Oppure si può tuffarsi in un classico sicuro e goderselo - da soli o in compagnia - fino al culmine del San Silvestro: A Symphony of Amaranths, trionfo di Neil Ardley nei primissimi anni Settanta, ancora assai valido. Consiglio da amico. Ciao!

Un 2017 carico di soddisfazioni per The Unthanks si è concluso nei giorni scorsi con una sorta di occupazione - forse del tutto casuale - degli spazi radiofonici della BBC, con diffusione quasi simultanea presso vari programmi e vari canali di interviste, resoconti, pareri e scelte musicali, anticipazioni di futuri progetti e un corposo estratto da uno degli ultimi strepitosi concerti in formazione orchestrale con l'Army Of Generals diretta da Charles Hazlewood. Si ritrova ancora tutto negli archivi web della radio, con qualche complemento video su YT:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09hz65k
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09gkpn7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09h82dm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mLN_DCRot8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YNbsuewMUY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HUpi3iktLE

Mike Westbrook commenta la recente scomparsa del regista Peter Duffell (1922-2017) ripescando un frammento della colonna sonora del film TV Caught on a Train, prodotto per la BBC nel 1980, cui contribuì in modo significativo con la sua Brass Band: in formazione con lui c'erano allora Kate Westbrook, Chris Biscoe, Alan Wakeman, Phil Minton, Brian Godding, Georgie Born, Steve Cook e Dave Barry.

For a television drama, Caught on a Train displays a particularly filmic sensibility. The influence of Hitchcock (notably The Lady Vanishes, 1938) is evident throughout, from the gradual accumulation of mysterious and often insignificant details, to the claustrophobic atmosphere on the train. Poliakoff plays on the anxieties and sense of insecurity that rail travellers experience as they find themselves adrift, somewhere between home and their destination. However, the drama balances this foreboding by acknowledging the romance associated with train travel - the relative freedom, the opportunities for chance encounters and the sense of liberation from external communication such as telephone and letters (at least in 1980). The jazzy score by Mike Westbrook perfectly complements the atmospheric images of urban European landscapes, reflecting the inner feelings of the main characters, while the use of contemporary music from the likes of Blondie clearly locates the piece in its time.

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/caught.shtml

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/20/peter-duffell-obituary
http://www.stephenpoliakoff.com/caught-on-a-train-1980
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNtgnX5mSbg
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/523306/index.html

Andy Partridge parla della progressiva riedizione dello storico catalogo XTC - cui si è aggiunto di recente lo splendido Black Sea - e di alcune sue pubblicazioni che vedranno la luce nel 2018, tra cui una selezione di brani sparsi scritti e offerti ad altri artisti negli ultimi dieci anni. Parla soprattutto della partecipazione all'album d'anniversario dei Monkees, Good Times! (Rhino, 2016): lo fa con gli esperti di Zilch!, nel loro ultimo podcast dell'anno.

https://twitter.com/xtcfans
http://zilchmonkeescast.blogspot.it/2017/12/zilch-108-andy-partridge-talks-monkees.html

Da Portland (Stati Uniti) giunge documentazione audio e video di un concerto tenuto il mese scorso in omaggio a Robert Wyatt, con riletture strumentali di Gharbzadegi, Catholic Architecture e Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road offerte tra le altre cose dal gruppo Dialectic Flowers, con il contributo di alcuni ospiti e un piccolo aiuto da Annie Whitehead per le partiture. E' una delle tante iniziative di Jason T Ingram, volonteroso agitatore socio-culturale a Milwaukie, nell'Oregon, zappiano appassionato di ambient e strategie oblique, space-jazz e prog-rock, presente con vari alias e nomignoli presso i principali social media e tramite questi assurto a modesta celebrità di recente per una dinamica versione karaoke di Bad Alchemy (in furgoncino).

https://dialecticflowers.com
https://www.facebook.com/jasontingram
https://soundcloud.com/dialecticflowers/westernitis
https://soundcloud.com/dialecticflowers/lovingly-lacerated-hands

Con una T-shirt, una felpa, una canottiera, un coffee mug o la custodia dell'i-Phone: se vuoi che ti lascino ascoltare il tuo Robert Wyatt in santa pace - a Natale, Santo Stefano, o qualsiasi giorno dell'anno - oggi hai un modo in più per dirlo: https://pro.teechip.com/Robert-Wyatt

Robert Wyatt è apparso già più volte nelle visioni del videoartista norvegese Morten Sørlie. Questo Natale, però, un'autentica Rivelazione!

https://www.facebook.com/Morten Sørlie

Non solo addobbi natalizi. Jayne Cooper avrebbe un paio di idee per un suo Wyatt nello studio, o forse in salottino...

https://art.tt/3c6z

Torna ovviamente attuale ad ogni Natale il Santa Dog dei Residents, ma quest'anno ce n'è una versione nuova nuova: Santa Dog ’17. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bong...

