Funny Rat

[P.L.M]

They also reissued a Francois Tusques disc from the 1960s which Dan Warburton urges me to get a hold of--I gather it's a foundation document of French improv, as important as Free Form, Machine Gun or Karyobin were.  Anyone heard that?  It's got Portal on it too.

The record is "FREE JAZZ" (yep, just like the Coleman's one).

Recorded in 1965, it's the pionneering record of the french avant-garde scene.

And it's a stunning one, Dan Warburton is right about.

FRANÇOIS TUSQUE is a strange person who still makes (beautiful) records time to time but who has been marginalized (is this word existing in english?) by the establishment but also by his on will (he never went into the "jazz bussiness" of any kind by choice.)

It's far to be as much "outside" than KARYOBIN or MACHINE GUN, but it's a powerfull record with most of the names who will be the crucial actors of the French modern scene to come (MICHEL PORTAL, FRANÇOIS JANNEAU, BERNARD VITET, BEB GUERIN).

The funny story of this session it's than he has been directed by a musician who did'nt know very well to play piano at that time when all the others was first conservatory prices!

Edited August 18, 2004 by P.L.M

[king ubu]

Still owe Nate a short write up on this one:

Fredi Lüscher & Nat Su - "Smada"

A beautiful disc! Dedicated to Ellington compositions, Su with his fragile, dry tone (he owes a lot, if not all, to Lee Konitz), and Lüscher create beautiful improvisations. The opening tune, "Azalea," is one of personal Ellington favourites (the version Duke did with Louis Armstrong is sublime, nothing less). They also play "African Flower," "Come Sunday," "The Mooche," "Serenade to Sweden," and of course the title tune.

Recording is beautiful, fitting the beauty of the music. It has been done by Martin Pearson (who did several Keith Jarrett live recordings for ECM, in most perfect sound, as well).

The album, as a whole, is a very quiet affair, but it has depth and purity of sound and melody.

Now if that makes you want to buy the disc, here's a link to the Altisuoni website, but I think you could locate it for a cheaper price, maybe.

Right now back to Hank Jones again (the VME, this time).

ubu

[king ubu]

They also reissued a Francois Tusques disc from the 1960s which Dan Warburton urges me to get a hold of--I gather it's a foundation document of French improv, as important as Free Form, Machine Gun or Karyobin were.  Anyone heard that?  It's got Portal on it too.

The record is "FREE JAZZ" (yep, just like the Coleman's one).

Recorded in 1965, it's the pionneering record of the french avant-garde scene.

And it's a stunning one, Dan Warburton is right about.

FRANÇOIS TUSQUE is a strange person who still makes (beautiful) records time to time but who has been marginalized (is this word existing in english?) by the establishment but also by his on will (he never went into the "jazz bussiness" of any kind by choice.)

It's far to be as much "outside" than KARYOBIN or MACHINE GUN, but it's a powerfull record with most of the names who will be the crucial actors of the French modern scene to come (MICHEL PORTAL, FRANÇOIS JANNEAU, BERNARD VITET, BEB GUERIN).

The funny story of this session it's than he has been directed by a musician who did'nt know very well to play piano at that time when all the others was first conservatory prices!

There has been discussion of Tusques in this thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=4704

ubu

[Nate Dorward]

Thanks for the link--hadn't been following the Wilen thread. There's actually a label feature on In Situ by Dan Warburton here, if you're curious (& it has a bit on Tusques' Free Jazz 1965):

http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/features/000463.html

Look at the great comments below on that page from Dennis Gonzalez too......

If you go to the main Bagatellen page, incidentally, you'll see a very nice photo of me in Ireland with my hair just-rained-on.

[king ubu]

Nice photo, Nate

Should spend more time on the Bagatellen site, I always forget it's there, and I just don't have the time to read it all... Thanks for reminding me of it!

How about the Lüscher/Su? Have you heard it in the meantime?

[Guest Chaney]

http://www.ndorward.com/

Nate: Does your site include the reviews you posted to Amazon?

[John B]

it is always strange to see a picture of someone you "know" only through online contact. That photo of Nate looks nothing like what I would have expected.

To be fair, I will also post a picture of myself, taken fairly recently. I'm sure this will surprise none of you:

Due to constant houseguests and time spent with family, I have been unable to listen to anything even remotely Funny Rat-ish recently. (Although my sister did get to hear the end of track 3 off of Sheer Hellish Miasma when I picked her up at the airport last weekend. Her response: "This is music?")

Hopefully that will change in the next few days.

Edited August 18, 2004 by John B

[Д.Д.]

Finally gave a listen to Brötzmann's DLAD quartet performance which our own ubu kindly proived me with (thanks, Flurin!).

