m u s i c • h e r t z

Kip Hanrahan • Pinero

2012-01-30T20:12:00.002Z

Not a good movie IMHO but the soundtrack fairs better ~ Stylo

This is the soundtrack album to Leon Ichaso's biopic of Puerto Rican street poet Miguel Pinero, maybe best known for his play about prison life, “Short Eyes". The film itself was described this way in a New York Times review: “The movie, a flashy montage, which jumps around in time and alternates between color and black & white, lacks narrative cohesion. But its agitated style mirrors Pinero's streetwise pre-rap poetry...
Given all of the above, it is no surprise that the soundtrack is highly episodic, consisting of 27 tracks, the majority lasting under two minutes. In typical soundtrack fashion, most titles are prosaic descriptions of scenes from the movie, such as Miguel Leaves Puerto Rico or ”Mother's Prison Visit. Despite the rapid changes of scene, the album achieves an impressive coherence, especially given that Hanrahan put together the album by combining newly recorded material with tracks from past albums he produced.
The predominant sound is a low-key, noir-ish Latin jazz fusion, dominated by electric bass, percussion and trumpet, which creates an oppressive sense of imminent danger. The film stars Benjamin Bratt, who voices some atmospheric scene-setting sections of the album; these are used sparingly enough so as not to intrude, but to enhance the air of sleaze and menace. In a large ensemble cast of musicians, key performances come from pianist Edsel Gomez, bass guitarist Fernandez Saunders and particularly trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez.
John Eyles allaboutjazz

1. Miguel Leaves Puerto Rico

2. Exterior New York - Night

3. Shahrazade and the Opening of the First Shadow Night

4. Parole Hearing

5. Three Card Monte

6. Stealing The Furs Boogaloo

7. Childhood Damage

8. Look, the moon.. - Sugar's Theme

9. Estate of Mind

10. Needle State Building

11. The Opening of the NuYorican Poet's Cafe

12. Mother's Prison Visit...

13. Short Eyes Prison Rehearsal Boogaloo

14. Diente de Oro

15. Aguaybana Zemi

16. Junkie Christ "Kill, Kill, Kill"

17. Father? Well He Fucked My Mother, and Made Me...

18. His Mother's Funeral

19. La Perla

20. Today Just isn't My Day / Dominican Heist/ The End of a Lifetime Friendship

21. Can't Fly on One Wing...

22. Ladies and Gentlemen, Please Welcome Miguel Pinero...

23. Leaving the Reception Look, the moon

24. Shahrazade and the Opening of the First Shadow Night

25. Last Call

26. Mikey Falls / Obatala

27. Funeral Poem Celebration / Scattering the Ashes

KIP HANRAHAN, BENJAMIN BRATT, JERRY GONZALEZ, ANDY GONZALEZ, CHOCOLATE ARMANTEROS, PETER SCHERER, ROBBY AMEEN, PUNTILLA ORLANDO RIOS, MILTON CARDONA, RICHIE FLORES, MARIO RIVERA, EDSEL GOMEZ, LYSANDRO ARIAS, FERNANDO SAUNDERS, YOMO TORO, ALFREDO TRIFF, PAPO VASQUEZ, MAURICIO SMITH, ABRAHAM RODRIGUEZ, FELIX SANABRIA, BRIAN LYNCH, CARLOS ALBERTO GONZALEZ

Recorded in New York, February 2001 through June 2001

Produced by Kip Hanrahan

Label: American Clavé – AMCL 1056
Format: 320
Country: Japan
Released: 2002
Genre: Jazz, Latin
Style: Latin Jazz

MegaUpload

2012-01-26T09:59:00.000Z

There's another gigantic wrinkle in the MegaUpload drama. Not only is MegaUpload fighting tooth-and-nail against Universal Music Group, but they're now planning the launch of a cloud-based music locker, download store, and do-it-yourself artist service. It's called MegaBox, and it's already up in beta with listed partners 7digital, Gracenote, Rovi, and Amazon MP3.

Actually, this is technically a relaunch of an earlier concept, and a perfect re-stab at major label opponents. "UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings," MegaUpload founder Kim 'Dotcom' Schmitz told Torrentfreak this week.
In other words, another entry into the very crowded DIY space. But there's a lot more to this story. Instead of charging artists, Schmitz wants to pay artists - even for free downloads. "We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free," Dotcom outlined. "Yes that's right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works."
And there could be more mega-artist deals ahead, of the will.i.am variety. "You can expect several Megabox announcements next year including exclusive deals with artists who are eager to depart from outdated business models."
The rest looks like a combination platter of cloud-based music storage, download sales, and discovery, though the elements may still be coming together. In a test-drive this morning, we also found lots of major label content, but only managed to stream 30-second clips (we'll leave that discussion to the various armies of lawyers...)

MegaUpload has the capital to do this, but they are also pushing some emotional capital as well. That is, a stark juxtoposition between them and traditional media interests, ie major labels like UMG. "These guys think an iPad is a facial treatment, the internet is the devil, and wired phones are still hip," Schmitz blasted. "They are in denial about the new realities and opportunities. They don't understand that the rip-off days are over. Artists are more educated than ever about how they are getting ripped off and how the big labels only look after themselves."
digitalmusicnews.com

Henry Jacobs • The Wide Weird World Of Henry Jacobs

2012-01-25T12:25:00.000Z

Henry Jacobs is a sound artist and improviser par excellence. His influential recordings as well as collaborative projects resonate with an irreverent sense of humor and a love for musics of the world. From the early 1950s into the 1970s, Jacobs experimented with tape music, staged the early surround sound and visual spectacle Vortex (with artist Jordan Belson), and developed an array of absurd characters that would pop up as crank callers, relaxation coaches, or upside-down smiling instructors. A contemporary of Ken Nordine and Lenny Bruce, Jacobs honed an individual style that was droll and laid-back but winked at you at the same time. On his recordings for Folkways, World Pacific, and Fantasy, as well as on his private label MEA, the world of Jacobs is an audio collage that embraces many cultures and sensibilities. This CD/~~DVD~~ collection pays homage to Jacobs’ creative play, presenting recovered and restored audio as well as rare animated films that will give you a taste of this man’s special talents.  

Wonderful material. This CD animated brain cells that have been dormant for almost 40 years! Unquestionably, I was ripe for Henry Jacobs when I heard him back in 1962, having already become hooked on musique  concrête in the mid-fifties, stretching and recombining sounds with my Revere tape recorder. When George Lucas and I were making THX1138, I wrote a scene that took its inspiration from some of Henry's work, and then we were lucky enough to actually get him to do the improv for the film itself. I'm sure much of what I have been doing in film sound since the mid-sixties has had a Jacobean twist to it.

  Walter Murch  Oscar-Winning Film and Sound Editor

1. Hello
2. Cigarette Yoga (Featuring Ken Nordine)
3. Dead Air
4. Dean Marlon Group Demonstration
5. Inbetween A
6. Inbetween A
7. Vortex (Featuring David Talcott)
8. Wilder Service
9. Guitar Lesson
10. Lowdown On The New Line
11. For The Residents Of Texas
12. Alleluia
13. Love You
14. Audio Collage
15. Reflexive Sound Threapy
16. Time Compression Tests
17. Telephone Threrapy
18. Squares
19. ID
20. Sounds For Radio
21. Interlude
22. Interlude
23. Monotone
24. Made In California
25. For The Sick
26. Offbeat
27. Every Drop
28. Scarekicks (Featuring Woody Leafer)
29. His Story Of Jazz
30. Non-Ethnic Humor
31 Inbetween B
32 Beatniks, Bohemians, And Business Failures
33. Fluidoodle
34. Robin Birds
35. Hula Lesson
36. False Start
37. Love Burrow
38. Emergency Use Only
39. Drumhead Jones

Restored, Sequenced, Mastered By Jack Dangers
Producer by Alex Artaud, Henry Jacobs, Jack Dangers

Purchase

Label: Important Records – imprec054
Format: 3 20
Country: US
Released: 2005
Genre: Electronic, Non-Music
Style: Radioplay, Comedy, Experimental, Musique Concrète

•• • ••• • • •• •• •••• • •• • 8•

2012-01-24T09:27:00.000Z

All sharing functionality on Filesonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.

OHM • The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music

2012-01-20T12:20:00.000Z

OHM INTRODUCTION

by Jason Gross
(April 2000)

"We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmony which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have; with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their originalare entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which, set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly; we have also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times, and, as it were,tossing it; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice, differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have all means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances."

