Funny Rat

[Guest Chaney]

Um, David? Don't you remember that we're boycotting Leo until such time as Mr. Feigin answers my e-mail?

Gary: Glad you like Win This Time! It really is amazing that these gems stay around as long as they do. 113 copies. Sheesh!

[gnhrtg]

Yes, I've heard many good things about The Hammer so might look into that. Meanwhile, I would unreservedly recommend Sieiro, also by Ivo Perelman, quartet with T. Ulrich, D. Duval, and J. Rosen.

[Guest]

Speaking of Maslak, has anybody tried the stuff on his own CDR label, Hum Ha?

[Gary]

Gokhan:  On Limited Sedition, ON THE EDIT:  Win This Time is a must.

←

Win this time is the most jazzy title in the Limited Sedition catalog I've heard. Golia is a bit show-offish here, but he does have what to show. [

←

Listening to 'win this time' for the first time.

Is there really only a market for 113 CDs of such quality music?

George Cremaschi on bass sounds particularly exciting.

←

Well, it took Tony nearly two years to persuade you to get a copy - how long do you think it will it take to get "the masses" to follow?

←

2 years?? Wow it only feels like 4 days

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...ic=5071&st=5445

How many are the masses?

114?

[Guest Chaney]

Gary: If you like Win This Time, you'll also enjoy... FIESTA!

Sorry. I love his stuff and just had to share this link sent to me by my pal in cheese, John / couw.

[Gary]

Gary:  If you like Win This Time, you'll also enjoy... FIESTA!

Sorry.  I love his stuff and just had to share this link sent to me by my pal in cheese, John / couw.

←

mmm ...

I'll get back to you in 23 months on that one.

[Д.Д.]

Speaking of Maslak, has anybody tried the stuff on his own CDR label, Hum Ha?

←

Yeah, I did. I have some duo with Kuryokhin, and it is unlistenable - two guys just fooling around with cheapo synthethisers and singing. Might have been fun for them, but of no artistic value. THe other one I have is Humanplexity - and earlier work with Mengelberg and Bennink (once released on Leo, but hen deleted from the catalog) - some pretty wild reckless stuff, but quite badly recorded, and also the CD-R seem to be of bad quality - I have some ugly distortion on my copy.

If you do not have it yet, I'd say go for Mother Russia (Leo) first - if only for the duo with Vapirov.

[gnhrtg]

About the Leo sale - I just received the list too and I see that Simon Nabatov Quartet's Nature Morte is also covered; highly recommended.

[Д.Д.]

About the Leo sale - I just received the list too and I see that Simon Nabatov Quartet's Nature Morte is also covered; highly recommended.

←

Presense of Phil Minton keeps me a bit apprehensive about this one. How is his contribution on this disc?

[gnhrtg]

About the Leo sale - I just received the list too and I see that Simon Nabatov Quartet's Nature Morte is also covered; highly recommended.

←

Presense of Phil Minton keeps me a bit apprehensive about this one. How is his contribution on this disc?

←

I think I had mentioned in a previous plug for this disc that, yes, those averse to Minton might have problems at times. He's given a text, the poem, to sing/recite, which I think he does well. Then there are also bits where he joins the wet-kisses, and snaps'n'crackles of the instrument with his voice - these might bother you

I think. Let me say, however, that I'm no fan of Minton yet I find little to object to his contributions to this disc. Well, I don't know even then, i.e., Minton notwithstanding for some of you, this is a very good disc, Nabatov as composer really shines here (imho).

edit: The discs are here, by the way. I will try to give the Gies a spin this afternoon and chime in here with a one line observation

Edited August 23, 2005 by gnhrtg

[rostasi]

It has been sad days lately for new/experimental music.

First we have Koji Tano, then Bob Moog,

and now I notice thru Otomo's site that the great Luc Ferrari died yesterday.

