The Bleeding Edge: 9/14/2026

This week will be even busier than the last. This time, however, there are two events that have already been taken into account. The first is the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event, which is presented by the Center for New Music. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. The other will be the return on the SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series this coming Sunday. Readers should now prepare to “fasten their seatbelts” for a ride through a plethora of other performances. As usual there will be hyperlinks for date, time, and venue provided by the BayImproviser Web site as follows:

Tuesday, September 15, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: This month Jazz at the Make-Out Room will present a “wily evening of cutting-edge jazz, free improvisation, and creative music.” The first two sets will be taken by Anime Aliens and Teja Gerken, and it appears that none of the performers have been willing to provide any addition information! Fortunately, the evening will conclude with a more familiar offering. This will be the Bristle quartet with bassist Lisa Mezzacappa providing rhythm for Murray Campbell on violin joined by two reed players: Randy McKean and Cory Wright. For those that do not yet know, the Make-Out Room is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street. Doors will open at 6 p.m.

A reminder of why people like to visit Mr. Tipple’s (from a BayImproviser Web page)

Wednesday, September 16, 7 p.m., Mr Tipple’s: Mezzacappa will move into the Civic Center to lead her 5(ish) quintet. Tenor saxophonist Aaron Bennett will take the front line, joined by Mark Clifford on vibraphone. In the rhythm section, Mezzacappa will perform with pianist Brett Carson and drummer Jordan Glenn. The venue is located at 39 Fell Street.

Wednesday, September 16, 7 p.m., The Foundry SF: Leafar Legov, who is based in Germany, will present a live ambient project that has not yet been released for performance. He is likely to make good use of The Foundry's hi-fi quadrophonic audio system, working with modular synthesizers and field recordings, enhanced by experimental vocals. He will be followed by a duo set by the two hosts of the venue: Viewfinder and to.ne. The venue is located in the Mission at 1425 Folsom Street, on the southwest corner of Tenth Street.

Wednesday, September 16, 7:30 p.m., Et al.: To the best of my knowledge, this is my first encounter with the venue. The title of the performance is A Synesthete’s Atlas: Cartographic Improvisations. Those improvisations will involve real-time manipulation of digital maps by Eric Theise. He will be accompanied by shakuhachi player Nancy Beckman, Tom Bickley playing a diversity of recorders, vocalist Ron Heglin (who is inclined to invented languages), and Petra Zélie providing a continuo (so to speak) of electroacoustic noise. The venue is located at 2831A Mission Street on the southeast corner of 24th Street. The charge for admission will be $15, but the organizers will not turn anyone away for lack of funds.

Thursday, September 17, 8:30 p.m., Rite Spot Cafe: Trumpeter Darren Johnston will lead a quintet called Deep Space. The other four members will account for rhythm: guitarist JC O’Donnell, Dave Brandt on vibraphone and other percussion instruments, drummer O. Scheiber, and Pete Schmitt alternating between bass and guembri, a North African three-stringed lute. The venue is located at 2099 Folsom Street, on the northeast corner of 17th Street.

Friday, September 18, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound performance to be curated by “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will see him playing saxophones and special effects as part of a trio. Rhythm will be provided by drummer Brian Rodvien and Bryan Dean on bass. As many (most?) readers probably know by now, the venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, September 18, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: Guitarist Scott Foster will lead his own combo with a guest appearance by Darren Johnston on trumpet. As of this writing, the other members of the group have not yet been finalized. For those that do not already know, the bookstore is locate at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.

Friday, September 18, 7:30 p.m., Adobe Books: For this evening the bookstore has prepared a poster that seems designed to encourage the viewer to decode it! Assuming one reads the text the same way one would read any book page, the program will begin with a duo performance by José Solares with flatways. They will be followed by Raffi Garabedian and Marcus Stephens, either as a duo or as two solo sets. This will be a similar case for Mike Meanstreetz, Adam Lion, and K Francis Messer, who may be either a trio or an ordering of three solo sets. The program will conclude with Isabelle Waldner Kalb (who also answers to Isabelle W-K). As most readers probably know by now, Adobe Books is located in the Mission at 3130 24th Street. A $10 donation is usually requested to support the performers. In the absence of any further information at present, readers should be free to call 415-864-3936.

Friday, September 18, 8 p.m., Hotel Utah: The title for the program will be A Night of Guitar/Synth/Punk/Alt/Noise. The only other information on the BayImproviser Web page is the following list: Mechanical Plague, Necessary Noise, Adams Audacity, Tulips. Presumably these will be the performers for a four-set evening, but presumption can be risky on the Bleeding Edge! The venue is located at 500 4th Street, on the southwest corner of Bryant Street (which happens to be “fed” by an off-ramp from Interstate 80).

