Cecil Taylor, Bennie Wallace...

[king ubu]

What's coming up?

Rabih Abou-Khalil recorded what he/we already consider as his best album to date: he went into the studio for 10 days and recorded his current group (RAK oud, compositions, Gabriele Mirabassi cl, Luciano Biondini accordion, Michel Godard tuba, Jarrod Cagwin drums and new member vocalist Gavino Murgia from Sardinia).

After a 20 day concert tour the group was so at ease with the new material that they all contributed on a level rarely achieved interpreting Rabih's complex compositions.

Bassist/composer Renaud Garcia-Fons is working on his next recording which will give a strong nod to flamenco music. The core unit is a trio of Renaud on bass, Antonio"Kiko" Ruiz flamenco guitar, Josè "El Negrito" Trasante drums, with guests on several tracks. We will release this production as a 2-CD set, the complimentary CD 2 will feature new compositions for solo bass.

Cecil Taylor has written a 60 minute composition for the Italian Instabile Orchestra and himself which was so far performed twice, at the Ruvo Di Puglia festival in Italy and at the Banlieue Festival in Paris (Le Monde dedicated nearly a full page to the concert's glowing review).We recorded the breathtaking performance in Ruvo, it will be a classic of Cecil Taylor's music for sure.

Long time associate Bennie Wallace did a most beautiful album in trio, with Kenny Barron on piano and Eddie Gomez on bass. An audiophile recording produced by famed Joe Harley.

Now this is good news! The Wallace sounds nice, and the Taylor/Instabile one sounds at least exciting!

Copied it out of the latest Enja newsletter.

ubu

[brownie]

Could not make it to the Cecil Taylor/Instabile concert at the 2002 Banlieues Bleues

festival outside Paris. Glad to see their first concert will be released by Enja.

Cecil Taylor is to give another concert with the Instabile Orchestra next September 6

at Sant'Anna Arresi on the beautiful island of Sardegna off the Italian coast.

[John L]

I was at the Banlieues Bleues concert. Cecil first played solo and then with the Italian Instabile Orchestra.

For some reason, the orchestral part of the concert didn't really thrill me as much as I expected. I had the impression that Cecil and the orchestra were on completely different wavelengths. (For all I know, that could have been the intention!). Anyway, it will be interesting to revisit that music to see if time or repeated listenings will finally induce me to hear the magic.