Discoveries

I've recently discovered a lot of interesting music that I wouldn't have ever heard of before if there was no internet and no web 2.0. I'd like to introduce some of the finest resources here:
There's a wonderful blog of Seattle trumpeter Jason Parker called One Working Musician. His main theme is by what means an artist can survive best in these days. I find this topic quite interesting already, even for people like me, who are "only" consuming music. However, what makes this blog really treasurable is his weekly posting series called "Making it Happen Friday" (as you can guess: there's a new article every Friday - well, sometimes Sunday ;-)), where Parker is introducing other independent musicians, mostly those from the US west coast. Parker has a very wide interest and scope, so the musicians he's introducing are not just from the jazz scene but ranging from alternative rock to modern composition. Just recently he's been interviewing Beth Fleenor, an artist whose work I am sure I'm going to explore further in the future, just like I want to with Michael Owcharuk. But last, not least I should mention, that Jason Parker himself is playing very creative, inventive and modern jazz music with his quartet - listen to his new album "No More, No Less" and you'll see.

Another great resource for discovering most interesting sounds is the New Music Box with a collaborative blog of young artists, composers, conductors and musicians. After their review of James Mulcro Drew's "Animating Degree Zero" I must get this album. This urge is even stronger in the recent case of a review of the new album of The Dirty Projectors: "Bitte Orca".

Last for today, I want to point out to Beck's Record Club. I don't remember how I found this site, it was recommended somewhere. The famous indie musician Beck has gathered friends to re-record updated versions of "The Velvet Underground & Nico", song by song. Very much recommended.

Besides finding new and interesting music on the internet in my leisure time, I've been thinking lately of writing some theory. I thought about starting out with a discussion of the current web 2.0 and blogging business in the terminology of Karl Marx. I think, I could really get something out of it, not as a definite statement, but as a starting point for a thread of thoughts. However, I haven't started yet and I'm not sure if I ever will. The problem is: Writing such a theory would require concentrated WORK, something that I'm somethow shying away from in my leisure time...

Toyohito Yoshikawa

Toyohito Yoshikawa (dr): [Boredoms: Onanie Bomb Meets the Sex Pistols tracks #2-10]

Yoshikawa was not a founding member of the Japanese noise-rock outfit Boredoms, but he joined in short after the take-off in the late 80's. He also occasionally appears as a vocalist of this and other groups. Other projects he's actively involved with are Happy Cowboys, Z-Rock Hawaii and Universe.

Mizanekristos Yohannes

Mizanekristos Yohannes (bg voc): [Gigi: Gigi]

The man with this beautiful name is an African backing vocalist on the Afro-pop album Bill Laswell produced featuring his Ethopian wife Gigi. No further info available (?).

Arnold "Arny" Young

Arnold "Arny" Young (dr): Club Foot Orchestra: "Clair"

We've just spoken about Dave Young, a trumpeter who was playing with Sun Ra. Now we're moving on from Sun Ra to Un Ra - a monicker which was chosen by "Un-Ra Arnold Young". He's a drummer, now based in Kansas City and running an Arny Young Quartet there.
During the 80's he's been a member of San Francisco's Club Foot Orchestra, which was the house band of the Club Foot, a place where art, punk and jazz could meet and intermingle. He also appeared with Kansas City based improv-group The Malachy Papers.
The piece "Clair" appeared on "Beets - a Collection of Jazz Songs".

Dave Young

David "Dave" Young (tp): [Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Sound of Joy]

Dave Young was a core member of Sun Ra's early Arkestra in 1955 and 1956.
"When Gilmore joined, the Arkestra was no more than a trio, but it quickly grew: Pat Patrick returned from a sojourn in Florida, Dave Young came in on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Richard Evans on bass, Jim Herndon on tympani and timbales. And they got regular work at Cadillac Bob's Budland, in the basement of the Pershing Hotel. The only Chicago-period photo of the Arkestra that's been published shows the band as it stood in the Fall of 1955." (Robert L. Campbell)
Dave Young is said to have quit playing music and became a car salesman (source).

