Monday, May 10, 2010

Review: Day Two/Freedom of the City Festival, Conway Hall, London, Monday 3d May, 2010...














Afternoon:

A crowded hall, ready for John Butcher and Mark Sanders, saxophones and drums, a palpable hum of expectation.  Butcher out fast with greasy, smeary tenor saxophone as Sanders bounced rhythms and sounds around him.  Not all sturm und drang – plenty of episodes where Butcher displayed his remarkable technique on both saxes, multiphonics, snapping/popping of the reed, digging deep into the ontology of the instrument, as it were.  Sanders had small metal bowls and cymbals to bow and scrape and rub against his kit to match the granular excursions.  Exploratory – and held together throughout, no meandering, each playing for the other.  When they finished, the audience gave them a rapturous reception.  Lot of lurve here...

Jennifer Allum/Grundick Kasyansky/David O'Connor/Eddie Prévost:
Eddie Prévost runs regular workshops for improvisers in London and this set showcases some of his participants.  Electronics, baritone sax, violin and Mr Prévost at his kit – although tonight, as if in penance to Gods of Improv for his forays into straight time the night before (it would have been classic if someone had suddenly displayed a banner with the message – 'Go home, dirty bopper!'  A gag for the older among you – see here...), he in the main concerned himself with finely graded texture – bowing a large gong and cymbals.  This was thoughtful, austere (yet almost dreamy music at times) that flowed  well – the obvious benefit of those workshop sessions.  Again, violin suffered a bit from undermiking.

Adam Bohman/FURT (Richard Barrett/Paul Obermayer)/Ute Wassermann:
Phil Marks in on drums, depping for the indisposed Richard Barrett - started a wild barrage somewhat at odds with the others.  They took a long time pre-set trying to get the balance right and... well... Ute Wassermann, one of my favourites from last year (when she played with Aleks Kolkowski see here), was struggling at times to rise above the mêlée .  A superb singer with an operatic technique that she bends successfully into the wilder shores of vocal improv, covering a gamut of sounds that FIT... Some nicely abrasive laptop interruptions.  Adam Bohmann back in the mix – despite his impressively large jumble sale table – getting some good textural noise when you could hear him.  Somehow it didn't quite coalesce, but I enjoyed it.  Perhaps a lot of the fun is the high-wire balancing acts that improvisation demands – sometimes you fall, but I'd rather be witness to that than tribute band banality...

Jean-Luc Guionnet/Ross Lambert/Philip Somervell:
I missed some of this set.  Some fascinating piano sonorities, interesting alto playing – much of the acoustic guitar playing of Lambert was under-miked in the overall balance.


EVENING

Stellari String Quartet: John Edwards/Charlotte Hug/Marcio Mattos/Philipp Wachsmann:
The players assembled  in front of the stage (again), this time I was a little better sited.  Improvising essentially chamber music, with the odd jazzy nuance, one could argue that this is what 'third stream' music should have sounded like.  They played  through the gamut of contemporary string techniques – rubbing, scraping, attacking the instrument in places on the body other than the strings and neck – but these were flowing from the music rather than being grafted on artificially, propelled by a strong emotional force.  Plenty of ideas here – a thicket of melody and sound at times, listening and looking to each other to come together or stand back.  Mattos and Edwards locked in as and when to provide a thrumming bottom bottom end and middle as Philip Wachsmann and Charlotte Hug spun off each other with shards of melody and sonic exploration.  Wachsmann wafted his violin about while bowing like an old-time hoedowner at a couple of points.  To improvise music of this level of creativity and coherence is a mighty achievement.  A gas, as we used to say... Unfortunately, this was the last of the festival for me – I had plans to get across town to the Cafe Oto to catch Carlas Bozulich but just ran out of energy...

