December 2003 - zorn-list - mailman.xmission.com

2003 Top 10
by Bruno Bissonnette 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

Hello all, As the end of the year draws near, I think it's time we kick off this little tradition: our ten favorite and best releases of the last twelve months. Preferably with some comments... it's always fun to discover new artists through these, as I've done year after year reading other zornlisters' contributions. Once again in my case, I played catch-up most of the year trying to get up to date with releases from the last couple of years, so this list isn't limited to stuff that came out in 2003 (though I tried.) Here we go (in no particular order; comments to be found below the list) : 1. Black Dice: Beaches and Canyons (DFA) 2. Kevin Drumm: Sheer Hellish Miasma (Mego) 3. Merzbow: Puroland (ohm) 4. Phill Niblock: Touch Food (Touch) 5. CCMC + Christian Marclay: s/t (Non Musica Rex) 6. Deerhoof: Reveille (Kill Rock Stars) 7. Wolf Eyes: Slicer (Hanson) 8. Yasunao Tone: s/t (Asphodel) 9. Ohne: s/t (Ohne/Mego) 10. Speaking Canaries: Get Out Alive- The Last Type Story (Scat) 1. A fantastic group, reminds me of Fennesz' Endless Summer but done in a different manner. 2. Technically I should've put his Land of Lurches there as it is his most recent in that vein, but I've yet to buy that one. This Mego release is suitably facemelting however. 3. Masami finally gets a good handle on his laptop, and blows away the imitators. 4. Two disc set of pure minimalist bliss. Follow Phill's advice and turn this WAY up for maximum enjoyment. 5. A fantastic two hours of music by Snow/Oswald/Dutton/Marclay, showing that improv isn't just going towards onkyo. Criminally overlooked release. 6. I didn't think a band could produce sounds so lovely and screwed up at the same time. Wonderful. 7. Noisy but not actual "harsh noise", these are strange soundscapes. 8. A new type of sonic disruption; one of the very few pieces of music that actually comes close to making me feel physically ill. And that is definitely a good thing. 9. After the ultimate masterpiece that was the massive two-disc To Live and Shave in L.A.'s The Wigmaker in 18th Century Williamsburg (which I couldn't do justice to no matter how many words I'd write about it), Tom Smith disbands that outfit to team up with some Schimpfluch weirdos, producing a truly off-the-wall "what the hell is this/is this for?" release. 10. The man who was the drumming octopus for Don Caballero here plays guitar, shamelessly ripping off Van Halen riffs and retooling them into this indie rock masterpiece. Honorable mentions: -Hecker: Sun Pandämonium (Mego) (it pained me not to include this in the top ten... -Florian's really gone above and beyond the rest of the laptop crew) -Dengue Fever: s/t (Mimicry) -Danubius: s/t (Mimicry) -John Wall: Hylic (Utterpsalm) (my least favorite of his records, it's still good but I preferred when his sources weren't all acoustic improvisers) -Grand Ulena: Gateway to Dignity (Family Vineyard) -Devin Townsend: Accelerated Evolution (Sanctuary) (guilty rock pleasure) -John Oswald: Aparanthesi (empreintes digitales) -Bastard Noise: Mutant, Live in Japan, Skull Wave, etc.. (Helicopter, various) -King Crimson: Power to Believe (Sanctuary) (still going, still great) -Ruins: Tzomborgha (Ipecac) (their strongest in quite some time) -Fennesz/O'Rourke/Rehberg: The Return Of Fenn O'Berg (Mego) -Kid606: Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You (Ipecac) -Kitty Brazelton & Dafna Naphtali: What Is It Like To Be a Bat? (Tzadik) (way overlooked, stunning release) Great reissues: -Paul Dolden: L'ivresse de la vitesse (empreintes digitales) (quite possibly the wildest electroacoustic and tape compositions I've heard) -Young Gods: Second Nature (Ipecac) Best piece of wax heard all year: -Panicsville/Wolf Eyes: Stabbed in the Face split LP (amazing sounds on both sides, on nice marbled vinyl to boot; also this is a six way co-release between Muet, SNSE, Up Jumps the Devil, Vegalia, Ignivomous and Nihilist. Phew!) Most anticipated releases: -Fantômas: Delirium Cordia (Ipecac) (someday in 2004... ) -Evil Moisture/Hanatarashi: Fatanarchy on Airtube 2x10" (Harbinger/Tochnit Aleph) (I'm pretty much assuming this one is never coming out *sigh*) A great year all-around. May 2004 be even better! Thanks for reading, Bruno Bissonnette _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.ms…

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Upcoming Tzadik Releases
by Eyal Hareuveni 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

