Fred Frith All-Star Birthday Concert

April 12, 2009 — Mike

A bunch of pictures from Frith’s 60th.

This concert, billed as “The Music Of Fred Frith,” was presented as a celebration of Fred Frith’s 60th birthday this year, and took place at Mills College in Oakland CA on the Sunday afternoon of 5 April 2009. Featured were solo and ensemble improvisations, a Frith composition entitled “Water Stories” for chamber quintet, and Frith’s most recent rock quartet, Cosa Brava. It was a fine testament in performance to an artist who has been challenging, expanding and dissolving musical boundaries for forty years.

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Frank Zappa: A ‘Lumpy’ Legacy

April 12, 2009 — Mike
Frank Zappa rehearsing with Ensemble Modern, F...
Image via Wikipedia

NPR Music discusses the latest Zappa release.

Frank Zappa was called many things during his life, but lazy wasn’t one of them. He put out more than 60 records, and unreleased music is still trickling out more than 15 years after his death. It’s part of an effort by his widow, Gail, to keep Zappa’s legacy alive.

The most recent effort from the Zappa Family Trust is a three-disc set titled Lumpy Money. It combines music — released and unreleased — that Frank Zappa recorded in 1967. One session produced the Mothers of Invention album We’re Only in It for the Money, the group’s third release. The other was a surprise.

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At the Stone in May

April 12, 2009 — Mike

From New York’s Stone:

5/1 Friday (DS)
8 pm
Loren Conners
Loren Conners (guitar)
Connors’ singular adaptation of the blues is a distinct personal vision combining the Delta bottleneck sound and the ancestral blues voice (appearing as distortion, baying hounds or multi-tracked guitar), with hauntingly unexpected sounds.

10 pm
Shahzad Ismaily
Shahzad Ismaily (instruments)

5/2 Saturday (TD)
8 pm
Grey Gersten and Shahzad Ismaily
Grey Gersten (guitar, electronics) Shahzad Ismaily (bass, drums, synth)

10 pm
Jolie Holland
Jolie Holland (violin)

5/3 Sunday (MB)
8 pm
Partyface

10 pm
Frederic Jacques

5/5 Tuesday (MP)
8 pm
Marina Rosenfeld and Anthony Coleman
Marina Rosenfeld (electronics) Anthony Coleman (keyboards)

10 pm
Jeremiah Cymerman Solo
Jeremiah Cymerman (clarinet, electronics)

5/6 Wednesday
8 and 10 pm
JG Thirlwell’s Manorexia
Elena Moon Park, Olivia De Prato (violin) Miranda Sielaff (viola) Isabel Castellvi (cello) Peter Wise (percussion) Dave Broome (piano) JG Thirlwell (laptop, compositions)

5/7 Thursday (NYYT)
8 pm
Joe McPhee-Jay Rosen Duo
Joe McPhee(tenor sax) Jay Rosen (drums)
Premiere of a new duo. Five dollars.

10 pm
The Demian Richardson Quartet with John Blum and Daniel Carter
Demian Richardson (trumpet) David Schnug (sax) John Blum (piano) David Moss (bass) David Miller (drums) Daniel Carter ( alto and tenor saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinet)

5/8 Friday (BS)
8 pm
Cooper-Moore’s Second Spring Acoustic-Electric Trio
Willie Applewhite (trombone) Jason Kao Hwang (violin) Cooper-Moore (handcrafted instruments)

10 pm
The Cooper-Moore Trio
Cooper-Moore (piano) Tom Abbs (bass) Michael Wimberly (drums)

5/9 Saturday (BS)
8 pm
Lucky Dragons with special guests Ches Smith and Grey Gersten
Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara (instruments) Ches Smith (drums) Grey Gersten (guitar)
Lucky Dragons are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures—equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves. “make a baby” is the name for an ongoing series of performances in which sounds are generated by touching on the skin—at the heart of it is playing together, re-engaging the wonder and impossibility of technology.

