Tre dei più riusciti concerti del festival Les Tritonales sono raccontati da Tom Landon in What's Rattlin':
We were lucky this year to be able to see Colorphone, Brainville 3 and then the FIRST EVER public performance of Kew-Rhone with John Greaves and Peter Blegvad - on consecutive nights!
So who are Colorphone, you ask. The answer is a new band with Hugh Hopper on bass (as one would expect), Denis Colin on bass clarinet, François Verly on drums/tabla, as is often the case for Hugh's French excursions, and Régis Huby on 'violin, viola and effects'.
The concert was a particularly satisfying event for me personally, as I first met Denis Colin playing in a bar in the Rue de Belleville in Paris in about 1984 (a very Hopperian date, as Aymeric pointed out) and immediately thought "this guy likes Soft Machine", a fact later confirmed when I asked him about it. Later, in 2000 or thereabouts, my daughter sang in the chorus for some of his works played at the Conservatoire de Montreuil (where he was for some time guest in residence and may still teach jazz...). There again, the link to Soft Machine was delightfully clear, so I was very interested when I heard that he was preparing something with HH.
The result was excellent - mostly in the usual vein of HH's current performances, with slightly-written structures giving a lot of room for jazzy improvising , but this time with a couple of new twists: first of all the fine bass clarinet of Denis Colin, which provided a range of unusual textures which were significantly different and more varied than the ubiquitous saxophones, while also having enough balls to become part of the rhythm section and occupy the lower frequencies if necessary, notably when Hugh was soloing. Coilin too is a fine soloist capable of whipping up quite a storm. The other new twist was the presence of Régis Huby, whether laying down loops and chords or manipulating his initial sounds until they bore no resemblance to the original but created some fascinating atmospheres, as well as occasional solos.
Another aspect of the concert which pleased me was the presence of several compositions by Denis Colin - more written and focused than HH's, but clearly part of the same idiom and superbly led by the bass clarinettist. A band really worth seeing if you can.
The following day we were graced with the extravagant presence of Daevid Allen, Hugh Hopper (again) and Chris Cutler (or Chris Cutlery as Allen called him) under the name of Brainville 3. They played a mix of old Soft Machine songs, early Gong (Camembert Electrique era), HH stuff and improvisations with glissando guitar and Daevid's effects, as well as featuring some great bass loops from HH created before our very eyes.
And a great time was had by one and all! Despite occasional inaccuracies, the three put in a performance of exceptional charm, wit and energy. A special mention for Chris Cutler who is always a joy to watch - it's like ballet - and who was on particularly good form, although playing in socks, having taken off his shoes (so did Daevid). I also enjoyed the ever-impish personality of Daevid Allen, including proclaiming in the rather chaotic encore jam:
"Oompah oompah, stick it up your jumper,Oompah oompah, stick it up your bottomAnd become a fart..."
And on the Saturday night, we saw the first public performance of Kew.Rhône with John Greaves (piano/bass, sometimes at the same time), Peter Blegvad (voice, occasional guitar, maracas and slide show), Jef Morin on guitar (from JG's Roxongs group), the tiny but perfectly-formed Jeanne Added on cello and delightful voice, and David Lewis on trumpet and similar brass instruments.
After a first half of songs by Greaves and then by Blegvad, nearly all of Kew-Rhone was played with gusto and evident pleasure, surprisingly considering its extreme complexity and, frequently, high speed. Jeanne Added was more than up to the task of the voice parts, often backed by Blegvad, who also projected a set of particularly surreal slides to illustrate various key moments during the piece, most if not all from the record cover and insert. I can't say that these helped to come any closer to an 'understanding' of what the whole thing is about, but the images were often very funny and helped to maintain a jokey atmosphere in the midst of this very demanding, furious piece.
After the gig, everyone seemed particularly happy, not least the band who had been unsure if they could carry it off. They are now hoping to play it a few more times, hopefully at festivals, so perhaps next year?
Tom Landon
