Chasing Trane on Netflix

By Stef Gijssels

On Saturday I watched the "Chasing Trane" documentary on Netflix (maybe it was available in other countries earlier, but it's quite recent on my account). I can recommend it because of the footage, the pictures of his life, the context and the interviews. 

I think it's great to have insights from Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Heath, Reggie Workman, his sons Ravi and Oran, or more recent artists such as Kamasi Washington. 

The only downside is that they stop commenting positively on his music near the end of his life. Like with many mainstream media, there is no real effort to understand what happened with his genius when he took it even a step further than his masterpiece 'A Love Supreme'. 

Other interviewees include Carlos Santana, John Densmore (drummer of The Doors), Bill Clinton and even Wynton Marsalis (is this the guest list you would invite to discuss Coltrane?). There is some clear level of incomprehension among them - maybe except for Densmore - about the direction Coltrane took his music in, making it even more free, more expansive, more authentic, more spiritual, rawer, intenser. 

Interestingly enough, they give him credit for his genius and authenticity but without a clear and full appreciation of the musical value he created near the end of his life, as if albums like "Ascension" (recorded 1965), "Meditations" (rec 1965), "Om" (rec 1965), "Kulu Sé Mama" (rec 1965), "The Olatunji Concert" (rec 1967), "Interstellar Space" (rec 1967), "Expression" (rec 1967) were of no real value to listeners, when he was taking jazz even a step further into deep abstraction and visceral feelings. They talk about going beyond what listeners can bear, and even changing the molecular structure of jazz. They praise his musicianship on the instrument. They talk about he pushed the boundaries of the sounds coming out of a sax like Hendrix did with the electric guitar. 

But it is clear they are puzzled by the music itself. 

The documentary was made and released in 2016, 50 years after these incredible albums were made. And these musicians are still puzzled by what they hear. Two areas of questions come to mind: 

1. Why did the documentary makers not invite people who did appreciate his later music, because truly, if he was a genius as they say, he must have gone to this sonic place for a reason, because the genius felt it was better, more true and more valuable? Coltrane influenced many of today's jazz musicians so why did the documentary makers limit themselves to commercial artists? 
2. How is it possible that 50 years later, Coltrane's music is still raising questions among the establishment? How is it possible that the notion of abstract music (less formalised, less explicit rhythms, harmonies and melody) offering a much more direct link to emotional expressivity has still not been understood, despite the fact that Coltrane was one of the first to take sounds this far? 

Regardless, if you have Netflix, watch it. 

To end my rant, here are some nice quotes by Coltrane, and recited by Denzel Washington in the documentary. 

"To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being... When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups.”

"After all the investigation, all of the technique doesn't matter! Only if the feeling is right.” 

“There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give to those who listen the essence, the best of what we are".

Coltrane is still more closely related to today's music than to the music of the 60s. 

May he still inspire many!

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Open Land - Meeting John Abercrombie ( Music Heritage Productions / ECM Records, 2018) ****

By Paul Acquaro

I was between concerts at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival this past summer when I wandered into the cinema where Open Land was playing. From the opening moments, I was transfixed from the opening shots of the New York skyline across the Hudson River as the blue winter-light of the brittle upstate winter and the dark reds and browns of the city streetscapes reflected the warm/cool contrasts of guitarist John Abercrombie' lyrical music.

As the documentary gets going we're traveling with Abercrombie from his home north of the city down to a gig by train. Set against the rich tone of Mark Feldman's violin in Abercrombie's "Sad Song", the city comes into focus as the song's timeless melody unfolds. Familiar landmarks pass by and the stillness and insular quiet that one can find, something that seems impossible amid the agitation of the city, sets a tone. We then arrive at the jazz club Birdland, in the middle of Manhattan's busy theater district. Then, the cars, trucks, and traffic cones disappear and we find ourselves alone with the guitarist in his house, a Guild hollow body in the background, talking about what made him want to become a guitarist, specifically electric guitarist (the answer, simply, 1950's Rock and Roll). 

Abercrombie is at ease, he's reflective, and there is a hint of mischief in his eyes. As the film continues we see him talking with a luthier about a sweet looking green semi-hollow. He jokes about having 10 - 15 guitars in a room, he says "it's easier than collecting pianos." He is plain spoken, with self-effacing humor and a bit of reservation, in fact, you can almost hear in the music how he interacts with the world around him. 

During the early parts of the film, we get to walk with Abercrombie as he talks about his life, his memories of childhood (like the mean neighbor who wouldn't give the baseball back if it went into his yard), and the places he lived, set to a soundtrack of his own music. Organically, stories of his life unfold, as the camera again follows the train line (on the train) down the Hudson Valley to Grand Central Station. The bleak white snow covered landscape lends a certain aesthetic to the whole film and his memories of being exposed to jazz and how his interest grew is connected to the train ... he relays a story about how, as a teenager, he would take the train to city and go to clubs to see John Coltrane ("Hearing that live ... I had no idea how to relate to it") and Bill Evans ("I thought he should be playing a little cocktail lounge ... years later he became one of my favorite musicians of all time").

Next set to the urgent tones of his song "Banshee", we fly with Abercrombie to Europe. The visuals are stark, ECM-like in their striking, but non-specific details. Long time associates begin showing up and talking about playing and working with Abercrombie. Drummer Adam Nussbaum talks about the effort they make to play and how open and trusting nature of the guitarist.  Organist John Versace talks about how he met Abercrombie, essentially stepping in to replace Dan Wall who had decided to move back to the Mid-West.  Their stories lend support to the general impression of the soft spoken guitarist. 

The concert footage from a show in Lichtenstein is sublime, from the stage banter to the delicate rendition of "Another Ralph's".  We also see Abercrombie teaching a students at SUNY Purchase, interacting lovingly with his wife Lisa, and jamming with friends. We hear him tell stories of how he shared a moment getting stoned with Thelonious Monk, about the gear and guitar through the years, and the music he has made. The film really connects the man and the music: the sensitivity of the music, the generous humor of the person, and the people with whom he chose to surround himself and play with.

