovation is a perverse elongation of the musical phrase, a dogged obsession with squeezing every last second out of a musical thought. Even in moments where there is a lot of activity and variation, this disc has an eerie slowness, a Feldmanesque consistency in surface structure. Wright and Doneda make their saxophones bleed quietly, and keep bleeding. This definitely reflects Doneda's technical obsessions with insanely precise, high-pitched, sustained piercing tones and sustained hyperspeed flutters, quivers, and twitters, and runs counter to a primary trend in Wright's best work of recent years, the extreme reduction of temporal scale to the millisecond range, where thousands are phrases are hinted at in mere seconds, an approach that reached its pinnacle with the double-sax, double-cello quartet of Wright, Bhob Rainey, Bob Marsh, and Fred Lonberg-Holm.
This disc is not representative of the sort of "individual gestures + pauses" style of improv that has become commonplace in recent years, but it shares the austere anti-expressionism of this movement, not to mention the focus on unconventional instrumental sounds and low volumes. The difference is the SHEER SEETHING VIOLENCE of this music. It's not dense or noisy; it's not an onslaught of screaming and wailing saxophones, but it's as simultaneously safe and frightening as a wild beast in an extended moment of repose, with incidental growls, cackles, and thrashing bodily jerks serving as a reminders of its other ways of being. This music is to balls-out apocalyptic free jazz assaults like Scelsi is to Wagner--the visceral intensity is still there, but it's been trapped in a tiny bottle. If I had to make a short-list of the most profound developments in current improvised music, it would be this disc and "Good" by the BSC. --Michael Anton Parker
CD for $13
MARTIN SIEWERT - No Need To Be Lonesome CD (Mosz 002) Mr. Seiwert is a member of Trapist, one of the finest ambient/roots/space trios on this planet (their current cd on Thrill Jockey is one this year's best), as well as being half of that great duo with Brandlmayr on Erstwhile. Martin«s first solo record, which is not only his first solo recording, but also what we would call another side of Martin Siewert: In contrast to his work to date, 'No Need To Be Lonesome' focuses on melodies and, most importantly, grooves, and can be considered pop music to a certain degree. Basically generated in the studio with an obscure selection of analogue synthesizers, electronical equipment and guitars, this album is more about the beauty of songlike structures than about abstraction itself. This might be confusing for the ones who know Siewert«s discography, but simply shows an artist, who is active in different domains of contemporary music.
CD for $15
PAUL PANHUYSEN - A magic square of 5 to look at and A magic square of 5 to... (Plinkity Plonk 15) This work is a composition in two parts. The same magic square is transposed in two versions. One version can be experienced by the eyes, the other one by the ears. A magic square is a series of numbers arranged in a square grid so that the sum of each horizontal and vertical row and of the corner diagonals is always the same. Magic squares reveal harmony of number and refer to the nature of existence and a cosmic order dominated by mathematical regularity. Number is the origin of all things, Pythagoras said, and Boethius said music is numbers made audible. Presented as a room installation, 'A magic square of 5 to look at' is a floor-piece of 5 x 5 m, and 'A magic square of 5 to listen to' can be heard through a quadraphonic sound system, performing the four staffs of the score independently, starting about 5 seconds after each other. The audience moves around the floor-piece in the space. Panhuysen (1934) is an internationally recognized artist. Best known for his site-specific long string installations all over the world, he also is involved in systematic visual art. Calculus links his visual and sound art together. Furthermore he has been the artistic director of Het Apollohuis for about 2 decades.
Netherlands import CD for $17
BILL WELLS - Pick Up Sticks (Leaf 034/UK) In the esteemed company of To Rococo Rot's Stefan Schneider, Robert Wyatt's sometime musical director Annie Whitehead, and Berlin singer/songwriter Barbara Morgenstern, Scotland's leading avant-garde outsider Bill Wells joins The Leaf Label for this remarkable collaboration. With 'Pick Up Sticks', Wells moves away from piano-based work toward a warm, largely improvised, electronic group sound, colored with the tonality of Whitehead's trombone. This is a recording unlike anything Wells has done before, combining adventurous electronic touches to classy jazz compositions.