It is quite good (and excellent sound quality, btw!), and rather different from Little Birds... (my only exposire to DLAD). Very relaxed (Brötzmann in particular)! I found both Brötzmann's and Kondo's playing here less varied than on Birds. The visual imagery I had is of Brotzmann's sound being a big a little bit dumb peaceful bull and Kondo0s trumpet being some deranged blood-sucking bird (or rather two birds!) flying around and stinging him. I beieve I had more diverse zoological imagery listening to Little Birds... (shit, just writing this I realized that the title has "birds" in it... I should pay attention to titles). There are soime moments where both Brötzmann and Kondo seem to be lost a bit, and just going through their "thing" waiting for an idea to struck them. But it is all to a large degree compensated (and you new it was coming) by non-Parker bass!!! I have to admit, that the listenig experience became to a large extent a comparison of Kessler's and Parker playing, and IMO Kessler is by far more interesting - great deep sound (with long notes, not just drum-like shallow boom-boom), no groove lock-ins and quite unpredictable (unlike Parker, whose bass parts can be easily overdubbed from one disc to another these days).

Talking abnout good bass, I am really looking forward to hearing the disc(s) Brötzm. did with Fred Hopkins... but before buying anything I have a lot of catching up to do with my own collection.

[John B]

I bought used copies of a Sam Rivers / Alexander von Schlippenbach disc on FMP (apologies to ubu!)

Not at all your fault!

I got a burn of that, since.

ubu

what do you think of this one? I have only listened to it one and quite like it. I have never heard Rivers in a duo setting before.

[Д.Д.]

I bought used copies of a Sam Rivers / Alexander von Schlippenbach disc on FMP (apologies to ubu!)

Not at all your fault!

I got a burn of that, since.

ubu

what do you think of this one? I have only listened to it one and quite like it. I have never heard Rivers in a duo setting before.

Will I be forgiven here, if I admit that other than Blue Note works, I am not a perticular fan of Rivers (with some exceptions, like Don Pullen's excellent Capricon Rising in Black Saint)?

Edited August 18, 2004 by Д.Д.

[king ubu]

I bought used copies of a Sam Rivers / Alexander von Schlippenbach disc on FMP (apologies to ubu!)

Not at all your fault!

I got a burn of that, since.

ubu

what do you think of this one? I have only listened to it one and quite like it. I have never heard Rivers in a duo setting before.

Still have to give it a concentrated listen. I do quite a lot of work for that Count Basie website, and haven't had time to really listen music often, lately...

[king ubu]

I bought used copies of a Sam Rivers / Alexander von Schlippenbach disc on FMP (apologies to ubu!)

Not at all your fault!

I got a burn of that, since.

ubu

what do you think of this one? I have only listened to it one and quite like it. I have never heard Rivers in a duo setting before.

Will I be forgiven here, if I admit that other than Blue Note works, I am not a perticular fan of Rivers (with some exceptions, like Don Pullen's excellent Capricon Rising in Black Saint)?

Nope, never!

Seriously? Really not a fan? Wow!

I love the stuff he did in the Seventies, with Holland/Altschul or Holland/Barker. Then, there's Hollands "Conference of the Birds," in my humble opinion one of the best ECM albums ever. Also, there's the FMP solo disc, "Portrait," which is masterly! And then there's the Impulse trios... you can easily see that I AM a fan!

ubu

[J.A.W.]

I bought used copies of a Sam Rivers / Alexander von Schlippenbach disc on FMP (apologies to ubu!)

Not at all your fault!

I got a burn of that, since.

ubu

what do you think of this one? I have only listened to it one and quite like it. I have never heard Rivers in a duo setting before.

If you like Sam Rivers in a duo setting, you really should try the wonderful but hard to find 1998 album Winter Garden (Nato) with Tony Hymas at the piano. JPC Germany seems to have it, though.

Another fine Rivers album is Configuration (Nato) with Noël Akchoté (guitars), Tony Hymas (piano), Paul Rogers (bass) and Jacques Tholot (drums).

[Д.Д.]

Then, there's Hollands "Conference of the Birds," in my humble opinion one of the best ECM albums ever.

He-he, Conference of the Birds I found too simplistic with quite poor soloing by both Rivers and Braxton.

This is how we treat the classics here.

Edited August 18, 2004 by Д.Д.

[John B]

Then, there's Hollands "Conference of the Birds," in my humble opinion one of the best ECM albums ever.

He-he, Conference of the Birds I found too simplistic with quite poor soloing by both Rivers and Braxton.

This is how we treat the callssics here.

ouch! I definitely disagree with you on this one. COTB is a classic album.

[Д.Д.]

Another fine Rivers album is Configuration (Nato) with Noël Akchoté (guitars), Tony Hymas (piano), Paul Rogers (bass) and Jacques Tholot (drums).

Guitarrrrr fan, Hans?

Edited August 18, 2004 by Д.Д.

[J.A.W.]

This is how we treat the classics here.

Speak for yourself.

[J.A.W.]

Another fine Rivers album is Configuration (Nato) with Noël Akchoté (guitars), Tony Hymas (piano), Paul Rogers (bass) and Jacques Tholot (drums).

Guitarrrrr fan, Hans?

I was waiting for that.

Exception to the rule, happens to everyone.

[king ubu]

Something I forgot, David, let me add it here:

SACRILEGE!

[Д.Д.]

This is how we treat the classics here. 

