Bill Laswell / Toshinori Kondo "Charged [Live]"

toshinori kondo - trumpet

This record is just as wow-worthy for it's all-star cast as it is for the trance-inducing improvised grooves unleashed once you hit play.

Bill Laswell on bass. Dude recorded with Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, David Byrne, Brian Eno. Responsible for some mind-melting fusions of jazz, improv, funk and dub. Major player in 1990s New York City underground scene. Laswell's credits page on allmusic.com alone is jaw-dropping.

Toshinori Kondo on trumpter. Done some really out there shit with Peter Brotzmann but my favorite Kondo performance is alongside DJ Krush on Ki-Oku (1998).

Hamid Drake on drums. Top 5 favorite drummers of all time. Played with Ken Vandermark, William Parker, Charles Gayle, so many others. Severely under-appreciated. More music of his to be posted here soon I promise.

Aiyb Dieng on percussion. This is the only record I've honestly heard with Dieng in the ensemble but this guy has recorded with a who's who of both popular and improv-based musicians: everyone from Mick Jagger and Yoko Ono to Berniel Worrell and Sly & Dunbar.

DJ Disk. Hip. Hop. Legend. Original member of Rocksteady Crew and Invisibl Skratch Piklz. Wanna see dude just go off? (Not coincidentally in another ensemble featuring Bill Laswell) Watch this.

All are led by Italian composer/guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi, who hand-picked the players on this record.

Charged is completely improvised and recorded live. Funny that I dug this out of a stack after picking up Miles Davis' Live at Fillmore at the Austin Record Convention this weekend. Charged is formulaic post-Bitches Brew fusion for sure, but so what? Grooves are tight, improvisation is great... Enjoy!

1. Shintotech Iridescence
2. Fathoms
3. Death Tools
4. Dueling Sufis
5. Subterrania
6. Overloaded Lila/...

But the record here.

Frank Kimbrough "The Quickening"

I randomly picked this CD out of a large stack the other day, thought to myself, "I guarantee that I've never even heard this before," and popped it in. Can't say I recall ever listening to this but maybe that's a good thing cause man was I blown away.



Frank Kimbrough is often described as an "inside/outside" improviser. Most of these tunes are solidly hard-bop, but Kimbrough isn't afraid to take his piano improvisations a little out there. This record reminds of a lot of the more "out there" Blue Note stuff... Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy. Artists who played in the distinctly hard bop mode but stretched things a little bit.

Quickening is a live release, recorded in 1998 at New York City's New School University, and released 4 years later on the Omnitone label. I've shared two tracks here, "Svengali" and the title track. "Svengali" is all about the groove established between bassist Ben Allison and drummer Jeff Ballard. Slow and mournful, with Kimbrough dancing around the rhythm. "Quickening" is a little more disjointed, certainly more angular and busy.

Really great piano trio record. Download these tracks and if you dig em, snag the album here.

The Quickening (Omnitone, 2003)
Frank Kimbrough - p
Ben Allison - b
Jeff Ballard d

1. Quickening
2. Cascade Rising
3. Chant
4. Clara's Room
5. Svengali
6. For Duke
7. TMI
8. Ancestor

WOW

So yeah, it's been a long long time since I posted anything on here. After listing off excuses to my better half, I've been told to get back to work. So much music to share. Yo, Have You Heard... is back... so stay tuned for updates.

Riders Against the Storm "Speak the Truth

This week's Yo! goes local, sort of. Riders Against the Storm (or RAS) make their debut as Austinites this week as a part of Body Rock Wednesdays with DJ Chorizo Funk at Plush (peep the flier below). Home to Table Manners Crew, Weight, and Everyday Junglist, Plush launches its newest residency this Wednesday, February 10, 2010: Body Rock... a call the arms for uprockers and boogie downers, b-boys and b-girls.

RAS originally hail from Providence, RI and recently relocated to the Lone Star state. Tiger Lily and JBro sip from the same organic juice as Golden Era acolytes Digable Plants and Dead Prez - militant emcees on a conscious tip. The duo share their latest, "Speak the Truth," over on the RAS Band Camp page.



RAS on Myspace.
Chorizo Funk's blog.

Sam Prekop "Sam Prekop"

Sea and Cake frontman Sam Prekop's solo debut certainly isn't rare in any sense (it dropped just out a decade ago) but it's a damn good record that came on shuffle the other day. Listened straight-through for the first time in a long time, possibly ever. Yo! Have you heard... Sam Prekop?

Released on Thrill Jockey in 1999, Prekop's solo debut features all the major players in the chicago underground: Chad Taylor (percussion) and Rob Mazurek (cornet) of Chicago Underground Duo, John McEntire of Tortoise and Jim O'Rouke. Jazzy guitar licks, minimalist accompaniment, relaxed grooves and shifting time.

