I spend most of my free time traveling around the country seeing live music. I started this to post recordings I make and comment on what I see hopefully to turn people on to some of the lesser known artists I like.
DM is a great local guitarist who recently returned from being very ill for a couple of years and it's great to have him back. This is the 1st of a series of shows planned for the Black Dog over the next few months. The show was fantastic and was very well attended. here is some wikipedia info:
Magraw was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in St. Paul. He began playing guitar at the age of 13. Magraw performed in a duo for many years with Peter Ostroushko and has also performed with Tim Sparks, John Gorka and many other artists.[1]
and a short blurb from his website:
A casual glance at Dean Magraw’s career as a guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer reveals an artist uniquely consistent in his ability to rise to the highest level of musical expression in a dazzling array of contexts.
Dean’s passion transcends all perceived musical boundaries, yet the vital essence of his distinctive style is ever present, whether he’s performing and recording as a solo artist, leading his own ensembles such as the experimental jam band Eight Head, or collaborating with such notables as Japanese shamisen prodigy Nitta Masahiro, classical violinist Nigel Kennedy, South Indian vocalist and vina virtuoso Nirmala Rajasheker, epic songstress and storyteller Ruth MacKenzie, Irish supergroup Altan, radio and film celebrity Garrison Keillor, jazz bassist Anthony Cox, and countless others.
Once the listener gets beyond the history and into the mystery, Dean the musician takes over: with tone and taste, unveiling soulful melodic grooves intricately designed to heal the broken dancer, confuse the boldest mathematician, and eradicate ennui in our lifetime.
“Dean Magraw… so liquid, lyrical and effortless it’s like listening to a dancer.” -Steve Tibbetts
Drove to Milwaukee to see Ken Vandermark with Tim Daisy @ the Sugar Maple. This was one of the last concerts on their rather lengthy us tour. You could tell they had been playing every day together for a while. This is the first song of the night. enjoy!
here is a complete performance (by popular demand) in 4 parts...mixed in with pictures I took using slightly higher production value in the sync department (matching pictures to the performance) i hope you enjoy the extra work I put into this one. not a lot of work mind you....just a couple extra keystrokes. the recording is the important part. this was the finale concert for the brotzmann 70th bday celebration at the vision festival this year. everybody should go to the vision festival once in their lifetime....or in my case 10 straight times in my lifetime (from 2002-this year!). i like music.
Haven't been to a show in 2 weeks (a world record!). here are a couple songs from dave king's trucking company with chris speed in from nyc last night. rock!
This was a premiere performance at the Vision Festival of a duo with Peter Brotzmnan & Jason Adasiewicz. It turned out to be the best set of the night (even with the crazy show later in the night with Vandermark & Mars Williams!). Jason plays the vibes like a rock star and beats the hell out of them in a variety of ways. He actually makes the vibes interesting which I never thought was possible!
The Dakota had their 2nd annual street festival this afternoon....on a day when it felt like 100 degrees. On his off days from playing with the bad plus Dave King plays in town with a few different bands...this being one of the best ones.
Here is his some info from wikipedia:
David King (born June 8 1970) is a drummer/ composer from Minneapolis Minnesota. He is best known for being a founding member of the jazz groups The Bad Plus (with Reid Anderson and Ethan Iverson) and Happy Apple (with Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke) although he is active in many other projects including free jazz collective Buffalo Collision with NYC "Downtown" legends Tim Berne and Hank Roberts and the electronic art/pop group Halloween Alaska as well as the noise/prog band The Gang Font with former Husker Du bassist Greg Norton.
In March 2010 King formed two new ensembles to debut at a 2 night concert celebration of his work held at the renowned Walker Art Center called The Dave King Trucking Company (with Chris Speed and Brandon Wozniak on tenor saxes, Erik Fratzke on guitar and Adam Linz on bass) and Golden Valley Is Now (with Craig Taborn on keyboards and Reid Anderson on bass and electronics). Both ensembles plan on recording in 2011. King also released a solo record titled "Indelicate" in 2010 on the Sunnyside label where the drummer plays duets with himself on piano aided by overdubbing in the studio.
He has also recorded and or performed with Dewey Redman, Jeff Beck, Boots Reilly, Dead Prez, Bill Carrothers, Anthony Cox, Atmosphere, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jef Lee Johnson, Beniot Delbec, Django Bates, Meat Beat Manifesto, Craig Taborn's Junk Magic, Tchad Blake, Tony Platt, Mason Jennings, Haley Bonar, Wendy Lewis, Chris Morissey, Ursus Minor, Peter Lang, and Craig Green among others.
