Tenko
Thu Feb 11 – 8:30 PM
Tenko kicked off her career in music with female rock group Mizutama Shobodan in 1979. Two years later in New York she got captivated by improvised music and back in Japan started performing in a vocal duo The Honeymoons. In 1984 in New York, Tenko made her debut as a soloist and before long started working with New Yorkers Fred Frith, John Zorn, Christian Marclay and David Moss. She also performed and recorded with Art Lindsay, Wayne Horvitz, as well as Japanese Otomo Yoshihide, Tatsuya Yoshida, Ikue Mori duo and Wni-Gohan female improvisers group. Since 1985, Tenko has collaborated with various musicians in festivals in the USA, Europe and Asia. Tonight marks a rare opportunity to hear Tenko in the US.

David Linton: Bicameral Research Sound & Projection System with David First & Satoshi Takeishi : 60 Hz Raga
Sat Feb 13 – 8:30 PM
Originally a percussionist David Linton has created sound for many collaborative dance, theater, & performance settings since his arrival in downtown NY in the early 1980′s. By the later 80′s he was equally known for his live wired solo electro-acoustic drumkit performances as well as his soundscore productions. His 1986 solo LP ‘Orchesography’ (on Glen Branca’s Neutral Label) was an influential collusion of ‘early’ sampling tek with street beats and theatrical post modernism. Throughout the 90′s Linton became a dedicated advocate for the expansion and appreciation of realtime performance in electronic media through the design and/or production of event / environments. Since 2002 Linton’s fascination with instantaneous collaborative audio visual communication among select units of electronic musicians and visualists has assumed the form of a live television Manhattan cable/webcast project – UGTV – Unitygain Television.

John Lindberg’s TriPolar
Mon Feb 15 – 8:30 PM
Tripolar is the new ensemble of bassist/composer/producer John Lindberg, featuring multi-reed instrumentalist Don Davis – renowned for his formidable work with the Microscopic Septet and a wide array of other associations ranging from the Swollen Monkeys to Levon Helm, and master percussionist Kevin Norton doubling on drums and vibraphone – well-known for his numerous albums as a leader in his own right, and for his work with artists as diverse as Anthony Braxton, Milt Hinton and Tony Malaby. John Lindberg has recorded over fifty albums and has been an active member of the String Trio of New York for 32 years, as well as working with artists such as Jimmy Lyons, Wadada Leo Smith, Tony Coe, Steve Lacy, Albert Mangelsdorff and many others.

Ma La Pert: Jennifer Walshe & Tony Conrad
Fri Feb 19 – 8:30 PM
Ma la Pert is the duo of Jennifer Walshe and Tony Conrad. They use voice, violins, viola, bass, autoharps, autotune, keyboard, shells, broken plastic, words, parts of words, stories, chanting, jigs, screaming, shouting, broken drum skins, bells, green furry outfits, breastplates, wire, bird call, and old lady dresses. Walshe and Conrad first began working together after they ran from service as household slaves of King Pepy I at the end of Old Kingdom Egypt. They were subsequently monks in Carolingean Gaul during the period roughly 820 to 850, Venetian courtesans at Pope Eugene’s court during the mid 15th century, and prisoners on Reunion Island in 1738, where Walshe tried to secure Conrad’s escape using “remote viewing” techniques. The unfortunate outcome of the latter incident resulted in Conrad’s work as a medicine man in Australia in the 19th century, where in 1834, trying to quell a cattle riot, they both accidentally ingested leprosy vectors and subsequently lost three legs and two arms between them.

PFL Traject
Sat Feb 20 – 8:30 PM
PFL Traject is the improvisational trio of Pascal Pariaud, clarinets and pipes, Jean-Charles François, percussion, and Gilles Laval, electric guitar, from Lyon, France. The members of the group all went through very different journeys : Pascal Pariaud is a clarinetist specializing in new music performance and early music, a choral conductor and teacher; Jean-Charles François is a composer and percussionist who was professor at UC San Diego and founding member of the improvisation group KIVA; coming from the world of Hardcore and the alternative scene, Gilles Laval has been involved with many unlikelies, like Chef Menteur, Impur with Fred Frith, and La Douzaine., he is also the head of the popular music department at the Villeurbanne National Music School. Each improvisation of PFL Traject is a voyage in the already constituted memory, a promenade in the garden of delights. PFL Traject invites the audience to travel, to stroll, to ramble, to put oneself into orbit, to fly off at a tangent, to make the tour of a world that is well-defined in its individual windings, but is infinite in its collective combinations.

