Jazz saxophonist and flutist

Photo: Johan Janssen

UPCOMING SHOWS

USA, Austin, TX: Dreaming Hildegard-A Collaborative Work by Christopher Hynes and Alex Coke

Cloud Tree Gallery presents the world premiere of Dreaming Hildegard, the latest collaborative work by Alex Coke and Christopher Hynes. Inspired by 11th-century mystic and visionary Hildegard of Bingen, Hynes’ paintings and Coke’s music create a world of sight and sound that is spiritual, meditative, and thought provoking. This show is not to be missed!

On opening night, Friday Oct. 11th at 8pm, MAE trio (Masumi Jones, drums, Alex Coke, flutes, tenor saxophone, and Elaine Barber, harp) perform the World Premiere of Coke’s Dreaming Hildegard for the opening of Hynes’ art show.

Opening Reception: Friday, October 11
doors at 7pm, music at 8pm
Art on display in the gallery
Oct. 11 – Nov. 2, 2024,
Monday thru Saturday 12-5pm.

Past events

Carla Bley Tribute
February 8, 2024
8:30 pm
Soundspace at Cap’t Quacks
5326 Menchaca Rd
Austin TX 78745
More info

Rich Harney Jazz Festival May 26/27

Rich Harney Jazz Festival
Friday May 26/Saturday May 27 2023
TICKETS
7pm
First Presbyterian Church
8001 Mesa Blvd
Austin TX 78731
Join us for a Weekend Jazz Festival
in memory and celebration of award winning pianist/composer extraordinaire Rich Harney.
Featuring an all star lineup of some of Rich’s musical friends and collaborators through the years playing his original music, these 2 evenings are a must for anyone and everyone who remembers Rich or is a fan of swingin’ jazz.

Friday Night Features:
The BETH ULLMAN QUINTET 
with Beth Ullman/vocals, Mitch Watkins/guitar, Terry Bowness/piano, John Fremgen/bass & Tom Brechtlein/ drums
From New York, piano soloist SUZZAN CRAIG

ELIAS HASLANGER QUINTET
with Elias Haslanger/saxophone, Mike Sailors/trumpet, Bruce Saunders/guitar, 
Ryan Hagler/ upright bass, and Daniel Dufour/drums

Saturday Night Features
ANDY WEYL TRIO
with Andy Weyl/piano, Michael Stevens/upright bass, and Daniel Dufour/drums

From New York, piano soloist SUZZAN CRAIG



ALEX COKE 5tet
with
Alex Coke/sax and flutes,
Collin Shook/piano, Bruce Saunders/guitar,
James Suter/bass, and Masumi Jones, drums
…SEE YOU THERE…

Rich’s books and recordings will be available along with those of many of the other artists in attendance.
Visit Rich Harney’s Bandcamp Page: https://richharney.bandcamp.com
or Listen on Youtube: bit.ly/40OsbV3

R11 vs the A.I. Robot Tour 2023

SCHEDULE

1-13-2023 Middleburg 20:00 De Spot
1-14-2023 Nijmegan 20:30 Lux Cultuur and Media
1-15-2023 Den Haag 20:15 The Grey Space
1-20-2023 Roermond 20:00 ECI Cultuurfabriek
1-22-2023 Castricum 20:00 Theatre Koningsduyn
1-27-2023 Bodegraven 20:30 Evertshuis
1-29-2023 Amsterdam 15:00 Bimhuis

Composer / arranger Bob Zimmerman (you know him from De Nieuwe Wildernis, Süskind, his arrangements for the Metropole Orkest and the popular TV program Maestro) and percussionist / composer Rob Verdurmen (drummer of the internationally renowned Willem Breuker Kollektief for 38 years) join their musical forces and ideas to realize the R11 performance about the use of digital technology in film music.

Based on Bob’s arrangements of well-known and lesser-known film music for science fiction films from the period 1968 to the present, supplemented with soundtracks specially composed by Rob for the performance, R11 will musically translate technological developments in image and sound into a dazzling musical spectacle. Video artist Martijn Grootendorst supports the whole in his characteristic style with unexpected and unknown film material.

