The world turns, and the CDs just keep spinnin' out!

Dave Douglas Brass Ecstasy! Masayuki Takayanagi Box Set! John Hebert! Vinny Golia/Peter Kowald! Carl Maguire! Paul Hartsaw's SCMM! The Hellboys with Robert Fripp! Jason Kahn! Nick Cave! Stravinsky/Goldman! Jac Berrocal! Iannis Xenakis! Fennesz/O'Rourke/Rehberg! et al..

And a price break on Dave Douglas' 'Greenleaf' label!




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Downtown Music Gallery FREE In-Store Performance Schedule:


Sunday, June 28th at 6pm:

TOM HAMILTON & BRUCE EISENBEIL!
Pogus CD Release Celebration for this wonderful Guitar & electronics Duo!


Sunday July 5th Double-Header:

6pm - ADAM LINSON & TOM BLANCARTE!
Two Amazing Contrabassists in a Rare & Intimate Setting!
Adam Linson has a solo & duo disc out on Evan Parker's Psi Label and Tom Blancarte is half of Sparks with Peter Evans!

7pm - SKYE STEELE & JOHN HADFIELD!
Extra Special Violin & Percussion Duo!


Sunday, July 12th at 6pm:
RAS MOSHE & THE INTERSTELLAR EXPLORERS!


Sunday, July 19th at 6pm:
STEW CUTLER Solo Guitar!


Sunday, July 26th at 6pm:
JASON KAO HWANG & STEVE SWELL!
Ace Violinist & Tremendous Trombonist!


Sunday, August 2nd at 6pm:
GIACOMO MEREGA / NOAH KAPLAN / MARCO CAPPELLI!
International Electric Bass / Saxes / Guitar Trio!


Sunday, August 16th at 6pm:
CLIFTON HYDE - Solo Guitar ..and Madness!


Sunday, August 23rd at 6pm:
THINK SHADOW Featuring MICHAEL ATTIAS & SEAN CONLY!
New Alto Sax & Acoustic Bass Duo!


Sunday, August 30th at 6pm:
PIERRE YVES MARTEL!
Solo Viola da Gamba!


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We are getting a certain number of the amazing improvisor Masayuki Takayanagi's limited New Directions Unit: Live Archive V1 box set - none of the discs are available individually - directly from Japan [in-stock early next week], but we wish you to place your order now, we may be able to up the order to cover everybody..


MASAYUKI TAKAYANAGI NEW DIRECTION UNIT - Archive Vol 1 [Ltd Ed 5 CD + DVD Box Set] (DIW/Jinya NDU-A101; Japan) Box set is limited to 500 copies, even less of those will have the bonus 8 minute DVD which we are DEFINITELY receiving a small number of!
DISC 1 [B-14]: Recorded live at Another Situation first concert, Pulcinella, Shibuya, Tokyo, September 4, 1977
NDU quartet - Masayuki Takayanagi, Yoshiaki Fujikawa, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Akira Ijima
DISC 2 [B-15]: Recorded live at New Direction Unit Regular Concert No. 35, Jean Jean, Shibuya, Tokyo, June 2, 1977
NDU trio - Masayuki Takayanagi, Yoshiaki Fujikawa, Akira Ijima
DISC 3 [B-16]: Recorded live at New Direction Unit Regular Concert No. 36, Jean Jean, Shibuya, Tokyo, August 4, 1977
NDU quartet - Masayuki Takayanagi, Yoshiaki Fujikawa, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Akira Ijima
DISC 4 [B-17]: Recorded live at New Direction Unit Regular Concert No. 39, Jean Jean, Shibuya, Tokyo, February 10, 1978
NDU quintet - Masayuki Takayanagi, Yoshiaki Fujikawa, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Akira Ijima, Kenji Seyama
DISC 5 [B-18]: Recorded live at New Direction Unit Regular Concert No. 43, Jean Jean, Shibuya, Tokyo, October 6, 1978
NDU sextet - Masayuki Takayanagi, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Akira Ijima, Kenji Seyama, Kenji Mori, Nobuyoshi Ino
Includes an insert with a chronology of New Direction Unit (in Japanese) by Saburo Sugitani. Also includes an 8-page booklet with liner notes in Japanese by Michiko Takayanagi, photos of memos written by Masayuki Takayanagi, and a photo of Masayuki Takayanagi by Tatsuo Minami
5 CD + DVD Box Set for $110


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Last week we [meaning MannyLunch] flucked up!

We meant to advertise the new OffOnOff:

OFFONOFF [MASSIMO ZUMA/TERRIE EX/PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE] - Slap And Tickle (Smalltown SJ 164; EEC) Featuring Massimo Pupillo (from ZU) on electric bass, Terrie Ex (from the Ex) on electric guitar and Paal Nilssen-Love (from Scorch Trio & The Thing) on drums. They recorded this gem live in concert at Kongsberg International Jazzfestival in July 2007. With the two tracks, Slap & Tickle on 32 & 16 minutes, they attack all senses with an exploding riot of free rock. If possible to describe, the music is in the midst of Black Flag, DNA, Pere Ubu, Last Exit, James Blood Ulmer, early Sonic Youth & of course Terrie's very own legendary band The Ex. All free improvised. Total freedom, total rock!
CD $15

but instead we inserted the listing for the previous OffOnOff release [with BLG's glowing review], representing it as new - our apologies.

OFFONOFF [MASSIMO ZUMA/TERRIE EX/PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE] - Crash (Smalltown SJ 147; EEC)
CD $15

..Which many of you ordered - If you would like the new one instead, or as well, let us know right away!


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New studio recording from Dave Douglas - at last!

DAVE DOUGLAS BRASS ECSTASY With VINCENT CHANCEY/LUIS BONILLA/MARCUS ROJAS/NASHEET WAITS - Spirit Moves: Deluxe Edition [CD + DVD] (Greenleaf 10; USA) Disc 1 [CD]: Douglas' first studio album in three years and the debut recording of his project Brass Ecstasy, Spirit Moves features Douglas alongside Vincent Chancey (French horn), Luis Bonilla (trombone), Marcus Rojas (tuba) and Nasheet Waits (drums) paying homage to the brass instrument with eight new original compositions and three arrangements of classics by such disparate artists as Otis Redding, Hank Williams and Rufus Wainwright. Over the past several years, Douglas has steadily honed his work with Brass Ecstasy with appearances at the 2008 Chicago Jazz Festival, which commissioned new music from the group, Willisau Festival, Reggio Calabria Jazz Festival, and The Festival of New Trumpet Music. Informed by the evolving spirit of brass music and by his multi-faceted career as the director of The Festival of New Trumpet Music, label head of Greenleaf Music, a renowned composer, artist, and record producer, Douglas pens an ambitious collection of lyrical songs with impressions of folk, pop and soul music.
Disc 2 [DVD]: The in-studio workings of Brass Ecstasy shot by Jem Cohen (REM, Patti Smith) and Christoph Green (Wilco, Burn to Shine). Featured songs include: "This Love Affair," "Bowie," "Great Awakening," "Mister Pitiful," "Fats," and "The View From Blue Mountain," [below]. Edited by Christoph Green and Brendan Canty for Trixie DVD. This DVD is included in the Deluxe packaging offered by Greenleaf. Supplies are limited of this Deluxe [DVD included] edition!
CD + DVD set for $20

above also available as CD only for $14

[..pssst! yeah, you! We've lowered our prices on all Dave Douglas' Greenleaf label by $2 for most items - see the list further down]




JOHN HEBERT With TONY MALABY/MICHAEL ATTIAS et al - Byzantine Monkey (Firehouse12 04-01-010; USA) Byzantine Monkey, bassist/composer John Hebert's long-awaited debut recording as a bandleader, documents his New York-based sextet of the same name featuring frequent collaborators Michael Attias and Tony Malaby (saxes), Adam Kolker (winds), Nasheet Waits(drums) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion). Hebert's original compositions for the group take their inspiration from a variety of sources, including his interest in Cajun music, his travels to different parts of the world and his gratitude and respect for his mentor, legendary pianist/composer Andrew Hill, with whom Hebert worked from 2001 until his death in 2007. The musicians bringing that music to life in Byzantine Monkey have all worked extensively with Hebert in other ensembles, including Attias, Kolker and Malaby's own groups and Hill's trio and quintet. "Byzantine Monkey is me, and Byzantine Monkey is the band," writes Hebert in the liner notes. "All of our voices together, telling one story."
CD $14

CARL MAGUIRE FLORICULTURE With OSCAR NORIEGA/STEPHANIE GRIFFIN/JOHN HEBERT/DAN WEISS - Sided Silver Solid (Firehouse12 04-01-009; USA) with Oscar Noriega (reeds), Dan Weiss (drums), John Hebert (bass), Stephanie Griffin (viola), and Carl Maguire (piano)
Sided Silver Solid is keyboardist/composer Carl Maguire's Firehouse 12 debut and the second release from his longstanding band, Floriculture, which has performed his sophisticated compositions around New York since 2001. It is also the first recording to feature the band's expanded line-up featuring new music violist Stephanie Griffin and veteran multi-instrumentalist Oscar Noriega. Critics called the band's previous release, Floriculture (Between the Lines), "one of the true modern jazz surprises of 2006" (Glenn Astarita, ejazznews.com) and "as exciting a debut release as any in the last few years" (The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, Eighth Edition). "Floriculture most definitely exudes the mark of an extremely confident composer in Carl Maguire, who has a deep feel for the freedom that jazz allows," wrote AllAboutJazz.com's Budd Koppman. "His bandmates obviously enjoy bringing his music to life, and I thoroughly enjoyed taking the trip with them."
CD $14


VINNY GOLIA/PETER KOWALD - Mythology (Kadima 20; Israel) Late legendary european free music bassist and virtuoso west coast composer/winds player, Los Angeles 2000
CD $15


SYLVAIN KASSAP/CLAUDE TCHAMITCHIAN/RAYMON LOPEZ/DENIS LAVANT/FRANCK MEDIONI - Ascension: Tombeaux De John Coltrane (RogueArt 22; EEC)
CD $16


THE HELLBOYS [TOM REDMOND With TONY LEVIN/TONY GEBALLE/BILL RIEFLIN/CALIFORNIA GUITAR TRIO/ROBERT FRIPP] - A Young Person's Guide to Hell (IK; USA) The second great Hellboy album features performances by: Pete Caigen, Robert Fripp, Tony Geballe, Curt Golden, Bert Lams, Tony Levin, Victor McSurely, Hideyo Moriya, Luciano Pietrafesa, Kelli Rae Powell, Tom Redmond, Paul Richards, Bill Rieflin, and Vora Vor
CD $14


PAUL HARTSAW'S SOCIOCYBERNETIC MUSIC MACHINE [SCMM] With JEROME BRYERTON/PHILLIP GREENLIEF/KRISTIAN ASPELIN et al - Oakland 2007 (MetaStableSound 12; USA)
CD $14



FENN O'BERG [CHRISTIAN FENNESZ/JIM O'ROURKE/PETER REHBERG] - Magic & Return: The Magic Sound Of Fenn O'Berg/The Return Of Fenn O'Berg [2 CD set] (Editions Mego 31-54; Austria) Editions Mego presents legendary supergroup Fenn O'Berg (Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg) and the double CD reissue of The Magic Sound Of Fenn O'Berg and The Return Of Fenn O'Berg, originally released in 1999 and 2002. Fenn O'Berg first hit the scene after a surprise appearance at the Nickelsdorf Festival in 1997. Throughout 1998 and 1999, the trio toured extensively throughout Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, as well as shows in North America and Japan. The highlights of these trips were presented on The Magic Sound Of Fenn O'Berg. Although they were not the first group to utilize mainly mobile computing devices, they were the first to bring such a set up to venues that would not normally book or even be interested in such things. This resulted in some very polarized reactions from both audience and promoters alike. In many instances the group needed to "escape" the city they played. In Rome, Jim O'Rourke was even given an acoustic guitar and more or less forced to play a short acoustic set before anyone could leave the building. Despite all of this, there was a generally positive response, with some shows going down as local legend. However, it's worth considering that the technology at the time didn't offer the convenient "plug and play" of current operating systems and applications. This, of course, led to a set of recordings like no other. Not only was the rule book ripped up, but the tour book as well. Each show became an improvised, twisted journey through the various strands of electronic music -- where popular music sources (some more obvious than others) clashed with more academic tricks, but never sounding like being part of either. By 2002, the group's live output was drastically reduced due to all three members' schedules moving in different directions. Only two performances were committed that year, and although the sound was more polished and one could even suggest that "they knew what they were doing," their polarizing effect was still there. One show was a sold-out, over-enthusiastic Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the other a miserable "count them on one hand" turnout at a jazz club in Vienna. Edited highlights of these shows made up The Return Of Fenn O'Berg. Since then, the trio has been on a constant pause, but are planning to resurface with a brand-new album in 2010. This reissue is repackaged with new artwork by Tina Frank, and contains two bonus tracks from the same period. This is unmatched improvised computer music that simply defined a whole genre.
2 CD set for $22


RICHARD GARET/BRENDAN MURRAY - Of Distance [Ltd Ed] (Unframed 02; USA) ltd. & numbered edition of 400. Of Distance unites Richard Garet (winds measure recordings, Non-visual Objects, and/OAR), and Brendan Murray (23five, Intransitive, Sedimental among others) for two long-form exercises in heavily-textured dronescaping. The nearly half-hour-long 'In Parallel' showcases the care and deliberation with which the collaborators allow the material to develop, moving as it does from long unfurls of industrial noise and metallic timbres to agitated percussive flurries of processed field recordings and synthetic materials. Ongoing metamorphosis keeps the piece engaging from start to finish, as disembodied voices and other sounds rise to the surface of the churning and at times seething electrical mass. The twenty-minute 'The Tyranny of the Objects' pursues a more linear path as it swells gradually into an immense mass of muffled clatter and grinding machinery. The wave-like colossus that results threatens to disorient as one finds oneself sucked into the vortex's incessantly swirling center. The recording is no slapdash affair but instead the result of three years of exchange between the artists, who initially convened for a series of improvised sessions and then painstakingly shaped the resultant material into the CD's pieces.
CD $14

