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Hmm... I haven't been listening to much free jazz in the last couple years, moving my listening to to more non-idiomatic electro acoustic music by the likes of Sachiko M, Axel Doerner, Keith Rowe, Tomas Korber, while tentatively plumbing the depths of 20th century composition (along with the prerequisite doses of metal, punk and rock) . While I still really enjoy a lot of the music from Coltrane, Ayler, Evan Parker and Frank Wright, I really don’t listen to much of the modern day free jazz any more, feeling that it is increasingly scraping a barrel that has run creatively dry since the 70s. It’s strange to find much of what I originally found utteraly compelling – non-stop, hyperactive interaction and blasting screams over unfettered 40 minute long pieces – to be less than interesting now as I’ve gotten far more into improvised music with wider dynamics, texture, and tonal shifts. That being said I went to an excellent concert by Sonore (Ken Vandermark, Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustaffson) last night that helped revitalize some of my interest in the free jazz. A trio of reeds doesn’t sound like the best idea on paper, especially when you realize it’s going to be a freely improvised trio, but surprisingly it turned out be a great time. Sure, there were the standard blistering screaming from all three reedists, but there was also a surprising amount of restraint and dynamics to the songs; at one point Brotzmann even played a sour and moving melody over a backdrop of undulating baritone sax from Vandermark and Gustaffson. The pieces were short enough to not feel as though it was falling too far into the masturbatory escapades that Brotzmann can find himself gleefully partaking in, and all of them played like they were actually having fun and trying to explore some new territory that didn’t just revolve around the atavistic pummel. I haven’t seen a good Brotzmann performance in a couple years, but this one was great. I’m going to see him again on Friday, so we shall see if streak continues.
Not only that, but I’ve been getting into a fantastic reedist from Germany named Frank Gratkowski, as well; he can run the gamut of moods, from fierce, absurdly chaotic free jazz honking to subtle, ear massaging exploration at the drop of a felt hat. He has a wonderful disc called “Arrears” on Red Toucan records with a bassist and pianist that I would definitely recommend – reminding me of beautifuly free improvised chamber jazz. There’s also a newer disc with Gratkowski and Misha Mengleberg on Leo Records that makes me remember how goddamn funny some of this music can be. Mengleberg plays all the wrong notes at all the times he shouldn’t; it’s as though some drunk guy shambled on stage and found a piano to plink plonk over the keys in a perverse “Oi, I can play too” fashion, until suddenly sobering up and unleashing torrents of cascading virtuostic runs, only to again fall back to playing fucked up, broken fingered chopsticks, all the while Gratkowski emotes over it all in somber funereal bass clarinet.
Another recommendation: Evan Parker has realeased an absolutely killer disc with Chris Corsano and John Edwards called “A Glancing Blow” on Clean Feed, which I’ve been listening to lately on my increasingly frozen walks to my soul crushing job. I’ve always been half convinced by Corsano’s stuff, thinking he may be a tad overrated when there are equally great younger players out there like Paal Nielson Love not being noticed half as much (probably due to them not having ties to the psych/noise scenes). But Corsano is really great on this one, dissecting Parker’s lines and really pushing him into increasingly jazzier territory. Edwards, as usual, is fucking great – all oaken handed bass warrior, plucking strings like they’re the trunks of saplings and dishing out huge throbbing earth-mass drones. Dig it. |
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