An audio capture of our first class on Octavia Butler's novel Dawn, from the Xenogenesis trilogy; the class took place on Monday, November 14, 2016 at the University of British Columbia, part of an undergraduate course on "Denatured Reading": http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/kmcneill/474_1617.htm.
Student voices have been removed.

English 474

On Octavia Butler and Afrofuturism, Xenogenesis: Dawn, Lecture 1

"1538" is the title track from Satoko Fujii's new album, "1538," out June 22, 2018 via Libra Records.

On the recording, pianist-composer Fujii debuts her latest trio This is It!   Featuring trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and percussionist Takashi Itani it's one of her most free-spirited ensembles, capable of playing her compositions with a natural élan as well as soloing with emotional intensity.

"1538" is the sixth album of Fujii's 2018 CD-a-month marathon, celebrating her 60th birthday.

1538

1538 - Satoko Fujii

This is Ken Aldcroft's solo guitar interpretation of my large ensemble piece, To and From. Written for the Pickle Juice Orchestra in 2005, the piece begins with tonal improvisation, almost through a set of "changes": from the full chromatic scale through the c major scale, a c major 7 chord, a c triad and finally to the pitch "c" alone. There is then a list of instructions to follow before playing back through the intro in reverse from the lone pitch "c" back to the full chromatic scale where the ensemble finds an ending.

ken aldcroft . guitar

recorded live by blair langley @ the village playhouse in toronto, 13 february 2006

Live Recordings from All Over

To & From (Ken Aldcroft solo) 13ii2006

IN THE SPIRIT album by Jay Hoggard was recorded May 4,1992 and released July 13, 1993 on the Muse label. IN THE SPIRIT is a tribute to Eric Dolphy. Jay Hoggard (vibraphone); James Newton (flute); Dwight Andrews (bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto flute); Mark Helias (bass); Ed Blackwell (drums). Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Liner notes by Owen McNallly.

In The Spirit

In The Spirit by Jay Hoggard

Debut of the now classic duo of Corsano & McPhee, recorded at Les Instants Chavirés. “With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and in fact, a critically important pairing — in the world of creative improvised music. Since recording The Hated Music with Paul Flaherty in 2000, Chris Corsano has been hyper-active in far-reaching corners of the free improvised world. Under A Double Moon, recorded live in Paris during a spring 2010 tour of Europe, is their first album together (and, given how phenomenally simpatico a partnership they’ve forged, we hope it’s not the last).”

“Both Corsano and McPhee share an autodidactic approach to jazz, using anything from thriftstore miscellany to customised electronics to explain the white heat of their creativity. Both have almost unquantifiable discographies that extend well beyond the confines of ‘jazz’; McPhee studied Deep Listening techniques with Pauline Oliveros and Corsano has sparred with everyone from Jim O’Rourke to Björk. Both have lived in Europe, enjoying the hospitality extended to innumerable US free jazz expats that had eluded them in their native terrain. Most impressively, both are lavishly gifted musicians. If McPhee’s 1969 album, Underground Railroad, represented a watershed in high velocity, second generation free blowing, then Corsano’s debut with Paul Flaherty, The Hated Music, saw the drummer pick up the baton, skewer a bouncing ball with it and rub it against a cymbal until it sang like a sea lion. Suffice to say Under A Double Moon goes beyond the scorched-earth Fire Music you might expect. The two long tracks that comprise side one, “Dark Matter: Parts 1 And 2”, shows Corsano at his most flexible as he switches from gamelan-inflected tuned percussion to subtle brushwork to omnivorous hard bop, providing a multiplicity of textures for McPhee’s assorted reeds. McPhee is dominant in the mix, which can obscure the sheer multi-dimensionality of Corsano’s drumming, but both players leave ample room for the other to solo. In fact, both use silence like a weapon – loading the pauses with dramatic intent before unleashing another blizzard of ideas. “For Giuseppe Logan” is an exuberant tribute to the underrated ESP-Disk alto player and is probably the most melodically engaging piece, while album closer “In Lieu Of Flowers” is a beautifully ponderous, starspangled soprano workout that shows yet another dimension to their repertoire. This is an intricately detailed set by two titanic players, spanning two generations. The fire ain’t out yet, baby.” – Alex Neilson, The Wire

Under A Double Moon

Roaratorio 22 - Joe McPhee & Chris Corsano "For Giuseppi Logan"