Abercrombie had long been a favorite musician of mine, I tried to see hear him play whenever I could, and was saddened when he passed away last year. The tribute concert last year at Roulette in Brooklyn was nice, and it was great to hear and see so many people who felt similarly, so this documentary really hits the right notes. We are lucky that Arno Oehri and Oliver Primus decided to make this film, when they did, capturing the moments that they could.

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Adam Kahan - Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Case of the Three Sided Dream(Monoduo Films, 2016) ****

By Paul Acquaro

I'm not sure how Rahsaan Roland Kirks's music is best considered- it's not 'free jazz' - though it has elements of it in sound and spirit, and its certainly not 'traditional jazz', though he played standards. It was tuneful, soulful, unusual, and often defined by his use of multiple horns.

It seems that it was his own music, and it came purely from a world of sound. Kirk, who became blind because of medical care carelessness as a baby, lived in a world defined by sound, and by his own account, his dreams. Politics and fashions informed his music, but not as much as his own dreams. He asserted that it was the sounds that he heard in his dreams that he wanted to recreate with his multiple horns. It's this notion that provides the framework for Adam Kahan's documentary on Kirk, 'The Case of the Three Sided Dream,' which has finally received wide release, through multiple digital channels.

We first see Kirk in action, heading to a club date in the late-1950s/early-1960s, with a voice over of him  introducing a song. Then, we backtrack to his early life. This part is quick, a brief discussion of his discovery of music, and then his move to New York in the mid-1950s. Interviews, concert footage, and snippets of candid moments are mixed with animation. Of course watching Kirk in action and getting a glimpse of the man behind the inflated tear is worth the time alone, but I kept asking myself at first, did the animation help? It lends a certain feel to the film, but aesthetics aside, I soon realized that the animation is key in evoking the imagination that drove Kirk's music making, it illustrates his dreams and provides a stream of connective imagery.

A real highlight is that the film consolidates footage from several televised concert specials by Kirk. It's a blast to see him in action with the multiple horns (even the kind of crazy nose whistle), and evolving from wearing a suit to the period fashions in the 70s. We learn a lot through interviews with people like his widow Dorthaan Kirk (who works at the Newark, NJ based powerhouse jazz radio station WBGO), and trombonist Steve Turre (who played with Kirk). Check out Turre's story about Kirk's circular breathing, and you get a sense of the mystical side of Kirk.

Recounted by friend Mark Davis, Kirk's political side also comes through. In the early 1970's, Kirk wanted to raise the stature of what he coined "black classical music" and used television - and whistles of course - as his medium. Interrupting an interview during a taping of the Dick Cavett show, his protest was parlayed into an invitation to perform on Ed Sullivan's show. Where, instead of performing the agreed upon song for this show, he assembled a band augmented by Charlie Mingus, Archie Shepp, and Roy Haynes, and performed a spirited version of 'Hatian Flight Song'. His political feelings also were expressed freely in his on stage banter and in his music, like the song 'Blacknuss', which is shown performed in a televised concert.

The impact of Kirk's first stroke, in 1975, is conveyed by Dorthaan Kirk in a moving, somewhat visually dramatized way. Kirk had just signed with Warner Brothers and his career and music, she explains, was entering a new level, when he suddenly collapsed in the family home. A video of a 1977 post-stroke performance is a stunning rebuttal to what had happened physically to the musician. Playing a modified horn which allowed the pinky of his working hand to compensate for his paralyzed one, 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' is an emotional tumult. Turre talks about how amazed he was at Kirk's ability that he would sometimes be watching him and forget to play. It was a second stroke, the day after a performance in 1977, that ended Kirk's life. He was only in his early 40s.

Kahan's film captures Kirk's character, determination, and pure musicianship through thoughtful stitching of interviews, existing footage, dramatizations and animations. It's a powerful story: a musician who did everything that he could to bring passion, politics, and feeling to the world through his music against surmounting odds.

The film is available on blue ray DVD, Vimeo, iTunes, Amazon, etc.

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Over the Pavement: Detroit's Festival of Art Music (Tom Weber Films,2015) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Watch out NYC - Patti Smith gave up on you years ago and Jeremiah's already signed the DNR. Artists have always been pushed to the periphery, but when there isn't a periphery any longer, they, and the cultural vitality, move on. And if I had a hunch to where it's going, I'd keep my eyes peeled west, mid-west that is.

Tom Weber's Over the Pavement - Detroit's Festival of Art Music is a documentary of the experimental music festival bearing the same name held in, obviously, Detroit, Michigan. Some bigger names, known to readers of the blog, like Fred Longberg-Holm, Susan Alcorn, Thollem McDonas, Marshall Allen, and Battle Trance adorn the set list, and through choice selections of each set, viewers are introduced to the humming talent of the former Rock city.

The documentary is a matter of fact portrayal of the festival, and as I watched it - getting an eye and earful of local sound and color - it dawned on me that this was a young scene, teeming with possibility, enjoying what seems to be a city with right conditions to foster experimental music and arts. The setting looks right - a small stage and exposed wiring. Slightly out of frame, I expect that there is a step ladder with a yellow bucket and a dingy rag in it. Shit, this is exactly where music is made.

Look over there! Dry ice factory

Good place to get some thinking done ...

Anyway, Weber's production perfectly captures this DIY festival in its imperfect (there were a couple of guitars that could be tuned a bit more), but perfect, state. The recording is titled so you know who is playing, every set is given equal care and attention, the camera zooms in for close shots, and the sound is nicely balanced. You can watch it in pieces, checking out different performers, staying for a bit, maybe checking out someone else and then coming back. I'm going to refrain from delving into individual performances and rather take it as a whole, as a document of energy, creativity, and new spaces.

