Archive: 'bells'

eleven improvisers

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

PERFORMANCE OF MAY 2, 1975 AT Wigmore Hall, London. England

Albion Music’s “Eleven Improvisers” concert was designed to bring to a wider audience the younger musicians on the British avant-garde scene: those who have not only absorbed the lessons taught by Ornette, or Albert, or Milford Graves, but also the developments over more recent years provided by Han Bennink, John Stevens, Derek Bailey or Evan Parker. The concert was at least partially successful in its aims, in that it got a few influential figures to come and listen, but a wider audience in general terms seems as far away as ever. Attendance was not too good, and largely made up of people who can be seen any Monday at the Engineer or every Tuesday at the Unity, and so on. Still, this did make it all very homely, despite the empty seats, and in addition the musicians weren’t under any unusual pressure to be especially “good” in front of people seeking justification for being out on a rainy night.

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bells | Comments (0) | 224 Views

the evolution of the drums | and a guide to some recent recordings

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

Foto: © Zippo Zimmermann, www.designladen.com

The liberation of the drums in jazz and improvised music has been one of the most incredible, yet neglected, stories of the past thirty years.

First Kenny Clarke, then Max Roach in the Forties set aside the steady four-four beat of the bass drum, opting for a lighter, more legato style on the cymbals, roundly punctuated by occasional bass drum “bombs” and/or snare and high-hat accentuations. By the early Fifties, Art Blakey had drawn the various polyrhythmic conclusions from this, interpolating into his playing actual counter-rhythms or whole lines filled with new rhythmic suggestions. (As two examples, hear his work on “Little Willie Leaps,” Charlie Parker, One Night At Birdland, Columbia 34808, June 1950; or especially on “Dig,” Miles Davis, Dig, Prestige 7012, October 1950.)

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kent carter | fernando grillo | maarten van regteren altena | barry guy | tristan honsinger

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

Kent Carter: Beauvais Cathedral Emanem 3306

Kent Carter / cello, double bass, melodica, piano strings, radio,
Phillip Pochon / second cello (one track), Michala Marcus / flute (one track).
Recorded: approximately June 1974.

Fernando Grillo: fluvine Cramps CRSLP 6203, DIVerso n. 3

Fernando Grillo / bass.
Recorded: 1975 or ‘76.

Maarten van Regteren Altena: Tuning the Bass ICP 019

Maarten van Regteren Altena / bass.
Recorded: May 2, 1975 in performance, Amsterdam.

Tristan Honsinger and Maarten van Regteren Altena: Live Performances SAJ-10

Tristan Honsinger / cello, voice (side one only)
Maarten van Regteren Altena / bass (side two only).
Recorded: Honsinger: November 7, 1976} Altena: October 29 & 31, 1976.

Barry Guy: Statements V - XI for Double Bass & Violine Incus 22

Barry Guy / double bass and violone.
Recorded: October 30, 1976.

Throughout the literature of jazz and improvisation, probably less has been written about bass players than about any other type of instrumentalist - the reason being that the bassist’s role, while generally acknowledged (as in bop) to be crucial, has almost always been a subordinate one. Even the free-form advances of the Sixties offered the bassist only a modicum of room for individual expression. The ideal player was still mainly expected to lay some kind of foundation for the work of the others, and his worth was measured by the extent of his ability to do that while obscuring it. Henry Grimes or Gary Peacock come to mind as great players of this sort. It is only quite recently, as in the work of Sirone (with the Revolutionary Ensemble), that the bass has begun to assume a near co-equal ensemble function.

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paul rutherford | gunter christmann

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

THE GENTLE HARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE Emanem 3305

Paul Rutherford / trombone.
Recorded: July 2, August 20, and December 17, 1974.

WE PLAY FMP 0120

Gunter Christmann / trombone, Detlef Schonenberg / drums.
Recorded: February 24, 25, 1973.

REMARKS FMP 0260

Gunter Christmann / trombone (solo on three tracks), bass (one track), Detlef Schonenberg / percussion, Harold Boje / synthesizer (four tracks).
Recorded: March 3, August 8 & 16, 1975.

It was Roswell Rudd who, in the last decade, reopened the investigation of the trombone. He not only extended the instrument’s range and range of possible effects, but utilized those effects to the fullest to create an at times abstracted, at times melodic, but always essentially dramatic art. Its strength lay in that and in its implied technical openness; in the latter respect, Rudd has probably influenced every trombonist to come since.

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bells | Comments (0) | 602 Views

globe unity | company

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

GLOBE UNITY: JAHRMARKT/LOCAL FAIR Po Torch PTR/JWD 2

Kenny Wheeler, Enrico Rava, Manfred Schoof / trumpets, Gunter Christman, Paul Rutherford, Albert Mangelsdorff / trombones, Evan Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Anthony Braxton, Gerd Dudek, Rudiger Carl, Michel Pilz / saxophones & reeds, Alex Schlippenbach / accordion & piano, Peter Kowald / conductor & tuba, J.B. Niebergall / doublebass, Paul Lovens / percussion and musical saw. Plus, on “Local Fair” (Side 2): the Wuppermusikanten Orchestra, the Wupperspatzen Orchestra, and Mousikon Synkrotima Spirou Papendreou (quartet).
Recorded; November 25, 1975 & June 5, 1976 in performance.

