Joëlle

By Stef Gijssels

You have to give it her. Joëlle Léandre is one of those musicians whose relentless passion and musical exploration have been a lifelong pleasure to hear. Even if she remains true to herself in her music, there is also an element of surprise in every new album, something new, something different, something unexpected. When you think you've heard it all, please think again. This is also the result of her careful networking with other musicians, as on the three albums presented here. Whether with established musicians like Craig Taborn and Mat Maneri, or with less known and younger musicians, such as Rodolphe Loubatière and Vinicius Cajado. She works with them to expand her sound pallette while at the same time she likes to be challenged and to create musical innovation. 

Joëlle Léandre, Craig Taborn & Mat Maneri - hEARoes (RogueArt, 2023)

It's amazing to hear three established musicians create music that could easily fit within the current 'classical avant-garde' when the music is only fully improvised. The three 'hEARoes' of this album are Joëlle Léandre on double bass, Craig Taborn on piano, and Mat Maneri on viola. 

This is improvisation without leadership, true co-creation of three like-minded artists. They are all three at the same level of instrumental virtuosity, they have nothing more to prove, and what they show here, could be a great example for other musicians about the incredible value of discipline. The quality of the album is to a large extent the result of the mastery of the artists on their own creativity as well as keeping the overall sound, the structure of the improvisation, the balance of instruments and the sense of direction under full control. The pieces are relatively compact, each with its own voice, with no time for long meanderings and expansion. And at the same time they bring something unique and refreshing. 

I will not go into the detail of each track. Just know that all three musicans are in great shape, and their musical output here more than meets the expectations, presenting music that can range from cautious development to agitated intensity, from bright sounds to dark moments, jazzy and avant-garde, and the biggest feat is the feeling of freedom, in the knowledge that the control they have no longer requires attention, and that the full focus is on the expressive power of the ensemble-playing.

I've just read - now that I wrote this review - fellow reviewer Stuart Broomer's liner notes, and they are spot on. It's a long text, really worth reading, and these two paragraphs cover it best: 

"Another miracle of musical time? Joëlle Léandre informs that she has played with Mat Maneri many times over a 30-year period. The surprise may be that they never sound mechanical, jaded or responding by rote. Further, Léandre remarks that before this day she and Craig Taborn had never played together. The surprise, perhaps strongest, is that they never sound like they’re studying each other, laying hints and clues for ready discussion. They just play, not like they’re reading a score, but rather reading each other’s vast, copious, musical mind.

All three are always playing full out, participating wholly, coming from three different spaces, each a master with a wealth of general and specialized musical experience, collectively assembling and sharing a century of improvisatory practice as well as particular dialects: Joëlle Léandre with experience in every form of improvised music as well as special collaborations with Giacinto Scelsi and John Cage; Mat Maneri, long-time musical partner to his father Joe, and thus an indefatigable explorer of microtonal music, composed and improvised; Craig Taborn, a musician so universally informed and adept, that likely no other pianist might have fit so readily into a band called Rocket Science."

Enjoy!

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Joëlle Léandre & Rodolphe Loubatière - Estampe (Confront Recordings, 2023)

To be honest, I had never heard of Rodolphe Loubatière, a French percussionist and visual artist, residing in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a sound explorer, using all kinds of tools to produce percussive effects, forms and textures. On this album, the snare drum is his instrument, worked on with a few dozen other tools to create the desired sound. 

Joëlle Léandre has performed often in duo formats, with saxophonists, pianists, bassists, koto and even saw players, but the number of duets with percussionists is rather rare. In the 128 albums she released as a leader, the following can be identified: "Tricotage" with Daniel Rogier (2000), "Evident" with Mark Nauseef (2004), "Winter In New York" with Kevin Norton (2007), "Off Course!" with Paul Lovens (2022), "BlaBlaBla" with Nuria Andorra (2022). 

It's a pleasure to hear her with compatriot in this intimate musical setting. Loubatière is a rather minimalist percussionist, someone who discreetly colours the sound rather than co-lead. This gives Léandre the possibility to design her own improvisations, listening and respecting the percussionist, who is also adept at creating sustained tones from his instruments, often merging with the sound of the bowed bass. 

