A pair of 70th birthday celebrations take the spotlight in this podcast. We hear septuagenarian Joe Morris on both guitar and bass in the company of Matt Shipp, Marshall Allen and Seattle’s own Tom Varner, while his contemporary hand drum specialist Adam Rudolph is represented by a duet with mentor Yusef Lateef plus more recent excursions in cross-cultural music that combine Western, East Asian and South Asian instruments while avoiding most of the limitations of garden-variety “world music”. Toshio Hosokawa offers his own variety of East meets West in a one-act adaptation of a Medieval Japanese drama written for one opera singer and one Noh singer. Gabriela Ortiz contemplates Violeta Parra and the “canto nuevo” in her latest portrait album. And avant-rock from New York and Montreal, crossover electronica from England and a 50-year anniversary look at items by The Residents that anticipate both those genres round out the proceedings. Creative and improvised music with Michael Schell.
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Flotation Device 2025-09-14: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell
Intro and SET 1: 50 years ago and today [0:00]
1. [1:40] The Residents: Monstrous Intro. From The Residents Radio Special (Ralph, 1977, reissued 2001 as Eat Exuding Oinks!). NOTE: Recorded October 1975
2. [2:19] Gabriel Prokofiev: Dark Lights. From Dark Lights (Nonclassical, 2025) with Gabriel Prokofiev (electronics), FAMES European Youth Orchestra
3. [6:36] The Residents: Crumbling Mountain Sketch. From Leftovers Again?! (New Ralph Too, 2021). NOTE: Recorded September 11, 1975
4. [11:21] Shaun Robert: Osteophagia. From Kodokushi (Institute for Alien Research, 2025)
5. [14:43] Joane Hétu: Elle n'est pas un animal. From Elle a son mot à dire (Ambiances Magnétiques, 2025) with Ensemble SuperMusique: Luzio Altobelli (accordion), Noam Bierstone (percussion), Michel F Côté (percussion, electronics), Joane Hétu (alto saxophone, conductor), Bernard Grenon (recording engineer)
SET 2: Joe Morris at 70 [19:01]
1. [21:30] Justine: La cigale s'impatiente. From Dice: A collection of contemporary women composers (Ishtar, 1993) with Joane Hétu (saxophone, voice), Diane Labrosse (keyboard, voice), Danielle P. Roger (percussion, voice), Marie Trudeau (electric bass, voice), Robert Langois (sound engineer)
2. [25:59] Tom Varner, Joe Morris: Landing. From A New Planet (Tom Varner Music, 2025) with Joe Morris (guitar, recording engineer), Tom Varner (French horn), Stephen Haynes (cornet, flugelhorn), Kenny Warren (trumpet), Josh Roseman (trombone)
3. [29:37] Mary Halvorson on studying guitar with Joe Morris
4. [30:06] Marshall Allen, Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris: Cosmic Hammer. From Night Logic (RogueArt, 2010) with Marshall Allen (alto saxophone), Matthew Shipp (piano), Joe Morris (double bass), Jim Staley (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded July 26, 2009 at Roulette, New York
SET 3: Violeta and Gabriela [36:33]
1. [39:30] Gabriela Ortiz: Seis piezas a Violeta. From Yanga (Platoon, 2025) with Joanne Pearce Martin (piano), Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel (conductor), Dmitriy Lipay (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2002 for piano quintet, arranged 2023 for piano and string orchestra
2. [57:43] Outro with Violeta Parra: La refalosa
3. [1:00:28] Matt Hollenberg: Cruelty Bacchanal. From Cruelty Bacchanal (Tzadik, 2025) with Shardik: Matt Hollenberg (electric guitar), Sana Nagano (electric and acoustic violins), Nick Jost (bass), Danny Sher (drums), Martin Bisi (recording engineer, BC Studio)
SET 4: Adam Rudolph at 70 [1:05:50]
