Unfortunately, I didn’t feel very inspired about today’s show.  I was tired and still kind of sore from weekend exercise and just not real peppy.  That said, I always love playing “School Days,” and I liked the Elvin Jones tune I discovered at the studio today too.  

The real kick, though, was remembering to share this tidbit: the late Bo Diddley and Leroy Jenkins both learned violin from the same teacher, a man named “O.W. Frederick,” who is the namesake and honoree of the Leroy Jenkins tune played today.  I didn’t know the origin of the title, but recognized the name when I read this interview published shortly after Bo Diddley’s death. I serendipitously saw the Jenkins album as I was rooting around in the J section of our library.  No, the real kick was that someone called in to inquire about that tune.  I always love playing a tune that motivates someone to bother calling.

complete program (128 MB, 2 hrs 20 min)

James P. Johnson: “You’ve Got To Be Modernistic” - Snowy Morning Blues (Decca)
Lee Konitz/Brad Mehldau/Charlie Haden: “Cherokee” - Alone Together (Blue Note)
Mark Helias: “The Comb Over” - Fictionary (GM Recordings)
Jason Adasiewicz: “Small Potatoes” - Roll Down (482 Music)
Matt Ulery’s Loom: “Good Morning” - Music Box Ballerina (Woolgathering)
Hampton Hawes Trio: “Hamp’s Blues” - Volume One (Contemporary)
Jodie Christian: “Blues Holiday” - Experience (Delmark)
Fred Anderson Quartet: “Birdhouse” - Birdhouse (Okkadisk)
Air: “Midnight Sun” - Air Raid (Trio Records)
Michael Formanek: “Rivers” - Low Profile (Enja)
Rob Brown Ensemble: “Ghost Dog” - Crown Trunk Root Funk (AUM Fidelity)
School Days: “What About (for Bobby Hutcherson)” - In Our Times (Okkadisk)
Elvin Jones: “Agenda” - Poly-currents (Blue Note)
Leroy Jenkins’ Sting: “O.W. Frederick” - Urban Blues (Black Saint)
Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath: “MRA” - Travelling Somewhere (Cuneiform)

Had some fun with today’s show, including a few versions of the tribute-and-tributee ploy (Horace Silver and Johnny Griffin).  As I mentioned on the air a few times, I’m getting into George Lewis’s history of the AACM, “A Power Stronger than Itself” and specifically the section which details some of the activities of founders like Muhal Richard Abrams in the pre-AACM days, playing with Chicago stalwarts like Johnny Griffin.  Expect to see ongoing evidence of my progress through the book in upcoming playlists!  

I also returned to Paul Bley’s “Ida Lupino,” which I’d made note of recently, and was quite pleased to have a caller specifically thank me for playing it, so we bonded over that for a minute until I had to start the next track…  (I also had an instant message in favor of that tune…)

The archiving worked well today, except it starts abruptly.  My friend Chris came into the studio with me this morning and by virtue of getting a ride, my show actually began a little before Audio Hijack’s scheduled start time.  Don’t worry, you can get that album from eMusic.

complete program (142 MB, 2 hrs 35 min)

Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete: “Ginza” - From All Sides (OJC)
Horace Silver Quintet: “Safari” - Further Explorations with the Horace Silver Quintet (Blue Note)
John Zorn, George Lewis and Bill Frisell: “Eastern Incident” - News for Lulu (Hat Jazz)
Ran Blake: “Song for my Father 1” - Horace is Blue: A Silver Noir (Hatology)
Johnny Dyani: “Blues for Bra Dick” - Grandmother’s Teachings (ITM)
Leo Cuypers: “Be-Bach” - Heavy Days are Here Again (BVHaast/Unheard Music Series)
Uri Caine: “Jelly” - Sphere Music (JMT)
Muhal Richard Abrams: “J.G. (Dedicated to Johnny Griffin)” - Sightsong (Black Saint)
Barrage Double Trio: “Over and Both (for Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin)” - Utility Hitter (Quinnah)
Johnny Griffin: “63rd Street Theme” - The Little Giant (Riverside)
Errol Parker Tentet: “Rehearsal” - Remembering Billy Strayhorn (Sahara)
William Parker’s In Order to Survive: “Thot” - The Peach Orchard (AUM Fidelity)
E.T. Mensah: “Inflation Calypso” - All For You (Retroafric)
Paul Bley Trio: “Ida Lupino” - Closer (ESP)
Buell Niedlinger’s String Jazz: “Jackie-ing” - Locomotive (Soul Note)
COWWS: “Dunkler Ruhm” - Grooves ‘n Loops (FMP)
Roosevelt Charles: “Let My People Go” - Angola Prison Spirituals (Arhoolie)
Steven Bernstein: “Let My People Go” - Diaspora Soul (Tzadik)
Michael Zerang: “Strong Man” - The Ballad of Frankie and Johnny (Eighth Day Music/Redmoon)
Albert Mangelsdorff: “Do Your Own Thing” - Tromboneliness (Sackville)
Michael Musillami’s Dialect: “Ernie the Neck” - Fragile Forms (Playscape)
Getatchew Mekuria & the Ex and Guests: “Eywat setenafegagn” - Moa Anbessa (Terp)
Frequency: “The Tortoise” - Frequency (Thrill Jockey)

Drat. Another archiving glitch; I only got about thirty minutes of the show, so I’m not going to bother posting it.  Honestly, for some reason I wasn’t all that psyched about this week’s show, although looking over the playlist I can’t exactly say why.

Artist: “Track” - Album (Label)

The Ramblers: “Meda Gbefa” - The Hit Sound of the Ramblers Dance Band (Flame Tree )
King Bruce & the Black Beats: “Mikuu Mise Mbaa Don” - Golden Highlife Classics (RetroAfric)
Broadway Dance Band: “Hunua” - Telephone Lobi (Original Music)
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: “Brown Skin Gal” - Forked Tongue (Cuneiform)
Dennis Gonzalez New Dallas Sextet: “Hymn for Mbizo” - Namesake (Silkheart/Storyville)
Gato Barbieri: “El Sublime” - Chapter Three: Vivo Emiliano Zapata (Impulse)
Chico Freeman/Mal Waldron: “Tyrolean Waltz” - Up and Down (Black Saint)
Matt Ulery’s Loom: “Constant” - Music Box Ballerina (Woolgathering)
Oliver Lake Quintet: “245” - Dedicated to Dolphy (Black Saint)
Roscoe Mitchell: “Till Autumn” - In Walked Buckner (Delmark)
Paul Motian Quintet: “Misterioso” - Misterioso (Soul Note)
Michael Moore Quintet: “It’s a Long Road” - Osiris (Ramboy)
Don Cherry: “Symphony for Improvisers, Movement II (Manhattan Cry/Lunatic/Sparkle Plenty/Om Nu)” - Symphony for Improvisers (Blue Note)
Fred Anderson/DKV Trio: “Dark Day” - Fred Anderson/DKV Trio (Okkadisk)
David Holland Quartet: “Four Winds” - Conference of the Birds (ECM)
John Tchicai/Charlie Kohlhase Quintet: “Blood Count” - Overflowing (Nada Music)
Tamba Trio: “Moto Continuo” - Tempo = Avanço (Philips)
Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble: “Love Has No Boundaries” - Black Unstoppable (Delmark)
Yuganaut: “Running” - This Musicship (ESP)

I’ve been relistening to this show as I prepare this post, which I don’t often do, and I have to say that I had a few nice finds today.  The Susie Ibarra Trio track is particularly cool.  I was also very impressed with the attractive booklet to the Sam Rivers-Tony Hymas collaboration, illustrated by Moebius.

