Funny Rat

[couw]

Some stray bullets. No time for a coherent post, sorry.

I have some Gumpert on the GDR Amiga label. Small group and large ensemble as I remember. I will check it when I return from my holidays next week. Send me a PM if I seem to have forgot Ubu.

And as I am going from memory here, I also have an LP by Brötzmann, Ten Hove, and Bennink called Elements (is it on FMP?). It's been too long since I listened to it. I should put it on again. Any comments on that one?

I have been transfering some stuff of the Chech pianist Ianci Körrössy from a Polish LP and a Chech 10" LP to my harddisk and this is another one playing within the European impressionist tradition (although quite a bit more baroque). This is more inside the swing bag than the other stuff discussed on this thread (rec. in the 50s & early 60s), but nonetheless very enjoyable and a very interesting illustration of how far you can go with melting jazz and classical approaches to the piano.

[Guest Chaney]

Any fans of Jöelle Léandre?

PARIS Transatlantic

Joëlle Léandre's Christmas Hamper

Kevin Norton / Jöelle Léandre / Tomas Ulrich

OCEAN OF EARTH

Barking HoopBKH 007

Brett Larner / Jöelle Léandre / Kazuhisa Uchihashi

NO DAY RISING

Spool Line 21

THE | SPACE | BETWEEN WITH JÖELLE LÉANDRE

482 Music 482-1017

Jöelle Léandre / Fred Frith / Jonathan Segel

TEMPTED TO SMILE

Spool Line 20

As avid PT readers will know, French double bass virtuoso Jöelle Léandre spent Autumn 2002 as Guest Professor at Oakland's Mills College, which explains the appearance of that illustrious institution's Head of Department, Fred Frith, and one of its grad students, Brett Larner, on two of the discs reviewed below. Not surprisingly, Ms Léandre found herself very much in demand during her stay, as a teacher, storyteller (she has some great Cage and Scelsi tales, having worked extensively with both) and especially as a bassist. These four outstanding albums were all recorded in less than a month - the Norton/Ulrich and Larner/Uchihashi on successive days (no mean feat that, as the former session was in New Jersey and the latter in Oakland!) - and find Léandre on stunning form throughout, jetlag notwithstanding.

Ocean of Earth features her in the company of percussionist Kevin Norton and cellist Tomas Ulrich in twenty tracks (not all trios: Norton takes a solo on "pour Eva B." and the three possible duo combinations are also exploited), all of which are under four minutes in duration with the exception of the magnificent central "Trio for the end of time" (a titular reference to Olivier Messiaen's "Quatuor pour la fin du temps" whose "timeless" qualities it shares), where Norton's marimbas and bowed sonorities float free in a sea of high harmonics from Léandre and upper register cello lyricism from Ulrich. Though the other tracks are short, they cram enormous passion and energy into their confined spaces; Léandre and Ulrich are especially compatible - both are masters of the high lyrical line, but are in no way afraid of letting the resin fly and producing some thrilling abrasive sonorities - and Norton's ear for finding just the right percussion instrument (pitched or unpitched) to accompany them is uncanny.

Léandre thanks Norton's wife Haewon for preparing a wonderful evening meal, but presumably she hardly had time to digest it before flying back to the West Coast the day after to record No Day Rising with koto master Larner and guitarist / daxophonist Uchihashi. The thirteen tracks run from "5.15p.m." to "5.31a.m.", presumably a reference to exactly when they were recorded on October 28th 2002, and are left in chronological order to tell the story of the night's proceedings. If Léandre was feeling tired at all, it certainly doesn't show: her bass takes on the strange growls of Uchihashi's daxophone to produce some truly weird noises, like two mysterious nocturnal animals in a swamp. As day breaks over Oakland, the closing "5.31a.m." is a perfect evocation of dawn, Léandre's bass engaging Larner's koto in pentatonic mode while Uchihashi swoops across the sky. It's not all as unashamedly romantic; Léandre may be passionate with the bow but she can more than hold her own when it comes to gritty extended technique and daring instrumental exploration.

