Crypto Musings

CRYPTO EXCLUSIVE: AN IN-HOUSE PREVIEW OF DAVID WITHAM'S "SPINNING THE CIRCLE"

With just nineteen -- no, make that EIGHTEEN -- days to go before we double-drop our twin Crypto summer releases The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath and David Witham's Spinning the Circle, we're offering a little preview of each for your audiophilic interest.

Today, it's Spinning the Circle by pianist and longtime Crypto stalwart David Witham. For the last twentysome years, Witham has been the musical director for Grammy-winning guitarist George Benson. Technically, Spinning is David's first solo album (if you don't count On Line, which was self-released some twenty years ago), but "solo" is a somewhat relative term in this case. You'd be hard pressed to isolate one sublime performance amongst the septet Witham has assembled, all of them longtime friends and collaborators and chameleonlike musicians to boot: Nels Cline and Greg Leisz (guitars); Jon Crosse (woodwinds, brass); Jay Anderson (bass); Scott Amendola (drums, effects); Luis Conte (percussion) and of course Mr. Witham (piano, keyboards, accordion, effects).

In less pretentious terms, namely Mr. Witham's, "the ride for this record was to get some guys in a room and play some live music." Well, it took a year to get the guys in the room, but here's what they came up with in two days last December:

"THE NEON" David describes this double-time opener somewhat tongue-in-cheeky as his "Drum 'n' Bass track." Amendola's skittish drums and the warm tug of Anderson's bass propels Crosse's shining tenor sax, which smashes head-on into Cline's wall of sputtering, burbling effect's-laden guitar. Witham graces all of this with subtle touches on synthesizer and electric piano. Call it a collision of savory and sweet.

"WHO KNOWS" One might get air bubbles in the blood from this segue into a quiet, stately piano ballad. But this isn't piano music worthy of a Ramada Inn cocktail lounge or a Venice Pilates class. It shows Witham's deft hand with acoustic as well as electric keyboards, not to mention a mastery of setting an all-encompassing mood.

"N.O. RISING" Undoubtedly a standout -- a broken levee of emotional resonance in just seven minutes. "New Orleans has been on my mind a lot lately," says Witham about the tune. "I called it 'N.O. Rising' because that's what I wish for the people down there, to be able to rise above the chaos." "Rising" is true to its title: it begins slowly with Witham's delicate four chord melody, which is taken up by Amendola's lazy half-time pulse and Anderson's punchy bass (these two work together quite well). Then Witham's accordion and Crosse on soprano sax light into an airy duet. The song's triumph is how seamlessly Greg Leisz's woozy pedal steel comes into the mix, sounding as natural as a raft floating down a river. Amendola's sober coda even sounds like a New Orleans funeral procession disappearing down the street.

"MOMENTUUM" Anothe jarring segue, "Momentuum" is a twelve-tone row written by Jay Anderson that incorporates free and tonal improvisation in between the statement of the row. Witham's gypsy-flavored accordion and Crosse's clarinet follow their jagged path while Liesz overlays their tense lines with spooky, drunk-alien guitar flourishes.

"THE CIRCLE" One of the first tunes completed for the record, this is a propulsive latin-jazz flavored vamp and a showcase for Crosse's hi-frequency clarinet and Amendola's aggressive 6/4 timekeeping. "'The Circle' was inspired by a Latin jazz group that Luis Conte and I used to have some years ago, but it's never been played until this record," says Witham. "He's shown me so much about Afro-Cuban and other form of Latin music over the years, I'll always be thankful for that. This one's about the rhythm, specifically the superimposition of rhythm. Three against two, four against three, etc.and the straight eight ride cymbal against the triplet undercurrent. I improvised a chordal figure over that, and wrote it down later. You can hear a four-pulse pop out against the three at the peak of the bridge section before the sax solo. Luis' bata drums are the glue for the whole thing."

"LIGHT AND LIFE" A romantic twin of sorts to "Who Knows," this tune shows Bill Evan's influence on Witham's spare but expressive playing. David said that this tune, along with the opening track, was inspired by neon signs at night.

