Entries categorized as ‘jazz’
01 Self-System (5:20)
02 Trabla-Air (4:29)
03 Techouba (7:23)
04 Szerzeket – Allegro Vivo (6:00)
05 Szerzeket – Cadence (6:30)
06 Szerzeket – Largo and Presto (6:41)
Total time 36:30
Self released LP, France, 1988
Alain Bouhey: all saxophones
Yochk’o Seffer: piano, b-clarinet
Carol Lipkind: piano (#4+6)
Alain Bouhey is a pedagogist, author of several books on saxophone techniques. He was teacher in Senegal during the 1970s and is teaching saxophone in Rennes and Paris since the 1980s. This vinyl oddity is dedicated to Leopold Sédar Senghor, the poet and Senegal’s president from [1966 to 198?], himself a music lover and organizer of the 1st Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres (Black Arts Festival) in Dakar, 1966 (the LP from this festival is itself a strange thing). On ‘La Voie Scriptorale’, Alain Bouhey’s saxophone playing is highly enjoyable, without the shrieking sounds or violent demonstration from other free jazz horn blowers. Magma’s pianist Yochk’o Seffer shows muscular abilities in his keyboard ostinatos and arpegiatos, but he’s mixed a little behind Bouhey so that the music is allowed to breathe. The A side has 3 delightful duets with written sax parts and piano improvisation, except Techouba, a saxophone+bass clarinet duet. The B-side is a piano+saxophone sonata with Bartok and atonal reminiscences courtesy of Seffer himself, though it is probably partly improvised rather than written down. The LP comes with a 16-pp LP-sized booklet of writings and technical diagrams by Alain Bouhey – not included in the zip file.
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Categories: french · jazz
01 Wing And Fin (3:57)
02 Already Vermont (1:21)
03 Interskin (3:43)
04 I Remember What You Saw (3:17)
05 Yowella/Faded In Hand, Delivered In Practice (6:32)
06 Elewhale Rising (0:48)
07 Cooling Fingers (3:36)
08 Possible Beast/More Than Sleep (7:32)
09 Cane Cutters (6:50)
10 This Notice Or No Notice (4:48)
Total time 42:20
LP released on Corn Pride East Records, USA, 1981
Michael Lytle: clarinets, electronic, tape, voice
George Cartwright: saxophones, flutes, guitar & talking
David Moss: percussion
This is the first Meltable Snaps It LP, though it is sometimes ommitted from their discography. A handful of tracks from this LP were later added to the 2001 CD reissue of the 1986 Point Blank LP but the whole LP was never re-issued. Saxophonist George Cartwright moved to New York late 1979. Michael Lytle featured on the classic ‘Iowa Ear Music’ (1976) and Curlew’s first self-titled 1986 LP. The music is a kind of stochastic free-jazz based on a large array of exotic percussion instruments (including steel drums and Bertoia sound sculptures). The clarinets and flutes sound more ethnic than Downtown and a saxophone solo is not an option here.
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See David Moss’ 1st LP >
Categories: jazz
01 Compilation I – Part I (20:01)
02 Compilation I – Part II (20:54)
Martin Jones: trumpet, flugelhorn
Charles Wharf: sop. & tn saxophone
Shay McIntire: trombone
Ray Harborne: guitar
Andy Street: piano
Simon H Fell: oboe, keyboards, double bass, bass guitar
Tony Shepherd: drums
Neil Bates: drums
Peter Fairclough: drums, percussion
Total time 40:55
LP released on Bruce’s Fingers, ref BC01, Cambridge, UK, 1985
Simon H Fell’s 1st LP on his own newly launched Bruce’s Fingers label is titled ‘Compilation I’, possibly due to the fact that the album is a collection of shorter tracks/sessions culled together to form the 2 side-long epics. It seems the source material was recorded during regular jazz sessions and then re-constructed by Simon H Fell with the use of sampler (the cover says ‘computer’ as well). Silences have been inserted to form a suite of sorts, sometimes as long as 1 minute at the beginning of side B – a quite unusual feature in an otherwise regular post-bebop album. Discreet experiments in sound panning, speed change on one instrument and sampler interjections complete the special effects. Good session musicians add to the leader’s many original ideas. While he was certainly not the only jazz player to experiment with electronics at the time (think Alfred Harth & Heiner Goebbels, John Zorn, Richard Teitelbaum with Braxton…), Simon H Fell succeeds in building a coherent soundwork from various sessions and techniques.
