Manfred Eicher asked me to come up with a ECM playlist for the streaming era. It was easy.

At a session yesterday, I took candid video of Mr. Kenny Wollesen playing a legendary outré instrument, the Waterphone.

The session tracked incidental and background music written by Bill Frisell to accompany a new production of Saint Joan by Manhattan Theatre Club directed by Daniel Sullivan and starring Condola Rashad.

(It’s not clear if Kenny’s Waterphone will actually make it onto the final score. However, Hank Roberts’s lovely cello will certainly be featured.)

Reminder that all conventional gig spam goes out reliably from Floyd Camembert Reports. The next edition of that newsletter will have more about Concerto to Scale, my first modest orchestral work, premiering at Zankel Hall with the ACO on April 6. The rest of the program looks really cool as well.

[tickets here]

New at the Culture Desk of the New Yorker: My review of Sonatra by Michael Gordon and Vicky Chow. 

Three unusual tracks came across the radar recently. In every case I was profoundly surprised by the procedures used. In reverse chronological order:

Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez, and Marty Morell start a 1974 “So What” with searching free improv in the manner of Bitches Brew.

On the radio I heard the Brubeck/Desmond doing “Take Five” where they improvised in major! WHAT. I couldn’t find that version on YT but here’s a long boring version with Mulligan and Dawson in 1972 that proves that, yes, blowing in major on “Take Five” is a thing.

Finally, Coleman Hawkins imitated Stan Getz for a 1962 album of bossa. It’s really great — but when I heard it on a friend’s Pandora station, I had no idea what the hell it could be. Now I know.

New DTM page: Interview with Joanne Brackeen.

Fascinating documents about the editorial process of Blues People at the District of Columbia Africana Archives Project.

New DTM page: Interview with George Colligan.

New DTM page: Interview with Gavin Bryars.