Saturday, September 19, 7 p.m., Adobe Books: This will be an album release show, the title of the album being Department of Science and Mathematics. Given my Bachelor’s and Doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this should be right up my alley; but I know not to set my expectations too high! The album was created by Ahmed Kap Animo, who was inspired by science fiction sources. He will be joined by a wide diversity of performers, some of whom, such as David Leikam, may be familiar to readers, while others, such as Stigma, seem to have gone to great lengths to conceal identity.

Sunday, September 20, 1:30 p.m., Prelinger Library: Thom Blum has been performing at this venue for several years, but it has been a while since I caught up with his performance commitments. He will partner with Kattt Atchley in a performance of the Resonant Margin. The event is expected to take about two and one-half hours. The venue is located in SoMa on the southeast corner of Folsom Street and 8th Street.

Sunday, September 20, 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., Mr Tipple’s: Saxophonist Beth Schenck will return to this venue. As was the case this past June, she will be giving a quartet performance, presumably with her previous colleagues: bassist Mezzacappa, Brett Carson on piano, and drummer Jordan Glenn. Since the venue is basically a supper club, listeners are encouraged to purchase food and drink.

Kasey Knudsen to Bring Sextet to Chez Hanny

Kasey Knudsen with her saxophone (from the Photos Web page on her Web site)

Some readers may recall that I last wrote about saxophonist Kasey Knudsen to announce her appearance at Bird & Beckett Books and Records near the end of this past July. On that occasion she led a quartet with fellow reed player Harvey Wainapel joining her on the front line with rhythm provided by John Witala on bass and Jon Arkin on drums. Her next performance will be a Jazz Chez Hanny concert, where she will lead a sextet; and the only member of the quartet to reappear will be Knudsen herself!

That sextet will be equally divided between front line and rhythm. Knudsen will be joined on the front line by two brass musicians: trumpeter Henry Hung, who has recorded with the GRAMMY-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra, and Danny Lubin-Laden on trombone. (Some readers may recall that Lubin-Laden last appeared on this site as a member of clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s quartet album, Trouble Trouble.) Dahveed Behroozi will be the pianist in the rhythm section, joined by Sam Bevan on bass and drummer Jon Arkin.

As most readers will probably know by now, the venue will be Frank Hanny’s house at 1300 Silver Avenue, with the performance taking place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $35 (taking into account the size of the ensemble), payable in cash, as a check to Jazz Chez Hanny, or a Zelle transfer to jazz@chezhanny.com. There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend are encouraged to bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served; and the doors will open at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 27. Reservations are preferred by sending electronic mail to jazz@chezhanny.com. Masks are optional, but attendees should be vaccinated. Vaccination will be based on the honor system. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show are always appreciated.

The Bleeding Edge: 9/7/2026

The first full week of the new season will be a busy one. However, six of this week’s events have already been reported accounting for four familiar venues. Due to that abundance of content, there will be only three new events to take into account, all of which will take place at the end of the week. Those “familiar venues” are as follows:

1. Brava Theatre, hosting this year’s “Emerging World Premiere” concert, supported jointly by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the ARTZenter Institute
2. The Lab
3. Center for New Music
4. Old First Presbyterian Church

The new events will be as follows:

Thursday, September 10, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge:  This week there will be the usual four-set program: We Micromanage ∞, DJ Female Convict Scorpion, Shatter Pattern, the duo of Ron Heglin and Lorin Benedict. This month BayImproviser has provided relatively lengthy accounts for each of the sets, but I must confess that I am not sure how much of that verbiage will serve as a positive influence for the attentive listener. Personally, I would advise those of my generation that grew up watching the Mickey Mouse Club to approach this gig as an example of what happens after dark on Anything Can Happen Day!

Friday, September 11, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This week Other Dimensions in Sound will be, as usual, hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce. The entire evening will be a quartet performance. All four performers are likely to be familiar to those following this site regularly: Larry Ochs (saxophone), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), and Ben Davis (cello). The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Darren Johnston with his trumpet (from his BayImproviser Web page)

Saturday, September 13, 1 p.m., San Francisco Botanical Garden: Last year the annual Flower Piano event hosted a piano quartet playing compositions by both Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. This year will be “something completely different” with a performance by the Rob Reich Swings Left Legacy Band. Reich was a keyboardist, who died on May 15, 2025. He was as comfortable with an accordion as he was with a piano keyboard. He studied composition with both John Luther Adams and Pauline Oliveros, graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2000. The Band is now led by Daniel Fabricant; and, for this performance, trumpeter Darren Johnston will be a visiting soloist.

