Leeway

HIGH ZERO FESTIVAL 2014: The Festival of Experimental Improvised Music, Baltimore, MD. Spent a pleasant afternoon and evening in Baltimore yesterday (Friday 19th). Checked out the gyros in Baltimore's Greek Village neighborhood, then headed over to the Studio Project venue for the 2014 edition of High Zero Festival. There is always a great vibe at this festival, almost like a big party. The emcee, M.C. Schmidt, is a wild and crazy and funny guy. The musicians and fans demonstrate a real community feeling. The 150 seat theater looked sold out. The way the festival typically works: improvising and/or experimental musicians are invited individually. Each night of the festival (usually runs 4 nights), one musician opens with a solo. The other musicians are then placed in ensembles chosen by the organizers. IOW, nobody brings their own groups. The idea of course is to experiment. Friday night, Okkyung Lee gave a strong solo on cello to open the evening, Group 1 was Jack Wright (sax), Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (bassoon), Paul Neidhart (perc, friction), M.C. Schmidt (store bought electronics), Charles Dube (electronics). This turned into a mostly lower-case affair, strongly atmospheric. Group 2: John Kilduff (multitasking live art), Vicki Bennett ((found footage sample collage), Bob Wagner (perc, friction). This was definitely one of the strangest performances I've seen (at least where people keep their clothes on). Kilduff's performance last night consisted of making popcorn, painting a painting, making a popcorn egg omelet, answering questions from the audience, keeping up a rapid patter of comments and jokes, all while running on a treadmill in paint-bespattered suit and tie (and who says improvisors don't have a dress code!). You had to be there. It was actually pure Dada, and very funny. The painting was auctioned off to the audience for $150. Group 3: LaDonna Smith (violin), Paul Neidhart (perc, friction), Harry Walker (electric bass), Michael Fischer (sax). This was one of the sets I had a lot of interest in. LaDonna Smith is well-known in experimental music circles, and this was my first opportunity to see and hear her. She and the ensemble did not disappoint, turning in a strong, intense performance. Group 4: Charlotte Hug (viola, voice), JD Zazie (turntables, CDJ mixer, found sounds), Jenny Grafs (electronics, guitar), Stewart Mostofsky (electronics), Vicki Bennett (found footage sample collage). I had heard a lot about Charlotte Hug, she appears on several Emanem CDs, so again I was quite interested in her performance. She has a striking, wraithe-like appearance. She plays the viola with a sort of strap on the top of the viola, and bow under the instrument. I thought her individual performance was interesting, although I was disappointed she did not employ her voice more. While good, the set did not come up to the power of LaDonna Smith's set. Hug ended up playing against the found sounds, and while some of that was amusing, it did not allow her to generate much intensity. I would like to see her in perhaps a solo setting.She has played with Fred Lonberg-Holm, and that would be interesting, If you've gotten this far, I'd like to offer some comments made by John Berndt in the Festival booklet. Berndt is one of the generators of the Festival, a major figure on the Baltimore experimental scene (which is very active), and an excellent saxophonist too. Berndt stated that "there is a way that the avante-garde...acts as a huge and unpaid R&D lab for mainstream culture .....The real question is what broader influences unusual thinking can have on the conscious mode of life.....From one perspective, if you want to have anything like a free mind, you have to have some appetite for an impressionistic vista of possibility where freedom can play and materialize.....this experimental activity is really about exposing and discovering that field of possibility with attenuated prejudgment [JB's italics] and a great deal of vitality, sensuality, and science.......Building activities into life which reboot the sense of possibility and redraw the lines of meaning in a core way rather swims up stream against heavy pressures of practicality, socialization, work, and ultimately mortality. Rather than being a reason to give up, that of course seems to be a source of ever-greater urgency.

Nicely done and worthwhile. Your profile also shows some nice interests (books, movies, etc) even away from the LPs.

Tintoretto Pygmalion Harold Pinter

I loved that book when I read it in the 80s or early 90s. There was also an excellent TV series based on it in the UK. 'The Old Men at the Zoo' is good too. Thanks for the suggestion. I liked this work enough to want to read more AW. One thought I had about this novel was how similar its society is to those found in Iris Murdoch's novels (roughly contemporary). There is almost a stock cast of characters in these novels (the Irishman, the homosexual(s), the juvenile delinquent, the ancient servant, et al). Iris treats such characters as part of a Platonic scheme, while Wilson might be said to treat them in Aristotelian fashion. This is a pretty simple demarcation, but may serve as a starting point for comparison.