The site is in Japanese, but the news is in English:

Otomo/Ferrari

[Guest Chaney]

Luc Ferrari Interview by Dan Warburton, July 22, 1998

[rostasi]

Luc

Ferrari

[7/4]

Luc

Ferrari

←

Wow.

[Guest]

Yeah,  I did. I have some duo with Kuryokhin, and it is unlistenable - two guys just fooling around with cheapo synthethisers and singing. Might have been fun for them, but of no artistic value.

Curious what you think of their other duos, like Jet Lag or Friends Afar - or Dear John Cage? To me, they're all going in one direction, namely mocking everything and fooling around with no respect to artistic values, the latest being the most perverse I understand it can easily be unlistenable indeed

THe other one I have is Humanplexity - and earlier work with Mengelberg and Bennink (once released on Leo, but hen deleted from the catalog) - some pretty wild reckless stuff, but quite badly recorded, and also the CD-R seem to be of bad quality - I have some ugly distortion on my copy.

David, do you know the story behind this particular release? It's in this interview (which is worth reading IMO). To put it short, Maslak remastered it from his only (and scratchy) LP copy, because Leo took all the tapes.

If you do not have it yet, I'd say go for Mother Russia (Leo) first - if only for the duo with Vapirov.

Interesting, haven't heard this one. On Hum Ha, I've been especially wondering about all these recent recordings with Toyozumi, a remarkable musician himself (and I think Maslak is a quite good sax player, judging from what little I've heard - mostly with Kuryokhin, live and on CDs)...

[Д.Д.]

Yeah,  I did. I have some duo with Kuryokhin, and it is unlistenable - two guys just fooling around with cheapo synthethisers and singing. Might have been fun for them, but of no artistic value.

Curious what you think of their other duos, like Jet Lag or Friends Afar - or Dear John Cage? To me, they're all going in one direction, namely mocking everything and fooling around with no respect to artistic values, the latest being the most perverse I understand it can easily be unlistenable indeed

Don't have those ones, and not that interested in investigating (at the moment).

THe other one I have is Humanplexity - and earlier work with Mengelberg and Bennink (once released on Leo, but hen deleted from the catalog) - some pretty wild reckless stuff, but quite badly recorded, and also the CD-R seem to be of bad quality - I have some ugly distortion on my copy.

David, do you know the story behind this particular release? It's in this interview (which is worth reading IMO). To put it short, Maslak remastered it from his only (and scratchy) LP copy, because Leo took all the tapes.

Never knew about this.

I can't understand it - the world of improivised music is already tough enough from the standpoint of financial reward - why create additional artificial problems on the top of it?

If you do not have it yet, I'd say go for Mother Russia (Leo) first - if only for the duo with Vapirov.

Interesting, haven't heard this one. On Hum Ha, I've been especially wondering about all these recent recordings with Toyozumi, a remarkable musician himself (and I think Maslak is a quite good sax player, judging from what little I've heard - mostly with Kuryokhin, live and on CDs)...

←

Don't know Toyozumi... Will check him out.

Maslak is definitely a very strong player.

[Guest]

I can't understand it - the world of improivised music is already tough enough from the standpoint of financial reward - why create additional artificial problems  on the top of it?

That's human nature, I guess... Like Maslak says in the aforementioned interview, " If people think that free jazz or jazz is any different they're crazy. <...> It is just the same as the pop world. It is just on a much smaller level."

Don't know Toyozumi... Will check him out.

Here is his homepage with his (very laconic) bio, and here you may find his discography. He's a great drummer, very dynamic and at the same time not noisy at all - even when he plays a barrage of sounds, he manages to keep high level of detail. Well worth checking out.

[Д.Д.]

I can't understand it - the world of improivised music is already tough enough from the standpoint of financial reward - why create additional artificial problems  on the top of it?

That's human nature, I guess... Like Maslak says in the aforementioned interview, " If people think that free jazz or jazz is any different they're crazy. <...> It is just the same as the pop world. It is just on a much smaller level."

