Cuneiform Records MARCH 2022 Newsletter

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Cuneiform Records                                       view this email online MARCH 2022 Newsletter: New Releases & Concerts   jump to on computer, or scroll down on mobile: ~~~~~~ NEW RELEASES!!  COMING OUT MARCH 25, 2022  ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS SOFT MACHINE – FACELIFT FRANCE & HOLLAND Video & audio recordings (2 CDs+DVD) from the Soft Machine quintet's 1970 Facelift tour of France and Holland; electric jazz/rock at its volcanic origins  ~~~~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED  FEBRUARY 25, 2022  ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS YANG – DESIGNED FOR DISASTER European dual-guitar progressive quartet led by composer Frédéric L’Épée ~~~~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED JANUARY 22, 2022  ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS LUKE STEWART'S SILT TRIO – THE BOTTOM DC/Chicago jazz /creative trio (Luke Stewart / Brian Settles/ Chad Taylor) ~~~~~~ SNEAK PEEK!  COMING OUT APRIL 25, 2022 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS BALUNGAN – KUDU BISA KUDU 13 piece French / Indonesian  gamelan / guitar ensemble, led by Guigou Chenevier   ~~~~~~ CUNEIFORM ARTISTS ON TOUR:   LIVE CONCERTS & TOURS ~~~~~~ WEATHER THE MONTH THAT ROARS IN WITH CUNEIFORM RECORDS ONLINE: • Explore Cuneiform Records'  SOCIAL MEDIA;  BANDCAMP PAGE; YouTube Channel • Purchase music from100s of labels at WaysideMusic.com, our sister store estab.1980 • Missed seeing a Cuneiform Newsletter? Access prior issues at cuneiformrecord.blogspot.com/  ~~~~~~ COMING OUT MARCH , 2022 on CUNEIFORM RECORDS: SOFT MACHINE FACELIFT FRANCE & HOLLAND Bio information: SOFT MACHINE Title: FACELIFT FRANCE AND HOLLAND (Cuneiform Rune 495/496/497) Format: 2 CDs  + DVD / DIGITAL FILE UNDER: ROCK / JAZZ-ROCK   listen/share on Soundcloud: "Out - Bloody - Rageous" from Soft Machine's Facelift France and Holland From their beginnings as a psychedelic rock band in 1966, sharing stages with Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, to being one of the originators of electric jazz/rock by early 1969, Britain’s SOFT MACHINE were restlessly creative. Facelift France and Holland captures them at a pivotal moment in the first quarter of 1970 as a short-lived quintet, just before they recorded and released their breakthrough album Third. SOFT MACHINE: Elton Dean :  Alto sax, saxello Lyn Dobson : Soprano and tenor sax, flute, harmonica, vocals Hugh Hopper : Bass Mike Ratledge : Hohner Pianet, Lowrey Holiday Deluxe organ Robert Wyatt : Drums, vocals   As broadcast on the French TV programme Pop 2, the film of Soft Machine’s concert at Paris’ Théâtre de la Musique, which constitutes the main course of the present release, stands as an exceptional document of the band at, arguably, its artistic peak. It is also the only video footage known to exist of the quintet line-up that was active from January to March 1970, and contains the only professionally-recorded performance of “Out-Bloody-Rageous” with Lyn Dobson on second sax, as well as the only professionally-recorded alternative performance by the quintet of “Facelift” .   Until the release, nearly 30 years later, of Noisette (Cuneiform Records), “Facelift” on Third (itself edited to include segments from other studio and live tapes) had remained the quintet’s sole recorded legacy. Noisette presented the rest of the Fairfield Halls concert of January 4, 1970 captured by sound engineer and band friend Bob Woolford, and has often been singled out as the best of the many Soft Machine archival releases.   And to make this release an even more complete representation of Soft Machine’s live set during this period, Disc 3 presents a previously unreleased performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw from January 1970 from a soundboard source. Heard in excellent sound are Hugh Hopper’s “12/8 Theme” (never recorded in the studio, and save for Hugh’s solo rendition on Monster Band, unheard until Noisette) and a complete “Esther’s Nose Job,” unlike the truncated version shown in Pop 2.  Soft Machine - Facelift France and Holland - Official Trailer Pop 2, which aired from April 1970 to December 1973, was the brainchild of producer Maurice Dumay (a former program manager for Europe 1 radio), who chose to surround himself with a young team spearheaded by director Claude Ventura, whose innovative, reportage-like camera work had already been a trademark of Tous en Scène, recently taken off the air for blasphemy. That a French TV show about rock music should choose to devote its entire premiere, as well as another subsequent edition, to Soft Machine, may seem incredible in retrospect, and probably merits an explanation. The band's love story with France had begun in the summer of 1967, when the original lineup had somehow found itself providing live musical accompaniment to happening artist Jean-Jacques Lebel's production of Picasso's Le Désir attrapé par la queue during its ill-fated sojourn on the French Riviera. The play became that summer's succès de scandale, and made “La Machine Molle” instant stars: Eddie Barclay hired Soft Machine for his ultra-hip Nuit Psychédélique in Saint-Tropez, and leading magazine Le Nouvel Observateur promptly dubbed them “the new Beatles.” When they crossed the Channel again to perform at the Paris Biennale that autumn, they were duly invited to appear on several high-profile TV shows (Dim Dam Dom, Caméra III, Bouton Rouge), and by the time they played at La Fenêtre Rose—France's answer to London's 14-Hour Technicolor Dream—in November 1967, their status as one of the top British groups was established.   Despite disappearing for the whole of 1968, first touring America with the Jimi Hendrix Experience and then temporarily disbanding, when Soft Machine returned to Paris in June 1969 to headline a festival at the Bataclan showcasing the new generation of French bands, they had lost none of their popularity, and once again they appeared on French TV's rock programs of the day—Forum Musiques and the above-mentioned Tous en Scène.   