I also realized that after a few weeks of getting used to it, I’m starting to take the program name seriously, hence the new post title.  The reference point, of course, is the title track to the David Holland album of the same name. It’s a great name, first because I love the album and especially the composition, but also because most mornings as I walk from the train to the station, I get to hear my own conference of the birds in verdant Evanston.  It’s also kind of nice to let the air-quoted “jazz” go from the program title, even if the programming isn’t set up for any radical change.

complete program (134 MB, 2 hrs 24 min)

Artist: “Track” - Album (Label)

Free Fall: “Halfway” - Furnace (Wobbly Rail)
Paul Bley Trio: “And Now, the Queen” - Closer (ESP)
Eric Dolphy: “Jitterbug Waltz” - Conversations (Metrotone)
William Parker Quartet featuring Leena Conquest: “James Baldwin to the Rescue” - Raining on the Moon (Thirsty Ear)
Eri Yamamoto and William Parker: “Subway Song” - Duologues (AUM Fidelity)
Muhal Richard Abrams: “Linetime” - Song for All (Black Saint)
Susie Ibarra Trio: “Magandang Araw” - Radiance (Hopscotch)
Karl Berger & Edward Blackwell: “We Are” - Just Play (Emanem)
Northwoods Improvisers: “Desireless” - Star Garden (Entropy Stereo)
Louie Belogenis/Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz/Kenny Wollesen: “Shanir” - Unbroken (Tick Tock)
Dollar Brand and Sathima Benjamin: “A Prelude to a Kiss” - Archive Africa: Jazz, Jive and Jibe (Afribeat)
Sonny Rollins: “There Is No Greater Love” - Way Out West (Contemporary)
Shorty Rogers and his Giants: “Martian Lullaby” - Portrait of Shorty (RCA)
Olaf Ton: “Einstein’s Dreams” - Olaf Ton (Leo)
Dave Douglas: “The Ghost” - Magic Triangle (Arabesque)
Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble: “Stranger” - Jo’Burg Jump (Delmark)
Sam Rivers-Tony Hymas Orchestra: “Dimanche 5 mars 1984” - Eight Day Journal (Nato)
Dewey Redman/Cecil Taylor/Elvin Jones: “Spoonin’” - Momentum Space (Verve)
DKV Trio: “Complete Communion Suite, Pt. 1” - Live in Wels/Chicago ‘98 (Okkadisk)

Unfortunately, something went wrong again this week with my archiving process, so you’ll have to use your imaginations to hear this one. It might have to do with the fact that our transmitter was funky so my show got started late. Anyway, this week’s winner is “Poppa’s Gin in the Chicken Feed”, which you might have guessed from the title.  That Triptych Myth album has been around for a while and I’ve liked it since it was new, but I don’t think I’d really caught on to that track somehow.   

Artist: “Track” - Album (Label)

Trevor Watts Moiré Music Drum Orchestra: “Medley: Ahoom Mbram/Tetegramatan/Free Flow/Tetegramatan Reprise” - A Wider Embrace (ECM)
Rail Band: “Kankoun” - Belle Epoque, Vol 2: Mansa (Sterns)
Triptych Myth: “Poppa’s Gin in the Chicken Feed” - The Beautiful (AUM Fidelity)
Eri Yamamoto (with Hamid Drake): “Midtown Blues” - Duologue (AUM Fidelity)
Abdullah Ibrahim: “Zimbabwe” - Zimbabwe (Enja)
Per “Texas” Johansson: “Stadsmås” - Alla Mina Kompisar (Kaza)
Eight Bold Souls: “Furthest from My Mind” - Ant Farm (Arabesque)
Eric Hofbauer and the Infrared Band: “Hidden Haiku” - Myth Understanding (Creative Nation Music)
Marty Ehrlich Quintet: “Johnny Come Lately” - Side by Side (Enja)
Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges: “Going Up” - Side by Side (Verve)
Never Enough Hope: “Des Moines” - The Gift Economy (Contraphonic)
Aardvark Jazz Orchestra: “The Prevaricator” - American Agonistes (Leo)
Jane Ira Bloom: “Pacific” - Sometimes the Magic (Arabesque)
Jackie McLean: “Riff Raff” - Destination… Out! (Blue Note)
Yuganaut: “Missing Limbs” - This Musicship (ESP)
The Vandermark Five: “License Complete (for Julius Hemphill)” - Acoustic Machine (Atavistic)
Hamiet Bluiett: “Black Danube (James Brown in 3/4 Time)” - If You Have to Ask… You Don’t Need to Know (Tutu)

I saw Ain’t Misbehavin’ with my dad a couple of days before the show and while it wasn’t exactly my style, it did remind me about how many great tunes Fats Waller wrote.  I was particularly moved by the version of “Jitterbug Waltz,” for which I’ve never heard lyrics, but I couldn’t find a suitable version to play and punted to some other stuff by FW.