Mike Greensill Makes it to 80 at his Keyboard

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote an article about an annual Old First Concerts (O1C) program at the Old First Presbyterian Church. The event was an afternoon performance by jazz pianist Mike Greensill playing with fellow musicians. The title of the article was “Mike Greensill and Friends Running out of Steam.”

Yesterday afternoon he had enough steam to return to O1C. This time the performance was a celebration of his 80th birthday, which took place this past Saturday. Greensill often accompanied himself at the piano with his own singing. Sadly, the audio for this livestream performance was poorly managed, meaning that at least half a dozen of his verbal introductions came across as mumbles.

Mike Greensill at the piano leading his instrumental quartet (screen shot from yesterday’s YouTube livestream)

He began the program with a trio performance of “Stella by Starlight,” with rhythm provided by Ruth Davis on bass and guitarist Brad Buethe. After that, things started to go downhill at different paces. The good news was that Greensill allocated a generous amount of solo work to the other musicians. These included not only Davis and Buethe but also Noel Jewkes alternating among saxophones and clarinet and, perhaps most interesting of all, Bill Klingelhoffer on French horn. (I used to have a good view of Klingelhoffer from my box seat at the San Francisco Opera!)

While Greensill’s singing voice may not be as polished as that of other crooners, I am afraid that it rose above the other three vocalists on the program. These were Roberta Donnay, Kellie Fuller, and Gale Terminello, all of whom seemed to be more interested in stylization, rather than solid command of the pitches. In spite of the distance in age, Greensill’s vocal qualities soared (or at least puttered) above all of them.

Is it time for a long-standing tradition to recognize the end of the road?

“Political Rap” from Grex?

According to my archives, it has been about half a decade since I last wrote about the Grex trio, led by guitarist Karl Evangelista performing with Rei Scampavia on keyboards and Robert Lopez on drums. This coming Thursday will see the release of their latest album, Auntie + Tebs; and, as is often the case, Bandcamp has already created a Web page for taking pre-orders. The trio is joined by a “front line” with saxophonist Zoh Amba, Bobby Bradford on cornet, and cellist Misha Khalikulov. Bassist D. Chavez adds to the rhythm section.

Auntie + Tebs marks a shift from avant-garde jazz, inspired by performers from the last quarter of the last century, to rap, composed and delivered by both Evangelista and Scampavia. The title is political, providing the basis for the rap content. “Auntie” is the Filipino politician Miriam Defensor Santiago, whose presidential election was undermined by “powers that be” before she could take office. “Tebs” is the South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, who composed his music for the sake of anti-Apartheid activism.

I have to say that, in the context of the wild instrumentation, following the rap delivery was not always easy; but my other disclaimer is that I have never been much of a fan of rap in the first place! The good news is that the full instrumentation is rich and definitely speaks for itself. As a result, there was more than enough to hold my attention over the course of twelve tracks occupying about 50 minutes.

Cover of the album begin discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

Nevertheless, it is clear that Evangelista’s past influences, which include Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, and Andrew Cyrille, now seem to have taken a “back seat” to a more aggressive approach to performance! The design of the album jacket should be enough to prepare the attentive listener for that approach. That said, I am more than willing to take that approach on its own terms.

Chez Hanny: Another Familiar Season Launch

Jazz pianist and composer Alon Nechushtan (courtesy of Jazz Chez Hanny)

In reviewing my archives, it seems that frequently (but not always) the season at Jazz Chez Hanny begins with a visit from pianist and composer Alon Nechushtan. To be fair and “for the record,” as they say, last year’s season was launched by another pianist, Marina Albero, leading a trio. This year, however, Nechushtan will return, leading a quintet.

That said, instrumentation will depart from “business as usual.” Two reed players will share the front line. One of them will be saxophonist Jesse Levit. The other is decidedly more versatile. The instruments he will bring to the performance will be tenor saxophone, oboe, and English horn; and it is likely that he will also contribute his own compositions. Rhythm will be provided by Sam Bevan on bass and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratte.

While that aforementioned change is a significant one, the venue will still be Frank Hanny’s house at 1300 Silver Avenue, with the performance taking place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $30 (taking into account the size of the ensemble), payable in cash, as a check to Jazz Chez Hanny, or a Zelle transfer to jazz@chezhanny.com. There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend are encouraged to bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served; and the doors will open at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 13. Reservations are preferred by sending electronic mail to jazz@chezhanny.com. Masks are optional, but attendees should be vaccinated. Vaccination will be based on the honor system. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show are always appreciated.