"AFROBEAT" The epic centerpiece of the record, this is Witham's ode to guys like Tony Allen and Fela Anikulapo Kuti. A twelve-minute dark cave filled with unsettling aural stalagtites and stalagmites: echo gongs, yawning bass lines, electronic squiggles, tremulous piano. The song takes its own sweet time to ease into the melody, but when it does it does it with a veangance: Anderson's impossibly meaty bass riff and Cline's percussive plucking. Witham weaves in some Joe Zaniwul-influenced magic on the electric piano.

"CON QUIEN" Witham describes this beguiling tune as "a combination of a lopsided tango and surf music for some reason unbeknownst to me." Again, it's grace through contrast, as Amendola's martial drums roll easily under Crosse's warm soprano sax. Mr. Leisz even returns for the send-off. "Greg ended up being the secret to this one," says Witham. "I tried to play this song before with a synth emulating a steel [guitar] and not playing -- or really hearing -- piano on it at all. I was trying to play a sound that had a different kind of attack and sustain than than piano did, because I thought it fit the song better. By letting Greg be the main comping instrument, I was able to let go of that notion and find a place for the piano to fit into the song."

David Witham is currently out on the road playing a June leg of the joint George Benson/Al Jarreau tour. For this and more info on currently touring Crypto artists and friends, check out our Tour Page.

And don't forget, next week we will feature a multi-part interview with David Witham on the new album and his life playing with...well, just about everybody.

IN OTHER CRYPTO NEWS. . . .Nels Cline has released "Confection" -- his third pre-leaked song from The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath -- on his MySpace page as well as the Cryptogramophone homepage. "'Confection' is perhaps, as its title suggests, a bit of a trifle. Written quite at the last minute, it falls in with my penchant for 'instrumental hit'-style writing, and is really just an excuse to rock out. Note nod to Deerhoof. Enjoy!"

CRYPTO EXCLUSIVE: AN IN-HOUSE PREVIEW OF "THE NELS CLINE SINGERS DRAW BREATH"

As promised -- with just TWENTY-SIX DAYS left before the release of Crypto's twin summer releases David Witham's Spinning The Circle and The Nels Cline Singers' Draw Breath -- we have "pre-reviews" for your dining and dancing pleasure. [WARNING: Mixed metaphors will be used]

First up is Draw Breath:

"CAVED-IN HEART BLUES" Probably the one most Nels/Singers fans are already familiar with, as it was the first track from the new record that we leaked a couple of weeks ago. Nels once told me he wasn't sure he would be able to even fit it on the album, which would have been -- in his words -- "tragic and heartbreaking" considering it was the emotional centerpiece. And what a centerpiece! A slow, lumbering, doom-laden funeral march up the side of a mist-covered mountain -- at least that's how it starts out. (We even rented Werner Herzog's Aguirre: Wrath of God and watched that spectacular first shot while listening to "CIHB" on headphones -- it works perfectly!) Drum Scott Amendola provides a sternum-rattling pulse over Nels' simple but hypnotic riff. Then Devin Hoff comes in with some punchy, forceful contrabass lines, after which comes a rainstorm-wash of sinister film-noir loops and delays. I have no idea what mood Nels was in when he wrote this, but it must have been a humdinger.

"ATTEMPTED" A but of a shock to the system after the dirge-like "CIHB," this track begins tumbling jazz guitar workout followed by an intense roaring build, where Amendola's drums sound like strategically placed gravel-on-cymbals and Hoff's plucking sound like four thumbs going at once. The tune turns from whimsical to pissed-off as quickly as changing the channel, and devolves into a whirligig of fuzz.

"CONFECTION" Wow, the most "rock" tune on the record, we think. (Could Le Wilco have rubbed off on our lad?) Has a great melody that the Foo Fighters or Television would love -- you may actually find yourself humming it in the car! Devin Hoff's bowed bass solo is underscored by Nels and Amendola's clock-ticking pulses during a midsong "break." If played live, "Confection" could bring the first mosh pits known to Improvised Music.

