Ask a Local: Aaron Mace, Curator at Church of the Friendly Ghost

Ocote Soul Sounds The Alchemist Manifesto. This stuff is do deeply funky, it took me on a demono-cosmic space ride right in my living room, dead sober. I am delighted by this recording and I think that it manages a giant cross-genre negotiation with an fluid ease that is the mark of near-genius. I really appreciate the increasingly wide appeal that Adrian Quesada's music has enjoyed in the past couple of years and the fact that he is creating far reaching connections for Texas music in multiple contexts, several hard hitting recordings, and important collaborations. I had been looking forward to this project's release for months, and bought on the first day it was available. A ;ot of times when I anticipate a thing so much it falls shy of my expectations, but this thing over-delivered. I didn't expect such rich themes to be so succinct. I was expecting a couple 17 minute, purple-faced jam-outs at least and would have been happy with that, but what we got was much more hip that I could have imagined. Bravo, thank you, and looking forward to more. If i I had to say which of the five is top favorite it would probably go to this one by merit of overall number of times played, if only by a couple.

Alex Coke, Tina Marsh, Steve Feld It's Possible. I found that this record was a near perfect listing experience in Jazz. It has everything a wonderful jazz record should have: masterful players, mindfully executed virtuosic improvisations, a graceful negotiation of historical context and contemporary expression, unexpected sounds, poetic flow, spiritual energy. The sense of joy and adventure on behalf of the musicians is immediately palpable while at the same time there is this great sense of reverence to the music. This is the probably deepest listening I have been engaged in this year, and the recording has such a sophisticated aesthetic that it reveals something new on each repeated listen. nothing lingers too long, there are no bloated, self-gratifying solos. (The songs are even the perfect length, never too long to become an imposition on the audience.) It's all passionate conversation resultant of a long relationship among the musicians. It is the kind of expression that only years can help produce. I feel like we live in an exciting and sometimes frightening time, which seems to be reflected in the tone, cadence, and artistic choices at times, but never overshadowing the pure joy in music. Moving ahead in Jazz has never been harder to do and these three are sailing ahead.

Gary Barftits Good One Cheryl This one includes some of the last recordings of Cobo Foofaroo which was one of the first bands to perform at the old Church of the Friendly Ghost on Pedernales street. That band was aesthetically ahead of themselves even at that time, barely out of high school. Gary B had been working on this project for quite a long time and it the result is a fascinating collection of recordings that he very carefully rearranged into a slightly bizarre concept opera. Sometimes I have bits of it in my head, like you would have bits of West Side Story in your head for weeks after seeing it on stage. I'd very much like to see it executed on stage. The quality of attention here is interesting. its something one can borrow if you have a fantastic dream that you forget a few seconds after waking up. This music is endlessly fun. This is good music with real artistic merit, not "weird" music. In the context of contemporary musical expression over the past 50 years it isn't weird al all, but it might just stand up, and that's quite an achievement for such a young man. (Sam V., aka Gary B., performs in an acoustic duo on Dec 23rd during the Cookies For Prince Rama event, at SVT.)