Skronk

"Skronk" is a term coined by Robert Christgau (or at least Lester Bangs attributed it to him in his "A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise") to describe the music made by musicians in the late '70s art-punk movement No Wave (i.e. DNA, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, etc.), and like-minded noisy or 'difficult' pieces of music.

I just lifted that from http://skronkbox.blogspot.com. Of course, in the interim the term has been co-opted by other journalists to define a particular genre of music involving the saxophone. The downtown music of John Zorn comes to mind as an archetype for "skronk."

I do giveth and partaketh of the ol' skronk my own seff, though I feel as though the noisy aspect isn't quite as involved in my own playing. I have witnessed first hand people that find my free playing incredibly noisy and unmusical though, so the skronk is in the eye of the beholder. You can be the judge if you download the performances I'm posting of duets with Keith Leslie (on drums.) Keith is an incredible drummer and pianist, never ceasing to amaze me with his sense of spontaneity. He was the original drummer of Samadha and also played keyboards in Twittering Machine.

Why do I like this style of music? Because it's HARD. When nothing is preset and no one knows whats about to happen...well I think it's actually alot truer to what daily life is really like. It often sucks, but when it doesn't it can be very, very beautiful (in the words of John Lurie.)

Okay, enough bullshit.

There are three files: two live sets from Eyedrum and one from live @ WREK.

They are pretty big files but I think some of you will really enjoy them. They go well with coffee..maybe 10 a.m....I'll see you there.


Keith and Ben Avant Duets are here...


p.s. I encourage everyone to find John Coltrane's "interstellar Space" cd. That album inspired me to pick up the saxophone after a 5 year post high school hiatus. It is really what is behind my desire to explore the tenor sax/drum format. I've been listening to it for about 12 years now and I keep finding new things in it.