GA Russell

This might be of interest to some here... TWO FORMIDABLE FIGURES GO Berserk! ON FIRST MUSICAL COLLABORATION LORENZO FELICIATI & LORENZO ESPOSITO FORNASARI JOIN FORCES ON NEW RARE NOISE RELEASE AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE MAY 6TH, 2013 AND THROUGH RARE NOISE RECORDS ON CD, VINYL AND HI-RES DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ABOUT THE LABEL - Rare Noise Records was founded in late 2008 by two Italians, guitarist/arranger/producer Eraldo Bernocchi and all-round music nut Giacomo Bruzzo. Located in London, the label was created to present a platform to musicians and listeners alike who think beyond musical boundaries of genre. For further information please go to www.rarenoiserecords.com berserk |ber'zerk; -?'serk| - adjective frenzied, raving, wild, out of control, amok, on the rampage, frantic, crazy, raging, insane, out of one's mind, hysterical, mad, crazed, maniacal, manic; informal--bananas, bonkers, nuts, loco. New York, March 25, 2013 - The first-ever collaboration between Italian bassist-composer Lorenzo Feliciati and Italian vocalist-multi-instrumentalist-sonic provocateur Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (aka LEF) defies easy categorization as it awakens the senses. At times darker than the Grim Reaper and heavier than the soundtrack for the Apocalypse, it can turn on a dime and swing insistently, or wail mournfully, or float mysteriously. Is it rock? Is it jazz? Is it ambient, avant garde, opera or something else? Regardless of tags, the music that Feliciati and Fornasari make together as Berserk! on their self-titled debut stands an imposing manifesto. It is an iron fist upside the head of complacency. Says Fornasari, "I have never been able to listen to the same style of music all the time so what I prefer is being free to play different things, going back and forth from opera to rock or jazz. That kind of insanity is probably the glue that put me and Feliciati together and actually makes Berserk! possible. And we should also thank Rare Noise Records, which has become a place where a pack of wild fellows, professionals from all over, can meet and do creative things together." "We exchanged mutual admiration for our music through email," says Feliciati in explaining how the two formidable figures behind Berserk! finally hooked up, "and from there the next step was to get together and play. For me, it is natural to shout, 'Let's do some music together!' when you discover an artist that hits you so powerfully with his talent. And when we finally decided to collaborate, we liked the idea of giving the band a name that immediately gives a sense of power and dedication and brutal resolution." With the two Lorenzos at the core of this formidable collective, they brought in such potent and provocative voices as guitarist Eivind Aarset, trombonist Gianluca Petrella, alto saxophonist Sandro Satta, keyboardist Jamie Saft, and drummers Cristiano Calcagnile and Pat Mastelotto (Feliciati's bandmate in Naked Truth) to enhance the proceedings. Fornasari, also a member of the bands Owls and Obake, described their unconventional method of music-making: "We defined some generic guidelines, though not necessarily in musical terms. The jumping off point for a particular track could have been a color or a landscape or even a word. The resulting product, then, sounds more like a soundtrack CD than a jazz or rock LP." At the very first stage of recording, Feliciati made a demo of a song with bass guitar and keyboards, then sent it to Fornasari. "I recorded vocals and some orchestration," LEF explains, 'then handed it over to Pat who added drums. Then I sent Feliciati a couple of new tunes. We went on like this, producing a great amount of rough songs as a duo for the first six months of the 2012. Saft, Aarset, Puglisi, Satta and Cavina came in later. We thought something was missing though, thus we planned a 2/3 days of studio session with Petrella and Calcagnile in the fall, just a month before the mixing stage." "Composing together for us means that we work in constant contact, sharing files and ideas and sending various versions of the song," adds Feliciati. "It must be a very well organized process but I believe it is a way of having a lot of freedom and responsibility on both sides of the creative process." Berserk! opens with Feliciati's funky bass line fueling "Macabre Dance," which also introduces Fornasari's eerie, haunting vocals. Aarset contributes some jarring shriekback guitar work while Petrella offers some expressive electronic trombone work. Touches of funeral organ, subtle brushwork on the kit by Mastelotto and some allusions to composer Nino Rota in Fornasari's slyly whistled phrases add to the majesty of this mysterious opener. "Fetal Claustrophobia" opens with some ambient piano by Saft before settling into a spooky movie soundtrack vibe. Former King Crimson drummer Mastelotto then triggers a barrage of jungle beats matched by Petrella's elephantine blasts on trombone. Feliciati's grooving electric bass lines and Aarset's grinding fretboard flurries blend with Mastelotto's pounding Burundi beats to create a thunderous, kinetic undercurrent. And Petrella's electric trombone elevates the hybrid proceedings. This is provocative rock with a sprinkling of jazz on top. "First" opens with a gentle piano into with little ambient ear cookies floating in and out of the mix. A sparse, melancholy, spacious ballad, it features some of Fornasari's most expressive singing juxtaposed by Aarset's thrashing power chords and wailing distortion-laced soloing. "Latent Prints" is a showcase for Sandro Satta's urgent alto sax work. This John Zorn-ish avantgarde free-for-all features some intense six-string eruptions by Aarset and an extended bass solo by Feliciati. Fornasari's fierce vocals are positively Satanic here, followed by more ironic whistling at the tag. "Dream Made of Water," fueled by Aarset's sonic six-string onslaught, is highlighted by Fornasari's intensely dramatic vocals which simultaneously border on heavy metal and opera. A fresh-sounding reprise of "Macabre Dance" is followed by "Clairvoyance," a free jazz vehicle powered by Calcagnile's creative rubato playing on the kit. Feliciati anchors this piece with a bold ostinato on upright bass, recalling the memorizing mantra from John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Petrella is showcased on some powerful harmonizer blowing on trombone and Calcagnile unleashes at the tag of this potent piece. "Dream Made of Wind," a peaceful meditation for trombone and electronics, recalls some of Brian Eno's ambient works. Petrella loops long tones and blows echo-laden statements on this electronic showcase. "Blow" is dark, conversational encounter between upright bass and alto sax while "Not Dead" is a slow grooving vehicle underscored by Feliciati's upright bass groove and featuring Fornasari's enigmatic vocals. The collection closes with the mysterious, ambient "Dream Made of Water," which culminates in a screaming crescendo of dark catharsis that showcases Fornasari's operatic vocals. "I never worked with a voice like LEF's before," says Feliciati of his Berserk! partner. "I have done a lot of great pop albums with great singers, but LEF's voice is unique and we treated it more like an instrument in the creative process. So the musical territory we discovered with Berserk! Is something totally different and new." For Fornasari, the music on Berserk! is "the right soundtrack for a night trip through a psychedelic city." While the dictionary definition of 'berserk' carries a whole string of negative connotations (listed at the top of this page) Feliciati is hoping that his band's self-titled debut will bring a new meaning to the term. "I'd like to think that Berserk! also means a very creative, powerful confusion that at the end becomes creative and powerful music without confusion." Fornasari had something else in mind. "I think the cover of this first album is pretty much self explanatory," he says. "We had that picture in mind when we named the band -- a double-headed monster in act of violently puking rage." LISTEN HERE: BERSERK! WATCH HERE: RARE NOISE VIDEO CHANNEL

