king ubu

I saw them in concert about three weeks ago... and? ...and it was an excellent concert. It was in a West Philadelphia non-profit art gallery that's been hosting a couple jazz concerts a month. It was pretty much a full house for the gallery, which is about maybe 50-70. The playing ranged from very free, to occassionally melodic, with a bit of metal thrown in. Martin Schutz was all over the place -- playing the cello with a stick through the strings. He alternated acoustic and electric cello and did some electronic manipulation. He got a laugh when he threw some objects off his table to musical effect. The drummer, Studer, did some playing with what looked like a metal wire (as well as more usual mallets and sticks). Koch was into sound manipulation, usually playing a single note through his sax which he altered tonally both acoustically and electronically. He seemed to enjoy making noise with a semi-spherical control attached to his laptop. I bought two of their CDs at the show -- the Egyption one mentioned below (which I haven't heard yet) and "Harcore chamber music" which was the only trio record they offered that didn't have guest musicians. It's a good representation of their music. It was a very nice show, which the crowd enjoyed as well. I did some sketching during the show. Sometime later I might scan a fairly abstract drawing I did of Schutz. Alan, sounds like an excellent concert you heard! I never heard them live. I think the Penguin gives "Hardcore Chamber Music" a pretty good rating. ubu

Thanks, Lon - I shall keep this in mind and *occasionally* update... ubu

working on that 4000 aren't we testaman? YEAH AND BY POSTING SUCH CRAP COUW HAS MADE THEM 4000 ALREADY ubu

Glad you like it! It is sounding incredibly good, yes! And I love Humair, absolutely. I will have my eyes open when I go to that store, but except for some recent (copy controlled) Blue Notes, it has never happened so far that I saw a disc I bought there again, later... ubu

I think I was that young once, but I can't remember. huh?

I saw them in concert about three weeks ago... and? Hey, c'mon Alan, tell us some more! I have two of their discs (picked up both of them dirt cheap in that used store I told you about, Д.Д.) "Heavy Cairo Traffic" (on Intuition): And the Intakt release "Fidel": The first one is a collaboration with egyptian musicians that I found very good, stunning in moments, and it's incredbile that it does work - but that has to do with them not trying to create any "fusion", but trying to have both styles flowing along each other. The "Fidel" disc is a collaboration with cuban musicians, and I think it's a bit less successful. Here's the Intakt-blob: ubu

And I think I did hear "Iscape Tableaux" - it was broadcasted before its release, and I think I even have that on some tape or minidisc - I shall look for it!

I cannot really compare him to Crispell, I have but her recent ECM trio disc and the duo with Jarman - I like both of them, but I have no idea if they're typical for her.

Parts of the Zurich concerts will be broadcasted on swiss radio, parts of the basle shows on german radio. I shall try to record it all, and if there's lots of Guy (I wonder how they could NOT broadcast that set in its entirety! Would be sacrilege to fade this out!!)

Regarding composed vs. improvised parts, Д.Д. and I both had the impression that maybe even the solos were written - or at least preconceived or developped during practicing or performing. It was not all muscular - there were some rather beautiful moments, too, some lyrical stuff, one it reminded me of Mingus' "Self Portrait in Three Colours". You know, if I had so much hair, it would get between the music and my big ears - actually I'd like to have at least one second pair of ears, would have been very useful during the Parker set!

Now you confuse me! I'm not sure anymore! I know Hans Koch played what sounded like three bass clarinets simultaneously (does anyone here happen to know him or the Koch-Schütz-Studer trio?) - but I think you might be right about Gratkowski not having played it. Thanks for posting the photo! Chaney, there's lots of Guy on Intakt - I cannot recommend anyone, as I don't have any (except for the recent 2CD duo release with Evan Parker, "Birds and Blades", which remains on the pile of unlistened stuff and shall stay there for some time, most probably. I heard that "Inscape Tableaux" was great, but I don't have it.) ubu

up with my question!