Summation: some marvellous music, some that didn't quite work but I applaud the participants for their risks – and that's only my opinion anyway.  A couple of other blog reviews - Mapsadaisical one and two and Daid Grundy's very details account here to consider...  A festival – especially one like this, with so much concentrated in a relatively short time space of two days – will – and should - always offer a collision of styles and strategies.  Put it this way - there was no musician or group of performers that I would not want to see again, either here (next year) or in other contexts/venues.  Evan Parker shouldered much of the compering duties and he was both amusing and acerbic – rants aplenty.  Despite his acrid observation that Time Out had not bothered to give them a mention, my overall observation was that the audience was out in force for demanding musics and seem to me to be much more of a cross-section in age and sex than when I first went to this event a few years ago back at the much-lamented Red Rose.  Evan said that they will be back next year and I look forward to that.  The only downside for me was that some of the miking seemed underbalanced, especially for the acoustic stringed instruments – violin, cello, guitar.  Wish list?  Same as last year... I think that the festival could benefit from some more interesting electronic performers.  It would be interesting to see how the noise mob would fit in - after all many of them base their musics on improvisation.  It's a little on the academic side here, compared to the fire and energy available in other areas.  I'd enjoy someone like Aaron Dilloway on stage with Steve Noble, say, a power sax player and John Edwards (if his bass was balanced in the mix)... But let's be thankful this festival in still ongoing and congratulations to all who make it happen... 

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Review: Day One/Freedom of the City Festival at the Conway Hall, London, Sunday May 2nd, 2010


Back to the Conway Hall for another Freedom of the City Festival... I skated in just in time to grab a drink and a seat, caught the opener, Peter Evans. One might think that solo trumpet was a bit on the austere side to start the fandango – however, Evans was revelatory, playing to a packed hall on amplified trumpet and cornet (I think) with some minimal adjustments via a foot pedal. Fancifully, you could consider this as a history lesson, linking back to the early days of jazz when developing an individual sound was paramount. The shift from the standard classical/marching band tone to 'vocalised' instrumental individuality. Part of the fun of being a 'jazz' fan was/is in blindfold tests - identifying a player by his sound. This was inherent in the music from the start, it seems. So when Peter Evans fires off a flashing bravura melodic line bending back in and out of bebop, or earlier, his tonal alterations – squeezed half-valve, a variety of muted effects – simultaneously are part of the contemporary 'avant garde' preoccupations with sound experiments and also deeply embedded in the line that goes back through Rex Stewart to Bubber Miley and beyond. He showed a lot of variation and a shrewd sense of dynamics - the brassy fire of the trumpet was contrasted by the smaller instrument, lighter, clarion pure. And Evans' participation in a trio with Evan Parker (and cellist Okkyung Lee) later in the day was perhaps prefigured by some occasional relentless circular breathed passages that reminded of the elder saxophonist's technique. An impressive start, then – to a fairly full hall.

Okkyung Lee and Paul Lytton:
Cello and drums/percussion, Lytton going from delicate to fiery, leaving space when necessary, as when Lee stopped strings with the left hand way down the neck near the bridge and bowed to produce dry, sharp sounds. When she went deeper in the cello range, richer textures emerged. Highly intelligent music where mutual listening was essential. Lytton – sporting a two-hihat setup, interestingly could so easily have overpowered, but had in his armoury a full range of ironmongery to produce high sonorities, rubbed, lightly struck or played on the drums and cymbals to produce interesting clashing/additional sounds. Bit more mike on the cello, perhaps... a small criticism I could make of the festival overall, where delicate textural balances were often not audible enough in the mix.

Tania Chen/Lol Coxhill/Dominic Lash:
Lol, of course, will never be too far away from jazz, even when he ventures into saxophone sound manipulations a rich flowing seam of melody is never covered for long. He is the dominant player here tonight, ably supported by a restrained Dominic Lash on bass. Chen is fairly minimal in her interjections with occasional forays inside the piano. Towards the end of their set she suddenly unleashed some smashing clusters, elbows to the keyboard, that changed the overall direction, shaking it up nicely. Not sure that this trio really hit the spot although they played some interesting music, maybe Lol is too 'jazzy' this afternoon to go into some of the areas implied by his partners. I'd like to hear them again – in a club situation perhaps, where the piano may come through more.

I missed the last set of the afternoon - the London Improvisers Orchestra - but got back in time for the evening session...

