IRENE SCHWEIZER – Live At Taktlos 1984 (LP-1986/CD-2005)

Label: Intakt Records – Intakt CD 001
Format: CD, Album; Country: Switzerland - Released: Aug 2005
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live 4th & 5th February 1984 at the Taktlos Festival, Rote Fabrik, Zürich.
Recorded live at Taktlos 1984 by Peter Pfister
Grafic Design: Ruedi Wyss
Executive Production: Patrik Landolt
First released as Intakt LP 001 / 1986

Schweizer’s Live at Taktlos—taped in 1984 at the first annual incarnation of the Swiss festival bearing the same name—marked the first LP release on Intakt. Reissued on CD the album presents the pianist in three extremely fertile situations with fellow improvisers from Europe and America. Peter Pfister, most-renowned these days for his impeccable engineering work for Hatology, handled the recording and while the fidelity isn’t blemish free it still captures the players with true-to-life sound. The disc's three main pieces accord ample space for extended free improvisation, the longest among them swallowing up a good twenty minutes. “ Every Now and Then, ” a manically-paced match-up of vocalist Maggie Nicols with pianist Lindsay Cooper works as coda. “ First Meeting ” teams Schweizer with trombonist George Lewis for a lengthy extemporization that is startling in its degree of close convergence, so much so that parts, particularly the puckishly tuneful conclusion, sound pre- composed. A wealth of unorthodox patterns and phrases pour forth from both players, often at telegraphic speed, but the whole constructed from these parts never loses a guiding sense of symmetry.
Less easily accessible is the trio of Nicols, Schweizer and Günter Sommer who convene on the enigmatically-titled “ Lungs and Legs Willing? ” Nicols ’ operatic, largely abstract vocals soar and swoop, leaving pianist and drummer to shape a sequence of ground-swelling collisions, soft and stentorian, that serve as terrestrial counterpoint in a crowded exchange. “ Trutznachtigall ” delivers an even most challenging experience via what on the surface seems the most conventional instrumentation. Bassist Joëlle Lèandre brings her full repertoire of capricious techniques to the event, sawing down tree trunks with her bow, punishing her strings with chest-pounding pizzicato flurries and, if the snapshot in the CD booklet is to be believed, even playing her instrument upside down. Her gruff and often outrageous vocals add to the turbulent atmosphere, veering from banshee wails to romantic cooing and back again. Lovens’ percussive idiosyncrasies fit right in, the fractious, but precisely intentional clatter from his kit complimenting Schweizer’s frequent forays under her piano’s hood to pluck and damper hammered strings. Attaching a play-by-play to all the delirious, irreverent action and reaction ends up a pointless pursuit within mere minutes. A marker for various partnerships that have since made good on their promises tenfold, this music still packs an enjoyable jolt on par with its initial release twenty years ago.

_ By DEREK TAYLOR, All About Jazz, USA, November 2005

Irène Schweizer, Günter Sommer, Bauhaus Dessau, DDR, 1986. - Photo: Patrik Landolt

Note:
Most independent recording labels have their bellwether artists, those musicians on the roster central to the label's identity and mission. Hatology has Joe McPhee. Peter Brötzmann is commonly associated with FMP. Tzadik revolves around John Zorn. In the case of Intakt it's Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer. Schweizer has been playing actively for nearly half a century and the last several decades of her career have been faithfully documented on Intakt. Ideally, labels and artists share a reciprocal relationship. It's the charge of the label to act as advocate for the artist and the job of the artist to supply the label with meaningful creative capital. Schweizer's partnership with Intakt represents a model of this sort of mutually sustaining arrangement.
INTAKT RECORDS:  http://www.intaktrec.ch/



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IRENE SCHWEIZER QUINTET – The Storming of the Winter Palace (Moers-Zurich 1986/'88) - LP-1988 / CD-2000

Label: Intakt Records – Intakt CD 003
Format: CD, Album, Reissue; Country: Switzerland - Released: 2000
Style: Free Improvisation, Contemporary Jazz
Track 1 recorded May 18th, 1986 at the International-New-Jazz-Festival-Moers by WDR (Cologne)
Tracks 2 & 3 recorded March 25th, 1988 at the Taktlos-Festival at Rote Fabrik, Zurich
First released on Intakt LP 003 / 1988
Composed By – George Lewis (tracks: 3), Günter Sommer (tracks: 3), Irène Schweizer (tracks: 1, 2), Joëlle Léandre (tracks: 1), Maggie Nicols (tracks: 2)
Cover Art: Ruedi Wyss
Executive Production: Patrik Landolt
Engineer – Peter Pfister

At the Moers Jazz Festival in 1986, the quintet of Irène Schweizer, Maggie Nicols, George Lewis, Joelle Leandre and Guenter Sommer caused quite a commotion. The "Frankfurter Allgemeine" wrote: "a great moment of free improvised music; the listeners gave endless ovations, were stunned, moved, even happy just like the protagonist themselves, who lay in each others arms after the magic process of spontaneous interaction". The album with excerpts from the Moers concert as well as from the subsequent performance at the Zurich Taktlos Festival was awarded the German Record Critics Prize.