Sir Francis Bacon, THE NEW ATLANTIS (1624)

It's a story that keeps rearing its head throughout history. Around the end of the last millennium, groups of marauders were at first the most troublesome people in Europe but would later settle and assimilate and became an important part of the development of civilization. Is it such a stretch to think of some of the boldest composers of this century in the same light? And just as any new technology is ridiculed, so are innovators in art. Time is a great equalizer that reveals charlatans for who they are and the true revolutionaries and visionaries as harbingers of our present and future. Electronic music began in this century as a strange curio and developed into an inseparable part of the musical landscape, spanning many styles and boundaries and making itself felt outside the arts.
Of course, even the most radical movements always find some kind of basis in the time when they develop. It's no coincidence that it was the industrial age when electronic music was spawned and grew. While machines were seen for a long time as soulless enemies threatening our well-being, not even the most hardened luddite would deny that they are an integral part of our lives today.
It was also a change in philosophy that helped usher in an acceptance of electronic music. Nietsche and post-modern critique allowed for previously undreamed of vistas of imagination concerning the world around us. Suddenly, everything was subjective. Alfred Jarry, Jackson Pollock, the Dadaists, Arnold Schoenberg and Little Richard dismantled and reassembled their art and flung the doors open for anyone else bold and crazy enough to take up the mantle. Possibilities were ripe and ready to be exploited. Music was no longer a singularly organized collection of audio signals. Seemingly chaotic, random bursts of sound were not necessarily 'noise.' The stunning and disturbing would become the norm.

If we want to think about this (r)evolution in music, we can start at the beginning but where exactly is it? Music is like matter- it cannot be created or destroyed. In other words, everything comes from somewhere and it does not die out or disappear, it evolves. What we hear today came into being thanks to what preceded it. Even if some snobs may turn their nose up at the notion that electronica is the classical music of today, there is at least some basis in this idea as you imagine its origin.
A way to see this connection is the most obvious one- the collaborations between composers and electronica artists. Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Holger Czukay, Jon Hassell, Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis have all worked in this vibrant new music in one way or another.
Even if none of these partnerships or mutual admiration societies existed, the best proof of all is in the music itself. Strip away the rhythmic flutter and you have many of the same elements: extended, meditative, electronic examinations of notes and tones. If this is marketed today as pop music, that's just another sign that the crusty, obsolete walls that separate musical styles are coming down again.
As they say, you really don't know where you are now unless you know you've been. With this is mind, Ellipsis proud to present this extraordinary collection which features some of the most influential composers of this century, who in turn have been the spawning ground of electronica as we know it (which itself will be the fertile spring from which many other musics will be born).

CD : 01

1 Clara Rockmore • Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentale 1977
2 Olivier Messiaen • Oraison 1937
3 Pierre Schaeffer • Etude Aux Chemins De Fer 1948
4 John Cage • Williams Mix 1952
5 Herbert Eimert • Klangstudie II 1952
6 Otto Luening • Low Speed
7 Hugh Le Caine • Dripsody
8 Louis and Bebe Barron • Main Title From Forbidden Planet
9 Oskar Sala • Concertando Rubato From Electronische Tanzsuite
10 Edgard Varèse • Poeme Electronique
11 Richard Maxfield • Sine Music (A Swarm Of Butterflies Encountered Over The Ocean)
12 Tod Dockstader • Apocalypse • Part 2
13 Karlheinz Stockhausen • Kontakte
14 Vladimir Ussachevsky • Wireless Fantasy
15 Milton Babbitt • Philomel
16 Musica Elettronica Viva • Spacecraft

CD : 02
1 Raymond Scott • Cindy Electronium
2 Steve Reich • Pendulum Music
3 Pauline Oliveros • Bye Bye Butterfly
4 Joji Yuasa • Projection Esemplastic For White Noise
5 Morton Subotnick • Silver Apples Of The Moon, Part 1
6 David Tudor • Rainforest Version 1
7 Terry Riley • Poppy Nogood
8 Holger Czukay • Boat-Woman-Song
9 Luc Ferrari • Music Promenade
10 François Bayle • Rosace 3 From Vibrations Composées
11 Jean-Claude Risset • Mutations
12 Iannis Xenakis • Hibiki-Hana-Ma
13 La Monte Young • Excerpt "31|69 C. 12:17:22-12:25:33 PM NYC" From: Drift Study "31|69 C. 12:17:33-12:24:33 PM NYC" From: Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals (edit)

CD : 03
1 Charles Dodge • He Destroyed Her Image
2 Paul Lansky • Six Fantasies On A Poem By Thomas Campion: Her Song
3 Laurie Spiegel • Appalachian Grove
4 Bernard Parmegiani • En Phase/Hors Phase
5 David Behrman • On The Other Ocean
6 John Chowning • Stria
7 Maryanne Amacher • Living Sound, Patent Pending Music For Sound-Joined Rooms Series
8 Robert Ashley • Automatic Writing
9 Alvin Curran • Canti Illuminati
10 Alvin Lucier • Music On A Long Thin Wire
11 Klaus Schulze • Melange
12 Jon Hassell • Before And After Charm (La Notte)
13 Brian Eno • Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)

Produced by Thomas Ziegler and Jason Gross

Purchase info

Label: Ellipsis Arts – CD3670
Format: 3 × 3 2 0
Country: US
Released: 2000
Genre: Electronic
Style: Musique Concrète, Experimental

James 'Blood' Ulmer • Revealing

2012-01-18T18:12:00.000Z

Revealing by James Blood Ulmer was the album he issued in Europe in 1977, a full year before his breakout disc Tales From Captain Black with Ornette Coleman in 1978. Not to fear, however, with the slight difference of his guitar tone, all of the harmolodic concepts are in place and most of them are exercised here. With a quartet featuring the late George Adams on tenor, Cecil McBee on bass and Doug Hammond on drums, Blood displays why he is easily the most original jazz guitarist of his generation. It's true that Sonny Sharrock may have been further out, but he wasn't as versatile -- Blood could play even then not only like a guitarist, though unlike any you ever heard before him -- he could also play like a bass player, a saxophonist, and a guitar player. Over the four extended pieces here -- and in particular, "Overtime" -- Blood employs what Coleman's influence made possible: that a guitar whose strings were all tuned to one note (harmolodic E) was capable of playing all the pitches at one time. Therefore, he could solo while playing chords and drones at the same time and leave plenty of room for others in the mix as well. The interplay between Adams and Blood on "Overtime" is astonishing. The melodic line breaks after every round as each man capitalizes on the other's ideas and extends the melody one bar into the frame of the improvisation. Blood had yet to show his hand when it came to his funk leanings (gained just a few years before jamming with George Clinton and Bernie Worrell in Detroit, as well as Black Nasty, and then John Patton), but they aren't far beneath the surface. There's the cut and jump key changes and the percussive down-hand evident on all of his later recordings. Revealing is more than just fascinating listening to hear the development in Blood Ulmer's playing and compositional ideas, it's a solid jazz date with visionary players taking a new turn with the music and seeing how fast they can drive it down the road. While it does not contain the sheer drama of Tales From Captain Black or Are You Glad to Be in America because it's a fairly laid-back date, it does contain all of their musical qualities.
~ Thom Jurek AMG

1. Revealing
2. Raw Groove
3. Overtime
4. Love Nest

James 'Blood' Ulmer • guitar
George Adams • saxophones and bass clarinet
Cecil McBee • bass
Doug Hammond • drums

Recorded 1977 in New York City

Produced James 'Blood' Ulmer

Purchase here

Label: In+Out Records – CD 7007-2
Format: 320
Country: Germany
Released: 1990
Genre: Funk / Soul, Jazz
Style: Jazz-Funk, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Gary Thomas • Overkill

2012-01-13T12:13:00.000Z

(Murder in the worst degree)

Gary Thomas was a regular member of the Miles Davis Group and of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition. He released five CDs with his own groups on JMT. Downbeat called his style "post-bop-techno-hiphop-out-jazz" and a German daily described his music as "a fusion between John Coltrane and the rapper Ice-T". In 1994 Gary Thomas decided to record Overkill, a pure Hip Hop project. It features a Hip Hop-experienced five piece band, Baltimore based rappers like Ransome, Barrikade and Pork-Chop and as very special guests the Italian rap-star Jovanotti and ex-Incognito singer Maysa. Gary Thomas sums up his motivations to do the Overkill - project the following: "For the last few years I wanted to do a Hip Hop record. To be honest, Hip Hop is really my first love as far as music is concerned. I played jazz for a long time - and a lot of other kinds of music - but the music with the rappers is different: it's just so close to home and I'm used to it from where I grew up. It's just one of those things that's close to the heart. I don' t think that a definition of Hip Hop is important, it' s just like when you ask people what's jazz: you get 20 different definitions. Definitions in music are something that record companies need to make money 'cause people are so label-oriented and need categories. For me the bottom line is whether it's good music or not"
birdland.com.au

1. S.O.L. / Guaranteed Flow
2. Have Hope
3. Outta Tha Game
4. Terror of the Streets
5. Barrikade'll Stop Ya
6. Doomsday Booty
7. Fuk Tha Massa
8.The Godfather Waltz / Just A Villain
9. Soulja
10. It's On

Gary Thomas • soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Maysa • vocals
Pork Chop • rap vocals
Jovanotti • rap vocals
Barrikade • rap vocals
Godfaddah • rap vocals
No Name • rap vocals
Mustapha • rap vocals
Lean-Nut • rap vocals
Marvin Sewell • guitar
Ransom • trumpet
George Colligan • piano
John Lamkin • drums

