From: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (Zorn List Digest) To: zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: Zorn List Digest V3 #317 Reply-To: zorn-list Sender: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Zorn List Digest Monday, March 5 2001 Volume 03 : Number 317 In this issue: - Zorn in Seattle Re: defective evan parker ecm Re: lowell davidson Vision Fest GOD (was: one more question about sprawl, ice, 16-17, god etc.) teaching john zorn Re: Barry Guy Re: well-informed, open-minded people dreyblatt on hat art Re: dreyblatt on hat art Dreyblatt on Canteloupe [was dreyblatt on hat art] Re: Vision Fest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 07:46:24 EST From: Samerivertwice@aol.com Subject: Zorn in Seattle A friend of mine from Seattle went to see Zorn a couple of weeks ago. Here's his review: The concert featured Zorn's compositions performed by a variety of Seattle chamber musicians. First up was a string quartet performance of "Cat O'Nine Tails," sounding pretty similar to the way it does on the recent Zorn release "Cartoon/S&M." With all the tempo and time and genre changes, it was tremendously challenging to play and, as throughout the evening, perhaps the most fascinating part was watching the musicians' intense concentration. Next up was a piece called "Shibboleth," featuring violin, viola, piano, clarinet, and percussion. The percussionist dominated the proceedings, not because he overdid it but because the other players' parts were very quiet and the percussionist was in constant motion behind his Art Ensemble of Chicago-like setup, doing everything from crackling sticks to treading on piles of leaves to dealing a deck of cards, not to mention the usual vibes bass drum triangle snare and whatnot. The first half concluded with piano, flute, clarinet, percussion and harpsichord taking four tunes from the Masada songbook. Zorn conducted by sitting in front of them in the lotus position, clad in fatigue pants, T-shirt and prayer shawl, giving occasional hand signals and talking. The pianist was most connected with Zorn, really grasping what he wanted. The group never strayed into cacophony, but instead focused on teasing out the beauty of the melodies. The third of the four numbers in this section was a gorgeous solo on bass flute. After intermission, another mixed ensemble, this time made up of violins, viola, percussion, woodwinds and harpsichord, played "Music for Children." It had fewer melodic fragments than "Cat O'Nine Tails," and again was dominated by the percussionist's activities. Then Zorn took the stage solo for about 20 minutes of free improvisation. I can't tell you whether he played three pieces or whether he simply stopped twice to replace broken reeds. I can only understand what he played as pure sound experiments, full of squawking, squealing, screeching... The sounds he can produce are amazing, but not very pleasant to listen to. I wonder if there's an element of Artaud-like assault on the audience to see how much painful squealing we'll endure before deciding that it's not worth sitting through even if we did pay $24. The evening closed with a clarinet quartet (including bass and soprano clarinets) doing Zorn's orchestration of "Kol Nidre." Interesting, the beautiful, ancient Hebraic melody was never articulated. Instead, the opening notes were stretched out into whole and half notes repeated and repeated, requiring again tremendous concentration and patience from the musicians. It was a little disconcerting when the piece ended, since it never reached the basic melody. All in all, a fascinating evening. ________________________________________________ The dignity of art appears to the greatest advantage perhaps in music, because that art contains no material to be deducted. It is wholly form and intrinsic value, and it elevates and ennobles everything which it expresses. --Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 08:57:12 -0500 From: Dave Subject: Re: defective evan parker ecm At 12:30 PM 3/3/01 -0500, you wrote: >A few months back I bought one of the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic >Ensemble albums on ECM ("Drawn Inward" I think) only to find that the >actual music on the disc was some Italian woman vocalist. Both copies in >the store were like that. Did anybody else have this problem and has it >been corrected? > >- I had the same problem with the discs. It took me 45 minutes of arguing with the manager of Best Buy to convince him It wasn't Evan Parker on the disc. I wrote to ECM, but haven't hearback and don't know if it has been corrected. I am afraid to buy it again. - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 09:13:04 -0500 From: michael j rosenstein Subject: Re: lowell davidson Davidson died in the late 80s. (I forget exactly when.) He was a fantastic player and a huge influence on many Boston players. During the 80s, he would perform around Boston in ad hoc units with Joe Morris, Laurence Cook and others. The concert Ken references with Joe Morris, Butch Morris, Malcolm Goldstein, and Davidson (on percussion and aluminum bass!!!) was incredible. Michael