Californians have often turned their gaze westwards across the Pacific for inspiration, and there's a touch of the Orient to be found on the | space | between too, not only in the shakuhachi of TSB's Philip Gelb, but in the delicate brushwork of Pauline Oliveros' accordion and Dana Reason's piano. This is the second time TSB have invited a guest bassist to sit in (the last time round it was Barre Phillips), but Léandre sounds so comfortable it's as if she's been playing with the group for years. This trio's gentle lyricism - quiet and spacious without being dogmatically lowercase: practitioners of the ultra-minimal variety of improv would do well to lighten up and check this group out - has always set them apart from the rest of the crowd, even in the improv hotbed that is the Bay Area, and Léandre, whose background in contemporary classical music reveals itself strongly here, is in her element. Not only can everyone play damn well, but they all know exactly when to stop: compare the way these pieces end to the depressingly frequent is-it-over-yet-I-think-so-but-maybe-I'll-just-wait-to-make-sure fizzling out that's become something of a cliché in improv in recent times.

One improvisor who can always be relied on not simply to go with the flow is guitarist Fred Frith, and despite the lousy inner sleeve photograph of him on Tempted To Smile he's on top form, whether engaged in furious Chadbournesque scrabbling, faux koto dronery or rooting around in the toy box on the hilarious closer "Housecleaning At The Beginning Of The New Year" - small objects haven't sounded so good since Steve Beresford's early albums. Léandre's also a dab hand at hysterical theatrics - or theatrical hysterics - when she wants to be, and violinist / guitarist Jonathan Segel has quite a job keeping up with the boisterous antics of his playing partners. He does so admirably. Listening over and over again to the excellent playing from all concerned on these albums, I feel not a little sorry for hardcore Léandre fans (not to mention Norton, Oliveros, Frith and Uchihashi completists), as there's really no way out of it but to shell out for them all. The bad news, folks, is Joëlle Léandre is likely to return to the States again, which means there'll soon be even more albums of this quality hitting the streets; the good news is you'll be able to enjoy this spectacular musicianship for the rest of your life. —Dan Warburton

[Д.Д.]

Thanks Chaney, I'll be picking up some of those. Just today actually I was listening to en excellent CD with Ms. Léandre's participation - VInny GOlia, Ken Filiano, Joelle Leandre - "Haunting the Spirits Inside Them..." (Music & Arts, 1995) (AMG review). Combination of very jazzy and quite melodic Golia's reeds and two wailing basses (unfortunately for Hans, there is boeing by at least one bassist most of the time) is mesmerizing. I got this disc for $7 at themusicresource.

Edited December 7, 2003 by Д.Д.

[Nate Dorward]

Re: Gräwe: I have a few discs--

VicissEtudes with Frank Gratkowski on Random Acoustics is easily one of the best freely improvised discs I have. Period.

There's also the same lineup with Paul Lovens added on Meniscus: Quicksand. This is more ordinary blow-out stuff, really doesn't sound much like the other one at all.

Impressions of Monk on Nuscope. In terms of "out" players playing mainstream jazz (if Monk is mainstream, anyway) this is one of the few discs that I think really hits the nail on the head. Michael Vatcher is a heavy handed drummer on here, perhaps, but Gräwe is extraordinary.

Re: Duos for Doris I've had about every reaction over the spectrum. My main problem is that it's virtually impossible to listen to free of the massive amounts of hype given the disc, especially since several of its key promoters make a point of spreading the gospel on it via the web. Erstwhile has nothing if not an avid fanbase & assiduous promoters. Anyway, I found it extremely hard to listen to it "cleanly" without the constant sensation of someone jogging my elbow, but maybe I'm just an overfussy sort. My (largely positive, but somewhat equivocal) take on the disc is available here:

http://www.squidco.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=270

For me some of this genre of minimalist improvising is hard to warm to because of the portentous atmosphere enveloping the performance & every single gesture. But there are many other folks I talk to who are enthralled by it so I may be just a cranky old-school type of guy (at age 30 no less).

[king ubu]

Nate, thanks for the Gräwe infos! I will look for some of these discs, the first you did mention sounds very good!

Regarding Ms Léandre: I have seen her live in a duo performance last weekend. She did play, or better: perform, with Lauren Newton. I have to admit, I did not like that performance very much. It was a free/improvised thing, Léandre sure has amazing command of the bass, can play what she wants in whatever technique she chooses to use, Newton sure is an impressing vocal artist, but somehow it all seemed very "beliebig" (is there an english word for this? I even did grab my dictionaries, but they don't have anything fitting), and people found it funny as hell, while I found it pretty boring, sort of a waste, and all in all did not care much for it.