Festivals like these are vital - seek them out, support them, hope someone is documenting them too (or do it yourself!). They exist in NYC too - of course, I haven't written the place off for dead quite yet. Anyway, I have nothing but good things to say about this ample three hour DVD, available at a very reasonable price http://tomweberfilms.com.

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Aber das Wort Hund bellt ja nicht (But the Word Dog Doesn’t Bark) - a film by Bernd Schoch (DVD, 2015)

Editors note: we refrained from a star rating on this fascinating new documentary on the Schlippenbach Trio only because Martin provided the excellent liner notes for the DVD's booklet. It could easily be a 5 star review, but instead, allow him to give you an inside perspective ...

By Martin Schray

How can you make a documentary about a free jazz band and try to do the musical genre justice? Is it possible to avoid pictures that are actually superfluous and only distract from the music? That was the challenge for director Bernd Schoch when he decided to follow the Schlippenbach Trio (Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano, Evan Parker on saxophone and Paul Lovens on drums) on their “winter journey“, an annual tour they’ve been doing for about 40 years now and which leads them to almost the same venues every year. The jazz club in Karlsruhe was the place Schoch chose for four consecutive concerts between 2007 and 2010.

What strikes you immediately is the film’s very rigid form: But the Word Dog Doesn’t Bark is about fragments, bodies and reduction. It consists of four parts, the first three episodes show the individual musicians, only the last one presents the band. What is more is the fact that Schoch concentrates on parts of the body which are crucial for the process of music making, e.g. when the camera focuses relentlessly on Lovens’s right forearm, Parker’s face and hand or Schlippenbach’s fingers. However, the film doesn’t only show hands in motion. Especially when we watch Evan Parker we can also observe how he waits for the right moment to join the others. As a result of this approach, the film gets very close to its protagonists, there is hardly any distance due to the extreme (and sometimes overwhelmingly beautiful) close-ups. This can lead to surprising effects, for example when the camera creeps along Schlippenbach’s face, it makes him look like a strange creature completely immersed in his music. Although you are drawn into the images, this way of presenting the trio is not easy to enjoy. Schoch confronts the viewer with very long shots, which is why you have to concentrate and be patient - like the musicians themselves when they improvise.

These sequences are contrasted by short interview passages in which you can see winter landscapes, birds on a winter sky or drawings of Schlippenbach’s son. They are about creating improvised music (Parker, Schlippenbach) or tour routines and food (Lovens) and the musicians explain how important musical routines are for them, and what it means to create something new on the basis of what they have achieved so far without repeating yourself.

Schoch tries to paint a picture of the trio with these fragments, he wants to display the process of music making itself. Schlippenbach, who was very skeptical during the shooting of the film, is very satisfied with the result in the meantime.

The Word Dog Doesn’t Bark is a very unorthodox documentary about one of the most fascinating and long-lasting projects in free jazz and at the end you will know what roast duck with dumplings and red cabbage and free jazz have in common.

The Word Dog Doesn’t Bark lasts 48 minutes (like a typical set of the trio). The DVD also contains two hours of extra interviews, which are very insightful and sometimes funny and melancholic (Paul Lovens is a wonderful story-teller).

You can get the film from downtownmusicgallery.com, from www.instantjazz.com or directly from
the artist: http://www.berndschoch.de/

Watch the trailer here:

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ROVA Channeling Coltrane - Electric Ascension Live (RogueArt, 2016) *****

By Stef

When John Coltrane's Ascension was released in 1966, jazz critic Bill Mathieu from Downbeat wrote "This is possibly the most powerful human sound ever recorded", an apt description of Coltrane's free jazz masterpiece. My Penguin Guide To Jazz says "If Coltrane had never recorded another note of music, he would be guaranteed greatness on the strength of Ascension alone". My Oxford Companion To Jazz calls it "one of his most awesome, daunting, recordings". Dave Liebman called it "the torch that lit the free jazz thing". It was a fourty minute long group improvisation with two trumpets (Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johson), two altos (Marion Brown and John Tchicai), three tenors (Coltrane, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders), two basses (Art Davis and Jimmy Garrison), one piano (McCoy Tyner) and one drums (Elvin Jones). This band of jazz icons improvises as a group around changing sound structures, alternated by solos of the band members, in this way shifting between sonic density and lightness, between rhythmic and a-rhythmic passages, playing with dissonance and harmony, resulting in music that sounds like rolling waves of sound full of musical power and relentless emotional weight. If you don't have it yet, run to the store now!

So why cover this masterpiece? Who has the audacity to think that it can be improved? Who has the arrogance to pretend people are waiting to hear a new version of it? I never understood why anyone would dare cover what is already sublime, a clear strategy for failure as the new version's mediocrity can only be obvious to anyone familiar with the original. But then it does happen! Already in 1995, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the piece, Rova took its first take on Coltrane's Ascension, and it took till 2005 for it to be released as a really strong album that does not try to emulate the orginal, but rather uses it and gives it a different direction without relinquishing what makes the original powerful (ROVA::Orkestrova - Electric Ascension (Atavistic, 2005). Rova has played Ascension at various festivals and concerts in the past decades, with changing band members, but with pretty much the same instruments : four saxes, two violins, trumpet, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and electronics, indeed, something else entirely than the original line-up of Coltrane's band.

Now, fifty years after Coltrane's original release, we get what we can already call one of the must-haves of the year, a musical event that will be hard to match, not only because of the music, but because of the total package : a CD, a Blue Ray and a DVD for what is called : "a 21st century reimagining and arrangement" of Coltrane's masterpiece.

And I can tell you that you will love the total package. The music itself was performed at the Guelph Jazz Festival in 2012, with the following band members : Bruce Ackley on soprano saxophone, Larry Ochs on tenor saxophone, Steve Adams on alto saxophone, Jon Raskin on baritone saxophone, Chris Brown and Ikue Mori on electronics, Hamid Drake on drums, Carla Kihlstedt and Jenny Scheinman on violin,  Nels Cline on electric guitar, Fred Frith on electric bass, and Rob Mazurek on cornet.