It all started in 1972 with The Residents’ Santa Dog EP. Keeping up with tradition is rarely something considered by The Residents. However, when it comes to their seminal first release, they seem to have the penchant for going back to this composition and re-imagining it for whatever new era they happen to be in at the time. Having recomposed Santa Dog at least 8 times since its original conception, the tune(s) serve as a touchstone for The Residents and fans, that originally represented the naivete of the young band but now shows how they have grown as artists over the decades. They felt it was important to once again deconstruct and reconstruct Santa Dog after gaining 2 new members and reaching yet another milestone in their career–nearly 50 years of art.

http://residents.com/historical/?page=santadog

https://www.psychofonrecords.com/product/residents-santa-dog-17

Al concerto di Mike Westbrook con la Uncommon Orchestra a Birmingham qualche sera fa c'era John Watson, che ne ha scritto per LondonJazz. C'era anche Matthew North - beh certo, lui con la Uncommon ci suona! - che al suo spazio FB ha pubblicato un paio di brevi estratti, un passaggio dalle prove tecniche, e un accenno di Gas, Dust, Stone. Quel che tanto ha impressionato il succitato Watson: "Mike Westbrook brought his spectacular 20-piece Uncommon Orchestra to the Blue Orange Theatre in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, for a concert presented by Birmingham Jazz. Since the composer recorded such powerful albums as Celebration (Deram, 1967), Marching Song (Deram,1969) and Metropolis (RCA Neon, 1971), his music has undergone constant evolution, embracing song and theatre as well as improvised and orchestrated jazz. The lyrics for his current project A Bigger Show come, as usual, from his singer wife Kate Westbrook, who brings a strong sense of a Pinteresque theatre-of-the-absurd to Westbrook performances, with some witty words and confident communication with the audience. I must admit, though, that I do wish that the lyrics could sometimes be ruthlessly edited. I think that the interminably repeated mantra “Gas . . dust . . . stone” (from the song of the same name) will be engraved on my brain for months to come, like some demonic earworm."

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2017/12/review-mike-westbrook
https://www.facebook.com/northmatthews
http://ukvibe.org/excursions/2017-excursions/mike-westbrook-uncommon-orchestra

Flexible Flyer

(Roswell Rudd, 1935-2017)

Avrebbe compiuto novant'anni pochi giorni fa Pierre Henry, scomparso quest'anno a inizio luglio: a rendergli omaggio c'è ora l'antologico Polyphonies (Decca, 2017), un bel cofanetto di dodici cd con un libro di saggi e una selezione di opere storiche e recenti, alcune inedite, riviste e ritoccate personalmente dal Maestro.

Pour marquer son 90e anniversaire du 9 décembre 2017, Pierre Henry avait élaboré une édition discographique nouvelle de 12 CD réunissant une sélection d’œuvres composées entre 1950 et 2016. Ce coffret intitulé Polyphonies comprend 29 œuvres dont 9 inédites et met en valeur son travail de compositeur, son attachement à la tradition savante, à ses maîtres et à un vrai travail d’écriture. Ces disques ne rivaliseront peut-être pas avec l’extraordinaire expérience sensorielle qu’était un concert donné par Pierre Henry, mais ces odyssées fascinantes, fixées par l’enregistrement, conservent pourtant l’essentiel de leur géniale et profuse imagination sonore et architecturale. Toutes les œuvres de ce coffret ont été remastérisées spécialement pour cette édition au Studio Son/Ré par Pierre Henry en 2016.

https://www.universalmusic.fr/4411-le-coffret-polyphonies.html
https://www.discogs.com/Pierre-Henry-Polyphonies/release/11240786
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpu0BTOGh2s

Il 2017 di Cuneiform Records verrà ricordato soprattutto per lo splendido box antologico dedicato agli Art Zoyd (44 1​/​2: Live And Unreleased Works), un documento indispensabile nella discografia del gruppo e uno sforzo produttivo senza precedenti per l'etichetta, dagli esiti eccellenti. Non sono mancati però altri titoli di grande interesse, ad opera di nomi storici in catalogo e di nuove formazioni internazionali: Raoul Björkenheim / eCsTaSy (Doors of Perception), Bubblemath (Edit Peptide), Cheer-Accident (Putting Off Death), Chicago / London Underground (A Night Walking Through Mirrors), The Great Harry Hillman (Tilt), The Microscopic Septet (Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues), Miriodor (Signal 9), doppia pubblicazione per The Ed Palermo Big Band (il doppio The Great Un​-​American Songbook: Volumes I & II e l'esilarante The Adventures of Zodd Zundgren), Schnellertollermeier (Rights) e l'attesissimo Thinking Plague (Hoping Against Hope). Di tutti c'è traccia nella compilazione regalo offerta presso Bandcamp: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cuneiform-records-the-albums-of-2017

Anche ReR Megacorp ha molti titoli in offerta - ma stabilmente, a prescindere da Natale o Capodanno - cui si aggiungono in queste settimane nuove uscite, diverse rarità, vari altri materiali in distribuzione e importanti pubblicazioni antologiche in prenotazione per i primi mesi del 2018: gli aggiornamenti sono in http://www.rermegacorp.com

Ci sono oltre 250 titoli in offerta speciale da qui all'Epifania nel ricco catalogo di Dame / Ambiances Magnétiques a Montréal (Québec) - sono quelli contrassegnati dall'etichetta rossa - oltre a molti nuovi album freschi di stampa o di imminente pubblicazione: Jean Derome (Résistances), Bernard Falaise (Lézardes et zébrures), lo strepitoso Ensemble SuperMusique (Les porteuses d'Ô), Quatuor Bozzini, Political Ritual, Pierre Labbé, Michel F. Côté con Xavier Charles e Frank Hautzinger tra i titolari.

http://www.actuellecd.com
http://www.actuellecd.com/en/boutique/special/etiquette_rouge
https://www.facebook.com/Dame.Actuelle

Ultima occasione dell'anno per vedere in azione Mike Westbrook e la Uncommon Orchestra con il formidabile A Bigger Show: domani a Birmingham (Regno Unito), al Blue Orange Theatre. Nell'attesa si può leggere un'intervista condotta da Christoph Wagner in occasione della partecipazione dei Westbrook al festival svizzero Unerhört 2017 pochi giorni fa, dove ne è stata presentata una speciale versione adattata per ensemble di giovani studenti delle superiori: https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/seiltanzen-zwischen-e-und-u-ld.1330189

