WNUR Jazz Report, 1/27/97

NEWS

• The interview with Evan Parker that we broadcast in November 1995 when he was in town for the FMP Festival is now available in transcribed form on the web at http://www.wnur.org/jazz/artists/parker.evan/.
• WNUR's local music show, Airplay, will feature jazz and improvised music again this Saturday, February 1st, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. Appearing will be Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls and Ben Vida. Drummer Sirota's debut CD, Rebel Roots, has been receiving a lot of airplay on the jazz show and includes compositions by Sirota, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, and the group's guitarist, Jeff Parker. Ben Vida is a local experimental guitarist who will lead a group featuring Josh Abrams (bass), Liz Payne (bass), and Jim Dorling (harmonium).
• Creative improvised music, after a flurry of notoriety and publicity in the 1960's, went "underground" in the 1970's, a time that saw the proliferation of small musician-run labels, loft concerts, and the like. Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio, based in Woodstock, New York from 1971 to 1984, played a vital role in keeping the music alive during that period and fostering a sense of community and generational continuity between musicians. The roster of musicians who were involved with the studio at one time or another during its existence reads like a who's who of new jazz, from big names like Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and Lee Konitz to rising stars (at the time) like Marilyn Crispell and George Lewis, and even including a few now-Chicagoans like Mars Williams and Hamid Drake (nicknamed "chai baba" for regularly brewing chai tea for the entire school). Robert E. Sweet's new book Music Universe, Music Mind tells the history of the studio and is packed with great anecdotes about musicians; it's also interesting as a document of what's behind the survival of creative music financially and organizationally. (Arborville Publishing, ISBN 0-9650438-4-3; see http://www.ingress.com/~drnerve/nerve/pages/musuniv.shtml for full info.)
• WNUR jazz's monthly airplay leaders for 1996 recently appeared in Jazz Now magazine, print and online editions; the online edition is at http://www.dnai.com/~jazzinfo/.
• Attention listeners: our new jazz schedule is on the web at http://www.wnur.org/jazzshow/; there has been some schedule-shuffling, so check to see when your favorite DJ's are now on. WNUR's weekend programming is different this quarter as well; check http://www.wnur.org/schedule.html. The biggest change to our weekend programming is the return of WNUR's Classical show, featuring contemporary composition every Saturday afternoon from noon to 2:00.

ADDS THIS WEEK

[New releases]

• Ken Schaphorst: Over the Rainbow (Accurate)
  Schaphorst-arranged Harold Arlen tunes performed by Medeski Martin & Wood, Charlie Kohlhase, Either/Orchestra, Dadadah, and others.
• Spanish Fly: Fly by Night (Accurate)
• Bobby Vega: Down the Road (Bean Bag)
• Joe Lovano: Celebrating Sinatra (Blue Note)
• Benny Green: Kaleidoscope (Blue Note)
• Dana Reason: Primal Identity (Deep Listening)
  Pianist Reason is joined by shakuhachi player Philip Gelb on two tracks.
• Mingus Big Band: Live in Time (2 CD's) (Dreyfus)
• Tomasz Stanko Quartet@: Matka Joanna (ECM)
  With Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, Tony Oxley.
• Derek Bailey: Lace (Emanem)
  Solo guitar, live in L.A., 1989.
• Bob Nieske's Wolf Soup: My Desire (GM)
• Bill DeArango: Anything Went (GM)
  With Joe Lovano. DeArango was active as a bop guitarist in the 40's; now 75, his current work is influenced by free jazz.
• Charles Socci: For Joey (no label)
• Blake'n'Blue: Burning in F and G (no label)
  Local guitarist Doug Blake.
• Bevan/Frangenheim/Noble: Twisters (Scatter)
  Tony Bevan (reeds), Alexander Frangenheim (bass), Steve Noble (drums), all of the new generation of British free improvisors.
• Frank Morgan: Bop! (Telarc)
• various: Jammin' in the Bronx (TropiJazz)
• Roots of Communication: Roots of Communication (Unit)
• Rojo: Rojo! (Unit)
  Spanish sound poet Bartolome Ferrando with musicians Markus Eichenberger, Fredi Luscher, Alfred Zimmerlin.
• Stephen Scott: The Beautiful Thing (Verve)
• various: The Thunderclaps CD (X-OR)
  Thunderclaps is a series of improvised music concerts taking place at Korzo Theater in Den Haag, the Netherlands; this CD collects pieces recorded at the series, including a Derek Bailey/Eugene Chadbourne duet, Stephan Wittwer's trio Sludge 2000, solo Sainkho Namchylak, a trio of label proprietor Luc Houtkamp with Misha Mengelberg and Gert Jan Prins, and more. In X-OR's "Field Recordings" series, limited edition of 500.
• Bluth/Messina/Chattin: Live at Orfeo (Zinnia)