Produced by Concept and Hiroshi Itsuno

Purchase Info

Label: JMT Productions – JMT 514 024-2
Format: 320
Country: Europe
Released: 1995
Genre: Hip Hop, Jazz
Style: Thug Rap

Miso Soup • The Album Sounds

2012-01-11T12:19:00.002Z

One of my best live bands experiences (stylo)

Japanese avant-rock quartet Miso-soup began appearing in the East London area around 1999. Since then they have played over 300 gigs creating an underground phenomenon, attracting the likes of Damo Suzuki (ex-CAN) to play alongside them. Before playing a single gig they locked themselves away for 2 years, crafting and recording improvised noise in a building that used to be a chocolate factory. Between them they have a broad range of influences from free jazz to acid folk, minimal improvised music to hip hop. Their's is a unique sound rather like Can playing Mahavishnu Orchestra. Progressive, diverse and inclusive. To see them live is to journey with them as every song veers like a drunken sailor between structure and improvisation, reflecting their initial motivation for making music; simply to enjoy it.
myspace

1. Public Life
2. 12 Pinballs
3. Maboroshi
4. Pah, Pah, Pah
5. Planet Magic
6. September Step
7. Untitled #28
8. Mura-No-Soncho
9. Academic Monkey
10. *****Waltz

Masaki Hosotani • guitar,piano

Ken Iwasa • trumpet, synth, percussion

Yuhi Nakano • bass guitar, sampler

Keisuke Fujita • bass guitar, sampler

Label:
Format: 320
Country: UK
Released: 1998
Genre: Electronic
Style: jazz rock-fusion, kosmische jam, space music

Organik Mechanix • Organik Mechanix

2011-12-28T11:11:00.001Z

The entire record was recorded in 2 weeks. We recorded everything to adat LIVE. there were no overdubs, its all played live & recorded. (actually, the vocals for the track Iconoclastik was overdubbed at a later session, prior to mixing the album). I should also note that about 70% of the album was mixed in surround sound (it was a trend back then... lol). even though graham & I mixed the album, Graham went with many of my specific directions for the entire mix. the album was released on ION Records (such a dope ass label in the mid-late 90's) BUT, it was originally commissioned by Alan Douglas (Douglas Recordings, Jimi Hendrix, the Last Poets etc...), Alan thought he was hip & in the NOW, but our styles were way too wild for him to even think about how to market the project, so he shelved it for about a year or so, then with the aid of Bill (Laswell), we were slid over to ION & Norm was very open with the project & released it. I also did all the graphics of the CD.

I wrote the lyrics (to Icon O'Clastik) as a homage to the legend known as the RAMMELLZEE, which, when I wrote it, was fully immersed in his theories of disease language, words as weapons, & the downfall of humanity from the incomplete document called the dictionary.
In his passing, I can only say that through his abstract symbolism's, his self-initiated mythologies & his ever so elusive style, mystique & fantastic methods of creating & sharing the story of graffiti writers culture through this 7th dimensional lens with the rest of the world, we all benefit from his legacy of Gothic Futurism.
D.J. Spazecrafte

1. Candyland
2. High Cloud Steppa
3. (Om)
4. Hicloud Re=Prise
5. ....Diffused...Interference
6. Madd Minimal
7. Icon O'Clastik
8. Lullaby Galactus

Graham Haynes • cornet, Tibetan horn, sound effects
Acustyk • synthesizer
D.J. Spazecrafte • flute, clarinet, programming
Sonik Professa • vox (?)

Produced by Graham Haynes and D.J. Spazecrafte

Label: Ion – IN 2006-2
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1999
Genre: Electronic
Style: Future Jazz, Experimental, Ambient

Graham Haynes • Tones For The 21st Century

2011-12-21T11:11:00.002Z

Cornetist/composer Graham Haynes is discreetly becoming one of the most original voices in the last decade of jazz's first century.
Forging energetic, musically challenging, emphatically involving, genre-bashing recordings that seem to ellipse far above the heap of corporate-driven placebos, Haynes' distinctive flair for tuneful melodies, infectious rhythms, and sharply inventive musical concepts has afforded him a handful of stirringly original recordings that will undoubtedly be revealed as some of the best jazz discs of the '90s. Tones For The 21st Century issues Haynes' most personal, florid, and abstract statement. Both ambitious and alarmingly quiet, Tones For The 21st Century is the B-side to his 1996 sonically devastating Transition. Oblique, hallucinogenic, murky, yet surprisingly peaceful and at times utterly beautiful, this latest venture finds Haynes floating through the anti-gravity soundscapes of ambient music. Sparsely complemented by wordists Tracie Morris and DJ Spacecraft, African harpist Steve Neil and techno programmer Joseph Briggs, Haynes has masterfully crafted six compelling sketches that seduce the listener not with funky basslines, thrustful rhythm, or knotty solos but through the mystical powers of simple legato melodies.
From a cursory listen, there seems to be an over-abundance of mindless keyboard samples and loops and not enough jazz lingo. But the hauntingly beautiful melodies Haynes whispers through the swirling kaleidoscope of soft keyboard washes and lurking chords on "Millennia" are some of his most gorgeous playing on record.
The transportive "Nameless River" also illuminates Haynes' gentler side as his drifts blissfully across the soothing rhythms of African harp and the hypnotic droning of a didgeridu. The spoken words of Tracie Morris on "Out of Phaze/Spirit World" and DJ Spacecraft on "Millennia" may prove to be self-indulgent and distracting to jazz snobs and cynics. But simply stated, Haynes' offering of Tones For The 21st Century has provided the ambient music's In A Silent Way in the most carefree way.
By John Murph

1. Millennia
2. Nameless River
3. Out Of Phaze / Spirit World
4. Sadguru
5. Simplicity
6. Solo

Graham Haynes • Cornet, Flugelhorn, Keyboards, Tibetan Trumpet
Steve Neil • African Harp (2)
DJ Spazecraft • Spoken Word (1) Didgeridoo (2)
Tracie Morris • Spoken Word (3)

Engineer, Programmed and Mixed by Joseph Briggs
Produced by Graham Haynes

Label: Antilles – 314 537 692-2
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1997
Genre: Electronic, Jazz
Style: Abstract, Future Jazz, Ambient

Gary Thomas, Christy Doran, Mark Helias, Bobby Previte • Corporate Art

2011-12-14T14:14:00.000Z

This quartet date by guitarist Christy Doran, bassist Mark Helias, drummer Bobby Previte, and saxophonist Gary Thomas may have been recorded in Europe by Stefan Winter, but its feel is utterly New York. Doran's playing is far more on the jazz-rock than avant tip here, giving the entire proceeding a feeling of that beautiful, edgy walk between composition and improvisation. Thomas -- normally an outside player -- reins himself in as a soloist in order to focus on the sometimes wondrous ensemble playing at the heart of the disc. Each member of the band writes on this set and it's obvious that the groove comes from within. It's knotty, sometimes intense, and often complex, such as on the opener "Blood Sugar," and on Doran's "Heitere Gelassenheit," where staggered arpeggios intersect with scalar riffs to form a kind of contrapuntal melody line. But there are wonderfully elegiac and gently swinging tunes as well, such as the flute-driven swing in Thomas' "Chiaroscuro" or the languid tempos of Helias' "21" and "Bass Minotaur." Helias also offers a jazz-funk workout with "Skin," with furious basslines driving riffed-up guitars and a bleating saxophone that stays in the pocket. The album closes with Previte's beautiful nocturne "Theme for W.," where Thomas and Doran weave around one another slowly and purposefully to erect a floating melody that seems to float and hover while actually moving toward a complex harmonic architecture with a controlled dynamic.
AMG

1. Blood Sugar 360 Degrees
(Bobby Previte)

2. 21
(Mark Helias)

3. Mutations
(Christy Doran)

4. Skin
(Mark Helias)

5. Chiaroscuro
(Gary Thomas)

6. Heit Ere Gel As Sen Heit
(Christy Doran)

7. Bass Minotaur
(Mark Helias)

8. The Same But Different
(Christy Doran)

9. Theme For W.
(Bobby Previte)

Gary Thomas • Tenor Saxophone, Flute

Christy Doran • Electric Guitar
Electric Bass • Mark Helias
Bobby Previte • Drums

Engineered by Adrian Von Ripka
Produced by Stefan F. Winter

Label: JMT Productions – 849 155-2
Format: 320
Country: Germany
Released: 1991
Genre: Jazz
Style: Contemporary Jazz

