Being With

Sometimes, you're in the right place at the right time. After the IMC's series on the brilliant Montreal saxophonist Francois Carrier aired on The Mighty 93.1 last year, Carrier contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in penning the liner notes to his next project. I answered in the affirmative, obviously. The album, entitled Being With, is an improvised duet recording with vocalist Veronique Dubois, and the results are intriguing. Released earlier this year on UK-based Leo Records ("Music for the inquiring mind and the passionate heart"), the music is available in both physical and an electronic formats.

Reprinted below are my notes from the CD package:

This seems to me to be an aptly titled collection of music, for if being is the most basic state of existence, then surely being with is one of the highest. It connotes partnership, cooperation, commonality, harmony; a connection across that which divides us.

To listen to the music contained herein is to witness moments when the two sounds – Francois Carrier’s horn and Veronique Dubois’ voice – are indistinguishable from one another. That sort of negation of the self is the essence of being with. When me becomes we. When the aims of the individual melt away, and the success of the pairing becomes of primary concern. Such moments are rare enough in human relations; musically they are a precious commodity indeed.

Whether they are whispering to one another, racing each other to the end of a line, or trading baboon calls, these two musicians are always in conversation, always connecting. Veronique Dubois performs the sorts of vocal gymnastics you might expect from Diamanda Galas or Yamatsuka Eye. She keens, soars, dips, her voice sometimes strangled or guttural, at other times crystalline-pure. In other words her vocalizations have much in common with Francois Carrier’s playing. This is what makes them so well suited for collaboration, for being with one another in such a setting.

Francois Carrier continually amazes me with his willingness to meet his collaborators in the fertile middle ground where individual performances are perhaps less technically impressive but where the key to successful improvisation lies (which isn’t to say that Carrier does not possess dazzling technique – he does, of course, but he is judicious in its display). This is true whether the collaborator is his frequent foil Michel Lambert, or a “guest” musician, such as Jean-Jacques Avenel on the brilliant Within. It speaks well of both artists’ sensibilities when such a sympathetic bond is forged, but I have yet to encounter a piece of music featuring this wonderful saxophonist in which he has failed to connect with another musician, and I doubt I ever will.

As states of existence go, perhaps this musical sense of being with is higher still, a plane most of us will never inhabit. In instances when this deeper being with is achieved the result is a wondrous musical communion. Sometimes, as is the case here, the meeting has been captured for posterity, and though the musicians involved are certainly lucky, we listeners are the truly fortunate ones.

Many thanks to Francois Carrier for allowing me the opportunity to contribute in some small way to this project, and, of course, for the wonderful music.

Now's the Time: The Finale

So, this is it. I hope you'll join us tomorrow night (Thursday, August 27, 2009) for the very last episode of Now's the Time. Tune in at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and environs, and at CKCUFM.com everywhere else. It's a supersized dose of NTT; Mark Kiel, our good friend and host of Infinite Ceiling, has donated his time, literally, so that we can all sit around for an extra hour and get maudlin and self-aggrandizing about how great a show we of the Improvised Music Collective thought NTT was. It should all prove nearly unlistenable, but I'm looking forward to it.

So, for the regular time slot, that is 8:30-10:00 PM EST, I'll present the fifth (and final, obvs.) installment of our Francois Carrier series. And then, from about 10:00 (or whenever Ron, Mark, Aidian and Jim decide to show up) until 11:00, some or all of us will play tracks, tell stories, and get a bit weepy, one suspects.

Tune in. This is your last chance.

--> UPDATE: Here it is. Well, most of it. We never got around to pressing the REC button on the boombox for that last hour. But the first bit, the part where I go on about me and my fondness for Francois Carrier, that bit's recorded, and you can hear it here:

Now's the Time, the LAST EVER SHOW: Francois Carrier, Pt. 5 - Listening

You can also read about more about it here.

Hear This

My good friend Ron over at Sound and Fury has been posting great stuff recently (well, he's been posting great stuff since day 1, but he really seems to be on a roll of late). He crowns it all with audio from Coltrane's last appearance at Newport. Essential downloading.

And speaking of Ron, and my other fellow IMC members, it is with both regret and happiness that I report that our little show, Now's the Time, will soon reach its conclusion. Several of the guys expressed a desire to devote their time and energies to other pursuits, and so we've given the bigwigs at CKCU 93.1 FM our notice. Our last show is slated for August 27th, and it promises to be a doozy; Mark of Infinite Ceiling, the fearless prog-oriented program which normally follows ours, has offered us his slot, meaning we'll be delivering a massive shot of NTT before we lower the curtain. That'll be 8:30 - 11:00 PM EST. The first part of the program will be my scheduled conclusion to our Francois Carrier series, and the last hour-ish will be a grand send-off -- think The Last Waltz, only grander in scope -- featuring the full complement of dues-paying IMC members.

