Back again in God's Little Acre and hitting the ground - not exactly running, more of an elegant stagger...
Making Whoopee – as we all like to do... Here, played by a trio of Art Tatum, Benny Carter and Louis Bellson. Tatum ripples in for the first A section then Carter takes the repeat 8 bars theme in a chomped-off manner, stretching the melody out more in the bridge and last 8. Tatum solos first, swinging solidly and staying near the theme, suddenly disrupting with a rapid waterfall of notes. Two-fisted old school in places – overall, damn near timeless stuff that transcends generation and style. Carter, one of the great alto players, lest we forget, comes up for his solo. Pithy elegance but with bite, the occasional double time smoothly showing his mastery. Tatum swirls round him like a velvet mist at times as Bellson keeps it moving fairly unobtrusively.
Evan Parker, Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens – the Old Firm, together now for many years. From 'Elf Bagatellen,' this track is 'Resurrection of Yarak.' I would argue for a generous and inclusive continuum that sees Benny Carter and Evan Parker connected, even though the sound worlds of this group and the Tatum trio possess a fair distance of separation. This is pretty abstract stuff – a pointillistic beginning, dabs and dots. Yet the scamper of Parker's lines when he gets going, the occasional bent sonority, display his jazz lineage, however obscured. Schlippenbach solos and demonstrates the same heritage – and the interplay between all of the musicians in this improvised setting binds it all together into that wider linkage. Well, I think so... 'jazz,' shmazz,' at this level, who really cares? The excitement generated as they really take off around seven minutes in obscures trivial debates about genre... Coming to land finally on rumbling deep piano...
Honking r and b tenor is another strand of the collectivity – Junior Walker and the All-Stars here, in a track with an English slant – 'Tally Ho.' Indeed... Weirdly suitable for a late autumn and wet early afternoon back in Blighty... grits and greens meet the stirrup cup over a whacking twelve bar blues...
Art Tatum
Art Tatum (p) Benny Carter as) Louis Bellson (d)
Making Whoopee
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Alexander Von Schlippenbach
Alexander Von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ts) Paul Lovens (d)
Resurrection of Yarak
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Buy
Jr Walker (ts) plus the All-Stars
Tally Ho
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Showing posts with label alexander von schlippenbach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alexander von schlippenbach. Show all posts
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Back at last... three tracks... Alice Coltrane... Jerry Lee Lewis... Alexander Von Schlippenbach...
A crazy weekend culminating in a great gig at Taylor John's where Michael Gira was incandescently brilliant left me even further in the hole physically... mainly self-inflicted... just starting to pick up things again... review tomorrow plus photos...
I have no idea where I acquired this – searching for another album I found this single track by Alice Coltrane, a re-recording of the title track from her husband's somewhat famous album 'A Love Supreme.' This really shouldn't work - but it does... A swirling orchestral beginning then an invocation from her guru Swami Satchidananda edging into New Age territory (but each to their own, hey?) until the familiar theme surfaces on electronic keyboard/organ and the rhythm picks up – Alice soon plunges into more aggressive figures, a mirror of the searching, shattering brilliance of her late husband. Leroy Jenkins steps up to saw away into increasingly lengthening spirals, melodic cascades again matching the soaring lines of the original. The organ returns to damp the emotion down as more peaceful orchestral figures commence, shot through with ascending/descending keyboard and the Swami returns briefly to take it out. Shh/Peaceful...
One of my first loves (musical, musical!) - Jerry Lee Lewis. The Killer. Southern white fried country blues boogie rock and roll... A firm loping swagger through the old 12 bar 'Matchbox' from a rough and ready live show recorded at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1964, backed by the Nashville Teens. As Edwin C. Faust said in a review:
'What kind of middle-of-the-road, pussy willow, drag ass society do we live in where “Jerry Lee Lewis At The Star Club” isn’t the number one top-selling live album of all time!?' (From Stylus magazine article here... ).
Indeed.
Alexander Von Schlippenbach and the boys – Evan Parker and Paul Lovens – one of the longest-lasting bands in European free jazz. Recorded live in Berlin in 1975 with Peter Kowald on bass added. This is 'Black Holes,' a title which evokes science and mystery simultaneously.. Scrawl and scratch and bang by sax, bass and percussion/drums until the piano finally comes in - minimally and soon dropping out as ultra high notes take over the sonic area - like a hip penny whistle. Sparse piano returns, repeated single notes until a final fade. Laid back stuff by this band's standards, with a reverse climax almost as the busy beginning slowly falls backwards.