CD for $12
SONIC LIBERATION FRONT - Ash A Go-Go (High Two 002) Drummer Kevin Diehl, leader of Philadelphia's Sonic Liberation Front, is a man happily straddling the gap between musical idioms. A protg of free-jazz pioneer Sunny Murray, Diehl connects his training in both the post-bop tradition and traditional Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots music with authority. Combining a rhythm section equally devoted to Yoruba roots, and a horn section adept at free jazz expression -- polyrhythmic bata drumming seamlessly converges with avant-jazz elements, producing a highly addictive hybrid; being from Philadelphia, the further urban funk element is a matter of course. 'Ashe'A Go-Go' is the band's second album, and here Sonic Liberation Front has refined the formula that earned them critical praise for its self-released 2001 debut, 'Water and Stone'. Ambient electronics subtly embellish the compositions, carefully contextualizing the ancient traditional music of Yoruba into a brilliant new entity that eschews clichs and classification.
CD for $14
[ONLY] A FEW COPIES OF THIS AT A LOWER PRICE...
JOE McPHEE & JEROME BOURDELLON - Manhattan Tango (Usine 1008; EEC) Featuring the legendary Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet & voice and Jerome Bourdellon on bass, C and piccolo flutes. Recorded live Alain Kirilli's loft in Tribeca in April of 2000. French flutist Bourdellon has a solo CD out on Khokhot and of course, we all love anything that Joe McPhee does.
CD for $14
TWO MORE POPOL VUH RE-ISSUES..
POPOL VUH - Einsjager & Siebenjager (SPV; Germany) Released in 1974, Einsjger & Siebenjger (Earth & Sky) is a further rock entrenchment for Popol Vuh. Florian Fricke's piano is more percussively present with its runs and large chord voicings rippling throughout each composition. In addition, Daniel Fichelscher's electric guitar picks up where Conny Veit's left off, taking the bluesy space rock solo style into new territory by incorporating Eastern scales into the main body of his blues phrasing. There are five short compositions on the first side, which merely prepare the listener for the mind-blowing title cut, which takes up the entirety of side two. Here, in addition to the swirling organic percussion and pianism of Fricke and the loping, often singing guitar lines that repeat hypnotically with rock & roll tension, the vocals of the amazing Djong Yun become the catalyst for the other musicians to spiral off into extended improvisations. This is certainly one of the most beautiful albums Popol Vuh issued in the 1970s, and remains a watermark for their trademark of melding beauty and free-flowing composition. -- Thom Jurek, AMG This edition includes 2 short bonus cuts
CD for $16
POPOL VUH - Shepherd's Symphony [Hirtensymphonie] (SPV; Germany) This hard-to-get latter day release [1997] is one of the last recordings and features Florian Fricke along with Frank Fiedler and Guido Hieronymus
CD for $16
ELLERY ESKELIN SOLD US HIS LAST COPIES OF TWO OF HIS OUT-OF-PRINT TITLES...
ELLERY ESKELIN/ANDREA PARKINS/JIM BLACK - Five Other Pieces (+2) (Hat ology 533; Switzerland) As with One Great Day... (hatOLOGY 502) and Kulak 29 & 30 (hatOLOGY 521) this recording was made upon the culmination of a combined US and European tour lasting about a month. ... It's been a pleasure bringing our music to points far and wide and we look forward to continuing that process. Maybe we'll meet you at a future concert, if so, please say hello ... - Ellery Eskelin
Out-Of-Print CD for $20
ELLERY ESKELIN/ANDREA PARKINS/JIM BLACK - Kulak, 29 & 30 (Hat ology 521; Switzerland) March 20th, 1994. That date marked our concert debut in New York City. We've been a band for four years now. Even so, we are only just beginning to get to the point where I feel like we have a real past on which we can build. I wrote most of the music on this recording shortly before we began a tour of the States in September of 1997. ... In the process we learn what it means to play music, communicate with an audience and make documents along the way. You, the listener, are an integral and essential part of it all. Thanks for joining us in that process.- Ellery Eskelin
Out-Of-Print CD for $20
DMG RECOMMENDED CALENDAR FOR UPCOMING GIGS NYC AREA, EARLY JUNE 2004:
Friday June 4th-
JOHN ZORN ALL-STAR IMPROV at Tonic at 8 & 10pm w/ Cyro Baptista, Sylvie Courvoisier, Okkyung Lee, Anthony Coleman, Anton Fier, William Winant, Tim Barnes, Shanir Blumenkranz, Erik Friedlander, Mark Dresser - each night the personnel changes a bit and surprises are in store!!
