Flotation Device 2023-06-25 - A Charles Ives premiere

A Charles Ives premiere recording in 2023, is that possible? His personal copy of 114 Songs bears handwritten suggestions on how several of them might be orchestrated and gathered into “sets” for performance. That was as far as he got with most of them, but thanks to the largess of James Sinclair and others, Ives' imagination has been posthumously fulfilled in a new recording of the complete Sets for Chamber Orchestra, which we sample in this show.

We also honor George Russell for his centenary, noting how his influence as a theorist and educator eclipsed his talent as a composer. We hear Paul Bley performing Carla Bley via our 50 years ago in the avant-garde feature. And we survey several brand-new albums of note, featuring orchestral works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Georg Friedrich Haas, free improv by Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri, Joëlle Léandre and James Ilgenfritz, crossover music by Anna Meredith, and unusual takes on drumming by Sara Glojnarić and Michael Valentine West.