Paul Schütze • New Maps Of Hell

2011-12-09T11:11:00.002Z

Thematically and psychologically similar to The Annihilating Angel (even to the apocalyptic religious imagery of the titles), this CD occasionally looks ahead to Schütze's later work as leader of Phantom City. The title of the CD's longest track is in fact "Topology of a Phantom City," and on this piece, there are strong echoes of the wild electric funk of Miles Davis circa 1975, with strong, groove-oriented percussion supporting the broad smears of De Haan's trombone, and Schütze doing some remarkably strange things with his keyboards, producing unearthly (hellish?) and tormented electronic squeals, howls and groans over the heavy, sinister percussion. Several subsequent tracks have a rhythmic foundation, but most are languid and dreamlike, with a dissonant, uneasy quality, often tinged with melancholy, that pushes them toward the realm of nightmare. The music is hauntingly beautiful but without resolution; it projects a feeling of claustrophobia and entrapment, as if there is no escape from the reality which it represents. The final track, "A Soul Reports," simply drifts off into a nothingness of murmurs, whispers, cavernous echoes, muted gongs and icy drones. Schütze enhances the disquieting atmosphere with an impressive background collection of skillfully integrated sound samples -- guttural and/or demented voices, sounds of thunder or earthquake rumbling, dripping water and jets of steam. Call it what you will -- ambient, industrial, gothic funk (it is all of these and more) -- New Maps of Hell is music of great subtlety and power. by William Tilland AMG

1. The Eraser 

2. Topology Of A Phantom City 

3. The Velvet Horizon 

4. Eating The First Map 

5. Sacred Agents

6. Doubts About Waking 

7. The Mutant Beautific 

8. All That Was Solid*

Paul Schütze • Keyboards & Percussion
Simone De Haan • Trombone

 Mark Stafford • Guitars 

Bill McDonald • Bass
Peter Jones • Drums

 François tétaz • Percussion

 Peter Neville • Percussion   

Liner Notes Biba Kopf

Composed and Produced by Paul Schütze

*Originally released by Extreme, 1992.  
Replaces track "A Soul Reports" with "All That Was Solid".

Label: Big Cat UK Records – ABB 104 CD
Format: 320
Country: UK
Released: 1992/96
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Experimental

Gary Thomas • Kold Kage

2011-12-08T11:11:00.001Z

The struggle is apparent on saxophonist and composer Gary Thomas' 1991 album, The Kold Cage, reissued in 2004 as part of label auteur Stefan Winter's remastering of his JMT label titles. Thomas is a consummate tenor man and flutist. His frustration with what had become standard jazz discourse in light of the new, influential (very narrow-minded) traditionalism ushered in a decade earlier by Wynton Marsalis and cultural conservative Stanley Crouch is obvious here. Thomas employs everything from turntables to electric guitars, synthesizers, and even rap to combat the stasis, while remaining a jazz player. From his knotty forceful compositions "Threshold" and "Gate of Faces," which open the album, Thomas engages extrapolated notions of jazz harmonics and contrapuntal considerations while relying heavily on electronic keyboard textures, and electric guitars (courtesy of Kevin Eubanks and Paul Bollenback) to stretch the margin of that engagement. But on "Intellect," the tension cracks and splinters. Here Thomas' flute and saxophone are shored up by pianist Mulgrew Miller's funky modal statements while rapper Joe Wesson pops along the synth basslines and indicts everything around him in old-school Sugarhill style -- likewise on "Infernal Machine," where Michael Caine's synths paint an off-kilter basis for baseline rhythms to underscore and jump off of. Wesson's tough street rap about faltering neighborhoods, dope, and the strength of the "black mind" introduces a chillingly futuristic series of overdubbed horn lines in the gaps. And on it goes for the rest of the hour, feinting and darting before active confrontation with the myth and magic of jazz in an attempt to make it speak outside of its historical truth and into the current cultural one. It's an exhausting but compelling and rewarding listen. It messes with those classicists in a big way by sitting on their shoes while, at the same time, pulling the tradition into the current vernacular for its validation and assertion as popular music. Far from academic, this is fire-breathing music, one that forces not only confrontation but, from any open-minded music listener, a reexamination of the jazz terrain as a once, present, and future music. ~ Thom Jurek.

1. Threshold
2. Gate Of Faces
3. Intellect
4. Infernal Machine
5. The Divide
6. Peace Of The Korridor
7. First Strike
8. Beyond The Fall Of Night
9. The Kold Kage
10. Kulture Bandits (To Be Continued)

Gary "GTX" Thomas • tenor saxophone, flute, synthesizers, and rap vocals (7,9,10)
Joe "BMW" Wesson • rap vocals (3,4,7)
Kevin Eubanks • guitar (1,3,6)
Paul Bollenback • guitar, guitar synthesizers (2,5)
Mulgrew Miller • piano (2,7)
Tim Murphy • piano, synthesizers (3,4,5,9)
Anthony Perkins • synthesizers (8,10)
Michael Caine • piano, synthesizers (1,6)
Anthony Cox • acoustic bass
Dennis Chambers • drums
Steve Moss • percussion

Produced Stefen F. Winter

Label: 1991 JMT/Polygram 849 151-2
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1991
Genre: Jazz
Style: Jazz Fusion

Paul Schütze • New Maps of Hell II: The Rapture of Metals

2011-12-03T11:11:00.001Z

The title of this CD might erroneously suggest something heavy, abrasive and industrial, but The Rapture of Metals is in part an elegant homage to the metallic gongs of the Indonesian gamelan orchestra. The title track is the most overtly Indonesian, with electronic drones and effects enhancing a traditional gamelan gong pattern. But on several other tracks, Schütze further personalizes his use of gongs, capturing the dreamy, otherworldly quality of Indonesian court music not just by "Westernizing" Indonesian motifs but by blending gamelan sounds and scales with his own rather haunting musical vision. Elsewhere on the CD, Schütze utilizes keyboard synthesizers and sophisticated electronic processing to create thick, ambivalent atmospheres which explore the boundaries between madness and ecstasy. "The Rapture of Drowning" has a viscous, aquatic texture and bursts of nightmarish discord, but nonetheless suggests a transcendent experience of some sort. And the final 20-minute piece, "Sites of Rapture on the Lungs of God," is a series of elongated musical inhalations and exhalations, comprised of cathedral organ chords, sonorous drones, intriguing dissonances and various strange electronic treatments which add another level of dislocation to the music.
by William Tilland AMG

1. The Rapture Of Concealment
2. Rapture Of The Drowning
3. The Rapture Of Ornament
4. The Rapture Of Metals
5. Rapture Of The Skin
6. Sites Of Rapture On The Lungs Of God

written, performed and produced by Paul Schütze

Label: Big Cat UK Records – ABB 105 CD
Format: 320
Country: UK
Released: 1993/1996
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental, Ambient

Conjure • Cab Calloway Stands in for the Moon

2011-12-01T11:11:00.004Z

The second release from the rotating ensemble under Kip Hanrahan's direction, Conjure once again unites author Ishmael Reed's trenchant and sometimes hallucinatory words with a wide range of musical styles. Among the large and varied cast one finds musicians as diverse as erstwhile soul stylist Bobby Womack, Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli, and avant trumpeter Olu Dara. As on the first album, the song structures are essentially blues- and pop-based, ably supported by both a contingent of extraordinary Latin percussionists and the gorgeous electric bass work of Steve Swallow. On the whole, the compositions aren't quite as striking this time out, but there are a couple that really stand out: Allen Toussaint's "Running for the Office of Love" with a ravishing vocal by Clare Bathe is easily imaginable as a fine pop hit, and Carmen Moore's "Bitter Chocklate" is indeed both bitter and beautiful. If this release doesn't quite possess the crackle of its predecessor, it remains a funky and enjoyable session, well worth hearing by fans of almost any genre.
by Brian Olewnick AMG

1. The Author Reflects On His 35th Birthday
(Reed, Swallow)

2. Loup Garou Means Change Into
(Harris, Reed)

3. 'Sputin
(Toussaint, Reed, Hanrahan, Nocentelli)

4. Nobody Was There
(Reed, Dara)

5. Medley: General Science / Ish / Papa La Bas
(Reed, Hanrahan)

6. Running For The Office Of Love (Prelude)
(Toussaint, Reed)

7. My Brothers
(Pullen, Reed)

8. Running For The Office Of Love
(Toussaint, Reed)

9. Petit Kid Everett
(Saunders, Reed, Hanrahan)

10. St. Louis Women (Excerpts)
( Reed)

11. Bitter Chocklate
(Moore, Reed)

12. Beware: Don't Listen To This Song
(Murray, Reed)

13. Minnie The Moocher
(Calloway, Mills)

Vocals

Bobby Womack, Clare Bathé, Diahnne Abbott, Grayson Hugh, Ishmael Reed, Robert Jason, Shaunice Harris, Tennessee Reed

Elysee Pyronneau • Electric Guitar

Leo Nocentelli • Electric Guitar
Johnny Watkins • Electric Guitar
Don Pullen • Organ, Vocals
Allen Toussaint • Piano
Olu Dara • Trumpet, Vocals, Harmonica
Hamiet Bluiett • Baritone Saxophone
Lenny Pickett • Tenor Saxophone
David Murray • Tenor Saxophone, Vocals
Eddie Harris • Tenor Saxophone, Vocals
Steve Swallow • Electric Bass
Fernando Saunders • Vocals, Electric Bass
Frisner Augustin • Congas
Manenquito Giovanni Hidalgo • Congas
Milton Cardona • Congas
Ignacio Berroa • Trap Drums
Robbie Ameen • Trap Drums
Carla Blank • Vocal Coach
Carman Moore • Conductor