PHANTOM LIMB [JAIME FENNELY] & EARTH'S HYPNAGOGIA [SHAWN HANSEN] - In Celebration Of Knowing All The Blues Of The Evening [Ltd Ed] (Unframed 01; USA) ltd. & numbered edition of 400. The unusually-named Phantom Limb & Earth's Hypnagogia combines the talents of Jaime Fennelly (Peeesseye, Evolving Ear Records) and Shawn Hansen (Evolving Ear) for an immersive set of nocturnal set-pieces largely centered on the sonic properties of Farfisa organs and HP sine-wave oscillators. Interestingly, when the music was recorded during a live show at Josef Astor's photography studio in New York , the time and location were selected so as to exploit natural light transitions that were visible through skylight windows during the performance. As a result, one interprets the rustling and creaking noises that occur alongside the twilight drones as the natural sounds that arise during a live set, such as onstage individuals moving about and manipulating equipment. In the earlier stages of the recording, the tones stray little from a singular pitch so interest is courted by the changes in volume and intensity that Fennelly and Hansen apply to the material. Subtle changes in the spatial positioning of the organ and oscillator tones occurs too, with the two sharing the spotlight as they move back and forth from foreground to background. The opening three-part piece 'Civil Twilight' advances towards its culmination in the final section, growing ever more intense as its end comes in sight. Though the recording is shown as having six parts (two three-part pieces to be exact), the material unfolds as an uninterrupted, forty-eight-minute piece. There are sometimes clear shifts in style from one section to another, however, as when the low-level 'Darkness (Nautical Twilight) 1' gives way to the plunge into psychosis that transpires during the second part and the grinding convulsions that dominate the third. In Celebration of Knowing All the Blues of the Evening clearly did not go gently into that May, 2006 good night.
CD $14


New on '23Five' ..

JASON KAHN - Vanishing Point (23Five 15; USA) "The American sound-artist Jason Kahn is an exacting technician when it comes to the principles of noise. However, his application of noise in composition is not that of Merzbow or Masonna, with teeth-gnashing explosions of distortion, feedback, and volume; rather, Kahn's psychoacoustic techniques employ the specific frequencies of white, pink, brown, and blue noise in works that reflect the ideals of minimalism. These are sounds that regularly occur through the constant vibration of machinery; and Kahn is more than happy to appropriate such events through field recording. He also generates complementary noises through systems that involve the rattling architecture of a drum kit or through his trusted analog synthesizer. Vanishing Point is a 47 minute composition, which Kahn has dedicated to his daughter who died shortly before Kahn began working on this piece in 2007. For all of the phenomenological studies and stoic mesmerism attributed to much of his catalogue, Vanishing Point is a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and those aforementioned colored noises. Soon into the piece, Kahn introduces a flickered ghost of melody whose luminous tones manifest ever so slightly against his contrails of noise. The upper register hiss and statics of these layered noises slowly drop in pitch and frequency over the duration of the piece, revealing subharmonic rumblings and an oceanic current that tugs at the agitated textures of Kahn's surface noises. This glacial, minimalist shift renders Vanishing Point elegant and meditative. In Kahn's own words, 'At first I thought of the title in reference to Louise's passing, that point where she vanished from our lives, but on further reflection I came to see the composition as dealing with other vanishing points. I address the idea of one's sense of time vanishing, being immersed in sound and entering a place of timelessness. There is also the idea of boundaries between electronic and acoustic sound vanishing, as in this piece I draw on both sources. And finally, in the sense of aural perspective extending to the point where we imagine it ending, as the composition stretches on towards its vista, slowly vanishing.'"
CD $14

BRENDAN MURRAY - Commonwealth (23Five 13; USA) "In recent years, Brendan Murray has become a central figure in Boston's sound art vanguard through a reputation of exceptional live performances and a growing catalogue of slow-shifting compositions for rarified drones. He sets himself apart from the conventional wisdom that drone-based music is an open-ended exercise into the 'realm of the infinite.' Murray specifically shapes his repetitions and sinewy tonalities within the rigors of compositional frameworks and temporal restraints. This process does not lend itself to speed, as previous albums required up to four years to complete and Commonwealth endured over fifteen drafts before Murray perfected the album. A single crescendo terminating at the end of 49 minutes, Commonwealth is an epic investigation into subtle harmonics and overtones expressed through layered slippages of pure sound. Conceived through guitar, analog synthesis, and plenty of digital manipulation, Commonwealth expresses a rare confidence in Murray's finely tuned detailing of sinewy tonalities and sculpted megalithic surfaces. Murray himself has qualified this album as a 'sincere bow to 'classic' minimalism,' and Commonwealth is a worthy parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Iannis Xenakis."
CD $14

TARAB [EAMON SPROD] - Take All The Ships From The Harbour, And Sail Them Straight To Hell (23Five 14; USA) "The title to this album from Tarab (nee Eamon Sprod) is striking enough in its allusions of damnation, with a watery grave a potential outcome from human activity impacting the earth. So, it may be stating the obvious that the corroded locations where mankind has scarred the surface of the earth feature prominently in the work of this Melbourne-based sound artist. The residual elements of these sites become the agents for metaphor and allegory in Tarab's work, documented through field recording and sympathetic actions with found objects from those sites. One such location that features prominently in Take All of the Ships... is Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. Once the home of an immigration station at the turn of the 20th Century and later a Nike Missile site for the US military, Angel Island now rests in the hands of the US National Park Service, which has left some of the buildings to succumb to the forces of decay. From the sounds culled from this site and others closer to his antepodean home, Tarab diligently overlays and stitches together a highly tactile composition with very little digital treatments to speak of. Take All of the Ships... opens with an ominous rumble whose frequencies appear to emerge from the center of the Earth and liquefying the surface upon impact. As these tones ebb and flow, Tarab unveils as revolving series of exaggerated details from a hyperbolic gash of two heavy pieces of metal grinding against themselves to a toxic chorale of nighttime insects to sand, wind, and surf detourned into sedimentary white noise. Tarab's compositional sensibility shifts throughout the album, at first sparsely situating these sounds into shadowy vignettes. Gradually, Tarab coalesces this sublime opus into an arcing crescendo which exhibits sustained harmonics rarely heard in the best of the contemporary dronemusik technicians much less from the realm of sound ecology."
CD $14



CORNELIUS CARDEW//KEITH ROWE/OREN AMBARCHI - Treatise (Planam CCC; Italy) "Cornelius Cardew's opus magnus Treatise is a 193-page graphic score written between 1963 and 1967 while he was performing with the improvisation group AMM. The score's graphic notation, with its intricately devised graphic lines, shapes and symbols, was intended to question the limits of compositional practice. Decisions concerning pitch, timbre and duration, along with the choice of instruments and the number of performers, are left entirely to the discretion of those willing to devise the rules and means for its performance. This realisation of 4 pages from Treatise by Keith Rowe (tabletop guitar) and Oren Ambarchi (guitar), possibly the most powerful ever achieved, was recorded live at Bimhuis in Amsterdam on Feb 8th 2009. Rowe and Ambarchi use the guitar as a point of departure for completely new techniques and sound environments. Already in the 1960s Rowe made a radical departure from traditional jazz, redefining the guitar in the British collective AMM. He prefers to lay the instrument on the table to manipulate its sound with springs, fans, office appliances and electronics. Ambarchi, also in Sunn O))), Menstruation Sisters and Burial Chamber Trio, predominantly mould guitar sounds into dark sonic patterns. Cornelius Cardew might be considered the most relevant contemporary composer from Great Britain. In the end of the 1950s Karlheinz Stockhausen was very impressed by Cardew's abilities as a musician and his knowledge of new music and invited him to participate to the historical 'Kontrefestival' concerts in Cologne (an important pre-fluxus event). In 1960 Cardew was at Darmstadt were he met John Cage, David Tudor and among others Walter Marchetti. Cage's experimental techniques were very inspiring for Cardew who, in 1969 founded the Scratch Orchestra, a large, rotating group of professional and amateur performers committed to collective experimentation which might be considered as one of the most convincing collective experiments in the history of 20th century avant-garde culture. Edition limited to 300 copies, reproducing, on the sleeve and the innersleeve, the 4 pages from Treatise performed by Rowe-Ambarchi."
LP $30