The Bleeding Edge: 8/31/2026

It looks like summer will end with a whimper on the Bleeding Edge. There will be only two events this week, one of which will see the return of a venue that has not appeared on this site since the beginning of this past June. Fortunately, the balance will be stabilized by the other event, which is one of the most familiar of the “usual suspects!” Specifics are as follows:

Monday, August 31, 7 p.m., Bric A Brac: This is the venue that has kept itself quiet since June. The performance will be a trio performance of “Noise//Punk//Improv.” The performers will be Ethan Campa on drums, guitarist Isabelle Waldner Kalb, and Gianna Caudillo on acoustic bass. These names are followed on the Web page by “Micro Multi Hulls” and “Girl Into Destruction.” Those attending this event can decide whether or not these are the titles of the music being performed. The venue is located at 175 Leland Avenue.

David Boyce with his soprano saxophone (from this week’s BayImproviser Web page)

Friday, September 4, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The only other event this week will be the next installment in Other Dimensions in Sound. As many readers probably already know, this is the Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce. On this occasion Boyce will host a two-set evening. The first set will be a solo clarinet performance by Nikita Malinin. The second set will be by the Rainbow Eclipse duo with Boyce playing saxophones. He will be joined by Nader at a modular synthesizer. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Satoko Fujii’s “Second Attempt” In Berlin

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz Communications)

This coming Friday will see the release of the second album of performances by the Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin. When I wrote about the first album, Ninety-Nine Years at the very end of 2025, I observed that the ensemble was more of a “small big band,” rather than an orchestra. In the new album, entitled Second Attempt, the ensemble has grown, but only marginally. The primary difference involves the introduction of Liz Kosack performing on a synthesizer. The album will be released this coming Friday, and it can currently be purchased through a Web page on the CDs Vinyl Japan Store Web site.

While Ninety-Nine Years consisted of five independent tracks, one of which was entitled “Ninety-Nine Years,” Second Attempt is basically a full-length “suite” in five “parts,” each of them having its own track on the album. Does this offer a significant change from the five “independent” tracks on Ninety-Nine Years? To be perfectly honest, I am not sure! I have now accumulated a generous number of Fujii albums; and I usually listen to any of them from beginning to end, rather than dwelling on individual tracks.

I suppose that the title of Second Attempt reflected Fujii’s desire to get this particular band “back together again.” Adding Kosack’s synthesizer does not make for a significant change in the overall dispositions of the performers and the music they create. In other words, I came away from listening to Second Attempt, with the satisfaction of listing to a band I had previously enjoyed in Ninety-Nine Years getting back together again!

Free Concerts at Noe Valley Town Square

Some readers may recall that Noe Music had finalized its Mainstage series of ten concerts this past May. However, I only recently learned that there will also be four free concerts taking place at 5 p.m. on Friday evenings in the Noe Valley Town Square, which is located at 3861 24th Street. As might be guessed, the title of this series will be Noe Music in the Square! I suspect that these will all be shorter in duration, so as not to interfere with plans for dinner! Also, the programs have probably not yet been entirely finalized. Nevertheless, I feel it is important to let readers know what the dates will be and what little further information is currently available.

Sunday, September 11: The title of the program will be Mozart Divertimento. More specifically, this will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 563 divertimento for string trio in E-flat major. Both co-artistic directors will perform: Owen Dalby on violin and Meena Bhasin on viola. As of this writing, the cellist has not yet been announced.

Sunday, September 18: The second performance will be by a cello quartet with performances that will traverse musical traditions involving Sudan, India, Southern Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Friday, October 2: Yacouba Sissoko will lead a trio playing the kora, a plucked string instrument, usually with 21 strings. He will share music from Mali, along with American folk and jazz sources, with cellist Mike Block. Percussion will be provided by Idrissa Koné. The trio will return the next morning for a Noe Music Kids performance. Sissoko and Block will then give a Mainstage recital on Sunday afternoon.

Le Jazz Hot performing at the Freight & Salvage coffeehouse (from the Noe Music Web page for their coming performance)

Friday, October 23: The title of the final program will be Le Jazz Hot. The performers will be the Hot Club of San Francisco, which specializes in Manouche jazz. In contrast to any of the American genres of jazz, the Manouche style was created in the café and courtyards of Paris roughly a century ago.

