Jazz /
Points and Slashes
Over the past decade, Swiss-based Günter Müller has collaborated with many of the most prominent Tokyo-based musicians, recording CDs with Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Sachiko M, Masahiko Okura, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Points and Slashes is the latest of these, a duo collaboration with guitar wizard Tetuzi Akiyama.It's impossible to pin down Akiyama, a musician of diverse interests and activities, with a brief description. He has been playing electric guitar since he was 13, and formed his fi…
Ointment
Tania Chen: objects, toys, violin, piano ; Steve Beresford: objects, electronics, toys, trumpet, water. Pieces beginning with 'C' recorded by Tim Fletcher at The Bonnington, Vauxhall, London on December 18 2002. Event organised by Adam and Jonathan Bohman. All other pieces recorded by Steve Beresford in west London - pieces beginning with 'L' on August 7 2003 and the rest on June 12 2003. All pieces composed by Tania Chen and Steve Beresford. Edited by Steve Beresford in March 2004. Not to rub i…
Nuits de la fondation Maeght Vol. 2
Part two of Sun Ra's 1970 appearance at the Fondation Maeght. An important document for this innovator of jazz. Improvisation, percussion, Afro rhythms, mysticism, and the occult -- all this and more is what the Sun Ra universe is made of. One of the most mysterious and fascinating figures in the history of jazz. Many potential listeners may be initially dismayed at the seeming discord that is inherent in the free and avant-garde subgenres. For them, Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 2 might be…
Nuits de la fondation Maeght Vol. 1
Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 1 (1970) is the first of two releases capturing Sun Ra and the Arkestra at Saint Paul de Vence, Côte d'Azur, France, in August of 1970, on what was their first European excursion. As a rule, free and avant-garde jazz are a decidedly acquired taste. However, for discerning palettes, these installments present the aggregate at their absolute pinnacle in terms of performance and inspiration. The four works included here offer a wide variety of styles and approache…
The Issue at Hand
The musicians who perform together on this CD are as unlikely a group of individuals that you are ever likely to find. Yoshikazu Iwamoto brings a cultural past that has deep aesthetic roots in Japanese Buddhism, while John Tilbury's classical European training brings a sensibility that has matured through contract with cultivated traditions of learning and discipline. Eddie Prévost by his presence draws everything together into an indivisible whole, through responses that have been honed from ye…
We are everyone in the room
"Two improvising laptop trios, Stilluppsteypa hailing from Iceland and Chicago's TV Pow, met for the first time in the fall of 2000 and embarked on a week-long tour, captured in part on this recording. As in most successful examples of this genre, the musicians mesh into a whole wherein individual accomplishments are impossible to quantify. The range of sounds and depth of detail produced by this sextet are remarkable, from the quietest clicks and rattles to deeply sonorous hums and ratchetings,…
Hooky
Virtually the whole of the 1976 Montreal solo concert -- one of his best -- including the complete Tao cycle and several other pieces, one of which ('Hooky') is not on any other record. Reissue of half of Quark LP 9998 with over 50 minutes of previously unissued material from the same concert.
Saxophone special +
Music for four saxophones (Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Steve Potts & Trevor Watts) with guitar (Derek Bailey) & synthesizer (Michel Waisvisz). Plus highlights from an earlier London concert by Lacy, Potts, Bailey, Kent Carter & John Stevens. Improvisations on original compositions. Reissue of Emanem 3310 (plus an extra piece from the same concert) and the better half of Emanem 304.
Weal & woe
If you have only heard the more recent, understated recordings of this giant of the soprano saxophone, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Just listen to this seminal album and you should understand right away why Lacy is such a formidable force. The initial eight tracks are a reissue of the first LP issued by Emanem, which was Lacy's first solo recording. Each is a gem: radical, accessible, and fascinatingly offbeat. One uses a random radio selection as a backdrop, another mimics duck wa…
In a sentimental mood
A collaborative CD released in 1996 on incus, featuring former Skullflower guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn and saxophonist Alan Wilkinson. Recorded by Giles Perring at the Red Rose Club, February 27, 1996. Drums of passion (22.11), My psychotic Valentine (15.01), David Murray dons a cunning Alan Wilkinson disguise and blags his way onto a bill at the Termite Club (11.33), Excerpts from a typical hard bop blowing session (10.49), Give a man a saxophone and he'll end up playing jazz (14.23). GREAT!