Strangely, Amazon says that the album will be shipped in 11 to 12 days, but the Marketplace Sellers have it for $11.83. http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Two-Tommy-Flanagan/dp/B00BG4CTPS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1365527584&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Magic+of+2

Today only: Looney Tunes, Golden Collection, Vol. 1-6 - $64.99 http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=pe_341930_28916250_pe_00_head

Happy Birthday 2013 save!

First the Bombers release Joey Elliott, and now they have released Alex Brink. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=420202

Here's an interesting article about American households that do not have a television. The networks and advertisers want to reach them through their iPads, but I suspect that many don't want to watch what the networks are offering. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ZERO_TV?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-07-19-15-26

I got for Christmas a DVD box set of all of the Frankie and Annette movies. I'm glad that she got to know, in a very small way, that she still had a fan! RIP http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/04/08/report-annette-funicello-dead-at-age-70/?intcmp=features http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PMFRXS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Guys, after thinking about it for over a year, I got my region-free player from Bombay Electronics (in Chicago) in November for my birthday. Most of my Christmas money was spent on Region 2 DVDs purchased from Amazon UK. Bombay also sells region-free Blu-Ray players. Mine is not Blu-Ray. It is an inexpensive Pioneer that cost I think $48. Money well spent! Last night I watched the premier episode of The Saint, which featured Shirley Eaton!

Maybe I should ask how many North Americans here have region-free DVD players!

That obit makes me want to see some!

Happy Birthday 2013 Allison!

Jim, were you listening to CC and Lew Kirby on WNOE?

I have often been told by friends that big-time college athletics, particularly football and basketball, pay the bills for the entire athletic department, with money left over going to pay for research, etc.; and that the teams lead to significantly greater sums of alumni contributions (as well as increased freshman applications). Here is an interesting new Reason Magazine article which cites a number of studies which show that that just isn't true. Big-time college athletics are a financial drain on the student body and (regarding state schools) the taxpayers. http://reason.com/archives/2013/04/03/forget-rutgers-coach-mike-rice-college-s

Region 2: James Bond: 22 Film Collection - 49.00 GBP http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0093XXFZM/ref=pe_155291_35411421_pe_epc__1p_1_ti

Happy Birthday Allen!

Robert was the brother who founded Sabian cymbals. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robert-zildjian-20130405,0,6376622.story

Chris Williams wants to pursue NFL opportunities. He signed a two-year plus an option deal last year. The CBA requires each team to offer rookies a one-year plus option deal. So Williams is claiming that the Ticats never made the one-year offer, and that his contract should be voided. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=419896

Here's his LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-roger-ebert-20130405,0,5349930,full.story

Happy Birthday 2013 jazzkrow!