Dear Zorn-heads, >From the kochint.com website, on 23.3.04 & 6.4.04 we can look forward for the Zorn/Milford Graves (50th Birthday, Vol.2), Susie Ibarra Trio, Irving Stone Memorial Concert, Greg Wall & Later Prophets, Alvin Curran and Claudia Heuerman DVD A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky. Peace, Eyal --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing

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Music books: Derek Bailey and Japanese stuff
by Gullasch Baronen 10 Dec '03

10 Dec '03

Hello, Seems that Ben Watsons book on Derek Bailey is finally on it's way, though we still have to wait another 6 months... Ben Watson: "Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation" http://www.versobooks.com/books/tuvwxyz/w-titles/watson_b_derek_bailey.shtml Looks promising. As I remember, there was a small notice in a recent issue of The Wire about an upcomming book on Japanese avant garde stuff. Anybody have any more info on that, like publisher and release date...? Thanks! Jonas _________________________________________________________________ Få alle de nye og sjove ikoner med MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.dk

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best of 2003
by Andreas Dietz 09 Dec '03

09 Dec '03

best releases: John Zorn - Voices in the Wilderness (Tzadik) Matthew Shipp - Equilibrium (Thirsty Ear) Fred Frith - Prints 1987-2001 (Fred Records) Fred Frith - Rivers & Tides (Winter & Winter) Cecil Taylor & Italian Instabile Orchestra - The Owner of the River Bank (Enja) Louis Sclavis - NapoliÂ´s Walls (ECM) Erik Friedlander Topaz - Quake (Cryptogramophone) Julius Hemphill - One Atmosphere (Tzadik) Art Ensemble Of Chicago - The Meeting (Pi Recordings) Dave Douglas - Freak In (RCA Bluebird) Connie Bauer / Peter Kowald / GÃ¼nter Sommer - Between Heaven and Earth (Intakt) Hamid Drake / Assif Tsahar - Soul Bodies (Ayler Records) best reissues: Albert Mangelsdorff And His Friends (MPS / Universal) Sun Ra - Cosmos (P-Vine) Sun Ra - Live at Montreux (Universe) Fred Frith - Step Across the Border - DVD (Winter & Winter) Sonny Simmons - Burning Spirits (Contemporary) Frank Lowe - Black Beings (Calibre / ESP) Albert Ayler - Music Is The Healing Force of the Universe (Impulse!) Tim Berne - Fractured Fairy Tales (Winter & Winter / JMT) Miniature - I Can't Put My Finger On It (Winter & Winter / JMT) best performances: A Night Of Joy And Music ded. to Peter Kowald w/ P. BrÃ¶tzmann, H. Drake, M. Gustafsson, W. Parker etc. (Frankfurt 01/11) Sun Ra Arkestra (Uncool Festival 05/29-06/01) Steven Bernstein Diaspora Blues (Saalfelden 08/29) Franz Hautzinger (Saalfelden 08/31) Peter BrÃ¶tzmann Chicago Tentet (Karlsruhe 09/14) Italian Instabile Orchestra (Darmstadt 09/27) The Thing w/ Joe McPhee (Wels 11/09) Peter BrÃ¶tzmann - Hamid Drake Duo (Hofheim 11/20) Andreas np: Hans Koch Solo - Uluru (Intakt) _________________________________________________________________ SchÃ¼tzen Sie Ihren Posteingang vor unerwÃ¼nschten E-Mails. http://www.msn.de/antispam/prevention/junkmailfilter Jetzt Hotmail-Junk-Filter aktivieren!

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2003 CDs
by Maarten Hepp 09 Dec '03

09 Dec '03

Well, as the end of the year is near, these were the CDs for me in 2003: 1. Maja Ratkje: Voice (Rune Grammofon) Great singer, improviser and composer from Norway. Everyone should listen as well to the bands she is in: Spunk and Fe-Mail. 2. Ami Yoshida: Tiger Trush (Improvised Music From Japan) Another great singer and improviser. 99 tracks of delicious vocal experiments. 3. Caetano Veloso & Jorge Mautner: Eu não peço desculpa (Universal) Another great record of Caetano Veloso with some slighty less mainstream touches. 4. Chicks-On-Speed: 99 Cents (Chicks-On-Speed) Just a great pop record. 5. John Zorn: Filmworks XIV (Tzadik) Nothing new, but really beautiful... 6. Toshimaru Nakamura & Tetuzi Akiyama: Meeting at Off Site Vol. 2 (Improvised Music From Japan) Another fine installment in this series that documents Tokyo's Off Site scene. 7. Melt-Banana: Cell Scape (A-Zap Records) Their best CD until now... 8. John Butcher: Invisible Ear (Fringes Recordings) Great solo saxophone record 9. OOIOO: Kila Kila Kila (Ape Sounds) Yoshimi (Boredoms) does it again: The 3rd (?) fantastic album of OOIOO 10. Sylvie Courvoisier: Abaton (ECM) Beautiful music, composed and improvised, with Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander. Best re-issues: 1. Supersilent: 1-3 (Rune Grammofon) Norwegian impro... 2. Pierre Barouh: Saudade (Saravah) French bossa nova from the early sixties... 3. Boby Lapointe: Anthologie 3CD (Universal France) Nice big best-of set from the singer who sings in Truffaut's 'Shoot The Piano Player' Best compilation: 1. Amplify02 Balance 7CDs + DVD box set (Erstwhile)

