Lazaro Vega

Oh man, thanks for that, and to alocispepraluger102 for listening so regularly. There are very few who can catch most of our jazz programming because of the late hours and that you're able to just amazes me. Recording the web stream and listening back, that's just going so far. Sorry I couldn't be in tonight for the follow up on Edmond Hall. Migrane. Hate these bastards. It's a sleep thing. This morning the door bell rang at 9 a.m. for a delivery; then everybody in the neighborhood was cutting their lawn because it stopped raining for the first time in 10 days; and the alarm went off at 11. By dinner time I was riding the migrane bus and almost headed it off with medicine, but no luck. Hey Skid, Night Lights is coming to Blue Lake: Sunday nights at 10 p.m. starting June 1st. Thanks for the thread. Hanging out in the woods all night with 5 hours of airtime and thousands of jazz records to fill it with -- nice work if you can get it.

Nessa commissioned that work "African Sunrise" from Randy Weston for The Jazz Institute of Chicago. It was incredible to hear it that night at the Chicago Jazz Festival, again on Antilles records, and now in this trio version.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 15, 2006 Jazz Review New Languages Festival Makes Avant-Garde Inviting, if Not Compromising By NATE CHINEN Communication can sometimes seem like a secondary concern in the adamantine ranks of jazz's avant-garde. But proponents of new music do enjoy connecting with audiences, and occasionally manage to do so without compromise or contortion. That was the deceptively simple idea behind the New Languages Festival on Friday and Saturday nights at Rose, a sleek new lounge in Williamsburg. Friday night's offerings did support the notion of an accessible experimental music, though perhaps not as convincingly as planned. Out of three featured bands, the one that received the strongest response was the one that took the fewest risks. But that group, Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble, had the advantage of going on late in the evening, when the audience had effectively tripled. It also had rhythm staunchly on its side. By contrast, rhythm was a slippery sort of ally for the alto saxophonist Jackson Moore, who performed earlier with his working quartet. This was by design: Mr. Moore was one of the festival's organizers, and he presented the evening's most challenging music. (His founding partner and fellow saxophonist, Aaron Ali Shaikh, led a group of his own on Saturday.) There were four pieces in Mr. Moore's set, each with a similar title and slightly warped propulsion. "Identity T" moved fitfully, as the drummer Tommy Crane and the bassist Eivind Opsvik stopped time at irregular intervals. But Mr. Moore was unperturbed; his improvisation, strictly in the low-to-middle register of his horn, conveyed an indifferent cool. It was only during a subsequent turn by the vibraphonist Mike Pinto that the piece's rhythmic tensions were exploited. Elsewhere in the set, even Mr. Pinto gave in to the music's hypnotic pull. "Identity O" featured a series of meter modulations, while "Identity M" induced its trance with a generally indeterminate pulse. Despite the abstruseness, there was an omnipresent swing: when Mr. Moore and Mr. Pinto dug in together, the results were like an update of the hard bop that Jackie McLean made with Bobby Hutcherson more than 40 years ago. There were more willfully contemporary allusions in the music of Mr. Opsvik, who played an opening set with his group Overseas. "Doggerbanken," one of his new pieces, featured some rhythmic gamesmanship that seemed inspired by Mr. Moore. Otherwise the songs were sturdy and unassuming vessels, almost poplike, and anything but opaque. Of course they were abstracted, inflated or deconstructed by the band. The tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby did most of the heavy pillaging; he sounded fiercest on "Tilt of Timber," an offhandedly funky tune. On a more somber piece, "Still the Tiger Town," he initially adhered to a music-box melody but quickly frothed up to screeching range. Mr. Opsvik locked in tightly with the drummer Kenny Wollesen and the pianist Jacob Sacks. As a trio they nailed one of the set's more cohesive numbers, "Maritime Safety"; Mr. Sacks, playing an out-of-tune upright piano, embellished the melody with rickety chord clusters and fast, upsweeping runs. Mr. Wollesen kept the groove steady and deep. Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble had its own steady groove: more of a thumping, unrelenting thing. Led by Kaleta, a singer and conga drummer once affiliated with the Nigerian pop hero Fela Kuti, the group comprised a dozen members, all of whom intermittently joined in singing. On the set's most distinctive piece, "U.S.A.," they all responded to a list of sociopolitical cues with an unequivocal indictment: "Not true." (U.S.A., in the parlance of this band, stands for "Unilateral System of Attack.") With two guitarists, two baritone saxophonists and several percussionists, among other things, Akoya left subtlety at the curb. This tactic was effective: dancers crowded the foot of the stage until the last downbeat, just before 2 a.m. Of course there's nothing new about this body language. But it's still powerful, precisely because it's universal. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