ANGELICA SANCHEZ QUARTET at (29) Cornelia St. Caf at 9pm - w/ Tony Malaby, Michael Formanek & Tom Rainey!!
Saturday June 5th-
JOHN ZORN ALL-STAR IMPROV at Tonic at 8 & 10pm - personnel changes each night, it was still a blast the night I went - see the possible players above on Friday!
DANIEL CARTER/ROY CAMPBELL/WILLIAM PARKER/RASHIED BAKR & ALAN SILVA at Fusion Arts (57 Stanton St.) at 8 & 10pm!!
MICHAEL MARCUS/TED DANIEL/TAURUS MATEEN/NASHEET WAITS at Cornelia St. Caf at 8:30 & 10:30!!
Sunday June 6th-
KID LUCKY (human beatbox improv) at 7 & SHAWN PERSINGER (solo guitarist from Boud Deun, prog/fusion band on Cuneiform) at 8pm - here at DMG for free!
LIFETIME VISION ORCHESTRA (w/Joseph Jarman & Chris Chalfant) - 5-8pm for free at Stuyvesant Park - 23rd St at the East River!
Sunday Free Style Series at CB's Lounge - 313 Bowery starts at
7 w/ george schuller, joe fonda, gebhard ullmann;
8pm w/ daniel levin, dave ballou, joe morris, matt moran;
9pm w/ storm - daniel carter, hans tammen, dietrich rauschtenberger &
10pm w/ THE MP3 - mike pride, mary halvorsen, trevor dunn - another amazing line-up!!
JENNY SCHEINMAN CD Release Celebration at Tonic at 8pm for her great Tzadik release!
Monday June 7th-
ROVO w/ special guest Fernando Kabusacki at Tonic at 8pm & 10pm!! ROVO are a fantastic space/rock/prog all-star band from Japan w/ members from the Boredoms & Bondage Fruit. Their double cd on Tzadik is f**king amazing! Not to be missed!
VIJAY IYER & RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA at the Blue Note (W. 4th St. near 6th Ave.) at 8 & 10:30! Vijay is an incredible pianist and Rudresh an outstanding alto saxist!!
Wednesday June 9th-
EUGENE CHADBOURNE & HAN BENNINK at Tonic at 8 & 10pm! Two improv legends whose collaborations stretch back over 20 years - Dr. Chad is the original downtown guitar great and Han is the Dutch madman drummer - both are often hilarious and great players!!
Thursday June 10th-
MARC RIBOT & LOS CUBANOS, ELLIOTT SHARP & REBECCA MOORE UNIT - Benefit for Issue Project Room at Angel Orensanz Center - 172 Norfolk St. - doors open at 7pm! IPR is one of the best music spaces in town and certainly deserves (y)our support!
JON MADOF'S RASHANIM & NAFTULE'S DREAM at Makor's Steinhardt Building, 35 W. 67th St. (bet. Central Park West and Columbus Avenue) - excellent Tzadik double bill!!
LUCIAN BAN/CARNEY/BARRY ALTSCHUL TRIO at Cornelia St. Caf at 8:30 - great pianist (Ban) & drummer (Altschul)!
Friday June 11th-
RICHARD FOREMAN BENEFIT w/ MASADA STRING TRIO, GLENN BRANCA & ROBERT ASHLEY at Tonic at 8pm!
STEVE LEHMAN QUINTET at the Jazz Gallery at 9 & 10:30 w/Jonathan Finlayson, Drew Gress & Tyshawn Sorey - Steve is great young alto saxist who has worked w/ Braxton!
JEREMY STEIG/VIC JURIS/CAMERON BROWN QT. at Cornelia St. Caf at 8:30 & 10:30!
JANE IRA BLOOM/JAMIE SAFT/MARK HELIAS/BOBBY PREVITE at Sweet Rhythm (88 7th Ave. S) at 8, 10 & midnite! - This all-star downtown quartet should be pretty great!
Saturday June 12th-
BEN ALLISON & MEDICINE WHEEL at Tonic at 8pm - w/ Michael Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Clark Gayton & Jeff Ballard!
SPANISH FLY [STEVE BERNSTEIN/DAVE TRONZO/MARCUS ROJAS] at Tonic at 10pm!!
Sunday June 13th-
RARA AVIS [JEFF ARNAL/SET MISTERKA/GORDON BEEFERMAN] here at DMG at 7pm for free!! Their self-produced is one this year's best unknown gems of downtown improv!