Bob Zimmerman – arrangements | Rob Verdurmen – compositions & percussion|
Tatiana Koleva – marimba, vibraphone & percussion |
Susanne Rosmolen – cello |
David Kweksilber – reeds Rutger van Otterloo – reeds | Alex Coke – flute & piccolo | Quirijn van Regteren Altena – bass |
Martijn Grootendorst – VJ | Wout Bremer – Aimée|
Guido Nieuwdorp – sound | Saskia Bonarius – directing advice

Promo video

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USA/TX: Alex Coke-The Inner Kingdom (premiere)

Alex Coke
Sunday November 13, 2022
Monks Jazz Club
Austin TX 78702

Alex Coke premieres a new suite, The Inner Kingdom, in collaboration with Austin visual artist Christopher Hynes, for an experience of art and music you won’t want to miss.

with

Alex Coke, reeds and flutes
Elaine Barber, concert harp
Bruce Saunders, guitar
James Suter, bass
Masumi Jones, drums
Bruce Colson, violin
Joan Carlson, violin
Martha Carapetyan, viola
Carolyn Hagler, cello

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alex-coke-the-inner-kingdom-premiere-tickets-444752656167

or
LIVESTREAM

BIOS

Composer Alex Coke plays flutes and saxophones. An original member of Creative Opportunity Orchestra, Alex was a featured composer/arranger and soloist on several CO2 recordings since the early 1980s. From 1990-2010 he toured and recorded with the internationally renowned Dutch jazz group, the Willem Breuker Kollektief. An improvisor and experimentalist with a wide range of interests from avant-garde and bebop jazz to folk and world traditional musics, Alex has led numerous ensembles like Live Action Brass Band, The Leadbelly Legacy Band, New Texas Swing, and The Worthy Constituents, as well as  touring and recording with many offshoots of the Dutch jazz and contemporary music scene.

More at

https://alexcoke.home.xs4all.nl

Christopher Hynes, is the youngest of 10 children and grew up in Washington, D.C., around artists, writers, and politicos. As a young man, he worked as a studio assistant for several Washington artists and he also worked in an archival frame shop but mostly he played in rock and roll bands until 1988 when he turned to the visual arts full time. He’s mostly self-taught and had numerous group and one-man shows in Texas, New York, D.C., and several other cities in the U.S. He has lived in Austin since 1984. He is in many Private Collections across the United States.

“There is a little bit of something in everything, and that is what I like to explore”

More info at:
https://christopherhynes.com

USA/TX Alex Coke Carl Michel Sextet- November at the Draylen Mason

PAST SHOWS

Coke Michel Sextet in Concert

Performing compelling music with origins in jazz, classical, folk, extended technique, and improvisation, The Alex Coke Carl Michel Sextet features musician/composers Alex Coke on woodwinds and guitarist Carl Michel. Together with Austin Symphony’s principal harpist Elaine Barber, Liminal Sound Series producer Bob Hoffnar on pedal steel, first call jazz bassist Dr. James Suter, and talented Austin percussionist Carolyn Trowbridge on vibes, the sextet will perform at the Draylen Mason Studio at KMFA on Thursday June 9, 2022 at 7:30pm.

This unique ensemble is an outgrowth of Coke and Barber’s popular weekly Driveway Concert Series that ran from April 2020 through June 2021 in response to music gigs and gatherings being curtailed as a result of the pandemic. The duo performed outdoors, socially distanced, with each member of the sextet individually in turn, appearing as special guests. Playing music as a gift to their local neighborhood at first, the project took shape as the possibilities for meetings indoors returned.

The Monday night concerts made way for rehearsals, new composition, and the formation of an unusual and very accomplished performing and recording ensemble. They released their first CD together, The Emissary, in October 2021 to good reviews and now a year after the final driveway concert, a second CD is in the works.

As a founding member of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra with many projects and recordings to his credit, Emmy Award winning composer Carl Michel had this to say : “The 6tet is a welcomed opportunity to work again with my friend Alex Coke. The “driveway concerts,” that were presented by Elaine Barber and Alex to their neighborhood, provided a way to collaborate with other musicians over the course of the pandemic shutdown. That process initiated the formation of the 6tet, a unique collaboration of instruments with some great musicians. This collaboration has opened up my palette in composition and arranging for these individuals.”

