Category: Recommendations/Reviews

I am cross posting this from openearsmusic.org:

Open Ears is pleased to present (or help present) two great shows by world class improvisers from other parts of our world.

On Tuesday April 20, in our regular Tuesday night Blue Nile time and space, we will present Conference Call. This quartet features musicians from Europe and the US, and they have made several great recordings. Please come hear them live.

More info here: http://www.michaeljefrystevens.com/?page=5&t=2
and here: http://www.gebhard-ullmann.com/cc.htm

Then on Monday, April 26, along with Anxious Sounds, Valid Records, & Spyboy Productions, we will present Peter Brötzmann & Hamid Drake. This show will happen at 9 PM at the Big Top, 1638 Clio St in New Orleans. This tour is the first time they have worked as a duo in a number of years, and the reviews from the early tour stops have been great.

For New Orleans to remain a viable tour stop for great traveling musicians like these, the folks that like this music have to come to the shows. These concerts are not grant funded, they are operating in the good old free enterprise system, and members of our community have stepped up to guarantee the artists’ fees if the paid attendance doesn’t cover it. If you value having this music presented live in our community, please attend the shows, and bring some friends with you.

I now present, in its entirety, Andy “Scatterjazz” Durta’s announcement of a great show that will happen this Saturday night (2/13) in New Orleans.

…as David Baker, the bebop teacher from Indiana, used to shout to his classes:

” PEOPLE !!!!! ”

perhaps the gig of the spring (besides last Sunday’s game!) and beyond is
THIS SATURDAY. FEB. 13th at ZEITGEIST (1618 Oretha Castle Haley) at 9:00pm.
Yes it is a ridiculously busy day and night. Yes you can and should, nay must, slide it in between Endymion and the M.O.M.S. ball and the Superhero ball and whatever else is on your plate.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, it is one night only, there was no choice in dates, and it will never happen again….and I NEED your attendance and support !!!
————————————————————————
**** South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo
w/ Dennis Gonzalez’ Yells at Eels
(award-winning mind-blowing music from Dallas and around the world)…
with special guest Tim Green…
@ Zeitgeist— Saturday Feb. 13th —- 9:00pm sharp. ****
——————————————————————-
Louis Moholo (actually, Louis Moholo-Moholo) is one of the major figures of South African music and international creative music of the last half-century… a pivotal figure in the ‘Township Jive’ scene of Cape Town, South Africa in late 50’s and early 60s, he was a youthful contemporary and collaborator of such folks as Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela… He was the leader of the great exodus of jazz stars to London from South Africa during apartheid in 1964, when the pressures against being a mixed-race jazz group (eg: the legendary Blue Notes) in Cape Town became too great to bear… he (along with the rest of the Blue Notes– Dudu Pokwana, Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza…) became the anchor of the tremendously fruitful axis of South Africa-British free-swing that produced such groups as Assagai, The Brotherhood of Breath, Isipingo, Dedication Orchestra, Vive La Black, etc…. also a regular collaborator with English jazz-prog groups like Soft Machine, and all the major figures of the English scenes such as Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton… and other major improvisers like Peter Brotzmann, Misha Mengelberg, David Murray, William Parker… as well as the great Cecil Taylor and a 30 year working relationship with our own Kidd Jordan… and everyone else under that sort of sun… his music is creative and open yet always deeply rooted in the South African swing.. not unlike some of our great creative drummers in New Orleans who, no matter how out they might go, are also rooted in parade and street beats… Louis Moholo has never been to New Orleans, and it is likely that he never will be again.. he is now over 70 years old and once again living in South Africa after 40 years absence…he will be in New Orleans just over 12 hours, before he flies to Dallas to board a flight back to his homeland… Do come make him welcome, and support this sort if undertaking if ever there is a chance for you to so!!!

———————- and his collaborators for the evening???—————–

Dennis Gonzalez, who is no slouch himself in the world of sound art….. Dennis is one of the most in-demand and beautiful trumpeters in international creative music… A master soloist, composer and bandleader, in the mid 70s he founded the “Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo-Impressionistic Music,” and has been touring the world regularly as a performer and teacher since that time, recording over 40 albums on nearly a dozen top labels for new music spread across the planet. In addition to his longstanding mash-ups with players uch as Henry Grimes, Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman, Nels Cline, Louis Moholo…. he has also had a three-decades long recording and performing party with New Orleans’ masters Kidd Jordan, Clyde Kerr, Jr., Alvin Fielder, and Tim Green… He also has some tenebrous ties to Michael Ray and the Cosmic Krewe, but that was before my time here and you will have to ask someone else to explain…. his group Yells at Eels also consists of his sons, Stefan (percusions) and Aaron (bass) Gonzalez (who were here last spring with the award-winning Portuguese group “Humanization 4-tet”)…and as Tim Green told me when i asked him for a quote last year before their visit.. “Those kids are AWESOME”
——————————

this is a ridiculously special event… the timing is not ideal, in midst of carnival and Endymion night.. but there was no other option.

anyone interested in jazz, edgy jazz, South Africa, African music as a whole, music made in the quest for freedom beyond the sound barrier, or just master artists, would be witnessing a unique and deeply special concert…

please let me know if i can clarify any further…. Louis Moholo has been in the U.S. to play a very few concerts with a group led by outstanding Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, and then a show in Dallas with “Yells at Eels”, then this show in New Orleans, then he flies home to South Africa… a master of this level is rare to have come through… in fact, there are three true masters here for this event, and two budding ones… i do hope you can come!! as always, your host rene at the Zeitgeist will have funky international snacks and beverages for your consumption. SPREAD THE WORD!!!!
cheers, andy durta.. www.scatterjazz.com

PJ (I’ll use his initials so I don’t find myself on one of his lists) over at A Blog Supreme has posted his list of lists. They are all good. My fave is below, but I must stick up a little for my trombone playing brother. It’s not our fault we make lots of condensation, and yes it is more condensation than spit.

The Year-End List Of Lists 2009 – A Blog Supreme : NPR:

“Most courteous members of Dave Douglas’ Brass Ecstasy, by volume of spit emptied on our carpets during our Tiny Desk Concert:
T-1. Dave Douglas
T-1. Vincent Chancey
T-1. Nasheet Waits
T-1. Marcus Rojas
2. Luis Bonilla (we still love you anyway, man!)”

Destination:Out has just posted an excellent guest post by Steve Lehman. In his words:

…I thought it might be nice to share a bit of information about some of the musical communities that I’ve been exposed to over the past 10 years. And in particular, to highlight those European composers, who emerged after 1970, whose work has helped me to think about both composition and improvisation in new ways.

The post is presented in the usual d:o style with great audio samples. It is a nice read, and listen.

On an unrelated note, the Lucky 7s Pluto Junkyard got a nice nod from Matt Merewitz in his “Top 10 of 2009.” Matt’s list also includes records by Lucky 7s colleagues Josh Berman, and Jason Adasiewicz.

Amongst the large number of “holiday/black friday sale” emails in my inbox this morning, was one from the Greenleaf Music Store. They have some cool Holiday Bundles at pretty good prices. I just downloaded the Paperback Series Bundle. There were a couple of records in this series that I have been wanting to get, but hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. I couldn’t pass up 4 albums for $28 as FLAC downloads ($25 for the mp3s). If you want to treat yourself to some good music, it is worth checking out, and as I’ve said before, their store is super easy to deal with.