GA Russell

I received three press releases this evening. ECM Nils Økland / Sigbjørn Apeland Lysøen Hommage à Ole Bull Nils Økland: violin, Hardanger fiddle Sigbjørn Apeland: piano, harmonium U.S. Release date: July 26, 2011 ECM CD: B0015753-02 UPC: 6025 274 0246 8 When asked by the King of Denmark to name his teachers, violinist Ole Bull famously replied, “The mountains of Norway, Your Majesty”, and his work was certainly informed – as is the present disc – by the spirit of place. Once a world-renowned musician, Bull’s current reputation rests on a small body of written pieces that tell just part of the story. He remains however an iconic figure in Norwegian music. Ole Bull (1810-1880) was a player-composer who associated with the great names of 19th century music – Clara Schumann and Franz Liszt were amongst the pianists who accompanied him – but also had a lifelong involvement with folk music. From childhood onward he was friendly with local Hardanger fiddle players and he would often play folk tunes in his recitals, or borrow themes from folk music for his concert pieces. Edvard Grieg considered Bull amongst his most important inspirations: “Ole Bull became my saviour. He showed me the beauty and originality in Norwegian folk music.” For Liszt, Bull was “quite simply extraordinary. He is a sort of savage’s genius, possessing an abundance of original, enchanting ideas.” A player of great technical prowess, Bull was regarded by many critics of his day as a logical successor to Paganini. And, like the Italian master, he was an improviser of genius. He was also given to romantic-extravagant performance gestures – such as playing his violin atop of the Cheops pyramid at Giza. Mark Twain and William Thackeray were amongst his many admirers, and Ibsen is said to have based the figure of Peer Gynt on Ole Bull. In 1872, Bull bought the island of Lysøen off the west coast of Norway and had a villa built there on ‘fairytale’ designs by architect Conrad Fredrik von der Lippe. In 1974, Bull’s granddaughter donated the house to the Norwegian Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, and it has since been maintained as part of the Lysøen Museum. Many concerts have been given in its music room, but Nils Økland and Sigbjørn Apeland are the first musicians to have recorded there. Sigbjørn Apeland plays a grand piano which once belonged to Ole Bull’s daughter Olea, as well as Bull’s harmonium. Amongst the instruments used by Nils Økland is Bull’s Guarneri del Gesù violin from 1734. From the liner notes: “For years Økland and Apeland have explored Ole Bull’s musical landscapes with open minds, and found inspiration to develop their own ideas. In this recording they have chosen to emphasise the contemplative elements in Ole Bull’s music. The selection is inspired by the beauty and tranquillity of the surroundings, by the serene ambience of the music hall, and, most of all, by Ole Bull. The album presents partly the performers’ own arrangements and improvisations based on tunes that Bull performed, and partly new compositions inspired by Ole Bull.” Nils Økland and Sigbjørn Apeland, in a Performers’ Note: “We don’t claim to improvise as Bull did, but we use many of the same themes that he used, and – as with him – our improvisations are often based upon Norwegian folk music. We also want to perform his melodies in our own way (…) Like Bull, we are influenced by our contemporary music. We also consider ourselves as parts of a long chain of composers and performers who have integrated elements of folk music in their improvisation and compositions, from Edvard Grieg via Eivind Groven, Bjarne Herrefoss, Jørgen Tjønnstaul, Geirr Tveitt, Jan Johansson, Don Cherry, Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen, Frode Haltli and Karl Seglem.” Lysøen: Hommage à Ole Bull marks an ECM debut for Sigbjørn Apeland. Sigbjørn holds a position as organist in Sandviken church, Bergen, and collaborates with musicians within a wide range of genres, especially church music, Norwegian folk music, electronics and improvised music. He has also composed/performed music for mixed-media projects, most recently: The Organ Tower (installation/performance for about 25 harmoniums and electronic organs), Kanskje aller helst der (a play by Ragnar Hovland), and Jeanne d´Arc (a silent movie). He has participated in around 30 recordings, including prize-winning discs with electronica group Alog, and folk musician Sigrid Moldestad. As an academic, Apeland has been teaching, supervising and