Rosenstein michaelr@world.std.com > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 13:19:44 -0500 (EST) > From: Ken Waxman > Subject: Re: piano list/davidson > > Brian, et. al: > > Yes, Davidson died quite a few years ago, > Apparently he suffered from a sort of mental illness > at the end of his life. > > The ESP disk is very impressive. IMHO it sounds like a > link between Herbie Nichols and Cecil Taylor. > > Other Davidson material exists, but none has been > released commercially. After the ESP session he moved > (back?) to Boston and played around there as both a > pianist and a percussionist (!). > > Someone in Boston apparently has many tapes of > Davidson playing piano in different contexts, but > refuses to release them. I'm told he's waiting for a > large $$ offer. (Delusions ran rampant). > > Joe Morris also has a tape of a concert he did with > Davidson on percussion, Butch Morris on cornet, > himself and I forget the fourth participant. > > He's been trying to get it released on CD for at least > a decade. > > Ken Waxman - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 09:35:53 -0500 From: Perfect Sound Forever Subject: Vision Fest Pretty mixed feelings about the Vision Fest at the Knit. It's still one of my favorite clubs in town but I know I'll miss the open, homey vibe you got the youth center (last year, now sadly closed), the church basement (year before that) and Angel O Center (year before that I believe). I guess it's so hard to find a stable place for this. Also, as we saw at the recent Mercury lounge show, asking an audience to stand through a six-hour show is pretty difficult. I hope/pray they put the seating in for this. It'll be kind of weird to see Mike from Eremite setting up shop in the front bar (I'm guessing that's where they'll do this for the CD sales). Best, Jason P.S. David Toop also bemoans Virgin's lack for support for the excellent comps that he and other Wire writers were putting together. - -- Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine perfect-sound@furious.com http://www.furious.com/perfect - - ------------------------------ Date: From: pm.carey@utoronto.ca (Patrick Carey) Subject: GOD (was: one more question about sprawl, ice, 16-17, god etc.) * "Daryl Loomis" : >>In my opinion, all three of the God albums are incredible, but they >>are impossible to find. I heard them five years ago, but as soon as >>I went to buy them, Big Cat had gone out of business, and I've been >>searching ever since. I'd like to know too. I've never found them >>used, I haven't met anyone that has them. I have "Appeal to Human >>Greed," which are remixes of "Anatomy of Addiction" by Laswell, JK >>Broadrick, Kevin Shields and a couple others that I can't remember >>now. It's good, but it doesn't do the original line-up any justice >>whatsoever. Anyway, that's as much as I know, and I wish almost >>every day that I had the albums. * "Richard Gardner" : >Infact I have four God albums including the remixes. There was also a very >obscure album with approximately the same lineup (without Zorn) recorded >live in the crypt of a church in London and released on a German label. The >original studio album was called Possession. (I don't have the details here >now because I'm at work) * simon hopkins : >That would be 'Loco' released on the label PDC, or >Permir De Construir, I think. Sorry about the bad >French. Which the label was, I think. French that is. >Not 'bad'. Right, not sure anyone following this thread caught it the first time, but I mentioned this, and some other God odds'n'ends in my post a few days ago: "There are 5 God CDs out there, a 12", "Breach Birth" (Situation Two), which is 3 very early tracks, and a split 7" (one of the tracks from the 12") with Terminal Cheesecake (another defunct band who made some brilliant albums). The discs that I'm guessing Daryl didn't include are their first CD, "Loco" (1991, PDCD - another dead label, or at least all of their early records are long gone -> this one features Prevost on percussion), and their 3rd, "Consumed" (1993, Sentrax - a label that has gone in and out of existence), both of which were live. Have you tried Gemm, or Netsounds, or Ebay even? I've seen all of the CDs used before at one time or another, but they don't pop up all that often. Just keep checking those out of the way places ..." PDCD is Permis De Construire Deutschland (the German arm of the French label PDC) ... translates as "building permit" or some such. The church was St. Mary's (how many of those are there in London?). The lineup was as follows: S. Blake - tenor sax T. Hodgkinson - alto sax K. Martin - tenor sax, vocals L. Ciccotelli - drums S. Kiehl - drums E. Prevost - percussion D. Cochrane - bass G. Jeff - bass J. Edwards - double bass R. Smith - guitar Hope this info is of use to someone ... - -Patrick - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 07:32:02 -0800 (PST) From: Scott Handley Subject: teaching john zorn Hi all, I'm getting to this a bit late, but re: the teaching of Zorn in a suggestive 15 minutes....it would seem that this would be easier than with many other composers, because