The band's commercial potential seemed big enough to its French agent Norbert Gamsohn that he set about organizing a major tour of the country's new Maisons de la Culture circuit. Such was the scale of the eventual itinerary—over 30 dates, divided into two legs, the first in December 1969, the second in February–March 1970—that it allowed the trio to afford what they'd been contemplating for a while already: add a brass section, mostly borrowed from the Keith Tippett Group. Regrettably, that septet line-up was already history by the time the second leg took place: for practical as well as economic reasons, it had been trimmed down to a quintet. The venue chosen for the Soft Machine’s Paris concert was the Théâtre de la Musique, originally (and better) known as a fine example of Second Empire architecture, it had been built in the early 1860s, soon becoming Paris' most popular showplace when it hosted Offenbach's most famous operettas. With some notable exceptions like the 1918 Ballets Russes season, the 20th century proved less sympathetic to the theatre, which by the early 1960s, lay virtually abandoned as a music venue. It was briefly revived in 1970, and in addition to the Softs, the venerable 1,500-capacity hall also hosted memorable concerts by Magma and Gong. Various attempts at reviving the venue, including as a museum, were short-lived, although recently, it began hosting concerts (and other events) again as La Gaîté-Lyrique.   In order to accommodate the program's 40-minute format, the edited concert was broadcast in two segments: the first on its April 30 premiere, and the second on July 23, ostensibly to coincide with the band's scheduled (but ultimately cancelled) midsummer appearances in several festivals in the South of France.   There is little to fault with either the sonics or visuals of the footage—the occasional, disconcerting and annoying outbursts of fake applause and cheers, mixed in at seemingly random intervals on the original broadcast, have been minimized here, thanks to the discovery in the INA archives of an earlier, work-in-progress edit of the first set and, wherever else the issue manifested itself, using the audience source as patches. All in all, no effort has been spared to ensure that this is the best this performance has ever sounded and looked.   And good it certainly looks. There is a cinematographic quality to Ventura's choice of unusual camera angles, for instance when he films the band from behind the stage, capturing otherwise unseen activity—like Softs roadie Tony Wigens chatting with Elton Dean or maneuvering Robert Wyatt's overhead mic in time for his scat solo during “Esther's Nose Job.” Yet his camera never strays away from the main action for too long. The visual dimension adds much to the enjoyment derived from the music. One gets a better sense of Wyatt's physical abandon, both as drummer and singer—his Echoplexed vocal improvisation here, graced with uncharacteristically sympathetic backing from the rest of the group, is among his best; of the introverted yet asserted presence of Ratledge and Hopper; and of the surprisingly well-behaved playing of dual saxists Dean and Dobson—although the latter gets quite a bit wilder during the drone section in “Facelift.” Oddly enough the only drinks in sight are Orangina bottles, prominently displayed on top of the amps in lieu of the usual beer—clearly not your average rock group!   Let’s leave the final word to Lyn Dobson, who left the band soon after this performance. “I think that what Soft Machine did was totally original. Robert, Hugh and Mike.… Between them it was a fantastic combination. There was a kind of chemical difference between them, but it was out of that tension that something amazing happened. Later it became more watered down, more like everything else that was around—what they called jazz-rock. But what we did was something else altogether.… More like rock-jazz, if you like. Very powerful music!”  Indeed.   buy  the two CD + one DVD set on Bandcamp:   Facelift France and Holland  is the 10th album of archival Soft Machine material released by Cuneiform Records.  See our official website for info on the other releases:  http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/Softmachine.html return to top OUT NOW!!  released FEBRUARY 25, 2022 on CUNEIFORM RECORDS YANG DESIGNED FOR DISASTER File under: ROCK / PROGRESSIVE ROCK / ART ROCK / GUITAR Label: Cuneiform Records Catalog #: Cuneiform Rune 494 Format: CD, Digital Press Release: DOWNLOAD Release Date: February 25, 2022   Uneasy Listening: YANG’s new Designed for Disaster Captures the Tenor of Our Times listen/share on Soundcloud: "Flower You" from Yang's Designed for Disaster credits: Frédéric L’Épée: guitars, synth, chorus  Laurent James: guitars, chorus Nico Gomez: bass, chorus Volodia Brice: drums, chorus  with Ayşe Cansu Tanrikulu: voice       As a child in France, YANG's composer and guitarist Frédéric L'Épée suffered from an exaggerated fear of loud sounds—a condition that was not alleviated by growing up in a musical family. “Every noise, even music, was frightening to me,” he recalls. “I liked music that I could hear on the speakers, for example, or something that was a little bit far away. But if my grandfather was playing accordion, I had a kind of baby phrase I would say: ‘Please don’t play accordion to my ears,’ because it was unbearable for me. And when my father played violin as well, it was too loud when it was in the room.”   Discovering the electric guitar changed all that, although this revelation could easily have gone very wrong. L'Épée recalls an early experiment in electrification that literally ended with a bang, when he mistakenly plugged his first instrument into an AC power outlet instead of the family stereo. But the young musician persevered, forming his first serious band, Shylock, in his teens and waxing two now highly collectible albums with that formation; moving on to the instrumental-oriented combo Philharmonie, which produced a further five full-length LPs; and then working with YANG since 2004.   The European quartet’s fourth release, Designed for Disaster—its second for Cuneiform Records—just might be its loudest yet.   But it’s always purposeful noise, as demonstrated by the new album’s fifth track, “Words”. Over an ominously martial beat, L'Épée and his bandmates shout single-word slogans: “Stark”, “Frei”, “Fight”, “Klang”, “Bruit”, et cetera. These are almost but not quite drowned out by a barrage of distorted electric guitars; the effect is that an unknown and threatening authority figure is issuing enigmatic orders, with consequence for those who don’t obey. It’s eerie, and unsettling.   “I’m very happy to hear that, because that’s certainly my intention,” L'Épée comments. “I don’t want people to really follow the words and try to explain what is being said; it’s mostly to feel things.” L'Épée’s use of words—a new development for YANG, which has previously concentrated on instrumentals—is “meant to communicate an impression and not a meaning”, he points out. “Descendance”, Designed for Disaster’s opening track, is similarly uncanny;  backed by a surging bassline, guest vocalist Ayşe Cansu Tanrikulu intones “If the moment feels unsafe/maybe easy again to disconnect”.      “How to explain that?” L'Épée muses. “For me, like a lot of other people, I feel that that something is wrong in the world. And with this latest adventure that we’ve gone through with COVID, I felt that as people we’re lost, completely lost. And we are going wrong as we evolve, because people are too egocentric, too much concerned with themselves, and they don’t open enough to others. They only want to protect their own belongings and wealth and habits and comfort. They’re not ready to really go somewhere with humanity as a species.”   Added to these sociopolitical concerns is a relatively new interest in ancient Chinese culture, expressed here in the concision of L'Épée’s wordplay. “In ancient Chinese poetry, there are very few phrases, very few adjectives,” he explains. “Sometimes, but not that much. It’s mainly done with images. With a succession of images, Chinese poetry is supposed to put people in a certain atmosphere—a certain ambience, let’s say—that makes them able to feel the spirit of what the poet wanted to express. And in that piece [“Descendance”], it’s the same.”   L'Épée adds that he’s in the process of learning Mandarin so that he can more easily learn how to play ancient Chinese music. With Designed for Disaster, however, his compositions primarily have their genesis in Baroque music, minimalism, and of course the progressive rock he gravitated towards as a teenager, with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp as his acknowledged influence. The new record’s last track, “Despite Origins”, is almost a textbook example of these interests, opening with an intricate fugue for electric guitars, moving into a surprisingly accurate (and quite lovely) pastiche of ’70s blues-rock guitar heroism, and ending with a bleak recitative that invokes both the digital future and the mock-liturgical feel of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.   “My favourite composer of all composers is Johann Sebastian Bach,” L'Épée says. “To me, Bach is the maximum music can go to. And Bach, in some way, is also minimalist, because he uses very, very tiny musical materials, and builds from them cathedrals. Of course my father was a violinist and he was mainly interested in Romantic music, so I’ve heard that a lot. And when I came into my own as a musician I started listening to other things: very experimental stuff like spectral music, which I use when I play solo and also sometimes when I compose, and minimalist music as well.” Indeed, there are passages on Designed for Disaster that sound very much like what Steve Reich, say, might have arrived at had he been writing for two guitars, electric bass, and drums rather than for percussion ensemble. But there are other factors that L'Épée, as YANG’s sole composer, constantly takes into consideration. One of these has to do with the group of accomplices he’s assembled: bassist Nico Gomez, he notes, has a gift for melody; guitarist Laurent James has a complementary ear for texture; and drummer Volodia Brice is capable of negotiating the most complex time signatures.   “I write for people,” he says. “I’m also a classical composer, so I knew how to write for orchestras. But I have to take account of the possibilities of the instruments and also the personalities of the people. And with YANG, I know very well these guys; we are very good friends, and we never fight together. I really imagine every note played by them, each time I compose.   “What is happening is that every musicians plays with his own personality, and I compose with those personalities,” he adds. “For another lineup, I would not compose the same at all.”    And then there’s you, the listener.    “I’ve always been persuaded that without the audience, music is dead,” L'Épée concludes. “So when the audience listens to something, it influences the composer and the musicians, and when a song is listened to, the song is living. It’s the same with everything in music and also in poetry: communication with the people makes it really alive. And it’s a collective work, of course.”   So prepare yourself for discovering YANG’s new record. If you’re new to the group this will likely lead you on to YANG’s earlier work, the Shylock and Philharmonie albums (including four Philharmonie albums on Cuneiform Records), and L'Épée’s prodigious solo output, but we promise you this: it’s a fascinating and worthwhile journey.   buy on Bandcamp: return to top OUT NOW!! released JANUARY 22, 2022 on CUNEIFORM RECORDS: LUKE STEWART'S SILT TRIO THE BOTTOM File under:  JAZZ / IMPROVISATION / SPIRITUAL JAZZ / CREATIVE MUSIC / DC MUSIC Label: Cuneiform Records Catalog #: Cuneiform Rune 487 Format: CD, Digital Press Release: Download Release Date: January 22, 2022 listen/share on Soundcloud: "Roots" from Luke Stewart's Silt Trio's The Bottom   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Called “one of the 25 most influential jazz artists of his generation” by DownBeat Magazine and a member of several earth-shaking ensembles, including Irreversible Entanglements and Heroes Are Gang Leaders, polymathic bassist LUKE STEWART, a creative catalyst on the Washington D.C. (and beyond) music scene for almost two decades, introduces his protean SILT TRIO with Chicago drum legend CHAD TAYLOR and powerhouse DC saxophonist BRIAN SETTLES A casual observer of the Washington D.C. music scene could easily get the mistaken impression that there are four or five guys coincidentally named Luke Stewart playing leading roles in a disparate array of musical communities. In fact, Stewart is a singular, uncontainable artist whose work as a bassist, producer, broadcaster, and all-around mover and shaker has deepened and extended the District’s legacy as a hotbed for creative music. Given his many pursuits, a single album can only capture a small portion of Stewart’s oceanic sonic continuum, but The Bottom offers a deep dive into a particularly inviting pool with his loose and limber trio featuring Chicago drum legend Chad Taylor and powerhouse D.C. saxophonist Brian Settles. A highly cohesive triumvirate in close communion, the band plays with the conversational ease of longtime, comfortable friends. Untethered to any particular stylistic