Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Let's Get Weird 2015

It's been a year since I started the podcast and it has really been fun developing a show with a grassroots community audio aesthetic. Many of the artists we are attracted to have an avant garde approach to art that we use as our foundation for doing what we do. It has been a great time evolving the show, we are really excited for the upcoming year to grow and try anything. Happy Holidays and thank you!

Priceless Eric Dolphy concert Footage from the legendary and final European 64 tour.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Tequila Bike Ride


In this episode I hang out with Brandon Mcintyre and Alex Smith. Great friends and collaborators, we talk about making music, Apathetic Agnostic Jerkoff Machines (whatever that is), Tequila and biking, and get confused about the Sealab jazz vending machine episode.
The beginning jam excerpt is from a recent session Alex and brandon had, brandon is the one shredding. The later music section starting at 2:19:00 is an excerpt of a master class that Stevie Wonder's band did recently at Detroit's new DIME school that Brandon goes to.

Check out this episode!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Jacques Derrida Interviewing Ornette Coleman

A friend sent me this transcript of French philosopher Jacques Derrida interviewing Ornette Coleman in 1997. Here are a couple of highlights:

On improvisation


JD: What do you think of the relationship between the precise event that constitutes the concert and pre-written music or improvised music? Do you think that prewritten
music prevents the event from taking place?

OC: No. I don't know if it's true for language, but in jazz you can take a very old piece and do another version of it. What's exciting is the memory that you bring to the present. What you're talking about, the form that metamorphoses into other
forms, I think it's something healthy, but very rare.

JD: Perhaps you will agree with me on the fact that the very concept of improvisation verges upon reading, since what we often understand by improvisation is the
creation of something new, yet something which doesn't exclude the pre-written framework that makes it possible.

OC: That's true.

JD: I am not an "Ornette Coleman expert," but if I translate what you are doing into a domain that I know better, that of written language, the unique event that is produced only one time is nevertheless repeated in its very structure. Thus there is a repetition, in the work, that is intrinsic to the initial creation—that which compromises or complicates the concept of improvisation. Repetition is already in improvisation: thus when people want to trap you between improvisation and the pre-written, they are wrong.

OC: Repetition is as natural as the fact that the earth rotates.

On Language

OC: Do you ever ask yourself if the language that you speak now interferes with your actual thoughts? Can a language of origin influence your thoughts?

JD: It is an enigma for me. I cannot know it. I know that something speaks through me, a language that I don't understand, that I sometimes translate more or less easily
into my "language." I am of course a French intellectual, I teach in French-speaking schools, but I have the impression that something is forcing me to do something

UbuWeb All avant-garde all the time

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

On the Right Road, Goin' the Wrong Direction




Today’s bootleg features the Sun Ra Arkestra. These tracks come from decent quality audience recordings. The Arkestra was one of the most interesting bands of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. All of the shows feature interesting improvisations and original music from night to night. In this way The Arkestra was very similar to modern day Jambands where each night is unique. These recording are off of sugarmegs.org which is a really great and expansive database of live shows.

Also, don’t forget to support the Arkestra. They are still playing shows and just being awesome in general under the direction of Marshall Allen.  

(10.31.78) Halloween in Harlem>(9.1.88) We Travel the Spaceways>Somewhere over the Rainbow>Sun Ra Interview>(5.11.85) Sunrise>Unknown Swing and blues jam>Queer Notions>(11.4.78) Medley

Check out the first episode which is the Sun Ra episode. We covered Sun Ra first because the Arkestra is our all time favorite.


Paleolithic Hunting Club

Check out this episode!

Bootleg Feature Source Information


SUN RA ARKESTRA 
Grendel's Lair, Philadelphia 
1978-10-31 

ESP Radio 
from the 'Good Doctor' Archives (Michael Anderson) 
from Good Doctor personal cassette [not in RLC book] 

lineage: ESP Radio > ? > wav files in trade > CD wave > FLAC 

01 The Sound Mirror/Mayan temples 13.50 
02 Halloween in Harlem - personnel includes: Craig Harris,
Vincent Chancey, Oscar “Bobo” Brown, b. 05.29 
03 The Shadow World > 08.14 
applause, announcement by Dave Gold 
04 Strange World / Black Myth 01.34 
05 UFO 05.56 
06 Door of the Cosmos 03.33 
07 We Travel the Spaceways 03.04 

note: 
these tracks all from Halloween show and appeared at various
points during the ESP Sun Ra Tribute 
...this is just the order they appeared in the show and may not relate
to the original performance 
running order. 