Otherwise, no major themes or discoveries to pull out, although I suggest that if you have time for nothing else, you should fast forward to the end and have a listen to Big Maybelle, ’cause she packs a wallop.

complete program (137 MB, 2 hrs 30 min)

Artist: “Track” - Album (Label)

Fats Waller: “Louisiana Fairy Tale” - 1935 (Chronological Classics)
Teddy Wilson: “21” - 1939-1941 (Chronological Classics)
World Saxophone Quartet: “Amazing Grace, Part I” - Moving Right Along (Black Saint)
Mal Waldron Trio: “Rock My Soul” - Black Glory (Enja)
Lloyd McNeill: “Home Rule” - New Thing! (Soul Jazz)
Francis Wong/Elliot Humberto Kavee/John-Carlos Perea: “Soran-Bushi” - Gathering of Ancestors (Asian Improv Records)
John Coltrane: “Crescent” - Crescent (Impulse)
Bert Wilson & Rebirth: “Rolling Cycles” - Endless Fingers (Arabesque)
Kai Winding & J.J. Johnson: “Gong Rock” - Nuf Said (Bethlehem)
Alvin Batiste: “Body and Soul” - Late (Sony)
Fred Lonberg-Holm: “Flo” - Other Valentines (Atavistic)
Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio w/Billy Bang: “Big M” - Big M: A Tribute to Malachi Favors (Delmark)
André Jaume Five: “Gin Fizz” - Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (CELP)
Freddie Hubbard: “Thermo” - The Body & The Soul (Impulse)
Charles Mingus: “Pithecanthropus Erectus” - In Paris (Sunnyside)
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: “Minor Vee” - Forked Tongue (Cuneiform)
The Vandermark Five: “Saturn” - Free Jazz Classics, V. 1 (Atavistic)
Paul Bley Trio: “Sideways in Mexico” - Closer (ESP)
Matt Wilson: “Fleurette Africaine” - The Other Side of Ellington (Palmetto)
Big Maybelle: “That’s a Pretty Good Love” - Candy (Savoy Jazz)

Alas, no archive for this week; it seems as though something went wrong with my network connection at home where Audio Hijack process runs.  

Musically, I was particularly stricken by the Paul Bley Trio cut “Ida Lupino,” a tune which has become a bit of a standard, as much as there are jazz standards after 1960.  I’d heard the song before, but this week is when the wistfulness of the melody really connected and I realized what has made it “catch on” so.

Artist: “Track” - Album (Label)

Sun Ra Arkestra: “’Round Midnight” - Sunrise in Different Dimensions (Hatology)
Paul Bley Trio: “Ida Lupino” - Closer (ESP Disk)
Michael Blake Sextet: “Temporary Constellation” - Amor de Cosmos (Songlines)
Jason Ajemian’s Smokeless Heat: “Miss O” - The Art of Dying (Delmark)
Keefe Jackson’s Project Project: “Wind-Up Toy” - Just Like This (Delmark)
Duology: “Mr. Albert Ayler” - Golden Atoms (Soul Note)
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: “Little Liza Jane” - Forked Tongue (Cuneiform)
Live Action Brass Band: “Bocoxé” - Horn to Horn (Postout)
Szilárd Mezei Ensemble: “Cirkula (Circle Saw)” - Nád (Red Toucan)
Actis Furioso 2: “Bella Ciao!” - World People (Leo)
Mark O’Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan Van Der Schyff: “Zemlya” - Zemlya (Leo)
West African Rhythm Brothers: “Eroya” - London is the Place For Me, V. 2 (Honest Jon’s)
Steelwool Trio: “Wrenches” - International Front (Okkadisk)
Gato Barbieri: “Maté” - Latino America (Impulse)
David Murray and the Gwo-Ka Masters: “Yonn-Dé” - Yonn-Dé (Justin Time)
Craig Harris and Tailgater’s Tales: “Love Joy” - Blackout in the Square Root of Soul (JMT)
Cab Calloway: “Hep Hep” - Sampler (Chronological Classics)
Lionel Hampton: “Ring Dem Bells” - Classics (Jazz Archives)
Nicole Mitchell-Black Earth Ensemble: “Bluerise” - Afrika Rising (Dreamtime)

