Brief Repairs

1. Nicholas Slonimsky's Freedom Mambo Jazz Dance Party

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI)  (mp3)

2. Brief Repairs On The Gradually Unravelling Spool In The Sense Continuum

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI)

3. Sunny's Late Night Hammer 

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI) Arranged by James P. Walsh (Polly Phonic Music (BMI) (mp3)

4. Memories of 22 Dartmouth Road

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI)

5. The Semitic Problem

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI)

6. Well... Whatever

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI)

7. Memories of Illegal Music

(James P. Walsh) Published by Polly Phonic Music (BMI) (mp3)

8. The Theme: Red Bathed In Blue Light, A Clean Romance But Not Quite Right

(J. Freilich) Published by Der Kop Music (BMI)

Read David Kunian's Liner Notes

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Recorded at The Boiler Room Studios, Fig St - June 2000 by Mark Bingham

Mixed at The Boiler Room Studios, Fig St - October 2000 by Mark Bingham

Produced by Dr. James P. Walsh, Jonathan Freilich, Mark Bingham

Photography by Heidi Grace, Becky Lloyd

Art and layout by Dario Sanchez @ Vicious Circle Design

Illustrations/logo by Kristin Santos

Notes On Pieces

This piece was inspired by what I had learned with Mas Mamones, a Latin band that has since morped into Los Vecinos. But, I try to write to put musicians' and listeners' ears in a slightly different space. That way things are fresh again. The clothes can come off for a FreedomDance. The rhythm parts are quartal and the melody starts in rhythm similar to Eddie Harris's classic. I wrote some pan-diatonic humourous bits and that's where Slonimsky comes in.

Solos: Rick Trolsen (trombone); Joe Cabral (baritone saxophone); Antonio Gambrell (trumpet)

What's going on here? Every once in a while balance needs to be restored. Brief Repairs must be made. Otherwise, the spool gets loose. Eventualy of course it will come completely loose. Maybe this is just a psychological soundtool to help accept entropy.

Solos: Tim Green (tenor sax); Eric Lucero (trumpet)

See Jimbo's notes. Then: Sun Ra had a big impact on me. The Arkestra sounded so beautiful when I saw them. Later, I learned much from Carl LeBlanc and Michael Ray. Sun Ra used to work on music very hard. I picture him making musical sculptures with the Late Night Hammer.

Jimbo: This is how the piece came into being. One day Jonathan came calling with an idea for a piece that he wanted me to help him notate on the computer so parts could be printed out for the Csomic Krewe to read. The piece consisted of three interlocking ideas, a repetitive bass line, a short, slightly asymmetrical series of chords, and a skewed melody line. Later he asked me to arrange this piece for the Naked Orchestra. What I try to do when I arrange Jonathan's music is to "amplify" it, not simply by making it louder, but by taking the ideas and stretching, bending and recombining them, much the same way that the early composers of organum "amplified" chant melodies by extending them both chordally and melodically. Sometimes the melodies are simply expanded by adding other voices, sometimes melodic fragments are isolated and extended or pulled apart until other ideas occur. For more information listen to the music of Leonin or Perotin. You can find them on the net. This is how the piece sometimes feels to me: An industrial hammer rises and falls, pumping out a continuous driving rhythm. Workers come and go to factories and build machines. A composer sits alone in the night and feels a city pulsing in his notes. An arranger takes these notes tries to pull them apart and put them back together, unfolding the pulses, trying to imagine what will inspire improvisers, trying to create flames for improvisations that haven't happened yet. Sometimes one gets lucky and gets to work with people who are inspired. Go listen to Sun Ra now.

Solos: Rick Trollsen (trombone), Jeff Albert (trombone) and Matt Perrine (tuba); Michael Ray (trumpet), Eric Lucero (trumpet), Antonio Gambrell (trumpet); Jonathan Freilich (guitar)

This is dedicated to the Fried family. And others that used to hang around there: Armour-Brown, Osbornes, Seresins etc. I have fantastic memories from being there and growing up around you. This piece is a sort of tone poem that starts with the sound of the phone ringing. Erich Fried had a very distinctive way of answering the phone. Don't think I'll forget it. Then all kinds of sounds come in. Other voices, ice cream floats, typing, screaming kids etc.

Solos: Matt Perrine (tuba); Michael Ray (trumpet) and Janna Saslaw (piccolo)

Really the Semitic Solution. Everyone needs to realize that they are all one. Here is a situation - a mode associated with Jewish music. Same scaled starting on a different tone. What's all the fighting about? The piece plays off these two modes and then the situation.

Solos: Scott Bourgeois (alto saxophone); Rick Trolsen (trombone) and Jonathan Freilich (guitar)

This is blues. I know from what I was feeling when I was writing it. When people say, "Well, Whatever Man," it usually means they don't care. Do we really need any more increase in alienation from people telling each other that they don't care? What if the whole universe is one animal? You'd be telling yourself that you didn't care about yourself. There are also a few ordinary tonal problems. And, Oh Yeah!... I do love Charlie Mingus. But I didn't write it intentionally to resemble his style. I was just listening to his records day and night.

Solos: Tim Green (tenor saxophone); Jonathan Freilich (guitar)

Jimbo: During the Nazi reign of terror it was thought necessary by the ministers of propaganda to ban certain styles of music, especially Jazz and the music of Arnold Schoenberg and his followers. Memories of Illegal Music utilizes techniques developed from both of these styles and is intended to provoke curiosity about what kinds of things would make a music "illegal." After all, music is only nots and rhythms, a universal language that has no specific meanings. How could something so flimsy and ephemeral threaten a massive military terror-state to the point where it was felt necessary to ban it? Is there a mysterious power in the notes that gives tyrants reason for fear? Can you hear freedom? Can you hear it calling?

Solos: Brent Rose (tenor sax); Tim Green (tenor sax); Brent Rose (tenor sax)

Solos: Collective improvisation featuring the Naked Orchestra

The end.