As well as Pres and Bird and especially Trane. Anyone know anything about Warne in Berlin, 1980 on Gambit records? http://tinyurl.com/hx7oa

Been enjoying this recording, too. The "Message to Prez" is ghostly, otherworldly. Maupin recently showed up with Yusef Lateef and Adam Rudolph in their Go:organic Orchestra and was featured in the first part of a three part suite where he played bass clarinet. Believe it's on the CD "In the Garden" on Meta Records.

Lester Bowie with John Hicks playing "Hello Dolly" is a gem. Hicks with Betty Carter live at the Great American Music Hall..."Tight"..... There's a duo record under Richard Davis's name, The Bassist (Homage), with Hicks in a lovely program: http://tinyurl.com/nu89k edit for everything

Wednesday, May 17th and May 24th at midnight Blue Lake Public Radio broadcasts the first and second sets of the Dave Rempis Percussion Quartet recorded in performance April 16, 2006 at Kraftbrau Brewery, Kalamazoo. Dave Rempis, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones; Anton Hatwich, bass; Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly, drums. An inspired Chicago ensemble featured “Out On Blue Lake,” www.bluelake.org . This recording was engineered by Jean-Yves Munch. For information on the musicians please see http://daverempis.com/ and http://www.482music.com/artists/dave-rempis.html Wednesday, June 7th at 10 p.m. Jazz from Blue Lake presents New York guitarist Joel Harrison’s quartet with Dave Binney, saxophone; Stephan Crump, bass; plus Dan Weiss, drums and tabla. This performance takes place live from our studio in the Manistee National Forest at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Joel Harrison’s last record, “Harrison on Harrison,” worked jazz improvisations from the compositions of George Harrison, and though jazz based the sound veers towards Indian music, Roots American music and, of course, 1960’s electric psychedelia. Please join us live via our web stream. This broadcast is engineered by Steve Albert. The band will appear live at the UICA, 48 Sheldon Blvd., Grand Rapids the following evening, June 8th (www.uica.org ). For more information www.joelharrison.com .

Begin forewarded message: There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it's two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewing's" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!). When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs. There are six and only six hand-made Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film. Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) are parts from those two cars. The voiceover is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real. Oh. and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit weird in the commercial. Click here: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/honda.php

No doubt. Hip staff.

From burntheincline [burntheincline@yahoo.com] via Chi Improv: For those who are still interested, here are details of a public meeting next week with station representatives: Community Advisory Board Meeting General Event Information Event Category: Chicago Public Radio Presents Price: FREE Dates and Times: Thursday, May 18; 6:00-7:30 pm Description Chicago Public Radio invites the public to participate in their Community Advisory Board meetings led by the Community Advisory Council. The meetings seek to gather ideas and concerns about Chicago Public Radio and its role in the community. Venue Information Venue: Columbia College School of Media Arts Address: 600 S. Michigan Ave., Room 401 City: Chicago State: IL Zip Code: 60605 Country: United States Telephone:

Put the Bud Freeman "Chicago/Austin High School Jazz in Hi Fi" on the car stereo yesterday. At the first session trumpeter Jimmy McPartland sounded strange to me on the heads. He's improvising on the themes, or at least embellishing them, and it sounded as if Pee Wee Russell had to sort of wait to hear how the theme was going to go before ad libbing his clarinet part. This is just the most slight hesitation, you know, the music is balling. The blowing sections are exciting, Freeman swings, the Condon-type rhythm section with Milt Hinton does a good job. But I was wondering how they would sound with a "straighter" melody lead. The second session, with Billy Butterfield, answers that: more cliche. Everyone easily slips into role playing, and the music is more arranged sounding, and it had me pushing the back button to hear those first four sides again. Butterfields chops are greater than McPartland's, but I would hazard McPartland played more jazz. None the less Pee Wee is a delight on the first 8 titles. The third session with Teagarden, what can you say? He and Freeman are highlights of those sides, and it's no wonder "I Cover The Waterfront" is the bonus track as Jack did that routine fairly often on record. He sings an ad-lib blues for Bud Freeman, and swings "There'll Be Some Changes Made." At that point we pulled in to the zoo and disembarked for monkeys and cougars and shit. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the date. Overall, on first listening, a great addition to the Bud Freeman collection here at home.

http://www.savethemusiconwbez.org/

BOOKS / SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW | April 30, 2006 'Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee,' by Peter Richmond: Queen of the Night Review by STEPHEN HOLDEN In Peter Richmond's biography, Peggy Lee is a musical genius who was all about the nuance. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/books/re...i=5070&emc=eta1

GO: ORGANIC ORCHESTRA ATMOSPHERES Creative music concert residency PERCUSSION – WINDS – STRINGS MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY ADAM RUDOLPH WEDNESDAY MAY 24 THRU SUNDAY MAY 28 and WEDNESDAY MAY 31 THRU SUNDAY JUNE 4 All concerts @ 8PM Admission $15 on Wednesdays and Thursdays $20 Friday, Saturday and Sunday $50 for 10 night pass No advance tickets or reservations – cash only at the door ELECTRIC LODGE, VENICE, CA 1416 Electric Ave. (1 BLOCK EAST OF ABBOT KINNEY SOUTH OF CALIFORNIA) PLEASE PARK IN FREE ON SITE LOT DIRECTIONS 310.306.1854 Each of the ten nights will feature between 12 to 48 performers. Each night will be unique - featuring a different combination of these artists who will improvisationally interpret the compositions in a creative ritual of the now. BENNIE MAUPIN SARA SCHOENBECK DAVID PHILIPSON RALPH JONES EMILY HAY ELLEN BURR GUSTAVO BULGACH MATT ZEBLEY BILL CASALE FAWNTICE MCCAIN TRACY WANNOMAE WOODY ALPANALP FEDERICO RAMOS MUNYUNGO JACKSON HARRIS EISENSTADT MILES SHREWSBERRY RANDY GLOSS AJAI JACKSON ANDREW GRUESHOW AUSTIN WRINKLE THOMAS STONES ALAN LIGHTNER ANDRES RENTERIA ANDREW PASK JEREMY DRAKE JESSICA CATRON MYKA MILLER PAUL SHERMAN PABLO CALOGERO PAUL TCHOUNGA TREVOR WARE MIGUEL ATWOOD NICK ROSEN MICHAEL BIRNBRYER TJ TROY BEN WENDEL JOEY DELEON MICHAEL BOLGER HARSIH RAGHAVAN RONIT KIRCHMAN JOHN PAUL MARAMBA ANDREA LIEBERHERR RURIKO MATTHEWS MELINDA RICE ANDREA HAMMOND ADAM BERD PETER JACOBSON JIRO PLUTSCHOW REBEKAH RAFF ASUNCION OJEDA and ROBERT WISDOM plus special guests ALFRED LADZEKPO and others tba INSTRUMENTATION ORCHESTRATED FROM: B FLAT CLARINETS, BASS CLARINETS, BATA, E FLAT CLARINET, FRAME DRUMS, BANSURI FLUTE, ACHIMEVU DRUM, C FLUTES, BASS DRUM, ALTO FLUTES, CELLOS, PICCOLOS, CAJON, HARP, VIBRAPHONE, VIOLAS, GENDER, VIOLINS, KENDANG, GONGS, NEY, BASS FLUTE, TRUMPET, RADA DRUMS, BAMBOO FLUTES, UDU DRUMS, HICHIRIKI, REBOLO DRUM, TIBETAN TRUMPET, HAITIAN BAMBOO TRUMPETS, ACCORDIAN, HINDEHOOS, SELYA FLUTE, ACOUSTIC BASSES, DRUM SET, ACOUSTIC GUITARS, TABLA, ELECTRIC GUITARS, SOGO DRUM, BATAJON, ZABUMBA DRUM, CAXIXI, CHINESE MUSETTE, CONCH SHELLS, ANGKLUNGS, KUTERO DRUMS, SURDO, CHANG CHANG PANDERO, DEF, CYMBALS, PERCUSSION, CONGAS, TARIJA DRUMS, BERIMBAU, TALKING DRUMS, BELLS DJEMBE, DUMBEK For latest update go to: WHAT'S NEW AT META RECORDS http://www.metarecords.com/new.html for more on GO: ORGANIC ORCHESTRA http://www.metarecords.com/gohtml GO: ORGANIC ORCHESTRA WINS LA WEEKLY MUSIC AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING WORLD MUSIC ARTIST 2005 & 2003 This is it. Percussionist Adam Rudolph has been watering Go: Organic Orchestra for several years, and it keeps growing. The concept combines Rudolph’s lush harmonies and vivid structures as he conducts his large semicircle of players via cue scores and hand signals to produce a surging, shifting sound with plenty of room for individual spark. — Greg Burk LA WEEKLY Produced by metarecords.com todosonidospresenta.org electriclodge.org