"AN EVENING AT POPS'" This is the track that will stop many Wilco fans dead in their tracks. Blips, bow squeaks, angry fuzz, collapsing percussion -- it sounds like hobgoblins loose amidst fiberoptic cables. Fifteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds of unsettling but liberating Noize, with a primeval sludgy Black Sabbath riff growing out of the primordial ooze like some marching zombie army. We'd tell you more but we don't want to spoil the end!

"THE ANGEL OF ANGELS"/ "RECOGNIZE I" / "RECOGNIZE II" This trio of hushed pieces are parts of a mood-changing whole. "AOAA," dedicated to the bewitching visual artist Angela Decristofaro, who did the artwork for Draw Breath, starts off this part of the record; it's a delicate, contemplative piece that unspools like smoke and demonstrates the Singers' acuity with ballads (or, as close to "ballads" as they get). Of course, there's weirdness aplenty -- like the ghostly backward-looped guitar during the song's coda. The "Recognize" two-fer is dedicated to Nels' parents, Don and Thelma Cline, who played an invaluable role in encouraging their scary-talented twin sons to pursue their musical horizons. It is Nels at his most expressive, and acolytes can get a good assessment to the man's acoustic-picking acumen. "R1" is a moonlit bauble of near-flamenco flourishes and whispering brush drums, while "R2" recalls Michael Hedges at his most subtle or Gustavo Santaolalla's work for The Motorcycle Diaries and Brokeback Mountain.

"MIXED MESSAGE" Whoa! Back to the free jazz, 'Trane style. The Singers are woodshedding this one with a few handicaps: during the first 4-minute part of what was originally titled "The Megasuite," they vamp on a set of five chords, which builds slowly and then just STOPS; for the second part, Amendola was told to abandon live drums sounds AND pre-loaded loops and to use the tail end of whatever was being played at that moment to build his solo, which yields a swampy, claustrophobic interlude. Then comes the pounding climax: Nels's solo twisting around itself like Cheez Whiz while Devin Hoff spins some sort of Mission: Impossible backbeat around Amendola's unhinged cymbals.

"SQUIRREL OF GOD" The last but not very least track, taken with "CIHB" and "MM", makes us think this has got to be the Singers' most "tribal" record to date -- all three sound like they were etched out on the walls of caves. Converse to the drums beginning the primitive pulse of the song on "CIHB", it is Hoff's bass that starts off the time-keeping, devolving into woozy bowing that is quickly dusted with junkyard percussion by Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. Then, Nels' strumming takes up the pulse as an acoustic guitar joins it, building to a ending with Kotche's sparkling flourishes of glockenspiel. Given the dark portents of the opening cut, this is almost like ending on a high, hopeful note.

STAY TUNED...Our "pre-review" of pianist David Witham's Spinning the Circle, as well as an exclusive multi-part interview with Mr. Witham, who's currently on the road with George Benson and Al Jarreau. Check out the Crypto Tour Page for more info.

NEW NELS CLINE TRACK: "RECOGNIZE II"

The third exclusive track from The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath (due JUNE 26TH) is now up on Nels' MySpace page as well as the Cryptogramophone homepage. As always, the Man Himself provided some thoughts on the tune:

"Recognize II" is the second of two acoustic pieces on the CD, and is dedicated (like "Recognize I") to my parents. It is a little chamber piece, and is actually in a major mode -- a rarity for me. Both "Recognizes" are rubato with tiny passages in tempo, or allusions to time. Devin [Hoff] and Scott [Amendola] really GOT these pieces -- their simplicity is misleading -- and I am so lucky to be able to play with them.

And following in the grand (if somewhat recent) tradition of bloggers being the culture's first responders, music writer Tim Niland posted a review of The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath on his excellent Jazz & Blues Music Reviews site -- and it's a positive one at that.

IN OTHER NEWS...Cryptogramophone's online music store IndieJazz has been undergoing a bit of retooling as of late. Besides the beautiful new site design, IndieJazz has a plethora of new arrivals and new releases -- not to mention some great independent labels to add to the ever-growing family, including Artistry Music, Crammed Disc, Gramavision, Pi Recordings, Sunnyside, Thirsty Ear and Zappa Records.

