Chris Cutler, Agnes Szelag e The Norman Conquest dal vivo a Varsavia (Polonia) il primo aprile 2012: un paio di estratti del loro concerto al Chlodna 25 sono su YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/aggiflex/videos

Fred Frith ha presentato Gravity al festival Music Meeting a Nijmegen (Paesi Bassi) lo scorso 7 giugno: Bas Andriessen ne ha curato le riprese per il suo programma De Muzen per la tv locale N1, riservando a YouTube qualche gustoso materiale aggiuntivo.

https://www.youtube.com/user/fornebu/videos

Dal documentario Wild Thing - La folle histoire du Rock curato nel 2010 per Arte/France e INA da Jérôme de Missolz è da vedere almeno il segmento in cui Kevin Ayers commenta Pink Floyd e Soft Machine: è su YouTube.

Jérôme de Missolz a 10 ans quand son père lui offre son premier 45-tours des Rolling Stones. Il développe sur-le-champ une sérieuse addiction au vinyle et verse rapidement dans l'esprit rock. Au point que son histoire se confond bientôt avec celle de ce mouvement musical électrique et subversif. De son adolescence à son parcours de cinéaste documentariste et expérimental, Jérôme de Missolz retrace l'épopée de ses héros magnifiques à travers la voix de l'acteur Denis Lavant : partant de Chuck Berry - son célèbre "Johnny B. Good" a marqué quatre générations de musiciens blancs -, il traque dans les archives ces "musiciens du diable" qui l'ont tant fait vibrer (les Stones, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Zappa, Bowie, Ian Curtis…) et part à la rencontre de quelques rescapés, parmi lesquels Iggy Pop, sorte de dernier des Mohicans retrouvé dans une maison de boucanier à Miami.

"Avec mon documentaire Wild Thing, j’ai juste voulu me replonger dans ma propre histoire, pour essayer de comprendre les raisons de mon addiction au rock, cette drogue qui m’a permis de traverser les années galvanisé par le cri primal et les riffs ravageurs de groupes et d’artistes qui m’ont tout simplement permis de tenir debout et de rêver un peu, avec le sentiment d’avoir quelque chose à partager avec mes semblables…"

http://www.arte.tv/fr/la-folle-histoire-du-rock/6691006.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSJi8chnkXk

Il video è stato ritrovato solo pochi mesi fa, e mostra Aislinn Quinn, Enrique Jardines e Pip Pyle in azione a Miami (Stati Uniti) nel novembre 1999, con nome Absolute Zero, pochi giorni prima di registrare in studio - salvo il fatto di doverlo in gran parte riregistrare più tardi, a causa di un clamoroso guasto tecnico - il loro unico album insieme, Crashing Icons. E' un documento prezioso, se come afferma la tastierista e cantante questo è l'unico filmato dal vivo del trio completo di traccia audio. Ed è anche l'occasione oggi per rivedere e ricordare l'amatissimo Pip, a otto anni esatti dalla sua scomparsa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPlu2AN3p8
http://www.eclecticmoonlight.com/remembering_pip_pyle.html

Lol Coxhill dal vivo al festival di musica contemporanea e improvvisazione i-and-e, tenuto a Dublino il 13 e 14 maggio 2011.

Having begun playing jazz in the late 40’s, Lol Coxhill’s career has encompassed many different styles of music, working with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Rufus Thomas, The Damned, Kevin Ayers and Steve Miller’s Delivery, amongst many others. However, he has perhaps best known for his work as an improviser. As well as performances with Brotherhood of Breath, Company, Trevor Watts’ Moire Music and the London Improvisers Orchestra, he has had many long-standing groupings: The Recedents (with Mike Cooper and Roger Turner), duos with Veryan Weston, Pat Thomas and Lu Edmonds, Birdyak (with Bob Cobbing, Jennifer Pyke and Hugh Metcalfe). Lol Coxhill has been performing unaccompanied improvisations for over 40 years. He was one of the very first saxophonists to perform extensively in this manner, and was probably the first one to do so on soprano saxophone.

http://i-and-e.org/i-and-e-festival-2011

http://i-and-e.org/videos
https://vimeo.com/25791792
https://vimeo.com/album/1763597