Andrew Hill – an alternate take of 'The Griots' from his 1964 album 'Andrew!!' John Gilmore, who plays on this album, is not present here – just a quarter with Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Chambers and Richard Davis. Hill solos first, plunging into the changes, suddenly back-spinning a long cascading line – sparkling stuff. Davis, who is superb in his underpinning throughout, takes a scampering solo after the pianist. Hill returns until Hutcherson comes in to restate the theme. Spikily brilliant.
Alice Coltrane
Alice Coltrane (org) Reggie Workman (b) Ben Riley (d) Elayne Jones (tim) Frank Lowe (saxes, perc) Swami Satchidananda (voice) Leroy Jenkins (v)
A Love Supreme
Download
Buy
Jerry Lee Lewis (p, v) plus Nashville Teens
Matchbox
Download
Buy
Alexander Von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ss, ts) Peter Kowald (b) Paul Lovens (perc)
Black holes
Download
Buy
Andrew Hill
Andrew Hill (p) Bobby Hutcherson (vib) Richard Davis (b) Joe Chambers (d)
The Griots (alternate take)
Download
Buy
I have no idea where I acquired this – searching for another album I found this single track by Alice Coltrane, a re-recording of the title track from her husband's somewhat famous album 'A Love Supreme.' This really shouldn't work - but it does... A swirling orchestral beginning then an invocation from her guru Swami Satchidananda edging into New Age territory (but each to their own, hey?) until the familiar theme surfaces on electronic keyboard/organ and the rhythm picks up – Alice soon plunges into more aggressive figures, a mirror of the searching, shattering brilliance of her late husband. Leroy Jenkins steps up to saw away into increasingly lengthening spirals, melodic cascades again matching the soaring lines of the original. The organ returns to damp the emotion down as more peaceful orchestral figures commence, shot through with ascending/descending keyboard and the Swami returns briefly to take it out. Shh/Peaceful...
One of my first loves (musical, musical!) - Jerry Lee Lewis. The Killer. Southern white fried country blues boogie rock and roll... A firm loping swagger through the old 12 bar 'Matchbox' from a rough and ready live show recorded at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1964, backed by the Nashville Teens. As Edwin C. Faust said in a review:
'What kind of middle-of-the-road, pussy willow, drag ass society do we live in where “Jerry Lee Lewis At The Star Club” isn’t the number one top-selling live album of all time!?' (From Stylus magazine article here... ).
Indeed.
Alexander Von Schlippenbach and the boys – Evan Parker and Paul Lovens – one of the longest-lasting bands in European free jazz. Recorded live in Berlin in 1975 with Peter Kowald on bass added. This is 'Black Holes,' a title which evokes science and mystery simultaneously.. Scrawl and scratch and bang by sax, bass and percussion/drums until the piano finally comes in - minimally and soon dropping out as ultra high notes take over the sonic area - like a hip penny whistle. Sparse piano returns, repeated single notes until a final fade. Laid back stuff by this band's standards, with a reverse climax almost as the busy beginning slowly falls backwards.
Andrew Hill – an alternate take of 'The Griots' from his 1964 album 'Andrew!!' John Gilmore, who plays on this album, is not present here – just a quarter with Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Chambers and Richard Davis. Hill solos first, plunging into the changes, suddenly back-spinning a long cascading line – sparkling stuff. Davis, who is superb in his underpinning throughout, takes a scampering solo after the pianist. Hill returns until Hutcherson comes in to restate the theme. Spikily brilliant.
Alice Coltrane
Alice Coltrane (org) Reggie Workman (b) Ben Riley (d) Elayne Jones (tim) Frank Lowe (saxes, perc) Swami Satchidananda (voice) Leroy Jenkins (v)
A Love Supreme
Download
Buy
Jerry Lee Lewis (p, v) plus Nashville Teens
Matchbox
Download
Buy
Alexander Von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ss, ts) Peter Kowald (b) Paul Lovens (perc)
Black holes
Download
Buy
Andrew Hill
Andrew Hill (p) Bobby Hutcherson (vib) Richard Davis (b) Joe Chambers (d)
The Griots (alternate take)
Download
Buy
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Schlippenbach Trio... Jimmy Giuffre... Paul Bley... Reverend C.L. Franklin - and Aretha... Fats Navarro...
Wish I had been there department, part 45...
Darcy has a very good rundown of the Vision Festival's first day here... (I came across this via Destination Out just to get all the beret tips in order...). I had planned to be in New York to attend but was unable to go – just too bogged down with things here at the hovel. Mucho changes... But I hope to catch whoever is around when I get over in October.
