Live Shot(s) #149!

 

All shots from Golden Saguaro Tucson, 11/20/2024. 

Below: Neuro No Neuro. Delicate Techno Classicism through samples and oscillators. Sneaky inversions. 

 

Above: Jeff Greinke. Getting down to those deeper vibes. Subtly twisting the dials into clouds of yes. 

Below: Bedtime Reverie. Performative Therapeutic Chromaticism. Would love to hear this broadened into a band format. 

 

Post gig hang was to feature guitar playing in an innovative style with grilled cheese sandwiches served. Disaster Amnesiac was sad to miss, but early morning vocational pursuits compelled me to head homeward towards sleep, which eventually did manifest.

Live shot(s) #148!

 All shots taken at Screening Room, Desert Drone show 11/15/2024.

Below:

Chelsey Lee Trejo. Last minute substitution gig. Bowing bubbles from the sea floor.

Above: Ryan Chavra. Blended strings with analog synth sounds. Really lovely. Mind dancing.

Below: Alluvium. Most purely cinematic act of the evening. Big guitar sounds, guitar player not visible in photo, sorry.

Above: Deep Stay. Melodic keyboard and vocal catharsis. Short film loops.

Let the full moon inside of the room. 

Roy Haynes RIP

 

Another drummer of crucial importance to Jazz has swung off into the Great Home Going. Disaster Amnesiac saw Roy Haynes twice, once at Yoshi's in Oakland and once at the Masonic Hall in San Francisco. Such a subtle touch on his instrument. Dig his trio album with Pat Metheny and Dave Holland or the one with Rahsaan Roland Kirk's group. Roy Haynes just played and played and played.

Necros-Tangled Up; Restless Records, 1987

 

On the very first Hardcore Punk Rock mix tape that Disaster Amnesiac ever had the pleasure of hearing, 1985 in late spring, Necros featured pretty prominently. Needless to say, I followed their career after that; there's even a funny (to me) story of actually meeting them at an Arby's on Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge VA as they were wending their way over to Richmond for a show with the Circle Jerks. Also recall 2003-ish, finding out about an affordable reissue of Conquest For Death and talking to a record store proprietor in Baltimore in order to attain a copy (dude also tantalized me with stories of interactions with Lungfish members). As for Tangled Up, the 1987 full length from Necros, Disaster Amnesiac most definitely owned a copy during that time and most definitely played it a lot. As recalled, the sounds on the album were exemplary of a certain strain of musical production, rooted within Hardcore Punk Rock and Punk Rock in general, that were evidence of progress within the overall aesthetics of same. Journalists such as Brian Walsby and Mike Gitter, if I'm not mistaken, were all-in, as was teenage Amnesiac, the Dumfries Dork, the Potomac High Hierophant (at least within my own little domain, consisting of bedroom and basement), the Terror of All Things Civil Within Montclair. It's suspected that my copy of the initial vinyl release was sold at Plan 9 Records in Richmond. Bad decision man! The Big Daddy Roth cover image alone should have precluded me doing that, but I probably needed some quick cash for weed or Marlboros. Teenagers can lack foresight! All that screeding aside, I'm happy to have found a CD copy of what was probably Restless Records' best offering, with the To Damascus LP coming in a very close second, here in Tucson a few weeks back. And I've listened. And I've enjoyed. Here in Arizona, on obvious Second Amendment diatribe such as Gun is not only understood but also welcomed and uplifted! That the lyrics also feature wild party babes is definitely not a bad thing. The music on this track features a dynamic that is all over Tangled Up, that being a canny update on the Hardcore Punk Rock rhythmic approach expertly swung by drummer Todd Swalla, just slathered with much more skilled guitar playing of a decidedly non-wanker technique by way of guitarist Andy Wendler. In other words, noisy and unhinged. Do not become unhinged when you're at the rifle range, of course.  Disaster Amnesiac keeps asking "just how close are Necros singer Barry Henssler and Ted Nugent, anyway"? Next up we have Blizzard Of Glass, with its tight syncopation and real deal Hardcore gang vocals. Tight picked bass there, Ron Sakowski! Perhaps a bit of Celtic Frost influence in there, who knows, and is that a bad thing at all, in this era or any other? Of course not. The song ends with the abruptness that one can expect from Punk Rock and leads to Tangled Up's centerpiece track, Big Chief. This one's an epic tale of some sort. Disaster Amnesiac has been guessing that some of the lyrical content describes weirdo people that Henssler encountered out on the tour trail, but obviously that's just speculative. And Wendler's solo is one of the most straight up Detroit post-Stooges guitar statements that I've ever had the pleasure of going deaf to. Fantastic, rockin' stuff here, driving pounding Rock 'n Roll! I'm certainly happy to have become reacquainted with it! Tough to follow all that, but Open Wound does with more of Necros Hardcore refinement. This band was at ground floor of the 'core, and this song shows them getting a bit fancier with the accents a bit, but it's still IQ 32 to this dumb ass. Tangled Up continues this trend, with Henssler maybe showing a bit more "maturity" in his lyrics, if by the term one means world weariness. Hey, at least you had Swalla kicking ass in your drum monitor, Barr. A bit more of that road chug on the tune, too. It's almost as if Power Of Fear  and Black Water are simplified version of Tangled, but that's alright. Necros were a touring, working band, and it's totally fine for bands like that to rely upon signature moves; especially good for the band if those moves are original and ass kicking. Hardcore Punk grounded itself within those tendencies, and again, Necros were there at its initial flowering period. After Noise, another rager, Tangled Up suddenly goes Prog on 500 Years, A Pack Of Kools, Nile Song and A House Full Of Drunks. Kools allows the guitar guys to show evidence of some of their musical developments and this leads into an incredible version of Pink Floyd's juiciest writing wherein Todd gets his licks in before the whole thing wraps up after a concise twenty eight minutes  with Drunks. Atonal piano hails the invention of Death Rock, to be capitalized upon a bit over a decade later by Viking Bros in Sweden. In doing research and contemplation for this post, Disaster Amnesiac saw a picture of this iteration of Necros, all greyed and aged, hanging out together. Did they play some shows recently? That must have been a time!

Live shot #147!

 

Thomas Harrison Jr., Make Out Room San Francisco 11/6/2017. Illinois inventive. I hope he's still producing music. And maps!

Cecil Taylor-Corona; Corbett vs. Dempsey Records, 2020

 

It stands to reason that Cecil Taylor's Corona CD, issued in 2020 by Corbett vs. Dempsey Records, would have not made it onto Disaster Amnesiac's perceptual radar until four years later. So much was obliterated and lost in that era (for a giant nothing), there was just no way that I'd have been aware of it. Thankfully for this Taylor fan, a cheap copy emerged from the depths of internet, that super duper fun place, and I snagged it on the immediate tip. Glad to have copped and listened, too. First track Sector 1 features a group of pretty well regarded international improvisors doing some sort of glossolalia (and a few short bars on some reed instrument) in accompaniment to Cecil's deep African Diaspora poetry recitation. His spoken word pieces are always fascinating. The ways in which Taylor parsed words, so abstract and intriguing, are on full display. Sector 2 presents the meat of this 1996 Berlin concert appearance, forty eight minutes of duo exchange between the man at the Bosendorfer and drummer Sunny Murray. Long time fans of creative music will recall that these two men produced some absolutely boffo improvisations in the 1960's, ones which defined a lot of the dynamics of free thought within the Jazz continuum. On Corona, their chemistry is shown to have not been lost. Murray ranges about on his drum kit, getting the wide, powerful sound that he was known for. Sunny pushes and stretches the rhythms in non-linear ways with a brashness that is rooted within his love of the form. Taylor's responses are in keeping with his by-then well established stylistic imperatives: huge block chords on the lower registers, as heavy as the heaviest Tony Iommi riffs (if one listens with, like, their ears), fast runs on the higher registers that fall like cascades of abstract crystal flowers. And of course it's all really sublime and lovely. As Disaster Amnesiac has listened to this track, I continue to hear the Blues that Cecil never denied having been influenced by. If you can't hear that, dude I am so sorry. Try again, and don't listen to twerps that accuse Cecil Taylor of being a fraud. Almost an hour of blissful listening is followed by more abstract verbiage from one of the top pianists of the 20th Century. Very cool how one can actually hear him walking away from the mics at the conclusion of Sector 3. Disaster Amnesiac got to see him play once, at Yoshi's in Oakland, and the man was nothing if not theatrical. I have no doubt that there were deep metaphysics implied and applied within this part of his presentation. Corona gives all of this to the music listener within a tight presentation that Corbet vs. Dempsey Records always has. This album is well recorded, lovely to see, and even more lovely to hear. Find it and study at the feet of two Masters.

