The End Is Near! (2012, that is) Hunker down to hibernate with Incredible Music from:

Thomas Chapin Quartets 3 CD Set! Simon Nabatov/Nils Wogram/Tom Rainey! Jeff Davis/Russ Lossing/Eivind Opsvik! Paul Giallorenzo/Mars Williams/Jeb Bishop Quintet! Joshua Smith! Richard Bliwas/Daniel Carter/Bruce Ditmas!

Five More Complete BlackSaint/SoulNote Recordings Box Sets from: Muhal Richard Abrams! Julius Hemphill! George Lewis! George Adams! and Dave Douglas!

Aki Onda! Eleh! Jessica Kennedy & Eyvind Kang! Pierre Bastien! Gyorgi Ligeti! Norbert Moslang! Toshio Hosokawa! Wet Ink Ensemble! Nils Frahm! Sam Pluta! Psychic TV! Peter Stampfel! John Fahey! Bill Fay! Mbilia Bel! Africando All-Stars! MC5!

Vinny Golia's Nine Winds label CATALOG SALE!

'n naturally.. Lots More!




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The DMG Free Weekly In-Store Performance Series Continues..


THIS SUNDAY, December 9th Double-Header:
6pm: MATT LAVELLE - Solo Reading from his Book & Music for Trumpet & Reeds!

Sunday, December 16th Double-Header:
6pm: GEORGE SCHULLER / PETER APFELBAUM / BRAD SHEPIK! - CD Release Set!
7pm: LISA MEZZACAPPA / MATT NELSON / JONATHAN GOLDBERGER!

Sunday, December 23rd
7pm: DMG's First Annual Happy Holiday Party - Food, Drink, and of course, Live Music!
Featuring ELLIOTT SHARP & HIS MYSTERIOUS TRAVELERS!

Sunday, December 30th:
No In-Store! We Need a Break! Happy New Year to All..and get Smashed!

Sunday, January 6th, 2013 Double-Header:
6pm: THOMAS HEBERER & STEVE SWELL! Trumpet & Trombone Duo!
7pm: GAIN LUIGI DIANA / BEN GERSTEIN / MIKE PRIDE - Laptop/Trombone/Drums!

Sunday, January 13th Double-Header:
6pm: JAMES ILGENFRITZ & STEVE DALACHINSKY - Acoustic Bass & Poetry!
7pm: Two Basses Hit: JD PARRAN & LARRY ROLAND - Bass Clarinet & Contrabass!

Sunday, January 20th
6pm: HAN-EARL PARK - Guitar/ LOUISE D.E. JENSEN - Sax / MICHAEL EVANS - Drums!

Sunday, January 27th Double-Header:
6pm: ALAN SONDHEIM / AZURE CARTER / CHRIS DIASPARRA! Weird Ethnic Instruments / Vocals / Saxes! ESP & Fire Museum Recording Artists!
7pm: HANS TAMMEN / JOHN GROSS / JONAS TAUBER / BILLY MINTZ! Analogue Synth / Tenor Sax / Bass / Drums!

Sunday, February 3rd Double-Header:
6pm: YOSHI FRUCHTER - Guitar / NICK MILLEVOI - Guitar / JEREMIAH CYMERMAN - Clarinet / KEVIN ZUBEK - Drums!
7pm: SOHRAB SAADAT LADJEVARDI!

Sunday, February 10th
6pm: ANDY HAAS - Sax & Electronics & KEN ALDCROFT - Guitar! CD Release Celebration!

Sunday, February 17th
6pm: FEDERICO UGHI - Drums & JEFF SNYDER - Electronics!

Sunday, Feb 24th:
6pm: KARL 2000: DANIEL ROVIN - Tenor Sax / AUSTIN WHITE - Bass / DAVE MILLER - Drums!


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THE YOUNG MOTHERS End of the World Tour! - December, 2012!

Featuring: INGEBRIGT HAKER FLATEN - Bass / JASON JACKSON - Saxes / JAWWARD TAYLOR - Trumpet & Electronics & Voice / JONATHAN HORNE - Guitar / STEFAN GONZALEZ - Drums & Vibes / FRANK ROSALY - Drums!


Tuesday, December 11th at Shapeshifter Lab - 18 Whitwell Place in Brooklyn

Wednesday, December 12th - Jack in Brooklyn - 505 Waverly Ave, NY phone: (718) 388-225. www.jackny.org

Thursday, December 13th - Terraza 7 in Queens - 40-19 Gleane Street, Elmhurst, NY - phone: (718) 803-9602, www.terrazacafe.org

Friday, December 14th - Ars Nova in Philly! - //www.arsnovaworkshop.org


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Starting off with..

the BLOWING of your MIND this Holiday Season with UNHEARD Thomas Chapin!

THOMAS CHAPIN QUARTETS With PETER MADSEN/KIYOTO FUJIWARA or SCOTT COLLEY/REGGIE NICHOLSON or MATT WILSON - Never Let Me Go: Quartets '95 & '96 [3 CD set] (Playscape 111095; USA) A new three-disc set featuring two UNRELEASED late-career performances by saxophonist/composer Thomas Chapin, including his final New York concert before succumbing to leukemia in 1998 at age 40.
Mixed and mastered from original tapes discovered in the private family collection, this special historical release was produced in partnership with Akasha, Inc., the non-profit organization founded in 1999 by Chapin's widow, Terri Castillo-Chapin, to preserve and advance his musical legacy. In addition to the music, the set features liner notes from veteran jazz journalist and broadcaster Brian Morton, exclusive archival photos and remembrances from the musicians who joined him for these shows.
Discs one and two capture Chapin's working quartet of the time, with pianist Peter Madsen, bassist Kiyoto Fujiwara and drummer Reggie Nicholson, performing at Flushing Town Hall in Queens on November 10th, 1995. The group played two selections from You Don't Know Me (Arabesque Records), as well as a wide variety of other material, including Artie Shaw's "Moonray", Thelonious Monk's "Ugly Beauty", Charlie Parker's "Red Cross" and Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman".
Chapin founded this ensemble in the early 90's to explore new harmonic possibilities in his music after years of performing and recording with his highly regarded trio. In addition to this date, they performed regularly around New York, including week-long engagements at Iridium Jazz Club and The Village Gate.
In contrast, the third disc captures the first and only concert ever played by a later quartet featuring Madsen, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Matt Wilson at The Knitting Factory on December 19th, 1996. For what turned out to be his final performance in New York, this ensemble presented extended readings of three new pieces written specifically for its all-star lineup, as well as a version of his well-known composition "Sky Piece" and an arrangement of Roland Kirk's "Lovellevellilloqui".
"They can do just about anything," wrote Peter Watrous in his review of this show for the New York Times, "and Mr. Chapin had the group move from freetime sections to swinging parts that moved with complex harmonies. Mr. Wilson doubled and halved the tempos; the music sounded wonderfully unstable. One piece, a ballad, invoked the Blue Note Label in 1964; Mr. Chapin tore through a composition by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, using a hard, rough tone. He likes heat and velocity, and the music flew by, jammed with notes."
In summing up Chapin's place in jazz history for the eight-disc retrospective Alive (Knitting Factory Works) in 1999, GRAMMY(r) winning jazz critic and author Bob Blumenthal wrote, "An honest appraisal of the universe of improvised music created in the decade of his activity as a bandleader should persuade all but the most doctrinaire that Thomas Chapin was one of the definitive artists of the 1990s. Not the most heavily exposed or fashionable, perhaps; but a musician who got at the emotional and spiritual nub of what jazz is supposed to be about as successfully and consistently as anyone working during the period."
CD #1 & #2 - Quartet 1995 - Thomas Chapin - alto sax & flute; Peter Madsen - piano; Kiyoto Fujiwara - bass; Reggie Nicholson - drums
CD #3 - Quartet 1996 - Thomas Chapin - alto sax & flute; Peter Madsen - piano; Scott Colley - bass; Matt Wilson - drums
3 CD set for $33



New from Leo!

NAWORA [SIMON NABATOV/NILS WOGRAM/TOM RAINEY] - Nawora (Leo 647; UK) Featuring Simon Nabatov on piano, Nils Wogram on trombone and Tom Rainey on drums. All three members of this international trio have played together on several occasions in different combinations including a couple of duo recordings and a fine quintet disc with Nabatov and Rainey amongst its members. Mr. Rainey has long played in trios with Tim Berne & Michael Formanek and currently with Ingrid Laubrock & Mary Halvorson. Rainey always excels in this format and this trio is something quite special. Mr. Rainey's earthy, hands-on-drums approach fits righteously with the piano and trombone as they weave their lines around one another. This session was recorded at the Loft on Cologne and the sound is superb, the balance is perfect! Mr. Wogram is a gifted and immensely expressive trombonist. I have often sought out his discs since they are consistently strong no matter who he plays with. I love his playing here, stretching those notes out inside out and sideways. His approach combines the scientific with the melodic and often moves through unexpected twists and turns. There is a good deal of subtly going on here, soft, carefully selected sparse yet connected fragments. The cautious use of space allows the trio to levitate at times, floating together like friends ghosts at a gathering. During "Nonchalant Hint", it sounds as if the trio were shifting into a ballad midway which adds a distant yet magical lyricism before they more intense, suspense-filled waters later. I don't think any of this was pre-planned or written yet it is still wondrous nonetheless. This is without a doubt one of the finest improv discs I've heard this year! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $17

PAUL GIALLORENZO'S GITGO With JEB BISHOP/MARS WILLIAMS/ANTON HATWICH/MARC RIORDAN - Emergent (Leo 641; UK) Featuring Paul Giallorenzo on piano & compositions, Mars Williams on saxes, Jeb Bishop on trombine, Anton Hatwich on bass and Marc Riordan on drums. I hadn't heard of the leader on this disc before getting this promo in the mail, but the members of this quintet should be more familiar. This is a most impressive new Chicago-based quintet with some heavy hitters. After more than a decade since moving to the Windy City and working with Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble, various projects with Ken Vandermark and Peter Brotzmann, saxist Mars Williams has become more visible over the last few years. Formerly of the Vandermark 5, Jeb Bishop also keeps pretty busy juggling several projects simultaneously. Mr. Hatwich is another mover who has worked with Aram Shelton, Dave Rempis and Kyle Bruckmann. Mr. Riordan has also recorded with Aram Shelton and a trio called Breakaway with a disc on Peira.
Right from the gitgo, the first piece "On Your Marks", has that jubilant, South African, sorta funky, gospelish vibe. It feels just right and will make you smile. I really dig the soprano sax and trombone harmony on "Want It", again that groove is infectious with some spirited solos from the trombone and soprano (a great fractured solo) with nifty piano interjections. "Slow Rolled" has a twisted early Braxtonian structure with another fine soprano or sopranino solo from Mars and a theme that I can't get out of my head. Each piece shows another strong side of Mr. Giallorenzo's fine composing abilities and the music is rarely dense or just free. Jeb Bishop's solo on "Spatialist" is just outstanding, showing what a force he is to be reckoned with. One of the great things about this quintet is that the rhythm team has a natural, organic way of working together, speeding up and slowing down effortlessly. The piano, bass and rums often glide together while the sax and trombone trade ideas and lines in their own magical way. Considering that this is a debut disc for Paul Giallorenzo as a leader, it is a most impressive introduction to someone with a long career ahead of him. Bravo! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $17



FIVE FANTASTIC NEW Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets !!!

MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS With ROSCOE MITCHELL/GEORGE E LEWIS/AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS/BAIKIDA CARROLL/LEROY JENKINS/ANDREW CYRILLE/THURMAN BARKER/JEAN-PAUL BOURELLY/MARTY EHRLICH/CRAIG S HARRIS/BOB STEWART/HOWARD JOHNSON/ABDUL WADUD/JOHN PURCELL/FRED HOPKINS/WARREN SMITH/JACK WALRATH/DIEDRE MURRAY/DICK GRIFFIN/CECIL BRIDGEWATER et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Spihumonesty/Mama And Daddy/Blues Forever/Rejoicing With The Light/View From Within/The Hearinga Suite/Blu Blu Blu/Think All Focus One [8 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1021; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
DISC 1: Muhal Richard Abrams with Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Amina Claudine Myers, Youseff Yancy, Leonard Jones, Jay Clayton - Spihumonesty
DISC 2: Muhal Richard Abrams with Baikida Carroll, George Lewis, Wallace Laroy McMillan, Leroy Jenkins, Bob Stewart, Vincent Chancey, Brian Smith, Andrew Cyrille, Thurman Barker - Mama And Daddy
DISC 3: Muhal Richard Abrams with Jean-Paul Bourelly, Baikida Carroll, Craig Harris, Eugene Ghee, Vincent Chancey, Wallace Larry McMillan, Jimmy Vass, Howard Johnson, Michael Logan, Andrew Cyrille - Blues Forever
DISC 4: Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra with Jean-Paul Bourelly, Baikida Carroll, Craig Harris, Marty Ehrlich, Abdul Wadud, Eugene Ghee, Vincent Chancey, Howard Johnson, Andrew Cyrille, John Purcell, Warren Smith, Janette Moody, Patience Higgins, Rick Rozie - Rejoicing With The Light
DISC 5: Muhal Richard Abrams Octet with Marty Ehrlich, John Purcell, Stanton Davis, Warren Smith, Thurman Barker, Rick Rozie, Ray Mantilla - View From Within
DISC 6: Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra with Marty Ehrlich, Jack Walrath, Charles Davis, Cecil Bridgewater, Andrew Cyrille, John Purcell, Diedre Murray, Dick Griffin, Warren Smith, Patience Higgins, Fred Hopkins, Ron Tooley, Jack Jeffers, Frank Gordon, Courtenay Wynter - The Hearinga Suite
DISC 7: Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra with David Fiuczynski, Jack Walrath, John Purcell, Patience Higgins, Eugene Ghee, Mark Taylor, Joseph Daley, Robert De Bellis, Lindsey Horner, Brad Jones, Alfred Patterson, Joel Brandon, Thurman Barker, Warren Smith - Blu Blu Blu DISC 8: Muhal Richard Abrams with David Gilmore, Eugene Ghee, Eddie Allen, Alfred Paterson, Brad Jones, Reggie Nicholson - Think All Focus One
8 CD box for $42

GEORGE E LEWIS With DOUGLAS EWART/ROSCOE MITCHELL/LEROY JENKINS/MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS/ABDUL WADUD/ANTHONY DAVIS/RICHARD TEITELBAUM/STEVE LACY/MISHA MENGELBERG/HAN BENNINK/ERNST REIJSEGER/HARJEN GORTER - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Shadowgraph, 5 (Sextet)/Jila-Save! Mon - The Imaginary Suite/Homage To Charles Parker/Change Of Season: The Music Of Herbie Nichols/Dutch Masters [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1022; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
DISC 1: George Lewis with Douglas Ewart, Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, Muhal Richard Abrams, Abdul Wadud, Anthony Davis - Shadowgraph, 5 (Sextet)
DISC 2: George Lewis & Douglas Ewart - Jila-Save! Mon. The Imaginary Suite
DISC 3: George Lewis With Douglas Ewart, Anthony Davis, Richard Teitelbaum - Homage To Charles Parker
DISC 4: Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Harjen Gorter, Han Bennink - Change Of Season: The Music Of Herbie Nichols
DISC 5: Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Ernst Reijseger, Han Bennink - Dutch Masters
5 CD box for $32

JULIUS HEMPHILL With ABDUL WADUD/FAMADOU DON MOYE/OLU DARA/WAREN SMITH/MARTY EHRLICH/JAMES CARTER/TIM BERNE/SAM FURNACE/FRED HO et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Raw Materials And Residuals/Flat-Out Jump Suite/Fat Man And The Hard Blues/Five Chord Stud/Chile New York: Sound Environment [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1019; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
DISC 1: Julius Hemphill with Abdul Wadud, Don Moye - Raw Materials And Residuals
DISC 2: Julius Hemphill with Abdul Wadud, Olu Dara, Warren Smith - Flat-Out Jump Suite
DISC 3: Julius Hemphill with James Carter, Marty Ehrlich, Sam Furnace, Andrew White, Carl Grubbs - Fat Man And The Hard Blues
DISC 4: Julius Hemphill with James Carter, Marty Ehrlich, Tim Berne, Sam Furnace, Fred Ho, Andrew White - Five Chord Stud
DISC 5: Julius Hemphill & Warren Smith - Chile New York: Sound Environment
5 CD box for $32

GEORGE ADAMS With DON PULLEN/CAMERON BROWN/DANNIE RICHMOND/JIMMY KNEPPER/HUGH LAWSON/MIKE RICHMOND - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Don't Lose Control/Hand To Hand/Gentlemen's Agreement/Live At The Village Vanguard Vol 1 & 2 [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1018; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
DISC 1: George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet with Cameron Brown, Dannie Richmond - Don't Lose Control
DISC 2: George Adams/Dannie Richmond Quintet with Jimmy Knepper, Hugh Lawson, Mike Richmond - Hand To Hand
DISC 3: George Adams/Dannie Richmond Quintet with Jimmy Knepper, Hugh Lawson, Mike Richmond - Gentleman's Agreement
DISC 4 & 5: George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet with Cameron Brown, Dannie Richmond - Live At The Village Vanguard Vols 1 & 2
5 CD box for $32

DAVE DOUGLAS With PARALLEL WORLDS With MARK FELDMAN/ERIK FRIEDLANDER/DREW GRESS/MICHAEL SARIm/ & With MARK DRESSER/JOHN LINDBERG/ROVA SAXOPHONE QUARTET [BRUCE ACKLEY/STEVE ADAMS/LARRY OCHS/JON RASKIN]/GLENN SPEARMAN/RAPHE MALIK/DENMAN MARONEY et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Parallel Worlds/Five/Convergence/John Coltrane's Ascension/Bounce/Force Green [6 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1020; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
DISC 1: Dave Douglas Parallel Worlds with Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander, Drew Gress, Michael Sarin - Parallel Worlds
DISC 2: Dave Douglas Parallel Worlds with Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander, Drew Gress, Michael Sarin - Five
DISC 3: Dave Douglas Parallel Worlds with Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander, Drew Gress, Michael Sarin - Convergence
DISC 4: Rova Saxophone Quartet [Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin] with Dave Douglas, Glenn Spearman, Raphe Malik, Chris Brown, Lisle Ellis, George Cremaschi, Donald Robinson - John Coltrane's Ascension
DISC 5: John Lindberg Ensemble with Dave Douglas, Larry Ochs, Ed Thigpen - Bounce
DISC 6: Mark Dresser with Dave Douglas, Denman Maroney, Phil Haynes, Theo Bleckmann - Force Green
6 CD box for $34


...and the Previous BS/SN Box Sets, NOW at LOWER PRICES!