As of the fourth track she starts her powerful vocals, surreal bluesy chants full of repetitions, improvised meaningless and meaningful words. She does something similar on track six, but then with half angry shouts, furious rantings, possibly kicking her instrument, expressing her dissatisfaction with the world, but with the fun laughing interjection "on rigole, tu sais" (we're laughing, you know), as if to reassure her audience.

The last track is the most powerful, gradually building up from near silence to a high-powered single tone bowing contest near the end. 

It's certainly not her best album, yet it remains great to listen to. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Joëlle Léandre & Vinicius Cajado - Storm Dance (Not Two Records, 2023)

Her collaboration with the young Vinicius Cajado is great. Cajado, born in 1988, is from São Paulo, Brasil, and he has already made a strong impression in the jazz world. He already won several awards, including at the International Society of Bassists competition. His debut solo record for double bass “Monu” was nominated as “Best of the year 2021" by “The New York City Jazz Record” . 

Léandre has a knack for welcoming new talent, regardless of their instrument, as long as they have a musical vision and the willingness to listen and learn, yet I guess she also likes the challenge of the new voices, the new approaches, the things they learned recently. It keeps her young, and it keeps us young. 

They perform six 'dances', as each track is called, mostly bowed improvisations, that demonstrate a really close dancing format, all well attuned and like-minded. On the "Fifth Dance", Léandre starts with her usual vocal works, decisively taking the lead in a territory that the young Brasilian is unable to follow, yet he supports her well after some initial background position. 

The great thing with Léandre is that she always performs to the full, nothing is done halfway, she shows how to put her entire soul into her music, a level of self-confidence and use of energy that requires time to acquire. Cajado does well in this context, and that's to his credit. 

A French virtuoso who makes everything interesting, and a young Brasilian high potential to follow. 

Enjoy!

Listen and download from the label. 

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Double double basses

By Stef

In March we already reviewed the wonderful double bass duet between William Parker and Stefano Scodanibbio, simply called "Bass Duo". But we love the bass, its sound and its possibilities, so here are some more recent double bass duo albums, interestingly enough by the same musicians, that we wanted to make sure you are aware of.

The artists are Raoul van der Weyde from The Netherlands, and Gonçalo Almeida from Portugal. Van der Weide is thirty years older than Almeida, and they have a very different musical background. The former played amongst others in the Burton Greene Quartet and various bands led by Dutch jazz pianist Guus Janssen. Almeida is based in The Netherlands, and his musical output is becoming quite prolific in the last years, playing in bands such as Tetterapadequ, Lama, Spinifex, Albatre, and recently in a trio called The Selva. 

Both musicians seem to have found an interesting collaboration, one that started years ago in The Netherlands, and resulted in their first album "Earcinema" in 2015. They find each other in instanteneous creation, in-the-moment music. They don't seem to like rules and borders and patterns. We don't either. They seem to like creative insights, uncharted areas and intense interaction. So do we.

Duas Margens - Live at Pletterij (Cylinder, 2017)

The album could not start any better than it does: with deeply resonating sounds of two double basses, hesitating, probing, reaching out, sensing the other one and creating a common flow. It is a short album, only 26 minutes long, with one single improvisation between Gonçalo Almeida and Raoul van der Weide, and recorded over a year ago at The Pletterij in Haarlem, The Netherlands. The title means "two banks" (of a river) as the cover illustrates. Even if they come from different angles, each with their own sound, they move in the same direction, creating the river together, with twists and turns and rapids and quieter passages, with rocks and boulders occasionally. A challenging and rewarding ride.


Raoul van der Weide & Gonçalo Almeida - 8 Pictures (Nachtstück Records , 2017)

We find both musicians back on this album which is a little longer, with 8 improvisations, possibly inspired by the 8 pictures of the title and the cover art. Not much information is offered by the label, but that should not concern us. The difference with "Live At The Plettery" is that each track starts with a different approach, resultig in more variation and different dynamics. At times the changes within a single track lack some unity, but it has a lot of strong moments.