Nel quadro dei festeggiamenti di quarant'anni della propria attività, l'etichetta Ogun pubblica l'album For The Blue Notes: Louis Moholo-Moholo Unit dal vivo a Milano il 4 marzo 2012, al Teatro Manzoni. Con Moholo c'erano Jason Yarde, Ntshuks Bonga, Henry Lowther, Alan Tomlinson, Francine Luce, John Edwards e Alexander Hawkins.
Ne scrive Sean Kitching di Quietus: "The near-telepathic interplay of the core quartet of Alexander Hawkins on piano, John Edwards on double bass, Moholo-Moholo on drums and Jason Yarde on soprano and alto saxophones, is given a richly expanded sound palette by the addition of Henry Lowther on trumpet, Alan Tomlinson on trombone, Ntshuks Bonga on second soprano and alto sax and Francine Luce providing wordless, ecstatic vocals. Although Moholo-Moholo has worked with a number of uniquely talented piano players during the course of his career (Chris McGregor, Keith Tippett and Steve Beresford, to name but three), there's something really magical about the reciprocity that occurs when he plays with Alexander Hawkins. The way they lock into each other's playing, Hawkins delivering fast, almost percussive keyboard runs describing the melodic line of the tune emerging from the near chaos of group interplay, his attention perfectly attuned to Moholo-Moholo's mesmerisingly fluid drumming, is truly something special. So great are they together (as documented on their duo CD Keep Your Heart Straight), that a lesser bassist might struggle to add much to their sublime synergy - not John Edwards though, who is amazingly inventive here throughout. The twin saxophones of Yarde and Bonga offer rhapsodic lines of melodic improvisation recalling Ornette Coleman at his most spiritually evocative, whilst the trumpet and trombone of Lowther and Tomlinson allow for the kind of woozy big-band swing more usually associated with the likes of the Sun Ra Arkestra or New Orleans Dixieland jazz."

http://thequietus.com/articles/15762-louis-moholo-moholo-unit-for-the-blue-notes

Importante ripubblicazione per la prima volta in cd di due album di Johnny 'Mbizo' Dyani, riuniti per inaugurare una speciale serie di ristampe per i quarant'anni dell'etichetta Cadillac: Rejoice, uscito postumo nel 1988 - le registrazioni sono del 1972 - con Mongezi Feza e Okay Temiz e Together, uscito anch'esso postumo nel 1987 - con registrazioni di fine 1979/inizio 1980 - a nome del settetto Witchdoctor's Son, con la partecipazione di Dudu Pukwana.

This first release in Cadillac's '40th Anniversary Series' brings together two albums by the great South African bass player Johhny Mbizo Dyani, both originally released by Cadillac on vinyl and never before issued on cd.
Rejoice is a trio album with Dyani's compatriot Mongezi Feza and Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz, recorded at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm in October 1972, during a Swedish tour. Sadly by the time the album was actually released in 1988 only one member of the group remained, Feza having died in 1975 aged 30 and Dyani in 1986 aged 39. Both musicians had left South Africa as members of the Blue Notes group, settling in London never to return to their apartheid homeland.
Together was also recorded in Stockholm, where Dyani was by then living, in Dec 1979 / Jan 1980. The group was put together specially with Dyani's old cohort Dudu Pukwana invited over from London to play. 'The music is very special. Transcending the boundaries of nations and cultures, Mbizo s enthusiasm spread and inspired the sessions with his intense passion. A passion which revelled in a nostalgia for the myths and melodies of Marabi and Kwela. Mbizo s life was music, he gave his life for music. These sessions are Mbizo s own testimony to the spirit of hope for the future, for a better world. It is a statement so filled with vitality and with the joy of rediscovered roots that it will stand as a signpost to the whole of his life and work.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/03/johnny-mbizo-dyani-rejoice-together-cd-review
http://www.kultur-im-ghetto.de/discographia-johnny.htm

Proseguono le pubblicazioni in digitale di titoli tratti dal glorioso catalogo FMP: tra le aggiunte più recenti ci sono Karl Berger, Interludes; Brötzmann/Van Hove/Bennink, Free Jazz Und Kinder; Malfatti/Wittwer, Thrumblin'; Irène Schweizer Trio, Early Tapes; Brötzmann/Miller/Moholo, Opened But Hardly Touched e Manfred Schoof Quintett, The Early Quintet. Si ottengono tramite Bandcamp, presso il negozio virtuale gestito da Destination Out. Per ascolti di brani e album rappresentativi di varie epoche dell'etichetta si può seguire la proposta curata settimanalmente da Jeff Golick presso l'emittente radiofonica newyorkese WFMU.

http://destination-out.com
http://destination-out.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Destination-OUT/114551651940059
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/DO

Non è la riedizione del cd Asphodel del 2007, è una nuova versione - questa volta integrale, e registrata in concerto a Roma e Reggio Emilia un paio d'anni fa - di Metal Machine Music (Lou Reed) sempre per opera dell'ensemble zeitkratzer.

About 10 years after their first, critically acclaimed performances of Lou Reed’s adventurous album, zeitkratzer presents an audacious new interpretation of this 20th century avant-garde classic. Here, for the first time ever, all four parts of Metal Machine Music played by zeitkratzer on one recording! Seriously "clangorous"! This new version of Metal Machine Music is even more transparent, instrumentally pure and radical than the shortened 2007 release; live recordings from concerts in Rome and Reggio Emilia, Italy, mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker. A real sound experience!

