Le attività di Kukuruku - associazione musicale greca con sede a Londra, impegnata a promuovere eventi e concerti di musica improvvisata, free folk, poesia e arti sonore - si estendono da qualche tempo anche alla documentazione audio e video di alcune iniziative, con una produzione in proprio di cdr e dischi in vinile a tiratura limitata: attualmente in catalogo si trovano titoli di John Butcher, Mike Cooper, London Improvisers Orchestra, John Higgs e varie performance del titolare dell'etichetta, Tasos Stamou.

Kukuruku is primarily concerned in presenting independent works of sonic/ music exploration and it focuses on productions made under intimate or ‘personal’ circumstances (usually meaning home, live or field recordings). It stands between free improvisation and free folk, field recordings and sound poetry, electroacoustic composition and sound installations; but most of all it traces recordings that possess a spontaneous and ephemeral essence, much like in the way of testimony snapshot photography. Its editions also function as a platform for creative artwork made by the musicians them selfs or in collaboration with the kukuruku team. Kukuruku started as a small cd-r label operating from Athens, Greece curated by the sound artist Tasos Stamou and currently based in London. During the past few years of its operation it has presented works of various emerging avant-garde musicians through its editions and organized events, also increasingly gaining the attention of rather established creators in the field of exploratory music, who have joined the team with enthusiasm. It has eventually expanded its editions into broader fields of sonic interest and new music formats.

www.kukurukurecordings.com

C'è una nuova pubblicazione in vinile per Otoroku, settore di documentazione audio e video del londinese Cafe Oto: Spontaneous Combustion, un estratto del concerto del trio Decoy - Alexander Hawkins, John Edwards e Steve Noble - tenuto il 29 ottobre 2011 con ospite Joe McPhee.

We're thrilled to announce the next release available from OTOroku! Recorded in October 2011 - 'Spontaneous Combustion' splits the second set of the first night of Decoy's two day residency with special guest Joe McPhee across two sides of heavyweight virgin vinyl with two colour artwork by Oliver Pitt.

"This sounds like a truly special performance; exciting, reflective, full of action and incident; there is far too much going on to take in at one listen. Perhaps this is the benefit of the live recording, what is lost in not being there is regained in an ability to listen repeatedly, going back to moments you may have missed in the general stunned impression of the whole thing."

http://otoroku.cafeoto.co.uk/products/507699-decoy-with-joe-mcphee-spontaneous-combustion
http://www.theliminal.co.uk/2011/11/joe-mcphee-and-decoy-at-cafe-oto/
http://ears4eyes.blogspot.it/2013/01/decoy-with-joe-mcphee-spontaneous.html

Esce per l'etichetta Rude Noises una breve collezione di brani dal vivo del sassofonista austriaco Max Nagl, alcuni con Lol Coxhill: Max Nagl feat. Lol Coxhill. Scrive Nagl nelle note di copertina: "I had the great pleasure and honour of working with Lol between 1999 and 2001 on various projects. On this CD are a couple of duos that we performed together. Lol has been a great influence on my musical life since I first heard Ear of Beholder many years ago".

http://www.maxnagl.at
http://www.lolcoxhill.com
http://www.discogs.com/Max-Nagl-feat-Lol-Coxhill-Max-Nagl-Feat-Lol-Coxhill/release/4303758

Un ultimo saluto a Kevin Ayers è in Planet Gong, dove Jonny Greene riporta le impressioni anche di Daevid Allen e Gilli Smyth: "Kevin Ayers died on 18th February at his home in Montolieu, France. He was 68. He was a dear friend of Daevid and Gilli, well, forever. His life both musical and personal intertwined closely with theirs particularly in the 60's and early 70's. They lived together, made music together, had adventures and just experienced it all together in those heady days. Despite some of the many obituaries denying the fact, Kevin was to all intent purposes a member of Gong in 1971 when the band first toured the UK. He also played an instrumental role in Steve Hillage appearing in Gong's Universe in 1972 while Steve was touring France as a member of Kevin's band. Daevid told me on hearing the news of Kevin's passing he and Gilli thought, "If the situation was reversed, what would Kevin do?" Easy, a bottle of the best red wine affordable was purchased, Kevin's music went on heavy rotation and stories of the good times, full of good thoughts were shared with close friends and family in Australia. When all is said and done they simply loved him".