For the upcoming performance and live recording, works will include new arrangements of music by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Valentyn Silvestrov, and Paul Motian with some new compositions by Coke and Michel in the mix .

One of the first jazz ensembles to perform at KMFA’s Draylen Mason Studio, the concert on June 9 is for an all ages audience. Presale Tickets are on sale now and will also be available at the door.

Tickets

For more info and sound samples please visit:

Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet

https://alexcokecarlmichelsextet.bandcamp.com/releases

This performance is made possible in part thanks to The Liminal Sound Series, dedicated to the commissioning of new works and collaborations between visionary composers and Austin, TX. based musicians and performers.

“They can drift with meditative beauty or roar with passion… their collective sound lingers in the memory.” – Jerome Wilson on The Emissary at All About Jazz

Alex Coke and Carl Michel-Jazz at the Draylen Mason Studio

Jazz composers Alex Coke and Carl Michel will present an evening of their own and others’ works this October 20, 2021 at 7:30pm in the new State-of-the-Art Draylen Mason Studio.
Home of classical radio station KMFA, Coke and Michel’s sextet will be the first jazz group to be presented in the new space.

Leading an ensemble whose members individually excel in several musical genres and, collectively, create a unique and memorable soundprint, saxophonist-flutist Coke and guitarist Michel bring together a group that includes Austin Symphony principal harpist Elaine Barber, pedal steel player Bob Hoffnar (Liminal Sound Series), double bassist James Suter, and percussionist Carolyn Trowbridge on vibes.

Performing compelling music with origins in jazz, classical, folk,
extended technique and improvisation, this unique ensemble is an outgrowth of Coke and Barber’s popular weekly Driveway Concert Series that ran from April 2020 through June 2021.
Each individual member of the sextet was featured as a special guest
during the series.

The evening concert and accompanying CD feature music from a new recording, entitled The Emissary, inspired by artist Christopher Hynes, whose painting of the same name graces the CD cover.

With the reimagining of compositions penned by Coke, Michel, Paul Motian, Hildegard von Bingen, and Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly), and an exciting new CD to see and hear, the evening promises to be a stellar experience of art, music, and culture.

Welcoming any and all interested ears, the studio will have an open, general admission seating plan to allow for social distancing. Masks are required and all ages are welcome.
Tickets are $20 or $35 with a CD.
Presales are encouraged as seats are limited.
Tickets on sale here

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Arabesque-sounds from Alex Coke and Carl Michel Sextet
From the Alex Coke & Carl Michel CD “The Emissary”
Alex Coke-sax/flute
Carl Michel-guitar
Elaine Barber-harp
Bob Hoffnar-pedal steel
James Suter-bass
Carolyn Trowbridge-vibes
Composition by Paul Motian (Yazgol Music-BMI) Recorded July 16, 2021 in Austin TX

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BIOGRAPHY

Alex Coke  (born 1953, Dallas Texas) is a jazz saxophonist, flutist and composer. He graduated with his B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1976, with emphasis on flute performance. An original member of the Austin-based Creative Opportunity Orchestra, Coke performed with Tina Marsh in various formations for over 25 years. Working from both Texas and The Netherlands, he has received several awards including:

1988-1989 Best Jazz Band, Austin Chronicle Music Awards
(Chris Duarte and Justus)
1990 Best Saxophonist, Music City Critics Poll/Austin Texas
1990 Best Jazz Bands Music City Critics Poll/Austin Texas
(Countenance #1, and Worthy Constituents #3)
1990 Best Unsigned Bands Musician Magazine/USA
(Countenance, and Worthy Constituents)
2007 Silver ADDY Award Winner/ Texas
[CD Packaging for A Child’s Christmas In Wales]
2010 Austin Chronicle Music Awards Hall of Fame Nominee
2019 Austin Chronicle Music Awards Hall of Fame Nominee
2020 Jazz at St James A.D. Mannion Award/Austin Texas
2020 Austin Jazz Society Hall of Fame Award/ Austin Texas
2021 Texas State Artist Nominee

From 1990-2000 and then again in 2011-2015, he toured and recorded with the internationally renowned Dutch jazz group, the Willem Breuker Kollektief. An improvisor at heart, Coke’s eclectic attitude has led him to explore everything from Be-Bop to Huddie Ledbetter. His flute studies have ranged from Eric Dolphy to Indian ragas on the bamboo flute to extended flute techniques such as those researched by Robert Dick, Ann LaBerge and Wil Offermans.