10 pm
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros (accordion)
Pauline has been playing the accordion since she was nine years old. Her work is legendary. Each performance is unique, drawing on the energies of audience and environment.

5/10 Sunday (MB)
8 pm
Karl Blau
Karl Blau (guitar, vocals)

10 pm
Nels Cline
Nels Cline (guitar)

MARC RIBOT
55th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Part of a week-long celebration taking place in venues around the city, the three days at the Stone presents some of Marc’s most beloved and cutting edge projects.

5/12 Tuesday (MB)
8 pm
Marc Ribot Solo
Marc Ribot (guitar)
Ribot plays new solo works from his recent European tour and selections from his three previously released solo albums.

10 pm
Rootless Cosmopolitans/Shrek
Marc Ribot (guitar) Christine Bard (percussion) Sim Cain (drums) Sebastian Steinberg (bass) Special guests

A TRIBUTE TO RIBOT
Marco Capelli, Anthony Coleman, Grey Gersten, Jon Madof, Eyal Maoz, Roger Kleier
Six colleagues, fans and cohorts of Marc Ribot pay tribute to the master in this special night of musical madness. Three performances per set feature music from several of Ribot’s most beloved projects.

5/13 Wednesday (JM)
8 pm
Marco Capelli/Anthony Coleman/Grey Gersten play MARC RIBOT
Marco Capelli, Grey Gersten (guitar) Anthony Coleman (piano) Billy Martin (drums)
Marco Capelli will play material from Ribot’s eclectic solo repertoire. Anthony Coleman will perform a variety of Ribot originals, and Grey Gersten will present “Dying Cowboy” and “Etude #4 Bombasto” in duo with Billy Martin.

10 pm
John Madof and Rashanim/Eyal Maoz/Roger Kleier’s El Pocho Loco Project play MARC RIBOT
Jon Madof, Eyal Maoz, Roger Kleier (guitar) Shanir Blumenkranz, Trevor Dunn (bass) Mathias Kuntzli, Ches Smith (drums) Annie Gosfield (keyboards) Rich Stein (percussion)
Three exciting young guitarists pay tribute to the master—performing material from Yo I Killed Your God, Cubanos Postizos and more.

5/14 Thursday
8 pm
Marc Ribot plays the works of Frantz Casseus with guitarist Marco Cappelli
Marc Ribot (guitar) Marco Cappelli (guitar)
The recordings of the works of Haiti’s greatest composer for the classical guitar is Ribot’s tribute to his late friend and guitar teacher, Frantz Casseus. Although the Villa Lobos and Haitian folk influenced style differs from that of his own compositions, Ribot’s rendition remains true to the spirit of these beautiful, rhythmically delicate pieces.

10 pm
Sun Ship
Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson (guitars) Chad Taylor (drums) Jason Ajemian (bass)
The premiere of Ribot’s newest quartet named after the John Coltrane album.

5/15 Friday (CW)
8 and 10 pm
John Zorn IMPROV NIGHT—a STONE benefit
John Zorn (sax) Grey Gersten (guitar) and many special guests

5/16 Saturday
8 pm
Metal Mountains
Helen Rush (vocals, guitar) Samara Lubelski (violin, bass) Pat Gublar (guitar)
Metal Mountains—If you collected the 500 calmest, most beautiful, starkest, most minimalist records of the past century, you would have a seed which under the most fortuitous of circumstances might blossom into Metal Mountains. Back before the New Weird America was new, or weird (or even American) Helen Rush, Pat Gubler, Samara Lubelski, were turning on freakniks at Soho lofts and the Cooler (R.I.P.) to the tear-inducing gorgeousness of their haunted stylings in bands like The Tower Recordings and Hall of Fame. Listening to Metal Mountains is like staring at the stars on a cloudless night with Carl Sagan whispering in your ear. If you are not overwhelmed by a sense of the mystery and grandeur of the Universe, have your doctor lower your dosage. Five dollars.

