I was first struck by how cool this group was, cool in the sense of how the vibes, the upright acoustic bass, the commanding sax, and some very hip drumming, casts a spell. At the same time, I was impressed by how hot the band was, in the sense of, well, just tearing it up. Their intensity is impressive, but so is how neatly they color outside the lines. While on the surface the tunes may feel very composed and modern, a deeper listen reveals some fine and fierce free playing.

I think by the time I got to the tune, ‘Lost’, I found myself thoroughly engaged. Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone and Jason Roebke’s bass generate a palpable density that is buoyed by Tim Daisy’s drums. On top, Shelton has a serious foundation for spinning fractured and dazzling solos. Adasiewicz shines throughout, using the vibes to set a dark, sometimes mysterious, atmosphere. His solos, like on the laid-back ‘Frosted’ are as tantalizing as Shelton’s, reacting to the rhythm section, always servicing the aesthetic of the song but not pulling any punches.

Shelton’s composing blends sophisticated syncopation and harmonies, and all the songs are distinctive. The suspended and slow building ‘Golden’ comes to mind as a highlight. All four instruments act as part of the melody, building up to a small peak before resolving into some free playing. Soon it becomes a duet between the vibes and bass, their conversation becomes more obscure, but captivating, only to soon be joined by the others and driving to a greater crescendo. Shelton solo is rather intense but always in control of the exuding passion.

The contrasting qualities of this album are what makes it so tantalizing. It’s laid back, but aggressive, cool but passionate. Composed, arranged but free and unpretentious. There is not a dull or unimportant note or rest that is out of place on this edgy piece of modern jazz.
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/

Shelton and vibist Jason Adasiewicz are strong foils, whether they generate light and perky swing vamps or abide by a flotation-like modus operandi, witnessed on “Cradle.”  Strategically interspersed with unanticipated unison choruses and linear phrasings, the musicians sustain a fresh sound, sparked with bristling flurries and counterpoint maneuvers.

Shelton is a fluid saxophonist who keenly sculpts melody and dissonance.  Therefore, he straddles a fine line between the free realm and post-modernism.  Moreover, the rhythm section shades, complements and assists with revving up the overall game-plan.  For instance, on “Fifteen,” the soloists fuse sparse phrasings into an introspective motif, nicely contrasted by drummer Tim Daisy’s off-kilter responses.  And with the final track “Golden,” the band is in no rush to get anywhere, but raises the pitch during the bridge.

Arrive is a unit that crafts a mark of authenticity but doesn’t slash and burn with maddening intensity.  In effect, the musicians enliven the freer realm with an artsy underpinning.  Therefore, the album is not a platform teeming with innumerable technical gymnastics and wanton soloing spots.  Among other positives, it’s an endeavor created with substance and fluent ideas that synchronize the best of many jazz-induced mechanisms.
http://www.jazzreview.com/cd/review-21424.html

Aram Shelton’s Arrive – There Was…(CF 217)
Aram Shelton has spent years moving and developing his musical language. From his home state of Florida to Washington D.C., Chicago and now currently residing in San Francisco, Shelton is becoming one of the most revered saxophonist’s in underground circles. All the while, he has maintained a creativity that is both skillfully harmonic and resolutely improvised. Aram Shelton encompasses both the free jazz aesthetics of Ornette Coleman and the tonal language of Jackie McLean. Shelton was an integral part of the Chicago scene with the groups Fast Citizens (w/Keefe Jackson), Dragon 1976, Cylinder and his most consistent and flourishing, Arrive.

Arrive is now on their third record, There Was… (Clean Feed Records) the quartet puts together some fantastic arrangements with dizzying improvised moments in between. There Was… could be considered the second official album. The previous album Live At Elastic includes all but the title track “There Was”. The Elastic album is a bit rawer and possibly more “works in progress” until fully realized for There Was.. On the opener and title track, Shelton and Daisy interchange some aggressive and fun-filled passages. This is met with the same energy when the trio of Daisy, Roebke and Adasiewicz gather and tear through chord changes. It’s a well structured melodic piece with improvised moments that settle nicely inside your ear.

