An announcement from Hat Hut

[Adam]

Just FYI - a mix of reissues & new releases:

Dear Friends,

END OF AUGUST 2004

Another essential reissue of one of the major works by Steve Lacy will

be ready:

hatOLOGY 2-604

STEVE LACY FIVE

THE WAY (reissue, remastered)

Total time 115:32, ADD

Notes for The Way by Steve Lacy, Paris December 1979

The Way is a long story. Based on an old Chinese text, attributed to

Lao-Tzu, it reached me 2000

years later, in New York, in Witter Bynner's sing-song version: The Tao

Teh Ching

(published by Capricorn Books). That was 1959. By '67 I had already set

the melody of "The Way"

for Irène and was mulling over the other verses. The rest of the pieces

were written in the late sixties.

By the early seventies began the elaboration and realization of this

music, known as Tao, which is still

going on. By now, after hundreds of performances of this cycle (in

solo, duo, quintet, orchestra, with

dancers, electronics, etc.), the shape and sound is coming clear and

the whole work seems destined

to become "standard" one day. New wings for old words - so be it.

Tao dedicated to:

Existence-John Coltrane-Dawn

The Way-Alberto Giacometti-Morning

Bone-Lester Young -Noon

Name-Charlie Parker-Afternoon

The Breath-Gil Evans-Evening

Life on Its Way -Duke Ellington-Night

Made in concert in Basel, Switzerland, January 23rd, 1979 by:

Steve Lacy-soprano saxophone

Steve Potts-alto & soprano saxophone

Irène Aebi-cello,violin & voice

Kent Carter-double bass

Oliver Johnson-drums

This is the first complete recorded performance of Tao. Already, one

year later, some parts have been

modified, re-worked, developed. This music is complete, but, luckily

for me, unfinished.

END OF SEPTEMBER 2004

Two new recordings:

hatOLOGY 611:

ELLERY ESKELIN

TEN

Total time 63:46, DDD

I take this music as a sign that whatever I may want or think I want

there are forces at

work beyond my awareness and that improvised music can offer wonderful

surprises

if one is open to them. Our celebration of a decade of music is marked

with a project

that does not look to the past but to the future.

- Ellery Eskelin

Ellery Eskelin - tenor saxophone

Andrea Parkins - piano, accordion, sampler

Jim Black - drums and percussion

and guests:

Marc Ribot - electric guitar

Melvin Gibbs - electric bass

Jessica Constable - voice

For additional informations go to:

http://home.earthlink.net/~eskelin/

hatOLOGY 618:

eRikm & FENNESZ

COMPLEMENTARY CONTRASTS

DONAUESCHINGEN 2003

Total time 66:27

Two different temperaments, the same background - this observation was

the basis of the idea

of inviting eRikm and Fennesz to form a duo for the first time. A few

days before the duo

premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2003 the musicians met in the

SWR studio to

try out strategies for playing together. This CD captures the two best

takes from these studio

sessions along with the recording of the festival concert, which lasted

about forty minutes.

Although they are much more abstract than the rock-like Donaueschinger

concert, the studio

takes reveal most strikingly that the new duo is united in inner

harmony.

eRikm - computer and 3-k.pad_system

Fennesz - laptop, computer and masterdistortion

For additional informations go to:

http://www.erikm.com/

http://www.fennesz.com/

END OF OCTOBER 2004

Two new recordings:

hat(now)ART 140

DANE RUDHYAR

WORKS FOR PIANO

Total time 65:30, DDD, Barcode: 752156014027

Steffen Schleiermacher -piano

 

This is sonic music, not to be analyzed and thought about, but to feel

and surrender to

in direct experience. It is some of the most spiritual music of the

last 100 years, important

not only to the progression of the American avant-garde, but to the

history of occultism.

It is high time we restore it to the place of honor it deserves. - Kyle

Gann

hat(now)ART 151:

JAMES TENNEY (1934)

PIKA DON

Total Time DDD 66:53, DDD, Barcode: 752156015123.

Maelström Peruccions Ensemble & Guests

Contucted by Jan Williams.

Tenney has often characterized himself as a kind of "tone scientist",

that is, one working on

an almost microscopic level with the primary materials of sound in

order to expand our

knowledge of its properties (what makes it what it is) and perceptual

identity

(how we respond to it). To do so, he has composed music that isolates

the components of

sound production into their most basic acoustic phenomena; music that

explores and

illuminates the subatomic pitch relationships within the harmonic

series; music that

combines these pitches into complexes motivated by systematic patterns

or chance

procedures. By thus objectifying music, and consequently rejecting its

romanticized

"self-expressive" nature, Tenney links composition with phenomenology.

"The basic idea in phenomenology", he told Gayle Young, "is making a

more strenuous

effort to see things as they are, depending upon whatever one is

focusing on.

I think the best scientists and the best artists are precisely that -

phenomenologists".

