Name: Flotation Device 2023-12-10 - Reich & Zappa by Michael Schell
Duration: 2 h

Photo credits: Doctor Nerve (Kathleen Supove, Robert Henke, Yves Duboin, Michael Lytle, Nick Didkovsky, Greg Anderson, Ben Herrington, Leo Ciesa) by Scott Friedlander, Pasquale Corrado via the artist, Marc Barreca via the artist, Steve Reich via the artist, Roxy band (Tom Fowler, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Frank Zappa, George Duke, Ruth Underwood, Chester Thompson; not pictured: Ralph Humphrey, Bruce Fowler), Susan Alcorn by David Lobato, Lanzelot (Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar) by Candy Welz

2’54’’ - 2010 – vidéo Yana Kruger - flûte : Hernan Gomez

Vuelo De Signos Y Remolinos - 2’54’’ - 2010

Flotation Device presents its 2023 Mother’s Day extravaganza, featuring Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Even if you’re not a big Zappa fan, we think you’ll be interested in this lineup: a combination of classic studio recordings from the 1960s plus highlights from four new releases from the Zappa vaults, all emphasizing the more improvisational, non-commercial side of his output.

Flotation Device presents creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, every Sunday night 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma, streaming worldwide at www.kbcs.fm. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/FlotationDeviceRadio

This program was originally aired May 14, 2023. Annotated playlist is available at https://tinyurl.com/FD99Facebook

FD99

Flotation Device 2023-05-14 - Mother's Day extravaganza

Michael Schell of Flotation Device interviews Melvin Gibbs of Harriet Tubman:

"Founded in 1998, the New York-based power trio Harriet Tubman embraces freedom as its governing principle, as evinced by its name and its seamless interweaving of soul, rock, jazz and avant-garde elements. Bassist Melvin Gibbs joined Flotation Device host Michael Schell to talk about the band’s upcoming Earshot Jazz performance at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute on Friday, October 27 (tickets and info at Earshot.org)."

Flotation Device Interview With Melvin Gibbs Mixdown

Mat Maneri is one of the few prominent jazz musicians to make the viola his primary instrument. He joined Flotation Device host Michael Schell to talk about his music, including his Ash Quartet’s upcoming Earshot Jazz performance at Cornish Raisbeck Auditorium on Monday, October 30 (tickets and info at Earshot.org).

Mat Maneri Mixdown

Flotation Device looks back at Frank Zappa’s legendary December ’73 engagement at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood with an octet that included Ruth Underwood (his most notable female collaborator) and George Duke (the only musician to tour with both Zappa and Miles Davis) among others. We spend half an hour contemplating why many regard this band as Zappa’s best ever, and another half-hour espying the ongoing influence of its rock-centered harmonic and rhythmic explorations on the contemporary landscape of experimental fusion music.

We then turn our attention to Steve Reich, and the golden anniversary of one of his most austere works, also unveiled in December 1973 amidst a creative period characterized by more ambitious compositions (including Music for 18 Musicians). As with Zappa, we hunt for Reich’s influence in brand-new minimalist-inflected items by Kara-Lis Coverdale and Susan Alcorn.

We also take a look at Paul Dessau’s allegorical opera Lanzelot, premiered in East Berlin in 1969, but only now receiving its first recording. Is its malevolent city-ruling dragon a metaphor for capitalism as Dessau claimed, or was the composer secretly giving the finger to East German apparatchiks? Either way, the music is a delightful mix of modernist, jazz and folk influences that’s well worth having on record. Some haunting electroacoustic sonorities from the Northwest's foremost practitioner of dark ambient music, Marc Barreca, plus a new album of mixed chamber works from the Italian composer Pasquale Corrado, and fresh improv from the Bucher-Countryman-Hori trio, round out the playlist. Creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell. Originally aired December 10, 2023.

Annotated playlist is available at tinyurl.com/FD129Facebook

Catch Flotation Device live every Sunday night 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma, streaming worldwide at www.kbcs.fm. Follow us at www.facebook.com/FlotationDeviceRadio

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Flotation Device 2023-12-10 - Reich & Zappa

Flotation Device presents its 2024 Mother’s Day spectacular, featuring Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. This year we focus on the classic Mothers lineup from 1967–68, as well as the 1970 Hot Rats band and the 1973 touring nonet that paved the way for the legendary Roxy shows that year. Two new archival albums from the Zappa estate help to illuminate those last two ensembles with some previously-unreleased material. And as always, we’ll emphasize the exploratory, improvisational side of Zappa’s music, the perfect foil for those enthralled by—or ambivalent toward—his oeuvre.

Flotation Device presents creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, every Sunday night 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma, streaming worldwide at www.kbcs.fm. Follow us at www.facebook.com/FlotationDeviceRadio

This program was originally aired May 12, 2024. Annotated playlist is available at tinyurl.com/FD151Facebook

Flotation Device 2024-05-12 - Mother's Day spectacular

John Cage's Cartridge Music performed by Michael Schell at John Cage Musicircus, November 19, 2016, Town Hall Seattle. Headphones recommended!

For a video introduction to this 1960 landmark of live electronic music, see https://youtu.be/qoRPaWhovEc

For more on the Musicircus event see the Second Inversion preview at https://t.co/C1ZddVdZXc.

Cartridge Music

Cage: Cartridge Music

Performed by Joe Browning (Shakuhachi), Charlie Sdraulig (Voice) and Alice Purton (Cello)

Composer: Charlie Sdraulig 
http://charliesdraulig.com 
Written 2012 
For the Atlas Ensemble (Netherlands)
Video available here: http://vimeo.com/charliesdraulig/close
Score available here: http://www.charliesdraulig.com/close.pdf 

Engineer: Erik Nyström

(Where possible, try to listen to this piece in a quiet environment on a good set of speakers or with headphones.)

close (2012) for shakuhachi, voice and a bowed string

Of Rats and Men was commissioned by the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

The concert premiere was given by the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Peter Eötvös, in Kammermusiksaal, Berliner Philharmonie, on 8 December 2019

Flotation Device 2023-12-10 - Reich & Zappa

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