And as one door closes... there may be changes afoot here at TiOM related to the demise and death of NTT (Long live NTT!), and I'll post news here if/as it develops.

"Something greater than everything." (Updated)

Blow the bad stuff out: Gideon et al. (not pictured: Francois Carrier)

I am hooked on the music of Montreal-based saxophonist, composer and improviser Francois Carrier; so much so that my IMC brother Ron and I have devoted 5 episodes of Now's the Time to Carrier's work. Thursday sees me take a bow for part 3, "Something Greater that Everything," an examination of Carrier's music in a spiritual context.

Curious about how Carrier links to Gideon and his 300 trumpet-wielding men? Of course you are. Tune in and find out:

NTT airs Thursday night, 8:30-10:00 EST on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa, and at ckcufm.com everywhere else.

The episode will also be available for DL after it airs (I'll post info here). So, no excuses.

UPDATE: And here it is:

Now's the Time, July 23: "Something Greater Than Everything" - Spirituality in the Music of Francois Carrier

The Father and the Son (Updated)

* * *

UPDATE: For more info on the show as it aired, read the Official IMC Myspace Blog. To download the episode, load it onto your iPod, drive out to your childhood home, knock on the door, hug your dad and tell him that you love him, plug said iPod into his stereo, and spend 90 blissful father-son moments on Sunday, go here:

Now's the Time, June 18, 2009: Fathers and Sons


* * *
Father's Day next Sunday; bought that tie yet? (Do fathers still wear ties?) In honour of that, Now's the Time (Thursday night, 8:30-10:00 pm EST on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa, ckcufm.com for the rest of you) will be devoted to father-son teams in jazz. My co-host, co-programmer and partner in crime this time around is my own dad. It's all recorded, cut and uploaded, so there remains nothing but the airing. Once that's done with I'll post download information here.

You might guess at the selections: Marsalises a-plenty, the Freemans, Monk and his boy, Coltranes named John and Ravi. Lots of good music.

Happy Father's Day.

The (Downloadable) Braxton Problem

Over at IMC World HQ (aka Myspace) you'll find the details and the download coordinates of last Thursday night's first part of a two installment profile of Anthony Braxton (assembled and hosted by yours truly). The show and accompanying blog post have already generated some discussion (but no kudos -- what gives?), so be sure to weigh in on the controversy that Mr. Braxton seems to inspire everywhere he's known.

If you're lazy and looking for gratification with fewer clicks, here's the link to the fully downloadable episode:

Now's the Time - April 9, 2009: Anthony Braxton, Part 1

Braxtonian Musings

Tomorrow night's installment of Now's the Time (8:30PM EDT - CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa, ckcufm.com elsewhere) is the first of two shows dedicated to the music and career of Anthony Braxton. I'm going to try something new, in that instead of blathering on like I usually do I'll keep my on-air commentary to a minimum, squeeze in as much music as I can, and then use the forum provided by the blog on our myspace page to impart my thoughts on the riddle that is Braxton and his music.

Part two will air May 14. The music for both programs is to be taken from Braxton's 2007 release 9 Compositions (Iridium). Heady stuff.

Marked Urgent

Boogie on over to CKCU post haste to catch my ninety-minute take on the history of Black Saint and Soul Note. It's impossible to fit it all into an hour and a half, of course, and unfair to even try, but I'm funny like that. If you can't make it there tonight (8:30-10:00 pm EST) I'll put up download information here once it's available. But with music by Billy Harper (that right up there is the very first release on Black Saint, from '75), the original Air, the World Saxophone Quartet, Jemeel Moondoc, the String Trio of New York and Mal Waldron -- among others! -- there's no reason to spend your Thursday night doing anything else. Am I right?

January Miscellany

Always playing catch-up, I'll sandwich together my last several ideas for posts that never came to fruition. Let's go!

Freddie Hubbard
I'm overdue in mentioning this, but the great Freddie Hubbard (pictured) passed away on December 29. Hubbard's is an incredible body of work. The chances are, if you have anything resembling a jazz collection, you've got some Freddie in there even if you don't know it. Check the sleeves -- he was all over Blue Note in the '60s. There's nothing I could say here that my friend Mark-O isn't already saying better -- like right now, on Now's the Time on CKCU 93.1 FM.


