Saturday, March 31, 2007
kelvin pittman
solos 69/70 3" cd-r
[2007, micronizer]
ah, my review of the portland bike ensemble's 12" came at just the right time as it raised my awareness to a few of kelvin's current releases, which i promptly jumped on. this on
e was released on his micronizer imprint, i owe his secretary, for bringing the label to my attention, thanks again!
when kelvin isn't blowing minds as a part of the portland bike ensemble, he's blowing notes on the alto saxophone, solo as well as in $uper unity and the owl in daylight.
the saxophone could, quite possibly, be the most polarizing of all musical instruments, well, it's either that or the bagpipes. my feelings on it lie somewhere in the middle. there's only so much free jazz saxophone noodling i can handle, but give me some sabir mateen or jemeel moondoc, and i'm golden. as for kelvin's approach with these improv'd pieces, i'd have to say that he strikes an ideal balance for this twelve minute long set. the, infrequent, freer balls-out moments are still somewhat held in check. paul flaherty this is not, and that's fine by me. and don't give me that look, i like paul flaherty just fine. it's also worth mentioning that you won't be tapping your toes to anything on here, unless you have the most fucked up sense of rhythm ever, if that's the case, you just enjoy being you. what kp's doing is spread out and more rooted in experimentation. as far as actual sound's concerned, it's alternately noisy, conventional, delicate and minimal. again, the word of the day here is balance. solos 69/70 has that in spades and i'm certainly impressed.
Alto Saxophone Improvisations 69/70 Excerpt (from 4:18 to 8:03)
joe foster & kelvin pittman
split c40
[2006, cherried-out merch]
soul seoul musician (fuck me, couldn't resist), by way of portland, by way of someplace else, joe foster has collaborated with a jaw-dropping list of musicians. while i'm not quite up for tallying all of them, i'll highlight some better known (to me) artists of interest: otomo yoshihide, bryan eubanks (half of god, with leif erik sundström), sachiko m, joseph hammer, amy denio, leticia castaneda, tomas korber, günter müller, axel dörner and mattin. his full-time musical gig is with 
bonnie jones in english [pictured]. joe was also a founding member of $uper unity, though i question whether he's currently involved with the group (in any facet) due to his geographical constraints.
up until this tape, joe foster's music had eluded me, but that's a wrong that i'm going to right, right now, as i'm downloading a few choice selections from slsk... matter of fact, i'm dl'ing this stuff from foster himself... funny... i could send him a message, but that's too intrusive... anyway, this is (roughly) seventeen minutes of glorious experimental electronic twitterings / noise. beginning more with minimal noise in the onset, the second half of joe's side is what wins me over. it's primarily concerned with excellently employed radio static, frequency modulations, record needle skips (sounds like it, at least) and memorable recurring tones, a different one in each stereo channel. it's the totality of foster's sounds that make this a great listen.
the first few minutes of kelvin's side are peppered with sax screeching, but it's delivered in easy to digest outbursts rather than unrelenting ones that'd have his cheeks resembling louis armstrong's. the more atonal playing is confined to the beginning, more or less. the rest of the side features the instrument played in (even?) more of an experimental nature. there's passages where his sax resembles nothing of the sort. in one instance it almost sounds like a stringed instrument. elsewhere, it comes closer to feedback. the later stages of this piece also feature longer, mellow, sustained notes, which are always nice to hear.
the selling point for kp's sax work is the broad range of styles that he uses. that and, obviously, how well he's pulling it all off. there's a lot going on, but he devotes just the right amount of time to every element. for example, with the squeaks and squeals heard in the onset, they're around just enough to allow you to get into them, without getting burnt out. that's something that i think is important when dealing with that particular brand of music, especially when it's played solo. it's a bit of a different story when you're doing that in a group atmosphere since you've got other musicians around to enhance it.