INTERPRETATIONS: Thomas Buckner premieres new works by Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Eckart Beinke and Bun Ching Lam
Thu Feb 25 – 8:00 PM
Buckner presents an evening of new works, including Earl Howard’s Frond, for baritone, violin, bass saxophone, and live electrtonics, Bun Ching Lam’s Trois Cadeaux, for baritone, harp, and piano, and Matthias Kaul’s Zappa-esque The Mellow Quark. With French harpist Isabelle Courret, the German ensemble L’Art Pour L’Art, Mari Kimura (violin), JD Parran (bass saxophone), and Earl Howard (saxophone, live electronics and processing).
William Parker, Conrad Bauer & Hamid Drake

Fri Feb 26 – 8:30 PM
Master musician, improviser, and composer William Parker teams up with one of Europe’s finest free jazz trombonists – Conrad Bauer, and virtuosic percussionist Hamid Drake for an evening of off the wall free improv. With a collective resume including collaborations with such names as Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann, Cecil Taylor, and Butch Morris – this All-Star trio is NOT to be missed!

Childrens Concert with WOLLESONIC
Sat Feb 27 – 2:00 PM
Wollesonic returns to Roulette for a very special kids workshop/concert where YOU the audience can be a part of the show! Kenny Wollesen and members of Wollesonic will distribute instruments designed and made by Wollesonic Laboratories (balloon bassoons, chika chikas, and scrap wood marimbas) to all participants, then give a brief tutorial on sound making, performance styles, and improvisation techniques….then, freshly armed with our sound devices we will all embark on a sonic exploration where we will attempt to discover never before heard sounds, get a feel for what its like to be “in the lights”, perform our newly learned improvisations and have a great time! Plus you can take your instrument home! join Wollesonic for a one of a kind soniferous situation! All kids welcome!

Steve Swell
Sat Feb 27 – 8:30 PM
“One of the most adventurous and prolific members of the New York free-jazz community” according to Ed Hazell of Signal To Noise, Steve Swell’s reputation, work ethic and committment to excellence has kept him in the forefront of improvised music and a leading voice on his instrument for more than 20 years. Tonights concert will feature a relatively new ensemble with some of improvised music’s finest contributors: Rob Brown, alto; Chris Forbes, piano; Hilliard “Hill” Greene, bass; Michael T.A. Thompson, drums, percussion. It will feature Swell’s writing along with his unique, on the spot direction of incorporating this group’s rich improvisation abilities along with his compositions. An extra element of improvisation that determines the direction of the music.

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I don’t take “best of” lists too seriously, nor should you. However, the virtually infinite number of such lists floating around this month can serve to sum up the year’s major releases, and to give you an idea of releases you might have missed.

The AMN “best of” is set out in two lists below. The first is my subjective top five, followed by an equally subjective set of honorable mentions (in no particular order). The second is a somewhat less subjective list of what I actually listened to the most, according to Last.fm.

Aside from all of the nonsense associated with these lists, I would like to point out that my two clear favorites this year were the new releases from Magma and Darcy James Argue. Both are truly excellent, very different from one another, and highly recommended.

AMN Top 5 of 2009 and honorable mentions

1) Magma Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré
2) Argue, Darcy James / Secret Society Infernal Machines
3) Anker, Lotte / Craig Taborn / Gerald Cleaver Floating Islands
4) Hollenbeck, John Eternal Interlude
5) Maguire, Carl Sided Silver Solid

Honorable mentions:
Adams, John Luther The Place We Began
Balmorhea All Is Wild, All Is Silent
Bates, Michael / Outside Sources Live in New York
Blackshaw, James The Glass Bead Game
Blast 4tet Sift
Car de Thon, Le Nos Meilleurs Stockhausen
Cline, Nels Coward
Contemporary Noise Sextet Unaffected Thought Flow
Diablo Swing Orchestra Sing Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious
Flatlands Collective, The Maatjes
Frith, Fred Still Urban
Fully Celebrated Orchestra, The Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones
Hardedge / Graham Haynes Burned to the Water’s Edge
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Winterwood
Land of Kush Against the Day
Lucky 7′s Pluto Junkyard
Moreau, Benoit Audiogrammes II
Musillami, Michael From Seeds
Neo Water Resistance
Nobuyasu, Furuya Bendowa
Quartet Offensive Carnivore
Sunn0))) Monoliths and Dimensions
Trespass …Was There to Illuminate the Night Sky
Trinity Breaking the Mold Var
Zu Carboniferous

AMN Top Ten 2009 Releases according to Last.fm:

1) Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Infernal Machines
2) Magma – Ëmëhntëtt-Ré
3) Balmorhea – All Is Wild, All Is Silent
4) Nels Cline – Coward
5) Blast4Tet – Sift
6) Fred Frith – Still Urban
7) Sunn O))) – Monoliths and dimensions
8) James Carney Group – Ways & Means
9) John Hébert – Byzantine Monkey
10) Neo – Water Resistance

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From the Squid’s Ear:

Mahall / Dorner / Roder / Jennessen:
Die Enttauschung
(Intakt)