Sasha, I wouldn't think so. Caretive music "business" is somewhat different if only because gaining money is not the main driving force behind it. People who go into creative music "business" as record label owners do not do it for the money (otherwise, they have to be really naive) - they do it because they have an urge of getting the music they are pasionate about out there to the public (however small it is) - just as musicians do not play creative music to make money (although some brave souls keep tryign to make a leaving like this) - they just have an (unexplicable) urge to play this music.

Let's say some creative music label owner invests all his money (this is normally how it happens) in releasing as much as possible non-commercial music --> he then screws up the musicians with payments --> he reinvests all the (little) money he gets this way into releasing more creative music --> he screws up more musicians --> etc. Unless this unscrupoluos record label owner stops this cycle one day, which is doubtful, this is not particualrly a money-making business model for him. Most likely quite the opposite, as the more he releases, the more "risky" (and money-losing) his releases are likely to become. So this is not the money that is in the root of the problems we occasionally see inthe creative music environment.

When money is not the main motivation, it shouold not be the main problem source - then, these have to be ego clashes, which is also something I cannot understand as the worldwide creative music community is so tiny it does not make any sense to fragment it artificially.

Conclusion? I guess it's all just human nature

[P.L.M]

LUC FERRARI was also the co-director (with GERARD PATRIS) of the best film ever made on CECIL TAYLOR: AMBITUS (CECIL TAYLOR A PARIS).

LUC FERRARI was doing also the interview and It didn't go between him and TAYLOR without moments of tension, mostly because FERRARI was making some provocation in the purpose to get TAYLOR out of his "shell".

I remember FERRARI asking CECIL TAYLOR why he didn't play "notes" and, from behind the piano and his dark spectacles, the pianist who was playing at the same time, answering: "You want note?" pointing his finger in the direction of ALAN SILVA, "He is going to play notes. Us, we will continued to play music".

Most of the shooting was done during a day of rehearsal.

The band was a quartet with LYON, SILVA and CYRILLE and the film catch them at the time of the concert they give in Paris in 1966 (who was also shot by the french television) and that you can find on STUDENT STUDIES (I think than STUDENT STUDIES was, on vinyle, THE GREAT CONCERT OF CECIL TAYLOR).

The picture (16 mm) and the sound is good.

Hope that film will find his way into DVD (if it's not already done).

Edited August 24, 2005 by P.L.M

[brownie]

P.L.M., as far as I remember, Luc Ferrari did not conduct the interview during the filming. This was done by Tahitian poet Sandy Bethune. Will check again later when I rewatch the show.

The show was shot in three days. I was on hand during the full filming. It was filmed in the 17th Century Hotel de Coulanges which was under renovation in 1966. The buiding (which is not a residential hotel but one of the most beautiful building of its time) is on the former Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, a famous square in the Marais district in the heart of Paris.

My wife and I walked near the Marais area last week and we went past the building. It has undergone some renovation since 1966 but is still being beautified. There is a plaque outside one of the huge windows indicating that the famous French woman of letters Marquise de Sevigne was born there. No mention of the Ferrati/CT show shooting...

[Guest]

Caretive music "business" is somewhat different if only because gaining money is not the main driving force behind it. <...> When money is not the main motivation, it shouold not be the main problem source - then, these have to be ego clashes, which is also something I cannot understand as the worldwide creative music community is so tiny it does not make any sense to fragment it artificially.

Well, not everybody is a Zen master

Anyway, I think there is an inherent contradiction in the role of a producer, because they have their own vision of what they want to put out, but at the same time they work with products of somebody else's creativity - and temptation to influence the result is probably strong enough...

Conclusion? I guess it's all just human nature

[king ubu]

P.L.M., as far as I remember, Luc Ferrari did not conduct the interview during the filming. This was done by Tahitian poet Sandy Bethune. Will check again later when I rewatch the show.

