Д.Д.

By the way, mister, you owe us some reviews. I know, I know... And what I saw/heard (both Broetzmann and Doerner/Capece) is worth discussing... - but I am on vacation! Till next week! So don't expect me putting any effort into anything.

I was at the release party 4-5 months ago (with shy arts student girls who designed the covers for the CDs in the set in attendance). I like Tarasov, one of my favorite drummers, but I am not sure I really need 11 of his solo drum discs. Will I get this set? Surely I will. Eventually. (If the price is no more than USD90.) Did I mention that the set was sponsoired by The Ford Foundation? I find it quite amusing (and admirable).

what do you want to know? Background and general philosophy of the label would be interesting. Any personal contact with the label owner(s)? Who runs the label? (Christof Kurzmann? Who he?) Recommendations? Titles to avoid? Is the label known for having a particular sound? Tony, you provocator, this is a loaded question. You know that I bought loads of Charhizma releases (from our own jon abbey) some time ago. You also know that I am quite unable to formulate my thoughts about this EAI stuff, other than "I like it" / "I don't like it" (sometimes I cannot even do as much). But, contrary to your expectations I'll be able to recommend one specifically: efzeg - "wuerm" (cha 028). Very carefully designed and executed music. Check out a lot of efzeg samples here. In general, check out the Charhizma samples on the label page. Christof Kurzmann runs Charhizma, he's a Viennese musician who's lived in Berlin for a while, and his releases are almost all drawn from these two scenes. I still don't really understand your specific taste at all, so I'm not sure what here would appeal to you, it's mostly electroacoustic or electroacoustic-influenced music of one kind or another. Christof also dabbles in poppier areas at times, the B.Fleischmann discs are very big sellers. their "orange" release is probably the first classic in this area, still maybe the best release they've done: http://www.charhizma.com/quart/index.html the Neumann/Krebs, Efzeg and Fagaschinski/Gal are also all recommended. have you heard any/many of the Vienna releases on my label? I'd recommend most of those over most of these, the Siewert/Brandlmayr or the Stangl/Kurzmanns or the Polwechsel/Fennesz or the Stangl/Dieb13 or the Neumann/Beins. Hat Art has also begun releasing more and more discs from this scene, fairly hit and miss so far, with a new Polwechsel just out, and an Efzeg imminent also. Knowing your tastes a bit I woudl actually advice against Siewert/Brandlmayr "Too Beautiful to Burn" on Erstwhile - I found it lite and soft to an extent of bordering on new age. Too safe, IMO. Was not too happy about Stangl/Kurzmann duscs either - also felt too comfortable for me. But Polweschel/Fennesz disc ("Wrapped Islands") I liked a lot - one of my favorite Ersts. Haven't listened to Neumann/Beins yet, I think. Jon could you stock up on the Charhizma items you are not carrying currently? - I would buy them from you.

Looks interesting. If I were in Europe, I'd attend it. But given my current location, here is my substitute: SIFF.

I have it (this is a CD-R, btw) - listened to it only once quite some time ago, and remember liking it a lot (some blowhard stuff... Allen in good form)... will revisit it soon.

Surely you guys are on a mailing list, but just in case... Emanem & Psi News see www.emanemdisc.com Psi new releases - available early June: AKI TAKASE piano quintet ‘Tarantella’ (1997) - psi 06.03 AKI TAKASE (piano), ALEKS KOLKOWSKI (violin), MAURICE HORSTHUIS (viola), TRISTAN HONSINGER (cello), NOBUYOSHI INO (bass). Aki Takase has been resident in Berlin for many years now and her relationship with Deutschland Radio resulted in several memorable sessions. Aki felt that this 1997 piano quintet (piano plus strings) deserved a wider audience and psi readily agreed. A fantastic session from an outstanding group of players. 65 minutes. ADAM LINSON ‘Cut and Continuum’ (2006) - psi 06.04 Adam Linson made his debut recording with the ElectroAcoustic Ensemble's latest CD for ECM, The Eleventh Hour. Here is his first solo recording featuring his real time processing and sampling in a new approach to solo bass. 60 minutes. EVAN PARKER ‘The Topography of the Lungs’ (1970) - psi 06.05 EVAN PARKER (soprano & tenor saxophones), DEREK BAILEY (guitar) and HAN BENNINK (percussion, etc). The Topography of the Lungs is considered a landmark recording in the history of improvised music. Back in print as a CD for the first time and for the first time in many years. Two previously unissued pieces from the same 1970 session have been found and added. 53 minutes. Emanem new release - available early June: ROSS BOLLETER "Secret Sandhills and satellites" (2001-5) - EMANEM 4128 Pieces for ruined pianos and pianos on the edge of ruin. For several years now, Ross Bolleter has been scouring around Western Australia and beyond looking for ruined pianos. He has found the right music for each instrument, and performed and recorded it. This collection contains some recent choice items recorded around Perth and Alice Springs. The main work, inspired by an Aborigine painting, is the 28-minute Secret Sandhills, a generally slow-moving work spliced together from performances on six ruins. There are also 10 shorter and generally faster Satellites, some of which were performed on two ruined pianos simultaneously. Fresh new sounds from decaying old instruments. 68 minutes. All Emanem & Psi CDs are now available except 4002, 4015, 4042, 4067, 03.06 & 04.01 which are currently out of stock.

