Susan Alcorn ‎– "Evening Tales" (Mystra Records ‎– mystra #18) 2016

On the Jandek in Fort Worth review,one was struck by the strange wobbly Steel Guitar playing,which sounded like an off-kilter pressing of a vinyl album played at 27.5 rpm. Traditionally the guests and the representative himself are never credited on the sleeve.Therefore i mistakenly accused the Steel Guitarist of being either drunk or an imbecile. Then i found out it was none other than serious improviser Susan Alcorn on the strings. Well, i'm so fickle and startstruck by anyone that i'm told is a genius, that I instantly change my opinion to follow the rest of the Hive and saturate the page with sycophantic plaudits.......Oh she's so talented,a genius,unique,no-one else like her etc....especially as she plays alot with that other female improv leg-end, LaDonna Smith ,a mate of the late Davey Williams and the Trans Museq crew.

This album is one of her more tuneful,like some dying Hawaiian guitar record slowly melting near the crater of a volcano whilst being attacked by ants.

She still might be drunk,and why not(?) but she certainly is probably not an imbecile?

Tracklist:

A1 Sapphire 4:26
A2 An Evening Tale 5:38
A3 The Healer (For Diane Keener) 9:31
A4 Lourdes In Marigolds 1:04
B5 Circular Ruins 7:09
B6 Milonga En Re (Menos Menos) 4:48
B7 Allegreto For David 3:41
B8 Tuwhera 1:40
B9 Hino Galego 3:03

DOWNLOAD some tales for a cosy but creepy winters evening HERE!

Eugene Chadbourne / John Zorn ‎– "School" (Parachute ‎– P004&6) 1978

I do share the same initials as John Zorn, as well as an appreciation of improvisation.I'm even improvising this pointless blurb.
This long album is from the early days of Eugene Chadbournes vast list of collaborations and record releases.This one with old chum, the very clever, and don't he want you to know it,Zorn.J, the king of the downtown Noo yawk jazzy intelligentsia.
This double album of Evan Parker and Bailey-isms features many familiar faces of the free-improv scene in New York, like Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, and Henry Kaiser.So you know what to expect,or, if you don't, its got lots of scratchy guitars, mangled sax noise,and sounds like a chimps tea party let loose with some instruments.Alas, there is an admirable amount of quiet sections to lessen the irritation factor,so that's a plus point.Don't get me wrong, this is a good album, but one gets the definite impression that you've heard it all before?

Tracklist:

A1 Solitude 7:50
A2 Duet 2:45
A3 The Return Of Romance 6:20
A4 The Shreeve 1:40
A5 The Fling 2:39
B1 Missing Persons 7:45
B2 Welcome West 15:05
C Lacrosse-take 3 23:05
D1 Lacrosse-take 4 19:02
D2 Lacrosse-take 6 6:10

DOWNLOAD and go to improv noise school HERE!

Bongwater ‎– "Breaking No New Ground!" (Shimmy Disc ‎– shimmy 0002) 1987

Ironically with a title that could grace many a modern record sleeve.Post Shockabilly, Kramer did Bongwater, with the rather fantastic Ann Magnuson.Starting with this EP, featuring, no less,avant-garde guitar legends Fred Frith and Davey Williams!
Magnuson, was a downtown scenester and actress,whose profile was raised by her dalliances with the Mudd Club and Club 57.....it says here.She was also in 'desperately Seeking Susan', but best keep quiet about that one eh?
Her and Kramer seemed the perfect match,with Ann's unhinged satirical monologues and Mark Kramers rather unusual backing tracks;which actually manage to be funny and break new ground?
It all went so terribly wrong when legal action between the two cheif protagonists ended in the Bankruptcy of Shimmy Disc.
Curiously around the time your scribe attended the Shimmy Disc 10th anniversary party at the Knitting Factory (1997).I have no-idea who played at it, but they did serve Boddingtons at the bar.

Jay Zee,ie moi ,the  morning after that shimmy disc do,indulging in traditional american cusine.