BILL DIXON With TONY OXLEY/ALAN SILVA/BARRY GUY/WILLIAM PARKER/PETER KOWALD/MARIO PAVONE/MARCO ENEIDI/FREDDIE WAITS/LAURENCE COOK/JOHN BUCKINGHAM - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: In Italy Vol 1 & 2/November 1981/Thoughts/Son Of Sisyphus/Vade Mecum I & II/Papyrus Vol 1 & 2 [9 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1009; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
9 CD box for $40

ANTHONY BRAXTON With MAX ROACH/GEORGE E LEWIS/BUELL NEIDLINGER/MAL WALDRON/MARILYN CRISPELL/JOHN LINDBERG/MARK DRESSER/GERRY HEMINGWAY/ROLAND DAHINDEN et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Birth And Rebirth/Four Compositions (Quartet) 1983/Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984/Five Compositions (Quartet) 1986/Six Monk's Compositions (1987)/4 (Ensemble) Compositions 1992/Eugene (1989)/Composition No 173 for 4 Actors, 14 Instrumentalists, Constructed Environment And Video Projections [8 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1012; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
8 CD box for $38

HENRY THREADGILL With AIR-NEW AIR [FRED HOPKINS/STEVE McCALL or PHEEROAN AkLAFF]/CASSANDRA WILSON/VERY VERY CIRCUS/FLUTE FORCE FOUR - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Live Air/Air Mail/Live at Montreal Jazz Festival/Air Show No.1/Spirit Of Nuff ..Nuff/Song Out Of My Trees/Flutistry [7 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1003; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
7 CD box for $36

DAVID MURRAY OCTET S With HENRY THREADGILL/LAWRENCE 'BUTCH' MORRIS/BOBBY BRADFORD/GEORGE E LEWIS/CRAIG S HARRIS/OLU DARA/WILBER MORRIS/STEVE McCALL et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Octet Recordings: Ming/Home/Murray's Steps/New Life/Hope Scope [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1010; Italy) 2011 remasters; with original covers and credits
5 CD box for $32

WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET [WSQ: DAVID MURRAY/JULIUS HEMPHILL/OLIVER LAKE/HAMIET BLUIETT et al] - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Steppin' With The World Saxophone Quartet/W.S.Q./Revue/Live In Zurich/Live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music/Moving Right Along [6 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1015; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
6 CD box for $34

DON PULLEN With SAM RIVERS/CHICO FREEMAN/OLU DARA/JOSEPH JARMAN/FRED HOPKINS/DON MOYE et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Capricorn Rising/Healing Force/Warriors/Milano Strut/The Magic Triangle/Evidence Of Things Unseen/The Sixth Sense [7 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1003; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
7 CD box for $36

LESTER BOWIE With THE LEADERS [ARTHUR BLYTHE/CHICO FREEMAN/KIRK LIGHTSEY/CECIL McBEE/DON MOYE]/AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS/MALACHI FAVORS/PHILLIP WILSON et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: The 5th Power/Out Here Like This/Unforeseen Blessings [3 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1006; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
3 CD box for $28

JIMMY GIUFFRE 4 With PETE LEVIN/BOB NIESKE/RANDY KAYE/ or With PAUL BLEY/STEVE SWALLOW - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Dragonfly/Quasar/Liquid Dancers/Conversations With A Goose [4 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1016; Italy) 2012 remasters; with original covers and credits
4 CD box for $30

CHARLIE HADEN With OLD AND NEW DREAMS [DON CHERRY/DEWEY REDMAN/ED BLACKWELL]/CHET BAKER/ENRICO PIERANUNZI/GERI ALLEN/PAUL MOTIAN/BILLY HIGGINS - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Old And New Dreams [1976]/A Tribute To Blackwell/Etudes/Silence/First Song [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1001; Italy) 2009 remasters; with original covers and credits
5 CD box for $32

LEE KONITZ With HAROLD DANKO/JIMMY KNEPPER/KENNY WERNER/RED RODNEY/MARC JOHNSON/ADAM NUSSBAUM et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Live At Laren/Ideal Scene/The New York Album/Zounds/Lunasea [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1011; Italy) 2011 remasters; with original covers and credits
5 CD box for $32

CECIL TAYLOR With MAX ROACH/JIMMY LYONS/PETER BROTZMANN/FRANK WRIGHT/TOMASZ STANKO/WILLIAM PARKER/STEVE McCALL et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Winged Serpent/Historic Concerts: With Max Roach at Columbia University 1979/Olu Iwa/For Olim [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1007; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
5 CD box for $32

PAUL MOTIAN With JIM PEPPER/JOE LOVANO/BILL FRISELL/ED SCHULLER/ENRICO PIERANUNZI - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: The Story Of Maryam/Jack Of Clubs/Misterioso/Notes/One Time Out/Flux And Change [6 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1008; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
6 CD box for $34

ENRICO PIERANUNZI With ART FARMER/LEE KONITZ/MARC JOHNSON/JOEY BARON/BILLY HIGGINS/PAUL MOTIAN et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Isis/Deep Down/No Man's Land/Flux And Change/Seaward/Ma L'Amore No [6 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1004; Italy) 2009 remasters; with original covers and credits
6 CD box for $34

ENRICO RAVA With GIANLUIGI TROVESI/JOHN TAYLOR/TONY OXLEY et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Il Giro Del Giorno in 80 Mondi/Andanada/Rava String Band/Secrets/Electric Five [5 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1002; Italy) 2009 remasters; with original covers and credits
5 CD box for $32

GEORGE RUSSELL With JAN GARBAREK/MANFRED SCHOOF/MARTY EHRLICH/TERJE RYPDAL/PALLE MIKKELBORG/STANLEY COWELL/BOBO STENSON et al - Complete Black Saint-Soul Note Recordings: Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature 1968 & 1980/Othello Ballet Suite & Electronic Organ Sonata/Vertical Form VI/Listen To The Silence/Trip To Prillarguri/New York Big Band/The Essence Of George Russell/Live In An American Time Spiral [9 CD set] (BlackSaint/Cam BXS 1005; Italy) 2010 remasters; with original covers and credits
9 CD box for $40


RICHARD BLIWAS TRIO With DANIEL CARTER or NED GOOLD/BRUCE DITMAS - Nine (Rising Rose; USA) Featuring Richard Bliwas on piano, synth & songs, Daniel Carter on tenor sax and Bruce Ditmas on drums & bass with Ned Goold on tenor sax for 1 piece. It is pretty rare to see or hear the ubiquitous Daniel Carter just playing one horn on any record or session, since he usually plays several reeds and trumpet at every gig I've caught. Although, I haven't seen his name in a long while, ace drummer Bruce Ditmas played with Paul Bley and Gil Evans in the seventies. I can't say that I had heard of saxist Ned Goold before this disc. Richard Bliwas is an odd yet charming character whose eight previous discs explore diverse terrain from free/jazz through Randy Newman like pop vocal songs. I never know what direction he will go next whenever he leaves us with a new disc.
There is a rather Sun Ra-like space vibe at the center of this disc as if Sun Ra's quirky spirit were floating in the air when this session took place. Daniel Carter plays some lovely, spiraling lines while Richard balances quaint chords with free piano swirls. Mr. Ditmas, who has been known to play synth in the past, seems to switching between an acoustic drum set and drums samples. Mr. Bliwas selectively uses the synth to color and add mysterious shades. The interplay between the piano and the drums is often what makes this music so magical and connected. They seem to wander together, slowing down and speeding up as one spirit/flow. Daniel Carter is more laid back than usual, floating on top of and weaving in between flowing rhythms with a melancholy grace. Mr. Bliwas adds elements of bluesy melodies which allows Daniel Carter to play more inside and fit perfectly. Bliwas sounds like he is playing one of Sun Ra-like ancient electric keyboards (like a rocksichord?) on a few of these pieces, selectively adding odd spirit/spice to the proceedings. I am not sure how much of this music was improvised in the studio although I do fine the music to be often lovely, spacey, elegant and somewhat soothing. Put on this disc and spread some of that magic dust around. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14


JEFF DAVIS With RUSS LOSSING/EIVIND OPSVIK - We Sleep Outside (Fresh Sound NT 407; EEC) Featuring Jeff Davis on drums & compositions, Eivind Opsvik on bass and Russ Lossing on piano. When drummer & composer Jeff Davis left me with his quintet disc last year ('We Sleep Outside'), little did I know that it would become one of my favorite discs of the year! The only previous disc or band that I could compare it to was the Tony Williams Quintet CDs on Blue Note from the eighties. And this some pretty high praise. So, when Jeff just left us with his new trio disc, I was and am very excited.
There are those that think that the piano trio format is stale or predictable or no longer exciting. I beg to differ since over the past few years there has been a number piano trios which push the boundaries and this one is in a class of its own. Both pianist Russ Lossing and bassist Eivind Opsvik lead several bands, compose distinctively personal music and end up in diverse and unexpected situations. Every piece on this disc explores a different world, vibe or structural landscape. On the opener and title track, it sounds like all three musicians are shifting through different connected orbits. After a boisterous first half, the trio calms down to a more somber section before they launch into that Monkian theme again. "Faded" seems to build from a ballad-like vibe more through a more fractured section until the trio accelerates together then back down to a soft bass solo and sparse section. "Overath" reminds me of Carla Bley challenging piece "Ictus" where the trio plays those difficult lines tightly together when it opens before Mr. Lossing sends out a series of spiralling lines, creating a web for the bass and drums to tumble with. On "Catbird", I first thought that there was too little going on, but the closer I listened, I noticed that things were happening on a more subdued level which took time to actually erupt in the second half. "Saint Albert" features Mr. Davis' drums at the center of the storm creating a well balanced story which begins and ends with an intense piano led written theme. Davis takes a strong solo towards the end of "William Jacob" which fits well into the the arc of the way this piece unfolds. It takes time to figure out how some of these pieces are constructed or connected. "Transitional Whales" starts out spaciously yet soon explodes into a more turbulent cascade as the tempo increases into an intense and abrupt conclusion. As far as piano trios go, this one doesn't quite sound like any other that I've heard. It is filled with surprises on various levels. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
[ltd time price; normally $16]
CD $13



Earlier this week I caught Bay Area saxist, Joshua Smith, play at The Stone with Scott Amendola, Ben Goldberg, John Shifflett and Nels Cline. Mr. Smith originally comes from Cleveland but lived here in the 1990's when he led a fine trio called Birth, who had a disc out on Hopscotch. Joshua and his wife Irene have been living in the Bay Area for the better part of the last decade. Mr. Smith just left us with three discs from his own label which are listed below.


JOSHUA SMITH & KEIGO HIRAKAWA With JOHN SHIFFLETT/TIM BULKLEY - Hessler-Cabrillo Run Down (Warbler Records 02; USA) Joshua Smith on tenor & alto saxes, Keigo Hirakawa on piano, John Shifflett on bass and Tim Bulkley on drums plus Kurt Kotheimer on bass and Hamir Atwal on drums for 3 tracks). Joshua Smith used to lead a trio called Birth who had two CDs out in the nineties (one on Hopscotch) when the trio was living in the NYC area. Mr. Smith has since moved to the Bay Area where this disc was recorded. The only other musician here with whom I am previously familiar is bassist John Shifflett, who has worked with Scott Amendola and Will Bernard.
This is a strong, spirited quartet with Joshua's full-bodied tenor sailing superbly on top. Many of the pieces are relatively short with the sax and piano rustling gracefully together. The songs sound more like sketches with lots of tight interplay between are four musicians, all sailing together in a series of somber waves. There is a nice, dreamy quality to some of these pieces, unrushed and calm at times. "Street Guy" has that hypnotic "In a Silent Way" like rhythm although sped up a bit and then escalating faster as it evolves. This quartet sounds like they were influenced by the Trane Quartet but without going out too far. A strong date nonetheless. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $12

THE CLEVELAND TRIO [JOSHUA SMITH/JEREMY BLEICH/CARMEN CASTALDI] - The Cleveland Trio (Warbler Records 01; USA) Featuring Joshua Smith on tenor & alto saxes, Jeremy Bleich on electric bass and Carmen Castaldi on drums. Mr. Smith grew up in Cleveland, moved to New York with a trio called Birth who had a CD on Hopscotch which included Cuong as a guest. Josh Smith now lives in the Bay Area and runs the Warbler Records label. Birth included Jeremy Bleich on bass who also plays on this disc. I caught Mr. Smith earlier this week playing with Scott Amendola, Nels Cline and Ben Goldberg.
The Cleveland Trio are impressive, strong, tight and intense. This live set was taken from the High Mayhem Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2007. Mr. Smith plays mostly tenor sax but switches to soprano sax on a couple of these pieces. The trio sounds like the Sam Rivers Trio of yesteryear, only using electric and not acoustic bass. This is serious, strong and spirited free/jazz trio effort. It sounds as if the trio have been playing together for a long while since they seem to follow each other and consistently connect on different levels. This set was well recorded and is perfectly balanced. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $12

THE OLD WAY [JOSHUA SMITH/IRENA SMITH] - The Old Way (Warbler Records 03; USA) The Old way is Joshua Smith and his wife Irena on vocals & guitars. You never know. Who would've thought that saxist Joshua Smith, who played with Scott Amendola earlier this week (12/4/12) at The Stone and whose other two avant jazz CDs I reviewed today, would also be a closet bluegrass/folky singer/songwriter. In between sets on Tuesday, I spoke with Joshua, Nels Cline & Ben Goldberg downstairs at The Stone. Mr. Smith used be the frontman for a trio called Birth who had a fine CD on Assif Tsahar's Hopscotch label in the nineties when Birth were living in NY. Since then, Joshua moved to the Bay Area and got married. The Old Way is just Joshua and his wife Irena on voices and guitars. Josh tells me that he has jammed with the legendary Peter Rowan whose long career has gone from Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the mid-sixties to Boston psych/roots band Earth Opera to Seatrain (Blues Project offshoot band) to Old & In the Way (with Jerry Garcia & David Grisman) and then back to lots of bluegrass and folk sessions. So, I was just expecting something pleasant.
The Old Way is much more than just that. They are an immensely enchanting duo that sound quite a bit like Gillian Welch and David Rollings, another folky couple who also live in California and with whom I am an immense fan. Irena sings lead on most of the songs here and has a rich, rustic, earthy voice that makes me want to cry (for joy). This couple sing slightly bent harmonies that I find to be completely charming. It is the guitar playing as well as the songs themselves that sound similar to Gillian Welch. Each and every song on this disc is warm, inviting and instantly memorable. I've played this disc twice today and I will most likely play it again before I go to sleep. It is that good! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $12



JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG - The Face of the Earth (Ideologic Organ 11; EEC) The second beautiful album by the duo of Jessika Kenney -- a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of Persian vocal traditions -- and Eyvind Kang -- a violist for whom the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline. All tracks were composed by Kenney (voice, percussion, electronics) and Kang (viola, setar, electronics). "The Central Javanese Wangsalan is a kind of riddle (two lines, twelve syllables each, divided 4 and 8 ), sung by the female vocalist on the gamelan, often using images of natural phenomena alongside descriptions of human characteristics, invoking atmospheres of primordial knowledge, humor, heightened sensation, philosophy, with much hidden wordplay and reference." -- J. Kenney. "Tavaf" is based on a ghazal by twelfth century Persian Sufi poet Attar (12th c.). Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin October 2012.
LP $22

still available..

JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG - Aestuarium (Ideologic Organ 02; EEC) Jessika Kenney is a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of vocal traditions. Eyvind Kang is a violist for whom the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline. Aestuarium is a meditation on a psalm of lamentation and the unary tone in the metaphor of salt and fresh water, inspired by Gaelic psalmery, Tibetan notational gestures, and the microtonality of the tetrachord. Recorded on the shore of Colvos Passage in 2005 by renowned engineer Mell Dettmer. Stephen O'Malley comments: "Amongst many other amazing pieces Jessika & Eyvind collaborated on SUNN O)))'s Monoliths & Dimensions album, Jessika leading the choir on the piece "Big Church" and Eyvind composing the acoustic arrangements for "Big Church" & "Alice." I learned an immense amount about music through these collaborations, specifically the idea of Spectral music through research and discussion/reference points of composers such as Grisey and Murail. Aestuarium is a beautiful piece of minimalist spectral music which has brought great pleasure to my ears over the years." Originally released on CD by Endless Records in 2005. Ideologic Organ curation and art direction by Stephen O'Malley.
LP $21


NORBERT MOSLANG - indoor_outdoor (Ideologic Organ 08; EEC) The deep electric rainforest sound atmospheres that the listener will hear on this record was the tip of the iceberg of a rich and elaborate work process. For over 30 years, Norbert Moslang has made installations, sound performances,and music records that are deeply involved in the hidden world of vibrations to convert them into loud sounds and thick textures. Living simultaneously in spheres of inside/outside, micro-vibrations, spatial structures, underground music venues, art galleries, underwater, glass windows, body movement, precise equalizers, insects, microcosms, and electronic devices, Moslang constructs fascinating, untrammeled worlds of both philosophical and physical power. "I attempted a Voice Crack gig when I was 21 at an experimental noise festival in Fribourg ... Moslang and Voice Crack opened to me both the ways to experimental noise music as well as sound art performance. When looking through the rear-view mirror, it's clear that in the late '70s/early '80s, there weren't many artists working with harsh noise -- a list of the classics includes The New Blockaders, Whitehouse and Throbbing Gristle in the UK; Hijokaidan, Merzbow, Incapacitants in Japan; NON, The Haters in the States, among only a few others. Since the break up of Voice Crack in 2002, Norbert Moslang enlarged his practice to cover all noise and experimental practices, from lo-fi 'Everyday-Cracked-Electronics,' saturation/overdrive work, performance and improvisation, field recordings and multi layered ambient noise composition. Through interconnecting, heterogeneous everyday objects; linking the outside sound environment into a quiet art museum by fixing microphones to its windows; filming the underwater Venice canal in order to set off neverending imagery flux, allowing a movie to play its own soundtrack by triggering photo-sensors, Moslang proves to our entire nervous system that the world we inhabit is no more than infinite continuum. To talk about indoor_outdoor specifically, again, Moslang's music drives us from nothing to everything. A field recording in a Swiss harbor is then processed and composed in a studio. The second track 'hot_cold_shield' is a collaborative duo with Toshimaru Nakamura, an influential member of the Onkyokei scene in Japan -- a brutal live improvisation recorded at Manif d'art in Quubec." --Balthazar Lovay, Deborence, September 2012; Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, October 2012.
LP $22


AKI ONDA - Cassette Memories Volume 3: South of the Border (Important 309; USA) "Aki Onda is an electronic musician, composer, and visual artist... particularly known for his Cassette Memories project -- works compiled from a 'sound diary' of field-recordings collected by Onda over a span of two decades." "South of the Border is the third installment of my Cassette Memories album series. All field recordings were taped in Mexico, a country I've had a special fondness for since I was a little child. My first memory was watching photographs and Super 8 films my father shot in Mexico City from his time there during the 1968 Summer Olympics, where he competed as a member of the Japanese national hockey team. It made me realize there is a place completely different from Japan, and I started dreaming about 'another world.' When I was a teenager, I encountered Alejandro Jodorowsky's seminal film El Topo, which shocked me with its surreal images and strong mysticism. That experience shaped my primal image of the country, although I wasn't sure if it was true reality or pure imagination. Finally, I made my first visit to Mexico in 2005. I was amazed that everything was as I had envisioned. Mexico embraces extreme wealth and poverty, highly contemporary and primitive lifestyles, intellect and superstition, and any sort of polarities all in one. Somehow, in this chaos, the boundary between reality and imagination disappears. In this way, everything is possible, and that's what I believe. Technical notes: I had three cassette Walkmans to make field recordings while I was traveling in Mexico. Two became broken due to tape head and motor wear, but I continued using them. Some of the beautifully messed-up sound collages you will hear were produced accidentally due to the imperfect condition of the recorders."
CD $14

ELEH - Retreat, Return, Repose [3 CD set; Ltd Ed of 1000 copies] (Important 369; USA) "Edition of 1000. This deluxe three CD set presents Eleh's Retreat, Return, and Repose together for the first time. The LPs were originally available via Important Records mailorder only. Retreat is a collection of exploratory sound assemblages put together during a cabin sojourn. New timbral richness, tonal expansion and deep synthesis make these pieces rather different from previous work. Return reflects on time away. Repose contains only one piece, the final recording of 'Circle Two: Coastal Rotation for Dune Loop' which was debuted at 2010's Mutek festival in Montreal. This piece completes the Retreat/Return trilogy with Repose and is intended to stand very much on its own. Rain on your hood. Your heart beats. A beach break roaring in the distance. Isolated pines are played by the wind. A fine spot for repose. You turn around and head home."
3 CD set for $42


NILS FRAHM - Screws (Erased Tapes 46; UK) Berlin-based pianist Nils Frahm presents a 30 minute mini-album to his fans. Nils experienced an unfortunate accident, which saw him fall from his bunk bed located directly above his studio, which resulted in a broken thumb. But through inspiration from his fans and despite the four screws that had just been surgically placed inside his thumb, he started recording with nine fingers, which later resulted in nine intimate piano recordings. In his own words: "Even though my doctor told me not to touch a piano for a while, I just couldn't resist. I started playing a silent song with 5 fingers on my right and the remaining 4 on my left hand. I set up one microphone and recorded another tune every other night before falling asleep. The day I got rid of my cast I had recorded nine little songs. They have helped me feel less annoyed about my accident and reminded me that I can only achieve something good, when I make the most of what I've got." Nils Frahm has become known for his unconventional approach to an age-old instrument as well as his collaborations with contemporaries such as Olafur Arnalds, Peter Broderick (as Oliveray) and Efterklang.
CD $16


PIERRE BASTIEN - Machinations [CD + DVD] (Rephlex 215; UK) Pierre Bastien is a French composer and multi-instrumentalist (releasing music since the mid-1980s) who works with his own unique, self-built Meccano orchestra. This is far too simply put though: the musicians can be paperclips, insects, model birds, tubes, or an old tone-arm, perhaps. One perspective would be that he achieves his music via the construction of machines. Another perspective is that it's the other way around. Having a profound love of old jazz and traditional world music, he is also a professional bass player and notable for sometimes picking up a trumpet or horn. Nowadays, on YouTube, you might find a robotic MIDI controllable guitar that can outplay any human, or a computer that will endlessly compose drum and bass and who knows what the future holds there. But Pierre Bastien has been evolving his own aims/methods/results/conclusions since he was a young boy and you will hear that his album is full of that natural charm, peace, and purity. After decades of exploration and experimentation, the music has achieved considerable sophistication. Pierre has already released two acclaimed albums with Rephlex; this one is accompanied by a bonus DVD, and, although much of the source footage for that is lower resolution, one can get much closer to the full experience and enjoyment of his concerts and installations all over the world. Grandparents and grandkids and all in between will get something from this release. A chance to see and hear the machines in action, up close. As usual, all the audio track titles are palindromes, to echo some movements of the instruments.
CD + DVD for $20


GYORGI LIGETI - 1948-2001: A Ligeti Odyssey (BIS 1503; EEC) "This chronological exploration of the musical universe of Gyorgy Ligeti begins in 1948, with a brief piece for solo piano composed by a 25-year old music student in Budapest and ends with his final compositions, also for solo piano, when Ligeti had long since become established as one of the truly great figures of 20th-century music. On the way, it takes in a number of works which demonstrate the kaleidoscopic qualities of the composer and his oeuvre -- from the sharply delineated sense of humour displayed in the Six Bagatelles to the otherworldliness of Lux Aeterna (used by Stanley Kubrick in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey), and the sheer mass of Volumina for organ, in which the performer uses elbows, arms, and the palms of his hands in order to strike the largest possible number of keys at the same time. The music and its creator are described in an enlightening essay by the musicologist Arnold Whittall, who quotes a remark by Ligeti himself as one explanation for this almost bewildering range of moods and atmospheres: 'everything that is direct and unambiguous is alien to me.' Ligeti's oeuvre certainly bears this out, while also testifying to another observation by the composer: 'what is serious is at the same time comical, and the comical is terrifying.' The present, amply filled anthology brings together some seminal Ligeti works in interpretations that were highly praised when originally released, by performers of international standing, including Nobuko Imai, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Fredrik Ullen and Hans-Ola Ericsson, as well as the eminent vocal ensemble Schola Heidelberg." Featured works: Invention for piano (1948); Six Bagatelles for wind quintet (1953); Volumina for organ (1961?62, rev. 1966); Lux Aeterna for choir a cappella (1966); Ten Pieces for wind quintet (1968); Sonata for Viola Solo (1991?94); Three Etudes for piano (1985?2001). Performed by: Fredrik Ullen, piano; Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet; Hans-Ola Ericsson, organ; Nobuko Imai, viola; Schola Heidelberg / Walter Nssbaum. Total playing time: 81 minutes.
CD $20


TOSHIO HOSOKAWA - String Quartets [H-SACD] (Neos 11072; Germany) "Hosokawa rarely turns to analogies from early Japanese lyric poetry to explain his music. Far more often he refers to the tradition of calligraphy. He 'paints' his compositions on the background of stillness, a canvas of silence." Performed by Naaman Sluchin, violin; Yun-Peng Zhao, violin; Franck Chevalier, viola; Pierre Morlet, violoncello. Featured works: Silent Flowers (1998), Landscape I (1992), Landscape V (1993), Urbilder (1980), Blossoming (2006/2007). Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player.
CD $21

DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE 2011 [V.A.] - Vol s 1, 2, 3, [H-SACD; 3 CD set] (Neos 11214-6; Germany) "In 2011, the Donaueschinger Musiktage had plenty to celebrate: ninety years of living out and shaping music history; ninety years of service as the 'flea in the fur of musical culture'; ninety years of providing a podium for all things 'foreign,' 'unknown,' and 'other'; ninety years of existence as a laboratory of new sounds, their contexts and their means of presentation, and ninety years of being sandwiched between societal roadblocks and the ivory tower." Featured works: Wolfgan Rihm: Seraphin Symphonie, Lars Petter Hagen: To Zeitblom, Saed Haddad: Kontra-Gewalt, Rebecca Saunders: Stasis, Wolfgang Mitterer: Little Smile, Hans Thomalla: The Brightest Form of Absence, Iris te Schiphorst: Studie zu Figuren/Serie, Andreas Dohmen: Zirckel/Richtscheyt/Felscher. Performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Emilio Pomarico, Gjermund Larsen, Lars Petter Hagen, Wieland Hoban, Franscois-Xavier Roth, Nina Jansen, Wolfgang Mitterer, Paul Jeukendrup, Sarah Maria Sun, Experimental studio des SWR, Enno Poppe, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart. Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player.
3 CD set for $63


New and Recent on Carrier!

