A chi non sa come organizzarsi per l'Halloween di quest'anno - da allestire in casa, necessariamente - viene in soccorso il buon vecchio Frank (o chi per lui) con cappa e maschera da Conte Frankula prêt-à-porter e una colonna sonora integrale di ben tre concerti in tema tratti dalle notti newyorkesi al Palladium nel 1981.
Motivo di orgoglio (anche) per Joyce Nalewajk di The Music Outpost - consorella di Cuneiform Records - è la pubblicazione di Run for your Life, terzo capitolo della serie The Great Un-American Songbook della strepitosa Ed Palermo Big Band, tra pochi giorni su Sky Cat ma già ora disponibile per qualche ascolto in Soundcloud.
Best known for his celebrated recordings and performances interpreting the ingenious compositions of Frank Zappa, Palermo has documented his Zappaphilia on numerous Cuneiform Records albums such as 2006’s Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance and 2009’s Eddy Loves Frank. But he’s always cast a wide musical net. On the uproarious 2017 double album The Great Un-American Songbook Volumes 1 & 2, Palermo tackled an expansive roster of songs by a wide array of legendary British bands, including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, King Crimson, Traffic, and Jethro Tull.
Featuring largely the same stellar cast of players, the 16-piece Ed Palermo Big Band takes another trip to swinging London on The Great Un-American Songbook Volume 3: Run for Your Life. In many ways, Palermo is revisiting the music of his youth by transforming it via the craft, artistry and left-field imagination that have made him a singular figure in the world of jazz. “I grew up with this music, and like the Zappa stuff there’s a huge element of nostalgia for me,” he says. “But with the skills that I attained through all these years arranging all different types of music I revisit songs that I still love, but interpreting them my way.”
On his most recent album, A Lousy Day In Harlem (Sky Cat 2019), Palermo unleashed his talent-laden ensemble on a gorgeous array of music by Ellington, Monk, Coltrane, Egberto Gismonte, as well as his own finely wrought originals. His love of the jazz idiom is just as apparent on The Great Un-American Songbook Volume 3, which extends into the 21st century the time honored jazz practice of reinventing pop tunes. An arranger with an Ellingtonian palette, he honors and transforms the source material by deconstructing songs and rebuilding them as something wondrous and new.
A Love Supreme Electric e un nuovo Schnellertollermeier concludono la serie di pubblicazioni Cuneiform Records del 2020, condotta egregiamente a termine da Steve Feigenbaum nonostante le mille e mille difficoltà: tra gli altri protagonisti anche Anthony Pirog, I.P.A., Ray Russell, Stirrup+6, Thumbscrew, Chad Taylor Trio e Tatsuya Nakatani con Shane Parish.
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com
Dopo numerose presentazioni in concerto - all'epoca in cui i concerti si potevano ancora effettuare - sta per vedere la luce in via ufficiale A Love Supreme Electric, l'atteso documento che testimonia il legame, fortemente sostenuto da Henry Kaiser, tra due capolavori storici di John Coltrane, A Love Supreme e Meditations. Kaiser ne parla in un video di introduzione e ne scrive nelle note di copertina del doppio cd in uscita per Cuneiform Records: "I had known that Coltrane intended his Meditations suite to be a spiritual sequel to his A Love Supreme suite, thus it was natural to suggest that with our A Love Supreme Electric gigs, we often play Meditations as the second set. After having done this more than a few times, I would note that... the two suites really do fit together to actually be one 2-part suite, where all the individual sections inform, deepen, cross-reference, and expand on one another, in both the musical and spiritual domains."
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/a-love-supreme-electric
https://youtu.be/cTpNBqBmnLw
https://henrykaiser.bandcamp.com/album/crazy-backwards-alphabet-vol-1
https://henrykaiser.bandcamp.com/album/crazy-backwards-alphabet-vol-2
E un duetto virtuale Henry Kaiser lo propone anche in ricordo dell'amico e collega Toshinori Kondo, scomparso qualche giorno fa, confezionando in plunderphonics un quasi-dialogo del trombettista con se stesso.
Elliott Sharp duetta virtualmente con Henry Kaiser in un episodio, il numero 27, della serie ideata da quest'ultimo per ovviare almeno in parte alle rinunce imposte dalla pandemia: Weekly Solo, ospitata integralmente dalla Cuneiform Records al proprio spazio su YT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6t7tYGaRMw
https://www.youtube.com/c/CuneiformRecords
Apre i propri archivi anche Elliott Sharp, riproponendo dal catalogo zOaR titoli storici assieme a cose più recenti, con molti inediti e autentiche rarità. Su Bandcamp.
