29 maggio 2008


La serata centrale del prossimo Jazzfestival Frankfurt (30 ottobre-1 novembre 2008) sarà curata da Robert Wyatt e interamente dedicata alle sue musiche, con i concerti del trio di Max Nagl "Market Rasen", "Dondestan! – The Wyatt Project" (con ospite Michael Mantler) e Annie Whitehead's "Soupsongs" (con ospite Gilad Atzmon) allineati sotto il titolo The Wyatt Variations. Anticipazioni in http://tinyurl.com/4u56nx

Robert Wyatt, founding member and ex-drummer of the band Soft Machine, has emerged as an iconic figure of the contemporary music scene since he released his first solo-album Rock Bottom in 1974. As a singer and songwriter he consistently guested with various acts, including favourite Rock- and Jazz-Musicians like Carla Bley, Michael Mantler, Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Sting, Björk and David Gilmour. Last year his fifteenth solo-album Comicopera proved once again that nobody can elude the magic of Robert Wyatt’s sound-imaginations . As the wheelchair-bound musician has not been on stage for years, the 39th German Jazzfestival Frankfurt will be one of the really rare chances to experience Robert Wyatt’s music live on stage.

Robert Wyatt will curate a whole evening entitled "The Wyatt Variations" when three different bands reinvent his oeuvre. Annie Whitehead and her band "Soupsongs" will present a congenial interpretation of Wyatt’s songbook, whereas the trio "Market Rasen" with the Austrian saxophonist Max Nagl prefers a gruffer approach, the French/British/American band "Dondestan!" with Karen Mantler featuring her father Michael Mantler as special guest might emphasize the aspects of chamber music. The Israelian author and saxophonist Gilad Atzmon is one of the extraordinary voices of the actual scene. As a close friend of Wyatt, Atzmon will perform not only with his highly esteemed "Orient House Ensemble", but also as a special guest in Annie Whitehead’s band.

28 maggio 2008


In What's Rattlin'? Phil Howitt recensisce il concerto di pochi giorni fa di Daevid Allen con University of Errors al Knockengorroch Festival in Scozia. Aymeric Leroy riferisce invece del weekend canterburyano appena tenutosi in Francia, a Bourgoin-Jallieu. Lo racconta anche Alessandro Achilli stasera in Battiti (Rai Radio3, dalle ore 0.10 in poi).

27 maggio 2008


Dal 2 al 6 giugno prossimi Fabrizio Gilardino conduce la trasmissione Fuochi, in onda tutte le sere — dal lunedì al venerdì, dalle 23:30 a mezzanotte — su Rai Radio 3. Il ciclo di trasmissioni si intitola "Dopo il punk. Umori e tensioni nell'Inghilterra degli anni '80".
Scrive Gilardino: "Nel menu, solo bevande dai sapori forti, da Gang of Four e Public Image Limited, a This Heat e Rip Rig and Panic. Il digestivo ideale, per chi, come tutti voi, ama terminare la serata di fronte al caminetto o comodamente sdraiato sulla chaise longue in veranda (dipende un po' dalla stagione), e lasciarsi trasportare dal fido transistor verso lidi più o meno (s)conosciuti..."

http://www.radio.rai.it/radio3/terzo_anello/fuochi/index.cfm

26 maggio 2008


Prende il via il 29 maggio la sesta edizione del festival Les Tritonales promossa dal club Le Triton a Les Lilas, nei pressi di Parigi: eccellente come al solito il programma, che quest'anno accoglie tra gli altri i concerti di Mats/Morgan, In Cahoots, il trio di Patrice Meyer con ospite John Etheridge, The Wrong Object, e sul fronte (quasi)magmiano One Shot, Erik Baron con D-Zakord e due distinti progetti con protagonista Jannick Top.
Dettagli, schede informative, foto e ascolti in http://tinyurl.com/6oqjru

LE TRITON
11 bis, rue du Coq Français
93260 Les Lilas
Tel : 01 49 72 83 13
Fax : 01 49 72 83 11
email : contact@letriton.com

25 maggio 2008


A chiudere la rassegna milanese Suoni & Visioni di quest'anno è venerdì 30 maggio il concerto "Quarant'anni dopo - Rievocazione in musica di un anno formidabile", con Stormy Six (Umberto Fiori, Giorgio Casani, voce, chitarra acustica; Tommaso Leddi violino, balalajka, mandolino, chitarra; Carlo De Martini violino; Franco Fabbri chitarra acustica ed elettrica, buzuki, voce; Pino Martini, Massimo Villa, basso elettrico, voce; Salvatore Garau, Antonio Zanuso, batteria; Giorgio Albani, regia del suono; a loro si uniscono, in una seconda parte, Eugenio Finardi voce, pianoforte; Claudio Rocchi e Ricky Belloni chitarre, voce); Donovan (Donovan, voce e chitarre; Danny Thompson, contrabbasso; Stewart Lawrence, percussioni); Eric Andersen (voce, chitarre, pianoforte); Della Mea - Marini - Ciarchi - Cormio. Il programma completo e l'ordine di apparizione sul palco si legge in http://tinyurl.com/4l2mjk