They start with electronics to set the scene of today's sound, and then the whole band joins with the grand theme of the composition, followed by improvisation around it by all musicians together, a sonic firework of flowering notes that weave in and out of the theme based on hand signals by Jon Raskin ... and then the solos erupt out of the theme, mostly for duets or trios, sometimes highly energetic with fast-speed reactions to each other, sometimes in chamber music simplicity and calm, sometimes ferocious and wild, sometimes solemn and spiritual, sometimes with crackling electronic soundscapes, yet always full of purpose and focus for more than sixty minutes of musical delight, every so often falling back on grand joint harmonies which unravel again in new musical vistas in a wonderful eb-and-flow between collective interplay and intimate interaction between two or three individuals. This is no longer Coltrane, this is something else entirely, but in the spirit of the master, a modern piece of art that can stand on its own. Needless to say that all musicians are excellent and fully comfortable with the material, and if any names have to be mentioned then Carla Kihlstedt and Jenny Scheinman are worth highlighting because of their contribution to the overall sound, and their surprisingly free improvisations are exceptional (meaning I have never heard them perform in such a free context).

You get the performance on CD, obviously. On the Blue Ray, you get the entire concert in wonderful visual broadcast quality, filmed with more than a handful of cameras, with a director who knows what and who needs to filmed when, which is usually one of the shortcomings of concert videos.

The DVD offers both the concert and "Cleaning The Mirror", a documentary by John Rogers on the concept of Electric Ascension, including insightful interviews with some of the fifty musicians who have performed the piece so far : Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Nels Cline, Andrew Cyrille, Art Davis, Jason Kao Hwang, Eyvind Kang, Rova, Jenny Scheinman, and Elliot Sharp. The documentary offers musical excerpts, archival photos, and behind the scenes footage.


For those interested : the band will perform Electric Ascension today at the NYC Winter Jazzfest.


"ELECTRIC ASCENSION @ 2012 Guelph Jazz Festival - a few excerpts from the most recent live performance of Electric Ascension

Excerpts from “Cleaning the Mirror” - a documentary from Rova’s January, 2016 DVD/Bluray/CD release: Rova Channeling Coltrane

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Irina-Kalina Goudeva - Triptych #6: Recomenzar El Infinito (CD/DVD, Kadima collective, 2015) ***½

By Eyal Hareuveni

The classically-trained Bulgarian, Copenhagen-based, double bass player Irina-Kalina Goudeva has developed an eclectic aesthetics has led her to experiment with crossovers between Barouque music, contemporary music, avant-garde, jazz, free improvisation, and electronics, often involving other media as dance, reciting poetry, and visual installations. Her triptych release - the sixth in this series of the Jerusalem-based label of Kadima Collective, after previous ones by other innovative double bass players as Mark Dresser, Joëlle Léandre, Tetsu Saitoh and Barre Phillips - offers an insightful overview of her art.

The disc feature seven compositions by modern European composers - Ejnar Kanding, Edith Canat de Chizy, Pierre Jodlowski, Line Tjørnehøj, Mogens Christensen, Jexper Holmen and Bo Jæger - written especially for Goudeva, for her playing the double bass solo or with electronics, solo voice and for her Arild Trio with guitarist George Vassilev and drummer Christophe Fellay. The enclosed booklet offers a thorough description of each composition. Each of these intriguing compositions suggest different sonic textures but all sound as demanding as the intense physical power needed to play the double bass. Still, all are balanced with a moving, delicate simplicity, as if the musician, Goudeva, is dancing with her instrument, tempting it, seducing it and being charmed by its sounds.

“Vola”, for double bass and electronics by Pierre Jodlowski, follows the myth of Icarus and weaves an arresting parallel logic of the transformation of sounds. Noises that suggest sounds of flying bird evolve into sparse notes and light rhythmical patterns, exploring the full sonority of the double bass and extending its palette with clever usage of electronics. The 18-minutes “Echoes from Fragments” for solo double bass by Mogens Christensen, enables Goudeva to demonstrates her rich-genre blind language and her commanding technique, including her unique extended bowing techniques, producing a multifaceted, nuanced texture. She sings with great emotion the poem of Pablo Neruda “En ti la tierra” to the music of Jexper Holmen.

The DVD is divided to compositions that are presented with  animation and motion graphics, created by Casper Øbro, most notably the poem cycle “Landscapes” by Bo Jæger to texts of Danish poet Morten Søndergård, and to compositions that show Goudeva playing live. The latter compositions explore Goudeva unique, highly evocative and sensual holistic approach to performance art.  The theatrical, choreographed “Menada”, after the mythological story about a snake that turned into the goddess Menada, for voice and double bass, written by Bulgarian composer Julia Tsenova for Goudeva, is the most remarkable one. It is a-one-woman show that integrates voice, dance, playing the double bass with visual effects. This compositions show Goudeva dressed with a tight body cloth, entranced in a kind of shamanic ecstatic and sensual ritual with her double bass, as a love object, exploring the instrument timbral spectrum. Her body becomes the sound, celebrating her profound spiritual-sensual connection with the double bass, almost reaching an emotional climax. The trailer to her multimedia theater composition, “Oración Del Fuego” (The fire Prayer), continues this ecstatic vein, but in a much more restrained manner. This composition also relates to the mythological story of Menada, but this time to the times when the goddess renounces her powers and experiencing forms of terrestrial life. Her technical virtuoso playing is highlighted when she leads a string orchestra, playing Astor Piazzolla “Kicho”, written originally for the double bass.

Goudve is a one of a kind performance artist. Her art deserve more attention.