QuaQua – is John Russell's yearly ever-changing lineup, tonight featuring Chris Burn at the Bosendorfer plus electronics, bookended with Matthew Hutchinson at a Roland keyboard and added effects. In between - Stefan Keune, saxophone, Satoko Fukuda, violin, Henry Lowther, trumpet the leader on guitar and Jean-Michel Van Schouwberg, voice. The latter's gurning facial distortions were very distracting – I'm not a great fan of vocal improv with a few exceptions (one of whom would be playing on the next day) so am probably easily pissed off. Although putatively a collective experience – the leader's guitar is never dominant, although I wonder if this is deliberate or just that under-miking again – Lowther's declaratory trumpet led the show. Not that he overplayed – he is far too good a musician for that. This group proceeds by small increments of sound, splashes and scrapes of colour that suddenly coalesce into unusual shapes, at points erupting then suddenly falling again.  A somewhat ascetic approach, perhaps, leavened by the trumpet and the Roland adding some nice rumbling electronic details.  The gurning aside, I enjoyed it a lot.



Louis Moholo-Moholo/Steve Noble/Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith:

The famed trumpeter had apparently requested a two drummer hit to back him. He's a cool looker, dreadlocks and dark glasses, a player of flashing and assured brilliance. I've been listening to a lot of his recorded work recently so was looking forward to hearing him live. Steve Noble set the pace with a thunderous barrage from the off, leaving Louis Moholo looking a little puzzled, perhaps. He seemed to have difficulty finding his way in and Noble was not going to step back, it seemed. They were playing in front of the stage and from where I was sitting at the back, I didn't get a clear view of the set. Smith took care of everything thrown at him, as one would expect from someone of his stature, riding the rhythms with power and invention. Further in, Moholo set up an occasional groove, at one point with just the insistent ticking beats of two sticks. There was some vocal interchange that I didn't quite grab: Mapsadaisical records it thus:
'He even tried to cut the set short; “No, baby” he said at a quiet moment when Noble was threatening to drive things back up to another powerful rhythmic peak. “Yes, baby” said a clearly not-yet-finished Wadada, and off they went again.' From here...

Again, great to hear good musicians, but a little hit and miss, pulled along by Smith's experience. Hey, they call it improvisation...

SUM was Seymour Wright, Eddie Prevost and Ross Lambert on alto, drums and guitar. An odd line-up, given my previous experience of Seymour whom I have grown to greatly appreciate. Eddie was hitting straight time in places (!), Lambert played a lot throughout – too much perhaps, I felt that he didn't seem to handle silences very well. Seymour – well, he's noted for minimal and precise interrogations of his instrument, materially and, perhaps, philosophically/conceptually. Tonight he played more than I have heard him before – although given that most sax players will fire off a string of sixteenth notes and he might play – one, two, three if you're lucky – this was still not a great deal. He will hang on a note and repeat it, turning it around and about, tip it sideways.  Tonight he would suddenly give a small flourish of something approaching melody. More flurries than one is used to – and some accurate high register stuff. I found it fascinating...

Evan Parker/Peter Evans/Okkyung Lee:

The guv'nor with two younger players, Evan on his usual tenor and soprano saxophones joined by Lee on cello and Peter Evans on his brass. No feints, stabs of jabs of sound to set things up – straight in with three superb players weaving and spinning complex interlocking/opposing lines in a glorious tapestry. They have played together before and it shows in their mutual understanding.  I mentioned above that during his solo set Evans's circular breathing gave hints of where Parker has gone before: tonight in this tight trio, the saxophonist being generous and reining back his formidable technique to blend with the others. Sonorities changed between tenor and soprano and back, similarly Evans switched between his trumpet and the smaller instrument. A delicate balance necessary for more granular playing as it would have been – and was on occasion – easy to step into the cello's sound space (the miking again!) – luckily most of it came through. At one point Evan did launch one of his circular passages and sucked everyone along with him – Evans replying in kind to hit another level of exhilaration. Stunning music. Given my fanciful thought about the opening set and its link to the tradition, you could imagine this three-way contrapuntal blowout as similarly linked to the early collective tradition of New Orleans – via European avant garde chamber music. Oh play that thing...

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Freedom of the City Festival, 2010...

Finally back in God's Little Acre from the Freedom of the City Festival - which I thought the best yet... more to follow when I've had some sleep (honest - I've written most of it already)... Great and challenging music, good crowds, Evan P on fine ranting form (you had to be there)... But I missed Carla Bozulich at the Oto - had an idea I could do the double yesterday but ran out of energy... to get back to a hotel where they were digging up the road outside until 1.30 am this morning... loudly.  Didn't even have a recorder with me to sample it...
Later... much later...