[New reissues]

• James Blood Ulmer: Tales of Captain Black (DIW)
  Classic document of early harmolodics, with Ornette Coleman.
• Miles Davis: Plays the Blues (Prestige)
• Ella Fitzgerald: Sings the Blues (Prestige)
• John Coltrane: Plays the Blues (Prestige)
• Pucho Brown: The Best of Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers (Prestige)
  Late-sixties Latin grooves.

[Not new, but new to WNUR]

• Mal Waldron: Black Glory (Enja)
  1971 trio with Jimmy Woode and Pierre Favre.
• Cecil Taylor: Spring of Two Blue J's (Jazz View)
  Half solo, half quartet with Lyons, Sirone, Cyrille. Originally self-released by Cecil on his Unit Core label; beware, the CD is remastered from vinyl and is of dubious legality.
• Ornette Coleman: Live at the Tivoli '65 (Magnetic)
  With Izenzon and Moffett.
• Blake'n'Blue: A Little Chi-Town Sleaze (no label)
• Shelley Manne: The Three and The Two (OJC)
  Reissue of two 10"s, one by Manne with Jimmy Giuffre and Shorty Rogers, one by Manne with Russ Freeman. This is an essential disc for anyone interested in early Giuffre. "Abstract No. 1" is a free improvisation, one of the earliest (1954) to have been recorded.
• Max Roach: Plays Charlie Parker (Verve)

JAZZ SHOW TOP 25

* denotes reissue, @ denotes not real new.

1. Sam Rivers: Concept (Rivbea)
2. Gerry Hemingway Quintet: Perfect World (Random Acoustics)
3. John Carter & Bobby Bradford: Tandem 2 (Emanem)
4. Dexter Gordon*: Plays the Blues (Prestige)
5. Agasul Orchester: No Turning Back (Unit)
6. Ornette Coleman@: The Belgrade Concert (Jazz Door)
7. Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang: Ask the Sun (OkkaDisk)
8. Vinny Golia Large Ensemble@: Tutto Contare (9 Winds)
9. David S. Ware Quartet: Godspelized (DIW)
10. Wes Montgomery: Encores Vol. 2: Blue'n'Boogie (Milestone)
11. Matthew Shipp Duo: With Roscoe Mitchell (2.13.61)
12. John Patton Quintet: This One's for Ja (DIW)
13. Northwoods Improvisers: Fog and Fire (Arc)
14. Mario Schiano: Social Security (Victo)
15. Coleman Hawkins*: Plays the Blues (Prestige)
16. Northwoods Improvisers: Spinning (Arc)
17. Erik Friedlander@: The Watchman (Tzadik)
18. Don Byron: Bug Music (Nonesuch)
19. James P. Johnson*: The Original James P. Johnson, 1942-1945 (Smithsonian Folkways)
20. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Lausanne 1960, 2nd Set (TCB)
21. Bobby Previte: Too Close to the Pole (Enja)
22. Dodo Marmarosa*: Up in Dodo's Room (Jazz Classics)
23. Joe Henderson: Big Band (Verve)
24. Brian Gephart & Bob Long Quartet: Water Logic (no label)
25. Joseph Jarman*: As If It Were the Seasons (Delmark)