“Lost” really experiments with time, rhythm and harmonics. The group gently improvises its way through the first half with a steady and balanced groove laid just underneath by Roebke and Shelton. Adasiewicz later takes the group into “third stream” territory. It’s a frenetic dreamlike moment between the trio again before Shelton completely lets loose. It’s the type of aggression that makes his collaborative efforts with Keefe Jackson shine.

“Golden” quickly becomes an expression of free acoustic magnification (I kinda made that one up. Needed something that sounded good.). But “Golden” does typify everything Aram Shelton is about–exploring new structures, deconstruction and re-framing/reshaping the sense of things. It’s has ballad-like quality that slowly builds into a triumphant exclamation of purpose.

With There Was… Aram Shelton again makes the case that Chicago artists (whether in Chicago or just leaving) are on the boundaries of jazz and testing it, to see what come next. Highly Recommended stuff.
http://jazzwrap.blogspot.com/2011/04/aram-sheltonrising-above-it-all.html

experimental film, heavy metal jazz, and neo-fictional electronics

The last Hoot of the Ivy curated by artist Kattt Atchley who walked into the Hoot many moons ago and (a) instantly ordered a martini, so should you they’re really very good here and (b) declared the whole thing reminded her of Berlin, something Hoot founder Lucio Menegon said he wanted to achieve from the beginning. It is an honor to close the Hoot’s residency at the Ivy with a show springing from the creative mind of Kattt.

featuring

• Go-Go Fightmaster
• Kenneth Atchley
• Film by Kerry Laitala

About the Artists

Kerry Laitala is a media archeologist who investigates the past and retrieves cultural artifacts from the limbo of forgotten things, and has a penchant for medical imagery and artifacts of decay. Laitala is deeply invested in the process of working directly with the film medium basically is involved in all aspects of production: shooting, developing, editing and sound design as well as optical printing much of material to further re-work it into another form.

Go-Go Fightmaster is a band. Go-Go Fightmaster is Aaron Bennett (saxophones and drinking straw), John Finkbeiner (guitar and drinking straw), Vijay Anderson (drum set), Lisa Mezzacappa (contrabass), Aram Shelton (saxophone), and maybe a special guest.

Kenneth Atchley is a composer and performer who uses a laptop computer, sine waves, electro-acoustic signals, and noise in service to absorbed  attention: to detail in which one’s own thoughts are another aspect of the electro-acoustic soundscape; hierarchies noticed to form then shift or disappear, not struggling to hold, an appreciation of the being and the passing on; yet in near-constant, languidly awake and awaiting the frameless mind; and in it’s absence.

Do. Not. Miss.

:: hey, people, it’s the last the ivy room improv/experimental hootenanny and social club ::
comfy couches • delicious beverages • NEVER a cover • many musicians • total surprises

Arrive – There Was… (CF 217)

O saxofonista alto Aram Shelton lidera este quarteto com base em Chicago e providencia seis peças free bop, que o vibrafonista Jason Adasiewicz (Lucky 7s), o contrabaixista Jason Roebke (Jorrit Dijkstra, Jason Stein) e o baterista Tim Daisy (Vandermark 5) moldam com apurado sentido de cumplicidade. Shelton, com as suas linhas sinuosas e assertivas e lirismo ácido, leva “Lost” a um final intenso, e “Frosted” voga como uma nuvem, tornado mais leve do que o ar pelo vibrafone encantatório de Adasiewicz.
http://www.cleanfeed-records.com/disco2.asp?intID=358

Darren Johnston – Cylinder (CF 219)

The core theme and the improvisations get priority over specific harmonies or fixed rhythms as the foundation of each composition. But they add the modernism, the technical skills and freedom of spirit that you can expect of today’s jazz.

This a true band effort too, with all band members writing two compositions each and Shelton three, but you wouldn’t know when listening, because the overall musical coherence is very strong.