http://www.planetgong.co.uk/news/current.shtml#kevinayers

A Kevin Ayers è dedicata parte della puntata di questa sera di Prospettive Musicali, curata in studio da Alessandro Achilli: dalle 22:36 alle 23:30, su Radio Popolare.

http://www.radiopopolare.it/trasmissioni/prospettive-musicali
http://prospmus.blogspot.com

The Guardian pubblica un ritratto dello scomparso Kevin Ayers e recupera anche una delle sue ultime interviste (è del 2008, per la rivista Word): http://tinyurl.com/a7oyzwv e http://tinyurl.com/adwnw49

Un ricordo del suo incontro con Ayers lo scrive Marco Rossi per Shindig! Magazine: http://www.shindig-magazine.com/kevin-ayers.html

E un ricordo giunge anche da oltreoceano, da Bruce Lee Gallanter di Downtown Music Gallery: "It begins with a blessing, it ends with a curse... Why, why, why...why are we sleeping...?" Those words were written and sung by Kevin Ayers for the first Soft Machine album in 1968. They are troubling, nightmarish yet they speak directly to our unconscious collective minds. This was my own, and many others', introduction to Kevin Ayers with cohorts Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt. Soft Machine Volume One is unlike any other album that came out in a year of gems, it is filled with rock, psych, jazz, progressive and whimsical elements. A true pataphysical introduction. Mr. Ayers toured with the Softs in 1968 opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience across the US but disliked the dehumanizing part of touring so he left before the end of the tour.
Throughout his life Mr. Ayers divided his time between living in England and living in Majorca. Within a year of leaving Soft Machine, Ayers began his solo career with Joy of a Toy (1969), another masterpiece of weirdness that only he could pull off. Ayers organized a band called the Whole World which included saxist Lol Coxhill (hilarious/bizarre bald-headed maestro who recently passed), guitarist Mike Oldfield (pre-breadwinner for Virgin Records) and David Bedford (pianist & distinguished modern composer). This band toured quite a bit in Europe and recorded another brilliant album called Shooting at the Moon. This band helped magnify the importance of each of its band-members, yet it soon broke up. The third Ayers record, Whatevershebringwesing was the last of a trilogy of wonderful, unique records that still sound fresh, strange and beyond category today. Ayers made a few other fine records like Banamour and Confessions of Dr. Dream and was involved in a famous concert and album with Nico, John Cale & Eno called June 1st, 1974. After this Ayers' career was often uneven and unpredictable with occasional moments of brilliance. Ayers often chose amazing and/or eclectic musicians to play with like the incredible guitarist Ollie Halsall (from Patto & Boxer) in his band for many years.
More than a decade later after his first trip to the US with the Softs, Mr. Ayers came to NY in April of 1980 with his trusty guitar-slinger Ollie Halsall and backing from members of then-current John Cale band. They played two amazing gigs in Hurrah's and Trax and I had a chance to chat with Mr. Ayers backstage. Ayers continued to make occasional albums, some good, some not, but none exceptional. He made it back to these shores, usually playing solo sets at sympathetic venues like Caravan of Dreams, Under Acme, Maxwells and even record stores like Brass City Records in Conn. and Other Music in Manhattan. The last time I caught Mr. Ayers was at a Canterbury Fest in Seattle, Washington. It was common knowledge that Kevin Ayers drank heavily and often sang about being a wonderful wino. He certainly looked a bit buzzed when I saw him live. If you haven't heard any of his solo albums, do yourself a favor and check out any of the first three. They are classics and unlike anything else from that time. I will leave with some words from Kevin Ayers, "So let's drink some wine and have a good time and if you really want to come through... here's what you got to do..."

