Great Improvisation on Record

[Mandryka]

Currently completely knocked out by Nessuno with Pauline Oliveros, Wadada Leo Smith and Roscoe Mitchell. Once I start to play it I can’t stop - a problem because it’s not short!

https://www.soundohm.com/product/nessuno

And though I’m not normally much of a piano lover, John Tilbury’s spare Barcelona Piano Solo has moments which have burnt themselves on my imagination

https://www.jtilbury.com

I need more recordings like these!

[Joseph K]

Thanks for the tip - I don't have any Roscoe Mitchell in my collection, so this is a good excuse to correct that.

[Richard Barrett]

That looks very interesting, Mandryka, I didn't know this recording existed. Roscoe Mitchell is one of my favourite players though, he just keeps getting better. Recently I was particularly taken by the two albums entitled Conversations where he plays in a trio with Craig Taborn (keyboards) and Kikanju Baku (drums), a traditional-looking lineup on the face of it which goes in many unheard-of directions.

[Bryn]

Currently completely knocked out by Nessuno with Pauline Oliveros, Wadada Leo Smith and Roscoe Mitchell. Once I start to play it I can’t stop - a problem because it’s not short!

. . .

I need more recordings like these!

A couple of points: NESSUNO can be found on Bandcamp for a little over £10 including p&p for both the CD (a few weeks to wait for delivery) and immediate download of the FLAC version, https://idischidiangelica.bandcamp.com/album/nessuno. Be warned, for some obscure reason, the FLAC on its own is priced higher than the CD + the FLAC.

Do also get John Tilbury's Music for Piano and Birds, for Emmylou and Edgar from the same page as Barcelona, but don't expect Messiaen or Rautavaara.

[Richard Barrett]

Another piece of Great Improvisation on Record I keep returning to is Improvisations for cello and guitar by Dave Holland and Derek Bailey, a 1971 recording that was one of ECM's first releases (but which has no discernible connection to the label's subsequent house style).

[Bryn]

Another piece of Great Improvisation on Record I keep returning to is Improvisations for cello and guitar by Dave Holland and Derek Bailey, a 1971 recording that was one of ECM's first releases (but which has no discernible connection to the label's subsequent house style).

What, not even in the recording style?

[Richard Barrett]

What, not even in the recording style?

Not even.

[Mandryka]

Another piece of Great Improvisation on Record I keep returning to is Improvisations for cello and guitar by Dave Holland and Derek Bailey, a 1971 recording that was one of ECM's first releases (but which has no discernible connection to the label's subsequent house style).

Ah, yes, that’s quite complicated and challenging music - in a good way. Thanks.

[Mandryka]

Do also get John Tilbury's Music for Piano and Birds, for Emmylou and Edgar from the same page as Barcelona, but don't expect Messiaen or Rautavaara.

I downloaded that last night but haven’t yet given it attention. I’m quite curious about all those Beckett things he’s done - who’d have imagined putting Worstward Ho to music?!!! I feel a bit let down that he didn’t do The Unnamable!

[Serial_Apologist]

I downloaded that last night but haven’t yet given it attention. I’m quite curious about all those Beckett things he’s done - who’d have imagined putting Worstward Ho to music?!!! I feel a bit let down that he didn’t do The Unnamable!

Already covered by Berio in Sinfonia - but I guess you knew that!

[Richard Barrett]

I’m quite curious about all those Beckett things he’s done

As far as I know he's just performed them rather than putting them to music (although some do requite music of course).

[Bryn]

I downloaded that last night but haven’t yet given it attention. I’m quite curious about all those Beckett things he’s done - who’d have imagined putting Worstward Ho to music?!!! I feel a bit let down that he didn’t do The Unnamable!

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.

[Bryn]

As far as I know he's just performed them rather than putting them to music (although some do requite music of course).

He certainly plays as well as recites in Worstard Ho and Stirrings Still. See http://www.jtilbury.com/177-2/

Beckett was not happy about his prose texts being delivered publicly, although he granted permission, not without reservations, to one or two of his favourite interpreters. I do not belong to the latter category – nor did I ever meet Beckett. But I am encouraged by the fact that in general he liked musicians and enjoyed their company.

As a pianist, I feel more at home behind a keyboard than a lectern. The music is not meant to be invasive but when I ‘perform’ Stirrings Still and Worstward Ho I respond to the text as a musician and in a sense my attitude towards the piano, towards the musical tone, towards the sound of the piano, is reflected in the way I read Beckett’s text. I hope. My ‘accompaniment’ is really a soundtrack. I am a pianist, so the piano is featured. I am comfortable with it – no, not comfortable, I am familiar with the instrument. To the question, what are you? I answer, I am a musician.

[Mandryka]

Already covered by Berio in Sinfonia - but I guess you knew that!

I’d forgotten about the Berio in fact.

[Richard Barrett]

He certainly plays as well as recites in Worstward Ho and Stirrings Still.

That's interesting. I must have a listen to those. We are straying a bit from improvisation though!

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