EVAN PARKER / BARRY GUY / PAUL LYTTON – Atlan'ta (1986)

 
Label: Impetus Records – IMP LP 18617, (IMP CD 18617)
Format: Vinyl, LP, CD, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1990
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded 12th December 1986 in concert, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Design [Cover Design] – Evan Parker, Impetus
Engineer – Tod Ploharski
Mastered By [Digitally] – Dave Bernez
Photography By – Caroline Forbes

Tracks A1 and B2 are trios, track A2 is a bass solo and track B1 is a saxophone solo.

Recorded in 1986 at a concert in Atlanta, the trio of Parker, Guy, and Lytton had even then been playing together for over a decade, and here it shows. Over four pieces, all of them improvised on the spot, Parker leads the trio through the gyrations of his circular improvisation on both soprano and tenor and also through the small and basic elements of "jazz" he respects -- but they get mutated almost immediately, as one might expect. Parker's interplay with his rhythm section is akin to a rough dancer skidding along the floor to a graceful, elegant orchestra. The interplay between Guy and Lytton is so mesmerizing, so completely self-contained, it's Parker who has to focus on them or he'll be lost in the glorious tumult. The rhythmic communication -- especially as Guy pulls out three or four notes, legato, and then slides a chord up the bass as Lytton creates a rhythm around that phrase for Guy to come back to and extrapolate -- is breathtaking. As for Parker, there is little to say except that, despite having to be very physical on this evening, he was aware of everything, offering whatever color and shape, whatever texture or fragment that might be useful to the rhythmic dance, though he was the frontman. This is a must-have for fans of this trio.

_ Review by THOM JUREK



If you find it, buy this album! 

PARKER / GUY / LYTTON – Imaginary Values - Nine Improvisations (1994)

Label: Maya Recordings – MCD9401
Format: CD, Album; Country: Switzerland - Released: 1994
Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz
Recorded on 22 March 1993 live at the Red Rose Club, London
Performer: Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Paul Lytton
Liner Notes By – Francesco Martinelli (English), Bert Noglik (German)
Producer By – Barry Guy, Maya Homburger

TRIO Parker/Guy/Lytton

... twenty years later


"Imaginary Values by the trio – nominally Parker's but in practice collective – that gave us 1990's fiery Atlanta set on Impulse. The nine improvisations here are more compact but no less high-voltage: bright sonic canvasses on which texture, tone-colour and dynamic flow are major parts of the interactive mix. The players' scrupulous respect for nuance plus their incredible speed of response bespeak a group sensibility that has matured over time and is celebrated here in a space alive with joyful interplay. Free jazz at its highly-evolved best."
_ GRAHAM LOCK

"... This is a group that in many ways, represents the epitome of European collective free improvisation. The three players are each masters of their instruments and, more importantly, astute listeners. Lytton's crackling, multi-hued percussion; Guy's currents of resonant wood and scraped, plucked, bowed and beaten strings; and Parker's micro tonal, snaking reed reverberations meld into a unified whole. These three have refined the sax, bass, drums trio into an organic unit where all three are truly equals, their collective lines intricately enmeshed and coiled around each other in a skein of thrilling complexity ..."
_ MICHAEL ROSENSTEIN



Note: 
This could be interesting to know:

TRIO Parker/Guy/Lytton 
Technical rider 

1 small table for bows, brushes, sticks (Barry Guy)

Amplifier: one bass amp and 15" speaker (or combo) of very good quality e.g. Hartke or Gallien Krüger, SWP or Trace Elliott.

1 Jazz Drum kit (important: NOT rock & roll kit) for Paul Lytton

Snare drum and stand, 12" small tom tom, 14" large tom tom, 18" Bass Drum (with front head), 3 cymbal stands, hi-hat, drum stool, bass drum pedal. Drums must have Remo Ambassador Heads or similar NOT oil filled heads.

If the venue is supportive of acoustic music, the trio will only need amplification for the bass. Otherwise PA system with monitors for the three musicians plus microphone for Parker etc.



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EVAN PARKER TRIO and PETER BRÖTZMANN TRIO – The Bishop's Move (2004)

Label: Les Disques Victo – VICTO CD 093
Format: CD, Album; Country: Canada - Released: 2004
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at the 20 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, 19 / 5 / 2003.
Graphics – François Bienvenue
Liner Notes – John Corbett
Painting [Cover Paintings] – Tania Girard-Savoie
Photography By – Caroline Forbes
Producer – Joanne Vézina, Michel Levasseur

Festival organizers are always searching for meetings that have a killer combination of artistic cachet and audience draw. Victoriaville artistic director Michel Levasseur has mastered this over the years, coming up with some spectacular combinations amongst the expected fizzles. When he found out that Evan Parker ’ s trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton and Peter Brötzmann ’ s Die Like a Dog trio with William Parker and Hamid Drake would both be touring during the spring of 2003, he arranged a one-off meeting of the two at the tail end of their tours. Things took an intriguing twist when pianist Alex von Schlippenbach was recruited as a last-minute replacement for Guy, who was unable to make the tour.

Parker, Brötzmann, and Schlippenbach ’ s history goes back decades, but they had not played together in quite some time. With little practice time together, there was a question as to whether this would become simply a clash of titans, or if the sextet would find its way to more provocative collective heights. Over the course of a continuous 80-minute set, they managed to work at both extremes.