Putting 2008 to Bed
In the interest of not dragging things out too long (too late?), and maybe beginning to concentrate on 2009, here's the last bit of '08-related chatter you'll hear from me. My favourite reissues (interpret that however you will) of the year that was were:

• The Black Saint and Soul Note catalogs, which landed with a tympanic crash onto eMusic a few months back
• Anthony Braxton, The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton (Mosaic) - Everything seems to be coming up Braxton in my world these days (I'll be doing a pair of shows on another recent Braxton set as winter shifts to spring) and this represents a motherlode of Braxtonia rescued from obscurity by the intrepid folks at Mosaic
• VA, Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Nigerian Blues, 1970-76 - For my money (er, monthly download allowance?), the best of the several compilations of Nigerian music to surface recently
  

The Big Lie (a.k.a. Fuck Wynton)
The guys over at the always excellent Destination: Out have been doing their level best recently to shed light on the oft-misunderstood 1980s in a series of posts, but the most provocative note struck concerns the work and legacy of Wynton Marsalis (who must be mentioned if you hope to come to grips with that decade). The deeply, deeply conservative trumpeter is an incredible talent, no question, but there's little sense in denying that he's used his prominence to advance some ugly non-truths about The Music. We've debated this on Now's the Time before, and as I recall we had trouble reaching a true balance in our presentation of the argument, which boils down to Inclusiveness and Innovation (aka The Facts) vs. Wynton's Hagiography (oops, there I go again). Not one of the five of us could get behind his selective blindness. Anyway, head to D:O to read more.


Ginger Baker: All Kinds of Crazy
The prospect of crossing the Sahara to sit in on a few percussion-heavy jam sessions in Nigeria is crazy enough, but to do so in a pair of leather platform boots is plain batshit nutty. Then to seemingly get as baked as humanly possible before recording the echo pedal-aided voice-over for the documentary film which chronicles the journey is way, way beyond what most any of us mere mortals would ever in our lives consider doing. Ever. Still: entertaining.


Lastly
I'll be repping the IMC and hosting Now's the Time next Thursday, bringing a grab bag of things I've been listening to of late. Download info to follow.

C/P/Z on NTT

There's the fantastic poster for the IMC's inaugural foray into concert promotion, the show I've already hyped here (and I'll keep doing it until I'm sure you'll show up) featuring the fantastic trio of Cawthray/Price/Zankowski. If you're not sure what you might hear at the Avant-Garde Bar on October the 18th, tune in RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE to CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa, or listen live at ckcufm.com. Of course, the show will be available for download in the very near future. When it's available, I'll provide the details.

You might also consult chriscawthray.com for the drummer's perspective.

Palpable Liberation

That phrase in the title comes from critic Byron Coley in reference to saxophonist Noah Howard, an artist whose career began in the midst of fire music's heyday and continues right up 'til the present. Howard's a bit of a riddle: sometimes Earth-shattering in his brilliance, throwing colour through the air in new and unexpected combinations, conjuring church and brothel and NYC loft in the span of a few notes, while at other times he has seemed little more than a borrower, a gifted anthologist of techniques and tones originating with some of his better-known New Thing contemporaries (Ayler, Coleman, Marion Brown, etc.). But when he's good, he's very good. And as luck would have it, he was the subject of the latest episode of Now's the Time. I spun some of his best, including At Judson Hall, where the sound of his alto paired with Briton Ric Colbeck's trumpet is, at times, purely narcotic. Add Catherine Norris' cello, and you have something truly unique in the annals of free jazz. Worth hunting down. We also sampled liberally from Black Ark, where Howard's foil is a young and fiery Arthur Doyle.

Anyway, I'd like to think it all made for a pretty entertaining 90 minutes of radio. Judge for yourself:

Now's the Time - September 25, 2008: Noah Howard

I'm currently at a loss for a topic for my next show. Suggestions?

Cawthray/Price/Zankowski

We at the IMC are pleased to be making our first, tentative foray into the cutthroat world of concert promotion:

On October 18, the IMC presents the trio of Rob Price, Chris Cawthray and Ed Zankowski at the Avant Garde Bar, 135 1/2 Besserer St., Ottawa. For info call 613-321-8908.

If you like what you see/hear in the clip, won't you please come on out and make our first kick at the can a resounding success?

Where Do the Days Go?