I have listened to this album more than a few dozen times over the past few weeks, and I  keep reaching back to it, not only because I love the sound and the playing, but also because it has this kind of ungraspable quality : it remains totally unpredictable, leading to increasing moments of enjoyment with each listen. Sometimes angular, sometimes sweet, but deconstruction seems to be its main characteristic.

A theme is set, then it is gradually taken apart, stripped of its form while laying bare its true essence, in a trumpet solo without accompaniment, a bass, some violent drumming, a soaring sax, demonstrating the depth of the piece, adding emotions, different shades, sonic explorations and some rhythmics puzzles … with a great sense of adventure but without losing track of the main theme, always coming back to it flawlessly.

The overall result is exceptionally good, not only because of the individual playing but because of the overal feeling of a band that creates something unique. Like the Ornette Coleman quartet, this is freedom in a fixed format, not the long expansive improvisations of the later Coltrane or Ayler, but expressive power without restraints within the confines of concept and structure and time. It reads like a paradox, and well, maybe it is, the characteristic of all great music.

And like Ornette Coleman, the themes themselves are often of a compelling and sweeping beauty.

Not to be missed!
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/

That was particularly true last Wednesday, in the middle of the storms that have peppered us off and on this week. I cozied up with a beer and some good music; chatted with Rent Romus about this summer’s Outsound Music Summit and with Jim Ryan about upcoming shows for his Forward Energy ensemble; and watched a little basketball, hockey, and ESPN baseball news headlines on the silent TVs above the bar. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday night.

Some Wednesdays are curated by Aram Shelton, the Chicago jazzman who’s lending us his services while he studies at Mills College. This time it was a set of mostly energy jazz — improvised on-the-spot, often going for speed and gusto.

The duo of Mike Forbes (tenor sax) and Mark Miller (drums) started the evening, with Henry Kaiser sitting in on guitar for about half of the short set. Their improvising showed some healthy energy, but they might have overdone it. Forbes and Miller looked winded by the end. Miller on drums never reached supersonic speeds, sticking instead to a loud and slowish style that I thought showed some metal influence. Forbes mostly pecked around at sax but did show off a few nice runs.

Aram Shelton was next with a group he calls Marches — two saxes, two drummers, bass and keyboards. At least some of their set was covers — they started with an Archie Shepp tune, for certain — and it wouldn’t be surprising if Shelton’s own compositions were in there as well. Really good stuff with space for wide-open soloing. All the saxophone work was good, but I really liked one spot where just the bass and keyboard played, really tearing it up.

Third and last was the trio of Josh Allen (sax), Henry Kaiser (guitar), and Mike Guarino (drums). I’d seen Allen before — big ecstatic-jazz tenor sax with a booming voice. Kaiser’s guitar was actually hard to hear over Allen and the drums — my god, the drums. I’d never seen Guarino play before, and he’s a monster. Big, loud, fast, precise.

I don’t know when the next Wednesday session will be, but in the meantime, The Lost Trio (brief note on them here) have been playing at the Ivy Room on most Monday nights.

Tuesday April 12, 9pm
Admission Free, donations welcome

Uptown Night Club
1928 Telgraph Ave
Oakland, CA

Normally a rock club alongside a polished, dark-wood bar, The Uptown has been opening its doors to a more avant-garde crowd at least once a month for a couple of years now, hosting the likes of Weasel Walter and Moe! Staiano. (Round of applause.)

For the past year, the Uptown’s jazz/improv nod has gone to the OAO with a free Tuesday concert. To celebrate, the group will perform 12 short pieces by different members.

Saxophonist Aram Shelton convened the OAO after coming to the Bay Area from Chicago. The idea, as he told me during a radio interview, was to provide a way to present composers’ works for a large group. The whole effort, though, hinges on a large group that’s willing to show up, rehearse, and stick to it after the novelty is gone.  The OAO certainly seems to have done all that.