Uh, I knew Bill Dixon quite well and can verify that he felt this way. Spent HOURS talking with him about this. I.e. people "viewed" him as "less black," not that he was... That's my point: people viewed him as "less black," but he did not himself. Yet here, that argument is resurrected by the OP by opposing him to Archie Shepp and noting "Dixon's music has far fewer explicit spiritual or ethnocentric overtones." That seems to be the argument Dixon was pushing back against.

I'm glad you feel better. I'm also glad you have pulled in the boundaries, if only a little, of your original argument. I still have considerable reservations about your argument though. Reading it reminded me of the arguments about "reverse racism" and "affirmative action." You say: "I hope there's a discussion in there about why some very legitimate contributions by white musicians at the dawn of free jazz are so commonly disregarded or swept under the rug..." Sounds terribly conspiratorial. Who swept? And what rug? All the musicians you cite seem well-known to me. But you seem to think that white musicians were actually the oppressed class. Can't agree with you there. You say: "It's interesting to me how we've reached a point where the vital and extraordinarily important "jazz acronym" organizations of the 60's onward (the AACM, BAG, UGMAA, and so on) are experiencing a renaissance of interest, whereas we still have very minimal critical and theoretical study of either, say, Burton Greene's music or the Jazz Composers Guild. (I happen to know someone who has done comprehensive research on the latter, but the fact that we got an entire BAG book before a readily available paper on the JCG is pretty boggling to me.)" So once again the story of poor white musicians while powerful monolithic black forces claim eminence? Your thesis seems white victimization. Your analysis of Dixon versus Shepp is cringe-worthy. From what I read, you are arguing that Dixon was "less black" than Shepp so was outside the free jazz mainstream. In my view, that's an inherently racist analysis. It just seems to me you're trying to rewrite the history of the music by applying white-out. While your follow-up post tries to obscure the race implications, they are still there. I've intended to ignore this comment by Allen Lowe, but since I'm at it: Lowe said: "On the critical/racal side, lets face it; if my blues CD had been put out by a 55 year old African American saxophonist, it would have been hailed in the national press as a profound 'return to roots.' To me that's the single most racist sentence I have read on the Board in a long time.

ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES - Angus Wilson - 1956 The central story is that of an archaeological hoax (on the order of Piltdown Man), which has the effect of corrupting the lives and work of the men and women directly or indirectly connected with it. The story presents a large network, personal, social, political and religious, of associated figures viewed and described with a deeply satiric eye. Wilson creates some marvelously hideous characters. This is in essence an academic novel, but, oddly, one with no particular university or college connected to it; the scholars are all seen away from their schools or are independent researchers. Anthony Burgess called it "one of the five greatest novels of the century," surely hyperbole. I would not rank it nearly that high, but it is one of the better modern British fictions.

healthy then? Nah Just a feel good album with those big tenor sounds, as tasty as a pint of Ben & Jerry's.

Listening to this is like eating a pint of your favorite ice cream.

As good as Exit? I don't have Exit I'm afraid but will have soon after hearing this. They're playing London in a couple of weeks. I think I'll try and make it I like them both but I like "Exit!" more. "Without Noticing" is pretty good too. I keep finding more Anthony Davis & his Circle (as they used to say) and enjoying it: OF BLUES AND DREAMS - Anthony Davis (p), Leroy Jenkins (vn), Pheeroan Ak Laff (d), Abdul Wadud (cello). Sackville LP 1978.

QUIET SONG - Paul Bley (p, elec p), Jimmy Giuffre (cl, fl), and Bill Connors (g). Improvising Artists.

Thank you, and thanks for catching my Van Morrison reference Cool, glad to hear that. I love live shows. I hear Firehouse 12 is a great venue. Enjoy the trip. Seconded. The arrangements are pretty straightforwardly modern jazz/60s inside-outside (though Wooley is a far-above average melodist) but the soloing from both Wooley & Sinton is out of this world. "Shanda Lea 1", the short solo that opens (Put Your) Hands Together, is a truly seminal performance IMO. The convergence of technique and melody, heart and mind, heard in that piece is the kind of thing that certifies the man's brilliance. Yes, I might be a little too hard on the Clean Feeds, as they do have their virtues. But when you have a chance to witness Nate in full-avant mode, soliloquizing with the spirits (and that is how I first saw/heard Nate almost a decade ago now), you might concede my point just a little. No one else can do that. But everything he puts his hand to is worth hearing.