convention, particularly bebop’s head-solohead format, the music’s ebb and flow feels utterly in the moment. While only two of the pieces were freely improvised at the session the ethos of spontaneous composition pervades the album, which unfolds with the contours of an ongoing narrative. “I approached the recording session as closely as possible to playing a set, arranging the sequence with that in mind,” says Stewart, who was born and raised in Mississippi. “Like a set compositions are coupled by moments of free improvisation, but that free improv is contextualized by what happened before and after. It’s a journey, and the recording session reflects that.” The album opens with “Reminiscince,” a piece featuring Taylor’s incantatory playing on a Zimbabwean mbira, the thumb piano that’s a central component of Shona culture. Stewart has been studying mbira with Taylor in recent years, and he loosely based the piece on a traditional Shona melody. The session turns deeply funky with “Roots,” a pointillistic investigation into the music’s spiritual core. It’s a four-minute tour de force that encompasses West Africa, the Caribbean, New Orleans, Chicago, Harlem and D.C. within its irresistible polyrhythmic swirl. A lengthy freely improvised piece, “Angles” is up next. an extended, picaresque sojourn that evokes a descent into subterranean spaces. If the album has a centerpiece it’s “The Bottom,” which is built on Stewart’s huge, snapping bass lines. The performance exemplifies the trio’s love of building tension and intensity without increasing volume or velocity. Evoking a spiritual quest or a search for origins, the tune was partly inspired by a road trip that Stewart took looking for his grandfather’s childhood home in Marks, Miss. Driving west on Highway 6, “I was mostly struck by the stark changes in the landscape,” he says. “Marks is a borderline dividing rolling hills and the last town before you get to the Delta. Photographer: No Land   The brief, coiled improvised blast “Circles” ends up fading into the closing piece of the album, “Dream House”, evoking another universe of ancestors – a piece inspired by Stewart’s cross borough view of pioneering minimalist composer La Monte Young’s Dream House art space in Tribeca from his artist residency in Red Hook, Brooklyn at Pioneer Works (where he wrote most of the album’s material). The tune doesn’t evoke a dreamscape or minimalism so much as an urban ramble with no particular destination. Taylor’s terpsichorean brush work and Stewart’s mobile bass suggest a jaunty mood, while Settles’s tenor sax takes in the passing scene, reflecting tartly and calmly on the faces and places that go by. The trio’s potent synergy is built on the musicians’ deep interlocking ties. Stewart met Settles at the first jam session he attended in D.C., though their friendship developed mostly off the bandstand. “I was always a fan,” Stewart says. “He’s been one of my favorite horn players in the area since I’ve been around. We’ve performed a number of times in the past, but we’ve never had a gig playing standards in a restaurant or a club. It’s always been in a creative music context.” The trio with Settles first took shape with drummer Warren “Trae” Crudup III, a close musical confidant who was Stewart’s housemate at the time (the group released an album on Bandcamp in March 2020, No Trespassing). Taylor came into the picture when Stewart had a chance to record at his Pioneer Works residency. “I’ve been a fan of Chad’s since I was in high school, in terms of listening to contemporary jazz and early Chicago Underground recordings,” says Stewart, who first heard Taylor perform in Settles’s quartet, and first played with the drummer while subbing in Chicago trumpeter Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die.                                                                                                      Photographer: No Land LUKE STEWART'S SILT TRIO: Luke Stewart - bass Brian Settles - tenor sax Chad Taylor - drums, mbira   No ensemble better reflects the depth of Stewart’s musical investigations than the trio with Taylor and Settles. The group’s open approach to form and commitment to rhythmic development defines a sound that’s both forward looking and rooted in the music’s adventuring past. “I think it’s time to refocus on free rhythms and free grooves,” Stewart says. “Not on the Steve Coleman MBASE sense, but from the sense of the power that rhythm has to call forth spirits. We go into it with that intention. That knowledge is there and it comes out in that interaction. Chad is such a rhythmic player, one of the masters, and it’s really a perfect situation for me and Brian to explore that concept with him.”   BIO INFORMATION CHAD TAYLOR It’s hard to overstate Taylor’s contributions to improvised music over the past three decades. A composer, scholar and educator as well as a capaciously inventive percussionist now living in Philadelphia, Taylor is probably best known as co-founder of the Chicago Underground Duo with trumpeter Rob Mazurek (and the numerous Underground iterations that have spun off of that original partnership). A professional on the Chicago scene from the age of 16, he became a rhythmic muse for many of the most celebrated artists in improvised music, including Fred Anderson, Pharoah Sanders, Nicole Mitchell, Matana Roberts, Ken Vandermark, Darius Jones, James Brandon Lewis, Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, and Peter Brötzmann. He’s also led numerous acclaimed ensembles of his own, including is the trio with Settles and pianist Neil Podgurski he documented on the acclaimed 2020 Cuneiform Records' album The Daily Biological.   BRIAN SETTLES A Washington D.C. native, Settles performs regularly with some of modern jazz's leading groups, including Tomas Fujiwara and The Hook Up, Michael Formanek's Cheating Heart and Big Band Kolossus, and bands led by Jonathan Finlayson. A protégé of Stanley Turrentine, he released two albums as a leader focusing on his buoyant, pithy compositions. On 2011’s award-winning Secret Handshake (Engine) he featured the quintet Central Union, and followed up with 2013’s trio album Folk (Engine).                                                                                                         