Coke’s CD, entitled “Wake Up Dead Man/Iraqnophobia,” features two large group compositions commissioned by Tina Marsh and The Creative Opportunity Orchestra. It was recorded on the VoxLox label which spotlights humanitarian and ecological causes. “Wake Up Dead Man” was featured in Forum Theatre on The Death Penalty at The Eye & Tooth Festival in Austin, where Coke was a panelist in March 2009.  Coke’s recording, It’s Possible, recorded in 2007, features duos and trios with Tina Marsh and Steve Feld and is also on the Vox Lox label.Alex Coke has also worked with Gerald Wilson, Charles Tolliver, the Paradise Regained Orchestra, Trio Henk de Jonge, Burton Greene, Anton Goudsmit, David Krakauer’s Abraham, Inc,  and award winning poet Carolyn Forche. He has also been heard with Alejandro Escovedo, John Jordan Trio, the Mysterious Quartet From Helsinki featuring Chris Duarte, Maryann Price, Rob Verdurmen’s Drummer’s Double Bill, Oliver Rajamani, Greezy Wheels, White Denim and many, many others.

His latest recordings are noted in the partial discography below:

• Shadow Man, John McLean, Leaky Shoes Blues Records, 2020
• In Person, White Denim, Radio Milk Records, 2019
• Reeds & Deeds Live at JazzCase, Reeds & Deeds, el Negocito eNR074, 2019
• So Nice To Come Home To, John McLean, Indy, 2019
• Alex Coke Liminal #1, Liminal Sound, Rock Tumbler Records, 2019
• Somebody Special, Jay Rozen, VoxLox 218 2018
• Out of The Box Willem Breuker Kollektief, BVHAAST 12016, 2016
• Chamber PSoto, WLampe, ACoke, AGorter, GHadow, Indy, 2017
▪ Harmattan, Aanya Arts Quartet VoxLox /CD 2017
▪ The Struggle Can Be Enobling, Klez-Edge, Disk Respect 01 CD 2016
▪ Z Octet, Peggy Stern, Estrella Music/CD 2015
▪ Topographies of the Dark, Sculptural Paintings by Virginia Ryan, VoxLox 108, 2008
▪ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, w/ S Stern, R Harney, Aardvark Records 72008, 2006
▪ The Compositions of Eric Dolphy, BVHAAST 1005, 2006
▪ Iraqnophobia/Wake Up Dead Man, VoxLox Records, 2005
▪ S.O.S., Drummers Double Bill, BVHAAST 0703, 2003
▪ Horn To Horn, Live Action Brass Band, Outpost Productions 1999
▪ Jumping Shark, Trio Henk de Jonge, BVHAAST CD9103 CD 1991
▪ Trained Ants, Authorized Bootleg, Cassette 1989
▪ Alex Coke New Visions, re Records 001 LP1982

With Tina Marsh and/or Creative Opportunity Orchestra

▪ Migration -ltd release CD /2008
▪ It’s Possible, Alex Coke, VoxLox 308, 2008
▪ New Texas Swing, Cre-Op-Muse 010 , 2002
▪ Circle of Light, CD/2000
▪ The Heaven Line CD/1994
▪ Out On The Western Plains, Leadbelly Legacy Band, Outpost Productions 1999
▪ Transformation Vol. 1 and 2/ cassette 1992
▪ RadioActive, The Creative Opportunity Orchestra cassette 1990
▪ Benediction, The Creative Opportunity Orchestra, LP/1988

With Rich Harney

▪ WC ’13 Aardvark 72023 CD 2015
▪ Sessions Aardvark AR72019 CD/2012
▪ Where Love Begins, AR-72010 CD/2007
▪ Soul Prayers Aardvark CD 72007/2005
▪ Through The Years 1988-2001, The Worthy Constituents, Cre-Op-Muse 08, 2001
▪ The Worthy Constituents, Cassette/1986

