Saturday, February 15th, 2014 // Blogs,MMW
Saxophonist Albert Ayler stood out among the many free jazz band leaders of the 60s. Like most “new” musical idioms, free jazz broadened the idea of what constituted “jazz,” but Ayler took that to extremes, incorporating into his work whatever elements from other genres he liked. Distinguishing marks of his work were the emphasis on strong melody lines and a joyous spiritually manifested in his best work.
In 1970, Ayler’s body was found in the the East River, the circumstances of his death never having been explained. He was only 31. At the time, his music was becoming more accessible to folks not used to jazz. I would like to think that had he lived, he would have begun to expand the limits of popular music to include arrangements with riotous horns backing wild vocals. But, alas, we got hair bands instead.
Hear it: Kenny Joe presents Pinkney Hall every Friday morning from 9 until 10.
Saturday, February 15th, 2014 // Blogs,MMW
Alt / Punk rock from Japan. 9mm Parabellum Bullet got started in the early / mid 2000s and have, up to this point, released 4 albums, with a 5th due in July, as well as several EPs. The band consists of 4 members: a lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, a backing vocalist and lead guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. The group’s sonic awesomeness, along with the inherent language barrier for most of us Americans, leaves one in a euphoric stupor of echoing waves and swelling rifts. Plus, the songs are just damn catchy.
Saturday, February 15th, 2014 // Blogs,MMW
Lo-fi, psychedelic, experimental, dubby hip-hop and rock. Gonjasufi (born Sumach Ecks) teamed up with underground hip-hop producer The Gaslamp Killer for his debut release in 2010, A Sufi And A Killer. The album sports 19 short and sweet tracks of glitched noise, skeletal instrumentation, and Sumach’s crowing vocals; along with several obscure samples from cultural music and old Turkish cinema. To top it all off, Sumach has also been an actor, having played Helios in the opera Persephone, and works as a yoga instructor in Las Vegas.
Hear it: Laxatives with alphonse & suffle, Thursdays 12 a.m. to 1 a.m.
