Liner notes:
Jessica Aszodi & Eli Namay.
Recorded 1/4/2018 in Chicago as a part of Aszodi's artist residency at High Concept Labs.
released November 1, 2020
Recorded by Eli Namay
Mixed by Eli Namay & Jessica Aszodi
I laid down some upright bass on Track 2 of this album, by my good pals in Cordoba. I’m also in the music video performing some “musical labor” … lol.
Liner Notes:
Specter is motivated by a deep-seated feeling that the fabric of society is quickly unravelling, and their songs react to issues like gentrification, police brutality, and escalating social unrest. Cordoba also reflects on feelings of isolation and anxiety that have only been amplified in this time of pandemic. The album is characterized by the band’s typical off-kilter grooves, nuanced arrangements, and vocal versatility, this time incorporating performances from KAIA String Quartet and a cast of local jazz musicians.
released October 30, 2020
Cordoba is…
Brianna Tong - Vocals
Eric Novak - Vocals, Saxophone, Flute, Oboe, Bass Clarinet
Cam Cunningham - Guitar
Zach Bain-Selbo - Keys
Khalyle Hagood - Bass
Zach Upton-Davis - Drums
Also featuring...
A.ADISA - Vocals on Track 2, Background Vocals on Track 3
Neko Jackson - Background Vocals on Track 3
Eli Namay - Bass on Track 2
Matt Riggen - Trumpet on Tracks 2, 3, 9, 11
David Fletcher - Trombone on Tracks 2, 3, 9, 11
KAIA String Quartet - Strings on Tracks 2, 5, 7, 9, 11
Tracks 3, 10, 11 written by Cam Cunningham
Tracks 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, written by Cam Cunningham and Brianna Tong
Track 2 written by Cam Cunningham, Brianna Tong, and Asha Adisa
Tracks 4, 9 written by Cam Cunningham and Eric Novak
This record was recorded at Jamdek by Doug Malone and at Limbic Audio by Cordoba’s own Zach Bain-Selbo. It was mixed by Zach Bain-Selbo and mastered by Greg Obis of Chicago Mastering Services. Album art by Eric Novak and Brianna Tong.
Liner notes:
BILL HARRIS - DRUMS
GERRIT HATCHER - TENOR SAXOPHONE
ELI NAMAY - BASS
RECORDED BY BILL HARRIS LIVE AT THE WHISTLER ON JUNE 9TH, 2019
MIXED AND MASTERED BY BILL HARRIS
ARTWORK BY GERRIT HATCHER
ALL MUSIC BY BILL HARRIS, GERRIT HATCHER AND ELI NAMAY
TOTAL TIME - 36:54
KTHL004
Errata's debut album recorded March 03, 2019 at the Shape Shoppe by Nick Broste.
released May 10, 2020
Ishmael Ali - guitar & electronics
Eli Namay - upright bass
Bill Harris - drums & percussion
mixed and mastered by Errata
artwork by Errata
tracks 1,3,5, & 6 - Ali
2 - Namay
4 - Harris
After some years playing together in various configurations, Carol Genetti & I (Eli) play duo for the first time at Myopic Books on October 21st. This was a month and a half before I moved to Pittsburgh from Chicago. It was also during the 2019 Chicago Teacher & Staff strike, which I was working on supporting through the Democratic Socialists of America. It was a time of peak burnout for me, where I was processing the last decade growing up, living, organizing and playing in Chicago - as well as taking in and being a part of a very intense political moment. I think the intensity and sensitivity of the time, and the spirit of the political and music communities comes through on this recording done on Carol's zoom, played in front of a few book store characters and some close musical comrades (Gerrit Hatcher & Julian Kirshner, who unwittingly contribute with finger tapping here and there, which I am very into).
released May 6, 2020
Carol Genetti - vocals & electronics
Eli Namay - upright bass
Artwork and recording by Carol Genetti
Mixed by Eli Namay
Solo upright bass recorded live at Elastic Arts in Chicago, February 27th 2020.
released May 1, 2020
Recorded and Mixed by Bill Harris
Eli Namay - upright bass & album art
All music by Eli Namay except Composition No. 245 by Anthony Braxton & Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum by Wayne Shorter.