Center for New Music: September, 2026

Next month is when the concert season “officially” gets under way. As of this writing, “first out of the gate” will be the Center for New Music (C4NM). As usual, the month will serve up the unusual and the familiar, the latter including the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Each of the below dates is hyperlinked to an event page through which tickets may be purchased as follows:

Saxophonist Nora Free, Alex Heigl with his guitar, and bassist Chris Trinidad (poster design for the performers that will open the new season)

Friday, September 11, 7:30 p.m.: The season will begin with a one-off night of improvised music performed by a quartet. The “front line” will be taken by saxophonist Nora Free, accompanied by three “rhythm” musicians: guitarist Alex Heigl, Chris Trinidad on bass guitar, and drummer Ian MacKenzie. Those familiar with the wild improvisations by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders may detect his influence on Free. It is also worth nothing that McKenzie tends to prefer a “minimalist” approach to drum work. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, September 12, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this program is 2x2, because two duos will contribute to the program. After each of them takes a set, the program will conclude with their joining forces for a quartet performance. The program will begin with percussionists Kevin Corcoran and Jacob Felix Heule. They will be followed by James Fei and Bill Hsu, both working with electronic gear. Once again, general admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, September 19, noon: The first G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event of the new season will be the usual two-hour performance. The entrance fee will be $10 general admission with a $6 rate for students and C4NM members. There will be no further charge for the gourmet pancakes being served. There will be five sets of performances, most of which will be identified by what I have previously called “bleeding edge eccentricities.” Those sets will be as follows:

1. Dimmer is a duo of performers that depart from “the usual instruments.” Thomas Dimuzio is a pioneer in live sampling technology. He will be joined by Joseph Hammer who creates and works with tape loops.
2. Medicine Cabinet is the name for a solo performance by Marc Schnieder, who is based in Tracy, California; he creates is own networks of electronic gear for his shows.
3. Connor Tomaka has performed at C4NM in the past. At the end of April of 2022, he released an album entitled Mathematical Structuralism, currently available through a Bandcamp Web page. This was a duo performance with Eric Schmid involving a prodigious diversity of genres: metal, rock, alternative, hip-hop/rap, experimental, punk, pop, and ambient.
4. No information is currently available for the set taken by Impact Design.
5. The final set will be taken by Mabbie Bug & Company, described as “an alias or creative moniker associated with live music and experimental performance events.”

Saturday, September 26, 6:15 p.m.: Pianist Patrick Anderson will give a solo performance of the five numbered compositions by Philip Glass given the title Metamorphosis. The piano will be accompanied by live electronic and ambient effects. Glass selected the title because it was named for a novella by Franz Kafka. He composed his music to capture the book’s themes of isolation, emptiness, and despair. General admission will again be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

The Bleeding Edge: 8/24/2026

Compared to last week, this week will be relatively quiet. As will be seen below, there will be another three performances by Hidden Currents. These will be complemented by three new events on the first two of the three Hidden Currents dates. Specifics are as follows:

Thursday, August 27, 6 p.m., Exploratorium: It has been over a year since I wrote about an After Dark event at this venue. Dr. Desiré Whitmore will introduce the audience to the LASER Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Lest readers wonder what this has to do with music, her lecture will be embellished with clarinet performances by Ben Goldberg. There will be no charge beyond the fee for entering the Exploratorium, which is located at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, across from the intersection with Green Street.

Thursday, August 27, Friday, August 28, and Saturday, August 29, 7:30 p.m., Audium:  This will be the next installment of performances by Hidden Currents. As some readers may recall by now, the audience will sit in the center of the space in total darkness surrounded by 176 loudspeakers. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 1616 Bush Street. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available at the door for each show, on a first come, first served basis; but the preferred cost is between $20 and $30.

Friday, August 28, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares:  The next Other Dimensions in Sound offering, curated and hosted by Boohaabian reed player David Boyce, will be another two-set evening. The first set will be performed the Ark of Bones, the name given to the duo of cellist Chris Evans and Boyce playing a variety of saxophones. In the second set dummer Jordan Glenn will provide rhythm for two front-line players, Darren Johnston on trumpet and clarinetist Ben Goldberg. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

A 29-stringed concert kanklės (photograph by Rimantas Lazdynas, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Friday, August 28, 8:30 p.m., The Lab: Merope is the duo of Bert Cools alternating between guitar and electronics and vocalist Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, accompanying herself with the kanklės, a Lithuanian plucked string instrument. They will perform with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, whose primary instrument is bass guitar. In the second set pianist David Wesley Golightly will celebrate the release of his debut solo album, Seven Songs for Solo Piano. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street, a short walk from the transit stop at 16th Street and Mission Street.

New ECM Album Reflects on Past History

This coming Friday, ECM will release a new trio album entitled Windflower. Ayumi Tanaka leads from the piano with rhythm provided by Thomas Morgan on bass and drummer Thomas Strønen. There are nine tracks, eight of which are “group compositions” by the entire trio. Only the second track, “La Source” was composed only by Tanaka.

At the end of this past April, I wrote about the ECM album Homage, a jazz quartet led by tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano with the Marcin Wasilewskl Trio. On that occasion I revived an old (from 2012) trope describing the album as “an introspective quietude, rather than a more superficial retreat into ‘easy listening.’” It would be fair to describe the relationship between Windflower and Homage by the age-old-trope: “This is the sort of thing that people who like that sort of thing will like!”