Speak for yourself.

Hans, seeing our total similarity of music tastes and outlook on life, I got used to making statements on behalf of you and me. This goes beyond this board -. actually, most of the conversations I start with "Hans and I think...". I willingly acknowledge my mistake, and this will never happen again. In all my written and oral presenrtation I will always make a comment along the lines of "this is my personal opinion exclusively, I am not aware of Hans' opinon, nor am I authorized to make any statements on his behalf".

[J.A.W.]

This is how we treat the classics here. 

Speak for yourself.

Hans, seeing our total similarity of music tastes and outlook on life, I got used to making statements on behalf of you and me. This goes beyond this board -. actually, most of the conversations I start with "Hans and I think...". I willingly acknowledge my mistake, and this will never happen again. In all my written and oral presenrtation I will always make a comment along the lines of "this is my personal opinion exclusively, I am not aware of Hans' opinon, nor am I authorized to make any statements on his behalf".

Honestly, I am bewildered: what made you think our tastes and outlook on life are so similar? I don't recall any conversations on or off this board re things like that, so I'm wondering how you reached that conclusion.

[John B]

I bought used copies of a Sam Rivers / Alexander von Schlippenbach disc on FMP (apologies to ubu!)

Not at all your fault!

I got a burn of that, since.

ubu

what do you think of this one? I have only listened to it one and quite like it. I have never heard Rivers in a duo setting before.

If you like Sam Rivers in a duo setting, you really should try the wonderful but hard to find 1998 album Winter Garden (Nato) with Tony Hymas at the piano. JPC Germany seems to have it, though.

Another fine Rivers album is Configuration (Nato) with Noël Akchoté (guitars), Tony Hymas (piano), Paul Rogers (bass) and Jacques Tholot (drums).

I had never heard of either of these. I will try to track them down. Thank you for the recommendations!

[Д.Д.]

This is how we treat the classics here. 

Speak for yourself.

Hans, seeing our total similarity of music tastes and outlook on life, I got used to making statements on behalf of you and me. This goes beyond this board -. actually, most of the conversations I start with "Hans and I think...". I willingly acknowledge my mistake, and this will never happen again. In all my written and oral presenrtation I will always make a comment along the lines of "this is my personal opinion exclusively, I am not aware of Hans' opinon, nor am I authorized to make any statements on his behalf".

Honestly, I am bewildered: what made you think our tastes and outlook on life are so similar? I don't recall any conversations on or off this board re things like that, so I'm wondering how you reached that conclusion.

The main thing that we have in common, Hans, is that we - unlike most of the posters on this board, take life very seriously. People here tend to have a somewhat, shall I say, shallow and light outlook on things, and it is for people like you and me (it became so natural for me to make statements on bahalf of us both, you see - this is the last time, I promise) to remind them that life is not just he-he and ho-ho.

[7/4]

This is how we treat the classics here. 

Speak for yourself.

Hans, seeing our total similarity of music tastes and outlook on life, I got used to making statements on behalf of you and me. This goes beyond this board -. actually, most of the conversations I start with "Hans and I think...". I willingly acknowledge my mistake, and this will never happen again. In all my written and oral presenrtation I will always make a comment along the lines of "this is my personal opinion exclusively, I am not aware of Hans' opinon, nor am I authorized to make any statements on his behalf".

Honestly, I am bewildered: what made you think our tastes and outlook on life are so similar? I don't recall any conversations on or off this board re things like that, so I'm wondering how you reached that conclusion.

The main thing that we have in common, Hans, is that we - unlike most of the posters on this board, take life very seriously. People here tend to have a somewhat, shall I say, shallow and light outlook on things, and it is for people like you and me (it became so natural for me to make statements on bahalf of us both, you see - this is the last time, I promise) to remind them that life is not just he-he and ho-ho.

How about hi-de-ho?

[Д.Д.]

This is how we treat the classics here. 

Speak for yourself.

Hans, seeing our total similarity of music tastes and outlook on life, I got used to making statements on behalf of you and me. This goes beyond this board -. actually, most of the conversations I start with "Hans and I think...". I willingly acknowledge my mistake, and this will never happen again. In all my written and oral presenrtation I will always make a comment along the lines of "this is my personal opinion exclusively, I am not aware of Hans' opinon, nor am I authorized to make any statements on his behalf".

Honestly, I am bewildered: what made you think our tastes and outlook on life are so similar? I don't recall any conversations on or off this board re things like that, so I'm wondering how you reached that conclusion.

The main thing that we have in common, Hans, is that we - unlike most of the posters on this board, take life very seriously. People here tend to have a somewhat, shall I say, shallow and light outlook on things, and it is for people like you and me (it became so natural for me to make statements on bahalf of us both, you see - this is the last time, I promise) to remind them that life is not just he-he and ho-ho.

How about hi-de-ho?

Well, 7/4, I have to note that under the positive influence of Hans and myself you are making some improvements. Hi-de-ho is serious enough for me. I speak for myself only, of course - Hans might still find it a bit thoughtless and irrisponsible, but for me it's just fine.