AQSAK MABOUL – Un Peu De L'Âme Des Bandits (LP-1980)

Label: Crammed Discs – Atem/Crammed 002

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Belgium / Released: Jan. 1980

Style: Avantgarde, Jazz, Experimental, Prog Rock

Recorded February and August 1979 at Sunrise Studio, Kirchberg, Switzerland

Mixed by Etienne Conod and Fred Frith, assisted by Aqsak Maboul

Front cover by – Pat Andrea

Back cover and layout by – M.M.C. Octave

Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (English: A Little of the Bandit Spirit) is the second album by Belgian avant-rock band Aksak Maboul. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland in February and August 1979, and released on LP in January 1980 on founding member Marc Hollander's Belgian independent record label, Crammed Discs. At the time the band had changed the spelling of their name to "Aqsak Maboul", and this is reflected on the album's record sleeve. When the album was re-issued on CD in 1995 (also on Crammed Discs) the spelling of their name reverted to "Aksak Maboul".

In addition to the Aksak Maboul line-up at the time, the album also featured ex-Henry Cow musicians Fred Frith and Chris Cutler whose contribution and names helped bring the album to the attention of a wider audience. Aksak Maboul's co-founder, Vincent Kenis did not play on this album, although he did arrange two of the tracks.

A1 - Bo Diddley / Modern Lesson . . . . . 4:58

            bassoon, oboe, choir – Michel Berckmans

            cello [violoncellos] – Denis Van Hecke

            drums [part I], performer [flipper], recorder, choir – Frank Wuyts

            drums [part II] – Chris Cutler

            electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin, viola, bass – Fred Frith

            organ, piano, clarinet [Bb], bass clarinet, saxophone  – Marc Hollander

            voice, performer [flipper] – Catherine Jauniaux

            written-by – Hollander

A2 - Trio-Tango / Palmiers En Pots . . . . . 3:24

            alto aaxophone – Hollander

            bassoon – Berckmans

            cello – Van Hecke

            drums – Cutler

            piano – Wuyts

            violin – Frith

            written-by – Wuyts, Hollander

            written-by [Trio] – André Verchuren

A3 - Rondo / Geistige Nacht . . . . . 5:18

            bass – Frith

            bassoon, oboe – Berckmans

            cello – Van Hecke

            drums – Cutler

            piano, synthesizer [Oberheim] – Wuyts

            soprano saxophone – Hollander

            written-by – Frith

A4 - Truc Turc / I Viaggi Formano La Gioventù . . . . . 5:15

            cello [acoustic & electric cellos] – Van Hecke

            goblet drum [dumbeg], soprano saxophone, organ, – Hollander

            guitar [Guitars] – Frith

            oboe – Berckmans

            synthesizer [Oberheim], Piano – Wuyts

            written-by – traditional

A5 - Pogo / Inoculating Rabies . . . . . 1:50

            bass clarinet – Hollander

            bass, lead guitar – Frith

            bassoon – Berckmans

            drums – Cutler

            rhythm guitar, electric cello, voice – Van Hecke

            written-by – Van Hecke, Wuyts

B  -  Knokke  / Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (22:45)

   a - Ce Qu' On Peut Voir Avec Un Bon Microscope . . . . . 7:25

            bass, guitar, guitar [prepared] – Frith

            cello [acoustic & electric cellos], voice – Van Hecke

            composed by – Wuyts, Hollander

            composed by [part of] – Jauniaux, Cutler, Van Hecke, Frith, Berckmans

            drums, percussion, performer [radio] – Cutler

            oboe, bassoon – Berckmans

            organ, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, xylophone, piano  – Hollander

            piano, synthesizer [Óberheim], percussion – Wuyts

            voice – Jauniaux

   b - Alluvions . . . . . 5:27

            bass, guitar, guitar [prepared] – Frith

            cello [acoustic & electric cellos], voice – Van Hecke

            composed by – Frank Wuyts, Hollander

            drums, percussion, performer [radio] – Cutler

            oboe, bassoon – Berckmans

            organ, alto sax, bass clarinet, xylophone, percussion – Hollander

            piano, synthesizer [Óberheim] – Wuyts

            voice – Jauniaux

   c - Azinou Crapules . . . . . 7:05

            bass, guitar, guitar [prepared] – Frith

            cello [acoustic & electric cellos], voice – Van Hecke

            composed by – Wuyts, Hollander

            drums, percussion, performer [radio] – Cutler

            oboe, bassoon – Berckmans

            organ, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, xylophone – Hollander

            piano, synthesizer [Óberheim], percussion – Wuyts

            voice – Jauniaux

   d - Age Route Brra! (Radio Sofia) . . . . . 2:48

            bass, guitar, guitar [prepared] – Frith

            cello [acoustic & electric cellos], voice – Van Hecke

            composed by – Aqsak Maboul

            drums, percussion, performer [radio] – Cutler

            oboe, bassoon – Berckmans

            organ, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, xylophone – Hollander

            piano, synthesizer [Óberheim], percussion – Wuyts

            voice – Jauniaux

Marc Hollander – organ, piano, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone , drum machine, alto  

                            saxophone, soprano saxophone, dumbeg, samples, xylophone, percussion

Frank Wuyts – drums, pinball machine flipper, recorder, piano, synthesizer, percussion, choir

Michel Berckmans – bassoon, oboe, choir

Denis van Hecke – acoustic cello, electric cello, voice, rhythm guitar

Catherine Jauniaux – voice, pinball machine flipper

Fred Frith – guitar, violin, viola, bass guitar, prepared guitar

Chris Cutler – drums, percussion, radio

_1.     Aksak Maboul (also spelled Aqsak Maboul for a while) were a Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. They made two studio albums, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (1977) and Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (1980), the last one with ex-Henry Cow members Chris Cutler and Fred Frith. They were also active in the Rock in Opposition movement Maboul began in 1977 as a duo of Marc Hollander (keyboards, reeds, percussion) and Vincent Kenis (guitar, bass guitar, keyboards). Marc Moulin (keyboards) and Chris Joris (percussion, keyboards) joined later, and with this line-up, plus guests Catherine Jauniaux (voice) and others, they recorded their first album, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (French for “Eleven Dances for Fighting Migraine”).