"A Cloud to the Back" is, in every sense of the word, "dreamy," so soft it was featured in a toilet paper commercial (I tried to find this on youtube...fail). "Don't Bother" is bursting with tension but barely builds beyond a whisper, mostly instrumental save Prekop's one verse. Mazurek's cornet is brilliant in "Faces and People."

Prekop even admits in interviews that this first solo record doesn't differ much from the Sea and Cake's output, save the expanded lineup of musicians.

Another Prekop solo record came out 6 years later in 2005 - haven't heard that one. Enjoy the tracks below.



1. "Showrooms"
2. "The Company"
3. "Practice Twice"
4. "A Cloud To The Back"
5. "Don't Bother"
6. "Faces And People"
7. "On Such Favors"
8. "The Shadow"
9. "Smaller Rivers"
10. "So Shy"

Buy Prekop's records direct from Thrill Jockey... and while you're there pick up a couple more from the label's endlessly impressive roster.

2 Mex "B Boys In Occupied Mexico"

Last night's Aesop Rock show at Mohawk has me thinking back to those days in college when indie hip hop was the only thing you'd hear coming out of my stereo. Quannum Spectrum, Anti-Pop Cosortium, Freestyle Fellowship, Cunninlyguists, Raptivism Records - if it was hip hop and preferably political or downright militant I was probably rocking it.

Yo Have You Heard... 2 Mex's B Boys in Occupied Mexico? 2 Mex is an LA-based emcee who's released records with the rap collective The Visionaries (LMNO, KeyKool, Writer's Block and DJ Rhettmatic), SonGodSun and Of Mexican Descent. Most of the crew's record's have been independently released on their own Up Above Records. Really really great underground LA hip hop collective, not unlike the Good Life Cafe scene and Quannum / Solesides a little further north in the Bay Area. Pretty much anything these cats drop is quality.

Sharing a couple tracks this week: "Making Money Off God" teams 2 Mex with Busdriver, another avant-garde rapper from the West Coast, "Doctors, Drums and Danger" features fellow Chicano emcee Xoloanxinxo. 2 Mex's partner in the duo Of Mexican Descent, Xolo actually shows up on half the tracks on B-Boys.

A little something extra: this real great video from another 2 Mex collabo, Look Daggers, featuring Mars Volta keyboardist Ikey Owens. Sick!





1 Ghost Writer
2 L.A. (Like…)
3 Percussion Precaution
4 Humble Is the Style of the Day (Featuring Xololanxinxo & LMNO)
5 Control Mexica (Featuring Xololanxinxo & Fermin)
6 M Is for Memo
7 Across & Down
8 Making Money Off God (Featuring Bus Driver)
9 Doctors, Drums and Danger (Featuring Xololanxinxo & Sick Jacken)
10 Offering
11 Won
12 Lord 25 (Featuring Xololanxinxo & Zen)
13 I Didn't Mean to Touch Your Hand
14 Love You the Same
15 It Will (The Won't Go Away Remix)
16 The Believe In Yourself Song (Featuring Angie Gonzalez)
17 The Truth (Featuring Jerry Quickly)

The Visionaries on wiki
2 Mex on itunes

Billy Cobham "Spectrum"

Sorry for the late posting - expect to see this every Sunday. Don't expect me to be in Vegas every weekend wasting all my money on roulette. Either way here's this week's Yo...


Billy Cobham is a beast. He was one of the first jazz/fusion drummers to start playing open handed lead (meaning he starts beats or fills with either hand, allowing him to dance all over the drumset with ease). Cobham played on one of my favorite Miles Davis records Live-Evil, started Mahavishnu Orchestra with fellow Davis-alum John McLaughlin, then moved on and did some solo stuff. If it was 70s and fusion and had killer beats, Cobham was probably laying down those rhythms.

Spectrum was Cobham's first solo record, with Jan Hammer (also of Mahavishnu fame) on keys and Tommy Bolin (Deep Purple) on guitar. To say this record is "jazz" would be somewhat correct but it feels more like improvised rock n roll.

The track I shared here, "Searching for the Right Door / Spectrum," starts off with a pretty amazing drum solo. Then Cobham drops what may be one of the sickest backbeats I've ever heard. I get chills when I hear this fucking beat. Hope you do too.




1. Quadrant 4
2. a. Searching for the Right Door b. Spectrum
3. a. Anxiety b. Taurian Matador
4. Stratus
5. a. To the Women in My Life b. Le Lis
6. a. Snoopy's Search b. Red Baron

Billy Cobham on wiki
Billy Cobham on itunes