After their first performances in 2002 (documented on the 2007 CD release on Asphodel) zeitkratzer gave Reed’s album a new thorough listen and transcribed the sounds to create an acoustic score for the ensemble to play live. Those familiar with the oft-criticized two-disc album might wonder how they pulled this off, but they did and their interpretation of the work brought it to the attention of a wider audience. It is therefore partly thanks to the zeitkratzer version that Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music has been rediscovered as a classic of the Twentieth Century. It was at the live performance with zeitkratzer in Berlin, that Lou Reed spoke for the first time in public about the musical details of his composition, in an interview with Diedrich Diedrichsen. zeitkratzer was clearly ready for the challenges of performing Metal Machine Music live, and drew packed houses for their presentation of the work. These recordings from the Metal Machine Music have become even more intense and worked out during the ten years of zeitkratzer playing it live at numerous international festivals – contemporary music festivals, noise festivals, improvisation festivals, it’s impossible to limit this music to one genre. Metal Machine Music has gained a new quality of clarity, sound transparence and musical intensity. Real radical contemporary chamber noise music!

http://www.zeitkratzer.de
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19662-zeitkratzer-metal-machine-music

Nella miriade di contraffazioni, doppioni, inutilità e pubblicazioni offensive riguardanti Captain Beefheart e la sua Magic Band questo Live 1966-67 su etichetta Keyhole sembra proporre finalmente qualche materiale inedito e di autentico valore, seppur confuso tra false indicazioni ed ennesimi errori. Un'attenta analisi del contenuto si legge in Radar Station: "Most fans will probably be familiar with five of these tracks as they’ve appeared on the Grow Fins box set as well as a number of bootlegs over the years. But added to this are four new tracks – Down In The Bottom, Don’t Start Me To Talkin’, The Sun Is Shining and St James Infirmary – that have never been released before. So, what we have now appears to be the entire KSAN radio broadcast … at long last! This is the early Magic Band playing the BLUES and they do it damn well. Don’s vocals on St James Infirmary are particularly worthy of mention. There’s a small fade-in to Down In The Bottom but otherwise this is a great sounding set."

http://www.beefheart.com/live-1966-67

Dopo quelli dedicati a Larks' Tongues in Aspic e Red è ora la volta di Starless, altro box onnicomprensivo per i King Crimson dell'intensissima stagione tra il 1972 e il 1974, stavolta incentrato sull'album Starless and Bible Black. Comprenderà 27 dischi audio e video in diversi formati, riprese dal vivo integrali, missaggi originali, alternativi o di varie epoche successive, e l'ormai tradizionale messe di immagini, testi, poster e materiali d'archivio. Lo si può prenotare tramite Burning Shed in vista dell'uscita a metà ottobre 2014.

Limited to a single pressing run, Starless offers an in-depth overview of King Crimson's celebrated mid-1970's live line-up at its most exploratory. The 27 disc set includes 19 CDs of live material from 1973/74 UK and EU performances, 1 CD of studio material and 3 bonus audio CDs. In addition, Starless includes 2 DVD-A discs and 2 Blu-Ray discs of studio and live material in hi-res stereo, quad and 5.1 surround. Presented in a 12" box with a comprehensive booklet, memorabilia, and album and poster prints.

https://www.burningshed.com/store/kingcrimson/product/313/6012
http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=4766

Box antologico di pregio per Pascal Comelade, con cinque album in vinile che gettano luce sugli anni dei suoi esordi e della sua infatuazione per l'elettronica - allora sull'esempio di Richard Pinhas con Schizo ed Heldon - precedente a quella, ben più duratura, per gli strumenti giocattolo. C'è anche il primo concerto della Bel Canto Orquestra (con Pierre Bastien), a Montpellier il 28 ottobre 1983. My Degeneration - Electronics 1974-1983, prodotto da Vinyl-on-Demand.

Pascal Comelade is a French-Catalan musician, born in 1955 in Montpellier. Comelade began making strange cover songs of rock and easy listening standards with such instruments as singing saw, toy piano etc. He later developed an unconfoundable style, co-operated with artists like Robert Wyatt, Faust, Jac Berrocal, and PJ Harvey, and even has a tribute band in Japan, the Pascals. After living for several years in Barcelona in the early/mid 70's, he made his first album, "Fluences", influenced by electronic music and the group Heldon. Subsequently, his music has become more acoustic and is characterized by the sounds of toy instruments, used as solo-instruments and as an integral part of the sound of his group, the Bel Canto Orquestra. This box is presents his earlier works with focus on his electronic tracks from 1974 to 1983 on LP 1 to LP 4 and includes his first concert with the Bel Canto Orquestra from 1983 on LP 5.