writing within the fields of musicology, cultural studies, church music, theology and folklore studies. He has also extensive experience as a folk music collector and researcher, primarily focused on material from Western Norway. Nils Økland studied classical violin with Terje Tønnesen and Hardanger fiddle with two of the greatest masters of Norway’s national instrument, Knut Hamre and Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa. Nils’s solo debut for ECM, Monograph, was released in 2008 to considerable acclaim. “(The disc) captures the qualities that set Økland apart from those who can merely play,” wrote Julian Cowley in The Wire, “With Økland you get the sense that the instrument is an outlet for a vision.” Økland has long bridged the distance between traditional and experimental musics. In addition to his solo disc, he can be heard on two ECM recordings with the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. He has performed at the major Norwegian festivals and is a regular guest at the Bergen International Festival, where he has performed the Hardanger Fiddle Concerto of Geirr Tveitt. He has given concerts in most European countries. Both Sigbjørn Apeland and Nils Økland were previously musical directors of the Ole Bull Academy in Voss, Norway. In August and September Økland and Apeland will give a series of concerts in Lysøen and schools of the Bergen district, with Mari Lyssand as narrator. A European tour is in preparation for October and November 2011. Album includes liner notes by Norwegian journalist and Ole Bull specialist Mari Lyssand, plus a performers note by Nils Økland / Sigbjørn Apeland. The booklet also includes photos of Nils and Sigbjørn playing at Lysøen. ***** ECM Wolfert Brederode Quartet Post Scriptum Wolfert Brederode: piano Claudio Puntin: clarinets Mats Eilertsen: double-bass Samuel Rohrer: drums U.S. Release date: July 26, 2011 ECM CD: B0015750-02 UPC: 6025 276 4500 1 The second album from Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode’s international band – with clarinettist Claudio Puntin and drummer Samuel Rohrer from Switzerland, and Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen – builds upon the achievements of 2006’s Currents, a recording which netted much positive press. In the UK’s Jazz Journal, Michael Tucker spoke of “a patiently and intelligently shaped” album, noting that “the currents here are mostly deep and slow-moving, sometimes practically hypnotic in their ebb and flow.” Currents was the beginning of the story. Four years of collaborative work have seen conceptual considerations overtaken by what leader Brederode calls “a very natural way of working together: There’s little need for discussion now when a new piece is brought in. Each player has found his role inside the ensemble. Not in terms of soloing but in taking responsibility for a part of the whole musical picture.” There is no jostling for solo space in this line-up, the goal is to serve the compositions: “As we play the music one of us may be ‘featured’ or come to the fore in a particular piece, but these things arise spontaneously, and change constantly.” Recorded at Studios la Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines near Avignon, Post Scriptum features nine pieces composed by Wolfert Brederode, and three by Mats Eilertsen; Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin contribute a tune apiece to the album’s repertoire. Some tunes are brand new, others have been percolating for a while. The opening “Meander”, Brederode explains, took time to find its form. Its opening 3/4 pattern had to wait until the composition’s sense of harmonic movement made itself felt. Finished shortly before the recording session, the piece was briefly played live before the group headed for the studio. “Angelico” on the other hand, with its floating melody hovering over Wolfert’s constant pulsing chordal 8th notes, was written shortly after the Currents session, and has been a concert favorite ever since. “Post Scriptum” is a piece Brederode wrote for a theatrical work called “Distance”: “We’d never played it with the quartet before. I just took it to the studio, and we ran through some variations.” The first one heard here is “a dreamy version that comes out of the deep”, capped by Wolfert’s high piano line. The variation “Post Scriptum, var.” takes off from Eilertsen’s opening bass line, “we move above that, and react to it, as Mats takes the line ‘out’ and brings it back again. This is perhaps a more tense version.” Why