Fred Frith:
Nowhere, Sideshow, Thin Air
(Recommended Records / Fred Records)

Noyes / Chabala:
The Shade & The Squint
(Roeba)

Furt:
Sense
(psi)

John Zorn:
Femina
(Tzadik)

Phill Niblock:
Touch Strings
(Touch)

Ignaz Schick/Martin Tetreault:
Live-33-45-78
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Kevin Drumm:
Imperial Horizon
(Hospital)

Weightless:
A Brush With Dignity
(Clean Feed)

Fossils:
A Common Confusion
(Bug Incision)

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Christian Wolff
ROULETTE TV SHOOT
Sat Dec 12 – 8:00 PM

All-Star quintet: Joey Baron, Robert Black, Larry Polansky, Robyn Schulkowsky, Christian Wolff present the music of Christian Wolff both old and new – including the premiere of new long form piece written specifically for this quintet.

Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France. He’s lived mostly in the U.S. since 1941. He studied piano with Grete Sultan and composition, briefly, with John Cage. Though mostly self-taught as a composer, the work of John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor and Earle Brown have been important to him, as well as long associations with Cornelius Cardew and Frederic Rzewski. A particular feature of his music is the various freedoms it allows performers at the time of performance as well as the variable results possible for any one particular piece, for which various new notations have been invented. Underlying notions in the work are shared freedom, self-determination and democratically-spirited collaboration. The music is published by C.F. Peters, New York and much of it is recorded, on many labels. A number of pieces, starting in 1953, have been used and commissioned by Merce Cunningham and his dance company. Wolff has been active as a performer and as improvisor – with Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacey, Christian Marclay, Keith Rowe, William Winant, the group AMM, Kui Dong and Larry Polansky. His writings on music (up to 1998) are collected in “Cues: Writings and Conversations”, published by MusikTexte, Cologne. He has received awards and grants from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Ford Foundation, DAAD Berlin, the Asian Cultural Council, the Fromm Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts (the John Cage Award for music) and the Mellon Foundation. He is a member of the Akademie der Kuenste in Berlin and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Academically trained as a classicist, Wolff was professor of classics and music at Dartmouth College from 1971 to 1999.

http://roulette.org/tempimages/joey.jpg

Joey Baron
ROULETTE TV SHOOT
Sun Dec 13 – 8:00 PM
Join us for the filming of Roulette TV’s special on Joey Baron! Avant-garde jazz drummer Joey Baron has worked with an impressive list of musicians, including everyone from Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, and Tony Bennett to John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Fred Frith, and Tim Berne. His own groups he has led include the “Down Home Group”, Barondown, and Killer Joey and was a member of “Naked City” (with John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith and Wayne Horvitz) and of Zorn’s group Masada (Dave Douglas and Greg Cohen). Joey Baron was born 1955 in Richmond ,Va. He started drumming at age 9, performing profesionally the following year. His early musical education included private drum lessons as well as the wide genre radio programing of the 1960s. After finishing high school early through a special accelerated program, Mr. Baron spent time in Boston attending the Berklee School of Music.He settled in Los Angeles,California in 1975 to realize a dream of playing with the great jazz musician Carmen McRae,consequently becoming a much sought after singer’s drummer. Since moving to New York City in 1983, Mr. Baron has continued to expand his scope and develope his musical ideas through collaborations with various artists including Red Rodney, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Ron Carter, and John Zorn ,with whom the collaboration continues to the present. Current projects include solo concert tours, duo concerts with Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, his own band, “Killer Joey”,The John Abercrombie Quartet, and the Schulkowsky, Studer, Baron drum trio.

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From DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET:

Music Unlimited festival in Wels, Austria: Unlimited 23 “Whispers & Cries” curated By Ikue Mori:

November 06, 2009
John Zorn Cobra, Schl8hof, Wels
Tony Buck, Sylvie Courvoisier, Chris Cutler, Shayna Dunkelman, Fred Frith, Arnold ‘Noid’ Haberl, Makigami Koichi, Okkyung Lee, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Maja Ratkje, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, David Watson
KTL, Schl8hof, Wels
Stephen O’Malley, Peter Rehberg
Speak Easy, Schl8hof, Wels
Martin Blume, Thomas Lehn, Phil Minton, Ute Wassermann
Spunk, Schl8hof, Wels
Kristin Andersen, Lene Grenager, Maja Ratkje, Hild Sofie Tafjord

November 07, 2009
Thinking Out Loud, Im Kornspeicher, Wels
Pamelia Kurstin
Phil Minton & dieb13, Im Pavillon, Wels
Dieter ‘dieb13′ Kovacic, Phil Minton
Agra Dharma, Schl8hof, Wels
Sylvie Courvoisier, Makigami Koichi, Ikue Mori
Anker-Lee-Kallerdahl, Schl8hof, Wels
Lotte Anker, Lindha Kallerdahl, Okkyung Lee
Fred Frith & Chris Cutler, Schl8hof, Wels
Chris Cutler, Fred Frith
Phantom Orchard Orchestra, Schl8hof, Wels
Shayna Dunkelman, Makigami Koichi, Ikue Mori, Maggie Parkins, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins, Maja Ratkje, Hild Sofie Tafjord

