From: John Zorn List Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 1997 3:14 PM To: zorn-list-digest@xmission.com Subject: John Zorn List V2 #146 John Zorn List Wednesday, November 5 1997 Volume 02 : Number 146 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 15:02:23 -0500 From: max Subject: mish mash If anyone is going to be in Western Mass. this weekend (specifically Northampton/Amherst region) you have the choice of Zony Mash or Matthew Shipp on Saturday night. I'm not sure which one I'll be at - maybe I'll go to both. E-mail me if you need directions or more info. Max - - ------------------------------ Date: From: Sean Terwilliger Subject: Re: Avant . . . Jeff Spirer wrote: > > Wasn't the first Arcana disk (Williams, Bailey, Laswell) on Avant? > Nope. DIW#903 - -Sean - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 14:09:10 -0600 (CST) From: Robert Pleshar Subject: Re: Fw: all talk, no info here I think Wilson paints a bleaker picture than there actually is here in Chicago. Fact is NY/KF guys don't play here very often, but I have been to some packed shows with some of them. Dave Douglas string group, Tim Berne at JRM, Ellery Eskelin had a pretty good crowd. I'd say the crowd size in general is about the same here as in NY. I remember once seeing Masada in the new KF basement and there were only about 30 people there. There are a lot of factros that go into crowd size and I can't figure some of them out. A Joe McPhee solo and trio with 2 local guys show had about 250 people here. That blew my mind. The promotion of these types of shows is better than some other cities, things regularly get written up in the Reader and occasionally the Sun Times and Trib. Radio is good too. Rob At 01:41 PM 11/5/97 -0600, Wilson, King of Prussia wrote: some text deleted... >There is a temple in Oak Park (a suburb) that is starting to host alot of >avant g. stuff. In the last year there, I've seen Sun Ra Ark. Bill >Frisell Quartet (playing the most moving music, I almost cried) and Matt >Shipp. All these shows had about 50-60 people.... Tiny Bell Trio is >this sunday (woohoo) There were certainly more than 60 people for that Sun ra show. I'd bet at least 150 or 200. It's hard to gauge crowd size in that room, what with the crazy layout and multiple levels of seats. Rob - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 14:54:46 -0600 From: Joe Germuska Subject: New Jazz in Chicago >>>I do ahve a question as to how other cities are when it comes to promoting >>>this type of music. What are the attendences in Chicago and other places? >>> >>>Anyone? Zony Mash's big mistake was playing at the pitiful Beat Kitchen, and yes, the show was woefully underpromoted, too. I was out of town when they came, but I bet they had a lousy show, and then assumed no one in Chicago cares. In reality, though, there is a strong community of people in Chicago willing to listen attentively to challenging music. Joe McPhee came here last winter and drew almost 300 people to a solo concert. (Actually, the second set was a trio with Ken Vandermark and Kent Kessler...) Marilyn Crispell similarly packed the same venue on a sweltering summer night. Of course, while both of them are from New York, neither is from New York City! :-) Attendance at shows is a very mysterious thing. Some big names get slim crowds, and yet 75 people turned out to see Dutch voice artist Jaap Blonk at the Lunar Cabaret. Ultimately, while there are a lot of people who listen well, they don't all organize their lives around music, and so some nights come up when not too many folks come out. Maybe it's the weather, sometimes it's the Bulls games... who knows? We'll see -- Steve Lacy plays in a trio tonight (Empty Bottle) and solo tomorrow (Unity Temple). I think there will be good crowds. Tiny Bell Trio may suffer from being scheduled at 6 pm on a Sunday, as well as being at the tail end of these two Lacy shows as well as Rova Saxophone Quartet (also at Unity Temple)... Joe, and other folks on this list who put on shows -- check out my list of new music presenters... I normally just mail it around, but rather than spam the Zorn list, I've put it up in raw text on the web... see If you'd like to have your name/venue listed, just send me email as described on the list. And feel free to pass the list around to any artists or presenters who might find it useful... Joe PS WNUR manages regional improv email lists for several parts of the US... if you live in or around Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Michigan, the Southeastern US, the Denver area, or the Pacific Northwest, you may find these lists a handy way to keep up with the local action. See for more information. PPS I'm pretty sure Zorn's last visit