is “Post Scriptum” the title track? “I believe that quite often very important messages are contained in the short postscript added to a long letter.” “Inner Dance” is “a simple piece where the melodies are all within one scale but the harmonies are moving: the feeling I get from it is of dancing without leaving the chair - simply by letting the piece go through your head.” “Sofja” is named for Sofja Osipovna Levinton, a leading character in Ukrainian writer Vassily Grossman’s emotionally-powerful epic about the Stalinist era, “Life and Fate”. “It’s a book packed full of extraordinary characters, very brilliantly drawn, but Sofja’s story particularly touched and gripped me”. The tune “November” was developed out of an earlier piece called “For What It’s Worth”: “I added the rubato part – you feel the long winter about to begin – which we get into after the dark theme.” In seasonal contrast, “Silver Cloud” references the fast-moving atmospheric phenomena visible in the twilight hours of the summer months. Claudio Puntin’s “Augenblick in der Garderobe des Sommers”, meanwhile, has a more bucolic summery feel – as well as the longest title in the Brederode band book. “Hybrids” is Samuel Rohrer’s composition: “Samuel’s experience of writing for theatre and dance has helped him, I think, in finding unusual shapes for ensemble music.” Mats Eilertsen’s “Aceh” is, for the leader, “a very beautiful piece with a developing line. We’ve played it different ways, it can be interpreted really quietly, but this version finally becomes wild in the end.” Of Mats’s other pieces, “Wall View” resounds with the timelessness of a folk song. “Brun” had been played live just once before the session. Its extended bass clarinet and bass intro set the stage for Brederode’s linear entry, “taking the melody like a horn player.” * Born in Wassenaar, Netherlands, in 1974 Wolfert Brederode has worked as a musician and composer since 1996, his refined and focused touch making him one of the most distinctive musicians of the younger Dutch generation. Mats Eilertsen has previously been heard on ECM recordings with Trygve Seim & The Source, with Jacob Young, with Thomas Strønen’s Parish band (featuring Bobo Stenson), and latterly, with the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble. Samuel Rohrer is one third of the rapidly-rising Colin Vallon Trio, whose new album Rruga is currently getting much press attention. Brederode and Rohrer have more than a decade of collaborative work behind them and have played, for instance, in singer Susanne Abbuehl’s band (ECM album: April). Claudio Puntin is active also in the world of classical music, and has played with the Ensemble Modern, and other leading chamber ensembles and orchestras. His previous ECM releases include the album Ylir with Icelandic singer/violinist Gerdur Gunnarsdóttir. ***** ECM François Couturier Tarkovsky Quartet François Couturier: piano Anja Lechner: violoncello Jean-Marc Larché: soprano saxophone Jean-Louis Matinier: accordion U.S. Release date: July 26, 2011 ECM CD: B0015740-02 UPC: 6025 274 2526 9 “It is to a true inner world that François Couturier and the Tarkovsky Quartet with Anja Lechner, Jean-Louis Matinier and Jean-Marc Larché give us a splendid access. Here are poetic ballads in which the voices of the piano, cello, accordion and saxophone rise up, answer one another, entwine, fade, and return... In which the pulse, like the beating of a heart, and the most imperceptible sounds sketch out a world in which the soul may soar with its entreaty and its dreams. Huge wings unfold, stretch out and close again. The image of dancers comes to mind. A whole protected interior space of long drawn out silences, in which, miraculously, improvisation remains sovereign. This is probably what brings us closest to the 'absolute freedom of the spiritual potential of man' which Andrei Tarkovsky regarded as the essential function of art.” -Charles H. de Brantes, Director, Andrey Tarkovsky International Institute * Following on from Nostalghia – Song for Tarkovsky (2005) and the solo piano album Un jour si blanc (2009), this new recording, made in the responsive acoustic of the Auditorium RSI in Lugano, completes a trilogy for François Couturier and also opens a new door for his quartet, known henceforth as the Tarkovsky Quartet. The work of filmmaker Andrei Tarkovksy (1932-1986) continues to provide inspiration for the pianist, and his compositions here are packed with allusions to Tarkovsy’s life and art. In a liner note, Charles