Playlist Week of 2016-01-23

* Boulez: Répons, etc. (Enemble InterContemporain/Boulez) (DG CD)

* Sonny Clark Trio: The 45 Sessions (Blue Note CD)

* John Abercrombie: Timeless (ECM LP)

* John Abercrombie/Dave Holland/Jack DeJohnette: Gateway (ECM LP)

* Terje Rypdal/Miroslav Vitous/Jack DeJohnette (ECM LP)

* Mary Halvorson Octet: I-Beam, Brooklyn, NY 2015-12-14 (AUD WAV)

* Kris Davis: Massive Threads (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Perihelion (master) (WAV)

* Rodger Coleman: Portland Brew 12 South, Nashville, TN 2016-01-20 (AUD WAV)

* Tangerine Dream: Alpha Centauri/Atem (Brain 2LP)

* Tangerine Dream: Tangents 1973-1983 (d.4-5) (Virgin 5CD)

* Klaus Schulze: Live (Brain 2LP)

* Soft Machine: Triple Echo (Harvest 3LP)

* Steve Roach: Structures from Silence (Fortuna CD)

* Steve Roach & Robert Rich: Soma (Hearts of Space CD)

* Robert Rich: Seven Veils (Hearts of Space CD)

* David Sylvian: Gone To Earth (Virgin 2LP)

* Porcupine Tree: Stars Die: The Delirium Years 1991-1997 (KScope 2CD)

* Earth: The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Head (Southern Lord 2LP)

* Sunn O))) & Ulver: Terrestrials (Southern Lord LP)

* Ryley Walker: All Kinds of You (Tompkins Square LP)

†=iPod/iTunes

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Commentary:

Although the day started out snowy and awful, the weather cleared up enough to make it downtown for the gig on Wednesday night. I was more than a little anxious about whether or not I could pull off a solo guitar set -- but it went even better than I could have possibly expected.

Aside from a minor technical glitch which forced me to re-start the second piece, things went smoothly and  I found myself "in the zone" (or "that other, better world") and was amazed at the end to discover that I had easily filled up my allotted time. And, by the time my set was over, the place was pretty well packed with attentive and appreciative listeners, with some folks even coming up to me to compliment my performance. One dude told me, "Man, that's the most creative music I've ever heard played on a Paul Reed Smith guitar!" Haha. I will take that as a compliment here in Guitar Town!

It was delightful to see Susan Alcorn again and her set was, of course, utterly sublime, including an impromptu tribute to the late Paul Bley.  I was truly honored to be sharing the stage with such an amazing musician and her kind, effusive words regarding my music were sincere and deeply inspiring. I do not pretend to be at her level -- but I am encouraged to just keep doing my thing.

Then, to top it all off, Carissa Stolting posted photographs and wrote a fantastically poetical review at the Left Bank blog which, honestly, took my breath away. It is so unbelievably gratifying to know that my music had an effect on someone. Go read the whole thing; it's wonderful! But this line made me laugh out loud: "Coleman for sonic president: let no sound go unemployed!" Right on.

Thanks again to FMRL and Portland Brew 12 South for making this (and so many other wonderful events) happen.

You can hear an audience recording of my set on SoundCloud. Please let me know what you think!

Playlist Week of 2016-01-16 (+ A Gig!)

* Geminiani: Cello Sonatas, Op.5 (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics CD)

* Miles Davis: The Bootleg Series Vol.4: At Newport 1955-1975 (d.4) (Sony/Legacy 4CD)

* Ornette Coleman: Chappaqua Suite (CBS 2LP)

* Eric Dolphy: This Is Eric Dolphy (Fuel 2000 2CD)

* Wayne Shorter Quartet: Without A Net (Blue Note CD)

* Bobby Hutcherson: Cirrus (Blue Note LP)

* Bobby Hutcherson: Natural Illusions (Blue Note LP)

* Bobby Hutcherson: Linger Lane (Blue Note LP)

* David Murray Octet: Ming (Black Saint LP)

* David Murray Quartet: Morning Song (Black Saint LP)

* Tony Scott: Music For Zen Meditation (Verve LP)

* Sam McClellan: Music of the Five Elements (Sprit LP)

* Deuter: Call of the Unknown: Selected Pieces 1972-1986 (Kuckuck 2LP)

* David Torn: Only Sky (ECM CD)

* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Perihelion (mixdown) (WAV)

* Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life (Tamla/Universal Blu-Ray)

* Sidney Miller: Linguas de Foyo (Som Livre/Sol Re Sol LP)

* Soft Machine: Six (Columbia 2LP)

* Soft Machine: 7 (Columbia LP)

* Harald Grosskopf: Synthesist (Sky/Bureau B LP)

* Opeth: Deliverance & Damnation (Music For Nations/Sony 2CD/2DVD)

* Stereolab: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Elektra/1972 2LP)

†=iPod/iTunes

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Commentary:

I am excited to announce an upcoming gig, opening for the amazing pedal-steel guitarist, Susan Alcorn, on Wednesday, January 20 at Portland Brew 12 South.