Liner notes:
I.
Even light
descends from air
to flesh
In a long lung
of thought
upon us,
Open to retain
the warmth rememberd
limb by limn
II.
Asks us
what wilderness
outside this,
that such and such
diffusion of phosphor's essence~~
'phoricin in its condensation
(sentenced to its recapitulation)~~
visits us,
sparrow-esque
like a sun-hed, stout,
burgeoning in particular,
bird-brag hailing
arabesque
from the wood
and planes outside
horizons. not up nor down but in
or out~~strong wind, a swift emerging nether
cloud pitches about the unsung note
'til held
by the head.
Founded in the Winter of 2017 Adam Shead’s Adiaphora Orchestra is a large mixed chamber orchestra performing the compositions and conductions of percussionist composer, and educator Adam Shead. The Adiaphora Orchestra, located in Chicago, IL, is comprised of the cities finest rising star improvisers from a variety of performance idioms and practices. Including a full string, brass, woodwind, auxillary, and rhythm section the ensemble performs what Shead calls “indifference music”. Adiaphora, meaning an act that is neither moral nor immoral is the basis for the music of the ensemble, performing long form pieces that have little interest in codified ways of knowing musical expression. This resistance to the codified structures of improvisation brings about a type of musical indifference, or rather a love from the ensemble for creating something that is uniquely their own, something not bound to the constructs of musical hierarchy. “Miniature Paintings and the Impossible Warehouse” is a series of pieces dealing with diametrically opposed concepts of scale. Utilizing both the concept of miniature paintings or micro scaler systems displaying the distortion of reality, and the impossible warehouse as the macro or literal representation of reality the orchestra hopes to display an honest reflection on concepts of delusion, paranoia, imitation, contentment, and interpersonal relations. The debut album from Adam Shead’s Adiaphora Orchestra, “Miniature Paintings and the Impossible Warehouse”, will be physically produced and released by Chicago based record label Amalgam Music.
Adam Shead is among the newest generation of Chicago improvisers, bringing his unique approach to the drum set to such groups as Adam Shead’s “Finding Home”, Wark/Dawid/Heinemann/Shead, Ben Zucker’s “Fifth Season”, the Stein/Shead duo, and the Adiaphora Orchestra. Shead’s background in hardcore punk, contemporary classical, jazz, and improvised music provides him with the ability to move fluidily throughout a myriad of musical styles while utilizing extended techniques, blistering speed, and dynamic control in a manner often unheard of on the drum set. Shead has performed at renowned music festivals such as The Present is Present in Amsterdam, NL, The Ann Arbor Edge Fest, Homebody Festival in South Bend, IN, and The Chicago Jazz Festival. Shead has performed alongside such luminaries as Jason Stein, Tim Daisy, Steve Swell, John Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouders, Mary Oliver, Anna Webber, Angel Bat Dawid, and Matt Piet. Shead is the founder and conductor of the twenty piece Adiaphora Orchestra and currently works as the Director of Outreach at Slate Arts and Performance in Chicago, IL.
released April 30, 2020
Recorded at Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago, IL on September 15, 2019.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Bill Harris.
Adam Shead - Conduction
Johanna Brock - Violin/Voice
Scott Rubin - Viola
Erica Miller - Cello
Ishmael Ali - Cello/Electronics
Eli Namay - Double Bass
Andrew Scott Young - Double Bass
Jakob Heinemann - Double Bass
Jeff Kimmel - Clarinet
Sarah Clausen - Alto Sax/Clarinet
Chris Moore - Alto Sax/Recorders
Jake Wark - Soprano/Tenor Sax
Mark Mahoney - Trumpet/Accordion
David Fletcher - Trombone
Matt Riggen - Tuba/Trumpet
Matt Murphy - Toy Instruments
Ben Perkins - Veena
Ben Zucker - Vibraphone/Voice
Matt Piet - Piano
I wrote the liner notes to this compilation, which was put together as a fundraiser for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2020. I’m not sure I still agree exactly with what I said, but either way its a reflection of a real feeling, from a particular time and place.