The Fog; John Carpenter, dir. 1980

 

After Disaster Amnesiac's Halloween ritual of playing spooky chords upon an old, questionably tuned upright piano with the front door of the house open, the missus and I had some time to spend, and we figured a spooky movie would be appropriate. A quick perusal of Kanopy had us viewing John Carpenter's brilliant 1980 film The Fog. I may have seen it during the adolescent years, but that time is quite long gone, and the memories of it were vague at best. This was a good thing, as viewing it again for the first time revealed a fantastic experience. Lovely shots of western Marin County in Spring, clearly after a good rainy season, with the fields showing a shimmering green. Incredible exterior shots of Point Bonita and its lighthouse. Very creative set design and lighting. Excellent soundtrack work from Carpenter, wide shots that approached Minimalist paintings. Adrienne Barbeau giving a quite subtle performance, using her vocal inflections as much as her fine physical looks. Hal Holbrook as a man aware of his impending doom and reckoning with that. Use of horror motifs not as the principal concern but as ways in which to enhance the full spectrum of human experience. Seriously, if you've not watched The Fog for a bit, it's absolutely worth its concise one hour and twenty eight minute running time.

Chester Hawkins-Semisolids; Intangible Arts, 2014

 

Pretty ominous vials of some poison type of injected substance on that cover art for Chester Hawkins's Semisolids, no? The sounds of this 2014 release match quite well with it, too. Brooding electronics are pushed from various electronic sources, all of them captured with clarity and precision. Hawkins is not haphazard with his productions, as Disaster Amnesiac has gleaned from this one and Nil 1, reviewed a few weeks back. These tracks run the gamut from spooky, non-pulsed clashes such as iodine to more rhythmic areas on slender loris and malattia del sonno, the former even utilizing synthetic percussion and the later that would not sound misplaced within a John Carpenter film. the brood crushes the synapses with odd cyber sounds and proximity fuze might make an obsessive type do some cyber stalking of Cosey Fanni-Tutti and Christ Carter. Dramatic zones infuse isle of dogs and from away as Hawkins turns weird knobs on his devices; these zones will surely be pleasing for any fan of well crafted Industrial/Noise/Drone. nematode might very well get that butt out of its chair, with that repeated phrase, in order to perform some kind of improvised dance routine. As Burroughs so succinctly put it: "...dance around in your BONES..." That's been the case for this listener, anyway. Speaking of William S., the liner notes of Semisolids appear to utilize some kind of variation upon the Cut-Up Method. I tried to read them later in the day and found much bewilderment, which is probably at least one element of the intended effect of their screed. The album feels like a kind of concept statement, with that concept being presented in an oblique form that renders it fascinating. What was Hawkins obsessing upon during the production of these tracks? Grab a copy for yourself and attempt to decipher these deeply personal messages from this Tucson Sound Artist of high refinement aesthetics.

Live shot #146!

 

Modesty, Los Angeles based Pedal Drone Core. The Palms Restaurant, Twentynine Palms CA 4/5/2024.

