VA — I Never Meta Guitar Three (2015)

 ^{VA — I Never Meta Guitar Three (solo guitars for the XXI Century)} •≡   Titul série je parafrází výroku humoristy Willyho Rogerse, “Nikdy jsem se nesetkal s mužem, kterého bych neměl rád” » a to dává smysl, zároveň určuje náladu kompilace. Hudba zaujme skoky do neznáma a to znamená, že budete znova a znova překvapeni, protože 18 skladeb ulechtá vaše uši i mozek. Chcete–li vědět, jakou budoucnost mají kytary (ať už elektrické nebo akustické) v současných podobách, je to váš zdroj informací. The 3rd issue from Elliott Sharp’s compiled series of guitar work in the 21st century, demonstrating new sounds, processes, techniques, melodies, riffs and gestures from a who’s–who of modern improvising guitarists, a must–have release for all guitar fans and players.
Location: Portugal ~ Ann Arbor, Michigan ~ Santiago de Chile 
Genre: Improvised Music, Electro–Acoustic, Various Artists & Compilations, Guitarists, &c.
Album release: December 2015
Record Label:  Clean Feed
Duration:      66:36 
Tracks:
01. Overtones For The Underdog     3:52
02. Top Of The World     4:11
03. The Gremlin     4:04
04. Sasquatch/Happening     3:33
05. Pollinator     2:40
06. Dressed Up Like a Church     2:22
07. Snack Food     4:05
08. Variazoini Su Un Monologo Funambolico     4:05
09. Fractura     4:03
10. Song For Katsu     4:01
11. Willie     3:37
12. Terlingua     3:21
13. For Alexander Cockburn     3:59
14. Mystery Love Company     3:38
15. Thank U 2 4 The Uke     3:05
16. Fingertupper     4:04
17. Untitled     3:58
18. Free Involution     3:58
Personnel:
≡•     John King
≡•     Indigo Street
≡•     Joel Peterson
≡•     Kirsten Carey
≡•     Cristian Amigo
≡•     Adam Brisbin
≡•     Sandy Ewen
≡•     Anders Nilsson
≡•     Peter Maunu
≡•     Bruce Eisenbeil
≡•     Simone Massaron
≡•     Lily Maase
≡•     David Fulton
≡•     Jim McAuley
≡•     Angela Babin
≡•     Brandon Seabrook
≡•     Alessandra Novaga
≡•     Edward Ricart                                                      © Cristian Amigo
•≡     “Here is Part 3 of the “I Never Meta Guitar” series compiled by Elliott Sharp.
•≡     John King, Indigo Street, Joel Peterson, Kirsten Carey, Cristian Amigo, Adam Brisbin, Sandy Ewen, Anders Hilsson, Peter Maunu, Bruce Eisenbel, Simone Massaron, Lily Maase, David Fulton, Jim McCauley, Angela Babin, Brandon Seabrook, Alessandra Novaga and Ed Ricart are the musicians chosen for this volume to confirm Sharp’s idea that the guitar is a continuously reinvented instrument, with new sounds, processes, techniques, melodies, riffs and gestures coming from creative minds and fingers everywhere.
•≡   The title of the series is a paraphrase from humorist Will Rogers, “I never met a man I didn’t like”, and that’s the mood of the selection. The music here jumps into the unknown and this means you'll be surprised, and surprised again, as the 18 tracks tickle your ears and brain. If you want to know how the future of the guitar (be it electric or acoustic) is being shaped now, this is your source of information.” — Clean Feed •≡   http://www.squidco.com/                                                © Cristian Amigo & Angela Babin
KIRSTEN CAREY
•≡    Kirsten was born and raised in Chicago, IL and presently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Her primary projects include avant–rock group Throwaway, metal / avant–garde classical hybrid and the Ulysses Project, a suite based on James Joyce’s novel that combines free jazz, rock, and theater. Kirsten’s performance of her composition “Sasquatch / Happening” is featured on Clean Feed Record’s solo guitar compilation I Never Meta Guitar III, and she played at the album’s release show at the Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC. She is also an active writer, composer, and sound editor — her work in these areas can be viewed under the “video” section.
•≡    Kirsten has shared the stage with Elliott Sharp, Andrew Bishop, Wadada Leo Smith, Karl Berger, among others. Her energetic performance with Roman Stolyar, Weasel Walter, and Dominique Duval was acclaimed by the New York Jazz Record. She was also part of the original cast of Steve Rush’s “Ulysses S. Grant: A Fluxkit Opera,” which included a two–night residency at NYC’s Shapeshifter Lab. Additionally, Kirsten is an active member and contributor to many other groups, most prominently The Great Collapsing Hrung and The Arbor Composers Collective.