Wow, sorry about that extended absence. I guess the fact is that, after the hubbub and clamour and fuss of moving from one town to another subsides (which is not to say that it's all over, alas), you kind of sit back and wonder if you still are the person you thought you were when you lived in that old town. Such life changes offer handy access points to inspect life's moving parts, to dissect and to reexamine. They are perhaps the most convenient times to affect a degree of self re-invention, if in fact self re-invention is something you are interested in doing. Simply put, I guess I had to ask myself if I still wished to be an obsessive music consumer, listener, lover, worrier, thinker, postulater, pontificator and, yes, blogger. I wasn't really sure I had my answer until I unpacked the CD collection the other day. Poring over the spines, fussing over the correct alphabetization, coveting the objects as artifacts both personal and cultural, I knew I had my answer.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

But yes, I'm still a music broadcaster, or as much as I ever was, if you can call sharing a weekly jazz show on a campus radio station with 4 other guys broadcasting. Anyway, all that to say that this very minute, over at CKCU world headquarters, my first show in absentia is being presented. It's a re-edited, extended, re-cut version of the Michael White profile I did back in January, and my IMC cohort Ron is in the studio at Carleton U in Ottawa playing the digital files I have prepared and is inserting the appropriate ads (and many thanks to him for doing so). I've heard this show a hundred times now, what with the editing and so forth, and I've edited recordings of many of my previous shows, but this is the first time I have ever actually heard myself actually on air and I must report a strange, detached, almost out-of-body sensation as a result. Knowing that several other people (dozens? hundreds? thousands!?) are also hearing my voice as it is pushed out into the ether and onto the internet lends it a queer anti-weight. I am floating on invisible waves.

Anyway, if you're not listening right now, but would nevertheless like to hear the show, download it here:

Now's the Time - August 21: Michael White profile

Going forward, of course, all my shows will be presented this way (excepting those that aren't, I guess), which is a double-edged sword. There's no question that pre-recording gives the advantage of cutting, reconsidering, tweaking and perfecting, and all in all I know it will make for tighter shows. But there's an undeniable energy associated with sitting in that studio and working live into the microphone, and I'll miss that. Regardless, I'm glad I can keep up my association with the show and with the IMC. Seriously, those guys scare me with their knowledge, their passion and their devotion to the music and to the show.

Anyway, moving on...

If 2008 Ended Yesterday

No secret that this blog began as a simple list, an electronic version of the liners I used to make for the annual Best Of compilation that I, like countless other music obsessives, produce every year and foist onto friends too polite to tell me they don't really care. With that in mind, and because I'm terribly impatient, here's a pre-list, sort of a gestational version of the monster I'll unleash in December/January.

In not-yet-particular order:

The Walkmen, You + Me - this record made me cry last night, as much for its bang on evocation of what it means to be here and married and no longer prodigal as for its sheer perfection. It is as carefully crafted a set of sounds as you're likely to hear.

Portishead, Third - they had no right to produce something this incredible. None. They were over, washed up. What's impressive is that they recognized that a simple return to their sound would not fly in 2008; that the core ingredients of cinematic sounds and Beth Gibbons' unsurpassedly vulnerable voice were all that could remain; everything else had to be blown up and built again. Stunning.

The Hold Steady, Stay Positive - Frankly, it's no Boys and Girls in America, but then what is? Fact is nobody makes better classicist rock informed by punk, hardcore and '90s indie rock than this band, and the lyrics are always good.

The Night Marchers, See You in Magic - Rocket From the Crypt are no longer with us, but Speedo is, and his latest fling, The Night Marchers, continue with that band's basic M.O. This will kick your ass six ways from Sunday, and leave you happy it did. The perfect soundtrack to my re-insertion into suburbia.

Also:

Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
The Dodos, Visiter
Angles, Every Woman is a Tree
Various, Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds and Nigerian Blues, 1970-76
Dave Douglas, Moonshine
Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight
The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust
Titus Andronicus, The Airing of Grievances
The Vandermark 5, Beat Reader

More to come. Promise.

The Sound of Sound

Sound that stops the capacity for judgment. Sound that never decays. Sound that breaks free from every possible image. Sound that comes from both death and birth. Sound that dies. The sound around me. Sound like the symptoms of eternal cold turkey. Sound that resists private ownership. Sound that goes insane. Sound that spills over from the cosmos. The sound of sound.