WET INK ENSEMBLE - Relay (Carrier 17; USA) For more than a decade, Wet Ink Ensemble has been pushing the boundaries of new music in New York City. Looking at Wet Ink's programs for the past 13 seasons shows a group that has not only defined a clear image of who they are, but has also had a broad influence on the new music scene in New York City. On Relay, with new works by Rick Burkhardt, George Lewis, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels, the ensemble showcases six of the most important composers making music in America today. These are not composers rehashing old ideas or following established trends. These are creative sonic thinkers, inventing new and unique sound worlds and creating new trends that will be followed for the next decade.
With virtuosic performances by Erin Lesser on flute, Ian Antonio on percussion, and Joshua Modney on violin, plus composer-performers Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, Alex Mincek, and Sam Pluta - and featuring Michael Ibrahim on saxophone - Relay displays stunning solo and ensemble playing, showcasing Wet Ink's unique brand of ensemble virtuosity, penchant for sonic exploration, and compositional inventiveness beyond the status quo.
CD $10

ALEX MINCEK//WET INK ENSEMBLE/JACK QUARTET et al - lift - tilt - filter - split (Carrier 11; USA) lift - tilt - filter - split is the first full-length recording dedicated solely to Mincek's concert music. The works presented here demonstrate Mincek's ability to work with radically diverse collections of sound - from fragile timbres teetering on the brink of inaudibility to triumphantly raucous outbursts. In fact, for much of the recording contrasts are made to coincide within meticulously constructed musical textures. These works also highlight Mincek's penchant for alternating between austere forms of mechanical-like repetition and sinuous continuity. It is music that is at once both raw and highly refined - smoothly organic and yet filled with sputtering glitches.
CD $10

SAM PLUTA - Relay (Carrier 16; USA) Known internationally for his improvised laptop performances with groups like The Peter Evans Quintet and Rocket Science (with Evan Parker, Craig Taborn, and Peter Evans), composer/improviser Sam Pluta continues his virtuosic combination of instruments and electronics on Machine Language, an album of electro-acoustic compositions written for and recorded by some of the finest new music ensembles and performers in New York City. From the driving rhythms of the opening title track to meditative resonances of Lyra to the microtonal screams of 7:6, this unrelenting and sonically saturated solo debut reveals the unique compositional language of one of the most compelling electronics performers of his generation. Machine Language follows up Pluta's March 2011 release, sum and difference, a collaborative improvised album with instrumentalists Jim Altieri and Peter Evans.
CD $10

ALEXANDER SIGMAN - Nominal / Noumenal (2006-2009) (Carrier 14; USA) Uniting three of the world's foremost contemporary music ensembles and seven edgy, engaging, and interconnected works, Nominal/Noumenal is Sigman's first portrait recording.
Drawing upon sources of inspiration as diverse as Lautreamont's proto-surrealist prose-poem Les Chants de Maldoror, British typographer and iconoclast Eric Gill's An Essay on Typography, neural networks, and industrial wastelands, Nominal/Noumenal captivates the listener as it travels through raw, rarefied, intimate, explosive, grainy, and sculptural sonic territories.
Nominal/Noumenal was recorded at the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart) and Abbaye de Royaumont (France), produced at the ZKM (Karlsruhe), and mastered at Flexatone HFP (New York).
CD $10

ENSEMBLE PAMPLEMOUSSE - Raana Jedaku (Carrier 13; USA) RAANNA JEDAKU is a collection of 7 works by the members of Pamplemousse, written between 2009 and 2011.
The works on disc 1 embody 'Symbiosis' - they are an exploration of codependent relationships in sound or music. The compositions describe different processes, each internally reliant for success. These relationships range from those between audience and performer, to the expected (and sometimes broken) sonification of visual cues, to the unveiling of hidden tones emerging from super- and sub-audio frequencies.
Disc 2 describes 'Absurd Limitations.' These 4 works of exploitative self-limitation effectuated through the conflux of adventure and confusion are the emergent product of reducing, restricting, narrowing, squelching, slicing, and otherwise removing all unnecessary fodder. In extremes what remains is a curious series of decomplexities which the audience is driven to anatomize into a consolified structure. Space is at a premium; noise is molecular; silence is hypothetical but desired.
CD $10

DAVID BRYNJAR FRANZSON//ENSEMBLE ADAPTER - A Guide for the Dead through the Underworld (Carrier 12; USA) DavVI Brynjar Franzson's a Guide for the Dead through the Underworld, is a 12 part listening guide to the composer's immediate environment. The various noises that the instruments can produce are treated as representatives of sounds taken from his surroundings - from the ticking sound of a red toy duck, through the squealing brakes of large trucks as they grind to a halt on Amsterdam Avenue, to the low rumble of the boiler in the basement of his apartment. Through this process, Franzson not only creates something new, but creates a space wherein the new can take place. In this case a freak of nature: the Monster - a monster defined as the combination of objects (living or inanimate), each separately belonging to a natural category, but combined forming the "unnatural". By placing the disembodied sounds of the instruments within the context of his immediate environment, Franzson constructs unseen musical monsters, monsters that live right on the edge of our perception, briefly popping in to existence only to disappear again.
CD $10

GUDMUNDUR STEINN GUNNARSSON - Horpma (Carrier 09; USA) Personnel: Gudmundur Steinn Gunnarsson on guitars, chumbuz (Turkish banjo/oud-like instrument) & langspil (bowed zither), Charity Chan on piano & harpsichord, Kanoko Nishi on koto, Kyomitsu Odai & Nicole Reisnour on harpsichords & piano and Robert Reynisson on guitars, ukuleles & small plucked instruments. This is a mostly Icelandic ensemble except for Montreal-based pianist Charity Chan. It is pretty rare for a six-piece ensemble in which all but one musician plays harpsichord or piano. The relatively new Carrier label specializes in mostly modern classical music or some sort of drone or electronic-based music. The music on this odd yet enchanting disc falls somewhere in between.
Strange, plucked, bent-note, minimal yet somehow focused. Mechanical like a clock slowly breaking down, starting, stopping and then adding notes as the tempo carefully increases. Certain notes are magnified and held up for inspection. Slowly certain themes or patterns emerge, certain combinations of notes point to subliminal direction. This disc consists of two pieces, one around 32 minutes and the second about 13 minutes. The second piece is more sped up and nearly frantic in part like machine that has been wound up too tightly. The somewhat nervous pace makes this music more intense and engaging as if we can't wait to see what will happen next... Another review no doubt about that. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $12


FLORIAN HECKER - Chimerization (English language edition) (Editions Mego 153; Austria) Editions Mego is happy to announce the release of Chimerization, three vinyl editions of a text-sound piece Florian Hecker produced on the occasion of dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. For Chimerization, Hecker invited the Iranian writer and philosopher Reza Negarestani to contribute an experimental libretto, "The Snake, the Goat and the Ladder (A board game for playing chimera)," a script that has been recited by a group of speakers and recorded by Hecker in anechoic and sound-attenuated chambers: rooms designed to minimize the reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves. Hecker characterizes Chimerization as a concept derived from psychoacoustic investigations on difficult-to-define areas between language and non-language, a process focusing on the decomposition of sound and synthesizing incompatible modalities, surpassing their respective particularities without fusing them, in order to obtain a narration beyond immediate comprehension, which may be deciphered through repeated, "active" listening. Chimerization is available in the following languages: English (EMEGO 153LP), German (EMEGO 154LP), the mother tongue of the artist, and Farsi (EMEGO 155LP), the original language of the writer. German voices: Andreas Huyssen, Anna Kohler, Guerino Mazzola. Farsi voices: Arash Afraz, Maryam Vaziri Pashkam, Mahsa Rouhi. English voices: Gabriel Catren, Sugata Bose, Joan Jonas. All voices recorded by Florian Hecker at the Sensory Communication Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, except: Andreas Huyssen recorded at Hearing Science Laboratory, City University of New York; Guerino Mazzola recorded at Orfield Labs, Minneapolis. Gabriel Catren recorded by Olivier Pasquet at IRCAM, Paris. The three vinyl editions of Chimerization have been designed by NORM, Zurich and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
AVAILABLE in the following languages, please specify language and cat # when ordering!
English (# 153) LP $22
German (# 154) LP $22
Farsi (# 155) LP $22



PSYCHIC TV [GENESIS P-ORRIDGE With PETER CHRISTOPHERSON/JOHN GOSLING/ALEX FERGUSON et al] - Live at thee Ritz [2 CD set] (Cold Spring 173; UK) Recorded on 6th November 1983, this is the complete and mostly unheard document of Psychic TV's first ever show as a full live band, after their appearance at The Final Academy with William S. Burroughs in 1982. Originally issued on vinyl in 1989 in an edition of 5000 copies, rare tapes have been found that expand this album to a full double CD set with updated sleeve notes and never before seen photos. It features the classic PTV line-up: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, John Gosling (Zos Kia), Peter Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil), and Geff Rushton (Coil).
2 CD set for $20

and, last copies of..

PSYCHIC TV [GENESIS P-ORRIDGE With PETER CHRISTOPHERSON/JOHN GOSLING/LARRY THRASHER et al] - Themes I, II, III, IV (1, 2, 3, 4) [6 CD box set] (Cold Spring 123; UK) For the first time, all three Themes albums by Psychic TV are released together - along with a PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 4th album - in a sumptuous, embossed box set. The music itself was designed not only as a soundtrack but also for subsequent use by Initiates of The Temple Ov Psychick Youth in their rituals as Functional music intended only to aid in the process of making things happen. It is a practical tool. Thee essential collection of rare, archive and modern PTV ritual/esoteric musick! Each CD is presented in its own matte laminate, spot-varnished mini-LP sleeve. The box also includes a 28-page booklet of rare photos and essays. Themes was originally released in 1982 as a limited bonus LP with the first 5,000 copies of the legendary Psychic TV album Force The Hand Of Chance. Musicians: Stan Bingo, Peter Christopherson (Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Soisong), Genesis P-Orridge, and David Tibet (Current 93).
Themes 2 was originally released on LP in 1985 by Temple Records and subsequently reissued as an extended CD version by Cold Spring in 1997. Musicians: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, John Gosling (Zos Kia, Coil, Mekon). Themes 2 is presented here as a 2CD set, including the full vinyl version, plus the original Unclean 12" and its two B-side tracks that were recorded in the same sessions. Themes 3 was originally released on LP in 1986 by Temple Records and is presented here for the first time on CD, completely remastered. Musicians: Genesis P-Orridge, John Gosling (Zos Kia, Coil, Mekon), Mark Sangerman, Monte Cazazza. Themes 3 is presented here as a 2 CD set, with an unheard version performed in Boston, U.S. by Genesis P-Orridge and John Gosling.
Themes 4 is a brand new Psychic TV album, recorded by the late partner of Genesis P-Orridge, Lady Jaye and Psychic TV. Compiled by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Ryan Martin and Bryin Dall. Musicians: Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Larry Thrasher, Bryin Dall.
6 CD set for $78


AX [ANTHONY DI FRANCO] - Metal Forest (Cold Spring 167; UK) AX is the project of British rock and electronic musician Anthony Di Franco (Ramleh, Novatron, Ethnic Acid, JFK, ex-Skullflower). Extreme and uncompromising, AX presents a unique sound world of blistering power electronics, pulverizing bass drones, feedback symphonies, and dark atmospheres. This CD includes tracks from the legendary, long out of print mid-'90s vinyl albums, digitally remastered for the first time.
CD $17


AIMER ET PERDRE [V.A.] - To Love & To Lose Songs, 1917-1934 [3 LP set] (Angry Mom 02; USA) Three original artworks by Robert Crumb, including the cover, provide a backdrop for these sublime songs of passion and despair. "This is one from the heart. The unique pre-war music of the Cajun bayous, the Carpathian Mountains of Uraine and Poland, and the American rural countryside has been collected to narrate the human odyssey of love gained and love lost. Early songs of unbridled anticipation and desperate longing color the canvas of love, courtship, dejection and marriage... a never-ending cycle. The accompanying 16-page booklet features many rare, previously unpublished images and comprehensive lyrical translations. Respectfully crafted by Christopher King and Susan Archie for Angry Mom Records." Thirty-six songs on three LPs."
3 LP set for $60
also available as a 2 CD set on Tompkins Square label for $28


PETER STAMPFEL [HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS] - Live (Mystra 10; USA) "Yes!! It's that/thee legendary 'holy/moly/modal' master from the 60's & ever onward..this recording is an amazing live document from a awesome performance in the mid-90s!... Unlike any performer ever, Stampfel has stumped the best and blown minds forever..Comes in a 'every-copy unique' handpainted/silk-screened/paste-on cover and has insert with notes by Stampfel & Mystra... plus a 8 page booklet with Holy Modal Rounders/Fugs stories..."
LP $21


JOHN FAHEY - The Voice Of The Turtle (4 Men With Beards 219; USA) "The Voice of the Turtle is one of the most beguiling albums from one of America's most legendarily beguiling musicians. Recorded at Sierra Sound Recorders, Berkeley, California in 1968 and released in 1968 on his own Takoma label, Fahey credits some of the compositions and performances to the fictional guitarist Blind Joe Death, and some of the songs are actually rumored to not be Fahey at all but in fact obscure blues 78s. Whatever the case may be, it's one of Fahey's most adventurous and beautiful LPs. Reissued here on 180 gram vinyl in a deluxe tip-on jacket with an exact replica of the original 12 page booklet."
On THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE, John Fahey brings a progressive, highly conceptual approach to his love of rural roots music in a set that's both accessible and disquieting in its effects. Fahey's unique acoustic guitar style sounds much as it does on his earliest Takoma recordings, synthesizing old time blues and country structures with progressive harmonies and melodies. On TURTLE, however, Fahey plays with notions of genre and authenticity as well, recreating the scratchy effects of old 78 rpm records ("Bean Vine Blues #2"), front porch Cajun ("Bill Cheatum"), and drunken, deep swamp hollering ("The Story of Dorothy Gooch, Part I), to name a few.Ever the trickster, Fahey rips his "historical" canvas with the inclusion of tracks like "A Raga Called Pat, Parts III and IV" in which eerie, off-kilter slide work floats through a cloud of intensely psychedelic electronic effects. Fahey's trickster mission is further reinforced by the album's hilarious, mock-historical liner notes-- written, of course, by Fahey himself under an assumed, rather long-winded and digressive alter ego. A quirky disc that manages to be at once highly conceptual, stylistically idiosyncratic, yet wonderfully listenable, THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE is an important addition to any Fahey collection.
LP $25

BILL FAY - Bill Fay (4 Men With Beards 818; USA) "London singer-songwriter Bill Fay released two albums on the Deram label in the early '70s and promptly disappeared into relative obscurity for 30+ years. In the last 10 years or so those albums have finally begun to get the recognition they deserve, and 4 Men with Beards is proud to be able to bring them back into circulation on 180 gram LP. First up is the self-titled debut from 1970, an absolute classic of British folk-rock."
Bill is an enigmatic UK based singer, songwriter and pianist whose work is impossible to categorise. His late 60's early 70's work has a strong cult following, is highly regarded by many music journalists and is dark and haunting with songs rarely going over 3 minutes. Bill was originally signed to Decca and between 1967 and 1971 the label released a beautifully odd single (Some Good Advice/Screams In The Ears) and two excellent albums (the lush, orchestrated Bill Fay and the rawer Time Of The Last Persecution).). Bill's fantastic songs have touched and inspired many- his fans include country rockers Wilco, songwriter/producer Jim O'Rourke, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and David Michael of Current 93. He continues to record..
LP $23


FETEN [V.A.] - Rare Jazz Recordings from Spain 1961-1974 (VampiSoul 146; EEC) "When discussing the output of jazz recorded in Spain during the 1960s and 1970s, most conversations tend to simply list Tete Montoliu's discography and Pedro Iturralde's experiments in fusing jazz with flamenco. During these years, jazz didn't enjoy widespread popularity in Spain: local record labels didn't find the jazz market sufficiently attractive, and resources were largely directed towards the production of Spanish pop. Only this can explain the scarcity of releases during the period, especially when Spain is placed in comparison with countries like Italy or France, which were seemingly a lot more open to sounds originating from the other side of the Atlantic. This is even more pronounced if we bring in the United Kingdom, Germany, and certain Scandinavian nations into the equation. Along with Paris, these places became new homes for a great number of musicians who fled the United States in search of new opportunities. Nevertheless, a handful of albums and EPs exist that have remained unjustly ignored for decades, and which are in urgent need of rediscovery. These musicians helped pave the way for jazz in Spain, and are responsible for some of its brightest musical moments. Feten brings together a selection of recordings made in Spain between 1961 and 1974. The tracks selected were originally released on records that have become impossible to find, and which, in most cases, have never been reissued. These are unique recordings spanning modal jazz, hard-bop and even avant-garde jazz by Spanish musicians such as Mantequilla, Juan Carlos Calderon, Ricard Roda and Vlady Bas, as well as by international jazzmen like Dusko Goykovich, Lou Bennett, and Tino Contreras. The selection is completed by the inclusion of a previously-unissued track -- a cover in a trio format of "Solar," a Miles Davis composition rescued from the master tapes and seeing the light now for the first time after being left out of the original edition of Nits de jazz al Jamboree, released in 1968 by the Edigsa label. Years of searches in market stalls and record fairs, trades with other collectors, phone calls to second-hand dealers, countless hours of online research, and a lot of dusty fingers have made it possible to bring together all the recordings presented here." --Javi Bayo. Includes 28-page booklet with notes and historic photos.
CD $17
also available as 2 LP set for $27


KOUDEDE: GUITARS FROM AGADEZ - Vol 6 [7"] (Sublime Freq 076; USA) The second 7" from Koudede for Sublime Frequencies and the sixth volume in the now-legendary Guitars from Agadez series. The circumstances surrounding these recordings are the stuff of which legends are made: In January 2012, a major insurgency brewing in the far north of Mali turned Timbutku's Festival au Desert into a heavily fortified spectacle. Just one day after the festival, rogue Tuareg rebels launched a full takeover of northern Mali, armed to the teeth with weapons from the Libyan war that ended in the murder of Col. Gadaffi, the spiritual father of the Tuareg in their struggle with the surrounding governments. By the time Koudede's group made it back to the capital city of Bamako -- with Sublime Frequencies' Hisham Mayet in tow -- discord had flared between the mostly Bambara ethnic south and the Tuareg community in the capital region. With a Tuareg exile already in progress, Koudede decided after much hesitation to follow through with a live concert at Toumast -- the Tuareg compound in Bamako -- in defiance of advice that all Tuareg should leave the city immediately. Recorded on location at Toumast by Hisham Mayet in January 2012, these two tracks are a scorching distillation of the urgency and fire in Koudede's music: the pure sound of his people and their constant struggles. Limited edition of 700 copies.
p.s. With deep regret, Sublime Frequencies is saddened to confirm that on October 28th, 2012, Koudede was pronounced dead from a fatal accident on the road back to Niger from a gig in Burkina Faso. This news was delivered the same day as the test pressing was approved for this release. His legacy will live on through his music. RIP Koudede!
7" single for $10