Meanwhile... here's three vaguely interrelated tracks...
First up: the trio led by pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach accompanied by the redoubtable Evan Parker and Paul Lovens on saxophones and drums respectively. This is 'Analogue: Scaled,' from the album 'Elf Bagatellen.' The trio has been one of the long-standing groups in improvised music/jazz, together now for over thirty years, so they are alive to each other's twists and turns. Opening on exploratory fragments – Parker up high in bird song register until he comes down a registerial notch – scrapings and rattles from Lovens in between the occasional roll across the kit before he sets up a tapping rhythm almost like a backbeat as the piano probes and stabs. Interestingly more asymmetrical, broken-up work from Parker than in his usual long hypnotic solo lines. Using silence and space to breathe as well as finely shaded dynamics, this track builds nicely – the Parker long line coming out at last and locking in with Schlippenbach's accompanying trajectory – then disrupted by Lovens throwing a kitchen sink downstairs to herald a wild section of interplay and wahoo to take it out...
Jimmy Giuffre and trio (the personal link? – it will all be revealed by the next track) from 1957. A conventional jazz outing just before he sailed off into uncharted improvisational seas – and disappeared off the radar for far too long. Conventional in the sense of being within the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic areas of the day – but no drums, the main pulse coming from the bass and the implied subtle rhythmic shadings of Hall and Giuffre. A swift light bounce through 'The song is you.' Four bars in he plays some triplet figures that come direct from 'Train and the river' before going to the main theme. Giuffre's tenor sound is a glancing back-memory of Ben Webster without the shooshy vibrato – if that makes sense - although he springs from the fountainhead of Prez (as an original member of the Four Brothers especially)... More muscle than is immediately apparent... this swings...
The link? Giuffre of course played with Paul Bley in some ground-breaking ensembles – and Evan Parker played with Bley in a trio in recent years, bass player Barre Phillips the other constituent. Here's Bley in the mid-sixties with 'Kid Dynamite,' one of those diagonal Annette Peacock themes with an implication of Ornette's linear conceptions. A rushing beginning that backs off to feature the bass before Bley comes back in with some bluesy figures followed by the bass and sharp asymmetric drumming – Billy Elgart I think, rather than Paul Motian. Drums have a brief solo – fairly abstract stuff as throughout - little attempt at conventional time-keeping – before the piano comes back for a breathless but brief gallop at the theme... (There is a band called 'Kid Dynamite' to confuse things – but they are of later vintage – some info and free downloads here...).
Followed by some gospel...
The Reverend C.L. Franklin (1915-1984) http://museum.msu.edu/museum/tes/gospel/franklin.htm was a well-known and controversial figure long before his daughter, the sublime Aretha, became famous in the sixties. Here's two tracks from the album he made with Aretha. Firstly, C.L. delivering his rich dark preacher-powered voice on 'I've been in the storm too long.' To find out more about a fascinating character, there's a fascinating biography of the Reverend by Nick Salvtores...
Then there was Aretha - giving her rendition of 'When the blood runs warm in my veins.' Voice like a blow-torch, with always a combination of vulnerability and distance. Probably my favourite singer...
To go out - some bop from 1946. A session under Fats Navarro and Gil Fuller's joint leadership with a collection of the great and the good - well, soon to be. Klook, Bud, Stitt et al. And the divine Fats. This is 'Everything's Cool,' parts one and two. It is...
In the Videodrome...
Sonny Stitt and some of bop's finest...
Thomas Chapin at Newport...
Aretha takes it to the Bridge... Paul who?
Horace - Senor Blues...
Schlippenbach Trio
Alexander Von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ts) Paul Lovens (d)
Analogue: Scaled
Download
Buy
Jimmy Giuffre (ts) Jim Hall(g) Ralph Pena (b)
The song is you
Download
Buy
Paul Bley
Paul Bley (p) Gary Peacock (b) Billy Elgart (d)
Kid Dynamite
Download
Buy
Reverend C L Franklin
I've been in the storm so long
Download
Aretha Franklin
When the blood runs warm in my veins
Download
Buy
Fats Navarro/Gil Fuller
Kenny Dorham, Fats Navarro (tp) Sonny Stitt (as) Morris Lane (ts) Eddie DeVerteuil (bars) Bud Powell (p) Al Hall (b) Kenny Clarke (d) Gil Fuller (arr)
Everything's Cool
Download
Buy
Darcy has a very good rundown of the Vision Festival's first day here... (I came across this via Destination Out just to get all the beret tips in order...). I had planned to be in New York to attend but was unable to go – just too bogged down with things here at the hovel. Mucho changes... But I hope to catch whoever is around when I get over in October.
