Example of the kind of language that has become more prevalent over the past decade, much to my horror and dismay: "There Are Only Four Types of People — Are You Hiring The Right Ones?" Whereas my visceral response contains several words that are conventionally viewed as "obscene", the real obscenity lies within this manufactured pseudo-science of demographic typology. This newly bred brand of pod-people "Professionals" which I will henceforth refer to as "Typos" generate income for themselves by hatching over-generalized rhetoric that fails to address the true challenges that real people face. Race, class, gender and...age group. It's mostly about marketing. I resent the living hell out of this burgeoning industry.

arwulf arwulf 7/15/14

from a discussion regarding traditional blues music and why it matters so deeply to some folks:

Us kids in Ann Arbor who worked the Blues & Jazz festivals in the early 1970s really got it right between the ears. Hanging out with One String Sam when I was sixteen provided what was for me unprecedented context, up close. The music has to make sense to your heart, and we still have a lot of cultural fissures in the body politic. If, for example, blues musicians keep beginning songs with the phrase "I woke up this morning", the words & tones directly reference the fact that harsh realities are especially challenging when encountered before the dawn has finished breaking. Repetition, I've got to point out, can be an extremely powerful tool. Say things twice or thrice and make sure that maybe--hopefully--the message is getting across. That to me is the kernel of the familiar formula.

I've reviewed a lot of CD compilations packed with 78 rpm recordings that were never intended to be heard one after the next, but rather as a single platter with one song on each side. What I realized one afternoon was that 24 songs sounding remarkably alike may be understood as verses in one piece lasting at times more than one hour. It's a ritual, not necessarily entertainment, although some rituals or parts therein may trigger something like what we understand as a sense of being entertained. In a larger way, if a whole lot of people are all singing what sound like similarly stated verses to the same song, to me that indicates that the ritual has expanded exponentially, and frankly that fills me with hope. But not everybody is going to tap into this. 

9:57 PM	Charles Dodge - 1995	Fades, Dissolves, Fizzles	A Retrospective (1997-2009)	New World Records
9:48 PM	Elvin Jones with Joe Farrell, George Coleman, Lee Morgan, Wilbur Little, Candido Camero & Miovelito Valles - 1969	Dido Afrique	The Prime Element	Blue Note Reissue Series - Double LP 1976
9:42 PM	Tony Scott - 1984	African Bird {Instrumental Mix}	African Bird (To the Spirit of Charlie Parker)	Soul Note
9:37 PM	The Beatles - 1967	Within You Without You (Instrumental Mix)	The Beatles Anthology 2	Capitol/Apple
9:27 PM	Dead Can Dance - 1996	Indus	Spiritchaser	4AD/Warner Bros.
9:22 PM	Niyaz - 2005	Nahan "The Hidden"	Niyaz	Six Degrees Records
9:15 PM	Neneh Cherry - 2014	Everything	Blank Project	Smalltown Supersound
9:12 PM	Fettes Brot - 1995	Wer gibt dem dir unten liegt die Hand	Auf einem Auge blod {Stupid In One Eye}	INT
9:08 PM	PJ Harvey - 1998	Joy	Is This Desire?	Island
9:04 PM	Parliament - 1977	Flash Light	Greatest Hits Volume II	PolyGram
8:56 PM	Grover Washington, Jr. - 1977	On the Cusp	Live at the Bijou
8:53 PM	Miles Davis - 1970	Sivad	Live Evil	Columbia
8:50 PM	Steve Reich - 1965	It's Gonna Rain {excerpt}	Early Works	Elektra Nonesuch
8:43 PM	Archie Shepp - 1965	The Pickaninny (Picked Clean - No More - Or Can You Back Back Doodlebug)	On This Night	impulse!
8:39 PM	Art Ensemble of Chicago - 1969	Rock Out	Message to Our Folks	BYG/Fuel 2000
8:23 PM	Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70	Water No Get Enemy	Expensive Shit - He Miss Road	FAK
8:17 PM	Charles Mingus {featuring Booker Ervin} - 1959	Pedal Point Blues	Mingus Ah Um	Columbia
8:07 PM	Don "Sugarcane" Harris live at the Berlin Jazz Festival c. 1973	Sugarcane's Got the Blues	Sugarcane's Got the Blues	BASF MPS

SITTING IN on the GROOVASAURUS - WCBN FM 6/23/14: 8-10 PM

preshow premonitional playlist

of potentials & probabilities

Sugar Cane Harris

Sugar Cane's Got the Blues

Charles Mingus

Pedal Point Blues

Fela Kuti

Water No Get Enemy

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Rock Out

Archie Shepp

The Pickaninny

Miles Davis

Sivad

Grover Washington

On the Cusp

Parliament

Flash Light

Fettes Brot {Hip Hop group from Hamburg}

Wer gibt dem der unten liegt die Hand

PJ Harvey

Joy

Niyaz

Golzar

Neneh Cherry

Everything

Dead Can Dance

Indus

Beatles

Within You Without You {instrumental}

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band

Alice in Blunderland

Steve Reich

It's Gonna Rain {1965}

potential & probable artists

panoramic freeform broadcast

wcbn 88.3 fm

11/28/13

3 PM-6:30 PM

www.wcbn.org

Zuco 103

Meridian Brothers

Morton Gould’s Orchestra

Karol Stoch Band

Ashley MacIsaac

Finbar Furey

Talitha MacKenzie

Pogues

Charo

Lightnin’ Hopkins

John Lee Hooker

Memphis Jug Band

Little Howlin’ Wolf

Howlin’ Wolf

Eugene Chadbourne

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Lester Young

Yusef Lateef

John Coltrane

Don Pullen

with the Chief Cliff Singers

& the African Brazilian Connection

 Jim Pepper

Shadow

ICP Orchestra

featuring Garrett List

Pharoah Sanders

with Maleem Mahmoud Ghania

Leo smith

A.R. Kane

David Murray

Min Bul

United Future Organization

Afro Blue Band

Michael Ray

& the Cosmic Krewe

Sun Ra

& his Arkestra

Den Ra

Thomas Buckner

David Moss

Elliott Sharp

Mick Vranich

Jack Kerouac

Ezra Pound

Soundtrack from Naked Lunch

Diamanda Galas

Martial Solal

Bonzo Dog Band

Van Morrison

Fugs

Allen Ginsberg

Rotations

Tornados

MC5

Captain Beefheart

& his Magic Band

Beatles

Dr. Fiorella Terenzi

Pauline Oliveros

Dieterich Buxtehude

Sergei Prokofiev

John Cage

Krupa Pete Siers Trio

featuring Dave Bennett & Tad Weed

2013 PKO 061

Please take note, because this is good news of the highest order. Percussionist Pete Siers, clarinetist Dave Bennett and pianist Tad Weed have put together a tribute to drummer and bandleader Gene Krupa, and it’s guaranteed to alter your central nervous system in all the right ways. Usually remembered as the dynamo behind Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing”, Krupa also attracted attention when he magnified the impact of his own orchestra by featuring Roy Eldridge and Anita O’Day. Although he began recording as a leader in 1935, Krupa’s discography really reaches back to 1927 when he strained the parameters of studio recording technology as a member of the Eddie Condon Mob. Krupa’s inspirations and influences constitute fundamental links with the very bedrock of traditional jazz drumming. They included Warren “Baby” Dodds, Zutty Singleton and Chick Webb.

For this project Pete zeroed in on the trio recordings that Krupa made for Columbia and V-Disc in 1945, and for Clef, the precursor to Verve, in 1952. Pete’s choices are characteristically insightful and astute. Maybe you’ll notice a pair of intriguing titles amongst the more familiar struts, stomps, swing tunes and ballads. “Number Ten Richie Drive” was the street address of Krupa’s pad up in Yonkers, while “Fine’s Idea”, originally arranged by saxophonist Charlie Ventura, is largely based on the chord progressions of Edgar Sampson’s “Blue Lou”. It occupies a special niche in the collective classic jazz discography alongside “The Count’s Idea” and “The Duke’s Idea” by Charlie Barnet; the bop standard “Ray’s Idea” and something called “Pig’s Idea” which was recorded in 1940 by a Chicago-based pre-bop string band billed as the Cats and the Fiddle. Collectively credited to Krupa, Ventura and pianist Teddy Napoleon, “Fine’s Idea” is a lively modern-sounding piece of work, very like the mercurial maneuverings of Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five. It’s worth noting that during the Korean War, Krupa’s threesome took themselves all the way to Tokyo where Ventura startled fans at the Ernie Pyle Theater by whipping out a bass saxophone.

Cut to Southeastern Michigan nearly sixty years later, and if you’re like me the Pete Siers Trio’s Krupa is likely to knock you on your ass. Tad Weed’s creative dexterity is nothing short of breathtaking. A monstrously adept improviser, he is capable of reinventing the wheel while the rig is rolling in fourth gear. Remember how Jaki Byard could invoke the entire history of jazz piano at one sitting, and sometimes within the construct of one tune? Tad is comparably brilliant. Dave Bennett sometimes conveys the impression that he can play the clarinet inside out. Taken in combination with Mr. Weed’s disarming ingenuity, Bennett’s virtuosity is downright jaw-dropping. He combines the fluency of Buster Bailey, Rudy Powell and Benny Goodman with the early modern sensibilities of Artie Shaw, Marshall Royal and Buddy De Franco. Pete’s extraordinary command of the drum kit is the direct result of a lifelong devotion to Krupa and a sanguine pantheon of drummers from all over the traditional spectrum. Watching him at work is always a gas. Last time I heard him with the Easy Street Jazz Band, Pete appeared to be nonchalantly conjuring the spirits of Big Sid Catlett as well as Condon cohorts George Wettling and Davy Tough. How’re you going to beat that?

I’m ready to throw done at this point and declare without exaggeration that Pete Siers’ Krupa is one of the great jazz albums of the past quarter century. The overall effect is that of a vitamin shot and several deep breaths of fresh night air garnished with black coffee and tiramisu. The ballads are superb, and the upbeat numbers—most of the set—are precisely what the doctor forgot to order. For selection, interpretation, inspiration and sheer musicianship, what the Pete Siers Trio has given us here is an exceptionally wonderful offering. I’m fully convinced that Mr. Krupa would be pleased, proud and thankful.

arwulf arwulf - august 2013

Alex Belhaj’s Crescent City Quartet

Sugar Blues

The word tradition is derived from the Latin tradere, signifying cultural elements that are handed along for the good of all. It’s the same etymological root as the word trade. Traditions can and do work both ways. The musicians of today give back to musical ancestors who continue to send us gifts and messages. Magic from the dawn of the 20^th century re-manifests in the 21^st. 

Periodically, Alexander Belhaj’s strongly steeped devotion to living tradition transports him and his guitar to New Orleans where he sits in and absorbs the continuum firsthand. Alex, like Marty Grosz, is a predominately chordal guitarist and a devoted follower of the great Al Casey. Listen deeper and you’ll find yourself surrounded by the spirits of Bernard Addison, Teddy Bunn, Dick McDonough, Eddie Lang and Bill Basie’s rhythm man Freddie Green. Alex is a gentle soul whose friendliness, diligence and sincerity are all too uncommon in a hard-boiled world.

For this recording project Alex assembled an intimate group of skilled improvisers who share his passion for music from the 1920’s and ‘30s. Clarinetist Ray Heitger has served for many years as Toledo, Ohio’s grand interpreter of traditional jazz. His inspired solos and visceral vocals bring caloric urgency to any gathering. Regular engagements with Paul Klinger’s Easy Street Jazz Band, in fact, have sent tremors throughout the far west side of Ann Arbor. Heitger’s playing invites visitations from clarinet legends Jimmie Noone, Rudy Powell, Omer Simeon and {when Ray really gets to feeling right} even Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Cornetist Dave Kosmyna has devoted much of his life to the early strata of the jazz tradition. His Great Lakes peregrinations include distinguished service in Buffalo, Toronto, Toledo and Ann Arbor. While basking in the glow of his horn you might feel Herman Autrey, Lee Collins, Joe Oliver and Rex Stewart hanging out at the table near the back. Alex Belhaj’s Crescent City Quartet is anchored and illuminated by Hamtramck-based string bassist Jordan Schug. Also a master cellist, Schug has worked with Paul Keller’s Orchestra and the Hot Club of Detroit. The interaction between mister Belhaj and mister Schug is particularly gratifying.

Alex has selected his weave of stomps, blues and spirituals most carefully. In choosing to perform melodies by Louis Cottrel, Clarence Williams, Artie Matthews and the Mississippi Sheiks, he has demonstrated a keen awareness of our cultural legacy. The heart of this album may be found in the cluster of tunes that includes “Four or Five Times”, “His Eye is On the Sparrow” and “Viper Mad”, a defiantly hedonistic number premiered by Noble Sissle and Sidney Bechet in 1938. The CCQ’s realization of this ode to Mezz Mezzrow’s favorite herbal analgesic features a spirited group vocal similar to what Ann Arborites have come to expect from Phil Ogilvie’s Rhythm Kings. Impressionable souls may feel the need to stand up and strut around with one index finger in the air.

arwulf arwulf

ann arbor

2013