•≡    Kirsten earned her BFA in Jazz & Contemplative Studies (focusing on guitar) in 2014 at the University of Michigan, working primarily with Frank Protolese, Andrew Bishop, and Geri Allen. Other educational happenstances include a month–long study of Carnatic music in Mysore, India under Guru MK Saraswati, as well as  the School of Improvised Music Program at NYU in 2013 where she studied with Tony Malaby, Tom Rainey, Tim Berne, and Brad Shepik. • http://kirsten-carey.bandcamp.com/
•≡    Besides all this, Kirsten was the long–time host of Flashback to the Future, a freeform show that delves into the music of one year each week, on WCBN–FM Ann Arbor. She also DJ’ed for several years at Ann Arbor’s Top of the Park summer festival. •≡    Kirsten is mainly interested in drawing influences from multiple genres, such as free improvisation, funk and soul, rock (and most of what that very broad term means), avant–garde and minimal Western classical music, Indian classical music (especially Carnatic), American folk and bluegrass, metal, and jazz.  She draws a lot of inspiration from the Fluxus movement and thus seeks ways to bring dance, staging, text, and theatrical performance into more conventional musical settings.  She also dabbles in banjo and mandolin. Victory. Website: http://www.kirstencareymusic.com/ 

                          © Photo by Michael Bogdanffy–Kriegh                                                               ANDERS NILSSON
•≡   I’ve been playing jazz standards since high school. Every now and then one of these tunes occupies my mind space for some time and I work extra on it. For whatever reason, some of these standards have the evergreen factor; it can be due to a built in mood, a melodic quirk, harmonic qualities or whatever. For me it’s virtually next to never the lyrics that trigger my fascination. A short sweeping statement about the history of this bag of 10’s, 20’s, 30’s show tunes for fun: As the story goes they were often made popular in musicals — then repurposed and used as song forms to jam on by jazz musicians — reharmonized, contrafacted (=remelodicized, for example “Whispering” becoming “Groovin’ High”), and revamped completely (for example Coltrane’s version of “My favorite things”), remeterized etc. These songs were almost exclusively in 4/4, or 3/4 occasionally. Many of them have a 32 bar–form, grouped in 4 sections of 8 bars each, commonly AABA, thus tending to be rather short forms withstanding cyclical repetitions. So the A–sections make up 75% of a song, quite a lot of it. If taken from musicals, these songs had a purpose and place within the tale, so the lyrical message of a story, a couple of verses long, was a key feature. However, this facet is irrelevant to what attracts me to these songs.
•≡   Very generally: A1 is the initial statement, A2 is the repeat and corroboration of the same with a different resolution, essentially confirming to the listener that you heard it right the first time around, B is a bridgein which new material is introduced, A3 is another repeat of the familiar A completing the circle, or square. The AABA song form is so ingrained, in most listeners acquainted with this type of repertoire, that it is second nature to feel familiar with how it goes. These three A–sections usually go the same route melodically speaking; commonly involving the same theme restated thrice with slightly different endings, and harmonically speaking; using authentic and half cadences at the end of respective sections to match that. Musicians often learn variations of the chord changes and/or melodies as recorded and made famous by jazz profiles, and continue searching. It certainly is one thing what is written on the page, or whatever the musicians are using as a blueprint, and quite another how the music is treated in the heat of the moment (hopefully). It is part of the jazz tradition to bend the paparameters to one’s satisfaction. It becomes a natural development to vary up these 8–bar sections with various touches, energy and inflictions as you play the songs through repeated choruses, using intuition, knowledge and musicianship to stay on the case and play engaged. Spontaneous reharmonizing, superimposing alternative harmonies, laying down pedal points, rhythmic pliability, melodic alterations, varied phraseology, etc. are organic results of this kind of experience and stretching. Many arrangers take advantage of these opportunities and possibilities in enriching song versions.