Now I know Léandre can play, what's the point of doing sort of a (in every negative sense) post-modern collage/quotes/puzzle thing, pasting together as disparate components as there are? I mean, hell, they even did sing sort of an aria together (well, sometimes I do like to listen to some operas, and to be honest, they did try... ).

Then, Ms Newton was an other case... She moved like some sort of an acting spastic, created sounds that most of the people obviously found funny, but never did they succeed in creating some coherent, sensible (this might not be a good word to apply to free improv, but I think you can understand what I mean) stretch of music.

(I saw Urs Leimgruber after that, and he created something out of nothing, really creative and absolutely compelling. The day after, I saw Steve Lacy, solo, and that was one of the best concerts I ever witnessed... And I AM open to free music of any kind, but hell, these two ladies... not my cup of tea!)

ubu

[Д.Д.]

Yeah, Leandre's and Newton's vocalisings don't inspire me too much either. You are lucky Irene Aebi wasn't performing with Lacy.

BTW, is there a website listing jazz concerts in Switzerland - I seem to be missing a lot of stuff?

king ubu, I remeber you recommended something on Altrisuoni label - what was that?

Edited December 7, 2003 by Д.Д.

[king ubu]

you are lucky Irene Aebi wasn't performing with Lacy.

belly still hurting...

My dear Russian friend, the concerts I did mention all took place as part of that little festival.

I don't know any particular website, but here's some information:

http://www.moods.ch - the site of one of the better jazz locations in Zurich.

write an email to this address fredi.bosshard@bluewin.ch and ask to be put on the mailing list (they mail out information - in german, but you'll get the most important parts, otherwise ask me for translation - on concerts/festivals taking place at the "Rote Fabrik", an alternative location here in Zurich - they hosted the unerhört festival, and they also host Taktlos, a free jazz/improv festival, as well as hosting their own series of concerts.

If you're interested in jazz festivals, there are some in: Bern (mostly US-mainstream), Basel (Off Beat, some good concerts), Schaffhausen (mostly presenting swiss musicians, always some good stuff), Willisau (you sure know that), and Zurich (jazznojazz) - do the google thing for "Jazzfestival XXX" and you'll get their websites.

This then: http://www.nzzticket.ch/index.jsp is the website of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) weekly event calendar. Use the search function (Musik, ganze Schweiz).

The friends section of the Intakt homepage might be useful, too: http://www.intaktrec.ch/friends-a.htm

And here's the homepage of a rather small swiss jazz magazine, go to the "Hot Links" part and you'll find the web addresses of all the festivals I've mentioned, of some swiss record labels, clubs etc.

I'll write you an email if find some other useful sites. I mostly go from newspaper ads etc.

Re. Altrisuoni: was that one of Claudio Pontiggia's discs? I have one of the trio discs he made (the red covered one), and recently got the sextet disc he made with Andy Scherrer and others.

Knowing your tastes a little bit better than I might have at the time I did recommend this CD, I think it might not be very much to your likings. Don't buy it unheard. It's beautiful and very melodic music, but faaaaar from being free in any way. The larger ensemble, actually, is a modern mainstream unit. What makes it interesting is Pontiggia himself and the rather unusual line up (french horn, tenor/soprano sax, piano, vibes, bass, drums).

ubu

[Guest Chaney]

Have you guys heard Lauren Newton's Filigree (hatOLOGY 519)? Even though I like that one a lot I can't say that I'd be driven to see Ms. Newton perform live. I would guess that it would be just as ubu described it: comedic. CRIPES! The audience really laughed? That can't be a good thing.

Nate: I know that the JC has a lengthy thread on this but I've yet to read same. I'll (wisely?) have a listen first before I search out the opinions of others. (I look forward to reading your review.)

Funny... I received the set at my office this past Friday. I placed it into my office "system", pressed play and went about my business. It was around the eight minute mark that I finally heard the darn thing! VERY quite stuff, this. (I'm guessing that the most audible point on CD1 is the bit sampled on the Erstwhile site.) It wasn't until a few minutes after CD1 had ended that I realized that it had ended. Oddly enough, the ambient sound in my office took over and I began to perceive that as music!

I'll have a proper listen to it and post my thoughts. -_-

[king ubu]

Chaney, I did close my eyes and try to fix on the music from time to time, but I did not grab me much more either.

I have not heard FILIGREE, well, I did get an ear full several years ago at a store, but cannot comment on it.