Joe Foster A2
Kelvin Pittman Side B Excerpt (from 2:02 to 6:10)
[2007, micronizer]
ah, my review of the portland bike ensemble's 12" came at just the right time as it raised my awareness to a few of kelvin's current releases, which i promptly jumped on. this on
e was released on his micronizer imprint, i owe his secretary, for bringing the label to my attention, thanks again!when kelvin isn't blowing minds as a part of the portland bike ensemble, he's blowing notes on the alto saxophone, solo as well as in $uper unity and the owl in daylight.
the saxophone could, quite possibly, be the most polarizing of all musical instruments, well, it's either that or the bagpipes. my feelings on it lie somewhere in the middle. there's only so much free jazz saxophone noodling i can handle, but give me some sabir mateen or jemeel moondoc, and i'm golden. as for kelvin's approach with these improv'd pieces, i'd have to say that he strikes an ideal balance for this twelve minute long set. the, infrequent, freer balls-out moments are still somewhat held in check. paul flaherty this is not, and that's fine by me. and don't give me that look, i like paul flaherty just fine. it's also worth mentioning that you won't be tapping your toes to anything on here, unless you have the most fucked up sense of rhythm ever, if that's the case, you just enjoy being you. what kp's doing is spread out and more rooted in experimentation. as far as actual sound's concerned, it's alternately noisy, conventional, delicate and minimal. again, the word of the day here is balance. solos 69/70 has that in spades and i'm certainly impressed.
Alto Saxophone Improvisations 69/70 Excerpt (from 4:18 to 8:03)
joe foster & kelvin pittman
split c40
[2006, cherried-out merch]
bonnie jones in english [pictured]. joe was also a founding member of $uper unity, though i question whether he's currently involved with the group (in any facet) due to his geographical constraints.up until this tape, joe foster's music had eluded me, but that's a wrong that i'm going to right, right now, as i'm downloading a few choice selections from slsk... matter of fact, i'm dl'ing this stuff from foster himself... funny... i could send him a message, but that's too intrusive... anyway, this is (roughly) seventeen minutes of glorious experimental electronic twitterings / noise. beginning more with minimal noise in the onset, the second half of joe's side is what wins me over. it's primarily concerned with excellently employed radio static, frequency modulations, record needle skips (sounds like it, at least) and memorable recurring tones, a different one in each stereo channel. it's the totality of foster's sounds that make this a great listen.
the first few minutes of kelvin's side are peppered with sax screeching, but it's delivered in easy to digest outbursts rather than unrelenting ones that'd have his cheeks resembling louis armstrong's. the more atonal playing is confined to the beginning, more or less. the rest of the side features the instrument played in (even?) more of an experimental nature. there's passages where his sax resembles nothing of the sort. in one instance it almost sounds like a stringed instrument. elsewhere, it comes closer to feedback. the later stages of this piece also feature longer, mellow, sustained notes, which are always nice to hear.
the selling point for kp's sax work is the broad range of styles that he uses. that and, obviously, how well he's pulling it all off. there's a lot going on, but he devotes just the right amount of time to every element. for example, with the squeaks and squeals heard in the onset, they're around just enough to allow you to get into them, without getting burnt out. that's something that i think is important when dealing with that particular brand of music, especially when it's played solo. it's a bit of a different story when you're doing that in a group atmosphere since you've got other musicians around to enhance it.Joe Foster A2
Kelvin Pittman Side B Excerpt (from 2:02 to 6:10)
:: posted by avant gardening, 6:25 PM
3 Comments:
Thank you for my first [nice, and possibly ony] review. It's nice to know that someone other than my mom likes my music [she called me after listening to the 3" and said it was good, and giggled - my mom giggling is excellent, and a little weird].
I love Joe Foster a lot.
Kelvin
I love Joe Foster a lot.
Kelvin
my pleasure! it's not often that i get around to listening to straight up saxophone solos, but i liked it a lot.
ha, usually when somebody says something's "good" and then they giggle, it's not a good sign. but if you can't trust your mom, who can you trust?
i managed to leech quite a bit of joe's material off of him... he's been pretty prolific, so i've got my work cut out for me.
i'm digging peevish...
ha, usually when somebody says something's "good" and then they giggle, it's not a good sign. but if you can't trust your mom, who can you trust?
i managed to leech quite a bit of joe's material off of him... he's been pretty prolific, so i've got my work cut out for me.
i'm digging peevish...
Joe Foster is more than cool.......
