Zechs Marquise.  Legendary pilot of the OZ-00MS Tallgeese.  Callsign “Preventer Wind”.  Respected on the El Paso music scene.

This is more than a reason to impose a flashback to my formative years on the blog.  Just bear with me.  A while ago I had heard that Marcel and Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez (related to Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta) had put together a side project called Zechs Marquise and were keeping it a separate entity in the hopes of not being catapulted into the spotlight by The Mars Volta.  For a while, it seems, they remained pretty obscure and hadn’t been playing any shows in my area, but recently I got ahold of their 2008 LP and an EP and am extremely pleased.

Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare incorporates elements of progressive rock and jazz, but it doesn’t play like a Mars Volta record; or it doesn’t play like a recent Volta record.  There’s a sense of spaciousness on the album that provides room for layers of instrumentals, jams, and ambience to build up into walls of sound that feel ready either to crumble or crush.  The tracks “Strapped to the Mast” and “Sirenum Scopuli” are the perfect examples, escalating from a funky, minimalist jazz overture to an exploding grind, plateauing with an agoraphobic, spacey jam, exploding again, and leaving you with a sort of electronic paranoia.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a bias when it comes to the wankery that the Rodriguez-Lopez familia produces, but I don’t think it’s a unreasonable one.  The music is damn good.

Strapped to the Mast

Sirenum Scopuli
 

http://www.myspace.com/zechsmarquise

Time for some spiritual meditation crap. If you feel the same way I do about hippie-indian-wannabe spiritual stuffs and have no love for it then we will get along very well. Thankfully, this is acceptable spiritual meditation crap, thanks to its tenor saxophone and that ever elusive jazzy harp. 

If you recognize the artist’s last name, it’s not because she’s biting (stealing) that it to gain credibility for her music. Coltrane is the last name of some tenor saxophone player named John. Alice Coltrane is John Coltrane’s wife and a talented pianist, organist, harpist and composer.

Skipping to the song, and not caring about interesting paragraph transitions. This song was released in the 1970’s; a time when LSD, San Franciscans, and hippie crap ruled American youth’s mind. It’s a pretty relaxing Jazz fusion song which I hope you’ll enjoi.

Alice Coltrane - Journey Into Satchidananda
 

Continuing with the chill music from this week, it’s Stan Getz.

Stan Getz is a tenor saxophone player from New York City whom you might recognize from his and Astrud Gilberto’s popular 1960s Bossa tune, The Girl from Ipanema. Getz was a major player in introducing bossa music to N. America and Europe, but had his start in cool jazz.

Getz’ was timid as a boy with a musical gift. He was able to hum entire songs, instinctively sense pitches and rhythm and was quick to pick up sight playing. About music he says:

“It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn the sentences, which are the chords, and then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically, I love to talk off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about.”
- Stan Getz

With that I’ll let Getz do the talking. Enjoi

Stan Getz - Summertime

Frank

How should Nujabes be classified? Hip Hop? Jazz? soul? It is difficult to place the Japanese producer Jun Sebas (せば) in any singular category. His diffucult-to-categorize music is excellent, always remaining interesting and never resting on repetitiveness. It is like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon combining the ruthless kicks and punches found in hip hop with that smooth weightless tree limb hopping cool jazz creates.

It is difficult to just pick one song from his many. So I give you two, not only as an introduction to the Jazz Category, but also so you can understand how magnificent sampled music can be, just as another view to David Axelrod’s.

Oh and screw categorization. Enjoi

Nujabes ft. Pase Rock - Sign

Bonus: Feather (Feat. Cise Starr & Akin From Cyne) - Feather