1. [1:07:21] Yusef Lateef, Adam Rudolph: Ear Shot. From Live In Seattle (Yal, 1999) with Yusef Lateef (tenor sax, flutes, shennai, vocals, pneumatic bamboo flute, Moan flute, keyboards), Adam Rudolph (hand drums, Norwegian overtone flute, gongs, percussion), Dan Mortensen (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded live October 30, 1998 at Earshot Jazz Festival, MOHAI, Seattle
2. [1:12:39] Adam Rudolph, Go: Organic Orchestra, Brooklyn Raga Massive: Ascent to Now. From Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas (Meta, 2019) with Samarth Nagarkar (vocals), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Sylvain Leroux (tambin, flute), Kaoru Watanabe (flute, fue, noh kan), Michel Gentile (flute), Ze Luis (flute, alto flute), Mariano Gil (bass flute), Ivan Barenboim (clarinet), Sean Sonderegger (clarinets, sopranino saxophone), Avram Fefer (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone), Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), Libby Schwartz (French horn), Stephen Haynes (cornet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet, didgeridoo, conch, kudu, alto saxophone), Graham Haynes (cornet, flugelhorn, bamboo vaccine trumpet, kudu), Peter Zummo (trombone, didgeridoo, conch, kudu), Mia Theodoratus (harp), Alexis Marcelo (keyboards), Marco Cappelli (electric and acoustic guitar), David Ellenbogen (electric guitar), Arun Ramamurthy, Charles Burnham, Gwen Laster, Julianne Carney-Chung, Richard Carr, Sana Nagano, Trina Basu (violins), Stephanie Griffin (viola), Leco Reis (contrabass), Damon Banks (electric bass), Abderahim Hakmoun (qarqaba, vocals), Hassan Hakmoun (sintir, vocals), Abhik Mukherjee (sitar), Neel Murgai (sitar, overtone singing), Mari Tanaka (tampura), Sameer Gupta (tabla), Bala Skandan (mridangam), Harris Eisenstadt (batá), Rogerio Boccato (caxixi, mineiro, temple block, bells, wood box surdo), Hamid Drake (drum kit, okonkolo), Adam Rudolph (iya, itotele, conductor), James Dellatacoma (recording engineer)
3. [1:19:59] Adam Rudolph: Focus and Field (excerpt). From Focus and Field (Meta, 2020) with Adam Rudolph (handrumset), Sumie Kaneko (vocal, koto, shamisen), Michel Gentile (flutes), Kaoru Watanabe (shinobue, noh kan, fue, taiko, percussion), Gamin (piri, saengwang), Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), Ned Rothenberg (shakuhachi, bass clarinet), Ivan Barenboim (clarinets), Stephanie Griffin (viola), Stephe Cooper (recording engineer)
4. [1:24:27] Adam Rudolph, Go: Organic Orchestra, Brooklyn Raga Massive: Dialectic. From Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas (credits as above)
SET 5: East meets West [1:29:01]
1. [1:33:47] Adam Rudolph, Go: Organic Orchestra, Brooklyn Raga Massive: Wandering Star. From Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas (credits as above)
2. [1:38:24] Toshio Hosokawa: Futari Shizuka (The Maiden from the Sea) (excerpts). From Orchestral Works 5 (Naxos, 2025) with Helen a young woman: Ilse Eerens (soprano), Shizu Lady Shizuka Gozen: Ryoko Aoki (Noh singer), Residentie Orkest The Hague, Jun Märkl (conductor), Deborah Spanton (recording engineer, K&A Productions). NOTE: Composed 2017, premiere recording
3. [1:55:42] Outro with Toshio Hosokawa: Ceremony (with Mario Caroli)
Photo credits: Joane Hétu via Productions SuperMusique, Shaun Robert via the artist, Gabriela Ortiz by Mara Arteaga, Toshio Hosokawa by Kaz Ishikawa, Gabriel Prokofiev by Nathan Gallagher, Justine (Marie Trudeau, Danielle P. Roger, Diane Labrosse, Joane Hétu) by Suzanne Girard, Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris by Lorna Lentini, Shardik (Sana Nagano, Danny Sher, Nick Jost, Matt Hollenbergby Naeemah Maddox, Adam Rudolph and Yusef Lateef via the artists, The Residents via the artists, Violeta Parra via Wikimedia, Ryoko Aoki and Sarah Wegener in Futari Shizuka by Thomas Israel.
Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice.