A conclusione del periodo di programmazione presso il locale newyorchese The Stone, Bruce Lee Gallanter, uno dei curatori del cartellone nonché uno dei responsabili di Downtown Music Gallery, scrive oggi un appassionato resoconto degli eventi dello scorso dicembre, rimandando a una futura pubblicazione di estratti audio e video che - in deroga a una delle regole vigenti nel locale - si sono realizzati per documentare i concerti. Il testo di Gallanter si legge per intero in http://tinyurl.com/yy7ykm; questa è la sezione centrale, quella che riguarda gli interventi di Hugh Hopper, Tim Hodgkinson, Fred Frith e Chris Cutler:
[...] Beginning Thursday, December 14th, DMG's historic mini-prog / Canterbury / avant-rock fest started with a bang. Demanding music fans from around the world arrived for a long weekend of amazing sounds. Friends of ours from Ontario, Montreal, Russia, England, Scotland and all over the US, ordered advance tickets and proved that folks will travel far & wide to see & hear music that they feel is important not to miss. This night featured a trio called Bone who recorded one disc for Cuneiform a few years back, but have never played live until now. Bone is Hugh Hopper (various versions of Soft Machine, offshoots & Isotope) on electric bass, Nick Didkovsky (from Dr. Nerve & assorted improv projects) and John Roulat on drums. Just having my old friend Hugh Hopper show up here at DMG earlier in the week was one of the month's many highlights. Since this month's December Stone Fest was dedicated to Derek Bailey, Elton Dean & Pip Pyle, I had to invite Elton's old bandmate and friend, Hugh Hopper, one of the most distinguished electric bassists and composers of all. The trio was able to rehearse for a few days that week up in Connecticut where John lives. Thus making their set(s), one of the few nights with mostly written tunes. Bone was actually a bit louder than many of the other sets this month and truly kicked butt. Since the Bone CD was recorded through the mail, it was a much different thing to hear this trio play this material, as well as a few other songs done live and in your face. The CD will give you an idea, but it was more powerful and throttling live. The music is a healthy blend of prog/fusion/metal threads done tightly and intensely. Each player got to do a handful of superb solos and everyone I spoke with there was blown away by the experience. I recall an improv section in the second set, where Hugh really outdid himself and that inexplicable magic happened. A single CD version of Bone live would certainly be great choice.
Midway through our December marathon of gigs was Friday, December 15th. John Zorn's performance space, The Stone, has been open since April of 2005 and had never sold advance tickets for any show, just a first come, first served admission. We decided we HAD to take advance tickets for this weekend only since we anticipated the demand would be great and it certainly was as folks from all around the world flew in to be a part of this historic weekend; we allowed 50 of each audience of 80+ to reserve in advance.
Anyone who really knows me, knows that my favorite trilogy of bands of all time are/is the Mothers of Invention, Soft Machine and Henry Cow. Hence, putting together members of the Softs and Henry Cow for the first time was surely a dream come true, but I didn't really plan it very far in advance and the outcome was certainly unexpected. To say that the pressure having these gigs run smoothly was a bit much, would be putting it mildly. Thanks to our newsletter and the helpful journalists at Time Out, New York Magazine, the NY Times & All About Jazz, both sets on Friday and Saturday were completely sold out (about 100 folks apiece). When I addressed the crowd for the first set on Friday and introduced Fred Frith, Hugh Hopper and Chris Cutler, the applause and expectations were overwhelming. The set itself was more low-key than I would have imagined, yet there were many great sections. Remember that this trio had never played together and took their time to find some common ground. As I listen back to this set, I have begun to hear more underlying threads and ideas buried beneath the surface, connections and combinations of ideas that are not so obvious until one listens closer. What was truly amazing was the encore for this set, when it all came together and something special occurred. Since this was the only set when we had to turn away some 25+ people, we asked Fred & Chris to have Hugh again join them for the encore of the second set, which he did and again, it was quite magical.
The second set on Friday night was the mighty Fred Frith & Chris Cutler duo and this was an incredible set, the best one yet this month so far and the one that John Zorn is considering releasing as the next Stone benefit disc. Fred and Chris' musical relationship goes back to the early 70's when they formed Henry Cow with Tim Hodgkinson, Geoff Leigh and John Greaves. They also played together in The Art Bears and toured as a duo in the late seventies. They blew my mind at the Squat Theatre in 1979 and have released three superb duo discs since that time. The last time they played was in 1999, so this was indeed a special occasion. Right from the first note, we knew we were in store for something extraordinary and this set was it! Actually, it was only the beginning of what would three days of incredible improvisations. What I found most interesting is that both Fred and Chris have continued to evolve as gifted improvisers. Fred bag of tricks or devices has changed in recent years. He has found some other pedals to work with and loops or alters sounds in different ways. He also taps on some device that extracts snippets of sounds to pepper the proceedings. It takes Chris Cutler at least two hours to set up his table of electronics and percussion and it is quite a unique set-up. Chris decided to set-up across the room, so he could watch and communicate with Fred more easily. It was like a laboratory and it was endlessly fascinating to watch. I am glad that Robert O'Hare filmed all of these sets, since it will wonderful for other folks who weren't there to see how these mysterious sounds were created. Chris Cutler works more with selective atmospheric samples, electronics and loops than heavily rhythmic things at times. Chris was like a scientist at work, fiddling with quirky sounds and then manipulating them and looping certain segments, often with unexpected results.
Saturday, December 16th featured two trio sets by Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson & Chris Cutler, three former members of Henry Cow that haven't played together in nearly 30 years. All three are still old friends, but their careers have gone in different directions. Although I was quick to point out that this was never meant to be a Henry Cow reunion, just an improv situation with three old friends, rumors did persist. When Fred, Tim & Chris came upstairs and took their places for the first set, they were met with a standing ovation before they even played one note. Once again, the vibes in the packed room were rather daunting, but I knew that they need not worry. Fred began with a quick line, "There is a lot of talk about the reformation of Henry Cow and this ain't it. I do want to dedicate this performance to Lindsay Cooper." Tim, who used to play mostly alto sax, clarinet and organ in Henry Cow, now plays clarinets and laptop guitar with many little objects. Tim had some feedback problems before the set began, so we were both nervous about what would happen when the set actually got underway. I didn't notice the problem during the set. The trio took off from there and soared through one of the most intense hours of focused improvisations that I can recall. What amazed me was that although these three hadn't played together in a long time, it felt as is they picked up where they left off. I have recently been listening to the Henry Cow 'Concerts' reissue that has been remastered and sounds better than ever. The third & fourth sides of this album are mostly intense improv and you can hear the seeds of what we have here within those sides. What was great was actually watching how they did what they did. Often I had no clue how they came up with such sounds, even though I was watching closely, so the mystery continued. Each set that night evolved and worked in different ways, with each member altering the course, combining forces and changing the outcome along the way. The first set was extremely intense, with a section that reminded of me of This Heat, another great UK avant/rock band that were friends with Henry Cow. There were sections that did not sound improvised, since the focus and flow were so connected. I felt proud to have helped put this night together and tears streamed through parts of the set. There is way too much great music to describe here, so I will leave it to you to discover when our 4 CD box-set hopefully is released in the near future.
For the last night of this mini-fest (Sunday, 12/17/06), the program was supposed to be two duos with Tim Hodgkinson, one with Fred and one with Chris. The trio asked if I had any problem with them playing another night of trio sets, since they had so much fun for the past night and wanted to continue in that vein. I thought that was a great idea and that's what they did. One problem was that the night before, we had to break down all of the equipment, since there was a workshop there the next day during the afternoon. So on Sunday, Chris and I met at The Stone very early (4:30) so that Chris had enough time to set up again. This turned out to be a blessing since Chris used a smaller table and set up differently. Chris had asked me in advance if I could get him a tympani, so thanks to our friend, Kevin Norton, a tympani was delivered just in time for the set. Also, Tim, who had some feedback & problems with his lap-guitar, decided to set up in a different place. All of these changes worked out better so that the sets were more relaxed. With a few less folks in attendance, the trio was relieved and played even better in this environment. Again, both sets were superb, different and unfolded in ways that felt just right. We hope to release a DVD of one of these sets so you can see what actually went down. I got to have dinner later that night with Fred, Tim, Chris, Keith Macksoud & Dave Kerman (drum wiz & head of ReR US). This again was another highlight, just to talk and eat with some great old friends. [...]
Bruce Lee Gallanter, January 11 2007
http://tinyurl.com/yy7ykm
