Leonard Smalls

Now you're getting into zerotonal territory...

It's very like Bill Laswell's "Baselines" album, though Mr Neon has elevated it by the addition of a sock. Also a hint a Squarepusher... Genius!

Out of tune is a relative term... If we were only talking about our standard western system of 8 note scales within a 12 tone octave, fair enough. If you listened to Schoenberg, he'd be making music where all 12 tones are equal - that sounds "out of tune" and dissonant if you're only used to the 8 notes we usually use. However, if you use an interval between notes that isn't an Equal Temperament such as the Chinese tuning, that also sounds "out of tune" to us. Then you can use notes that are between our 12 tones - like somewhere between E and F - which would be microtones as used by Mr Fuze above, not easy on a guitar without it being fretless! But more notes means more possibilities, I'm sure we'll soon hear songs in the charts composed using the Bohlen Pierce scale, like this 😁

Mostly? Not all? It's slowly seeping in... Soon you'll be humming this on the toilet! As Zappa said - "Does humour belong in music?"

You're getting it - as the Chillis said many years ago: "Funk 'em, just to see the look on their face, funk 'em just to see the look on their face"! Just one more puff and you'll soon be in my grasp... Have some Fuze - only partly improvised and relatively sane but an easy way into microtonal stuff and weird keys.

I'd never really tried Henry and His Cow... Having dived in a bit seems like the sort of thing I'd really like bits of, and really hate other bits of. I think they're very like Magma - though I think I prefer the Frenchies! It's all a bit drones and repetition though I find the fireworks bits of Magma more exciting - though they're very far from improvised, in fact probably prog! You sound like my dad! 😉 But getting into this type of odd music is basically a question of finding something that speaks to you a bit, then you're no longer quite so resistant to the next lot of weirdness, then it's a slippery slope to Zorn's Noisecore... Bit like becoming immune to violence through watching video nasties! Here's my favourite bit of free improve, featuring Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass, Calvin Weston on drums (i.e. Prime Time's rhythm section) with Derek Bailey freaking out on guitar:

I had the misfortune today of working at a "family fun day". There was a girl singing and playing guitar - many people were saying how nice it was to have lovely music; to my ears it was like nails on a blackboard. She strummed basic chords, her song choice was bland, her singing nasal, occasionally a bit flat and increasingly annoying. But otherwise OK. I mean just about OK. I mean lowest common denominator OK - safe, of no musical interest, boring, kum-by-ah round the campfire OK. I would have preferred to see the folks shaken up a bit, challenged, taken out of their safe zones. But it'll never happen because it's easier not to - people like what they know and know what they like! Perhaps this is why I failed as a music promoter! 😁

Funnily enough I discovered the weirder end of jazz completely by mistake; I was DJing in Leeds in the 80s - mainly funk. And as there was no real means I knew of finding new music I'd buy stuff completely on spec. One day I saw an album cover with a sharp dressed black guy holding a Steinberger bass - it was an import costing £8.99 (this was 1985!!!) but I thought this looks like new funk, I'll play it at the Warehouse tonight! It was Jamaaladeen Tacuma's "Showstopper". I played it before sticking it on the dancefloor - didn't sound straight 4:4, there was weird repetition, there were too many notes, it just wasn't right. So I shoved it in the back of my record collection. A couple of years later I listened to it again, and somehow it just made sense... But it was a slippery slope, I craved more oddness, more dissonance, more crazy. Ornette and his harmolodics weren't enough. Through Shannon-Jackson I discovered Last Exit, Brotzmann, Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock, Steve Lacey, Lol Coxhill and the holy grail - Derek Bailey. It was like starting with a fag behind the bike sheds, graduating onto a sneaky spliff, onto white powders, bits of blotting paper, and finally, Free Jazz Improv. All other music sounded dull. After a long visit to the Betty Ford Clinic I was weaned back onto "normal" music, but thanks to this thread I'm hooked again. Cheers!

Most things operate at a higher level than me, unless they're on a lower level. Or the same level, obviously! Like this though:

Perhaps this is more to your taste? There's even some relatively coherent bits...

Bloody rubbish, that!

And with good reason! Here's a whole 1'30" of a surprisingly mellow Brotz...

I can do nice! I once played a melody you know. Just the once, mind. Melodies and tunes are for losers. 🎶

We always get the drums set up first, with my amp on drummer's left and geetar on his right. Then we all drop 3 tabs of acid each and start on the Buckfast to prepare ourselves...

It is possible! I was once in the house band for a Blues Jam weekend with Dangerous Dave and Jerry Rockstar...

Excellently groovy player... Been a fan since hearing him with Hasidic New Wave and Screaming Headless Torsos.

So you likes it sugar-coated as well? 😝 So I'm guessing Brotzmann's out too?

S'funny how anything different is dismissed as "elitist twaddle" rather than just "don't like it". Do they want vinegar or mayo with those chips? 😀 Saying that, I've got my 1st jam next week in a "rock project" with a drummer who played with Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall etc - perhaps I'll start us off with. Nice blues in E...

Talking of Laura Kuensberg...

Bootsy... solo starts at 5'45"...

The rack's got a dbx 2 channel compressor, a BBE pre and a Marshall Jubilee being used as power amp. The enormously heavy cab is a Yamaha 1x15" currently housing a Precision Devices 600w 15". 10cc? Eek! It's to teach the drummer to dance... It's the only way I can get some funk into the rest of the band!

There's a Sandberg you can just see the edge of on the right, and just out of shot there's a Kawai Sleekline! And a completely decorative banjo...

I saw them on the Pocket Calculator tour at Liverpool Empire, many years ago. One of the best gigs I'd ever been to!