Shelton uses the “Active Music” banner for a variety of shows done in different milieus (is that a word?)  More about all that, and the OAO anniversary show, at activemusic.wordpress.com.

This might be good sly moment to note that Grimes and Roscoe Mitchell are playing in Berkeley on Friday, Oct. 15, at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT).  Grimes turns 75 this month, so a packed hall would be a nice way to help him celebrate.

Aram Shelton’s Quartet played a nice set after us. Aram is a great saxophone player also from the Bay Area. It was nice to see him even though we didn’t get much of a chance to chat afterwards.

Thanks a lot to Ed Ricart for setting up the show for us!

Seeking to re-contextualize unique sonic vocabularies and develop new methods for improvisation, the newly-formed quartet of Jacob Zimmerman (Berkeley, CA), Randy Pingrey (Boston, MA), Jesse Ward (Houston, TX) and Joe Moffett (Brooklyn, NY) will be embarking on their very first tour this summer. Before dispersing to various parts of the country the members met each other as jazz performance majors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Their interests coalesced under a unique combination of mentorship and instruction – each studying under composer Anthony Coleman and free improvising guitarist Joe Morris. Long standing duo, trio, and large ensemble work exists between the group, however this will be their first time reuniting to develop their music as a quartet. The focus of the tour will be to present new original compositions by each member, as well as exploring and developing the group’s unique approach to improvisation. See below for a calendar, sounds, bios, and links. Stay tuned as more events will be added as they are confirmed.

Calendar

7/20/10 Tuesday – 3-3:30 pm Eastern Time
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax) Jesse Ward (guitar)
Jesse and I will be guests on Ken Field’s Radio Show The New Edge on WMBR Boston, MA

7/21/10 Wednesday – 8 pm
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Randy Pingrey (trombone), Jesse Ward (guitar)
3bone: Tom Plsek, Randy Pingrey, and Ryan Dragon (trombones)
Performing at The Outpost
186 1/2 Hampshire Street Cambridge, MA
Cost: $10 donation

7/23/10 Friday – 7:30 pm
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Randy Pingrey (trombone), Jesse Ward (guitar)
The Sophisticates, Crystal Pascucci – director, personnel TBA
Hartford Sound Alliance, Bill Solomon – director, personnel TBA
Performing at the Charter Oak Cultural Center Gallery
21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford, CT
Cost: Donation

7/25/10 Sunday – 6 pm
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Randy Pingrey (trombone), Jesse Ward (guitar)
Performing at the Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street New York, NY
Cost: Free

7/28/10 Wednesday – Doors at 7:30, Music starts at 8 pm
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Jesse Ward (guitar)
Aram Shelton Quartet
Performing at the Bossa Upstairs
2463 18th Street NW, Washington DC
Cost: ???

7/29/10 Thursday – 8 pm
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Randy Pingrey (trombone), Jesse Ward (guitar)
The Scriptors: Bryan Rodgers, Matt Engle, Mike Szekely
Q-1: Bonnie Lander, Nick Millevoi, Dan Blacksberg
Performing at Pageant Soloveev
607 Bainbridge Street Philadelphia, PA
Cost: Donation

7/30/10 Friday – 8 pm
Jacob Zimmerman (alto sax), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Randy Pingrey (trombone), Jesse Ward (guitar)
Matt Plummer’s “Perhaps You’ve Heard of Us”
Performing at the Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St. Brooklyn, NY
Cost: Donation

Press

Go here to read an interview Jacob did for the Brilliant Corners Boston Jazz Blog

Bios

Jacob Zimmerman – www.jacobrexzimmerman.com

Saxophonist and composer Jacob Zimmerman (b.1986) studied at the renowned Garfield High School in Seattle, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone Performance. Zimmerman is currently a 2nd year Masters Composition student at Mills College in Oakland, California. His teachers have included Roscoe Mitchell, Jerry Bergonzi, James Fei, Joe Morris, Anthony Coleman, Allan Chase, and John Mallia.  Zimmerman has performed at a variety of prominent venues and festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