It was released in 1977 under the name Marc Hollander / Aksak Maboul on an independent record label, Kamikaze Records.Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine was a playful mix of musical forms, cultures and genres. With drum machines and looping organ lines, it shuffled between improvised jazz, ethnic music, electronics and classical music. It was largely an instrumental album with snatches of singing and voices.In late 1977 Aksak Maboul started performing live, during which time Frank Wuyts (percussion, keyboards) replaced Joris and Moulin, and Denis van Hecke (cello) and Michel Berckmans (bassoon, oboe) of Univers Zéro joined. In early 1979, Hollander invited Chris Cutler and Fred Frith of the recently defunct avant-rock group Henry Cow to join Aksak Maboul on their next record.

They rehearsed together, performed in a few concerts and then went to Sunrise Studio, Kirchberg in Switzerland to record their second album, Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (French for “A Little of the Bandit Spirit”).This was released in 1980 on Crammed Discs, a new independent record label Hollander had created to release the album.Un Peu de l'Ame des Bandits was more intense and experimental than their first album. It contained complex written sections as well as improvised ambient pieces. It used sampling before samplers were invented and was a mixture of jazz, tangos, traditionals from the eastern Balkans, chamber rock, noisy punk rock and pseudo-Varèse music. Like the first album, it was instrumental with a little singing and voices.Back on the road again, Aksak Maboul joined the Rock in Opposition (RIO) movement and in April 1979 they performed at an RIO festival at the Teatro dell'Elfo in Milano, Italy.

Aksak Maboul were one of the last of the original RIO bands.In early 1980, Hollander founded the Crammed Discs independent record label. A few months later the original nucleus of Aksak Maboul (Hollander and Kenis) and the core of a Brussels band Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel joined forces to become The Honeymoon Killers. They toured Europe between 1980 and 1981, although still under the name Aksak Maboul. 

They later recorded an album Tueurs de la Lune de Miel / Honeymoon Killers and toured for a few months under that name. The last recorded work by Aksak Maboul appeared on a 1984 compilation album, Made to Measure Vol. 1, where the original duo of Hollander and Kenis contributed seven tracks of new material composed for a play by Michel Gheude based on the life of Maïakovsky.The music here has been described as “minimalist rock” and is very different from their two studio albums.By the mid-1980s Aksak Maboul ceased to exist as a group, but Hollander and Kenis continued to play an active role in Crammed Discs' musical policies.

_2.     Aksak Maboul - Un peu de l'ame des bandits Aksak Maboul (a.k.a. Aqsak Maboul) was one of the original Rock-In-Opposition (RIO) groups. They were one of three that were officially elected into the movement after Henry Cow’s original selection of bands (Univers Zero, Etron Fou Leloublan, Samla Mammas Manna and Stormy Six) had explored the style and ideology. “Un peu de l’ame des bandits,” Aksak Maboul’s 1980 effort, is more or less quintessential to the RIO genre, and one that set the stage for many of the Avant-Prog groups that have followed since...

The late '70s were a heady time in European progressive rock circles. Chris Cutler, drummer 

of the leading group Henry Cow and unrepentant leftist seeking to distance himself from both major label and American rock influences, found similarly minded groups in France, Sweden, Belgium, and Italy, and brought them together for a British tour under the banner of Rock in Opposition (RIO). New musical influences and adventures gave rise to more short term formations for Cutler and Fred Frith (Cow's guitarist), including this venture with a Belgian duo, Aksak Maboul, comprised at the time of Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. This group had recorded an album in 1977, Onze Danses Pour Combattre le Migraine, which became a cult album in its own right. As Aksak toured, their paths crossed with the various RIO groups, which led to this album in 1980. Cutler and Frith brought a solid rhythm section, but ready to make terrific noise when appropriate (as on the backing tracks of Inoculating Rabies). Michel Berckmans, wind player from Univers Zero (one of the Belgian RIO groups), and Hollander were the wind and reed section. Frank Wuyts and Denis Van Hecke rounded out the group on keyboards and strings. Stylistically the album is all over the board. For example, the opening track, featuring Catherine Jauniaux on vocals, launches into a twisted blues number, with the singer freely improvising and trading licks with Van Hecke's cello and Hollander's sax. The second part of Modern Lesson features extremely intricate horn writing, with different players rapidly trading different elements of the lines. "I Viaggi" uses a Middle Eastern scale, with cello and voice doubling the melody line. "Palmiersen Pots is a classical piece for string trio, followed by a tango composed from several popular pieces cut up with scissors and reassembled at random. The album culminates with a long suite (originally all of side two on the vinyl release) based on a shorter peggiated figure, composed sections alternating with solos on bass, cello, electric cello, and synthesizer. On top of all of the great musicianship, Frith and lead engineer Etienne Conod performed significant studio wizardry after the sessions. Modern Lesson contains sounds from a pinball machine as well as bits from every other track (and this is well before the age of samplers). The lead bassoon/oboe lines of Inoculating Rabies would be inaudible over the guitar and percussion noise in a live situation, but the contrast makes the piece.  