10 pm
Steel City Boogie
Henry Flynt (guitar)
Henry Flynt, who has about twenty albums out of archived performances, returned to live performance in 2008 after a twenty-five year absence. For several performances in 2008, Henry Flynt appeared with his niece Libby Flynt. In the last 2008 performance in London, Henry appeared solo. When Henry and Libby began, the composition was entitled “Rockin’ Midnight”. The set is a long rock instrumental in which Flynt plays lead guitar against a tonic pedal-point rhythm track, mixing and matching styles. It ends with a coda alluding to Henry’s earliest duet work with La Monte Young. Henry has updated his sound, using more effects than in his guitar work of the last century. It’s all “raga rock,” a hard-rock adaptation of the country selection “Lonesome Train Dreams” on his album “Graduation”. At the Stone, Henry will appear solo. As the composition continues to evolve. Flynt is steering in the direction of funky country, and has changed the title accordingly “Steel City Boogie”. Fifteen dollars.

5/17 Sunday (JM)
8 pm
Good for Cows
Devin Hoff (bass) Ches Smith (drums)
Good for Cows continue their exploration of modular forms, aural cues and electronics.

10 pm
Analogos
Michael Schumacher (analog synthesizer) Ed Tomney (analog synthesizer) Kato Hideki (analog synthesizer) James Fei (analog synthesizer) Sergei Tcherepnin (analog synthesizer) David Galbraith (analog synthesizer) Kabir Carter (analog synthesizer) Stefan Tcherepnin (analog synthesizer)
Performances and informal discussions centered on “vintage” and other analog synthesizers. This is their first performance outside of Diapason Gallery

5/19 Tuesday (MB)
8 pm
Abdoulaye Alhassane
Abdoulaye Alhassane (guitar, gurmi, vocals) Moussa Mahaman (guitar, bass) Kali Fastaeu (nai flute, soprano sax) Idrissa Kone (tama, gasu)
Original Music of the Niger River and Sahara from Mali and Niger led by Abdoulaye Alhassane.

10 pm
Neel Murgai Ensemble
Neel Murgai (sitar, daf, vocals) Mat Maneri (viola) Sameer Gupta (tabla) Greg Heffernan (cello)
The NME performs new music that straddles cultures, continents and eras: the ancient future traditional. Neel has assembled this talented ensemble after years of experimentation with different groups and instrumentations. Best described as Indo-chamber jazz, their sound ranges from an overtone singing, droning minimalism to intricate arrangements of raga based melodies and mathematical rhythmic structures, with healthy doses of improvisation throughout.

5/20 Wednesday
8 pm
LA OTRACINA Presents “Purple Whales Of The Sun, Who Dareth To Swim Shall Drown In Thy Bliss”
Adam Kriney (drums, vocals) Evan Sobel (bass IV) Philippe Ortanez (electric guitar)
They is The Crystal Wizards Of The Cosmic Weird. An swirling epic ocean of progressive psychedelia swarming with pirates of proto-metal glory ravaged by sea-hag tunes of the eternal sludge doom and ascend upon thee, oh, brothers and sisters do not fear, a siren song of acidic jazz-rock will mellow out yer yellow. Five dollars.

10 pm
Matta Llama
Arik (bass) George (guitar) Phil (keys) Spencer (drums, vocals)
New York dwellers Matta Llama have been churning their potion for the past eight (or is it nine?) years, bubbling up sounds of instantaneous psych blurbs, false jazz intrusions and the freeing of forgotten spirits. Consisting of yer basic rock formation, guitar, bass, keys and drums, Matta Llama posit a challenge to modernity without guilt or sympathy toward the common ironics present in the shit-storm known as the aughts. A carrying, rolling sound that resounds in the round, yer mind. Five dollars.

