Not Two but Twenty Orchestra

[Steve Reynolds]

Just released in limited edition 5 CD wooden box

small formations then one 8+ minute full band piece

if I can remember (it’s on the website) here are the musicians:

Barry Guy

Maya Homburger

Joelle Leandre

Agusti Fernandez

Mats Gustafsson

Peter Brotzmann 

Steve Swell

Rafal Mazur

Per-Ake Holmlander

Mikolaj Trzaska 

Ken Vandermark

Paal Nilsson-Love

Zlatko Kaucic 

Without a doubt for me the most exciting upcoming release of the year - the combinations look very exciting. My guess is that the legends brought their A games to this mini-festival that led to this release. 

peace and blessings to everyone here in these difficult times 

 

 

[mjazzg]

That's a Not Two All-stars band

Unsure why it needs a wooden box.

Also, seems odd that they're only releasing an 8 minute piece by the full ensemble. I wonder if there's going to be a follow up companion release with more from them all.

Nice to see Homburger included playing the Bach solo and with BG. Saw that live, stunning

Edited April 5, 2020 by mjazzg

[clifford_thornton]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

That's a Not Two All-stars band

Unsure why it needs a wooden box.

Because you can't download a wooden box!

[mjazzg]

I can try!

[king ubu]

... well, a 3D printer oughta do the trick, I suppose?

That 8 minute piece with all of them playing seems a bit weird ... so these were various small group sets of a like-minded bunch of musicians, and at the end they just did a short jam and now they're calling it an orchestra?

Either way, I bet much of the music is great, but honeslty I'm not spending too much time with all the fantastic Barry Guy-centred boxes NotTwo has produced ... too much music, and to me mostly live music, to be experienced in what we used to call "concerts" in earlier times--that is if anyone remembers them days.

[Steve Reynolds]

2 hours ago, king ubu said:

... well, a 3D printer oughta do the trick, I suppose?

That 8 minute piece with all of them playing seems a bit weird ... so these were various small group sets of a like-minded bunch of musicians, and at the end they just did a short jam and now they're calling it an orchestra?

Either way, I bet much of the music is great, but honeslty I'm not spending too much time with all the fantastic Barry Guy-centred boxes NotTwo has produced ... too much music, and to me mostly live music, to be experienced in what we used to call "concerts" in earlier times--that is if anyone remembers them days.

They might have used a sub title of “small formations” to describe the release. In any event we do NOT have live music to attend to and to support our heroes so this release for me is the closest thing to have something bedsides worry and fear and the unknown to look forward to.

All of the great Guy boxes end with a medium length full orchestra (or almost full band) piece.

The last one (probably the best of the 4 boxes, IMO) Intensegrity has the full length Guy composition on disc 5.

 

 

 

[king ubu]

Agree on "Intensegrity", it's excellent indeed @steve reynolds (proper @ function dysfunctional on dumbphone?) ... and trust me I keep overspending on music, buying from musicians, but also small stores via discogs etc, and often paying a bit more than minimum when using bandcamp

[Д.Д.]

Looked through the track list: https://www.nottwo.com/mw1000

Not too interested. I can fairly easily imagine what most of these would sound like, and what I imagine does not excite me that much. Really don't need to hear any more Brötzmann and Vandermark. Guy / Homburger duo is nice, but is well documented elsewhere. Leandre / Guy thing is probably overkill. Mats Gustafsson / Rafal Mazur / Paal Nilssen-Love could be interesting if Mats is not in the silly "The Thing" blow-hard mode. I have not seen him live for years, I wonder if he still plays tenor much, he is such a good tenor player (while his baritone and flutophone playing I find gimmicky). Trzaska I would be interested in hearing, he is an excellent player. Agustí Fernández too. Not sure about Kaučič in these combinations.   

[Steve Reynolds]

Just received my box yesterday 

wondrous presentation 

as far as Brotzmann I’m more thrilled to hear him these days than ever. He’s a treasure for many of us who hear in his voice on his various reeds a sound of love and maybe anger, the resonance of a passion from deep within. The 23 minute trio piece on disc one with Guy & Kaucic is everything I thought it would be and more. Sure it’s what we know they do but it’s so forceful and focused as Peter switches from his horns to the last passage on the tenor. Glorious.

 

this is music made from a lifetime of playing and living.

[Д.Д.]

3 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Just received my box yesterday 

wondrous presentation 

as far as Brotzmann I’m more thrilled to hear him these days than ever. He’s a treasure for many of us who hear in his voice on his various reeds a sound of love and maybe anger, the resonance of a passion from deep within. The 23 minute trio piece on disc one with Guy & Kaucic is everything I thought it would be and more. Sure it’s what we know they do but it’s so forceful and focused as Peter switches from his horns to the last passage on the tenor. Glorious.

this is music made from a lifetime of playing and living.

Yeah, cool. I can't speak for "us", or even for "many of us", only for myself. When I listen to music I don't care about "sound of love" and "passions" from "within" or elsewhere. Neither am I interested in whether the music is made from a "lifetime of living" (is there other type of lifetime, non-living?). The only thing I care for is whether it is interesting to listen to. In case of Brötzmann, it is not.       

[Steve Reynolds]

31 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

Yeah, cool. I can't speak for "us", or even for "many of us", only for myself. When I listen to music I don't care about "sound of love" and "passions" from "within" or elsewhere. Neither am I interested in whether the music is made from a "lifetime of living" (is there other type of lifetime, non-living?). The only thing I care for is whether it is interesting to listen to. In case of Brötzmann, it is not.       

I’m speaking for me as well as friends of mine who are regular attendees of shows that I see in NYC (or used to see). There is a depth to Peter’s playing due to his lifetime of music. It is there clearly for anyone willing to listen. However you are not alone. Many have moved on for the more traditional forms of post-Coltrane “free jazz” or the more historical “non-idiomatic” improvised music that people like Brotzmann, Parker, Schlippenbach, Guy et al are still practicing. Understood. I also am very interested in newer approaches that discard many of these more typical elements.

 

fwiw the quartet with Trzaska, Mats, Holmlander & Mazur is very good with Mats in a mode somewhere in between his extremes. I also think Gustafsson’s later music is very much more interesting than what he was doing 20 years ago - bedsides The  Thing which has never been what he does best. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Steve Reynolds

[Д.Д.]

As far as I am concerned, Brötzmann is as traditional and "idiomatic" as you can get. He's been playing more or less the same stuff for 50 years. It is extremely repetitive (IMHO, of course) full of autopilot hooks and licks. I think he is a very nice and dedicated guy and has a beautiful sound on tenor (not on clarinet or (God forbid) tarogato, which one needs to hear in the hands of Hungarian folk musicians to appreciate what this instrument is actually capable of), but that's about it.   

Barry Guy is a different story, different caliber altogether.

I agree (if I understand you correctly) that The Thing is a waste of Gustafsson's talents.

I know Trzaska and Kaucic, and like the former quite a bit. I just checked - it looks like I was the first person to mention either of them on this forum, 15 years ago.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Д.Д.