Quarant'anni dopo
venerdì 30 maggio 2008
Carroponte c/o Spazio MIL
Via Granelli
Sesto San Giovanni, MI
ingresso libero

24 maggio 2008


Un'interessante intervista ad Alexander von Schlippenbach, che ha da poco compiuto settant'anni, si legge in All About Jazz in http://tinyurl.com/6ggpdc


22 maggio 2008


John Kelman recensisce su All About Jazz i concerti più importanti della venticinquesima edizione del festival Fimav di Victoriaville (Canada), conclusasi lunedì scorso con la trionfale prémiere di Art Bears Songbook.


20 maggio 2008


Si è ulteriormente definito il programma dei tre giorni 'canterburyani' L'ecole de Canterbury aux Abattoirs in calendario a Bourgoin-Jallieu (Francia) questo fine settimana:

L'ecole de Canterbury aux Abattoirs
22-24 maggio 2008
Smac Les Abattoirs (18 route de l'Isle-d'Abeau)

gio 22, h 20:30: Kafka + Diatriba

ven 23, h 20:30: omaggio a Robert Wyatt con The Lodge (John Greaves, Peter Blegvad, Lisa Herman & Jef Morin + BroadWay collective), Jean-Philippe Ramos, proiezione del documentario di Mark Kidel "Free Will & Testament" (Bbc 2003), dibattito con i musicisti.

sab 24, h 15:00-19:00: conferenza, ascolti guidati e aperitivo in compagnia di Aymeric Leroy, Mike King e i musicisti di Canterbury Legends e Kew.Rhône

sab 24, h 20:30: Canterbury Legends (Didier Malherbe, sax; Phil Miller, Patrice Meyer, chitarre elettriche; Alex Maguire, tastiere; Hugh Hopper, basso elettrico; Manu Denizet, batteria); Kew.Rhône (John Greaves, voce & pianoforte; Peter Blegvad, voce, chitarra & computer; Lisa Herman, voce; e con: Jef Morin, chitarra elettrica; Daniel Yvinec, bassi; Simon Goubert, batteria).


Biglietti (ven 10 euro, sab 18/15 euro):
http://www.ticketnet.fr/

19 maggio 2008


Nuovo album per Albert Marcoeur, Travaux pratiques, scritto e realizzato nel corso del 2007 e ora pubblicato su Label Frères. Il cd è disponibile solo attraverso il sito http://www.marcoeur.com, dove tra varie informazioni, galleria fotografica e ascolti in anteprima si trova un buffo aneddoto relativo agli accidentati esordi ufficiali del Marcoeur autore.

18 maggio 2008


Tre splendidi documenti inediti del passato trovano oggi diffusione ufficiale per merito di Reel Recordings: Force of Nature (da un concerto dei primi anni ottanta del quartetto di Mike Osborne, con Dave Holdsworth, Marcio Mattos e Brian Abrahams), Al Dente (Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Alan Gowen e Pip Pyle in azione a Londra nel novembre 1978 con sigla Soft Heap) e Steve Miller Trio Meets Elton Dean (Steve Miller con Tony Moore e Eddie Prévost in concerto con ospite Elton Dean a metà anni ottanta e ancora Miller con Dean e Pip Pyle in una registrazione privata di circa dieci anni prima). Dettagli e anteprime sono in http://reelrecordings.org/, ma in questi casi si può ben procedere all'acquisto anche ad occhi chiusi... Grazie Michael & Miki!

MIKE OSBORNE "FORCE OF NATURE"
An alto saxophone giant without peer, whose legacy is at last being celebrated. Mike was a master, and his 'flame-throwing' sound can be heard to full effect on recent archival releases of Brotherhood of Breath, Harry Miller's Isipingo, and Ogun's reissue of Mike's "All Night Long" & SOS titles. While not associated with Canterbury Scene in capacity, we feel that this extraordinary music will touch those with a heart that beats Jazz - of the heart-stopping kind!