This will be my first ever solo electric guitar set so I uploaded a recent studio recording to my SoundCloud page to give people an idea of what to expect. Much to my surprise, The Nashville Scene picked up on it and put it up as a featured track on "Nashville Cream."  Stephen Trageser describes me as "an experimental musician with an affinity for punk" and says, "This prepared guitar piece is altogether different from the heaviness I associate with drones." Cool.

If you like what you hear, I hope to see you on Wednesday. Portland Brew is located at 2605 12th Avenue South, Nashville 37204. Doors open at 8:30, music starts at 9:00. Huge thank you to the fine folks at FMRL for making this happen!

Playlist Week of 2015-04-18

* Rabih Abou-Khalil: Roots & Sprouts (Enja CD)

* Imaginary Landscapes: New Electronic Music (Elektra/Nonesuch CD)

* Patrick Demenga/Thomas Demenga: Lux aeterna (ECM CD)

* Pat Metheny/Dave Holland/Roy Haynes: Question And Answer (Geffen LP)

* Trevor Watts & Veyran Weston: The Emma Bistro, Nashville, TN 2015-04-11 (AUD WAV)

* Susan Alcorn: The Emma Bistro, Nashville, TN 2015-04-11 (AUD WAV)

* St. Germain: Tourist (Blue Note 2LP)

* Shuggie Otis: Introducing Shuggie Otis (Columbia LP) †/‡

* Frank Ocean: Channel Orange (Island/Def Jam CD) †/‡

* Grateful Dead: Dave’s Picks Vol.13: Winterland 2/24/74 (selections) (GDP/Rhino 3HDCD)

* Van Morrison: Saint Dominic’s Preview (Polydor CD)

* Van Morrison: Common One (Warner Bros. CD)

* Linda Perhacs: Parallelograms (Kapp/Sundazed LP)

* Linda Perhacs: The Soul of All Natural Things (Asthmatic Kitty LP) (†)

* Tangerine Dream: Tangents 1973-1983 (Virgin 5CD)

* Steven Halpern & Suru: Afro-Desia (Open Channel/Inner Peace CD)

* Steve Roach & Robert Rich: Soma (Hearts of Space CD)

* Robert Rich & Lisa Moskow: Yearning (Hearts of Space CD)

* Ultravox: The Collection (Chrysalis LP)

* Sleep: Sleep’s Holy Mountain (Earache LP)

* Mew: Frengers (Sony CD)

* Minsk: The Ritual Fires of Abandonment (Relapse/Bandcamp ALAC) †

* Minsk: With Echoes in the Movement of Stone (Relapse/Bandcamp CD) (†)

* Minsk: The Crash & The Draw (Relapse 2LP)

* Locrian: The Crystal World (Utech/Bandcamp ALAC) †

* Liturgy: The Ark Work (Thrill Jockey 2LP) (†)

* Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats: Blood Lust (Metal Blade LP)

* Sòlstafir: Óta (Season Of Mist 2LP)

* Lower Dens: Escape From Evil (Ribbon Music LP) (†)

* Kiasmos: Kiasmos (Erased Tapes 2LP)

* Ryley Walker: Primrose Green (Dead Oceans LP) (†)

†=iPod/iTunes

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Commentary:

Following up on my last post, after Susan Alcorn’s sublime solo set, the legendary saxophone/piano duo of Trevor Watts and Veyran Weston took the stage. Mr. Watts is, of course, a seminal figure in the British jazz and free improvisation scene, being a founding member of The Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra in the 1960s and ‘70s. His association with Veyran Weston dates back to the 1980s and the formation of the Moiré Music ensemble and they released their first duo recording, 6 Dialogues, on Emanem in 2002. Since then, the pair has toured the world, concertizing and giving workshops. I regretted missing their last visit to Nashville a couple years ago, so was extremely grateful for another opportunity to see these amazing musicians in action.

