Jazz Masters Cooler Theater - 2008 – Poster – No.1

Graphic Design:
Poster – No.1
Jazz Masters Cooler Theater – RECREATIONAL CHEMISTRY 
"The Absurd"
At The MAD FROG – London, 2008
Artwork and Complete Design by VITKO Salvarica
ART&JAZZ Studio SALVARICA – 2008


The idea of the absurd is a common theme in many existentialist works, particularly in Albert Camus. Absurdity is the notion of contrast between two things. As Camus explains it in The Myth of Sisyphus:

The absurd is born out of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.

It's easy to highlight the absurdity of the human quest for purpose. It's common to assume that everything must have a purpose, a higher reason for existence. However, if one thing has a higher purpose, what is the reason for that purpose? Each new height must then be validated by a higher one.

Well, although the purpose of life may not be apparent, that does not confirm that it does not exist.

So, enjoy it in every new day, my good friends.



THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

'The Theatre of the Absurd' is a term coined by the critic Martin Esslin for the work of a number of playwrights, mostly written in the 1950s and 1960s. The term is derived from an essay by the French philosopher Albert Camus. In his 'Myth of Sisyphus', written in 1942, he first defined the human situation as basically meaningless and absurd. The 'absurd' plays by Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter and others all share the view that man is inhabiting a universe with which he is out of key. Its meaning is indecipherable and his place within it is without purpose. He is bewildered, troubled and obscurely threatened.

The Absurd Theatre is a theatre of situation, as against the more conventional theatre of sequential events. It presents a pattern of poetic images. In doing this, it uses visual elements, movement, light. Unlike conventional theatre, where language rules supreme, in the Absurd Theatre language is only one of many components of its multidimensional poetic imagery... ... It owes a debt to European pre-war surrealism: its literary influences include the work of Franz Kafka. The Theatre of the Absurd is aiming to create a ritual-like, mythological, archetypal, allegorical vision, closely related to the world of dreams...

If you're interested, read more:
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm

EVAN PARKER / JOHN EDWARDS / CHRIS CORSANO – A Glancing Blow (2006) - Live At The Vortex

Label: Clean Feed – CF085CD
Format: CD, Album; Country: Portugal - Released: Sep 2007
Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz
Recorded at the New Vortex, London, 24 August 2006.
Design – Rui Garrido; Photography By [Photographs] – Caroline Forbes
Re-Design (pages 2, 3, 4, 5) by ART&JAZZ Studio; Design by VITKO
Executive-producer – Trem Azul; Producer – Evan Parker
Liner Notes – Brian Morton; Mastered By – Luís Delgado
Recorded By, Mixed By – Steve Lowe

Review:

The music of saxophonist Evan Parker is an acquired taste. Like all the great jazz players he has created his own language. Think of Louis Armstrong calling Dizzy Gillespie's sound "Chinese music or that Ornette Coleman's music once caused a riot. It might be difficult to step back in time to understand the confusion over Ornette's music or that of Thelonious Monk, whose vision is now accepted into the jazz canon. Evan Parker holds that most sacrosanct title today. Listeners idolized his sound or reject it as Armstrong once did of Gillespie, or as folks once thought of Armstrong himself.

Parker's is the music of extended technique, the language of chirps, multiphonics, and circular breathing. Immediately identifiable, his sound is perhaps the next progression of the spirit of John Coltrane's final hours.

Parker has worked solo, but has also produced some fine trio sessions with Alexander von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens or perhaps his most famous with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton. Here he is matched with a longtime collaborator, bassist John Edwards from the London Improvisers Orchestra and many an Emamen recording, and newcomer/percussionist Chris Corsano. Corsano, born in the US is most known for his collaborations with saxophonist Paul Flaherty and most recently in their band Cold Bleak Heat.

A Glancing Blow is a live recording from 2006 at London's New Vortex. The trio plays two lengthy tracks of twenty-eight and nearly forty-eight minutes. Its nontraditional compositions are suite-like improvisations, as the tempo and rhythms shift in and out and the players contribute, sit out, and play off an idea or the energy of their partners.

Theirs is a music of no beginnings and endings that appears out of thin air. The language spoken is both energetic and meditative. Corsano can play the colorist role or, when enabled, the provocateur. His highlights are the subtle shadings of tom-tom and cymbal, the completion of a remark made by his partners. The music changes directions, not like a traditional composition, but with a flow of energy. The quiet intensity of Parker's saxophone can be like syrup, making it's way from a high spot to a lower one. With a trio he has less of a burden to carry (as he does with his solo performances) and his thoughts come unhurried and with much deference to Edwards.

For his part, Edwards doesn't so much keep time as he spreads it. His performance on bass is that of slaps, plucks, bowing, knocks, and all other physical manipulation of his instrument.