With Willem Breuker Kollektief

▪ Willem Breuker Kollektief at Ruta Maya Cafe Austin, Texas BVHAAST 0506, 2006
▪ With Strings Attached BVHAAST 0203 , 2002
▪ The Parrot BVHAAST 9601, 2001
▪ Thirst BVHAAST 0300, 2000
▪ 25 Years On The Road (DVD/2CDS) BVHAAST 9914/15 , 1999
▪ Hunger, Thirst Willem Breuker Kollektief & Loes Luca, BVHAAST 9916 ,   1999 PAKKEPAPEN BVHAAST 9807, 1998
▪ Parade, Willem Breuker Kollektief, BVHaast CD 9101
▪ Kurt Weill BVHAAST 9808, 1998
▪ Psalm 122 BVHAAST 9803, 1998
▪ Music For His Films 1967-1994, Willem Breuker Johan Van Der Keuken, ▪
BVHAAST 9709-9710,1997
▪ Willem Breuker Kollektief Meets DJazzex BVHAAST 9513
▪ Sensamaya, BVHAAST CD 9509
▪ Overtime/Uberstunden NM Classics 92042
▪ Van Het Jaar Van De Ensembles (Compilation), Polygram 454 058-2
▪ Deze Kant Op Dames BVhaast CD 9301
▪ Parade BVHaast CD 9101

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Press Quotes

Put a sax in Alex Coke’s hands and he uses it to create amazing textures in the same way a painter might.
Maria Mesa, Austin Daze
Iraqnophobia/Wake Up Dead Man

Recent Releases

It’s Possible
(VoxLox 2008)

“This trio out of Austin, TX comprises voice, a variety of woodwinds (mostly flutes) West African multi-toned slit drum and toys. Several tracks are improvised over other recordings we do not hear (on #2 they are all listening to the record but not to each other!); tracks 4-7 are a suite in honor of Steve Lacy. Marsh’s vocals stretch and twist like taffy, laced with whispered syllables, and the instruments provide a timeless, often ritualistic “world music” feel.”
KZSU Stanford Radio 90.1 FM

“The sounds on this trio CD are both ancient and postmodern, universal and obscure. Reed and flute player Alex Coke and singer Tina Marsh have a long association through an Austin, Texas ensemble called the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, and their simpatico is evident from the first mysterious notes of It’s Possible. Marsh’s vocals stretch and twist around Coke’s moaning, buzzing spirals and keening, fluttering lines like taffy, soaring high overhead and then dropping down for whispered syllables like some half-heard Balinese monkey chant. Beneath them, the calming tones of Steve Feld’s ashiwa (a West African slit drum) give the pieces an enigmatic, almost ritualistic air. On several tracks, the trio improvises over existing recordings which we do not hear. These pieces are missing their cores, but what is left is fascinating: disconnected reaction that implies but does not reveal the whole. The results are weird, spooky and restlessly inventive.”
Jazz Observer

Alex Coke/Tina Marsh/Steve Feld
It’s Possible
(VoxLox 2008,USA)

An archive honoring Tina Marsh memory has been recently established in Austin, Texas, with the goal of making available to the public an important collection of recordings and documents regarding her career and life.

Tina Marsh was not just a gifted protagonist in the contemporary music but also a musical activist who dedicated her life to the advancement of arts and new talents.

On August 19 2008, Alex Coke, Tina Marsh and Steve Feld released “It’s possible” their last album together, and Tina Marsh’s last recording. “It’s Possible” is not the type of fashionable music that sounds outdated after years. Until today it stands under the sign of timeless innovation, going from subtle, to bold and intense, travelling from African to Western inspirations, mixing ethnology, nature. emotions and associations.

Tina Marsh’s pure voice is more than a complement to the magical ambient created by Alex Coke and Steve Feld, evolving as an organic part of them. Highly sensitive, she travels between poetic and elementary, expressing the unspeakable through her original vocabulary of onomatopoeic sounds and emotions, inviting us to a meeting with the unfamiliar.