A lot of longer tracks this week make the playlist look short. Among the newer releases featured this week is the strange and interesting Yuganaut, a trio composed of Stephen Rush, Tom Abbs, and Geoff Mann, who are credited with playing about two dozen instruments among them. This track features mbira, as does Triptych Myth’s “Harare”, which was played in dedication to the people of Zimbabwe in hopes that the situation there resolves peacefully and for the best for the general public.

Going off of the Jimmy Smith take on Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation,” I found myself looking for more organ and revisiting David Murray’s second album with Don Pullen on organ, “Shakill’s II.”  For some reason, I’d never given this album much credit, although I liked the first, “Shakill’s Warrior.”  Today I realized that the “sequel” was actually pretty good, except maybe for its goofy name, which is a little extra misleading because drummer Andrew Cyrille doesn’t come back for the second.  I guess that happens in movies sometimes too, though.  

complete program (138 MB, 2 hrs 30 min)

artist: “track” - album   (label)

Red Garland Quintet: “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” - All Mornin’ Long (Prestige)
Paul Desmond & the Modern Jazz Quartet: “Bags’s New Groove” - Paul Desmond & the Modern Jazz Quartet (Red Baron)
Duke Ellington /Jimmy Blanton: “Mr. J.B. Blues” - Solos, Duets and Trios (Bluebird)
Irène Schweizer: “Jungle Beats (dedicated to D.C.)” - Many and One Direction (Intakt)
Jimmy Smith: “Confirmation” - The Sermon (Blue Note)
David Murray Quartet: “The Sixth Sense” - Shakill’s II (DIW)
Fred Anderson Trio: “By Many Names” - Timeless (Delmark)
Yuganaut: “Internal/External” - This Musicship (ESP Disk)
Joseph Jarman/Famoudou Don Moye’s Magic Triangle: “Morning Desert Song” - Calypso’s Smile (AEC/Katalyst)
Roscoe Mitchell: “Hey Donald” - Hey Donald (Delmark)
Barry Altschul: “You Can’t Name Your Own Tune” - You Can’t Name Your Own Tune (32 Jazz)
Harry Miller’s Isipingo: “Children at Play” - Which Way Now (Cuneiform)
Oliver Nelson: “Booze Blues Baby” - Meet Oliver Nelson (Prestige New Jazz)
Roy Campbell: “Camel Caravan” - Ancestral Homeland (No More)
Reptet: “Reptet Score!” - Chicken or Beef? (Monktail)
Triptych Myth: “Harare” - Triptych Myth (Hopscotch)

I was disappointed that I had to miss my show on Tuesday of this week on account of work travel, so when Alain needed a sub on Friday, I decided to offer up my services and “get a show in.”  It turned out to be a pretty good one, despite the fact that I blew a flat on my bike when I was trying to ride up to the station, and so got neither exercise nor coffee to wake me up.

I was happy to find a new album by the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble in the music library, and moreso to find them taking on “Brown Skin Girl,” a song associated with Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence, who is woefully underappreciated.  It also gave me a chance to play cellist Tom Cora’s take on another one of Spence’s “hits”, “There Will Be a Happy Meeting.” 

complete program (135 MB, 2 hrs 28 min)

artist: “track” - album   (label)

