BY ANY MEANS – Live At Crescendo (Unofficial Re. 077/078/079 / 3LP-2010)

Label: Private Press / Unofficial Release 077/078/079-3LP
Other: AYVI-0770719-01 / AYVI-0780719-02 / AYVI-0790719-03
Format: 3 x Vinyl, Album / Country: Switzerland / Released: 2008/Re-2010
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on October 19, 2007 at Club Crescendo, Norrköping, Sweden
Cover – Åke Bjurhamn
Photography By – Lars Jönsson / Joacim Jönsson
Recorded By, Mixed By – Per Ruthström
Executive-Producer, Liner Notes – Jan Ström
Layout – Stéphane Berland
Composed By – Charles Gayle / Rashied Ali / William Parker
7 320470 068335 / Rights Society: BIEM/n©b
Matrix / Runout (LP-1, side A): Private AYVI-0770719-01
Matrix / Runout (LP-1, side B): Private AYVI-0770719-01
Matrix / Runout (LP-2, side C): Private AYVI-0780719-02
Matrix / Runout (LP-2, side D): Private AYVI-0780719-02
Matrix / Runout (LP-3, side E): Private AYVI-0790719-03
Matrix / Runout (LP-3, side F): Private AYVI-0790719-03

side 1:
A1 - Introduction ........................................................................................................ 0:54
A2 - Zero Blues ......................................................................................................... 7:25
A3 - Hearts Joy ....................................................................................................... 13:23
side 2:
B - We Three ........................................................................................................... 14:37

side 3:
C1 - Different Stuff .................................................................................................... 6:28
C2 - Love One Another ........................................................................................... 10:40
side 4:
D1 - Straight Ahead Steps ........................................................................................ 7:19
D2 - Peace Inside ..................................................................................................... 8:33

side 5:
E1 - Machu Picchu ................................................................................................. 10:46
E2 - Cry Nu ............................................................................................................... 7:58
side 6:
F1 - Eternal Voice ..................................................................................................... 9:08
F2 - No Sorrow ......................................................................................................... 7:38

Personnel:
CHARLES GAYLE – alto saxophone
WILLIAM PARKER – bass
RASHIED ALI – drums, percussion

Given the group name and the personnel – wall-destroying saxophonist Charles Gayle, bassist William Parker and drummer Rashied Ali – you’d be forgiven for reaching for the seatbelt in anticipation of another obliterating slab of high energy instant composition. And you’d be half right. After all, this is the same group that cut the raging Touchin’ On Trane for FMP in 1991, still one of the most aggressively nuanced free jazz LPs to retain an umbilical connection to the New Thing. But the change of name also marks a slight change of tack. Live At Crescendo presents a 2007 concert from Sweden in its entirety. Gayle’s playing may not be any sweeter, but it immediately feels more informed by the eschatological gospel and blues that made up more traditionally ‘earthed’ Gayle sides like Ancient Of Days.

The longest track is just over 14 minutes, a mere feather on the breath compared to the steel tongue athleticism of earlier releases, but Gayle’s playing is so hyper-focused, so exactingly executed, that he devours the minutes, bracketing accelerated, smeared scales with boppy heads and sudden invasions of the alto’s most phantom registers.
Rashied Ali has cut some fairly pedestrian sides over the past decade or so, but for the duration of this set his reactions are as lightning fast and tonally astute as anyone who came up in his shadow. His various solo spots combine an almost machine gun-style rapid attack with an uncanny feel for timbre that means at points you could almost mistake his floor tom for Parker’s bass. Indeed, Parker and Ali sound particularly good together and between them they generate the kind of precariously accelerated architecture that Gayle loves to take nosedives from.

The first part of the show is slower, with tracks that feel more rigorously constructed, while the second is a little wilder, kicking off with a great vocal/horn piece by Gayle that feels like a more articulate take on the pan-African love cry of Arthur Doyle.
Parker’s “Eternal Voice” is another highlight, with Gayle picking out high, melodic complements to his singing arco work.