This Aksak Maboul lineup and this album, is remains a pinnacle of the RIO movement.

_Review by Caleb Deupree

If you find it, buy this album!

YOCHK'O SEFFER NEFFESH MUSIC – Délire (LP1-1976) and Ima (LP2-1976)

Label: Moshé-Naïm – MN 12 008

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1976

Style: Free Jazz, Abstract

Recorded at Studio Aquarius (Genève) from 22 to 27 March 1976.

Artwork By [Maquette] – MN Studio (A. Appere)

Composed By – Yochk'o Seffer

Engineer – Roger Delongeas

Photography By – Michel Adda

A1 - Heart . . . . . 6:30

A2 - Jonetsu (For Judith) . . . . . 5:53

A3 - Orkana . . . . . 6:25

B1 - Estreledzia (For Winni) . . . . . 2:40

B2 - Délire . . . . . 13:20

B3 - Ima . . . . . . . . . . 4:02

Yochk'o Seffer – soprano sax, saxophone [soprano B Flat], tenor saxophone, vocals, 

                            bass clarinet, piano, synthesizer [Mini Moog & Arp Odc-solo], kamuka*

Jean-My Truong – drums, percussion

Claudine Lasserre – cello

Françoise Douchet – viola

Michèle Margand – violin [1st]

Marie-Françoise Viaud – violin [2nd]

Quatuor Margand – ensemble [string quartet]:

(Michèle Margand, Anne Méhat, Françoise Douchet and Claudine Lasserre)

* The 'Kamuka' is an instrument designed and built by Yoshk'o Seffer.

Although Delire was not Hungarian-born Parisian multi-instrumentalist Yochk'o Seffer's first solo album, it was nonetheless the first from his project Neffesh Music (music of the soul), consisting of him as the composer and the instrumentalist along with a revolving cast of other musicians. On this album he's backed by fellow Zao cohort Jean-My Truong on drums as well as a string quartet led by Michele Margand, who also were members of Zao at the time when this album was recorded (March 1976). All other instruments are played by Yochk'o.

What sets this album apart from his previous work with Zao, as well as his future Neffesh Music projects, was the lack of electric bassist. Therefore, this album includes less fusion/jazz-rock tinge, the dominant presence of acoustic piano and strings along with saxophones clearly hints at an avant-garde chamber rock sound reminiscent of Univers Zero, Henry Cow or possibly even late sixties Frank Zappa. Even within Seffer's varied discography this album is sonically unique, but unfortunately it's overlooked in favor of his other recordings, including Ghilgoul. Nowadays one can hope to buy this record via Ebay and this can incur more-than-average expenses for one vinyl copy. It's that rare!

"Heart" opens with a staccato piano-drums-sax riff, followed by ominous and rigid strings, the atmosphere is very tense and almost Stravinsky like. The main melodic theme is established after a minute with tenor sax carrying the melody, including a bassline that sounds like rendered on fuzz-bass, but is more likely a distorted bass synth that sounds heavy and sinister nonetheless. The same theme is then repeated on strings and Seffer's unique falsetto vocalize. Halfway in the piece switches to a funky drum break backing a tenor sax solo, with interjections from synth and piano.

"Jonetsu For Judith" ("jonetsu" is Japanese for "passion") starts with lush string arrangements and beautiful chord progression, as the prominent tenor sax solos over the chords with passionate agitation. Layers like piano, synthesizer and even overdubbed harmony vocals are added. The piece moves through some tense and dissonant chords that are contrasted by freeform tenor sax. The piece concludes with a moderately fast tempo carried by strings aided with synth bass and some percussion and Seffer's tenor sax gets more intense until the piece stops.

"Orkana" begins with a rubato synthesizer solo backed by sparse piano. First hint at the main melodic themes comes with overdubbed saxophones (sopranino, soprano and tenor). Drums and piano then come in and the same theme gets a beat-heavy basis, with Seffer adding vocalize to the mix as well. This is clearly the most Henry Cowish track on the entire album, as the interplay between drums and piano is pure kinetic chamber rock bliss, with overdubbed saxophones having the lushness comparable to a wind quartet, composed themes contrast with short solos on synthesizer, tenor and sopranino saxophones and Seffer showcasing more of his unique high voice. Halfway the piece switches to a relentless synth solo over a fast drum beat that goes on for a while until the piece concludes with the instrumentation of drums, piano and soprano sax.

"Streledzia" is a short, lush piece for electric piano, vocalize, strings and includes more freeform tenor sax outing. As a modern classical piece it sounds unique with its lush, empathic chord clusters, instrumentation and Coltrane-influenced tenor sax.

While other tracks confirm that Yochk'o Seffer is capable of composing warm, empathic and highly personal forms of avant-garde music combining modern classicism, free jazz and progressive influences, on the title track he pulls all the stops and creates a fusion of atonal classicism and unstructured free-jazz that at times sounds ominous, at times rigid and at other times shows that Seffer as a pianist had a bit of a Cecil Taylor influence. Not a palatable listening, unless you love later period Coltrane and/or Zappa's least accessible classical writing.

"Ima (1ere partie)" is a prelude to his next solo album, combining the low buzzing droning noises of his self-invented sonic sculptures, out-of-control bass clarinets rattling at the background, and haunting melodies carried by Seffer's vocalize, first doubled on a Moog synth and then on tenor sax. This is a mourning piece of proto-ambient music and as a precursor to the 2o minute title track of Ima, it shows that Yochk'o Seffer could also make electronic avant-garde music very well.

Delire is a rare and forgotten record that is unjustly overlooked. Nonetheless, it shows Yochk'o Seffer's boundless creativity as a composer, instrumentalist and improviser. This work transcends the usual trappings of jazz-fusion or progressive rock.