Produced by Kip Hanrahan

Label: American Clavé – AMCL 1015
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1988
Genre: Funk / Soul, Jazz
Style: Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Funk

Paul Schütze + Phantom City • Site Anubis

2011-11-26T17:17:00.004Z

This is the third CD in a Schütze trilogy which began with 1992's New Maps of Hell and continued with The Rapture of Metals; this final chapter is a certified masterpiece. Schütze, who plays keyboards and also supplies various inventive electronic treatments (tapes, digital sampling, etc.) has something of a signature sound, but he seldom repeats himself to the extent that you think you're hearing the same ol' thing. In the two earlier CDs in the trilogy, echoes of the Miles Davis electric funk emerged from time to time as an influence, along with touches of Jon Hassell and vintage Weather Report. But on this CD, connections with the electric Davis of the 1970s are much more blatant. There's no trumpet, but Julian Priester's trombone supplies an occasional approximation, and the formidable guest list also includes Bill Laswell on bass, Lol Coxhill on soprano sax, Alex Buess on bass clarinet and Raoul Bjorkenheim on noisemetal guitars. And then there's the drumming. Dirk Wachtelaer's dominant cymbal and snare work is either very closely miked, or treated (or both), but regardless, it is frequently brutal-slamming, crashing, in-your-face confrontational. Throw in some serious guitar shredding by Bjorkenheim (Finnish guitarists seem to have a talent for this sort of thing), and inspired electronic moans and howls supplied by Schütze, and you've got music that can grab you by the lapels and toss you into next week, and then turn around and drop almost instantly to an insidious, nightmarish whisper. It almost seemed as if it would never happen, but Schütze's music on this CD finally picks up where Davis left off in the mid-'70s. And while Davis and his edgy jazz funk still sounds good twenty years on, Schütze sounds even better. A major rush, and a major recording. by William Tilland

1. Future Nights
2. An Early Mutation
3. Blue Like Petrol
4. The Big God Blows In
5. Ten Acre Ghost
6. Eight Legs Out Of Limbo
7. Inflammable Shadow

Paul Schütze • keyboards, tapes, samplers
Raoul Björkenheim • guitars (1,2,3,4,5,6)
Julian Priester • trombone (4,6)
Bill Laswell • bass (1,2,3,5,6)
Lol Coxhill • soprano sax (6,7)
Alex Buess • bass clarinet (2,3,5)
Dirk Wachtelaer • drums (1,2,3,4,5,6)

Notes:
Recorded at the Surgery, London and at Wolf 2.8.1 Studio, Basel.  Guitar recorded at the Jazz Department Sibelius Akatemia, Helsinki.  Clarinet recorded at Wolf 2.8.1 Studio, Basel.  Saxophone on track 6 recorded at the Centre Of Sound, London.  Saxophone on track 7 recorded at F.U.K. Sound, London.  Bass recorded at Green Point Studio, Brooklyn.  Trombone recorded at Sound Sound, Seattle.  Drums recorded at Phantom, Brussels.

Produced by Paul Schütze

Label: Big Cat UK Records – ABB 106 CD
Format: 320
Country: UK
Released: 1996
Genre: Electronic, Jazz
Style: Future Jazz, Experimental

Ginger Baker • No Material

2011-11-23T11:11:00.002Z

Ginger Baker • No Material (ITM 1435; Germany) Featuring the monster lineup Sonny Sharrock & Nicky Skopelitis on guitars, Peter Brotzmann on saxes, Jan Kazda on electric bass and Ginger Baker on drums. This all-star quintet existed for only one week in 1987, just three gigs only, with this set recorded on March 28th in Switzerland. Their name came from the fact that they had no material, just pure improv. This is not totally free though, as Ginger, aided perfectly by another strong spirit, el. bassist Jan Kazda from the German band Das Pferd, provides a focused anchor via his trademark whirlwind drumming. Nicky Skopelitis does a wonderful job on el. 12 string rhythm guitar by also providing some essential glue to hold it together as Sharrock and Brotzmann take spectacular spectacular solos here and there throughout. As the illuminating liner notes by Steve Lake point out, this music does sound like the Laswell-produced Ginger Baker record 'Horses and Trees' from the same period.
DMG

Ginger Baker • drums
Peter Brötzmann • tenor sax, clarinet, bass sax
Sonny Sharrock • guitar
Nicky Skopelitis • guitar
Jan Kazda • bass

Label: ITM Records – ITM 1435 CD
Format: 320 | Lossless
Country: Germany
Released: 1989
Genre: Jazz
Style: Free Jazz

Graham Haynes • The Griots Footsteps

2011-11-21T11:11:00.000Z

The title of this disc (and the sight of a 26-minute-long track entitled "Enlightenment") might strike a certain chord of dread, especially since often, when American jazz musicians try to imitate African folk musicians, the whole thing ends up sounding like an exercise in hip affectation. But Haynes, a cornetist and son of famous drummer Roy, seems to have anticipated that problem and avoided it by going for flavor rather than authenticity; the result is a wonderful disc that blurs the definition of jazz in an original way. Featuring a standard instrumental ensemble consisting of cornet, saxophone, keyboard, bass and drums as well as such exotica as sitar and tamboura, this record draws the listener in with rich harmonic textures and insistent rhythmic pulses that manage to be hypnotic without being stultifying. "Enlightenment," daunting in length though it is (and even though it features an uninspired sitar solo by someone who doesn't seem to really know what she's doing), maintains its effectiveness by evoking exotic milieux without identifying them -- not really African, not really Asian, the song's feel is simply like that of some alien world's folk music. "R.H." is a touching tribute to Haynes' father, and the title track is an excellent six-minute piece which unfortunately lasts for more than fourteen. (You can skip over "Psychic Plane"; it may have been included as a joke.) Overall, this disc is an inspiring example of a young, talented mind honoring his musical heritage while expanding its boundaries and contributing to its development. Rick Anderson AMG

1. Gothic
2. R.H. (For Roy Haynes)
3. Enlightenment
4. Flip Stories
5. Psychic Plane
6. The Griots Footsteps

Graham Haynes • Cornet, Keyboards
Steve Williamson • Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone
Cheick Tidiane-Seck • Keyboards
Don-Dieu Divin • Keyboards
Luis Manresa • Keyboards
Laroussi-Ali Djamel • Guitar
Brigitte Menon • Sitar
Lyra Menon • Tambura
Vincent Othieno • Bass
Noel (Paoa Noel) Ekwabi • Bass (4)
Jorge Amorim • Percussion
Daniel Moreno • Percussion
Chief Udoh Essiet • Talking Drum
Brice Wassy • Drums and Vocals (4)

Engineer Philippe Abadie
Mixed By Graham Haynes, Joe Marciano
Produced by Graham Haynes

Label: Antilles – 314 523 262-2
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1994
Genre: Folk, World, Jazz
Style: Fusion

Arto Lindsay • Reentry

2011-11-18T11:11:00.007Z

This EP was released with some copies of Noon Chill, I discovered this when buying a copy for a friend. Obviously I gave them my copy and kept this for myself.
The EP starts off how one would expect if familiar with Arto's take on Bossa Nova then travels to more experimental waters as it proceeds.
The title track was co-written by Vinicius Cantuária and appears on his album Silva.

1. Reentry

2. Ambassador Jr. (Blue Eye Shadow Remix)

3. 3348 (Whirlwind Remix)

4. Size (Why Compare Remix)

5. Channel 17 (Anything Remix)

Label: For Life Records – FLCG 3033

Format: 320 

Country: Japan

Released: 1997

Genre: Latin

Style: Samba, Bossa Nova, Experimental

Gary Thomas • By Any Means Necessary

2011-11-14T11:11:00.005Z

The M-Base concept, which never caught on in a big way but did influence the playing of a dozen or so top jazz improvisers, is heard in its prime on this Gary Thomas release. The tenor saxophonist (doubling on flute) meets up with the fiery altoist Greg Osby, keyboardist Geri Allen, keyboardist Tim Murphy, bassist Anthony Cox, drummer Dennis Chambers, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, and, on some selections, guitarists John Scofield and Mick Goodrick. The music features dense ensembles, simultaneous improvisations, eccentric funk rhythms, and rhythmic but very dissonant horn solos that have a logic of their own. One can think of this noisy date as being an updated extension of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time and is recommended to open-minded listeners who think that nothing new has been played in jazz since the mid-'70s. AMG

1. By Any Means Necessary
2. Continuum
3. You're Under Arrest
4. Potential Hazard
5. To The Vanishing Point
6. Screen Gem
7. Janala
8. At Risk
9. Out Of Harm's Way

Gary Thomas • tenor saxophone, flute, synthesizers
Tim Murphy • piano, synthesizers (except 7)
Anthony Cox • acoustic bass (except 7)
Dennis Chambers • drums (except 7)
Guests:
Greg Osby • alto saxophone, synthesizers (7 & 9)
John Scofield • guitar (1, 3, & 8)
Mick Goodrick • guitar (6 & 8)
Geri Allen • piano, synthesizers (4, 5, & 7)
Nana Vasconcelos • percussion (except 3, 5, & 9)