Dagli archivi di Sven-Åke Johansson proviene invece Free Postmodernism, finora inedito, atto a documentare la prima visita negli Stati Uniti nel 1982 del suo BBQ (Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett) con Rüdiger Carl, Hans Reichel ed Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, quest'ultimo fortunosamente in grado di lasciare Berlino Est per l'occasione. C'è ampia traccia anche di un incontro che i quattro fecero con Fred Frith ad Allentown, Pennsylvania.
https://saj-rec.bandcamp.com/free-postmodernism-bbq-fred-frith
Dal catalogo Fringe Benefit Records provengono due rare pubblicazioni di fine anni Settanta che hanno tra i protagonisti il suo fondatore, Jon Rose: Velocity Of Independent Parts (Rose con Louis Burdett e Serge Ermoll) e Towards A Relative Music (Rose e Burdett con John Clare, Peter Kelly, Tony Hobbs, Rob Reid e Rik Rue). Il meritorio recupero è iniziativa di Inconstant Sol.
http://www.jonroseweb.com
https://www.discogs.com/label/66287-Fringe-Benefit-Records
http://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/louis-burdett-jon-rose-serge-ermoll
http://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/louis-burdett-john-clare-peter-kelly
http://www.ubuprojex.com/pere-ubu-albums/pere-ubu-london-texas.html
Tre anni oggi senza Phil Miller, ma il suo lascito musicale è vivissimo: per esempio Miserable Man, Fools Meeting, God Song, Underdub, Nowadays A Silhouette, Calyx, Hatfield Medley, Eastern Region, Second Sight, Delta Borderline, Folk Dance, Truly Yours e Green And Purple, pubblicati finora nella serie A Life In Music tratta dai concerti in suo omaggio l'anno scorso al Vortex londinese.
Un mini album iniziato otto anni fa e finalmente portato a termine (Canzoncine), due nuovi ritratti in una già ricca galleria di personali omaggi (ora tocca a Laetitia Sadier e a Umberto Fiori), un trittico di improvvisazioni catturate al pianoforte nel cuore di una vacanza toscana (Ho un piano...) e almeno tre altri progetti in via di elaborazione: Luciano Margorani, never a dull moment?
In tutt'altra atmosfera, nell'assolato pomeriggio estivo di un quartiere parigino, Thomas Jean Henri e Kate Stables trovano ad attenderli al loro passaggio la deliziosa Fantasy Orchestra per interpretare assieme due piccoli inni di Grande est la maison, primo e forse unico album di Cabane: ne esce A Take Away Show, quasi un omaggio d'altri tempi alla gioia e all'unità di intenti.
https://cabanemusic.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/FantasyOrchestraParis
https://youtu.be/ryXWvxP3rII
Tra chi cerca tenacemente di proseguire le proprie attività nonostante le avversità e le crescenti limitazioni c'è certamente la London Improvisers Orchestra, che anche stavolta è riuscita a mantenere la promessa del concerto di ogni prima domenica del mese, comunque, dovunque. Il 4 ottobre, alle tre del pomeriggio, Caroline Kraabel era "in the London rain, playing with pigeons, trains, traffic", come tanti suoi colleghi in giro, in strada, nei parchi o in casa, tutti alla stessa ora. Molti di loro hanno aderito anche a un'idea di Steve Beresford, contribuendo con novanta secondi di musica e immagini a Brevity: ora è su Vimeo, nel montaggio di Adrian Northover.
https://londonimprovisersorchestra.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/LondonImprOrch
https://vimeo.com/464716844
Di aiuto e sostegno ha certamente bisogno anche il Vortex londinese, che come molti altri luoghi deputati alla socialità e alla musica dal vivo in questo periodo ha dovuto sospendere o diminuire drasticamente le proprie attività. Con qualche luminosa eccezione: per esempio, il bel concerto di domenica scorsa di Evan Parker, John Edwards e Mark Sanders, trasmesso in diretta streaming e ora disponibile presso Sands Films dietro una piccola e libera donazione.
