Strings & Things in the Bass Clef
CD Reviews

"It is astonishing how many new things are immediately revealed to a man who can empty out the fossilized clutter of his conscious mind for a moment. (Buddha's Little Finger - Victor Pelevin)

The summer of 1975 was one of those marvellous times spent at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. The workshops were conducted by some of the most prominent musicians of the period, among them bassist David Holland at whose house we were billeted. He was, at that time, seriously studying the cello, and to sit sipping cognac in front of the log fire, listening to him preparing for eventual cello performance (Life Cycle - ECM 1238) is an experience I likely cannot repeat. He played me the recordings of Janos Starker performing Bach's Cello Suites and Mstislav Rostropovich playing Benjamin Britten, introducing me to the masters of another discipline, inspiring me to investigate solo string music and certain composers of chamber music. The first 4 CDs in this column are of this genre.

The liner notes to the Henneman String Quartet - Piazza Pia - Wig 07 (www.toondist.nl) present an interesting history lesson, suggesting as they do the historical connections that inspire the music of this quartet. The madrigals of Monteverdi, a melancholy song from the northern Italian mountains, a Sicilian folk lament for harmonica, Francesco Landini's 14th century Florence, and even a tip-of-the-hat to Morton Feldman, are all references that mean little to me, have nothing to do with my listening experience. What I hear is four string players presenting a program of violist Ig Henneman's original compositions. A rich, deep, sonorous string quartet which receives its warmth from the unusual configuration of the two violas of Henneman and Oene van Geel, the cello of Alex Waterman, and Wilbert de Joode's gut string bass. There exists a romantic formality, perhaps due to those historical references, with a spontaneous edge that only improvisers can bring to music, an individuality that shines in the most formal of situations. The recording took place in Italy, just south of Rome, and the romance of the Renaissance is in the air, but this beautiful recording is of now and does not reside in history.

The brilliant string trio of harpist Rhodri Davies and his sister, violinist Angharad, both Welsh born, and Greek cellist Mikos Veliotis (Cranc - E∆Ω E-07, www.rhodridavies.com) are the antithesis of the preceding in that their sharp tongued, quick-witted freely improvised music lives in a world informed by 'contemporary' composed music and the current language of the English improvisers. All three are in their early thirties and their performance companions are often the likes of John Butcher, Chris Burn, Phil Durrant, Mark Wastell… providing an illustration of a stylistic genre, a generation as much concerned with silence and texture as with linear soundings. A music that is occasionally reactive, wading in the pools of each others dispersed shadows. For the most part the violin and cello are utilised in a conventional manner, but the harp is altered by the use of various preparations, unorthodox tuning and the use of a bow.

This document is part of the series recorded at St. Michael and All Angels (The All Angels Concerts - Emanem 4209 is a fine sampler), the resulting sound full of the clear minute details so important to the success of their musical character. As Steve Beresford writes in the liner notes: "Once you've played a note, you can't erase it". In this case, fortunately not.

In the early 18th Century J.S. Bach composed brilliant solo music for violin and cello that created a melodic, harmonic and rhythmic formality that continued to influence music throughout the rest of history. Simply put, he utilized the qualities of different tempos and key signatures to evoke an array of disparate emotions. A minor sadness for example.

In the instance of Mary Oliver (Witchfiddle - ICP 038 www.toondist.nl) and Wilbert De Joode (OLO - Wig 06) the program's interest is sustained by ideological extension of their playing methods. Perhaps a series of techniques, demonstrations of sounds contained within the wooden boxes  — tones/(over), a vibration of strings, a horsehair bow, combining — evolving into a personal euphony.

The eleven pieces by Mary Oliver — six with the low throated viola, four violin, and one on Hardanger fiddle, an instrument originating in 17th century Norway that has four or five sympathetic strings tuned to give a two-part polyphonic effect — indeed have a feeling of formal demonstration, utilizing a variety of techniques employing the bow, pizzicato and voice-along effects, serving as an introduction to existing possibilities available to a creative thinker, one, who in this case is not exclusively an improviser, having also a past in Western art music.

The seventeen short solo pieces performed by bassist Wilbert de Joode vary in length from 1:39 to 4:28 and demonstrate concepts or attitudes that his imagination can draw from this instrument. Ranging from simple riff-like plucking through abstract plaintive song bowing to scrape/ knock/ rattle conversations utilising both sides of the bow, he illustrates a wide ranging dialogue hinting at his powerful presence.

Ig Hennemann describes this music thus: "…a suite of improvised, short, wayward, witty, gloomy, beautiful and freakish bass solo's played on a chamber bass G.F. Lott ± 1840 with gut strings using a self built bow and demonstrating all kinds of pizzicato techniques".  A superb recital captured by recordist Dick Lucas. 'Nuff said!

Bass Clef Addendum:  

Having never listened to Richard Wagner's self-obsessed "Ring Cycle", likely one of the earliest examples of the tuba being fully realised, I have had to rely on the street corner Sally Ann bands or the occasional New Orleans funeral procession for my knowledge. Skimpy to say the least. And it is not until Anthony Braxton's London Tuba Ensemble in 1971 that I actually take notice of this marvellous instrument.

ETQ - The European Tuba Quartet (Low and Behold - JazzHausMusik JHM 110 www.jazhausmusik.de) are four superb musicians, possibly a tuba society or clan if you will. They are Larry Fishkind, Bettina Wauschke, Pinguin Moschner and Carl Ludwig Hübsch — 2Cs an F and an Eb — presenting, with the exception of one piece by the neglected composer Perry Robinson ("Angel" - suggesting a hymn), a program of original compositions, which although titled and credited seem too loose to be considered formal, and emerge more as a sketched-out terrain. Many of the compositions have self descriptive titles: the wind blown sand shapes of "Desert Song", "Duett Duel", half minute long "Four Miniatures", tapping, squealing, rubbing, gargling - concluding in a "Trash Dance", Euro elephants can dance and do in "Moonlight Elephants", and the vibrations of "Moving Clusters" tremble the very foundations of our old wood house. Outside of the majestic grumbling lower register there appears the use of mutes, air blown abstracts, vocal effects, burbling spittle, and numerous other other worldly sound-shapes. I do believe I am enthralled by the beauty of the instrument itself.

And in conclusion Per Åke Homlander's 18 minute solo tuba excursion (Och...!!? - Carliotskivan CS6 carliot@bredband.net) bracketed by two traditional Sami-yoiks composed by Jonas Eriksson. The Sami people are nomadic Scandinavian reindeer herders, and yoiks are traditional vocal portraits of a person or place, where the melody is more important than the words. You might think of yoiking as a kind of ancient reindeer herdsman scat singing. It is difficult to tell where the yoiks and the improvisations sit as this is a continuously unfolding story moving through a series of conversations where he is perhaps talking to himself, reaching down into the depths, thinking out loud. Here one hears a jolly rotund pompous dignity, even a jerky 2/4 beat appears on occasion, unveiling  this grandly volumous instrument for all to hear