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Voice - Sculpting Sound with Maja S. K. Ratkje, a film by IJ. Biermann and Kai Miedendorp (Myrland Films, 2015) *****

By Eyal Hareuveni

It took five years to prepare the first documentary DVD about Norway’s most renowned female composer-vocalist-electronics player-improviser Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje and when you watch this arresting film it makes perfect sense. Ratkje is an artist for whom it is almost impossible to encompass in a short, brief encounter. She is a musician who follows only her instincts; strong-minded, nonconformist who does not care much about any conventions, genre or styles; always in a search to find new means for expanding her artistic freedom and sonic vision; always challenges the listener with music that has an edge - as term she uses while describing the selection of songs that she performs with the trio POING - even with noise music, or as she calls it, “energetic blowout, a celebration of life”.

Biermann and Miedendorp decided to let Ratkje present herself in her own words, and she is the only one who speaks about her art, her thoughts about the role of an artist in society, the urge to create art, her conscious decision to work outside of any mainstream art and how she balances between having a family with children and being on the road, far from home. Her voice - when she talks or used as a musical instrument - is placed in scenes in her beautiful, countryside home and through journeys to different performance locations in the magnificent, wild natural scenery of Norway and Europe. There are many insightful scenes that feature Ratkje perform - solo vocals with electronics, her compositions for chamber ensemble and orchestras and different collaborations with the long standing all-female free-improvisation ensemble Spunk, her husband, accordionist Frode Haltli, electronics master Ikue Mori, French double bass master Joëlle Léandre, and many more.

Ratkje speaks about her fascination with sounds, all kinds of sounds, but she wisely transforms this innocent, almost childish fascination, from the calls of birds or invented and manipulated sounds, to new sonic contexts. Sometimes it becomes clear how her classical music background, her deep understanding of what it means to be being fully immersed in music while free improvising or her care about preserving the the rough, natural scenery of Norway inspires her compositions. Still, her rich imagination and sense of invention pushes these inspirations even further. It can be seen even in one of the most composed scene of this film, as she conducts a strings trio and a vocalist who perform her composition, based on a poem of Karin Sveen, still, searching for how to push the musical envelope beyond the musicians comfort zones.

Ratkje is shown as a composer who prefers experimenting over repeating conventional means of composing, creating her own universe of sounds and voices. A sonic universe that is strange yet tempting, sometimes disturbing but still playful, full of excited passion and fun, and moving sense of theatrical drama. She is seen communicating her art with completely different audiences, often ones that rarely listen to music associated with free-improvisation or the avant-garde. These audiences, including children, look totally entranced by the way Ratkje produces free, imaginative voices and sounds; entranced by her manner of finding release and freedom in sound and voices - liberating her and the listeners - from subscribing to any artistic regime, political order or social hierarchy.

Voice present beautifully the immediate appeal of the art of Ratke. Her complex portrait present her as a determined, uncompromising artist with a clear, far reaching vision but also as an artist that still looks to be at home with her voice sounds, to balance her artistic vocation and family. You cannot but surrender to her highly personal creativity, enthusiasm and honesty.

Highly recommended.

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Relevant DVDs - New ones and not so new ones

Good free jazz and free music DVDs are hard to find, so it's always a kind of an amazing fact when a dedicated label is created that does only that : release DVDs of "contemporary jazz and free improvisation". The label is called Panrec and is based in Bonn, Germany.

Here are some of the great DVDs that they released recently.

The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Concert For Fukushima - Wels, 2011 (Pan & Trost, 2013)

This is a great and high quality recording of the famous Tentet but now with special guests from Japan;: Toshinori Kondo, Michiyo Yagi, Yoshihide Otomo and Akira Sakata, recorded at Wels, Austria, in 2011.

Hold on to everything that's dear to you .... and brace yourselves.

***

Nils Wogram & Simon Nabatov - Moods & Modes (PanRec, 2011)

Filmed at Radio Studio Zürich in July 2009, the DVD brings the entire concert of the trombonist and pianist, shifting moods indeed, ranging from romantic moments over playful improvisations to fierce battles. 

***

Hans W. Koch, Thomas Lehn, Ben Patterson & Jozef Cseres - Requiem For A Baby Grand - Final Piano Music For 8 Hands And Tools (PanRec, 2012)

The most incredible DVD in the series is this systematic destruction of a baby grand piano, which though built in 1901 and having survived two world wars, needed to be destroyed anyhow, so why not rescue it for rehearsal first for a couple of years, and then thoroughly screw, hammer and saw it to pieces? An interesting performance. More a statement than actual musical joy, but you never know

***

Simon Nabatov Plays Herbie Nichols (PanRec, 2010)

Despite all our goodwill, we cannot possibly review all albums we receive, and that includes Russian master pianist Simon Nabatov's excellent "Simon Nabatov - Spinning Songs Of Herbie Nichols-Solo", released on Leo Records last year. Fans of solo piano music and of improvisation should get both the DVD and the album, not only because of Nabotov's idiosyncratic take on Nichols, but also for the sheer joy of watching creativity at work per se.

***

Unlimited 23 - A documentary About Music Unlimited Festival 2009 (PanRec, 2010)

Shot in Wels, Austria, November 6–8, 2009, the concert and DVD  features Kristin Andersen, Lotte Anker, Martin Blume, Arnold de Boer, Katherina Bornefeld, Tony Buck, Sylvie Courvoisier, Chris Cutler, dieb13, Shayna Dunkelman, Peter Evans, Fred Frith, Lene Grenager, Noid Haberl, Terrie Hessels, Lindha Kallerdahl, DD Kern, Pamelia Kurstin, Okkyung Lee, Thomas Lehn, Koichi Makigami, Stephen O'Malley, Phil Minton, Andy Moor, Ikue Mori, Mark Nauseef, DJ Olive, Maggie Parkins, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins, Maja Ratkje, Peter Rehberg, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Ute Wassermann, David Watson.