GLOBE UNITY: PEARLS FMP 0380

Orchestra same as above, though Peter Kowald also plays bass and does not conduct, and Alex Schlippenbach does not play accordion.
Recorded: November 25-27, 1977 and February 21, 1977 (Schlippenbach piano solo)

GLOBE UNITY: IMPROVISATIONS JAPO 60021

Orchestra same as above with the addition of Derek Bailey / guitar, and Tristan Honsinger / cello.
Recorded; September 1977.

COMPANY 5 Incus 28

Leo Smith / trumpet and flute, Maarten van Regteren Altena / bass, Derek Bailey / electric and acoustic guitars, Tristan Honsinger / cello, Steve Lacy / soprano saxophone, Anthony Braxton / clarinet, flute, alto and soprano saxophones, Evan Parker / soprano and tenor saxophones.
Recorded; May 26, 1977.

The Globe Unity records move from extreme to extreme - at the one end (Jahrmarkt/Local Fair) having to do with form and its superimpositions, at the other (Improvisations) with the shattering of form completely, at least as a preconceived element, and in between (Pearls) having to do with form as a skeletal model around which improvisation takes place. Each record is completely distinctive, each has its own terms on which it works, and each is an important orchestral showcase.

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bells | Comments (0) | 296 Views

globe unity

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

GLOBE UNITY SPECIAL: EVIDENCE (VOL 1) FMP 0220

GLOBE UNITY SPECIAL: INTO THE VALLEY (VOL 2) FMP 0270

Kenny Wheeler / trumpet, Steve Lacy / soprano saxophone, Evan Parker / soprano and tenor saxophones, Gerd Dudek / tenor saxophone, Albert Mangelsdorff / trombone, Paul Rutherford / trombone, Alex Schlippenbach / piano, Peter Kowald / bass and tuba, Paul Lovens / percussion.

Both Recorded: March 31, 1975 at the “Workshop Freie Musik.”

The first Globe Unity Orchestra came into being in 1966 to perform the piece “Globe Unity” (written by Alexander von Schlippenbach) for that year’s Berlin Jazz Festival. The piece was later recorded (along with another of Schlippenbach’s compositions) for the European SABA label (Globe Unity, SB 15109) and, as a work that successfully bridges the demands of orchestral music with those of “free jazz,” it stands alongside the early music of Mike Mantler and Carla Bley (hear, if possible, Communication, Fontana 681 011, recorded 1964, and Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, JCOA, recorded 1968).

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tony oxley | alan davie

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

THE TONY OXLEY - ALAN DAVIE DUO Alan Davie Music Workshop 005

Tony Oxley / percussion, violin, ring modulator, compressor, octave Splitter, Alan Davie / piano, cello, sopranino saxophone, bass clarinet, vibraphone, xylophone, ring modulator.
Recorded: January 16 & September 4, 5, 1974; March 5, 1975.

The Oxley-Davie collaboration spans a range of musical frontiers. It accepts influence freely, yet never succumbs to mere eclecticism. Davie’s playing, especially, illustrates this. There are traces of Cage, Webern, Stockhausen, Evan Parker, and Eric Dolphy - each surfacing at different points, depending largely on what instrument Davie is playing. Yet he always sounds like himself: his reed work is more melodic (and exotic) than Parker’s, more abstract (on bass clarinet) than Dolphy’s; his piano is more outgoing than Cage’s (though the ring modulator helps recall Cage’s “Sonatas”); and his cello is more frenetic (and certainly not serial in concept) than in Webern’s work. Stockhausen is more an overall point of reference, shared in fact between Davie and Oxley, but the pieces here flow more than that.

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bells | Comments (0) | 411 Views

noisy people | improvising a musical life - a film by tim perkis ( dvd)

Friday, June 29th, 2007

NOISY PEOPLE: Improvising a Musical Life - A Film by Tim Perkis ( DVD)
Featuring: George Cremaschi, Tom Djll, Greg Goodman, Phillip Greenlief, Cheryl Leonard, Dan Plonsey, Gino Robair, Damon Smith; also Kenneth Atchley, Laetitia Sonami.

Noisy People is a new feature length video documentary, presenting portraits of eight sound artists and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tim Perkis says about his film: “At first I thought I was simply stepping in to do a job I wished someone else had done, documenting a little-known musical scene with an interesting story. But it soon became clear that the film also touched upon a more basic question: what is the nature of a creative life, and how can one live it?”

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noisy people video trailer [0:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

artist portrait, video, bells | Comments (0) | 1,022 Views