Reminder: “New Spells” - Continuum (Eastern Developments Music)
Marty Ehrlich and Myra Melford: “Blue Delhi” - Spark! (Palmetto)
Khan Jamal/Johnny Dyani/Pierre Dørge: “A Bomb” - Three (Steeplechase)
Charles Mingus: “Far Wells, Mill Valley” - Mingus Dynasty (Columbia)
Fred Lonberg-Holm Trio: “The Squimp” - A Valentine for Fred Katz (Atavistic)
Occidental Brothers Dance Band International: “Komokosaka Te Na Basi” - Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (self-released)
H. Guedon et les Contesta: “El Ciuda’noy El Campesino” - Creole Love Calls: Rythmes Latins Des Antilles (Isma’a)
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: “Brown Skin Girl” - Forked Tongue (Cuneiform)
Tom Cora: “There Will Be a Happy Meeting” - Gumption in Limbo (Sound Aspects)
Alvin Batiste: “Ray’s Segue” - Late (Columbia)
Fieldwork: “Pivot Point” - Door (Palmetto)
The New Quartet: “Interlude I: The Blue and the Black” - Blue Rhizome (Imaginary Chicago Records)
Eric Hofbauer & the Infrared Band: “A Drunk Monk” - Myth Understanding (Creative Nation Music)
Masada: “Kisofim” - Live at Tonic 2001 (Tzadik)
Ab Baars Trio and Ken Vandermark: “Waltz Four Monk” - Goofy June Bug (Wig)
Rob Brown Ensemble: “Rocking Horse” - Crown Trunk Root Funk (AUMFidelity)
Don Cherry: “Spring is Here” - Live at Café Montmartre, 1966 v. 2 (ESP Disk)
John Carter: “Castles of Ghana” - Castles of Ghana (Gramavision)
Henry Threadgill: “Paper Toilet” - Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Axiom)
Atomic: “Do It” - Feet Music (Jazzland)
Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath: “Sonia” - Yes Please (In and Out)

I thought this week’s show fell into an interestingly cohesive first several songs, despite what might seem superficially like just a lot of genre hopping.  In general, this was a week for justifying the quote marks around “jazz” in the post title.  

Herculaneum (MySpace) is a Chicago based group who’ve released two albums. I had so much trouble picking one from their first (self-released) album that I ended up going back to play a second track from it!  I don’t get out to shows as much as I used to, but I’m pretty sure that they’d put on a live show that is right up my alley.  I added them to my TourFilter page! (which I usually forget to pay much attention to, but which I think is a cool feature…)

complete program (140 MB, 2 hrs 32 min)

artist: “track” - album   (label)

Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre: “Humility in the Light of the Creator” - Humility in the Light of the Creator (Delmark)
Hassan Hakmoun and Adam Rudolph: “Marahaba” - Gift of the Gnawa (Flying Fish)
Charlie Jackson: “Morning Train” - God’s Got It (CaseQuarter)
Shot x Shot: “Triple Double” - Let Nature Square (High Two)
Indigo Trio (Nicole Mitchell/Harrison Bankhead/Hamid Drake): “Velvet Lounge Bounce” - Live in Montreal (Greenleaf)
Herculaneum: “Venice Beach Grass” - Herculaneum (Self-released)
Mario Pavone, Paul Bley, Matt Wilson: “Hello Again” - Trio Arc (Playscape)
Jeb Bishop Trio: “Nomads” - Bishop/Kessler/Mulvenna (Okkadisk)
Roy Campbell Ensemble: “Pharaoh’s Revenge Part 1” - Akhenaten Suite (AUMFidelity)
Robert Pete Williams: “Church On Fire With the Word of God” - Angola Prison Spirituals (Arhoolie)
Ali Farka Toure: “Yer Mali Gakoyoyo” - Radio Mali (World Circuit)
Kiko Kids Jazz: “Tunda Bichi” - Dada Kidawa (Original Music)
Trio Lissabet: “Black Tears” - Jawbone of an Ass (Cook)
Amina Claudine Myers: “Cecil B” - Jumping in the Sugar Bowl (Minor Music)
Michael Moore Quintet: “Tailwind to Kyele” - Osiris (Ramboy)
Steam: “No Go” - Real Time (Eighth Day Music)
Charles Mingus: “Original Faubus Fables” - Charles Mingus presents Charles Mingus (Candid)
Marty Ehrlich: “Waltz” - Song (Enja)
Herculaneum: “Moving In Darkness” - Herculaneum (Self-released)
Jason Adasiewicz: “Valerie” - Roll Down (482 Music)
Orlando Owoh and his Young Kenneries: “Easter Special/Baba Wa Silekin/Obinrin Asiko Logbo” - Dr. Ganja’s Polytonality Blues (Original Music)