Tracklist:

1.Ride My See-Saw
2.Barely Coping
3.4 Sticks
4.U.S.O.
5.His New Look
6.Julia

DOWNLOAD while breaking new wind HERE!

Henry Kaiser ‎– "Domo Arigato Derek-Sensei!" (Balance Point Acoustics ‎– bpaltd202) 2006

Another Davey Williams/Derek Bailey  connection is that Davey appeared on this DB posthumous tribute album put together by Henry Kaiser, playing with Henry on "Two Of A Kind" from 1979.
Some tracks are interspersed with recollections of working with Derek, or what Bailey meant to these Bailey influenced musicians.
Andrea Centazzo also appears on here,also having worked with Bailey and Davey Williams previously.
Expect all the tracks to be from the free improvisation end of the musical spectrum.All performed LIVE with no overdubs, and minimal editing.

Tracklist:

1 Mahalo E Derek
Soloist, Electric Guitar, Voice – Henry Kaiser 5:35
2 Gamera Tai Reptilicus 2005
Electric Guitar – Henry Kaiser Shakuhachi – Kiku Day 4:07
3 The Tsuchigumi Five-Wheel Technique Vs. The Seagull School 1981
Electric Guitar [Two At Once] – Henry KaiserPercussion – Charles K. Noyes 9:15
4 The Worst Of Times 1992
Soloist, Electric Guitar – Henry Kaiser 6:11
5 Continue On 2006
Bass Guitar, Voice – Henry KaiserTenor Saxophone, Voice – Henry Kuntz 4:09
6 Improvisation 102a 1978
Electric Guitar – Henry Kaiser Trumpet – Toshinori Kondo 1:31
7 Improvisation 102x 1978
Electric Guitar – Henry Kaiser Percussion – Andrea Centazzo 2:57
8 Just Be A SCUBA Diver 2006
Double Bass, Voice – Damon Smith Ukulele, Voice – Henry Kaiser 4:04
9 Book Review 2005
Soloist, Acoustic Guitar, Voice – Henry Kaiser 13:38
10 Two Of A Kind 1979
Electric Guitar – Davey Williams, Henry Kaiser 6:05
11 The Metalanguage Trio 2006
Electric Guitar, Voice – Henry Kaiser Piano, Voice – Greg GoodmanSopranino Saxophone, Voice – Larry Ochs 4:47
12 The Night Of Departure 1996
Soloist, Acoustic Guitar – Henry Kaiser 3:15
13 Tokyo Trio For Aida 1979
Double Bass – Motoharu Yoshizawa Electric Guitar – Henry Kaiser Tenor Saxophone – Mototeru Takagi 6:07
14 Pre-Vou 1996
Alto Saxophone – John Oswald Electric Guitar – Henry Kaiser 1:25
15 Kavichandran Salp'uri 1993
Electric Guitar – Derek Bailey, Henry Kaiser Janggu [Changgo], Voice – Sang-Won Park 5:36

DOWNLOAD a tribute to del-boy bailey HERE!

Andrea Centazzo, LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams ‎– "Velocities" (Trans Museq ‎– trans museq 4) 1979

Ahhhh, the sepia tinged memories of the days when music was played by actual people.
Here, Ladonna and Davey are joined by another actual human, the Italian percussionist and drummer, Andrea (he's a male by the way) Centazzo.
So the general effect is lots of scraping noises,with general sounds of stuff being thrown into a refuse skip, pre-landfill.I'm not sugesting that this record is rubbish,oh no, i'm just suggesting that it sounds like rubbish, as in the sound of waste disposal.

Tracklist:
A1 Velocity 10:01
A2 Velocity 10:29
B1 Velocity 6:04
B2 Another Velocity 6:33
B3 Velocity 6:40

DOWNLOAD with velocity HERE!