November 08, 2009
Ikue Mori Ipcress Theater, Medienkulturhaus, Wels
Makigami Koichi, Ikue Mori, Mark Nauseef, Kazuhisa Uchihashi
Zeena Parkins Saw Sun Here, Medienkulturhaus, Wels
Maggie Parkins, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins
Anker-Courvoisier-Nauseef, Schl8hof, Wels
Lotte Anker, Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Nauseef
Peter Evans & Okkyung Lee, Schl8hof, Wels
Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee
The Ex, Schl8hof, Wels
Arnold de Boer, Katherina Bornefeld, Terrie Hessels, Andy Moor
Watson-Olive-Buck, Schl8hof, Wels
Tony Buck, DJ Olive, David Watson

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From Performa Arts, a two-day experimental music fest in New York.

A mini-festival of noise music curated by visual artist Mike Kelley. Born in a suburb of Detroit in 1954, Mike Kelley was brought up with the city’s music scene, which spawned bands such as Iggy and the Stooges and MC5. In 1973, Kelley formed his own band, the now seminal Destroy All Monsters. “A Fantastic World” continues Kelley’s continued interest in musical subcultures and focuses specifically on avant-garde music and sound art that employs elements such as cacophony, dissonance, and atonality.

Staged over two days, the festival will present both historic works from artists such as John Cage, Fred Frith, Fluxus, Bruce Nauman, and Max Neuhaus as well as performances by contemporary proponents of experimental music including Airway, Joan La Barbara, Tony Conrad, Jad Fair & Lumberob, Arto Lindsay, Genesis Breyer P.Orridge, z’ev, and John Zorn.

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From DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET:

October 15, 2009
Evan Parker Duo with Fred Frith, The Stone
Fred Frith, Evan Parker

October 13, 2009
Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core, Roulette
Scott Amendola, Satoko Fujii, Lawrence Ochs, Donald Robinson, Natsuki Tamura
Evan Parker Trio with Chris Corsano & Nate Wooley, The Stone
Chris Corsano, Evan Parker, Nate Wooley

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From All About Jazz:

DJ Spooky
The Secret Song (Thirsty Ear Recordings)
Reviewed by Mark Corroto

Peter Evans
Nature/Culture (Psi)
Reviewed by John Sharpe

Acoustic Ladyland
Living With A Tiger (Strong And Wrong)
Reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

Darius Jones
Man’ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing) (AUM Fidelity)
Reviewed by Lyn Horton

Eugene Lee
equilibrium (Pure Potentiality Records)
Reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

Evan Parker
Evan Parker Solo 1975 & 1989
Reviewed by Martin Longley

New Jazz Composers Octet
The Turning Gate (Motema Music)
Reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

Fred Frith
Fred Frith: To Sail, To Sail, Pas de Deux & The Big Picture/Still Urban
Reviewed by Marc Medwin

Harris Eisenstadt
Canada Day (Clean Feed Records)
Reviewed by Clifford Allen

Eyal Maoz / Asaf Sirkis
Elementary Dialogues (Ayler Records)
Reviewed by Glenn Astarita

Oliver Lake
Makin’ It (Passin’ Thru Records)
Reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

Splinters
Split the Difference (Reel Recordings)
Reviewed by Andrey Henkin

William Parker
William Parker: Live at the Sunset, In Transition, Live at Dunois, Double Sunrise over Neptune
Reviewed by Clifford Allen

Gerry Hemingway
Gerry Hemingway Twofer: Less is More & Demon Chaser
Reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk

Multiple Artists
Globe Unity: Denmark
Reviewed by Tom Greenland

The Fonda/Stevens Group
Memphis (Playscape Recordings)
Reviewed by John Sharpe

Upsilon Acrux
Radian Futura (Cuneiform Records)
Reviewed by Glenn Astarita

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From Tzadik:

Ben Goldberg
Speech Communication

David Taylor
Red Sea

Eyal Maoz’s Edom
Hope and Destruction

John Zorn
Music for Children—10th anniversary edition

On Ka’a Davis
Djoukoujou!

From New York’s Henry Street Settlement:

INCUS FESTIVAL 2009
October 17 & 18 | 8 pm

Two diverse, breathtaking evenings of musical fireworks to celebrate Incus Records, one of the world’s most important improvisation based record labels. Each night features the musical luminaries Cyro Baptista, Min Xiao Fen, Fred Frith, Milford Graves, Susie Ibarra, George Lewis, Richard Teitelbaum, and John Zorn.

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