KkK

 

Stephen Bett

Sound Off

 

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber

crusty…tectonic funk of Miles Davis’
Dark Magus and Agharta bands

Bill Milkowski

Not Brown Sugar
—a band with something
to say

Lean into tone conversations
the ensemble echo chamber
Splashes of argot color, triple-X
axes, rhythm section,
horns & voices
(bells & whistles
squeaks & squawks
in the risible ark)

Rollick on a groove
soul-infused funk
—all the way over
improv-pure sprawl
to “Eno-meets-Teo”
laptop sound-
scape
(I don’t know
what I’m doing
neither do we)

Listen up!

Yup, we’re thinking
Sun Ra
right back to our
unrisen, easy
gone youth

 

 

Jesse Cook

 

Quality smooth jazz

Guilty pleasure

All the way from
the Coach House
to our house

Enough guilt there
for two,
evidently

 

 

 

Julia Hülsmann Trio

 

A little ponderous, yes
—but in a totally good
way

a Manfred Eicher way
an ECM way

a Zen less-is-more
way

Like the chorus—
strophe, then
anti-strophe

Here / There
in confident measure

Wander into each corner
to hear how
it sounds

Beauty will ponder
itself

That’s what it
does best
—& in good
measure