Sunday Free Style Series at CB's Lounge - 313 Bowery starts at
7:00pm - borah bergman & dee pop;
8pm - roy campbell, william hooker, jason hwang;
9pm - lifetime visions orchestra: Chris Chalfant, Joseph Jarman, Thomas Buckner, Jessica Jones, Tony Jones, Cale Brandley, Mark Taylor, Pam Fleming, Steve Swell, Michael Braudy, Ken Filiano, Adam Lane, Ken Yamazaki, Rob Garcia! Another great line-up!!
Friday June 18th-
BRUCE LEE GALLANTER'S 50th BIRTHDAY & DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY'S 13TH ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE CELEBRATION will take place at Tonic - 107 Norfolk St. starting at 8pm w/ an amazing cast:
TISZIJI MUNOZ HEART-THRUST w/ BOB RA-KALAM MOSES & DON PATE!
JOHN ZORN'S MYSTERY MASADA!
ELLIOTT SHARP'S RAW MEET TRIO w/ MELVIN GIBBS & LANCE CARTER!
but first...
BRUCE LEE GALLANTER'S 50th BIRTHDAY PARTY & DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY'S 13TH ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE CELEBRATION
Friday June 18th at 8pm at Tonic - 107 Norfolk St
Look at this amazing lineup!!!
TISZIJI MUNOZ HEART-THRUST w/ BOB RA-KALAM MOSES & DON PATE!
JOHN ZORN'S MYSTERY MASADA!
ELLIOTT SHARP'S RAW MEET TRIO w/ MELVIN GIBBS & LANCE CARTER!
You'd have to be crazy to miss this..all for one admission!!!!
And Now, the STUFF..
THE NEW TZADIKS!...
JOHN ZORN [MASADA 10 YEARS VOL 4: MARK FELDMAN & SYLVIE COURVOISIER] - Masada Recital (Tzadik 7190) Virtuosic fireworks and heartfelt lyricism from two of the most amazing musicians in new music. Performing a dozen compositions from the vast Masada repertory, including the world premiere of a piece never before performed, Masada Recital is another new interpretation of the now classic book of compositions expanding on the Jewish tradition. RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES
CD for $14
LUKAS LIGETI - Mystery System (Tzadik 7099) Lukas is a wonderful drummer and a gifted composer. Son of the great composer Gyorgy Ligeti, Lukas was raised in Vienna, has lived in Africa, as well as in the Bay area, where he worked in numerous projects with Henry Kaiser. He now lives in NY and has a great duo with Raoul Bjorkenheim, which is currently on tour. 'Mystery System' features five adventurous pieces of Lukas' performed by the Amadinda Percussion Group. Ethel (NY-based string quartet) and pianist Kathleen Supove. A fine mix of hypnotic repetition, complex cross rhythms and a sly sense of humor. TZADIK COMPOSER SERIES
CD for $14
SEPTETO RODRIGUEZ [ROBERTO JUAN RODRIGUEZ] - Baila! Gitano Baila! (Tzadik 7189) Featuring Matt Darriau on clarinet, kaval, flautin irlandes & trompeta china; Curtis Hasselbring on trombone, Ted Reichman on accordion & Hammond organ; Meg Okura & Sam Barfeld on violins, Mary Wooten on cello, Brad Jones on bass and Roberto on percussion with special guest Roberto "L." Rodriguez trumpet, trombone and bombardino. Another charming release of music from the imaginative mind of composer/performer Roberto Rodriguez, whose first CD El Danzon de Moises is one of Tzadik's best sellers. Celebrating the elusive Jewish community of SIEWERT, MARTIN: No Need To Be Lonesome CD (MOSZ 002CD). "Martin Siewert«s first solo record, which is not only his first solo recording, but also what we would call another side of Martin Siewert: In contrast to his work to date, No Need To Be Lonesome focuses on melodies and, most importantly, grooves, and can be considered popmusic to a certain degree. Basically generated in the studio with an obscure selection of analogue synthesizers, electronical equipment and guitars, this album is more about the beauty of songlike structures than about abstraction itself. This might be confusing for the ones who know Siewert«s discography, but simply shows an artist, who is active in different domains of contemporary music." a hot new band and brilliant new compositions Roberto's new CD is as soulful as it is danceable.
RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE SERIES CD for $14
DAVID SIMONS - Prismatic Hearing (Tzadik 8001) David Simons is a composer/performer who combines percussion, theremin, digital electronics, and World Music in strikingly original compositions that defy classification. A close collaborator of vocalist Shelley Hirsch, David has toured with Samul Nori, Gamelan Son of Lion, Samm Bennett, Denman Maroney and the Estonian Perception Unit. His first CD for Tzadik presents the full range of his work, and is a fascinating compendium of experimental pieces, both acoustic and electric. TZADIK COMPOSER SERIES
CD for $14
MORE NEW STUFF..
VANDERMARK 5 - Elements Of Style, Exercises In Surprise [Ltd 2 CD set] (Atavistic 150X; USA) Chicago's (and perhaps America's) most powerful new jazz quintet [reedist Ken Vandermark, who founded the group in 1996, now with saxophonist Dave Rempis, trombonist Jeb Bishop, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Tim Daisy] have created an array of musical themes & structures destined to blow the roof off the/your house with a superb balance of post-bop & avant-garde material. Ken Vandermark's premiere project has been touring the planet relentlessly, and has never sounded more big time, complete or sublime. SPECIAL!: The first 1500 copies are presented as a limited-edition double-cd, featuring FREE JAZZ CLASSICS VOL. 4: "Free Kings- The Music of Roland Kirk"
Ltd. 2 CD set for $17
JACK WRIGHT / MICHEL DONEDA / TATSUYA NAKATANI - From Between (SOS Editions 801) There's been a deafening buzz in the free improv world about these recordings ever since they were made last fall and this spring. The convergence of Jack Wright and Michel Doneda in 2002 and their subsequent US tour in 2003 is one of the mythical events in the history of avant-garde music, two men who had been following parallel paths in the personal reinvention of their instruments and the existential premises of music-making, finding each other like long-lost brothers. At the age of 61 Wright finally found his match.
Stacking miracle on top of miracle, they not only found ideal collaborations with the revelatory duo of Serge Bagdassarian and Boris Baltshun, but also one of the two percussionists whose paths were tangled with both men to the point of inexplicable intrigue, Tatsuya Nakatani (the other being Le Quan Ninh). Wright's previous encounters with this Boston improv emigree were case studies in sublime compability left unrealized in the fray of divergent personal evolution, but by the time of these recordings, Nakatani's intense period of post-Boston exploration and stylistic expansion in the NY improv scene had brought him to surprising levels of confidence and virtuosity, and it was impossible for him to stray off-course in the presence of Doneda's gruelling, hyperfocused micro-catharticism.
Although nearly all his recordings capture unique and successful musical situations, I would argue that this is the fourth major landmark recording in Nakatani's career (following the first Nmperign, the "au-un" duo with Kenta Nagai, and the "13 Definitions of Truth" duo with Peter Kowald), in the sense of crystallizing a component of his artistry, and the only one that adequately represents his current capacities in the area of abstract ritualism. His isolated strikes upon objects are resonant, sparse, irregularly spaced, and dynamically varied; his scraping, rattling, and poly-attack textures are oblique (cliche-free) and merge with sustained saxophone textures; and his bowed metal tones rival the saxophones in their richness and precision.
There are precedents for this recording in Doneda's past collaborations with Le Quan Ninh and saxophonist Daunik Lazro, but this disc gives the impression of a totally new musical language born from the Wright/Doneda synergy. To my ears, the most salient structural innovation is a perverse elongation of the musical phrase, a dogged obsession with squeezing every last second out of a musical thought. Even in moments where there is a lot of activity and variation, this disc has an eerie slowness, a Feldmanesque consistency in surface structure. Wright and Doneda make their saxophones bleed quietly, and keep bleeding. This definitely reflects Doneda's technical obsessions with insanely precise, high-pitched, sustained piercing tones and sustained hyperspeed flutters, quivers, and twitters, and runs counter to a primary trend in Wright's best work of recent years, the extreme reduction of temporal scale to the millisecond range, where thousands are phrases are hinted at in mere seconds, an approach that reached its pinnacle with the double-sax, double-cello quartet of Wright, Bhob Rainey, Bob Marsh, and Fred Lonberg-Holm.
