longrally (Curator)

In anticipation of his new album Paranoid Cat on Family Vineyard guitar player Chris Forsyth brought down a version of his band to play live on WFMU--Mike Pride (drums), Peter Kerlin (bass), Don Bruno (organ), Hans Chew (piano). I was smitten with Chris's previous LP Dreams on his own Evolving Ear label, and Paranoid Cat seems to pick up where that album left off.  Dreams struck me as a deeply personal album referencing the guitar's abundance. That album's girders--repetition, cerebral riffs, psychedelic wobble and impressive guest contributions--are all evident on Paranoid Cat.

Chris's songs seem to pull from a range of sources--post rock, American primitive, avant blues and psychedelia--but what's clear is a simplicity of form and grasp of narrative. The guitar playing recalls Tetuzi Akiyama's repetitive blooze churn and classic Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd zigzag. The cohesive regular band is what elevates Paranoid Cat to some other plane. The band kills these jams. It's the kind of band that could turn into your favorite band. The soundtrack to your life.

Many thanks to engineer Ruaraidh Sanachan and assistant engineer Ernie Indradat.

A couple weeks ago Acid Birds stopped by WFMU's studios at the tail end of a swing through the midwest and up the east coast. We got the band good and rehearsed and buoyed by Snowpocolypse 2011, no doubt. Acid Birds consists of members of two longtime favorite improvising ensembles Gold Sparkle Band and Peeesseye, both of whom have graced WFMU with their presences in years past.

The band is aptly described as psychedelic free jazz and chooses to pull the best parts of each to form it's dinosaur-toothed sound.  (Maybe I should say dinochicken due to the reverse engineering?) I'm a big fan of free blowing and also of psychedelia but it's a combo that can can get sort of messed up, and not in a good way. For example, the presence of harmonium and electronics (played by Acid Bird Jaime Fennelly), could be troubling to you. (Good) free jazz requires the ability to adapt and react quickly and there are countless instances of electronics and jazz turning lumpy when shaken, curdling in the mouth. Thankfully, Acid Birds turns this into a strength. I marveled at Jaime's reflexes and you'll hear several moments where his electronics converse in the manner of an acoustic instrument, then provoke Charles Waters (clarinet, bass clarinet, percussion) and Andrew Barker (drums, percussion), both exceptionally reflective musicians, off towards a higher place. This music will get inside you. 

Free jazz itself, as with psychedelia, was once so revolutionary. Imagine! It's difficult to impress anyone these days. Let me just say that these three musicians have a collective heaviness about them. I'm convinced that this is some of the more vital underground music being made. I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks to Ruaraidh Sanachan for engineering.

The fully improvised piano trio Dawn of Midi stopped by WFMU a few days before their debut at local jazz bastion The Iridium and painted the darkness with their abstractions. And when I say darkness, I mean total darkness. They are the first band I've ever hosted at WFMU's Love Room to turn off every light in the joint. Qasim Naqvi, Dawn of Midi's drummer, commented later that he couldn't even see his drums. Apparently this is how Dawn of Midi have played together since day one, in total darkness. Listen and it makes sense --

Thanks to Mark Koch for engineering this set.

I was pretty excited when I had the opportunity book the tenor sax/drums band Jooklo Duo for a live session at WFMU. I've been a fan of their excellent Qbico releases and while together and separately Virginia Genta and David Van Zan have collaborated with many radical free jazz players working today, they seem a bit under the radar for how visceral and intense an experience they deliver.  That might be partly from living in the Italian countryside where they're free to develop their raw and constantly searching musical methodology away from sucker influences of the urban elite.  If the throw-back version of scree seems outdated to some free music fans, it's their loss; the holy ghosts of ESP-Disk' and BYG/Actuel live in Jooklo's sound, style, and unrepentant forward thrust, a stop-and-you-may-die kind of spiritual commitment to this music and lifestyle.  Don Cherry's '70s global wanderings and Taj Mahal Travellers' zoned benevolence may be more appropriate touchpoints to Jooklo Duo, who are open to unruly and authentic musical experiences wherever they happen to occur and in whatever context. 

When Virginia asked if we had a piano in WFMU's studio, I wasn't sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised when they brought John Blum along for the tussle.  John has released records on Ecstatic Peace, Eremite and the German label Konnex, and played extensively with heavyweights like Milford Graves, Bill Dixon, William Parker, Sunny Murray and Denis Charles. I expected a physical approach to the keyboard but did not anticipate the full history of jazz influences in his playing. I heard the likes Cecil Taylor and Muhal Richard Abrams, yes, but also Jaki Byard (a personal fave) and even all the way back to Art Tatum, Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson (I swear, listen for the stride!).  This was the first time these three played together, which was a surprise to learn.

I asked Virginia about the origin of her tenor sound, tough and upfront, but also melodic and unpredictable. She was reluctant to name her favorite sax players.  No matter, the playing on this session speaks volumes.  Please enjoy!

A few pics up on the playlist, and visit Jooklo's label Troglosound.

Thanks to Mark Koch for engineering.

Seijiro Murayama stopped by WFMU a few weeks ago on his first US tour in 28 years.  He was born in Japan and has lived in Paris since 1999.  The last time Seijiro was in New York was in 1982 when he came to tour with Keiji Haino as the Fushitsusha duo, and stayed for four months at cellist Tom Cora's place in downtown New York.  I imagined aloud how different New York must look to him now, but he quickly replied, "No. Chambers Street is the same.  The place I stayed, it has the same door!"  He was clearly moved by this small personal revelation.  The excitement of early '80s New York was palpable in Seijiro's description of the time. Skeleton Crew, Cora's improvising duo with Fred Frith, had just started up.  Things were happening.  His friend Tom Cora died of cancer in 1998. 

It was Seijiro's last day in the states, he was flying back to Paris in the morning.  While we were setting up, which consisted of not much--plugging in two microphones and situating them above and below his snare drum and lone cymbal--I asked Seijiro which of his US shows had been the most successful.  "Maybe this one," he said.

At one point in our interview James Blackshaw casually stated, "I wouldn't call myself a great guitar player."  He is modest and a gentleman and he probably believes to some extent that next to John Fahey or Robbie Basho or Jack Rose the term "great" carries the weight of high expectations.  However, James Blackshaw is an exceptional guitar player, and an increasingly interesting recording artist as well.  He is intent exploring his love and adoration for contemporary composition or new music or minimalism or whatever you would like to call it, and in the process, is broadening the scope of the 12-string acoustic guitar.  Which is why people who describe his music like to use terms like "orchestral" and "symphonic." In his guitar there is drone, sustain, a church organ, bells, harmony, dissonance, silence and I think I even heard human voices.

It was a pleasure to have James at WFMU.  This set was recorded in the unlikely confines of Studio A (the main broadcast studio, rather than the "live room") and that didn't seem to bother him at all.  Thanks to Howard Wuelfing (and Dan Bodah) for helping to set this up, and also to Scott Williams and WFMU's unparalleled gear braintrust for engineering/equipment tips.

More James Blackshaw on the Free Music Archive from a live show at Issue Project Room.  (Photo courtesy Issue Project Room, as well.)

I confess it's taken me longer to get this post together than it should have.  I definitely have the holidays to blame, some family obligations, the usual work, the usual play.  But honestly the main reason is that I have been thinking about what to write, and how best to articulate why I am such a huge fan of these three musicians individually, and then why getting them to play as a group on my show was such an enormous coup.  And I think I figured it out.

C. Spencer Yeh (violin/voice) is probably best known as the founder of Burning Star Core, a noise band with a surprising elasticity in terms of sound, timbre, texture, form.  He has played with probably every major "noise" artist you can think of and in weirder situations with people like Jandek.  Chris Corsano (drums/percussion) has been moonlighting with Bjork of late, and has a longstanding free jazz duo with Paul Flaherty that peels paint.  Again, he's collaborated with an enormous range of stylists and kingpins, from free jazz masters to heavy noise blasters, from pop stars to beardos.  Nate Wooley (amplified trumpet) is a specialist-in-all-styles type player who digs Charlie Shavers and grew up playing in big bands, has spent time doing lowercase music, traditional-sounding free jazz, post-bop, electroacoustic improv and extreme/harsh noise.  The three are primetime improvisors, it's the defining element that links all three.  But what appeals to me about each of them is that they don't really "fit" anywhere.  Noise, free jazz, post rock, bebop, punk, scuzz.  If you are to play with them, you are to accommodate them, to get with the sound and discard the baggage, to open it up wide and be humble and just cruise. 

They put in two long pieces. The first was a culmination of a handful of live performances of Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain, a version of which was released on Important Records (with David Grubbs and Paul Lytton).  The second is unadulturated free improvisation.  Please enjoy.  Many thanks to Mike Sin for engineering.

A year or so ago, WFMU received a bunch of releases from the Bug Incision label, a small high quality improv label based in Calgary, Canada.  Now honestly, I don't know much about Calgary, but I was transfixed by this scene happening up there being documented by Bug Incision. I have a tendency to root for the underdog and so was intrigued by the label immediately, but the music lived up to all expectations.  There seemed to be a wide berth of sounds, sometimes coming from the same people, from your basic free jazz descended improv, to grating noise, skittering improv, toys and "tiny instruments," an anything-goes mentality that seemed to be free of dogma.  On further inspection I noted Bug Incision also released some fine music from Ben Hall's Broken Research/Detroit orbit, a midwestern noise powwow featuring C. Spencer Yeh and Ryan Jewell, as well as a few things with Jack Wright, somewhat of a teacher/patron saint to many of the leading younger North American free players.  In other words, good company they keep. 

I contacted Chris Dadge who runs Bug Incision and appears on many of the label's releases, about possibly doing something for my radio show and while he doesn't get to the NYC area often he agreed to record a set especially for the program to send to me.  I left it up to him and he put together an exceptional improv set by the Bent Spoon Duo, his long running group with Scott Munro.  Their set-up is highly portable; a few battery powered amps, maybe a snare drum, small percussion, some tiny Casio keyboards, perhaps a guitar, etc. which is remarkable in its simplicity, and yet belies the group's sound, so much bigger than the sum of its parts.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Please stream or download via the Free Music Archive.  Thanks to Chris Dadge and Scott Munro for taking the time to play and engineer this recording.

Back in the middle of July I had the opportunity to record Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC for air on WFMU.  DJA's Secret Society is an 18-piece big band that pairs a healthy adoration of the history of big band jazz with a playful modern sensibility, infusing meticulous arrangements with noise and free passages, Afro-funk beats or minimalism.  I was taken with their debut record, Infernal Machines, almost immediately because it represents a freeform approach to a music that has thrown genres into the toolbox only incrementally.  Darcy has a large palette to work from and he uses it.

And, you know, let's face it, it's ballsy to have a big band in 2009.  Despite the fact that this music has some support (the record was partially fan funded), and some favorable press (there was a piece in Newsweek, of all places, not to mention the fawning jazz press), it's not exactly economical or convenient to tour with a big band, record with a big band, or even play one-off shows.  Plus, the logistics of periodically reassembling this cast of excellent musicians, all in demand players with their own projects to boot, is somewhat mindboggling.  There is an audacity, a punk rock ethos, and a purpose that pervades this project, and it's worthy of some appreciation.

That said, the music is also wonderful. Have a listen. And, maybe peruse Darcy's excellent blog while you're at it.  Special thanks to Le Poisson Rouge and Darcy James Argue for being so accommodating.  Engineered by Matt Duane.

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society; Le Poisson Rouge 07/15/09 [full set]
 Setlist, personnel and more photos after the break...