Archive for the ‘Listening’ Category

A great part one of a new feature on the Secret Society blog called the Composition Vivisection. Darcy details 10 bars of his piece, Zeno, with written and audio examples.

The caveat:

WARNING: these vivisections are, necessarily, unapologetically technical. As I mentioned in the comments to the previous post, I don’t think listeners ought to feel they need to be concerned about process. The important thing is the art, not the steps along the way. That said, should you, for reasons of your own, actually want to see how the sausage is made, click below to continue reading.

Looking forward to the next installment.

My A to Z listening project fell by the wayside last week. Not because I wasn’t trying — I assure you, I put my all into it. But I couldn’t make it through the E’s. I was pulling my hair out. I now agree with the commenters who thought it was an ill-conceived project. Glad I tried anyway. And I was able to delete about 20 or so albums that I didn’t even know I had that were just plain bad (how did Metallica’s Load get on my computer?!?)

So back to full album listening. Here are a few records, new and old, that I’ve been listening to recently. Please, pass on anything — again, new or old — that you have been digging (or not digging if you want) in the comments section here.

NEW RELEASES:

Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here [XL]
What a voice. With spoken word and grainy singing, interesting percussion and production elements, I keep coming back to this record for more. And the title track is a cover of a Bill Callahan tune masterfully done here.

Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me [Drag City]
The long-awaited — well, at least by some — new album from the folk pixie turned sophisticate long-form songwriter. A sprawling 3 LP (or 3CD) collection of beautifully arranged tunes. My highest of recommendations.

Nels Cline Singers – Initiate [forthcoming Cryptogramophone]
Details on this forthcoming double-disc and an advance track preview of “Grow Closer” at Crypto’s website. The release date can’t come soon enough.

Citay – Dream Get Together [Dead Oceans]
I got turned onto this label last year when Chicago-stalwarts Califone released their last one, and the Gray/Kotche duo On Fillmore did the same. One of their first releases this year was from this band. One thing I love about the album is the guitarist unapologetically goes guitar-hero on the best tracks. Check out the free downloads at the links above.

OLD HAT:

Abercrombie/Holland/DeJohnette – Gateway I
Getting my hands on that $1 set from the new Dave Holland site last month got me going back through his catalog. One of my faves is this one. Still have some of those guitar riffs from “Backwoods Song” written out in my old college notebook somewhere.

Altschul/Bley/Peacock – Virtuosi
Picked this LP up at Laurie’s Planet of Sound in Lincoln Square for $3.99. A steal. Anytime I see Paul Bley’s name on anything, I buy it. Hasn’t failed me yet.

Fleetwood Mac – Then Play On
Also grabbed this one at the same shop. It’s quickly rising up on my Desert Island list. Don’t let the band name fool you. Quite a different band when Peter Green was leading the troupe.

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Also, I’ve have been checking out In The Soul Kitchen from DJ Harry D at 90.3 FM KUSF. Trying to school myself a bit more in R&B. These playlists have been a great start. Keep ‘em coming Harry!

Last week, we noticed Dave Holland launched a new site featuring the new Archival Series: Volume One. The album is killer as you might expect. Not only can you listen to it all the way through at his site, the limited-time offer to buy the MP3s for $1 or $3 for the lossless ends today (Monday, 15th). I suggest you get clicking. From the name “Volume One,” we can only hope for many more to come.

Thanks to Lars Gotrich at ABS for passing this on…

Sun Ra stars in Space Is The Place. Video streaming here.

I have a new listening project. It’s a pretty mammoth undertaking. As you can assume from my job and past posts, I am an avid listener of music. I love vinyl. I love CDs. I love digital. All means to the same end: experiencing great music from jazz to rock, folk to metal, prog to lo-fi and everything in between.

The project? Listening to all the songs in my library in alphabetical order.

I started at the beginning yesterday: “¶ª” from the Trap Door International Psychedelic Mystery Mix (special characters are sorted first). I made it all the way through “Achilles Last Stand” by Led Zeppelin. Today, I started with “Acorda amor” from Joyce’s killer Passarinho Urbano album, and while I write, I went from “Adagio for Strings, Op 11″ to Springsteen’s “Adam Raised A Cain.” Next up: “Adam’s Apple.”

Given the diversity of my library, some of the transitions are pretty rough — the aforementioned Barber to Springsteen is a great example of that. But I am discovering and rediscovering some great tunes from people that have been lost in the massiveness of the library.

I pointed to an interview for the New Yorker awhile back in which Jonny Greenwood said:

SFJ: What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of the MP3 age?

JG: The downside is that people are encouraged to own far more music than they can ever give their full attention to. People will have MP3s of every Miles Davis’ record but never think of hearing any of them twice in a row—there’s just too much to get through. You’re thinking, “I’ve got ‘Sketches of Spain and ‘Bitches Brew’—let’s zip through those while I’m finishing that e-mail.” That abundance can push any music into background music, furniture music.

Read more.

I will admit, I fall into that a lot. I own far more than I can digest. That’s one reason why I like vinyl. 20 minutes, switch, 20 minutes, done. That’s also one reason why I’m doing this. I want at least 1 legitimate play count on every tune, and I want to delete the things I don’t like. Not that play counts are proof I digested everything, but it’s a start in dealing with my library.

It will take me 88 days, 18 hours, 16 minutes, and 56 seconds to get through this. Wish me luck.

Lot o’ guitar noise happening on my speakers as of late. This fit right in.

Early Bird Special: Old and Busted: Songbirds. New Hotness: Avant-noise birds.

Thanks Graham.

This just in…

Festival of New Trumpet Music
Celebrates Woody Shaw (1944-1989)
 
The Woody Shaw Legacy Ensemble: Brass Knights
At the Jazz Standard, New York
 
Sean Jones with Ezana Edwards, Nick Roseboro, trumpets; Mulgrew Miller, piano; Dwayne Burno, bass; musical director Victor Lewis, drums; Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III, Producer
 
MUSIC (all by Shaw)
Joshua C
The Moontrane
Katrina Ballerina
Sweet Love of Mine (Woody Shaw III on drums)
Stepping Stone
 
Stream it on demand at jazzset.npr.org after December 24, the 65th anniversary of Woody Shaw’s birth.

First, there are so many albums that I left off of these lists. I put a few honorable mentions at the end, but there are still so many great albums I’m leaving off. 2009 was a great year for music. I used play counts as one of the measurements of “Best” which really just means “Favorite” to me. Feel free to disagree or pass your list on in the comments section.

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Read the rest of this entry »

“Constellations is a new set of songs written and arranged for the trio. It was recorded in mid tour, and so has a different, perhaps more live, character … Many thanks go to Brad and Jim for their dedications and commitment to the music. They are two of the finest listeners around, and in our three years as atrio, we’ve developed split-second reaction times and true fluidity between roles of soloist and accompanist.” – Dave Douglas, 1995

The HatHut reissue of Constellations is now available at our store with full track samples for your listening pleasure. Click the newly-designed album art above to reach the album page. This disc is also available in the Trio Bundle with Donny McCaslin’s Recommended Tools, Nicole Mitchell’s Indigo Trio, Live in Montreal, and a bonus MP3 download of Tiny Bell Trio Live in Europe.

It had been awhile since I listened to these tracks. Man, what a killer album!

Click here to read the AllAboutJazz review of this reissue.

Douglas’ trumpet, visceral and vocalized, steers most of the tracks, counterpointed by Shepik’s emphatic, rock-tinged guitar and Black’s leathery syncopations. As Douglas observes in his (brief) liner notes, three years down the line Tiny Bell had achieved split-second reaction times and extraordinary fluidity between the roles of soloist and accompanist. Douglas is undoubtedly the leader here but the music is a true collective endeavor. Three exploding stars, a shared focus, and one enduring masterpiece. -Chris May, AAJ

Thanks to Werner Uehlinger at HatHut Records for putting this music out there.

The Quintet continues at the Vanguard tonight. Thanks to all who’ve been and will be there this weekend.

The FLACs of the set from the Vanguard last night are being added to our subscriber downloads database. Those are lossless files that you subscribers can download and sink your ears in to. Thanks to WBGO and NPR for their work. Enjoy.

For non-subscribers, plenty of music to listen to at the NPR Vanguard page. And if you’d like to join our Greenleaf subscriber community, click here to see all the current special offer.

We hope to see you out at the Vanguard. Tickets are available here.

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December 11th, 2009

A quick update on those files. We’ve split the set into tracks rather than the one big file up over at NPR Vanguard page. We cut the chatter, too. So it’s as clean as possible.

Also, of the seven tunes played, four have not been released yet. Those tunes and a lot of the new book that the Quintet have been and will play this weekend is scheduled to be recorded and released on the next Quintet studio album tentatively scheduled for late 2010.