•≡   So lately I’ve been working on a few standards that I like for their intrinsic qualities. Two of them are in the typical AABA mold. Instead of repeating the chord structure more or less the same way three times, I simply changed the underlying harmony for each progressive section. By progressive section I mean that instead of merely replaying the thing played in A1, A2 and A3 present the option of new material in the structure and thereby moving the music forward. My own inclination is to have each variation support the melody still, thereby setting up 3 separate ways to harmonize the A sections, and the AABA sounds a bit more like an ABCD form. This way there is musical news in each section and a longer arc of chord progressions that lead to an ultimate resolution at the end of the 32–bar form, establishing the feeling of a longer route. I didn’t change the melodies at all so the melodic themes stay the same for the 3 A–sections but as is customary in jazz the melody is not restated when soloing takes over, instead the band is faced with several sets of chord changes to play with.
•≡   I have 3 examples to share with you (click on the links below); the first one is “Just You, Just Me” by Jesse Greer and Raymond Klages from the 1929 musical “Marianne”. The reason I like it is it’s a happy song with a simple and singable theme. Originally all the A–sections start, and end, on the I–chord which can become a bit tedious. When playing over the original changes I’d normally blues that up after a while to get more harmonic room and vibe to move around in, and as a continuation of that tendency I found that a change of bass note and harmonic color at the onset of each 8–bar section feels fresh. I left the 1st A–section intact. In my version the 2nd A–section sounds more like a turnaround using 7#9 — Hendrix chords, and 7b9 chords. I didn’t do anything to the bridge. The 3rd A–section features minor major 9th — James Bond chords, and takes a route more distant from the tonic (I) than expected, giving the third rendition of the catchy melody a more suspenseful touch. The 3rd A is the only section that sounds really different from the original, because the turnaround in the 2nd A is very similar to the 1st A (with E7#9 being a more colorful variation of C major). The first half of A3 is harmonically related to A2, but what gives the reharmonization it’s power is the change of bass notes. I haven’t thought of an arrangement otherwise, just a 4/4 swinger with an alternative reharmonization thrown in, establishing alternative chord progressions to play over that nudge results other than those of the original song. Chart: just you just me
•≡   “Softly as in a morning sunrise” — originally performed as a tango in the 1928 musical “The new moon”, was composed by Sigmund Romberg & Oscar Hammerstein ll. It is a very well–known standard with a beautiful melancholy feel and 4–bar structures. Like the previous song it’s in 32–bar AABA–form. It would drive a band crazy to stay strictly to the original changes chorus after chorus, so many colorful variations using various C minor related progressions usually happen as a natural thing. Although still “inside”, in this reharmonization I strayed a bit further from the expected tonalities. All the chord progressions work together with the melodic line but aren’t always centered around C minor. I picture this as a “crime jazz” version of the tune. A repeatable 8–bar intro is set up to introduce a mood, using chromatically circling chords, modulating, ascending, and moving in 2–bar patterns with a 2–bar cadence–like progression at the end before the melody comes in. This creeping chord set–up keeps going once the melody enters, for A1 and A2. For the B–section in Eb major, I stayed close to the original with a chromatically ascending bass line leading the way. A3 mimics the other A’s in this one, except for it avoiding resolution in another way. When it comes time to solo, there is an alternative set of chord changes for the A sections, now descending. Each 4–bar structure within the A–sections starts at a new harmonic point (again — different bass note) instead of repeating the original 4–bar phrase twice as the composition did. As an extra option the first chord of each 2–bar phrase of the intro can be used on cue or at will to play over during any A section: A7#9 l A7#9 l C7#9 l C7#9 l E7#9 l E7#9 l D7 l D7 l Chart: softly as in a morning sunrise.
•≡   “Fly me to the Moon” by Bart Howard from 1954 was originally called “In other words”. It has 32 bars divided into two halves (the only difference being the words and the endings again). Everybody and his uncle can imagine the Sinatra–version of this one. I think I’ve played and heard this song, with that as a blueprint, at a few too many weddings. Sometimes a song doesn’t need chords. It has a robust descending fifths bass line with a sequential Baroque–like melody (like Autumn Leaves), and unearthly vibes in the lyrics. I changed the key from A minor to F minor, darker. I imagine a slow heavy version with the first 8 bars being looped over and over, saving the part that goes “in other words, please be true” until the very end of the performance. I hear an electric bass with fuzz playing that strong bass line with long, dominating fat tones, cymbals rolling, electric instruments buzzing, hints of sequential patterns, and the lyrics slowly being delivered syllable by syllable with spacey effects, reverse delay, and spontaneous improvisation that avoids the changes. Like being onboard a space ship. Chart: fly me to the moon
Website: http://www.andersnilssonguitar.com/
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VA — I Never Meta Guitar Three (2015)

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