KLAUS RODER - Kristallisationen (Planam KRK; Italy) "Klaus Roder is a guitar virtuoso and electronic music artist who studied with Kelemen and joined Kraftwerk for their famous Autobahn LP. He often works with very small sound particles, whose sound comes from different sources, like tearing paper, the voice, a musical instrument, synthesizer or computer sounds. Sound structures are built by joining together those sound particles and, by mixing those structures, Roeder forms chords. Then the process of crystallization begins. Usually crystallization means that small parts are deposited around a germ and form a growing crystal. The shape of the complete crystal is a consequence of outer influences. A series of sound crystals form, then the complete musical composition. Side 1 presents two electronic music works: '10: 11: 12' (1980) for self-built Impulse Generator is an obscure, very minimal and abstract pulsating piece, while 'Kristallisation 4' (1991) for Computer Sounds and Yamaha DX 802 might be considered one of the peaks of Klaus Roder Kristallisation series. Side 2 introduces us to a different formal result of Roder's crystallization process: the short 'Haenschen Blues' (1993) for children singing and crying, Yamaha TX 802 controlled by selfmade programs for Atari TT is a both playful and sinister electronic assemblage anticipating the peak of this record, 'Potpourri' (1985) a collage of short sound particles from German pop hits of the 1970s and 1980s. In the perspective on sound collages (from Battiato 'Ethika Fon Ethica' to Bladder Flask's first LP, from NWW's most surrealistic works to John Oswald classic plunderphonics) 'Potpourri' might be more close to the brut masterpiece 'InOut' by Anton Bruhin, only constructed in a more advanced and scientific way. Edition limited to 300 copies, also including a series of inserts with the diagrams and schedules of the 4 compositions presented on this LP."
LP $30

MICHEL VOGEL - Une Petite Musique De Nuit (Planam OHM; Italy) "Planam proudly presents the first LP by the artist and sound sculptor Michel Vogel. Born in 1941 in Strasbourg, France, Michel Vogel artistic activities start in 1960 when, as a painter under the materic influences of Antoni Tapies and Jean Dubuffet, his mineral and sound experimentations built a universe influenced by free jazz, extra-European music and Olivier Messiaen. His researches develop with new sculptures and the creation of his own resonating metal instruments. His friends of the minimalist group, and specially the Fluxus artists, supported and pushed him to carry on his acoustics explorations while his sonic creations get closer to the music of John Cage, Philip Corner, Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi. For this first project, Planam selected, in direct collaboration with the artist, an improvisation for large size gongs 'prepared' with metal rods, little gong, Chinese cymbal, caoutchouc ball, titled Une Petite Musique De Nuit. Recorded live with no over-dubbing the night of January 18th, 2002. A very deep and alfa-wave oriented listening that will make you discover very intimate, as well as stellar new sonic dimensions. Edition limited to 300 copies, with full colour space cover and innersleeve."
LP $30



IGOR STRAVINSKY//STEFAN GOLDMANN - Le Sacre Du Printemps: Stefan Goldmann Edit (Macro 10; Germany) Beloved and renowned Berlin-based producer and head of the Macro Recordings label Stefan Goldmann delivers a groundbreaking edit of a classic: a minimalistic cut-up on the edges of perception, celebrating one of the most thrilling works in music -- Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps. Staying 100% true to the original score, he moves through over a dozen classic recordings of the work in 146 individually-treated segments. Nothing has been left out, nothing has been added. Still, everything totally changes every few seconds. Probably the most radical approach to editing, ever, and serving to officially electrify classical music to its core. These are some of the most revolutionary notes in the whole history of music. Written in 1913, Le Sacre Du Printemps redefined what music could be, much as Beethoven's Eroica had done a century before. While its debut performance caused massive riots, it has become one of the most celebrated works of music ever since. It has been performed and recorded by basically every renowned conductor and orchestra in the world, and is one of the most often played orchestral works of all times. Stefan Goldmann's edit is as radically innovative without ever messing with Stravinsky's intentions. With each listen, you will encounter a different performance, room, and recording set-up. This is a minimalistic journey into the depths of interpretation and concert hall acoustics, microphone positioning and mixdown decisions. Goldmann on the editing process: "Each time a different world in the headphones. Also the different shades of tape hiss in the recordings make it sort of an electroacoustic avant-garde work, as you can follow a floating noise contour throughout the work -- probably the clearest evidence of the edit process. It's putting a focus on the subtleties of orchestral interpretation -- a field often neglected and widely unknown to the electronic society. Identify the edits through analysis of interpretation parameters! It's a very quiet intrusion into the material and I have been extremely careful not to change sound color or to mask any relevant elements." This is an utterly masterful celebration of an original. This disc also features a "classic" 1957 live recording of Sacre with Pierre Monteux conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
CD $17


JAC [JACQUES] BERROCAL - Paralleles (Alga Marghen 037; Italy) "Jacques Berrocal has been very active since the beginning of the 1970s. No one in France could mix jazz, improvisation, rock'n'roll, punk, no wave, spoken words and industrial music like him. He also had a central position in the creation of d'Avantage, a collective record label that issued some of the most particular sessions of the mid-late Seventies. At the same time he was working on never ending sessions for records that were never issued. Jac and his band were the Apostles of the non-urgency, enjoying recording in unusual situations, with no rules, improvising on undefined structures or using non-musical material mixed with ethnic instrumental solos. In 1976 d'Avantage issued a wonderful record LP titled Paralleles featuring, among the others, Bernard Vitet, Roger Ferlet, Pierre Bastien, Michel Potage, Daniel Deshays, with the intervention of Vince Taylor, the dark diamond of rock'n'roll who inspired David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. Just a couple of years later Berrocal collaborated with Steven Stapleton to create the first Nurse with Would record LP. Paralleles features very different styles; acoustic solo and duo for trombone and cornet as well as a large ensemble 25 minutes long piece dedicated to the futurist Russolo (again, two years later, Mr.Stapleton dedicated his first NWW record to the same italian artist). Also to mention are 'Post-Card', recorded in a Pigsty in 1976, and the legendary 'Rock'n'roll Station', a mini-concert for voice (Vince Taylor), double bass (Roger Ferlet) and bicycle (Jac Berrocal). The remastered CD also includes five previously unreleased tracks that were actually left out of the original record: 'Villa Povera Naturale' (1972) is a short piece for pocket trumpet and various concrete elements; 'Occupe' by Michel Potage is an excerpt taken from an LP that d'Avantage never issued; 'Shorten' and 'Lisylis Pavillon' are the first experiments using electronics and 'Cryptea IV', taken from the sessions of the early Futura LP. Thirty years later Jacques Berrocal is still there, where nothing is waiting for him, totally outside the rules, out of fashion thus indemodable. A digipack CD edition including a folded insert with very nice original photos and scores."
CD $20

