Three Magicians: Farmers by Nature at the Stone

I made it out last night to Craig Taborn's residency at the Stone to hear the improvising group Farmers by Nature with Gerald Cleaver and William Parker. It was my first experience seeing them live, and the room was packed with free jazz musicians and aficionados. Before they started playing Gerald Cleaver remarked to the audience, "So should we pray now or later"?, perhaps in response to the hushed expectation that was beginning to electrify the room.
As they started playing the music immediately had a very physical, tactile feeling, especially watching Craig Taborn and William Parker. There was nothing "abstract" about their improvising, everything felt rooted in the body.....or in the earth? Does the name of the band imply something to this effect? "Farmers" of the primordial soil of music?
Every time I see Craig Taborn play the piano I'm struck by the way he's able to completely transform the instrument through the power of his musical imagination and staggering technique. There's always a moment where my ears stop registering the sounds as originating from the piano and the music enters a transcendent realm of pure sound.

You give experimental music a bad name (bad name)

The NY Times ran a brief profile on the Stone recently titled "In the Church of Difficult Music." Whew, that's sure to drum up some more business for the last bastion of experimental music in Manhattan! It's true that a lot of the music played at the Stone is not for everyone, but I really take issue with typecasting it all as "difficult", a word too often thrown at contemporary music. Why can't they try a word like "adventurous"? Also, there's such a wide variety of music at the Stone, they make it sound like every night there's some crazy unlistenable avant garde ceremony taking place.

Winter and Winter at the Stone

There was a lot of great music at the Stone this month with shows curated by the Winter and Winter record label. I saw two performances, one was a tribute to Paul Motian with Jim Black, Chris Speed, Oscar Noriega, Brad Shepik, and Trevor Dunn. I had never really thought about the link between Paul Motian and the music made by Black, Speed and their contemporaries, but it really made sense to me after this show.
This weekend I saw a duo concert by accordionists Guy Klucesvek and Alan Bern. I wasn't familiar with the several records they have out on Winter and Winter, but the show was really enjoyable. It was mostly composed music, very melodic and quirky.