This disc is not representative of the sort of "individual gestures + pauses" style of improv that has become commonplace in recent years, but it shares the austere anti-expressionism of this movement, not to mention the focus on unconventional instrumental sounds and low volumes. The difference is the SHEER SEETHING VIOLENCE of this music. It's not dense or noisy; it's not an onslaught of screaming and wailing saxophones, but it's as simultaneously safe and frightening as a wild beast in an extended moment of repose, with incidental growls, cackles, and thrashing bodily jerks serving as a reminders of its other ways of being. This music is to balls-out apocalyptic free jazz assaults like Scelsi is to Wagner--the visceral intensity is still there, but it's been trapped in a tiny bottle. If I had to make a short-list of the most profound developments in current improvised music, it would be this disc and "Good" by the BSC. --Michael Anton Parker
CD for $13
MARTIN SIEWERT - No Need To Be Lonesome CD (Mosz 002) Mr. Seiwert is a member of Trapist, one of the finest ambient/roots/space trios on this planet (their current cd on Thrill Jockey is one this year's best), as well as being half of that great duo with Brandlmayr on Erstwhile. Martin«s first solo record, which is not only his first solo recording, but also what we would call another side of Martin Siewert: In contrast to his work to date, 'No Need To Be Lonesome' focuses on melodies and, most importantly, grooves, and can be considered pop music to a certain degree. Basically generated in the studio with an obscure selection of analogue synthesizers, electronical equipment and guitars, this album is more about the beauty of songlike structures than about abstraction itself. This might be confusing for the ones who know Siewert«s discography, but simply shows an artist, who is active in different domains of contemporary music.
CD for $15
PAUL PANHUYSEN - A magic square of 5 to look at and A magic square of 5 to... (Plinkity Plonk 15) This work is a composition in two parts. The same magic square is transposed in two versions. One version can be experienced by the eyes, the other one by the ears. A magic square is a series of numbers arranged in a square grid so that the sum of each horizontal and vertical row and of the corner diagonals is always the same. Magic squares reveal harmony of number and refer to the nature of existence and a cosmic order dominated by mathematical regularity. Number is the origin of all things, Pythagoras said, and Boethius said music is numbers made audible. Presented as a room installation, 'A magic square of 5 to look at' is a floor-piece of 5 x 5 m, and 'A magic square of 5 to listen to' can be heard through a quadraphonic sound system, performing the four staffs of the score independently, starting about 5 seconds after each other. The audience moves around the floor-piece in the space. Panhuysen (1934) is an internationally recognized artist. Best known for his site-specific long string installations all over the world, he also is involved in systematic visual art. Calculus links his visual and sound art together. Furthermore he has been the artistic director of Het Apollohuis for about 2 decades.
Netherlands import CD for $17
BILL WELLS - Pick Up Sticks (Leaf 034/UK) In the esteemed company of To Rococo Rot's Stefan Schneider, Robert Wyatt's sometime musical director Annie Whitehead, and Berlin singer/songwriter Barbara Morgenstern, Scotland's leading avant-garde outsider Bill Wells joins The Leaf Label for this remarkable collaboration. With 'Pick Up Sticks', Wells moves away from piano-based work toward a warm, largely improvised, electronic group sound, colored with the tonality of Whitehead's trombone. This is a recording unlike anything Wells has done before, combining adventurous electronic touches to classy jazz compositions.
CD for $12
SONIC LIBERATION FRONT - Ash A Go-Go (High Two 002) Drummer Kevin Diehl, leader of Philadelphia's Sonic Liberation Front, is a man happily straddling the gap between musical idioms. A protg of free-jazz pioneer Sunny Murray, Diehl connects his training in both the post-bop tradition and traditional Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots music with authority. Combining a rhythm section equally devoted to Yoruba roots, and a horn section adept at free jazz expression -- polyrhythmic bata drumming seamlessly converges with avant-jazz elements, producing a highly addictive hybrid; being from Philadelphia, the further urban funk element is a matter of course. 'Ashe'A Go-Go' is the band's second album, and here Sonic Liberation Front has refined the formula that earned them critical praise for its self-released 2001 debut, 'Water and Stone'. Ambient electronics subtly embellish the compositions, carefully contextualizing the ancient traditional music of Yoruba into a brilliant new entity that eschews clichs and classification.
CD for $14
[ONLY] A FEW COPIES OF THIS AT A LOWER PRICE...
JOE McPHEE & JEROME BOURDELLON - Manhattan Tango (Usine 1008; EEC) Featuring the legendary Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet & voice and Jerome Bourdellon on bass, C and piccolo flutes. Recorded live Alain Kirilli's loft in Tribeca in April of 2000. French flutist Bourdellon has a solo CD out on Khokhot and of course, we all love anything that Joe McPhee does.
