Duos - Three by Twos

Much of my vocabulary has come from reading fiction, so could it be, that as a youthful jazzer reading novels by American authors — Steinbeck and Hemmingway —, that the rhythms of the music and their writing  paralleled each other? Is it a coincidence that as the music to my liking progressed into more avant garde areas that the writers discovered were Joyce and Beckett?

Given that the English language has a linear structure, and contains a vast array of dialects, it's not surprising that the voice would be an important component of our heritage; that our literature, songs, humour etc. would reflect localized mannerisms. When this theory is applied to improvised music, especially when it involves the voice, these mannerisms become evident, with the music containing the rhythm and sound of personal memoir.

The musicians under review are from England, America/Japan and Holland, each with their own idiosyncratic identity contributing to the outcome.

Two mates, Phil Minton (voice) and Roger Turner (percussion), first recorded as a duet in 1984, and although they have often performed together this is only the third document of them in that configuration. Drainage - EMANEM 4211 (www.emanemdisc.com) is a two CD set, the first, studio recordings from 2002/03, the second, concerts from 2002 and 1998. So watzit all about Alfie, a Punch and Judy show on the radio?

Except for the extremely dull-witted, improvisation exists in everyone's daily life. Just the idea of a conversation between friends, a casual chat even, contains evidence. In the case of these two English artistes it has been refined into a personal musical language. To describe this in traditional musical terms seems inadequate as the content is more complex than the simple idea of song form. It is instead related, in my imagination, to more worldly experiences, often connected to the Dadaists; of Hugo Ball and Kurt Schwitters, or perhaps Mel Blanc's cartoon voices. Or radio show's sound effects.

The studio recording consists of fourteen segments varying in length from 1:10 to 7:25, and feels continuous; a suite perhaps! They illustrate their communicative language clearly, with Minton's wordless dialogue ranging from sussurus to voluable; perhaps your creaking joints, a secretive fart, a satisfied burp. Whistling, parodying comic character, or a sound just outside the window. Turner's spectacular array of sound sources — struck metal, bowed styrofoam, rubbed, scraped and shaken bags of tricks — coupled with his finely attuned imagination consolidates them, completes this powerful occasion.

Performed before an appreciative audience the live recordings give the sense that the previous CD was an illustration, a series of miniatures that are now developed into extended works. The longest (32:00), from Conway Hall in London, is a delicate wordless story escalating to a dramatic ending. The second, and earliest performance from Montreuil in France, is more fragmented, containing moments of Dadaistic attitudes, a certain amount of ranting and raving, and even a trace of scat singing.

Their Englishness can be readily detected in these performances, especially humour. One piece titled "frankly" concludes with a brief foray into "The Lady Is A Tramp", which Phil announces as being dedicated to Frank Sinatra. The ending of it all, "not true", is another snippet; "it's quarter to three, there's no one in the place but you and me…"

PAUSE:

Bass clarinetist Gene Coleman — who is also a visual artist, the artistic director of Ensemble Noamnesia, performs experimental, avant-garde, and modern classical repertoire, and curates several important new music events — comes from an altogether different musical heritage. One that has evolved from the world of Chicagaoan Anthony Braxton, a musician, who if placed correctly in the lineage is a natural extension of jazz; a music that must surely be the most prolific example of improvisation. In partnership with Japanese musician Kazuhisa Uchihashi playing guitar, electronics and daxophone, an instrument invented by German Hans Reichel (http://www.daxo.de/), their music appears to be scored, a formality that creates the impression of reactive parallelism, alluding to the systematic characteristics of contemporary composed music. This though is an illusion as all the music is improvised on storobo imp. - False Walls fw 04  (fwalls@xsite.net). Its qualities are created by the expansive sonorities inherent in the bass clarinet, and on five tracks, 1:52 to 14:06 minutes in length, the startling scope of human-like sounds from the daxophone; a set of amplified wooden shapes, being struck, plucked or bowed. Often, it is impossible to discern which instrument one is hearing. Two long tracks (12:11 & 21:04), utilizing the guitar and electronics, present a more brittle landscape, one in which the electronic amplification is more inclined to influence the outcome, stretching the palette from trance-dance eerieness to discordant klangfarben, with the narrative rarely becoming montage.

A wonderful example of internationalism, of musicians from different cultures collaborating to create yet another extension of musical language.

PAUSE:

Many listeners will be familiar with Ab Baars (tenor saxophone & clarinet), with his own trio and the ICP Orchestra, he has visited North America frequently. This recording — Veer and Haul - Wig 08 (www.toondist.nl) — with Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort (sopranino & alto saxophone, piccolo, alto flute and flute) allows them a perfect situation, a natural expansion of their histories, which stretches back some 25 years. Their earliest encounters were at the now legendary Rotterdam club, The Bunker. Both were also students at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music.

Knowing that most of the important Dutch improvisers are also composers, it should come as no surprise, that this delicate, subtle impressionistic coupling contains the elements of formality, a certain carefulness. The influence of Roscoe Mitchell is apparent, the liner notes even mentioning the long out-of-print recording from 1977 with Anthony Braxton (Sackville 3016).

The content throughout the fourteen brief pieces (00:34 - 6:43) is governed by the various combinations of instruments available to them, all duets, save one of solo tenor saxophone harkening back to rough hewn Ayler inflections. van der Voort's classical training is most apparent on four cuts where the flute is utilized, fashioning close whimsical dances, with Baar's penchant for the clarinet's high register becoming evident. Two pieces employ the extreme pitch of the piccolo, flittering bird-like, far apart from the tenor, and introduce, with the clarinet, the solitary segment of composed material. An excerpt from Luciano Berio's version of a Sicilian folk tune. Six cuts with the alto and tenor saxophones, portray clearly these companions in sonic agreement; air blown to full throated boisterous interplay, a settled humourous squabble, with rare excursions into melody. Certainly not music for casual listening.