Randy Pingrey – www.randypingrey.com

Boston-based trombonist and composer Randy Pingrey has been an active participant in many genres of music. He has been fortunate enough to perform and record in New York and Boston with jazz musicians like Frank Carlberg, Bill McHenry, Anthony Coleman, and Jerry Bergonzi, with indie rock bands like Bon Iver, Akron Family, and Land of Talk, and with classical musicians like Norman Bolter, John Faieta, and Doug Wright. Randy is a graduate of New England Conservatory and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and is currently working on writing music which combines his love for improvised jazz music with an interest in the American experimental music tradition.

Jesse Ward

Guitarist Jesse Ward attended the Houston High School for Performing Arts, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. At the conservatory his teachers included Ben Monder, Joe Morris, Anthony Coleman, and Brad Shepik among others. In 2008 Jesse was the recipient of the Jonathan Keith award from the Boston Microtonal Society for his work composing with microtones. Most recently he has assumed the position of band leader at the Ashford Community Church in Texas.

Joe Moffett – www.myspace.com/joemoffett

Joe Moffett is a Brooklyn-based trumpet player and improviser.  He has been involved in a number of projects which range from solo trumpet performances, to touring with his own ensembles, to performing as a section player and soloist in Joe Morris’s Go Go Mambo, which traveled to Spain in 2006 and 2007 and also performed at the 2009 Vision Festival in New York City.  Joe is the co-founder of a number of New York and Philadelphia-based ensembles, including Gleason’s Twins, a trumpet-voice duo that performs settings of its own text.  He is also a member of Bird Fly Yellow, a quartet that in 2010 performed Julius Hemphill’s Flat Out Jump Suite as part of the Ars Nova Series in Philadelphia.  He has performed in a large variety of venues, from Brooklyn’s Southpaw to the Jamaica Plain Library in Boston, Mass.  Other venues at which Joe has appeared include the Stone and ABC No Rio in New York, the Heaven Gallery in Chicago, and the Lily Pad and the Mobius Gallery in Boston.  In addition to musical performances, Joe has given readings of his poetry and currently has a poem published on EOAGH, an online journal.

Notes:

* Aram Shelton’s Fast Citizens — “Big News” — Two Cities (Delmark, 2009) … A band that used to be fronted by drummer reeds player Keefe Jackson but is now considered to be of rotating leadership, according to the CD cover. Shelton’s turn, at first glance, adds more abstraction to the mix, but it’s still a good free-jazz band with a rich late-’60s influence and a penchant for crazy solos, especially when it’s Fred Lonberg-Holm’s turn (cello).  Looking forward to giving this one a close listen later on.

* Noah Creshevsky — “Red Carpet” — To Know and Not To Know (Tzadik, 2007) … I’m not familiar with Creshevsky’s modern-classical work. This particular piece is a manic jumble, apparently built of spliced-up segments from a chamber ensemble.  The music sounds like it was active and jumpy in the first place and becomes even more so after Creshevsky’s edit.  Big three-minute fun, and it even ends on a traditional, classical-sounding final note.

* Gordon Beeferman — “No Meat” — Music for an Imaginary Band [7"] (Generate, 2009) … One of the three aforementioned 7″ vinyl releases we got from Generate. This one’s a jazz septet that puts the emphasis on the horns in a post-’60s setting. I may end up spinning both sides quite a lot.

* Komeda Project — “Ballad for Bernt” — Requiem (WM, 2009) … I don’t know the music of Krzysztof Komeda. I do know the name, and that he’s a Polish film composer and jazz musician. So, I don’t know how typical this set of Komeda compositions is. As with the Herbie Nichols Project, the Komeda Project bears the goal of presenting its namesake composer’s music. This album doesn’t have the heaviness that I’d assumed Komeda would bear (that’s prejudice about Eastern European moods on my part); songs I’ve sampled have had the strong, traditional air of a midsized jazz ensemble. Even this one, which evokes a bit of a sad mood but doesn’t get despairing.