Intervenendo brevemente a Today Programme, su Radio 4 della BBC, Robert Wyatt parla di Kevin Ayers ricordandone le influenze e l'apporto compositivo nei primi Soft Machine.
E altrove dichiara: "About 50 years ago, someone said to me that there was another bloke with long hair in east Kent, so I should meet him because we'd be sure to get on. I did, and we did. He wrote songs and sang in an amazingly deep voice for someone so young. His little record collection included Astrud Gilberto and acoustic jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd. He admired Oscar Wilde and Louis McNiece. His songs were witty and touching.
He and a couple of us decided to try to form a group using just our own tunes. We called ourselves Soft Machine [with William Burroughs' permission]. We played together, in various incarnations, until the end of 68. By that time, we'd become a mainly instrumental band, in which Kevin played bass guitar. Kevin wanted to get back to song writing, which resulted in a sequence of great records such as Joy of a Toy.
In 1970, I played in his new band, The Whole World, a few times. Playing with Kevin was like basking in sunshine. He was funny, wise and unhurried. I am very lucky to have worked with him all those years ago. Goodbye Kevin".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21529657
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21517041

Farewell Again (Another Dawn). Un altro triste triste addio in questi giorni è quello a Kevin Ayers. Un grande.

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2013/02/kevin_ayers_1944_-_2013.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/feb/20/kevin-ayers-dies-aged-68
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marwak/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ayers

Se n'è andato la settimana scorsa all'età di soli cinquantacinque anni Dennis Palmer, musicista e artista di Chattanooga (Stati Uniti), noto e stimato nella comunità locale per aver fondato e diretto per più di cinque lustri la Shaking Ray Levi Society, associazione nonprofit volta a promuovere tra i giovani pensiero e azione nel segno della creatività musicale e della massima libertà artistica. Era conosciuto soprattutto per essere titolare assieme a Bob Stagner del duo The Shaking Ray Levis, spericolata cellula d'intervento attiva dal 1986 nell'ambito della musica improvvisata, più volte al fianco di Derek Bailey - che li volle per la propria etichetta Incus e poi con sé per il suo ultimo concerto negli Stati Uniti - e spesso in combutta con Shelley Hirsch, Fred Frith, Eugene Chadbourne, Amy Denio, Frank Pahl, Borbetomagus, Steve Beresford e Davey Williams tra gli altri: http://www.shakingray.com

Chattanooga native Dennis Palmer, 55, was a beloved musician, visual artist, storyteller, educator, mentor, and devoted friend of many. He passed away at his home on February 15, 2013. A singular vocalist and nontraditional musician, called "the world's most colorfully inventive synthesizer player" by Creative Loafing, he co-founded the acclaimed free improvisation group The Shaking Ray Levis with drummer Bob Stagner in 1986, which was the first American band to record an album for the legendary British label Incus Records. Palmer has performed internationally with collaborators including Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Reverend Howard Finster, David Greenberger, Col. Bruce Hampton, Shelley Hirsch, Roger Turner, and Davey Williams.
As a visual artist, Palmer has exhibited his paintings, silk-screened prints, and other unconventional artwork both locally and internationally in cities including London and Los Angeles, and he has designed many CD and record covers.
A leader in the arts community, Palmer co-founded the nonprofit arts education organization The Shaking Ray Levi Society and served as its artistic director for over 26 years. Palmer promoted the ideas of improvisation and creativity in thought, performance, and visual art to students of all ages and developed outreach programs for under-served populations including students with developmental, emotional, or physical disabilities. Dennis was an inspiration for many and a strong advocate of "living in the moment" and "doing the highest good for all" in the community and beyond.