Eine Woche Zeit zum Proben hatte sich Westbrook erbeten, damit er mit den Musikstudenten in das grossformatige Werk eintauchen kann, das keiner konventionellen Big-Band-Partitur gleicht. Vielmehr spiegelt es Westbrooks ganz eigene Philosophie wider, die flexibel in der Anwendung und Besetzung ist. Ein mächtiger Bläsersatz gehört nun aber ebenso dazu wie eine schlagkräftige Rhythmusgruppe plus ein kleiner Solistenchor, der von Westbrooks Ehefrau, der Vokalistin Kate Westbrook, geleitet wird. "Es ist keine Komposition, bei der man nur die Noten spielen muss, und es haut hin", stellt Westbrook klar. "Man muss das Konzept verstehen".

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/news.shtml

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/bigband/index.shtml
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ufz6DWdFQ&feature=youtu.be

Le avventure nipponiche dei giorni scorsi dei prodi Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler e Yumi Hara Cawkwell sotto sigla The Watts sono documentate fotograficamente allo spazio FB di Yumi, dove sono in evidenza anche gli incontri con diversi musicisti e amici e alcune collaborazioni intrattenute per l'occasione. C'è anche un gustoso passaggio di Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road colto al volo durante una prova tecnica pomeridiana con Canterbury Favourites presso il Club Goodman a Tokyo-Akihabara; troppo breve per un pieno ascolto, ma si può provarne l'effetto in riproduzione continua:
https://www.facebook.com/yumi.cawkwell

Slapp Happy erano il mese scorso a Les Ateliers Claus, a Bruxelles, in un'inedita formazione a quattro con ospite Guigou Chenevier. Li hanno registrati la sera del concerto (e intervistati il giorno prima) gli attivisti di Radio Panik: http://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/moacrealsloa/slapp-happy-s-anthony-moore-peter-blegvad-interview

Con gli auguri di stagione - e l'invito all'ormai tradizionale lotteria in famiglia - Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin rivolgono ai propri fan due promesse per l'anno che verrà: un nuovo album - l'ultimo, Green and Blue, risale al 2009 - e addirittura un appuntamento dal vivo! Saranno con loro Andy Reynolds e Gavin Harrison, appena quest'ultimo si libera dal macigno crimsoniano, e si terrà a Londra, verso fine agosto; se chi pensa di andarci glielo fa sapere per tempo, scelgono pure il posto più adatto...

Scrivono: "Seasonal greetings, we hope you're keeping warm and well! A while ago we asked you to suggest suitable venues for a Stewart / Gaskin quartet UK gig and received a great response. Now we need your feedback again: we're planning a summer 2018 live quartet gig with Gavin Harrison on drums - the concert would take place in London on Friday August 24th 2018, and tickets will cost around £25. Although this is a long way off, we need to gauge interest in order to secure the right sized venue, so if you'd like to come along, please send an email to davebarblive@gmail.com with the subject line I'LL BE THERE and we'll alert you as soon as the date is confirmed. Apologies to those living outside London, but this is currently our most practical option in the UK."

http://www.davebarb.com

https://www.facebook.com/Dave-Stewart-Barbara-Gaskin-171696959516360

Doppia presentazione dell'album São Paulo Tapes - Brazilian Resistance Songs di Mônica Vasconcelos, prodotto da Robert Wyatt, con importanti concerti nelle scorse settimane a Londra e Berlino. Intervista e recensioni si trovano presso LondonJazz:
http://www.londonjazznews.com/2017/10/preview-interview
http://www.londonjazznews.com/2017/11/round-up-jazzfest-berlin

Altro programma speciale al Cafe Oto londinese è quello di questa sera, con la nuova presentazione dal vivo di Last, un recente lavoro di Caroline Kraabel sul tema più che mai drammatico e attuale - e a lei assai caro - dei migranti e dei confini. Il brano, che in passate esecuzioni ha visto coinvolti ensemble di varia configurazione, sempre piuttosto ampi - anche qui al Cafe Oto, a marzo l'anno scorso - si avvale della voce registrata di Robert Wyatt. Con Caroline stasera ci sono John Edwards, Maggie Nicols e Mark Sanders: "All of us are migrants or the descendants of migrants - people who moved to find something and to get away from something (the two ideas are just a switch of perspective apart). A while ago I wrote a song about some aspects of being a migrant, in order to make of it a longer piece for pre-recorded voice and improvising orchestra; Robert Wyatt agreed to record this short but very heartfelt song, which appears several times in various ways through the piece. The group will play Last in the first set and improvise in the second set. Takings from this event will be divided equally among the musicians and the refugee charity Care4Calais".