one can focus on very short compositions or segments of compositions, and make sweeping points about his compositional style based on the interstices, or rather the means for gluing materials together. Says I. I guess if I were doing---oh rue the day---I would focus on the use of pastiche, genre, the role of composer/performer, the interrogation of tradition (this could allow for 30 sec excursus on Masada, which is about what's appropriate...please make a point of noting the idea of the "working group", with requisite parallels to Ellington "writing for the personalities" and Glass, maybe); the independent label angle and the championing of marginalized musics deserves a mention...that has everything to do with music, esp. music that increasingly uses improvisation and the recording medium as a score. Driving home the Stravinsky and Ives and maybe Ellington parallels/connections might be useful in terms of---I hate to say it this way---nationalizing, or at least nationally situating his work. All right, enough. - ----s __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 09:58:38 -0800 (PST) From: Scott Handley Subject: Re: Barry Guy - --- Reaboi@aol.com wrote: > I was at the soundcheck at Tonic for the Barry Guy > gig this Tuesday. > > As soon as he got there he warmed-up with a solo > bass composition by Xenakis. > he told an amusing story about hoe Xenakis was sure > the piece was 'physically > unplayable' and, when Barry performed it solo in > Paris a few years ago, the > composer was amost moved to tears. Sorry to get back to this so late, but this is a wonderful story. It would be exciting, for me, to hear a full disc of Guy interpreting other contemporary composers' works for the bass. Does this exist, and if not, why not? I mean, it just seems like there's a (potential) body of literature out there that DESERVES to be pleasured by Guy's sick, unnatural talents. Speaking of which, what is Fernando Grillo's FLUVINE album (Cramps, reissued by Ampersand) like? I can't tell from the description if it's straight-up improv, or interpretations of others' comps. His playing on some Dumitrescu stuff I have is pretty remarkable. Also, it seem that the list previously discussed solo bass records. If anyone knows off hand how long ago this was, or if we did it at all, could you e.mail me privately. Otherwise, I suppose I'll have to eventually just plunge into archives. - ----s, spelunkin' __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 09:59:21 -0800 From: "Patrice L. Roussel" Subject: Re: well-informed, open-minded people On Sat, 03 Mar 2001 14:09:10 -0600 "Christina Carter" wrote: > > This concern with whether or not someone is a 'wanna be' seems to me to be > counterproductive. I mean, how many people are into improvisation, > adventurousness, music that takes as its premise a radical possiblity of > chance and change? Categorizing these musicians/listeners into those that > are authentic and those that are not? I respect someone that follows the > voice that is leading them to expand their sounds/world/mind. But I was talking about music in the traditional sense: - some people making sounds on a stage and making records - other people (hopefuly in larger quantity) listening to the first ones and buying their records The first group might be convinced that the second group should stop any activities to listen to what they are doing. The second are thriving among zillions of distractions and artistic forms with a limited amount of money and time. You speak as if trying to be creative was equal to being creative! If it were the case, yes, I would agree with your global statement. I simply do not feel that attempting and reaching are the same. And since I have only limited resources (time and money), and in the face of an saturated record production in a very limited genre (with some many derivative products without the urgency and imagination of the originators), I am forced to make choices between what I feel worth my time, and what I feel not worth it. I sometimes dare to share that under the form of opinions. And I am not affraid of making mistakes in my judgement, knowing that every artist really worth something will get his message through. > are authentic and those that are not? I respect someone that follows the > voice that is leading them to expand their sounds/world/mind. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I was not talking about group therapy. Patrice. - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 11:06:35 -0700 From: "Matthew W Wirzbicki (S)" Subject: dreyblatt on hat art just saw this in the anomalous stock update: >* Arnold Dreyblatt and The Orchestra of Excited Strings > "Propellers in Love" CD $12.99 includes 15 minute > bonus track duet with Dreyblatt on electric, double-neck, lap > 'Hawaiian' steel guitar and Paul Panhuysen on prepared electric bass > guitar. Hat Hut Records Ltd. Switzerland hat ART CD 6011 I bought a copy recently and I like it a whole bunch. It's a bit more delicate than animal magnetism and the rhythmic scheme seems a bit less forceful and driving and the time signatures are a bit more convoluted. Animal