For anyone interested in double bass in improvised settings, both albums can be recommended.

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William Parker & Stefano Scodanibbio - Bass Duo (AUM Fidelity, 2017) *****

By David Menestres

I imagine that most of the readers of this blog are familiar with William Parker, so let me introduce you to Stefano Scodanibbio. Scodanibbio (1956-2012) was an Italian bass player of the highest order. A frequent collaborator of composers like Luigi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi, he also commissioned many new works for bass from Bryan Ferneyhough, Fred Frith, Iannis Xenakis, and many other composers. His long discography includes sessions with Terry Riley, Thollem McDonas, the Arditti Quartet, and many more released through labels like ECM, Wergo, New Albion, and others. After his passing a memorial album, Thinking of Stefano Scodanibbio, was released and features performances from many great bass players like Mark Dresser, Joelle Leandre, Barry Guy, and Dieter Manderscheid.

Bass Duo is five tracks spread across sixty-three minutes, recorded live in Undine, Italy in 2006. The music is deeply riveting. My first spin of the album found me transfixed in front of my speakers, rooted deeply to the floor. The second listen, through good headphones, left my mind reeling. The duo unleashes such an unrelenting mass of sound, it’s hard to comprehend that it’s just two men playing together for the first, and only, time. When the grooves do appear, they sit in a pocket deeper than the Grand Canyon. Parker and Scodanibbio have both worked across many musical traditions. Their ability to play in and around these traditions combined with their unending creativity make for a wonderful album. As Mark Dresser puts it in the liner notes “both bassists have singular languages, they also have in common an understanding of musical function – utilizing sound, space, melodicism, pulse, harmonic underpinning, extended techniques, and pedal points to create states of multiplicity.”

I know this album isn’t going to sell many copies. Improvised music is hard enough to sell and bass duos are doubly hard, so thank to Aum Fidelity for making this important document available.

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The Masters of the Double Bass

By Eyal Hareuveni

British Barry Guy, Japanese Tetsu Saitoh and German Sebastian Gramss double bass players need no introduction. The three belong to an elite league of masters who recently took part in Gramss heartfelt tribute to the late fellow master Stefano Scodaibbio, Thinking of… (Wergo, 2014). Their virtuoso playing is an obvious given, all three have developed an imaginative range of extended techniques. But most important, all are great communicators of the solo bass art, always expanding its sonic range, and are never bound to any genre or style.

Barry Guy - Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett (NoBusiness, 2014) *****

Barry guy first recorded his composition for a solo double bass “Five Fizzles (For S.B.)” on his solo album Fizzles (Maya Recordings, 1993), dedicated to Beckett, short, unnamed prose texts, written in English and French (first published in 1997 as Fizzles by Grove Press). This composition became a staple piece in his solo concerts ever since.

This composition, now divided into five unnamed short pieces was recorded again in January 2009 at the St. Catherine Church in Vilnius, issued now as a limited-edition vinyl EP. These concise pieces, based on simple ideas as Beckett texts, feature Guy masterful art at its best. Guy moves instantly and organically between explorative search of the double bass resonating, timbral characteristics, expanding it with his extended techniques while using sticks, mallets and strings-less bow, to gentle, touching segments and intense struggles with the bull fiddle. Always with superb, highly expressive musicality that distills centuries of music making into timeless, very personal art.

Tetsu Saitoh / Sebastian Gramss - Raku: Double the Double Bass #3 - in Germany 2013 (Travessia, 2013) ****

Gramss began his long-term double bass duo project Double the Double Bass in 2008 with the late Scodanibbio, and later with masters Barre Phillips and Mark Dresser, planning to continue this duo series in April 2015 with Guy. As part of this ongoing project Gramss and Saitoh toured Germany and recorded this album in June 2013 (Saitoh also participated in Gramss all-double bass mass recording, Bassmasse, Gligg, 2013) and reconvened again in October 2014 for a tour in Japan.