Any particular discs you dislike? I think I might tend to agree with you, but I am not sure... I mean, to be honest, guys like Dave Liebman and Marc Copland are not the ones that grab my attention, and they did quite a number of discs for Uehlinger - but then when we interviewed him, one of the discs he gave us was Copland's "Time" solo recording, which contrary to my expectations, I like quite a bit. True, I tend to forget about these ones. I have practically all the hatOLOGY releases up to #569 (released in 2002), and very few of the later ones (and the latest one is already #633!). Anybody heard this Polweschel hatOLOGY disc, btw? And Liebman I just can't stand. Copeland is good, IMO (have his very tasteful solo on Sketch).

Tony, I have all of these. I remmebr liking them all a lot. I would not remmeber now which is which, but all really good stuff - and very different from each other. In general, as with hatOLOGY, you would normally be safe buying any hat[now]ART stuff.

I am less than enamoured of Rempis playing - I found him thoroughly trite. Same for Daisy. Evan Parker / Joe McPhee duo, on the other hand, is very impressive - some of the best recent Evan Parker playing on record - and McPhee is at least just as good here. I still owe you a report on excellent Dörner/Capece concert - some time later.

I thought the same of Bennink till I heard him on Chat Room - a duo with Simon Nabatov on Leo. Bennink can still play wonderfully. To hear HAN BENNINK on record and to hear him live is two different things. On record, when he is not in a "clownish" envirronement (like with CHADBOURNE, by example) he surely can play. Live, I'm afraid that it is a lost cause. It seems that he is not able to refrain his exhibitionnism anymore. Most of the concerts where he is involved that I've seen, turn to be a mess quickly, like a promising duo with COR FULHER few years ago who ended as a disaster. I agree. I saw Bennink live with Misha Mengelberg several month ago, and all this clownship (at the detriment of music) was very disappointing. Bennink with Fuhler indeed sounds potentially very interesting. ----------------------- Plan to go to the following concert on Saturday: > Boris Baltschun / Serge Baghdassarians VARIATIONEN OHNE THEMA > Lucio Capece / Axel Dörner DUO Axel Dörner > Trompete Lucio Capece > Bassklarinette, Sopransaxophon

Anyone already heard this new Leo release? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulhouse Jazz Festival, August 21-26

I thought the same of Bennink till I heard him on Chat Room - a duo with Simon Nabatov on Leo. Bennink can still play wonderfully. More drummers: I remember being quite amazed by Billy Kilson's work in Dave Holland's quintet when I saw them live. I have him on trio record with Tim Hagans - gotta revisit that disc. Joe LaBarbera is very good (I'm thinking of his contribution to Anthony Ortega's "Scattered Clouds"); and Phil Haynes.

Bill Stewart - yes. Cyrille, Graves and Fielder I like, but they are not among the very favorite drummers. What was the last thing Rashied Ali recorded? Does he still play (well)?

i really like that amalgam disc. it might be too prosaic for a funny ratt-er? it is weird. i don't know too much tippett, but i would imagine this is one of his most straight performances. but it is isn't a straight set. just sort of rhythmically um plodding? Got this one, and it is beautiful. Watts has such a gorgrous forceful alto sound; Tippett is joyfully extatic (this is not that mainstream for Tippett, actually - his (excellent) discs from late-60s / early-70s (reissued most recently on Disconforme - with Tippett's permission, for a change) are quite easy-listening), and Kent Carter's bass is nice. For me the only quibble is John Stevens too straight-ahead heavy-handed drumming on one (last) track. But overall, an excellent disc. Gokhan, what do you think of it?

Buy directly from the label, they have good shipping rates and accept PayPal. Yesterday, during the Brötzmann tentet concert saw a Brötzmann / Zerang duo live release "Live in Beirut" on Lebanese Al Maslakh label. Didn't feel in the mood to shell out CHF 30 for it (got two Lonberg-Holm CD-Rs, one of them being a duo with Carlos Zingaro ( ), instead). Will write about the concert later. In short - it was good, and totally different from what I saw/heard four years ago.

This got me thinking who my favorite living drummers are - so here is the top-whatever in no particular order: Mark Sanders Paal Nilssen-Love Michael Wertmüller Michel Lambert John McLellean Daniel Humair Tony Oxley Paul Lovens Raymond Strid Paul Lytton Jeff Arnal Ramon Lopez Vladimir Tarasov Martin Blume

Shall we do a listening session Monday, May 22nd evening - around midnight CET (6PM EST)?