Produced by Stefan F. Winter

Label: JMT/Polygram 834 432-2
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1989
Genre: Jazz
Style: Jazz Fusion, M-Base

Luther Thomas & Dizzazz • Yo' Momma

2011-11-11T11:11:00.003Z

I didn't know about this album till a few month ago when I downloaded "Nervous Breakdown" posted by yoyo 91 I instanly knew I had to get my hands on this. After a brief fruitless hunt around the blogsphere I found a vinyl copy at a great price.I was surprised that this had not crossed my radar before now. Enjoy

1. Dizzazz (Part 1)
2. Rapp Time
3. Six Month In Reform School
4. Raggetty Reggae
5. Nervous Breakdown
6.. Turned Me On - Turned Me Out
7. Deathwish
8. Yo' Momma
9. Takin' Off Blues

Luther Thomas • Lead voice & saxophones
Billy "Spaceman" Patterson • Lead guitar & Background vocals
Dani Petroni • Rhythm guitar & Background vocals
Ronald Muldrow • Rhythm guitar
Frank Cruz • Trumpet
John K. Mulkerin • Trumpet
Marvin Neal • Trombone
Stanley Banks • Electric Bass
Warren "Dengel" Benbow • Drums
Steve Kroon • Percussion

THE DIZZAZZTERS • Background vocals
Rickie Arlita Byars
Clarice Taylor
Flame Braithwaite

THE CLAPS • Handclaps
Carol Edwards
Clement Can
L. C. Petty
Axel Markens

Produced by Burkhard Hennen | Luther Thomas | Axel Markens

Label: Moers Music
Catalog#: momu 01088
Format: 320 / Flac 1&2 Vinyl Rip
Country: Germany
Released: 1981
Genre: Jazz
Style: Free Funk, No Wave

Gary Thomas & Seventh Quadrant • Code Violations

2011-11-07T20:20:00.003Z

Gary Thomas remembers the last time he played with Miles Davis's band, in August of '87: "Miles asked me if I'd consider playing some funk licks, and I told him no, that's not the way I play.'* The conservation was amicable, but Thomas was insistent.
So why does a guy who'd walk away from a high-profile sideman gig with Miles make a record with two synthesizer players, and guest shots by the funky Dennis Chambers?
"You won't hear any funk licks on this record," Gary Thomas says. "I like the way some funk stuff sounds, and when I played with Miles I developed some appreciation for synthesizers. But I'm not into blowing pentatonic scales and big loud blues-scale things over funk grooves.
I just want to play what I play —you shouldn't be limited to a few notes or ideas.
"This isn't a groove record. We take a standard jazz
approach: everyone in the rhythm section is free to do what he wants when it comes to the solos. The shifting beats they play don't happen in a funk groove. That's one reason I like playing so much with Anthony Cox, who's my favorite bass player. All the rhythmic and harmonic variations he plays make this music so much different."
Kevin Whitehead Album liner notes excerpt.

1. Maxthink
2. Traf
3. Zylog
4. The Dawning Crescent
5. Code Violations
6. Pads
7. Absolute Images
8. Sybase
9. Adax
10. Trapezoid
11. Odysseus

Gary Thomas • flute, tenor saxophone
Paul bollenback • guitar, synth
Tim Murphy • piano, keyboards
Anthony Cox • bass
Geoff Harper • bass
Steve Williams • drums
Dennis Chambers • drums

Produced by Matthias Winckelmann

Label: Enja - R2 79604
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1988

Genre: Jazz
Style: Jazz 

Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition • Irresistible Forces

2011-11-02T21:05:00.000Z

Jack DeJohnette's first Special Edition recording in five years finds him using completely different personnel than earlier. Greg Osby (on alto and soprano) and Gary Thomas (doubling on tenor and flute) bring M-Base influences to the band (their improvisations have a fresh new logic) while guitarist Mick Goodrick, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and the leader-drummer (who doubles on keyboards) all make strong contributions. Other than Osby's "Osthetics," the repertoire is comprised of DeJohnette's originals and the somewhat unique music gives all of the musicians opportunities to express themselves and inspire each other. AMG

1. Introduction

2. Irresistible Forces

3. Preludio Pra Nana

4. Herbie's Hand Cocked

5. Osthetics

6. 47th Groove

7. Silver Hollow

8. Interlude/Ponta De Areia

9. Milton

10. 3rd World Anthem

11. Conclusion

Jack DeJohnette • drums, piano, drum machine, electronic keyboards

Gary Thomas • tenor saxophone, flute,

Greg Osby • alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

Lonnie Plaxico • electric bass, acoustic bass

Mick Goodrick • electric guitar

Naná Vasconcelos • percussion, vocals

Produced by Jack DeJohnette

Label: MCA Records/Impulse! – MCA 5992
Format: 320 1/2
Country: US
Released: 1987
Genre: Jazz
Style: Contemporary Jazz

Alias Zone • Lucid Dreams

2011-10-27T13:13:00.001+01:00

the Process:

All the tracks started with a search through an

extensive collection of sampling CDs, looking
for moods and textures I was interested in exploring.

Rhythm loops were loaded into a sampling drum machine;
support ambiances, textures, and voices were also collected.

These were played back during live performances of

Richard Bugg's group Cosmic Debris, often processed
and cross-modulated with each other through

The Mojo Rack; a collection of echoes, reverbs,
vocoders, filter banks, ring modulators, and

other signal processing devices.

The very talented artists in the Debris would then

improvise on top of these rhythms and textures,

adding muscle and flesh to the skeleton.

These performances were captured on a digital

multitrack tape recorder. Favorites were later

transferred into a computer, where they were edited,

rearranged, overdubbed, and further processed

to end up with the songs you hear on this CD.

This process allows collaborations and combinations

of musicians and sounds never before possible

hope you enjoy the dreams that we created.

Chris Meyer/Alias Zone

January, 2001

1. Phungue
2. I Have Stopped Dreaming
3. Sunday 2AM (Driving)
4. Towards The Dawn
5. Dervish
6. Nayeem
7. Without A Prayer
8. Dust
9. The River

Blake Arnold • Voice
Chris Meyer • Loop control, Ambience, Percussion, White Noise etc.
Richard Bugg • Hyperacoustic Flute, Synth Bass Drone, Synth, Voice
Keith Snyder • Keybords
Lucky Westfall • Bass, Fretless Bass
Richard Zvonar • Darbuka, Sampler, Electronics, Electric Guitar

Produced by Richard Bugg (Live), Chris Meyer (Studio)

Label: CyberMotion
Catalog#: CYBER-01-01A
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 2001
Genre: Electronic
Style: Dub, Tribal, Ambient

Arto Lindsay • Noon Chill

2011-10-12T11:11:00.003+01:00

This disc proves the adage that you shouldn't judge a book (or CD) by its cover: beneath a blurry and daunting photo of Lindsay as a soggy frogman, the more adventurous buyer will discover hypnotic rhythms and enigmatic lyrics. While Lindsay's voice is thin (and sometimes flat), his narcotic delivery is nicely suited to the pictures he paints. Check out the Brazilian flavors of "Simply Are" or the trance groove of "Ridiculously Deep," and you'll hear why this cult favorite has won the admiration (and guest appearances) of musicians like Nana Vanconcelos, Mitchell Froom, Peter Scherer and others. So put the cover away and let your ears be the judge. AMG

Arto Lindsay • vocals, guitar
Melvin Gibbs • bass, surdo, B-3, acoustic guitars,

programming, horn arrangements
Andres Levin • programming, acoutsic guitars,

B-3, keys, horn arrangements
Davi Moraes • acoutsic guitars, surdo
Peter Scherer • sampler and piano
Nana Vasconcelos • repique, pandeiro, conga,

shakers, Turkish drum,

surdo, stand up kit, cymbals, sticks
Ravi Best • cornet, trumpet
Vinicius Cantuária • acoustic guitars (6,13)
Vincent Chancey • french horn

Gustavo de Dalva • atabaque, agogo and shakers (10)
Sussan Deyhim • vocals (6,11)
John Dryden • horn arrangements
Marty Ehrlich • bass clarinet
Mitchell Froom • claviola (5)
Josh Roseman • trombone
Ryuichi Sakamoto • prepared piano, keys, piano
Fernanda Torres • voice (10)

Produced by Andre Levin, Arto Lindsay, Melvin Gibbs

Label: Bar/None Records – AHAON-102         
           
Format: 320                              
          
Country: Europe         
          
Released: 1997                              
          
Genre: Electronic, Latin, Pop, Rock         
          
Style: Leftfield, Art Rock, Bossa Nova

Arto Lindsay • Red Bull Music Academy

2011-10-08T09:26:00.004+01:00

Forget classical training, Arto Lindsay has been involved in a wide and wonderful world of music for the last 30 years. After his work on Caetano Veloso's 1989 album Estrangeiro, he even became an in-demand producer in Brazil, constructing sonic scapes for Gal Costa, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte amongst others. In his session at the Rome Academy he takes us through his formative years growing up in Brazil, his involvement in the New York no wave scene of the late '70s / early '80s, and how girls went crazy for a bunch of guys in suits called The Lounge Lizards. ~ Red Bull Music Academy

Dave Holland Quartet • Extentions

2011-09-30T15:00:00.000+01:00

Dave Holland's most notable work with a guitarist in the past was with John Abercrombie, and their collective trio Gateway with drummer Jack DeJohnette. For this set his quartet includes guitarist Kevin Eubanks, along with longtime musical cohorts Steve Coleman on alto saxophone and Marvin "Smitty" Smith on drums. The album opens and closes with compositions by Eubanks.