STEVE MILLER TRIO "MEETS ELTON DEAN"
The delicate and poignant piano playing that defines the great mid-seventies Miller/Coxhill records is transformed in its scope and power in this extraordinary improvised concert session. Meeting with Elton Dean is the icing on the cake! Quick-witted responsiveness in the language of jazz communicates directly. Nice ambient recording allows the listener to turn up the volume for a life-like experience. For fans and the interested this is not to be missed!

SOFT HEAP "AL DENTE"
This is special for reasons that are self evident. As Hugh said "wish they were here to hear this". A real romp through all that made this combo unique in the dubious genre known as 'jazz-rock fusion', with everyone on top of their game. Includes a previously unpublished composition by Alan Gowen entitled "Sleeping House". This audience recording puts you back in the audience at London's Phoenix Club. An historical treasure for fans to discover!


16 maggio 2008


Si tiene alla fine del mese a Londra, dal 28 al 30 maggio, la rassegna First Last LMC Festival, che già dal titolo minaccia di essere - ahimé - una delle ultime iniziative direttamente promosse dal glorioso London Musicians' Collective, dopo la sua recente e controversa esclusione dagli aiuti economici dell'Arts Council of England. Dettagli e programma dei tre giorni di concerti e performance di arte varia si leggono in http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/LMC1.shtm.

London Musicians' Collective presents the First Last LMC Festival
Cafe Oto, 18-22 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL
28th, 29th & 30th May 2008
Times : 7pm
Tickets : £10 / £5 (Tickets on the door no advance sales)

Wednesday 28th May:
Evan Parker
Farmer, Lash & French
Chant/ Davies/ Edwards/ Drew
Paul Abbot & Mark Fletcher
+ special guests

Thursday 29th May:
Chris Cutler
Jem Finer
John Wall
Oscillatorial Binnage
+ special guests

Friday 30th May:
John Butcher + Toshimaru Nakamura
Louisa Martin
Furt
John Lely
+ special guest Christian Marclay: new video work

15 maggio 2008


Nuovo concerto a Parigi il prossimo 27 maggio di John Greaves per presentare il programma del suo ultimo album, Greaves Verlaine. Dopo il debutto un paio di mesi fa presso il club New Morning, il concerto stavolta si terrà presso più noto Divan du Monde. Dettagli in http://www.divandumonde.com

14 maggio 2008


Si chiama Humi il connubio artistico nato qualche mese fa tra Hugh Hopper e Yumi Hara Cawkwell (pianista e cantante, una delle scatenate Frank Chickens) e già sperimentato in concerto. Il loro primo album, Dune, uscirà a luglio ma si può richiedere già ora presso http://www.moonjune.com/MJR019.htm, dove sono disponibili in anteprima alcuni estratti audio. Il duo sta per compiere una nuova serie di concerti, stavolta in Giappone, dove in qualche occasione daranno loro man forte Dave Sinclair, Morgan Fisher, Hoppy Kamiyama e Tatsuya Yoshida.
Una recente intervista a Hugh Hopper si legge in http://tinyurl.com/4vv4mc

Hugh Hopper and Yumi Hara Cawkwell met in August 2007, and they decided to start a new project immediately. Hopper's complex, multi-layered bass sound with various effects and loops, together with Cawkwell's delicate, but at times violent and explosive keyboard playing and her vocalise stemming from Japanese folk singing create a highly cerebral, yet extremely sensual sound world which breaks the boundaries between psychedelic, progressive rock, free jazz, contemporary classical and world music: in other words, it is 21st century international Canterbury music. Their distinctive stage presence, concentration and communication during the performance have to be witnessed live.

11 maggio 2008


Grave lutto per il free jazz italiano per la scomparsa di uno dei suoi 'padri' e interpreti più tenaci e anticonformisti, Mario Schiano. Profilo e discografia si consultano in breve in http://www.ijm.it/schiano.html, mentre val la pena rileggere quel che di lui hanno scritto per esteso Francesco Martinelli, Pierpaolo Faggiano e Giampiero Cane tra gli altri.
Battiti, trasmissione di Rai Radio3, dedicherà a Schiano due puntate il 21 e 22 maggio, presentando materiale d’archivio, ascolti discografici e contributi di musicisti, critici, amici che l’hanno conosciuto e stimato.

Saxophonist Mario Schiano, one of the fathers and initiators of the Italian free-jazz scene and one of the most influential figures in European improvised music, passed away after a long illness yesterday, May 10th, 2008. Born in 1933 in Naples, he moved to Rome at the dawn of the 60s where he started organizing jazz groups and concerts; his Gruppo Romano Free Jazz recorded the ‘manifesto’ of Italian free-jazz in 1970, the memorable "If Not Ecstatic We Refund", but Schiano also worked with luminaries of radical improv and classic contemporary music like Musica Elettronica Viva and Nuova Consonanza. His own groups ranged from duos and trios to the big band, and in recent years he was an essential voice within the Italian Instabile Orchestra. His brainchild "Controindicazioni" festival – at its XXI edition this year – has been the only regular forum for free improvisation in Rome for years, regarded as one of the most adventurous music events in Europe with Berlin’s Total Music Meeting and Nickelsdorf’s Konfrontationen.
Services will be held in Piazza del Popolo, Rome, Monday at 10 am.

