A concert poster from Soundscape.
Yesterday, the New York radio station WKCR started broadcasting and online archiving concerts from a venue called Soundscape, recorded between 1979 and 1983. Note those dates: At a time when many improvising musicians had been priced out of their DIY loft performance spaces, and even mainstream jazz was at a low ebb in the public eye, Soundscape was a place for cats to play. And not just any cats, but a lot of prominent modern/free/whatever jazz musicians of the day, from the city or abroad: David S. Ware, Sun Ra, Steve Lacy, Peter Brotzmann, Derek Bailey, James "Blood" Ulmer, Marion Brown, etc. Tuesday nights also saw Afro-Latin jams, from both New Yorkers (the Gonzalez brothers, Hilton Ruiz) and recent Cuban emigres (Paquito D'Rivera, Daniel Ponce).
Verna Gillis, an ethnomusicologist who wore many hats in the music business, booked and ran the space. Some years ago, she handed over her collection of recordings to WKCR to restore and archive. So from Sept. 6-20, the station is featuring a lot of those recordings on air; online, a fair amount of the concert recordings are being archived as streaming MP3s. (You can leave a comment on the Facebook fan page too.) Three sets are already up, with photos, and more are on the way. Lots of listening to do here. [WKCR: Soundscape Archive // Broadcast Schedule]
P.S.: Full disclosure: As a college student, I was once the jazz director (also, program director) at WKCR. In fact, I recall first receiving the Soundscape donations way back when. But I haven't had any hand in shaping the station since then, which is part of why it's nice to hear about this. Back in the day (not long ago), WKCR was barely populated enough to make 24 hours of radio a day. I presume it still is, but slowly, the station is forcing a foot into the digital media sphere with this archive. It's welcomed here, both personally and professionally.
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