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/last-caroline-kraabel
https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/article/interview-caroline-kraabel
http://care4calais.org
http://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/calais

Speciale programma al Cafe Oto londinese questa sera, con protagonista quasi unico il clarinetto basso. Al plurale, con cinque interpreti d'eccezione: Tim Hodgkinson, Jason Alder, Heather Roche, Yoni Silver e Chris Cundy. Musiche di Ton de Leeuw, Georges Aperghis, Christian Wolff, Iancu Dumitrescu, Francisco Castillo, Michelle Lou, Rebecca Saunders, Luis Aguirre, Hannes Kerschbaumer e Thanos Chrysakis.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/music-for-bass-clarinets

Big Chief

(Sunny Murray, 1936-2017)

Col favore della superluna Matthew Watkins consegna l'ultimo episodio del 2017 del suo Canterbury Sans Frontières, con in serbo un particolare omaggio d'anniversario all'epopea psichedelica: "To commemorate the 50th anniversary of 1967, the middle hour of this episode features a mix of (British and US) psychedelia recorded in that watershed year, starting with the Soft Machine live at London's legendary Middle Earth that November, and including early instances of spacerock, acid-folk, heavy psych-rock and other flavours of the genre. Elsewhere in the programme we find Robert Wyatt in full Dada mode during his last full concert appearance (1974), a slab of classic 1970 Caravan, more Phil Miller (with In Cahoots and with Hugh Hopper), something from a late-period Lindsay Cooper dance score, an exquisite Kevin Ayers miniature and an extended tribute to Egg's late drummer Clive Brooks. From the Canterbury of now, a compilation track I'd overlooked from Koloto, a live studio session track from Syd Arthur and a very recent live recording from the Work8hop jazz octet, featuring pianist Frances Knight."

http://canterburywithoutborders.blogspot.com/2017/12/episode-53.html

Nuovo summit wyattiano a La Spezia, oggi alle 18.30 presso la libreria Liberi Tutti, per la presentazione del libro di Marcus O'Dair Different Every Time (Giunti 2015, per l'edizione italiana). Alessandro Achilli ne parla con Paolo Chang e Gian Paolo Ragnoli. E quale miglior compagnia?

http://www.giunti.it/libri/musica/biografia-di-robert-wyatt
https://www.facebook.com/librerialiberitutti
https://www.facebook.com/events/2004501353167734
http://www.lastampa.it/liberi-tutti-a-la-spezia
http://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/presentato+oggi+a+La+Spezia

Giusto in tempo per un primo assaggio della sua ironica autobiografia a spizzico vanno i nostri più affettuosi auguri a Bob Drake, nel giorno del suo sessantesimo compleanno. Cheers!

http://bdblog.bdrak.com

Esce oggi per ReR il nuovo atteso lavoro di Peter Blegvad con il suo Trio, che in verità dall'ultima volta (Hangman's Hill) si è fatto quintetto, con Bob Drake e Karen Mantler accolti a pieno titolo a fianco di John Greaves e Chris Cutler. Si intitola Go Figure, andrà anch'esso a far parte dell'antologico Bandbox il prossimo anno, ma intanto è anticipato da un singolo tutto da godersi via Bandcamp, con i brani Winner Came There None e Too Much rispettivamente - e virtualmente - lato A e lato B.

Annuncia Cutler: "After 19 years, the return of the Peter Blegvad Trio, in supernal form and now a quintet with Karen Mantler and Bob Drake. Recorded over 10 days at studio Midi-Pyrenees the old way: sitting in a room, working on arrangements, rehearsing a bit and then quickly recording to capture every nuance and interaction: your front seat in our hi-tech sitting room. The sound is the best so far, according to our friends - and the playing is organically elastic, giving form to a glittering chain of lapidary songs crafted by a master of the form. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll change your life and join the circus. It’s never too late."

https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/go-figure-the-single
tinyurl.com/yb56totv

Ha fatto un paio di tappe anche in Italia il giro europeo di concerti che ha visto Carla Bley ospite di persona del progetto Riverside di Dave Douglas ispirato a Jimmy Giuffre - con Chet Doxas, Jim Doxas e Steve Swallow - che proprio a lei ha dedicato il nuovo album, The New National Anthem, e insieme alla quale inciderà il prossimo. Un breve passaggio da Palermo lo scorso 18 novembre è su YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhitWfVaDeM

http://www.wattxtrawatt.com/nobigdeal.html
https://davedouglas.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-national-anthem
https://www.greenleafmusic.com/riverside-featuring-carla-bley-tours-europe
http://somethingelsereviews.com/2017/06/27/riverside

Si arricchisce di altri titoli il catalogo retrospettivo in digitale delle produzioni FMP distribuito da Destination Out, con protagonisti delle più recenti aggiunte Cecil Taylor, Xu Feng Xia, Sven-Åke Johansson, Alexander von Schlippenbach, la King Übü Örchestrü di Wolfgang Fuchs, Erhard Hirt da solo o in concerto con Phil Minton e John Butcher. Attenzione speciale merita certamente il recupero di un paio di opere del geniale Rüdiger Carl, Virtual Cowws e Book (1998), documenti di una stagione particolarmente fertile e gaia della scena improvvisata in Germania tra gli anni Ottanta e Novanta.

https://destination-out.bandcamp.com
http://www.fmp-label.de/freemusicproduction/musiker/carl.html

Quando da noi uscì per Materiali Sonori, quasi vent'anni fa, Sonora: John Zorn era più un libro di saggi su Zorn di autori vari in doppia lingua italiano-inglese con allegato un cd di inediti e brani rari raccolti e presentati da Eugene Chadbourne. Oggi lo ripropone la londinese Song Cycle Records in uno speciale box a tiratura limitata con enfasi sull'album - stavolta in vinile - con allegata copia del libro originale, a mo' di gadget, tale e quale (fermo cioè al 1998): Eugene Chadbourne & John Zorn, 1977-1981.