Magnetism is really at your neck i feel...but this one is a bit more subtile (but you could have figured that out from the titles alone). I feel that there's also a bit more varied arc to the piece here than to animal magnetism. Track 3 of "propellers" is the highlight for me. just thought I'd mention it since I haven't seen many copies of this recording availible. (was it out of print at one point? -- is it back in now?) Matt Wirzbicki - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 13:27:45 EST From: JonAbbey2@aol.com Subject: Re: dreyblatt on hat art In a message dated 3/5/01 1:07:54 PM, M_WIRZBICKI@ColoradoCollege.edu writes: << just thought I'd mention it since I haven't seen many copies of this recording availible. (was it out of print at one point? -- is it back in now?) >> yeah, this is my favorite Dreyblatt recording also. it was and is out of print, but Hat Art was well enough distributed that there seem to be occasional copies floating around still. if you think you might want this, I'd snag it from Anomalous now. Jon www.erstwhilerecords.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:06:10 -0500 From: "Steve Smith" Subject: Dreyblatt on Canteloupe [was dreyblatt on hat art] There's a Dreyblatt track on the new Bang on a Can All-Stars disc 'Renegade Heaven,' which gets released next Tuesday the 13th. It's called "Escalator," it originally dates from 1995, and it's about 11 minutes long. The rest of the disc features works by Julia Wolfe ("Believing"), Michael Gordon ("I Buried Paul"), Glenn Branca ("Movement Within")and David Lang ("Exquisite Corpses"). All of the tracks are pretty damned interesting, especially if you're into the BoAC "totalist" aesthetic. The Wolfe and Gordon pieces both play off Beatles material in particularly interesting ways, and the Branca is supposedly the first time one of his pieces has been played on his own instruments by an ensemble other than his own. The disc is on the new BoAC label Canteloupe. It's already available online at www.bangonacan.org. The label plans to release six discs a year - next month brings "The Passing Measures" by David Lang, a really long and beautiful "ambient concerto" for Marty Ehrlich's bass clarinet. In June Evan Ziporyn releases a mixed recital called 'This Is Not a Clarinet.' Later in the fall the label will release a BoAC version of 'In C,' a new Arnold Dreyblatt disc featuring his latest Orchestra of Excited Strings (most likely the version that recently played NYC, I guess) and a new Toby Twining disc). Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com (obviously busy at work...) - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 14:29:34 -0500 From: "jeton ademaj" Subject: Re: Vision Fest Hi All, just another tidbit on Vision 6, to clarify: "Jeton: Dorf did not offer the space. Arts for Art approached him understanding that it would be mutually beneficial. In general we feel that it is to all the artists benefit that the Knitting Factory is supported by the arts community. And you can quote me on that! - -Patricia Parker " anyway, looking forward to a slammin' Festival ;) >Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 20:51:48 -0500 >From: "Steve Smith" >Subject: RE: Vision fest changes tune >I don't doubt Patricia's intentions at all. Nor do I question her >independence or authority. And yes, I've also heard murmurs that this >Vision Fest will top everything that's come before it. >All I really meant to call attention to was the savvy that led Michael > >Dorf >to turn a negative position - having no festival at all this year - into a >positive one by offering to host the Vision Festival, which is clearly >still >on an upward growth curve but establishing itself quite credibly, as you've >stated. It helps Michael appear to not be out of the game altogether, and >it puts him back into the position of renegade and underdog relative to >George Wein's JVC behemoth - which for him is actually a position of strength, it seems. >And I suppose that the Knit offers marginally more space than Tonic would >have, especially if they somehow make use of the Alterknit and Old Office >spaces. But I still think it's going to be overcrowded and uncomfortable. >Hey, personal past baggage aside, I've said time and time again that I want the Knit to survive, ultimately, as much for its iconic status in this field >of music as anything else. And this is an example of exactly how Dorf is >likely to land on his feet yet again. Really, it's extremely magnanimous >of William and Patricia to help him out like this. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com - - ------------------------------ End of Zorn List Digest V3 #317 ******************************* To unsubscribe from zorn-list-digest, send an email to "majordomo@lists.xmission.com" with "unsubscribe zorn-list-digest" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "zorn-list-digest" in the commands above with "zorn-list". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from ftp.xmission.com, in pub/lists/zorn-list/archive. These are organized by date. Problems? Email the list owner at zorn-list-owner@lists.xmission.com