Great Improvisation on Record

[Mandryka]

His recording of Cardew's The Tiger's Mind - Nightpiece on the Swiss label Cubus Records is also well worth getting. .

The sound on the Cubus record is fine - I like it very much.

[Bryn]

The sound on the Cubus record is fine - I like it very much.

Me too. Despite the problems with the playback of the 'soundscape for the Cafe OTO performance of Daypiece, I also treasure my ad hoc ambisonic recording (Zoom H3-VR attached to the inactive central overhead air conditioning unit) of that. Converted to 5.1 surround, it just requires an Ivesian exercise of the 'ear muscles' to enhance the perception of the soundscape aspect.

[Serial_Apologist]

A few years ago, of all programmes, Jazz on 3 featured a couple of John's performances of Beckett works. Very strange. While a very fine improviser, I do not think he has ever considered himself a "jazz musician". His recording of Cardew's The Tiger's Mind - Nightpiece on the Swiss label Cubus Records is also well worth getting. I see it's on Youtube, though the audio quality there is questionable. He performed The Tiger's Mind - Daypiece at Cafe OIO in January of last year. I have an ambisonic recording of that performance. However, the level of the recorded soundscape he prepared was played back at far too low a level. He has plans to make a recording of Daypiece in better-controlled circumstances before too long.

Similar underpowering occurred during one of the few performances of Berio's Laborintus II when it was broadcast sometime in the 1990s. It was an otherwise very good performance with Electric Phoenix, but, at the point of maximum drama, instead of the explosion of electronic sounds made famous here by the work's Proms premiere, all that came across on the radio were faint whispy squeaks and plinky plonks!

[Joseph K]

On the subject of Keith, some might say his work with AMM was a high point, and of their work that The Crypt, 12 June 1968 was a high point. Hearing it was certainly a life changing experience for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKqs3egFQmk

Listening now.

[Mandryka]

Me too. Despite the problems with the playback of the 'soundscape for the Cafe OTO performance of Daypiece, I also treasure my ad hoc ambisonic recording (Zoom H3-VR attached to the inactive central overhead air conditioning unit) of that. Converted to 5.1 surround, it just requires an Ivesian exercise of the 'ear muscles' to enhance the perception of the soundscape aspect.

What I would really love to ses is some sort of account/journal of what goes through a performers mind when he takes a text score or a graphic score and turns it into sound.

In Tilbury’s book on Cardew he does this a bit for The Crypt.

[Richard Barrett]

What I would really love to ses is some sort of account/journal of what goes through a performers mind when he takes a text score or a graphic score and turns it into sound.

There's a fairly extensive literature on that kind of thing.

There's a whole issue of the Sound American e-zine about Treatise for example: http://archive.soundamerican.org/sa_archive/index.html (scroll down to issue 12)

[Mandryka]

There's a fairly extensive literature on that kind of thing.

There's a whole issue of the Sound American e-zine about Treatise for example: http://archive.soundamerican.org/sa_archive/index.html (scroll down to issue 12)

Thanks, I shall explore that.

(Enjoying your Codex IX this afternoon.)

[Mandryka]

Paper by Catherine Laws on Tilbury's Worstward Ho!

https://brill.com/view/journals/sbt/...ml?language=en

Tried to listen to it today but so far, failed to get into any sort of meaningful relationship with it . . .

[Richard Barrett]

Thanks for that link (& your kind words)

[Mandryka]

Today I was bowled over by the second “side” (track 2) on this!



I’m using this Ph.D as my guide through the music

http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/4659/1/438075.pdf

[Mandryka]

Anyone can steer me to a tourist’s guide to Anthony Braxton’s copious recorded music?

What’s he about - graphic scores?

[Bryn]

Anyone can steer me to a tourist’s guide to Anthony Braxton’s copious recorded music?

What’s he about - graphic scores?

Richard B is probably your man.

[Joseph K]

I know that this is quite well regarded:

https://firehouse12records.com/album/9-compositions-iridium-2006

[Mandryka]

I was about to post to say I’ve finally found something which I think I actually like, but searching for the image I noticed something which suggests it isn’t “by” Anthony Braxton. Maybe I only like Braxton not by Braxton.

Here’s the aforementioned image



And here’s the comment which made me pause for thought

By constructing a musical reality through the compositional impetus of Braxton and Ellington, these musicians remind us that the “Concept Of Freedom” is an ongoing challenge that requires commitment, sensitivity, creativity, and vigilance, and that Art is not an escape from life, but an experience essential to life's meaning and value. — Art Lange


https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/concept-of-freedom-hatology-614

[Richard Barrett]

Where to start with Anthony Braxton? An early album I keep coming back to is New York, Fall 1974 which in its LP days had a side of jazz-oriented numbers and a side of more experimental work (a duo with Richard Teitelbaum on synthesizer, a saxophone quartet, a slightly sinister melodic piece with contrabass clarinet). On Hat Art there are a few essential albums like Composition 98, Performance 9/1/79, Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978 and others. Many of the dates on his 1985 UK tour with the Braxton/Crispell/Dresser/Hemingway quartet have been released; maybe this is the apex of work in the setting of a traditional-looking lineup. I can't get too excited about his reinterpretations of standards. As Joseph says, the Iridium 2006 material is a high point of his more recent work. His ongoing series of 12 operas entitled Trillium is pretty astonishing in many ways. You can sample his latest work at his New Braxton House label.

Moving on... in the autumn of 2019 I took part in two concerts by the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, and one of these (to my surprise) has been released on Bandcamp as Warszawa 2019:

https://sluchaj.bandcamp.com/album/warszawa-2019?fbclid=IwAR0SMda0utOcm4GRTw2hjtlBcJ23ju83U2dWThtYxIKKeSrybmaTS5DgrKk

... which I hereby recommend - there's a lot of other fine material on the same label, curated by Maciej Karłowski.