* Zevious — “Glass Tables” — After the Air Raid (Cuneiform, 2009) … Prog with a touch of menace in the guitar. A fairly heavy trio that favors the loud. Made for a very good pairing with the new Henry Threadgill album.

POP NOTES: Chloe Makes Music makes pretty solo guitar-and-vocal songs, bright and with a not-too-introspective vocal outlook. (“You have been stuck like a penny for months in the couch…”) ….. Greyboy Allstars aren’t really pop; they’re funky groove jazz that happens to feel poppy in the context of my shows.  They’re tied to the acid-jazz ’90s but presented music with more depth than most acid jazz had. We had tickets to give away to a show of theirs, so I gave ‘em a spin.

The subject was Aram Shelton, who had a few gigs coming up that he wanted to publicize. At the same time, this morning’s interview was a good way for me to find out what he’s up to, as far as organizing shows. He’s been a busy guy since coming here from Chicago to attend Mills College — and that’s without his Ton Trio intact, as one member’s fled to the midwest.

Here’s what he has (or had) coming up, mostly under the banner of what he’s calling the Active Music Series:

* Active Music Orchestra, a 13-piece group that has a monthly residency at The Uptown. This is particularly exciting, because the group will stay together long enough to cohere into a group, something that’s so hard to accomplish these days. They’ll be playing various group members’ compositions. Sadly, I’m a day late in telling you about this, but they’ll be back on the second Tuesday in November.

* Ton Trio will be making an appearance, with Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly, at Bluesix on Thurs., Oct. 15.

* Aram is part of the newly re-formed Go-Go Fightmaster, which has a new CD (yes!) and is playing as part of the SIMM series: Sunday, Oct. 18, at the SF Musicians’ Union Hall (116 9th St. near Mission).

Aram’s compiling a blog of his shows. Awesome title: The Last Time I Played.

I’m grateful to Aram for being my first guinea pig. Not that a morning interview is painful or anything; it’s just that Friday afternoon made for easy scheduling no matter who wanted to be on the show, whether live or via phone, whether in person or from the east coast. But when you’re talking Tuesday morning, you get interference from day jobs, sleep cycles, and kids. I sense a lot of Monday evening pre-recording sessions in my interviewing future.

Last week, I finally made it to one of The Uptown‘s avant-garde Tuesdays. Took long enough. For several months now, the club — normally a rock venue, and one with a nicely renovated bar at that — has handed the keys over to the improv crowd for an evening of no-cover music.

It’s great when clubs do that. The Uptown is particularly well suited for it, because the regulars who do trickle in on these otherwise slow nights don’t have to watch the music. There’s a long wall separating the stage and performace space from the bar. The sound goes around the wall easily, so the bar patrons and the musicians are probably distracting each other the whole time — but as bar gigs go, it’s not bad at all.

(Flashback: This space used to be called the Black Box, and the bar half was an art gallery. Moe! Staiano’s Moe!kestra did a gig here where two orchestras were set up in each half, with Moe! sprinting back and forth to conduct each group. I wasn’t there, but the results were recorded for the album, 2 Rooms Of Uranium In 83 Markers: Conducted Improvisations Vol. II.)

I hope they keep this up. Don’t know what the bill is for September yet. (These shows tend to get posted to the Uptown’s calendar only a week or two ahead of time).

Anyway, a summary of what I managed to see:

Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey — A sax/drums duet from NYC who had crossed this way a few months ago on tour. This time, they were on vacation and just taking the opportunity for a quick gig. They did two mid-sized improvisations, probably 10 minutes each, showing off a good rapport and a nice variety of styles. I’m familiar with Rainey through his work with… well, everybody, especially Tim Berne, so it was great to get a chance to chat with him for a minute or two.