http://www.shakingray.com/news.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/user/shakingraylevi
http://bodyliterature.com/2013/02/17/dennis-palmer-1957-2013
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/feb/17/dennis-palmer-shaking-ray-founder-dies

Elliott Sharp ricorda Butch Morris nella sua agenda di riflessioni online Ir/Rational Music: http://zoarmusic.tumblr.com/post/42820519357/feb-11-butch-morris-alive

"Butch Morris was a brilliant musical thinker who created Conduction, a system for spontaneous musical composition. More importantly, using Conduction, Butch composed beautiful, visceral, and expansive music in real-time. To hear or perform Butch’s music was a transformative experience - the ears and heart were opened. Conduction began as a thought process about music-making but then became the music. Butch didn’t just theorize and analyze but acted firmly in the belief that his ideas could positively affect our lives through sound. Conduction is a set of tools that will be recognized as a milestone in the pantheon of systems for organizing improvisations into a coherent architecture. I can’t say that Butch originated the concept of the conducted improvisation as there have been numerous attempts over the years to develop methods for organizing compositions from the extemporizations of players. What sets Butch and his system apart is not only the detailed codifying of the techniques but his own refined use of them - the result of his unique ears and intelligence."

Di Morris ha scritto subito dopo la scomparsa anche Larry Ochs, in una delle periodiche comunicazioni Rova News, sottolineandone soprattutto la personale voce come strumentista, e indirizzando invece a un filmato del 2007 quanti interessati ad approfondire gli aspetti metodologici e pratici delle sue Conduction: http://radiom.org/detail.php?omid=IMP.2007.02.05

"Butch Morris’ place in the history of music will be decided by others. But let me testify right here that his trumpet sound was one of those singular voices that you don’t forget after hearing it. And the thing was: he meant every note. He played in “avant garde jazz” contexts most of the time, but like Wadada Leo Smith, he played the blues. It poured out of him".

E in ricordo di Morris ha scrtto anche Vipal Monga, autore del documentario Black February dedicato a una straordinaria serie di esecuzioni condotte a New York nel 2005: http://blackfeb.com/2013/01/31/the-death-of-butch-morris-and-his-improvised-life

The Tiptons Sax Quartet inizia stasera da Bolzano un nuovo giro di concerti in Italia, con tappe a Bologna, Udine, S.Vito di Leguzzano, Mantova - qui per registrare brani del prossimo album - e Faenza. Informazioni e dettagli sono in http://thetiptonssaxquartet.com
Nel frattempo, Amy Denio ha iniziato a diffondere attraverso Bandcamp un gran numero di suoi lavori come solista, tra cui alcuni recenti tour de force compositivi quale esponente dell'Immersion Composition Society e antiche autoproduzioni mai pubblicate in modo ufficiale: http://amydenio.bandcamp.com

The Tiptons cover genres from micro-big band, gospel, bluegrass, and Balkan to whimsical jazz and nocturnal funk, and have been touring Europe and the US since 1993. They have released 10 recordings. Based in New York, Seattle, and Eau Claire, the Tiptons perform original compositions and arrangements of world music on saxes, clarinet, voices and drums/percussion. With concerts that cover musical territory from New Orleans “second-line” to jazz, Afro-Cuban to Balkan, Klezmer and beyond, the Tiptons create some of the wildest sounds ever to come out of a sax quartet. Their dynamic, playful concerts feature high-energy interaction between members, and a repertoire that touches on soulful music from around the world.
Originally called Billy Tipton Memorial Sax Quartet, they have since shortened their name and expanded their repertoire. BTMSQ was named in honor of big band saxophonist and pianist Billy Tipton, following the post-mortem revelation that Tipton was actually a woman who lived as a man for more than 50 years. Many believe that this allowed Tipton to pursue a career in the male-dominated world of jazz. Not to be bound by convention, the Tiptons similarly do their own thing. Their music has been featured on US National Public Radio, as well as National Radio stations in Austria, Italy, Croatia, Germany and France. They have composed music for saxophone quartet and 3 city busses; to research and perform compositions by women composers in Jazz; to collaborate with graphic artist and painter Danijel Zezelj, and to collaborate with choreographer Pat Graney.