_ Review by Edmund

Label: Moshé-Naïm – MN 12 010

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1976

Style: Free Jazz, Abstract

Recorded At – Studio Adam, 1976 / Production et réalisation : Moshé-Naïm

Artwork By [Maquette] – MN Studio (A. Appere)

Composed By – Yochk'o Seffer

Engineer – Philippe Beaucamp

Photography By [Back] – Alain Appéré

Photography By [Photos Of Yochk'o Seffer] – Michel Adda

A  -  Ima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22:50

B1 - Ofek . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . 8:12

B2 - Noce Chimique . . . . . 12:18

Yochk'o Seffer – soprano sax, saxophone [soprano B Flat], tenor saxophone, vocals, 

                            bass clarinet, piano, synthesizer [Mini Moog & Arp Odc-solo], kamuka

Dominique Bertram – bass guitar

Manu Katche – drums, percussion

Claudine Lasserre – cello

Françoise Douchet – viola

Michèle Margand – violin [1st]

Marie-Françoise Viaud – violin [2nd]

Quatuor Margand – ensemble [string quartet]:

(Michèle Margand, Anne Méhat, Françoise Douchet and Claudine Lasserre)

This LP is the 2nd part of a work named Neffesh Music.

Excellent complex compositions in the most experimental vein, with dark, evocative, sometimes oppressing feeling. Ethnic chanting and hard jazz passages creating a unique sound!

Listen to him. What to say? Just a masterpiece!

YOCHK’O SEFFER - Biography

French sax player and composer born in Miskolc (Hungary) on 10.7.1939, Seffer starts studying music at the age of 6. He moves to France in 1956 where he studies reeds, piano and composition at the Conservatoire de Paris, mainly with Nadia Boulanger but also as an occasional student with Olivier Messiaen. In 1959, at the Bohème, he performs with Mal Waldron, the first one in an endless list of partners (amongst others, Charlie Rouse, Phil Woods, Steve Lacy, Ornette Coleman, Pharoah Sanders, Dave Liebman, Kenny Barron, Joachim Kühn, Daniel Humair, Henri Texier)… In 1969 he creates Perception together with Siefried Kessler, Didier Levallet and drummer Jean-My Truong. The following year, he appears in Magma's line up. In 1973, he associates with pianist François "Faton" Cahen to create ZAO. In 1976, he initiates Neffesh Music, a musical ensemble including jazz improvisers and solists from Pierre Boulez' Ensemble Intercontemporain. Between 1983 and 1985, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, Kessler, Michel Godard and drummer Peter Gritz will be part of Chromophonie, a big band that will be followed by a saxophone septet (1986). In 1988, he adopts a quartet formula (with Kessler, François Méchali and Gritz) that plays Monk's compositions; that first tribute will be followed by another tribute, to Coltrane this time and with eighteen musicians. He is also a painter and a sculptor and the father of cellist Debora Seffer.

Coloured spots, smelting masses, nuances and violent patchworks, he plays music as he paints and sculpts, putting together the dancing lyrism of his compatriot and fellow musician Bartok, the colatranian fire and the sense of evidence of Monk, connecting all these various elements as a multi-instrumentist virtuoso(from soprano to bass saxophone) led by an inexhaustible passion.

Enjoy!

JOHN GREAVES / PETER BLEGVAD / LISA HERMAN – Kew. Rhone. (LP-1977)

Label: Virgin Records – V 2082

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: UK / Released: 1977

Style: Avantgarde, Contemporary Jazz, Fusion

Recorded at Grog Kill Studio, Woodstock, New York, October '76.

Engineering by Michael Mantler

Interactive multimedia track "Kew. Rom." produced by Les Corsaires and Voiceprint

Coordination and concept by François Ducat

Programming by Denis Thiriar

Artistic contributions from Peter Blegvad

A1 - Good Evening . . . . . . . . . . 0:33

A2 - Twenty-Two Proverbs . . . . . . . . . . 4:08

A3 - Seven Scenes From the Painting "Exhuming the First American Mastodon" By C.W.  

        Peale . . . . . . . . . . 3:32

A4 - Kew. Rhone.  . . . . . . . . . . 3:04

A5 - Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . 3:41

A6 - Catalogue of Fifteen Objects and Their Titles . . . . . . . . . . 3:36

B1 - One Footnote (To Kew. Rhone.) . . . . . . . . . . 1:29

B2 - Three Tenses Onanism . . . . . . . . . . 4:07

B3 - Nine Mineral Emblems . . . . . . . . . . 5:51

B4 - Apricot . . . . . . . . . . 3:05

B5 - Gegenstand . . . . . . . . . . 3:34

LISA HERMAN – vocals

JOHN GREAVES – piano, organ, bass, vocals, percussion on 'Footnote'

PETER BLEGVAD – vocals, guitars, tenor sax on 'Pipeline'

ANDREW CYRILLE – drums, percussion

MIKE MANTLER – trumpet, trombone

CARLE BLEY – vocals, tenor sax on 'Good Evening' and 'Footnote'

MICHAEL LEVINE – violin, viola, vocals on 'Minerals'

VITO RENDACE – alto & tenor saxes, flute

APRIL LANG – vocals on 'Pipeline' and 'Three Tenses'

DANA JOHNSON – vocals on 'Proverbs'

BORIS KINBERG – clave on 'Pipeline'

Kew. Rhone. is a concept album by British bass guitarist and composer John Greaves, and American singer-songwriter and guitarist Peter Blegvad. It is a song cycle composed by Greaves with lyrics by Blegvad, and was performed by Greaves and Blegvad with vocalist Lisa Herman and others. The album was recorded in Woodstock, New York in October 1976, and was released in the United Kingdom in March 1977 by Virgin Records, credited on the front cover to "John Greaves, Peter Blegvad and Lisa Herman", but on the record label as "John Greaves and Peter Blegvad". It was issued in the United States in 1978 by Europa Records.