It is an amazing documentary with lots of variation, and a real strong presence of some of today's avant-garde female musicians.
***

And there are some other DVDs from other labels to which we should/could have paid more attention in the past.


Brötzmann - Ein Film von René Jeuckens, Thomas Mau und Grischa Windus (Siegersbusch, 2011)

A great film with concert performances and interesting pieces of interview with the master in his work space.

***

Soldier Of The Road - A Portrait Of Peter Brötzmann (Cinésolo, 2011) 

Produced and directed by Bernard Josse, the DVD gives a very honest interview and picture of Brötzmann as a musician, as a graphic artist, as a person, and as an icon, with interviews of other musicians like Han Bennink, Fred Van Hove, Evan Parker and many more.

***

Arts Interplay by Ebba Jahn (2008)

This less recent DVD brings several performances, starting with a long trio performance with Roy Campbell, Barre Phillips and John Betsch and with Maria Mitchell dancing. The music exists for the dancer, and the dancing is not always my thing, but nevertheless nice stuff. The second piece is "Spiritworld", an interview with Jeff Schlanger, painter specialized in capturing live performances, and to most of us possibly best known from the Vision Festival art work. "La Mémoire Et La Main" is a solo performance by Barre Phillips, and "Cellophan" a performance by Günther Christmann on cello. "Bass Quartet" says what it is, performed by Barre Phillips, Jan Roder, Berit Jung and Konrad Grüneberg.

It took me some time to find it, but it's worth getting.

***

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DeepTonesForPeace (Kadima, 2010) ****

So far two albums were played by double bass quartets, 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 "For all it is", with  Barry Guy, Barre Phillips, J.F.Jenny-Clark, Palle Danielson, accompanied by Stu Martin on percussion.

Now JC Jones, a bass-player from Israel, and the boss of the Kadima label, and William Parker stretch it even further, with no less than fifteen bass players, playing together in two different locations over the internet, without being "compromised" by other instruments.

In Jerusalem, the musicans are Thierry Barbe (France), Mark Dresser (USA), Irina-Kalina Goudeva (Bulgaria/Denmark),Chi-chi Nwanoku (UK), Michael Klinghoffer (Israel),  Bertram Turetzky (USA), J.C. Jones (Israel), Barre Phillips (USA/France),

In New York, the musicians are Trevor Dunn (USA),  Henry Grimes (USA), Lindsey Horner (USA), Rufus Reid (USA),William Parker (USA),  David Phillips (USA), Sarah Weaver (USA).

The purpose of the meeting is to create a movement for peace in the Middle-East.  As William Parker writes in the liner notes "Philosophically, it is about making a commitment and truly believing that the music that we are doing can really bring about balance in the world".

The music is more than just dark and deep rumbling as you might expect. The long movements come and go like waves, but there is the occasional arco solo, jazzy or classical, or a common reduction of the volume, or explorations on the basis of a dissonant phrase, some sudden pizzi changing the course of the music again, .... or some sad and melancholy bowing over a backdrop of a mourning bass choir, It is more than just a political statement for peace. It is also worth listening to with shifting colors and shades of sound, pitch and volume.

But it is all more than just a CD + DVD, carefully produced and with a nice full-color booklet, it is also an ongoing project, with bassists playing their pieces for peace at regular intervals. Go to DeepTonesForPeace for more information.

DeepTonesForPeace will be performing on October 8 at the International Double Bass Convention in Berlin, Germany. 

An excerpt from the DVD can be viewed here.

William Parker ends his introduction with the following sentence : "May deep tones for peace echo and resound across the universe".

We hope they do.

Buy from Instantjazz.

© stef

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Inside Out In The Open (ESP, 2001)

I finally got to see a copy of "Inside Out In The Open", a documentary by Alan Roth. You can read more about it here, on the ESP website. The DVD consist of interviews with the old and the young generations of free jazz musicians, including Roswell Rudd, Burton Gree, Alan Silva, Joseph Jarman, Johnny Tchicai, William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Baikida Carroll. In between the interviews, you get some very short extracts from music by Sun Ra, Other Dimensions In Music, Glen Spearman, etc.

It's too short, too short, too short, both with regard to the interviews as with the performances.



© stef

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Fred Anderson - 21st Century Chase (Delmark, 2009) ****

 I am a Fred Anderson fan.

And even if his approach hasn't changed much in the last decade, everything he does is an absolute pleasure to hear. Anderson is joined by Kidd Jordan on sax, and the younger rhythm section of Jeff Parker on guitar, Harrison Bankhead on bass, and Chad Taylor on drums, or the crême-de-la-crême of Chicago AACM jazz. This is a "tenor battle" in the most traditional sense, and the liner notes refer to the original "Chase" by Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray from 1947, hence the title of this DVD and CD, which is a tribute for Anderson's 80th birthday.

Anderson and Jordan have played a lot together before, but I think that their "Two Days In April" (Eremite), released exactly ten years ago, was their only recorded performance. Parker, Bankhead and Taylor have appeared with Anderson on numerous records, and an even huger number of concerts. And you can hear that in the fine interplay that you get here, both in the fierce moments as in the slower ones, and especially in the transitions from one to the other. Anderson and Jordan are indeed a great front line, and they do not really "combat" as in the original chase concept, as much as create multilayered soloing. Anderson and Jordan are easy to distinguish (yes, also on the CD). The former has this typical rhythmic phrasing that he's been perfecting over the years, with a deep and warm tone, the latter has a great sense of lyricism and timbral sensitivity in the higher regions. Both have this unrelenting power, full of soul and passion, and empathy towards each other. And they find each other so easily during the solos, joining for some unison phrases, then playing in counterpoint, or with an octave interval, full of musical joy, real soulmates. And all the band members join in the fun and the music. Taylor is excellent throughout, Bankhead leads the dance with his arco on the slow second track, Parker gets the lead spot on the third track, dedicated to Alvin Fielder,  ... but regardless of how it starts, it always ends in a great free bop piece, to the great enjoyment of the audience. The DVD has a bonus track, starring Henry Grimes, who gets the piece's intro for another piece that vaguely ressembles some of the former, but really, who cares ....