BERNARD HEIDSIECK - Poeme-Partition X [CD & Book] (Alga Marghen 074; Italy) "Poeme-Partition X was created by Bernard Heidsieck during 1960 and recorded in October the same year. A few excerpts of the 1st and 4th movements were performed on November 22nd, 1960 at the Quatre Saisons Gallery in Paris, during the Festival of Avant-Garde Art. Poeme-Partition X might be considered Heidsieck's first major work, whose duration (more than 40 minutes long) never allowed the author to give a public reading of it. Its destination was a record (released by Alga Marghen in 1996, starting the VocSon LP series, 36 years after its creation)! Alga Marghen is proud to now present this new edition of Poeme-Partition X, extended to the CD format and included in a luxury 96 page hardbound book, limited to 350 copies. The book reproduces for the first time the complete score, a visual wonder and a major experimental printed work. Bernard Heidsieck's memories of an historic lecture at the Jean Tinguely atelier is included as an introduction, as well as his testimony on Ian Sommerville and Brion Gysin's 'Dream Machine.' Also on the CD is a lecture of extracts of Poeme-Partition X accompanied by the saxophone of the American painter Larry Rivers. This recording from 1962 was not included in the LP edition and is here presented for the first time. In August 1962, Bernard Heidsieck went with John Ashberry, the American poet, to dinner at the studio of Jean Tinguely and Niky de Saint Phalle. Larry Rivers had a studio in the same place and was also there. Tinguely prepared grilled meat, skewered on one of his rotating sculptures. After dinner Rivers returned to his studio and began to play, alone and for himself. He earned his living, at the time, by playing sax at an after-hours jazz club. So, while he was playing Bernard Heidsieck joined him in his studio and suggested that they do an improvisation together. Something that Heidsieck had never done before, and has never done since! Larry Rivers immediately accepted, and an appointment was set up at Heidsieck's home a few days later. August 6th, 1962. A dinner party was organized for the same guests who had been at Tinguely's place and this unique 17 minute improvisation was recorded, but until now never released. It was, however, presented at the first Fylkingen Text-Sound Composition Festival in Stockholm in 1968. Luxury hardbound edition limited to 350 copies."
CD + BOOK for $70


IANNIS XENAKIS - Orchestral Works Vol I: Ais, Tracees, Empreintes, Noomena, Roai (Timpani 1164; EEC) Featured works: "Ais," "Tracees," "Empreintes," "Noomena," and "Roai." Performed by Spyros Sakkas (baritone); Beatrice Daudin (percussion solo); Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg/Arturo Tamayo. "When we listen to Xenakis today we have the impression that the music was only just composed. It has a quality of freshness and universality which overrides all styles and periods. It appears to us with force of nature rather than of a man-made artifact... What is the reason for this timeless universality of Xenakis? Is it that he succeeded in creating a new language which people accepted with difficulty at first or was he pointing the new way? Xenakis is one who created out of sheet necessity. The necessity of preserving himself intact."
CD $23


THE SOUNDCARRIERS - Harmonium (Melodic 59; UK) This is the debut album from Nottingham-based The Soundcarriers. The word "psychedelic" is bandied around pretty freely, but The Soundcarriers are the real deal. This is psychedelic in the less well-trodden way: jazz-influenced, free-thinking and utterly spaced-out. Harmonium was recorded over a long period of time and self-produced by the band in their own studio using entirely analog equipment, "because it reacts like an instrument would to being played, so there's that element of chance and some evidence of human interaction." The unorthodox techniques of David Axelrod and Phil Spector were a constant source of inspiration, and the band employed their full arsenal of equipment, from harps and organs to flutes, recorders, stylophones and chimes. The result is an incredibly lush debut that's quite unlike anything else that's around at the moment: the closest reference point from the past being the much-loved The Free Design. Indeed, Chris Dedrick from the band has spoken out in appreciation of The Soundcarriers in the sleeve notes for the vinyl version of this record: "Maybe The Free Design planted the seed for the magic garden of intricate group harmonies that blended this softer sound. The Soundcarriers use that and much more to enter that world. At the root is some richly vulnerable optimism. It takes a weird inner strength to pit flutes and quiet voices against drums and electronics and the rest of the world. No need to compare and make odious references. Best to listen in a kind of vacuum -- let sound happen. The Soundcarriers do that in unlimited wavelengths." Most of the members of The Soundcarriers have played hypnotic, groove-based instrumentals since childhood -- the culmination of their shared love of Can, Pink Floyd, rare groove, soundtracks, library music, acid-folk and jazz. Surprisingly authentic, true psych!
CD $16


TORTOISE - Beacons Of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey 210; USA) "Beacons Of Ancestorship is Tortoise's sixth full-length album, and their first release of new material in five years, since 2004's It's All Around You. A characteristic Tortoise album is one that traverses an encyclopedia of styles and reference points, a document of where musical intersections and dialogue are occurring at a given moment in time. Beacons Of Ancestorship is no different, with nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths and mournful, elegiac dirges. We see these ideas working out in compositions like 'High Class Slim Came Floatin' In,' an eight-minute track which playfully references the world of ecstatic rave and dance culture with a curiously ambivalent, multi-part suite overlaid with robotic, machine-sounding melodies that stop and start in several different time signatures before the song's ultimate resolution; and again in 'Yinxianghechengqi,' which begins as a straightforward uptempo math-rocker before steadily accelerating into a wall of fuzzy atonal sqwonk. There are many moods, styles, and modes in the Tortoise songbook, of course -- often, in the course of a single composition. Consistent throughout, however, is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. (Think Robert Altman versus Robert Plant.) In the same sense that the string quartet and all small-ensemble chamber music can be thought of as an intelligent conversation among equals -- violins, viola, and cello taking turns, expressing opinions, joining voices and then coming apart, as also occurs in elevated discourse -- so, too, the calling card of a Tortoise song is the experience of a sound being worked out as a conversation among the individual and interrelated parts -- of an ensemble thinking collectively and in group dynamics through the expression of a multi-layered musical thought."
CD $15



Back in stock..