The Storming Of The Winter Palace was originally released on LP in 1988 as Swiss based “ Intakt Records ” has thankfully chosen to reissue this most interesting recording on CD. The 26-minute opener, “ Now and Never ” offers a hearty mix of disparate motifs, glistening choruses and endearing interplay among trombonist George Lewis, vocalist Maggie Nicols, pianist Irene Schweizer, percussionist Gunter Sommer and bassist Joelle Leandre. Here, Ms Nicols displays a supremely masterful vocal range complete with spurts of humor, scat and spoken word intermingled with weaving, multidimensional ensemble work along with an abundance of peaks and valleys. The musicians entice one another with interesting dialogue and shrewd on-the-fly development yet many of these sequences sound composed or pre- planned. On “ The Storming of the Winter Palace ” George Lewis and Ms Leandre are the instigators who often prod Ms Nicols into operatic-style vocal pyrotechnics, which unto itself is rather amazing. The audience in attendance must have literally been on the edge of their seats during the final piece, titled “ Living on the Edge ” as the band pursue vivid theatrics, circular thematic movement along with some downright awe-inspiring drumming/percussion from Gunter Sommer. 

The Storming Of The Winter Palace is a showstopper as this writer often thought of the visual aspects; hence, a video of this performance would have been an added treat as the music and overall intensity alludes to one heck of a live performance! * * * * ½

_ By GLENN ASTARITA

Published: February 1, 2000 (AAJ)

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JOËLLE LÉANDRE – At The Le Mans Jazz Festival 2005 (2CD-2006)

Label: Leo Records – CD LR 458/459
Format: 2 × CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 2006
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at the Le Mans Jazz Festival In April/May 2005, France
1-1 and 1-2 recorded live at l'Espal, April 26, 2005
1-3 to 1-5 recorded live at Collégiale Saint-Pierre-La-Cour, April 29, 2005
2-1 to 2-3 recorded live at Collégiale Saint-Pierre-La-Cour, April 27, 2005
2-4 and 2-5 recorded live at Abbaye de l'Epau, May 1, 2005
2-6 to 2-9 recorded live at Palais des Congres, April 30, 2005

In April/May 2005 Joelle Leandre was a resident artist at the Le Mans Jazz Festival. She performed with Les Diaboliques (Maggie Nicols - voice, Irene Schweitzer - piano), William Parker - bass, India Cooke - violin, Markus Stockhausen - trumpet / Mark Nauseef - percussion, electronics, Paul Lovens - drums / Sebi Tramontana - trombone / Carlos Zingaro - violin. These magic performances are documented on the double CD which contain over two hours of music. There is no question this is the strongest CD by Joelle Leandre in the Leo Records catalogue.

". . . in any disc by the brilliant European-based jazz bassist Joelle Leandre. The question is, Is it worth the effort? Yes. The deal-with-it factor is especially prominent with the Les Diaboliques Trio featuring the frankly weird vocals of Englishwoman Maggie Nichols and the angular piano of Irene Schweitzer--almost always worth hearing--which takes up about 60% of the first disc of this two-disc set. I can't say I'm a huge Maggie Nichols fan, but the trio is unique in contemporary jazz and, indeed, in jazz history, so all my reservations kinda bow before the big albeit outré concept operating here. And I've gotta admit that, no matter how skeptical I am of this kind of vocal weirdness, there's a certain indisputable presence in Nichols's caterwauling that, as much as it's alien to me, I'm not going to gainsay. In fact, the more I listen to it, the more taken I am not only by her sheer virtuosity, but by the eldritch vibe she conjures. Really, Is there anyone on the scene who does what she does? One thinks of Shelley Hirsch or Theo Bleckman, but I'm thinking Maggie Nichols is the champ of out vocals, not only by virtue of her uncanny range and timbre, but also because her voice conjures such a great variety of moods and textures.

The other four encounters--duo sessions with William parker (bass and whistles) and India Cooke (violin), a trio session with Mark Nauseef (percussion, cheap Casio) and Markus Stockhausen (trumpet, flugelhorn), and a quartet session with Paul Lovens (percussion, drums), Sebi Tramontana (trombone) and long-time associate Carlos Zingaro (violin)--each offer their own pleasures, but the real action goes down with the Les Diaboliques Trio. Joelle Leandre is certainly among the most adventurous and accomplished practitioners on her instrument (double-bass), and it is entirely worthwhile encountering her in this wildly eclectic instrumental environment. Has hardly left my disc player since I acquired it. Highly recommended for anyone with ears to hear. The timid should avoid."
– Jan P. Dennis

Some people will notice with slight disappointment that the album features no new partnerships, only lineups that are already documented. That's true, and that's probably why Joëlle Léandre at the LeMans Jazz Festival is not a five-CD box set, but only two discs worth of highlights, which makes it all the better. All five concerts were recorded by master sound engineer Jean-Marc Foussat.