It’s a fantastic set, one that explodes the tradition while simultaneously bolstering it, like all of the most ass-flattening free jazz dates.

(By David Keenan / The Wire)

If you find it, buy this album!

DAVID S. WARE – Onecept (Rank & File - RFS 33-203 / AUM064-LP / 2LP-2011)

Label: Rank And File – RFS 33-203 / Aum Fidelity – AUM064-LP
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Gatefold
Country: Germany / Released: 2011
Style: Free Jazz, Avant-garde Jazz
Recorded live (December 2, 2009) in '3D Sound' at Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn, NY.
Pressed By – A to Z Media
Artwork [Cover] – Richard Cohen
Design, Layout – Ming@409
Photography By [Session Photography] – John Rogers
Recorded By, Mixed By, Mastered By – Michael Marciano
Producer [Produced By] – David S. Ware, Steven Joerg
Liner Notes – Steven Joerg
Composed By – Ware / Smith / Parker
Published By – Gandharvasphere/ Daswa
Matrix / Runout (Side A): RFS 33-203 - A / AUM064-LP A
Matrix / Runout (Side B): RFS 33-203 - B / AUM064-LP B

side 1
A1 - Book Of Krittika ................................................................................................ 7:53
A2 - Wheel Of Life ................................................................................................... 6:31
A3 - Celestial ........................................................................................................... 6:24

side 2
B1 - Desire Worlds .................................................................................................. 6:56
B2 - Astral Earth .................................................................................................... 14:54

side 3
C1 - Savaka ............................................................................................................ 4:35
C2 - Bardo ............................................................................................................... 6:43
C3 - Anagami .......................................................................................................... 6:50

side 4
D1 - Vata ................................................................................................................. 4:27
D2 - Virtue ............................................................................................................... 6:47
D3 - Gnavah ............................................................................................................ 9:06

Personnel:
DAVID S. WARE – tenor sax (A2,A3,C2,D3), stritch (A1,B2,C3), saxello (B1,C1,D1,D2)
WILLIAM PARKER – double bass
WARREN SMITH – drums / tympani / percussion

Under exclusive license from AUM Fidelity this alpha omega 2xLP edition of 500 produced by rank & file / AUM / ℗+© 2011
Vinyl edition features two exclusive bonus tracks (D2/D3) from Onecept session unavailable elsewhere.

David S. Ware's Onecept was recorded to celebrate his 50th year of playing saxophone; the sessions took place a year after the session's initially planned recording date due to his undergoing a kidney transplant. It follows Saturnian, the 2009 album of a completely improvised solo concert that Ware played using his tenor, a stritch, and a saxello. Those horns are present here too, and like that live date, this studio session is completely improvised on the spot with no previous rehearsal with bassist William Parker and drummer Warren Smith. It marks the first time in his career he's recorded this way.Ware introduces the date with "Book of Krittika" unaccompanied for 53 seconds before Parker enters playing arco elegantly, as Smith employs a timpani, playing sparely, quietly, before bringing a cymbal into play. This is truly free jazz, spontaneous, collectively envisioned, and played with an integrity of spirit that is almost entirely free of overindulgence. On "Celestial" and "Bardo," Ware searches for something out of earshot of the other players momentarily. The rhythm section, rather than trying to fill in the gap in that understanding, simply begins to react to the way his soloing develops, then articulates what he eventually finds. Smith in particular does an outstanding job of finding a place not behind but between Ware and Parker, adjusting his idea flow, and extending it into dialogue. Force, momentum, and dynamic shift around that collectively new voice and something is born into a previously unimagined sound. "Astral Earth" is an extended blues meditation with Ware on stritch where everything is in perfect balance; it's the most beautiful thing here. He begins "Desire Worlds" with an insistent flurry of notes on saxello that is not furious, but busy. Parker adds ballast by bowing a series of deep-register phrases that underscore the frenetic speech; because of the repetitive nature of his playing, he anchors it in mantra-like articulation. Smith finds accent points at the expulsion of Ware's breath, and then uses his notes not to fill, but to push the conversation further in that direction. This is the beauty in this kind of improvisation, when it works as it does here. Far from being a mere blowing session, it is instead a listening session, where everything centers around what these players hear individually and collectively.