http://www.vinyl-on-demand.com/-1-18-477.htm
http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=5626375
http://www.because.tv/shop/Pascal-Comelade
http://vivonzeureux.fr/Pages/pidgcomeladisco.html

Non solo a Londra e Huddersfield. Ci sarà una terza occasione per ricordare Lindsay Cooper e ascoltarne le musiche interpretate da quattro leggendarie formazioni per le quali scrisse e in cui militò: Henry Cow, Music For Films, News From Babel e Oh Moscow. Il prossimo 23 novembre a Forlì, al teatro Diego Fabbri.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Area-Sismica/189048501115176

Aggiunge un altro capitolo, il terzo, alla sua originalissima collana di Standards il gruppo più geniale e bugiardo mai guidato in tanti anni da Bill Wells, The National Jazz Trio of Scotland. Non è un trio, non è pienamente scozzese, non suona jazz e neanche standards comunemente intesi: "Well it’s partly a nod towards the more standard way of songwriting, although structurally most of these songs aren’t actually written in a similar way,” dice Wells. “To me the best ideas are strong melodies on interesting changes, going back to the classic songwriters. It’s a pretty old fashioned idea and I don’t think that it’s the way that most people write these days when using computers.”
Fa da apripista un video, con le belle animazioni di Marry Waterson, geniale e bugiardo anch'esso: Surprising Word o invece Word Is Like an Egg?

https://www.facebook.com/NJTOS
http://www.karaokekalk.de/standards-vol-3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4_NxGMu80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs43-8yHLF8
www.marrywaterson.com

Nel corso della puntata di domani sera del programma della BBC Jazz on 3, che proporrà una sorta di ricognizione della nuova scena jazz in Scozia, interverrà il 'veterano' Ken Hyder per una breve intervista anche in riferimento al suo storico gruppo Talisker, tornato recentemente in attività come trio con Maggie Nicols e Raymond MacDonald.

www.kenhyder.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dqf6z

Una porzione dell'infuocato concerto dato il 14 maggio scorso al londinese Cafe Oto dal quartetto di Louis Moholo-Moholo - con Alexander Hawkins, Jason Yarde e John Edwards - è in un filmato pubblicato su YouTube.
Richard Williams ricorda con entusiasmo quella sera in un post del suo blog The Blue Moment: "All four musicians seemed to be operating at a level where personal freedom and group interdependence achieve a perfect unity. The way they negotiated the transitions made it very hard indeed to believe that they have played only a handful of gigs as a unit, with Moholo and Hawkins keeping a particularly sharp eye on each other as visual and verbal cues were exchanged. Yarde, who started both sets on a black-lacquered baritone saxophone before moving up the registers to alto and soprano, was consistently impressive, channelling the spirits of Bird and Dudu through his broad-grained sound. And what a treat it was to hear the mighty Edwards slip into passages of driving, huge-toned 4/4, walking his lines like Paul Chambers or Leroy Vinnegar. You need big chops and big ears to play like this, and an even bigger heart."

http://thebluemoment.com/2014/05/14/blown-away-in-dalston
http://www.londonjazznews.com/2014/05/louis-moholo-moholo-quartet-at-cafe-oto.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76nH21Muo24

Si tiene questa sera a Londra all'Epic (in Dalston, 13-15 Stoke Newington Road) uno speciale concerto in favore di Kenny Wheeler, in un periodo per lui di forzata inattività e di seri problemi di salute. Coordina l'iniziativa l'amico e collega Evan Parker, che ha convocato tra gli altri Steve Beresford, Mark Sanders, Phil Wachsmann e John Coxon.

Problems with his own and his wife’s health have meant that, at the age of 84, Kenny Wheeler has been unable to play for some months. For his benefit, his old friend and colleague Evan Parker has organised a concert tomorrow night - Friday, August 15 - at a place called Epic, a stone’s throw from the Vortex and Cafe Oto. The gig will feature the altoist Ray Warleigh’s quartet, a group with Parker, Steve Beresford, Olie Brice and Mark Sanders, the Alison Blunt Ensemble (including the violinists Dylan Bates and Phil Wachsmann), and Reuben Fowler’s big band playing some of Kenny’s charts. Kenny won’t be playing, but John Coxon of Spring Heel Jack - with whom he also recorded to great effect - will be at the turntable between the sets, playing some of his records and reminding us of his audacious imagination, as well as the purity of tone and elegance of articulation that put him alongside Booker Little in a line of trumpeters stretching from Joe Wilder to Ambrose Akinmusire.

https://www.facebook.com/events/303047576533443

https://www.facebook.com/epicdalston

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2014/08/news-evan-parker-and-reuben-fowler-big.html

http://thebluemoment.com/2014/08/14/a-benefit-for-kenny-wheeler
http://inconstantsol.blogspot.it/2014/08/parkerguylytton-kenny-wheeler-1994.html

C'erano anche Chris Cutler e Tim Hodgkinson nelle fila dell'Hyperion International Ensemble a interpretare composizioni di Iancu Dumitrescu e Ana-Maria Avram al George Enescu International Festival a Bucarest l'anno scorso, il 15 settembre 2013. A dirigere, alla presenza degli autori, il talentuoso e tenace Ilan Volkov. Da quel concerto provengono un cd per Edition Modern (ED.MN. 1032) e un paio di video su YouTube.