A collection of rare free-jazz pieces performed by John Zorn, composed and selected by the American guitarist and music critic Eugene Chadbourne. Come out in 1998 to accompany the book release Sonora: John Zorn (Materiali Sonori), the album is presented here for the first time in an exclusive release in limited edition on vinyl. The special issue includes the original book that features exclusive interviews, essays and photos about the artist’s entire oeuvre up to 1998.

http://eugenechadbourne.com/john-zorn-eugene-chadbourne-1977-1981

http://eugenechadbourne.com/portfolio/ec-john-zorn-1977-1981
https://materiali-sonori.myshopify.com/products/various-john-zorn-sonora
https://www.discogs.com/Eugene-Chadbourne-John-Zorn-1977-1981/release/1836556
https://www.discogs.com/it/Eugene-Chadbourne-John-Zorn-1977-1981/release/11046542
http://www.songcyclerecords.com/john-zorn-eugene-chadbourne

La questione è annosa, e per niente risolta, ma naturalmente c'è modo e modo di porla, e questo fa morir dal ridere. Solo nella versione con sottotitoli, però!

https://www.captiongenerator.com/98859/Booking-A-European-Tour

Non li vedeva da anni, li ha felicemente ritrovati ora a pochi giorni di distanza gli uni dagli altri, Caravan e Soft Machine: ne scrive al suo blog Phil Howitt.

https://canterburyscenecom.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/caravan-bury-met-arts-centre-18-november-2017
https://canterburyscenecom.wordpress.com/2017/11/24/soft-machine-band-on-the-wall-manchester-23-november-2017

Marvin Siau sottrae alla polvere degli anni una manciata di provini e inediti dispersi tra New York, Maiorca e Deia dagli amici Kevin Ayers, Ollie Halsall e Lady June, chiama il super esperto Martin Wakeling a raccontarne la storia, vi aggiunge qualcosina di suo, e consegna il tutto a Market Square Music: The Happening Combo.
Scrive Wakeling: “Kevin was blessed to be supported deeply, spiritually and artistically throughout stages of his career by the strength of crucial friendships and relationships that he forged. The survival of these demos and outtakes is due to the dedicated custodianship of Marvin Siau who wandered into Kevin’s concentric circles in 1980ish and never really left.”

http://marketsquaremusic.com/the-happening-combo

http://www.pmpr.co.uk/kevin-ayers-lady-june-ollie-halsall

Un prezioso frammento di un duetto tra Elton Dean e Howard Riley catturato d'estate a un festival jazz nell'Hertfordshire (Regno Unito) nel 1985: lo ha trasmesso a suo tempo la BBC, lo rilancia ora Miloš Latislav tramite Incostant Sol.

http://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/2017/11/howard-riley-elton-dean-pendley-manor.html

Lo spirito e le invenzioni del glorioso BBC Radiophonic Workshop fervono più che mai vivaci ed attuali nelle pratiche del Langham Research Centre - Felix Carey, Iain Chambers, Philip Tagney e Robert Worby - che pubblicano in questi giorni un primo splendido compendio del loro intendere e volere: Tape Works vol. 1, per la londinese Nonclassical.

Langham Research Centre came together in 2003 with the purpose of using a studio as their instrument: a studio with microphones and also, crucially, several ¼” tape machines. From the start they were interested in manipulating sound on tape and in focussing on one sound source, or a small number of sounds. Like an early music group’s use of historic instruments, LRC continue to work with obsolete equipment including tape recorders, gramophone cartridges and sine wave oscillators, to perform authentic versions of 20th century classic electronic repertoire by John Cage, Alvin Lucier and others. They also use this instrumentarium to compose new music, which is the focus of their recent release on Nonclassical, Tape Works Vol. 1. The album has a range of works from their early “musique concrète” miniatures to recent modular works of extended duration. It follows their 2014 release for Sub Rosa, Early Electronic and Tape Music, featuring LRC's new releases of John Cage's music. It documents the origins of Langham Research Centre as a late night experimental gathering in BBC Studios, through to their present day long-form radiophonic works including The Dark Tower, inspired by the life and work of Nikola Tesla, and Muffled Ciphers, inspired by J G Ballard’s most experimental novel The Atrocity Exhibition (1970). From doors to laughter, field recordings and found sound, nothing is out of bounds on this unique sonic journey.

http://www.langhamresearch.co.uk
http://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/search

https://www.nonclassical.co.uk/langham-research-centre
https://nonclassical.bandcamp.com/album/tape-works-vol-1

E su audiocassetta argentata, per ora in sole centocinquanta copie, esce anche il nuovo avvincente capitolo Denseland, il terzo dopo Chunk (Mosz, 2009) e Like, Likes, Like (M=minimal, 2013): si intitola Disco Dictionary e lo produce la danese Arbitrary. Loro sono sempre Hannes Strobl, Hanno Leichtmann e David Moss, qui in splendida forma.

Formed in 2008 by long time Berlin musician's bassist Hannes Strobl, percussionist Hanno Leichtmann and avant-garde vocalist David Moss, Denseland as a three headed ensemble jumps genres, timbres and times. Its sound exists in its own sealed universe - one spanned by sinister timbres of seduction, grooves of foreboding imbued with a sardonic, almost wicked humor. The new album Disco Dictionary straddles the borders between funk and post punk, experimental avant-garde and fractured down tempo techno, electronica and minimalist industrial. The tracks lure the listener in through an incessant, underlying, looping drive; a forwards moving groove and throbbing pulse that both pushes back and ensnares you simultaneously. Under its crystalline surface, Denseland’s music reveals contradictory undercurrents - unsettling noise, weird breaks, ominous drones, grinding distortion, disjointed electronic pulses, fractured beats, disfigured sounds.
Pervading all of Denseland’s tracks is the omnipresence of Moss's virtuosic, Sprechgesang voice - cutting through, scratching, crawling over Strobl and Leichtmann’s rhythmical textures, continually evoking images of a disjointed perceiving body, gradually disappearing like in a Samuel Beckett play. Denseland’s music turns the listener an unsettled sound universe conceived as strange landscape and magnetic atmosphere - music for a disturbed world.