- Kaoru Abe

If last Thursday’s edition of Now’s the Time had a goal, it was the approximate evocation of those words from the late saxophonist Abe. That, and keeping the needles pinned in the red. Happily, I think I did a decent job on both fronts.

Mark-O has an interesting story about Ascension, the 1965 Coltrane blow-out that I pinpointed as the baseline for the noise I played on the show. It goes something like this: One night he listened to Ascension really loud. Soon he fell asleep. The end.

See, the density of sound was so great that he began to hear it as a whole, not as disparate parts, and then it sounded to him like white noise, like a fan whirring in the dark, like ocean waves.

The point is this: reconsider what you think you know about noise. It’s uses and variations are myriad. Don’t try to impose conventional structure onto it, but instead celebrate it for what it is: the sound of sound.

I don’t expect to win over many with this line of argument; certainly for most, noise remains just that – an irritant, an aural eyesore, until organized into pleasing structures like melody and rhythm. I don’t mean to suggest that Abe’s improvisations, or Machine Gun, or Bells will make for nice dinner music. But if, having steeled your nerves, you want to engage this art on its own level (after all, real practitioners of noise aren’t about to meet you halfway), then I think you must view it in those terms. It is not tuneful. It is not easy. But it is vital. It expresses certain peculiarities of humanity that can’t otherwise be expressed with a musical instrument. It shrieks and careens and drops and exalts. Just as we do.

Anyway, that’s what I was trying to get across on the July 17 edition of NTT, an admittedly vague point illustrated by pieces from Coltrane, Abe, Albert Ayler, Peter Brotzmann, Frank Wright, the incomparable Last Exit, Ivo Pereman and Assif Tsahar. Feel free to download, listen and decide for yourself whether or not I was successful in doing so:

Now’s the Time – July 17, 2008: Free Radicals (or: The Sons of Ascension)

[PS - Hat tip to the amazing Destination: Out for that Abe quote.]

Father Knows Best

Father's Day, and what better way to celebrate on Now's the Time than to have my very own father (second from left) join me in the studio to play some favourites?

In truth, dad dug deep and donated $100 to the show during last fall's funding drive, and according to an IMC tradition, that automatically entitles him to co-host an episode of NTT. "Name your date," I told him, but we weren't able to co-ordinate our schedules until this past Thursday, June 12. It just so happened, of course, that that was the show closest to Father's Day. Fortuitous, no?

So JGF programed the music and sat in the studio with me to rap about jazz, his memories and experiences and, as it happened, the manner in which generations can pass music back and forth to one another. See, Dad fell into jazz in college (military college, no less), and he favoured the cool school and the Third Streamers. Somewhere along the way, he sort of left it behind. Cut to thirty or so years later, when his youngest son (that'd be me) began to develop an interest in jazz, beginning with Chet Baker and moving on quickly to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and so on (and so on and so on). Well, in doing so, I unwittingly pulled dad back into that world, and for that he has proven grateful. So having him sit in with me behind the microphone was a wonderful way to tie all that together.

We played some George Shearing (that's him in the Ray-Bans), some Oscar Peterson, a little Dave Brubeck. We went to New Orleans, we swung with Duke. And we iced the proceedings with some Miles, by way of Spain.

Suffice to say we both had a great time, and the proof is in the digital recording:

Now's the Time - June 12, 2008: Guest host Gordon Forbes

(Playlist available here)

Happy Father's Day.

PS - I'll be back on the airwaves in July with a show I've chosen to call Free Radicals. It'll be a skronky affair, with plenty of noise for noise's sake. Cover your ears.

Stockholm to Accra (Updated)

Tomorrow (Thursday) night on Now's the Time: a profile of Swedish percussionist Bengt Berger, whose interest in the music of Ghana (and elsewhere) led to some very interesting records circa 1981-1984. The program will primarily focus on the music of his Bitter Funeral Beer Band (pictured above), including appearances by Don Cherry (far right, in suit, freaking out).

As always, listen on 93.1 FM in the Ottawa area, and at ckcufm.com everywhere else, 8:30-10:00 pm EST. Or watch this space for download information after the fact.


UPDATE: For your downloading and listening pleasure:

Now's the Time - May 8, 2008: Bengt Berger and the Bitter Funeral Beer Band

Interplay

The latest episode of Now's the Time went down last Thursday evening, and I must say, modestly speaking, I nailed it. There are nights in the studio when you have to concede that you're weren't quite on. But there are others when everything is falling into place, and there are no technical glitches to derail you, and you spend the long drive home, smiling, thinking: Hell yes, that was good.

