Derek Bailey - Mirakle (2000)

In recent years something of a subproject has developed in the Derek Bailey canon, seemingly at the prompting of John Zorn--the Derek Bailey Power Trio. Prior to this disc was the Arcana group that recorded _The Last Wave_ (Bailey plus Tony Williams & Bill Laswell), & a pair of discs with Japan's The Ruins. _Mirakle_ finds him in the company of Jamaaladeen Tacuma & Calvin Weston, & it's indeed something of a miracle that this encounter turns out well. What's striking to this listener is the amount of interaction among the musicians--on his own ground in free-improv situations Bailey frequently avoids obvious interplay or dialogue, but here there's little sense of parallel paths: check out, for instance, his brilliant bobbing & weaving over & under the head-nodding groove that opens "What It Is". Frequently Bailey simply ignores pitch entirely to scrub rhythmically at the strings to create counterrhythms; or he will let a harsh ringing note hang over the tumult below. Actually, I suspect many blindfolded listeners might suppose this a particularly offbeat James Blood Ulmer date.

Listening to this album one hears a strange meeting of two musical worlds--American funk & English avantgarde improv--& one's sense is expanded of what these styles can do, & how flexible they can be. Tacuma and Weston are terrific--it's remarkable how Tacuma's feline, rubbery lines set up grooves that push ahead without locking things down. The improvisations are basically jams in which the American musicians set a groove up & then the trio picks it apart until it falls to pieces, only to be replaced by another. A common method of proceeding--but what's rare in such jamming, & impressive here, is how the segues never seem to be treading water in search of the next idea: this is music packed with moment-by-moment detail & eventfulness.

A strange, compelling & rather addictive album: rather unexpectedly for an album by Derek Bailey it's, er, a lot of fun. A really fine CD: fans of rarefied Brit-improv will probably hate it, but I suspect James Blood Ulmer fans will love it.... [in amazon customers reviews]

Jamaaladeen Tacuma - bass
Calvin Weston - drums
Derek Bailey - guitar

1. Moment
2. What it is
3. This Time
4. Nebeula
5. Present
6. S' Now

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Wadada Leo Smith - Luminous Axis: The Caravans of Winter & Summer (2002)

A relentless musical innovator since his early days in the Chicago AACM, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most consistently creative composer/performers in new music.

In his sixth Tzadik release he once again explores new territory, bringing six absolute masters of live electronics together to perform some of Wadada's most adventurous and colorful compositions. Including a large, sprawling work for four laptops and trumpet, and two dynamic duets with legendary laptop pioneer Ikue Mori, Luminous Axis is one of Wadada's most exciting and dynamic recordings.

"I'm no big booster of the laptop as the axe for our time — too much grey hissing — but on the remarkable Luminous Axis, Smith effectively squares off against four California computer jocks (including the very musical Tim Perkis), and plays duets with Ikue Mori, also on electronics. Where, say, Evan Parker or Axel Dörner on their electro-acoustic stuff blur the line between one and the other (albeit in different ways), Smith respects the autonomy of both worlds; his trumpet is a trumpet, singing brass and breath not noise-generator, and it occupies its own musical space. Ditto William Winant's kettle drums in the bass range, helping to inspire a rhythmic hubbub you might trace back through '70s Miles all the way to rainforest drum choirs. But then Smith sees them all as part of an ongoing continuum of black creativity."

in Wadada Leo Smith: Space Man Visits Many Worlds
by Kevin Whitehead

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet and fugelhorn with electronics
Ikue Mori: computer-driven electronics
Chris Brown: computer-driven electronics
Mark Trayle: computer-driven electronics
Tim Perkis: computer-driven electronics
John Bischoff: computer-driven electronics
William Winant: percussion

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Luminous Axis - The Caravans of Winter and Summer (2002)

1. Garden Of The Heart 5:19
2. Perfect Essence 0:33
3. Radiant Light Gushing From The Sun 2:37
4. Night Splendor, A Certain Moon Flow 1:27
5. Tango 0:46
6. Beauty 0:18
7. Fountain (immortality) 4:30
8. Garden Of The Soul 3:52
9. Apples, Dates And Pomegranates 1:29
10. Light, Ginger, Olives And Musk 2:36
11. Harp: A Gleaming Sama 2:20
12. Fountain (lore) 5:10
13. Camphor 3:53
14. Caravans Of Winter And Summer 15:16
15. The Traveler 4:58

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John Zorn - New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands (1997)

1. Hu Die (25:09)
Fred Frith - guitar
Bill Frisell - guitar
Zhang Jinglin - narration
Text - Arto Lindsay
Recorded by Karmer in 1986

2. Hwang Chin-ee (16:41)
Joey Baron - drums
Samm Bennett - drums
Jung Hee Shin - narration
Text - Myung Mi Kim
Recorded by Oz Fritz in 1988

3. Quế Trân (30:46)
Wayne Horvitz - keyboards
Anthony Coleman - keyboards
Ánh Trần - narration
Text - Lyn Hejinian
Recorded by Steve Rosenthal in 1990

Artwork by Kim Su Theiler
Released by Tzadik in 1997

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Mystic Fugu Orchestra - Zohar (1995)

"From the inventive minds of John Zorn and Yamantaka Eye comes an intimate and highly original duo project inspired by historical recordings of ancient Judaica. The Mystic Fugu Orchestra masquerades as "newly discovered" recordings from the Mystical tradition of Kabbalah - paralleling 14th century author Moses de Leon's original presentation of of his Kabbalistic classic "The Zohar" or "Book of Splendors" as having been discovered by him and actually written by Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai centuries before. Humorous, touching, traditional, irreverent, perplexing, soulful. A sound that could only come about with years of friendship, empathy and collaboration, The Mystic Fugu Orchestra will surprise and delight you as yet another unusual direction in music from these two masters of the unexpected." Tzadik Press Release

