Thursday, March 14, 2024

March 11, 2024

The main thing in this episode of Breaking The Tethers was an interview with drummer and composer Will Régnier, who called us from Laval, QC. We discussed his new record, Traces, and played a couple of tracks from it. Thanks, Will! Other music played included, as I noted on the BTT home page,  "James Brown, solo bass, solo piano, another variation of Soft Machine, and much more!" That's a nice mix! Listen to it all here.

Next week, Monday, March 18, it'll be interview time again. I'll be chatting with Arthur and Jeff from Last Ark Out, who are from Vancouver. We'll talk about their new album, Lift, and more. Plus great music will be played. Please join me from 10 to 11 am MT at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM

Many thanks.

Andrew

Sunday, March 3, 2024

February 26, 2024

On the page for this show on the CJSW site, I described the program with these words: Jazz flute! Oddball guitar! Avant (small) big band! Saxophone strangeness! Fusion funkiness! I think that covers it well! It was a good show with interesting tracks. A number of listeners agreed; I had several positive texts during the broadcast from folks who dug the music. You can feed the whole thing to your ears here.

For the next episode of BTT, on Monday, March 4, the music will play but I won’t be there. I’m away this week but Steve Russell will be taking my spot. He’ll do a great job. Join him from 10 to 11 am MT at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM.

Thanks.

Andrew

Monday, February 19, 2024

February 19, 2024

A solid show for Family Day 2024. Old stuff, new stuff, and a number of large ensemble performances. The top track, IMHO, was "Kind folk", written by Kenny Wheeler and performed by Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, and Bill Frisell, from the 1997 ECM album Angel song. I played a version of this song by Craig Brenan and Florian Ross a few weeks back and thought I would contrast that with the original (I think this is the first recording of "Kind folk"). I've played this before on BTT a couple of times but it's so good, it deserves another airing. Here's the link to the full show: shorturl.at/kpqDP

Breaking The Tethers for February comes to an end next week, Monday, February 26. Join me for this last show of the month that day from 10 to 11 am MT at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM.

Looking at the two weeks after that, I'll be away for the Monday, March 4 program. Steve Russell will be guest-hosting in my place. After that, on Monday, March 11, I'll be interviewing Canadian musician Will Regnier, who has a new album out, Traces.

Thanks.

Andrew

Sunday, February 18, 2024

February 15, 2024 - Alternative To What?

As happens a few times a year, I was blessed with the chance this week to guest-host the long-running CJSW program Alternative To What? The regular host, Kerry Clarke, was unable to host this week so she very kindly deputized me in her stead. Many thanks to Kerry!

Music-wise, when I host ATW, I tend to go a little crazy. Sometimes I go a lot crazy. Maybe I did that this week. There certainly was a GREAT DEAL of variation, starting with the Fat Elvis Zeppelin reggae of Dread Zeppelin to the weirdo keyboard glitches of Xenopraxis. In-between, among other things, we had Revolution 9 gone chipmunk, lots of vibes, a few avant jazz tracks, a 38 second song by Yes, Nigerian rock, and much more. Feed it all to your brain here.

Thanks.

Andrew

Saturday, February 17, 2024

February 12, 2024

As with last week’s BTT episode, most of the tunes here are newly-released or re-released, with a couple of older selections added for good measure. What was my favourite song from the tracks today? Probably the first one played, “Chin miau” by Yusef Lateef from his influential 1961 album, Eastern sounds (this was the reissue). Fun song of the day: “Coop’s condiments” by Jennifer Wharton’s Bonegasm, which is a song (with vocals) about the condiments in a restaurant (seriously). It’s all here.

The penultimate episode of Breaking The Tethers this month is next week, February 19 is the day. 10 to 11 am MT is the time. CJSW 90.9 FM or cjsw.com is the station.

Thanks

Andrew

February 5, 2024

A lot of new jazz came into the station in the week or two preceding this edition of Breaking The Tethers. Accordingly, I featured a lot of this stuff in the show; all of this was good. I also put in a couple of older tunes, “I’ve been to many places” by Matthew Shipp, one of my faves, and “Sciatica” by the Kyle Brenders Quintet, an interesting track from an album that I had largely forgot about; I’m glad I played it. You can listen to the show here

Thanks.

Andrew

July 24, 2023

Nine is the number when it comes to Breaking The Tethers. Unless I play a bunch of short tunes and I don’t play anything very long, I end up featuring nine songs on the show. This is what happened this week (and on many other weeks). A few tracks to point out from this week’s nine:

“Trip merchant” by Larry Young. Organ jazz starting to head outside, just before Young became Khalid of Space.

“Fell to earth” by Soft Machine. This might be the best cut from this long-running group’s latest studio album, Other doors.

“Outeroids” by Alan Shorter. Free jazz from Wayne Shorter’s trumpet and flugelhorn playing brother.

You can listen to the nine at shorturl.at/atyF4

Thanks.

Andrew