Meanwhile... here's three vaguely interrelated tracks...
First up: the trio led by pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach accompanied by the redoubtable Evan Parker and Paul Lovens on saxophones and drums respectively. This is 'Analogue: Scaled,' from the album 'Elf Bagatellen.' The trio has been one of the long-standing groups in improvised music/jazz, together now for over thirty years, so they are alive to each other's twists and turns. Opening on exploratory fragments – Parker up high in bird song register until he comes down a registerial notch – scrapings and rattles from Lovens in between the occasional roll across the kit before he sets up a tapping rhythm almost like a backbeat as the piano probes and stabs. Interestingly more asymmetrical, broken-up work from Parker than in his usual long hypnotic solo lines. Using silence and space to breathe as well as finely shaded dynamics, this track builds nicely – the Parker long line coming out at last and locking in with Schlippenbach's accompanying trajectory – then disrupted by Lovens throwing a kitchen sink downstairs to herald a wild section of interplay and wahoo to take it out...
Jimmy Giuffre and trio (the personal link? – it will all be revealed by the next track) from 1957. A conventional jazz outing just before he sailed off into uncharted improvisational seas – and disappeared off the radar for far too long. Conventional in the sense of being within the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic areas of the day – but no drums, the main pulse coming from the bass and the implied subtle rhythmic shadings of Hall and Giuffre. A swift light bounce through 'The song is you.' Four bars in he plays some triplet figures that come direct from 'Train and the river' before going to the main theme. Giuffre's tenor sound is a glancing back-memory of Ben Webster without the shooshy vibrato – if that makes sense - although he springs from the fountainhead of Prez (as an original member of the Four Brothers especially)... More muscle than is immediately apparent... this swings...
The link? Giuffre of course played with Paul Bley in some ground-breaking ensembles – and Evan Parker played with Bley in a trio in recent years, bass player Barre Phillips the other constituent. Here's Bley in the mid-sixties with 'Kid Dynamite,' one of those diagonal Annette Peacock themes with an implication of Ornette's linear conceptions. A rushing beginning that backs off to feature the bass before Bley comes back in with some bluesy figures followed by the bass and sharp asymmetric drumming – Billy Elgart I think, rather than Paul Motian. Drums have a brief solo – fairly abstract stuff as throughout - little attempt at conventional time-keeping – before the piano comes back for a breathless but brief gallop at the theme... (There is a band called 'Kid Dynamite' to confuse things – but they are of later vintage – some info and free downloads here...).
Followed by some gospel...
The Reverend C.L. Franklin (1915-1984) http://museum.msu.edu/museum/tes/gospel/franklin.htm was a well-known and controversial figure long before his daughter, the sublime Aretha, became famous in the sixties. Here's two tracks from the album he made with Aretha. Firstly, C.L. delivering his rich dark preacher-powered voice on 'I've been in the storm too long.' To find out more about a fascinating character, there's a fascinating biography of the Reverend by Nick Salvtores...
Then there was Aretha - giving her rendition of 'When the blood runs warm in my veins.' Voice like a blow-torch, with always a combination of vulnerability and distance. Probably my favourite singer...
To go out - some bop from 1946. A session under Fats Navarro and Gil Fuller's joint leadership with a collection of the great and the good - well, soon to be. Klook, Bud, Stitt et al. And the divine Fats. This is 'Everything's Cool,' parts one and two. It is...
In the Videodrome...
Sonny Stitt and some of bop's finest...
Thomas Chapin at Newport...
Aretha takes it to the Bridge... Paul who?
Horace - Senor Blues...
Schlippenbach Trio
Alexander Von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ts) Paul Lovens (d)
Analogue: Scaled
Download
Buy
Jimmy Giuffre (ts) Jim Hall(g) Ralph Pena (b)
The song is you
Download
Buy
Paul Bley
Paul Bley (p) Gary Peacock (b) Billy Elgart (d)
Kid Dynamite
Download
Buy
Reverend C L Franklin
I've been in the storm so long
Download
Aretha Franklin
When the blood runs warm in my veins
Download
Buy
Fats Navarro/Gil Fuller
Kenny Dorham, Fats Navarro (tp) Sonny Stitt (as) Morris Lane (ts) Eddie DeVerteuil (bars) Bud Powell (p) Al Hall (b) Kenny Clarke (d) Gil Fuller (arr)
Everything's Cool
Download
Buy
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