Kew.Rhone is an often overlooked masterpiece from the 1970s, a multilayered concept album that combines the complexity of RIO with the melodic sensibilities of the best Canterbury bands and which features perhaps the most erudite lyrics in the history of progressive rock.

John Greaves (music) and Peter Blegvad (lyrics) began their creative partnership when Henry Cow and Slapp Happy joined forces for Desperate Straits - their song 'Bad Alchemy' was one of that album's highlights, and they have continued to write and perform together on an occasional basis ever since. Following the recording of 'In Praise Of Learning' Henry Cow and Slapp Happy split, and John Greaves left Henry Cow at about the same time. He and Peter Blegvad went to New York, where they wrote this album and then recorded it with the assistance and participation of jazz greats Carla Bley and Mike Mantler. Vocalist extraordinaire Lisa Hermann was rightly given joint billing with the two songwriters; like Dagmar in Slapp Happy and Art Bears, it is her interpretation of the material that brings it to life. Robert Wyatt was so impressed that he bought two copies, in case one got damaged or worn out, and later sang a version of the title track on John Greaves' 'Songs' album.

Side 1 of the vinyl original opened with "Good Evening", which functioned like the opening tune of a Broadway musical - some of the main musical themes of the album are played in a short but highly effective big band arrangement. This leads straight into "Twenty Two Proverbs", which is just that - a collection of proverbs from a variety of sources set to music and sung by Lisa Herman with occasional interjections from other voices - John Greaves' delivery of 'What have I to do with Bradshaw's windmill?' is one of the album's early highlights. The proverbs sometimes seem to relate to each other; 'A cat may look at a king' is juxtaposed with 'By night all cats are grey', while 'Names are not the pledge for things but things for names' flags up one of the album's main lyrical concerns. "7 Scenes From 'Exhuming The First American Mastodon' By CW Peale" follows, the lyrics based on the cover painting, itself based on CW Peale's painting of his own scientific project. This track has some remarkable brass by Mike Mantler, which plays off Lisa Herman's lead vocal to stunning effect. "Pipeline" follows, which pulls off the rare feat of having a line such as 'Figure b. illustrates the assertion 'Ambiguity can't be measured like a change in temperature' and making it melodic and catchy. The lyrics refer back to "7 Scenes"; objects mentioned in that song reappear here in a different guise (Names are not the pledge for things...). Again, despite the apparent complexity this a breezy, melodic song which will linger in the mind for a long time. The title track is the album's centrepiece, another hummable gem with opaque lyrics. The first part of the song is written solely using the letters in Kew.Rhone, for example 'We who knew no woe', and the second features a lengthy palindrome: 'Peel's foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep'. Once again all this is sung to some extremely memorable music, with some wonderful strings by Michael Levine and a superb vocal arrangement with another sterling contribution from John Greaves' pleasing Welsh tenor. The first half of the album culminated with Catalogue of Fifteen Objects and their Titles (Names again...), which is also referred to obliquely on 'Squarer for Maud' by National Health.

Side 2 kicked off with another short track, "One Footnote", which suggests further anagrams from the title and invites the listener to think of some more. "Three Tenses Onanism" is a highly poetic paen to the pleasures of self gratification and sees the music move more towards RIO/Avant prog territory, each of the three tenses being represented by a different musical idea. Peter Blegvad is the main vocalist here, his knowing New York drawl adding an extra dimension to the lyrics. 'Nine Mineral Emblems' returns to the jazz tinged Canterbury stylings of the first half of the album, and contains some accurate information about mineralogy given an unlikely but effective erotic subtext: 'When heated, SCOLECITE lengthens, squirms - not unlike the worm that looks for lodgings in a pearly urn'. "Apricot" feature's Blegvad's second lead vocal, and is probably the closest the album comes to a straightforward rocker (not very close, admittedly, but there's something of Lou Reed in the vocals and it has the album's most prominent electric guitar)."Gegenstand" brought the album to a subdued close - this track has the sparsest arrangement on the album, dominated by John Greaves' bass playing.

The instrumental performances are all superb throughout the album. John Greaves plays some beautiful piano as well as anchoring the arrangements with his ever inventive bass work. Peter Blegvad is not a great guitarist (as he admits himself) but acquits himself creditably on some extremely tricky guitar parts, while the supporting players all turn in splendid performances - this is very much an album of tightly focussed, carefully arranged ensemble playing, the arrangements allowing the individual players to shine without dominating the proceedings. It also functions well as a whole package - Blegvad was responsible for the sleeve design, which informs some of the lyrics, and some CD versions have an enhanced feature which takes you deeper into the album's concept. Music, lyrics and visuals all complement each other to perfection.

Greaves and Blegvad have both had long and distinguished careers, and they have written a wealth of good material together and individually, but nothing since has quite equallled this gem of an album. This is a genuine masterpiece, and no collection is complete without it.

_ Review by Syzygy

NOTE:

The album cover is a reproduction of a painting by Charles Willson Peale entitled Exhuming the First American Mastodon (1806–1808). The song it illustrates, "Seven Scenes from the Painting 'Exhuming the First American Mastodon' by C. W. Peale" interprets the painting with, according to Peter Blegvad, "a brazen disregard for the painter's original intent." It is a song about "the perils of being named or defined" and describes a world in which "definition is acquired as liberty is lost". This "naming" is referred to again in the Romanian proverb, "Names are not the pledge for things, but the things for names" that appears in the song "Twenty-Two Proverbs".