Someone obtained Tyshawn's ravaged drum skin and it is now posted on the photo wall above teh little desk near the entryway at The Stone: Thursday night: two sets-- Matt Shipp and Evan Parker, and Evan Parker, Nate Wooley, Jeremiah Cymerman. And the weirdness continued. I don't think it's any secret on the Board that I'm a Matt Shipp fan. I've seen a lot of pianists and heard more and Matt is among the most compelling--to me. So it was kind of cool that my seat was switched from the far end of the first row to a seat right behind Matt (I think this was Steve's seat Tuesday night, but the piano may have been shifted a bit): This was as good as it gets for watching Matt play. And since Evan was facing Matt, it was a great spot to sit. First weird thing: before the set started, Evan announced that "someone would make an announcement." Robert Bielecki stands up and starts telling the audience about the Foundation he has established. By way of background, Bielecki, is a relatively young man, who sold his tech company a few years ago for a reportedly very substantial sum of money. He's fairly ubiquitous on the free jazz scene. He is also noted for wearing pajamas to all the concerts he attends, including Thursday night. Anyway, his foundation helped fund Fred Van Hove's appearance. Bielecki then announced a $15,000 "unrestricted grant" to Matt Shipp. More grants are expected to be forthcoming. In the free jazz community, where $1000 can be transformative, these grants if handled well should be quite helpful. Read about it at rdbf.org. Bielecki also announced that Matt would be performing at Jazz at Lincoln Center (kind of weird). Of course, the Marsalises will not allow anyone, especially an avant player like Matt, to perform there without genuflecting to one of the Marsalis icons, so Matt's set will be something like a "Tribute to Duke Ellington." Normally this would bother me, but Matt sincerely admires Ellington. I attended a Matt Shipp Trio performance in DC some months ago, also billed as a Tribute to Duke Ellington. Matt did a brilliant job at that show (I posted about that show). So my expectation is that Matt is going to give Duke his due at JALC without compromising his playing. More weirdness. Ceremonials out of the way, Matt and Evan start their set. This partnership is really maturing and developing. Evan started on the tenor; about 10 minutes into the set, the tenor emits a noise. Evan stops, announces that a piece has fallen off the sax and the tenor is inoperable. A quick look around, while Matt comps. No luck. Evan switches to the soprano. The set carries on, and quite well indeed. Evan plays soprano for about 30 min, then he and Matt bring the piece to a close. Evan asks the audience if anyone has chewing gum, "preferably used," LOL. A young lady does. She gives Evan her chewing gum, he sticks it into a hole on the tenor's neck where the piece fell out, and voila, the tenor is back in business. The set is concluded on tenor. Despite the mishap, it was a really good set. Someone found the missing piece after the set; looked like a 1/4" brass mushroom, that screws into a hole on the neck of the tenor. The weird thing about the second set is that nothing weird happened. Evan mostly on soprano, Nate Wooley on trumpet, and Jeremiah Cymerman on clarinet and electronics. Cymerman produced the recent "World of Objects" release with Nate and Evan, which I really like, and he has significant chops on clarinet. Cymerman set up an intriguing array of electronics for the set, but, frustratingly, did not deploy them often or enough. For the first 30 minutes, they weren't really a factor. When they were applied, things got interesting. My impression was that Evan loved playing against the various electronic effects that Cymerman produced, deeply focused as if he was sailing into the teeth of an electronic gale. But the electronics seemed to come in fits and starts. One of the things I have always liked and admired about Nate is his ability to go deep into the abstract, to extend technique beyond conceivable limits, and, to use another nautical metaphor, to sail into the mystic (I'm less of a fan of some of the MOR stuff on Clean Feed for example). That's what Nate did here, and that is worth the price of admission alone. Frankly, Cymerman didn't seem to be on his game, but Evan and Nate made it worthwhile. I was glad I made it up there, and I was glad to make it home.