Worship of God through Coltrane. They view Coltrane as a saint.

Picasso portrait sells for $95.2 million in NY auction NEW YORK (AP) - A portrait by Pablo Picasso of the woman who influenced him in the late 1930s and early 1940s has sold at auction in New York for 95-point-two (m) million dollars. It's the second-highest amount ever paid for a painting at auction. "Dora Maar au chat," (dor-AH' mahr oh SHA') which depicts Picasso's mistress, went to an anonymous buyer in the room who was competing with telephone bidders during Wednesday's auction at Sotheby's. Its selling price ranked second only to another Picasso piece, "Garcon a la pipe,"(gar-SOHN' ah lah PEEP') which sold at Sotheby's for more than 104 (m) million dollars in May 2004. Also sold were paintings by Monet (moh-NAY') and Renoir (ren-WAH').

The eye rolling at Braxton, as if he would be heard on radio at all, is blind to the moment of jazz stardom A.B. reached after his Arista period. Bassist Mark Helias, during an interview portion of a live performance on Blue Lake, recalled 7,000 Berliners, some camping out overnight, gathering to hear Braxton's hard driving band play his angular melodies with wild blowing sections. Tens of thousands heard him in Chicago at Jazz Fest. I was there. And as I recall he was not ignored in the pre-concert publicty realm. There was a period in there where Braxton drew good crowds at home (and abroad). Not that he'd draw poorly now. But he's more like Steve and Edie these days: he doesn't need the media anymore.