King has also written and performed for modern dance with the world renowned Mark Morris Dance Group and for fashion, composing and performing live for three seasons of maverick designer Isaac Mizrahi's fashion week shows at Bryant Park NYC and for film with the award winning animated shorts "Bike Ride Story" and "Bike Race" by Tom Schroeder.
In March 2008 King appeared with The Bad Plus on the Late Night with Conan O'brien television show playing one of Kings compositions "Thriftstore Jewelry". This marked the first and only time a jazz group performed on the show in its 17 year run.
A great band from Norway playing Tortoise-like music with extended instrumentation....2 guitars, 2 basses, trumpet, sax, tuba, pedal steel, 2 keyboards & drums. incredible mix of electronic, jazz & rock. you MUST check these guys out. Here is some background from their website:
Jaga Jazzist have become something of a musical phenomenon in Norway since they started 15 years ago. Not only is this 9 piece instrumental band regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative in Norway, the members are all involved in other musical projects and have in one way or another contributed to almost every significant recording to come out of that part of the world in the last few years. It has been this strong involvement with different projects, and different musical styles and sounds which is the key to the unique sound of Jaga Jazzist. With no boundaries and an arsenal that includes trumpet, trombone, electric guitars, bass, tuba, bass clarinet,saxes, keyboards, vibraphone and a rack of electronics, Jaga Jazzist create timeless music. Melodic, hypnotizing, delicate and subtle.
Jaga Jazzist started out in Tonsberg (a small town outside Oslo) in 1994 at which time Lars Horntveth (the main songwriter in Jaga) was only 14 years old! In 2001 they released their debut album “A Livingroom Hush” on Warner in Scandinavia to massive critical acclaim and great sales (the album sold over 15000 copies in Norway alone..). The band then signed a deal for the rest of the world through Oslo`s Smalltown Supersound. Throughout 2002 the band shocked fans and critics alike with their blistering live shows and the buzz resulted in sold out dates all over Europe and the band soon came to the attention of Ninja Tune who did a license/collaboration deal with Smalltown Supersound.
At the same time that their debut album was gaining more and more international success, Jaga recorded the follow up titled “The Stix”, their first for Ninja Tune. As with their first album it was produced by Norwegian superproducer Jørgen Træen the man behind Duper Studios in Bergen (home of Røyksopp, Kings of Convenience, Sondre Lerche et.al.) but this time Jaga wanted to push their musical limits even further and really create a sound they could genuinely call “Jaga Jazzist “. It was the perfect balance between (hu)man and machine, and it never lost the organic nature of a live 10 piece.
After heavy touring next came their most radical "What We Must" album, the result of the band going into an isolated studio out in the Norwegian woods and recording the demo now known as the Spydeberg Session. Put down in one take in one day, it was a breakthrough moment for the group. A sound that was closer to their live sound than ever before. It was their rock album. But of course Jaga's own kaleidoscopic take on rock stylings, rolling from early 90s British shoegazer guitar pop to 70s prog rock, all shot through with Jaga's own unique logic.
And now this takes us to their 6th album, "One Armed Bandit", due for release in January 2010. Lars Horntveth began writing the music in early 2008. Alongside two new band members Øystein Moen-keys and Stian Westerhus-Guitar, JAGA rented A house in the Swedish forest to rehearse new material. It could be said that it was a reaction to "What We Must". It does include the rock stylings of "What We Must" and the electronics of "The Stix" but is still very much looking forward with a new sound. The breakthrough moment was the track "One Armed Bandit", the first single from the album of the same name. Taking influence from the afro-beat stylings of Fela Kuti but funneled through their own style. The Wagner-Esque fanfares and arpeggios are intended to sound like slot machines. And this Wagner meets Fela Kuti sound became a kind of theme of the album. In December 2008 the band went to Cabin Recorders to record the album with Jørgen Træen, a man who had been a big factor in forming Jaga´s music since A Livingroom Hush and the Stix, Unfortunately after 3 weeks Træen got tinnitus. Jaga quickly thought of John McEntire of Tortoise fame. He was enthusiastic about mixing it and in April 2009, 3 members of the band went to Soma Studio in Chicago to mix the album. Interestingly one day the Norwegian garage jazz band "The Thing" were playing at a local jazz club. Jaga went down there with a microphone and laptop and recorded what was to be the intro of the album.
At heart of this collective is a restless soul, going in many directions at the same time, but always going forward. Fast. The band always pushing their boundaries, both personal and musical. That is why they are impossible to categorize. And that's why they're special. Jaga is something natural and beautiful. A necessity. For both them and us.