5/21 Thursday
8 pm
MAP
Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion) Mary Halvorson (guitar) Reuben Radding (bass)

10 pm
Messages
Taketo Shimada (tanpura, voice) Tres Warren (synthesizer, ukelin,
bowed guitar)
Lonesome Noh death, cosmic Hindustani meditation, structured improv heterodyne drone. Five dollars.

5/22 Friday (JC)
8 pm
Grey Gersten, G. Lucas Crane, Ryan Sawyer
Grey Gersten (guitar) G. Lucas Crane (tapes, broken equipment) Ryan Sawyer (drums)

10 pm
Bill Nace
Bill Nace (guitar) Greg Kelley (trumpet) Jake Meginsky (percussion)

5/23 Saturday (RK)
8 pm
Roses and Riots
Martha Colburn (films, light improvisations) Laura Ortman (violin) Nathan Whipple (keyboards) Martha Colby (cello) Mike Evans (foley effects) Matthew Varvil (flute) Haleh Abghari
This evening of sounds/music, accompanied by the animated films and hand-fashioned colorful multi-projections. A special shadow play and surprise guests. The evening plays with drug enforcement/witch hunts/religion/power.

10 pm
A Cantankerous Agility by The Hat City Intuitive
The Many Spaceships (guitar, saxes) Nix Pickler (drums) Sax Blabbeth (bass, agony pipes) The Heckler (keys) Gene Moore (guitar) Special Guest Kato Hideki (bass, electronics)
Chaotic entropy. Group Therapy. Nineteen years of abusive behaviour. Ten dollars.

5/24 Sunday (MB)
8 pm
The Jungle
Stephanie Barber
Sound, video, words, my body. My mouth. Many soft colorful fabric snakes. An unreliable narrator in a self imposed exile in the jungle—the sheer terror of thousands of square miles of rapid life and death, the superfluousness of this metaphor for existence—a questionable lecture on plant socio-emotionality—a symphony for this flora—a radio show which provides the courage and fortification of a direct god line to the jungle floor.

10 pm
J. Gräf Sheppard
Jenny Graf (voice)
J. Graf Sheppard has been an active participant in the international avante garde music scene since 1996. Building vivid, compelling soundworlds using the Tranoe (a Peter B. instrument in the ambrazier family), guitar and voice, her music as one half of Metalux and Harrius as well as her solo project J.Graf has bent the ears and minds of those who venture into her world.

5/26 Tuesday (MB)
8 pm
Nate Wooley
Nate Wooley (trumpet) Josh Sinton (bass clarinet) Matt Moran (vibraphone)
John Hebert (bass) Harris Eisenstadt (drums)
A new group from Wooley exploring aleatoric counterpoint, jazz tradition and timbral exploration.

10 pm
Dennis D Anderton
Dennis D Anderton (erhu, oscillator)
2008′s Spirit Numbers is stripped down to its essential feeling and practice. Anderton reveals the skeleton of his compositional technique in songs about peace, faith, dance and doubt.

5/27 Wednesday
8 pm
Lary Seven
Lary Seven (electronics)
The analogue society’s minister of audiology and star of the avant garde showcase.

10 pm
Nonhorse: Non-Amoral Confusion/Drone
G. Lucas Crane (tapes, broken equipment)
Several sound performance pieces utilizing and about degraded samples, analogue tape, handmade broken equipment, source confusion and media fear.

5/28 Thursday
8 pm
Nowhere You! Everywhere The Electric!
Ursula Scherrer (projections) Alan Licht, Grey Gersten (guitars) Kato Hideki (bass)
A continuing series curated by Grey Gersten that brings together contemporary experimental film-makers and musicians for unique collaborative performances.

10 pm
Russian Tslarag
Hypnotic death rock music mixed with physical force. Plastic bags, romantic green fingernails and top notch show-menship. Five dollars.

5/29 Friday
8 pm
Fursaxa and Mary Lattimore
Tara Burke (vocals, keyboards, flutes, bells) Mary Lattimore (harp)
Music inspired by the rhythms of plants and their individual songs, healing sound patterns to listen to in waking/dreaming states when ordinary speech no longer suffices.

