Ganelin Trio

[Steve Reynolds]

A favorite of mine over a decade ago. I just reaquired Con Affetto and listened to the 57 minute piece today and the encores starting with a stunning Mack the Knife.

For those who don't know the trio are multi-instrumentalists with The primaries being piano, alto sax and drums, but there has never been a trio anything like them before or since. Most everything they recorded was smuggled out from behind the iron curtain and it was really the reason for being of Leo records as many know. Their peak was mid to late 70's through the early to mid 80's.

Comments, likes, dislikes?!?!?

[JSngry]

Very much liked them back in the day. Sorta went off my radar post-Iron Curtain, perhaps the/an ironic cruelty of freedom and/or the built-in "Western" fetishization of "victimhood", but now that you bring them up, I should probably revisit. There's something about the core attitude of basic defiance through superficial acceptance that still appeals to my gut, like, ok, life has given us lemons, we'll just make key lime pie out of them, deal with that.

[B. Clugston]

I'm a huge fan. Catalogue is my favourite followed by ...Old Bottles, which features a really interesting take on "Too Close For Comfort." I saw Ganelin in concert with his more recent trio a few years back and they were stunning. I quite enjoy some of Chekasin's solo work, particularly the big band New Vitality.

[colinmce]

I haven't gotten around to them so much; I just have Strictly For Our Friends, which I like a lot. I need to pick up some others soon.

The story of that disc alone is pretty wild.

[Steve Reynolds]

Nice to hear some comments....

So I get back in the car after work yesterday and I'm almost halfway through the 57 minute Vyacheslav Ganelin penned piece named "Semplice" and having heard the "build-up" to the more compositionally orientated last half, I was ready to hear the wonder. As I mentioned in the listening thread, I had not heard this recording in over ten years and my recollection was of something pretty special to be happening over the full 57 minutes.

I referred it to as waiting for the "anti-groove" but my memory had failed me.

When the keyboards (or whatever the hell that sound is/was!!), and those bass pedals (as above?!?!), the trio swings, grooves and cries mercy.

Then Mack the Knife as a first encore, then two more. Lordy Lordy

I cried as well. Been a long long time since I was moved like this by a recording.

And then this AM, I listened to the first movement from the first disc of Blue Notes for Mongezi Feza and it was more of the same - but very different, of course.

More on that later on another thread.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Steve Reynolds

[xybert]

I've never heard them but it has long been on my to do list based on the write up in the Penguin Guide. Will check them out at some stage.

[Leeway]

I gave Strictly for out Friends another listen. I hope there is some room for a mild dissent. I like them well enough, but I don't have the same kind of strong reaction that others have for them. I think Tarasov on drums is exciting, and Chekasin on reeds has his moments. Ganelin on piano does nothing much for me.

In their more avant mode, they can be really interesting, but they often revert to straight-ahead, or even Russian pop stylings, which for me is not interesting. I think the fact that they did not have easy (or any) access to jazz/avant players much of the time contributes to their strengths and weaknesses, that is, a chance to make their own identity, OTOH, the unavailability of leading edge performances that could have given them more to work with.

[Steve Reynolds]

Listen to Con Afetto, leeway!!

[Steve Reynolds]

Or at least Ancora Da Capo

Much better than the nice but not exceptional Strictly for our Friends

[B. Clugston]

I gave Strictly for out Friends another listen. I hope there is some room for a mild dissent. I like them well enough, but I don't have the same kind of strong reaction that others have for them. I think Tarasov on drums is exciting, and Chekasin on reeds has his moments. Ganelin on piano does nothing much for me.

Strictly for Our Friends is a very atypical performance if I remember it correctly. It's a lot mellower and more pared down (no basset plus Chekasin has a reduced arsenal) than their other recordings.

Listen to Con Afetto, leeway!!

I remember previewing to "Semplice" in a record store trying to decide whether to buy it or not. After 15 minutes of what sounded like one of Tarasov's solo pieces, followed by solo bits from the others, I didn't have much hope, but once the "bass" line kicks in at the half-hour mark, it's a truly remarkable performance.

[Leeway]

Listen to Con Afetto, leeway!!

Or at least Ancora Da Capo

Much better than the nice but not exceptional Strictly for our Friends

I have "Poco-A-Poco" sitting about here, will give it a spin tomorrow. No "Con Affetto" I'm afraid.

[Steve Reynolds]

Listen to Con Afetto, leeway!!

Or at least Ancora Da Capo

Much better than the nice but not exceptional Strictly for our Friends

I have "Poco-A-Poco" sitting about here, will give it a spin tomorrow. No "Con Affetto" I'm afraid.

I like Poco-A-Poco

Con Affetto was a cheap buy!!!

[JSngry]

In their more avant mode, they can be really interesting, but they often revert to straight-ahead, or even Russian pop stylings, which for me is not interesting. I think the fact that they did not have easy (or any) access to jazz/avant players much of the time contributes to their strengths and weaknesses, that is, a chance to make their own identity, OTOH, the unavailability of leading edge performances that could have given them more to work with.

Maybe I was projecting, but those "reversions" were what interested me most about them...it seemed very...fuquitous to me, that whole "dissent through submission" thing I mentioned earlier, like, this is what we have to work with, pretty much all we have to work with as far as "authentic source material", so this is what we will do with it.

Again, this is just me, but I tend to appreciate the "how" of things getting done at least as much, sometimes more, than the actual thing that is getting done. Past the "how" lies the "why" and that...that's where things can get...involved.

Certainly possible, almost certain actually, that this leads to a lot of projecting/whatever, but the decision to embrace/not embrace any music is anything but objective.

Anyway...I should revisit this band. Apparently I've cleared my collection of their output, but for sure, I remember the version of "Mack The Knife" that Steve references...strong stuff. So...rebuying some things. Again.

Never again will I purge. It's cheaper to keep her, so to speak.

[Leeway]

I gave "Poco-A-Poco" a listen today. Found it better than "Strictly for..." Nevertheless, I find it cut from the same mold: a little avant, a little straight-ahead, a little razzle-dazzle something or other. Not saying this won't work for a lot of people. I like some of it, just not that moved by the group's work overall.

I think the music is not aging well. There is an aura of nostalgia about it. The back story of the group occasionally threatens to take over from the music. Steve Kulak's hyperbolic liner notes, in my view, get it backwards. He posits that if "three white guys" in New York came up with Ganelin music, it would have changed the world. I don't think so. It was the fact of the Iron Curtain that gave the music its importance. Kulak says, "The music of the Trio is not a political statement." Again, to me that is bass-ackwards. If it is not a political statement, it is nothing. Its energy is derived from the suppression of social and political life, of waiting on line once too often and long, of squeezing into a small state-owned apartment, of the constant threat of censorship. Not a coincidence that when the Wall came down, so did the Ganelin Trio. I celebrate the music as a political event. The avant element was an act of political opposition; no wonder everyone was nervous about that. As a result, it seems like much of these concerts are given over to tub-thumping music and circus antics. Russian wedding music I call it, having been to some of those,

I feel Chekasin's reeds and winds are saying something. A musical samizdat. Tarasov's drum/percussion energies generate intense excitement. I still find Ganelin on piano too prone to musical cliche and sentiment. When all the currents flow together, when the art is advanced, good things happen.