Tim Perkis, Phillip Greenlief, G.E. Stinson — An interesting middle piece with the lights down, and abstract video projected onto a screen. After a while, you could tell the video consisted mostly of outdoor shots of streets and lonely buildings, distorted beyond recognition. The music shifted from ominous droning sounds to occasional slashes of noise, particularly from Stinson (guitar). Greenlief’s sax often stuck to subtle tones and bleats, blending into the mix of electronics (Perkis) and guitar effects.

Aram Shelton Quartet (pictured up top) — Back to more acoustic-minded improvising, although the quartet included Perkis for some more electronics fun. The quartet, rounded out by Damon Smith (bass) and Jordan Glenn (drums), played a few good improvisations. Nice stuff, and a good contrast to Shelton’s jazzier work with Dragons 1976 and the Ton Trio (as noted here).

[Weasel Walter] dials down his usual frenzied energy on the brand-new Last Distractions (Singlespeed) with reedist Aram Shelton (another former Chicagoan) and cornetist Josh Berman, and he’s part of an unlikely meeting with drummer Grant Calvin Weston—a longtime cohort of James Blood Ulmer—on last year’s Nassira (Amulet). He’s also put out several albums via his own UgExplode imprint—which he’s been running since his Chicago days—where he plays with folks like Mary Halvorson, Peter Evans, Greg Kelley, and Marc Edwards. He also recently released a knockout archival dig of music by no wave combo the Toy Killers (pictured), The Unlistenable Years.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone Tour America (improvisedcommunications.wordpress.com)
• Saturday! Halvorson/Pavone, The Human, Words for Snow (newthingproductions.blogspot.com)
• Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone – August 1st (metropolisunderground.wordpress.com)
• Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evans Live on WFMU (wfmu.org)

….. Ton Trio is led by former Chicagoite Aram Shelton. Nice sax trio pieces, little slices of free jazz. Liking this one a lot.

….. The new Tony Malaby features more of the expanded “outside” direction he’s taken on his recent albums Warblepeck and especially Tamarindo, and on his work with Kris Davis.

….. Jason Rigby‘s The Sage is an interesting slice of modern jazz with soloing that’s willing to take chances. Trumpeter Russ Johnson has a lot to do with that. I’m really digging the track “The Archer,” which uses Rhodes piano (Mikw Holober) to nice effect, creating a grooving double-soloing space that’s not quite fusion-y.

….. Speaking of fusion. I was inspired to dig up Christian McBride‘s stellar 3-CD Live at Tonic set after reading his touching essay about being a Michael Jackson fan growing up. His new album, Kind of Brown, just recently got to us and wasn’t immediately available for me — besides, the track I picked opened up the fusion gates for the Billy Cobham track. Fusion doesn’t always agree with me, but I enjoy letting the stuff take flight once in a while.

….. Sexmob meets Medeski is pretty much what you’d think, especially since it’s live: Rollicking spy-jazz themes, splashy organ grooves, and quiet avant-garde breaks that lead into big loud group segments.

….. Clara Rockmore was a classical-music theremin player who died in 1998.  I took this track from a 1987 CD of hers.

….. “Bubble Wrap” by Brian B. James is a 22-minute drone — more like an electronic tone with a slow, slow pulse to it. Probably sounded terrible to anybody listening in their car.

Album titles link into KZSU’s Zookeeper database; the icon means there’s a review or description there as well. Little links that say things like “more here” go to previous entries in this blog.