A frequent guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Ilan Volkov works regularly with a wide range of ensembles, including the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Oslo Philharmonic, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg and Ensemble Modern. His many recordings with the BBC SSO include two CDs of Stravinsky’s ballet scores, a Gramophone Award-winning disc of Britten’s complete works for piano and orchestra with Steven Osborne, and a survey of Liszt’s three Funeral Odes. His CD of works by Jonathan Harvey, Body Mandala, received a Gramophone Award in 2008, and the release of Harvey’s Speakings won the Monaco Prize and the Prix Caecilia de l’Union de la Presse Musicale Belge in 2001. Ilan Volkov is one of the guiding forces behind Levontin 7. This performance venue, among the most adventurous in Tel Aviv, brings together diverse genres, including classical, jazz, electronic and rock music. The enterprise reflects his determination to keep alive the creative spirit and sense of artistic adventure that shaped so many works composed during the opening decades of the last century.

http://www.festivalenescu.ro/en
http://www.festivalenescu.ro/en/artists/ilan-volkov
http://www.spectralmusic.org/Anamariaavram/EDITION_MODERN.html
http://www.spectralmusic.org/Hyperion/Welcome.html
https://www.youtube.com/user/AmplecatTV

Si va definendo sempre più l'assetto dell'appuntamento RIO Japan 2014 dell'autunno prossimo, dieci concerti a Tokyo-Shibuya nei giorni 15 e 16 novembre: un sito web (anche in lingua inglese) condensa ora tutte le informazioni su programma, musicisti e gruppi partecipanti, organizzazione, viaggi e accoglienza. C'è anche un messaggio benaugurale di Chris Cutler, con un richiamo al contesto storico nel quale nacque e si compì l'esperienza originale di Rock in Opposition, e un garbato appello a riutilizzarne oggi il nome con cautela: "It's great to see the name RIO taken up again, first in France and now in Japan. The form is changed of course; back then it was a musician-led exercise in self-sufficiency fighting for new musical forms and independence from the institutions; now it is recast as a celebration of those times and those bands, and of the music they inspired. Although RIO ended in 1980 - when its work was effectively done - a new understanding of that history, slowly percolated through three decades, has collected around the name, giving it a new meaning and a new life. Which, I suppose, is the way it should be. RIO ceased to be ours long ago; now it's yours. Take care with it."

http://www.rockinopposition-japan.com

http://www.rockinopposition-japan.com/contents_cc_message_en.html
http://www.ccutler.com/ccutler/interviews/interview.v.montanari.shtml

Bell'album di Richard Thompson, con brani antichi e recenti eseguiti da solo, alla chitarra acustica, senza artifizi e con la notoria sublime maestria: Acoustic Classics (Beeswing, 2014). Dice: "This was conceived to be something to sell at acoustic shows. I don't really have anything on the merchandise table that is representative of a solo show, so I went in the studio and revisited some of the more popular songs I play live. In most cases, these are acoustic versions of songs that were originally recorded electric, and there have never been acoustic studio versions, just some live recordings, where I wasn't always satisfied with the sound or the performance. Also, some of these songs are 45 years old. I sing them and feel about them differently, and it's nice to capture the evolution."

http://richardthompson-music.com
http://www.noozhawk.com/article/jeff_moehlis_richard_thompson_acoustic_and_electric
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2014/07/richard-thompson-acoustic-classics
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/mix_201408/#/18

Esce dal limbo (o paradiso?) delle registrazioni rare e inedite, note e care agli appassionati anche se non accolte (ancora) nella discografia ufficiale o autorizzata dall'artista, un importante documento riguardante i primi passi della carriera di Joni Mitchell, Live at the Second Fret 1966, registrato in un piccolo club di Philadelphia un paio d'anni prima dell'incisione nel 1968 del suo primo album.

In 1966, Joni Mitchell was two years away from recording her first album, and she was just another contemporary folksinger looking for her break when she was booked to play the Second Fret, then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's premiere folk venue. While Mitchell wasn't yet a star, she had already written a handful of great songs that would go on to become classics (including Both Sides Now, The Circle Game, Song to a Seagull, and Urge for Going) and knew how to deliver them with the skill and confidence of a master performer. Live at the Second Fret 1966 is a document of one of Mitchell's Philadelphia performances, and while the audio is less than perfect (it previously circulated as a bootleg), it delivers a fascinating portrait of one of the great singer/songwriters of the '70s on the cusp of stardom. Here Mitchell's vocals and guitar work are sure and emotionally effective, and her personality retains a bubbliness and youthful sincerity that contrasts with the sometimes dour tone of her songs. For fans curious about Joni Mitchell's early days as a musician, Live at the Second Fret 1966 reveals the talent was clearly there long before she was embraced by the mass audience.