NELS DELIVERS "MIXED MESSAGE"

Continuing our slow leak of new tracks from Nels Cline's upcoming release The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath, the track "Mixed Message" is now available on Crypto's homesite as well as Nels' MySpace page.

Now on tour with Wilco, Nels wrote some thoughts about the song on his blog:

"Mixed Message" had the working title of "The Megasuite" for quite awhile, and it is in three distinct sections. The opening is meant to directly reference late-period Coltrane, and supplies the band with only a set of five chords to "blow" on, followed by an ascending line and grand pause in a set of three. Then, the murky middle feature for Scott [Amendola's], with the built-in limitation that he must not use actual drum sounds or pre-load his looping devices, but rather grab the last gasp of air/sound form the end of the first movement and utilize it as the basis for his "solo," or improvisation. Devin and I play a low/slow clustery 3/4 part with periodic pauses. Then it's off to the rock 'em, sock 'em conclusion, which is -- YES -- rather like King Crimson circa '72-meets-Husker Du or something. I am actually uncharacteristically pleased with my solo here, which is comprised of only a tidbit of soloing then a series of loops and loop modifications, all done "live." As for the title, like most of my titles that may be cliches of speech or one word, it is meant to have more than one meaning.

RODERICK POOLE, 1962-2007

Sad, tragic and infuriating news in the Los Angeles improvised music community: guitarist Rod Poole was murdered in Hollywood last weekend when a pedestrian-driver dispute turned violent. Mr. Poole was stabbed to death in front of his wife. Two people -- apparently, another married couple, whose names we do not care to mention or even remember -- are now in custody in connection with the incident, which happened at 9:45pm on Sunday night, May 13th. Mother's Day.

To read a short bio of Mr. Poole go to this page on Anaphoria.com and scroll down a bit. Nels Cline was a good friend and frequent collaborator of Mr. Poole's, and he wrote a moving testimontial on his website, which also contains links to a variety of news reports and tributes from Mr. Poole's family, friends and colleagues.

From all of us at Cryptotgramophone, love, tears and righteous indignation at this senseless and damnable event. R.I.P., R.P.

"CAVED-IN HEART BLUES"

Gearing up for the upcoming June 26 release of The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath, both Nels Cline's MySpace page and the Cryptogramophone homesite now features the opening track "Caved-in Heart Blues." Nels was kind enough to provide us with some notes on the song:

"Caved-in Heart Blues" was written while I was sitting around the Wilco loft in Chicago, playing with a lot of reverb. The title is actually literal. It IS a blues, but only one trip through 1-4-5-4-1. As for the caved-in heart part, well, I am pretty sure that most humans can get a feeling or idea about that image/sensation. I play my beloved Jerry Jones baritone guitar on the main body of the piece, and the psych blues collage is lap steel and 6-string electric looped, reversed, delayed, etc., along with Scott's electronics and Devin's arco bass harmonics and textures. I think of this as being in the mood and tradition of the work song. Our version, anyway.

Stay tuned. More exclusive tracks from both Nels' new album and David Witham's Spinning the Circle to come.

NEW CRYPTO RELEASES FROM DAVID WITHAM AND NELS CLINE: The Countdown Begins. . .

We can finally see the horizon on Cryptogramophone's upcoming releases: Spinning the Circle from pianist/Goatettee David Witham and The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath from...oh, you know. The drop date is JUNE 26th.

But that's not all: Over the next month or so we will be previewing exclusive songs from both releases. The will be "Caved-In Heart Blues," one of the pivotal tracks from The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath. The track will be available on Nels Cline's MySpace page as well as the Cryptogramophone homesite. We will a sort of "pre-review" -- on both David's and Nels' albums as a whole. (Gotta get a head start on those reviewers!)

ANDREW HILL, 1931-2007

FROM NELSCLINE.COM:

"I am sitting here in Sydney, Australia. April 20th would have been my father's 92nd birthday, were he still alive. And Andrew Hill has died.