"Nemesis" is a fairly straightforward post-bop structure that lets everyone strut their wares in fine form. "Color of Mind" is unapologetically funky, and provides a perfect rhythmic bed for Coleman to sail over with glee. Holland's two pieces, "Processional" and "The Oracle" are both subtle and atmospheric, providing a fine contrast to the greater rhythmic density of the other tunes. Coleman, whose been writing a piece or two on most of Holland's albums he appears on, here offers two of his most contrasting numbers. "Black Hole" adheres to his angular and propulsive standards, while "101 Degrees Fahrenheit (Slow Meltdown)" employs mysterious and cinematic dramatics. Review

1. Nemesis
2. Processional
3. Black Hole
4. The Oracle
5. 101 Degrees Fahrenheit (Slow Meltdown)
6. Color of Mind

Dave Holland • bass
Steve Coleman • alto saxophone
Kevin Eubanks • guitar
Marvin "Smitty" Smith • drums

Recorded at Power Station, New York, New York in September 1989.

Label: ECM Records – ECM 1410
Format: 320
Country: Germany
Released: 1990
Genre: Jazz
Style: Jazz

Tranquility Bass • A Hundred Billion Stars

2011-09-26T11:11:00.024+01:00

As prompted by the saucer people

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://tranquilitybass.bandcamp.com/track/a-hundred-billion-stars"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;A Hundred Billion Stars by Tranquility Bass&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

This is the first Tranquility Bass music to be finished AND THEN released, in eons.

lyrics
If we look at the construction of our galaxy We will see that we have an estimated a hundred billion stars, in our Milky Way Galaxy And if we look at the construction of the Human brain We will see, that it also has, A Hundred Billion Stars...

released 02 April 2011 Written, Produced and Mixed by Michael Kandel Live Drum Kit - Tony Mainiero Additional Tracking Engineering - Andrew Ragin Cover Photo by Michael Kandel - Mangolor, India 2006

Also
I did promise to post Cantamilla some moons back, not an official release, these 2 tracks graced a lot of compilations back in the day.

1. They Came In Peace (1991)
2. Cantamilla (1994)

Harriet Tubman • Treasure Hunt for the Prototype

2011-09-23T11:11:00.003+01:00

A live followup to their phenomenal debut, "I Am a Man," this CD finds the dynamic power trio of Brandon Ross (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass), and J.T. Lewis (drums) playing some more extended compositions. Ross is one of the best kept secrets in the downtown New York jazz scene. A long time collaborator with Henry Threadgill, he has amazing versatility and plays with a unique style that may remind some guitar fans of early Bill Frisell. This band is your only chance to hear this phenomenal guitarist really stretch out.
A Customer ~ Amazon Review

The audiologo blog has more interesting band info and worth a look.

1. Of Passage
2. Slide Rule
3. My New Puppy
4. There Goes The Neighborhood
5. Prototype
6. Adapted
7. Chief Of Police
8. Frozen Fire
9. Wild Seed
10. Where We Stand

Brandon Ross • Guitar
Melvin Gibbs • Bass
J.T. Lewis • Drums

Produced by Harriet Tubman

Label: Avant – Avan 078
Format: 320
Country: Japan
Released: 2000
Genre: Jazz
Style: Fusion, Experimental

Harriet Tubman • I Am A Man (REPOST)

2011-09-20T11:11:00.020+01:00

I didn't include track 12 in my original post, so reposting. If you grabbed this the first time round please click track 12 for the link. Thanks to Maciej for spotting the anomaly.
Stylo

The live follow up album can be found at the excellent Lucky Psychic Hut.
And the new release of the expanded band recorded in 2000 can be found a Sunnyside Records.

Also audiologo blog has more interesting band info and is worthy of a look.

Harriet Tubman is a trio dedicated to a thunderously heavy fusion. Guitarist Brandon Ross keeps melody ever present in this group. You have heard his fretwork in such varied jazz projects as Henry Threadgill, The Lounge Lizards, and Cassandra Wilson while he has invaded pop to work with Jewel and Arrested Development. His contribution to the piece can range from melancholy, reflective, multi-bar solos to churning power chords. Always, it seems the mood-setting, guiding principle for the cut. Bassist Melvin Gibbs had a regular job in Rollins Band, but has also been opposite luminaries in varied projects such as Bill Frisell in Power Tools and Arto Lindsay. Gibbs communicates with the song through a low-ringing bass drone of sustained chords. The other half of this rhythm section is JT Lewis. The original Living Colour drummer also worked with Sting, Lou Reed, Herbie Hancock, Vanessa Williams, Henry Threadgill, Kip Hanrahan and Marianne Faithful. Bringing a busy, jazz percussion supplement to the recipe, Lewis' inclusion in this group keeps a strong jazz presence opposite the largely rock guitars.

1. Savannah
2. Where We Stand
3. Hards Dry
4. Adapted
5. Take Out
6. High Black Skin
7. Asiatic Research
8. Moly
9. Frozen Fire
10. Irridescent Shark-Skin Suit
11. 2 Man Army
12. Re-Adapted

Brandon Ross • Guitar
Melvin Gibbs • Bass
J.T. Lewis • Drums

Produced by Harriet Tubman

Label: Knitting Factory Works – KFR-228
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1998
Genre: Jazz, Rock
Style: Fusion, Experimental

Graham Haynes • BPM

2011-09-16T11:11:00.004+01:00

FRED JUNG: Let's talk about your new release, BPM on the Knitting Factory label. What does bpm stand for?  

GRAHAM HAYNES: Beats per minute.   

FJ: I am curious as to why you are not following suit to what your contemporaries are doing and playing bebop and variations on a theme from Ellington.  

GRAHAM HAYNES: Yeah, well, it depends on who you call my peers. At this point, my peers are not other trumpet players. My peers now, in the world that I live in are DJs and that is the world that I'm in now. The guys that are playing jazz and jazz licks, I don't consider myself a jazz musician. I come from a jazz background, but I don't look at myself as a jazz musician, especially now. I don't think of jazz musicians as my peers. But I know what you are talking about. I do stuff that interests me. It is really funny, Fred, that the stuff that I was doing, I'm not patting myself in the back, but the stuff I was doing in the early Nineties, a lot of jazz musicians are starting to touch on now. My first Verve record, which was Griot's Footsteps, I worked with African musicians and I did a lot of stuff with Indian music and even cross time signatures. I mean, that has been done before by Don Cherry, many guys have done it, but there weren't any younger guys doing it and then I did this record and now it is like ten years later and you see all these guys experimenting with this stuff. It is funny.   

FJ: You have been employing DJs on your albums for some time as well.  

GRAHAM HAYNES: Yeah, again, I wouldn't say I was the first one.

FJ: You were on the leader board.  

GRAHAM HAYNES: (Laughing) As a trumpet player, I think I was definitely one of the first ones. I know Greg Osby was doing stuff with DJs and rappers and stuff, but even the way he did it was maybe a little bit different.

FJ: So you view turntables as an instrument?

GRAHAM HAYNES: Yeah, definitely. Turntables are an instrument. The sampler is an instrument and the turntables are an instrument.

FJ: Traditionalists will want you to justify that statement.  

GRAHAM HAYNES: Because turntablists are being hired as musicians. They are performing their music on something, then it must be an instrument. It must be an instrument just from a practical point. If a club, ten years ago, had a band, today, they are hiring a DJ. So what DJ is making music with has got to be an instrument. DJs are the musicians of today, so it has got to be an instrument. These turntablists have techniques. They are techniques, like scratching and things that have been developed over the years just like I would develop things on the trumpet over a certain amount of years. There is a whole vocabulary for guys who want to spin. I've been spinning a little bit myself and it is not like you pick it up and you know how to do it. It takes time. You have to work on it just like an instrument. It takes hours and hours and hours and hours of developing your chops to be able to do it. It is very much like an instrument. The same as the sampler, to me, and I have been using samplers for maybe almost ten years now. That is another instrument. A lot of people say that how can it be an instrument when all they are doing is playing stuff that is already prerecorded. Well, it is the time that we're in. That is all I can say. It is a different time now (laughing). It is the same with film. You have got all kinds of film techniques where they sample films and they do all kinds of technical stuff. It is film, but we are just in a different time now.   

FJ: Sounds like you're into electronica.

