Monday Michiru Corner

[JSngry]

I'm hearing rumors of a forthcoming Rodcast/Mondaycast with all the material from the last one plus some significant new additions.

Any truth to that, Rod?

[marcello]

I've just realized that the multi talented Henry Hey is playing with Monday Michiru.

Henry Hey MySpace

That's Henry on the right next to Tain:

[rostasi]

Today's rodcast will include

tracks from these recordings:

• 4 Seasons

• Delicious Poison

• Double Image

• Episodes In Color

• Groovement

• Jazz Brat

• Maiden Japan

• Moods

• Naked Breath

• Optimista

• Premiumix

• Recollections

• Routes

and 2 Soul Source remix recordings

plus 2 tracks exclusive to her website:

a remix of Hung Up

and a live version of Yellow Bird.

Talking about her is one thing,

but hearing her really clenches the deal.

If you like what you hear, then go to some of these

links to find out more and pick up something:

Official Site

Amazon

Froogle

I don't know why she's not on a major label yet -

probably a result of some kind of ridiculous industry politics,

but maybe thru purchases and spreading the word one can

hope for more reasonably priced domestic releases in the future.

listen

Enjoy!

Rod

[JSngry]

I tune in & the first thing I hear is her Woody Herman remix!

You rule, Rod!

[king ubu]

The horn writing is superb too. (specifically I am talking about the 2 disc set "4 Seasons").

huh? mine is just 1 disc!

[jazzbo]

Must be two versions out there. . . since it is a compilation album in large part I guess that is not surprising.

Here's a page about the two disc version:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005A1G...v=glance&n=5174

[jlhoots]

The horn writing is superb too. (specifically I am talking about the 2 disc set "4 Seasons").

huh? mine is just 1 disc!

I have the 2 CD version which I believe is a "compilation" of 4 EP's.

Edited June 28, 2006 by jlhoots

[JSngry]

:Chances", that'a a song touched by god.

No other explanation.

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Here is Monday's site on myspace.com. Worth checking out.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=22630703

[jazzbo]

Interesting article/interview from 2002 about Monday . . . . Quite revealing in a way.

http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews...ay-021226.shtml

[Joe G]

I'm getting closer to shelling out the dough for some CDs. In the last few days I've been random streaming Routes from that webpage that Jim pointed out, and the stuff is really growing on me.

[jazzbo]

Yes, that one has really grown on me too.

If you go to www.mondaymichiru.com and join the "Routes" project you can get a copy directly from Monday, as well as downloads of the "Naked Breath" cd and other download material, all for one reasonable price (the downloads so far haven't worked for me on my Macs but I'll get them eventually with a little help from my friends).

"Routes" is a beautiful digipacked wonder of a cd!

[ValerieB]

"Routes" is a beautiful digipacked wonder of a cd!

and that ain't no lie!!

[jazzbo]

I would definitely not lie about someone I feel so strongly about!

I'm getting those download files to work finally on my wife's new iMac (wonderful machine). YEAH! Now I can finally hear "Naked Breath" (just Monday accompanied by guitar!)

Edited July 8, 2006 by jazzbo

[JSngry]

I'm getting closer to shelling out the dough for some CDs. In the last few days I've been random streaming Routes from that webpage that Jim pointed out, and the stuff is really growing on me.

Yeah, in an aware American musical climate, that one would have been getting pumped to high heaven by all the "hip" pazz/jop music critics, the buzz would begin, and the path towards discovery by a larger (as opposed to large) audience would be under way. But this is not such a climate, and this is not such a culture. The dying are always more prone to embrace that which plays to their desperation than to that which gives them a joyful, life-affirming alternative.

Oh well...

Routes, there's just so much there there. And it doesn't necessarily draw immediate attention to itself. This is not a "pop" music based on immediate gratification or shallow stimualtion. This is music with a depth of soul, spirit, and imagination that those looking for cheap thrills will not be attracted to it. And it is also a music with such a deeply organic affinity for the best of all things "populist" that those who are looking for a music with which to pin their badges of superiority and/or alienation on will not find it in the least appealing.