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2003 CDs
by Alban Jacques 09 Dec '03

09 Dec '03

Hi all ! My choices : - John Zorn "the unknown masada" (tzadik) - John Zorn "masada Guitars" (tzadik) - John Zorn "voices in the wilderness" (tzadik) - Nabatov/Bennink "Chat Room" (LeoR) - Zakarya "something obvious" (tzadik) - Fred Frith "keep the dog" (FredR) - Bojan Z "transpacifik" (Label Bleu) - David Krakauer "live in cracow" (Label Bleu) - Elliot Sharp "string quartet 1986-1996" (tzadik) - John Zorn "Chimera" (tzadik) - John Zorn "filmworks XIV" (tzadik) and the dvd of the year : "Step Across The Border" (winter&winter)

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TLS on Arthur Kempton's "Boogaloo"
by Franz Fuchs 08 Dec '03

08 Dec '03

http://www.powells.com/review/2003_11_30.html Regards Franz Fuchs

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NYTimes.com Article: This Lost Album Was Worth Finding
by f.fuchs＠gmx.net 07 Dec '03

07 Dec '03

This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by f.fuchs(a)gmx.net. /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ IN AMERICA - NOMINATED FOR 6 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS IN AMERICA has audiences across the country moved by its emotional power. This Holiday season, share the experience of this extraordinary film with everyone you are thankful to have in your life. Ebert & Roeper give IN AMERICA "Two Thumbs Way Up!" Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/inamerica \----------------------------------------------------------/ This Lost Album Was Worth Finding December 7, 2003 By FRED KAPLAN The best jazz album of 2003 was recorded in 1969 - then shelved, lost, forgotten, rediscovered, and finally released just last month, 34 years later. Usually, when an album of "lost tapes" gets issued, the only mystery is why anyone bothered to find them. But "Passing Ships," a nine-piece big-band session led by the pianist-composer Andrew Hill, is an unearthed treasure. Each of the album's seven tracks evokes a distinct and strange universe. An up-tempo melody is enmeshed by discordant blares that should sound wrong but don't. An English horn croons a lyrical ballad while a French horn and tuba weave an exotic backdrop. A plantation call-and-response blues is backed by a brass choir blowing funky riffs with atonal menace. Imagine the lush tonal colors of Gil Evans combined with the fierce rhythms of Charles Mingus and the dissonant precision of Thelonious Monk, and you get some idea of this music's odd pleasures. Mr. Hill is an insistent original. He grew up in Chicago, enthralled by the be-bop musicians of the 40's and 50's, but gradually moved away from their confining chord-changes. He came to New York in the early 60's and signed with Blue Note Records just as the free-jazz revolution took off, but his music was too intricately structured to fit that mold. >From his earliest albums, "Black Fire" and "Point of Departure," he played piano with a quirkily spare mastery, but he gained renown as a composer. When he was 8, he would take his accordion to a street corner in Chicago's theater district and play songs he had written on a brown paper bag. One day, the classical composer Paul Hindemith, who was in town to conduct the symphony, walked by and took an interest. "Over the next couple years, we got together about five times to talk about the shape and design of music," Mr. Hill recalled. "I was interested in jazz, and he told me how jazz consisted of 12-tone scales. I guess he was my first tutor in modern harmony." On some of Mr. Hill's recordings, his off-centered chords and criss-crossing lines get tangled in the thicket. But "Passing Ships," while possibly his densest work, is also his most accessible. The melodies shine through clearly, in perfect balance with the counterpoints and harmony. "The difference is that we had rehearsal time and a lot of studio time," Mr. Hill said. "Some of those songs, we did take 45 or take 50. We played them over and over and over, till we got a complete take just right." The compositions were brand new and dauntingly difficult. Though some of the musicians had played with Mr. Hill in smaller groups, they had never all played together. Yet the performances are at once so tight and free-wheeling, you'd think the band had been playing this music for months. Not long before the session, Alfred Lion, Blue Note's founder and Mr. Hill's most ardent champion, sold the label to a conglomerate. Sophisticated jazz was in decline. Rock-based fusion - or, as Mr. Hill called it, "confusion" - was on the rise. The label's new owners dismissed "Passing Ships" as "uncommercial," and locked it away. In 1974, a young producer named Michael Cuscuna was organizing a recording session for Mr. Hill on the small Freedom label. Around the same time, Mr. Cuscuna was hired by Blue Note, then in the process of reviving its reputation, to sort through hundreds of tapes scattered in the company vaults. Mr. Hill told him about the "Passing Ships" session. When Mr. Cuscuna went into the vaults, it was the first tape he asked to hear. "I listened to the first two tracks," he recalled. "It sounded like a train wreck. So I put it away, and reported back to Andrew with the bad news." Over the next 25 years, the session remained unknown, omitted even in scholarly discographies. But Mr. Cuscuna kept getting asked about it by the musicians who had been there. The session had featured a top-flight roster - including the trumpeters Woody Shaw and Dizzy Reece, the bassist Ron Carter, the reedman Joe Farrell, the trombonist Julian Priester, the tuba player Howard Johnson and the drummer Lenny White - and its survivors remembered everyone playing at peak power. Two years ago, Mr. Hill brought it up again. Having spent most of the 1990's teaching at Portland State College in Oregon, he was back in New York. He'd signed with Palmetto Records, and cut a well-received sextet date ("Dusk"). He was writing material for a new big band, which stirred memories of "Passing Ships." He asked Mr. Cuscuna, by now a senior producer at Blue Note, to take another listen to the tapes. "This time," Mr. Cuscuna said, "I listened through headphones, and I kept hearing echoes of instruments that I wasn't hearing otherwise. I was listening, as I had before, on a two-track tape machine. But the echo made me think this might have been a multitrack recording. It sounded like there were whole tracks that were missing." He scoured the vaults again, and found an eight-track reel, which turned out to be the master tape. "I listened again," he said, "and just about flipped. This was some of the best stuff Andrew had ever done." Mr. Hill said of the album: "It represents a period when jazz was taking a siesta and I was deciding which way I wanted to go. First, I thought I might do classical music, but I couldn't participate in an arena where Beethoven and Mozart were kings of the realm. So I stayed with jazz, and I entered a period where writing music became my passion. I wrote and played a lot of solo piano and duet piano." Tomorrow night at Merkin Hall, Mr. Hill will play solos and duets with Jason Moran, 28, a former student who has emerged as the most inventive jazz pianist of his generation. Mr. Hill has written some new music for the occasion, as he always does before a concert. "I don't see the point of repeating what I've already done," he said. "It's more interesting to try something new." Fred Kaplan is a columnist for Slate.com and jazz critic for The Absolute Sound. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/arts/music/07KAPL.html?ex=1071801084&ei=1… --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales(a)nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help(a)nytimes.com. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