to town was about five years ago, with Cobra, at Schuba's... I wasn't into this kind of music at the time, so I missed it... PPS I would have guessed there were more than 60 people at the Matthew Shipp concert. There were definitely more than that when Wm. Parker returned with Marilyn Crispell... * Joe Germuska {j-germuska@nwu.edu} | Learning Technologies Group | Northwestern University "The most familiar of objects, numbers are nonetheless surprisingly slippery, their sheer slipperiness evidence that certain intellectual tools may be successfully used before they are successfully understood" -- David Berlinski - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 16:29:47 -0500 From: Matthew Ross Davis Subject: Heteroclismic Z's At 12:55 PM -0800 11/5/97, Jason Tors wrote: >For all that do not know the meaning of the word... >heteroclite-departing from the standard or norm, abnormal, rare. >I am not smart, I looked it up. Au contraire, what makes you smart is that you looked it up. I suggest people who want to know where Zappa came from read his autobiography, "The Real Frank Zappa Book." It gives lots and lots of insight as to where his influences came from and what made him be so heteroclismic in the first place (though the proper form of adjective might be 'heteroclitic'). Its often these details that make you understand and appreciate the artist more than if you just spout off that he writes too much music that sounds the same. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | m-a-t-t-h-e-w r-o-s-s d-a-v-i-s university of maryland http://www.artswire.org/mrd school of music | S | O | H | C | 4 | # | 3 | 6 | 5 | | | 7 | 9 | C | B | 6 | 5 | 0 | - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 14:10:44 -0800 From: Jason Edward Kocol Subject: Zappa > For me, he's just a mediocre white guy playing tricked-up r'n'r. I am keeping in mind that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, yet I find nothing mediocre about someone whose intention everytime he picked up the guitar was to play something he had never played before; to actually improvise and not just string together in random order a bunch of "prepared licks" that most rock (using "rock" loosely in Zappa's case) guitar players are guilty of, barring the accusations that he was a "sloppy player". And I of course cannot forget to mention his compositions; The London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I&II album that I have of his is incredible. My 2¢. Take care. - -Jason http://suburban3.home.ml.org http://members.tripod.com/~misterlazy - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 13:42:08 -0800 From: Jeff Spirer Subject: Re: Avant . . . At 02:47 PM 11/5/97 -0500, Caleb Deupree wrote: >>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Spirer writes: > > Jeff> Wasn't the first Arcana disk (Williams, Bailey, Laswell) on > Jeff> Avant? > >No, DIW. OK, I fucked this one up. Especially stupid since I have it. But thanks for all the responses. Jeff Spirer Axiom/Material http://www.hyperreal.org/axiom/ - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 18:09:52 -0500 From: Brandt Gebhardt Subject: RE: Avant . . . Speaking of Cake Like, anyone interested in trading for Delicious can = Email me privately. This band is compared to Melt-Banana on the Forced = Exposure page. Generous, indeed. Brandt - ---------- From: Mike Shepherd [SMTP:rein0065@frank.mtsu.edu] Sent: Monday, November 03, 1997 10:51 PM To: zorn-list@xmission.com Subject: Avant . . . Does anyone know where a guy like me might find an Avant catalogue = online? Any label that would put out records by artists as disparate as Naked = City and Cake Like is of interest to me. - Mike "It's only romantic 'cause it never works." - Harriet the Spy ********************************* Mike Shepherd rein0065@frank.mtsu.edu Middle Tennessee State University (615) 898-3652 ********************************* - - - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 18:03:19 -0500 (EST) From: Christopher Hamilton Subject: Re:Gregg Bendian's Interzone On Wed, 5 Nov 1997, Steve Smith wrote: > [Closet prog fans should check out the Interzone disc on Eremite; I was > a little worried about myself when I thought this reminded me of Pierre > Moerlan's Gong (circa "Expresso II") but since then I've heard that this > was Gregg's "tribute" to Gentle Giant (and thus I wasn't really that far > off the mark).] So, I've heard some really good things about this disc, but, as a closet punk, the Gentle Giant connection set off big "AVOID" signs flashing in my head. Will those of us not into (most) prog be offended by this record? Chris Hamilton - - ------------------------------ End of John Zorn List V2 #146 *****************************