The buzz was high when the sextet hit the stage and the group seemed to feed off of it. Sections by the two trios serve as bookends for this continuous set. After an initial salvo where the twin tenors laid out bellowing torrents in full assault over stabbing piano clusters and roiling pulse, Parker ’ s trio was left to negotiate their snaking labyrinths. Those looking for a document of the trio at the height of that spring tour should be steered to America 2003, the two-disc document on Parker ’ s Psi label. That said, the Parker trio ’ s segment shows the group ’ s ability to move from muscular intensity to circuitous detail.

But it is other sub-groupings that provide the real highlights. After Die Like a Dog joins in, the reed players and W. Parker break off to leave Schlippenbach and the two drummers for a long central section. Here, the pianist ’ s Monk-like clusters and percussive prepared abstractions jostle against the coursing waves of Drake ’ s polyrhythmic pulse and Lytton ’ s free textures. When W. Parker joins in on bass and E. Parker dives in on soprano, the fractals fly with ever-mounting dramatic tension.

Oddly it is when the ensemble opens way for Brötzmann ’ s trio that things begin to flag. The reed player starts on tarogato but can ’ t seem to settle in, relying more on bluster and burly force than his usual molten barrage. When the trio breaks way for an extended bass/frame drum duo, then a bit later for a bass solo, it feels out of place with what had preceded.

When the full group finally convenes to finish things out, the energy is regained for an incendiary final blast. (Missing on the CD is the full-on five-minute encore with the whole group storming with an intensity gathered over the set.) Though a wildly uneven meeting, this is still one of those summits that was an intriguing reunion of masters and well worth checking out.

_ By MICHAEL ROSENSTEIN, 23 December 2004 (One Final Note)

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GUY, SCHWEIZER, PARKER, BAUER, PHILLIPS, LYTTON – Elsie Jo - Live (1995)

 

Label: Maya Recordings – MCD9201 

Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 1995 

Style: Free Improvisation, Avant-garde Jazz

Recorded at the Amadeus Centre, London on 23 March 1991. 

Cover art (reproduced above) 'Berthon' by Albert Irvin

Elsie Jo was first released with a different cover (re-issued early 1995)

 Irène Schweizer

Barre Philips

Konrad Bauer

Paul Lytton, Evan Parker, Barry Guy

Note:

Elsie Jo are five of European free improv's most experienced and respected performers, plus an American virtuoso bassist. Barry Guy, Irène Schweizer, Evan Parker, Konrad Bauer, Paul Lytton and Barre Phillips have all worked together in the impressive London Jazz Composers Orchestra, and Parker, Guy and Lytton as a long established trio. In other words, all of these musicians know each other's game – and my word it shows! Clocking in at nearly 45 minutes, Megalops Presents can only be described as consummate collective improvising. Ideas flow with amazing surety, develop into thickly textured structures and peel away almost imperceptibly: a trio emerges where only a moment before a sextet had existed and so on. After this Ta'ay (Now), a sparkling duet between Evan Parker and Irène Schweizer, featuring ornate multi phonics on soprano which are complemented by the piano's rippling attacks. Then everybody gathers for a further 20 minutes of collective improvising.

How the group came buy their curious name is revealed in Barry Guy's notes which you can read when you buy this magnificent album.



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STEN SANDELL & DAVID STACKENÄS with PARKER / GUY / LYTTON – Gubbröra (2004)

 

Label: psi – psi 04.10 

Format: CD, Album; Country: Japan - Released: May 2004 

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in concert at Freedom Of The City 2004, Conway Hall, London on 3 May 2004.

Photographer: Caroline Forbes

Distributor: Northcountry Distributors

Personnel: Sten Sandell (piano, electronics, voice); David Stackenäs (guitar); Evan Parker (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Barry Guy (double bass); Paul Lytton (percussion)

Sten Sandell

 David Stackenäs

Album Notes:

Recorded live at the 2004 Freedom of the City Festival, this album features the visiting Swedish duo of pianist Sten Sandell and guitarist David Stackenäs, on their own at first, and later joined by the trusty Parker/Guy/Lytton trio. Sandell is a powerful player and a resourceful improviser, resolutely belonging to the expressive camp. His use of preparations and occasional electronics (even his voice at times, although not much in this concert), and his extremely large dynamics palette deserve comparisons with Keith Tippett and Howard Riley. Best known for his tenure in the improv collective No Spaghetti Edition, Stackenäs is less easy to characterize, his playing seemingly borrowing from every meaningful guitarist in classical, jazz and avant-garde history, from Bailey to Segovia and Lussier. As a two-headed unit, Sandell and Stackenäs light sparks, their dialogue often turning into argument. "Jansson's Temptation (Part 1)" is a heated debate, the pianist hammering one point after another before laying a gripping solo consisting of sharply contrasting elements (as if he were now arguing with himself). The second part of this duet cools down and lingers on, Stackenäs' use of a hand-held fan (or other rotating device) on the guitar strings bringing little more than a cliche to the improvisation. The 34-minute quintet piece with Parker, Guy and Lytton is all over the place, ranging from near-chaotic five-way exchanges to an almost silent middle section and a couple of uncomfortable points of hesitation in between. Stackenäs' acoustic guitar often gets buried by the force brut of the English trio (to which Sandell seems more than happy to add), but there are also a few minutes of true group communion. Despite being entertaining and varied, Gubbröra rarely steps beyond that line, making it a rather unessential item. 

~ François Couture

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