Funny Rat

[brownie]

Terry Riley anyone?

I've been listening to recently-released double-CD Persian Surgery Dervishes (Felmay), and I've been vewry impressed. These are solo organ improvisations performed by Riley in early 70s. Dark mesmerizing stuff. Very good for long rides in the night or bad weather (I'll be probably listening to it on my way to Zurich tomorrow). And I never knew that Riley was such a mighty player!

More information here: http://www.felmay.it/6715en.html

'Rainbow In Curved Air' - one of Riley's early releases - was a great favorite in the late sixties.

No need for a car ride. The music was a trip on its own B)

[Guest Chaney]

Anyone looking for a copy of the OOP...

Raphe Malik/Denis Charles/Sabir Mateen/William Parker-Consequences

(Eremite) $14

?????????

Twisted Village (scroll down)

[Д.Д.]

Any recommendations for Twisted Village label releases, btw?

[Guest Chaney]

Any recommendations for Twisted Village label releases, btw?

Not familiar with the Twisted Village label but FORCED EXPOSURE offers a bit more information.

[Д.Д.]

I think I will try some nperign CDs. The little Bhob Rainey that I've heard left very positive impression, but Greg Kelley I don't know (although I should have his Trumpet somehwere...unsealed).

[Guest Chaney]

"Composers Recordings, Inc. has recorded more American music and for a longer period of time than any other record company in the world. Without this unique musical resource our musical life would be much the poorer."

-- Citation from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, 1987

"One of America's most precious cultural resources."

-- Michael Greene, President & CEO

National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, 1994

Many of the CRI titles are available from BERKSHIRE RECORD OUTLET for as little as $3.99 each.

Cheap enough to take a chance?

[Д.Д.]

Many of the CRI titles are available from BERKSHIRE RECORD OUTLET for as little as $3.99 each.

Cheap enough to take a chance?   

Tony, since Berkshire shipping rates to Europe are outragious, I will have to load you a bit with American composers, if you don't mind.

I have only one CRI release: a lady playing rubber baloons. Forgot her name. Not for fainthearted, but prety interesting, believe it or not.

OK, I found it: Judy Dunaway "Balloon Music"

Edited May 9, 2004 by Д.Д.

[Guest Chaney]

Not a problem, David.

I read the AMG review for Balloon Music. You are one brave soul. I hope you didn't pay full price for this one? I must admit though... you have me curious!

Ms. Dunaway (of course) has her own website: JUDY DUNAWAY

[Д.Д.]

I am impressed by your proactive approach - I assume you bought yourself an alto balloon already?

[king ubu]

I am impressed by your proactive approach - I assume you bought yourself an alto balloon already?

How about these for starters (the "10' Pepsi Balls"):

ubu

[king ubu]

ubu

[John B]

Anyone looking for a copy of the OOP...

Raphe Malik/Denis Charles/Sabir Mateen/William Parker-Consequences

(Eremite) $14

?????????

Twisted Village (scroll down)

Chaney -

I wouldn't pay much attention to the Twisted Village website for availability of discs. They don't update it very often (10/25/2003, according to the site today) and choice stock tends to move pretty quickly.

[Guest Chaney]

I was reading the liner notes to Rajezh Mehta Collective 3+: Window Shopping (True Muze 9802) on the bus on the way in to work this morning. Seems that drummer Alan Purves "is currently busy performing solo recitals on squeaky toys."

We can only pray that these no doubt sparsely attended recitals were recorded!

[king ubu]

I was reading the liner notes to Rajezh Mehta Collective 3+: Window Shopping (True Muze 9802) on the bus on the way in to work this morning. Seems that drummer Alan Purves "is currently busy performing solo recitals on squeaky toys."

We can only pray that these no doubt sparsely attended recitals were recorded!

Maybe he should team up with the balloon-woman?

Seriously, David, tell us some more about that lady! Solo music? "Sound" music? "Minimal"? What is it that she's doing?

**********

David and me went to see Barry Guy and Frank Gratkowski yesterday night (first time I met him, first time I met anyone from the board, and I can assure you, he's alright ).

Barry Guy was FREAKIN' MAD! "da shit" I'm tempted to say! But some real hard shit!

He had with him: Herb Robertson, tp; Johannes Bauer, tb; Per-Ake Holmlander, tuba; Evan Parker, ss/ts; Mats Gustafsson, bari/flutophone; Hans Koch, bcl; Agusti Fernandez, p; Guy, (extremely flat) bass; Raymond Strid & Paul Lytton, d.