Davey Williams ‎– "Criminal Pursuits" (Trans Museq ‎– trans museq 8) 1983

Here's Davey Williams on his own, with no collaborators, just him and his guitar.Which he makes sound like a cassette recording of himself being chewed up by a cassette player.
Improvised stacatto picking ,harmonics and whammy bar abuse,cause the listener to check their equipment to see if there is anything malfunctioning;but alas, your equipment is just fine,it's meant to sound like this,with little or no effects. Even when Davey whips out the violin bow to further attack his guitar with.
A criminally unpursued guitarist,who will be much missed....yes he died recently,so discover what you missed to know how he will be missed,and remembered.

Tracklist:

A1 Apotheosis Of The Whimsy Horse 3:06
A2 Home, The Razor's Edge 2:23
A3 Violin Concerto 3:30
A3 Prehensile Legends 4:15
A5 Call Of The Chlorophyll 6:46
B Criminal Pursuits 22:09

DOWNLOAD the criminal persuit of illegal downloads HERE!

LaDonna Smith / Davey Williams ‎– "Direct Waves" (Trans Museq ‎– trans museq 5) 1980

More a-scraping and a-scraching of guitar and violin strings, accompanied by someone rumaging through a christmas hamper full of pots and pans.
A lot of the music I listen to is frequently refered to as 'Rubbish' by the casual observer. Most of the time I can see what they're getting at, as with most of this free-improvisation stuff;but, I kinda enjoy listening to it,and the fact it gets comments like 'This is Rubbish' from a passing random drone, makes it even more enjoyable. Drones,normals, Trump supporters,Brexiteers etc don't like concepts such as freedom, and the abstract.Much less,things that are beyond their comprehension and seem to have no rules,or control mechanisms. These concepts can destroy society, so this is dangerous music.It is not Adult Orientated Rock,but it is adult orientated,yet retaining that childlike sense of exploration and adventure.
Here we find Davey Williams with one of his regular collaborators,unhinged violinist LaDonna Smith,exploring further abstract adventures with stringed instruments.
Whats so good about this record is that the pressing is so bad that between the tracks the needle makes a noise not unlike an early Boyd Rice/Non locked groove number.

Tracklist:

A1 Early Balloon Tires 5:48
A2 Divining 2:32
A3 Aerial Farm Machinery 4:55
A4 Silent Observer's Relection 2:58
B1 Radial Steam Instruments (To Benjamin Peret) 8:14
B2 Analogous Folk Tale 5:58
B3 Big Steel Bison 4:55

DOWNLOAD these waves directly HERE!

Mary Horn, Davey Williams, Wally Shoup, Doug Carroll ‎– "No Way" (Cassette Documents ‎– CD 5) 1984

A full C-60 of "Not Yet Wave Music" from Davey Williams and unhinged cohorts from Birmingham Alabama.....wasn't that where Sun Ra came from? As opposed to Birmingham UK (Heavy Metals birthplace if you didn't know) which produced an opposite music (HM)to this barely structured improv, with hints of No wave.
This is one of the better recordings,featuring Davey Williams from this epoch, mainly thanks to Mary Horn's stream of consciousness vocalisation.

Tracklisting:

1 No Way 1 (25:02)
2 No Way 2 (27:35)

DOWNLOAD wavey davey and crew HERE!

LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams, Theodore Bowen ‎– "Folk Music" (Trans Museq ‎– trans museq 2) 1978

Looking for American Derek Bailey equivalents sent me desperately clutching at any vague similarity. So,after my attention was diverted to the sad fact that Davey Williams had died, I thought this must be a sign.Sooooo......here's an early vinyl appearance of said miester of the improv guitar stateside, the late Davey Williams, and friends,doing some folk music from another new and improved alter-dimension through a ragged piercing in the membrane that separates us all from all that isn't shite!
Its a kind of a cross pollination between AMM, The Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and a quieter Nihilist Spasm Band;but without the chin-stroking.Folk music it is not....yet,but the Irony is appreciated.

Tracklist:

A1 Untitled 6:33
A2 Untitled 9:30
A3 Untitled 1:20
B1 Untitled 5:45
B2 Ditches And Cheesecake 5:50
B3 To Tristan Tzara 5:30
B4 Mishum 1:30

DOWNLOAD these folks HERE!