The chinese character raku means enjoyment but suggests also two string instruments on wood base. The spirit of the duo meeting indeed stresses the uplifting joy of finding a soul brother for the still experimental, free improvised art of the solo double bass art. There is even humor in the duo playing, as the two mock the clichés of the walking bass roles on the third piece. But the duo is focused on intense exploration of the timbral range of the double bass through an impressive employment of extended bowing techniques that expand the double bass vocabulary. Both build the tension, even the drama, carefully, patiently forming a chamber, stringed unit larger in its sonic spectrum than just two basses, covering the full range of stringed instruments as violin and cello, often turning the basses into colorful, resonating percussive instruments. This searching approach is further emphasized when the duo host violinist Harald Kimmig for a spectacular demonstration of extended bowing techniques reaches its most impressive climax with Phillips in a contemplative exploration of all mentioned techniques.

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Bass duets, bass quartets ... and many more basses

There aren't too many bass-bass albums around. If you're interested, please check the "bass-bass duo" tag on the right of this blog and you come across some interesting albums.

Peter Frey & Daniel Studer - Zwirn (Creative Sources, 2013) ***½

Swiss bassists Peter Frey and Daniel Studer have been playing in duo settings together for many years now, and released albums in that format, first electro-acoustically, now primarily without electronics, but the vision of sonic exploration and the search for new dynamics of interaction remains at the fore of their work. The third player in their duo is the ambient silence of the space they work in, which can be gradually intensified through small alterations in the sonic void, or shred to pieces through some violent outbursts of energy. No need to tell you that this album requires open ears, and both musicians are so well attuned that the end result is a compelling listen.


Peter Kowald & Damon Smith - Mirrors Broken But No Dust (BPA, 2013) ****

One of the most spectacular of all bassists was the late Peter Kowald, a true revolutionary on the instrument, someone who brought the entire physical aspect of the instrument - and the player - into the game, a game that really had to go the extra mile, that required the utmost physical and mental and emotional efforts to break through the average and the mediocre, and to open ears to something new, something unheard of, unthought of. He is in the company here of Damon Smith, and the interaction is truly excellent, as you can expect from such a duo. The album itself is a re-issue, now on Smith's own "Balance Point Acoustics" label.

Peter Kowald writes the following on the liner notes :"Recently, I saw a drawing of Man Ray, "Broken Mirrors" 1932, the time of Cubism having been around for a while. I remembered the paintings (on flat canvas) seeing the subjects – often guitars – from different sides and angles at the same time. Broken mirrors don't reflect things with a straight or plane view, but rather in particles, from various angles, out of different positions and in different directions . . . and this is what we try to do with sounds, rhythms, particles of melody, all kinds of musical materials. The idea of dust/no dust on mirrors comes out of the Zen teachings, that is that. When Damon and I met in these days in April 2000 and played, it didn't feel like too much dust being around. I mean that not only because this music is always freshly made, but more even because it is just what it is, not more and not less. That, in this world of things lacking or been blown up so much, looks like a quite dustfree quality". 

You can listen and download the album from "Bandcamp".


Barre Phillips' Crossbows ‎– The Hunters (Gligg, 2013) ***½

Bass duets are unusual, but ensembles with only double bass players are even more rare. The ones that come to mind are William Parker's "Requiem", and then JC Jones' Deep Tones For Peace initiative, both highly recommended pieces of music.

On this album, American bassist Barre Phillips invited Clayton Thomas, Jiri Slavik, John Eckhardt and Sebastian Gramss for a concert at La Chapelle Ste. Philomène, Puget-Ville in France. The performance consists of twelve pieces, of which only three have all five musicians interact together. The other pieces are either solo bass improvisations - one for each musician - or duets, making this an incredibly varied and at the same time balanced album, despite the restrictions of the line-up.

In terms of music, you also gets lots of variation, from the quiet minimalism of Eckardt's "Phénomène" over the electroacoustic singularity of Clayton Thomas' "Forewarned Fox" to the more dense "Pack-A-By" performed by all five, yet it never gets wild, the music remains subdued, disciplined, contemplative, intense and free, and with a depth you can expect from both instruments and players.