http://thetiptonssaxquartet.com
http://www.amydenio.com
http://amydenio.bandcamp.com

Peter Brötzmann si racconta al filosofo Christoph J. Bauer in una serie di conversazioni annotate nel testo Gespräche (Posth Verlag, 2012): "Peter Brötzmann gilt als einer der wichtigsten Neuerer des Jazz und der improvisierten Musik. Im Gespräch mit dem Bochumer Philosophen und Publizisten Christoph J. Bauer gibt Brötzmann Auskunft über die Entstehung des Free-Jazz, die sozialen und politischen Voraussetzungen der improvisierten Musik sowie ihr Verhältnis zur Fluxus-Bewegung der sechziger Jahre, die Beziehungen europäischer Improvisatoren zu Musikern in den USA und Asien und sein Verhältnis zu Drogenkonsum und Sexualität."

These conversations really fill out a lot of blanks, if you want to know about the thoughts, the work and artistic life of Peter Brötzmann. We still need the big, comprehensive and analytical biography about mr. Brötzmanns struggle and achievements. But this volume brings us a lot closer to that goal. Together with the two recent movies, these verbal exchanges tell us a lot about him. He's a guy who always puts artistic considerations first. He doesn't compromise or settle for mediocracy. In other words a real cultural hero! Nobody has played with such a wide spectrum of players from all over the globe, and nobody has produced such an overwhelming body of work of such consistent quality as he. Always on the edge, always looking for creativity and for keeping things alive. The text is honest and intelligent and vastly expands the knowledge about the experiences, troubles and reflections of this musical giant. A most stimulating read!

http://www.posth-verlag.de/publikationen/bauer-brotzmann-gespraeche
http://www.peterbroetzmann.com

Dalla splendida edizione 2011 di Music Unlimited a Wels (Austria), curata dalla direzione artistica del festival assieme a Peter Brötzmann e a lui interamente dedicata nell'anno del suo settantesimo compleanno, è tratto il box Long Story Short, 5 cd audio e libretto accuratamente illustrato, ottimo seppur parziale resoconto di quelle intense giornate pubblicato or ora dall'etichetta Trost: http://www.trost.at

Peter Brötzmann curated three days of great music by wonderful musicians from all over the world! Not a retrospective but a representation of the contemporary musical spheres that Brötzmann and his comrades are investigating today. This box documents in 18 performances Brötzmann's close ties to the Chicago scene, his inclination to work with Japanese artists, his cultivation of old and new friendships from New York, his faible for African musicians and collaborations with his European friends. The extensive compilation emphasizes the vitality and variety of Brötzmann's current work and documents a historical moment of the Unlimited Festival.

http://www.peterbroetzmann.com/news.php
http://www.musicunlimited.at
http://www.trost.at

Qualche ritardo prima degli ultimi tocchi finali, ma ora il box con l'intero catalogo dell'Instant Composers Pool è pronto: "The music released during all these years has now been collected and is released as a special edition box. It contains 52 cds, 2 dvds (including bonus material that has never been released before), a blueprint of the famed 'camel-chair', and a photo-book of the rich ICP-history as shot by Pieter Boersma. Every box is numbered and unique because Han Bennink himself has painted each copy by hand!"

http://www.icporchestra.com/icpbox
http://www.challengerecords.com/product/1326978299