David Young

David Young (el-b): [Element of Crime: Mittelpunkt der Welt]

"Born on the 2nd of May, 1949, in London. He received a BA in philosophy after writing a thesis on Kant. While studying he was already playig with numerous bands, and worked as live-mixer with artists as diverse as Country Joe McDonald, The Incredible String Band, David Bowie and Duke Ellington.
The 1970s lead him via Munich and Los Angeles to New York, where he studies sound engineering and works as a recording engineer there, recording for example Bonnie Tyler, Jim Steinman, Bronski Beat, Elliot Randall and the remains of Steely Dan. He becomes a collaborator of former Velvet Underground member John Cale, plays in John Cale's band from 1980 to 1985, and co-produces four of his albums.
In 1987 he moves back to London, where he produces with John Cale the album "Try to be Mensch" by Berlin band Element of Crime. Since then, David Young collaborates with the band as producer, and since 1993 as live-guitarist. He also works as producer for other artists, such as Alexander Veljanow (Deine Lakaien) or Hector Zazou's project "La Nouvelle Polyphonie Corse". In 2002, he replaces Christian Hartje as permanent bass guitar player for Element of Crime." (Based on the short biography at Discogs, but modified according to the German version on the Element of Crime website)

Interlude: Support the Artists

When travelling through music blogs, one of the most often heard statement is: "Support the artists". Everyone of you knows how she/he can do this, yet I have a few little recommendations here:

A) Support Plushmusic!


"Plushmusic is a new company founded by the cellist Adrian Brendel and saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, in partnership with the technology entrepreneur Stephen Jelley. It is run almost exclusively by professional musicians. Its executive producer is former Radio 3 producer Lyndon Jones. The site is produced by Matt Jolly and edited by Simon Ings."
Plushmusic has recently organized a plushmusic festival - I found a few little snippets of it on Hayden Chisholm's blog website www.softspeakers.com, for example "Peninsula". They feature classical, jazz and world music, separately as well as interwoven, on the festival and on the Plushmusic website. You can watch a lot of wonderful live videos on www.plushmusic.tv and then... support the artists by buying video or audio downloads in high quality (i.e. flac). However, all this would probably only work, if you haven't disabled your browser's flash functions ;-)
As a starting point I highly recommend the short documentary on Simon Nabatov.


B) Support D.D. Jackson!

Sometime in mid-2007 the pianist D.D. Jackson left some message on Bumkun Cha's Pathway to Unknown Worlds. I took the hint and listened to all of Jackson's 22 podcasts. He's been a very talkative man (I can't tell if he still is, because he's not posted any new podcasts for a long time) and heavily advertised his own work, but also provided interesting thoughts and insights not only on jazz, but also on the current status of the music business.
From his website you'll quite a few of free content, just like in the case of plushmusic. You can watch him play with his hands looking like putty and producing wonderful sounds, you can download some live samples.
So and how to support Mr. Jackson? He's got his albums offered for downloading at Artistshare. An album costs between 10 and 14 US dollars, depending on the bitrate you choose. The clou is: If you pay for these downloads, you'll get a lot of extra materials, not available anywhere else, for example artist interviews, videos of the recordings session, and - the most interesting feature - sheet music of some of the pieces.
Jackson's playing is very eclectic: He's well aware of the whole history of jazz piano playing and incorporates it all into his own music. I personally prefer his rather wild, free, freak-out moments - his ballad playing is often a little bit toooo sweet. Besides the newer albums offered at his artistshare side you should also try his first album Peace-Song with David Murray and Jackson showing off their wonderful interplay: They're a perfect match.


C) Support David Binney!

If you don't have the chance to see David Binney play live, there's a way to compensate: He's often recording his gigs and offering them for download from his website at moderate prices. Right now his new CD is out, which you also get directly from there.