Buy the book: PETER BLEGVAD – Kew. Rhone. (Uniformbooks, 2014)

First released in 1977, Kew. Rhone. is an album with lyrics about unlikely subjects and unlikelier objects, lyrics which refer to diagrams or function as footnotes, or are based on anagrams and palindromes.

Kew. Rhone. would never trouble the charts, it aspired to higher things, and yet, re-released in various formats over the decades, curiosity about this categorically elusive work has grown. Now its authors and some of its connoisseurs have broken silence to discuss the record and to reflect upon the times in which it and they themselves were forged.

http://www.colinsackett.co.uk/kewrhone.php

http://www.colinsackett.co.uk/uniformbooks.php

Definitely see:

(—by Franklin Bruno) PETER BLEGVAD Interview:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200911/?read=interview_blegvad

Peter Blegvad, Angel Trap (Blue), 1977.

Ink and watercolor impregnated with Suze (liquor made from blue gentian).

Happy New Year everyone!

Enjoy.

If you find it, buy this album!

ANDRÉ JAUME – Musique Pour 8: L'Oc (1 LP + 1 Single) / 1982

Label: hat ART – hat ART 1989/90

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album + Vinyl, 7", Single

Country: Switzerland / Released: 1982

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on October 1 and 2, 1981, at Foundation Artist' House Boswil/Switzerland.

Photography – Henk Kahlé

Producer – Pia & Werner X. Uehlinger

Recorded By – Peter Pfister

A1 - Blue Note . . . . . . . . . . 4:21

         tenor sax – André Jaume

A2 - Barqueroute . . . . . . . . . . 5:51

         flugelhorn – Jean-François Canape

         tenor sax – André Jaume / trombone – Yves Robert

A3 - L'Oc . . . . . . . . . . 6:47

         bass – François Mechali

         cello – Heiner Thym, Michael Overhage

B1 - Theme For Joe . . . . . . . . . . 4:42

         flute – André Jaume

B2 - Cézanne . . . . . . . . . . 5:03

         bass – François Mechali

         flugelhorn – Jean-François Canape / tenor Sax – André Jaume

B3 - Ballade . . . . . . . . . . 5:43

         cello – Michael Overhage

         flugelhorn – Jean-François Canape / tenor sax – André Jaume

Single 45 RPM:

C  -  Clin D’œil . . . . . . . . . . 4:32

         bass – François Mechali / tenor sax – André Jaume

D  -  Fanfare . . . . . . . . . . 4:22

         percussion – Gérard Siracusa

+

2 bonus tracks: Musique Pour 8: L'Oc

(CD-1990) / hat ART – hat ART CD 6058

E (bonus track) - St. Jean . . . . . . . . . . 5:56

F (bonus track) - Zazize . . . . . . . . . . 7:25

André Jaume – tenor sax, flute, composed

Yves Robert – trombone

Jacques Veillé – bass trombone

Jean-François Canape – trumpet, flugelhorn

François Mechali – bass

Heiner Thym – cello

Michael Overhage – cello

Gerard Siracusa – percussion, drums

André Jaume's Musique Pour 8 is as ambitious a work as he has ever attempted. For octet, he has chosen to explore the relationships of the group to the individual, harmony to dissonance, timbre to meter, ensemble charts to free improvisation -- and all the colors of the musical palette. Using a group he culled together based on his fancy rather than any previous playing relationships creates a prismatic approach to Jaume's compositions. Unlike most of the Europeans, his work (especially in the avant-garde) refuses to dismiss itself from traditions musical and otherwise: Jaume's obsessions with visual art and poetry are evidenced here not as support mechanisms, but as inspirations. His "Ballade" touches on the melancholy of the Mallarme poem of the same name; "Cezanne" engages timbre -- especially in his tenor solo and in Canape's flügelhorn moment -- in a manner that highlights the vibrational nature of color and texture, much like the painter's flattened yet nonetheless shimmering canvasses. And musically, in "L'Oc," listeners can hear the tension and restraint evident in composer Darius Milhaud's later work for strings -- especially his last quartet. The influences of arrangers and texturalists such as Stan Kenton and Jimmy Giuffre can also be heard in "Blue Note" and "Theme for Joe." Jaume makes such a case for his own composition on this album that it's difficult to fault him. His titles are as free and open as his bandleading, allowing the individual musicians to ink the page indelibly with their own stamps. Jaume is truly one of the great European artists who, like Franz Koglmann, understands the importance not only of tradition, but of nuance and elegance, in the presentation of anything -- whether it be groundbreaking improvisation or beautifully composed vignettes and themes. Musique Pour 8: L'Oc is a treasure from an underappreciated master of form, style, and content.

Review by Thom Jurek

If you find it, buy this album!

CLIFFORD BROWN – The Quintet Vol. 1 (2LP-1976)

Label: Mercury ‎– EMS-2-403

Series: The EmArcy Jazz Series –

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Remastered / Country: US / Released: 1976

Country of Origin: Netherlands  

Style: Hard Bop

Recorded at Capitol Studio Los Angeles, August 3,5 & 6, 1954 and Capitol, New York, February 23, 1955.

