Trading Snake Oil

Formed eight years ago by drummer Jeff Ballard with fellow Brad Mehldau partner Larry Grenadier on bass and saxophonist Mark Turner(one of the most resourceful and independent sax newcomers of the last decade), the New York trio Fly is an exchange between equals, not a sax-led charge over a rhythm section. Though it falls into the territory sometimes dubbed "chamber-jazz", Year of the Snake is up there with Fly's best work, with its rustling fast grooves and languid horn lines, and pieces that open on almost impossibly pure high-register long tones.

Jah Wobble had already explored 'Islamic funk' with his Invaders of the Heart band but here got down with some weird amalgam of Eurobeat hooked to Afro-funk of the Talking Heads kind. Snake Charmer is a mini LP and result from a collaboration between Jah Wobble, best known as Public Image Limited bass-player, U2 guitarist The Edge and German experimental krautrocker and Can member Holger Czukay produced by a forefather of the house music, the New York Studio 54 DJ François Kevorkian. Others who dropped in during the recording of the 'Snake Charmer' mini-album were Can's Jaki Liebezeit, jazz-funk singer Marcella Allen and guitarist Animal.

KUHN FU’s third album Chain the Snake is released by BERTHOLD records on March 22nd. Christian Kühn who also composed the music sees “stylistic changes since our last record. The band today is a paranoid – prog – punk – jazz performance,” he explains. Working on the previous album Kuhnspiracy, Kühn had suffered from a “post romantic jazz/rock disorder”, a condition unknown to reputable psychiatry. “The romantic stood for an unfulfilled craving, still there, but the punk who doesn’t care is winning at the moment” he explains.