Certainly there are moments when the dialogue gets a little bottlenecked, but it frees itself with movement and space rather than just force. Ware's development as a player is no longer reliant on his physicality -- though he still possesses it in abundance. Rather, it's his centering on that collective voice, which offers so many dimensions and textures to explore, where he expresses his creativity and mastery of his horns. Onecept is an exciting next step in Ware's musical evolution.

(By Thom Jurek)

If you find it, buy this album!

DAVID S. WARE TRIO – Live In New York 2010 (Private / DSW ARC03 – 3LP)

Label: Private Press / Unofficial Release / AUM102/103/104-3LP
Series: David S. Ware Archive Series – DSW ARC03
Format: 3 x Vinyl, Album / Country: Switzerland / Deluxe Limited Edition
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live in performance at the Blue Note, NYC on the night of October 4, 2010.
Artwork – Jeff Schlanger
Multi-track recording by Jimmy Katz
Mixed with & final mastering by Michael Marciano at Systems Two Studios, Brooklyn, NYC
Produced by Steven Joerg
All compositions by David S. Ware with William Parker & Warren Smith
© Gandharvasphere/Daswa
Matrix / Runout (LP-1, side A): DSW ARC03 Private AUM102 – 01
Matrix / Runout (LP-1, side B): DSW ARC03 Private AUM102 – 01
Matrix / Runout (LP-2, side C): DSW ARC03 Private AUM103 – 02
Matrix / Runout (LP-2, side D): DSW ARC03 Private AUM103 – 02
Matrix / Runout (LP-3, side E): DSW ARC03 Private AUM104 – 03
Matrix / Runout (LP-3, side F): DSW ARC03 Private AUM104 – 03

side 1                         SET ONE
A - 1-A ...................................................................................................................... 15:41

side 2
B1 - 1-B ................................................................................................................... 14:27
B2 - 1-C ..................................................................................................................... 6:42

side 3
C - 2-A ..................................................................................................................... 17:40

side 4
D1 - 2-B ..................................................................................................................... 9:04
                                   SET TWO
D2 - 3 ...................................................................................................................... 14:47

side 5
E1 - 4-A ................................................................................................................... 14:40
E2 - 4-B ..................................................................................................................... 3:58
E3 - 4-C .................................................................................................................... 5:25

side 6
F1 - 5 ....................................................................................................................... 10:21
F2 - 6-A ..................................................................................................................... 8:38
F3 - 6-B ..................................................................................................................... 8:40

Personnel:
DAVID S. WARE – alto saxophone [stritch] / tenor saxophone
WILLIAM PARKER – acoustic bass
WARREN SMITH – drums / percussion

''The fluency and fluidity with which he rapidly unspools ideas is startling. Whether alone or joined by Parker and Smith, Ware unfurls long expository statements with virtuosity and a mastery over phrasing, rhythm, and accent in ways that are exemplified by literary giants such as Thomas Pynchon. Breathtaking.'' – Point of Departure

Live in New York, 2010 presents a tremendous one-night engagement by saxophone colossus David S. Ware and his latter day Trio in an intimate club setting – the Blue Note on October 4, 2010. With his perennially steadfast musical partner William Parker on bass, and equally incomparable Warren Smith on drums, they were celebrating the recent release of the studio album, Onecept. Having played an electrifying set at Vision Festival in June, this extended night in October was the third and final magnificent time on which this trio convened.
The two hour+ sets, with repast in-between, allowed him and group to inhabit the space; afforded more time to stretch out and breathe with the music. As Ware was exclusively dealing with spontaneous forms during this period in his creative life, the six extended suites here were newly created on that night. None of these fantastic multi-track recordings have been previously released.

