Archive: 'bells'

henry kaiser

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

PROTOCOL Metalanguage 102
Henry Kaiser / electric guitar, Andrea Centazzo / percussion (side 2), Toshinori Kondo / trumpet and alto horn (side 1).
Recorded: November 27 & December 11, 1978.

This is Henry Kaiser’s third album under his own name, and his playing continues to expand and unfold in ways suggested before - that is, texturally interwoven and highly elastic lines laced with a heavy out-of-phase vibrato and a generally dry percussiveness. His work has a good deal to do with Derek Bailey’s, but the feeling, rhythm, and sound are different (that heavy metal quality of his tone, for example), and he takes Bailey’s vocabulary and concept as already given. As evidenced by the side with Centazzo, his playing can be particularly dense, erupting into larger, more electronically dominant sound areas (different from Bailey’s work which has tended to be shaped by more strictly acoustical considerations). Kaiser’s playing and presence dominate both sides of this LP, simply because his conception is larger than either of his colleagues (and can be) because it is bounded by fewer technical restrictions - which is to say that he is capable of playing more across a wider range of options.

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interview with members of “trans”

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

TRANS | Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith. Photo by Alice Faye Love

This interview took place in Berkeley on August 3, 1978. It was conducted, transcribed and edited by Henry Kuntz, with final alterations made by “Trans.”

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“trans”

Sunday, August 12th, 2007

The Mason Center, San Francisco

PERFORMANCES OF: JULY 29, 1978 at the Blind Lemon, Berkeley; AUGUST 5, 1978 at Pangaea, San Francisco; AUGUST 6, 1978 at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco

Davey Williams / electric guitars, banjo, mandolin, etc., La Donna Smith / viola, violin, piano, voice, percussion, Theodore Bowen / bass, tenor saxophone, musette, etc.

folk music trans museq 2

Williams, Smith, Bowen: as above.
Recorded: January 22, 1978 & Winter 1977-78, Alabama.

What immediately struck me about “Trans” was the high level of musicianship, the players’ virtuosity which, though apparent on the group’s first recording (trans museq 1), was partially obscured by the overall impact of their music.

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davey williams and transcendprovisation

Sunday, August 12th, 2007

My introduction to the music of Transcendprovisation, an improvising group from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was in the form of two tapes - Trans 2: Group Music and Figure II. Group Music didn’t affect me particularly - it consists of as many as seven musicians playing many different instruments in many combinations, every track featuring a different configuration of players and instruments. I’ve never understood the utility of playing more than one instrument, it seems to me to consist fundamentally of an unnecessary division of energy, and Group Music tends to sound like just another of those groups of players who wander about picking up instruments and tooting or manipulating them for brief intervals before moving on.

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transcendprovisation | “trans”

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

TRANS trans museq 1

La Donna Smith / viola, piano, ARP 2600, drums, voice, organ, Davey Williams / electric, acoustic, and fretless guitars, alto saxophone, Theodore Bowen / string bass, tenor saxophone, oboe, percussion, James Hearon / violin, clarinet, electric guitar, piano, Timothy Reed / alto flute, trumpet, trombone, flounder bunte.
Recorded: Summer and Fall 1976, Alabama.

Utilizing total improvisation as a methodology, Transcendprovisation brings to their music an aesthetic awareness similar to that of the English improvisers. Yet it reflects little, if any, direct influence, and there are significant differences in points of departure.

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eugene chadbourne

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

PERFORMANCES OF NOVEMBER 2, 3, & 5, 1976 AT THE BLUE DOLPHIN, SAN FRANCISCO

Eugene Chadbourne / acoustic 6-string & prepared 12-string guitars.
November 5th only: Lewis Jordan / alto saxophone, Bruce Ackley / soprano saxophone, Joseph Sabella / percussion.

Eugene Chadbourne’s music is marked by its originality, both of language and of design. His first album, recorded just a year ago, already sounds fairly conservative compared to much of his current work and is only a partial representation of where he’s presently at. The type of song structures that compose the bulk of the record still find their way into his repertoire, but these are relatively closed pieces, and Chadbourne’s work is considerably more open than what these alone might indicate.

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steve beresford

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

PERFORMANCE OF JANUARY 28, 1978 AT THE LONDON MUSICIANS COLLECTIVE, LONDON

Gary Todd Quartet: Gary Todd / tenor saxophone, Nigel Coombes / violin, Steve Beresford / piano, euphonium, violin, guitar, drums, toys, etc., Roger Turner / percussion, piano, violin, etc.

PERFORMANCE OF FEBRUARY 9, 1978 AT NORTH LONDON POLY, LONDON

David Toop / flutes, bass recorder, etc., Steve Beresford / piano, euphonium, violin, guitar, drums, toys, etc.

PERFORMANCE OF FEBRUARY 10, 1978 AT THE LONDON MUSICIANS COLLECTIVE, LONDON.

Steve Beresford / piano, euphonium, violin, guitar, drums, toys, etc., John Russell / guitar, Roger Turner / percussion, alto sax, piano, etc., Carlos Alves / violin.

“We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.” Edward Sapir

I thought it might be interesting to look at the work of Steve Beresford through his participation in three groups, none of which he was the “leader” of (if that term carries any meaning any longer in improvised music). His playing is perhaps the most “controversial” of the English players involved in free improvisation, and it certainly forces the listener to re-evaluate what he thinks might be going on in terms of “communication”/creation. My remarks on his playing in a recent review as “…a continual setting-up and dismantling of musical situations which the other players may or may not respond to” seem to hold up on seeing him perform live; the setting-up and dismantling together create the loosest of musical structures, yet perhaps that causes the other players (and audience) to work that much harder in creating an overall form to the piece (not that Beresford doesn’t work at this as well, and also to the opposite effect). This fact may be seen as a possible example of the music moving out into areas beyond those normally explored in free improvisation.

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bead records

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Bead have produced two records: Bead 1 is Milk Teeth by “A Touch of the Sun” - Peter Cusack (guitar) and Simon Mayo (clarinets). It was produced early in 1975 in an edition of only 100. Bead 2 appeared recently, and is a record of the group Chamberpot: Richard Beswick (oboe, cor anglais), Simon Mayo (clarinets), Phillip Wachsmann (violin), and Tony Wren (double bass), recorded February 1976 in London. These musicians belong to what is generally referred to as the “second generation” of English improvisers, though the term refers to the timing of their appearance on the scene rather than their ages.

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