Sequoia - Rotations (Evil Rabbit, 2014) ****

The double bass quartet consisting of Antonio Borghini, Meinrad Kneer, Klaus Kürvers and Miles Perkin has a totally different approach to music, more visceral, more direct and raw at times, which doesn't mean that it isn't very disciplined. The sounds of the individual instruments are extremely well captured and remain identifiable throughout, which allows for a clarity and sharpness of interaction even in the deepest plucked tones.

It's hard to say whether the music is composed at times, yet it is clear that some patterns emerge and that every track has its own character and vision, offering us incredible sonic experiences, not only in the long "Rotations", which gradually evolves from repetitive plucked and bowed phrases into absolute sonic mayhem, but also in the shorter pieces such as "Interlude 1", which sounds like little girls hopping in the street, to the more dark and ominous sounds of "Inside". 

The great risk about bringing like-minded musicians playing the same instrument in one band, is that you risk having music that is focused on the instrument, and that is a pitfall which is gloriously avoided here. The music itself stands at the center of the performance, but it could only be brought to live by having these instruments and musicians. Of all the albums in the review list here, this is possibly the one that will be most compelling to non-bass players. 

A great album. 


Sebastian Gramss Bassmasse ‎– Schwarm (Gligg, 2013) ***

To top it all, you get Sebastian Gramss Bassmasse, with no less than fifty bass players : Achim Tang, Alexander Linster, André Nendza, Barre Phillips, Bernd Keul, Carl Christian Weber, Christian Ramond, Conrad Noll, Constantin Herzog, Daniel Kress, Daniela Petry, David Helm, David Sanchez, Denis Arnold, Dieter Manderscheid, Edith Langgartner, Efstathios Diamantidis, Georg Wolf, Gerd Brenner, Gregor Schwellenbach, Hendrika Enzian, Jakob Kühnemann, Jan Oestreich, Jan Tengeler, Jochen Schaal, Johannes North, Jonas Lohse, Josha Oetz, Jörg Spix, Lukas Keller, Marcel Richards, Martin Burk, Martin Pofahl, Meike Krautscheid, Michael Büning, Nicolai Amrehn, Peter Malik, Philipp Stade, Reza Askari, Richard Eisenach, Robert Landfermann, Robert Schmidt, Sebastian Schaffmeister, Stefan Berger, Stefan Rauh, Svenja Doeinck, Tetsu Saitoh, Ulla Oster, Ulrich Phillipp, Volker Heintze and Zacharias Fasshauer. 

The composition consists of six parts, totalling a little more than half an hour. The fifty musicians are broken down into five subgroups, and the soloists are Barre Philips, Tetsu Saitoh, Achim Tang, Uli Phillip and Robert Landfermann. The overall result is probably less than expected, which may be the result of the impossibility to capture all these instruments perfectly by the sound engineer. Sure, there is lots to hear, with moments of obvious tension and drama, yet it comes across as if the gimmick of setting up a performance with fifty bassists seemed more important than the actual quality of the music. I'm sure that was not the intention.

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PascAli - Suspicious Activity (Creative Sources, 2012) ****

By Paolo Casertano

What I appreciate the most about this record is the choice of the two artists to not go for long compositions, which is often a distinctive tendency of double bass players, both when they perform as a soloist and in 'mono-instrumental' combinations. One of the reasons might be, at least in my opinion, that the double bass can be considered as sonically less aggressive than other instruments from the string family and so needs a longer development and growth of its potentialities during a composition - e.g. Stefano Scodanibbio’s Voyage that never ends or take a look to this rich list. 

PascAli, the duo named after and formed by the crasis of Pascal Niggenkemper and Sean Ali, offers to the listener as many as 22 brief images of their interaction, ranging from fifty seconds to less than four minutes. On one hand this could be a risk, since not being yet familiar with the style and the tone of these young musicians, as might be the case of a William Parker/Barry Guy collaboration, you - or at least I - don’t have the chance to say who is doing what in these short pieces. On the other hand, the sacrifice of their identities goes in favor of the cohesiveness of the whole. That’s why I feel like saying that PascAli is indeed a group more than a duo.