Nel frattempo, il volume lungamente annunciato con la trascrizione per chitarra di molte canzoni - incluso ogni prezioso dettaglio circa le mitiche accordature, oltre una quarantina, inventate e adottate nel corso degli anni - ha visto finalmente la luce: Joni Mitchell Complete So Far.

After decades of waiting, the definitive Joni Mitchell guitar songbook is here! Joni Mitchell Complete So Far contains 167 songs spanning her entire career, transcribed accurately and including the authentic tunings Joni explored throughout her artistic development. To make it easier to navigate the tunings - absolutely integral to any student of Joni Mitchell's guitar work - this book also includes a very clear and easy-to-use tuning index, and an in-depth article on Joni's evolution as a guitarist. Hardcover and featuring an impressive all-color photo section, the songbook culls the best work from the following albums: Song to a Seagull, Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, For the Roses, Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, Night Ride Home, Turbulent Indigo, Hits, Taming the Tiger, and Shine.

http://jonimitchell.com
http://www.bobdylanisis.com/contents/en-uk/p629.html
http://jonimitchell.com/library/viewmedia.cfm?id=104
http://www.alfred.com/samplepages/00-40964.pdf

Due inediti documenti di archivio riportano all'attenzione la vibrante forza di Phil Ochs in concerto: A Hero of the Game, registrato per la radio newyorkese WBAI nel dicembre 1965 con canzoni all'epoca ancora quasi tutte inedite, e Live Again!, ripreso dal vivo in East Lansing (Michigan) nella primavera 1973.
Le canzoni e l'esempio di Ochs, rilanciati da interpreti di diversa generazione, sono tuttora oggetto delle iniziative promosse fin dal 1983 dalla sorella, Sonny, e note con il nome Phil Ochs Song Nights.

http://www.nomoresongs.com
http://www.sonnyochs.com/remembering.html
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs
http://philochsthing.wordpress.com
http://philochs.tumblr.com
http://tinyurl.com/philochs-YT
http://philochs.pitas.com

Paul Dunmall in azione dal vivo in due occasioni nel 1986: a Birmingham, con Keith Tippett, Chris Bolton e Tony Levin, e al Band on the Wall di Manchester con il suo trio DAM - con Tony Moore e Dave Alexander - e Tippett loro ospite. Presso Inconstant Sol.

http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mdunmall.html
http://www.mindyourownmusic.co.uk/paul-dunmall.htm
http://keith-tippett-paul-dunmall-chris-bolton.html
http://keith-tippett-meets-dam-band-on-wall.html

David Thomas ricorda Lindsay Cooper con uno scritto che apparirà nel programma dei concerti a lei dedicati il prossimo novembre a Londra e Huddersfield; l'episodio di Madrid su cui si sofferma era in parte già noto dalle note di copertina dell'antologico David Thomas, Monster.

"Lindsay Cooper was a tough old bird. There are testimonials galore to her talent. The most significant is the body of her work. But, at a certain level of the masonic Brotherhood of the Unknown, talent is a given. 'Yeah, that was a great performance but that's what you're paid to do.' Deeper within the Order is a quality that endures and speaks to the heart. Lindsay was a tough old bird.
In the mid 80s, I had a trio that probably went by various names, mostly David Thomas and the Pedestrians. It was me, Lindsay and Chris Cutler. Voice, bassoon/sax, and drums. It was a surprisingly good listen, but far from conventional. We were booked to play in Madrid two nights. It turned out to be a disco. The doors would open only after all the bars shut. The first night, we waited in a narrow 'dressing room' that was filthy beyond words. The flooring was sticky way past the point of being adhesive. Roaches and unidentifiable insects ran riot. Any time your eye rested on a spot on the wall, or floor, it moved. The smell was unique. The support was a Spanish cliche-punk band. The air compressed with every ill-timed foot drum beat. The audience had achieved a uniform post-drunkenness before we stepped on stage. We did the show, manfully enduring, manfully excelling, manfully uncompromised. It hurt bad. In the 'dressing room' afterwards someone said, "We get to do this all over again tomorrow." The promoter swore up and down that the support band for the second night is much more "simpatico." Very simpatico. He kept saying it. We arrive as the support is finishing sound check. There are twelve of them on stage. The music is 80s Euro-pop of the worst kind. They are all made up to look like Adolph Hitler.
So, when I think of Lindsay, I remember Madrid. She was one for the trenches. You could count on her when the going got rough. Her art endured through the pain. Chris, Lindsay and I will always have Madrid."

