Bill Dixon

[Late]

I only have Dixon on Cecil Taylor's Conquistador. What's the next step?

Food for thought: What do you think of Dixon as a substitute for Dewey Johnson on Ascension? Johnson seems perhaps the most obscure from that album.

[sonic1]

7-tette

Vade Mecum II

Opium

Papyrus, vol. 1

Solo works

these are my favs.

Especially Vade Mecum II. Unusual instrumentation. Dreamlike.

[Late]

Thanks, Sonic. I have the 7-tette side on order, and will keep an eye out for the other titles. Now ... care to share the story behind your avatar?

[Late]

Argh! Why do I ask these things?

Just got done checking out a lot of sound samples from Dixon's Soul Note work here.

I'm like this:

But my wallet's like this:

Very nice sounds. I guess I've "discovered" Dixon only today. Any affordable places online to purchase the Soul Note's?

[Chuck Nessa]

Sorry you are too late for the cybermusicsurplus dump. Cadence is your next best bet, after Amazon (used).

I have lost hope for a reissue of the Dixon/Shepp lp. Bill's just too damn ornery (sp?). I think this contains his most impressive playing.

[sonic1]

Thanks, Sonic. I have the 7-tette side on order, and will keep an eye out for the other titles. Now ... care to share the story behind your avatar?

That is a butoh performance.

http://home.earthlink.net/~bdenatale/AboutButoh.html

http://www.collapsingsilence.com/butoh.html#history

Here is a google page of images:

http://www.google.com/images?q=butoh&svnum...l=en&lr=&imgsz=

I am a butoh performer, and a fan of butoh.

Enjoy the images. Butoh is a little weird, beware.

Edited November 16, 2004 by sonic1

[Late]

Dig. Thanks for sharing those links. I actually read the entire "Collapsing Silence" page. Interesting stuff to say the least. An art form I knew nothing about ...

[JohnS]

Bill was listed to play with Cecil Taylor last evening at the London Jazz Festival sharing the bill with Anthony Braxton. Anyone get to see/hear the concert?

[David Ayers]

Too much on and too many music nights out recently.

I feel like I must have missed a good one...

[king ubu]

Bill was listed to play with Cecil Taylor last evening at the London Jazz Festival sharing the bill with Anthony Braxton. Anyone get to see/hear the concert?

Well, let's hope for another nice CT broadcast courtesy of BBC3 then

[JohnS]

The Taylor gig is scheduled for broadcast on 17 December. Braxton on 24th.

[king ubu]

The Taylor gig is scheduled for broadcast on 17 December. Braxton on 24th.

That's no Fridays... so no possibility to grab them via webradio?

[Joe]

For me, the pick of Dixon's Soul Notes is still NOVEMBER 1981.

With Alan Silva, Mario Pavone on basses and Laurence Cook on drums.

Tony Oxley's THE ENCHANTED MESSENGER (1994), with large experimental group featuring Dixon, is also very much worth hearing, IMO.

Oddly, no AMG review of this disc.

[Chuck Nessa]

Gee, the Oxley was under my radar. Didn't know it existed.

I have a couple of lps on the Fore label (from Italy) that never get mentioned. They are titled Considerations 1 & 2. The material comes from Dixon's private stash and was recorded 1972-76. Solo, duo, trio and larger ensemble pieces.

[Alexander Hawkins]

I was lucky enough to be at the gig last night.

I have never heard Braxton live before (wasn't born on his last visit to the country!), and was utterly overwhelmed. It wasn't simply the sort of excitement you get at hearing something excellently done, or anything like that, but a feeling of astonishment, admiration, and much else besides. It was a combination of a lot of things: doubtless the mystique value, and seeing a guy like Braxton on stage (I don't know whether this is a sensation that more experienced concert goers who've 'seen it all before' to a much larger extent get); the beauty of the music; the intrigue of various technical things which were going on (from extensive circular breathing from Braxton and his multiple instrument, to bizarre percussion techniques, to conch playing, to imaginative guitar sounds, to the hand signals which seemed to convey information about 'where next' to the performers). I can't really describe it. It was a genuinely moving and inspiring experience.

The Taylor/Dixon/Oxley group for me had a hard job, simply because I was so stunned by Braxton, and only had the interval to 'get over it'!

Oxley opened the show with a solo. He coaxed lots of beautiful sounds from his kit, for sure. It was gamelan-like at times. He also made some subtle - and musical, not 'gimmicky' - use of some kind of sampling tool throughout it.

Then Dixon followed with a solo. I must admit, I was a bit unimpressed. He played variously into one of two microphones: one with some kind of phasing effect on it; the other with a huge amount of reverb. The whole thing was apparently an exercise in sonics and creating landscapes, but I couldn't really stick with it! He did use the sound of just his breath to interesting effect, though.

Cecil Taylor then came on - after a rather bizarre (not to say a little disrespectful, I thought) sequence of heckles annoyed at the length of time he took to come on to the stage after Dixon (which must only have been 1-2 minutes). He began with a 10 or so minute solo, which reminded lots of moments from Scriabin piano music, especially the later stuff (Vers La Flamme, etc.) My friend thought 'Ravel' at this point, as well. Oxley and Dixon entered during this improvisation. What followed was frequently stunning, although I felt a little lost at points: I was enjoying sounds here and there, but found it difficult to stay with any kind of narrative thread or anything. This was the opposite reaction to the Braxton performance, where I was amazed at how organic everything was - a single hour-long piece, and I wished it would have gone for longer!