CD for $14
TWO MORE POPOL VUH RE-ISSUES..
POPOL VUH - Einsjager & Siebenjager (SPV; Germany) Released in 1974, Einsjger & Siebenjger (Earth & Sky) is a further rock entrenchment for Popol Vuh. Florian Fricke's piano is more percussively present with its runs and large chord voicings rippling throughout each composition. In addition, Daniel Fichelscher's electric guitar picks up where Conny Veit's left off, taking the bluesy space rock solo style into new territory by incorporating Eastern scales into the main body of his blues phrasing. There are five short compositions on the first side, which merely prepare the listener for the mind-blowing title cut, which takes up the entirety of side two. Here, in addition to the swirling organic percussion and pianism of Fricke and the loping, often singing guitar lines that repeat hypnotically with rock & roll tension, the vocals of the amazing Djong Yun become the catalyst for the other musicians to spiral off into extended improvisations. This is certainly one of the most beautiful albums Popol Vuh issued in the 1970s, and remains a watermark for their trademark of melding beauty and free-flowing composition. -- Thom Jurek, AMG This edition includes 2 short bonus cuts
CD for $16
POPOL VUH - Shepherd's Symphony [Hirtensymphonie] (SPV; Germany) This hard-to-get latter day release [1997] is one of the last recordings and features Florian Fricke along with Frank Fiedler and Guido Hieronymus
CD for $16
ELLERY ESKELIN SOLD US HIS LAST COPIES OF TWO OF HIS OUT-OF-PRINT TITLES...
ELLERY ESKELIN/ANDREA PARKINS/JIM BLACK - Five Other Pieces (+2) (Hat ology 533; Switzerland) As with One Great Day... (hatOLOGY 502) and Kulak 29 & 30 (hatOLOGY 521) this recording was made upon the culmination of a combined US and European tour lasting about a month. ... It's been a pleasure bringing our music to points far and wide and we look forward to continuing that process. Maybe we'll meet you at a future concert, if so, please say hello ... - Ellery Eskelin
Out-Of-Print CD for $20
ELLERY ESKELIN/ANDREA PARKINS/JIM BLACK - Kulak, 29 & 30 (Hat ology 521; Switzerland) March 20th, 1994. That date marked our concert debut in New York City. We've been a band for four years now. Even so, we are only just beginning to get to the point where I feel like we have a real past on which we can build. I wrote most of the music on this recording shortly before we began a tour of the States in September of 1997. ... In the process we learn what it means to play music, communicate with an audience and make documents along the way. You, the listener, are an integral and essential part of it all. Thanks for joining us in that process.- Ellery Eskelin
Out-Of-Print CD for $20
DMG RECOMMENDED CALENDAR FOR UPCOMING GIGS NYC AREA, EARLY JUNE 2004:
Friday June 4th-
JOHN ZORN ALL-STAR IMPROV at Tonic at 8 & 10pm w/ Cyro Baptista, Sylvie Courvoisier, Okkyung Lee, Anthony Coleman, Anton Fier, William Winant, Tim Barnes, Shanir Blumenkranz, Erik Friedlander, Mark Dresser - each night the personnel changes a bit and surprises are in store!!
ANGELICA SANCHEZ QUARTET at (29) Cornelia St. Caf at 9pm - w/ Tony Malaby, Michael Formanek & Tom Rainey!!
Saturday June 5th-
JOHN ZORN ALL-STAR IMPROV at Tonic at 8 & 10pm - personnel changes each night, it was still a blast the night I went - see the possible players above on Friday!
DANIEL CARTER/ROY CAMPBELL/WILLIAM PARKER/RASHIED BAKR & ALAN SILVA at Fusion Arts (57 Stanton St.) at 8 & 10pm!!
MICHAEL MARCUS/TED DANIEL/TAURUS MATEEN/NASHEET WAITS at Cornelia St. Caf at 8:30 & 10:30!!
Sunday June 6th-
KID LUCKY (human beatbox improv) at 7 & SHAWN PERSINGER (solo guitarist from Boud Deun, prog/fusion band on Cuneiform) at 8pm - here at DMG for free!
LIFETIME VISION ORCHESTRA (w/Joseph Jarman & Chris Chalfant) - 5-8pm for free at Stuyvesant Park - 23rd St at the East River!