Timothy Young

Timothy Young (g,el-g): [Bob­by Pre­vite & Bump: Coun­ter­clock­wise track #9] [Ey­vind Kang: 7 Na­des tracks #1,2,4,5] [Way­ne Hor­vitz & Zony Mash: Upper Egypt] Way­ne Hor­vitz: „Close to You“ Zo­ny Mash: “Te­ku­fah”

"Timothy Young began playing guitar at age 5 under tutelage of Sister Margaruite of the Sacred Heart Convent in Menlo Park, CA. He currently lives in Los Angeles. He plays in The Youngs, THRUSTER!, Sweeter then the Day, Young and Moore and Re;Agent." (From his Myspace site) His playing is often making use of amplification feedback, slides and other sound deformations. At times this could sound quite dreamy and spacey (cf. "Close to You", "Theme from 1st Nade", links above), at times it can get rather noisy. With this he places himself somewhere between easy listening, (noise-)rock, jazz and country.

Richard Youngstein

Richard Youngstein (cb): [Carla Bley & Paul Haines: Escalator over the Hill] [Paul Bley & An­net­te Pea­cock: The Paul Bley Syn­the­si­zer Show tracks #2,6,7]

Richard Youngstein was the bass-player in the "Original Hotel Amateur Band" on Carla Bley's recording of her jazz opera Escalator over the Hill and collaborated with the Bley/Peacock Synthesizer Show. Despite that he seems not have recorded too much with internationally acclaimed groups: He's only credited on a few albums at Discogs or AMG. In the early 70's however, he's also been leading his own group (Richard Youngstein Ensemble), with notable musicians as Perry Robinson or James Fulkerson. Later he changed his name and became a psychotherapist, which he reveals in an Amazon review of Paul Bley's biography:

"From the years 1968-1976, I was working, playing acoustic bass, under the name of Richard Youngstein. In Paul's very hip, very open book, he refers to playing a cool gig in Boston at the (long defunct) Jazz Workshop for one week with his long time drummer, Barry Altschul (whom I went to high school with in the Bronx) and "some bass player." Obviously Paul didn't remember my name, even though I recorded half an album with him on Polydor, called "The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show," produced by Orin Keepnews, and another album with his ex-wife, Annette Peacock, for French Polydor, that I heard had two titles, "Blood," and "Revenge." If anyone has a copy of either LP PLEASE let me know - I never got one & never heard it! Anyway, I also recorded under that name with Carla Bley & JCOA on "Escalator Over The Hill." I was very active in those years, playing w/Ros Rudd, Bill Dixon, Robin Kenyetta, Karl Berger, etc. I moved to LA late in 1976 and switched careers kind of, and names. I got my doctorate and license in psychology (like my late mentor, the great bassist David Izenzon) and have been in the healing field ever since. I had a trio/quartet "Erotic Zone," for some years and played periodically. Anyway, I am the same person, whether the old Richard Youngstein or the more recent Dr. Noah Young. Just thought I'd give a name to "some bass player" on the Jazz Workshop gig with mssrs. Bley and Altschul. And....Paul's book is awesome. Truly one of the giants of jazz and a priviledge to have made music with. (Write me at: Noazarc22@aol.com)"


P.S.: Isn't it interesting to find some traces of such drop-outs of the musical world? And to see what different way their life took after they left the professional music business?

Yu Yang

Yu Yang (voc): [V.A.: Haikus Urbains tracks #10,34]

I couldn't find any information on Yu Yang, not even sure if the family name is Yu or Yang... This Yu Yang has recorded two short pieces with an ensemble organized by Fred Frith for the Swiss Haikus Urbains compilation.