10 pm
Paul Metzger
Paul Metzger (banjo)
Improvisations on modified banjo.

5/30 Saturday (GG)
8 pm
Tristan Dahn
Tristan Dahn (guitar, saxophone, clarinet, guzheng, percussion, tapes, electronics)
Combining preconceived forms and improvisational methods, Tristan Dahn seeks to create lush narrative soundscapes, using a variety of instruments played with both traditional and extended techniques. Five dollars.

10 pm
Visitations
Chris (guitars, keys, vocals) Brendan (guitars, keys, vocals) Janane (guitars, keys, vocals)
Visitations is a Portland, Maine-based group of free-form minimal psych-folk purveyors. Five dollars.

5/31 Sunday (MB)
8 pm
Rafi Bookstabber and Paul Grimes
Rafi Bookstabber (analog synth, guitar, sarangi, drums, voice, tape, flute) Paul Grimes (analog synth, guitar, sarangi, drums, voice, tape, flute)
New project from underground tape duo Death Chants is seriously zoned folk drone raga trance bliss-outs that stretch the death chants sound further into the realm of angus maclise damaged ecstasy. Five dollars.

10 pm
Aki Onda
Aki Onda (cassettes, electronics)
Aki Onda plays field-recordings collected by himself by cassette. Walkman over a span of two decades.

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Marc Ribot Plans May Retrospective

April 12, 2009 — Mike

From (of all places) Billboard:

Veteran jazz guitarist Marc Ribot will celebrate his 55th birthday this May with a career-spanning, week-long musical retrospective in New York City. Ribot will visit many of his critically acclaimed projects, including the Los Cubanos Postizos, his ode to Cuban roots music; the Young Philadelphians; and his Albert Ayler-influenced group, Spiritual Unity.

Here is Marc Ribot’s Retrospective Schedule:

May 9: Marc Ribot with Marco Cappelli & Ensemble Dissonanzen (Brecht Forum, New York)
May 10: Marc Ribot with Los Cubanos Postizos, Cotito, and La Cumbiamba eNeYe (Rose Live Music, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
May 12: Marc Ribot solo, Marc Ribot with Shrek & Rootless Cosmopolitans (The Stone, New York)
May 13: Marc Ribot Trio and Spiritual Unity (Joe’s Pub, New York)
May 14: Marc Ribot plays Frantz Casseus with Marco Cappelli & Marc Ribot with Sun Ship (The Stone, New York)
May 15: Marc Ribot with Los Cubanos Postizos, Cotito, and La Cumbiamba eNeYe (Le Poisson Rouge, New York)
May 16: Marc Ribot and Ceramic Dog and Marc Ribot and the Young Philadelphians (Le Poisson Rouge, New York)

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Close Friends, Jazz Up-and-Comers

April 12, 2009 — Mike

The Wall Street Journal, of all places, features four of the new generation of avant-jazz.

Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, guitarist Mary Halvorson, violist Jessica Pavone and drummer Tomas Fujiwara are among the most exciting new jazz musicians to emerge on the New York scene, and it is hard to talk about any one of these players without mentioning the others.

Mr. Bynum’s sextet features all the musicians. Messrs. Bynum and Fujiwara also work in trio format with Ms. Halvorson. Ms. Pavone plays in one of Mr. Bynum’s other bands, Spider Monkey Strings. Messrs. Bynum and Fujiwara have played together in duet formats for more than a decade, and Ms. Pavone and Ms. Halvorson have played together for seven years. And all four play together in a quartet called 13th Assembly. Mr. Fujiwara summed up the situation best: “It’s a challenge; we push each other to new places, but do so with great respect,” he said.