Artist	Track		Album/Label
Malaby, Tony	Obambo		Paloma Recio New World Records
Shepik, Brad(more here)	Blindspot (North America)		Human Activity Suite Songlines Recordings
Roach, Steve & Unis, Vir	Synaptic Gap		Body Eletric Projekt Records
Haque, Fareed & The Flat Earth Ensemble	Bengali Bud		Flat Planet Owl Studios
Noonan, Sean / Brewed By Noon(noted here)	Courage		Boxing Dreams Songlines Recordings
Rigby, Jason	Magenta		Sage, The Fresh Sound New Talent
Romus, Rent/Lords Of Outland	Gasburger Sheep Slaughter House		You Can Sleep When You’re Dead Edgetone Records
Bloom Project(more here)	Intimation Dusk		Sudden Aurora Edgetone Records
Lotz, Mark Alban / Lotz Of Music(more here)	Corny Water Music		Bite! Loplop Productions
Ton Trio	The Way		Way, The Singlespeed Music
	– (4:00 p.m.) –
Lehman, Steve Octet(written up here)	As Things Change (I Remain The Same)		Travail, Transformation, And Flow Pi Recordings
Rockmore, Clara	Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentiment		Art of the Theremin, the Delos International
Ross, Don & Andy Mckee	Tight Trite Night		Thing That Came From Somewhere, The Candyrat Records
Djll, Tom	Mag Wheels [w/Myles Boisen]		Mutootator Soul on Rice Productions
Léandre, Joëlle & Quentin Sirjacq	Hallucinations		Out Of Nowhere Actuelle Cd
Brian B. James	Bubble-Wrap [excerpt]		Bubble-Wrap-Covered Record Diy Release
Gordon, John William	G.V.O.L.		Technot Self Release
Sexmob Meets Medeski	Black And Tan Fantasy		Live In Willisau 2006 Thirsty Ear Recordings
Experimental Dental School	Earthquake		Forest Field (No Label Information)
Jensson, Hilmar	Morthanna		Tyft Songlines Recordings
Carrier, Francois & Michel Lambert	Apercu		Nada Creative Sources Recordings
	– (5:00 p.m.) –
Aaly Trio with Ken Vandermark	Ghosts		Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe Wobbly Rail
McBride, Christian	Technicolor Nightmare		Live At Tonic Ropeadope Music Entertain
Billy Cobham’s Glass Menagerie	Situation Comedy		Smokin’ Elektra Records (West Coast)
Spirit Moves Us, The	Chunk		Mudwagon, Vol. 1 Edgetone Records
Wilkes, Corey & Abstrakt Pulse(more here)	Cries From Tha Ghetto		Cries From Tha Ghetto Pi Recordings

Now, “free” is relative: There’s a $3 service charge involved, and Yoshi’s has a nominal two-drink minimum per set (although in my experience, the waitstaff rarely enforces the second drink). So, figuring in the price of a single soft drink, you’re looking at about $6, not counting parking if you end up having to pay for it.

That’s still about 1/4 of what it ought to be. At a time when Yoshi’s is putting up $50 John Zorn tickets and $55 Mos Def shows (with a backing jazz band, which sounds intriguing, actually), it’s a nice gesture — or, possibly, a concession to their inability to fill the house these days.

The bad news is that this conflicts with an 8:00-10:00 p.m. jazz show at the Make-Out Room, with a promising lineup:

• Doublestroke: Myles Boisen (guitar), John Hanes (drums)
• Cylinder: Aram Shelton (sax), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Kjell Nordeson (drums)

It, too, is free. The M-OR’s calendar describes this as part of a “First Mondays” series curated by Johnston and Mezzacappa, which sounds like something worth supporting.

7.29.08 The Camel, RVA

1) I Crudeli

2) Through a Glass Darkly

3) The Silence

4) Security Lock

5) GTO

6) Nero

Who: Aram Shelton’s Arrive with Glows in the Dark
When: Tuesday,  7/29 show starts at 8:30pm
Where: The Camel, 1621 W Broad St. (804) 353-4901
Cost: $5
Ages: ALL AGES!!!

Straight from Chicago’s fervent creative jazz scene comes saxophonist Aram Shelton’s group Arrive.  Brought to you by the one and only Glows in the Dark, who will be supporting them in this joint venture to the outer regions!  These guys don’t come around often, so catch them while they’re here.  The walls at The Camel are still shaking from the last time Tim Daisy was here with Ken Vandermark!

Also, for anyone interested in my random film thoughts, I should have some soon on the new wave of French Horror we’ve been seeing lately.