Many venues are closed and many more live performance have been cancelled. Sands Films offers musicians a space to perform and a means to reach an audience. Access to the live streams is free and remains accessible after the live event. The audience is invited to support the performer and the venue: each "support" button is specific to each show and pays the musicians of each concert. Money can be paid before, during or after the event.
http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk
https://www.sandsfilms.co.uk/sands-films-music-room.html
Non manca molto al completamento del secondo capitolo della trilogia antologica che Adele Schmidt e Jose Zegarra Holder hanno ideato per documentare la scena musicale della Germania alternativa degli anni Settanta. Dopo Faust, Can, Kraftwerk, Floh de Cologne, La Düsseldorf e Neu! sarà ora la volta di Guru Guru, Amon Düül II, Kraan e Popol Vuh tra gli altri, mentre per Embryo, Agitation Free e Tangerine Dream si dovrà attendere il terzo e ultimo dvd della serie. Serve intanto un piccolo aiuto per sostenere le ultime fasi della produzione: i dettagli sono illustrati nella campagna ad hoc presso Indiegogo.
Giunge a compimento a giorni, con perfetto tempismo, una doppia iniziativa a favore di Barbara Thompson: una raccolta antologica in 14 cd di sue apparizioni radiofoniche con varie formazioni tra il 1969 e il 1990, Live At The BBC, per Repertoire Records, e la pubblicazione del corposo volume autobiografico Journey To A Destination Unknown, per Jazz in Britain. A proposito di quest'ultimo: "This is the story of a life’s journey to a destination, not only unknown, but wildly unexpected – filled with excitement, achievement and love, but also pain and struggle. Barbara Thompson, the daughter of an eminent lawyer, was born with a restless creative urge that her conventional education in music could not satisfy. It was when she discovered jazz that she found the freedom she had been seeking. But for a woman, the almost entirely male world of the jazz musician was a dangerous and frustrating place. It was hard at times, but, almost from the beginning, there was one person who totally believed in her. Together, she and drummer and bandleader Jon Hiseman, created their own, wide-ranging world of music. Throughout Europe their names alone were enough to fill any concert hall. But at the height of their careers, Barbara was struck by Parkinson’s disease and another struggle began."
Con l'integrale di Platterback a Poznań (Polonia) nel 1999 giunge a quota trenta episodi l'impagabile serie The WestbrookJazz Moving Picture Show, concepita in modo organico da Mike e Kate Westbrook attingendo a un vasto archivio di documenti video di ogni epoca e di disparata origine, articolata in pubblicazioni online curate a cadenza settimanale da Chris Topley.
Jane Mann riporta qualche osservazione dello stesso Mike in proposito, scrivendone per London Jazz: "I spoke to Mike Westbrook last week at home in Devon. He is in the enviable position of having access to many years of footage of live shows, TV appearances and festival gigs in Germany, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, France, Slovenia and Switzerland, among others, and of course, Britain. He told me he was often presented with a VHS tape after a TV appearance and said: “We were lucky to go through an era when jazz was much more featured in mainstream media.” There is a fantastic array of films to watch on the Westbrook Jazz Moving Picture Show with useful and thoughtful notes for each one. New pieces are posted weekly and are left up to watch whenever you feel like it. Westbrook says he treats the Moving Picture Show like a composition – some pieces are three minutes long, others an hour – how do you sequence such a disparate set of pieces? There are 30 films posted so far – and there are plenty more to come. He says that the process of choosing from the back catalogue, and making new films to old recordings, in which Kate and Mike work closely with friend and webmaster Chris Topley, is extremely rewarding. There are new films planned too. “This is helping us through this lockdown, and we hope it is helping others...”
Si arricchisce di due perle francesi la preziosa serie Flicks di film musicati - anche dal vivo - dall'eccellente Delta Saxophone Quartet: Le ballon rouge (Albert Lamorisse, 1956) e C'etait un rendez vous (Claude Lelouch, 1976). Magnifique!
Project Flicks started out in 2018 as an opportunity for the quartet to commission and perform four dynamic new scores to accompany a variety of films, some pre-existent and others created for this unique programme. These films explored the early years (1913) of silent black and white movies, the American response to the ‘cold war’ and its own careless nuclear experiments, through the charming 1950’s streets of Paris via the adventures of a the young boy Pascal and his loyal red balloon, through to the animated lives of an Australian trio of Brian (The budgie), Banksy (The dog) and Hope (the boy).
Project Flicks, with the support of Arts Council England, has reached out to the general public way beyond the usual performance spaces, having been presented in villages halls, public houses, schools and arts centres around the UK throughout 2019 charming audiences from all ages from 5 to 95! Project Flicks has created its own momentum and is expanding its repertoire of new films and vibrant scores for this next decade of 2020. Prepare to be charmed, sometimes alarmed, yet inthralled by this eclectic combination of film music gems.
http://www.deltasax.com
https://vimeo.com/user85868047
https://www.youtube.com/deltasax
E' in arrivo anche una nuova edizione, stavolta in vinile, dell'album che Gareth Williams e Mary Currie pubblicarono nel 1985 come cassetta autoprodotta sotto nome Flaming Tunes. Ne è responsabile Superior Viaduct.