09 maggio 2008


ReR Usa annuncia l'uscita di due cd per Fred Frith, uno è la ristampa di Technology of Tears - in origine un doppio vinile, nel 1988, su RecRec Music e SST - e l'altro è un inedito dal vivo in duo con John Zorn intitolato The Art Of Memory II (a far idealmente da seguito all'album su Incus, nel 1993). Altro album in uscita in questi giorni con Frith tra i protagonisti è Drift, con Dirk Raulf e Frank Schulte su etichetta Poise, da un concerto del trio lo scorso dicembre.



05 maggio 2008


Una versione abbastanza riuscita di Share It, classico brano di Hatfield and the North, si trova su YouTube, per opera di Disposable Man.

03 maggio 2008


Cinque nuove pubblicazioni sono in uscita questo mese per l'etichetta Cuneiform, tutte di grande interesse. Dettagli in http://www.cuneiformrecords.com

Cosmologic-Eyes in the Back of My Head
Consisting of Jason Robinson-tenor saxophone, Michael Dessen-trombone, Scott Walton-bass and Nathan Hubbard-drums, Cosmologic performs creative, modern jazz that enlists finely tuned compositions and free improvisation. Founded in 1999 and still consisting of the original four musicians, the band have an intuitive sense of each other and their music as a whole, honed after nearly a decade of working together. The result is a band that pushes the envelope while remaining accessible.This is the fourth album - but the first with wide distribution - by this amazingly assured and swinging ‘free-bop’ quartet, who have been developing their unique take on modern jazz for many years and will strongly appeal to fans of: Anthony Braxton’s ‘70s/’80s quartets, John Carter-Bobby Bradford, Ornette Coleman, Steve Lacy-Roswell Rudd Quartet, Dave Rempis & Triage and the Vandermark 5

Lars Hollmer-Viandra
Active in music for over 40 years, Lars Hollmer first got together with his friends to play music in late-’60s Sweden. This band eventually became the legendary “Rock In Opposition” band Samla Mammas Manna. Concurrently towards the end of Samla’s original life-span (the band reformed in the 00s and is recording and playing shows again), Lars started a solo career, where he emphasized his very personal compositions and his accordion playing, of which he is a master. Lars’ solo albums have a great warmth, intimacy, and even innocence to them. Although he makes music that can be abrasive and even purposefully a bit demented, with rough textures, quirky instrumentation, and unusual rhythms and time signatures, Hollmer’s compositions are mostly tuneful and easy going, sometimes catchy, and often disarmingly lovely. In addition to Lars’ performance on accordions and keyboards, percussion and vocals, also appearing are Michel Berckmans (Univers Zero) on bassoon, English horn and oboe, Santiago Jimenez on violins and Andreas Tengberg on cello, among others. Despite the many great works in his huge discography (this is his ninth solo album), this release is the first time his solo music has been released in the USA.

Revolutionary Snake Ensemble-Forked Tongue
The first thing to know about the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble is that they are FUN. A lot of fun. Based upon and expanding greatly on the famous tradition of marching bands of New Orleans, the band is 7 or more players in wild, Sun Ra-inspired costumes on saxes, trombones, trumpets, double bass and drums and percussion. While almost always featuring a groove, the band’s influences also include free jazz, trance musics and more, along with the obvious New Orleans second-line and funk music influences; this is certainly the only CD ever released that includes songs written by both Billy Idol and Ornette Coleman! There’s about an equal number of originals to the covers and traditional songs. For those of you with young children, they can be heard on Parade of Numbers, an animated counting piece that is regularly aired on Sesame Street! They perform constantly in New England and beyond, making friends and fans everywhere they play, and we are thrilled to have them shaking it aboard the Cuneiform train.