Nel giorno di San Valentino il team dell'emittente londinese Resonance FM invita a un gesto d'amicizia, se non d'amore, sollecitando aiuti economici e donazioni attraverso un'asta temporanea di oggetti, dischi, libri e manufatti artistici vari: "Our amazing on-line auction is a central part of this week's Resonance104.4fm Annual Fund-Raiser which our programme makers will be banging on about on-air till Thursday 21 February. You can bid for a piece of The Wicker Man, a Bob & Roberts Smith original painting, a haunch of venison, and numerous records, books, artworks and experiences of the kind you'd expect from the best radio station in the world. We're hoping to raise enough money to finish refurbishing The Frank Howling Studio, named after the late sound engineer and Resonance fan who kindly left us a bequest to extend our work. Next year we apply once more to Ofcom for our five year licence extension and this time we'd like to increase our broadcast area and offer a better service to you, our listeners. If that interests you, and you'd like to know more of our plans for the next decade, do consider joining our Friends scheme - http://resonancefm.com/support - or simply make a donation on our front page to keep the station going. We welcome donations of any size and truly value your support. Thanks!"

http://resonancefm.com/auction2013
http://tinyurl.com/c66dd27

Del bell'album di Richard Thompson ora in circolazione, Electric, prodotto a Nashville da Buddy Miller, esistono anche una versione deluxe - con un secondo cd composto in gran parte di materiali provenienti dalle stesse session dell'edizione ufficiale - e una tiratura limitata in doppio vinile: http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=1644

After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording "Electric", Thompson turned to Buddy Miller to produce, recording at Miller's home studio in Nashville, TN. Miller who himself is renowned for his guitar skills recently told Rolling Stone: "I played along on the record, playing rhythm guitar for him, and I got a two-week guitar lesson while he camped out in my house." The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who both sing background vocals. Jerome and Prodaniuk formed part of the band which recorded and toured the UK Top Twenty album Dream Attic, released in August 2010. Richard Thompson himself commented that: "We did it ridiculously quickly. It was just stupid. But it sounds great. It turned out surprisingly funky, sort of a new genre - folk-funk. It's quite snappy, somewhere between Judy Collins and Bootsy Collins."

http://www.richardthompson-music.com

Si recuperano attraverso iTunes - oppure Amazon, se si preferisce il supporto CD-R - due esecuzioni dal vivo del lavoro di John Cage Indeterminacy effettuate da Steve Beresford, Tania Chen e Stewart Lee nel 2010 e 2011 e raccolte in album da Knitted Records: http://knittedrecords.com

Inaugurata da pochi giorni e aperta fino a maggio 2013 c'è a Losanna (Svizzera) un'importante retrospettiva dedicata al compositore statunitense Phill Niblock nell'anno del suo ottantesimo compleanno: Nothin' but Working. Tra le molte opere affidate al centro d'arte Circuit e al museo di fotografia Musée de l’Elysée Centre spicca la presentazione integrale, riveduta e ampliata per l'occasione, di una delle sue creazioni multimediali più sperimentali e innovative, The Movement of People Working.

Presented for the first time in its entirety, re-edited and remastered by the artist for the retrospective, the series of films The Movement of People Working portray human labour in its most elementary form. Filmed on 16mm colour film, and later on video, in locations including Peru, Mexico, Hungary, Hong Kong, the Arctic, Brazil, Lesotho, Portugal, Sumatra, China and Japan – with more than 25 hours of film footage, The Movement of People Working focuses on work as a choreography of movements and gestures, dignifying the mechanical yet natural repetition of labourers’ actions. Phill Niblock said of these that The Movement of People Working «came out of necessity because I was doing music performances with live dancers, and it was too cumbersome and expensive to tour with so many people. So I started doing those films that I could project when performing». These films are accompanied by the whole corpus of Niblock’s slowly evolving, harmonically minimalist music, realised between 1968 and 2011. The sound level of these compositions offers a visceral experience of the long drones and inhabits the ringing, beating overtones. These scores, presented in the exhibition as photostats realized for his personal exhibition at London’s ICA in 1982, are the composer’s mixing instructions and are not used by the musician during the performance. While moving through space, he plays with the recorded material, sometimes creating tonalities that coincide with the recording or, on the contrary, that produce dissonances. The result is a constant movement of beat, rhythm and pulsation, as well as changing and continuous harmonics during his own motion through space. The layering of tones echoes the repetitions of the workers' actions; the evolution of the films on each screen (changing throughout the day), combined with a program that randomly plays back different music pieces, results in a constant renewal of forms, continuously offering an exhibition of new juxtapositions of sound and image.
The Movement of People Working offers a strong social and political comment, as highlighted by the title and represented by the closeness with the workers. In this, the series of film echoes the work of several filmmakers including Jean Luc Godard or Chris Marker who as from 1967 gave workers the cameras and informed them of cinematic techniques so that they could actually make their own films. In a fascinating turn of events, rather than doing fictional or pure documentary film, some workers formed the Groupes Medvekine and decided to film themselves working.

