John Frusciante: Ataxia II
Back in 2004 Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist, John Frusciante, along with bassist Joe Lally of Fugazi and drummer Josh Klinghoffer, released an album called AW (Automatic Writing). The name they gave to the band was “Ataxia”, which in Greek means “disorder”. These next words were taken from Frusciante’s website, where he talks about the Ataxia sessions:
“We played two shows and recorded two records. The first record was released in August 2004. It was named after the surrealist activity called Automatic Writing. That was where people like Andre Breton and Max Ernst would write words in the form of sentences and paragraphs, but with absolutely no conscious attempt at meaning. They would observe the structure of their subconscious and it’s peculiar methods of organization (or the lack thereof) this way. And if there is one sure answer I can give to the question, ‘How did you write and record two albums in a week and a half?’, it is that we gave absolutely no thought to what we were doing, whatsoever. This music is unblemished by any expectations of a specific result, on our part. The three of us simply got together to hear what music had to say that week. We had fun together and this is the record of that fun”.
The second half of these 2004 sessions, which includes five tracks, will be out in a couple of days, on May 29th.
The Police: Pop-Rock at its Best
The Police 30th Anniversary reunion world tour will kick off this May 27. The legendary trio will start its North American tour at Vancouver’s GM Place and travel through different cities in Canada and the United States until early August, and will be back again for a couple of concerts in November after the European tour. The tour sold out almost immediately in all centers but tickets are still available in some cities. Check the schedule for more information. “We’re still getting our act together and finding our groove as a band,” Stewart Copeland said in an interview to the New York Post. “Last time we toured together, we were 24 years old. After all this time [apart], we had a lot of melding to do. We can see and hear where our weaknesses are and what we need to work on.”
Andy Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland had made a few impromptu reunions at parties and weddings, but it appeared that a full-scale reunion was out of the question.”It was harder to get back together than any of us thought it would be,” Copeland says. “Sting, Andy and I have each been master of his own universe for more than 20 years and we’ve not used to collaborating.” The Police will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their recording debut with their first double-disc CD ‘Best of’ collection entitled, The Police (A&M/UMe), to be released June 5, 2007.
Jim Hall & Bill Frisell Collaboration
Artistshare has announced an upcoming collaboration between jazz guitarists Jim Hall and Bill Frisell. “I am very excited about my upcoming collaboration with fellow guitarist Bill Frisell”, states Jim Hall on his website. The project will consist of a duo recording planned for Summer 2007. Artistshare is a place where fans fund the projects of their favorite artists in exchange for the privilege of “participating” in the creative process. According to Artistshare, The Jim Hall-Bill Frisell project is still being formulated, and will be open for participation in the next following weeks. If you have any suggestions for the project you can email them at hallfrisellproject@artistshare.com. You can check for updates on this recording project either through ArtistShare or Jim Hall’s website.
Adam Rogers: Time and the Infinite
Time and the Infinite
Jim Hall: All Time Guitar Giant
I had the pleasure of seeing Jim Hall live in Hartford, Connecticut two nights ago (being a fan myself, I was very excited to see him play for the first time). The trio consisted of Scott Colley on double bass and Lewis Nash on drums; a great complement to Jim Hall’s gentle and expressive guitar playing. He had his Sadowsky signature guitar with him, along with a Polytone Mini Brute amp, a chorus pedal (looked like a Boss, but I’m not sure), and a harmonizer pedal. I was impressed to hear how soft he can play sometimes and how clear the band’s sound was. I was really impressed when Lewis Nash shook his brushes in the air and I was able to hear them (that’s the level of softness I’m talking about). The music was all about creating moods and landscapes. No pyrotechnics, no poses. I really enjoyed it.
Jim Hall is known to be a gentle and sophisticated guitar player, but he can get pretty wild sometimes, and can still sound as modern as anybody today (maybe because guitar players today actually sound like him). On the program notes, Jim Hall was quoted as saying that he hopes he has grown musically all these years, that he thinks a musician should grow. I think he definitely has. Jim Hall, now 76 years old, has always been an innovator, a musician always stretching to embrace new influences, something that is very hard to do for many musicians after some point.
This same trio released a CD recorded live at the Village Vanguard in 2005, called “Magic Meeting”. They played some of the tunes from this record: “Bent Blue”, “Blackwell’s Message”, “Skylark” and “Body and Soul”. They also played a really nice version of “All The Things You Are”, “Careful”, “Hide and Seek”, “Flat Furnace” and a short improvisation they named “Peace” (I know I’m missing some names). Jim Hall mentioned that he only gets to play with Colley and Nash about once a year now, so I was really lucky to catch this show.