The set was blowing me away, really! One of the best concerts I ever heard!

Koch was doing some wild stuff (he can be heard on several - some recent - recordings with the trio "Koch-Schütz-Studer", they label their music "hardcore chamber music", Schütz plays the (electric) cello, Studer's on drums, they collaborated with several other musicians, from Cuba, from Egypt, with a swiss poet, too).

Parker, it seems, did what he always does, or rather: what he has done for thirty some years (so said D.D.). Gustafsson was great on bari, even moreso on his "flutophone" (a flute with a sax mouthpiece). Robertson and Bauer shone a bit less, in my opinion, but then the rhythm players were all the better: I never heard of Agusti Fernandez (he's Spanish), nor of Raymond Strid - who played terrific!

The Gratkowski quartet - I heard them the first time, too - was quite good, too. Hemingway is very much his own man on drums, playing "angular" (D.D. - sorry, I can't get the cyrillic letters here!) and very hard, yet with a dryness and lots of humour. Gratkowski himself was pretty much screaming around, not so very individual, but still good. Also he played (besides the alto) contrabass-clarinet (I think I never heard it live), and bass clarinet. The man he had with him on trombone, Wolter Wierbos, was quite good, with a nice sound (Rudd-school), yet he did not have enough space, I thought. On bass they had Dieter Manderscheid, who has a nice big sound, and - together with Hemingway - was able to find some real weirdo funk grooves from time to time.

One thing that is special about Gratkowski are his compositions - some really intriguing music!

David will post of photo he took of us before the concert - and please add your comments to the concert and correct me where I am wrong!

ubu

[Д.Д.]

Seems that drummer Alan Purves "is currently busy performing solo recitals on squeaky toys."

I think we should hook Mr. Purves up with Ms. Dunaway. Tony, you can manage them in the Western hemisphere, and ubu and I will take care of the Eastern one.

[king ubu]

I would know a third man to join in - I recently saw a performance of Georg Büchner's great play "Danton", where the man in charge of the music (he was on stage all the time, with his piano etc), played the "Marseillaise" by letting drop differently sized ("tuned") one-way lady-shaves - that was funny and very very musical (no joking here!).

ubu

[Guest Chaney]

Seems that drummer Alan Purves "is currently busy performing solo recitals on squeaky toys."

I think we should hook Mr. Purves up with Ms. Dunaway. Tony, you can manage them in the Western hemisphere, and ubu and I will take care of the Eastern one.

I'm lining up some children's shows even as we 'speak'.

[Guest Chaney]

...

David and me went to see Barry Guy and Frank Gratkowski yesterday night ubu...

Thanks for the excellent report on the concerts. Darn good music, by the sound of it. Must be nice to get regular doses of those WORLD jazz players.

[king ubu]

...

David and me went to see Barry Guy and Frank Gratkowski yesterday night ubu...

Thanks for the excellent report on the concerts. Darn good music, by the sound of it. Must be nice to get regular doses of those WORLD jazz players.

Now "regular doses" would be quite an exagerration!

[Д.Д.]

David and me went to see Barry Guy and Frank Gratkowski yesterday night.

Oh yes, we did.

Believe it or not, but it was also the best concert I've ever attended.

Barry Guy band's performance started with some incredible bass clarinet playing by Hans Koch. I mean, first it started with his heavy breathing through the instrument, and I thought - "o-ho, some more minimalist type of sound creation", and prepared to look intellectual, and then the man started blowing... no, he started BLOWING!!!! So I couldn't look intellectual anymore - I was grinning like a mildly dangerous maniac for the rest of the solo...and for the rest of the concert - because what followed (often at the same time) was pretty unbelievable -

some very impressive writing with excellent tension-relief patterns;

elephant mating calls by Bauer (simple but very optimistic);

lyrical tenor solo by Parker (with beautiful accompaniment fom Fernandez and Guy);

mindblowing baritone wailing by Gustaffson;

Ferdandez out-Ceciling Cecil (Fernandez was a revelation for me - Cecil's school but mpore lyrical and supportive of other players; speed and clarity of his playing were simply unbelievable);

Gustaffson on flutaphone - well, this has to be heard (and seen, as Gustaffson is very animated when he plays) - this is so fast and so clear (an so strong - surprisingly powerful sound!), it seems absolutely beyond human physical capacity (well, and Gustaffson looked like he was about to have a heart attack);

and the most terrific drummer tandem I've heard - Lytton and Strid (latter one was particularly amazing, I would say) - fast, furious and very very clever - never in the way of other musicians, but pushig them to show their best.