People will remember Tuesday night for a long time. Wednesday too, but maybe not for the same reasons. Things got a little weird. First set was Fred Van Hove (FVH). The plan was for him to solo for 15 minutes. Then FVH would leave and the next ensemble would take the stage, consisting of Evan Parker, Peter Evans on pocket trumpet and trumpet, and Charles Evans on bari. So FVH did his solo, showing a beautiful, limpid touch on the keyboard, playing a piece that seemed reminiscent of some classical music that you once heard but can't identify. Very little in the way of what one usually hears in piano free improv today. FVH really had the look and manner of a classical pianist. Then the Evanses took the stage. As usual, PE took the lead with fast and furious runs on both trumpets; the guy has massive technical abilities and simply flies. The wonderful thing was that EP stayed right there, Monoceros-like, through every twist and turn; some incredibly hard blowing from him. CE carried the bari lightly, and stayed in the mix, although not a dominant voice. I once sat near the stage at a Vandermark concert, and it took my ears a couple of weeks to recover from KV's bari playing, heavy and loud. Not too much like that from CE. IIRC, they did about 4 segments, mostly at a quick tempo, with a few slower passages mixed in. The 2nd set was supposed to repeat the plan of the first set, with FVH doing a 15 minute solo, then playing with the next ensemble: Tyshawn Sorey, John Hebert, Peter Evans, and Evan Parker. Something went astray. FVH got into his solo set, this time attacking the keyboard with vigor, although still with a sweet touch. Very spiky and contemporary improvisation. FVH began building castles in the air. The 15 minute mark went by. The flow of ideas seemed incessant. The 25 minute mark went by; castles take time to build. At the 30 min. mark, the house lights flickered as a signal. FVH played on. At 35 min mark, Hebert came from the dressing area (which is in the basement at The Stone) and started to play softly, the idea, I suppose, to merge FVH into the ensemble without having to break. As soon as Hebert starts to play, FVH stops. Rather awkward. Slowly, Tyshawn, Peter and EP filter up to the stage, and start playing. FVH sat with his arms crossed for the next 15 min. Yep, awkward. Finally, when EP started to play a soft little passage, the ice was broken, and FVH joined in. He clearly seemed more relaxed and confident playing with EP. There were some short duos with other members of the group too, although FVH seemed to have some difficult coming to grips with Tyshawn's artillery and Peter's fireworks. Once again I found myself next to Tyshawn. He was still very much in Led Zeppelin mode; some heavy banging. Then, he started stabbing the floor tom with his stick. Sure enough, he punctured it as was his intent. Kept playing with the hole and widening it, somehow making interesting rubbing noises. The stabbing continued until there were a mass of holes in the drum skin. Tyshawn started playing inside the tom. Finally, he pulled the skin off and started twirling it in the air, making that whirring sound. What FVH made out this is anyone's guess. I asked Tyshawn after the set if drummers are allowed to stab their kit; he said that the drum was not working right, so he decided to make some other use out of it. So, a few unusual things, but bottom line, there was a lot of truly exciting music. This is what improvisation is: everything gets rolled into the mix, and the challenge is to respond to it. Plan to attend tonight (Thurs) but that will be it for me for the week.I'll post about tonight later Friday or Saturday. Thanks Steve for that fine post on the first night's sets.

The CD might be better (performance or production), or the POD guy might be blowing smoke (never a discouraging word heard, although the articles are great), or maybe the trio was having an off-night. There's no hiding in a live performance, and as much as I like Sylvie (and have seen her a bunch of times), this trio didn't click for me in concert. YMMV as we say

Tuesday night, first night of the Parker residency. The first set started the week off at a very high level. Steve Reynolds and Clifford were there (anyone else from the Board?) and hope they will chime in too. The first set was Evan Parker on tenor and soprano, John Escreet on piano, John Hebert on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. I will go right to the point: the story of the first set, for me, was Tyshawn. Last night he was simply magnificent on drums, a ninja warrior or maybe even a young Obe Wan Kenobe. As it turned out, I was sitting a few feet from the drum set, so perhaps that skewed my perspective, but from the start he looked and sounded masterful. He started the group off with a fast tempo, which he would return to throughout the set. Evan stuck with him (he can stay with anyone, right), but a few times I noticed that Hebert and Escreet would look at each other and laugh and lay out, while Evan and Tyshawn just sizzled along. No one else needed to get in the middle of that. Escreet was fine and intense on piano, and Hebert was excellent on bass. But time and again I was fascinated with Tyshawn's drumming. Whoa! The second set had Barre Phillips on bass, Chris Corsano on drums, Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet, and Evan on tenor and soprano again. The surprise of the evening for me was Barre's crackling, acerbic wit, with even a touch of Don Rickles to it. He and Evan traded humorous jabs that were quite funny. Unfortunately, my expectations of Barre may have been too high, Frankly, I was a tad disappointed. Corsano was good. I'm a bit nonplussed by Corsano lately; I'm missing the fire. But Joe McPhee? He brought the fire, the feeling the element of surprise. His improvisation goes deep, deep, deep. Evan was a perfect partner.

