blue lake

Prof. Anthony Braxton's Small Ensemble will play on Wed., Dec. 8, 'O4 at 8 p.m., and his Large Ensemble on Fri., Dec. 1O at 8 p.m., at Crowell Concert Hall at Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT). If you can get there, admission is only $5. Information: 86O-685-3355, www.wesleyan.edu/CFA/fall.html#crowell, http://events.wesleyan.edu/?cat_or_date=music

DENNIS GONZALEZ w/ FARUQ Z. BEY and the NORTHWOODS IMPROVISERS SEPTET November 20 Performance begins at 8 PM Texas Trumpeter (and Silkheart Recording Artist) Dennis Gonzalez joins Faruq Z. Bey (Ex-Groit Galaxy) and the Northwoods Improvisers in a unique collaboration. The ensemble will be exploring the compositions of both leaders in an evening of creative music. Band members include; Mike Carey (Tenor/Flute/BS. Clarinet), Skeeter Sheelton (Tenor/Soprano Sax), Mike Gilmore (Vibes/Marimba), Mike Johnston (Bass), Nick Ashton (drums). Tickets: $10 for UICA Members $13 for the General Public © 2004 Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts 41 Sheldon Blvd SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 www.uica.org

The New York Times has discontinued the "Arts & Leisure Guide," the comprehensive weekly listing of cultural institutions and events that has been an integral part of the Sunday cultural section for decades. If you believe this invaluable guide to New York's cultural landscape must be restored there's a petition to sign asking The New York Times to "save the listings" at: http://www.savethelistings.com

In his forthcoming book “Experimental Music in Black and White: The AACM in New York, 1970-1985,” George Lewis (the trombonist, etc.) is writing about “New Music and Hybridity” with a paragraph dedicated to the critical writing of John Cage (“History of Experimental Music in the United States”) and subsequent histories and reference works which deal with “pan-European high culture music.” He writes, “Musics by people of color (in particular, the high-culture musics of Asia) were most often framed as ‘sources.’” Lewis continues, “However, the development of a notion of ‘experimental’ and ‘American’ that excludes the so-called bebop and free jazz movements, among the most influential American experimentalist musics of the latter part of the twentieth century, is highly problematic. This discursive phenomenon can be partly accounted for by the general absence of discourses on issues of race and ethnicity in criticism on American experimentalism. In later years, this aspect of denial in new music’s intellectual environment tended to separate it from both post-1960s jazz and from other contemporary work in visual art, literature, and dance. More directly, it could be said that part of white-coded experimentalism’s on-going identity formation project depended in large measure upon an Othering of its great and arguably equally influential competitor, the jazz tradition, which is also widely viewed (and views itself) as explicitly experimental. The transcribed orature of musicians endorsing the importance of exploration, discovery, and experiment is quite vast and easy to access; it spans virtually every era of jazz music, and includes nearly every improviser of canonical stature before the rise of Wynton Marsalis in the mid-1980’s. (Footnote to Arthur Taylor’s “Notes and Tones”).” Bowie made a great point above, and Lewis confirms it. So let's listen to what Max Roach has to say about the jazz tradition, or Jackie McLean, or Ornette, while they're still alive and talking. Those are the musicians who created it in the first place and they're still here. Let's not look to our children one day with blank faces when they ask, "Why weren't people paying attention to the aesthetics of free jazz when the pioneers were still alive to help illuminate it?" There is an entire section in Lewis' book called “In the Tradition?” which you may want to read when this book is published. BTW thanks to Mike F. for hipping us to the “Current Musicology” pulication that contains this excerpt.

You mean "All Music"?

Great article. Lacy was so prolific over such a wide geography and long expanse of time he touched thousands if not millions of people and his music leaves a lot for rediscovery. As an artist of process over style, as someone who took the lessons of Monks (i.e. harmonics as they relate to voicing the ensemble) and personalized them, as an artist who blurred the boundary lines between jazz and other music in the world, as an artist who was always on the offensive bringing his music to the people not trying to second guess the people's desires from a defensive, re-active position, Steve Lacy will be remembered for the integrity of his career. As someone who worked with Rex Stewart and Cecil Taylor he remains a musician to be emulated. Not to mention how well he could improvise or the personal sound of his horn.

by Francis Davis Albert Ayler's Holy Ghost http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0441/davis.php by Francis Davis Matthew Shipp's Harmony and Abyss and The Trio Plays Ware http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0441/davis2.php by Francis Davis ICP Orchestra's Aan & Uit http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0441/davis3.php

David, how did it go?

