Articles by Brad Glanden
David Minnick: Absolutely Crabid
by Brad Glanden
David Minnick has emerged from the densely populated Internet music marketplace as an exceptionally talented and unique composer. Based in Waterford, Michigan, Minnick once served as the guitarist for Detroit's legendary ska outfit Gangster Fun, and later co-founded the Crabid Music label with his brother and fellow Gangster Fun alum, Chris Minnick. Along with the enigmatic Oven Mitt Johnson and the free jazz trio Zermos, Crabid's label roster is dominated by David's genre-hopping band the Sursiks, whose music draws ingeniously ...
read moreIndustrial Jazz Group: LEEF
by Brad Glanden
It's difficult to fathom a universe where someone would not enjoy listening to LEEF. One would have to be conditioned, Clockwork Orange-style, into finding the sound of musical instruments morally reprehensible. There's nothing on the Industrial Jazz Group's album that couldn't be embraced wholeheartedly by someone with an otherwise unrepentant disdain for all things jazzy.
It's fitting that composer, pianist and band leader Andrew Durkin (whose PhD is in English Literature) admires the work of Donald ...
read moreKen Jacobs: New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
by Brad Glanden
Ken Jacobs New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 Tzadik 2007
What elevates New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 above the amateur work of young hopefuls with movie-editing software is the fact that Ken Jacobs, a septuagenarian staple of American avant-garde cinema, is a master of deconstruction. His Tom Tom the Piper's Son (1969-71) famously subjects a vintage 10-minute silent film to two hours' worth of dissecting and dismantling, only to have the viewer return to the ...
read moreCamberwell Now: All's Well
by Brad Glanden
Following the dissolution of This Heat in the early 1980s, drummer Charles Hayward and bassist Trefor Goronwy recruited the group's sound technician, Stephan Rickard, for a new, more song-oriented band. Camberwell Now subverted the standard rock trio format by delegating the role of electric guitar to Rickard's tape switchboard," lending the band's music textural depth and spatial complexity.
Starting off with the Syd Barrett-esque Cutty Sark," the four songs from 1984's Meridian EP lack the unstoppable drive that would mark ...
read moreVarious Critters: Live From Noah's Ark: The Complete Recordings
by Brad Glanden
Jazz has always been human-centric, a fact that has marginalized the work of non-humans who have contributed to the art form. Newly unearthed recordings indicate that animals have not just played a role in the evolution of jazzthey invented it.On Zoo Note Records' Live From Noah's Ark: The Complete Recordings, every variant of jazzfrom New Orleans to post-bop and beyondis revealed as the product of bestial ingenuity that predates the first man-made strides by zillions of years.
read moreSara Lazarus with Bireli Lagrene's Gipsy Project: It's All Right With Me
by Brad Glanden
Sara Lazarus is in no hurry. After the Delaware-born French emigré won first prize at the 1994 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, she waited over a decade to record her debut, 2005's Give Me the Simple Life. To the benefit of jazz listeners, she didn't wait long to record a followup: It's All Right With Me finds the singer once again taking her time and making every word count, as if to imbue each syllable with the deepest possible meaning. ...
read moreThe Blitzoids: Stealing From Helpless Children / Look Up
by Brad Glanden
Who were the Blitzoids? The few available resources on the band make one thing perfectly clear: they sound a lot like seminal no-wave band the Residents. It's true: the early work of the Residents--before they started wearing giant eyeball masks, employing narrative structures, and presenting themselves as pioneering" technophiles--looms large over the Blitzoids' two LPs, reissued as a two-CD set by Ad Hoc Records.
However, if one listens to the Blitzoids under the myopic pretense that they were little more ...
read moreChameleon Trio: In Between
by Brad Glanden
Israel is becoming known for an increasing number of talented improvisers. Many of them are emigrating to New York, where jazz venues abound and the potential for visibility is greater. Thankfully, there are plenty of superb musicians remaining in Israel, where the admittedly youthful jazz scene is growing steadily.
The Chameleon Trio is not strictly a jazz combo. Flautist Dvir Katz's compositions are equally derived from 20th Century harmony, and the group's credentials are all over the map; Katz, clarinetist ...
read moreZermos: The Last Night of August
by Brad Glanden
August 31, 2006: Taking the concept of the impromptu recording session to an illogical extreme, pianist David Minnick summons pals Gary Robertson (alto sax) and Ryan Enderle (bass) to an undisclosed location," where they shut off the lights and proceed to improvise. Playing together for the very first time, Zermos struggles to find meaning in the darkness; instinct doesn't always lead them down convergent paths, but The Last Night of August is still an interesting and worthwhile journey to follow. ...
read moreIndustrial Jazz Group: Industrial Jazz A Go Go!
by Brad Glanden
Few categorical terms inspire as much trepidation among listeners as avant-garde," and it is decidedly difficult to market music labeled as such. Even so, many artists on the fringe have tempered their envelope-pushing works with material that could be accused of having top-forty aspirations. It is rare indeed to discover someone capable of writing music that is both forward-thinking and accessible to virtually anyone; Industrial Jazz Group's Andrew Durkin is one such composer.
Now entering its seventh year, IJG is ...
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