86-s/t; OHP Records, 1985

 

Some of that 'ole black (vinyl) magic hit Disaster Amnesiac at Bookman's in Tucson as I looked down into the lower shelf of one of their LP bins. Would you not also be intrigued by that mysterious cover imagery? I'm sure you would be. Well anyway, I was, and subsequently the interest went up even further after reading that Mac McNeilly, Jesus Lizard pounder of skins and resonant metals did same on this 1985 release from OHP Records. It must be admitted that some idea of how these seven tracks would sound emerged from the synapses pretty quickly; that idea has proven to be pretty accurate. Bass with a treble edge, likely plectrum picked, guitar sounds that are noisy, pretty clearly pulling from the Post Punk side of available tonal choices in that time, both of them driven relentlessly by Mac. Max Koshewa, bass/vocals, and Ken Schenck on guitar/vocals do not sound bummed by this feature at all. Indeed, the band jams out pretty effectively. 86 obviously were a band that rehearsed and played shows with a focus towards the realization of an actual band sound. In that time frame, many bands chose to pull from ready made templates such as Hardcore or Crossover. The pleasure in 86 comes from the evidence which shows young musicians blending their influences in an attempt to come up with an original voice of their own within the band format. There are recognizable 1980's American underground music tropes, yet 86 transcended them within their jamming (but not Jam Band) songs, and it's really great that they were documented well and with clarity. Was Mac a marching band star drummer in the Atlanta Metro Area? Damn that guy can play. If you see this album out there, grab it for McNeilly's drumming. No doubt Max and Ken were glad to have grabbed him from wherever he was hanging out beforehand.

Phil Lesh RIP

 

1965-1970-raunch classics, psychedelic Dark Stars, feedback

1970-1974-fine grain woody tones, mastering the song form, strength to strength within the creative music world

1975-1980-guiding the good ship Grateful Dead all the way to the Nile and back

1980-1987-professional touring Rock Star

1987-1995-a participant in great song writing and live music presentation, MIDI pioneer

1995-2024-the best Dark Stars and the most adventurous bands of the post-Jerry Dead sphere

People loved Phil a lot. He played music for people. The Pride of Coucamounga and other kooks, too. Rock on, Reddy Kilowatt.

Live shot(s) #145

 

All shots taken at Golden Saguaro, Tucson 10/23/2024. 

Below: Cultural Detox Syndicate. Poly chanting with digital saturation and dissolves. 

Above: Actor & Parasite play Patch-a-Delic and have the footage to go along with that.

Below: Marcos Serafim. AI elevated to its full Surrealist potential. Erotic intra-dimensional with Illbient sounds. 

Golden Saguaro Its Groovy.

nil-01; Intangible Arts, 2023

 

As the collective earth-bound enter into Scorpio season within a chapter of the programmed reality script that calls for much nervous agitation, it must be that people are conversing privately about "current events" with at least minimal levels of intensity. Disaster Amnesiac has his main bro for that, too, of course. We've been discussing things currently happening society-wide. Not sure if D plays music in the background as we go 'round and around with it, but I certainly do. Some music just isn't optimal for that function: your Black Sabbath or your OFF! or Sub Rosa's An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music (2011-ish). That said, some music definitely IS. Yes, talking about Ambient Music here, a genre which 01, by nil, certainly fits within. The album features sound art conjured by Chester Hawkins during a residency at Leibig12 in Berlin. These artistic sounds are achieved from manipulations of unlikely instruments such as electric toothbrushes and found acoustics to more standardized types of axes such at modular synths and phone apps. 01 is characterized by deep blends of these disparate instruments' tonal possibilities that are sometimes colored by street and field recordings all around the city. Disaster Amnesiac has been to Berlin enough times to resonate with the brooding  results. They're fine sonic representations of the place, made even more effective by Hawkins' adeptness with his tools. Es ist doch schwer, kenst du mich? The album's cover keeps reminding Disaster Amnesiac of the the cover for Eugene Robinson's A Long Slow Screw; it's the stark black with some white dabbled in there for contrast. But mostly black. Black is the darkest shade and 01 has a pretty dark vibe, which bothers this listener not one bit. If you find yourself buggin' out currently due to which ever you know what you're supposed to be obsessing upon out there, you could probably use its sounds as a means of anxiety transference. You could also call a friend, and you'd be able to leave it playing as you yakked. Remember to tell them how much you love them.