I appear with Devouring the Guilt on Track 2
Liner Notes:
100% of the sales of this record will go towards Bernie Sanders' campaign. Give what you can while checking out some important Chicago documentation; over three hours of music! Every little bit counts!
Words by Eli Namay:
As both a creative musician and activist I've sometimes struggled to articulate the connection between these two worlds. At times I’ve felt as if all my musical work must have political meaning through either adequately deconstructed aesthetics or on-the-nose messaging. Looking back at this period, I see that both my music and my political action suffered. Music cannot have political weight in this way. While aesthetics can help bring people together, transform us emotionally and spiritually, or help carry a political message for organizing (like the old Industrial Workers of the World songs did), political action that actually moves toward changing power relations cannot happen in the aesthetic realm.
Yet, there is something political about the creative music world in Chicago and elsewhere. The work of my musical comrades points beyond the limitations of capital. Limitations capitalism creates both in terms of aesthetic possibility and access to physical space for creative activity. Capitalism has no doubt been a liberating force historically, creating new artistic possibilities through building wealth and breaking down old static social relations. Marx points out as much in the Communist Manifesto. For instance, the creative music world in Chicago wouldn't be what it is at all if it were not for northern industrialization and the post-war fordist economic boom. In his book A Power Stronger Than Itself, George Lewis traces the birth of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) to the Great Northward Migration (Black folks moving north around the turn of the last century to both look for industrial jobs and escape institutionalized racist violence in the south). Ironically, the same dynamics that helped grow Black wealth and culture on the Southside of Chicago turned against those same communities in the neoliberal era. Deindustrialization leaves human beings without access to resources as capital carelessly leaves in search of greater profits elsewhere. Regardless of circumstances, beautiful culture exists wherever humans exist. Cultural development is certainly not solely contingent on capital, but under our current economic system people's access to basic material resources unfortunately is.
Capitalism brings with it an all too obvious destructive tendency. As capitalists seek to gain more and more wealth, all areas of life tend to become privatized and commodified. As spaces for care work and artistic activity become commodified, the profit motive trumps the needs and desires of human beings. The same dynamic that limits access to health care by placing a price tag on it limits and shapes the growth of creative activity precisely because of the contradiction of the commodity form. It is the contradiction between the material experiential or use value of a commodity (what it means as used by a human), and an abstract exchange value (price) imposed by the needs of capital. Under capitalism, exchange value always ultimately trumps the needs of human beings. If you can’t afford it, you can’t use it!
Creative, experimental, and DIY musicians push against and sometimes blow past these limits. As capital demands repetition and strict reproduction aesthetically, we create noise and difference. As capital limits the physical space for artistic expression, creative artists organize and create their own spaces. This way of playing and relating recognizes that the insidious boot-straps narrative about the individual musical genius is only a destructive ideology that does not reflect the reality of our interdependence materially and emotionally.
I agree with George Lewis when he says “Noise and noisers routinely overflow the banks of propriety, resisting and unleashing. People hear the sound and say ‘no one told me it could be like that; I wonder what else they haven’t told me… once they start down that road, thoughts inevitably turn to what else might need to be different.” And, of course this alone is not enough. We will be working on borrowed time until we deal with our problems at the root. Our self organization and aesthetic convictions alone cannot get to it. We must take up explicitly political activity aimed at changing the exploitative power relations inherent under capitalism. Working through a democratic socialist lens, the movement around Bernie Sanders gets at the