Maarten Altena

[Rabshakeh]

I see his records fairly regularly in shops, and there used to be a jazz kissa account on Ex-Twitter that I followed that used to post his records next to a coffee or glass of red wine. Not a musician whom you see discussed much though, outside of the context of Porto Novo.

Does anyone have any records they'd recommend? 

[colinmce]

Not sure it's possible to go wrong, he's a tremendous musician. He does have a bit of a two-part career, working within free improvisation and then onto composed music for medium-sized ensembles, which may be the part that's better known due to the ubiquity of the hat ART discs. Those are all uniformly excellent; some are original recordings and some are reissues of Claxon LPs, and he has many more on that label. Miere is a favorite but all of them that I've heard are good. There are also some quartet LPs, of which I have only heard Pisa.

As for the free improvisation years I find these to be standouts. Unfortunately much of this work has not been reissued and is not easy to get ahold of these days. I would like to see that change someday. 

-Handicaps & Tuning The Bass (ICP): perhaps the most idiosyncratic of the "early" free solo bass LPs. They’re not discussed as much as those by Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, or Peter Kowald, but it's just as great. Badly need reissue.

-Lumps (ICP): wild album with Steve Lacy, Han Bennink, & Michael Waisvisz. Again, I truly cannot believe no one has ever reissued this. 

-The Weavers (Po Torch): trio with Gunter Christmann & Paul Lovens. perhaps my favorite Po Torch record

-The Fairly Young Bean (Emanem): very fun 1981 miniatures with Terry Day and John Russell

-High, Low And Order (Claxon, later reissued on CD by hat ART): great duet with Lacy-- really among the great sax/bass duet albums

-Two Making A Triangle (FMP): duet with Peter Kowald that was reissued in part with the Barry Guy duo LP on the Bass Duets CD.

He can also be heard to great advantage on several Company recordings, Nedly Elstak's The Machine (ESP-Disk), an FMP duet with Tristan Honsinger, Burton Greene's amazing Célesphere (Futura), in a few of Gunter Christmann's Vario groups and in Brueker's Kollektief (this music is a blind spot of mine, so I can't precisely vouch for it specifically).

Anyways, an unsung master of his instrument.

Can also add to the pile the two volume Bead LP Groups In Front of People with Christmann, Lovens, Peter Cusack, and Guus Janssen, also in need of reissue. 

Edited August 12, 2023 by colinmce

[Rabshakeh]

This is such a fantastic answer.  Thank you.

[Д.Д.]

Nothing much to add to Colin's comprehensive post, other than that I love Altena's bass playing and his compositions. 

[Rabshakeh]

This was the one that caught my eye in the shop:

Maarten Altena Octet & Nonet – Quick Step

[colinmce]

Great clips of Altena playing solo here alongside performance artist Teo Joling

 

[clifford_thornton]

Not much to add to Colin's post, which definitely points out where I'd go.

The Claxon octet records (& related) are very good, including Quick Step, and I don't think the "chamber improvisation" tag really captures the entirety of what they are about.

Hadn't seen these videos with Joling before. A friend of mine (performance artist & photographer) was Altena's girlfriend in the 1960s/70s and has some interesting stories.