Together, the trio molds these two extended performances into an abstract, but consistently satisfying presentation of very thoughtful free jazz.

_ By MARK CORROTO, Published: September 15, 2007 (AAJ)

A Glancing Blow, with free pioneer Evan Parker joined by veteran bassist John Edwards and up-and-coming percussionist Chris Corsano for a live concert, would seem to be a classic free-form blowout. And certainly it has its moments of saxophone wailing over free time. On the opening title track, Parker, on tenor—the horn he features most on this disc—twists out lines that ring out the upper extensions of unstated harmonies. Underneath Corsano rolls out wave after wave of ametric time while Edwards grounds the musical melee with a few deeply planted notes. Later in the track, with Parker on soprano issuing tumbling, anxious lines, the band leaps forward over Corsano ’ s barline-melting ride patterns. Here Edwards plants a two-beat figure that leans back against the rhythmic current. But the most arresting moment comes midway through the half-hour long first track when Corsano and Edwards both take up bows and creating an eerie spectral curtain of sound that ’ s electric without being plugged in. The even longer second selection is all Parker tenor with interludes for solo bass and drums. Parker builds three solos, starting with the first two with ballad statements that grow increasingly gnarled as they progress. On the last he worries a fragment that sounds cribbed from Wayne Shorter. Each time Parker seems to be approaching a climatic explosion, he backs off, with the track drifting to the end with some more textural play.

_ By David Dupont (Cadence Magazine)



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JOE HERTENSTEIN / ACHIM TANG / JON IRABAGON – Future Drone (2012)

 

Label : Jazzwerkstatt – JW126

Format: CD, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 2012

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at the Loft in Cologne, June 13th, 2011, Germany

Tracking and Mixing by Stefan Deistler
Mastering by Marcus Schmickler
Artwork: Jorgo Schäfer; Design: K. Untiet, B. Göbe
Executive Producer: Ulli Blobel

Note:
Future Drone is a raw and brisk trio album with Jon Irabagon on tenor saxophone, Achim Tang on bass and Joe Hertenstein on drums. Dedicated to the late drummer Paul Motian, the music is spirited, beginning with “ Future Drone ” which has an exciting angular improvisation. Jon Irabagon develops a very deep and full saxophone tone and Tang and Hertenstein are continually inventive and propulsive. Raw saxophone and thick bass usher in “ Seven for Nothing ” with the music developing a thrilling caustic tone moving to bowed bass and powerful drums. Everything is free of pretense and consists of in the moment mindful creativity. “ Rotten Strawberry ” is the highlight of the album with rough hewn saxophone, bass and drums advancing a stumbling funky groove. Irabagon is particularly powerful here, deep and darkly potent over the open ended bass and drums allowing for for three way conversation with subtle humor and a wildly thrilling collective collective improvisation. The music on this album blends the talent of three unique musicians in dramatic fashion, showcasing their captivating and climactic music.
_ by Tim Niland

Joe Hertenstein

Jon Irabagon

Achim Tang

Review:

Featuring Jon Irabagon on tenor sax, Achim Tang on upright bass and Joe Hertenstein on drums. This disc was recorded at the Loft in Cologne, Germany and it is dedicated to Paul Motian. Since moving to New York, Joe Hertenstein has been working with a handful of other transplated musicians like Thomas Heberer and Joachim Badenhorst. Hats off to saxist Jon Irabagon who plays with Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Mary Halvorson Quintet, the RIDD Quartet! He won the prestigious Monk award a couple
of years back and has recorded several of his own discs. I recognize Achim Tang from his work with Max Nagl, Dave Tronzo and Guy Klucevsek.
This is a mostly improvised date with a couple of songs written by Mr. Hertenstein. The sprawling, intense and crafty drums of Joe Hertenstein are at the center of these pieces. Joe whips up a cascade of whirlwind drums while Mr. Irabagon screeches massive tenor blasts and Mr. Tang bows with centrifugal force. "Panicballad" is an appropriate name for a piece in which the sax plays slowly while the bass and drums speed up, going in two directions at once yet remaining together. Although Hertenstein organized this session, all three members get a chance to stretch out, listen and interact on several levels. Each member also kicks off or leads the direction of several different pieces. It is interesting to hear Mr. Irabagon playing those bent, extended technique tenor sax sounds rather than blowing long and hard like he does for the entire trio session with Barry Altschul on the 'Doxy' CD released last year (2011) or his playing with MOPDTK. This is a most formidable, tight and spirited trio. They even do some sort of bent blues thing on "Rotten Strawberry" and that fits as well.

