Archive: June, 2007

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) | 399 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) | 980 Views

cal haines | musical and visual reflections

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Cal lives with his wife in Santa Fe and plays jazz drums in the surrounding area. Playing in a jazz group offers many opportunities for rhythmic exploration and interpretations of energy as varied as your mind can imagine. Cal uses this improvisational approach in creating his photos, letting each photograph develop according to the energy and feelings present at the moment.

Jazz musicians improvise and alter existing song forms making each performance unique. The outcome is influenced by a number of factors including personal feelings at the moment, skill levels and attitudes of the participating musicians, and the interaction and energy exchange with the audience. The improvisation is a synthesis of those feelings and energies and exclusive to each performance.

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artist portrait | Comments (2) | 617 Views

company week | a short report

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

COMPANY WEEK: A short report

Company Week took place 24th to 29th May 1977 in London, at the Institute
of Contemporary Arts (except 29th at The Roundhouse). The musicians taking part were: Maarten van Regteren Altena, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Steve Beresford, Anthony Braxton, Lol Coxhill, Tristan Honsinger, Steve Lacy, Evan Parker and Leo Smith. Altogether they played 37 sets of improvised music, but only twice was any combination of musicians repeated. So there were 35 groups, which consisted of: 1 solo, 12 duos, 11 trios, 7 quartets, 2 quintets, 1 sextet and 1 septet.

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bells | Comments (0) | 569 Views

music improvisation company | derek bailey – tristan honsinger company

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

THE MUSIC IMPROVISATION COMPANY 1968-71 Incus 17

Derek Bailey / guitar, Hugh Davies / live electronics and organ, Jamie Muir / percussion, Evan Parker / soprano saxophone and amplified autoharp.
Recorded: July 4, 1969; June 18, 1970.

DUO Incus 20

Derek Bailey / electric guitar, 19 string (approx.) guitar, Waiswich crackle box, Tristan Honsinger /cello, voice.
Recorded: February 7, 1976 in concert & two tracks February 6, 1976.

COMPANY 1 Incus 21

Maarten van Regteren Altena / bass, Tristan Honsinger / cello, Evan Parker / soprano and tenor saxophones, Derek Bailey / acoustic and electric guitars.
Recorded: May 9, 1976.

The Music Improvisation Company 1968-71 is a further documentation of the group (minus vocalist Christine Jeffrey) that first appeared on ECM 1005 under the same name, and it promises to be the first volume of two or more of previously unreleased material. For the most part, there’s not too much new to be learned about the group from this record - though it does serve, like the ECM album, to bring the origins and growth of this music, that based on spontaneous free improvisation, into some perspective.

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bells | Comments (0) | 1 Views

spontaneous music ensemble | biosystem

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

BIOSYSTEM Incus 24

John Stevens / percussion, cornet, Nigel Coombes / violin, Roger Smith / acoustic guitar, Colin Wood / cello.
Recorded: June 28, 1977.

Biosystem finds the SME operating in an area that is seemingly a magnification of the possibilities implied in the massive Plus - Equals by the Spontaneous Music Orchestra (A Records 003). Generally operating in a low-volume area (i.e. the percussion is never over-bearing, and the three strings are un-amplified), the music rushes along in areas, takes some sinuous, twisting turns, and slows down regally, as if to catch its breath, operating in self-styled narrow confines yet always pulsating and pushing out at its structures; a music that expands and contracts simultaneously.

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bells | Comments (0) | 248 Views

spontaneous music ensemble | the source - from and towards | “so what do you think ?”

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

THE SOURCE - FROM AND TOWARDS Tangent 107

John Stevens / drums, Trevor Watts / alto and soprano saxophones, Ray Warleigh / alto saxophone, flute, Brian Smith / tenor and soprano saxophones, Ken Wheeler / trumpet, flugelhorn, Bob Norden / trombone, Mike Payne / piano, Ron Mathewson / bass, Marcio Mattos / bass.
Recorded: November 18, 1970.

“SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Tangent 118

John Stevens / drums, Trevor Watts / soprano saxophone, Ken Wheeler / trumpet, flugelhorn, Derek Bailey / guitar, Dave Holland / bass.
Recorded: January 27, 1971.

The SME’s music can be seen in part as one answer to the problem of motion in music, as an attempt to synthesize linear and non-linear movement within a looser improvisational context without one seeming to take precedence over the other. Cecil Taylor, of course, forged something of his own intensely compacted solution to this problem, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s procedural and stylistic stream-of-consciousness was another. But only in England has this been at the heart of any on-going musical investigations - as a result of which certain of the English musicians have come to stand in the forefront of contemporary improvisation.

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bells | Comments (0) | 288 Views

spontaneous music ensemble - face to face | amalgam - play blackwell and higgins

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

SPONTANEOUS MUSIC ENSEMBLE: FACE TO FACE Emanem 303

John Stevens / percussion and cornet, Trevor Watts / soprano saxophone.
Recorded: November 29, December 6 & 14,1973 at the Little Theatre Club, London.

AMALGAM play Blackwell and Higgins A-002

Trevor Watts / alto saxophone, John Stevens / drums, Ron Herman / bass (on “Blackwell”), Jeff Cline / bass (on “Higgins”).
Recorded: March 23, 1972 and January 24, 1974 in concert.

Much of the history of free music in England revolves around John Stevens and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. Almost every important figure in the music there passed through and/or has been associated with the SME at one time, which was started in 1966 by Stevens, Trevor Watts, and trombonist Paul Rutherford. Evan Parker and Derek Bailey were both a part of the group in its earliest days and still occasionally work under its auspices. Kenny Wheeler was once a part of the group, as was Dave Holland. Since the SME’s beginnings, John Stevens has been its principal musical force and a major influence on just about everyone involved.

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bells | Comments (0) | 342 Views