Bill Yurkiewicz

Bill Yurkiewicz (voc,electr): [Lull: Moments] [Exit-13: Spare the Wrench, Surrender the Earth EP]

Bill Yurkiewicz is a grindcore vocalist who has also been co-founding the Relapse label, focussing on far-out metal and hardcore artists. After a while, he also incorporated the imprint Release Entertainment, publishing "post-industrial experimental music, electronic ambient and noise". As he is interested in these two worlds - extreme metal and noise as well as ambient and electronic music - it is not astonishing, that Yurkiewicz also did the electronic editing for Mick Harris' Lull album Moments.
Yurkiewicz's own band was Exit-13, a nowadays probably quite forgotten group which occasionally fumbled around with incorporating various elements from punk to jazz into their grind(ing) pieces - though Exit-13 didn't sound as much like a roller-coaster ride as Naked City did (actually, "Societally Provoked Genocidal Contemplation", a track from their Spare the Wrench, Surrender the Earth EP, was the very first song I ever heard, which was trying to mix a jazzy passage into a grindcore piece - I discovered that a while before Alboth! and long before Naked City. When reviewing it now, it seems a bit lame, but way back in the early 90s it was a revelation to me).

Thierry Zaboitzeff

Thierry Zaboitzeff (vc): [Univers Zero: Ceux du dehors track #6]

Thierry Zaboitzeff, a French multi-instrumentalist - mainly associated with the the electric bass - has been a member of the progressive rock group Art Zoyd from 1971 to 1997. He and his cello also appeared on the composition "La tête de corbeau" on Univers Zero's 1981 album Ceux du dehors.

Rolf Zacher

Rolf Zacher (voc): [Amon Düül II: Wolf City tracks # 3,6]

Basically known (in Germany) as an actor, Rolf Zacher has kept a life-long relationship with music, from occasionally singing with Amon Düül II in the early 70's to collaborating with some German rap artists in recent years. He's also often been leading his own bands.

Kostas Zafiris

Kostas Zafiris (voc): [Savina Yannatou: Musique des chambres]

"Kostas Zafiris was born in 1967 on the Island of Chios. He studied Politics at Panteion University of Athens and at the University of Bologna and Social Anthropology and History at the Aegean University in Lesbos. In 1998 he published a collection of poems titled The violence of the week. He lives and works on the Island of Chios." (Metaichmio)

Savina Yannatou has hired some of Greece's contemporary poets for some recitations on her "Musique des chambres" album - a wonderful collaboration evoking a magical world of word and sound.

Zahera

Zahera (voc, bendir, tairija): [Sapho: Digital Sheika]

"Zahera and her girls from Hallilifa, one of the most popular and famous Sheikha combos of Marrakech, were singing and jamming along with Sapho on six tracks, as if she (Sapho) had been a member of the bunch for ages. But what exactly is a Sheikha ? In Morocco or Algeria, it`s a kind of "woman of ill-repute" or outcast who sings at weddings and feasts, with heavy make up, gold teeth, who drinks a lot and smokes dope. They shake their hair to the beat, move their sensual bellies to please women and men; sing about love and other realistic themes from the daily life. At feasts, they are well accepted and admired for their freedom and independence acquired in an Islamic country; in their private lives however they seem to suffer a certain disgrace from societie`s attitude to them, which forces them to live often together and hidden, rejected by their families and relatives. " (liner notes)

Interlude Remix

I still couldn't get back to my encyclopedia entry posting (mainly because I enjoy practicing to play music by myself recently - after several years of silence in my trombone's cone), but in the meantime Lucky did a remix of my interlude which you can get here. Enjoy!

Interlude

And now, something completely different: A little tune, recorded today...

Javier Zalba

Javier Zalba (bs,fl): [Afro-Cuban All Stars: A toda Cuba lo gusta]