DOUGLAS R EWART & INVENTIONS CLARINET CHOIR With ANTHONY BRAXTON/ROSCOE MITCHELL/HENRY THREADGILL et al - Angles of Entrance (Aarawak 004; USA) Featuring Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Don Byron, J.D. Parran, Ed Wilkerson, Mwata Bowden & Mr. Ewart on clarinets, plus Malachi Favors on acoustic bass. I can recall Douglas's wonderful flute playing & flutes making over 20 years ago at an amazing AACM festival at Columbia University. There is a small history of modern clarinet ensembles--like that one with David Murray & Jimmy Hamilton, and Perry Robinson's Licorice Factory, but Douglas' Inventions Clarinet Choir feature seven giants of the AACM reknown on clarinets only, with the Art Ensemble's Malachi Favors on acoustic bass, recorded live in Atlanta and Merkin in recent years. Douglas composes much compelling and often dense music for these greats to pull off, they all rise to the occasion. They can all swirl in and around each other, like fish swimming in schools in a stream, often concentrating on one small sonic area at a time. Both the writing & playing continually push all players to the limits of what can actually be done on seven clarinets. Timbres and ideas range from warm to humorous to modern classical-like bent harmonies. There is one solo alto clarinet piece by Douglas, recorded in a hallway at the Banff school/fest, which is haunting, beautiful & shimmering in natural echo resonance. This is Douglas Ewart's second release in the past year and it is yet another treasure from a current AACM alumni, who hasn't been documented enough! - BLG
CD $15


ORNETTE COLEMAN TRIO With DAVID IZENZON/CHARLES MOFFETT - Croydon Concert [aka An Evening With Ornette Coleman aka The Great London Concert] (Free Factory 61/Disconforme; EEC) This famous 1965 concert was originally released as double LP sets: An Evening With.. on Polydor in Europe, then as Great London Concert on Arista in the U.S.
CD $18


THOMAS TEDESCO & OCEAN With BOBBY BRADFORD/ROBERTO MIRANDA et al - Thomas Tedesco & Ocean (NimbusWest 1470; USA)
LP $14


LEGENDS OF BENIN [V.A.] - Afro-Funk, Cavacha, Agbadja, Afro-Beat (Analog Africa 65; USA) Analog Africa presents Legends Of Benin, a collection of super-rare and highly danceable masterpieces recorded between 1969-1981 by four legendary composers from Benin: Gnonnas Pedro, Antoine Dougbe, El Rego et Ses Commandos and Honore Avolonto, each with a sound all their own. What you are about to hear is distinctively Benin -- a thick brew of agbadja, soul, cavacha, funk, Afrobeat, and Afro-Latin sounds all mixed in with heavy traditional rhythms. Gnonnas Pedro is the king of modern agbadja: a rhythm hugely popular in Togo, Benin and Ghana, based around three pieces of percussion, each with a different tone. Traditionally a rhythm used during burial ceremonies, Gnonnas adopted and modernized it in the mid-'60s, calling it "Agbadja Modern." The track "Dadje Von O Von Non" was originally recorded in 1966 and is Gnonna's first modern rendition of agbadja. Also featured here is the crazy, kick-ass funk track "Okpo Videa Bassouo" recorded in 1973, as well as the sublimely contagious track, "La Musica en Verite." Honore Avolonto was one of Benin's most prolific composers, releasing Benin's most successful LP in the late '70s. That album was recorded with Black Santiago, a band fronted by amazing trumpeter Ignace De Souza, another legend, with whom he recorded the Afrobeat track, "Dou Dagbe We." Avolonto has fronted some of Benin's most powerful bands and some of those "partnerships" with Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and Les Commandos are presented here. Beware -- killer Afrobeat meets frenetic funk. El Rego et Ses Commandos were responsible for Benin's first Afro-soul-funk track with the support of Ghanean singer, Eddy Black Power. The "Jerk" scene in Benin was triggered by the success of "Feeling You Got," and its infectious accordion riff. "E Nan Mian Nuku" is an Afro-Latin tune combined with a kind of bossa nova, and "Vimado Wingnan" is Benin's most sought-after funk track. Out of all the artists here, Antoine Dougbe is the least known even in Benin, but he created his own style which he dubbed Afro cavacha -- a fantastic mixture of Congolese rhumba, Latin sounds and traditional vodoun rhythms. All of his vinyl releases, especially the ones released on his own Editions Dougbe Antoine label, are incredible and have become some of Africa's most sought-after collector's items. This compilation includes a 44-page, full-color booklet with ultra-rare pictures and detailed biographies. Enjoy the mind-blowing sounds of Benin.
CD $22


THE WORLD IS SHAKING [V.A.] - Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55 [2 LP set] (Honest Jon's 040; UK) Deluxe double LP version, in a beautiful gatefold sleeve. This is the fifth release in Honest Jon's series of albums exploring vintage recordings held in the EMI Hayes Archive. This album uncovers the dizzy beginnings of the golden age of African music zinging with the social and political ferment of the independence movement and anti-colonialism, after the Second World War and the daredevil origins of Congolese rumba -- the entire continent's most popular music in the '60s and '70s. The new music grew in concert with a burgeoning night life especially in the twin capitals of Leopoldville (today's Kinshasa) on the Belgian side, and Brazzaville on the French, where humming factories lured increasing numbers of rural Congolese with the offer of a steady, relatively well-paying job. The astonishing inventions of Europe and America also played an important role in the music's development. Traditional Congolese musicians began to master imported guitars and horns by mimicking what they heard. The jazz of Louis Armstrong and the ballads of European torch singers like Tino Rossi captured the imagination of the rapidly-expanding working class as well as the familiar-sounding music of Latin America. Local musicians swapped the Spanish of the originals for Congolese languages. In his version of "Peanut Vendor," included here, A.H. Depala replaces the seller's cry of "mani," or "peanut," with a lovelorn lament for a woman named "Moni." Depala went on to land a spot in the house-band of the prestigious Loningisa studio. Others failed to gain equivalent recognition, but their music was no less impressive. Listen to likembe (thumb-piano) player Boniface Koufidilia as he makes the transition from traditional to modern in the first few seconds of "Bino," which hits you with a vamping violin while he muses about death (including that of the popular Brazzaville musician Paul Kamba). Andre Denis and Albert Bongu both echo the sounds of palm-wine brought to the Belgian Congo by the coastmen. The sweet vocal harmonies of Vincent Kuli's track were learned, perhaps, in a mission church. Rene Mbu's nimble, likembe-like guitar plucking shines on "Boma Limbala," and is Laurent Lomande using a banjo as a backdrop to "Elisa?" Aren't those kazoos, buzzing along on Jean Mpia's "Tika?" It's as if the musicians, fired up by the times in their zeal for experimental self-expression, tossed into a bottle some new elements and some old, some near and some far, and then shook it hard, to see what would happen. With insert featuring rare photographs and notes by Gary Stewart, author of Rumba On The River. Sound restoration done at Abbey Road.
2 LP set for $22



NICK CAVE And THE BAD SEEDS - Your Funeral.. My Trial [CD + DVD] (Mute 9411; EEC) "Your Funeral... further explored Nick Cave's varied musical interests and also cemented The Bad Seeds as one of the most dynamic groups of this generation. Collector's set featuring digitally re-mastered album plus a DVD with a new 5.1 surround mix, corresponding b-side tracks and a specially commissioned short film and extensive sleeve notes."
CD+DVD for $16

NICK CAVE And THE BAD SEEDS - Kicking Against The Pricks [CD + DVD] (Mute 9410; EEC) "On his 3rd album, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds teamed up with former Birthday Party members and other guests for a covers album, paying tribute to everyone from Johnny Cash to the Velvet Underground. Collector's set featuring digitally remastered album plus a DVD with new 5.1 surround mix, corresponding b-side tracks and a specially commissioned short film and extensive sleeve notes."

