http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=33566

WD-41 has reached Top 100 Recommended CD reviews or All Time at the worlds largest online jazz magazine All About Jazz. This says a lot about what people want to hear and what they want to read about in what we call "Jazz" publications. Thanks to all who voted for us.

The great Dino J. A. Deane who has worked with Bill Frisell, Butch Morris, John zorn and many others will be a guest on our next release due out early next year. We are very excited about this and hope to work with the man in some live shows as well. Keep checking back for updates.

http://www.dltsp.com/?p=1026

July 1, 2009—And now for something. . . no, not completely different. Something worth your attention. A world in itself. I refer to the aural project WD-41 and the really evocative soundscapes that come out of it. WD-41 is electric guitarist Willie Oteri and trumpeter Dave Laczko. Now both of these guys have been around and played with plenty of people, but what matters is the music. And WD-41 has that something that goes far beyond past interactions and influences. They recorded the entire CD using digital delays, laying down spontaneously live sounds direct to two-track.

It’s an ethereal sound that comes out of the lineage of soundscapes like Fripp and Eno’s “No Pussyfootin’.” That is not to say that WD-41 sounds anything like Fripp and Eno. Space and creative invention are paramount to the CD, though, and in that way they are in the same zone. Oteri’s guitar has presence; he is in full control of his sound and builds atmospheric sculptures that Laczko complements with sympathetic and aurally keen counter-envelopes of sound. This is one of those CDs that entirely deserves to be heard by anyone who likes to live inside exotically compelling musical environments. It’s rather beautiful too. WD-41 can be had at CD Baby.
--Gapplegate Music

By Glenn Astarita All About Jazz

.. Comments         ..

The conceptual, avant-garde mode of electronics-based implementations receives a slender uplift, thanks to guitarist and effects maestro Willie Oteri's collaboration with trumpeter Dave Laczko. This 2009, download-only, release is a spacey trip; chock full of loops, streaming synth noises, and fractured sojourns into the cosmic void.

Oteri's résumé includes collaborations with latter-day King Crimson musicians and former Frank Zappa hired guns, among other notables. In light of this, he's obviously well-seasoned in the progressive rock realm, amid the more experimental persuasions, driven home by the output of this effort. Essentially, the duo portrays a stark no-man's land via oscillating treatments, brimming with Oteri's odd-voicings and howling lines, while Laczko's resonating notes provide gobs of depth and airy environs.

The musicians fuse maniacal psychedelia with free-form improvisation. Oteri makes his guitar weep in concert with otherworldly implementations, where at times, it's difficult to discern from where the contrasting sounds are emanating. On "G-9," the guitarist dishes out a rhythmically framed lower register ostinato pattern in support of the trumpeter's soaring choruses and bizarre phrasings.

The artists transmit a dark and ethereal set of circumstances, while having some notable fun during the process. It's a synthetic soundscape of aural colors that prods the mind's eye—stranger than fiction, some might say.

Note from Willie: It was nice of Manny to say this and I find it quite amusing. I mean, Wow, that would be some heavy shoes to fill!!! Thanks Manny. 

Dave Laczko  WD-41 Bio

 

Trumpeter Dave Laczko has been a member of the Austin jazz scene for almost 30 years, beginning in the trumpet section of Prime Swing, house band for the original Austin County Line Barbeque locations.  From 1987 to 2001, he hosted “Cookin’ and Relaxin’” on KAZI and was voted “Jazz Deejay Deserving Wider Recognition” in the 2000 Austin Chronicle Critics Poll.  When his radio show was taking off, Laczko began playing synth bass in The Fearless Jazz Duo with 47X Its Own Weight trumpeter/Prime Swing pianist Mel Winters.  This duo still plays today in Buda, TX.  From 1991 to 2004, Dave was in jazz music retail on the Drag and doing jazz history research for local authors, educators, movie directors and jazz fans who continue to cross his path.  Around 1998(?), DL helped form the Barons of Rhythm, a group that became part of the early jazz and swing scene developing at that time in Austin between various roots music groups and swing dance enthusiasts.  The Barons played steadily in and around the Austin area for about 3 years, with weekly gigs at the Carousel Lounge and The Federation Women’s Club, where Benny Goodman supposedly played in the early 30’s.

 

“I play by ear mostly, so listening is the key ingredient in what comes out of my horn.  To say I listen to a lot of music is almost an understatement, so some of that is going to come out, naturally.  My musical cohorts Mel (Fearless Jazz Duo) & Willie (WD-41)  both rely on listening as the primary source of their art so they can be free to improvise.  WD-41 is amazing to do with Willie, because we are both coming from as open a space as you can imagine.  As Branford Marsalis once said, “The music tells you what to play,” so I don’t really know what I’m going to play until I hear what Willie is doing.  He’s taken me places in my music that I’ve never been before, and what’s even cooler is that you can go to some of those places on our CD!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LINKS

 

ttp://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Awards/BestOfAustin/index?SearchTerms=laczko

 

(text from link)—

Jazz Deejay Deserving Of Wider Recognition: Dave Laczko, KAZI 

(Critics Picks, Media, 2000)

 

For the past 13 years, Laczko has been a mainstay on the Austin radio landscape, anchoring KAZI's weeknight jazz programming. Laczko really knows his stuff, and he exudes a passion for the music that is evident in his intelligent and tasteful programming. He covers the jazz gamut from classic legends like Charlie Parker to the young turks of today. Without the confines of a strict playlist, Laczko lets this free form music guide him, although sometimes he can't resist the occasional theme, like his recent foray into Sax Week, or celebrating certain artists on their birthdays. Those music lovers who haven't checked out his show owe it to themselves to do so. Laczko is one of Austin's underappreciated treasures.  KAZI 88.7FM, 8906 Wall #203, 836-2887   www.kazifm.com

 

 

http://www.gyrofrog.com/jazzrad.php    

 

Jazz Radio in Austin TX last updated 2004

 

(text from link)

Cookin' and Relaxin' with Dave Laczko

 Monday*, 9:00 PM - Midnight

 What can you say about a radio show named after two classic Miles Davis albums? Obviously, the name means that this is a jazz show, although on the night I wrote this, the show kicked off with Earth, Wind, and Fire. On this same night, host Dave Laczko also played Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, and Jack DeJohnette, so he really draws widely from all over the jazz map. Not too many radio stations would be willing to play something like Miles Davis' On the Corner (perhaps his most controversial album), much less follow it up later with "Candy" by the Nat Cole Trio, but you could hear it all on "Cookin' and Relaxin'." Dave Laczko is also the jazz buyer at Tower Records, which places him in charge of the city's largest jazz selection.

 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

Dave Oliphant, Texan Jazz, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1996

Dave Oliphant, The Early Swing Music Era, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002 

Kevin Phinney, Souled American: The White Obsession With Black Music, New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2005

Richard Lawn, Experiencing Jazz, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, (2006) 2007

Dave Oliphant, Jazz Mavericks Of The Southwest, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007