WESTERN JAZZ BAND - Songs of Happiness, Poison & Ululation - Dar Es Salaam Dancing Club 1973-1975 (Sterns 3052; UK) The Western Jazz Band is one of those names known to hardcore African music fanatics but to no one else outside of Africa (a happenstance that's about to change). It was one of the most popular groups in Tanzania in the 1960s and '70s. It took its name from the country's Western Province, where most of its members originated, though they met and formed the group in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam. The term "jazz" indicated that this band played modern music for sophisticated city folk; it wasn't jazz in the American sense but guitar-driven dance music that combined Congolese-style rumba rhythms and the breezy, light-hearted Swahili vocals of the coast. Tanzanians called this style saboso. The 17 tracks on this CD, selected and annotated by East African music expert Douglas Paterson, represent the Western Jazz Band at its peak in the 1970s, when these songs rocked the dance clubs of Dar Es Salaam.
CD $17

BA CISSOKO - Seno (Sterns 1108; UK) Kimintan Cissoko is the genuine article. He's the young scion of the Cissoko clan, which has been famous for centuries in Guinea and neighboring West African countries. The Cissokos are griots -- hereditary Mande poets and musicians -- who are acclaimed especially as masters of the kora (a 21-string harp), and Kimintan is the latest in their long, distinguished lineage. But he's not your father's griot. He has a band called Ba Cissoko, which includes a drummer, a bass guitarist and a second kora player, the amazing Sekou Kouyate, whose instrument is electrified, wired to effect pedals and cranked up. Electric guitarist Abdoulaye Kouyate often joins the quartet in the studio and onstage. Recorded in Marseilles, France, Seno is Ba Cissoko's third album and goes even further than the first two in melding traditional Mande music with rock, reggae, salsa, funk and hip-hop. With Seno, Ba Cissoko's unique sound is no longer a novelty; it's smart, exciting music that makes immediate connections to listeners whoever and wherever they are.
CD $17

MBILIA BEL - Bel Canto: Best of the Genidia Years (Sterns 3037-38; UK) Mbilia Bel was incontestably the most popular female singer in all of Africa in the 1980s. Her voice was a limpid soprano that proclaimed both innocence and knowledge with alluring hints of sass. She was also known for her beauty and her fashion elegance. She was truly a diva. Dancing and singing in a chorus line on a television show when she was 22, she caught the eye of Tabu Ley Rochereau, the great Congolese singer, songwriter and bandleader, who called the studio and hired her on the spot. The song he wrote for her to sing with him was an instant hit, and that was just the beginning. Between 1982 and 1987 she made a dozen albums with Tabu Ley and his top-flight band, Afrisa International, for Ley's Genidia production company, which licensed them to European and American labels. Songs such as "Eswi Yo Wapi," "Beyanga" and "Boya Ye" were hugely popular throughout Africa and beyond, and Mbilia Bel and Tabu Ley (a married couple as well as professional partners) toured the world, including America. Bel Canto: Best of the Genidia Years is a boxed set comprising two CDs and a 44-page booklet full of photos, essays and translations of the song lyrics. It includes all of Mbilia Bel's hits along with equally delightful tracks from her Genidia albums.
2 CD set for $20

AFRICANDO ALL STARS - Ketukuba (Sterns 1103; UK) 2006 release. Ketukuba stands as a tribute to the late Gnonnas Pedro, Benin's favorite son, who sang with Africando from 1996 until his death in 2004. The title song was his last recording. Medoune Diallo, who earned his reputation with Orchestre Baobob before casting his lot with the nascent Africando in 1992, added to his distinguished repertoire with a duet with his son, Lodia Mansour, a rising star in Senegal today. Other Africando stalwarts, Amadou Ballake (Burkina Faso's pre-eminent singer) and Sekouba Bambino (the "baby" star of Guinea's Bembeya Jazz National) also contributed standout songs to the new album. American salsero Joe King gave a rousing rendition of the Fania All-Stars classic "Nina Nina." And Congolese star Madilu "System" Bialu joined Africando for a sparkling Latin-styled version of "Mario," the landmark hit he originally recorded with Franco's T.P.O.K. Jazz in 1985. (He died a year after making this record.) The sparking arrangements for Ketukuba were written and conducted by Nelson Hernandez, who is known for his work with Celia Cruz, Oscar D'Leon and many other Latin stars.
CD $17

AFRICANDO ALL STARS - Mandali (Sterns 1092; UK) 2000 release from Africando All Stars featuring Medoune Diallo, Lokua Kanza, Salif Keita, Gnonnas Pedro, Koffi Olomide, Thione Seck, Shoubou, Sekouba Bambino, Ronnie Baro, Amadou Balake and Hector Casanova. An Afro-Latin vocal summit with no less than 11 of Africa's greatest voices backed by one of the tightest, funkiest salsa machines ever assembled. "Africando ... gains in lustre and importance with every new step." --Songlines
CD $17


GYEDU-BLAY AMBOLLEY - Simigwa (Academy LPS 07; USA) LP version. "Gyedu-Blay Ambolley unleashed his unique brand of 'simigwa' music on an eager yet unsuspecting world in 1975 with the release of this, his debut album. Suffused with his larger-than-life personality, this LP is an absolutely irresistible manifesto of his heavy afro-funk simigwa philosophy. This record spawned a genuine dance craze in Ghana and is even considered a foundational record of the hip lifestyle of hip hop that is popular in Ghana today. Long sought-after by collectors, Academy LPs and Voodoo Funk have teamed up once again to revive this incredible record from the vibrant musical scene of 70's West Africa. Mastered from the original master tapes and featuring the rather remarkable original sleeve, this is an ultra high-quality reissue that continues the reputation we've built with our previous releases. This is a limited, one-time only pressing of 1500 LPs."
LP $19

LAGOS DISCO INFERNO [V.A.] - Nigerian Disco '76-'82 (Academy LPS 04; USA) "Some call it disco, some call it boogie, we call it the Lagos Disco Inferno, 12 smokin' rarities straight from Nigeria, dating back to '76-82, compiled by Fronk Gassner (aka OJ Franc 0, Soulpusher) of Voodoo Funk fame. Surprisingly familiar, yet intriguingly foreign, these tracks sound just as fresh today as they did 30+ years ago. Our record is rife with horns, moog and bells and whistles to keep you up all night. Great liner notes by Dean Disi (journalist and former executive of lye Records, lagos) and a special message from extreme record hunter Damian Iwuagwu (Logos). Following in the footsteps of amazing African re-issues of late such as Ofege (Academy LPs), Pax Nicholas and the Netty Family (Daptone), Ghana Special (Soundway), this album stands alone as the first compilation to focus on African disco. But make no mistake, you won't hear any cheesy strings or nasty Roland synths. This is straight up laugh Nigerian disco funk! Restored for you with loving care from Academy LPs. Work it out!" Artists include Doris Ebong, Geraldo Pino, Grotto, Pogo Ltd., Asiko Rock Group, Paradise Stars, Emma Dorgu, MFB, Christy Essien, Tirogo, BLO and Nana Love.
CD $15

MEBUSAS - Vol 1: Blood Brothers (Academy LPS 03; USA) "The Mebusas' lone LP Blood Brothers combines elements of American soul and funk, psychedelic rock, Latin/Carribean rhythms and traditional African music. Innovative arrangements, deep rhythms, and top-notch playing make this 1973 album a true classic. This is the first ever re-issue of this landmark album."
CD $15

OFEGE - Try And Love (Academy LPS 01; USA) "Legendary heavy psych afro-rock debut LP by Nigerian wonder kids Ofege. Recorded while the band members were still in high school, Try And Love is overflowing ,with great songs, sweet harmonies, and relentless psychedelic guitars." (Featured on Soundway's The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia In 1970s Nigeria compilation.)
CD $15

SJOB MOVEMENT - A Move In The Right Direction (Academy LPS 02; USA) "Deep and spacey Afro-funk rhythms from four heavy weight Nigerian musicians: Spark, Jonnie, Ottay and Bolla. Veterans of Sonny Okosun's Ozzidi band, these four branched out on their own to move in a heavier, more personal direction. First ever re-issue of their 1974 classic album."
CD $15


MC5 - Thunder Express (Munster 149; EEC) Legendary studio sessions made at Herouville Castle in March 1972 with MC5 kickin' out maximum energy. You can hear their classics ("Ramblin' Rose," Kick Out the Jams," "Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa," "I Just Don't Know," etc.) alternated with really inspired versions of The Stones' "Empty Heart," John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" and their Them meets Blue Cheer assault on "I Can Only Give You Everything." Mastered from the original master tapes, Thunder Express is amazing proof of how much Detroit Motor City's energy can be packed onto reel-to-reel tape. Includes original pictures from the session and new artwork.
CD $17


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The NINE WINDS RECORDS Label ..SALE!


IN 1971, LEGENDARY multi-wind/reed virtuoso instrumentalist VINNY GOLIA gave up painting to pursue music full time, working internationally for the last four decades as a composer, bandleader of small groups and big orchestras, and performer in jazz and other creative musics. Golia draws influences from jazz, world music, and contemporary classical music, and has performed in Europe, Japan, and North America in a multitude of ensembles. He plays 20 different woodwinds (as well as some ethnic aerophones), placing numerous times in the Downbeat critic's poll on various instruments!

Golia is also involved in other arts and media besides jazz and improvised music: he has composed for ballet, modern dance works, theater, video, and films such as Serpent's Lair and Blood and Concrete.

Golia started the Los Angeles-based Nine Winds Records label in 1977, focusing primarily on releasing music from the fertile new jazz scene of the American West Coast, and also as a way to release his own compositional works, which combine the freedom of out-jazz with intelligent compositional structures of such high integrity that he stands virtually alone in this degree of accomplishment. And yet, he is one of the foremost improvisers on the planet!

His label provided, and continues to provide the home for the recordings - indeed, acted as the launching pad for - many, many now-worldbeater musician composers, such as..

Nels Cline, Jeff Gauthier, Steve Adams, Rob Blakeslee, Ken Filiano, Brad Dutz, Tony Malaby, Eric Von Essen, Wayne Peet, Michael Vlatkovich, Steuart Liebig, Paul Smoker, Bertram Turetzky, G E Stinson, ..the list goes on.. All of these reknown artists are to be found on multiple recordings listed below, and many others!

Many musicians start labels out of a need to get the music out there, but usually abandon them after a few years. Nine Winds has been going strong for 35 years - with close to 200 LP, CD and DVD releases - and will continue with more announced entries in the near future! And like John Zorn with Tzadik (another rare polymath multi-tasking music genius), Vinny runs the label by himself (where do these guys find the time in addition to their full load of creative activities?!?!). Unbelievable but true.

It's safe too say without Golia's commitment to his music, and his fellow artists, other quality labels such as Cryptogramophone would never have existed!


FOR A LIMITED TIME, DMG is offering the entire remaining NW backcatalog at DISCOUNT [$2 off on single CD releases, and more for multiple disc sets]

MANY of these are last copies of acknowledged Out-of-Print classics [including a few of the early LP-only releases], so DON'T HESISTATE - ORDER NOW FOR BEST FILL!


[Sale ends Friday December 14th - orders must be received by 6PM NYC time that day to qualify.]


STEVE ADAMS/VINNY GOLIA - Circular Logic: Music For Woodwinds (Nine Winds 203; USA) In these woodwind duets between Adams (of the Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Golia, the two feed off each other's energies. Many times one will play a higher-register instrument, such as a soprano or alto sax or flute, while the other wields a bass sax, baritone sax, or bass clarinet. Sometime they match timbres, high or low, but mostly it's the two matching wits as if in a chess game, with musical moves, countermoves, and creative notions that speak in clear, American, freedom-based dialect, to the heart of pure, fearless spontaneity. On many selections, one is struck with the naturalness of it all. Sounds of birds are frequently conjured, soaring and swooping, waking in the morning with insistent chatter, or the hushed, late-night pall signifying the end of yet another day. Sometimes you hear the guttural howl of monsters, or the roar of a pride of lions. Lots of overblown harmonic smears are utilized, as well as the patient beauty of measured lines. A most palpable, childlike wonder is emoted in the soprano sax/bass clarinet pairing on "Not Quite What You Thought" and in the two playing flutes on the apropos "5 a.m." "Glue" hits a solid World Saxophone Quartet groove with alto and baritone sax, while "Caucus 2" and "Maybe It's the Light" display the pair in fluttering, skittish terms. The title track with flute and clarinet, the dueling sopranino saxes on "Diatribe, Pt. IV," and the lengthy tryptic for multi-flutes and clarinets "In Ludwig's House" are pretty self-explanatory. The finale, "Symbolic Logic," with bass flute and bass clarinet hinting at mystery and suggesting a sorcerer is producing the session, puts a spooky exclamation point on the program. This is a great example of the creative avant aesthetic coming home to roost in your face, sometimes serenely gorgeous or chaotically piercing. Adams and Golia are clearly masters of this idiom, and on this incredible disc they run the gamut of emotional, full force, no-holds-barred expressionist endeavor. - Michael G Nastos
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

SUSAN ALLEN/VINNY GOLIA - Duets (Nine Winds 204; USA) S. Allen (harp), V. Golia (ww). Serious improvisers take heart: multi-woodwind instrumentalist Golia and harpist Allen mean business. Harmonic overtones and smears, lovely melodies, emotions that run the gamut from adoration to rage are all within these two brilliant musicians' purview. The result is a recording that most will certainly find unusual and mavens of the avant-garde will relish. The 14 tracks, some as short as three to four minutes, others stretched to six or seven, have Golia pretty much taking the lead and Allen following. Duets 1-12 are bookended by the playful but serious No Titles Yet and For M.P., which has Golia humming through his instrument in a Native American fashion, with Allen picking her way through the forest at daybreak. The duets vary in pacing, primarily in a no-time framework. The stance is mostly dark and foreboding, but at times bright and hopeful. There is a decided chamber music feel, the series of duets acting as a suite. Pure melodic content is not as important an element as the emotion of the moment. There are times when Golia is reaching for the stratosphere on soprano sax, fluttering on flute, or growling on bass clarinet, then chooses to speak in spiritual, tonic terms. Allen does some rattling and twanging of the harp, but mainly stays with the beautiful, spare, or cascading arpeggiated lines one most closely associates with the instrument. The challenged listener will find much to absorb and contemplate during this program of unique improvisational endeavor. Much beauty can be found in even the harshest reality -- the proof is here. - Michael G Nastos
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

NELS CLINE/VINNY GOLIA - The Entire Time: Duets (Nine Winds 259; USA) Nels Cline and Vinny Golia have known and played with each other since the mid-'70s, but this is their first album of duets. Not that either of them is lazy, but they could have gotten to it earlier! The Entire Time offers a wonderful listen, full of daring moves, skillful exchanges and heartfelt friendship. Both players go through a wide array of instruments, ensuring that the set list is varied in terms of sound palette and playing techniques. Golia, always a soulful and highly creative player, treats us to his bass clarinet, alto flute, saxophones, and even xiao and dzi, adding an exotic flavor to some tunes. Cline goes from simple acoustic nylon-string guitar to elaborate set-ups of electric 12-string, effects and loops. "Smooth Surface, The Canals: Two" is the undisputed highlight of the set; its cheerful simplicity, folk overtones and delightful improvised melody on soprano sax place it in its own category. "Opus de Kirkus," a tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, is the only track featuring overdubs. Also quite cheerful, but much more chaotic, it truly embodies the essence of the crazy showman. "City Snow Stories," an improvisation on alto flute and acoustic guitar, delivers dense yet effortless interaction. The album is bookended by two similar 14-minute pieces. Both feature Golia on bass clarinet (and xiao for "Divining") and Cline on electronically-enhanced electric guitar set-up. Both also progress in leaps, jumping from section to section, going from almost textural improvisations to ferocious blowing. Jazz and rock idioms remain present in heavily mutated forms, and Cline gets downright noisy in "Destination Death." This music is resolutely not free improvisation of the European variety. It doesn't attempt to free itself from other idioms, it tries to encompass them all, with an added sense of urgency that keeps it on the verge of explosion. The Entire Time is a gripping listen, the entire time. - Francois Couture
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

HARRIS EISENSTADT AHIMSA ORCHESTRA With VINNY GOLIA/STEVE ADAMS/KYLE BRUCKMANN/ALEX CLINE/BILL HORVITZ/SARA SCHOENBECK et al - Ahimsa Orchestra (Nine Winds 237; USA) Harris Eisenstadt is a happening L.A. cat just reaching his third decade who already has an extensive discography as a percussionist and composer. This disc documents his exceptional forays into ambitious large ensemble composition, setting 11 other improvisationally fluent players and a conductor onto a fruitful path of solemn postmodern complexity, freely synthesizing aspects of 20th century academic composition, free improv, and free jazz. It's entirely appropriate that this disc was released by Vinny Golia's trusty Nine Winds label, because it shares the spirit and methodology of Golia's own ambitious large ensemble projects. What's more, the mighty Golia appears on the disc as a firebreathing bass clarinet soloist on "Relief", one of the two separate epic works presented here over the course of an hour, each with mostly different personnel drawn from the fertile Californian avant-garde, both southern and northern. Considering the size of the ensembles, it's remarkable how spacious and restrained the music is, and even when it froths to a fury it never becomes overbearing or chaotic, which naturally reflects the heavily reliance on traditional composition and the use of a conductor, but also reflects the advanced sensibilities of the individual musicians, many of them prominent creative artists in their own right who habitually perform subtle free improvisation. In fact, there's a good balance between carefully constructed ensemble interaction and soloistic exposition of the unique sound vocabulary of the musicians, from Kyle Bruckmann's paper-thin slices of oboe to the post-Rowe/Frith guitar abstractions of Noah Phillips and Bill Horvitz, who add gentle fuzzes and whirs to the subtle textures. Notably, there's not a single saxophone in either grouping, which leaves plenty of space for Sara Schoenbeck's sonorous bassoon work (on both pieces) to spend time in the foreground and likewise for Philip Greenlief's pungent clarinet delicacies. Eisenstadt never goes for cheap thrills in his composing, instead weaving slow themes with the ponderous introspection of Xenakis or Boulez, but a bit of Threadgillian warmth sneaks into the proceedings here and there, and the disc closes with Mark Weaver's tuba and Alex Cline's percussion buttressing a spirited Ivesian romp capped off with a spectacular, invigorating extended trumpet solo from Dan Clucas. Overall this disc comes out somewhere in between Lachenmann and LJCO, and it's such a successful and nuanced exploration of coloration, space, and harmony that after at least a dozen spins I'm still anxiously anticipating each new one. - Michael Anton Parker
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

VINNY GOLIA CHAMBER TRIO With WAYNE PEET/KEN FILIANO - Worldwide and Portable (Nine Winds 143; USA) (1986) V. Golia (ww), Wayne Peet (p), Ken Filiano (b). In a trio date with pianist Wayne Peet and bassist Ken Filiano, Golia tackles seven of his own compositions that firmly straddle the lines of classical, jazz and world music, utilizing a bewildering variety of wind instruments. Through the course of the CD, Golia's endlessly flexible embouchure can be heard coping easily with the diverse demands of the piccolo, alto and bass flutes, sopranino, soprano and baritone saxes, bassoon, bass clarinet, Japanese folk flute and shakuhachi, and pan pipes! The compositions are usually abstract and moody, sometimes directionless and self-indulgent, always allergic to predictable structures and developments, outfitted with titles that border on the Zappa-esque ("Walter's Mysterious Feelings," "The Disbelief of Kathy Hunt"). "Ostio-Bronti (For Franz Kafka)" is the closest the collection comes to a jazz pulse, with a uniquely quirky theme and swinging, often atonal improvisations. As is often the case on Nine Winds, there are no liner notes about the music -- as if that would help! - Richard S Ginell
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With BRAD DUTZ/WAYNE PEET/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/JEFF GAUTHIER/KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE et al - Decennium Dans Axlan (Nine Winds 140; USA) (1992) V. Golia, M. Underwood, John Fumo, Bruce Fowler, Mike Vlatkovich, Bill Roper, S. Fowler, B. Plake, D. Johnson, B. Dutz, W. Peet, J. Gauthier, K. Filiano, J. Hamilton, A. Cline...
The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble becomes even larger here, bumped up to 22 pieces on its fourth album -- and the agenda remains as iconoclastic as ever, borrowing liberally form the classical avant-garde and owing little to what remains of a big band tradition. There is plenty of swinging, yet the solos are more often than not atonal; there are pauses in the action for freeform freakouts. Tapestry of Things Before, which is joined to Frontback to form an exhausting 41-and-a-half-minute medley, opens with marimba over a berimbau (an esoteric effect if there ever was one), features a spooky, muffled electric cello solo by Dion Sorell, and continues through many diverse sections. Though Golia brings along his usual formidable battery of wind instruments, he is credited with only one solo on Mr. Justice; otherwise he plays in the section and conducts. Co-conductor Bruce Fowler also gets off one of the best solos on trombone; Mark Underwood, John Fumo, and Rob Blakeslee form an intrepid trumpet section that gets to blast off in near-anarchy at the top of Frontback, and the additional players consist of another mallet player and a string trio. ..plenty of audible adventure - Richard S Ginell
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With BRAD DUTZ/WAYNE PEET/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/KEN FILIANO/BRUCE FOWLER et al - Commemoration: Tribute to John Carter [2 CD set] (Nine Winds 150+160; USA) (1994) (1994) V. Golia, Wayne Peet , Joel Hamilton, Ken Filiano, Alex Cline, Brad Dutz, Harry Scorzo, Bruce Fowler, Kim Richmond, Bill Roper, Phil Teele, Bill Plake, Mark Underwood, Michael Vlatkovich, Steve Fowler, David Johnson, David Ocker.
Commemoration is a tribute to the late clarinetist/composer John Carter, containing music from a 21 part suite, A Moment of Truth, written by Vinny Golia. This 2 CD set features eleven sections of the extended compositional suite. Crossing musical boundaries in fascinating ways, this music is influenced by traditions of 'third stream' jazz and structured improvisation from the Chicago AACM. Reviews called this tribute Golia's, "most fascinatingly complex and richest work to date."
2 CD set normally $24.. NOW $20