Sun Ra and the Omniverse Arkestra 
Hart Plaza, Detroit 
1 sept 88 
FM - Cass. master - cass. 1 - DAT(this) - CDR - Flac – world
Sun Ra Arkestra 
October 11, 1986 (three sets) 
dc space 
Washington, DC 
Made from the master cassettes 
flac 

total time 234:28 

1st set 69:28 
1 untitled improvisation 
2 Along Came Ra 
3 History-Mystery/To Be Or Not To Be 
4 Discipline 27-II/If People of Earth Don't Learn How to Care 
5 Back Alley Blues 
6 Blue Lou 
7 Day Dream 
8 Watusi 
9 We Travel the Spaceways  

Sun Ra Arkestra 
Parody Hall 
Kansas City, MO 
May 11 1985 
soundboard>?>cdr>eac(secure mode)>flac(level 6) 

total time 135:07 

set 1 
1 unidentified improvisation 
2 Astro Black/A Lost Horizon/(The World Is Waiting) For the
Sunrise 
3 unidentified Swing piece 
4 unidentified blues (tape flip) 
5 Queer Notions 
6 Days of Wine and Roses 
7 Happy As the Day Is Long 
8 Day Dream 
9 Mack the Knife 

set 2 
1 untitled improvisation (cuts, tape flip) 
2 untitled improvisation/blues 
3 unidentified blues 
4 
5 piano intro to > 
6 Space Is the Place/We Travel the Spaceways (cuts) 

personnel (thanks to RL Campbell) 
Sun Ra - piano, synthesizer, organ, vocals 
Walter Miller - trumpet 
Ronnie Brown - trumpet 
possibly Fred Adams - trumpet 
probably Dick Griffin - trombone 
unidentified - trombone 
Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute, EVI, percussion 
John Gilmore - tenor saxophone, clarinet, timbales 
Ronald Wilson - tenor saxophone 
Eloe Omoe - alto saxophone, bass clarinet, contra alto clarinet,
percussion 
Danny Ray Thompson - baritone saxophone, flute, percussion 
James Jacson - bassoon, Ancient Egyptian Infinity Drum, vocals 
Rollo Radford - electric standup bass 
Avreeayl Amen Ra - drums 
unidentified - conga, percussion 
June Tyson - vocals 

Sun Ra Arkestra 
Horseshoe Tavern 
Toronto, ON 
4 November 1978 

audience recording>?>cdr (Transparency 10 cd set "Sun Ra Live at
the Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto 1978") 
eac(secure mode)>cdwave (tracking)>flac(level 6) 

cd1 44:51 
1 Untitled improvisation 
2 Strange Worlds/Black Myth > Astro Black > (The World Is
Waiting) For the Sunrise 
3 Discipline 27 > Untitled improvisation 
4 keyboard intro to Take the "A" Train//cut  

cd2 47:21 
1 Limehouse Blues 
2 On the Sunny Side of the Street 
3 Why Don't You Do Right 
4 Enlightenment > Space is the Place 
5 Over the Rainbow 

cd3 41:18 
1 Watusi 
2 We Travel the Spaceways 

Sun Ra - organ, synth, piano, percussion, vocals 
John Gilmore - tenor,clairnet, timbales, vocals 
Marshall Allen - alto sax, piccolo 
Danny Davis - alto sax, flute 
Eloe Omoe - bass clarinet, flute 
Danny Ray Thompson - baritone sax, flute 
James Jacson - basson, flute, lightning drum 
Michael Ray - trumpet 
Eddie Gale (and/or) Walter Miller - trumpet 
Damon Choice - vibraphone 
Stanley Morgan - conga 
Luqman Ali - drums 
June Tyson - vocals 
Dale Williams - electric guitar