How about "Tangorhino"? or: "Sousophant"?

So do you think there is any chance of me picking up the monk riverside set up cheap from somewhere? or have the cheap versions long sold out? You might find them on Ebay. Try German Ebay. I think it might be a bit more expensive, but you might try. ubu

Thanks for the excellent report on the concerts. Darn good music, by the sound of it. Must be nice to get regular doses of those WORLD jazz players. Now "regular doses" would be quite an exagerration!

A tough vote! I think I would go for "Study In Brown" - that was a recording I got pretty early in my jazz listening phase, and I always loved it. However, I would have to listen to all of them again (actually, I would have to listen to the whole Brownie box again...). How do the VMEs compare with the box? Much better? ubu

No Ware/Shipp, Man - I was referring to "Prism", the Shipp trio recording with Dickey. I think the only Ware I have in on that Enja Cecil Taylor disc. The band without bass and Mark Edwards on drums. ubu

So he IS the one who played with Prez - I think on some Aladdin sides, for instance. Interesting! I never thought about this guy being the same who wrote "Theme for Ernie" (which is a marvel)! ubu

Dear Evan, will you accept this as a small celebration of your new mafioso-persona: ubu

Should I change my alias to "Don Tano" in hommage to the late great Gaetano Badalamenti? Or shall I rather go for "Lucky Luciano"? ubu

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I would know a third man to join in - I recently saw a performance of Georg Büchner's great play "Danton", where the man in charge of the music (he was on stage all the time, with his piano etc), played the "Marseillaise" by letting drop differently sized ("tuned") one-way lady-shaves - that was funny and very very musical (no joking here!). ubu

Maybe he should team up with the balloon-woman? Seriously, David, tell us some more about that lady! Solo music? "Sound" music? "Minimal"? What is it that she's doing? ********** David and me went to see Barry Guy and Frank Gratkowski yesterday night (first time I met him, first time I met anyone from the board, and I can assure you, he's alright ). Barry Guy was FREAKIN' MAD! "da shit" I'm tempted to say! But some real hard shit! He had with him: Herb Robertson, tp; Johannes Bauer, tb; Per-Ake Holmlander, tuba; Evan Parker, ss/ts; Mats Gustafsson, bari/flutophone; Hans Koch, bcl; Agusti Fernandez, p; Guy, (extremely flat) bass; Raymond Strid & Paul Lytton, d. The set was blowing me away, really! One of the best concerts I ever heard! Koch was doing some wild stuff (he can be heard on several - some recent - recordings with the trio "Koch-Schütz-Studer", they label their music "hardcore chamber music", Schütz plays the (electric) cello, Studer's on drums, they collaborated with several other musicians, from Cuba, from Egypt, with a swiss poet, too). Parker, it seems, did what he always does, or rather: what he has done for thirty some years (so said D.D.). Gustafsson was great on bari, even moreso on his "flutophone" (a flute with a sax mouthpiece). Robertson and Bauer shone a bit less, in my opinion, but then the rhythm players were all the better: I never heard of Agusti Fernandez (he's Spanish), nor of Raymond Strid - who played terrific! The Gratkowski quartet - I heard them the first time, too - was quite good, too. Hemingway is very much his own man on drums, playing "angular" (D.D. - sorry, I can't get the cyrillic letters here!) and very hard, yet with a dryness and lots of humour. Gratkowski himself was pretty much screaming around, not so very individual, but still good. Also he played (besides the alto) contrabass-clarinet (I think I never heard it live), and bass clarinet. The man he had with him on trombone, Wolter Wierbos, was quite good, with a nice sound (Rudd-school), yet he did not have enough space, I thought. On bass they had Dieter Manderscheid, who has a nice big sound, and - together with Hemingway - was able to find some real weirdo funk grooves from time to time. One thing that is special about Gratkowski are his compositions - some really intriguing music! David will post of photo he took of us before the concert - and please add your comments to the concert and correct me where I am wrong! ubu

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