http://www.phillniblock.com
http://www.experimentalintermedia.org
http://www.circuit.li
http://www.elysee.ch/en/no_cache/exhibitions/detail/article/nothin-but-working-phill-niblock-a-retrospective

Concerti di improvvisazione e musica contemporanea da seguire sul posto nello spazio della performance - ma le opportunità sono limitatissime, con non più di sei-otto posti a sedere - oppure da casa comodamente in poltrona, divano o letto grazie alla diffusione online in streaming: questo il concetto promosso da Embedded, microserie di microconcerti in microspazi - a dispetto di una sede principesca a Bracknell (Regno Unito), presso il South Hill Park Arts Centre - che tra febbraio e aprile 2013 vede tra i protagonisti John Butcher, Jonathan Coleclough, Max Eastley, Paul Whitty e Simon Whetham.

Our series of late-night contemporary music micro concerts aims to capture the feeling of amazement and intimacy when seeing a skilled musician and performer right up close. The season features music of imagination and improvisation, with each of the three Embedded evenings held in a small, cosy venue in South Hill Park Arts Centre, with an audience of six people settled on comfortable sofas. The performers have been specifically selected to provide visual as well as audio interest, making them perfect for live streaming to a wider online audience. Starting at 10:30 pm, the artists will initially explain what they do and how they achieve it before performing a 45 minute set. The audience will be seated right up close during the performance, allowing them to experience the passion and emotion of the work as it unfolds before them. With the live streaming being filmed by professional cameramen, our online audience will be able to savour that same experience from the comfort of their homes (or beds).

http://shplive.tv/wp/category/embedded
http://www.southhillpark.org.uk

Tra i concerti filmati l'anno scorso al Vortex londinese e al momento disponibili presso The Space - sito creato dall'Arts Council England assieme alla BBC e operativo in via sperimentale fino a fine marzo 2013 - c'è anche quello dei Township Comets, vivaci alfieri delle musiche di Dudu Pukwana: Chris Batchelor, Pinise Saul, Jason Yarde, Harry Brown, Adam Glasser, Dudley Phillips e Frank Tontoh.

http://thespace.org/items/s0000ut4
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helenadornellas/sets/72157630253250102

Dopo le esilaranti riletture surf di Lemme Take You to the Beach e le approfondite esplorazioni condotte sui temi di Burnt Weeny Sandwich e The Idiot Bastard Son, Cordelia Records licenzia una nuova compilazione zappiana: On Broadway-Covers of Invention, dedicata stavolta ad alcune versioni di celebri brani altrui proposte da Frank Zappa nei concerti del suo ultimo tour, quello del 1988. Implicito richiamo è a Zappa the Hard Way, testo di Andrew Greenaway - già in passato collaboratore di Cordelia - che di quel tour è in qualche modo il diario.
Informazioni in www.idiotbastard.com/OnBroadway.htm

There’s a new Cordelia Records CD: “On Broadway: Covers of Invention”, available from www.cordeliarecords.co.uk. It celebrates the 25th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s final tour in’88. Frank played quite a few versions of other people’s tunes on this tour – and on this CD Zappa influenced artists have contributed versions of 15 of these (the CD lasts 78 minutes +) all performed in the style of The Mothers. It’s also a sort of companion to Andrew Greenaway’s “Broadway the Hard Way” book. And it has sleeve notes by Scott Thunes.