CD+DVD for $16

NICK CAVE And THE BAD SEEDS - The First Born Is Dead [CD + DVD] (Mute 9402; EEC) "On his 2nd album, Nick Cave embraced the sound and feeling of rural blues, which had been an undercurrent in his Birthday Party days. Collector's set featuring digitally re-mastered album plus a DVD with a new 5.1 surround mix, corresponding b-side tracks and specially commissioned short film and extensive sleeve notes."
CD+DVD for $16

NICK CAVE And THE BAD SEEDS - From Her To Eternity [CD + DVD] (Mute 9401; EEC) "Debut album that mixed the frenzy and power of his Birthday Party days with dank, moody atmosphere. Collector's set featuring digitally re-mastered album plus a DVD with a new 5.1 surround mix, corresponding b-side tracks and a specially commissioned short film and extensive sleeve notes."
CD+DVD for $16


THE SCENE IS NOW - Total Jive (Lexicon Devil 25; Australia) Lexicon Devil presents part two of three in their reissue series documenting the great works of New York's '80s avant-garde group, The Scene Is Now. This time around, the label reissues their sophomore album from 1986, Total Jive. TSIN was formed in the early '80s by Philip Dray and Chris Nelson, born from the ashes of no wave outfit, Information (documented in Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980 book). Joined by Dick Champ and Jeff McGovern, they went on to release three LPs in that decade which remain amazing and scarcely-heard gems from underground America. With a sound which was distinctly New York -- equal parts Velvets/Feelies strum, angular geekoid rock a la Television/Talking Heads and choppy avant rhythms straight from the no wave -- the band also melded influences from such disparate sources (The Fall, Minutemen, Bob Wills) that they remain a tough band to musically pin down. They truly are/were a unique blend of the avant-garde and the traditional. Total Jive was originally released on the band's own Lost label in 1986, manufactured and distributed by the Twin/Tone label. Roughly half of the tracks are produced by downtown wiz-kid, Elliott Sharp, and it has never been issued on CD before. This version is fully remastered from the original master tapes and features a 12-page, full-color booklet with never-seen-before photos of the band from the period, as well as liner notes by Lexicon Devil honcho, Dave Lang. The 1980s produced a lot of great underground sounds from the U.S.A., and The Scene Is Now is certainly one of them, begging for some much-deserved 21st-century recognition.
CD $14




Prices on CDs from Dave Douglas' Greenleaf label lowered!

MICHAEL BATES' OUTSIDE SOURCES With RUSS JOHNSON/QUINSIN NACHOFF/JEFF DAVIS - Clockwise (Greenleaf 09; USA) Featuring Quinsin Nachoff on tenor & soprano sax & clarinet, Russ Johnson on trumpet, Michael Bates on bass & compositions and Jeff Davis on drums, Dave Douglas producing. This is Mr. Bates second disc as a leader and again, he has delivered the goods. There is nothing less than stunning and stellar on this disc so why wait, grab this treasure right now! Don't say that I didn't tell you so. - BLG
CD $14

DAVE DOUGLAS & KEYSTONE [MARCUS STRICKLAND/ADAM BENJAMIN/D J OLIVE/BRAD JONES/GENE LAKE] - Moonshine (Greenleaf 06; USA) Dave Douglas' Keystone band emerges again with their follow-up to 2005's Grammy-nominated Keystone album. Moonshine is a hybrid recording combining the raw blowing, eye-popping, ear-bending live experience that this band is known for, and neo-psychedelic post-production. The end result is a masterwork of improvised electro-jazz that features 9 new Douglas compositions.
"Once again, Dave Douglas, has put together a potent batch of new songs that are simultaneously both adventurous and fun-filled!" - BLG
CD $14

DAVE DOUGLAS & KEYSTONE [MARCUS STRICKLAND/JAMIE SAFT/D J OLIVE/BRAD JONES/GENE LAKE] - Keystone: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle [CD + DVD] (Greenleaf 03; USA) Keystone features Dave Douglas on trumpet, compositions & co-production (w/ David Torn), Marcus Strickland on saxes, Jamie Saft on Wurlitzer piano, DJ Olive on turntables, Brad Jones on bass and Gene Lake on drums. The trial and tribulations of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle is a classic American tragedy, so says Dave Douglas in the impassioned and informative liner notes. The music on the first disc was inspired by Arbuckle's silent films, circa 1915. "Fun, innocence, caring and devotion, as well as a wicked sense of humor and the absurd".
Disc 2 is a DVD featuring the silent film, "Fatty & Mabel Adrift" from 1916. It is a wonderful, ridiculous, hilarious and touching 34-minute story. It may seem odd to hear music from nearly a century later accompanying this film, yet it somehow works. Fatty saves Mabel from an abusive suitor and then marries her. The old suitor is determined to get revenge. I won't reveal the rest of the story, but it is certainly a touching and tasty treat. - BLG This project was commissioned by The Paramount Center For The Arts in Peekskill, New York. The premiere performance will take place there on October 1, 2005.
CD $16

DAVE DOUGLAS QUINTET With URI CAINE/DONNY McCASLIN/JAMES GENUS/CLARENCE PENN - Live At The Jazz Standard [2 CD set] (Greenleaf 05; USA) Between December 5 and 10, 2006, the Dave Douglas Quintet settled into New York's Jazz Standard for a six night run. Greenleaf Music recorded all 12 sets the group played that week and released each set within 24 hours as downloadable MP3s. The project represented the broadest documentation of the Grammy nominated group to date and featured a unique combination of compositions and improvisations culled from previous albums culled from previous albums The Infinite (2001), Strange Liberation (2003) and Meaning and Mystery (2006), as well as a book of new pieces recently road-tested on the Quintet's November, 2006 European tour. After repeated requests from fans, Douglas and Greenleaf decided to change course and release some of this extraordinary music on CD in a double disc set appropriately titled, Dave Douglas Quintet, Live at the Jazz Standard. The discs include all of the new pieces and two older pieces never before heard on CD in a "live" format and in which the arrangement is significantly different from their studio renderings.
2 CD set for $16

DAVE DOUGLAS QUINTET With URI CAINE/DONNY McCASLIN/JAMES GENUS/CLARENCE PENN - Meaning And Mystery (Greenleaf 04; USA) Featuring Dave Douglas on trumpet & compositions, Donny McCaslin on tenor sax, Uri Caine on Fender Rhodes electric piano, James Genus on contrabass and Clarence Penn on drums.
"F**king incredible! "Twombly Infinites" is another dream-like piece that has horns and rhythm floating around one another in a most hypnotic way. "Elk's Club" is a strange sort of blues tine that makes a few unexpected twists and turns and features some righteous soloing from Donny, Dave and Uri. "Invocation" features some fine writing, a sly groove to die for and one of Dave's best solos ever, followed by another winner from Donny's tenor sax. "The Team" brings things to a fine close with a great smiling, swinging groove. You just want it to end, this is the mark of a great record. Quite possibly, one of this year's best "jazz" discs. Need we say more?!? - BLG
CD $14