The evening began with an interview with Adrian Cho, founder and artistic director of the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra. Adrian's a great guy, and I've interviewed him before. He's a tireless promoter and worker for the music he believes in, and his mission, as artistic director, is to deliver programs that aim squarely at the nexus of education and entertainment. In that sense, his vision dovetails nicely with that of the IMC. Anyway, the show he's currently promoting is the IJO's upcoming Cult Fiction Classics, April 18 at Dominion Chalmers. If you're in Ottawa, go.

Thereafter, I got my hard bop on. John Coltrane, until recently strung out, fired by Miles Davis, and searching for direction (some of which he found while woodshedding with Monk), spent much of the period between 1956-1958 collecting paychecks from Prestige Records. He was a member of a number of different session lineups, many of them billed as the Prestige All-Stars, as well as stints as a sideman, and occasionally he was co-billed (John Coltrane and Kenny Burrell). All of this is documented on the excellent Interplay, the Concord Music Group's recent repackaging of all of this previously available material. It sounds wonderful; warm and full. The package is handsome, and the liners are incredibly detailed. Great stuff.

Have I piqued your interest? Just download the show already:

Now's the Time - April 3, 2008: Impressions in Jazz Orch. / Coltrane's Interplay

I'm in the studio next on May 8, when I'll play music by Bengt Berger and his Bitter Funeral Beer band - worldy, free improv stuff by a large-ish ensemble, sometimes including Don Cherry.

I'll check in here next week with some non-improvised music related stuff.

In Rotation: Parc Avenue

What? Parc Avenue, the Montreal-referencing long playing debut by that city's Plants & Animals.

Why this? Why today? Because I couldn't find anything more appropriate for Opening Day, short of Terry Cashman. And I just couldn't do that (again).

I might be the last to hop this bandwagon, but the earthy, barefoot feel of this prog-folk-indie-Americana beast has me thinking of dirt between my toes. Spring - wouldn't that be nice?

There's also a pleasing Northern Lights-Southern Cross vibe simmering from beneath the surface (minus the, er, desperation?) that meets with my approval. Why is it Canadians do this stuff so much better?

In other news: The first issue of Eartrip magazine is available for DL. It features a Coltrane CD review I first posted here.

Also, another episode of Now's the Time is now up for you listening pleasure:

Now's the Time: Mark O's Year of the Guitar, Part 3: Kenny Burrell

And lastly, I'll be interviewing Adrian Cho, director of the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra, this Thursday on NTT. I'll then spend the last hour of the show spinning cuts from the Coltrane-as-sideman boxset Interplay. If you even sorta like hard bop, tune in. Essential listening.

Now's the Time: Live 2007

Last week's edition of Now's the Time featured longtime IMC friend and occasional host Ollie alongside Ron and Jim as the three traded views on the best live shows of 2007. By way of explanation, every year during CKCU's funding drive, the IMC makes it a policy to allow any donor willing to part with $100 for the very worthy cause of community radio to program and host their very own edition of Now's the Time. Sounds dangerous, right? In truth, Ollie steps up every year, and his shows are always worth listening to.

As a side note, this year we had two such donors. In addition to Ollie, my very own father chipped in a C-note, and will be joining me in the studio on a date to be determined. I'll post details as they develop.

Anyway, for my money, the best live experience of 2007 was the Vandermark 5 at Zaphod Beeblebrox in Ottawa. Keep in mind the extremely small sample size (did I go to any other shows in '07?) - new fatherhood is like that. As for '08, obviously the EHE heads that unfinished list.

Anyway, if you missed last week's show, or need to hear it again, here it is. Clicky click for your downloading pleasure:

Now's the Time, March 13, 2008 - Best Live Shows of 2008

Tonight's show continues Mark's Year of the Guitar with a look at the venerable Kenny Burrell. Here's hoping he plays something off On View at the Five Spot Cafe. Download details on that show as they become available.

From the Muddy (and Frozen) Banks of the Rideau

That's Carleton University, home of CKCU FM, which is in turn the home of Now's the Time, your weekly journey to the outer limits of jazz and improvised music. I occupied the chair and took to the air February 28th to profile master percussionist Kahil El'Zabar, playing music by his Ritual Trio as well as the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (who, as you may recall, recently played Ottawa), then finished the show with an El'Zabar/Billy Bang duet.

For full tracklist and details, go here.

On the other hand, if you'd like to download and listen, be my guest: http://www.divshare.com/download/3923443-2e2