The show was shot in three days. I was on hand during the full filming. It was filmed in the 17th Century Hotel de Coulanges which was under renovation in 1966.  The buiding (which is not a residential hotel but one of the most beautiful building of its time) is on the former Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, a famous square in the Marais district in the heart of Paris.

My wife and I walked near the Marais area last week and we went past the building. It has undergone some renovation since 1966 but is still being beautified. There is a plaque outside one of the huge windows indicating that the famous French woman of letters Marquise de Sevigne was born there. No mention of the Ferrati/CT show shooting...

←

Thanks for sharing all of this! A beautiful building, indeed!

Some info on that lady: Marquise de Sévigné

I haven't checked out any Ferrari, which kept me from chiming in with the usual r.i.p. posts, but I've read about him here and there. Any recommendations?

[brownie]

Had a fresh look at Luc Ferrari's 'Les Grandes Repetitions' on Cecil Taylor. It was Sandy Bethune who did most of the interviews. Ferrari stayed out of that.

Bethune was a black Haitian intellectual and Cecil Taylor played one of his cat-and-mouse game with him. Bethune was pretty displeased about this. His name does not appear anywhere in the credits.

[Д.Д.]

allen/drake/jordan/parker/silva

the all-star game

mte-44

marshall allen alto saxophone

hamid drake drums

edward 'kidd' jordan tenor saxophone

william parker bass (right channel)

alan silva bass (left channel)

Nice, if not essentail disc. Jordan particuarly shines here - eloquant elaborate constructions, beautiful sound, great diversity. Less intense and aggressive here than elsewhere I've heard him - some bluesy and even lyrical moments creep in. Great master searching and "stretching" himself quite a bit here. Bravo.

Allen is less diverse, and mostly sticks to quite primitive but effective and powerful wails on alto (with really powerful sound!) - in good coordination with what Jordan is doing. Silva is doing some very interesting stuff on bass, playing with feedback and distrortion, doing some frenzied arco and a lot a lot a lot of other things - not too rhythm-focused, as rhythm duties are carried out by Parker.

Of Drake and Parker I will just say that there is nothing in their playing here that will change my opinion about the level of their creativity.

Overall, good fire-music type of free jazz, and Jordan's playing (probably the best I heard him on disc so far, and I've been a devoted fan already) is worth hearing it.

Edited August 24, 2005 by Д.Д.

[Д.Д.]

Interesting news from Eremite:

COMING ATTRACTIONS

a re-issue of Khan Jamal's DRUMDANCE TO THE MOTHERLAND

from left-field americana, waxpoetics #13, summer 2005 issue

"dogtown was an underground philadelphia jazz operation owned (in some part) by saxophonist byard lancaster. in addition to a few records under lancaster's name, the label issued this forgotten l/p by vibraphonist khan jamal... the first time i heard this, i thought i was listening to something relatively new, a record on siltbreeze or sound-at-one... there are four songs spread across two sides, & the a-side is a free-jazz powerblast that shares no aural companions in the u.s. at the time. even comparisons to dense japanese noisemakers like masayuki takayanagi or sabu toyozumi would be a little off the mark. on the other side of the record we are presented with the true sound of "cosmic jazz," an effects-laden, watercolor portrait of the heavens painted by heavy delayed drums & monnette sudler's sparkling freak guitar. ask somebody, "do you like jazz music?" & then drop the needle on this platter to watch their face contort into a rapidly changing palette of emotions. someone named mario falgna is credited with "sound effects" & you get the feeling that the "sound effects" might be of the green combustible sort. originally aired live on local philly jazz radio, apparently, the _drum dance to the motherland_ l/p is left to remain as a mobius strip of black energy, twisting & eternal in the face of "making a living" & "real expression." thirty-odd years down the road, the record is more relevant today than it has ever been, for the intensity & anger have faded & we are now left only with the intergalactic vapors of a cast of artists questing for the cosmos through music. if ever a record was ripe for reissue, khan jamal's invisible release on dogtown is the exact fruit everyone should be trying to harvest." --dante carfagna, waxpoetics.