To be fair, I am one of those “people.” Half a year after enjoying my first encounter with Homage, I am definitely ready for more! After all, my last encounter with Morgan was the article I wrote in November of 2024 about the ECM release of a ten-year old recording session. On the other hand, both Tanaka and Strønen were new to me, even though they were part of a combo here in my home town of San Francisco at the Red Poppy Art House back in June of 2018.

Mind you, I found the booklet photograph of Tanaka wistfully staring off into space to be a little bit too much. Fortunately, I was able to find one of her focused on her piano performance:

As far as I am concerned, that photograph provides just the right context for anyone listening attentively to any of the tracks on this album!

Frank Martin to Bring His Own Trio to Hanny

2015 photograph of Frank Martin at a piano keyboard (from his Musicians Union Web page)

Some readers may recall that, this past May, pianist Frank Martin contributed to a trio performance led by Jeff Denson on bass. At the end of this month, Martin will bring his own trio to Chez Hanny. Gary Brown will be his bassist with drums performed by Deszon X. Claiborne. Both of them have previously performed with Martin.

As always, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 30. Admission will be $25, payable by check or cash. Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-deductible donations will also be accepted.

Also as always, there will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend should bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served, meaning that reservations are strongly recommended. They may be placed through an electronic mail address: jazz@chezhanny.com. Mail messages received after noon on the day of a performance are unlikely to be seen until after the show is over, and cancellations should be given at least 24 hours advance notice. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show and moving furniture to accommodate both players and listeners are always appreciated.

The Bleeding Edge: 8/17/2026

This will be another busy week, with most of the events taking place in the second half. The one continuing event will be the performances by Hidden Currents, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, Friday, August 21, and Saturday, August 22. As some readers probably know by now, the venue is Audium, which is located at 1616 Bush Street. For the most part, the remaining events will involve “usual suspects” for both venues and performers. Specifics are as follows:

Tuesday, August 18, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: It looks like Tuesdays will now be the preferred day of the week for Jazz at the Make-Out Room performances. Once again, the program will consist of three sets. Multi-instrumentalist Isabelle Waldner Kalb will begin the evening with another duo performance. She will be joined by Conner Tomaka, who previously performed with her this past May at the Peacock Lounge. They will be followed by a solo set performed by Sung Kim. The program will then conclude with the Infinite Monkeys trio. Jaroba and Steve Munger share the front line with their reed instruments, and Joe Pineapple provides rhythm with both bass and electronics. For those that do not yet know, the Make-Out Room is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street. Doors will open at 6 p.m.

Thursday, August 20, Friday, August 21, and Saturday, August 22, 7:30 p.m., Audium:  This will be the next installment of performances by Hidden Currents. As some readers may recall by now, the audience will sit in the center of the space in total darkness surrounded by 176 loudspeakers. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 1616 Bush Street. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available at the door for each show, on a first come, first served basis; but the preferred cost is between $20 and $30.

Friday, August 21, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares:  The next Other Dimensions in Sound offering, curated and hosted by Boohaabian reed player David Boyce, will be (in his words) “a double dose of heavy duty sonic sustenance.” For the first “dose,” Boyce will be joined by guitarist Myles Boisen. The second set will be performed by Insect Life, whose members are clarinetist Ben Goldberg, Raffi Garabedian on tenor saxophone, cellist Ben Davis, and Daniel Ludon on trombone. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, August 21, 7 p.m., Gray Area Art and Technology: Last week I called out this venue for the length of its title and subtitle: Deliria 2, Cyberpunks Mutants & Mondoids: A Mondo 2000 Techno-Counterculture Gathering. The title of this week’s program is Phytomorphic Topologies, a joint project of sound, image, and ecology conceived by Pierce Warnecke and Matthew Biederman. This will be a seated performance for a “live audiovisual exploration of sound, image, and ecology.” Warnecke and Biederman have partnered with two local sound artists: Jorge Bachmann and Andrej Hrončo. The program will take place in the Grand Theatre, located in the Mission at 2665 Mission Street.

 

Evidence Trio members Kersti Abrams, Andrew Joron, and Michael Wilcox 

Sunday, August 23, 5 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The next performance at this venue will be shared by two trios. The first of these is Echo’s Bones, a trio led by Sheldon Brown, who will be playing a significantly diverse number of wind and reed instruments. He will be joined by Amber Lamprecht, who will alternate between oboe and English horn, and Joseph Noble, who plays flutes of all sizes, including bamboo flutes. The second set will be taken by the Evidence Trio, led by Kersti Abrams, who alternates among alto saxophone, flute, and mbira. As in the past, she will be joined by Andrew Joron on theremin and bassist Michael Wilcox. For those that do not already know, the bookstore is locate at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.