The more highly distinctive aspect of this performance was Ware’s use of his Beuscher straight alto saxophone, or stritch, which features on four of the six pieces. While compositions featuring this instrument appear on three albums recorded & released in the last years before his passing, this recording is by a great measure the most extensive documentation that exists of David S. Ware on alto. Further to his absolute command & control, he brought forth Middle & Far Eastern sonorities on the instrument, which served his modus operandi of music as a transcendental experience very well indeed. The final pieces of each set here feature him on his trademark tenor sax, upon which he earned–and then some–his status as a saxophone colossus.

This is the third edition in the David S. Ware Archive Series, preceded by the Birth of a Being (Expanded) set and the Live in Sant’Anna Arresi, 2004 duo with Matthew Shipp. This set is a musical treat for those who are already fans of his work, and a bountifully potent entry point for new converts.

A note on the track titles:
During this last phase of his creative arc, David would give titles to compositions after listening to final mixes of the recordings thereof. In his absence, AUM did not take latitude to do so, beyond the elemental.

If you find it, buy this album!

INTERMISSION – Live In Bimhuis, Amsterdam, December 6, 2008

Label: Private Recording / DP-0821

Format: CD, Album; Released: 2008

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

VPROJazzLive vanuit het Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Artwork and Complete Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO
December 6, 2008, Amsterdam, (Netherlands)in collaboration with VPRO Radio6 – VPRO Jazz Live from the Bimhuis

This is a radio broadcast of their concert at Bimhuis (December 6, 2008) and the announcement of the start of their long awaited European tour. Beautiful recording.

01 Intermission (Bimhuis, Amsterdam 2008) - set 1 . . . 49:25
02 Intermission (Bimhuis, Amsterdam 2008) - set 2 . . . 51:47

Intermission:
Klaas Hekman - bass saxophone

Hideji Taninaka - double bass, singing bowls, sho

William Parker - double bass, shakuhachi, zurna, guimbri, doson ngoni, poetry

Wilbert de Joode - double bass, singing bowls

With its three double bass players the quartet Intermission emphasizes the lowest sounds and makes them tangible. After a break of several years New Yorkers William Parker and Hideji Taninaka once again meet Wilbert de Joode and initiator Klaas Hekman, who plays bass saxophone. ‘Feel the deep boneshake’ (Downbeat).

See also:

INTERMISSION with Derek Bailey

http://differentperspectivesinmyroom.blogspot.com/2013/10/intermission-with-derek-bailey-chris.html

JIMMY LYONS – The Box Set (5CDs-1972/'85) - ayler-2003

Label: Ayler Records – aylCD-036 - 040
Format: 5 × CD, Album, Box Set, Limited Edition
Country: Sweden - Released: 2003
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Cover [Cover Art], Design – Åke Bjurhamn
Engineer – Joe Walker (tracks: 1-1 to 3-1), Judy Schwartz (tracks: 5-1 to 5-7), Verna Gillis (tracks: 3-2 to 3-7)
Executive-Producer – Jan Ström
Photography By – Chris Green, Jerry Kambisis, Lona Foote, Maryanne Driscoll, Nils Edström, Willard Taylor
Producer [Concert-producer] – Bea Rivers (tracks: 1-1 to 3-1), Chris Rich (tracks: 5-1 to 5-7), Sam Rivers (tracks: 1-1 to 3-1), Verna Gillis (tracks: 3-2 to 3-7)
Remastered By – Per Ruthström
Transferred By, Mastered By, Liner Notes – Ben Young

Jimmy Lyons is one of the most intriguing musicians to emerge in the 1960s, as the alto saxophonist provided one of the strongest links between bebop and the New Thing. Unlike many of the movement's provincially raised exponents, Lyons spent his formative years in New York, where he was able to jam with the likes of Cannonball Adderley and Elmo Hope before his historic, quarter-century association with Cecil Taylor began in 1961. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Lyons' solos were about not just notes but phrases: short, jolting cries and serpentine, blues-drenched lines passionately and expertly strung together. There is no more direct route connecting Charlie Parker to the '60s and its ongoing aftermath than Jimmy Lyons.