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With JOHN RAPSON/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/STEVE FOWLER/KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE et al - Pilgrimage to Obscurity (Nine Winds 130; USA) (1985) John Fumo, Rickert, Sal Cracchiolo (t, flg), M. Vlatkovich, John Rapson, David Stout (tb), Eric Messerschmidt (tu), Mike Acosta, Steve Fowler, Montgomery, David Ocker, V. Golia (ww), David Johnson, Ken Filiano, Roberto Miranda (b), Alex Cline, Billy Mintz (d).
Non-conformist Vinny Golia continues to probe toward the outer limits of what a big band can do in his third Large Ensemble album, recorded live at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.. As usual, you won't find any hand-me-down Basie riffs or Kentonian ripoffs in these three lengthy compound works. You'll get big swinging passages for an overloaded ensemble; atonal, brooding, disquieting interludes and codas; lumbering mock marches; wildly stomping, avant-garde blastoffs; contemporary classical textures; even a burlesque on burlesque music ("Robusqued") -- all of which have structures and direction. Golia definitely goes his own way in titles as well, the best example being one that will convulse any baseball buff, "Ted Williams Calls the Mick and Renders Touch Sensitivity Useless." Utilizing his multi-instrumental talents to the hilt, Golia careens wildly on tenor sax in "Ted Williams," reappears evocatively on bass and C flutes on "Views," and barrels around on the rare bass sax on "The Kreikan." Mike Acosta (alto), Ralf Rickert (trumpets, flugelhorn), Eric Messerschmidt (tuba) and the classical clarinetist David Ocker also have significant solo passages from within the 18-piece ensemble. Though the album title probably gets Golia's position in the larger scheme of things sardonically right, that doesn't mean you should pass up this adventurous, highly stimulating CD. - Richard S Ginell
CD normally $15.. NOW $13


VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With ROB BLAKESLEE/BRAD DUTZ/WAYNE PEET/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/JEFF GAUTHIER/KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE et al - Overview: 1996-2006 [2 DVD + 2 CD set] (Nine Winds 300; USA) Eric Barber - Rob Blakeslee - Jessica Catron - Daphne Chen - Alex Cline - Brad Dutz - Bruce Fowler - John Fumo - Jeff Gauthier - Ludvig Girdland - Vinny Golia - Ed Harkins - Ivan Johnson - Jeff Kaiser - Ronit Kirchman - Alan Lechusza - Marc Lowenstein - Devin Maxwell - Joe McNally - Guenevere Meascham - Jason Mears - George McMullen - Hal Onserud - Wayne Peet - Andrew Pask - Bill Plake - Scot Ray - Kim Richmond - Bill Roper - Jennifer Roth - Eric Sbar - Sara Schoenbeck - Jonathan Stenney - Phil Teele - Michael Vlatkovich - Rob Zimmerman.
This is extraordinary undertaking and a most ambitious effort. Besides being one of the West Coast's best reeds wizards and multi-bandleaders, Vinny Golia has been running the great Nine Winds label for some two decades plus. This single-sized DVD boxset actually contains 2 CDs and 2 DVDs featuring three great performances of Vinny's ever-evolving large ensemble from 1996, 2000 and 2006. The large ensembles range from some 22 to 45 musicians which includes woodwinds, brass & string sections as well as an African drum section. It has taken me a couple of months to work my way through all of this material but I am glad I have. Some of the more familiar musicians include Rob Blakeslee, Ken Filiano, Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier, Peggy Lee, John Fumo, Michael Vlatkovich and Steve Adams.
I've been a fan of large ensembles for many years (from Grand Wazoo & Centipede to Duke Ellington & Count Basie), working my way through hundred of records to get a better idea of how and why they work. The first disc features the large ensemble live in Portland, Oregon from 1996. When it begins, it sounds like film music from some adventure at sea, filled with a series of dramatic shifts. Serious and fascinating. The numerous soloists are listed in the liner notes and two conductors are involved for this massive 22-piece ensemble. Different sections or pieces feature assorted soloists including inspired solos from Rob Blakeslee on flugelhorn, Vinny on bass sax, Peggy Lee on cello and Michael Vlatkovich on trombone. The music is often in between established categories like modern jazz and contemporary classical. There is a section for a brass ensemble that is superbly arranged and majestic sounding as well as a Zappa-like percussion section. At some 70 minutes in length, there is too much to describe here. I have listened to this disc several times and it still sounds great.
The second disc features an even larger ensemble (30 pieces) with a string section added. This one is live in L.A. (where Vinny& most of these musicians resides) from 2000. Although some/much of this music more outside or avant, it is Mr. Golia's exceptional writing and arranging that shines through and holds everything together. Again, several strong soloists get a chance to stretch out: Bruce Fowler on trombone, Ed Harkins on trumpet and Paul Sherman on English horn. In between some of the written material are a handful of free yet focused "Transition" sections. A number of the soloists are backed by well-placed written parts, adding some cohesion to whichever direction the soloist goes. This set is an hour long and completely creative throughout. The two DVDs were filmed in 2006, on the same night, one set per DVD. This is the largest version of the ensemble so far with some 45 members including more strings and an African drum section. Watching the DVDs, we get a better idea of what this massive ensemble looks like. How well Mr. Golia succeeds at organizing, writing, arranging, playing and conducting is worth contemplating. Both sets are an hour plus long and outstanding throughout. At more than four hours long for the entire set, I suggest you listen and view this over several nights. I am still going back to the DVDs since I see and hear something new and exciting each time I check them out. I hope to insert some more commentary when I have more time. Until then, I suggest you grab this massive treasure before we sell out. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
2 CD + 2 DVD normally $40 ..NOW $36

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With ROB BLAKESLEE/JEFF GAUTHIER/BRAD DUTZ/JASON MEARS/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/HAL ONSERUD/SARA SCHOENBECK/ALEX CLINE et al - 20th Anniversary Concert [DVD] (Nine Winds 250; USA) Live - March 15, 2002 - Walt Disney Modular Theater, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
Eric Barber - Rob Blakeslee - Jessica Catron - Daphne Chen - Alex Cline - Brad Dutz - Bruce Fowler - John Fumo - Jeff Gauthier - Ludvig Girdland - Vinny Golia - Ed Harkins - Ivan Johnson - Jeff Kaiser - Ronit Kirchman - Alan Lechusza - Marc Lowenstein - Devin Maxwell - Joe McNally - Guenevere Meascham - Jason Mears - George McMullen - Hal Onserud - Wayne Peet - Andrew Pask - Bill Plake - Scot Ray - Kim Richmond - Bill Roper - Jennifer Roth - Eric Sbar - Sara Schoenbeck - Jonathan Stenney - Phil Teele - Michael Vlatkovich - Rob Zimmerman. Golia's band is one of the fixtures on the West Coast avant-garde scene, an awesomely large ensemble (35 players in this edition) whose sound Marc Lowenstein memorably describes in the accompanying interview featurette as "a very heavy, heavy, delicate thing... a freight train on racing bicycle wheels." It's a band full of outsize personalities who approach the leader's insane, virtually unplayable scores in a spirit of carnivalesque role-play, a whirlwind tour of stylistic masks and outlandish gestures. Visually, this is a rough and ready document stitched together from digi-cam footage and the occasional still, but it's still more absorbing than many slicker productions - there's just something inherently transfixing about watching musicians blowing their hearts out. There are too many high points to list but Kim Richmond and Bill Plake's twin sax rampage on "The Long Short Nite" takes top honours, and ex-Zappa trombonist Bruce Fowler's wise old owl contributions are a consistent delight. - Nate Dorward
DVD normally $20 ..NOW $18

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With ROB BLAKESLEE/JEFF GAUTHIER/JEFF KAISER/BRAD DUTZ/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/SARA SCHOENBECK/ALEX CLINE et al - The Other Bridge: Oakland 1999 [2 CD set] (Nine Winds 210+220; USA) John Fumo, Jeff Kaiser, Rob Blakeslee (t), Mike Vlatkovich, Danny Hemwall, Scott Ray (tb), Bill Roper (tu), V. Golia, Kim Richmond, Paul Sherman, Bill Plake, Eric Barber, Steve Adams, Alan Lechusza, Tara Speiser, Sara Schoenbeck (ww), David Johnson, Brad Dutz, Alex Cline (perc), Wayne Peet (p, kb), Harry Scorzo, Jeff Gauthier (v), Jonathan Golove, Guenevere Measham, Colin Pearson (c), Ken Filiano (b), Stephanie Henry, V. Golia (cond). LA.-based Golia presented this, his 25-piece Large Ensemble at the tenth annual Eddie Moore Memorial Jazz Festival at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA. The double CD contains nearly 2.5 powerful hours of Golia's highly evolved and involved progressive jazz.On the first CD, an implied march rhythm informs the Mahler-esque proportioned melodies of "No One Had Ever Waved to a Lifeless Object Before" for openers. The 17-minute "Thread for Fred" shows a most prevalent six-piece string section accenting scattered lines, led by violinist Jeff Gauthier's introspection over an ostinato 5/4 Afro-funk, or Kim Richmond's bopping and popping alto sax. Horns cry out on "The Evasion of Chaos, Pt. II," with solo marimba by Dave Johnson and scraped, raked arco bass from Ken Filiano leaping to a groove section for behind-the-scenes horns, and trumpeter John Fumo's bold solo.
The second disc has "Japur" (for late trombonist Thurman Green) in a quietly swelling, seething mood with solo bass flute by Steve Adams at the coda. The two-part "Village of Forgotten Men" starts as a distented 3-4/4, and ends with churning backdrop for a quite lengthy and inspired flugelhorn solo from Rob Blakeslee. In the middle are enfant terrible sound fractions, which are toned down, then, in an intensified frothing, go to free mezzo forte modal frames over 17 minutes. The finale is the 25-minute discourse "Master of the Playing Cards," a kinetically based, democratically parceled head using 3/4 and 4/4 ostinato. Here, Gauthier's very long spooky, snarly, and snaky solo builds up to a stated theme, with free tuba from Bill Roper.
In this live performance, crowd noise and comments are many times more audible than the music. This is a minor distraction, but does not subtract any points from this set, which does take some time to listen to and fully digest. Golia's fans and avant garde mavens should heartily drink of this extraordinary document with full zeal.. - Michael G Nastos
2 CD set normally $24.. NOW $20 (Out of print, but we have it!)

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With ROB BLAKESLEE/STEVE ADAMS/BRAD DUTZ/WAYNE PEET/KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE et al - Tutto Contare (Everything Counts) (Nine Winds 170; USA) The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble is comprised on this live recording of three trumpets, four trombones, tuba, seven reeds, keyboards, three strings, two basses, drums and two percussionists. The huge band performs six of Golia's complex originals. Among the many soloists on the set are the leader on two types of clarinets, trumpeters John Fumo, Rob Blakeslee and Mark Underwood, trombonists Mike Vlatkovich and Eric Jorgensen, David Ocker on clarinet, pianist Wayne Peet, altoist Steve Flower, the tenors of Steve Marsh and Bill Plake and violinist Harry Scoro. However it is the dense ensembles that are most remarkable. The music is consistently atonal yet leaves room for space and develops logically (if not predictably). The sounds are sometimes otherworldly (making it difficult to know who is playing what) and the performances do not swing conventionally but they definitely fit into the area of jazz due to the high level of improvisation. This stimulating set is recommended most to listeners with very open ears. - Scott Yanow
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA LARGE ENSEMBLE With ROB BLAKESLEE/STEVE ADAMS/JEFF GAUTHIER/BRAD DUTZ/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/WAYNE PEET/ALEX CLINE et al - Portland 1996 [2 CD set] (Nine Winds 180+190; USA) It can be remarkably difficult to mold a large assemblage of improvisers into an effective performance unit. Improvisers tend not to be the best sight readers, for one thing. If there's much written material, things are liable to be loose, at best. Most leaders of free jazz-based big bands -- William Parker comes to mind -- use only skeletal compositions, or none at all, preferring to treat the ensemble as an enormous organ with flesh and blood stops; they'll conduct/improvise, using prearranged gestures to indicate tempo, key, rhythms, etc. The resultant performance is usually messy, always dissonant, and sometimes not very happening. In contrast, Vinny Golia uses much written material, and while the performance is not exactly tight, there's enough precision to keep even the most curmudgeonly critic at bay. Golia has apparently chosen musicians who can both read and improvise well. His material is substantial; his compositions are determinedly non-tonal -- quasi-serialist, even -- but with a definite jazz sensibility. This is not a typical big band; in addition to the usual saxes, trumpets, trombones, and rhythm, Golia uses bassoon, timpani, and a sizable string section. In keeping with Golia's penchant for multiple reeds, all of his saxophonists double on several instruments. Writing music for such a large band of improvisers and actually getting it played is an accomplishment in itself. Not only does Golia manage to get it played, he gets it played well. There are sections where the band sounds like it's rehearsing a monstrously difficult contemporary classical score, but for the most part the musicians perform the music with a reasonable amount of exactitude and great verve. As you would expect from a band that counts Golia, bassist Ken Filiano, and saxophonist Steve Adams among its members, the soloists are excellent. Big bands might be a pain to get together, but when everything goes well -- as it does here -- they can create wonderful music. - Chris Kelsey
2 CD set normally $24.. NOW $20