I like Newton's contribution to the Vienna Art Orchestra's Minimalism of Erik Satie, however, but that's about the only thing of her I really know.

ubu

[Д.Д.]

I have Filigree, but haven't listened to it yet. Actually, I will put it right now if I am able to find it.

Talking about free improv vocalists, I am usually very sceptical about female voices, but there are several stunning records. One of them is No Secrets by Quartett (Gary Peacock, Julian Priester, Gerry Granelli and Jay Clayton) on New Albion records. In case you didn't figure this out, Jay Clayton is a vocalist here, and the emotional range that she manages to convey with her (beautiful) voice is astonishing (in case of Newton, I find very little emotion in her singing, but mostly acrobatic aping).

Edited December 7, 2003 by Д.Д.

[Guest Chaney]

From the updated Hat Hut site, three NEW (?) exiles to the Land of OOP:

hatOLOGY 2-535 / SOLD OUT

Misha Mengelberg

Two Days In Chicago

hatOLOGY 560 / SOLD OUT

Vienna Art Orchestra

The Minimalism of Erik Satie

hatOLOGY 564 / SOLD OUT

Paul Bley, Franz Koglmann, Gary Peacock

Annette

[Д.Д.]

From the updated Hat Hut site, three NEW (?) exiles to the Land of OOP:

hatOLOGY 2-535 / SOLD OUT

Misha Mengelberg

Two Days In Chicago

hatOLOGY 560 / SOLD OUT

Vienna Art Orchestra

The Minimalism of Erik Satie

hatOLOGY 564 / SOLD OUT

Paul Bley, Franz Koglmann, Gary Peacock

Annette

Shit, I don't have any of those, and from what I've heard they are good.

Fuck, I hate all this OOP thing...

[Guest Chaney]

Д.Д.: I too am now listening to Filigree - track two: Conversations.

I'll have to retract...

CRIPES! The audience really laughed? That can't be a good thing.

Clearly, this track is meant to amuse and I could easily imagine an audience having a ball with this one.

On Hat Hut and OOP, like you, I don't have any of these three BUT you can bet I'm now placing an order. As Two Days In Chicago was on the mid-price list, I was waiting to find a copy cheap. That never happened.

The Minimalism of Erik Satie was just added to the cheapie line and it too is now OOP.

Grrrr.....

Our own little Swiss Mosaic. I hold ubu responsible!

[John B]

Nat Dorward wrote:

"Re: Duos for Doris I've had about every reaction over the spectrum. My main problem is that it's virtually impossible to listen to free of the massive amounts of hype given the disc."

I found it essential to distance myself from the hype as much as possible in order to listen to this disc. I've read a lot of the hype you refer to and think it has been a bit over the top. DFD is a great disc, one that I will probably return to many times, but it is nowhere near the top of my most esential recordings.

Chaney wrote:

"It wasn't until a few minutes after CD1 had ended that I realized that it had ended. Oddly enough, the ambient sound in my office took over and I began to perceive that as music! "

You really need to listen to this one on headphones or really crank the volume (which may or may not be feasible at work. My wife doesn't appreciate my foing it at home, either) in order to really hear every nuance of the performance. Your point on not realizing the disc had ended and perceiving the ambient noise as music is a good one. I find that this happens quite a bit with this music, especially if I am not listening on headphones. From what I have read I think both Rowe and Tilbury are aware of this and fully support the notion of the performance never really ending.

Going back a few pages here, I finally bought Brotzmann's Daredevil. The local store had it, on sale, for $12. Hard to go wrong. I'll give it a listen in the next day or so and comment on my impressions.

I really need to get a copy of The Minimalism or Erik Satie soon. Anybody got a spare copy lying around?

[Guest Chaney]

...

You really need to listen to this one on headphones or really crank the volume (which may or may not be feasible at work).

...

I 'hear' what you're saying but really wonder if the musicians had intended this to be the mode of listening. A bit of a compromise, no? Headphones? Sure, but I can't say that I'm thrilled over the notion of having to increase the volume in order to hear the music. I'll set it at the usual volume and see how that goes.

DAMN YOU Д.Д.! I was supposed to be listening to Duos for Doris and now you have me listening to -- AND ENJOYING! -- Filigree! Dous for Doris next.