Yet this did not initially benefit Lyons, who, for a number of reasons, was slow to make his own records. After balking at an offer of a Prestige date in '61, Lyons had to wait until 1969, and then only made the minor classic Other Afternoons (BYG/Actuel) because of the last- minute cancellation of a Taylor-led session. Gaining traction as the leader of working bands took even longer. Lyons' units worked primarily in the New York loft scene until well into the '70s, and it was only a few years before his death in 1986 that Lyons found a steady outlet for their music with the Black Saint label. Still, Lyons left a sufficient body of work for him to be considered a major voice in his own right, a legacy significantly enhanced by The Box Set, a five-CD collection of ensemble and solo concerts spanning the years 1972 to '85.

In a 1978 interview excerpt with WKCR programmer Taylor Storer that is included in the collection, Lyons states that he saw few distinctions between composition and improvisation, a sensibility no doubt reinforced by his association with Cecil Taylor. However, Lyons pursued this position through conventionally formatted pieces, with themes usually stated in unison by the front line. The evolution of his thematic materials is an important thread of this collection, one that is potentially overlooked given the wealth of impassioned performances. The earliest concert, a '72 Studio Rivbea set with trumpeter Raphe Malik, bass player Hayes Burnett and drummer Sidney Smart, reveals Lyons to be navigating several overlapping currents. The tune that came to be Lyons' signature, "Jump Up," is a revving motivic line somewhat in the vein of Sonny Rollins' "East Broadway Run Down." "Mr. 1-2-5 Street" shows adeptness at the early Ornette Coleman gambit of gluing together fragmentary phrases with buoyant rhythmic shifts. And "Ballad 1" initially drifts toward Coleman and then veers with a Coltrane-ish phrase.

Largely because of his alto's central role, Lyons' pieces never seem derivative. The saxophonist bonded a jabbing attack and a plaintive tone in an instantly recognizable manner, and everything he wrote flowed from the resulting soul-stirring sound. This is most evident in the hour-plus solo concert recorded in '81 at Soundscape. It is simply engrossing to hear Lyons' sense of design morph effortlessly into cascading improvisations without being triggered by the abrupt abandonment of the theme by a second horn or the on-cue stretching of the rhythm section. This is not to suggest that Lyons could not achieve comparable results at the helm of a small group, a fact attested to by the expansive '75 trio outing with Burnett and drummer Henry Letcher. Still, this 90-minute Studio Rivbea workout does not represent Lyons' music at its pinnacle.
It takes the enlistment of two musicians outside the New York loft scene for Lyons' ensemble sound to reach full maturity. One is Paul Murphy, a drummer whose relentless drive and conservatory-honed precision and agility could single-handedly propel Lyons' music, as confirmed by a bass-less 1984 concert recorded in Geneva. However, the crucial catalytic voice in Lyons' group was bassoonist Karen Borca, the most dazzling double-reed player in jazz history. Not only did Borca's throaty chortle perfectly complement Lyons' tone, her virtuosity gave Lyons the latitude to ratchet up the degree of difficulty of his rapid-fire themes and to explore contrapuntal writing. On both the Geneva concert and the '85 Brown University concert that closes this set (with the now omnipresent William Parker rounding out the quartet), Borca's subwooferlike rumble in the heads and her high-voltage solos prove to be essential to Lyons' music.

All in all, The Box Set is a triumph.

_ By BILL SHOEMAKER, JazzTimes



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INTERMISSION with DEREK BAILEY, CHRIS BURN & GILIUS van BERGEIJK – UNanswered Questions (1999)

Label: BVHAAST Records – BVHAAST 9906 

Format: CD, Album; Country: Netherlands - Released: 1999

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

Tracks 1, 2 - Recorded live, 5.4.1998 at Lokaal 01 in Breda 

Tracks 3, 5 - Recorded live, 2.4.1998 at BIM-huis, Amsterdam 

Track 4 - Recorded live, 3.4.1998 at Paradox in Tilburg

Mastered By, Edited By – Gilius Van Bergeijk (tracks: 4), Klaas Hekman (tracks: 1 to 5), Marc Schots (tracks: 1 to 5)

Recorded By – Daan Van West (tracks: 1, 2), Guus Hoevenaars (tracks: 3, 4, 5), Marc Schots (tracks: 1 to 5)

Yes, this is art. No, it's not for everybody, but it is for those who think they have heard all there is to hear when it comes to improvisation.