VINNY GOLIA OCTET With GAVIN TEMPELTON/DAN ROSENBOOM/GEORGE McMULLEN/ALEX NOICE/KEN FILIANO/MATT MAYHALL - Low And Inside (Close Call Anyway..): Music For Baritone Saxophone (Nine Winds 299; USA) Featuring Vinny Golia on baritone sax & contrabass sax, Gavin Templeton on alto sax, Dan Rosenboom on trumpet, George McMullen on trombones, Alex Noice [misspelled Noyce on the CD] on electric guitar, Ken Filiano on acoustic bass and Matt Mayhall on drums. Over the past few years we've seen new discs from Vinny Golia on the Clean Feed & Kadima labels of mostly duos & trios, while his own label Nine Winds has been dormant. This makes his new octet disc even more welcome and exciting. The only other name I recognize here is longtime Nine Winds affiliated bass great Ken Filiano who now lives in New York City. Mr. Golia, who seems to play & collect more reed instruments than just about anyone, concentrates here on those two big saxes, bari & contrabass. Right from the gitgo, "The Return of the Post-Marathon Man", Vinny is wailing on the bari while the rest of his strong octect swirls tightly around him with complex harmonies and with intricate stops & starts. Instead of having a pianist playing underneath, guitarist Alex Noyce is in the pivotal position of creating crafty chords and notes which show direction and provide sharp interplay with the rest of the rhythm team. The fact that Vinny plays a number of spirited bari & contrabass sax solos is a given, however it is the consistently strong ensemble writing and playing that makes this disc so wonderful. I would imagine that most of the members of this great octet are students (past or present) of Golia's from the California Institute of the Arts where this was recorded. If this is so, then Vinny has once again attracted some future greats from the emerging LA scene. At about 75 minutes, there is quite a bit of challenging music here. Consistently extraordinary! Great to see Golia and 9Winds back in action - Hip hip hooray! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA QUINTET With NELS CLINE/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/JOEL HAMILTON/BILLY MINTZ - Razor (Nine Winds 169; USA) V. Golia (ww), Mike Vlatkovich (tb), Nels Cline (g), Joel Hamilton (b), Billy Mintz (d). Vinny Golia was revisiting the quintet lineup during the period Razor was recorded, with old friends in puckish trombonist Michael Vlatkovich and electro-ambient-mutant gitarzan Nels Cline as his front-line foils here. It's not a throwback to his more jazz-based improvising of the '80s, but probably ranks as the most satisfying and listener-friendly small group album Golia released in the mid-'90s.
It takes about four minutes for the musicians to resolve themselves around Golia's sopranino sax harmonics on the opening "Not Used," but they do with whoops from Vlatkovich, limber and liquid Cline lines, the attentive bass of Joel Hamilton, and Billy Mintz looking for the more unusual spots to make every drum lick count. The collective improv actually suffers from the players being so geared to jumping off and reacting to any new motif. "Blues for the Fat Man" starts with Cline moving through straight blues licks and mutant Captain Beefheart sounds mixed with an occasional John Cipollina Quicksilver quaver before shifting into a more abstract chamber mode. "When I First Met Luc Duprey" is excellent, organically unfolding as bass clarinet bumps up against trombone; a ruminative, sans effects Cline solo; and a fine section showcasing Golia's bass clarinet command with some arco commentary from Hamilton. The upbeat "Custodial Services" opens with a strong bass solo before Golia's maximalist soprano flurries take off over really strong rhythm section support -- Cline reels him in and they hand it off to a muted Vlatkovich in duet with Mintz. The dense theme of "Obstacle" is almost totally sonic, full of atmospheric floating fragments that require attentive listening on the musician's apart. They're up to the task and it's a nice, quick jump transition to the lumbering bass sax on "In a Suzuki Shop," closer to the lurching behemoth terrain of Golia's Large Ensemble. Cline's solo resolves into a boiler plant rhythm to set up Mintz (who makes so little mark you have to wonder if his drums weren't recorded well) before "For Julius...(the Splinter Intro)" closes with Golia finding some pretty indigenous-sounding peace on Latvian clay flute. Golia is going for the soprano/bass tone split among his arsenal of reeds here, and the shifts between high-pitched note flurries and rounded low tones are both effective and quite enjoyable. There's constant probing and stretching in his playing -- like most of Vinny Golia's '90s output, this is challenging music -- but Razor is also quite varied and a good disc for taking that plunge. - Don Snowden
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA QUINTET With NELS CLINE/ROB BLAKESLEE/JOEL HAMILTON/ALEX CLINE - Nation Of Laws (Nine Winds 189; USA) V. Golia (ww), Rob Blakeslee (t), Nels Cline (g), Alex Cline (d), Joel Hamilton (b). California saxophonist Vinny Golia is highly regarded among musicians for his uncanny lyricism, his strident, warm, giving tone, and his vast composing and arranging skills, but he is seldom looked upon in fan polls or even considered by popular jazz critics. One has to wonder if this isn't Golia's own fault for not blowing his own horn hard enough, so to speak. Golia's many recordings all have a degree of excellence to them that is almost unsurpassable by any current standard. Nation of Laws is no exception. Using his own multi-reed approach to composition and improvisation and his knack for lyrical composition that gives way to fiery improvisation, Golia has enlisted guitar and drum brothers Nels and Alex Cline along with Joel Hamilton on bass and trumpeter Rob Blakeslee. Golia's tunes have within them a playfulness to cross genres and harmonic norms and shift gears suddenly. Nowhere is this more evident than on the piece "Not Very Pleasance," which is part bebop tune, part elegant dance tune, and part prog rocker! Blakeslee's solo is full of flatted fifths and 16ths drawn in by Cline's mind-bending string work. Then there's the joyously weird "Big Child on the Loose." (That sums up Golia's personality to a T.) Beginning as a blues-rocker with Cline soloing on his low strings, the tune kicks in as part carnival ride, part Wagnerian epic, and part knotty jazz jam (with Golia blowing his ass off on the bass saxophone), and moves through history, mystery, death, and resurrection over 14 minutes. If this album is what the "new" jazz sounds like folks, count me way in. - Thom Jurek
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA QUINTET With NELS CLINE/ROB BLAKESLEE/KEN FILIANO/BILLY MINTZ - Against the Grain (Nine Winds 159; USA) (1993) V. Golia (ww), Rob Blakeslee (t), Nels Cline (g), Ken Filiano (b), Billy Mintz (d). OK, sessions with a healthy dose of improvised music often go off and develop a character of their own, but you've got to wonder if Vinny Golia got what he was aiming for on Against the Grain. It's his first quintet outing in some time and the compositions fall in his more abstract vein with a heavy emphasis on avant-chamber textures. Against The Grain, indeed!
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA SEXTET With DAN ROSENBOOM/GAVIN TEMPLETON/ALEX NOICE/JON ARMSTRONG/ANDREW LESSMAN - Abstractions and Retrocausalities (Nine Winds 309; USA) Featuring Vinny Golia on sopranino, contrabass & bari saxes, bawu, daegeum, hichiriki & compositions, Dan Rosenboom on trumpets & flugelhorn, Gavin Templeton on alto sax, Alex Noice [misspelled Noyce on the CD] on electric guitar, Jon Armstrong on electric bass and Andrew Lessman on drums. I caught West Coast reeds wiz three times in the past week (3/24-27/12), twice with Ross Hammond & Adam Lane and once with Lisa Mezzacappa and each set was fabulous. Mr. Golia never ceases to amaze me and releases consistently strong discs as well. Although his own label Nine Winds has slowed down, he has continued to document the diverse and creative LA scene. His last few CDs have featured a number of younger musicians who are current or previous students of Golia's from Cal Arts. This discs features some new names yet it shows how well Vinny has chosen some worthy musicians to work with.
Commencing with "Why Would a Whale Act Like This?", the sextet is off and running. With no piano in sight, Vinnie has the guitar fronted rhythm team keeping everything in focus with solid, yet quirky arrangements for the three horns and inspired solos from each. The interplay between the horns and the guitar is always intricate. Golia is a master of composing layers of of complex, contrapuntal horn riffs with interlocking lines. The music here is pretty progressive and involves diverse strategies. On "Photoshoot, One, Two", Vinnie plays a fine slow-burning bari solo while Noyce's guitar plays elegant, dreamy notes underneath. Trumpeter Dan Rosenboom is yet another great soloist and has a couple of his own CDs on the Nine Winds label that I look forward to checking out. With many less discs coming out on Nine Winds, it has given Mr. Golia a chance to compose wealth of great music. Hence, this disc is 76+ minutes long and is filled to the brim with great music. Certainly too much to describe here but worthy of your patient consideration. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA With ANDREW PASK/CORY WRIGHT/JIM SULLIVAN/BRIAN WALSH - Music for Like Instruments: The Clarinets (Nine Winds 279; USA) Featuring Vinny Golia on taragato, Ab, Eb, A, Bb, alto, bass, contralto and contrabass clarinets and Andrew Pask, Cory Wright, Jim Sullivan and Brian Walsh on Bb & bass clarinets. This is the third in a series of "Music for Like Instruments". There is just no stopping the incredible Vinny Golia and his numerous ongoing projects. Who else but Vinny would put together a quintet of unique clarinetists, a most difficult instrument to play and then write challenging music for his clarinet clan. Right from the first track, "Clown Car Syndome", we know we are in store for something completely different. This piece features layers of swirling clarinets, intricately written and well played. Each of the thirteen pieces here deals with different sonic terrain and approaches to playing and exploring clarinet sounds. Circus music, modern classical, cartoon episodes, all kinds of bent notes, high and low-end drones, Zappa-like accordion-sounding harmonies from 'Uncle Meat', other-worldly sounds too difficult to describe and too many surprises to mention here. What amazes me about this is that it is better than a good deal of modern classical music that is too serious or difficult so its own good. Consistently engaging without going overboard. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA With BETH SCHENCK/JASON MEARS/NATHAN HERRERA - Music for Like Instruments: The Eb Saxophones (Nine Winds 249; USA) Vinny Golia (Stritch, Tubax, Sopranino Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone), Beth Schenck, Jason Mears, Nathan Herrera (alto saxophones). Vinny Golia does it once again, this time with a saxophone-only project limited to woodwind instruments broadly related to the Eb saxophone family. As with Anthony Braxton, Golia thoroughly enjoys the extremes of the instrument, and he is particularly effective when juxtaposing either the contrabass saxophone (the tubax), or the baritone saxophone, against the much higher registers of the three alto saxophones, a fascinating contrast that he explores on a majority of the tracks. In some ways, comparisons to the World Saxophone Quartet and Rova are warranted, one major difference being that Golia is not nearly as democratic; he dominates as soloist, composer, and arranger. The pieces are complex, and difficult to perform, but they are played with remarkable precision on alto sax by the supporting crew, Beth Schenck, Jason Mears, and Nathan Herrera, each of whom improvises with substantial maturity and intensity of spirit. Much of the success of this project is due to Golia's writing skills, and he is equally comfortable in many different contexts, squeezing out astonishing permutations from four similar instruments. Golia resists pigeonholing: One minute he embraces melody, and the next he is tearing it to shreds. Ultimately, that is part of the appeal, and it is a compelling tool used to maintain the listener's interest. For those who like it hot and outside, there are many moments to savor, but there are just as many times when Golia is fascinated by the natural sonorities of the sax. Alternatively wild and iconoclastic, Golia does not as much shock as he surprises, leading us to question our assumptions, and scratch our heads! - Steve Loewy
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA With ELLEN BURR/JENNIFER ROTH/FAWNTICE McCAIN - Music for Like Instruments: The Flutes (Nine Winds 269; USA) Ellen Burr (piccolo, alto & C flutes), Vinny Golia (Db, G & C piccolos, C, alto, bass & contrabass flutes), Jennifer Roth (piccolo, alto & C flutes), Fawntice McCain (C flute). In 2002, Vinny Golia embarked on a series of special projects grouping similar instruments. He recorded Music for Like Instruments: The Eb Saxophones that year and, in May 2004, added a second volume featuring a flute quartet. Both deserve recommendation, if only for Golia's ever so graceful writing, but the latter's unusual instrumentation makes it slightly more interesting. The lineup consists of Fawnice McCain on C flute; Ellen Burr and Jennifer Roth on piccolo, alto, and C flutes; and Golia playing seven flute sizes, from the Db piccolo down to the mammoth contrabass version. All writing and arrangement credits for the 15 pieces go to Golia. His compositions are occasionally expressionistic, as in the delightfully dissonant "On the Train," but most of the time they follow more abstract, quizzical shapes, allying a grace that is strongly emphasized by the instrumentation and a playfulness that had come to define Golia's work over the preceding few years. Of particular interest are "Dr. Lubbeck Pays a Visit, So Sam Phones Some Friends," the somber "Aquarina," "Poece," in which everyone pulls off an inspiring solo, and "Da A," the most "contemporary music"-sounding piece of the album. The performances are very strong and each instrumentalist's voice is clearly separated on the recording. Golia gets more spotlight than the others, but the quartet remains strongly focused on achieving a group sound and does so on several tracks. This album doesn't reinvent the flute quartet, but it adds a significant amount of interesting short works to its repertoire. - Francois Couture
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VINNY GOLIA With HARRY SCORZO/LUDWIG GIRDLAND/JONAS TAUBER/KEN FILIANO - Feeding Frenzy: Music for Woodwinds & String Quartet (Nine Winds 229; USA) This Golia project features Vinny on numerous flutes and clarinets with Harry Scorzo & Ludwig Girdland on violins, Jonas Tauber on cello and Ken Filiano on bass. I once went to a fish hatchery when I was Boy Scout and got to see what a "feeding frenzy" actually is during feeding time. Although the inside photo of this CD has a picture of these frenzied fish, I'm unsure of what this has to do with the more serious music on this CD. Although Vinny has composed all the music for this work, he is not the only soloist and thus is of equal presence with the rest of the quartet. This music is much closer in sound to modern classical than to jazz, with Vinny doing a great job of weaving his inspired clarinet or flute solos within the ever-challenging music of the string quartet. I am unsure of what is more extraordinary here, the playing or the composing, since both are truly impressive and thought-provoking and seem inseparable from each other. This music requires time (actually nearly 78 minutes) and concentration, since there is so much going on. Sometimes the strings create (fractured) mirror images of Vinny's engaging flute or clarinet playing, sometimes the string play twisted harmonies with or against the solos. I found this entire project to be consistently fascinating, although it did take some work to really dig in and uncover all that is going on within the layers or web of activity. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA With MATT OTTO/ERIC BARBER/ANDREW PASK/BILL BLAKE - Music for Like Instruments: The Bb Saxophones (Nine Winds 289; USA) This is the fourth volume in Vinny Golia's ongoing series of similar reed instruments and this disc features Vinny on soprillo, curved & straight sopranos, tenor & bass saxes; Matt Otto on tenor sax, Eric Barber on soprano & tenor saxes; Andrew Pask on soprano, tenor & bass saxes and Bill Plake on soprano & tenor saxes. This is an extraordinary series of discs that only someone as dedicated as Vinny Golia could pull off so successfully. I only know as few of these players previously from discs on (Vinny's) the Nine Winds and pfMentum labels. It is Mr. Golia's vision and composing that makes this music so special and distinctive. "Aladj" begins our journey and features some incredible, modern classical sounding orchestral harmonies. Vinny plays an intense solo on the soprillo, a custom-made sax even smaller (and harder to play) than a sopranino sax. Considering that this is a sax quintet, their sound is surprising richer, fuller and more diverse than one might imagine. The rarely utilized bass sax is larger than a baritone sax and has a deep, dark sound that is most distinctive. On "Dollar Sign Woman," the bass and/or bari saxes sound immense and powerful together. On the opposite of the tonal spectrum, those high pitched soprillo and soprano saxes sound incredible and bird-like flying around one another on "The Final Straw" as well as throughout various sections of this disc. What amazes me is the perfect balance between the complex writing/playing and the passionate playing/writing throughout. There is way too much great music here to describe it all so I will leave it up to you to explore this wonderful disc in your own sweet time. I look forward to the next edition of this series: The Double Reeds! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

VINNY GOLIA With MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/WAYNE PEET et al - A Gift for the Unusual: Music for Contrabass Saxophone (Nine Winds 239; USA) Featuring Vinny on Tubax, Michael Vlatkovich on trombone, Wayne Peet on various keyboards, Jessica Catron on cello (1 track), Bill Barrett on chromatic harmonica (1 track) and Bill Casaleon contrabass.
The thunderous growl of the Tubax may not be very widespread, but since German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim created this new member of the saxophone family, several jazzmen, especially those of provocative or experimental persuasions, have adopted it. Vinny Golia is one of them and may very well be the musician and composer who understood the quickest the full potential of the behemoth. On A Gift for the Unusual, Golia presents new and fairly recent solo and ensemble pieces written for the Tubax, a surprisingly flexible and powerful contrabass saxophone. This is not the instrument of choice for a serenade, but Golia still manages to squeeze a serious dose of lyricism out of it, along with rumbling drones, rocking vamps and all kinds of jagged melodies and fierce solos. The solo pieces explore various aspects of the instrument's sound without turning into didactical exercises. The ten-minute "A History of Everything That Ever Happened" is actually a phenomenal showcase, full of punchy licks and roaring extended techniques. The five-times overdubbed piece "Just Something I Thought Of" is somewhat less convincing, as the sound picture gets a bit blurry. More interesting is the low-end grouping in "Repetition" and "The Mozart of Vice," both pieces featuring Michael Vlatkovitch on trombone and Bill Casale on contrabass. Also appearing on the album are Wayne Peet (playing piano on two tracks, organ on one, and electric piano, theremin, and synth on another), Jessica Catron (cello) and harmonicist Bill Barrett of Steuart Liebig's the Mentones. The album concludes with the beautiful "The Last of Its Kind," a three-minute Tubax dirge with a meditative gordophone melody. -Francois Couture
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VINNY GOLIA/BOBBY BRADFORD/KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE - Lineage (Nine Winds 214; USA) V. Golia (ww), B. Bradford (cornet), K. Filiano (b), A. Cline (d). Golia's democratic approach in giving other musicians space and opportunity to record has always been admirable, but it's great to hear him step out with his own group. This is a smoldering quartet date with trumpet master Bobby Bradford, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Alex Cline. Golia uses his variety of saxes and clarinets to create a chamber-like free bop foundation that allows everyone ultimate expressionistic choices within loose rhythmic structures. The most arresting moments are when Golia and Bradford play unison lines. Golia goes for it on lower end reeds -- bass clarinet, tenor or baritone sax, Bradford on muted or unmuted trumpet. You'll hear easy, free-wheeling swing on "Hello Mrs. Minifield" and the harder bopping, orgasmic "Hsaibde." A bluesy edge pervades the long-winded, sometimes intense "Tenorphonicity." Filiano is at the pitch black core of the focused trumpet-bass clarinet feature "So Close to Where You Live," and the light blues funk of "Caught by Surprise" also has an alluring improvised trumpet-bass clarinet centerpiece that seems to be Golia and Bradford's most comfortable zone. The avant-garde of jazz is well served by Golia as a definer and refiner of this style. Golia has chosen sidemen well, but they act more like equal partners in this organic, West Coast, homegrown ensemble that plays serious, skillful improvisational music. - Michael G Nastos
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RICK HELZER/VINNY GOLIA - Fancy Meeting You Here (Nine Winds 224; USA) Featuring Rick Helzer on piano and Vinny Golia on sopranino, soprano, tenor & bass saxes, soprillo, saxello & contrabass flute. This is Mr. Helzer's third date for Nine Winds, can't say that I've heard the other two. Helzer is the associate director of jazz studies at San Diego State University. Considering that I was unfamiliar with Mr. Helzer before this release, he is a most extraordinary pianist who can certainly match wits with the ever adventurous multi-reeds hero, Vinny Golia. This duo is well balanced, blending modern jazz with modern classical streams, sometimes swinging, sometimes going much further out, but always listening closely and connecting on a variety of levels. Nice to hear Vinny playing some inspired tenor sax on the epic-length "Are We There Yet?" with Rick also playing quite majestically. Both Rick and Vinny (on bass flute) play with a slow motion, dream-like elegance on "I Just get Dizzy Watching You...". Vinny's great sopranino playing is featured on "1st in the Fast Walking Julius Trilogy", which has that Braxton-like angular magic and tone. Vinny's unwieldy bass sax opens "All Upset About the Kirwood Dirby" and sounds surprisingly sly, no easy feat to swing on the over-large sax. Most of these pieces sound written, giving a challenge to each player to play these difficult, gnarly works with layers of lines connecting the two master musicians. "Sub Code" is for five soprillo saxes, no idea what a soprillo sax is, but this piece has those saxes playing some strange twisted harmonies, bending their notes together simultaneously. This ever-inventive duo again shows how Vinny Golia can come with fresh and exciting musicians, as well as challenging music time after time. Now where is that Rick Helzer solo piano promo that I got not too long ago?!? - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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WADADA LEO SMITH/VINNY GOLIA/BERTRAM TURETZKY - Prataksis (Nine Winds 199; USA) Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has always been on the forefront of the musical melting pot. Not interested in being merely a "jazz musician" (a perfectly honorable thing), Smith has always sought to expand the color and dramatic scheme of jazz by including vast panoramas of poetry and instruments not usually associated with the genre. By employing improv wunderkind Vinny Golia (on all manner of saxophones and clarinets as well as dudek and English and Chinese instruments) and bass wild man Bertram Turetzky, Smith has created -- while only playing trumpet -- a new landscape for his improvisational idiomatics. This band was recorded live in the studio with no second takes and no edits. What falls from the speakers is how it rolled out in the studio: linear, transparent, and full of fresh dynamics in the tonal studies. Microtonality - a la Joe Maneri -- is the order of the day, and it crosses with Smith's Third World notion of melodic sensibility, where no melody is complete until every comment has been made upon it within a group. Hence, the entire world is contained in the eight selections here, which move and breathe with the fearlessness of vanguard jazz but are as earthy as Australian didgeridoo arias or King Sunny Ade's juju songs. Ultimately, it's all movement in one direction, to the heart of both player and listener in a spirit of such generosity and sophistication that it is an infectious laughter that haunts the listener long after the record is over. -Thom Jurek
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

PAUL SMOKER/VINNY GOLIA QUARTET With KEN FILIANO/PHIL HAYNES - Halloween, The Sequel (Nine Winds 207; USA) P. Smoker (t), V. Golia (ww), Phil Haynes (d), Ken Filiano (b). This lineup's excellent followup to their CIMP CD Halloween '96! "Paul Smoker is one of the great individualists on his instrument. His lithe technique and propensity for tonal manipulation sets him apart. Vinny Golia is the master of umpteen different instruments -- any one of which he's liable to pull out at any time -- so it's unusual to hear him stick to a single horn for the duration of an album. But that's what he does here. He picks bari sax, and it's a wise choice; the big horn's deep, dark sound nicely complements Smoker's higher and lighter trumpet. As on most CIMP albums, the bassist gets the short end of the stick, which is too bad, because Ken Filiano is one of the instrument's contemporary masters. It's to the entire group's credit that Filiano is made to be heard, for the most part. His strength -- combined with an overall dedication by all to set a good balance -- ensures that the bass doesn't disappear in the dreary mix. Drummer Phil Haynes should be given particular credit for driving the proceedings while keeping the volume well in hand. Haynes is an unusually imaginative and dynamically cognizant drummer." - Chris Kelsey CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

MARK TRAYLE/VINNY GOLIA - Music for Electronics & Woodwinds (Nine Winds 243; USA) Featuring Mark Trayle on electronics and Vinny Golia on assorted woodwinds. Mark Trayle has worked with Leo Smith, Nels Cline and Maryanne Amacher. Reeds master, Vinny Golia is a veteran of more than sixty recordings; he plays nearly 30 different reed instruments. On this unique duo disc, Mark takes Vinny's varied reeds and uses them as his source, thus turning the sounds inside-out into a wide variety of shapes and sounds. Vinny can be hard playing his different flutes, clarinets, double reeds and axes as Mark samples him and manipulates those sounds. Vinny often has a warm, human tone of many of his reeds so this keeps the duo from going too far into another dimension. Challenging sounds but not too difficult to deal with, most of the time. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

BERTRAM TURETZKY/VINNY GOLIA - Intersections (Nine Winds 129; USA) B. Turetzky (b), V. Golia (ww, shakuhachi). Vinny Golia strengthened his ties with longhair radicals by recording a series of uncompromising duets with veteran classical avant-garde bassist Bertram Turetzky. In lieu of Golia's usual inventive titles, the 11 pieces are all called Intersections and assigned a number -- and he and Turetzky are not adverse to the idea of overdubbing (or, to invent a word, "overdoubling") pairs of basses and winds. Since Golia keeps mixing up his instruments, employing most of the members of the flute and clarinet families plus shakahuchi, and Turetzky is a master at squeezing a seemingly infinite number of sounds out of his basses ( he can make it sound like a horn, a synthesizer, an Indian sarod, etc.), it's easier to stay involved with this music, though by no means can this be considered easy listening. The opening Intersection is fascinating, the shakahuchi shrieking and moaning above double-tracked basses. But then Intersection No. 2 gets thorny and difficult, with bass clarinet multiphonics and scraping arco bass; No. 3 carries out Olivier Messiaen's birdsong conceptions with overdubbed piccolos (piccoli?); and their atonal reveries, joustings, and probings only seem to get tougher from there. For battle-tested ears only. - Richard S Ginell
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BERTRAM TURETZKY With VINNY GOLIA/TOMMY GANNON et al - Tributes (Nine Winds 228; USA) Bertram Turetzky is one the true masters of the contrabass, bridging the gap between modern jazz and contemporary classic, as well as being a professor and mentor to other great bassists like Mark Dresser. Few musical instruments have as good a buddy as the contrabass has in Bertram Turetzky, who once introduced himself to an extremely youthful audience at the Los Angeles Children's Museum as "the nicest man named Turetzky you'll ever meet." The way bassists recount the history of this artist (and this is the stuff of fact, not legend): prior to Turetzky there was really no such thing as a repertoire for the contrabass soloist; all players had at their disposal were some adaptations of cello scores and so forth. A virtuoso player whose background also includes a heavy dose of swing jazz, Turetzky systematically went about getting a large body of works commissioned for himself to play, thereby creating the contrabass repertoire as it exists today. More than 300 compositions have been written for, performed by, and recorded by Turetzky, and there are very few performing artists who could make such a claim! This disc is Mr. Turetzky's tribute to other great bassists in the history of jazz like Jimmy Blanton, Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford and Ray Brown. The twelve pieces here features solos, duos with Tommy Gannon on piano or Vinny Golia on assorted reeds, a trio with Nancy Turetzky on flutes & Golia, a quartet and a quintet. Mingus' "Portrait" features Bert on bowed bass and Gannon on piano, it is an exquisite and deeply affecting work. "Pitter Panther Patter" is by Jimmy Blanton & Duke Ellington and is a swinging tune with some fine solos by Bertram. "Mingus in the Spotlight" features some odd narration by Turetszy, written by John Chenault, with rather Beefheart-like sounding voice. There two "Meditations" for Ray Brown, both for layers of bass parts, mostly stark and enchanting throughout. Oscar Pettiford's "Blues in the Closet" is a fine, straight ahead blues tune for a quartet. Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sounds of Love" features Bert's exquisite bowed bass at the center, and it is finally deconstructed by a strange quintet of manipulated sounds. Jimmy Blanton & Duke's "Mr JB Blues" is another fine piano and bass duo, with the bass soloing righteously throughout. Turetzky's marvelous "I Remember Mingus", features some amazing flute (his wife Nancy) and multi reeds (Golia) that swirl perfectly around Bert's swell narration. 'Tributes' closes with three fine solo bass blues pieces, one for Ray Brown and all thumping and throbbing with passionate spirits. This is strong medicine for bassists and bass lovers worldwide. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

ROB BLAKESLEE QUARTET With VINNY GOLIA/KEN FILIANO/BILLY MINTZ - Spirit of the Times (Nine Winds 208; USA) Featuring Mr. Blakeslee on trumpet, cornet & flugelhorn, Vinny Golia on B-flat & bass clarinets, Ken Filiano on bass and Billy Mintz on drums. This is Rob's sixth (in-print) CD for the Nine Winds or Louie labels and I've always dug his work with and for Vinny Golia. 'Spirit of the Times' is a long (74 minutes) and varied work that remains fascinating throughout the six long pieces. "Just Off the Avenue" is dedicated to another LA based cornet hero and teacher Bobby Bradford and Rob also plays the cornet, swirling wonderfully around Vinny's splendid clarinet. Rob also has a superb, strong, yet fragile tone that works perfectly with Vinny's equally thoughtful bass clarinet playing. Ken's fluid contrabass is buzzing and burning intensely underneath, as Billy's fine drumming also helps navigate the currents. Bobby Bradford's most popular quartet was with the late clarinetist John Carter and this quartet does a fine job of continuing in their tradition and sound. Some pieces begin delicately with dreamy bass and soft percussion growing until the horns come in softly building with sublime solos from the clarinet and cornet. Rob's mature composing is also in evidence, especially the quiet yet quick "Colorful Eyes", with some outstanding solos from Rob's trumpet and Vinny's bass clarinet. Bassist Ken Filiano, who now lives here, in fine form throughout, his elastic lines consistently centering all the energy flowing around him. Quite a grand work from Rob Blakeslee's excellent quartet. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