Going back a few pages here, I finally bought Brotzmann's Daredevil.  The local store had it, on sale, for $12.  Hard to go wrong.  I'll give it a listen in the next day or so and comment on my impressions.

Please do! The fine folks of The Music Resource have YET to supply this set which they list as IN STOCK and able to ship IN ONE (effing) DAY!

Edited December 8, 2003 by Chaney

[Guest Chaney]

In case anyone's looking for a copy of Brotzmann's The Chicago Octet / Tentet OOP 3-CD set, you may be able to order same from OTHER MUSIC for $29.99.

Other Music is where I found my copy a few months back and it's still listed so...

[king ubu]

You killin' me, Chaney! Half of my weekend was filled creating my own box for the copies of the Brötz box... and now this!! Do I need to update?!?

John and Д.Д. (damn I got to copy-paste your fucking handle everytime! Can you tell me how I can type it FAST myself?): grab a copy of Minimalism of Satie - that would have been my first choice AOTW, but I realized it was OOP and thought nobody had it (which might be true, as even you two don't have it...).

It's a great disc. Practically only the VAO's horns, accompanied/supported by Woody Schabata on vibes and percussion. This was a two LP set originally, but I think everything has made it on the CD. Side one includes Rüegg's arrangements (part one of each track) of Satie compositions (piano pieces mostly or all - I have not yet thoroughly explored Satie) and embellishments/variants (part two of each track), including some improvisations/solos. Side two is three duets, all with Schabata, the soloists being Newton, Roman Schwaller (a very good swiss tenor saxophonist, who was a mainstay of the VAO for many years, and has then been replaced by the other very good swiss tenor man, Andy Scherrer, who's been with the VAO for some ten years now, too), and the great Wolfgang Puschnig.

This is certainly an adventurous and probably controversial disc, however I love it!

ubu

[king ubu]

Д.Д., those link, are they of any use?

Chaney: re. Newton and laughing... well, I guess on disc it might work a little bit less cripey (?) than live... is FILIGREE OOP? I guess so, I think it was one of the very first HatOLOGies, no?

ubu

[Д.Д.]

roi ubu, the links are priceless.

VAO "Satie" disc will be searched for with cursing and swearing. The only VAO I have is a live double-CD thing (forgot how it is called, of course) and it is very good.

Filigree is still in print - I bought it from zwei for some negligible amount of €. It's quite good, aminly due to very tight band and good themes. Get Quartett stuff instead.

Regarding my handle - you mean you don't have the Cyrilllic fonts installed on your computer yet?!?

[king ubu]

Switzerland is not yet a russian colony, yes? Or did I miss something?

ubu

[Guest Chaney]

You killin' me, Chaney! Half of my weekend was filled creating my own box for the copies of the Brötz box... and now this!! Do I need to update?!?

Update? If you like. Really, the box this set comes in is nothing more than heavy paper. I've kept mine wrapped in its celophane wrap as the joints seem to be badly glued and they'll come undone if set free.

[Guest Chaney]

VAO "Satie" disc will be searched for with cursing and swearing. The only VAO I have is a live double-CD thing (forgot how it is called, of course) and it is very good.

I've just ordered this one from THE JAZZ LOFT

[king ubu]

You killin' me, Chaney! Half of my weekend was filled creating my own box for the copies of the Brötz box... and now this!! Do I need to update?!?

Update? If you like. Really, the box this set comes in is nothing more than heavy paper. I've kept mine wrapped in its celophane wrap as the joints seem to be badly glued and they'll come undone if set free.

Alright, as I fabricated a, well, not extremely stable, but certainly better than heavy paper box, I'll stick to it. I have only gotten an earful of the music, but I liked what I heard! Thanks very much again, Chaney!

I hope you will like the VAO! The Penguin gives it a crown, if I remember correctly.

I will look for the Newton disc because of your evaluations. Makes it an interesting thing again!

ubu

[king ubu]

Has our Russian friend seen this!?!?!?!?!?

http://www.discplus.ch/results.asp?smod_sk...smod_public_id=

HELL!

ubu

[John B]

VAO "Satie" disc will be searched for with cursing and swearing. The only VAO I have is a live double-CD thing (forgot how it is called, of course) and it is very good.

I've just ordered this one from THE JAZZ LOFT

I didn't think JazzLoft had this disc in stock, for some reason. Thanks for the heads up! I have also ordered the disc through them. Maybe this should be an AOW sometime soon?