September 9, 2008

I'm on time this week! Here's the track list, posted in the same day as the show:

"III Wooster St." - Francois Bourassa Quartet (Rassnotes)
"Minor mood" - The Poll Winners (he poll winners: Barney Kessell with Shelly Manne and Ray Brown)
"Golden eagle dance" - Didier Lockwood & Raghunath Manet (Omkara)
"House of Haynes" - Joel Haynes Trio + Seamus Blake (Transitions)
"Brick steps (part III: fallback plan suite)" - Taylor Eigsti (Let it come to you)
"Monkey waits" - Simon Fisk/Chris Gestrin/Jerry Granelli (Vague hotels)
"The real mcbop" - Arturo Sandoval (Live at the Blue Note)
"Paris of the prairies" - Mark Dejong (The unknown)
"Breaking and entering" - Adam Niewood & His Rabble Rousers (Epic journey)
"Law of balance" - David Gilmore (Unified presence)
"Sway" - Jane Bunnett (Embracing voices)
"There was something in my drink" - Bobby Previte and the New Bump (Set the alarm for Monday)
"El amor en los tiempos de la finca" - Rova Saxophone Quartet (Beat kennel)
"Measure up" - Robert Walter (Cure all)
"Death of a space piper" - Rare Air (Space piper)
"Homage" - Frank Gratkowski Quartet (Spectral reflections)
"Fall song: dusk" - Jan Jarczyk (Fall songs)
"If that's true" - Esperanza Spalding (Esperanza)
"Kitten" - Dave Douglas (Moonshine)
"In a sentimental mood" - The Brooklyn Saxophone Quartet (The way of the saxophone)
"Agur janunak" - Elkanno Browning Cream (Elkanno Browning Cream)

In some ways, this is a fairly "straight" set (for Breaking The Tethers), at least for the first couple of hours. Nothing wrong with that, though. The last hour is more on the freakier side, especially with the Gratkowski Quartet piece and the rock-like "Kitten" by Dave Douglas.

Folks may notice that there were two sax quartets featured this week, Rova and Brooklyn. I didn't plan to play tracks from these similar groups (they have the same instrumentation: soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) but that's the way it turned out. It got me to thinking that there are actually a fair number of saxophone quartets, perhaps the most famous of which is the World Saxophone Quartet.

Next week's edition of Breaking The Tethers will be my last for a month. For a variety of reasons, I'll be unavailable until the October 14 show.

Andrew