The free style of arrangements extended over the boundaries of a labeled territory opens the door to adventurous combinations as on the title track, where the intensity and color of Tina Marsh’s voice is wonderfully backed by the velvet sound of flute, at the point when both instrument and human voice become as one.

Unforgettable is the unusual rendering of Lonely Woman, or the meandering spiritual Deep River. A little masterpiece is “Eclipse” revealing the impressionistic delicacy of the Khaen, a Lao mouth-organ played by Alex Coke while on the collective composition “Peace Prayer”, Tina Marsh singing reaches a high level of dignified beauty.

This is an album that prompts listeners wherever they live, to forget about conventions and learned patterns and let their imagination free, and “live” what they hear. It is like a momentary return to a time where humanity reinvents the music, learning how to express itself by listening to the sounds of nature.
Tina MarshPapers

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 Interviews

Iraqnophobia
Alex Coke saxes political
BY JAY TRACHTENBERG
Austin Chronicle

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Reviews

Alex Coke- New Texas Swing
(CreOp Muse)

“Texas music comes in all shapes and sizes, but rarely does it take the elusive form served up here by local saxophonist/flautist Alex Coke. New Texas Swing swings all right — hard — but certainly not in the traditional sense. The album’s title is perhaps borrowed from NPR commentator Kevin Whitehead’s book, New Dutch Swing, which examined Amsterdam’s Dadaistic jazz scene. Coke, a former member of the Amsterdam-based Willem Breuker Kollektief, has injected a similar exuberance into the music of various Texas composers ranging from Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) to Ornette Coleman. Recorded live at Amsterdam’s legendary Bimhuis, the result is a sometimes challenging, often mesmerizing, headlong excursion into creative improvisation that’s grounded in the tradition of Texas folk forms, but contorted, reshaped, and extrapolated into something altogether different. Coke has gathered a cast of free-jazz veterans that includes Steve Lacy drummer John Betsch, Kollektief bassist Arjen Gorter, and Austin’s CO2 vocalist/matriarch Tina Marsh. Together they have a field day winding their way through thorny musical passages. Versions of the two Leadbelly tunes were previously recorded by Coke and Marsh some 15 years ago with their Leadbelly Legacy Band, while a rendering of Ornette Coleman’s lovely “Mothers of the Veil” appeared on Marsh’s Out of Time. These live sides contain more depth, refinement, and energy with Marsh’s acrobatic vocal dexterity providing a noteworthy foil to some of Coke’s most impressive playing to date. This may not be your grandparents’ idea of swing, but like many Texans, Coke sometimes likes to play by his own rules.”

BY JAY TRACHTENBERG,
Austin Chronicle

Alex Coke’s Iraqnophobia

“Commissioned by Tina Marsh for Austin’s Creative Opportunity Orchestra, Alex Coke correlates the Texas prison setting of his previous “Wake Up Dead Man” suite with Iraqnophobia and the misfortune of innocent citizens caught in an endless war. With each movement inspired by the images of local photographer Alan Pogue, Coke personalizes hardened convicts and the Iraqi spirit by translating their characters through jazz. Taking cues from the hard bop of Sonny Rollins, the free jazz of Eric Dolphy, the soul jazz of Larry Young, and the jazz fusion of Michal Urbaniak, CO2 puts 25 years of experience as a functioning collective into the visual expressionism of their playing. Wielding a tenor saxophone to vault himself across the “Danger Line” of “Wake Up Dead Man,” Coke releases pent-up emotion upon a world oblivious to the concept of forced prison labor as slavery updated. As Iraqnophobia shifts the sands of lost time to foreign lands, an exploratory communiqué between divergent cultures ripens with Marsh’s vocal dervish on “Longnecks and the Shah.” A healthy dose of empathetic projection and Middle Eastern modal landscapes lend Iraqnophobia its insider’s view.”

BY ROBERT GABRIEL
Austin Chronicle

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LINKS

Official website  | Email Alex | Twitter

Buy ALEX COKE Albums From Antone’s Records
Buy ALEX COKE Albums From VoxLox

For Bookings, Recordings, or the Newsgroup
alexcokemusic@sbcglobal.net