Live shot #144!

 

Civic Orchestra of Tucson, conducted by Dr. Keun Oh. Catalina Foothills High School, 10/20/2024. Pieces by Beethoven, Britten, Mendelssohn, and Mahler. The Britten piece, featuring viola soloist Teizheng Shen, was a revelation. Really great performances of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn scores. Perhaps a bit of intonation slip on the Mahler piece? A fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Live shot(s) #143!

 

 

All shots from Desert Drone at Screening Room, Tucson 10/15/2024.

Below: lid ismuth. Floating worlds within Drone. Somewhat short set.

Above: Ceremonial Abyss. Bobbing up and down in a diamond sea. With flicker. Longer, booming set. 

Below: Grant Beyschau. Hurdy gurdy, percussion, Casio tones. Went deeply into the drone. Look out for this recording, you'll want to hear it. 

Desert Drone is unstoppable!

Live shot(s) #142!

 All shots taken at Miami Art Works, Miami AZ 10/13/2024.

Below: Loud Obnoxious Bass. Miami Noise from Lob Instagon!

Above: Aphrodites Polyp. Tucson Electro-Acoustic. Lap Steel guitar used to great effect. 

Below: Dummy Rifle from Phoenix. Densities and aggro.

Above: Ceremonial Abyss. Portland Drone. Should have played longer, but I will see him tonight at Screening Room if the world isn't nuked by then.

dustsceawing-s/t; eh? Records #127, 2024

 

Minneapolis and so-called Minneapolis and Oakland trio of Miri Karraker, Noah Ophoven and Mitch Stahlmann have been exploring a shared interest in "lowercase music, small sounds, and questions around instrumental proficiency" since about 2017. eh? Records has documented parts of their progress on dustsceawing, one which presents two side-long cassette pieces. 

The first piece, firn, was recorded by the trio in in 2018 and features a quiet, slow moving activity among the three of them. The ways in which the group mesh their sounds shows an ensemble that is focused upon listening to each other and responding within appropriate duration, after silence or as a prelude to additional silence. Of note here at mi casita has been the element of surprise from the timbre of viola, cornet and flute. The fascinating question of "which one did that", always an aspect from the satisfying Improvised Music listening session, is one which has arisen often as Disaster Amnesiac has listened. Staring out my window now, big, puffy white clouds float past in the Sonoran sky, and dustsceawing's music matches them with a sort of perfection.  This is enjoyably float-ey music, made more enjoyable by the calmness of its presentation. The group plays with fine interconnectivity.

On side two resides fold, a piece which had Karraker, Ophoven, and Stahlmann performing and recording simultaneously at their respective residences, via Zoom. A very interesting dynamic of this 2022 session is that they each were muted from one and other, essentially playing solos at the same time (does that statement even make sense?) The press sheet describes the result as "[S]trata stack and form something solid" a descriptor which Disaster Amnesiac can hear and most definitely agrees with. The various layers of sound combine with a "stacked" nature that, if listened to closely, do evince touches of the adjacent lines to be seen within stratum. As an experiment, fold's principal dynamic is fascinating. Is it braveness or folly to tell their public about the method? I can't say, but it must be assumed that this method is one in play more often within improvised settings. 

Special note must be made too of dustsceawing as a physical object. The cover art is sublime and mysterious, and the actual cassette is clear with green glitter printing. Noice. 

The players who produced this release went deep, and you can too.

Random shot!

 

Discrete elements on an outside wall. Sullivan St., Miami AZ. Sometimes minimalist elements can jump out at a viewer with the most powerful of impact.