Art Direction [Art Director AGI] – Jim Schubert

Artwork – Bob Ziering

Compiled By, Liner Notes – Dan Morgenstern

Design – Joe Kotleba

Engineer [Cutting] – Gilbert Kong

Reissue Producer – Robin McBride

Remastered By [Tape] – Dick Campbell

A1 - Delilah . . . . . 8:06

A2 - Parisian Thoroughfare . . . . . 7:14

A3 - Jordu . . . . . 7:48

B1 - Sweet Clifford . . . . . 6:40

B2 - Ghost Of A Chance . . . . . 7:20

B3 - Stompin' At The Savoy . . . . . 6:26

C1 - I Get A Kick Out Of You . . . . . 7:36

C2 - Joy Spring . . . . . 6:51

C3 - Mildama . . . . . 4:25

D1 - Daahoud . . . . . 4:04

D2 - Gerkin For Perkin . . . . . 2:58

D3 - Take The A Train . . . . . 4:21

D4 - Lands End . . . . . 4:58

D5 - Swingin' . . . . . 2:52

Clifford Brown – trumpet

Max Roach – drums

Harold Land – tenor saxophone

George Morrow – bass

Richie Powell – piano

To me, the name of Clifford Brown will always remain synonymous with the very essence of musical and moral maturity. This name will stand as a symbol of the ideals every young jazz musician should strive to attain.

This name also represents a musician who had intelligent understanding and awareness of social, moral, and economic problems which constantly confuse the jazz musician, sometimes to the point of hopeless rebellion.

In the summer of 1953, while I was working with the Lionel Hampton band in Wildwood, N.J., I begged Hamp to hire three of the musicians from Tadd Dameron's band, which was nearing the end of its Atlantic City engagement: Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, and Clifford Brown. They were all hired and then began an association that I'll always be grateful to Lionel for.

Brownie stayed on to go to Europe with this band and became closely associated with several other young musicians who were of growing importance in the jazz world, such as Art Farmer, Anthony Ortega, Jimmy Cleveland, Alan Dawson, and George Wallington. Although this band never played in the states together, I think it was one of the best Hamp ever had.

By means of an ex-tensive recording schedule abroad, Brownie came first to the eyes and ears of the French and Swedish jazzmen and a new thoroughbred was on the jazz scene. The uniting of Clifford Brown with the trumpet must have been declared from above. For seldom does a musical vehicle prove to be so completely gratifying as the trumpet was to Clifford.

Here was the perfect amalgamation of natural creative ability, and the proper amount of technical training, enabling him to contribute precious moments of musical and emotional expression. This inventiveness placed him in a class far beyond that of most of his poll-winning contemporaries. Clifford's self-assuredness in his playing reflected the mind and soul of a blossoming young artist who would have rightfully taken his place next to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and other leaders in jazz.

In this generation where some well-respected and important pioneers condemn the young for going ahead, Brownie had a very hard job. He constantly struggled to associate jazz, it's shepherds, and it's sheep, with a cleaner element, and held no room in his heart for bitterness about the publicity-made popularity and success of some of his pseudo-jazz giant brothers, who were sometimes very misleading morally and musically. As a man and a musician, he stood for a perfect example and the rewards of self-discipline.

It is really a shame that in this day of such modern techniques of publicity, booking, promoting, and what have you, a properly-backed chimpanzee can be a success after the big treatment. Why can't just one-tenth of these efforts be placed on something that is well-respected, loved, and supported in every country in the world but it's own?

Except for a very chosen few, the American music business man and the majority of the public (the Elvis Depressley followers specifically) have made an orphan out of jazz, banishing its creators and true followers and adopting idiots that could be popular no place else in the universe. I'll go so far as to bet that the salaries of Liberace, Cheeta, and Lassie alone could pay the yearly cost of booking every jazzman in the country.

This is why it's such a shame that Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, and others have to leave the world so unappreciated except for a small jazz circle. I hope some of us live to see a drastic change.

In June, 1950, Clifford Brown's career was threatened by an auto accident while he was with the Chris Powell band, which kept him from his horn for a whole year. Exactly six years later, by the same means of an auto accident, death took its toll of Clifford Brown, along with his pianist Richard Powell (brother of Bud Powell), and Richard's wife.

Clifford, at 25, was at the beginning of showing capabilities parallel only to those of Charlie Parker. There was nothing he would stop at to make each performance sound as if it were his last. But there will never be an ending performance for him, because his constant desire was to make every musical moment one of sincere warmth and beauty; this lives on forever. This would be a better world today if we had more people who believed in what Clifford Brown stood for as a man and a musician. 

Jazz will always be grateful for his few precious moments; I know I will.

By Quincy Jones

Downbeat Magazine, August, 1956

If you find it, buy this album!

STEVE LACY TRIO – The Rent (2CD-1999) / Live at The Old Church, Portland

Label: Cavity Search – CSR 44

Format: 2 × CD, Album / Country: US / Released: 1999

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live on 30 November 1997, at The Old Church, Portland, Oregon

Cover painting: Pierre Buraglio ("À Philippe de Champagne" - 1996)

Photos: Gilles Laheurte

Art Direction – Christopher Cooper and John Eckenrode

Recording By – Eric Squires

Mastering By – Eric Squires, Jeff Batts and Danny Swofford

CD #1 - 1st Set

1-1/ Shuffle Boil (Thelonious Monk) . . . 7:22

1-2/ The Bath (Steve Lacy) . . . 8:25

1-3/ The Rent (SL) . . . 10:23

1-4/ Prayer (SL) . . . 10:05

1-5/ Blinks (SL) . . . 9:37

CD #2 - 2nd Set

2-1/ The Door (Steve Lacy) . . . 10:56

2-2/ Retreat (SL) . . . 10:02

2-3/ Gospel (SL) . . . 7:15

2-4/ Flakes (SL) . . . 8:05

2-5/ Bone (SL) . . . 11:19

2-6/ Bookioni [encore] (SL) . . . 3:22

Steve Lacy / soprano saxophone, voice

Jean-Jacques Avenel / bass

John Betsch / drums, percussion

The Rent is an absolutely remarkable recording and much credit goes to Avenel and Betsch for their truly inspired performances. Plenty of solo space, depth and wonderfully recorded, The Rent stands out in glowing fashion as one of Lacy’s finest and most satisfying recordings of recent years. Then again it is often difficult to keep pace with Lacy’s ongoing yet voluminous discography; however, this one should be deemed essential listening...