de Brantes illuminates some of these references, pointing out that the titles of the twelve pieces heard here themselves constitute a series of tributes. “A celui qui a vu la’ange”, for instance, is an epitaph inscribed on Tarkovsky’s tombstone. “Tiapa” and “Maroussia” were Tarkovsky’s affectionate nicknames for his youngest son and his mother. “Myshkin” is named for the Dostoyevskyan prince whom Tarkovsky often spoke of as an apt film subject. “San Galano” is the ruined abbey in Nostalghia. “Mouchette” was Tarkovsky’s favorite Bresson film, and “Doktor Faustus” the Thomas Mann novel that he longed make into a movie. Tarkovsky wrote the screenplay for the Tajik Western Sardor, but never filmed it. “La passion selon Andrei” was the original title of Tarkovsky’s historical masterpiece. “L’Apocalypse”, last book of the Bible (Revelation), is a frequent reference in Tarkovky’s last three films, “La main et le oiseau” (The hand and the bird) “feature in the brief scene in The Mirror which Tarkovsky later referred to as his self-portrait. This leads, finally to “De l’autre côté du miroir”, the other side of the mirror: through the looking glass toward other destinations for the imagination. “San Galagno”, “Sardor” and “Le main et l’oiseau” are collective improvisations by Couturier, Lechner, Larché and Matinier, their musical depth testimony to the way in which the group has developed in the last five years. All other pieces are composed by Couturier, who points out that “A celui qui a vu l'ange” is inspired by "Qui est homo" from Pergolesi's "Stabat mater" and “Maroussia” by Johann Sebastian Bach's “Das alte Jahr vergangen ist”. “La passion selon Andreï” references "Herr, unser Herrscher” from Bach's “Johannespassion”, and “Doktor Faustus” makes allusions to Shostakovich's Sonata for violoncello and piano, op. 40. * Standing in the foreground is a musicality nourished at other wellsprings. Couturier, born near Orléans in 1950, has played with jazz musicians and is equally at home with avant-garde improvisers or oud player Anouar Brahem. Along the way, in various formations, he met Jean-Louis Matinier and Jean-Marc Larché. The cellist Anja Lechner moves just as freely across musical boundaries. She feels as closely attuned to Dino Saluzzi as to Misha Alperin or Gurdjieff, to whom she dedicated the moving Chants, Hymns and Dances… It is their attitude that has brought them together, not their backgrounds. -Konrad Heidkamp, writing in Die Zeit in 2006 * François Couturier began playing piano at the age of six. After completing studies in classical music and musicology in the early 1970s, he began improvising in earnest, initially taking his cue from modernists Paul Bley, Chick Corea and Joachim Kühn. By the end of the 1970s he was working regularly with drummer Jacques Thollot, one of the key protagonists of the French ‘free’ movement. In Thollot’s group he befriended bassist Jean-Paul Celea. Couturier and Celea played in duo, then developed their concept to include other musicians. Amongst them: Daniel Humair, François Jeanneau, Dominique Pifarély. Couturier’s first appearance on ECM was on Anouar Brahem’s Khomsa in 1994, a recording that also marked the ECM debut of Jean-Marc Larché. Contact between Brahem and the pianist had been initiated in 1985 when they worked together at the Festival of Carthage. The association was revived in 2001, and Couturier toured widely with the oud player in trio with accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier, and appearing on the albums Le pas du chat noir (2001) and Voyage de Sahar (2005). Other Couturier recordings on ECM include the duo album Poros with Dominique Pifarély (1997). The Tarkovsky Quartet made its international debut at the Bergamo Festival in April 2006. Since the release of Nostalghia – Song For Tarkovsky, the quartet has become a regular presence on the European concert circuit and at the festivals. Together, the four musicians have made strong contributions to ECM events in Dinant, Frankfurt, Athens, Florence and Umbria. Upcoming performances include festival slots in Basel, Barcelona and Lisbon, as well as a number of concerts in France. The group has been warmly received by the international press. Reviewing Nostalghia in the Irish Times, Ray Comiskey summed up the ensemble’s approach: “Mixing classical rigour with improvisation both formal and free, what emerges is austerely beautiful, etched in sombre hues and redolent of an unslakeable thirst to connect with a deeper well of the spirit.”