Random shot!

 

Casey Sonnebend's paints and some of this brushes and canvases. Capitola CA April 2012.

Live shot(s) #141!

 All photos taken at Screening Room Tucson 10/4/2024.

Below: Dollblood. Blended songwriting and Drone. Really excellent crescendo to end a short set.

Above: MMRA. Floating cities of the electron.

Below: Cecyl Ruehlen pulled wonderful feedback and overtones from six floor-based fret boards. Heaviest act of the evening with film that Clement Greenberg would have found nicely saturated. 

Above: Lauren Sarah Hayes does Noise Aikido. Rather too short of set, Disaster Amnesiac wanted more! Gestural twitches from interactive cybernetic looping action. 

Below: Twig Harper. Out on a long tour. Static-ey mastery. Fascinating wind instrument paired with an influential Noise rig. He just calmly destroyed. 

 

Before the acts played, and in-between sets, Wave Archive and Desert Drone, co-curators of the show, played older Country and Hillbilly music over the PA system. I pondered the terrible destruction in southern Appalachia, especially the images I've seen from North Carolina. Praying for all of those affected by the terrible Hurricane Helene.

Random photo!

 

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. July 2020.

Goodbye Pete Rose

 

Pete Rose has died and it's a true Goodbye 20th Century Event for Disaster Amnesiac. I'm just old enough to recall his glory days the 1970's Cincinnati Reds a bit, and his Superstar era with the Philadelphia Phillies quite a bit more. His work ethic was mind boggling in its breadth. His love for baseball and his commitment to developing performances worthy of the public's attention were never fake, despite the ignominious fall from grace which hit him in 1989. It appeared as though that the time since his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball was spent on a kind of shameful apology tour. A time shrouded in Tragedy to be sure. Still, if one thinks back to the years leading up to that fall, one will surely be inspired by the actions of a man of deep focus and rough hewn, American grittiness. Pete Rose worked really hard to get to his spot among the top baseball players ever. It's hoped that he held on to the satisfaction of that sheer determination to just keep going, despite all of the obstacles. Hopefully now the MLB Hall of Fame will deign to recognize him for his brilliance within the sport. Hopefully, in some other dimension, Pete Rose is doing a hard slide into a base that's being manned by Bart Giamatti, cleats up and breathing fire.

AZ Underground Film Fest-Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me; The Screening Room, Tucson 9/27/24

 

A pairing of Desert Drone aesthetics with Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me at the always bitchin Screening Room in downtown Tucson? Well yes of course! The dark, disturbing Lynch film sequel to the groundbreaking TV series was enhanced by excellently subtle Drone and Ambient sounds from Zack Hansen, The (Arc) Collective, and the mighty Maiiuwak. All three did astute jobs of adding to the drama of it while never intruding into this viewer's celluloid experience. Nicely done you guys. 

It hadn't been too long since Disaster Amnesiac had seen Fire Walk With Me, so definitely recalled how twisted the story gets. Seeing how incredibly well Lynch knows how to frame a shot, especially a female within the shot was a true delight. Such a gifted director. 

The Screening Room staff are really kind and generous, the AZ Underground Film Fest is doing great stuff, and Desert Drone continues its long run of presenting worthy sounds to a willing public. Huzzah!

Below: amps for the soundtrack

Above: some kind of sign on Alameda St, near the county courthouse. Don't know if this is random art, or construction communication, or political/cultural messaging. Just saw it and found it fascinating. As is Tucson generally.

Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks-Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks; Public Eyesore Records #159, 2024

 

Initial listening to Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks, the CD from the duo of same names, brought up certain feelings of trepidation within Disaster Amnesiac's perceptions. This on account of the amount of sheer silence that Flinn on percussion and Eubanks on saxophone/electronics utilize throughout the disc's roughly thirty minute duration. Surely these two, with lengthy and impressive c.v. within the Improvised Music world, have produced some raucous music within the span of their respective careers. That said it seems clear that for the documented show at PAS-Berlin they agreed to leave a ton of space in between each musical incident that would occur. This approach can have an effect upon a listener of having been left hanging in space, as I'm sure many others would attest to. Or, I dunno, perhaps this listener just too distracted too much of the time. Silence can be the best mirror to be held up to people at times, this much Disaster Amnesiac is aware of. Again, trepidation from the sounds did occur. The best spot that I discovered for real active listening was within a bathtub. Stilled by hot water and Espom salt, my brain found it easier and even fun to hear the various scrapings and clickings and whispers conjured up by Flinn and Eubanks within a Berlin art gallery in late Winter of 2023. The best advice for interacting with Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks: still your mind, find as quiet a spot as possible, dim the lights and breathe. Its action will certainly not box you about your ears, but it may provide you with a period of peaceful repose from the increasingly insane world that certain powers are intent upon manifesting.

Kalaparush & the Light-Morning Song; Delmark Records, 2004

 

After a summer that featured a lot of Noise and Electro-Acoustic music, Disaster Amnesiac had been experiencing a certain amount of ear fatigue. Some kind of pivot was needed, and just such a pivot arrived in the form of Morning Song, the Delmark Records release from Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre's trio the Light. Consisting of Kalaparush on tenor sax, Jesse Dulman on tuba, and Ravish Momin on drums, the disc's eleven songs present a group working outward and inward from Jazz conceptions of musical production and into pieces that transcend this (very important) root. 

Kalaparush was the elder of the group, having been playing since the late 1950's. The man sounds wonderful on Morning Song. One can hear his seminal Jazz influences, and surely he would have been unashamed of it. Atop that, the listener hears the aesthetics of AACM music that McIntrye had a direct hand in shaping, and surely so many more discrete elements that comprise a musical approach. His control of the axe and its varied tonalities and timbral possibilities go on full display throughout the set. When he solos, accompanied or unaccompanied, the amount of information is not thin; no, Maurice achieved densities within his saxophone playing.  It's also been noted as to how much space Kalaparush gives to the other two members of the Light. Disaster Amnesiac has thought of it in terms of generosity. Kalaparush probably could have behaved as the ball hog, but he did not. Dudes, even established dudes, can choose that. 

You do realize that within the initial Jazz combos, it was generally not a string bass but a tuba or sousaphone that provided the low end thrum, right? Morning Song's bass player Jesse Dulman surely must have known about this, and his bass comes not from strings but from his human breath blown into and out of a tuba. The tuba's sound is obviously going to be significantly different than the plucked bass fiddle, and it's one of the intriguing aspects of the album. Dulman plays it straight up and down sometimes, providing marching band feels to this listener, pretty much making me really appreciate the middle school band that I sometimes hear rehearsing at current place of employment. It's kind of an Ur Jazz feeling that hits many times Song, and that's a welcome one within this cranium. Jesse can get abstract and spaced out with the best of the AACM crew, and does that as well at times. An interesting and skilled player is this Jesse Dulman. Is he still on any kind of music scene? Send the documents hither! 

The drum seat of the Light was occupied by Ravish Momin. His playing often revolves around rhythmic structures that repeat into patterned phrases. Ravish gets very musical sounds from his Jazz drum kit, sounds coaxed with sticks, brushes, mallets, fingers. Jazz techniques are interesting techniques, especially when utilized by drummers such as Momin. Nary a bash to be heard on the drumming Morning Song features, only sounds appropriate to the intimacies available to astute improvisors as they work together within a room. The ways in which Ravish blends cymbals with drums are damn tight and well thought through. A top flight performance, and Disaster Amnesiac knows as little about this guy as I do his tuba huffing band mate. Ravish, you out there? 

Morning Song is the kind of recording that would reaffirm a Jazz fan's deep conviction that the form still matters and can have relevance in a timeless manner. When presented the way that it is by Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre & the Light it's really juicy and fun. Chicago in general and AACM in particular come through for Jazz again and again again. Many hails to this album and group.