As noted last week, we've begun a roll-out of new jazz channels that will continue indefinitely. We began the roll-out with "Straight Ahead," a mix of swinging, bluesy jazz from Duke Ellington to Bill Charlap. Next up is the opposite in the stylistic spectrum: Avant-Garde Jazz, making a current total of 26 different jazz channels.
The channel features a wide swath of Avant-Garde styles (i.e. not just free jazz). Sure, you'll hear plenty of Coltrane, Ayler, and Peter Brotzmann blowing with fire and passion, but you'll also hear Avant-Garde jazz/rock (Miles Davis, Jim Black, Mary Halvorson, MMW), jazz/classical experiments (Bill Dixon, Evan Parker, Michael Mantler), and other non-free Avant-Garde composers (Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy, John Hollenbeck, Tim Berne, Nels Cline, I could go on and on...)
I really love listening to the channel and personally find free jazz to be strangely soothing when trying to get work done. Right now Matthew Shipp is banging away on a tune called "Galaxy 105" and I find it to be less distracting than inspiring.
I've already had some feedback from listeners who don't think the channel is "out" enough. CDs like "Leap of Faith" by Dave Douglas and "Hidden Gardens" by Lan Xang, as well as classics like the output of the early Ornette Coleman quartet might fall somewhere between mainstream and Avant-Garde, but I think they still fall broadly in the realm of Avant-Garde jazz. Please give the new channel a listen and let me know what you think on this blog, or on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or the ShoutBox on the AccuJazz home page.
A recent listen produced this play list fragment:
Matthew Shipp: Harmony and Abyss
Tim Berne: The Shell Game
Angelica Sanchez: Mirror Me
No comments:
Post a Comment