In 1976, Joe McPhee recorded the landmark album Tenor, kicking off a solo period of finding and refining the distinctive voice that continues to inform his music to this day. Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984) is a collection of material from McPhee’s personal archives that shines new light on the legendary multi-instrumentalist’s work during this time. “Wind Cycles,” for tenor saxophone, explores the permutations of breath on reed and brass, from quiet whispers to full-throated cries and back again. With “The Redwood Rag,” McPhee takes a jaunty melody and gives it a swinging workout with Steve Lacy-like precision. The free-blowing alto excursion “Ice Blu” is, in McPhee’s words, “a sound which evokes an image, which asks a question ‘What is that?’ and the answer is, a sound which evokes an image which asks a question.” “Voices,” one of his signature compositions, gets a particularly haunting treatment here on soprano, with McPhee incorporating various electronics to mesmerizing effect. All together, Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984) is the distilled essence of one of the most important creative improvising musicians of our time. Cover art by Judith Lindbloom. 

“Whether it’s amplifying keypad pops or finding harmonics that split his notes into a mass of complex, unfurling tones, he gets you with a feeling as well as a sound… Although McPhee’s music is without compromise, he’s always struck me an excellent gateway figure for people trying to get a handle on free improvisation because the connections between his confrontational and approachable sides is never too hard to find.” – Bill Meyer, Still Single

Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 - 1981 - 1984)

Roaratorio 14 - "The Redwood Rag" - Joe McPhee

Released on CD & Vinyl on October 5, 2018

Musicians: Magnus Broo - Trumpet
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - Bass
Håkon Mjåset Johansen - Drums

Swedish trumpet genious Magnus Broo (Atomic, IPA, Angles a.o.) meets norwegian rhythm section Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Atomic, The Thing)  and Håkon Mjåset Johansen (Come Shine, Motif, IPA a.o.) to play their own versions of some classics from the american songbook! Deeply soulful and very personal!

Tracks:
If I Should Lose You (Rainger/Robin)
Summertime (Gershwin)
Easy Living (Rainger/Robin)
You've Changed (Carey/Fischer)
I Fall In Love Too Easily  (Style/Cahn)
Like Someone In Love (Van Heusen/Burke)
Don't Explain (Holiday/Herzog Jr.)

www. moserobie.com

Magnus Broo Trio - Easy Living (from the album Rules)

Scorch: Concerto for Jazz Quartet and String Orchestra featuring
Greg Ward - Alto Sax/Composition
Rob Clearfield - Keyboard
Jeff Greene - Electric Bass
Makaya McCraven - Drums
Aurelien Pederzoli - Violin 1 and 2
Dominic Johnson - Viola
Jocelyn Butler Shoulders - Cello
Christian Dillingham - Bass

Commissioned by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra
Recorded at Rattle Snake Studios in 2012
Recorded and Mixed by Caleb Willitz
Mastered by Manny Sanchez

Scorch

When talking about climate change, what do an oceanographer and a literary scholar have in common? How might these distant disciplines begin to speak to each other? TIMESCALES: THINKING ACROSS ECOLOGICAL TEMPORALITIES is a volume that includes frictive chit-chats from scholars from far-flung disciplines and explores what they have to teach each other about the timescales of environmental change. Bethany Wiggin is one of three co-editors of this volume, along with Carolyn Fornoff and Patricia Kim. Wiggin is director of the first established academic program in environmental humanities at a major research university: the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. She is joined here by oceanographer Frankie Pavia, law student Jason Bell, and geophysicist Jane Dmochowski. This conversation was recorded in November 2020.

More information: z.umn.edu/timescales.

MORE TIMESCALES PODCAST EPISODES:

-Ep. 17: Why art? On performance, theater, deep time, and the environment. With Patricia Eunji Kim, Kate Farquhar, and Marcia Ferguson: https://soundcloud.com/user-760891605/episode-17

-Ep. 14: Time and the interplay between human history and planetary history. With Carolyn Fornoff, Jen Telesca, Wai Chee Dimock, and Charles Tung: https://soundcloud.com/user-760891605/episode-14

Scientists and humanists talk timescales and climate change.

Kevin McNeilly talks and writes. He also teaches in the English Department at the University of British Columbia.

On Octavia Butler and Afrofuturism, Xenogenesis: Dawn, Lecture 1

Kind of Kevin

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