The second remarkable element is the use of prepared basses, augmented and altered - as the players explain - with kitchenware, aluminum cans, balloons, mallets, lampshades and almost any other kind of found object imaginable. Some of the experiments impress and stick in the mind more than others. In the attempt to describe what you can find on the album: Chinese mask, the second track, leans on an involving low-fi rhythmic pattern embellished by almost gipsy - despite the title - bowed strings. Just after, the low deep drone of Britpop is impressive. It's worth mentioning, for its title and for its noisy nature, the fifth How long does it take Styrofoam to become earth again?. Perpetua, the eighth track, displays a hypnotic pizzicato. The most valid aberration of the instruments natural sound is probably found on Kissing f-holes where strings become brasses - I’d say trumpets or saxophones but who really knows? – where tongues and breaths take the place of fingers and bows. Maybe a little more orthodox but I really like the twenty-first Japanese Garden and its dirty low chords and things. In short, you really can find any conceivable sound in this record: squeaking pulses, percussive strikes, metallic sounds, microtonal glissandi, trembling buzzes and wuthering winds. The two bassists must have been accurately torturing every single inch (or centimeter) of these poor and fatty instruments. No respect for strings, frets, bridge and the rest. Did they survive to the recording?

Ultimately, given that how you play is the consequence of what you think and say, I’d like to quote the short dialog found on Niggenkemper’s website. In some way it sounds as this music sounds.

Ali, what do you think about thinking?
Pasc, what do you feel about feeling?
Ali, what do you love about loving?
Pasc, what do you hate about hating?
Ali, what have you learned about learning?
PascAli, what have you forgotten about forgetting?

Both artists have made available previews of the project on their personal websites. Buy from the label at a reasonable price.

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Sonic Brotherhood - Deep Tones For Peace Israel 2009 (Kadima, 2011) ****

By Stef

Some years ago Israeli bassist JC Jones started with the Deep Tones For Peace transatlantic initiative, which resulted in a first album and DVD last year, bringing together bassists from the US, Europe and the Middle-East, playing together from two locations in New York and Jerusalem.

This album gives additional material from the performers in Jerusalem : Mark Dresser, JC Jones, Irina-Kalina Goudeva, Bertram Turetzky and Barre Phillips, playing as a bass quintet on three tracks, some duets between Dresser/Jones, Turetzky/Philips, Goudeva/Turetzky, Phillips/Jones, and three solo pieces by Goudeva, Dresser and Phillips. All tracks are free improvisation with the exception of Goudeva's solo, which is based on  a composition by Julia Tsenova.


Musically the solo pieces get my preference, because of the clarity of the sound, yet the quintet also avoid the wall of sound effect by playing a lot with bow and alternating amongst the five bassists, resulting in a nice listening experience. Dresser's solo piece is without a doubt the highlight of the album.

Even if the album does not add much new to the previous one, it is quite good, and should certainly interest lovers of music and peace, and not only bassists.


Samples can be listened to on the website of the International Society of Bassists.

Buy from Instantjazz.


© stef

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William Parker & Giorgio Dini - Temporary (Silta Records, 2009) ****

A welcome addition to the rare concept of double bass duets, with classically trained jazz bassist Giorgio Dini from Italy and William Parker interacting for five freely improvised pieces, with the former often on arco and the latter plucking his strings, but trust me, there are no rules, nor task divisions. On one short track Parker plays his shakuhachi, powerfully, plaintively. Parker's soulful bass playing forms the perfect complement for Dini's refined lyricism, as on "Improvizzo" when his powerful vamp forms the perfect background for the wailing arco of Dini. But the real treat of the album is the magnificent last track "Danza e Finale", which starts with piercing, howling duet of arcos, expansively, rhythmically, hypnotically, trance-enducing, until the whole thing slows down towards the middle and despite this the wails get even more poignant, like a love serenade by whales, with Parker adding some light percussion for contrast, and then he turns the piece back on a rhythmic powerful drive. The quality of the performance largely compensates for the EP's short length, and yes, I wish, you wish it would have been longer, but then on the other hand, these two great musicians capture so much of their instruments' wonderful range, power, rhythmic pulse, sonic possibilities and warm sensitivity, that even the limited time makes this a treat. This is an album that will not only please bass players, but any modern jazz fan.