photo by Paul De Lucena LUKE STEWART Born and raised in Mississippi, Stewart grew up in Ocean Springs, a small town on the coast just east of Biloxi. There was little access or exposure to jazz and improvised music in grade school, and he played alto sax in his junior high and high school concert and marching bands. Taking up electric bass at 13, he started a punk band with some high school friends while delving into electronic music and hip hop. He discovered jazz on his own and started a process of self-education, digging through record bins and sharing discoveries with similarly music obsessive friends. “The good part of growing up in Mississippi was not having any sort of big overriding cultural force telling you what to do, which gave us the freedom to explore whatever we wanted to do,” he says. “The group that I found myself in, we were all voraciously into checking out all different types of music. We were very into listening, and that was key, coming to the music as a voracious listener.” On scholarship at the University of Mississippi he majored in international studies and minored in music, but a summer internship in Washington D.C. turned into a new life path when Hurricane Katrina devasted the Gulf Coast, including his hometown. He transferred to American University and ended up graduating with a double major in international studies and audio production. He arrived in town equally committed to the alto sax and electric bass, until his jazz band profession, Dr. Will Smith, encouraged him to take up double bass. “It was a transition for sure,” Stewart says. “I was fascinated and enamored by investigating this instrument and immediately felt the spirit of it.” After some informal lessons with veteran players like Herman Burney he started going to jam sessions and connecting with established musicians. His creative development has been rooted in D.C.’s verdant and often overlooked legacy of Black music and culture. Over the past two decades he’s woven himself into a myriad of scenes and idioms. Indeed, the trio with Settles and Taylor is only one chamber in the mansion that makes up Stewart’s musical world. He plays bass and saxophone with Washington-based indie rock band Laughing Man. As an electronic artist, he’s performed alongside legendary hip hop artist Grap Luva, and DC beatmaker Damu the Fudgemunk. He’s also a member of the experimental electronic trio Mind Over Matter, Music Over Mind. On the jazz side, he was also a long-time member of Trio OOO, a collaborative ensemble featuring saxophonist Aaron Martin and drummer Sam Lohman. One of his bases of operation is the D.C. art space Union Arts and Manufacturing, where Stewart is an artist-in-residence. He’s also presented numerous concert series and festivals via CapitalBop.com, a D.C.-based jazz website and 501c3 non-profit organization that he co-founded. By day Stewart is the production coordinator for the Pacifica radio station WPFW (89.3 FM) and hosts “The Vibes,” a weekly eclectic jazz program. Through WPFW he’s collaborated with seminal figures in music and the fight for social justice, including Chuck Brown, Yusef Lateef, Randy Weston, Muhal Richard Abrams, Juma Sultan, and Amiri Baraka. He credits his work at WPFW and mentorship by veteran DJ Jamal Muhammad with connecting him to the jazz scenes in D.C. and Harlem dating back to the rise of bebop. Buy on Bandcamp: tracks: 1. Reminiscinc // 2. Roots // 3. Angles // 4. The Bottom // 5. Circles// 6. Dream House return to top SNEAK PEEK! COMING OUT ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS ON APRIL 25, 2022: BALUNGAN KUDU BISA KUDU Bio information: BALUNGAN Title: KUDU BISA KUDU (Cuneiform Rune 484) Format: CD  / DIGITAL Label: Cuneiform Records FILE UNDER: WORLD MUSIC / ROCK / ART ROCK   listen/share on Soundcloud: "Kangen" from Balungan's Kudu Bisa Kudu The French / Indonesian band BALUNGAN Breaks New Musical Ground with Gamelan and Guitars   By the end of 2022, Indonesia will see the completion of its first high-speed rail line, an 88-mile-long section linking the nation’s longtime capital, Jakarta, to Java’s second largest city, Bandung.   According to the globe-trotting musicians of Balungan, however, the train à grande vitesse is already at the station. The 13-member band kicks off its debut, Kudu Bisa Kudu, with the nostalgic steam whistle and intentionally garbled boarding call of “Javanese TGV”, but as soon as Franck Testut’s driving bassline gears ups, it’s clear that we’re riding a 21st-century conveyance. Gang vocals, hairpin-curve guitars, and accelerating arpeggios played on tuned percussion also announce that this is a multicultural journey—and in fact the group is made up of seven of Java’s most open-minded gamelan virtuosos, plus six equally adventurous rock musicians from the south of France.   Gamelan—Indonesia’s national music, based on intricately subdivided polyrhythms and played on shining, lavishly decorated bronze metallophones—has been an influence on European and North American musicians for more than a century, arguably beginning with the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle in Paris. There, French composers including Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy first heard a Javanese gamelan ensemble, and immediately reconsidered their notions of what music could be—and the repercussions, so to speak, are still being felt. Artists as diverse as jazz traveller Don Cherry, pioneering minimalist Lou Harrison, and the progressive rock groups Gong and King Crimson have incorporated gamelan-like rhythms into their sound, and while the influence of European music on Indonesia has been less widely celebrated, it’s there: think of the guitarist Dewa Budjana, whom sometimes works Balinese motifs into his blazing fusion jazz.   But there’s never been a gamelan-based cultural exchange as equitable as Balungan, named after the Javanese word for “skeleton”, which is also used to describe the core melody of a musical composition. Nor has there been one as loud. The Javanese members of the band attack their gendèrs, gongs, and bonangs “like a rock ensemble,” says drummer and project sparkplug Guigou Chenevier, “and this was really great to see and to share with them.”   The Balungan project began when Chenevier — a legend in progressive-rock circles for his work with Etron Fou Leloublan, Fred Frith, and others — initially answered a call for a gamelan workshop in Marseilles. The hook was the opportunity to work with a cadre of Javanese instructors, followed by a visit to their home in Yogyakarta, the musical capital of central Java. The Avignon resident recalls that when he learned “the workshop involved making music with these people eight hours a day for 15 days" and that travel costs were covered, he said “Wow, I want to do that!’”   