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masada and frisell boots and trades
by brian sullivan 06 Dec '03

06 Dec '03

hello.does anyone have any bill frisell boots with hank roberts, west coast masada boots or masada w/ frisell or patton, marty ehrlich boots,or boredoms boots from vision creation tour? i do have boots and albums to trade. thanks,brian. _________________________________________________________________ Shop online for kids toys by age group, price range, and toy category at MSN Shopping. No waiting for a clerk to help you! http://shopping.msn.com

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more kayo dot talk
by Andrew Mortensen 06 Dec '03

06 Dec '03

remember when I said I had ordered Kayo Dot's "Choirs of the Eye"? well it arrived. so seeing people were talking about it (for bad or good), here's my take on it. I actually really like it. it took a few plays, but no I really like it. The production/recording is great!! Great mix & the sounds (guitars) are HUGE! The best way I can think to some up the record (for those wondering) is think "Jeff Buckley meets Opeth". The 'folk' parts sound kinda Buckley at times (for me [?]) & even some of the vocals/lyrics remind me of Viggo Mortensen's poetry/spoken word CDs (w/ Buckethead). The metal parts are very Opeth, & I think this because Opeth are heavily folk & 70s prog influenced. The songs pretty much follow the same formula - folkish/quiet - classical-espue - heavy (not in that particular order) & they alternate between these styles. My only gripe so far is some of the vocals on the quiet/melancholy parts sound kinda lame at times (head voice & can sound jokish because of this) Also, there should have been much more trombone & French horn, as the songs with these instruments are beautiful. Ands what the hell is a 'camera' as an instrument? :) I didn't hear any 'clicking' etc..??? :) Personally I don't think this CD belongs on Tzadik. How/why they were released/'signed' to Tzadik - is beyond me?!?! It just doesn't suit what is on the label's roster (even though that could be a hard one to argue as there's so much on there!!). Anyway, just thought I'd share this with people who are curious. Andrew np: Kayo Dot "Choirs of the Eye" & Mike Patton & Mista Sinista - "Live 99 NYC"

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