ROB BLAKESLEE QUINTET With VINNY GOLIA/TAD WEED/KEN FILIANO/BILLY MINTZ - Lifeline (Nine Winds 147; USA) (1992) R. Blakeslee (t), Tad Weed (p), Ken Filiano (b), Billy Mintz (d), Vinny Golia (ww) . The opening ensembles of "Just off the Avenue" at first make it sound as if this is going to be a conventional hard bop quintet date, but that feeling is quickly dispelled. The music becomes progressively freer, and after a fairly straight-ahead trumpet solo from leader Rob Blakeslee (who contributed the five originals), pianist Tad Weed takes the music outside, where it remains during Vinny Golia's baritone solo before the band swings its way out. All five selections are lengthy and they often go in unexpected directions. "Haida" begins and ends with spiritual playing from Golia on his flute, but, although the piece rises and falls volume-wise and uses different instrumental colors, it essentially stays in the same place. "Absence of Mallets" has a dramatic melody and seems full of inner seething anger for its 21 minutes, while in comparison "Dubra" is relatively whimsical, with Golia playing some remarkable ideas on bass clarinet. The excellent quintet set concludes with some fiery free bop on the driving "Den Dun Swung," highlighted by Golia's passionate soprano. Throughout this well-rounded program, Blakeslee displays impressive technique and his compositions clearly inspire the other musicians. Lifeline is recommended to fans of swinging avant-garde jazz. - Scott Yanow
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

ROB BLAKESLEE QUINTET With VINNY GOLIA/TAD WEED/MICHAEL BISIO/BOB MEYER - Long Narrows (Nine Winds 167; USA) R. Blakeslee (t, cor, flg), Vinny Golia (ww), Tad Weed (p), Michael Bisio (b), Bob Meyer (d). Blakeslee's an extremely gifted, Oregon-based trumpeter of a cantankerously lyrical free jazz persuasion. His concept leans heavily on tonal centers, it seems, even though the contexts of the blowing can become significantly atonal. He's an imaginative and original player of whom much more should be heard. Blakeslee's colleagues are all of a similar caliber; the multi-reedist Vinny Golia is, of course, one of the most dramatic improvisers extant, as is the lesser-known but prodigiously inventive pianist Tad Weed. On a number of occasions, as a soloist, Weed lifts the proceedings to extraordinary levels of excitement; he has a pronounced ability to pace, organize, and build upon his statements. Weed's feeling for spatial relationships and orchestral color adds much to the group sound, as well. Bassist Michael Bisio is not always favorably served by his recorded sound, which overemphasizes the darkness of his sound, but he is clearly a player of great empathy and musicality. The tuneful drummer Bob Meyer is also a nicely complementary presence. Overall, there's a nice group dynamic -- simultaneously cooperative and confrontational. This is an impressive document by a formidable group of young musicians. - Chris Kelsey
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

RICHARD GROSSMAN With JOHN CARTER/VINNY GOLIA/KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE - In the Air (Nine Winds 146; USA) (1989) R. Grossman (p), John Carter (cl), Vinny Golia (ww), Ken Filiano (b), Alex Cline (perc). One of the least-known and most inventive of free jazz pianists was Richard Grossman. He came up in Philadelphia, hanging out and playing with Jimmy Garrison, Henry Grimes, and Odean Pope. Hearing Ornette Coleman and the new Viennese school of composers changed all that. He moved to the West Coast and explored the free terrain with the likes of the late John Carter and Vinny Golia. He died an early death in 1992. This extraordinary group recording was recorded in 1989. The recording starts off with a fully improvised ten minute trio piece of bass clarinet, clarinet & piano which is nice with some nice interplay btween the two horns. On to the aptly titled "A Hard Act to Follow" with a nebulous theme by Golia that is hinted at towards the beginning and more directly driven home at the end; in-between the band members really start to gel and the combination of Golia's sopranino and Carter's clarinet (not in unison) over and sometimes with the rhythm team makes for invigorating listening. Cline impresses throughlout and Filiano finds a happy medium between Guy type aggression and virtuosity and a more melodic approach ala Mark Helias or Michael Formanek. Next the centerpiece, the long (30+ minutes) "Everything Else is Away" which is a group of overlapping unaccompanied solos by all members of the group followed by what amounts to be a 8 or 9 minute group improvisation, Sounds pretty rote, eh? - well well, stunning playing from all! Golia's soprano - man is he a undervalued dude? I only have 4 or 5 of his recordings.. Cline - pretty amazing - and then we hear the genius of Dr. John Carter - my wife is stunned at the perfection - perfection of complete and utter orginally and beauty - perfect throughout the full and unknown range of the horn. The last piece (again fully improvised as is 98% of this record save for the scant Golia theme during the second track) is a bustling grooving workout that pulls the whole thing together grandly! - Steve Reynolds
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MARK HARVEY & THE AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA With VINNY GOLIA/FRANK LONDON/RAJEESH MEHTA/BRAD JONES/KEN FILIANO et al - Aardvark Steps Out (Nine Winds 155; USA) Mark Harvey (t, cond), Vinny Golia (ww) et al. This 1993 debut CD [for a group that's been around since the early '70s!] is a great sampler of the band's range, "from screech to swing" as the Boston Phoenix said.
Here is a sampling of the response:
"Aardvark Steps Out, footprints a rumble with jurassic import and power. The uncontrollable aspects of a juggernaut unleashed provide much of the Aardvark's awe-inspiring audience fascination." Downbeat
"..relentless dedication to a cutting-edge approach.. with exciting exploratory solos." Boston Globe
"Aardvark Steps Out is a bracing walk on the wild side of the big band spectrum.. Aardvark suggests the best and brashest of Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, George Russell, and even Frank Zappa.. In all, a refreshing breath of spirited yet structured rebellion from the tried and true. On, Aardvark!" Jazz Times
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

MARK HARVEY & THE AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA With VINNY GOLIA/STAN STRICKLAND/GREG KELLEY/BILL LOWE/BRAD JONES/KEN FILIANO et al - An Aardvark Christmas (Nine Winds 201; USA) "The sound is a modern blend of jazz, classical, and multi- cultural folk music.. Appalachian and African-American carols, a delightful calypso, and a New Orleans second-line styled version of "Jingle Bells".. if you've got big ears, you'll hear a lot of joy in this fine work." JAZZIZ
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JEFF KAISER DOUBLE QUARTET With VINNY GOLIA/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/BRAD DUTZ/GENE DOI/JIM CONNOLLY/RICHIE WEST/HANNES GIGER - Nothing Is Not Breath: Music For Double Quartet (Nine Winds 206; USA) Jeff Kaiser, trumpet and pump organ; Michael Vlatkovich, trombone; Vinny Golia, woodwinds; Gene Doi, woodwinds; Jim Connolly, contrabass; Hannes Giger, contrabass; Brad Dutz, percussion; Richie West, percussion. "I almost began this review with a confession that I was lying about the Trignition CD [9Winds] being the most inaccessible CD, but as I listened further, I stopped myself. This disc is a huge, 70-minute, eleven-part suite that begins subtly and improvisationally and then explodes in many multi-layered compositions and quirky fanfares. I feel the apex of the disc culminates in Section VIII, which I will call the "theme". It's the only part of the disc that my mind sings. The rest is an avant-garde smorgasboard that swings in places, much like Ornette's original double quartet did on the historic Free Jazz. Nothing Is Not Breath goes beyond that template, happily, and saturates itself with wonderful 20th Century classical sensibilities. In attempting to interpret the title of this work, I believe that even though only four of the eight instruments are winds, the percussion and double basses actually seem to breathe. The rising and falling of dynamics, and the lack of rhythm or pulse in some selections, resembles a large organism slowly inhaling.. and exhaling. The tumbling marimba is the rattle of its breath, the squealing reeds its vocal chords, the percussion its raspy cough. This is a Kaiser masterwork - not to mention that Golia is on it, of course!" - Fred Barrett
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

BARRE PHILLIPS/BERTRAM TURETZKY/VINNY GOLIA - Trignition (Nine Winds 221; USA) Get two of the finest bassists in the world together in a studio, throw in a fellow who needs to make a half-dozen trips to cart in all his horns, and one has the makings of a good session of improvised music, to be sure. How much one enjoys this outing will depend on whether one appreciates reed player Vinny Golia's approach to playing with bassists, which despite avant-garde trappings is the pretty traditional hornman's stance of playing over the bass. For free improvised music, for example, this could be contrasted with players such as Evan Parker or John Butcher, who design their playing to be heard on an equal footing with the bass, as if all the instruments were involved in creating one big sound. Some listeners may feel that Golia's activity, including some swinging phrases played with a nice touch on his various clarinets, takes away from the impact of bassists Barre Phillips and Bertram Turetzky. It also sometimes changes the focus of the music itself. While the bassists tend to play texturally with many bowed harmonics and knocking sounds, Golia chooses to play quite melodically, his use of sounds almost always tied in with an emotional climax. His work is expressive and heartfelt as always, but he tends to take over, grounding the music with grandly lyrical held notes or cluttering up the atmosphere with rapid runs packed with pitches. Like many jazz-influenced improvisers, he inhabits a netherworld in which the playing of an actual, interesting melody is shunned, while noodling around a scale or mode is not. When the players do convene on certain pitches, an ensemble sound is established, but this hardly represents the potential level of complexity one expects from such major players. The best track is "It Was Probably the Last One to Be Named," in which the delicious sound of the contrabass clarinet inspires much spirited bowing. - Eugene Chadbourne
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

JOHN RAPSON With BILLY HIGGINS/BOBBY BRADFORD/VINNY GOLIA/ROBERTO MIRANDA/STEVE GRISMORE/KIM RICHMOND/WAYNE PEET/BILL ROPER/JIM DREIER - Water and Blood: The Billy Higgins Improvisations (Nine Winds 252; USA) Bobby Bradford (cor), Roberto Miranda (b), Vinny Golia (ww), et al. On Water and Blood, composer and trombonist John Rapson pays tribute to drummer Billy Higgins. Starting from recorded solos by Higgins and duets by the drummer and bassist Roberto Miranda, Rapson builds up a series of varied, colorful settings, featuring several notable solo voices. The horn and guitar solos and the ensemble parts were overlaid in several different sessions, both in Los Angeles and in Iowa, over the course of two years. It's a wonder of both engineering and musicianship that this is all so seamless, easily passing for a session done with all parties in the same place at the same time. Many of the pieces have a dark, almost ominous cast with busy yet uncluttered horn lines. The use of organ provides a particularly piquant touch. Steve Grismore's guitar lends an element of free fusion to several tracks. The lighthearted Latin groove that arises midway through "Rosewood and Palms" and the burst of playful lyricism in "Pork for Popcorn" provide some lighthearted relief. Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, and Kim Richmond stand out among the soloists, and get ample opportunity to exhibit their skills in direct yet adventurous extemporization. Rapson's own solo on "Waking in a Strange Bed" grows so much out of Higgins' solo that it sounds like it was created simultaneously, not a year later. It's a testament to the connection Rapson feels to the drummer's work. That same empathy informs all of this warm-hearted tribute. - David Dupont
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DANIEL ROSENBOOM SEPTET With GAVIN TEMPLETON/BRIAN WALSH/VINNY GOLIA/DAVID ROSENBOOM/SAM MINAIE/CALEB DOLISTER - Fallen Angeles (Nine Winds 297; USA) Daniel Rosenboom on trumpet & compositions, with Gavin Templeton on alto sax & flute, Brian Walsh on bass clarinet & bari sax, Vinny Golia on tubax & alto flute, David Rosenboom on piano, Sam Minaie on bass and Caleb Dolister on drums. This disc was released last year (2011), but this is the first time we are offering it. This is an LA-area based septet with some musicians who have worked with Anthony Braxton, Vinny Golia and Tin-Bag. The music is intense, spirited and occasionally over-the-top, excitement-wise. "Ideology" is furiously paced with some crazed harmonies for the four horns. All of the solos here are short and intense with some daredevil ensemble playing. Dan Rosenboom is a gifted composer who like to write complex layers which are closer to progressive music than anything else. When Mr. Walsh solos on the title track, the rest of the band plays orchestrally around him. For "Meditation", there are thin layers of muted trumpet, flutes and bass clarinet which are well- woven into the the warm tapestry of the piano, bass and drums. A few of these pieces have the tight, full-frontal attack of a band like Supersax or perhaps a prog band that shifts through time signature complexities with ease. Each of the nine pieces here shows that Mr. Rosenboom has found a way to challenge the abilities of his crack ensemble with harmonically complex material and consistently spirited solos. One of the highlights is that Vinny Golia gets a chance to stretch out on his uniquely designed (in Europe) tubax, a custom-made hybrid instrument which is pretty rare. Considering that Mr. Golia is the only musician here that I am very familiar with, this disc is one of this month's most under-recognized treasures. Had I heard it in 2011, it might have made my best-of list. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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SoNu [ALAN LECHUSZA/GUSTAVO AGUILAR/NINA EIDSHEIM/PHIL CURTIS] + VINNY GOLIA - Sounds From The Source: Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Leo Smith.. (Nine Winds 222; USA) Alan Lechusza (woodwinds), Gustavo Aguilar (percussion), Nina Eidsheim (vocals and electronics), Phil Curtis (electronics), Vinny Golia (woodwinds), Arash Haile (vocals).
This release by soNu presents the eclectic band as a cultural database that, through group improvisation and subtle compositional cues, manages to incorporate serialism, post-serialism, Mexican folkloric music, non-Western classical music, Norwegian folk song, Native American music, rock, future electronics, and hip hop into its musings. Nina Sun Eidsheim sings and interjects electronics; Phil Curtis also contributes electronics. Alan Lechusza plays woodwinds, and Gustavo Aguilar handles percussion. All four compose and have extensive resumes in and out of academia and free jazz.
The recording opens with the first of three covers of AACM members' compositions, Wadada Leo Smith's The Lady of the Dark Sonnets/Mississippi Delta. Curtis sends electro bolts squealing through the studio, soon joined by Lechusza on bass sax. The thick earthy tone contrasts nicely with the shifty synth smears. Eidsheim sings the tricky melody operatically, Curtis's shimmery environment around her. Aguilar adds soft clatterings. Nine Winds CEO Vinny Golia joins the ensemble for Rebound. Lechusza plays Native American flute with Aguilar's subtle wind chimes. Eidshem improvises processed vocals over metallic electric rumblings, and Aguilar's loose drum set stampedes with the dark synthesizer tones. After Lechusza's vivid trips on wood flute, Vinny Golia sweeps through on C-flute. Anthony Braxton's Composition Nr.287+98a sends Lechusza flying on alto, slowing for the composed duet with Eidshem. Curtis handles the aviation from his keyboard, Aguilar dropping lag time beats. Eidshem treats her vocals with Curtis' sci-fi sounds throbbing. Industrial sounds and held tone vocals announce George Lewis' Players. Throughout the piece, players speak to one another, announcing the next segment. Lechusza goes long on clarinet as someone effectively riffs on toy piano. Aguilar and Lechusza play a brief duet, before processed vocals and sampled noise take over. The bass sax holds a tone while quick synth spray hits a serene kalimba. Lechusza returns to clarinet, this time solo. Sound On Sound for Roscoe Mitchell could be a remix dance hit for Nine Winds. Arash Haile's hip hop-inspired vocal finds a niche in the band's ability to face the funk, and deconstruct the funk. Curtis continues flooding the track with roiling sound; Eidshem improvises and occasionally returns to Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Lechusza brings back the rhythm on bass sax, with Aguilar following.
With each member of the quartet bringing a wealth of aural information, SoNu have realized a multi-culti vision rich in texture and imagination. - Rex Butters
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JOHNNIE VALENTINO With WADADA LEO SMITH/VINNY GOLIA et al - Searching Souls (Nine Winds 233; USA) Leo Smith (t), Vinny Golia (ww), Billy Drews, Rick Rossi et al . Johnnie Valentino savors slow, brooding sonorities, the sort that evoke dark, desperate images. He has extraordinary taste in picking musicians, as he appears here with top-flight players such as trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and reedist Vinny Golia, who is heard exclusively on clarinet and bass clarinet. The guitarist-leader wrote virtually all the pieces, played by several combinations of musicians, the best of which include Smith, who is in top form throughout. The changing of the guard produces a bit of discontinuity, although -- to be fair -- the quality of performance remains on a consistently high plane. Valentino breathes new life into two warhorses, Monk's "Ugly Beauty" and Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home," the former of which is given the guitarist's desultory treatment, and the latter of which is brilliantly transmogrified into a funeral dirge. Some of the tunes, such as "Spiritual Blessing," languish a bit too long, and the blue hue that affects the entire album sometimes does get somewhat tiring. Valentino, though, is an original voice with strong ideas of where he is going. He deserves to be performing with a regular lineup, one that appreciates his vision and injects it with a group personality. His guitar solos reveal a superior talent that merits nurturing. A close listening reveals numerous fine moments marked by real sophistication, a rare commodity. - Steve Loewy
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RICH HALLEY With VINNY GOLIA/ROB BLAKESLEE/TROY GRUGETT/PHIL SPARKS/WILLIAM THOMAS - Umatilla Variations (Nine Winds 163; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

KAORU With VINNY GOLIA/BRAD DUTZ/MICHAEL WHITMORE/JEFF FALKNER ET AL - Welcome To Our Breakfast (Nine Winds 176; USA)
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WAYNE PEET & VINNY GOLIA - No Reverse (Nine Winds 114; USA)
LP $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

MARK WEBER With VINNY GOLIA/NELS CLINE/STEFAN DILL et al - Words And Stories: Obbligatos For Terpsichorean Dipsomaniacs (Nine Winds 182; USA)
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STEVE ADAMS/KEN FILIANO - In Out Side (Nine Winds 156; USA)
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CHRISTOPHER ADLER TRIO With ALAN LECHUSZA/VIKAS SRIVASTAVA - Transcontinental (Nine Winds 262; USA)
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BONNIE BARNETT With DAVID WATSON/DANIEL GOODE/EVEN GALLAGHER/KEN FILIANO/ELLIOT HUMBERTO KAVEE - Live At Roulette (Nine Winds 218; USA)
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BONNIE BARNETT & KEN FILIANO - Trio For Two (Nine Winds 226; USA)
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BONNIE BARNETT With MICHAEL WHITMORE/HANNES GIGER/RICHIE WEST + NELS CLINE et al - Delay In Gravity (Nine Winds 161; USA)
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BILL BARRETT With WAYNE PEET/RUSSELL BIZZETT/KEN LASAINE - Backbone (Nine Winds 192; USA)
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DICK BERK & THE JAZZ ADOPTION AGENCY With MIKE FAHN/ANDY MARTIN/TAD WEED/KEN FILIANO - Bouncin' With Berk (Nine Winds 142; USA)
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BIG WORLD [RICK HELZER/BILL PLAKE/JEANETTE WRATE] - Angels (Nine Winds 145; USA)
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MARCELLO BLANCO/STEPHEN FLINN - We Mean It (Nine Winds 251; USA)
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PAUL CARMAN & ESP With MARK MASSEY/JOEL HAMILTON/STEVE DiSTANISIAO - Even Picasso Couldn't Find Her (Nine Winds 183; USA)
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ALEX CLINE ENSEMBLE With JEFF GAUTHIER/WAYNE PEET/ERIC VON ESSEN/AINA KEMANIS - Montsalvat (Nine Winds 174; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

ALEX CLINE/JEFF GAUTHIER/G E STINSON - Right of Violet (Nine Winds 184; USA)
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CONTINUUM [CRAIG OCHIKUBO/STEVE BILLMAN/CHRISTOPHER GARCIA/ANDY SUZUKI] - Continuum (Nine Winds 166; USA)
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CONTINUUM [CRAIG OCHIKUBO/STEVE BILLMAN/CHRISTOPHER GARCIA/PAUL CARMAN] - Passages (Nine Winds 213; USA)
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BRAD DUTZ With JIM HERSHMAN/KIM RICHMOND/TREY HENRY - Railroads (Nine Winds 178; USA)
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BRAD DUTZ With TOM McMORAN et al - Brad Dutz (Nine Winds 141; USA)
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DAVE FERRIS With BOB SHEPPARD/ERIC VON ESSEN et al - The Quiet One (Nine Winds 162; USA)
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KEN FILIANO - Subvenire: Music For Solo Bass (Nine Winds 223; USA) Contrabassist extraordinaire Ken Filiano moved here from L.A. and become quite an active an in demand bassist. Ken spent nearly two decades in L.A. working with a long list of great players, like Bobby Bradford, John Carter, Don Preston, Vinny Golia and Rova. Since moving here he also keeps pretty busy in numerous projects with Dom Minasi, Fred Hess and Steve Swell. This is Ken's first solo bass effort and it is a long time coming, mostly improvised, yet completely focused with one piece written by Bobby Bradford. Right from the first sound, we are treated to a dense, rich drone of bowed bass on "water down stone", a somber, dark and dreamy work, the rich sound of Ken's bass filling the entire room. Ken is shown on the back with stick going through his bass strings and he is playing on those sticks and strings with another set of stick. He sounds as if he is also doing this on some of these tracks as there are a few things going on at once. On "relay" he walks quickly and plucks hard all over the bass at a fast pace, telling a frenzied story, bending notes in different directions as he moves around the neck. "lucerne" has a few layers of bowed basses which drift together in a hypnotic dream-world. "non sequitur" continues this dreamy vibe with the (layers of) buzzing echoed bass fragments. This entire release has a overall haze to it, sort of lonely, yet also mesmerizing in the way it creates a land of floating spirits.
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STEPHEN FLINN/BRUCE EISENBEIL/TONY WREN - Keep The Meter Running (Nine Winds 246; USA)
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JEFF GAUTHIER With DAVID WITHAM/ERIC VON ESSEN/ALEX CLINE - Internal Memo (Nine Winds 164; USA)
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JEFF GAUTHIER QUARTET With DAVID WITHAM/JOEL HAMILTON/ALEX CLINE - The Present (Nine Winds 196; USA)
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MATTHEW GOODHEART With GLENN SPEARMAN/LISLE ELLIS/DONALD ROBINSON - Sonoluminescence (Nine Winds 186; USA)
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PHILLIP GREENLIEF/SCOTT AMENDOLA - Collect My Thoughts (Nine Winds 185; USA)