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Jazz Listings From The New York Times

April 12, 2009 — Mike

In the Times:

BISHOP-CLEAVER-FLOOD (Tuesday) As on a recent album, “Time and Imaginary Time” (Envoi), the saxophonist Andrew Bishop engages in an equal exchange with the drummer Gerald Cleaver and the bassist Tim Flood, expanding compositional frames and exploring open space. At 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; $10. (Chinen)20090409

SYLVIE COURVOISIER AND MARK FELDMAN (Wednesday) Ms. Courvoisier, a pianist and composer, pursues intricacy; Mr. Feldman, a violinist, favors intensity. They have recorded together as a duo, which will be their format for the early set here, at 8 p.m. For the later set, at 10, they will enlist the bassist Eivind Opsvik and the drummer Gerry Hemingway. The Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; $10 per set. (Chinen)20090409

MARK HELIAS QUARTET (Saturday) Mark Helias is a bassist of adventurous temperament and great rhythmic assurance, as he demonstrates in a band with two longtime associates, the trombonist Ray Anderson and the tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, and a dynamic younger colleague, the drummer Gerald Cleaver. At 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; $10. (Chinen)20090409

INGEBRIGT HAKER FLATEN (Friday, Sunday and Monday) Ingebrigt Haker Flaten is a Norwegian bassist, and one of the bigger fish in the pool of European free-improvised music. He’s staging a small-scale New York takeover this week, playing in two different places on Friday: first at Monkeytown (with the saxophonist Hakon Kornstad) and then at the 5C Café (with the cellist Daniel Levin). On Sunday he will appear in Double Heart, a group led by the saxophonist Tony Malaby; on Monday he will work in yet another duo, with the trumpeter Jawwaad Taylor. Friday at 7:30 p.m., Monkeytown, 58 North Third Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 384-1369; monkeytownhq.com; cover, $8, with a $10 minimum. Friday at 10 p.m., 5C Cafe, 68 Avenue C, at Fifth Street, East Village, (212) 477-5993, 5ccc.com; no cover, with a $5 minimum. Sunday at 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. Monday at 9 p.m., the Local 269, 269 East Houston Street, at Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, rucma.org; $10; $7 for students. (Chinen)20090409

PAUL MOTIAN OCTET + 1 (Tuesday through Thursday) A luminous and mysterious post-bop ensemble that consists of two contrasting pairs of improvisers (the saxophonists Chris Cheek and Bill McHenry, and the guitarists Steve Cardenas and Tim Miller); a couple of welcome stabilizers (Jerome Harris and Thomas Morgan, both bassists); a pair of wild cards (the violist Mat Maneri and the pianist Jacob Sacks); and a wily mastermind (Mr. Motian, on drums). (Through April 19.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)20090409

? SKIRL PARTY V (Saturday) Skirl, a Brooklyn-based label with a ruggedly experimental streak, celebrates its fifth anniversary with four bands from its roster: H-Alpha, an electro-acoustic trio with a new album called “Red Sphere”; the avant-folkish duo composed of the guitarist Mary Halvorson and the violist Jessica Pavone; the New Mellow Edwards, led by the trombonist Curtis Hasselbring; and Andrew D’Angelo’s Gay Disco Trio, led by Mr. D’Angelo, a strenuously upbeat multireedist. At 7:30 p.m., the Bell House, 149 Seventh Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn, (718) 643-6510, thebellhouseny.com; $12. 20090409

KEVIN TKACZ’S LETHAL OBJECTION (Tuesday) The bassist Kevin Tkacz (pronounced tax) features his own compositions in this adventurous and boisterous ensemble, with the trumpeter Ralph Alessi, the pianist Angelica Sanchez and, in his first outing with the group, the drummer Gerry Hemingway. At 7 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (347) 422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com; $10 suggested donation. (Chinen)20090409

TWICE TOLD TALES (Thursday) This expressive quartet, conversing mainly in terms of free improvisation, consists of the tenor and soprano saxophonists Tony Malaby and Louis Belogenis; the perceptive bassist John Hébert; and the ever-ebullient drummer Joey Baron. At 8 and 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; $10 per set. (Chinen)

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