In a 1992 interview for Cadence, Steve Lacy explained: "To me, music is always about something or somebody, or from somebody or something. It's never in the blue, never abstract. You have to dig into the music to see what's happening, you have to question it. Sometimes I don't know what it's about or who it is about until the music comes out; after a while, I question it, and I see - "Ahh, that's who that is!" And so, all his compositions are just that: a portrait of / an homage to "somebody" or a reference to "something." Lacy's thoughts on this process are evident on his sheet music: at the end of each tune, he attaches a small picture with the name of the person to whom he offers the tribute. The finished sheet is in itself a work of art, combining graphics and collages.

This album with its title piece, THE RENT, is humbly dedicated to the memory of the French jazz critic Laurent Goddet, whose untimely death by suicide in the late 80's affected everyone in French music circles. He was one of the first people to generously help Lacy when he moved to Paris in 1970. After several years of disentchantment in Rome with enthusiastic but amateur Italian musicians, the music scene in Paris had seemed to Lacy a bit like the promised land. However, finding enough gigs was tough, and Lacy and his wife Irene Aebi were soon "in the dumps", scraping and scratching to survive. Goddet helped them out selflessly.

To all who knew Goddet, his suicide was a total surprise. To those who loved him, his death was like a brutal rip in a delicate and cherished piece of fabric. The tragedy was devastating to Lacy who was left with "une profonde déchirure au coeur," i.e. a rent in his heart. It also left Lacy with a deep indebtness to Goddet for the altruistic help he had received from him, which he suddenly realized he could possibly no longer return, except through his music. As a result, the tune THE RENT carries the scars of the violent rip of emotions, the indebtness owed a true friend ("the rent is a phenomenon that we're all forced to deal with - we have to pay the rent, you know") and it is also a play on his name, "The Rent" - Laurent. The piece is both bright (a lighhearted "A" part, sort of a Cha Cha Cha) and dark (a grinding "B" part, screaming the blues), as if to reflect the dichotomy between the apparent insouciance of Goddet's life and the scorching pain he was hiding in his soul.

The other tunes in this album are also tributes in their own special way: SHUFFLE BOIL, the current "standard" opening number to the trio's concerts, obviously expressing Thelonious Monk's everlasting mark on Lacy's Muse; THE BATH, to Dexter Gordon, a dark blues "inspired from a film called "Max" (Einer Moos), where Henri Miller allows his favorite bum to bathe and change in his Paris flat"; PRAYER, to Charlie Rouse, a kind of "soul" music with an angular melody, but in fact an Irish-American spiritual with Zen/Buddhist overtones; BLINKS, to trombonist Kid Ory, its principal lick taken from an old Dixieland phrase of the 20's; THE DOOR, to Joseph Haydn, who liked to employ knocking rhythms in some of his work; RETREAT, "a little Rhapsody for Bob Marley, based on a mode from the Far East in tick-tock time"  inspired by a quote from 18th Century painter Thomas Gainsborough; GOSPEL, "a shout and a blues, a stomp and a wail", to Stevie Wonder ; FLAKES, to American painter Mark Rothko; BONE, the oldest composition in the set (1969), to Lester Young, from the song cycle "The Way / Tao Suite", based on a Lao-Tzu poem; and BOOKIONI, the current encore to the trio's performances, inspired by Lacy's former drummer, Oliver Johnson.

They represent only a fraction of the group's vast repertoire - several pieces from Monk, all others from Lacy's own musical universe. They have been explored extensively since 1995, when the famous twenty year-old Steve Lacy Sextet was stripped down to the current Trio, and were explored further during the rather ambitious North American Tour of November 1997, when this recording was made: 25 cities in 30 days, flying back and forth from the West Coast to the East Coast, from North to South, a truly grueling schedule. This was one of the last concerts before flying "home" to Paris. Yet the musicians, and the music, show no sign of fatigue. Quite the contrary, it is as if the presence of Laurent Goddet was felt and had energized everyone present.

The album is blessed with the wonderful acoustics of the picturesque "Old Church" in Portland. It is also blessed with a very crisp engineering which brings out beautifully the natural sounds of Lacy's sharp and varied timbral inflections, Avenel's warm virtuoso solos and embroideries, and Betsch's subtle/attentive dosage of colorful drumming. It is further blessed with a very responsive and enthusiastic audience. Another special blessing is the release of the two sets in their unexpurgated form, as they happened, giving the CD listener the magical illusion of "being there," a great compensation to all who could not be in Portland that night. The two sets demonstrate the unerring sense of balance in Lacy's choice of tunes, deceptively simple elegant melodies, in which his improvisations remain fresh, always, even after 45 years of soprano playing.

One often says that time fosters deep alliances between minds, and this album effectively shows the ease with which the three musicians relate. There is an empathic equilibrium which makes their "communion" in the Old Church seem effortless and complete, all three musicians flying high and landing impeccably on their feet. No doubt that, had he been alive and present that night, Laurent Goddet himself would have been delighted, and would have simply said : "What great music! Listen!"

_By Gilles Laheurte (February 1999)

Buy this album!