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JOHN GROSS/PUTTER SMITH/LARRY KOONSE - Three Play (Nine Winds 133; USA)
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RICHARD GROSSMAN TRIO With KEN FILIANO/ALEX CLINE - Trio Live In Real Time (Nine Winds 134; USA)
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RICH HALLEY LIZARD BROTHERS With ROB BLAKESLEE/TOM HILL/GARY HARRIS/GEOFF LEE/PHIL SPARKS/WILLIAM THOMAS - Saxophone Animals (Nine Winds 139; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

RICH HALLEY With ROB BLAKESLEE/MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/TROY GRUGETT/PHIL SPARKS/WILLIAM THOMAS - Live At Beanbenders (Nine Winds 215; USA)
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JOEL HARRISON With STEVE CARDENAS/NELS CLINE/JOHN SCHOTT/ALEX CLINE/BRADC DUTZ/JOHN C HOLMES/SCOTT AMENDOLA/GLENN CRONKITE/GARTH POWELL - 3 + 3 = 7 (Nine Winds 187; USA)
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RICK HELZER With JAMES NEWTON/KIM RICHMOND/DAVID BORGO/CHRIS CONNOR/DUNCAN MOORE et al - Face in the Mirror (Nine Winds 248; USA)
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JOHNSON COUNTY LANDMARK//JOHN RAPSON - Daydreams From The Prairie: JCL Plays The Music Of John Rapson (Nine Winds 235; USA)
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DAVID JOHNSON/KEN ROSSER - Dual Force (Nine Winds 202; USA)
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JESSICA JONES QUARTET With TONY JONES/TREVOR DUNN/ELLIOT HUMBERTO KAVEE et al - Family (Nine Winds 197; USA)
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JIM KNODLE & ANANSI With MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/PAUL SAWYER/LYNETTE WESTENDORF/DAN O'BRIEN/DON BERMAN - Wending (Nine Winds 263; USA)
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LESS OF FIVE [GIORGIO OCCHIPINTI/OLIVIA BIGNARDI/GIUSEPPE GUARRELLA/ANOTONI MONCADA] - Acrobati Folli E Innamorati (Nine Winds 244; USA) This appears to be a most impressive Italian quartet on the LA-based Nine Winds label, oddly enough. Less of Five features Giorgio Occhipinti on piano & prepared piano, Olivia Bignardi on alto sax and clarinet, Guiseppi Guarrella on double bass and Antonio Moncada on drums. Pianist Giorgio Occhipinti's name sounded familiar to me and it turns out he is one of the most creative and busiest pianist from Italy. He worked with dozens of great musicians including Evan Parker, Joelle Leandre, Barre Phillips, Peter Brotzmann, as well as many of the Italian greats. He appears to lead numerous bands and has recorded for Jazz Halo, Between the Lines and now Nine Winds. I don't know the other members of his fine quartet, but each contributes pieces to this exciting disc. Most of the pieces are pretty short, yet are consistently tight, adventurous and never stay in one place very long. At times, Giorgio will tap on the strings inside the piano, while playing the keyboard with the other hand. The bassist creates suspense while the alto saxist bends those notes slowly, as we enter a dream-world, the pianist tapping out some eerie Morse codes signals. That sense of adventure and constant inventiveness is kept alive throughout. On "Cus Cus", there is playful duo of just tapping inside the piano and what sounds like ping pong balls as percussion. Olivia has an enchanting tone on sax, slightly pinched yet somehow enticing. Their drummer does a fine job of playing with his hands on drums, as well as with mallets, often outlining the rhythms with Giorgio's equally crafty and percussive piano. I like the way the quartet play a series of solos on "Uma onda de musica continua", yet the flow/thread continues throughout. Giorgio's immensely inventive two-handed piano solo is one of the discs many marvels. The quartet often perform their magic by working together as inter-connected duos and bouncing their ideas back and forth effortlessly, with many surprises in-store. More under-recognized brilliance from the colossal Nine Winds stable. - BLG
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STEUART LIEBIG QUARTETTO STIG With JOHN FUMO/JEFF GAUTHIER/DAN MORRIS - Penso Oculto (Nine Winds 191; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

STEUART LIEBIG QUARTETTO STIG With JOHN FUMO/JEFF GAUTHIER/DAN MORRIS - Lingua Oscura (Nine Winds 173; USA)
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STEUART LIEBIG QUARTETTO STIG With JOHN FUMO/JEFF GAUTHIER/JEFF McCUTCHEN - Hommages Obliques (Nine Winds 158; USA)
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LUNAR ADVENTURES [COAT COOKE/RON SAMWORTH/CLYDE REED/GREGG SIMPSON] - Alive In Seattle (Nine Winds 132; USA)
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TONY MALABY/JOEY SELLERS QUARTET With MICHAEL FORMANEK/BILLY MINTZ - Cosas (Nine Winds 171; USA)
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JIM McAULEY - Gongfarmer 18 (Nine Winds 236; USA)
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TIMOTHY MELBINGER//CHRIS BLETH/EMILY HAY/RONDA RINDONE/STEPHANIE MIJANOVICH/SUSAN ALLEN - Chamber Music for Woodwinds (Nine Winds 168; USA)
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MTKJ QUARTET [EMPTY CAGE: JASON MEARS/KRIS TINER/PAUL KIKUCHI/IVAN JOHNSON] - Day Of The Race (Nine Winds 258; USA) Featuring the next generation of creative musicians from the west coast with Jason Mears on alto sax & clarinet, Kris Tiner on trumpet & flugel, Ivan Johnson on double bass and Paul Kikuchi on drums & percussion. Considering I haven't heard of any of these fine players, it continues to amaze me that Vinny Golia's Nine Winds label consistently finds these gems. This was recorded at Sonarchy Radio in Seattle, so perhaps that's where the MTKJ Quartet is from. This disc consists of one opening piece and two suites. The tunes were written by either reed or horn player, both of whom write and play superbly together, often shadowing each other with a similar warm and enchanting tone. Their bassist plays a fine solo in the middle of that first piece, which is followed by a nice alto solo where Jason slows down and slurs the notes just right, the tempo spinning more quickly around him until they all come together as one unit, with both horns spinning intricately together. Rather Masada-like in their tricky execution. "Suite 1" begins with "And So It Goes...", starts spaciously and freely. The muted trumpet and alto sax play their delicate parts together, the quartet sounding like Braxton Quartet of the mid-seventies, no small feat. Jason plays one of those cautious, high-pitched solos that are often difficult to control, unless of course you are someone like John Zorn who has worked hard at perfecting this difficult task. Again, the quartet blends that modern classical-like writing with that quirky freer spirit while keeping everything well balanced. Quite marvelous for these young whipper-snappers. When I played this in the store the other day, our old pal John Horan, who is almost 20 years older than me, was astounded once again, that neither of us had heard of any of these players previously. Another gem from the Nine Winds world of wonders. - BLG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

MTKJ QUARTET [EMPTY CAGE: JASON MEARS/KRIS TINER/PAUL KIKUCHI/IVAN JOHNSON] - Making Room for Spaces (Nine Winds 245; USA)
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THE NEW ORCHESTRA WORKSHOP [V.A.] - Vol 1: The Future is N.O.W. (Nine Winds 131; USA)
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THE NEW ORCHESTRA WORKSHOP [V.A.] - Vol 2: Now You Hear It (Nine Winds 151; USA)
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PAT O'KEEFE/GLEN WHITEHEAD/JASON STANYEK/SCOTT WALTON - Unbalancing Act (Nine Winds 212; USA)
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ODDBAR TRIO [BRENT SANDY/JOHN RAPSON/STEVE GRISMORE/JIM DREIER] - Lost Art Cafe (Nine Winds 211; USA)
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PAGAN BABIES [KENNY MANDEL/DAVE NOLET/STEPHEN FLINN] - Pagan Babies (Nine Winds 181; USA)
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WAYNE PEET - Down In-Ness: Solo Piano Imrovisations (Nine Winds 111; USA)
LP $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

WAYNE PEET TRIO With G E STINSON/LANCE LEE - Fully Engulfed (Nine Winds 165; USA)
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BILL PLAKE QUARTET With CRAIG FUNDYGA/ANDERS SWANSON/JEANETTE WRATE - South (Nine Winds 175; USA)
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PAUL PLIMLEY/LISLE ELLIS - Both Sides of the Same Mirror (Nine Winds 135; USA)
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MEL POWELL//CAL ARTS FACULTY PERFORMERS - Five Decades Of Music (Nine Winds 216; USA)
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QUEEN MAB [MARILYN LERNER/LORI FREEDMAN] - Barbie's Other Shoe (Nine Winds 198; USA)
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E MICHAEL RICHARDS/KAZOKO TANOSAKI - New Music For Clarinet and Piano by Japanese Composers (Nine Winds 188; USA)
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KIM RICHMOND/CLAY JENKINS ENSEMBLE With JOEY SELLERS/DAVE SCOTT/TREY HENRY et al - Range (Nine Winds 172; USA)
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BOB RODRIGUEZ TRIO With KEN FILIANO/RON GLICK - Mist (Nine Winds 177; USA)
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DANIEL ROSENBOOM With JAKE VOSSLER/DERRICK SPIVA Jr/OREST BALABAN/AUSTIN WRINKLE et al - Bloodier, Mean Son (Nine Winds 238; USA) Featuring Daniel Rosenboom on trumpet & electronics, Derrick Spiva, Jr. on piano, Jake Vossler on electric guitar, Orest Balaban on electric bass, Michael Pisaro on sine-tones, Randy Gloss on tabla, Austin Wrinkle on drums & tabla and Jacqeline Humbert - voice. Compositions by Rosenboom, Nick Didkovsky, Vinny Golia Derrick Spiva, Robert Lax and Michael Pisaro. "Evolution" is a tight, progressive work for intricate trumpet, electric guitar and electric bass played at breakneck speed with midi-drum machine programmed to play these difficult parts. It is as if Nancarrow wrote for a prog/jazz/rock band. "Conflict and Confluence" prog, metal and fusion sounds into an unlikely and successful hybrid that is unlike anything I've heard before. As the el. guitar, bass and drums lock in play their lines together the trumpet plays precise counterpoint with/against them. Vinny Golia's "39.1 Degrees Celsius" is a solo trumpet work for mutated trumpet sounds, well played by Mr. Rosenboom. "Zones of Coherence" is again a solo trumpet work for layers on intricate and twisted trumpet sounds. As this piece evolves the layers of trumpet parts swim around one another with occasional buzzing echo-plexed flurries. Mr. Spiva's "Twenty-Seven" features samples sitar, complex tabla-fueled rhythms and spectacular trumpet soloing. Quite similar to John Mayer's later Indo-Jazz Fusion bands. Mr. Pisaro's "Every Night (Harmony Series 12C)" features distant drones floating in space, patience is required to observe the nuances of each drone as it sails by. "Music for Unstable Circuits" sounds like they are using an old fashioned computer with old science fiction-like sounds erupting in waves around the echoed trumpet lines. It is alien sounding and quite mesmerizing. The final piece is the title track and it was composed by Nick Didkovsky, leader of local prog sensation, Doctor Nerve. It does have that great, feisty rocking groove with some great trumpet and prog/metal guitar soloing. 'Bloodier, Mean Son" is an anagram for Daniel Rosenboom's name and is perhaps the most surprising (and great) discs we've heard from Nine Winds. - BLG
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DAVE SCOTT/TONY MALABY QUARTET With TREY HENRY/BILLY MINTZ - Dave Scott/Tony Malaby Quartet (Nine Winds 194; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

JOEY SELLERS JAZZ AGGREGATION With BRUCE FOWLER/KEI AKAGI/KEN FILIANO/BILLY MINTZ et al - Something for Nothing (Nine Winds 136; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

JOEY SELLERS JAZZ AGGREGATION With TONY MALABY/JOHN O'GALLAGHER/MICHAEL SARIN et al - El Payaso (Nine Winds 217; USA) Featuring Tony Malaby, John O'Gallagher & Adam Kolker on reeds; Joey sellers, Taylor Haskins & Dave Ballou on trumpets; Joe Fiedler, Noah Bless & Nathan Durham on trombones; David Berkman on piano, John Hebert on bass and Michael Sarin on drums. I only know of Joey Sellers from a previous disc on Nine Winds that co-led with Tony Malaby. I recognize about half of the dozen musicians as downtown players and I believe that Mr. Sellers was living here at the time. The title track is first and it features some fine, laid back playing, haunting harmonies and quirky solos from Adam Kolker on bass clarinet and Tony Malaby on tenor. There is also a bit of sly humor in there and some unexpected changes in direction. The Jazz Aggregation remind me of the Microscopic Septet, with their occasional goofiness, inspired writing and solid soloing. A number of these folks take great solos time and again, especially John O'Gallagher, Tony Malaby, Dave Ballou and Dave Berkman. Joey's writing and arranging is often rich, warm and elegant at times. Nice to hear music that is adventurous and spirited without being too far out. - BLG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

DAMON SHORT With PAUL SMOKER/RYAN SCHULTZ/PAUL SCEA/JIM YANDA/LARRY KOHUT/CHUCK BURDELIK - Go Figure (Nine Winds 231; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

PAUL SMOKER'S BRASS REALITY With HERB ROBERTSON/DAVID TAYLOR/PHIL HAYNES - Brass Reality (Nine Winds 241; USA) Featuring Paul Smoker on trumpet & compositions, Herb Robertson on trumpet, valve trombone & Eb tuba, David Taylor on bass trombone & Bb tuba and Phil Haynes on percussion. Both Paul Smoker and Herb Robertson remain two of the most intense and creative trumpeters known and have played together on a few occasions. Smoker has played with Anthony Braxton, Gregg Bendian, Damon Short and Fred Hess, as well as with Ellery Eskelin in Joint Venture that included Phil Haynes. Smoker has put together a unique brass trio (two trumpets & tuba mostly) plus drums for this date. All three of the brass players are masters of extended technique and unusual sounds. They get a chance to display many of these sounds and sonic fireworks throughout. On "Fractals, Part 1", as Phil's free-flowing percussion floats and spins, one trumpet sputters and bursts into flight as the tuba and trombone play eerie long tones and crafty colors. Very Braxtonian. Phil gets into a subtle shuffle on "Waltz" as the horns play some slightly bend counter-melodies. Phil's nimble brush playing continues throughout the piece as each horn takes a fine solo. I dig the way each of the horns spin in different orbits on "Fanfare & Procession", each taking weird solos as the other two horns play bent harmonies in the distance. Phil bows his eerie cymbals on "Harmon City" as the muted horns play ghost-like sounds in a most mysterious way. I love "Phil's Blues", where Phil plays an infectious second-line beat as the horns get down and get sort of funky. As Phil plays subtle castanets on "Alice's Legacy", the horns shift between charted long tones, warm slightly bent harmonies and freer sections. This music often deals with textures and densities, with the horn men occasionally playing harmonies with themselves by singing through their horns. A fascinating blend and a quite a tasty brew. - BLG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

PAUL SMOKER/DAMON SHORT QUINTET With CHUCK BURDELIK/RYAN SCHULTZ/KEN FILIANO - No Stock Options (Nine Winds 291; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

G E STINSON GROUP With JOHN FUMO/STEUART LIEBIG/ALEX CLINE - The Same Without You (Nine Winds 154; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

SUBMEDIA [BRAD DUTZ/BOB MAIR/DAVE KARASONY] - Submedia (Nine Winds 137; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

SUBMEDIA [BRAD DUTZ/BOB MAIR/DAVE KARASONY] - Suffocating City (Nine Winds 149; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

PAUL SUNDFOR With FRED HERSCH/DREW GRESS/TOM RAINEY/JOHN SWANA - Nascencey (Nine Winds 195; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

THOMAS TEDESCO ENSEMBLE With GARNETT BROWN/WILLIAM HENDERSON/HENRY FRANKLIN/WILLIAM JEFFERY - Don't Be Afraid To Be Ascared (Nine Winds 219; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

THIS MOMENT [RONDA RINDONE/ROB CLUTTON/NICK FRASER] - Beautiful Line (Nine Winds 232; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

WALTER THOMPSON ORCHESTRA With ROB HENKE/MICHAEL ATTIAS/ROLF STURM/TODD REYNOLDS/STEVE RUST et al - PEXO: A Soundpainting Symphony (Nine Winds 234; USA) Featuring Todd Reynolds on violin, Rolf Sturm on guitar & synth, Gil Selinger on cello, Steve Rust & Jim Whitney on basses; Rob Henke, Chris Washburne * Sarah Weaver on brass; Michael Attias & Jody Espina on reeds and Andrea Pryor & Greg Stare on percussion plus Leese Walker, Michael Gordon & Christian Brandjes as the actors. This is a large downtown ensemble, as one could tell with a few of the more recognizable names. I haven't heard from Walter Thompson in nearly a decade, when his last large unit included the late Thomas Chapin and Mark Feldman. He has been working hard on his "soundpainting" system, which is a medium for structured improvisation involving some 700 gestures. 'PEXO' is based on a variety of games - board games, sports, TV quiz shows and mind games. In some ways, this music reminds me of Butch Morris' conductions that also involve the thematic development of different phrases or ideas. Walter does a great job of selecting certain sound or vocal snippets and either repeating them or twisting into odd shapes, yet thereremains a cohesive spirit throughout. Solos are kept short so that the direction change rapidly and themes can develop quickly. I had this on recently and a young man who was looking for more normal rockmusic, was intrigued by this. He dug the humor of the voices and obvious focus, the way it unfolded was rather story-like and he ended up buying a copy. I love when this happens, because this is an unexpected result of just playing music that challenges whoever visits our wacky store. The way this work pokes fun at the usual game show shenanigans is what makes it fun to hear. - BLG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

WALTER THOMPSON ORCHESTRA With DAVE DOUGLAS/THOMAS CHAPIN/HERB ROBERTSON/JOE FONDA/FRANK LONDON/STEVE SWELL/STEVEN BERNSTEIN et al - The Colonel: Compositions & Sound Paintings (Nine Winds 205; USA) Herb Robertson, Dave Douglas, Frank London, Steven Bernstein, Ron Horton (t), Steve Swell, Bob Hovey, Jim Leff (tb), Thomas Chapin, Philip Johnston, Allan Chase, Len Detlor, David Castiglione, Michael Blake (ww), Dave Tronzo, Rolf Sturm (g), Tomas Ulrich, Boris Rayskin (c), Joe Fonda, Pablo Aslan (b), Hollis Headrick, Jim Pugliese (perc), Walter Thompson (ww, cond) Superb & challenging compositions and unique conduction/improvs for this all-star large ensemble led by Walter Thompson. The first half of this effort is all excellent compositions from Walter, the second half all hand conducted improv equally fascinating. The charts challenge the players to continually shift textures, layers of ideas flow through numerous strong solos. The late-great Thomas Chapin is all over this work, pulling off some incredible alto solos & blowing his magical flute spice. Thomas' alto solo on "Scones" is so gorgeous, so heartfelt, with it's riveting cry of love tone, it had me weeping once again. Guitarists Dave Tronzo & Rolf Sturm, as well as cellist Tomas Ulrich are also all over, providing an ever-changing cushion of cool bent el. strings! The other fine players include Dave Douglas, Frank London, Herb Robertson, Steve Bernstein, Phillip Johnston, Allan Chase, Steve Swell, Joe Fonda, Pablo Aslan, Boris Rayskin & Jim Pugliese. Since this recording was made in '95 & '96, both Thomas Chapin & Boris Raskin have passed and Dave Tronzo has moved to Europe indefinitely. Nice to hear them shining on this wondeful cd - BLG
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

BERTRAM TURETZKY With ANTHONY BURR/PATRICK O'KEEFE et al - Tenors, Echoes And Wolves: From The Underground 1829-1998 (Nine Winds 200; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

BURT TURETZKY/MIKE WOFORD - Transition & Transformation (Nine Winds 242; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

NANCY TURETZKY/BERTRAM TURETZKY - Music for Flute(s) and Contrabass, I (Nine Winds 261; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

MICHAEL VLATKOVICH/WILLIAM ROPER - Chobraty (Nine Winds 225; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

TAD WEED/ & With KEN FILIANO/BILLY MINTZ/JOE LaBARBERA [LA BARBERA] - Solo Piano and Piano Trio: Soloing (Nine Winds 148; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

BERT WILSON & REBIRTH With NANCY CURTIS/ALLEN YOUNGBLOOD/CHUCK METCALF/BOB MEYER - The Next Rebirth (Nine Winds 124; USA) LP $13 (Out of print, but we have it!)

BERT WILSON & REBIRTH With NANCY CURTIS/ALLEN YOUNGBLOOD/CHUCK METCALF/BOB MEYER - Live At The Zoo (Nine Winds 138; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13

JEANETTE WRATE With BILL PLAKE/CRAIG OCHIKUBO/ANDERS SWANSON - Somewhere Between Here And There (Nine Winds 179; USA)
CD normally $15.. NOW $13




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