We begin this eclectic podcast by celebrating the indefatigable drummer Andrew Cyrille for his 85th birthday with help from Cecil Taylor, Kit Downes and Bill Frisell. We give a long listen to the new Dai Fujikura album with concertos for shamisen, shakuhachi and tuba, plus we sample Sub Rosa’s new anthology of Women in Turkish Electronic Music, and a trio offering by Todd Sickafoose and company that honors Thelonious Monk in an unusual way. Our 50 years ago in the avant-garde feature revisits the November 1974 zeitgeist that produced Éliane Radigue’s Adnos I and George Crumb’s Makrokosmos II. And we hear the fusion styles of Miles Davis and Frank Zappa converging in some contemporaneous studio and live recordings that feature lots of enthusiastic guitar playing plus an extended electric piano solo by George Duke (the only musician to tour with both those men). A latter-day summation by Brandon Seabrook from his new solo album on Pyroclastic Records rounds out the playlist.