But for the rest of us, those of us who refuse to let our cynicism evolve past being a necessary survival skill, those of us who refuse to let our despair become the foundation of our belief system, those of us who feel the rhythmic life celebration of the dance impulse deep in our soul, those of us who see no reason why "smart" music can't also be "accessable", there's a woman who's been making a music for us for a good long time. It's a music built on love, hope, and joy confronting the alternatives and refusing to surrender.

And yes, it really grows on you. Love is like that.

Edited July 8, 2006 by JSngry

[jazzbo]

It really DOES grow on you. Love IS like that.

Not only that, but if you select the "Participant" level on her website for 25 dollars you get that beautiful cd "Routes" mailed right to you. . . and you also get TWO HOURS of live material to download (two Japanese club appearances) that SMOKE, and the entire "Naked Breath" cd as a download, AND another hour or so of song demos and her explaining about how she came to write this or that song.

WHAT A FLIPPIN' bargain. This is the way to go for this one.

[JSngry]

It really DOES grow on you. Love IS like that.

Not only that, but if you select the "Participant" level on her website for 25 dollars you get that beautiful cd "Routes" mailed right to you. . . and you also get TWO HOURS of live material to download (two Japanese club appearances) that SMOKE, and the entire "Naked Breath" cd as a download, AND another hour or so of song demos and her explaining about how she came to write this or that song.

WHAT A FLIPPIN' bargain. This is the way to go for this one.

Well, I already had the import Routes, so I took your advice & paid the same price for the Naked Breath hard copy package, replete w/the same extras. Lead sheets!

The live stuff, although recorded less well than I had hoped for, is indeed SMOKING. Just Monday, Sipiagin (who impresses me more with each hearing - I think I'm in for his upcoming Artist Share project), and a rhythm section (Dave Kikowski kills again!). You might think that the "show" would be the singer, but it's not. The show's the songs, and Monday's more than content to let them, not her vocals, be the focal point. She also has the musical wisdom/integrity/whatever to let the songs be free to go wherever the band sees fit (no doubt with her fullest approval). And the band takes the already-interesting songs into some very interesting places. I'd been toying with playing "Chasing After The Sun" as an instrumental, but it would never have entered my mind to do it the way they do it here. Talk about hip!

Again, what a marvelous woman she is to make music like this, and then, to make music like this like this. Talent like this is a blessing to the world.

[JSngry]

I've been checking out a bunch of house music (and variants thereof) lately, and it's driving home to me just how special Monday's music is. That stuff has definitely got the beats, but it's usually lacking in full-bodied songs to go with them (not the object of the game, I know). And the beats, no matter how layered and subtly varied they are, and no matter how propulsive they are, still have a "machine" feel to them. Not that that's at all bad, because I'm hearing stuff, great stuff, done with machines that you'd have to have 3 or 4 live drummers to pull off. But the feel is definitely "different", which is no doubt a big part of the point.

But Monday uses the same machines and a lot of the same beats, and she makes them feel "human". I said a while back that she's done for drum machines what Zawinul did for synthesizers, and the deeper I delve into the club music that inspired so much of her earlier work, the more vivid that point becomes. She not only tweaks the basic beats, she tweaks the timing and force of the elements like nobody I've yet heard and makes the shit breathe. From here on out, there's no excuse for drum programming not to groove (not "sound like", but feel) in a way that is wholly human.

Plus, she's got songs, real songs with melodic grace and harmonic sophistication. People like me, who (used to) think that drum machines were soulless tools of the devil and that club music was an opiate for the masses, are missing out on something here. The fear of the future being cold and inhuman has been elevated to a challenge to use the tools like they need to be used. Not only are the machines and the genre capable of being used to warm, humanistic ends, they already have been.

