“Free-jazz” (Used 14 times)

I confess it's taken me longer to get this post together than it should have.  I definitely have the holidays to blame, some family obligations, the usual work, the usual play.  But honestly the main reason is that I have been thinking about what to write, and how best to articulate why I am such a huge fan of these three musicians individually, and then why getting them to play as a group on my show was such an enormous coup.  And I think I figured it out.

C. Spencer Yeh (violin/voice) is probably best known as the founder of Burning Star Core, a noise band with a surprising elasticity in terms of sound, timbre, texture, form.  He has played with probably every major "noise" artist you can think of and in weirder situations with people like Jandek.  Chris Corsano (drums/percussion) has been moonlighting with Bjork of late, and has a longstanding free jazz duo with Paul Flaherty that peels paint.  Again, he's collaborated with an enormous range of stylists and kingpins, from free jazz masters to heavy noise blasters, from pop stars to beardos.  Nate Wooley (amplified trumpet) is a specialist-in-all-styles type player who digs Charlie Shavers and grew up playing in big bands, has spent time doing lowercase music, traditional-sounding free jazz, post-bop, electroacoustic improv and extreme/harsh noise.  The three are primetime improvisors, it's the defining element that links all three.  But what appeals to me about each of them is that they don't really "fit" anywhere.  Noise, free jazz, post rock, bebop, punk, scuzz.  If you are to play with them, you are to accommodate them, to get with the sound and discard the baggage, to open it up wide and be humble and just cruise. 

They put in two long pieces. The first was a culmination of a handful of live performances of Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain, a version of which was released on Important Records (with David Grubbs and Paul Lytton).  The second is unadulturated free improvisation.  Please enjoy.  Many thanks to Mike Sin for engineering.

It's been very difficult for me to even think about my Free Music Archive year-end list. I mean, we haven't even been around for a year yet, and there are already three times as many mp3s as when we launched in April. My lists keep expanding, while at the same time I start realizing how much I haven't had a chance to hear yet, and I start to go a little bit insane!

It is worthwhile though to take a moment and reflect as time speeds on by, and I thought I'd start with this mix and just focus...We'll begin with some meditative instrumental tracks, then move on to sparse folk with psychedelic fingerpicking and spacious, hypnotic sounds that sooth the mind and body.

A year or so ago, WFMU received a bunch of releases from the Bug Incision label, a small high quality improv label based in Calgary, Canada.  Now honestly, I don't know much about Calgary, but I was transfixed by this scene happening up there being documented by Bug Incision. I have a tendency to root for the underdog and so was intrigued by the label immediately, but the music lived up to all expectations.  There seemed to be a wide berth of sounds, sometimes coming from the same people, from your basic free jazz descended improv, to grating noise, skittering improv, toys and "tiny instruments," an anything-goes mentality that seemed to be free of dogma.  On further inspection I noted Bug Incision also released some fine music from Ben Hall's Broken Research/Detroit orbit, a midwestern noise powwow featuring C. Spencer Yeh and Ryan Jewell, as well as a few things with Jack Wright, somewhat of a teacher/patron saint to many of the leading younger North American free players.  In other words, good company they keep. 

I contacted Chris Dadge who runs Bug Incision and appears on many of the label's releases, about possibly doing something for my radio show and while he doesn't get to the NYC area often he agreed to record a set especially for the program to send to me.  I left it up to him and he put together an exceptional improv set by the Bent Spoon Duo, his long running group with Scott Munro.  Their set-up is highly portable; a few battery powered amps, maybe a snare drum, small percussion, some tiny Casio keyboards, perhaps a guitar, etc. which is remarkable in its simplicity, and yet belies the group's sound, so much bigger than the sum of its parts.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Please stream or download via the Free Music Archive.  Thanks to Chris Dadge and Scott Munro for taking the time to play and engineer this recording.

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