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Categories: jazz
01 Matthew Shipp Spinal Syntax 1 & 2 (3:36)
02 Val Bertoia Sculptures of Sonambient Lock Grooves (1:35)
03 Loren MazzaCane Connors Blight (2:14)
04 Loren MazzaCane Connors Eviction (2:19)
05 Loren MazzaCane Connors Exile (1:23)
06 Val Bertoia Sculptures of Sonambient Lock Grooves (2:05)
Total time 13:00
7” single with Halana magazine issue 1, USA, 1995
Chris Rice launched issue #1 of his legendary magazine Halana in 1995 from Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia area on the East Coast, only 50kms from the Harry Bertoia studio in Bally, PA (pictured on front cover). It makes sense, then, he would devote the first companion disc to resonant metallic sounds from piano strings, guitar chords and sound sculptures, later moving on to include the sound works of Rafael Toral, David Tudor, Keiji Haino, Loren Chasse, etc, on future CDs. Matthew Shipp offers his angular, Cubist piano playing in what sounds like 12-tone improvisation. The 3 tracks by Loren Connors are build from bleak, repetitve electric guitar chords with long resonance from the reverb kit. Sounds remarkably similar to the Val Bertoia (son of Harry) sound sculptures used to create the locked grooves at the end of each side. These humble locked groove still conveys some of the rich resonances familiar from Harry Bertoia’s sound works.
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Categories: avant rock · jazz · sound sculpture
1. Gier I (02.15)
2. Peter Zweifel (02.38)
3. Lurch (03.23)
4. Toeni (01.30)
5. Moor (05.14)
6. Bonobo II (03.26)
7. Bonobo I (03.56)
8. Mariahilf (02.28)
9. Des Jägers Klage (02.49)
10. Nicht Sand, Sondern Popel Im Getriebe (01.27)
11. Gier II (07.52)
Total time
LP released on FMP 0280, Berlin, RDA, 1975
Recorded October 1975 in Berlin
German guitarist, instrument-builder and typographer born in 1949, Hans Reichel designs and builds his own guitars to allow unusual tunings and chords, like the double-neck electric guitar used on ‘Bonobo’ for instance, with its 2 necks pointing opposite (see pictures above). He’s also the inventor of the daxophone in 1986, a wooden instrument played with a bow. During the 1970s he appeared on 10 different LPs of the Berlin FMP label, half of which were solo guitar LPs. He lives in Wuppertal, the home town of several German free jazz musicians (Peter and Caspar Brotzmann, Peter Kowald). ‘Bonobo’ is a collection of solo guitar tracks similar to Fred Frith’s 1974 ‘Guitar Solos’ LP. Indeed, their respective styles have common points: quick arpeggios ; micro-tonality ; unusual chords ; an ability to create ghost-like effects without an effect pedal ; the extreme attention to sound itself. For Reichel, the guitar is a sound generator and the guitarist is tweaking the knobs of his instrument to raise unbelievable sounds. Each track on ‘Bonobo’ is focused on one chord and a few variations, generally played with the finger-picking technique. Sounds are sharp, dense with details, reverberation and bass, thanks to a specific pickup microphone setup acting like a magnifying glass on sounds. An exceptional LP.
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Discography:
1973 Wichlinghauser Blues LP, FMP 0150
1974 Old Tune/Heimkehr der Holzböcke LP, FMP S 5
1975 Bonobo LP, FMP 0280
Typefaces:
FF Dax
FF Dax Condensed
FF Dax Wide
FF Schmalhans
FF Sari
Categories: jazz
01 Inspiration (3:25)
02 Edwige (5:18)
03 Words For A Tunisian Song (9:51)
04 Woodlands (7:56)
05 Shades Of Mu (11:40)
Total time 38:00
LP released by Edici, France, 1973
Robert Wood: vibraphone
Gilbert Artman: drums
In 1971-72, English vibraphonist Robert Wood was a member of French band Lard Free, the band Gilbert Artman led before Urban Sax. Wood later asked Artman to play drums on his own second LP, ‘Sonanbular’, while Artman included vibraphone on the first Lard Free official LP (1973), as well as the Clear Light Symphony LP (1975) and Urban Sax. The ‘Sonanbular’ front cover (the industrial devices pictured above) was used for Dominique Grimaud’s epochial book on French 1970s avant-rock ‘Un Certain Rock Français’ volume 1 (1977). Half of the tracks on ‘Sonabular’ are vibes+drums duos where the drums are recorded from a distance, as if from next room (tr.# 1, 4 & 5). But their dialogue is perfectly matched as the drummer adjusts to the vibe player’s bravado. On #4 especially, Wood sounds like a Cecil Taylor on vibraphones. Other tracks, especially the longest ones, arise from mutli-tracked vibraphones (tr.# 3) allowing Wood to build nuanced soundscapes from mostly soft, tiny sounds from 3 different instruments. His techniques includes stereo panning, perspective soundboard mixing and extended vibraphone technique. Woods is not afraid of ugly sounds, sometimes hitting the wooden frame or creating nasty metallic sounds with his mallets. In trying to extend the vibraphone sonic possibilities he sometimes favors the non-resonant sounds of the instrument. Unlike any other vibes player I’ve heard, Wood’s vibraphone playing is unique and owes nothing to Lionel Hampton or the Modern Jazz Quartet.