Having now heard some really good club music, I realize the error of my previous impressions. But nothing (and nobody) is doing (or has done) such a mindfuck of the medium as Monday. If that were all she was capable of, it would be impressive enough, but to effortlessly go from such a machine-based music as that on Double Image to a fully live thing such as Epsidoes In Color w/o losing any creative or spiritual punch takes a spirit that is as free as anybody could possibly want to be.

[Joe G]

It really DOES grow on you. Love IS like that.

Not only that, but if you select the "Participant" level on her website for 25 dollars you get that beautiful cd "Routes" mailed right to you. . . and you also get TWO HOURS of live material to download (two Japanese club appearances) that SMOKE, and the entire "Naked Breath" cd as a download, AND another hour or so of song demos and her explaining about how she came to write this or that song.

WHAT A FLIPPIN' bargain. This is the way to go for this one.

My apologies to Lon and Jim - I missed these last few posts until just now. Yes, I'll definitely be going for that participant offer. Probably this evening. I appreciate the ongoing commentary that Jim especially is posting here; there's inspiration in the air at the organissimo camp, and the comments I'm reading here are making me think!

[JSngry]

...there's inspiration in the air at the organissimo camp, and the comments I'm reading here are making me think!

Well, I'm thinking that there's absolutely no reason now why good, innovative, contemporary jazz can't also be good, innovative, contemporary dance music.

We've withdrawn from this type stuff for decades now, and with good reason - the tools gave every indication of being oppressive, and the results inevitably, partially or wholly, confirmed that they were.

But now, all bets are off. I'm probably too old (and too machine-inept) to do it the way I'd really like to hear it done, but there's really no more excuses for the technologies and techniques of contemporary dance music and creative improvised music to remain enemies. None whatsoever.

I've heard a few bands lime MMW hint at the possibilities, but hint is all they do (and that's probably the best that their essentially "traditional" mindset allows them to do. No dis, just an honest appraisal. Everybody's gotta be somewhere.). Nevertheless, the bar has been raised.

Will it be "jazz" as we've known and loved it? No. Definitely not.

But so what?

Edited July 26, 2006 by JSngry

[jazzbo]

Yeah Jim, as I keep listening to Monday it's the SONGS, both the music and the lyrics, that are at the CORE and the HEART of her work and that inform all the trappings and give them . . . depth? impact? memorability?

As you hear certain songs in demo, then full blown arranged, then remixed, then stripped down to just voice and guitar, the SONG is there as the glue of her art.

I love her songs.

[JSngry]

Indeed. And the fact that she can take those songs so many different ways and have them all retain that core no matter the "style" tells me that phobias about this and that technology and "culture" are so much Luddite paranoia. As little as a few months ago, I'd never even consider the possibilty. but now, I can't see it any other way.

If you've got "it", then you oughta be able to keep it and do whatever with it you want. Any and all limitations, fears, and other hangups are entirely your own. She's convinced me of this.

[jazzbo]

I'm with ya. I'm listening to "4 Seasons" right now. If anyone who loves jazz can't get behind the swing and the textures and the pure beauty of these pieces. . . well. . . I guess I can "understand" it but I CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT!

[JSngry]

...textures...

Well ahem....

Don't get me started on the texture-phobia os so many of today's "jazz" musicians, either as individuals or as groups. Don't get me started...

Really, though, isn't all this what Miles was up to in some form or fashion from On The Corner and beyond, all the way up until the end? It's only fitting that On The Corner has proven to be so influential in underground dance music, which influenced Monday, who is now brining it all back into a music that could easily translate into "jazz" (and often enough can't be called anything else, if only because there's no other word for it). The circle, as they say, is unbroken, even if it's going places where we might not automatically think to look.

[jazzbo]

Yes, the circle will remain unbroken.

It's fitting.

I wish Monday all the success in the world. What a sweet and strong person, you can sense it in her work and in her written presence all over the web (and even in a few private mailboxes). Call it Anything! Just give it a listen and let it teach you some things. (Maybe it will "give you something to believe in." Stranger things have happened to jazzers!)

Edited July 26, 2006 by jazzbo