Sunday, August 23, 7 p.m., Rite Spot Cafe: Saxophonist Rent Romus will lead his Spirit Quintet in an evening of music composed by alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe. The other members of the quintet will be Derek Barber on guitar, pianist Brett Carson, Lisa Mezzacappa on double bass, and drummer Elihu Knowles. Admission will be free, but the venue will be the Rite Spot Cafe at 2099 Folsom Street. Listers will be encouraged to order dinner while listening to the quintet!

Sunday, August 23, 8 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The evening will see a second performance at this venue. Trumpeter Kenny Warren will lead his quartet. Both Goldberg and Garabedian will join him for another gig this week. The other member of the quartet will be guitarist Liberty Ellman.

The Last of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

Readers may recall that yesterday’s account of the seventh album in clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases consisted of quartet performances. This morning began with listening to the last of those eight albums, entitled Rock Band. This is another tongue-in-cheek title introducing a quintet led by Goldberg. He is joined on the front line by trumpeter Andrew Stephens; and rhythm is provided by Spencer Hoefert on guitar, drummer Hamir Atwal, and Michael Coleman in charge of multiple synthesizers. Coleman also managed recording the tracks at Figure 8 Recording, after which he took charge in mixing and mastering at Rocketship Sound, both located in Brooklyn, New York.

According to the advance material I received, Goldberg asserts that Coleman “is my favorite musician on the planet.” This says a lot about his enthusiasm for synthesizers, which I can appreciate personally. It may also explain why the very first sound on the very first track of Rock Band comes from a synthesizer.

I was an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when Robert Moog sold his first synthesizer. By the time I was in my senior year, I had my own desk at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, run by Marvin Minsky. Minsky, in turn, thought it would be a good idea to add a synthesizer to the laboratory resources; and one of the earliest models of the Buchla Modular Electronic Music System showed up in my office.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what technical resources Coleman used for the recording of Rock Band! That said, I appreciate how Coleman was able to blend his performance with the other four musicians. This is important, because one of the most interesting things about Rock Band is that an attentive listener will realize that none of the eleven tracks establish any distinction between foreground and background. Instead, all five of the performers know exactly how to blend their respective approaches to jamming, with the result that each of the eleven tracks has a unique journey of its own.

Personally, I rather enjoyed the fact that, in the wake of the diversity of instrumental combos encountered in the first seven albums in this collection, the last one should emerge with the “novel introduction” of an electronic synthesizer. One might even say that diversity was the “through line” across all eight of Goldberg’s albums. Mind you, while I have been accustomed to listening to entire operas by Richard Wagner for longer than I have been writing about them, I doubt that I would trying listening to this particular “cycle” in a single sitting. The problem is that, when I return to this collection of albums, making a single selection will be a hard choice!

The Seventh of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

The title of the seventh album in clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases departs from single words and brief phrases: Just What You Thought You Wanted. This is a quartet album with Goldberg accompanied by a rhythm trio consisting of Matt Hollenberg on electric guitar, bassist John Hébert, and Hamir Atwal on drums. All four of the performers contribute to the composition of the eight tracks.

For the most part, the rhetoric is meditative. However, two of the tracks are significantly intensive: “Frenzy in Four” (which speaks for itself) and “Echo of the Abyss.” These serve as “punctuation marks” for the more meditative tracks that precede each of them. To be fair, I am not sure I have grasped the semantics of any of the track titles, let alone figured out how they related to that I wanted (or what I thought I wanted)! Nevertheless, as an attentive listener, I was perfectly satisfied to let the rhetoric speak for itself.

More interesting is that the first two tracks on this album are the first to last for more than ten minutes over the course of all the preceded albums in this collection. Their titles are “Obscure Horizon” (12:50) and “Warp Signal” (16:34), both of which seem consistent with extended duration. I should also confess that this particular album seized my attention from the very first track, on which each of the four performers has his own take on adventurous improvisation. Was that what I “thought I wanted?” Quite honestly, I have no idea. Nevertheless, my attention was seized by that very first track and sustained over the duration of the entire album!

The Sixth of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

The title of the sixth album in clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases is Optical. I am not sure what he had in mind in assigning this title. My current conjecture is that it involves a visual account of the track listing:

1. Material
2. Materialize
3. Dematerialize
4. Rematerialize
5. Materialization
6. Dematerialization
7. Rematerialization
8. Materializationalism
9. Dematerializationalism
10. Rematerializationalsm
11. Materializationialsm Ah Um
12. Dematerializationalism Ah Um
13. Rematerializationalism Ah Um

That said, as is the case for all of the other albums in this collection, the auditory is far more significant than the visual. This is a trio album with Goldberg accompanied by Will Bernard on electric guitar and Hamir Atwal on drums. I am not sure whether there is any sense of “progression” in the listening process. However, unless I am mistaken, Goldberg saved the “punch line” for the final track, which includes a brief interjection of the primary theme from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee,” an orchestral interlude for the opera he composed entitled The Tale of Tsar Saltan. (Yes, that also showed up in Goldberg’s fifth album, Dreaming Upon Waking. Rimsky-Korsakov’s ghost must be feeling pretty smug these days!)

