Mo' links...

Vijay Iyer premiered his orchestral work Interventions at the American Composers Orchestra's 30th anniversary concert at Zankel Hall. It seems Iyer's piece got favorable reviews across the board - I particularly enjoyed the latter article imploring the reader to "imagine Thelonious Monk in an anti-gravity chamber," even if I had a hard time imagining it myself.

I came across this old, but still pertinent review of the AACM ensemble Frequency's debut, eponymous release on Thrill Jockey records. I mention it because Frequency is about to do a little east coast jaunt, with stops in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and New York (I'm waiting to hear from Nicole Mitchell about the venues for Pittsburgh and NYC - I'll post them when I hear). So if you're in any of those cities, getcher ass out the door and support creative live music. Frequency is: Nicole Mitchell, Ed Wilkerson, Harrison Bankhead, and Avreeayl Ra.

I also stumbled upon this great essay about the Black Artists' Group of St. Louis on Oliver Lake's site. It's worth taking the time to read - if the AACM is under-documented, then there's some hyperbolic word for the unwritten history of the BAG.

Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang recently recorded with Chicago based experimental group Yakuza. I don't know what their connection to the group is other than a shared hometown - it's the second recent interesting crossover for Drake, who also recorded on Akron/Family's recent EP.

Also, there's a great site that deals with John Coltrane's music called The Traneumentary, featuring music from 'Trane and a variety of commentary from musicians [via Mwanji].