Musicians seemed very pleased with themselves after the concert, and that's a good sign (particulalrly for musicians of this caliber).

When it was over, ubu and I, as two highly knowledgeable conosseurs of imporvised music, immidiately started analysing it: "Fuck!" said I, "Oh yeah!" said ubu.

Hope this music gets released.

[couw]

When it was over, ubu and I, as two highly knowledgeable conosseurs of imporvised music, immidiately started analysing it: "Fuck!" said I, "Oh yeah!" said ubu.

fenx guys

[Д.Д.]

Gratkowski was a slight disappointment, particularly against the backdrop of his excellent releases on Leo (Spectral Reflections and Facio). There was quite a lot of blowing (as opposed to compositions which Frank is so good at) - with Gratkowski playing very effective alto (with rather harsh sound, reminicent of Keshavan Maslak) - virtuosic, but not too original. Wierbos, who is an excellent trombonist, did not have enough space to stretch, Hemingway's playing was hit-and-miss (an annoyingly boring solo somewhere in the middle - some brilliant playing five minutes later), bassist was good but not particularly memorable. There was some interesting playing in the middle on what ubu and I decided was a contrabass clarinet (some ugly stuff.. and ugly sounds).

I think that Gratkowski is most strong in composition - and he played one of his good compositions (#3 from Spectral reflections, with this (loud and short) note-silence-note-silence-note-silence pattern... sounded powerful live).

Overall, it was still not bad - andI am looking forward to hearing more of Gratkowski's work.

ubu, did he play any bass clarinet, btw? - I remember he played it (well) a bit during the soundcheck, but I am not sure about the concert...

[Д.Д.]

And yeah, for the annals of the Funny Rat: historical meeting of king ubu and Д.Д. (Д.Д. on the right, ubu even more on the right).

[Guest Chaney]

Nice picture! (Д.Д., you're quite the show off with ALL THAT HAIR!)

CRIPES that's a good read! You two make a good reviewing team.

I'm at work -- looking over my sholder -- so I can't check but do you boys have any idea if there are recordings of either this (Barry Guy) line-up or an approximation of same? (I've been drooling over some Intakt (?) Guy releases. Lots of them?)

Also, sounds like the music was very muscular. True? If yes, was it all elbows? Composed / structured? Loose? Lots of improv?

Edited May 10, 2004 by Chaney

[king ubu]

Gratkowski was a slight disappointment, particularly against the backdrop of his excellent releases on Leo (Spectral Reflections and Facio). There was quite a lot of blowing (as opposed to compositions which Frank is so good at) - with Gratkowski playing very effective alto (with rather harsh sound, reminicent of Keshavan Maslak) - virtuosic, but not too original. Wierbos, who is an excellent trombonist, did not have enough space to stretch, Hemingway's playing was hit-and-miss (an annoyingly boring solo somewhere in the middle - some brilliant playing five minutes later), bassist was good but not particularly memorable. There was some interesting playing in the middle on what ubu and I decided was a contrabass clarinet (some ugly stuff.. and ugly sounds).

I think that Gratkowski is most strong in composition - and he played one of his good compositions (#3 from Spectral reflections, with this (loud and short) note-silence-note-silence-note-silence pattern... sounded powerful live).

Overall, it was still not bad - andI am looking forward to hearing more of Gratkowski's work.

ubu, did he play any bass clarinet, btw? - I remember he played it (well) a bit during the soundcheck, but I am not sure about the concert...

Now you confuse me! I'm not sure anymore! I know Hans Koch played what sounded like three bass clarinets simultaneously (does anyone here happen to know him or the Koch-Schütz-Studer trio?) - but I think you might be right about Gratkowski not having played it.

Thanks for posting the photo!

Chaney, there's lots of Guy on Intakt - I cannot recommend anyone, as I don't have any (except for the recent 2CD duo release with Evan Parker, "Birds and Blades", which remains on the pile of unlistened stuff and shall stay there for some time, most probably. I heard that "Inscape Tableaux" was great, but I don't have it.)

ubu