www.cordeliarecords.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/ZappaTheHardWay

Pitchfork Tv ha recentemente dedicato un episodio della serie The Out Door a Eugene Chadbourne, raccogliendo in un breve filmato esperienze e dichiarazioni del chitarrista assieme a brani di una sua esibizione in duo con il batterista Tatsuya Nakatani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lBqIBYywKg

Va in onda stasera a Radiotre Suite Jazz il concerto di Mike Cooper 'Spirit Songs Live' registrato a Roma lo scorso 17 gennaio: con lui ci sono Elio Martusciello, Michael Thieke, Luca Venitucci e Fabrizio Spera.

http://tinyurl.com/bjzdpto

Esce per la prima volta in cd, in una versione rimasterizzata e ampliata, uno dei più compiuti lavori del compositore e arrangiatore Neil Ardley, A Symphony of Amaranths, prodotto nel 1971 con l'apporto di numerosi personaggi di spicco del giro rock-jazz britannico dell'epoca: Dick Heckstall-Smith, Don Rendell, Barbara Thompson, Norma Winstone, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Karl Jenkins, Stan Tracey, Chris Laurence, Jeff Clyne e Jon Hiseman tra gli altri. Nelle pieghe dell'album, non privo di luoghi comuni e velleità letterarie, c'è anche un celebre nonsense di Edward Lear, The Dong with a Luminous Nose, interpretato dall'inimitabile Ivor Cutler.

http://www.neilardley.com/symphony-of-amaranths
http://www.musicsogood.com/duskfire/neil_ardley3.htm

Inconstant Sol mette a disposizione due interessanti registrazioni non ufficiali effettuate entrambe a Bristol nel 1992: una è del quartetto di Elton Dean e Howard Riley, con Paul Rogers e Mark Sanders, e l'altra è di Mujician in formazione a tre, con Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall e Tony Levin: http://inconstantsol.blogspot.com

Ci sono anche due inediti di Peter Blegvad (Mind the Gap) e Karen Mantler (Catch as Catch Can) nell'ultimo episodio di Radio Free Song Club: Twenty-Fifth Number.

Radio Free Song Club is a group of writers with a monthly song deadline. Host Nicholas Hill presents these new tunes along with interviews and live performances and special guests. Some of the songs are finished and fully produced, some are roughly recorded fragments, some in-between. The writers are looking for a good song, the world is looking for a good song. Someone might get lucky.

“Songs are hard to beat. . . Portable, flexible, adhesive; appealing to mind, heart, and body as required. They can unite a community or touch the solitary in each listener or both at once. No mean feat.” (Peter Blegvad)

http://radiofreesongclub.com

WoW! Tra le iniziative degli ineffabili Residents per celebrare quarant'anni di attività c'è anche un nuovo ciclo di concerti, prima negli Stati Uniti e successivamente in Europa, dal titolo Wonder of Weird: il tour è iniziato questa settimana, contestualmente al lancio di un album semi-antologico (Ten Two Times, dieci brani offerti ciascuno in due versioni diverse) e uno con materiali nuovi (Mush-Room).

http://www.residents.com/home

Three into Wonderfull è stato album del mese lo scorso dicembre per la rivista francese Jazz Magazine, che nel numero di gennaio 2013 ospita un'intervista a Kate e Mike Westbrook. Tra gli impegni imminenti dei Westbrook - oltre ai concerti del Trio il mese prossimo a Londra, Stoccolma, Vienna e Zurigo - c'è la messa a punto delle registrazioni in studio del recente lavoro The Serpent Hit, presentato varie volte in concerto ma ancora inedito in cd.
Informazioni in http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/news/jazzmag_01.13.pdf