Bart – A short night merits a long selection. It begins with random droid noises. Spacey.. . Bart says I’ve heard this before, but it’s not ringing any bells. It does have some slap tongue percussive bass clarinet, which I am a fan and proponent of. It also narrows the possibilities down. Nice to hear that, and used to good effect here. It is a technique that is very difficult to make audible in large ensembles.
The piece then becomes thick with grooves, distorted electronics and gut blasts of horn parts. Aaah…. Billy Harper my fave. He just cuts everything. So what is it? Billy was in Gil Evan’s and Randy Weston’s Big Bands this sounds like neither of those – a little like Randy’s but the Fusion/Electronics don’t fit that. The bottom drops out on the trumpet solo, but then comes back in sneakily, through the horns. They are going to build it back up, just giving him some space. Epic!!! ! Gil Evans – “There Comes a Time”
Later Evans recordings are difficult to identify. This is still great music, but his signature style is hidden when mixed in amongst the electronics.
Travis – Goes groovy, a place I’ve already been most of the night in my car. This is sunny like the Love Boat with a buttery guitar feature. Travis is making me rethink my play, which is coming next or maybe I need a cocktail? This is a pretty strange piece of music, so pleasant and smooth that it belies its intricacies. Also setting a groove like this is really nothing easy to do. Masayoshi Takanaka – “BLUE CURACAO”
Dan – I am playing a trio of shorties that have been on the back burner for an “if Travis”, or “if Bart” is on the Sesh and I need a song.
For Travis – Franco Battiato – “Rien Ne Va Plus” – I’d never heard of this early Italian Electronic Composer and found some collections of his experimentation. This song is weird loops and found sounds, very “Revolution 9”. Franco did some movie scores too and often presented some very proto-Punk types of attitude in his songs and song titles.
For Travis & Bart – Albert Collins – “The Freeze” – From 1958 and its all tone, gut and groove. Love the Saxophone solo and the one thing that Albert plays for the entire song is the only thing needed.
For Bart – George Jones – “Cup of Loneliness” – Bart often plays “just a song” and they tend towards things where the lyrics & voice carry the show. Truly the mix of a melody and poetry is one of the hardest things to successfully create and this song is “just a song”. Also it made me an incredible fan of George Jones, someone who I did not understand and fled from in my youth. Aging Country stars frequented many celebrity showcase types of 80’s TV and I probably watched George there. I found them to be strangely dressed, scary seeming old people haunting the TV. I understand now that some of them were dealing in truth, artistry and tradition.
Found Sounds 