Listen and download from iTunes.

Buy from Instantjazz.

© stef

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Double Double Bass

More than eleven years ago, French bassist Joëlle Léandre and American bassist William Parker released their first duo album, of two double basses in a duo format. An unusual combination, that Léandre tested out again later with bassist Barre Phillips. But the latter one was probably the first to have recorded a double double bass album, together with Dave Holland: "Music From Two Basses", in 1971.

Here are some more examples:

Joëlle Léandre & William Parker - Contrebasses
Joëlle Léandre & Barre Philips - A L'Improviste
Joëlle Léandre & William Parker - Live At Dunois
Joëlle Léandre & Tetsu Saitoh - Joëlle et Tetsu
Peter Kowald & Damon Smith - Mirrors - Broken, But No Dust
Peter Kowald & William Parker - The Victoriaville Tape
Peter Kowald - Bass Duets (with Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Maarten Altena)
Bertram Turetzky & Damon Smith - Thoughtbeetle
Barre Phillips & Peter Kowald - Die Jungen: Random Generators
Barry Guy & Barre Phillips - Arcus
Glen Moore & David Friesen - Returning
Alain Caron & Michel Donato - Base Contre Basse
Barre Phillips & Motoharu Yoshizawa - Uzu
Werner Dafelfdecker & Uli Fussenegger - Bogengange
Mark Dresser & Mark Helias - The Marks Brothers
Peter Kowald, William Parker & Peter Jacquemyn - Deep Music (two duets)
Michel donato & Guillaume Bouchard- 2 Contrebasses
Malachi Favors Maghostut & Tatsu Aoki - 2x4
Peter Ind & Rufus Reid - Alone Together

And there's the even more unusual bass quartet:
Barre Phillips/Joëlle Léandre/William Parker/Tetsu Saitoh - After You Gone (in memory of Peter Kowald)

Also worth mentioning is of course William Parker's "Requiem" for four basses, in memory of Peter Kowald and Wilber Morris, with Henry Grimes, Sirone and Alan Silva, and with Charles Gayle on sax.

And in 1971, on "For all it is" (JAPO 60003) Barry Guy, Barre Phillips, J.F.Jenny-Clark, Palle Danielson, play four basses, with Stu Martin on percussion.

Joëlle Léandre & William Parker - Live at Dunois (Leo, 2009) ****½

Just for the comparison, I put on their first collaboration too, and in fact the joy they created so many years ago, continues on this one. Free improvisation between two "support" instruments is not an easy task, but in the hands of these two masters, it turns into a play. A play of rhythm, percussive pluckings, subtle pizzi excursions, or mutual support of arco and pizzi. The music is gentle here, less dramatic than on their first release, sensitive and nuanced, rich, more mature, a little less daring and adventurous, and yes, even Léandre's singing is a little more restrained. Léandre's bow can screech and rip right through your chestbone, but it can also envelop you in a warm feeling, playing even melodic pieces, as on the second track, while Parker is surely the more rhythmic, more jazz-oriented, with his habitual very soulful approach. Without a doubt the highlight of the album is the long central track, with lots of arco playing by both of them, more adventurous than the rest of the album, more dramatic too, hypnotic because of its rhythmic propulsion in the lower tones, and which stops a little too abruptly to my taste (and it might have continued for a while!). On the fifth track inventiveness diminishes a little, but the last piece gets an almost shamanistic native American tribal feel, with Joëlle Léandre accompanying her repetitive bowed playing with almost ritual singing, with Parker adding slow warm deep rhythmic tones. Staggeringly beautiful.



If you know of other bass-bass duets, please let me know, and I'll complete the list above, for everyone's education.

Thanks
Stef


© stef

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