I feel a little guilty at saying it, but I couldn't help but feel that Dixon was something of a passenger. Perhaps this was the fault of the large concert hall acoustic, or of how I was listening, however. Maybe if he wasn't there, I'd have noticed his contribution.

I'm definitely looking forwards to hearing these again on the broadcasts. The Taylor group to see if I can understand more of what went on (again, maybe I was not only overwhelmed by the Braxton, but tired out for the Taylor as a result); the Braxton group to understand more of why I was so confounded (in the most positive of senses) by him and his group.

[Chuck Nessa]

Very nice report. Thanks, Red.

[JohnS]

My thanks too Red. I'll await the broadcasts with interest.

[king ubu]

The Taylor gig is scheduled for broadcast on 17 December.  Braxton on 24th.

That's no Fridays... so no possibility to grab them via webradio?

It's Fridays, of course, sorry for any confusion.

Here's a Guardian UK review I got via the CTList:

John Fordham

Wednesday November 17, 2004

The Guardian

Taylor's rarity value in the UK was highlighted on this London jazz

festival performance by a collaboration with another septuagenarian

jazz pathfinder, the New York trumpeter Bill Dixon. Taylor and Dixon

were partnered by the British percussionist Tony Oxley in Monday's

second-half set, displaying their radical reinventions of music's

rules first as individuals, then together. Everybody had made their

own jazz language, which owed little or nothing to the Great

American Songbook, or any songbook at all for that matter.

A jazz radical of comparable vision, the saxophonist Anthony Braxton

opened the evening with a stunning new quintet. The band played

atonal, taut and often staccato music, but two long and seamless

Braxton solos were strong candidates for the triumphs of the night,

and the confidence of his band, and the sensuous, pliable sound of

the percussion beneath it, made this performance a festival

highlight.

Oxley's combination of percussion detail and forceful rhythmic

momentum opened the second half, followed by Dixon's hypnotic

trumpet equivalent of a human beatbox sound, throwing breathy long

notes against electronics and evaporating echoes. When the trio

played together, a sustained 20-minute storm of piano improvising

from the unquenchable Taylor reaffirmed has ability to compress

decades of musical evolution into single solos, and to make keyboard

lines dazzlingly resemble a flow of hot liquid rather than the blows

of hammers on strings.

ubu

[clifford_thornton]

Dixon's 7'tette side, split with Shepp and the NYContemp5, is on an Atlantic/Savoy CD. I highly recommend it, Late, and it is usually available cheaply. Of course, he does sound great on the quartet Savoy LP, but seeing that released anytime soon is probably not likely.

Intents and Purposes, a slab he cut for RCA-Victor, is also really great.

[Trumpet Guy]

Tony Oxley's THE ENCHANTED MESSENGER (1994), with large experimental group featuring Dixon, is also very much worth hearing, IMO.

Oddly, no AMG review of this disc.

Picked up this Oxley used yesterday 'cause I read your comments. Thanks for the tip Joe!

I dig Dixon too!

[Alexander Hawkins]

wasn't born on his last visit to the country

I should correct myself here...Not knowing much about Braxton, I didn't realise that he cut those albums on a tour over here in 1985 (Coventry, B'ham, London). Oh well...if not quite unborn, I was little!

I've just picked up the 6 Compositions [GTM] on Ratascan...Haven't received it yet, but am looking forwards to it a lot now!

[Late]

Got this in the mail yesterday, and spun the Dixon side four times in a row. (Haven't even listened to the Shepp tracks yet.) Despite some intonation difficulties in the ensemble passages, this is some engaging stuff. Very glad I picked it up. Dixon's solos are, to my ears, sometimes more "Don Cherry" than Cherry himself, if that makes any sense. Ben Young's liner notes point out that Dixon was going through an embouchre change at the time, but his ideas still come through. The other soloists make a good show too — George Barrow's tenor is always welcome to my ears, and I'd never heard Howard Johnson solo on baritone saxophone before. This recording was evidently his debut on wax — something to be proud of. McIntyre's oboe playing doesn't seem to have matured yet, but his alto work (only on the previously unissued alternate takes) is already making use of that keening altissimo range.

Definitely music to revisit — an unusual blend of written harmony (made me think of Duane Tatro) and freer soloing. If you've slept on this one — like I did for so long — time to check it out!

Now I really want to hear that Savoy quartet session ...

[Late]

Have this one on order now. Woo-hoo!

Opium is actually Bill Dixon's For Franz paired with Koglmann's Flaps, both with Steve Lacy as sideman. Sound samples here.

[Late]

Up, to go with the current Discography thread on Dixon ...

[Late]

Since this thread was started, I've become a loyal Dixon fan. The whole persona, and still some of the music, however, is an enigma to me.

Intents and Purposes, though, has got to be one of the most atmospheric "free" dates ever put to wax. Truly inspiring.

Edited February 16, 2007 by Late