http://arbitraryproject.com/denseland
https://arbitrary.bandcamp.com/album/disco-dictionary
https://soundcloud.com/arbitraryproject/denseland-rack-it

Tra l'aprile e l'agosto di quest'anno, senza particolari clamori (né astrali seduzioni) sono tornate in circolazione due graffianti collezioni sonore di Amos and Sara - ovvero Jim Welton e Chris Gray - note almeno in parte a chi a suo tempo seguì le vicende dell'era artpunk/D.I.Y. londinese dei primissimi anni Ottanta e di una delle sue band più esemplari, The Homosexuals. Allora erano audiocassette autoprodotte in poche copie originali - ma se ne incoraggiavano altamente la duplicazione e la circolazione non ufficiale - mentre oggi sono album in vinile a tiratura limitata distribuiti nelle boutique del disco: Amos And Sara Sing The Private World Of Amos e Amos & Sara... Invite To 'Endless Latino'.

Amos and Sara were one of the twentieth century’s greatest musical polymath duos, equally adept at composing, conducting, performing and theory. Their style was similarly varied, ranging from the dense expressionism of their early one-act operas, to the vast symphonies of their maturity. Like several important composers of the period, they were opponents of bourgeois culture, with a political commitment to making ‘useful’ music (Gebrauchmusik) that was direct in its appeal, and in which they succeeded with high creative intelligence. Their standing, as seminal figures of modern music, was partly undermined by their diversity, but their reputation never really declined, and has undergone a huge reappraisal in recent years.

https://boomkat.com/products/amos-and-sara-sing
https://boomkat.com/products/invite-to-endless-latino

Dopo quella con Slapp Happy a inizio anno Jean-Hervé Péron e Zappi Diermaier tornano al Cafe Oto londinese per una residenza artistica a proprio nome: faUSt!

As Krautrockers, faUSt (as the name was written before they later reformed) had a worldwide career. On their first three albums in the early 1970s, they inhabited the vast field from improvisation to bricolage to rock'n'roll with the ease of rogues and the determination of declared sonic renegades. They were big in Britain before the notion of Krautrock had made the rounds in Germany. One can still feel the breathing of this music, the bubbling of this primal soup, in current faUSt pieces, in the stone-age thudding of "Fish", which faUSt anticipated in 1972 on "Mamie Is Blue". But you will also be able to distinguish the as-yet- unheard if you allow yourself enough audio time. The sound of a squeaky door from the house of Jean-Hervé Péron, for which the musician has the same kind of enthusiasm others might reserve for a brilliant guitar riff ("gripping, touching"); or the minute-long fadeout of "Fish", which Zappi Diermaier is so excited about. The only plan is for the band to take off without a plan. "We let the music play through us," says Jean-Hervé Péron. Everything else is up to the listener, to make his own film. Jean-Hervé Péron has a little tip for us: Listen to the fish.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/faust-three-day-residency

Non è rimasto fatto isolato la rilettura del lavoro westbrookiano A Bigger Show da parte di un ensemble orchestrale diverso dalla Uncommon Orchestra di origine. Sull'esempio dell'Artchipel l'anno scorso a Milano debutta questa settimana la versione alla svizzera preparata a Lucerna nei giorni scorsi da Mike e Kate Westbrook assieme alla Big Band der Hochschule Luzern: stasera un concerto di riscaldamento presso la Jazz Cantine, e domani la partecipazione ufficiale al festival Unerhört a Winterthur.
Per lo stesso festival il solo Mike offrirà anche un altro concerto la prossima settimana, nell'ambito di un trittico di omaggi pianistici dedicati a Thelonious Monk. Programma completo e informazioni: http://unerhoert.ch

Umfassender als irgendein anderer Musiker verkörpert Mike Westbrook den individuellen Weg Grossbritanniens im Jazz und dessen zunehmende stilistische Selbstfindung seit den späten Fünfzigerjahren. Schon durch seine Herkunft aus der bildenden Kunstszene war Westbrook erster Repräsentant eines typisch britischen Wegs in die Musik der Nachkriegszeit, die eine einzigartige Vielfalt von Inspirationsquellen mit einem unnachahmlichen Sinn für Theatralik zu verbinden verstand. Zwischen 1960 und heute komponierte er eine eindrückliche Reihe ambitionierter, geradezu stilbildender Programme für Grossformationen, die ihn vom Pariser Moulin Rouge über den Dichter William Blake zum Schauspieler Peter Lorre, von den Kompositionen Duke Ellingtons über die Beatles bis zu den Opern Rossinis führten.
Hauptperson in den meisten dieser Produktionen ist seit den frühen SiebzigerJahren und bis heute Westbrooks Frau Kate, die als erfolgreiche Sängerin und Hornistin auch verschiedene Libretti für ihren Mann geschrieben, und dabei gerade die besten und erfolgreichsten seiner gross-formalen, konzertanten Werke entscheidend mitgeprägt hat.
Kaum ein bedeutender britischer Solist, der sich zwischen den Sechziger- und den Achtzigerjahren nicht in einer der Gross- oder Kleinformationen der beiden die Sporen ab- bzw. Lorbeeren hinzuverdient hätte, und noch heute lassen sich die Wurzeln vieler Eigenheiten und Errungenschaften des typisch Britischen im europäischen Jazz auf die Westbrooks zurückführen. In den letzten Jahren ist es um diesen überragenden Stilisten und Bandleader ruhiger geworden. Dass wir ihn und seine Frau Kate für die Big Band der Hochschule Luzern gewinnen konnten, ist der gemeinsame grosse Stolz der Hochschulleitung und des Festivals: Zusammen mit einer ausgewählten Schar von Masterstudent*innen wird er Teile aus seiner brandneuen Komposition A Bigger Show einstudieren und am Eröffnungsabend des diesjährigen unerhört!-Festivals in Winterthur zur Aufführung bringen.