"Melba!," A Tribute to Melba Liston by Saxophonist/Composer Geof Bradfield, To Be Released by Origin Records April 16 Premiered in Chicago in 2012, Suite for Jazz Septet Features Bradfield with Victor Garcia, Joel Adams, Jeff Parker, Ryan Cohan, Clark Sommers, & George Fludas Bradfield to Reprise "Melba!" At Two Chicago Shows: The Green Mill June 1 & Millennium Park Aug. 30 April 1, 2013 Saxophonist/composer Geof Bradfield's new CD Melba!, which Origin Records will release on April 16, has been a long time coming. Bradfield's suite for jazz septet, a tribute to the great yet underheralded arranger/trombonist Melba Liston (1926-1999), received its premiere performances last summer in Chicago and other Midwest cities. It was supported by a commission from Chamber Music America's 2011 New Jazz Works program (with funding by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation), allowing Bradfield to research the rich Liston trove at Columbia College Chicago's Center for Black Music Research. And before that, there was a deep and long-standing personal connection with Melba's music. Bradfield had discovered her through such landmark Randy Weston recordings as Uhuru Afrika (1960) and The Spirits of Our Ancestors (1991). "When I came up in the 1980s and was learning to play, everything seemed to be about extreme instrumental virtuosity," he says. "The music of Randy and Melba was more complex. It had color and depth and a range of emotional expression. It had a real human element." For the concert performances and recording of Melba!, Bradfield called on trumpeter Victor Garcia, trombonist Joel Adams, pianist Ryan Cohan, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Clark Sommers, and drummer George Fludas. This is the same group (minus Adams) that appeared on the saxophonist's acclaimed 2010 Origin Records release, African Flowers, which itself was influenced by the Weston/Liston recordings. "I loved the way their music tied a lot of things together: African music and Duke Ellington and bebop harmony and the extreme use of dissonance, which in Liston's hands could suggest Stravinsky," says Bradfield. "Their music transcended craft. They created a path from one form of music, and one aspect of culture, to the other. They showed you how everything fit together." The movements trace the musical arc of Liston's life, from "Kansas City Child" and "Central Avenue" to "Dizzy Gillespie," "Randy Weston," "Detroit/Kingston," and "Homecoming." Closing out the CD, vocalist Maggie Burrell delivers a majestic version of "Let me not lose this dream," with text by Harlem Renaissance poet Georgia Douglas Johnson and piano-bass accompaniment. Perhaps in part because she was so private, Liston is not as familiar to average listeners as other great jazz arrangers of her era such as Gil Evans and Oliver Nelson. Bradfield hopes to help change that with Melba!, which illuminates what a remarkable individual she was in achieving such success as a woman in a man's world and as a bold innovator with her own style and methodology. "Through the course of six carefully composed movements," wrote Howard Reich in his Chicago Tribune review of the septet's September 2012 Green Mill performance, "Melba! evoked the spirit of Liston's times but still carried the hallmarks of Bradfield's musical language. The long lines, complex themes and meticulous structuring of this score pointed to the high craft of Bradfield's writing." The premiere of Melba! capped a banner year for Bradfield. One of a handful of saxophonists who brings the same intensity and edgy power to soprano as he does to tenor, he contributed memorable performances on both horns to standout albums by three of the Windy City's finest: bassist Marlene Rosenberg, trumpeter Tito Carrillo, and guitarist John Moulder. He also produced singer Rebecca Sullivan's well-received debut, This Way, This Time. The 42-year-old Houston native, who last year was named an assistant professor of saxophone and jazz studies at Northern Illinois University, continues the pace in 2013 with several projects. A new recording by Ba(SH), Bradfield's collective trio with Clark Sommers and drummer Dana Hall, will be released by Origin this summer. He plays bass clarinet on the third album by bassist and rising star Matt Ulery's Loom, out on Dave Douglas's Greenleaf label in June. Bradfield also contributes to forthcoming releases by Ryan Cohan (Motéma) and Dana Hall (Origin). With the CD release imminent, Melba! continues to occupy much of Bradfield's attention. He and his septet will perform the suite at the Green Mill 6/1 as well as later this summer at the Chicago Jazz Festival, which will present him at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park 8/30 as part of a triple bill (with Wadada Leo Smith and Charles Lloyd). "I feel very fortunate to write for and perform with all of the musicians on this recording, each of whom brings a very personal voice to the group," Bradfield wrote in his CD notes. "Their creative input along the way transformed the dots and lines on the sterile page, "bringing Melba! to life" -- and Liston's soulful legacy to the fore. Web Site: www.geofbradfield.com Follow: Listen: Melba! featured on NPR's JazzSet

The Lions have traded Khalif Mitchell to the Argos for Adrian Awasom and the rights to a neg list player. It never looks good when two teams owned by the same man exchange players; and when the trade involves an all-star, I think it looks even worse. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=419700

Thanks very much Susan! I'll look forward to these!

Happy Birthday 2013 Claude!

I take it that both the deceased and the author of that obit worked in a language other than English!

Jerry, your post got me to thinking, and I found it here: http://www.amazon.com/Thelonious-Monk-Straight-No-Chaser/dp/B000053VC9/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1364943824&sr=1-1&keywords=straight+no+chaser