Up in NYC for the Evan Parker residency, but I had a chance to catch the Sylvie Courvoisier Trio at Roulette Monday night. The trio is Sylvie on piano, Drew Gress on bass, Kenny Wollesen on drums. In person, Sylvie has this charisma that's hard to explain, a sort of verve mixed with directness. I really enjoy her piano playing. Great touch, a tendency to blend classical elements into her compositions, sort of Debussy/Ravel meets Cecil Taylor, and one of the few who can smoothly mix playing inside the piano with playing the keyboard. Alas, the other trio members were not quite that interesting or satisfying. Gress seemed as if he really didn't know the music, appeared tentative at times, and simply wasn't much of a presence. Wollesen did rather better, trying to bring the rhythm section to life, but in the end, nothing special. Compared to Tyshawn Sorey the next night (perhaps an unfair comparison since the circumstances were different, but still....), Wolleson looked especially meager; there was a Grand Canyon of difference in terms of artistry.

Yes, I do get that, but I still think the theory is dangerously flawed, and that it creates a race issue (or at least the appearance of one) that cannot be so easily put aside or ignored. Some might find the "alternative narrative" convincing, or at least consoling, but I don't include myself in that camp for reasons I stated in my previous post. My concern here is to make known a concern about the OP's thesis, and its implications.

The Lovin' Spoonful William Archibald Spooner Edgar Lee Masters

The concert hiatus is over. Managed to catch the Ingrid Laubrock Quintet at Bohemian Caverns, DC, before I depart for the Evan Parker Residency in NYC. The Quintet is Laubrock on tenor, Tim Berne on alto, Ben Gerstein on trombone, Dan Peck on tuba, and Tom Rainey on drums. A wealth of brass for sure, and obviously some top-flight musicians. Rather funny when Rainey was introduced as Tom Murphy. Rainey startled, said, "Tom who?!" Two sets, although the second was truncated a bit. Most of the music was through-composed, or at lease part-composed. Started slow and low and continued to build in volume and complexity, although it remained very much controlled. I'll pretty much come out to watch any ensemble Berne or Laubrock is in, since I enjoy the playing so much. So this was a good night. I will acknowledge, for all that, this is not my favorite Laubrock ensemble. Still, definitely worth catching, especially if you like a strong brass performance.

PM on Paul Bley - Paul plays Carla / Steeplechase. Thanks.

A very interesting and thoughtful OP. I guess my reservations about the OP and followup is that I'm not prepared to grant Motian superiority let alone supremacy either as a drummer or as a jazz leader. Nor am I convinced that some hybrid form of composed and improv music is necessarily superior either form alone. But I suppose my biggest reservation is how this "alternative narrative" seems to break down along race lines. It's been said that the story of America is the story of the color line, and certainly the story of jazz is the story of the color line. And in the OP we seem to have a new development story (myth?) led by another white hero and his descendants, while on the less-favored side of the line remain many of the progenitors, innovators and deep spirits of the music, who turn our to be AFrican-American. think we've seen this story before. The OP makes a glancing reference to race matters in the last paragraph of the OP, but then shies away from it on a lack of knowledge. I think any such critique needs to address that more clearly and more directly.

SKIZOKE - Frank Lowe Sextet - Lowe (ts), Butch Morris (cornet), Damon Choice (vibes), Larry Simon (g), Wilbur Morris (b), Tim Pleasant (d). Cadence Jazz. 1981. I think I like this one better than the Arista recordings, although certainly not so much as "The Flam" or "Dr. Too Much." Got to crank these Cadence LPs a bit to get the best out of it.

Tom Stoppard Caesar Pausanias

Victor Hugo Ugo Magi Iggy Stooge