Wadada Leo Smith/Golden Quartet-Tabligh
Wadada Leo Smith is a well-respected trumpeter and composer who has worked sole in the field of avant-garde jazz and improvisation throughout his 40 year career. He was an early member of Chicago’s legendary AACM, joining in 1967 and co-founded the Creative Construction Company, a trio with Leroy Jenkins and Anthony Braxton in the late 60s. In 1971 Smith formed his own label, Kabell, for whom he recorded a number of albums considered classics of their kind. In the last several decades, he has studied a variety of music cultures (African, Japanese, Indonesian, European and American) and has developed a music theory, and a notation system to fully express this music which he calls “Ankhrasmation”. He has been a major force in contemporary jazz for five decades and performs frequently throughout the world. We first worked with Wadada when we released the two “Yo Miles” albums, of which he was co-leader, and we both enjoyed working together so much that we decided to work together again on one of his own works. This is the third album by Wadada’s all-star Golden Quartet, which features four major names in modern and avant-garde jazz:Wadada Leo Smith-trumpetVijay Iyer-piano, Fender Rhodes & synthesizerJohn Lindberg-bassShannon Jackson-drumsRecorded live, the sound on Tabligh veers from a sound akin to early electric jazz ala “In A Silent Way” and especially ‘the lost quintet’ of Miles in late 1969/early 1970, to both more sparse and modern jazz fare, all of it informed by the distinctive personalities of these four players and their leader’s musical concepts.

Univers Zero-Univers Zero (expanded/remixed/remastered)
Over 30 years ago, after 3 years of work and rehearsals, a group of seven unknown Belgian musicians gathered in a small basement studio to record their first album, which they released themselves in a tiny edition of 500 copies. The album was untitled, but the catalog number was “1313”, which the album later became known by. The power and originality of their creation turned heads and all these years later, this album is rightly considered the beginning of the ‘chamber-rock’ movement as well as a classic of the genre. With the release of their first album, Univers Zero went on to co-found the hugely influential “Rock in Opposition” movement with four similarly-minded bands. Active until 1987 and then reactivated in the late 1990s and performing and making music again, Univers Zero are considered to be one of the greatest avant-garde rock bands of all time.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com

02 maggio 2008


Concluso per Daevid Allen, Hugh Hopper e Chris Cutler il recente giro di concerti come Brainville 3 - non senza episodi spiacevoli o curiosi, come si legge in http://tinyurl.com/4hjerv e in http://tinyurl.com/538rmf - si attende a breve la pubblicazione di un loro dvd con interviste e riprese dal vivo effettuate a Les Lilas (Francia) l'anno scorso.
Esce intanto un cd, Live in NYC '98, registrato dieci anni fa dalla formazione originale, quando alla batteria era Pip Pyle. Lo si può ottenere tramite http://www.planetgong.co.uk


01 maggio 2008


L'album Pseudocanzoni di Luciano Margorani, disponibile da qualche giorno, si può reperire anche direttamente dall'autore tramite http://www.lucianomargorani.it. Così lo presenta Downtown Music Gallery:

LUCIANO MARGORANI - Pseudocanzoni (Bozo; Italy) Featuring Luciano Margorani on songs, acoustic & electric guitars, bass & devices, Elaine di Falco & Umberto Fiori on voices, Fabio Martini on clarinets, Angelo Avogadri on flutes and Chris Cutler & Fabrizio Spera on drums. Luciano Margorani was once a member of LA 1919, a great Italian progressive band that played at the Victo Fest and included Chris Cutler on drums. Elaine di Falco was the great singer for (Caveman) Hughscore, a Portland, (Oregon) based prog band that included Hugh Hopper & Fred Chalenor. I really didn't know what to expect, since LA 1919 were an instrumental band and this being Luciano's song-oriented project, but I was impressed by the results. Umberto Fiori sings on 5 of the 11 songs here and has a strong, warm, low-key voice, occasionally reminding me of Leonard Cohen due to his serious sound. Luciano's songs remind me of some of the better 70's folk/rock/jazz tunes of so long ago. The flutes and clarinets are used especially well on each of the five songs that they appear on. Luciano plays lovely acoustic guitar on many of these pieces, each song he writes is enchanting, although I wish the Italian lyrics were translated to English to see what he singing about. The handful of instrumental pieces are especially crafty but not too prog-like. On "Tappo," Chris Cutler plays in his inimitable style while Luciano adds layers of invetive guitar parts. I have also loved Elaine de Falco's voice on the Hughscore records that she appears on, so I was pleased to hear her charming voice once more. She sings (in English) on three pieces and each is superb. Luciano's devilishly delightful guitar stands out on a number of these songs as he adds he unique spice to these magical melodies. How can we Canterbury fans not love a song titled, "In Memoriam of Pip Pyle"? Pip Pyle was the late, great drummer for Hatfield & the North, National Health & Gong, who passed away last year. This piece does actually sound like a lovely, melancholy Hatfield instrumental. "Pseudocanzoni' is one of those lost long gems that only your bubbies here at DMG could find and offer you, so... - BLG