True, but it would also be harder to find about those stations as the "middle" level administration of a station is usually publicity and fundraising. Because we only have 8 full time employees, one of whom is the office manager, spreading the word is the dog and pony show model. After we finally started streaming just over a year ago, I took the message to jazz boards all across the net and was pretty much sluffed off as a "look at me" ego maniac. Yet we have no publicity department. Most stations not only have pubicity departments, they have their own graphic designers and copy writers as well as development personnel. The upshot is though our web stream maxes out at 70 listeners we've yet to fill it up. Because the station is located in the Manistee National Forest the technology to stream was out of our reach for years. Now Blue Lake has partnered with the Fremont Public Schools system. They use our tower space for Y-fi and some other relays, and we are on the web, and will have a digital studio to transmitter link set up between the station and Grand Rapids. Right now our Grand Rapids frequency, 88.9 FM, is a rebroadcast version of our 100,000 watt FM 90.3 signal: the tower in Grand Rapids has a special reciever on it, reads 90.3 FM, and then rebroadcasts it at 88.9 (600 watts). When we have that digital link, the 88.9 signal sound will improve wonderfully. And, by the way, that 88.9 signal covering Grand Rapids, which is in a river valley creating dead spots for 90.3 which just went right over it, came to us from Moody Bible Institute. They have a powerful tower in Zeeland, Michigan, which reached Grand Rapids, covering it completely, and the 88.9 frequency was redundant. My boss saw this in a coverage map of frequenies in the area, and approached Moody. I'm not sure now of the exact cost, but it was far less than the millions the signal is worth, and it included their transmitter equipment. They gave us a great deal recognizing our non-commercial, music oriented status (and that we're owned by an international fine arts camp for jr. high and high school aged students). You can run a classical and jazz music based station for under a million, but there are some downsides to being so small.

Man, Larry Smith played some blazing jazz on his program -- long jam sessions I'd never heard on record before (or since. He was great at the hard to find stuff, especially local). Isn't Barry a baritone saxophonist? I remember a few night time live sessions on his program, too, during Jazz Fest. that were a riot. The straight ahead programs on WBEZ were legendary. Buckley did do some programming outside of his historical retrospective he's best known for, but I don't think it was for long. No, the "Big Boys" comment was not intended as a sexist slam at Chris, it was intended as a perspective on WBEZ's position in the market vis a vis signal strength, professionalism and the ability to program around ideas as opposed to formatting. There have been nights when I drove out of Chicago and listened to WBEZ until you could pick up WBLV as you come around the bottom of Lake Michigan and start up US 31. Incredible to hear uninterrupted jazz on the radio over the course of a 3 and a half hour drive. And you're right about youth: I remember driving over the Chicago Skyway in the daytime catching WBEZ playing Tal Farlow's "Cookin' On All Burners" into Jimmy McGriff's "Skywalk" and wondered why it didn't sound so energized when I heard that same music elsewhere. Yes, the Chicago Jazz Festival programmed Anthony Braxton with Leo Smith, maybe John Lindberg and Gerry Hemmingway, on the same evening as Bud Freeman's triumphant return to Chicago (with Wild Bill on trumpet). That type of programming did happen on the radio, though maybe not exactly as a seque. Formatting can be a souless proposition, and WBEZ's jazz was all about soul. Like I said, there are many "tools" and program philosophies that a program director can employ to attract more listeners and Chris had a handle on all of them, used them liberally, and had success in broadening (no pun intended) the listenership. But there was a price to pay. And what about now? I've heard from Kate Smith, a Chicago-based jazz records promotions person, that the on-air music programmers at the station have been "freed" of the format limitations and are delving heavily into the Chicago music scene, putting on recordings by local artists that people may not have heard of, and mining a treasure trove of live local recordings that puts the focus back on the Chicago music community and not on some abstract idea of what sounds good.

p.s. I don't know how objective the Arbitrons are. Those are estimates. Pledge drives seem a good indictor of audience support, too.