DAVE DOUGLAS & NOMAD With MICHAEL MOORE/PEGGY LEE/MARCUS ROJAS/DYLAN VAN DER SCHYFF - Mountain Passages( (Greenleaf 01; USA) Featuring Dave on trumpet, Michael on alto sax, clarinet & bass clarinet, Peggy on cello, Marcus on tuba, and Dylan on drums.
This special 'mountain' music was composed for a festival called 'The Sound of the Dolomites', which took place in the mountains of Valle di Fassa (on Rifugio Boe) and near Madonna di Campilglio (on Rifugio Brentei) and was inspired by the local Ladino music. The exhilarating adventure of hiking up these mountains and playing for hundreds of fans added something even more special experience. Dave has put together yet another unique ensemble that includes two members of his previous recorded group, cellist Peggy Lee and her mate, drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Adding the great playing of Michael Moore (20 year ICP member & US expatriate living in Amsterdam) on alto sax & clarinets plus tuba master Marcus Rojas (Spanish Fly & too many other fine bands to name here), are well chosen players indeed. What Mikey and I like best about this gem is that ICP-like quirkiness, playfulness and humor that can really make one smile on one of those long, hard days here at DMG when the endless packing of mail-orders gets to be too much. - BLG
CD $12

KNEEBODY [ADAM BENJAMIN/SHANE ENDSLEY/KAVEH RASTEGAR/BEN WENDEL/NATE WOOD] - Kneebody (Greenleaf 02 USA) Kneebody feature Shane Endsley on trumpet & pedals, Adam Benjamin on acoustic & electric pianos, Kaveh Rastegar on electric bass, Ben Wendel on tenor sax (mostly) and Nate Wood on drums & percussion. Kneebody are a fun-filled band, move between jazz, rock, funk and even some fusion/prog effortlessly. There is little or no guitar, although their bassist uses some upper-register fuzz-bass at times and both the keyboards and horn use some distortion and/or echo devices in just the right places. I am reminded of some of early 70's British jazz-rock bands (Alan Bown, Steamhammer) that used to put their horns through various devices to come up with their own sound. Inventive without overdoing their more serious side. Hard to believe that these young (?) dudes produced themselves, since they did such a swell job of altering their sound(s) and keeping their group sound so well focused. A most impressive first effort that would've slipped through my fingers had not trumpeter Shane Endsley wandered into the store and laid this promo in my hand. - BLG
CD $14

DONNY McCASLIN TRIO With HANS GLAWISCHNIG/JONATHAN BLAKE - Recommended Tools (Greenleaf 08; USA) Recommended Tools is the 7th release for Donny McCaslin, and also his first for Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music label. (McCaslin has been performing with Douglas' highly publicized Quintet since 2005.) His latest release, Recommended Tools finds McCaslin for the first time working in a trio setting. With bassist Hans Glawischnig (Ray Barretto, Steffon Harris, Miguel Zenon) and drummer Johnathan Blake (Tom Harrell, Jaleel Shaw, Russell Malone), McCaslin has made this highly emotive format a vehicle for his virtuosic blowing and distinct compositional voice. Trenched in free-flowing arrangements with dynamic interplay between the band, this work harkens back to the classic trio recordings of Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson. And while a classic format, McCaslin retains his progressive approach and inventiveness, citing Bill Frisell, Hermeto Pascoal, Stravinsky and Messiaen as inspiration for these compositions.
CD $14

..and Don't forget the Greenleaf 'Paperback' budget series..

MICHAEL BATES' OUTSIDE SOURCES With RUSS JOHNSON/QUINSIN NACHOFF/JEFF DAVIS - Live In New York 13/9/2008 (Greenleaf P04; USA) Michael Bates has emerged as one of the most engaging young bassist/composers in recent years. Featuring Russ Johnson on trumpet, Quinsin Nachoff on sax & clarinet, Michael Bates on bass & compositions and Jeff Davis on drums. This is another one of those under-recognized treasures that shouldn't be overlooked. Considering that this is a live recording, the sound is clean, warm and quite perfect. Nice work Scott. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $12

INDIGO TRIO [NICOLE MARGARET MITCHELL/HARRISON BANKHEAD/HAMID DRAKE] - Live In Montreal (Greenleaf P03; USA) Recorded during a 2005 tour of Canada, this trio of stalwart, AACM inspired artists truly lays out a gem with this recording. These are three of Chicago's finest improvisors doing what they do best in front of an enthusiastic , festival audience. To say the least, Greenleaf Music is proud to have this recording in the catalog . Here's what Nicole Mitchell has to say about Indigo Trio, Live in Montreal: " This concert in Montreal was our first performance as a trio, although we've played together for many years. The music was recorded live at the Suoni per IL Popolo Festival on June 13, 2005. Hamid and Harrison have played together since they were fourteen, Harrison and I have worked together in Frequency with Ed Wilkerson since 2000, and Hamid has played and recorded over the years with my Black Earth Ensemble. Indigo Trio features the adventurous music of our friendship--connected, intuitive and playful."
CD $12

DAVE DOUGLAS & KEYSTONE [MARCUS STRICKLAND/JAMIE SAFT/D J OLIVE/BRAD JONES/GENE LAKE] - Live In Sweden (Greenleaf P02; USA) The second paperback series release is Dave Douglas, Keystone, Live in Sweden. The gig from October, 2005 at the UMEA Jazz Festival in northern Sweden was immediately preceded by the San Francisco Jazz Festival in California and followed by one in Cormons, Italy. A brilliant stroke of tour routing if there ever was one. Nonetheless everyone came ready to play. The Keystone sound really came together here: sloppy and wild, but also focused, lyrical, delicate, and at times simply bizarre. Also, like the films it was written to, it was a lot of fun. Recorded exquisitely by Swedish Radio 2.
CD $12

DAVE DOUGLAS QUINTET With URI CAINE/RICK MARGITZA/JAMES GENUS/CLARENCE PENN - Live At The Bimhuis 2002 Set 1 & 2 [2 CD set] (Greenleaf P01; USA) Featuring Dave Douglas on trumpet & compositions, Rick Margitza on tenor sax, Uri Caine on Fender Rhodes electric piano, James Genus on double-bass and Clarence Penn on drums. This is a superbly recorded live double disc containing two sets from the legendary Bimhuis in Amsterdam, where the ICP Orchestra and their offshoot projects often play.
On the 'Live at The Bimhuis' two disc set, Dave's mighty quintet gets a chance to stretch out, playing just four or five songs per set. Dave has quite the perfect band here with two complete sets and superb sound as well. And the price is right. Formerly, only available as a download, now you can own this gem for yourself. Very simple cardboard sleeve packaging. - BLG
2 CD set for $14


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Hotmail Users: Place the domain " downtownmusicgallery.com " on your Safe List, so that you can receive our emails. The safe list can be accessed via the "Options" link next to the main menu tabs. Also place the email address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com in your address book.

AOL: Place the domain " downtownmusicgallery.com " in your Address Book. Also add the email address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com to your address book.

Yahoo! Mail: If one of our e-newsletters is filtered to your 'bulk' folder, open the message and click on the "this is not Spam" link next to the "From" field. The same goes for any other e-mail you receive that doesn't belong there. Add the address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com to your address book.

Other email services [Earthlink, GMail et al]: Place the domain " downtownmusicgallery.com " on your email filter's whitelist. You may need to search your email help menu for details on how to do this. Depending on software/version, they may call it a "whitelist," a "good list" or similar name. Adding the address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com to your address book will help too.