INTERMISSION:
Bass Saxophone – Klaas Hekman
Double Bass – Hideji Taninaka, Wilbert De Joode, William Parker
 +
Guitar – Derek Bailey (tracks: 3, 4, 5)
Piano – Chris Burn (tracks: 1, 2)
Conductor — Gilius van Bergeijk

Intermission is the unit consisting of double bassists William Parker, Wilbert de Joode, and Hideji Taninaka and bass saxophonist Klaas Hekman. The five improvisations here, all recorded in 1998, are based on the assumption of the non-directionality of the bass -- in strong or reed -- an instrument that normally calls for no response. It is non-directional because its lower frequency acts differently, in that its upper register and partials, therefore spreading across the music spectrum instead of lying at one and or the other. These three bassists and Hekman have employed improvisers Derek Bailey and Chris Burn, and conductor Gilius van Bergeijk, to help them explore the notion that the bass, when it calls, goes unanswered in tonal space. Is this a hypothesis or is it simply musical fact? The music on this disc then, comes from the mouth(s) of the questioner(s). Their voices, though not unheard, would go unheeded if this were true. What proves to be the case is that the assumption is fiction. It is the questioner who sets in motion not only what will be answered but how. In this manner, Intermission is as much a linguistic construct as a musical one. The resultant music, no matter the guest, is under the ground music, absent of light, full of dense darkness and blind passageways that lead ever further into the conical center of a modal apparatus so unnerving that it's almost unbearable to listen to. Yes, this is art. No, it's not for everybody, but it is for those who think they have heard all there is to hear when it comes to improvisation. There is nothing like this in the world. Go ahead, listen to it for days and weeks and months, then sell your car and your house for more money to have the time to spend in a hotel room and listen some more. Memorize its every nuance and bowed note. No matter how long you probe this dark lovely monster, you will never fathom its question, let alone its answer. (By Thom Jurek)