100,000 listeners....Which is why it's stunning to have "numbers" and growth being the primary reasons for the change away from jazz. What other radio station can boast a jazz audience so large? How did WBEZ's night time listenership compare in percentage of audience to WBGO or the student station at Columbia University? I would imagine favorably. Yes, there are many proven marketing techniques available to radio to increase audience size, but running them like a manual will leave the community feeling left out, which is what this backlash is really about. I bet that streamlining the station's sound and on-air personality presentation, taking character out of the station's sound, drew more listeners who use radio as a lifestyle tool, as much as an educational one. In any case there was something missing in Chris Heim's mix that angered the former regular audience of the station. It's not that the music was mainstream, it's that it may have favored Ron Carter over Vic Sproles. Who knows. Her mix may have also lacked the flint Chicago music sparks from. I mean, the daring of the city, and it's political, racial, labor and literary voice is not so polite, but ever listenable. To establish a format that forgoes or downplays Chicago as the epicenter for jazz experimentation, especially in the decades of the 1920's, 60's and 1990's, which is the city's jazz story, where it contributed strongest and most deeply influenced the course of the art form, is to make people who care about such historical truths feeling pimped. But WBEZ wasn't going to segue from Bud Freeman to Anthony Braxton anymore. It used to. The station had some real daring programming in the past, but it wasn't ever reckless. For some radio professionals the parceling out of various styles of music to one frequency or another (this one's trad, this one's smooth, this one's avant-garde, this one's mainstream, etc), covers the scene. But when a station as powerful and journalistically rich as WBEZ set it's sights on jazz, as it did in the 1980's, the result was an explosion of community and historical awareness. I think the program director's name at that time was Hodges, and they were aces in presenting the Chicago Jazz Festival. That station was an invaluable means of connecting with the essence of jazz and the highest level of radio professionalism as well as radio journalism for me and I'll feel ever indebted to the Chicago School Board, who I believe owned the station back then, for making it happen. And they did it without a station library. In those days the disc jockey had to have their own collection to program on the air. No wonder there were so many hard core characters on the air. They covered it all by being the big boys, and left the one-lung radio stations sounding like also rans. Since that time there's been a gradual erosion of jazz's position at the station, and it’s a damn shame.

Found that Randy's second version of "Ganjam" went well on the air with the recent Marty Erlich recording "News on the Rail," which was unexpected. Sandke played in Muskegon, Michigan, during the 1980's with George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival All Stars. During the afternoon sound check and "rehearsal" Sandke kept bugging Wein about what they were going to play together. I caught Wein's eye and said, "Aren't you going to play 'Weatherbird'?" He looked at me in stunned silence for a moment and then said, "Oh, we didn't bring the music for that." Can't remember what number they settled on for the concert, though it was probably a standard, and Randy sounded clear as a bell all night. And Nate is all that. Great web site.

Tonight Blue Lake is featuring Ira Sullivan (happy birthday a day late Ira) and he called my house today from Chicago where he's just wrapped up a week at the Jazz Showcase. Ira sounded in good spirits but was relieved to hear we didn't have to do an interview as he's crazy busy and didn't have the time. His daughter, Sunny, is hearing the program tonight in Florida. Been playing the new Leo Smith/Adam Rudolph duo album, and the station recently recorded the David Rempis Percussion Quartet live in Kalamazoo if that counts. We're all over the map, really, in a free form mix. It gets us in trouble with the record labels who use Media Guide and wonder why their new releases aren't showing up on the playlist 20 times in a month, but it's because we try, sometimes not successfully, but try to stay focused on the music more than the commerce. www.bluelake.org p.s. the Spring Membership drive just ended and we raised $150,000, which is tremendous for us. Our budget this year is around $800,000 with about $320,000 needed from listeners. We're off to a good start. If you see those numbers against what BEZ was raising with their jazz programming, well, they raised enough to run two Blue Lakes. It's all a matter of scale (and how many middle managers you have to support, a-hem).

That will be interesting as the way he begins his solo on the issued take is ingrained in memory.

Am glued down by a fundraiser and missed hearing the Bad Plus at the Top of the Bob, followed by Organissimo at Founder's Brewing...downtown Grand Rapids. What fun did I miss?