- Art Lange

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2004

Two essential reissues:

hatOLOGY 2-599:

CECIL TAYLOR UNIT

ONE TOO MANY SALTY SWIFT AND NOT GOODBYE (reissue, remastered)

Total Time 148:01 AAD, Barcode: 7521560159929

The music is about Cecil Taylor and Unit in Stuttgart one remarkable

night in June 1978,

but most of this music is about us and for us. The people who listen,

the poeple whom

the dedicated artist does not disappoint ...the anonymous faces that

fill the seats at

every concert in every city. - Spencer A. Richards

Jimmy Lyons -alto saxophone

Raphé Malik -trumpet

Ramsey Ameen -violin

Cecil Taylor -piano

Sirone -double bass

Ronald Shannon Jackson -drums

hatOLOGY 2-612:

ANTHONY BRAXTON'S CHARLIE PARKER PROJECT (reissue, remastered)

Total Time130:19 DDD. Barcode: 752156061229

Anthony Braxton takes this wonderfull legacy of bebop and makes it

speak anew.

But in doing so, he is only renewing Charlie Parker's promise -the

promise that runs throughout

the Africam-American tradition- that now is the time the music can and

must address.

- Graham Lock

Anthony Braxton -saxophones, contrabass clarinet

Ari Brown, saxophones

Paul Smoker -trumpet, flugelhorn

Misha Mengelberg -piano

Joe Fonda -double bass

Han Bennink -drums on CD 1

Pheeroan AkLaff -drums on CD 2

Best regards,

Werner X. Uehlinger

wxu.hathut.com@bluewin.ch

HAT HUT RECORDS LTD.

Box 521,

4020 Basel, Switzerland

Phone +41.61.373.0773

Fax +41.61.373.0774 (on request only!)

http://www.hathut.com

Hat Hut Records (established 1975):

The 29th Year

The Future Continues

[Claude]

Great news, especially the Braxton and Cecil Taylor reissues. I discovered those albums after they went OOP, and the current Ebay prices are $60 and higher.

[ghost of miles]

Wow! I have the Lacy & the Taylor and love them both--will have to run down that Braxton when it comes out.

[jazzbo]

Taylor with trumpet, alto and violin as a frontline! Wow! I have a headache thinking about it.

[J.A.W.]

Taylor with trumpet, alto and violin as a frontline! Wow! I have a headache thinking about it.

You don't HAVE to listen to it...

[WD45]

Looking forward to the Braxton as well. Glad to see that they are doing some reissues, as well as going into the new music future.

Interesting to see the Fennesz title. I do like what he does.

[ghost of miles]

Taylor with trumpet, alto and violin as a frontline! Wow! I have a headache thinking about it.

Herr Jazzbo, you vill listen und you vill learn to love it!

[JSngry]

That was an amazing band, and their records are amongst the best of Cecil's entire career, I think. Lyons was in prime form, Malik is strong and surefooted, and the Sirone/Jackson tandem was actually "funky" in a uniquely Taylor-eque way. Ameen fit in ok, too.

Ina lot of ways, that mid-70s run by Cecil's group was the apex of his music. Not that there hasn't been much of worth since then, but it was a genuine WORKING band, something that he had never really had before, not of this scale anyway. The music, beginning with the Music & Arts albums, hit strong, and each subsequent release just got stronger. It was truly a Golden Age. Then Jimmy passed...

Can I have my porridge back now, please?

[Guest Chaney]

Lon: If we should ever meet, please remind me that I owe you one bitch-slap.

One Too Many... is justly prized and its being reissued should make alot (by jazz standards, of course) of people really happy. (Men most likely. Their Significant Others will rue the purchase.)

Looking forward to the Braxton. While I've attemped to find quite a few rare titles over the years, locating the Charlie Parker Project seemed so unlikely that I never even bothered harnessing the bloodhounds.

Gotta love Hat.

[jlhoots]

The Braxton Parker is great.

I'm going to pull my copy out & listen tonight.

[king ubu]

I found the old HatArt of the Taylor and had one chance so far for a complete listen. Absolutely fascinating music! And I liked it better than the two New World releases of the same band.

I guess "It is in the brewing luminous" remains my favourite of that period, though.

ubu

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The Braxton is about the only one of these that looks pretty interesting. Many years ago, I was driving Josh Heisler and "Hardbop" Heaney down 5th Ave in my car and Josh pulled a fast one on hardbop by spinning the Braxton CDs. Even hardbop thought they were OK so you know they don't go too far out.

I'm sorry, but I can't get into that Taylor date... it sounded like screeching cats on a fence at midnight when I spun it at a used shop a few years back. I can't go that far out yet.

Later,

Kevin

[AmirBagachelles]

Hat is indeed sitting on a mountain of excellent stuff, this snail's reissue pace is killing me though. In the few years it has taken for Hat to nearly go out of business, my tastes have changed. I want their old stuff! Salty-Swifty I have, and I love it -- highly recommended.