http://www.ubuprojex.com
http://tinyurl.com/lc-london
http://tinyurl.com/lc-huddersfield

E l'album Rock Bottom di Robert Wyatt è stato festeggiato anche nella puntata di lunedì scorso del bel programma Curve Ball, condotto come ogni settimana da Chris Evans per Stafford Radio, una web radio che ha il suo quartier generale presso il secolare mulino a vento Broad Eye Windmill nello Staffordshire (Regno Unito).

http://www.mixcloud.com/radioshoes/curve-ball-august-4-2014
http://www.staffordradio.com

Questa a quanto pare la scaletta del concerto Le monde de Robert Wyatt proposto lo scorso 12 luglio al festival Les Nuits de Fourvière di Lione (Francia): The British Road, O Caroline, Free Will & Testament, Maryan, God Song, Forest, Shipbuilding, Pigs (In There), un medley di temi wyattiani proposto da Pascal Comelade e Ivan Telefunken, l'intero Rock Bottom nella sequenza originale - Sea Song, A Last Straw, Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road, Alifib, Alife, Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road - e come bis I’m a Believer e di nuovo O Caroline.

Une soirée de rêve nous a transportés dans la recherche musicale de Robert Wyatt, génie incontesté, fondateur de Soft Machine et de Matching Mole, et créateur d’une trajectoire personnelle extraordinaire. Craig Fortnam a dirigé un concert-hommage à cette merveilleuse figure de la musique britannique et, à l’aide de Elise Caron, John Greaves, Pascal Comelade, Silvain Vanot, Ivan Telefunken, a bâti un des moments les plus intenses du festival Les Nuits de Fourvière. "Thank you for bringing a breath of fresh air to my music. To hear it played by other musicians makes me feel like a grandfather. It’s now leading a life of its own – but we, the grandparents, we also see ourselves in it somehow. It's a wonderful feeling." (Robert Wyatt)

https://www.infoconcert.com/le-monde-de-robert-wyatt
https://www.disco-robertwyatt.com/Robert/quarante_ans

Nuova riedizione su etichetta Alucard e in vari formati - cd, vinile, dvd e Blu-Ray - dell'ambizioso album del 1974 dei Gentle Giant, The Power and The Glory. Ci sono materiali aggiuntivi, inediti, rarità e animazioni video, oltre alla versione audio originale e quella in alta definizione con effetto surround com'è tradizione degli interventi - discutibili - di remix di Steven Wilson. E' lui il principale istigatore dell'operazione, che certamente prelude ad altre incursioni nel catalogo del Gigante.
In proposito ha dichiarato di recente Derek Shulman: "For whatever reason Wilson was enamored by our band who in fact hadn't performed and hasn't performed since probably about 1980, so that's thirty four years. He kept asking my brother, who has worked with him on several projects, "If you have the original 24 tracks, please let me remix some albums of yours. I think I can help put a little edge on some things that you might want to have had back in the day and you didn't have time for, etc." We figured, look, he's a very good musician, a guy who we admire, so I said, "Hey, listen Steven, give it a shot, whatever you want to do. Make it the way you want to do it." We gave him the tapes. We actually had them back in our possession from our license, so we actually own the masters. He basically kept pretty true to what the original style was but amplified and expanded it all with bits and pieces of things we wouldn't have done back in the day. It came from him, that's the bottom line. We would never have touched it. He was the propagator of this release and others, which are forthcoming."

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/The_Power_and_the_Glory
https://www.burningshed.com/store/gentlegiant
https://rockronologia.blogspot.com/power-and-glory-gentle-giant.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/a-conversation-with-cbs.html

Per commemorare gli esordi della Grande Guerra, il programma radiofonico della BBC Jazz on 3 trasmette questa sera per intero - ed è la prima volta - la sezione conclusiva di uno dei capolavori di Mike e Kate Westbrook, London Bridge is Broken Down (1988). Il brano è Picardie, della durata di circa quaranta minuti: "The sixth and final movement of London Bridge is Broken Down, Picardie is a meditation on the horror of War, on the history of the region, on the devastation of the landscape, and its regeneration.  Mike Westbrook’s score for a mixed jazz and classical ensemble combines orchestration and improvisation, and encompasses settings of French and English texts, selected and sung by Kate Westbrook. These include the work of poets Rene Arcos, Siegfried Sassoon, Andrée Chedid, and an anonymous 12th Century Picard text."

Divided sons, fight on, fight on,

You lacerate humanity

And tear the earth apart in vain,

The dead are all on the same side.

Under the earth no more than one,

One field, one single hope, abide,

As for the universe can only be

One combat and one victory.