As most of you know, I love his music. I recorded some of his pieces on my CD, released last year, called New Monastery: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophone). I recorded it as a tribute to a LIVING MASTER and inspiration. I didn't know it when I came up with the idea to do the project, but Andrew Hill was gravely ill. Now he is released from suffering. His years-long struggle with lung cancer is over. I write this to send my love and condolences to his family and friends, and to send all possible love to the spirit of Andrew Hill.

In a strange twist of fate, my sextet that plays his music was asked to open for Mr. Hill's group at the San Francisco Jazz Festival last October. It was nerve-wracking for me, but also exciting, and Andrew was generous, telling me, after I expressed a sheepishness about playing his music in front of him, that what was important was that I was doing MY interpretation - that that's what it's all about. He also said, more than once, in a voice that was becoming increasingly tiny from his fight to live, "And I really like what you are doing with the accordion", referring to Andrea Parkins' contribution.

Accordion was Andrew Hill's first instrument, which he apparently played on the streets of Chicago as a lad.... This sextet of mine also played last month in New York, the same week that Mr. Hill played what was probably his last concert. It was a free afternoon event at The Trinity Church. I was way uptown at Colunbia University shilling for my band's gigs on the radio, and had no idea until it was too late that he was going to play this concert of what he was calling "ecclesiastical music" with his trio. I learned that Andrew's health had become even worse, that he could barely speak.

I missed the concert, but I think it may still be streaming as a film document on the Internet. I suggest you seek it out. I suggest that you seek out all of Andrew Hill's music. It is visionary, unpredictable, wide-ranging in approach, loose-limbed yet articulate, and as I have said before, much like the man: beautiful and free. Love to you, Andrew Hill. Love to your family. The music you made lives on. In loving memory." --Nels

HERMAN RILEY JR., 1933-2007

The Los Angeles Jazz community has lost another great and sadly underappreciated player: the tenor and baritone saxophonist Mr. Herman Riley.

Here is writer Scott Yanow's brief bio of Riley, courtesy of All Music:

The tough-toned tenor of Herman Riley has long been a valuable asset on a countless number of performances and recordings based in the Los Angeles area. He played locally in New Orleans as a teenager, served in the military (1955-57) and then attended San Diego City College. After moving to Los Angeles in the early 1960's, Riley worked with virtually everyone during the next few decades including Count Basie, Shelly Manne, Benny Carter, Bobby Bryant, Joe Williams, Donald Byrd, Gene Ammons, Blue Mitchell, Quincy Jones, the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut, Lorez Alexandria and many others. The only album that this perennial sideman has thus far made as a leader is a Jam Lp from 1985.

Our friend Brick Wahl also provided a short obit in today's LA Weekly:

My favorite piece of writing I've done in the L.A. Weekly was about saxophonist Herman Riley, who died last weekend. It was the result of an incredible half-hour interview during which Herman spun out his life story, an experience that was hard to boil down to its very essence. But then I thought about how he did just that in his playing, and the words rolled out.

When he read the short article, he told me it was one of the first times he had ever seen anything in print about himself -- just him alone. I couldn't believe that this man, this extraordinary saxophonist, had been ignored by the jazz media. He deserved reams of coverage, but getting 200 words and a picture made him happy.

This town never realized just how extraordinary Herman Riley was. How he could move you. How you could get utterly lost in his ballads. His notes fade away into memory. And when we go, the memories go. I once asked him when he was going to record again. He had only a single album, released sometime in the '80s and impossible to find. He said he was thinking about it, but wanted to wait until he was ready. Now, I can only listen to him in my head, stretching out the notes of a ballad, till nothing remains but air and a room stilled, feelings rising deep in my bones.