_ by Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

Excerpt:
...What you get is still entirely different from what you can expect. The music is intimate, raw, fresh, creative, with a range that goes from cautious explorations - of which some are truly magnificent - over some hard intensity to the soulful moments of "Ballad For Paul and Poo", yet all tracks form one very coherent and varied whole.
The intimacy is equalled by the intensity of the playing, which has a sense of supressed urgency, or controlled expressivity, which never actually explodes but remains full of expectations and held-back anticipation. The result is incredibly crisp and emotional. It hurts and it comforts.
Three incredible players, technically masterful, musically inventive and with deep emotional powers.
_ by Stef (FreeJazz)



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MAT MANERI featuring JOE McPHEE – Sustain (2002)

Label: Thirsty Ear – THI57122.2
Series: The Blue Series
Format: CD, Album;  Country: US - Released: 2002

THIRSTY EAR STUDIO RECORDINGS/ THE BLUE SERIES, 2002
Executive Producer: Peter Gordon
Engineered by Jamie Saft; Recorded at Frank Booth
Mastered by FLAM at Mindswerve Studio, NYC
Artistic Director for Blue Series: Matthew Shipp
Design and Photography: Cynthia Fetty, www.dahliadigital.com
Re-design (inside) by ART & JAZZ Studio SALVARICA; Designer: VITKO

Review:

In the last couple of years, Mat Maneri has been incredibly prolific. His versatility and range, especially on the viola, have facilitated work within widely different musical contexts. On Sustain he joins a quartet of active NYC musicians, plus special guest Joe McPhee on soprano saxophone. These players have built strong intuitive relationships over time in various collaborations, enabling them to make musical statements in an unforced, natural way. Sustain offers deliberate, open individual and collective improvisation.

The tracks on Sustain alternate between the "Alone" series (solo performances by each musician) and group improvisations. The contrast afforded through this arrangement allows the listener to appreciate each individual voice both on its own and in combination with the other players, making for a nice overall sound because everyone has something different to say. Maneri opens the disc with round, resonant notes rich with harmonics, hinting more than he actually states. (That leads quite nicely into the group tune "In Peace," a sort of psychedelic trip through outer sound.) William Parker's take on "Alone (Unravel)" strays from his usual intensity to a more open, spacious aura. And when he goes out on his own, drummer Gerald Cleaver coaxes texture and color from his kit, suggesting rub more than hit, stroke more than punch.

The four quintet pieces span a wide range of moods without sounding contrived or scattered. "Nerve" has a frantic, bubbly energy that hurries ahead, rarely pausing to gather steam. Both Craig Taborn and Maneri use effects to alter their sound, bringing it perilously close to a primal scream; meanwhile, the rhythm section stops and starts, eventually heading toward a insistent groove and then off into the wild beyond. On the other hand, the title track showcases Maneri's ability to say more with less. Gentle, undulating viola lines intertwine with McPhee's floating voice on the soprano sax, lending an ethereal atmosphere through generous use of space and time.

As might be expected from a group of this caliber, Sustain is a fine disc. Its inventiveness and range most emphatically reflect Maneri's own approach to improvisation.

_ By NILS JACOBSON, Published: October 10, 2002 (AAJ)



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TRIPLEPLAY – Gambit (2004)

Label: Clean Feed – CF019CD
Format: CD, Album; Country: Portugal - Released: 2004
Style: Free Jazz
Recording: Audiolutions, Martha's Vineyard, MA (08/18/2003/08/19/2003)
Photographer: Nuno Martins
Re-Design (pages: 2, 3 and 4) by ART&JAZZ Studio SALVARICA; Design by VITKO
Personnel: Ken Vandermark (reeds); Nate McBride (double bass); Curt Newton (drums)

Description:
The second Tripleplay outing -- Ken Vandermark, Curt Newton, and Nate McBride -- is worlds away from the trio's initial offering, 1998's Expansion Slang on the Boxholder label. While that recording offered proof that the ensemble could play together, this one shows in spades how well they create together. There are eight tunes here, half composed by Vandermark, and half by McBride; all were written specifically for this band. Themes are what drive this band, with clearly stated heads extrapolated upon by modal uses of harmonic and chromatic tonal explorations. The tunes range from the wonderfully perverse post-bop angular melodicism of Vandermark's "Two (For Joe Morris)," clocking in at just over four minutes, to the nine-minute-plus study in tension and dynamics that is "Bird, Field (gray)," by McBride. There are surprises at every turn, and while this is certainly an "out" date, it is nonetheless compelling -- not as a blowing session, but as a compelling and satisfying series of ensemble constructions.
_ By Thom Jurek

Review:

Tripleplay is, as the name implies, a trio. Chicagoan Ken Vandermark and Bostonians Curt Newton and Nate McBride coalesced once before for Expansion Slang (Boxholder, 2000), and Gambit marks their outspoken return; it's a document of explicit and articulate musical prose. Not for the weak of heart, as is evident in several places, but more restrained and methodical than you might expect.