Klaas Hekman

Derek Bailey

Chris Burn

Gilius Van Bergeijk

The quartet Intermission is conceptually severe: three contrabasses and organizer Klaas Hekman's bass saxophone. They get as low to the ground as any band anywhere. Rumbling underground moans unfold without haste, like a tape of Ligeti strings played at the wrong speed.
"Intermission" "pauze" was Duke Ellington's deprecatory slang for "bass solo," but the band avoids jazzy gestures: no 4/4 bass walking tonight. By conscious choice, it's a music of texture more than form, a risky business.
Sometimes pieces start frenetically and then drain of energy, musical entropy.
For their third Dutch tourneé, dubbed "Unanswered Questions," Intermission wrecks its own conceptual purity by inviting in polar opposites: English guitarist Derek Bailey, crusader for totally unfettered improvisation, and Hague composer Gilius van Bergeijk, in whose pieces each moment may address an ultimate goal. Both were excellent choices.
Bailey, guest on most of the program, is even more committed to free improvisation than they are. The "compositions" Intermission's members contribute are less thematic material than points of departure, setting them loose in one or another sonic area.
One piece started with three arco basses, another all pizzicato, to give a simple example; on another, Hekman blew into bass sax with trumpet embouchure, without reed or mouthpiece, getting a wistful sound like Israeli shofar or bass flute.
But even such rudimentary structure is too much for Bailey, who prefers to wing it. On first hearing, he sounds like he's splintering his amplified hollow body guitar into bits. He likes small sounds: ringing harmonics shaped with a volume pedal, rude chords swept away as soon as they're voiced. (Rejecting conventional style, Bailey in effect created a new style, imitated by guitarists around the world.) His sparse, spiky, sometimes high pitched pointillism is ready made contrast to what Intermission plays, but he is instinctive contrapuntist in any setting. Confronted with Intermission's own avoidance of form, at one point in Dodorama this anti composer fell into a rising and falling two chord sequence, just to go against the grain. (In Dordrecht and Breda, he'll be replaced by English pianist Chris Burn, an interpreter turned improviser, said to favour a Bailey like approach.)
For all his unorthodox sounds, in ensemble Bailey is often an incisive rhythm guitarist, booting the other players along. Playing duos with Han Bennink for 30 years hasn't hurt his timing. Indeed, he often favors a percussive attack, as do Zaans bassist Wilbert de Joode and his New York alter ego William Parker. For that matter, Hekman gets brushes on snare drum effects, blowing air through his mouthpiece in rhythm, a Ben Webster technique used to very different effect. (Bassist Hideji Taninaka, another New Yorker, is the band's least assertive presence.)
As composer, Gilius van Bergeijk is a sardonic deconstructionist by inclination, but his Omaggio a Pasolini inspired by the filmmaker's use of montage, the composer says put him at the service of the basic quartet, presenting them with a series of taped, distortion laden episodes they might improvise with, or against, or leave to sound on their own. The players let a loud noisy sequence drown them out, entered into quasi dialogue with the more spare passages, and blended bowed harmonics with high whirly or low grumbly bits, till you can't tell if a sound was live or taped.
The shifting focus of Pasolini 's montage led them from one strategy or textural area to another faster than they go on their own, giving them a sense of direction the open improvising sometimes lacks. The benefits were immediate.
The following, final quintet improvisation was the briskest, most finely detailed, most attractively shaped of the evening the fullest realization of the unit's capabilities with even Bailey consciously or unconsciously echoing sounds from van Bergeijk's tape.

_ By KEVIN WHITEHEAD
(Dodorama, Rotterdam, April 1998)



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JEMEEL MOONDOC – Muntu Recordings - 3 CD Box, 1975/1977/1979 (2009)

Label: NoBusiness Records – NBCD 7-8-9
Format: 3 x CD, Compilation, Limited Edition Box Set; Country: Lithuania - Released: 2009
Style: Free Jazz 
CD1 - "First Feeding" recorded April 17, 1977 at Bob Blank Studios, New York City. Originally released in 1977 on Muntu Records 1001.  
CD2 - "The Evening Of The Blue Men" recorded March 30, 1979 live at Saint Marks Church in New York City. Originally released in 1979 on Muntu Records 1002.
CD3 - "Live At Ali's Alley" recorded April 20, 1975 live at Ali ’ s Alley. Previously unreleased session
Composed By – Jemeel Moondoc

Limited edition of 1000 handnumbered copies.

Rashid Bakr, Roy Campbell, William Parker, Jemeel Moondoc, Groningen 1980

Jemeel Moondoc, Arthur Williams, Studio Rivbea, 1976

William Parker , Anthony Brown, Jemeel Moondoc, Billy Bang, Groningen 1978


Christened with a name that communicates his endearing musical idiosyncrasy, altoist Jemeel Moondoc has followed a career in free jazz quite similar to his peers in its many ups, downs and detours. This revelatory box set tracks the early years of that trajectory and returns the saxophonist’s initial recordings to circulation, two LPs originally released on Moondoc’s Muntu label. A third disc captures the trio version of Muntu live at Ali’s Alley, drummer Rashied Ali’s loft space, and is actually the earliest music on the set.

Moondoc was a student of Cecil Taylor’s during the pianist ’ s early- ’ 70s tenures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Antioch College, participating in numerous workshops and performing with various student ensembles. Upon moving to New York, he used those experiences and resulting contacts to quickly hook into the burgeoning loft jazz scene in the city. Among his early colleagues were bassist William Parker and drummer Rashid Bakr, who were making names for themselves in similar fashion.

