BFT #24 - follow-up

[king ubu]

I'm taking the liberty to post another thread on my BFT. I do realize that none of the music I included is available commercially, unless someone wants to spend big $$ and buy the "Jazz in Switzerland" 4CD set.

So the idea of this thread is to offer a few pointers to CDs that have or have not been mentioned in my answers thread. I'm afraid I can't give opinions on all the discs I'll mention here, simply as I don't have them all, but I want to give you some pointers as to what to look for if you enjoyed something in particular. (Again: sorry, no more Hawk, no more Merrill w/Gruntz, no more accordion...)

So here, for starters, are two fine discs (I have both of them) coming from the fine Swiss label, Altrisuoni (catalogue, home):

Kaspar Ewalds Exorbitantes Kabinett: Räuber

This is the studio release of the crazy big band that reminded some of you of Don Ellis. Here's the info-page on the Altrisuoni website. Only looking at it I saw that there is a Don Ellis reference there, too!

Then, here's a second good Altrisuoni release:

Claudio Pontiggia: Espoir

sorry, couldn't find larger image

This disc features Pontiggia on french horn and Andy Scherrer (the "Blood Count" tenorist) on tenor and soprano, as well as a few other interesting European musicians, Frank Tortiller (vib), Marcel Papaux (d), Jean-Christophe Cholet (p), and Paolino dalla Porta (b). Here's the page on the Altrisuoni site.

Pontiggia has two more discs out on Altrisuoni with "Il trio", featuring himself, Cholet (p), and Heiri Känzig (b - the guy on the piano trio track on CD1). I have the first of those, Aspetti (AS 036) but it has been some time since I listened to it.

These two for starters. It's way past bedtime, I'll try and come back with a few more.

ubu

[mikeweil]

King Ubu, royal ambassador for Swiss Jazz!

[king ubu]

Tenorist Andy Scherrer's leader debut release:

Andy Scherrer: Second Step (TCB Records)

He's the guy who slaughters "Blood Count" on my BFT, so I beg you, give him a chance! It's available at Amazon's (for 19$, though...) and it does NOT include "Blood Count"

I don't have it, myself, but I have a couple of other live recordings of his quartet and like them! He has since done a second CD as a leader, dedicated to Mal Waldron. It's available on German Amazon, but US Amazon does not (yet?) list it:

Andy Scherrer: Remember Mal Waldron (TCB Records)

Scherrer's third and latest release as a leader comes from the small Swiss Unit Records label:

Andy Scherrer: Serenity (Unit Records)

As you may guess from the title, this one's an hommage to Joe Henderson. It features a younger rhythm section, Jean-Paul Brodbeck (p), Fabian Gisler (b), Dominic Egli (d). Brodbeck is on fender rhodes on the Kaspar Ewald release above (as well as on my BFT). This disc also has another horn in the frontline, magnificient lyrical trumpet player Matthieu Michel (a colleague of Scherrer's in the Vienna Art Orchestra and one of the best trumpet players around in Switzerland).

Here's the write-up on the Unit website. And be warned: "Blood Count" alert!

Edited April 4, 2005 by king ubu

[RDK]

Thanks again, Flurin. You've exposed me to so many "new" names that I should probably curse you for making me want to check some of them out - and making it so relatively difficult to check out.