And here us Brick's Original Pick on Herman Riley from August 2006:

Lockjaw and Prez made him pick up the saxophone. That was in New Orleans, back when "Iko, Iko" was new. By '63 he was in L.A., playing Marty's every night, with players -- Sonny Rollins, everybody -- dropping by, sitting in. Steady work with Basie and the Juggernaut and Blue Mitchell. Twenty years with Jimmy Smith. A million sessions for Motown and Stax, and first call for a slew of singers -- that's where you refine those ballad skills. Live, he slips into "In a Sentimental Mood," and everything around you dissolves. There's his sound: rich, big, full of history -- a little sad, maybe -- blowing Crescent City air. He gets inside the very essence of that tune, those melancholy, ascending notes, till it fades, pads closing, in a long, drawn-out sigh. You swear it's the most beautiful thing you've ever heard, that song, that sound, and you tell him so. He shrugs. "It's a lifetime of experience," he says, then calls out some Monk and is gone.

For fans posts about Riley, go to JazzCornerTalk.com.

As for Your Humble Blogger, I actually had the chance to see Mr. Riley play live. The kat could blow the sweetest saddest drops out of his horn -- his ballad playing was always tinged with inescapable mists of melancholy -- and then switch to some truly aggressive and intense skronking: it was like listening to the last sixty years of jazz saxophone contained in one horn. Herman was quiet and serious, it seemed to me. When I was writing a story for the LA Weekly on recording sessions in Hollywood for the bassist John Heard's new album The Jazz Composer's Songbook, Riley came in and quietly unpacked his horn and sat wordlessly with it in ready position on its strap, waiting for the session to begin. Between takes he would sit back down and soberly wait for the next one to begin. When it did, he came to life like someone had plugged his foot into a wall socket. The following is from a section of unpublished notes on the session:

Heard has invited two old friends, saxman Herman Riley, who wears a watch bearing the image of Lester Young, and trumpeter Nolan Shaheed to sit in on the sessions. During the takes -- an average of seven or eight for each song -- the musicians heads are bobbing, the horn players wait for their cues while staring down at the sheet music stands with intense, solemn eyes. John call out to the boys: "Just put down your own ideas and then I'll nod at you, right?" The younger guys -- pianist Danny Grissett ans drummer Lorca Hart -- are upbeat but soft-spoken and serious-minded, watching and listening. Between takes, the older guys engage in some true-blue badinage, street-hipster trash talk from another era like "pet that squirrel" or "shake some dew off'ya daisy." They toss and catch tales of jazz past: what happened to Freddie Hubbard's lips, the time Riley accidentally insulted Rashaan Roland Kirk, or the legend of Louis Armstrong giving a suitcase full of reefer to an unwitting Richard M. Nixon.
            They razz Riley. Hey, Herman, ya look just like a big ol' frog sittin' there!
            You suckas are like vaudeville in here, Riley replies.
            If I was to get down and suck Herman''s dick, it'd be like smoking a tiny lil' joint!
            Riley snorts. Yeah, you'd get higher than a kite too motherfucker.

Riley was featured in a local live oral history series called World Stage Stories, hosted by two classy friends of mine, Jeffrey Winston and Chet Hanley, and held at the World Stage Performance Gallery in Leimert Park. Here is a link to anyone interested on the Series, with an interview with Jeff Winston. Jeff also wrote an obit for Herman when he noticed the LA Times hadn't bothered.

Funeral Services for Herman Riley will be held on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 12:00 Noon at The Faith Dome (7901 S. Vermont Ave., @ W. 79th St., LA, CA 90044). Come and show your L-O-V-E.

And Rest in Peace, HR!

ORNETTE COLTRANE

Congratulations and much love and respect to Master Ornette Coleman for winning the freakin-deakin'-muthaphuckin' 2007 PULITZER PRIZE in Music for last year's killer Sound Grammar. He and John Coltrane received their commendations on April 16. The honor includes a $10,000 prize. Yeeaahhh boiiiiiiiiiiii...who said Jazz was dead? Hah? Hah?!

And congrats are alo in order to our own Coleman/Coltrane acolyte Mr. Nels Cline, for becoming -- to our knowledge, at least -- the first avant-garde jazz guitarist in history to be honored by having a toy made in his likeness. Don't believe us? Check out the story on Pitchfork Media and then please let us know which one of those Wilco Weeblos is Nels. We can't figure it out.