Following that first excursion, Chenevier invited his Javanese friends to his home town, and things grew from there. “They explained to me that they wanted to exchange their culture with something new, because they felt that if they didn’t do that Javanese music and gamelan music would just die,” the drummer notes. “So I said “Wow! Okay, let’s do something together.’ In total, we had three different times in Java and they came three different times in France, and that’s how it started.”   Once the members of the band were in place, aesthetic parameters were quickly established. Balungan wasn’t going to be about rock musicians playing gamelan, or vice versa: one singular feature of the live concert immortalized on Kudu Bisa Kudu is that every musician has written a piece, with the arrangements developed collectively. Chenevier, for example, contributes “The Guy I Am”, which frames a text from the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, in clanging metallophones, Beefheartesque slide guitars, and clattering drums that gradually build to an ecstatically psychedelic climax. Sapto Raharjo’s “Kangen”, in contrast, opens in an almost traditional manner, but soon veers towards something that recalls pop metal, with power-chord guitars, anthemic singing, and a surging rock chorus.   What’s most impressive about Kudu Bisa Kudu, perhaps, is that the ensemble manages to be both coherent and diverse, even in the live setting. Despite its size and schizophonic nature, Balungan sounds like a band, in part because the performers, recognizing that their time together would be limited, honoured their commitment to rehearsing eight hours a day, every day. But Chenevier also points out that he and his fellow French musicians were inspired by their Javanese colleagues’ inclusive and boundary-free attitude towards art and life.   “In Javanese culture one thing that’s very important is the spiritual aspect, but not in the sense of strict religion,” he says. “For example, lot of people in Central Java, they can be at the same time Muslim and Buddhist. It’s no problem for them. And of course this way of seeing the world is very important in the way they make music and art and all that.   “When you are a musician playing gamelan in Java, you learn everything at first,” he continues. “You learn music, of course, but you also learn dance, you learn poetry, you learn puppets… all that goes into the full show of the shadow theatre. And only then do you choose a speciality. So it was very interesting working with these people, because they are very big fans of the stage, of theatre, and they know how to add often very funny stuff on-stage. So it was very alive; each performance we did was a surprise.”   Chenevier is still contemplating how his work with his Javanese counterparts will change how he approaches music in future, although he notes that it certainly reinforces his desire to operate in a collaborative way—as he has already done on his solo albums Le Batteur Est Le Meilleur Ami Du Musicien (InPolySons), an early exercise in file-sharing with musicians from all over the world, and Les Rumeurs De La Ville (Cuneiform Records), which includes performances from amateur musicians from Avignon as well as a number of virtuosi. But Balungan’s most important lesson, he offers, has to do with the “why” of making music.   “On different occasions journalists would ask us why we were doing this project,” he says. “And generally the Javanese people, they were answering in a way that a French guy never would, which was that it was just about fraternité. That was very beautiful and very simple, and at least as important as the rest of the project: the human exchange, the way they welcomed us when we were there, and also the incredible places where we played some concerts in Java. They were just amazing. I never could have imagined such a thing before.”   Will he imagine such a thing again? That remains to be seen, Chenevier admits. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, hardening racial attitudes in France, and the perils of the global economy, it seems unlikely that Balungan will have a second act—although his memories of this beautiful project and the circumstances that shaped it will remain. Even now, he says, he still dreams of all-day rehearsals in the heat and humidity of Central Java, the cooling rains that would come every night, and the hair-raising scooter rides home afterwards.   “It’s a strong memory,” he says, “a very deep impression that will stay inside me forever.” And listeners may well feel the same once they hear this music.   BALUNGAN: Guigou Chenevier – drums Loïc Guénin – keyboards Laurent Frick – vocals Gilles Laval – guitare Laurent Luci – guitare Franck Testut – bass Setyanto Prajoko – gamelan Sudaryanto – gamelan Tri Widiantoro – gamelan Setyaji Dewanto – gamelan Sutikno – gamelan Bagus Ariyanto Seputro Nasution – gamelan Desyana Wulani Putri – gamelan   return to top CUNEIFORM ARTISTS ON TOUR 2022 CALENDAR IMPORTANT COVID REMINDER: In an evolving COVID-19 world, these dates are ALL tentative. Please check with venues, close to the concert date, to confirm. We're ecstatic that live concerts are resuming in many locales, and look forward to music venues and concert halls opening worldwide, when health and safety measures allow. See also the Tours Page at Cuneiform Records. DAVE CHAPPELL & ANTHONY PIROG Two of THE best guitarists on the DC and global music scene team up at DC's venerable Blues Alley for a show that's certain to become legendary.  Not to be missed.  March 29 - Blues Alley - Washington D.C.  Listen to & buy Anthony Pirog: Pocket Poem, Palo Colorado Dream .     Chappell & Pirog appear on the Cuneiform Records release, Music from the Anacostia Delta, by The Spellcasters, the group led by Joel Harrison   THE GREAT HARRY HILLMAN The exuberant Swiss jazz/ pop/ beyond group - named after the American triple-Gold Medal winner at the 1904 Summer Olympics - are one of the most active groups on the European festival and club circuit, top-notch live performers ceaselessly honing their skills. March 22 - Jazzkantine - Luzern, Switzerland March 23 - Prozess - Bern, Switzerland March 24 - Rank - Zurich, Switzerland March 25 - Rank - Zurich, Switzerland March 26 - Rank - Zurich, Switzerland October 27 - Tango Brücke - Einbeck, Germany Listen to & buy: Tilt JANEL LEPPIN / VOLCANIC ASH ENSEMBLE  DC cellist /composer Janel Leppin's post-jazz ensemble   March 25 - Rhizome DC - 6950 Maple St NW - Washington DC 20012 [with: Luke Stewart / Brian Settles / Anthony Pirog / Kim Sator / Sarah Hughes / Larry Fergusen] JANEL & ANTHONY DC's fave post-jazz/rock/ambient, beyond-genre duo, composed of Janel Lepin (cellist /composer/vocalist/electronics) and Anthony Pirog (guitarst/composer/electronic musician). Both musicians also lead their own ensembles, and perform and record with others internationally.   