1. Alef
2. Book of Splendors
3. Frog Doyna
4. The Dybbuk
5. 2000 Years
6. Goniff Dance
7. Rov Nova
8. Zayin

Rav Yechida - Voice
Rav Tzizit - Harmonium

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Shelley Hirsch - O Little Town of East New York (1995)

"Besides her improvisations and collaborations, Hirsch writes and performs her own original compositions, amongst them three radio-plays: #39 (based on a text by Angela Carter), The Vidzer Family, and O Little Town of East New York. The Vidzer Family portrays a Jewish family with roots in Russia, who travelled to South America and ended up in Brooklyn's East New York in the 'sixties. O Little Town of East New York is a sort of sequel to it. It is a semi-autobiographical docu-musical about growing up in mid-century East New York. Hirsch recreates and inhabits remembered environments, situations and characters. She evokes the ethnically diverse neighbourhood: her Russian schoolmate's living room; the home of her own working class Jewish family; the synagogue; high school; the rallies against the Vietnam War; drugs. It's a hilarious, nostalgic, touching composition, merging avant and pop sensibilities. Critics praised her "dazzling technique" as well as her "wild, beautiful energy". The piece (later released on Tzadik) won the prestigious Prix Futura in Berlin (1993)".

"Hirsch's creative transformations of kitschy fragments and her skilled shaping of multiple dimensions suggest a quality central to the surrealist doctrine, the merveilleux: "a rupture in the order of reality." Her methods go beyond conventional definitions of composition and of performance. By violating logical, linear narrative forms, by opposing elements from our known world in disturbing ways, she plunges herself, and her audience, into collective reminiscences so visceral that they seem almost visual---a surreal accomplishment in itself". Anne Le Baron in Reflections on Surrealism in Postmodern Music.

David Weinstein: programming, sampling, performer.
Shelley Hirsch: lyre, programming, main performer, sampling, vocals.

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Tetsu Inoue - Psycho-Acoustic (1998)

"Perhaps the most interesting electronic music since the classic period of Stockhausen and Xenakis. Tetsu Inoue is a composer and sound artist who has worked in a variety of musics - ambient, sound installation, dance music, techno and is a frequent collaborator of Bill Laswell and Haruomi Hosono. This CD features some of the most intricate and fascinating computer generated compositions you've ever heard. Literally thousands of hours went into the creation of these miniature masterpieces charting a world of sound as yet explored. Also included is a powerful duet with brilliant electronic percussionist Ikue Mori."
...in tzadik's website.

1.	Q Tip
2.	Tonic Bit
3.	Dot Hack
4.	Psycho Plastic
5.	Modu Lotion
6.	Rebeat Reduction
7.	All Natural
8.	Plug
9.	Tom & Tone

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Purple Trap - Decided Already the Motionless Heart of Tranquility, Tangling the Prayer Called "I" (1998)

DISC 1:

1- Who decided the number 1?
2- Reassembling place of dispersed holy murderous thought, The
3- I already know the settlement of iridescent happiness
4- I can hear a scream... a scream resembling a scream
5- Only half of an imitation or your imitation of yourself
6- Come to this side... sadness
7- Supposedly generous possessors of death meet a warning while napping

DISC 2:

1- Just let us continue to say farewell
2- Decided...already the motionless heart of tranquility, tangling the prayer called "I"
3- Sudden accident protesting production methods, A
4- Where shall released time go next?
5- Continuously draw a gentle spiral... red death!
6- Ask a so-called sage who speaks only plausible excuses the meaning of the volition "further..."

Keiji Haino (vocals, guitar)

Bill Laswell (bass)

Rashied Ali (drums)

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Derek and the Ruins - Saisoro (1995)

1. Yagimbo (5:59)
2. Shivareyanco (5:58)
3. Quinka Matta (5:02)
4. Odangdoh (5:34)
5. Zomvobischem (5:46)
6. Manugan Melpp (5:37)
7. Dhamzhai / Sytnniwa (21:58)


Derek Bailey: guitar
Yoshida Tatsuya: drums, voice
Masuda Ryuichi: bass

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New Klezmer Trio - Masks and Faces (1996)

"Ben Goldberg was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. In 1991, long before the downtown jewish music revival, Goldberg’s group New Klezmer Trio took a slightly different view of the klezmer tradition and expanded it through a jazz-improv idiom. Their CD Masks and Faces was listed as one of the ten best recordings of 1992 by Cadence magazine, and as The San Francisco Chronicle noted, it "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music". John Zorn, in creating his Masada projects, was heavily influenced by the recordings of New Klezmer Trio and therefore re-released this record in 1996". (An assortment of internet reviews)

"A recording the Ewings can't get enough of" (The Dallas Review)

Ben Goldberg - clarinet
Dan Seamans - bass
Kenny Wollesen - drums

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Ikue Mori - Hex Kitchen (1995)

Ikue Mori: Drum Machines, Sampler
Kato Hideki: Bass
Zeena Parkins: Electric Harp, Keyboard, Accordion
Hahn Rowe: Guitar
Jim Stanley: Trombone
David Watson: Bagpipes, Guitar
Catherine Jauniaux: Vocal
John Zorn: Clarinet

1. Slush (2:36)
2. Woke Up Aghast (3:18)
3. Angler Fish (3:48)
4. Shiver (3:10)
5. Recipe (4:09)
6. Loops (3:28)
7. Kiss Of Fire (3:44)
8. Eight Million Ways To Die (4:20)
9. Clapper (2:49)
10. Dau Miu (4:10)
11. Hive (5:13)

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