https://www.facebook.com/events/528980997450547
https://www.hslu.ch/de-ch/big-band-der-hochschule-luzern
http://unerhoert.ch/unerhoert-programmheft_2017.pdf

Richard Williams ricorda Lou Gare ('The Uncommon Tenor') a poco più di un mese dalla scomparsa; lo fa al blog The Blue Moment, consigliando l'ascolto di un suo bel solo tratto da un concerto del 2014 della Uncommon Orchestra di Mike Westbrook. Il brano è D.T.T.M., rivisitazione di un caro tema di On Duke's Birthday successivamente dedicato a Danilo Terenzi e Tony Marsh. Scrive Williams: "It’s a quietly phenomenal performance, devoid of rhetoric but bursting with invention, the soloist’s thoughts unfurling at his own pace and expressed with a lovely laconic warmth. I don’t think I’ve heard a more subtly dramatic example of a tenorist working with a big band since Wayne Shorter emerged from the swirling mists of Gil Evans’ The Barbara Song in 1964."

Volendo, su YT si rintraccia anche un passaggio solista di Gare in una versione di Manje (Chris McGregor) offerta dalla Mike Westbrook Big Band nel 2012.

https://thebluemoment.com/2017/11/08/the-uncommon-tenor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxJFmRKRz-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-sRUf94NYY

A dieci anni dalla scomparsa Barry Witherden ricorda Mike Osborne - con l'aiuto di Mike Westbrook, Dave Holdsworth, Evan Parker e Barry Guy - in un esteso pezzo per All About Jazz:
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/mike-osborne-force-of-nature-part-1
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/mike-osborne-force-of-nature-part-2

Dopo There'll Be No Tears Tonight tocca a un altro classico di Eugene Chadbourne guadagnarsi una riedizione nel lussuoso catalogo dell'etichetta d'arte fondata da Jim Dempsey e John Corbett: è The Lost Eddie Chatterbox Session, disponibile finora quasi esclusivamente presso gli impagabili bazaar dopoconcerto del Nostro, in versioni uniche in audiocassetta o cdr.

A ricordare l'origine dell'album scrivono Corbett e Dempsey: "Dateline: Christmas Day, 1977, San Francisco. On an ailing quarter-track tape deck, in a marathon session, Eugene Chadbourne recorded a series of slide guitar solos playing compositions by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman, along with a few standards and originals. Although the recording quality was imperfect, the playing was brilliant – enough so that Chadbourne was eventually convinced, a decade later, to issue it as a cassette tape, which he sold at concerts. Long precursing the slash-and-burn-and-reinvent approach to jazz songbooks now familiar from groups like News From Lulu, Chadbourne leapt into each short track with giddy abandon, introducing the piece with a nerdy spoken credit line, then ripping and tearing at it adoringly, his improvisations forcing a new view of the familiar melodies. Anyone familiar with Chadbourne’s wonderful duets with Frank Lowe on Don’t Punk Out!, waxed in the same period, has a general sense of his modus, but the complete commitment he gave to the project on The Lost Eddie Chatterbox Session makes it a special and wholly unique item in the manic master’s chronicles. On this special CD reissue, the tracks have been tenderly but respectfully restored, eliminating some of the most distracting audio flaws but leaving the inconceivable artistry intact. Four never-released tracks have been added to the jam-packed program, as well as the original cover photo and Chadbourne’s unreadable track listing, which is carefully reproduced on the interior."

http://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/2017/10/20/album-eugene-chadbourne-lost-eddie-chatterbox-session
https://www.discogs.com/it/Eugene-Chadbourne-The-Lost-Eddie-Chatterbox-Session/release/10877506

Fa oggi tappa al Mountain Stage di Charleston (West Virginia) il tour dei Pere Ubu di 20 Years In A Montana Missile Silo, e a sottolineare l'evento NPR Music mette a disposizione la registrazione trasmessa in diretta che in questo stesso luogo il gruppo effettuò la volta scorsa, circa 26 anni fa. Era l'ottobre del 1991, era da poco uscito Worlds in Collision e in formazione c'erano David Thomas, Jim Jones, Eric Drew Feldman, Tony Maimone e Scott Krauss.

Formed in 1975, trend-setting avant-garage rockers Pere Ubu emerged from Cleveland, Ohio, with an eccentric sound that has sustained four decades of orchestral blue-collar rock, infused with synths, layers of guitar, and the distinct vocal style of David Thomas.

Heard here is Pere Ubu's appearance on Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, recorded and broadcast live from Charleston, WV, on Oct. 6, 1991. Led by vocalist David Thomas, the band powers through eight tunes in this 30-plus minute set featuring songs from their album Worlds in Collision, released earlier that year.