TBA - Rhizome DC - 6950 Maple St NW - Washington DC 20012 [opening: Devin Hoff solo] HENRY KAISER Grammy winner Henry Kaiser is widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz, world, and contemporary experimental musics. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– THE HENRY KAISER MONTHLY SOLO SERIES, presented exclusively on the CUNEIFORM RECORDS YouTube Channel  When Covid pandemic lockdowns began in 2020, Henry Kaiser began curating & presenting a weekly series of pre-recorded music videos exclusively on Cuneiform's YouTube Channel for music lovers isolating at home. These "live" concerts are taped beforehand and not streamed - Henry discusses the process in a Guitar Moderne interview, "The New "Live"".  Many videos in the series depict duets and larger bands, despite the program being called the "Henry Kaiser Weekly Solo Series".  While many depict new or recent performances, other videos in this series are vintage footage of performances not available elsewhere (The Valentines' 1994 concert in the Fukuoka Dome). After lockdowns began to lift In April 2021, the series celebrated its one-year anniversary and converted to a monthly format, which continues. All 52 videos from the Henry Kaiser's Weekly Series and everything in the current Monthly Series are archived & available on Cuneiform's YouTube Channel.  We invite you to visit Cuneiform Record's YouTube Channel to see the videos that Henry presents on the first of every month. Because all videos are archived on our YouTube site, you can watch anything in the series at any time.   Listen to & buy: Albums by Henry Kaiser & Friends  on Cuneiform A Love Supreme Electric [Vinny Golia / John Hanrahan / Henry Kaiser / Wayne Peet / Mike Watt]: A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme and Meditations  Yo Miles!: Henry Kaiser & Wadada Leo Smith: Sky Garden & Upriver     Five Times Surprise [Henry Kaiser / Anthony Pirog / Tracy Silverman / Jeff Sipe / Andy West]:  Five Times Surprise Henry Kaiser & Ray Russell:  The Celestial Squid Henry Kaiser: Lemon Fish Tweezer; Fred Frith & Henry Kaiser: Friends & Enemies     Healing Force [Vinny Golia • Aurora Josephson • Henry Kaiser • Mike Keneally • Joe Morris • Damon Smith • Weasel Walter]: Healing Force:  The Songs of Albert Ayler                       V.A.: 156 Strings: Nineteen Totally Original Acoustic Guitarists THE ED PALERMO BIG BAND "Twenty-first century big-band music doesn’t get more exciting and impressive than this." – Jazz Times An astounding 18 piece jazz ensemble of five woodwind players, four trumpeters, three trombonists, two keyboardists, guitar, violin, bass and drums, led by arranger, composer & saxophonist Ed Palermo, one of America's most singular arrangers who draws on jazz, pop and rock tunes for his top-notch band. There are a number of ensembles performing the music of Frank Zappa, one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century, but no one does it with the ease, skill and originality that Ed and his band do! –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The ED PALERMO BIG BAND returns to the live stage! ~~~~ March 28 - Iridium - NYC, NY April 2 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 April 25 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY May 23 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY June 4 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 June 27 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY August 6 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 September 3 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 October 29 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 December 17 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542   Listen to & buy: Ed Palermo Big Band albums on Cuneiform: The Adventures of Zoyd Zundgren;  The Great Un-American Songbook Vols. 1&2;  One Child Left Behind;  Oh No! Not Jazz!!;  Eddy Loves Frank;  Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance                   RICHARD PINHAS One of France's major experimental musicians and a key figure in the development of electronic rock, guitarist and electronic musician Richard Pinhas will perform in 2021 in France and beyond in various groupings. _______________________________ April 8 - Cafe Oto - 18-22 Ashwin St - London E8, UK   Listen to & buy releases by Richard Pinhas & friends on Cuneiform: Process and Reality,  Desolation Row,  Metatron,  Metal/Crystal,  Tranzition,  Event & Repetitions                 Richard Pinhas & Oren Ambarchi: Tikkun   Richard Pinhas & Merzbow:   Keio Line / Rhizome / Paris 2008           Schizotrope (Richard Pinhas & Maurice Dantec):  The Life & Death of Marie Zorn   TOMEKA REID QUARTET “Cellist Tomeka Reid has been on a serious tear lately; perhaps you noted her on the commanding new album by The Art Ensemble of Chicago, or with the chamberlike Artifacts Trio. Old New is Reid’s second album with [her] rough-and-ready [quartet].... If the title calls to mind an Art Ensemble rallying cry, “Ancient to the Future,” that’s probably not a mere coincidence.”  – Nate Chinen / WBGO In the hands of Tomeka Reid, the cello is an essential vehicle for unfettered jazz exploration. Old New, the second album by the Tomeka Reid Quartet, exemplifies why she’s quickly become a definitive figure on the 21st century jazz scene. As a composer, arranger, improviser, bandleader, and impresario, she embodies jazz’s progressive ethos. _____________________________ June 3 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany June 4 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany June 5 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany June 6 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany Listen to & buy:  OLD NEW    REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE “Boston's own rabble of horn players and drummers bring a positively Sun Ra shine to second-line music." – The Boston Herald _____________________________ March 1 -  Mardi Gras Party - Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre - 55 Davis Sq - Somerville, MA Listen to & buy: Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: Forked Tongue              SCHNELLERTOLLERMEIER "The Best Music of 2015: A Banner Year for the Bold: …here are a dozen albums released in 2015 that I savored repeatedly for their musicality, clarity of statement and courage. …“X” by Schnellertollermeier marries brutality to avant-garde rock and jazz. A classic power trio from Switzerland, the band plays with punk fury and dazzling technical dexterity to create booming, bone-rattling music that stalks, confronts and astonishes.” –The Wall Street Journal Schnellertollermeier's clear-cut approach burns itself into one's memory; audiences who have seen the trio (bassist Andi Schnellmann/ guitarist ManuelTroller / percussionist David Meier) live describe their music as “stunning”, “minimalist”, “brutal”, “decisive”, “monumental”, “angry”, “controlled”, “captivating” or “radical”.  