Lucky! I envy you as I've really been enjoying Frode, especially some of his work (reissued?) on Loose Torque. Be sure to give us your opinion of the show. Gjerstad and Wesseltoft was very much so-so. I am not too convinced by Gjerstad's talents, in general. He was playing clarinet, baritone, alto and bass clarinet. Very breathy, weak and not at all nuanced sound (very much the same on all instuments - slightly more forceful and diverse on alto) and monotone repetetive figures. Wesseltoft is a typical mainstreampiano player trying to do the out thing on an off night, so there were all the regular tricks of playing on the piano strings, and of course with some electronics. Not interesting, in short. BUT, then came the Veryan Weston trio, and it was stunnig. The trio includes Marc Sanders on drums and John Edwards on bass, and they played a very energetic, aggressive, inventive and highly interactive free jazz. The level of interaction is unbelievable... I wouldn't even call it interaction, it's complete synchronicity - somehow all three (particualrly Sanders and Weston) sound very much alike in their ideas and approach. The energy level was at overdrive from the first second and didn't let go for a moment all through the set, and I definitely agree with P.L.M. in that this is some of the best modern piano trio music - I am getting all I can find by them (two releases on EMANEM, as I see) asap. Paal Nilssen-Love was in the audience (which consisted of probably 12 people), and was seemingly in awe of Sanders' playing. I chatted a bit with Sanders and Edwards after the concert, and Sanders noted that when he was approached to play this gig he imidiately proposed this trio as this is his favorite formation - and this is saying something.

Tomorrow I cought about 3 seconds of Brötzmann/Nilssen-Lovoe duo live. Walked into the club just to hear the last extatic taragoto squeak and see all smiling Messrs. Brötzmann and Nilssen-Love bowing to thunderous applause. Had been looking forward to this concert so much, but well, it's hard to get away early enough from the dinner with 50 custoemrs that you are hosting yourself. But , anyway. Today will catch Frode Gjerstad duo with Bugge Wesseltoft duo / Veryan Weston Trio - but this is no match to Brötzmann/Nilssen-Love duo (I actually never heard them together, but I think Nilssen-Love should bring out the best in Herr Brötzmann). Ubu: Brötzmann's Tentet will play on May 21st in Zürich. I am actually flying back from my traveling on May 21st - I might change a ticket to fly to Zürich.

No wonder many people think all this free improv stuff sounds kinda samey...

Time is 9PM CET (3PM EST). Change of time possible, according to requests.

I actually bought one Borbetomagus CD ("Barbed Wire Maggots") last time I was in NYC (in DMG; I asked whether they had more - they didn't (to their own confusion), but Bruce said something along the lines of "it's all the same stuff.. and it's a bit intense"). The disc is at the very top of "to listen to" pile, but for now I just cannot stop listening to this one: ...and given that this is a 5-CD box, and I will most likely want to listen to it all, I doubt I'll get to Borbetomagus too soon. This set is available for close-to-nothing from amazon.co.uk. Although I see they already raised price a bit (I got it for £15) - but still, this is a steal....

Listening to the sound samples right now. Pippo 'Ark' D'Ambrosio: Arte senza volto Some very pretty playing but sounds too much like some of those acts trotted out by PBS during their all too frequent pledge drives. I'll give Pippo points as he's a paisan but still... Eugenio Colombo: Racconto Flautato :gasp: I.... can't....breathe... :gasp: That circular breathing can sometimes make me very uncomfortable. Sounds interesting. Gianni Lenoci: Agenda Soffused and dilated recompositions for piano of music by Steve Lacy Hmmm... Can't tell about this one. Lots of ringing piano. Not one I'd care to take a chance on. Doesn't sound bad, though. Ahhh... Track six, Retreat. I'm being won over. Enrico Cosimi: Infinite works Vangelis, anyone? I don't listen to this type of electronic music much anymore but I still retain a soft spot for this stuff. Knock knock. Who's there? PBS. PBS who? No, really. It's PBS. We're looking for someone to score Nature and thought you'd be ideal. What's it pay? Well... Nico Girasole: Et Nico Is it Cold in here? Anyone else feeling Blue? Laraaji: My Orangeness Cripes! No wonder you're so popular with the ladies! Paolo Giaro: I Vu Di I don't think so. ~~~~~~~~~~ The Ictus box set has once again been delayed. New release date: May 20th Of the Vel-Net major artists I know only Colombo who's a monster player and has some very interesting recordings - with Italian Instabile Orchestra and under his leadership (there is a good one on Leo with opera singers, and a couple of solid free-boppish ones on Splasc(H)). Lenoci I know from his duo with Joëlle Léandre on Ambiances Magnétiques label that I listened to for the first time earlier today. It's OK. Lenoci is fine, but not particularly original. Reminds me of classicized Bley. Ms. Léandre shines, as (nearly) always. I liked some (does one CD qualify as some?) of the Cold Blue titles, I really did. Ictus box will be your Cold Blue, Tony

Vel-Net Records.

I've been hearing some fine things about the group, although I can't locate any of their albums (anything out on CD?). I'm a fan of Watts, although I'm not entirely familiar with his 'leader' work. http://www.fmr-records.com/