The touring arm of Pere Ubu is embarking on a U.S. tour with a new album, 20 Years In A Montana Missile Silo. The tour includes a scheduled return to Charleston for Mountain Stage some 26 years later. You'll hear their appearance in December via NPR Music, and a full European tour and further U.S. tour dates are scheduled for 2018.

http://ubuprojex.com/calendar.html
https://www.npr.org/event/music/562812104/pere-ubu-on-mountain-stage

Battesimo di fuoco per il nuovo trio The Watts fondato e composto da Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler e Yumi Hara, con un'imminente dozzina di concerti in Giappone a cavallo tra fine novembre e inizio dicembre: https://twitter.com/YumiHaraMusic

Frutto di una performance di Tim Hodgkinson e Yumi Hara al cospetto di un'opera di Kenneth Dingwall presso la galleria d'arte Laure Genillard in Fitzrovia a Londra tre anni fa proviene oggi l'album Schema-Sukima, autoprodotto per l'etichetta Bonobo's Ark, la stessa che nel recente passato ha pubblicato Artaud Beats, You Me & Us e Jump for Joy!

https://www.facebook.com/tim.hodgkinson.18
https://www.facebook.com/yumi.cawkwell
https://www.discogs.com/label/705382-Bonobos-Ark-Records

Tra le mille sorprendenti iniziative in atto nell'ambito di un nuovo piano di avvicinamento tra musicisti (o altro) e pubblico, The Residents hanno offerto il mese scorso tramite Cherry Red Records qualche copia dell'antologico 80 Aching Orphans da loro stessi autografata. I nomi sono quelli di Rez 1, A. Resident, R3 e R. Whatever.

Extended 4CD anthology set chronicling the career of the legendary San Francisco experimentalists and curated with the band themselves, from the debut 1972 single to the band’s most recent album, The Ghost Of Hope. Singles, fan favourites, album highlights, live recordings and material never before available on CD. Detailed track-by-track sleevenotes, new imagery produced exclusively for this collection and an introduction from Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation. 80 tracks across 4CDs, presented in hardback book package. Includes Santa Dog, Satisfaction, Constantinople, Diskomo, It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World, Hit The Road Jack, Don’t Be Cruel, Hello Skinny, Smelly Tongues, Jello Jack, Kaw-Liga, Rushing Like A Banshee, plus material from numerous classic albums. An ideal introduction for the curious, and a fresh perspective for the band’s dedicated fanbase.

http://residents.com

E' invece ampiamente disponibile, grazie anche alla sua disseminazione in digitale attraverso Bandcamp, la spettacolare antologia di lavori inediti e concerti dal vivo degli Art Zoyd prodotta con encomiabilissimo impegno da Cuneifom Records: 44 1​/​2: Live And Unreleased Works.

Originally founded as a psychedelic / progressive rock band in France in 1969, with the arrival of soon-to-be co-leaders Gerard Hourbette and Thierry Zaboitzeff in 1971 and then with the departure of the band’s founder, the group radically changed direction. By 1975 they were no longer a ‘rock’ band with guitars and drums, the band were now a based around the unique sounds of violins, electric bass and cello and trumpet, with additional instrumentation.
In 1976, Art Zoyd released their first album, toured with Magma and within a few years were invited to become one of only eight members of the Rock In Opposition Movement, a musician-led organization of some of the most cutting edge bands from Europe who banded together to increase their opportunities for work.
By the early 1980s, they were touring internationally and were a figurehead of ‘new music’ or ‘avant rock’. Beginning in the mid 80s into the mid 90s, they were at their peak renown, collaborating with choreographer Roland Petit, who commissioned them to work with him on a full ballet: Le Marriage Du Ciel et De L’Enfer (The Marriage Of Heaven & Hell) as well as performing live, self-penned soundtracks to classic silent films such as Nosferatu, Faust and Haxan. Concurrent with this period and their work in ballet and with films, the music shifts towards a more electronic, stripped-down and modern sound during this era.
In 2014, after a period of inactivity, Gerard and Thierry began to speak to each other about the idea of performing some retrospective concerts to celebrate their many achievements and performing as much music from the past as was practical in a concert with as many old collaborators as could be included. The first of these events was held in September 2015 at the Rock In Opposition Festival in Carmaux, France.
This 14-disc set is an outgrowth of the celebration of the decades of Art Zoyd’s far-sighted musical work.

https://www.artzoyd.net
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/44-1-2-live-and-unreleased-works

Anche il magnifico box monografico Seems Like a Lifetime Ago 1977-1980 dedicato al gruppo Bruford è stato prodotto in tiratura limitata. Fin troppo limitata, se le duemila copie previste sono andate tutte esaurite nella sola fase di prenotazione! Winterfold Records ha dovuto correre ai ripari, scusandosi con i fan più zelanti della primissima ora...

Containing the collected works of Bruford on one extraordinary 6cd/2dvd-v box set, Seems Like A Lifetime Ago is a magnificent testament to one of the UK's most inventive and important progressive fusion bands. Featuring 2017 remastered versions of the albums Feels Good To Me (1978), One Of A Kind (1979), The Bruford Tapes (1979), and Gradually Going Tornado (1980), the set additionally includes the previously unreleased Live At The Venue, 1980 and the highly sought after 4th Album Rehearsal Sessions (also from 1980). Showcasing the prodigious talents of Bill Bruford, Dave Stewart, the late Allan Holdsworth (who the album is dedicated to), Jeff Berlin and The 'Unknown' John Clark, the set includes a 16 page colour booklet (with band interviews and an essay written by Sid Smith), a reproduction concert poster, two black and white photo prints of the band, and a signed and numbered certificate of authentication. Feels Good To Me and One Of A Kind are available on both remastered CD and DVD-V, the latter featuring 2017 5.1 mixes by Jakko Jakszyk.

https://burningshed.com/bruford_feels-like-a-lifetime-ago_boxset
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psh_xbf7-a8