I have to admit that I came to the music somewhat biased, never having heard a bad Vandermark record, but be that as it may, this one is up to his usual high standards. The reed player shares half of the composition credits on these eight tracks with bassist Nate McBride, but the overall shared articulation overshadows the differences between the two. At times the trio waxes lyrical, as on the sweet ballad "Tilted," where understatement from all players carries the day; or the forward-moving "Framinghammer," where simplicity is the mode and a romantic tone predominates. McBride sometimes riffs away, which reflects both his personal style and the structured emphasis of some of these pieces. The aforementioned "Framinghammer" rides on a loping bass line (complemented by drum counterpoint), and "Bird, Field (gray)" draws strength from rhythmic leads that originate in the bass.

Three of these pieces offer more dissonance than the rest. They include "Two" (dedicated to Joe Morris), which not surprisingly passes through many small intervals, bubbling and popping across bits and pieces of sound. It's not the kind of extroverted overblown expressionism that Vandermark is clearly capable of, and which he does engage in elsewhere on the record. But the most satisfying moments on Gambit occur when the trio parks its articulate, almost intellectual approach in an area that's more rough around the edges. It's that give and take which provides the tension and release here.

It's fun to hear Vandermark, McBride, and Newton swing in unexpected contexts (some times more obviously than most, and aided immensely by Newton's range), and they demonstrate a clear respect for the tradition, both inside and out. It all comes down to how many tools they have at their disposal, which as you might guess is quite a few.

_ By NILS JACOBSON (Published: July 7, 2004, AAJ)



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KEITH TIPPETT SEPTET – A Loose Kite In A Gentle Wind Floating With Only My Will For An Anchor (1986)

For friends, Andy and ceedee - (Vinyl Rip)

Label: Ogun – OGD 007/008
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Gatefold; Country: UK - Released: 1986
(Reissued CD: 2009) 
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at the Barnfield Theatre Exeter, on 25th October 1984.
Concert organizers: Nod Knowles and Martin Phillips
Design, Layout – Hazel Miller, Keith Tippett
Re-Design by ART&JAZZ Studio
Edited By – Keith Beal, Keith Tippett
Photography By – Fabio Nosotti, Geoff Collins, Jak Kilby, Julie Tippetts
Producer – Eric Wetherell, Keith Beal, Keith Tippett

Keith Tippet's Septet with Larry Stabbins, Elton Dean, Nick Evans, Tony Levin, Paul Rogers and Mark Charig, was put together in 1984 to play a new suite inspired by the writing of Maya Angelou. This obscure gem is the only document of the project, from a live performance in Exeter in 1984, here issued by Ogun to bring this remarkable project to light.

BBC Review:
One of the best jazz reissues of the year. - ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/z363 )

Keith Tippett's brilliance as both composer and pianist has long been established through a dazzling back catalogue of long-form epics such as Septober Energy and Frames as well as more intimate and impressionistic outfits such as Ovary Lodge and Mujician.

Over the last forty years his dogged determination to continue creating exciting and ingenious musical settings have been captured in an occasional series of records whose availability has always been subject to the often indifferent whims of the marketplace.

Originally issued in 1986 as a double album, A Loose Kite... finally makes its CD debut and allows us to relive a truly superb septet getting their collective teeth into Tippett's intricate charts and sweeping arrangements.

Drawing conceptual inspiration from writer Maya Angelou, his effusive settings provide his players with both the space and the springboard from which to launch a series of invigorating broadsides.

Mark Charig's fiery brand of piquant lyricism on the cornet blasts and bellows with a tireless invention, whilst trombonist Nick Evans' constantly pushes the music like some belligerent bouncer intent picking a fight.

Larry Stabbins and Elton Dean sax playing is propelled into a series of splenetic duels across the length and breadth of this four-part suite, with Tippett and rhythm section of Paul Rogers (bass) and Tony Levin (drums) providing the contextual glue that holds it all together.

The album portrays the yin and yang of Tippett's sure-handed discipline and his artistic restlessness. His love of a good tune allied to his capacity to mix it up with edgy, free-form expressiveness makes this one of the best jazz reissues of the year.

_by Sid Smith (2009-06-10)

Always cool and always brilliant, my favorite, Larry Stabbins



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Jazz Masters Open Book Collection – Placard No.4 - 2008

 

Graphic Design:

Placard No.4 – Jazz Masters Open Book Collection 2008
Theme: Hydrophonic Jazz – ...Up Your Hang Up's and...
Design by ART&JAZZ Studio SALVARICA – 2008
Artwork and Complete Design by VITKO

Dimensions: 100 X 75 (combined technique)

we sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

                                             ... said the good old Dostoevsky, and he was right... 

...and... 

                       ... beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man... 

...and... 

                       the cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month... 

                             ...and... 

                                              ...jingle... 

                                                                ...up your hang up's and...