GRAHAM HAYNES: Oh, yeah. There is some guys here in New York that I like. There is a whole New York scene. There are a slew of guys that I listen to. There are a whole bunch of guys from London that I like. I really like Grooverider. I think he is really great. I like Bukem. I think he's great. I think the music is great. I don't like all of it. I like some of it more than I like others. I like the guys who are really musical. It is growing music and so it takes time to get into it. What I tried to do with bpm was make a record that used drum and bass, but was really coming more from a musical standpoint. Like you have chord changes and progressions and key changes that you don't have in drum and bass, but I'm using the drum and bass as a rhythmic backdrop.  

excerpt from 'A Fireside chat with Graham Haynes'

1. Variations On A Theme By Wagner
2. Variation No. 2
3. Red Zone
4. Telluride
5. Inn A Most
6. Tristan In The Sky
7. Climate
8. Revamp

Graham Haynes • cornet, flugelhorn
Brandon Ross • guitar (6)
Marque Gilmore • drums (4) programming (5, 8)
DJ Spazekraft • Programming (7)
Daniel Moreno • Percussion (5)

Label: Knitting Factory Records
Catalog#: KFR-270
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 2000
Genre: Electronic, Jazz
Style: Drum n' Bass, Ambient

Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition • Audio Visualscapes

2011-09-14T11:11:00.007+01:00

This single-CD (formerly a double-LP) from Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition contains music that mixes together advanced hard bop, fusion, M-Base funk and avant-garde jazz. Greg Osby (alto and soprano), Gary Thomas (tenor, flute and bass clarinet), guitarist Mick Goodrick, bassist Lonnie Plaxico and drummer DeJohnette (who also plays some keyboards) are all highly original voices and they have plenty of opportunities to interact with each other on songs written by DeJohnette, Osby and Ornette Coleman ("The Sphinx"). The results are sometimes unsettling but rarely dull, well worth several listen.
Scott Yanow

1. PM's AM
(Jack DeJohnette)

2. Donjo
(Greg Osby)

3. Master Maind
(Greg Osby)

4. Slam Tango
(Jack DeJohnette)

5. The Sphinx
(Ornette Coleman)

6. One For Eric
(Jack DeJohnette)

7. Brown Warm & Wintery
(Jack DeJohnette)

8. Audio-Visualscapes
(DeJohnette, Goodrick, Osby, Plaxico, Thomas)

Jack DeJohnette • drums, electric keyboards
Lonnie Plaxico • acoustic bass, electric bass
Gary Thomas • tenor saxophone, flute, bass clarinet
Greg Osby • alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
Mick Goodrick • horner electric guitar

Label: Impulse! – MCAD-8029
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1988
Genre: Jazz
Style: Jazz-Rock, Jazz

Graham Haynes • Nocturne Parisian

2011-09-09T11:11:00.004+01:00

The title Nocturne Parisian might lead some to assume that it is an album of French music, but they won't hear any Edith Piaf songs on this chance-taking CD. Although most of Nocturne Parisian was recorded in Puteaux, France, it's actually a jazz fusion disc that incorporates elements of African, Middle Eastern, Asian and Latin music. Miles Davis is a major influence on Graham Haynes • both as a composer and a soloist • but the cornetist's writing also owes an artistic debt to the innovations of Joe Zawinul and Weather Report. Haynes, who is the son of drummer Roy Haynes, offers two interpretations of Ivan Lins' "The Island," although his primary emphasis is on his own compositions -- and those pieces are played with horns and electric keyboards as well as ethnic instruments like the Indian tamboura and various African drums. Given Muse's reputation as a straight-ahead jazz label, something this fusion oriented was hardly the first thing one expected from the label. But make no mistake: Nocturne Parisian is every bit as intelligent, thought-provoking, and creative as any bop recording that Muse put out.

1. Nocturne
2. Les Halles
3. The Island
4. Rue St. Denis
5. Stupide Salope Nègre
6. The Island 2
7. Dancing in Dreamtime
8. Purya Danishri
9. La Fille Sympa

Graham Haynes • Cornet

Steve Williamson • Tenor and Soprano Saxophone

Mferghu • Keyboards

Egmont Grisoni • Tambura

Mokhtar Samba • Electronic Percussion, Djembe

Doudou N'diaye Rose Jr. • Sabar

Allan Rupii • Talking Drum, Assorted Percussion

Samm Bennett • Electric Percussion (8)

Produced by Graham Haynes

Label: Muse
Format: 320
Country: US
Released: 1992
Genre: Jazz
Style: Jazz, African

For Miles...Graham Haynes

Wai • Wai 100%

2011-09-06T21:35:00.001+01:00

The music of Wai is a startlingly original combination of the ancient and the modern, with its roots in Maoritanga (Maori culture) and its proverbial finger on the pulse of cutting edge technology. It combines traditional Maori song forms from before and after the first influence of Pakeha (non-Maori) music with contemporary pop styles like hip hop, reggae, funk and R&B. It's also one of the first ever internationally released albums sung entirely in Maori.

Perhaps most original of all is the way the programmed beats used on the album are largely synthesised from organic samples like breathing, heartbeats, body slaps and poi. These are tight balls of plant fibre twirled on long strings in traditional Maori performing arts ceremonies - prized as much for their visual as their percussive effects.

Wai are really just singer Mina Ripia and programmer/producer Maaka McGregor, but they are joined on the album by a host of other guest vocalists. Rare live performances feature several of them as well as an 8-piece dance group from their local Whitirea Performing Arts club.
Jon Lusk, 2001

1. Mihi Tuatahi

2. E Pa

3. Ki a Korua

4. Ko Te Rerenga

5. Kotahitanga

6. Nga Hau E Wha

7. Matauranga

8. E Rangatahi Ma

9. Ka Karanga Te Tinana

10. Papatuanuku

11. Te Tokomauri Manawa

12. Tikanga

13. He Kanikani Mahau

Unknown Public • .Comp

2011-08-31T11:11:00.001+01:00

Sampler of music by performers and composers appearing on the nine UK tours in the CMN's October 2000 - March 2001 season.

1 Dave Douglas with Charms Of The Night Sky • A Thousand Evenings

2a Sainkho Namtchylak • Ritual Virtuality

2b Yat-Kha • To Shagonar

3 La Banda • Tra La Folla, Mora, Mormora (Extract) / Future Perfect

4a BCMG Vayu Naidu • Orchard

4b BCMG Vayu Naidu • The Golden Fish

4c BCMG Judith Weir • Unlocked (Extract)

5 Scanner • Diary 16.10.1999

6 I.S.O. • I.S.O. Live Dub

7 Dave Holland • Jugglers Parade

8 The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble • Butterfly Song

9 Mannafest • The Mango Lick (Lick In-Fi-Night 'Em)

Label: Unknown Public
Catalog#: none
Format: 320 kbps
Country: UK
Released: 2000
Genre: Electronic, Folk, Jazz
Style: Jazz, Drum n Bass, Experimental

Linx | Baldwin | Van Dormael • A Lover's Question

2011-08-24T16:16:00.003+01:00

Between September 19, 1986 and September 18, 1987, James Baldwin spent a year working on a spoken word CD with producers/composers/musicians David Linx and Pierre Van Dormael. Recorded in Brussels, Brooklyn and New York City, A Lover’s Question (Label Beu, Harmonia Mundi) is a masterpiece of merging words with music: a precursor to what is now a popular artform.
The producers succeed in more than providing a sonic backdrop for the words; they actually composed orchestrations that both complemented and mirrored the intent and expression inherent in Baldwin’s delivery of his complex poems. The success is then on three levels: the poems are phat, the music is tight, and the musicians respond with an exhilarating verve that let’s you know they too were giving their all, giving their love and not simply going through the changes to get paid.
Aside from a brief musical introduction and an elegiac solo rendition of Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord” on which Baldwin talk-sings the famous gospel composition, there are only three poems on this CD. One poem, “The Art of Love,” features operatic vocalist Deborah Brown and is done as an art song, an interlude between two poetic suites.
The two-part “A Lover’s Question” continues in the vein of the Fire Next Time. Baldwin questions the citizens of his birth nation as to their desire to hate: “Why / have you allowed / yourself / to become so grimly / wicked?” and “No man can have a / harlot / for a lover / nor stay in bed forever / with a lie. / He must rise up / and face the morning / sky / and himself, in the / mirror / of his lover’s eye.” As Baldwin knew, true love is always honest even though honesty is seldom an easy fact to live with in a land where lies and commerce replace truth and reciprocity.
The concluding number is the three part opus “Inventory / On Being 52” and it is the introspective Baldwin fingering his own wounds (some of them self-inflicted). He does not flinch as he cross-examines his own life and realizes the terrible costs of his mistakes, the terrible beauty of embracing both the terrors and joys of being human. Baldwin manages in a stream of consciousness style to encourage us to live the good life, suggesting that the good life is a different life from the life/lie that too many of us live. Baldwin encourages us not simply to march to the beat of a different drummer, Baldwin tenderly implores us to be different drummers.

Kalamu ya Salaam

1. Becoming Streams

Music by Chris Joris, Byard Lancaster, David Linx, Pierre Van Dormael

2. A Lover's Question - Part I