This week’s podcast is heavy on American originals, starting with the 50th anniversary of Lou Harrison’s La Koro Sutro, the composition that inaugurated his American Gamelan. We also celebrate the 85th birthday of Cage collaborator David Behrman and the 80th of Bitches Brew drummer Jack DeJohnette, and we use Lukas Foss’s centenary as an opportunity to reassess the eclectic output of that once-prominent musical innovator.
NakedEye's new album channels Frank Zappa via Nick Didkovsky, while Brandon Seabrook’s trio spins fractured country music. Ikue Mori convokes her own trio of New Yorkers, while the unusual instrumentation of the T.ON trio (trombone, double bass and “extended snare drum”) attracts the compositional attentions of Sam Pluta and Anne La Berge. Cameos by John Williams and Anne-Sophie Mutter, plus a look back to the mini-craze of brainwave music 50 years ago, round out the playlist. Creative and improvised music with host Michael Schell, originally aired August 14, 2022.
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Photo credits: Anne La Berge via the artist, Lukas Foss and Claudia Fine via Library of Congress, Anne-Sophie Mutter and John Williams by Terry Linke, David Behrman and Pythagoras by Teri Hanlon, Ned Rothenberg by Lois Ellison, Ikue Mori via Cantaloupe Music, Nick Didkovsky by Lutz Diehl, Lou Harrison and William Colvig by Betty Freeman, Anne-Sophie Mutter and John Williams by Terry Linke, Wadada Leo Smith and Jack DeJohnette by Enid Farber, Brandon Seabrook Trio (Brandon Seabrook, Gerald Cleaver, Cooper-Moore) by Peter Gannushkin, Frank Zappa by Jay L. Handler.
Flotation Device 2022-08-14: annotated playlist by host Michael Schell
Intro and SET 1: Zappa and his progeny [0:00]
1. [1:06] Frank Zappa: Sinister Footwear II. From A Series of Indecipherable Glyphs (New Focus, 2022) with NakedEye Ensemble: Susanna Loewy (flute), Christy Banks (clarinet), Ryan Kauffman (saxophone), Peter Kibbe (cello), Chad Kinsey (electric guitar, recording engineer), Mike Bitts (electric bass), Ju-Ping Song (piano), Darren Lin (percussion). NOTE: Composed 1982. Arranged by Mike Bitts
2. [8:58] Nick Didkovsky: Amalia’s Secret (excerpts). From A Series of Indecipherable Glyphs (New Focus, 2022) with NakedEye Ensemble: Christy Banks (clarinet), Peter Kibbe (cello) Ju-Ping Song (piano, Wurlitzer), Chad Kinsey (electric guitar, recording engineer), Mike Bitts (electric bass), Darren Lin (drum set). NOTE: Composed 1994
3. [15:53] Derek Tywoniuk: Bluets #207. From Aperture Duo (Populist, 2022) with Aperture Duo: Adrianne Pope (violin), Linnea Powell (viola), Carlos Mosquera (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2017
4. [18:36] Brandon Seabrook Trio: Adrenaline Charters. From In The Swarm (Astral Spirits, 2022) with Brandon Seabrook (guitar, banjo), Gerald Cleaver (drums, electronics), Cooper-Moore (diddley bow), Colin Marston (recording engineer)⠀
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SET 2: La Koro Sutra at 50 [24:40]
1. [29:01] Lou Harrison: La Koro Sutro - 1a Paragrafo. From La Koro Sutro (BMOP/sound, 2014) with Providence Singers, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose (conductor), Joel Gordon (recording engineer). NOTE: Premiered August 11, 1972 at San Francisco State University
2. [33:02] Lou Harrison: La Koro Sutro - Strofo 5. From La Koro Sutro (New Albion, 1988) with Karen Gottlieb (harp), Agnes Sauerbeck (organ), UC Berkeley Chorus, American Gamelan, Philip Brett (choral conductor), William Winant (gamelan conductor)
3. [37:31] Ikue Mori: You Better Grow Up (Louise Bourgeois). From Tracing the Magic (Tzadik, 2022) with Ned Rothenberg (saxophone, shakuhachi, clarinet, bass clarinet), Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Ikue Mori (electronics)
4. [49:01] David Behrman: Long Throw (excerpt). From Music for Merce (New World, 2010) with David Behrman (laptop), Takehisa Kosugi (electric violin), John King (electric guitar, viola), Christian Wolff (prepared piano). NOTE: Recorded live October 22, 2007 in Melbourne
5. [53:22] Outro with David Rosenboom: Portable Gold and Philosophers' Stones
6. [59:00] Wadada Leo Smith: Paradise (The Gardens and Fountains) - Part IV: Exaltation and Musk. From The Emerald Duets (Tum, 2022) with Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet), Jack DeJohnette (drums, piano, Fender Rhodes), James A. Farber (recording engineer)⠀
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SET 3: A different kind of free improv [1:08:17]
1. [1:11:15] Improvisation Chamber Ensemble: Interlude Nos. 2, 1, 3. From Time Cycle (Columbia, 1961, reissued 2018 by Sony as Time Cycle, Song of Songs) with Richard Dufallo (clarinet), Howard Colf (cello), Charles Delancey (vibraphone), Lukas Foss (piano)
2. [1:22:24] John Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 - 3. Dactyls. From Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes (Deutsche Grammophon, 2022) with Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), Boston Symphony Orchestra, John Williams (conductor)⠀
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SET 4: Lukas Foss at 100 [1:28:27]
1. [1:31:42] Lukas Foss: Solo Observed. From Pieces of Genius (Albany, 2016) with New York New Music Ensemble: Stephen Gosling (piano), Daniel Druckman (percussion), Christopher Finckel (cello), David Broome (electric organ). NOTE: Composed 1982
2. [1:46:19] Sam Pluta: Between Crystal and Smoke and Anna La Berge: Cathedral (excerpts). From T.ON plays La Berge | Greenstone | Pluta | Wooley (impakt Köln, 2022) with T.ON: Matthias Muche (trombone), Constantin Herzog (double bass), Etienne Nillesen (extended snare drum), Sam Pluta, Anne La Berge (tape), Stefan Deistler (recording engineer)
3. [1:54:56] Outro with Lukas Foss: GEOD