Nope! I think you are thinking of Annie Potts. This woman is a singer, as you can see by the original photo.

LOL! Nope. Do you want me to post a 20 year old photo of her?

Nope, Jim, not Diane Keaton. You were one of the few I thought would get this one. Here's a hint: Lon probably knows.

I see that Amazon is still not selling the Blues for the Fisherman box, but a Marketplace Seller is, for $59.95! http://www.amazon.com/Art-Pepper-Quartet-Fisherman-Unreleased/dp/B005FD6IUI/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1312235682&sr=1-2

I've been enjoying the Yvonne Washington - Trust in Me disc as well. In this case, there is no bass and drums accompaniment, just Gary Norian on piano. The result is the same sound as the Bryan Anthony album because the bass and drums there didn't make a mark for themselves. There is a fair amount of the blues in Washington's singing, but the overall vibe of the album is cabaret as it is with the Anthony album. I can imagine that both artists in concert would be very popular among those who don't particularly like jazz but do like music aimed at the adult market. As long as there is no false advertising, I can recommend both albums.

Correct Jim! It's Nina Blackwood, famous for MTV, now with Sirius. Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the first day of MTV on the air. Some of you may not be familiar with this lady. She has changed a lot in recent years. She used to be one of the most beautiful women in show business!

Dave Naylor Week 5 wrapup http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372990

Edmonton released Arkee Whitlock today. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372968

Here's a NYT article about deadline trades that some here might enjoy with fond recollections. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/when-baseball-deadline-deals-go-horribly-wrong/article2115894/singlepage/#articlecontent

In fairness to the Stamps, I should mention that all three of their victories have been on the road.

Calgary Stampeders 22....Saskatchewan Roughriders 18 http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4424665 Close game from beginning to end. The Riders have now lost their first three home games. The Stamps continue to fail to impress while winning games.

The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series (9 DVDs) - $10.20 http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-American-Hero-William-Katt/dp/B003BGZ61S/ref=wl_mb_hu_m_3_dp

TTK, perhaps related to this is the trend of shopping centers (which are private property) replacing downtowns (the public square). Years ago I was involved in politics, and we needed to collect signatures for petitions, and there were no street corners appropriate to do that.

I note that Kenny is now recording for Concord. Have they no shame?

Edmonton Eskimos 26....Toronto Argonauts 25 http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372812 Exciting game! The Argos let this one slip away. Their defense dominated the Esks. Dalton Bell played for the Argos and looked good. Edmonton is 5-0 for the first time since 1980.

Mitchell Miller?

Hamilton Tiger-Cats 34....Montreal Alouettes 26 http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372785 Lots of fun! It was a surprise that the Ticats won, and a bigger surprise that they led the whole way. Calvillo returned from his injury of last week, and played the whole game.

Two West Coast players who later abandoned the cool sound were Bud Shank and Art Pepper.

spotify The Ray Bryant Trio – Gotta Travel On

Winnipeg Blue Bombers 25....British Columbia Lions 20 http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372718 Great see-saw battle! Buck Pierce was knocked out of the game again.

The first organ Cadet record that comes to mind is Odell Brown and the Organ-izers.

The Eskimos have signed Reggie McNeal. I remember last year when the Bombers had their injury problems that Eric Tillman made it clear that he prefers to have four QBs under contract. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372651 ***** The Lions have come to terms with Tad Kornegay. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=372640