The only thing I can add, is that Anderson's attitude to music, his relentless practicing, his absolute passion (including his courage to re-start his Velvet Lounge a few blocks away from his original bar), his fire and his humble nature all shine through in his music.

The man's got soul.

Watch the promo trailer for the DVD

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Best (free) jazz DVDs of 2008

This blog does not have a regular update on DVD material, but anyhow, here is an overview of the best jazz DVDs that I watched this year. What I like on DVDs are entire performances. I don't like just bits and pieces. I also like good camera work, preferably shot with various cameras and properly edited.

First and foremost is the Wadada Leo Smith Quartet with Eclipse, an absolutely stunning performance, with absolutely brilliant editing, a real showcase for what any music DVD should look like (La Huit, 2008). The quartet's CD, "Tabligh", is one of the highlights of the year, and so is this DVD.

Other great DVDs include :

• 4 Corners - Alive in Lisbon (Clean Feed)
• Trio X - Live In Vilnius (CIMP)
• Marc Ribot - The Lost String (La Huit)
• Henri Texier - Strada Sextet (Artofilms, 2008)

I also add some noteworthy CDs of this and last year. Especially the Chicago Underground Trio's DVD is worth getting. Soil & Pimp Sessions is great fun.

• Nicole Mitchell - Black Unstoppable (Delmark, 2008)
• Chicago Underground Trio - Chronicles (Delmark, 2007)
• Ari Brown - Live At The Green Mill (Delmark, 2007)
• Soil & Pimp Sessions - U Want More? Live At Montreux 2006 (Victor, 2007)

DVDs that I haven't had the chance to see, but looking forward to :

• Ken Vandermark - Musician
• Roy Campbell - Arts Interplay

Wadada Leo Smith - Eclipse

This DVD brings the entire live performance of The Golden Quartet, with Smith on trumpet, Vijay Iyer on keyboards, John Lindberg on bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. It is filmed with only hand-held cameras and in black & white. But the editing is absolutely superb, and follows the music in split-seconds. Brilliant and spectacular.

Henri Texier - Strada Sextet

This DVD shows the French stylist and wonderful composer Henri Texier at work with his Strada Sextet, which released the fabulous "Alerte A L'Eau" last year, and of which many of the tunes are performed here. The CD has almost the perfect balance between interesting rehearsal discussions, interviews and live performance. Especially the rehearsals shed some light on the Texier's musical approach and vision.

4 Corners - Alive In Lisbon

This first DVD by the Portuguese Clean Feed label captures this great band, consisting of Adam Lane on bass, Ken Vandermark on bass clarinet and baritone sax, Magnus Broo on trumpet and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, during a live performance in Lisbon. All pieces come from the "4 Corners" CD, except for the last track, "Sanctum", which is on the "Drunk Butterfly" album. Great music and great band, great performance too. The performance was recorded by various cameras and is well-edited.

Trio X - The Train & The River

Please see here for a full review of this DVD.

Marc Ribot - The Lost String

This DVD gives an overview of Marc Ribot's career and his musical adventures and boundary-pushing needs, in rock, jazz, fake cuban, classical, klezmer and way beyond all genres. The picture given of the musician is interesting and warm, cosy and broad of scope, which of course reduces the performances to a minimum. And that is a pity. The performances are really too short, and like the Trio X DVD, wets our appetites for more, but it just doesn't come. Well, anyway, after viewing the DVD, I listened to the Cubanos Postizos again. And that was a long time ago.

Vision 3 Festival (AUM Fidelity, 2005)

This one is a little bit older, but I managed to get a copy this year. With great performances and interviews with Joe McPhee, Roy Campbell, William Parker, Henry Grimes, Matthew Shipp, Whit Dickey, Joe Morris, Rob Brown, well .... the usual crowd.


Watch Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quartet



Watch 4 Corners



Watch Henri Texier



Watch Marc Ribot




© stef

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Trio X - The Train & The River (CIMP, 2008) -- DVD

I've just watched this new DVD on CIMP, bringing a documentary on Trio X's performance in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2006. The documentary consists of interviews, mostly with McPhee and Duval, and some insights by Jay Rosen at the end, interspersed with footage of the performance and very colorful images of trains, tracks, rivers and a "lonely woman" character. The title "The Train And The River" refers to the Jimmy Giuffre song, but has to be seen here as symbolical, with "the train" standing for the journey of being on the road, but also of musical travels and "the river" symbolising life itself. The documentary is nice, and it's great to hear musicians speak about their art. McPhee speaks about his youth and influences, about musical classification (terms such as "free jazz" and "avant-garde" don't mean anything), about spiritualism and romanticism. Yet the music is of course the most interesting part. And the few fragments (but fragments only!) are astonishingly good, with the band playing its recent playlist, including their variation on My Funny Valentine, of God Bless The Child and of Coleman's Lonely Woman. It's really too bad that CIMP did not profit from the occasion to do the same thing as RogueArt did with the Peter Kowald documentary : to release the DVD together with the CD. I know I have this special favoritism for "Lonely Woman", but McPhee's rendition is among the most beautiful and most sensitive to be heard. It would be a shame to keep it to these few snippets on the documentary without making the full version available (true : also to be found on "Playing With The Elements" and on "Roulette At Location One", but not as powerful as here). The appetites are wet, the hunger remains...

Watch video excerpt on the Trio X website.