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/londonbridge/index.shtml
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/picardie/index.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cfb60

Rara esibizione in piena luce del giorno per il gruppo di Roger e Réginald Trigaux Present, ospiti a Bad Doberan (Germania) della venticinquesima edizione del festival Zappanale, quest'anno felicemente salutata da grande affluenza di pubblico e ottime condizioni meteo. Un estratto è su YouTube.

Unter der strengen Regie des Bandchefs Roger Trigaux, der mittlerweile von einer Krankheit gezeichnet ist, die seine Motorik so beeinträchtigt, dass er auf einen Rollstuhl angewiesen ist und kaum noch Gitarre spielt, dafür mit Taktstock dirigiert, erzeugen Bläser, Cello, Schlagzeug, Gitarre und Keyboards wilden, expressiven Jazzrock. Die düstere, sehr komplexe Musik hat unglaublich viele Ecken und Kanten, disharmonische Wendungen, freitonale Einflüsse und ‚schräge’ Noten, die in wundersamem Arrangement zu Musik wachsen, wie sie wahrhaft selten ist. Diese enorme Dichte, der kraftvolle Ausdruck und die jederzeit spürbare Lust der Musiker an ihrer Arbeit, der faszinierende Groove in allen vertrackten, verrenkten und verzückten Takten und Rhythmen muss erlebt werden. Nach Konzerten der Band ist die Stimmung im Publikum stets aufgewühlt – das Konzertereignis musste endlich zur Zappanale eingeladen werden.

http://www.zappanale.de
http://www.rocktime.org/present/index-flash.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcRivhc_Ovc

Due documenti dal vivo pressoché integrali, audio e video, segnalano le recenti partecipazioni della Sun Ra Arkestra diretta da Marshall Allen al Primavera Sound di Barcelona (lo scorso 29 maggio) e al Moers Festival (il 7 giugno).

Sun Ra – visionary, mystic, poet, angel, pianist and jazz arranger extraordinaire – might have departed this planet over 20 years ago, but his spirit and musical influence still reverberate today. The 25-piece Arkestra, with 90 year old alto saxophonist Marshall Allen at the helm, continues to travel the spaceways playing all around the world and spreading Ra’s myth far and wide. From barber shop harmonies and big band swing, to freeform electronics and New York noise, to Black Panthers, Walt Disney covers, space chants and the original unquantized snare: we’re still just catching up with Sun Ra’s vision. The Arkestra, featuring long time members such as trumpeter Michael Ray, and Danny Ray Thompson on woodwinds, continues to honour Sun Ra’s memory with their intergalactic theatre, complete with resplendent gowns, Ancient Egyptian mythologies, and cosmic jazz equations."

www.sunraarkestra.com
www.rbmaradio.com/shows/sun-ra-arkestra-live-at-primavera-sound-2014
http://concert.arte.tv/de/moers-festival-2014-sun-ra-arkestra

John Doran intervista Annette Peacock a proposito della recente riedizione del suo avventuroso - e avveniristico - primo album, Revenge. E di molto altro, naturalmente. Sul cambio di titolo deciso per l'occasione - I Belong To A World That's Destroying Itself, da uno dei brani - dichiara Annette: "I think it's a current statement to make even though the record was recorded about 45 years ago. It was a prophetic statement at the time and it is relevant now. You know, I've achieved everything I've set out to achieve in my life except for two things. One is getting the timing right; getting something out that is appreciated at its time of release because if it's not I don't care much about it later on. It has no meaning to me then. And the other thing is being able to release records whenever I like. It takes a lot of money to release records and I have to live very humbly. And that's OK as long as I have freedom. Sometimes I think that the world awards mediocrity more than it awards originality. That's a dispute I have with myself though and it's not based on anything that's relevant to anyone else though."
L'intervista è per la rivista on-line The Quietus.

This is Annette Peacock's extraordinary first solo album - and historically the first known instance of a vocalist singing through synthesizers - recorded 1968-69. This album embodies a kind of unique territory that after over four decades still sounds audacious. It was originally titled Revenge and finally released on LP in 1971 under the group name Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show. Ms. Peacock has retitled it I Belong To A World That's Destroying Itself for this 2014 edition, the first appearance of this album on any media in 43 years, and also its worldwide CD debut, which includes two previously unreleased bonus cuts. Ms. Peacock personally remixed and oversaw the digital mastering of this reissue, and has released it on her own Ironic Records US label. Its still rough (in 1968, engineers had no experience recording bands with synthesizers played in real time alongside the other players), and tough, unabashed vanguardist attitude is Annette Peacock's ecological electronica, pre-punk prophecy. As well, it contains the first recorded version of one of her mainstay anthems, I'm The One, which was subsequently re-recorded for her more widely-known legendary 2nd album of the same name released in 1972. 

http://www.annettepeacock.com

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/apeacock5

http://thequietus.com/articles/15423-annette-peacock-interview