BIG MUSIC MUSIC FOR A SMALL ROOM

The Meridian Gallery in San Francisco is such a small space that most of the performers featured in their Composers in Performance concert series play solo. No, not one-man-bands (tho that'd be cool), but cats like German sax mad man Frank Gratkowski, who blows staccato rhythms with such force he doesn't need a band:

Frank Gratkowski: Improvisation

The various-artists collection "Meridian Music: Earth Music" features highlights of 10 years of Meridian Gallery performances, mostly solo improvs. There's a few fascinating tracks I keep returning to, and Gratkowski's is one of them, as is John Bischoff's R2D2-like electronics, and Viv Corringham's "Improvisation (With San Francisco Sounds)" which does indeed seem to take actual sounds from out on the street, loop them and process them to spellbinding effect. And - hey, whatdoyaknow! - Gratkowski returns to the Meridian tomorrow.

The legendary Pauline Oliveros also appears. To paraphrase Run-DMC, "We're San Francisco improvisors/Rockin' without a band!"