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LEIMGRUBER / CRISPELL / LÉANDRE / HAUSER – Quartet Noir (1999)

Label: Les Disques Victo – VICTO CD 067
Format: CD, Album; Country: Canada - Released: May 1999
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on 15 May 1998 live at Victoriaville during the 15th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville
Packaging: Jewel Tray

Review:

Recorded live at the Victoriaville Festival in 1998 , this 67-minute spontaneous composition is explosive not only for what happens in it, but for what doesn't. The guns don't blaze here very often, but they are just as deadly with silencers on. And needless to say, when Urs Leimgruber is the least-known musician in a quartet, you have some heavyweight players. The quartet is aptly named, given its performance, which uses night not only as a metaphor, but as an m.o. for improvisation, where texture, space, and economy become a hypnotic wilderness of sound devoid of light and all sensation but hearing. 

The opening section is the longest, at 14 minutes. It is the area where the band members establish the language from which they will speak. That syntax develops very slowly on this record, moving one step at a time but no less packed with ideas for its easy, even tortoise-like pace. There is nothing tentative in the manner in which these players relate to one another, but it is subtle. Crispell clearly has control; she keeps each element blending into the others with her colorful swaths of clustered notes and mode-changing lines. Leandre and Hauser forge their own sense of rhythm for Leimgruber to create the group's melodic sensibility and intervalic coordination. Finally, in the very last of eight movements, dawn begins to break and the light startles the players. Crispell drives into the coming storm first, charging in a flurry of augmented chords and single-note runs. Leimgruber follows as Hauser triple-times everyone. 

As tension reaches a fever pitch and everyone has been wakened from their somnambulant pondering in this beautiful abyss, Leandre brings in the final aspect of a dawn rooted to not only the sun, but the earth, and the piece comes to a winding, floating halt — leaving, I am sure, everyone in that audience wondering just what had taken place during that hour when they were hypnotized. 

— by Thom Jurek

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JOËLLE LÉANDRE and AKOSH S. – Győr (2005)

Label: Reqords – REQ001
Format: CD, Album; Country: France - Released: 2005
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live during the Festival Mediawave in the ancient synagogue of Györ, Hungary, May 1, 2003.
Design (front cover reproduced above) by Joseph Nadj

Review: 

Naturally, many strategies pursued solo can be as satisfying done in pairs. The extended mutual improvisations on Györ prove the veracity of this statement. Initially the sonic intermingling is such that it sounds as if Léandre and S could be playing different components of the same instrument, but soon the bassist advances to tremolo vibrations and the saxophonist to smeared and echoing timbres. As her bass lines fatten and become lower- pitched, he roughens his tenor tone with tongue-slaps and trills, and she responds with double and triple staccato swelling.  

Unleashing his metal clarinet, S shrills irregularly-pitched contralto chirps until Léandre ’ s encircling continuo leads to a solo section. Taking up the challenge, he reappears with intense, sonorous obbligatos that uptick to tongue-slaps, glottal punctuation, and bell-muting episodes. Finally his textures splinter into shards of trilled and popped notes in ghost registers and she continues strumming, setting up a proper backdrop on which variations can be displayed. The finale involves crooked reed whines on his part and stropped, jagged perambulating string jettes on hers. 

Even more spectacular, the nearly 25-minute “ Györ part 2 ” weaves Jewish Magyar intonation into the performance through S ’ a cappella ululation of sustained shofar-like timbres from his taragoto. After about a minute, Léandre joins in with darker, sustained double-stopping behind his ethnic-styled double-tonguing. Changing positions, the double bassist moves to the forefront, exposing variations on choked spiccato patterns that are struck near the peg box as well as the bridge. Protracted thumps then intermingle with flute tones from S, which in context sound positively bird-like and melodious. At this point, panting verbal interjections appear along with slapped and stopped plucks from Léandre. With the metal clarinet back in use, S chokes out strangled yelps in between Herculean gusts, matching the bass woman ’ s stentorian sweeps and conspirational, whispered asides. 

Not that all the notes are discordant, however. Slightly after the midpoint, S plays mellow, unaccompanied variations on the theme, with his clarinet tone as legato here as it was atonal earlier on. As trills, slurs, and ghost notes bubble through his instrument ’ s body tube, and before he reenters with wiggling tongue-stopping cadences, the bassist ratchets up her harmonic intensity, toughness, and atonality. Conclusively, the climatic crescendo reveals choked, bellowing note piles, each rougher than the next. Beginning the postlude, Léandre gentles the reedist ’ s grainy growls and irregular pitch vibrations with a soothing continuum. These sweeping harmonies dissolve into single notes, pure sounds and finally silence. 

By Ken Waxman, 21 November 2005


An interesting note:

Performance of Josef Nadj, Cécile Loyer, Joëlle Léandre and S. Akosh, December 6, 2011 at 20:30 - Theatre of Cahors - France



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