TOBIAS DELIUS 4TET – Toby's Mloby (BIMhuis-1999)

Label: Instant Composers Pool – ICP 034

Format: CD, Album / Country: Netherlands / Released: 2000

Style: Free Jazz, Post Bop, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Amsterdam jazz club Bimhuis, September 6, 1999.

Cover – Han Bennink

Design [Cover] – Leugenachtig Lekker

Photography By – Francesca Patella

Recorded By – Dick Lucas

“This group moves seemingly effortlessly between passages of great complexity and pure abstraction, and does so on a dime. This recording, like its predecessor solidifies my theory that there isn’t a better working band in creative music today.”

(Coda Magazine, january/february 2001)

 01   Brrrrt / Toby's Mloby 3 / TWR . . . 8:09

       (Composed By – T. Delius, T. Delius, T. Honsinger)

02   Wink No. 50 / Toby's Mloby 2 / Wink No. 50 . . . 5:03

       (Composed By – T. Delius, T. Delius, T. Honsinger)

03   Salmon + Bear Suite . . . 10:50

       (Composed By – T. Honsinger)

04   Television . . . 2:09

       (Composed By – T. Delius)

05   Shrinkage / ¿Whither? . . . 3:38

       (Composed By – J. Williamson, T. Delius)

06   Toby's Mloby 1 / Wireless / Antonelli's Night Out . . . 7:42

       (Composed By – J. Williamson, T. Delius, T. Honsinger)

07   Faultier . . . 1:58

       (Composed By – J. Williamson)

08   Dut . . . 2:59

       (Composed By – T. Delius)

09   Beehive . . . 10:43

       (Composed By – T. Honsinger)

10   Toby's Mloby 4 & 5 . . . 2:07

       (Composed By – T. Honsinger)

11   Schijf / Romy . . . 5:03

       (Composed By – T. Delius, T. Honsinger)

Tobias Delius – tenor saxophone

Tristan Honsinger – cello

Joe Williamson – double bass

Han Bennink – drums, percussion

 

Before even discussing the terrific music on this disc, praise should be lavished on the packaging. Because of both the look of the slightly oversize front cover and the die-cut cardboard square that is supposed to hold the disc in place, one could get the impression of owning a homemade work of art by the extremely creative Han Bennink, who is one of the world's great drummers as well as quite an active visual artist in many mediums. The fact that he plays drums for this group is a definite plus, as well. The other members of this quartet are equally talented. The sympathetic combination of these musical abilities applied to a perfectly realized concept of improvisation and composition make this one of the best small jazz groups of the new millennium. Bennink might have a reputation for loud, bombastic playing and he certainly deserves this, although it must be said the quality of his sound and beauty of his tone and technique on the drums never wavers no matter how loudly he might bash away. Yet in this group he is dealing with some extremely subtle players who work together very melodically, and this brings out another side to his playing that gets much less attention than his surrealistic antics or show-stopping drum solos. He is a totally sensitive member of the group whose control of dynamics and once again tone are a big part of the success the ensemble achieves. Not to give him all the credit, of course. Tenorman Delius has a versatile, beautiful sound and has a great foil in cellist Tristan Honsinger, a stalwart of the European improvising scene. Of all the groups the latter musician has been in, this is maybe the one in which his abilities are most obvious, especially his wonderful lyricism and distinctive personal sound. Filling out the group is bassist Joe Williamson, working excellently throughout. He has a way of playing down the dynamics while simultaneously increasing the intensity. For this CD the group sometimes plays in what has become its normal manner, blending together several themes into little suites. Often these pieces combine compositions by several group members. There are also tracks focusing on a single composition, some of them short and precise, others stretching out. The music was recorded at the famous Amsterdam jazz club Bimhuis but does not sound like a live concert recording unless the audience members were bound and gagged. Recording quality is crystal clear and ensemble playing simply sparkles. This is a disc listeners will want to return to again and again, which may show up a flaw in the lovely little package, as the more one removes the CD from the cardboard holder, the less it is likely to hold the disc in place. The solution is perhaps to keep this disc on the CD player all the time.

_ Review by Eugene CHADBOURNE

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COMPANY (Derek Bailey) – Company 6 & 7 (2LP-1977) - CD-1991

Label: Incus Records – CD07 

Format: CD, Compilation; Country: UK - Released: 1991 

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

These recordings were made during the first Company Week, which took place at the I.C.A. London. Recorded on May 25-27 1977.
Re-release of Incus 29 (Company 6) and Incus 30 (Company 7) with some missing tracks.
Design – Karen Brookman
Engineer – Howard Cross, Nick Glennie-Smith
Photography By – Roberto Massotti
Producer [Post Production] – John Hadden

Derek Bailey has always been interested in the way that musicians react and interact within unfamiliar situations. Beginning in 1977, he began organizing regular events called "Company Week", in which a group of musicians was assembled to play in ad-hoc formations throughout the course of several days. The players are chosen with care: some will have extensive backgrounds in free improvisation, others will not; some will have worked with each other, some will have never even have heard each other's music. Bailey has remarked that by the end of the week the musicians will have settled into a working rapport but that he's not necessarily most interested in the more polished or empathetic performances that might result: he's most interested in the earlier stages, where musicians test each other out, warily responding & trying to find ways of communicating.

This disc documents performances from the first event, in May 1977. (Originally the performances were released sequentially on LPs numbered 1-7; this CD compiles most but not all of the last two LPs.) This was a historic encounter between some of the finest European free improvisors with a number of American free jazz musicians. In the former group: Bailey himself on guitar (as usual with Company Week, Bailey is perhaps the least prominent musician here, & in fact only plays on 3 tracks); Evan Parker & Lol Coxhill on saxophones; Steve Beresford on piano & miscellaneous instruments; Han Bennink on drums, clarinet, viola, banjo & anything else within range; Tristan Honsinger on cello & Maarten van Regteren Altena on Bass. The Americans are Steve Lacy & Anthony Braxton on saxophones, & the trumpeter Leo Smith.

It's hard to describe this music at all: one's strongest sense is of how differences in temperament & approach between musicians can lead to bewildering differences in result from track to track, depending on the personnel. One division here is between some of the Europeans whose playing involves a lot of sheer mischief & humour, & the "serious" approach of the Americans & some of the other Europeans. Beresford, Honsinger & Bennink are loose cannons, making tracks like "SB/MR/HB/LC", "HB/LC/MR/TH" & "TH/MR/SB/HB/DB" (the tracks are simply titled after the personnel on them) Dadaist assemblages of noise & mayhem. On the other hand, there's the beautiful, austere "AB/EP", a duo between Braxton & Parker that anticipates their marvellous 1993 duet disc on Leo. Listening to the disc again, it strikes me forcibly exactly how good the American players are, especially Leo Smith & Braxton--Braxton's improvising was surely never more trenchant than when he was a young lion in the 1970s, & he gives a bravura multiinstrumental performance on the opening track (which features Lacy, Smith, Braxton with Altena & Honsinger) that has him blowing saxophone, flute & clarinet in succession. Leo Smith is also outstanding on this album--try out his careening duet with Honsinger, "TH/LS", or the spacious trio that closes the disc with Parker & Bailey. The album also features one track performed by an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime quartet of soprano saxophonists--Parker, Coxhill, Braxton, Lacy--& will be treasured by collectors for just that.

By any definition this is "difficult music". It is also very rewarding, & historically important. A very welcome reissue, though it's a pity that the original albums weren't reissued in their entirety. -- One final note: Derek Bailey's friend, the poet Peter Riley, wrote extensively about the 1977 Company Week, & these writings are worth seeking out. The poems were published as _The Musicians The Instruments_ (The Many Press, 1978); the prose was only published a few years ago by Bailey, in a book simply called _Company Week_.

Document of a crucial event (October 27, 2001)
_ By N. DORWARD  



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CECIL TAYLOR with TRISTAN HONSINGER & EVAN PARKER – The Hearth (1989)

Label: FMP – FMP CD 11
Format: CD, Album; Country: Germany; Released: 1989
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live during "Improvised Music 11/88" on June 30th, 1988 at the "Kongresshalle" Berlin
Mastered By – Jonas Bergler
Music By [All] – Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker, Tristan Honsinger
Photography By – Dagmar Gebers
Producer, Recorded By, Mixed By, Design, Layout – Jost Gebers
Recorded By – Eberhard Bingel

Note:

While sold separately, this CD is also a part of the limited edition 11 CD box, entitled "Cecil Taylor in Berlin '88".


Review:

Recorded in 1988 as part of Cecil Taylor month in Berlin, this trio, which consists of Taylor, saxophonist Evan Parker, and cellist Tristan Honsinger, is an improviser's dream. Here are two personalities actually strong enough to rein Taylor in and bring the music up out of him instead of the force. Parker chose tenor for this gig, and he and Honsinger play to each other for the first couple of minutes, establishing a mutated kind of blues groove as Taylor sings in his tinny voice and claps in the background. Honsinger's bowed chord voicings offer Parker plenty to work off of tonally, and he does, turning the blues riff into a vamp on thirds, and then elongated harmonic structures that bring Taylor in on the piano after about ten minutes. Taylor enters with arpeggios blazing, but he is reined in by the architecture created by Honsinger in his phrasing. When Taylor is forced to play inside it, his creativity rages; he is full of colors, glissandi, dynamics, and a palette of textures that is dizzying — so much so that Parker stops playing for a while. When he reenters, it is to slow things down and build upon some of the tonal structures Taylor has been tossing off within Honsinger's phraseology. Parker becomes a mode setter, creating a new layer of intervallic order from each set of overtones, where any player is allowed to push against its walls but not to break them. And from here, a language is established within the trio, making the musicians move into one another more closely, taking bits and pieces and growing ideas out into entire musical universes made by three — not one plus one plus one. This is a devastatingly fine gig, and one of the best Taylor played the entire month he was in Berlin.

 ~ Thom Jurek

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