His own account of the album is as follows:

Since I can never get enough of Will’s guitar playing or Hamir Atwal’s drumming, I pulled them both into the studio one sweaty Brooklyn afternoon in the summer of 2025. This is what happened.

I was in elementary school when I was living in Brooklyn, now many decades in the past. My more recent visits to the borough have involved performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during the concert season (and even those are now part of my past). Any encounters with Goldberg have taken place in San Francisco (also some distance in the past).

That said, I appreciate the diversity that I have encountered in his albums; and I enjoyed the fact that this one allowed me to have a bit of fun!

The Fifth of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

The fifth album in clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases is a duo performance with percussionist William Winant. The title of the album is Dreaming Upon Waking, and four of the eleven tracks are identified with three-digit numbers between 699 and 747. That last of those pieces did not invoke any thoughts about jet aircraft; but the rapid clarinet passages struck me as inspired by “Flight of the Bumblebee,” the orchestral interlude that Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. Nevertheless, I doubt that any bumblebee could keep up with a Boeing jet airplane flying at top speed!

Winant’s percussion instruments include a vibraphone. This allowed him to reflect (sometimes in unison) on the thematic phrases Goldberg was playing. That said, he alternated deftly between the melodic lines on the vibraphone and the diversity of rhythmic phrases from the other percussion instruments. Because this is a duo performance, I found that much of it could be approached by an attentive listener as a call-and-response rhetoric.

To be fair, I am not quite sure of the interplay of dreaming and waking emerging over the course of the album; but I suspect that the most rapid passages performed by both of the players clearly involve waking!

The Fourth of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

Once again, I began my morning by listening to the fourth album in clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases. The title of the album is Trouble Trouble, and it consists of twelve tracks. The last of these is “Troubles,” composed by Steve Lacy; and it basically serves as a postscript for the entire album. All of the preceding tracks were composed by Goldberg, four of which have the title “Trouble” followed by a number. The first of these begins the cycle, and the fourth concludes it. Each of these pieces is structured around the iteration of a theme. For the performances themselves, Goldberg leads a trio with trombonist Danny Lubin-Laden and Myra Melford on piano.

It would be fair to say that there is no shortage of free improvisation; and Goldberg is already off to the races in his richly embellished account of the second track, “Drops Off.” Nevertheless, I came away with the impression that embellished repetition was the skewer through this particular shish kebab. One might almost say that the persistence of repetition over the course of the album might have been a reflection on another reflection on persistence: Salvador Dali’s painting The Persistence of Memory.

That said, I have to confess that I would be eager to encounter Trouble Trouble as a suite given a “live” performance. So much is happening among the three instrumental lines that watching the musicians “do their thing” would be more informative than just listening to them. Nevertheless, I am willing to admit that arranging a recording session is probably both easier and fulfilling than arranging a performance before an audience!

The Third of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

This morning began with my listening to the third album in clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases. The title of the album is Dog Hypnotic, and Goldberg plays a diversity of different instruments in the clarinet family. Kenny Wollesen accompanies on percussion, including pitched instruments such as bass marimba and vibraphone. My last encounter with him goes all the way back to March of 2015, when I wrote about his participation in Goldberg’s Orphic Machine album. The recording was engineered by Michael Coleman, who also interjected some “sound effects” of his own invention.

“Dog Hypnotic” is the fourth track on the album; but I was more interested in two tracks that acknowledge another (and more menacing) animal: “Python” and “Python Groove.” That said, I would not call the first of those two tracks “menacing.” Rather, it acknowledges a wild animal with improvisatory tropes that definitely go wild! More important, however, is how each of the tracks establishes its own unique dispositions, making the entire album an engaging journey unto itself. Unless I am mistaken, that journey includes a venture into gamelan sonorities on the “Say Goodbye” track.

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

As is the case with all of the albums in this series, the cover designs are informative but neutral. In other words, no dogs appear on the album cover! To be fair, however, “Dog Hypnotic” is the only one of the thirteen tracks that is even remotely related to dogs. Far more important, however, is the rich diversity of sonorities that emerge from the diversity of instruments performed by both Goldberg and Wollensen responsible for that sonic journey.