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The Shirt I Slept In by Beth Custer
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fave it Weird Jazz | Instrumental Rock
16 tracks | 64 minutes
Released Jan 2002
on BC Records
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:28 Train Song lyrics BUY MP3 02:28 Train Song lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:28 Train Song
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:15 Take/Place lyrics BUY MP3 05:15 Take/Place lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:15 Take/Place
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:39 Fall of the Imperialist lyrics BUY MP3 02:39 Fall of the Imperialist lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:39 Fall of the Imperialist
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:18 The Lips That Kissed The Paper lyrics BUY MP3 04:18 The Lips That Kissed The Paper lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:18 The Lips That Kissed The Paper
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:13 Billabong lyrics BUY MP3 05:13 Billabong lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:13 Billabong
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:45 Grey Waters lyrics BUY MP3 04:45 Grey Waters lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:45 Grey Waters
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:46 Modesto Suite lyrics BUY MP3 04:46 Modesto Suite lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:46 Modesto Suite
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:31 12 Angry Men lyrics BUY MP3 02:31 12 Angry Men lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:31 12 Angry Men
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:33 This Is Where I Am Now lyrics BUY MP3 04:33 This Is Where I Am Now lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:33 This Is Where I Am Now
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:46 Drop lyrics BUY MP3 04:46 Drop lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:46 Drop
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:32 One Divided By Two lyrics BUY MP3 04:32 One Divided By Two lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:32 One Divided By Two
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:59 Holster lyrics BUY MP3 02:59 Holster lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:59 Holster
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:38 Happy Dance lyrics BUY MP3 01:38 Happy Dance lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:38 Happy Dance
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 06:45 Whisper It In My Ear lyrics BUY MP3 06:45 Whisper It In My Ear lyrics "GIFT MP3" 06:45 Whisper It In My Ear
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 06:50 Sweet Dreams Forever, Baby lyrics BUY MP3 06:50 Sweet Dreams Forever, Baby lyrics "GIFT MP3" 06:50 Sweet Dreams Forever, Baby
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 00:23 anonymous phone message lyrics BUY MP3 00:23 anonymous phone message lyrics "GIFT MP3" 00:23 anonymous phone message
Highly acclaimed first solo release, this artist plays with a cavalcade of the Bay Area's finest including members of Club Foot Orchestra, Trance Mission, Will Bernard, Kenny Wollesen, Matt Brubeck, Ralph Carney, Ben Goldberg, among others.
Editorial review
The Shirt I Slept In is a compilation of musical journeys taken by San Francisco composer, arranger, and clarinetist (she plays a little trumpet and sings as well) Beth Custer from 1990-1995. A look inside reveals Ms. Custer to play in some very heavy company; there are appearances here from Will Bernard, Ralph Carney, Ben Goldberg, Kenny Wollesen, Jai Uttal, Barbara Scott, Kenneth Newby, and others. To go into coinage of Custer's musical brain is like journeying through a fun house that has profound sights as well as insane ones, sitting next to, and, sometimes, right on top of one another. For starters, there's the swelling crescendo of "Train Song," with the horns -- a slew of them -- saxophones, clarinets, drums, and guitars playing a line repetitively until it breaks down into various tonal and timbral elements that seemingly spread out into one vast extension of that one line. On "Take/Places," percussion and droning guitar place the randomness of seemingly found sounds next to ordered Indian percussion and restrained, pizzicato lines on guitar, setting up a dynamic from random percussive elements and a renewed vigor in the rhythmic corner. When Bernard's guitar solos, it's within the context of this restraint, exotic, shimmering, forbidden. But it doesn't stop there; there are places where film noir jazz meets exotica, and post-serial composition ("Drop") follow, tunes based on folk melodies that are as full of longing and remembrance as anything you are likely to hear ("This Is Where I Am Now"). Through it all, Custer shows she possesses in spades what other composers pray for at night: vision. And while her technical chops are formidable enough to have played in the Club Foot Orchestra and to have gigged with Anthony Braxton, it is the former that distinguishes her from the pomo music pack. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Bio / Background
'The Shirt I Slept In' is the first release by Beth Custer on BC Records. It opens with an anthemic jazz explosion in 'Train Song' with Club Foot Orchestra, and makes it's way through a country tinged romp in 'Fall of the Imperialist' with the Will Bernard/Beth Custer Ensemble. Clarinet Thing plays a beautiful rendition of Custer's blues hymn 'The Lips That Kissed the Paper.' 'Shirt' includes several great guitar solos by Will Bernard over Custer's intriguing tapestries of samples, voice, and clarinets created for the dance troupe The Joe Goode Performance Group.
'Shirt' includes such luminary musicians as Kenny Wollesen, Will Bernard, Matt Brubeck, Stephen Kent, Jenny Shineman, Trevor Dunn, Michael Belfer, Ben Goldberg, Gino Robair, and Ralph Carney.
Beth Custer is a San Francisco based composer, performer, and the proprietress of BC Records.
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