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Robert Wood discography
1972 Tarot LP , Edici ED 6.102
1973 Sonabular LP, Edici ED 6.103
1976 Vibrarock LP, Polydor 2393 137
1977 Tombiac Vibe LP, Polydor 2393 150
Categories: jazz
- Pleine Lune Pour Le Criquet Somnambule (18:40)
- Petit solo introduisant
- Le Gros Tuyau
- Le Loup-Garou En Pantoufle Cloutée
- Cerisiers Roses Et Pommiers Blancs
- Tenderly
- Il Est L’heure Pour La Virgule Terrorisée
- La Danse Des Fèves
- Le Saxophone Rouge-Gorge (5:17)
- La Pêche Aux Souvenirs Interdits (6:49)
- Java En L’Isle
- Migration (13:31)
- Quand Les Fourmis Auront Le Temps
- Galoubet Blues
- Mamadou Au Mali
- Mistinguette
Total time: 44:30
Recorded 1977. LP released on Hat Hut Records, 1978
A gifted guitar player from the south of France, Raymond Boni (b1947; pictured left) melts gypsy music, free jazz and european improvisation influences in his unique guitar playing. During the seventies, he had duos with french percussionist Bertrand Gauthier (1969), guitarist Gérard Marais (1973) or saxophonist Claude Bernard (1976). He joined Joe McPhee in 1978, recording landmark albums like the monumental ‘Topology’ double-LP on Hat Hut in 1981 (including Tamia and Pierre Favre as well) and touring worldwide. In the 1980s, he teamed with some of french Nato label’s musicians (Tony Coe, Joëlle Léandre, Annick Nozati, Toshinori Kondo, Jac Berrocal, Terry Day and Max Eastley). On 1978 ‘Pot-Pourri’, all tracks except #2 are electric guitar+alto sax duets, though Bernard also uses garden hose and hosepipe to dazzling effects, producing unexpected, arresting low rumbles or high pitched whistle sounds at various moments. Boni’s guitar playing is laid back with the occasional lashes. Good quality amplifier with nice echo pedal effect gives warmth and depth to his sound and makes his parts a joy to listen to. Their improvisations generaly avoid rhythm and melody and their playing is focusing on tones and timbre, intertwining unusual chords and notes. Tr. #2 ‘Le Saxophone Rouge-Gorge’ (in english: The Robin Saxophone – what a lovely title) is a Claude Bernard solo live recording, also with pleasing echo effect. My favorite shall be the last track, ‘Migration’. It starts with whistling sounds by Bernard to which Boni sublty adds discreet guitar notes slowly building up. Bernard then switch to saxophone while the guitar gets more and more rhythmic and powerful. For the rest of the track they unleash their noisiest improvisation of the album. When Boni’s guitar gets noisy it sounds like a mix of Derek Bailey and Keiji Haino, which is just the perfect balance to me. On a side note, it seems a pity this LP was included in the Nurse With Wound list, since this is definitely not music for kraut rock freaks or drug addicts, but rather a beguiling jazz classic. I understand record collectors tend to hinder CD reissues for the sake of their LP collection’s market value, but in this case this was a shame, for this is such a fantastic album. Élégance française, you know.
Selected discography:
- 1971 Raymond Boni ‘L’oiseau, L’arbre, Le Béton’, Futura Records, 1971
- 1976 w/ Gérard Siracusa+André Jaume ‘Nommo, Dans Le Caprice Amer Des Sables’, Palm Records
- 1976 w/ Opération Rhino ‘Fête De Politique Hebdo Lyon 76′, Expression Spontanée records
- 1978 w/ Claude Bernard ‘Pot-Pourri Pour Parce Que’, Hat Hut records
- 1979 w/ Gérard Marais ‘Concert au Totem’, Marge Records
- 1981 w/ Joe McPhee Po Music ‘Topology’, Hat Hut records
- 1983 Raymond Boni ‘L’Homme Etoile’, Hat Hut records
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Categories: french · jazz
Lol Coxhill:
01 The Vacant Pool (0:59)
02 Echoes Of Falmer (1:07)
03 The Odd Fellows Ball (6:56)
04 B Movie Prelude (6:00)
Eyeless In Gaza:
05 Silver (3:06)
06 For Edward (5:02)
07 Rosary (2:26)
08 Crêpe Paper Heart (2:42)
09 Before December (2:20)
Total time 30:30
Cassette+magazine released by Tago Mago, 1982
Great tape once again from Pascal Bussy’s Tago Mago imprint. This one pairs british Lol Coxhill with Eyeless In Gaza (the duo of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker). The former (b.1932) contributes a series of lively & ethereal soprano saxophone solos which he dubbed ‘Home Produce’. Two of the tracks (eg. #2&4) are duets with himself using multi-tracking recording technique, sounding rather playful and personal (I’m sometimes reminded Anthony Braxton’s ‘New York Fall 1974′ LP). The opener is a solo recorded inside an empty swimming pool benefiting from the reverberant acoustics. The Eyeless In Gaza tracks are in the vein of their just then released ‘Pale Hands I Loved So Well’ album from 1982, that is soundscapes and improvisations for piano, organ, barrel drums, vibraphone and hushed vocals. Very interesting use of musique concrète recordings and what sounds like bowed guitar, with some passages surprisingly sounding like an AMM live session. Wonderful feeling of total abandon throughout.
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Categories: avant rock · jazz