Simply fantastic. _____________________________ April 15 - Theaterhaus Stuttgart - Siemensstrasse 11 - Stuttgart, Germany May 8 - bee-flat in PROGR - Speichergasse 4 - Bern, Switzerland Listen to & buy: 5, Rights, X                 THUMBSCREW Thumbscrew is the all-star collaborative trio of Mary Halvorson (guitar), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), and Michael Formanek (acoustic bass). Thumbscrew's critically acclaimed albums, all on Cuneiform Records, have appeared on Best of Year lists worldwide. Thumbscrew perform  frequently at festivals and served numerous residencies at art centers and prominent venues in the US and abroad. “Made up of three highly distinctive voices in the world of jazz and avant-garde music, Thumbscrew should probably collapse under the weight of its own star power but Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Mary Halvorson (electric guitar) and Michael Formanek (acoustic bass) are just too aware of the potential of this supertrio to let that happen.”  – Something Else! ________________________________ March 5 - The Stone - The New School - Glass Box Theatre - 55 west 13th street (near 6th ave) - NYC, NY April 22 - Constellation Chicago - 3111 N Western Ave - Chicago, IL 60618  Listen to & buy:  Never Is Enough, The Anthony Braxton Project,  Ours, Theirs,  Convallaria, Thumbscrew .                 To set up press and radio interviews with Cuneiform Artists while on tour or at home, please contact: promo@cuneiformrecords.com return to top   MARCH 2022 the Month that comes in like a LION and goes out like a LAMB      Please take care of yourselves, your loved-ones, and your fellow man by getting vaccinated & boosted and using caution as the world casts Covid 19 restrictions aside   Thank you for supporting live music as venues reopen, while continuing to  enjoy music at home via ACTIVITIES ONLINE !     The pandemic has taught us that the only thing certain is uncertainty.  We'll eventually adapt to whatever the New Normal is.  Until then, let's take comfort where we can. Music can make a positive difference in our lives, and help us survive in evolving and uncertain times.  We are sooo pleased to be able - at least sometimes, in controlled circumstances - to experience live music again. Please remember to always check with the venue to make sure a concert is happening. Covid surges are causing numerous last-minute closures. Besides cautiously seeing live music, we'll continue to also enjoy music at home, and we hope that you continue to enjoy recorded music as well on your technology of choice.  You can explore tracks from nearly 500 recordings released by Cuneiform Records since 1984 on cuneiformrecords.com, our website, or on our Bandcamp, SoundCloud or YouTube sites, and also watch recordings of recent and vintage concerts that we regularly post on YouTube.  Cuneiform Records has a treasure chest of interesting music to serve as soundtrack, inspiration and solace during these evolving and challenging times. We have a mammoth catalogue of releases by some of avant music's most esteemed icons as well as young rising stars, available for purchase at the Cuneiform Records Bandcamp store and at one of our sister companies, Wayside Music. Your CD and LP purchases support indie musicians, indie labels, and small businesses.  • Discover new music on Cuneiform Records' BANDCAMP PAGE :  support our artists & our indie label by purchasing music.   • Visit our internet store, WaysideMusic.com (established 1980!), to purchase  music from ALL your favorite labels!  We also have a ton of FREE entertainment for your enjoyment on several online platforms:   • Enjoy hours on Cuneiform Records' YouTube CHANNEL:  free music videos, videos of live shows, & samples from 400+ adventurous releases!   And we've expanded our video content during the pandemic, most notably with an ongoing video series curated  and produced by guitarist Henry Kaiser.  • Enjoy and share samples of music by releases of countless Cuneiform artists on the Cuneiform Records' SoundCloud Site. • Visit & Like & Follow our Facebook PAGE for Cuneiform Records. • Join our Facebook GROUP: Fans of Cuneiform Records. • Follow @CuneiformRecord onTwitter • Visit the CuneiformRecords.com official WEBSITE for extensive information on the artists and recordings on our label,  upcoming concerts & much more. • Media professionals: find music to LICENSE from Cuneiform for movies, ads etc via our sister site TheMusicOutpost.com. • Were you forwarded this email from a friend?  If so, make sure you sign up for the Cuneiform NEWSLETTER to  get this monthly newsletter in your email box, in addition to receiving notices for Cuneiform's weekly "$5 Friday" offers – Cuneiform selects a special album from its archive each weekend,  to be sold in download format via Bandcamp, that weekend only,  for $5. • Cuneiform Records announces all of its releases - physical (CD, LP) and digital formats - in its monthly newsletter.  Newsletters contain in-depth info on each release.  If you missed seeing an issue, Newsletters are archived on the Cuneiform Blogspot. WE LOOK FORWARD TO BEING YOUR 2022 NEW YEAR COMPANIONS, ONLINE!   Cuneiform YouTube Cuneiform Website Facebook FanGroup Facebook Page Cuneiform Twitter Cuneiform SoundCloud Cuneiform Bandcamp Instagram Email Cuneiform return to top Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* Cuneiform Records, All rights reserved.   Washington, DC // Silver Spring, MD Our mailing address is: Cuneiform Records P.O. Box 8427 Silver Spring, MD 20907 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Was this email forwarded to you from a friend? Subscribe to the Cuneiform Records Newsletter. Read this email online   return to top