Flaming Tunes' sole release is perhaps the finest elegy to the '80s home recording ethos that you've never heard. Originally released in 1985 on cassette (with individually hand-colored covers), this self-titled album grew out of the collaboration between childhood friends Gareth Williams and Mary Currie. Williams is best known as a member of English art-rock band This Heat. After leaving the group in the early '80s, he travelled to India where he studied classical Kathakali dance – an experience that would profoundly shape the music of Flaming Tunes. In an old Victorian house in South London, the duo recorded during the day while Currie's young son attended school and Williams conducted tape treatments at night. They were joined by various guests including This Heat guitarist Charles Bullen as well as long-term collaborators Martin Harrison and Rick Wilson. Using whatever instruments they had on hand (clarinet, piano, bells, etc.), Flaming Tunes create lo-fi melodies around simple arrangements, oblique rhythms and densely layered natural sounds. The results are a mesmeric collage of instrumental daydreams and sideways pop songs, floating into one another in a hazy confluence of late '60s Canterbury psych-folk and early Residents experimentation.
E' in arrivo in una nuova e più ricca edizione un testo che raccoglie immagini, scritti e materiali vari relativi a uno dei temi più suggestivi e cari a Peter Blegvad, Imagine, Observe, Remember, pubblicato in forma breve nel 2009 dall'University of Warwick, a conclusione di un ciclo di seminari lì condotti dal Nostro, e ora nelle mani di Uniformbooks, già responsabile qualche tempo fa di una splendida versione di Kew.Rhone.
“Forty years ago, when I began doing comparative drawings of things imagined, observed and remembered, I was an illustrator looking for a story of my own to illustrate. Something with a beginning, middle and end. Imagine, Observe, Remember is what I came up with. It became a way of using illustration and texts to think about imagining, observing and remembering. It’s a kind of phenomenology project, a way to look at different ways of looking and seeing using the means at my disposal, using myself as subject.”
https://www.colinsackett.co.uk/uniformbookshome.php
http://amateur.org.uk/imagined-observed-remembered
Ottima occasione per studiare da vicino una composizione di Christian Wolff, Play (1968), e cimentarsi con le sue sfide esecutive affidandosi alla guida esperta dell'eccellente Langham Research Centre: è un laboratorio online - vi si partecipa via Zoom - articolato in due momenti teorico-pratici, oggi e mercoledì prossimo, a conclusione della vivace edizione 2020 di Nonclassical Academy.
This virtual workshop focuses on Play, a text score by the American experimental composer Christian Wolff, part of the Prose Pieces collection composed in 1968. Wolff was associated with the so-called New York School of composers, centred around John Cage in the 1950s. They were described as composers who were "getting rid of the glue": they weren't interested in conventional musical continuity, composing instead in a way that created musical situations where "sounds would be themselves" rather than having a structural relationship to other sounds. This approach has been inspirational to Langham Research Centre's own music, who have performed this piece numerous times, from the outset in consultation with Christian Wolff. You'll learn about aspects of Christian Wolff's music, and techniques for dealing with the challenges that his music and scores present. The workshop culminates in one or more group performances of the piece during the second workshop.
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/1993-1992
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/leeds-08-11-1996
Coxhill è tra i protagonisti di un concerto registrato a Glasgow nel dicembre 1999, graziosamente recuperato e distribuito in questi giorni - anche gratuitamente - dall'etichetta Scatter: in programma il suo duo con il pianista Pat Thomas e quello di Bill Wells con il bassista Lindsay L. Cooper, più due brani con tutti loro uniti in quartetto.
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/glasgow-08-12-1999
Un breve estratto su Soundcloud accorcia piacevolmente l'attesa per il nuovo lavoro di Louis Philippe Thunderclouds, realizzato dal vivo in studio nonostante le regole imposte dal lockdown assieme al trio The Night Mail - composto da Robert Rotifer, Andy Lewis e Ian Button - più un paio di ospiti. Chi l'ha sentito per intero parla di un album che "evokes Canterbury's fabled brand of whimsical prog just as much as Philippe's deep roots in French song-craft and a shared love for the autumnal side of sunshine pop." Wheee!
https://twitter.com/PhilippeAuclair
https://www.tapeterecords.de/louis-philippe-the-night-mail
https://soundcloud.com/tapete-records/louis-philippe-the-night-mail