The first disc in the box comprises the 1977 LP First Feeding and finds the three men in augmented quintet formation with the addition of enigmatic pianist Mark Hennen and the equally obscure Arthur Williams on trumpet. Recorded in a studio, the sound is sharp, though the presence of vinyl sourcing remains audible in places. The group investigates three pieces, cumulatively dedicated to mentors like Taylor, Sam Rivers, Bill Dixon and others.

The set’s three pieces range from the relative brevity of the opening title invocation to the closing sprawl of “ Theme for Milford (Mr. Body and Soul). ” The middle piece, “ Flight (From the Yellow Dog), ” takes flight on a soaring theme hauntingly similar to Moondoc’s much later-composed “ You Let Me into Your Life. ” What’s most striking is how the music mirrors what’s come after; there’s a “ hear it here ” first feel to how the four approach collective improvisation, assimilating the advances of Taylor and others like Ornette Coleman. Musicians in the idiom have been doing it ever since with varying degrees of originality and success.

Of the five players, it’s curiously Hennen who makes the strongest impression. His, by turns ruminative and forceful, suggests an oblique amalgam of Paul Bley and Taylor. Bakr works in both momentum and color, acting as co-conspirator in steering the ebb and flow. Williams makes for a spirited partner with Moondoc on the front line, the two sparring like dueling ptarmigans or wheeling off in airborne acrobatics. Parker’s shining moment comes with an extended bass solo in the final piece, where he practically turns his instrument into firewood with chopping fingers and bow. Together, the five whip quite a glorious controlled racket.

Roughly two years later, Moondoc booked a revamped Muntu crew for a gig at Saint Mark’s Church, the venue of numerous subsequent free jazz performances, including several incarnations of the venerated Vision Festival. Roy Campbell replaces Williams and the piano chair remains vacant. Titled Night of the Bluemen, the subsequent LP split the performance into two halves. The title piece carries the qualifier “ Part 3 ” prompting the natural question, what of parts one and two?

Sound is a shade cavernous by comparison thanks to the vaulted ceilings of the venue, and Parker suffers most, his furious pizzicato frequently reduced to a muddy aural blur in the ensemble sections. He makes up for it in an arco solo clearly audible in its string-abrading ferocity, spurred by ebullient shouts of encouragement from his employer. The other players are relatively well-served; Moondoc and Campbell are in especially vociferous moods, dancing, darting and diving amidst the churning, surging waves of rhythm. Side B’s “ Theme for Diane ” traces contrastive ballad contours with comparable passion and cohesiveness.

Flipping the page back to Muntu in its relative infancy, the third disc’s live shot from Ali’s Alley comprises another rendering of “ Theme for Milford ” in a single 36 ½-minute slab of largely improvised interplay. Fidelity again is far from perfect, but more than passable. The thrill of hearing the three core members hold forth at one of the pillars of the loft jazz community effectively excuses the somewhat distant positioning of Parker and Bakr in the 35-year-old mix. Moondoc’s mercurial alto sings front and center, reeling off eliding melodic variations against the undulating accompaniment of his partners that occasionally slip in focus but largely stay on point for a full 15-plus minutes. Parker and Bakr occupy much of the remainder of the piece with statements of their own, the latter devising inventive things with what sounds like woodblocks and other ancillary percussion. The modest applause at the end illustrates that times were tough even back then when it came to audience size for these sorts of gigs.

Muntu suffered a crushing setback as an ensemble when Cecil Taylor ostensibly wooed Parker and Bakr away to fill slots in a new trio. With hindsight, its hard to blame the two men for jumping ship after weighing the prospect and Moondoc doesn’t appear to have harbored any lasting ire, having worked with both men, particularly Parker, in the intervening years. Results of their auspicious meetings are still readily available on labels like Eremite and Cadence Jazz, but Moondoc’s been mostly silent (at least on record) for some time. The arrival of this important and opportune box set will hopefully foster resurgence in attention toward his art and motivate new music-making in the process.

_ By DEREK TAYLOR
Dusted Reviews,  date: Feb. 5, 2010

Enjoy!

By the way, this is my 200th post.

 


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