Crevulations
A sequence of piano and tenor saxophone free improvisations recorded in concert at the Appleby Jazz Festival in 2004. "Looking for an unlikely pair? Here you have it: Stan Tracey, a pianist on his way to be an octogenarian, with a track record that makes the British mainstream jazz community proud, teaming up with Evan Parker, one of the best and most extreme free improvisers of his generation (which is a generation younger than Tracey), adored in avant-garde circles but still largely ignored by…
Suspensions and anticipations
A sequence of free improvisations -- eight duos, two piano solos & one tenor saxophone solo -- recorded at Gateway Studios. Recorded 9/28/03. 62 minutes.
Mouthpiece
"Outrageous sounds produced by a workshop orchestra directed by John Stevens - an SME-type improvisation; instrumental & vocal drones; a mechanically rhythmic yet unpredictable piece; and an all-out improvisation featuring non-vocal mouth sounds, vocal sounds & instruments. The exact line-ups on each of these ensemble pieces are not known (apart from the leader on cornet), so they are not given." (Emanem)
Quintessence 2 (1973-4)
2nd volume. The unissued duo works by Stevens (cornet, voice, percussion) and Watts (ss) are way out and an invigorating reminder of the outlandish possibilities of free improvisation, especially "DAA-OOM" ("a loose composition inspired by the music of both the central African pygmies and Albert Ayler -- even 23 years later, the rawness of these pieces is somewhat startling." -- Martin Davidson).
Frameworks
Three different groups in performances utilising frameworks devised by John Stevens sending the music into unexpected areas. From mid-1968 there is the unusual line-up of JOHN STEVENS (percussion), NORMA WINSTONE (voice), KENNY WHEELER (fluegelhorn), PAUL RUTHERFORD (trombone) and TREVOR WATTS (bass clarinet) in a wide-ranging half-hour sequence. Another half-hour sequence features the superb 1971 quartet of STEVENS (percussion & voice), JULIE TIPPETT (voice & guitar), WATTS (soprano sax) and RO…
A new distance
Two of the last performances by the SME which then comprised John Stevens (percussion & pocket trumpet), Roger Smith (guitar) and John Butcher (soprano & tenor saxophones). A new direction for the music that was sadly terminated later that year (1994) by Stevens' untimely death. Added to this reissue are two short pieces from the previous year, when Neil Metcalfe (flute) was also in the group, and some perceptive comments by Stevens. Reissue of Acta CD 8 with extra material. 63 minutes. Reissue …
Biosystem
John Stevens (percussion & cornet), Nigel Coombes (violin), Roger Smith (guitar), Colin Wood (cello). The first recording of the 'string' version of the SME, that lasted (minus Wood) until 1992." "We had a willow tree in the back garden and I used to look at the willow tree and the grass and think, well we could be like this. We could be very close to nature if we learned how to just purely interact..." John Stevens. Reissue plus 35 minutes of extra material from the same session. Originally re…
Low Profile
The 1977 Derby concert performance by the SME quartet with John Stevens (percussion, cornet, voice), Nigel Coombes (violin), Colin Wood (cello) & Roger Smith (guitar) features an extended (!) tribute to Anton Webern. The CD also contains also 1984 and 1988 London concert recordings by the trio without Wood." (Emanem)
Hot & cold heroes
"The longest lasting and most controversial edition of the SME was that featuring John Stevens (percussion, cornet, voice) with two vastly under-rated acoustic musicians: Nigel Coombes (violin) & Roger Smith (guitar). This selection has an extended home performance from 1980, and three concerts from 1991, one of which has Neil Metcalfe (flute) and John Rangecroft (clarinet) added to the trio. 76 minutes - previously unissued." (Emanem)
Summer 1967
All previously unissued recordings, mainly made up of the duo of John Stevens (percussion) and Evan Parker (ss, ts), with Peter Kowald (b) on about a third of it. This marks the earliest to date recordings of Parker and is a tremendous snapshot of some ancient history. "Parker and Stevens seemed to break through to a deeper level of hearing, where a sound was not set against other sounds but rather against the silence around it, so that one gained heightened awareness of its growth and decay, it…