They played three freely improvised pieces over the course of an hour—which seemed to fly by in an instant—with Watts concentrating on his signature, spiraling soprano saxophone and occasionally moving to the more throaty tenor. Meanwhile, Weston’s piano provided an insistent and wildly inventive accompaniment, abounding with driving rhythms, multi-voiced counterpoint and subtly shifting harmonies. While the sheer virtuosity on display was truly mind-blowing, what really impressed me was how deeply connected they were at every moment. These are two people who have been playing music together for many years and have, over that time, developed a highly evolved, very personal vocabulary. If, as Susan Alcorn suggests, “music exists in the mind,” then what we witnessed last Saturday was the kind of “mind meld” possible in free improvisation. What we heard in our heads was transcendent music.

The Emma Bistro is a fantastic venue for this kind of music: spacious and inviting with a warm, slightly reverberant acoustic and extra-comfy, oversized sofas and chairs. Kudos to Chris Davis, Brady Sharp, and FMRL Arts for putting on such an amazing event! Thanks also to Kevin Reilly at Relative Pitch Records for putting me in touch with Susan Alcorn. What a great evening it was!

Susan Alcorn - The Emma Bistro, Nashville 2015-04-11

I was listening to NPR in the car recently and I heard composer Philip Glass say something that really got me thinking. He described being asked by a student, “What is music?”  And he replied (without having really thought about it before), “Music is place, a place where musicians go.” This reminded me of my time playing in a band and we would often talk about “going to that other, better place” when the music was really cooking. When it felt like we were communicating telepathically, at the speed of sound, we were seemingly living and breathing in another world, one of freedom and inerrant harmony—but only as long as the music lasted. As soon as the last vibration dissipated, we were back on earth and all its intractable difficulties.

What about the listener, though? The non-musician? Is this place called music accessible to them? Glass’s formulation seems to exclude the audience: the musician goes to this special place and the listener hears the result.  As a musician myself, I can attest that playing music is a very different experience than listening to it. Moreover, it is impossible for me to hear music as a non-musician does because I am constantly analyzing how it’s made—I can’t avoid it. For better or worse, I cannot un-know what I know. You know what I mean?  So, then what does a non-musician hear when listening to music? I have no idea.

I was reminded of this when I read an interview with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn where she said, “I think that music exists solely in the mind. We take the sounds around us, musical and otherwise, and we as listeners create the structure that allows us to experience this in a meaningful way as ‘music.’” In this definition, Alcorn privileges the audience over the musician: “When I am performing, it is the audience, the listener, which is taking the bits and pieces of what I put out and making it into something that hopefully has a personal meaning for them.” Glass is correct to say that music is a “place”—but we all go there in our minds, musicians and listeners together.

To be sure, everyone was transported to that other better world during Alcorn’s solo set at The Emma Bistro last Saturday evening. She coaxed outrageous sounds from the instrument: her left knee moving levers, both feet pressing the several pedals (including the ever-crucial volume pedal, which she played barefoot), while picks and slides glided over the multiple strings. It was incredible to watch—but also deeply moving. Like many other audience members, I could only close my eyes and revel in the beautiful music. Her set opened with the meditative “Heart Sutra” followed by “And I Await The Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar”, a tour de force of extended techniques inspired by hearing Olivier Messiaen’s “Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum” on the radio on the way to a country/western gig. Touching stories of a trip to Argentina and the death of her father prompted gorgeous interpretations of Astor Piazzolla’s “Adiós Nonino” and “Invierno Porteño”, both of which later found their way onto Soledad, her latest CD on Relative Pitch Records. Closing with “The Healer” (an original composition dedicated to her acupuncturist), Alcorn playfully quoted Curtis Mayfield’s gospel-soul classic, “People Get Ready,” which drew knowing smiles from the audience. As the last sighing note decayed into silence, it seemed we could perhaps stay in that other, better world forever.

Afterwards, I asked her about music being a place—one that, as she put it, exists only the mind. “Of course, I cannot know what is going on your brain,” she said. “But John Cage showed that we can choose to hear any sound as a piece of music—or not.” Then she added, “Playing Piazzolla’s music is like being in his mind, though. I feel his emotions—they are not my emotions.” Regarding her years playing country music, she revealed her frustration: “Some people thought I was out to destroy the instrument—I got death threats.” Although she bravely went her own way into the realm of free improvisation, she retains an enormous affection for the music. “Doing anything well is difficult and sometimes the simple things are the most difficult to do really well.” She added, “Country music is like haiku. Add a syllable and it’s no longer haiku. It may be good and interesting, but it’s not haiku.” As we heard on Saturday at The Emma Bistro, Susan Alcorn is a musical poet and a true original.