WHAT WE LIVE WITH TURKISH IMPROVISING VOCALIST SAADAT TURKOZ October 12, UICA, 41 Sheldon Blvd. Grand Rapids, MI Enjoy luscious Turkish mezze and wines before an evening of improvised music with What We Live, the collective trio from California, and special guest vocalist, Saadet Turköz, Tuesday, October 12. The reception is at 6:30 PM, and the concert is at 8 PM. The three-person musical collective features Lisle Ellis, bass; Larry Ochs, saxophones; and Donald Robinson, drums and percussion. The daughter of Kazakh refugees, Saadet Turköz grew up with the rich oral and musical traditions of the highlands of Central Asia. When she was 20 she moved to Switzerland where she experienced the new world of music: free jazz, improvisation and experimentation. Tickets are $35 for the general public and $30 for members. (Tickets for just the concert can be purchased for $10 for members and $14 for the general public.) Sponsored in part by the Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan, Pro Helvetia fondation suisse pour la culture and Days Inn Downtown. www.uica.org

WHAT WE LIVE WITH TURKISH IMPROVISING VOCALIST SAADAT TURKOZ October 12, UICA, 41 Sheldon Blvd. Grand Rapids, MI Enjoy luscious Turkish mezze and wines before an evening of improvised music with What We Live, the collective trio from California, and special guest vocalist, Saadet Turköz, Tuesday, October 12. The reception is at 6:30 PM, and the concert is at 8 PM. The three-person musical collective features Lisle Ellis, bass; Larry Ochs, saxophones; and Donald Robinson, drums and percussion. The daughter of Kazakh refugees, Saadet Turköz grew up with the rich oral and musical traditions of the highlands of Central Asia. When she was 20 she moved to Switzerland where she experienced the new world of music: free jazz, improvisation and experimentation. Tickets are $35 for the general public and $30 for members. (Tickets for just the concert can be purchased for $10 for members and $14 for the general public.) Sponsored in part by the Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan, Pro Helvetia fondation suisse pour la culture and Days Inn Downtown. www.uica.org

Oh wow, that drum/saxophone duo section near the end of "Have No Fear" is killin', as exciting as Trane with Roy Haynes doing "Impressions" at Newport, for that matter, which is not something you'll hear on the new Premonition recording. Damn! Yes, I need a Bomba -- this lp is getting on in days.

Watts is all over the new Alice Coltrane Cd on Impulse (along with Jack DeJohnette).

This saxophone, violin and rhythm section band is playing the Velvet Lounge and Katerina's in Chicago soon. The hour long radio program taped last winter is now available to download under the "Digital Media" area of Zach Brock's web page. Please have a listen. http://www.zachbrock.com Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

The story continues..... Dear Lazaro, Thanks for writing. Wow! What a long time ago. Maybe too long. So I'll make you a deal. Send me a copy of my review (which I only vaguely recall, and don't have a reference copy of) and I'll try to respond intelligently. I do remember that at the time, my inclinations were very much toward Cecil, and in Chicago we had a group of players who were finding Cecil-like free music through invented game structures (a 1971 recording of the Ghost Opera Company is soon to be re-issued on CD). About Ascension, maybe I didn't understand the music well enough, or resonate at that time with the principles of extended modality. I do resonate with it now, of course -- most clearly in my own music. But even now I suspect the real contribution of Coltrane doesn't consist in the technical or theoretical aspect of his music. His real leap of genius was psychological and spiritual, and he used what was at hand, probably as a natural outgrowth of the way he practiced his horn. (I think, a few years earlier, and farther west, the same was true for Bird.) So send me a review (and a copy of Ascension if you can-mine seems too have disappeared-or I'll buy another) and I'll say something perhaps more useful. Allaudin (Bill) Mathieu

Have you heard Garrett with Roy Haynes do "Little Suede Shoes" as a duo?