Sunday Free Style Series at CB's Lounge - 313 Bowery starts at
7 w/ george schuller, joe fonda, gebhard ullmann;
8pm w/ daniel levin, dave ballou, joe morris, matt moran;
9pm w/ storm - daniel carter, hans tammen, dietrich rauschtenberger &
10pm w/ THE MP3 - mike pride, mary halvorsen, trevor dunn - another amazing line-up!!
JENNY SCHEINMAN CD Release Celebration at Tonic at 8pm for her great Tzadik release!
Monday June 7th-
ROVO w/ special guest Fernando Kabusacki at Tonic at 8pm & 10pm!! ROVO are a fantastic space/rock/prog all-star band from Japan w/ members from the Boredoms & Bondage Fruit. Their double cd on Tzadik is f**king amazing! Not to be missed!
VIJAY IYER & RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA at the Blue Note (W. 4th St. near 6th Ave.) at 8 & 10:30! Vijay is an incredible pianist and Rudresh an outstanding alto saxist!!
Wednesday June 9th-
EUGENE CHADBOURNE & HAN BENNINK at Tonic at 8 & 10pm! Two improv legends whose collaborations stretch back over 20 years - Dr. Chad is the original downtown guitar great and Han is the Dutch madman drummer - both are often hilarious and great players!!
Thursday June 10th-
MARC RIBOT & LOS CUBANOS, ELLIOTT SHARP & REBECCA MOORE UNIT - Benefit for Issue Project Room at Angel Orensanz Center - 172 Norfolk St. - doors open at 7pm! IPR is one of the best music spaces in town and certainly deserves (y)our support!
JON MADOF'S RASHANIM & NAFTULE'S DREAM at Makor's Steinhardt Building, 35 W. 67th St. (bet. Central Park West and Columbus Avenue) - excellent Tzadik double bill!!
LUCIAN BAN/CARNEY/BARRY ALTSCHUL TRIO at Cornelia St. Caf at 8:30 - great pianist (Ban) & drummer (Altschul)!
Friday June 11th-
RICHARD FOREMAN BENEFIT w/ MASADA STRING TRIO, GLENN BRANCA & ROBERT ASHLEY at Tonic at 8pm!
STEVE LEHMAN QUINTET at the Jazz Gallery at 9 & 10:30 w/Jonathan Finlayson, Drew Gress & Tyshawn Sorey - Steve is great young alto saxist who has worked w/ Braxton!
JEREMY STEIG/VIC JURIS/CAMERON BROWN QT. at Cornelia St. Caf at 8:30 & 10:30!
JANE IRA BLOOM/JAMIE SAFT/MARK HELIAS/BOBBY PREVITE at Sweet Rhythm (88 7th Ave. S) at 8, 10 & midnite! - This all-star downtown quartet should be pretty great!
Saturday June 12th-
BEN ALLISON & MEDICINE WHEEL at Tonic at 8pm - w/ Michael Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Clark Gayton & Jeff Ballard!
SPANISH FLY [STEVE BERNSTEIN/DAVE TRONZO/MARCUS ROJAS] at Tonic at 10pm!!
Sunday June 13th-
RARA AVIS [JEFF ARNAL/SET MISTERKA/GORDON BEEFERMAN] here at DMG at 7pm for free!! Their self-produced is one this year's best unknown gems of downtown improv!
Sunday Free Style Series at CB's Lounge - 313 Bowery starts at
7:00pm - borah bergman & dee pop;
8pm - roy campbell, william hooker, jason hwang;
9pm - lifetime visions orchestra: Chris Chalfant, Joseph Jarman, Thomas Buckner, Jessica Jones, Tony Jones, Cale Brandley, Mark Taylor, Pam Fleming, Steve Swell, Michael Braudy, Ken Filiano, Adam Lane, Ken Yamazaki, Rob Garcia! Another great line-up!!
Friday June 18th-
BRUCE LEE GALLANTER'S 50th BIRTHDAY & DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY'S 13TH ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE CELEBRATION will take place at Tonic - 107 Norfolk St. starting at 8pm w/ an amazing cast:
TISZIJI MUNOZ HEART-THRUST w/ BOB RA-KALAM MOSES & DON PATE!
JOHN ZORN'S MYSTERY MASADA!
ELLIOTT SHARP'S RAW MEET TRIO w/ MELVIN GIBBS & LANCE CARTER!
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