"Javier Zalba Suarez (1955): Graduated from the Cuban National School of Arts (ENA) as a clarinetist in 1976 and in 1984 as a flautist from the Professional Studies School 'Ignacio Cervantes', Javier enjoys of an active performing career that reaches different styles of music, going from Classical, Jazz, and Latin Jazz to Cuban popular music. He began his professional career as a clarinet teacher at the ENA, 1978. In the same year, takes part of the “Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna” and in 1980 shares his musical activities with the group of the well-recognized pianist Felipe Dulzaides. In 1984, he becomes a member of the ensemble of the pianist and composer Jose Maria Vitier and later on is invited to take part in the “Irakere”, directed by “Chucho” Valdes. Enjoying of a successful career as a flute, clarinet and saxophone player, he joints Bobby Carcasses’s ensemble 'Afrojazz' in 1991 as well as the orchestra of the Tropicana Cabaret and the group 'Oru' directed by the guitarist Sergio Vitier. In 1997, he is a member of the group 'Cubanismo' directed by trumpet player Jesus Alemany and creates with pianist Roberto Fonseca his own Latin jazz ensemble called 'Temperamento'. Already in 2000, he joints the Buena Vista Social Club orchestra with the singer Ibrahim Ferrer, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world. He takes much inspiration from solo and chamber music as well. He has been invited several times as a member and soloist by the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and many others chamber ensembles. He has participated in diverse international tours including the most important Jazz Festivals around the world. He also enjoys teaching and giving master classes in Jazz and Cuban popular music. He is professor of saxophone at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatoire. As a result, he has been invited to carry out several Cuban Music workshops in Barranquilla, Colombia (2000); Copenhagen Rhythmic Conservatoire, Denmark (2003); Liceo de Barcelona (El Aula), Spain 2004; Guildhall School of Music and Drama, England (2004 & 2006) and Montreaux as part of the Jazz Festival, Switzerland (2005). His books, 'Technique for the Saxophone' is being published by 'Abdala', in Havana Cuba and 'Sax Soneando' The saxophone in the Cuban popular music and 'Flute Soneando' The flute in the Cuban popular music (is coming soon) as well by 'Advance Music' from Germany."

January's over now - and it seems, this month and the letter Z were a good combination for saxophonists: John Zorn, Miguel Zenón, Annelis Zamula, Wigbert Zelfel and Javier Zalba. How long would we have to wait for the next sax players? Not even I can tell, when Lester Young, York and Jason Yarde will appear here. We'll wait and see.

Norman Zamcheck

Norman Zamcheck (p): [Ge­dul­dig und Thi­mann: A Schtetl is Ame­ri­ke tracks #1-3,6,8,10]

"Norman Zamcheck was the pipe-smoking piano-banging composer/leader of the band “Stormin’ Norman & Suzy, acclaimed from the mid-seventies through the early 90’s for their unpredictable and explosive barrelhouse-rock shows. The group started in Boston, toured for years across the northeast, and moved to New York, where they soon gained national attention and major record deal. When the band split up Norm switched gears and toured for nearly a decade with Andy Statman, celebrated master of bluegrass and Klezmer (traditional Jewish) music. To support a growing family he also became a teacher and administrator in a series of tough inner-city schools.
Norm’s piano style is based on the sound of his masters: James P. Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Otis Spann, Mose Allison. His songwriting reflects his blues and boogie-woogie background (with some harmonic detours) along with rock and folk roots. He has written hundreds of songs over the course of his lifetime. Every one tells a story." (quoted from his website)

Daniel Zamir

Daniel Zamir (ss,as): Satlah: "Nevalah"

see also: Kevin Zubek

"Alto saxophonist Danny Zamir plays modern jazz that draws as much from klezmer as it does from Ornette Coleman. Born circa 1980 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Zamir was drawn to the sound of the saxophone at a young age and began studying the instrument at the age of 12. Hearing Charlie Parker for the first time had a great effect upon him, and from that point on, he focused on music studies. Zamir attended a Tel Aviv high school that specialized in the arts and offered an intensive music program. In addition to the music of Charlie Parker, some of Zamir's early influences include Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Pat Metheny. Zamir formed a trio called Not for Sale and eventually started listening to other musicians, as well. Of those he heard, Zamir was most impressed with saxophonist and experimenter John Zorn. In late 1998, he relocated to N.Y.C., where he met percussionist Kevin Zubek and bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, with whom he formed SATLAH, as well as well-known N.Y.C. musicians including Zorn. Zamir has also worked occasionally with members of the downtown scene, including Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Marc Ribot, and Calvin Weston. SATLAH's recorded debut includes a guest appearance by Zorn and was released in March 2000 on the Tzadik label. Zamir followed it with I Believe, also on the Tzadik imprint, in 2008." (AMG)