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After the local news at noon, two hours of the Improvising King Crimson. In the mid-1970s, the prog rock band King Crimson - John Wetton (bass, vocals), Bill Bruford (drums, percussion), David Cross (violin, mellotron), and Robert Fripp (guitar, mellotron) - toured the world. Nearly every show was recorded by the band or audience members. While much of its set list consisted of the Crimson’s complex, written compositions, most performances also included one to three-group improv sections with provocative titles such as “Tight Scrummy,” “Fallen Angel,” and “An Edible Bovine Dynamo,” added later by Fripp when his DGM Live record label released the recordings. These exploratory interludes were as sinister and dissonant as the compositions, sometimes free-form, while also avoiding the cliches of more conventional blues-based rock. These improvisations will be the focus of this live broadcast. Culled from box sets and single concert recordings available on DGM Live and documenting tours supporting the albums Larks Tongue in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974), the broadcast will feature 18 improvisations of varying lengths and recorded sound quality, soundboard to the audience.

Playlist
Improv: Walk On - 6/6/74 Fort Worth
Improv II - 3/28/74 Dieburg, Germany
Improv: Asbury Park - 6/28/74 Asbury Park
Improv: Arabica - 3/30/74 Mainz, Germany
Improv: Daniel Dust - 4/29/74 Pittsburgh
Improv: The Golden Walnut - 6/24/74 Toronto
Improv: Some Pussyfooting - 3/1974 Udine, Italy
Improv: Bartley Butsford - 4/29/74 Pittsburgh
Improv: Fallen Angel - 10/13/72 Frankfurt, Germany (with Jamie Muir)
Improv: Tight Scrummy - 9/23/73 Boston
Improv 1 - 6/25/74 Quebec
Improv: An Edible Bovine Dynamo - 12/15/72 Portsmouth, England
Improv II - 6/27/74 Washington DC
Improv II - 4/1/74 Kassel, Germany
Improv: Cerberus - 7/1/74 Central Park, Manhattan
Improv I - 4/28/74 Columbus, Ohio
Improv I - 3/20/74, Brescia, Italy
Improv II - 6//10/73 Arlington, Texas

“Overlooked” is a show focusing on overlooked and under-heard jazz, improvisational, and other fringe music, from early roots to contemporary experiments, a mix of familiar to rare, classic to weird. Live from the shadow of Overlook Mountain in Ulster County.

Host Rob Saffer is the former Executive Director and Producer of the Creative Music Foundation.

Overlooked Playlist Archive