root of the contradictions of capitalism by addressing the contradiction between use value and exchange value in the commodity form. A Bernie Presidency and the movement it would empower would not only mean the arts truly flourishing in our country, but would end much of the domination caused by capitalism through erasing student debt, providing access to affordable housing, and making healthcare a human right. This compilation Amalgam is putting out to fundraise for Bernie’s historic democratic socialist presidential campaign - a historic movement that belongs to all of us - is an offering in that direction. While we volunteer our own time and money in this fight, we want this compilation to be an explicit recognition that our cultural activity as creative musicians is part of what compels us to undertake political action to help build a democratic socialist world. One with greater democracy everywhere, greater access to the basic needs for a dignified life (including access to education and cultural spaces), and where there is freedom from all forms of state violence based on race, religion, gender expression, or otherwise. The time is now. berniesanders.com/volunteer
released March 10, 2020
Love In Outerspace by the Paul Giallorenzo Trio
Paul Giallorenzo - Piano
Josh Abrams - Bass
Mikel Avery - Drums
Recorded at the Hungry Brain on 5/13/17 by Bill Harris
Mixed/mastered by Bill Harris
"Love In Outerspace" written by Sun Ra (Sun Ra/Enterplanetary Koncepts, BMI)
Devouring the Guilt at Jamdek, 1/20/18
Gerrit Hatcher - Tenor saxophone
Eli Namay - Bass
Bill Harris - Drums
Recorded at Jamdek on 1/20/18 by Doug Malone
Mixed by Doug Malone
Mastered by Bill Harris
JayVe Montgomery at Slate Arts, 3/27/19
Recorded at Slate Arts on 3/27/19 by Bill Harris
Mixed/mastered by Bill Harris
Clausen/Heinemann/Hunton at Elastic Arts, 11/26/18
Sarah Clausen - Alto saxophone
Jakob Heinemann - Bass
Emerson Hunton - Drums
Recorded at Elastic Arts 11/26/18 by Bill Harris
Mixed/mastered by Bill Harris
Clinkman/Young/Kirshner at Cafe Mustache, 1/10/18
Andrew Clinkman - Guitar
Andrew Scott Young - Bass
Julian Kirshner - Drums
Recorded at Cafe Mustache on 1/10/18 by Bill Harris
Mixed/mastered by Bill Harris
Keefe Jackson & Didier Petit at Agitator Gallery, 11/19/18
Keefe Jackson - Tenor saxophone and bass clarinet
Didier Petit - Cello and voice
Recorded at Agitator Gallery on 11/19/18 by Bill Harris
Mixed/mastered by Bill Harris
Berman/Badenhorst/Baker/Lopez/Harris at Hungry Brain, 1/29/20
Josh Berman - Cornet
Joachim Badenhorst - Clarinet
Jim Baker - Piano
Brandon Lopez - Bass
Bill Harris - Drums
Recorded at Hungry Brain on 1/29/20 by Dave Zuchowski
Mixed/mastered by Bill Harris
CASSETTE TAPES AVAILABLE AT NO INDEX RECORDS HERE:
noindex.bandcamp.com/album/throw-neck
Danceable woke conspiracy theory noise hip-hop metal jazz funk monologue-core. Je'raf is a Chicago/New York based band that formed in 2017. They combine hip hop, funk, and free jazz elements into tightly arranged songs that leave room for improvisation and looseness, while incorporating critical and satirical social commentary on police, conspiracy theories, religion, cults, and the emergence and trajectory of the American Bro.
Je'raf has held a monthly residency at Cafe Mustache in Chicago since July of 2019, playing every third Tuesday of the month. Their debut record, Throw Neck, is set to release this February 29 (LEAP YEAR!) at the Hungry Brain, with a split release on both Amalgam and No Index Records based in Chicago.
Formed in 2017, art-rock ensemble Je'raf arrange bits of hip-hop, jazz, funk, and postpunk into whimsical, progressive jams. All seven members (they're split between New York and Chicago) play in similarly animated, eccentric bands outside of the group too--bassist and vocalist PT Bell is in art-punk unit Blacker Face, for instance, and vocalist Brianna Tong fronts jazz-fusion group Cordoba. On Saturday, February 39, local labels Amalgam and No Index release Je'raf's rambunctious and politically charged debut album, Throw Neck. That night they celebrate with a headlining set at Hungry Brain; Udababy opens.
By J.R. Nelson for the Chicago Reader
Recorded at Pallet Sound by Seth Engel on February 2 and 3, 2019. Mixed and mastered by /jə'raf/
Design and layout by /jə'raf/
Artwork by Jordan Martins
Photo by Rachel Winslow
/jə'raf/ is:
Brianna Tong - Vocals
PT Bell - Vocals, bass
Ishmael Ali - Guitar, electronics
David Fletcher - Trombone
Wills McKenna - Saxophone
Eli Namay - Bass
Bill Harris - Drums, percussion, Microkorg
noindexrecords.com
amalgamusic.org
released February 29, 2020
all rights reserved