Punteggiata nei giorni scorsi da vari eventi con musica dal vivo, incontri e presentazioni, chiude oggi alla Red Gallery di Londra la nuova esposizione - dopo quelle presso Tenderbooks l'anno scorso, sempre a Londra, e al Sonos a New York lo scorso aprile - dei materiali d'archivio della gloriosa rivista Musics, recuperati recentemente in un corposo volume edito da Ecstatic Peace Library.

Musics was published, from 1975 to 1979, by musicians and artists on the London scene of free improvisation, focusing on the most innovative participants of their generation. Steve Beresford, David Toop, Annabel Nicholson, Evan Parker, David Cunningham, Lindsay Cooper, Eddie Prevost, John Russell, Derek Bailey, Valerie Wilmer, Hugh Davies, Peter Riley and many, many others contributed to the writing, graphics and photography. Musics was a blueprint for the interdisciplinary activities of sound art, field recording, free improvisation, live electronics, 20th century composition and audio culture. It came out six times a year and ran for twenty-three hand-assembled issues.

https://www.instagram.com/musics_magazine
https://ecstaticpeacelibrary.net
http://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/search?q=Tenderbooks
https://sonos-101-greene-street-in-nyc
https://www.facebook.com/redgallerylondon

Richard Williams segnala ai lettori del suo blog The Blue Moment alcune delle più recenti riedizioni discografiche del jazz britannico storico - album di Daryl Runswick, Alan Skidmore, Harry South, Billy Jenkins, Neil Ardley, Red Price - con parole di elogio per il recupero (con bonus) del capolavoro westbrookiano Marching Song da parte di Cherry Red.

Scrive: "Of all the many fine British modern jazz records made in the last 50 years, the ones that probably most deserve to survive another half-century are Mike Westbrook's large-scale pieces, including Metropolis, Citadel/Room 315 and The Cortège. In a sense, Marching Song is where it all began: released in its entirety as two LPs on the Deram label in 1969, representing a statement of scale and intent. And of moral purpose, too: this is every bit as much a portrait of the pity and horror of war as Picasso's Guernica, making a similarly startling use of modernist techniques. This reissue also contains a third disc of previously unheard material including a nine-minute sketch of the piece recorded in 1966 by a sextet including Mike Osborne, John Surman, Malcolm Griffiths, Harry Miller and Alan Jackson -- its approach very heavily influenced by Mingus -- and two wonderful extended quartet tracks by Osborne with the rhythm section, making this just about an essential purchase."

https://thebluemoment.com/2017/06/28/jazz-in-britain-part-2
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/marchingcd.shtml
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/marching-song-vol-1-vol-2-plus-bonus-3cd-box-set

Le fil de la vie

(Pierre Henry, 1927-2017)