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Underground > Radio & Music >

Euro free and improvised music aka beards and reed instruments.

Locust No longer

19:27 / 31.10.01

I was wondering if any one else on this board is interested in improvised music. I'm coming from more of a jazz and avant garde point of view and not the "jam band" stuff like Phish, which I personally find dreadful. Points of reference might be: Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Trevor Watts, Peter Brotzmann, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Keith Rowe, AMM, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, Sachiko M, Fred Van Hove, and many more. I find the music facinating and has renewed my excitement in music.

19:42 / 31.10.01

I'm a jazz lover (right now exploring the 30s-50s scene), and I find improvisational music very much to my tastes - be it baroque ad-libbing, Coltrane or a few guys with instruments having fun at the bus stop.
I used to do impro a bit when I still had time for playing (flute) and found it thrilling, and extremely demanding, too. You must have a great control of the instrument, and you need all the technique you can put together.
But when everything works together, the result's extraordinary even if you are a third-class amateur like I am.
Improvised music is music in its earlier incarnation, and it's great.

Locust No longer

09:05 / 01.11.01

I got into music through punk rock and discovered jazz a little while after. Coltrane didn't hit me hard until I heard "Interstellar Space", a duo between Trane and Rashied Ali. It fried my brain and was completely improvised. Then I heard Peter Brotzmann's "Machine Gun" and I have yet to hear music more powerful and extreme as that, and I pride myself on my collection of punk and metal. Now the only real excitement I get is hearing the new Evan Parker solo or Charles Gayle screaming line. It's emotional, and filled with truth. As Thurston Moore said, "There's a whole generation of kids going from punk rock to Schlippenbach." And that's pretty true to my situation. Moore is name dropping the avant garde pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach who is one of my favorite piano players, actually. Fucking fiery but lyrical.

I do, however, still enjoy a really good punk or noise, or rock record.