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Peter Kowald & Laurence Petit-Jouvet - Off The Road (RogueArt, 2007) ****

Hurray for the courage of the French label RogueArt for releasing this superb double DVD + CD in one package, documenting a visit by Peter Kowald to the United States in 2000. And not only their courage is laudable, also the unbelievable quality of the two DVD's. The first one is basically "On The Road", giving a kind of chronological overview of Kowald's trip, visits, car problems, meetings, street dialogues, snippets of performances with artists across the US, including Kidd Jordan, Marco Eneidi, Alvin Fielder (not "Fidler" as the cover announces), George Lewis, Assif Tsahar, Rashied Ali. There is music to be heard, for sure, but the overall impression of a musician on the road is the main theme, and Laurence Petit-Jouvet's documentary is so rich in content and so well filmed, that it could stand on its own, probably even of interest to people not interested in Kowald himself. The second DVD gives basically four performances, one live at the Empty Bottle with Floros Floridis on reeds and Günther Baby Sommer on drums, the second with Ken Vandermark in a studio, the third with Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake, and the fourth, the grand finale, approx 10 minutes of Kowald solo in the studio. Some of these takes can be viewed on YouTube, but they are not available for download. Apart from the sometimes great performances, the short interviews in between with the artists are often interesting and even enlightening, talking about cultural interaction, freedom (in music and society), universal language, emotional rapport, transcending one's own self-created limitations, etc.

Some of the most interesting performances (but unfortunately not the one with Floridis and Sommer) are to be found on the CD : a bass duet with William Parker, the trio with Jordan and Fielder, a duet with George Lewis on trombone, a duet with vocalist Anna Homler, a quartet with Marco Eneidi on reeds, Eddie Gale on trumpet and Donald Robinson on drums, and then the trio with Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake, and another magnificent solo bass piece, this one performed live.

The frustrating thing about this package is that you know that much of it remained unrecorded (or recorded yet unreleased). And on the other hand not everything is successful either, or at least not always to my taste. Yet for those interested, some of the performances were released by other labels, such as "Illuminations" with Gino Robair and Miya Masaoka or "Deals, Ideas and Ideals" with Tsahar and Rashied Ali and "Ghetto Calypso" with Marco Eneidi, Damon Smith and Spirit.

A great document on a great bass player.

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Ethnic Heritage Ensemble - Hot 'n' Heavy (Delmark, 2007) ****

Percussionist Kahil El'Zabar has two bands with which he releases new albums with the regularity of a clock : the Ritual Trio and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, the latter most often a quartet. There aren't any major differences between both bands, neither musically, nor in terms of overall feeling and effect, apart from the line-up which offers a different coloring to the music. The music is strongly based in rhythms, with a fixed, contagious groove, that is maintained throughout the track, which offers the soloists ample space on their spiritual quest, built around beautiful, often long melodic lines. Atmosphere, enthusiasm, mutual encouragement and interaction between the players are all central to the concept of the band, sometimes exuberant, sometimes subdued, yet always very rhythmical and with lots of space. The major difference between both bands is the line-up : the Ritual Trio consists of percussion, bass and sax, while the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is composed of percussion, the trombone of Joe Bowie, the sax of Ed Wilkerson or - like here - Ernest Dawkins, once every so often joined by Fareed Haque on guitar. And the repertoire is absolutely identical : El'Zabar classics such as "Ka-Real", "Ornette", "Love Outside Of Dreams", "Ancestral Song", "Alika Rising", "Papa's Bounce", etc. can be found on several records by both bands. And who cares? Only this album brings a totally new song list. And Joseph Bowie on trombone is replaced by Corey Wilkes on trumpet and flugelhorn (even played at the same time!). Quite some changes at first sight, but that does not apply to the music. The compositions keep their rhythmic base, the melodies are beautiful, the structure and arrangements simple, the percussion absolutely fabulous and the joy of playing of the musicians is a treat for the ear. And the music is at its best when performed live, in a small setting, intimistic and close. And the audience reacts like it does here : spontaneous, enthusiastic, part of the performance. The musicians give an excellent reading of El'Zabar's compositions : Corey Wilkes is really strong, Dawkins composed, with a warm bluesy tone, Haque gives the necessary harmonic support and soloes well, and El'Zabar himself is unequalled on hand percussion, and as well on his signature instrument, the thumb piano. This is mainstream jazz in its free-est form, or free jazz in its most melodic and rhythmic variation, but I don't think El'Zabar cares about these distinctions, as long as the music sounds well, creates space and spiritual feeling. And it does that for sure, and it offers joy on top. Recommended.

There is also a DVD of this performance, to be bought separately.

Luister naar samples :

Major To Minor
MT
Hot 'n' Heavy
There Is A Place
Black As Vera Cruz

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Fred Anderson - Timeless/Live At The Velvet Lounge (Delmark, 2006) *****

This CD is the last performance by Fred Anderson in his own Velvet Lounge, which had to be broken down to make place for an appartment building. Fred, 77 years old, set up a new Velvet Lounge in the meantime. A great thing, because his was the place-to-be for the Chicago free jazz scene.

Fred Anderson is a perfectionist, still now practicing for hours on end on his sax, still learning.

On this CD he is accompanied by Hamid Drake (drums) and Harrisson Bankhead (bass). They bring four songs, each between 13 and 25 minutes, of great and exciting music. It's amazing how they can lock in tightly, then let loose again for individual solos, change the tempo, move on different paths again to suddenly rearrange rhythms or come back into a tight core theme. The three players listen intently to each other. Anderson has a very warm and authentic tone, with strong rhythmic solos, searching and soaring, and listening to him is a real pleasure. Hamid Drake is his stellar self : I know few drummers who manage their rhythms so perfectly as Drake, while at the same time adding ligh touches here and there. His personal joy in playing this music is obvious. Bankhead is rock-solid, but what a sensitivity. It's amazing how in his solo in "Ode To Tip" he lets himself be directed by Drake while still doing his own thing. It goes on an on with surprises, some singing, hefty passages, slow passages, even a wind-tube (?) interlude, an enthusiastic and participating audience, but great stuff all along. If you own more than 20 euro, run to the store!

There is also a DVD version of this performance. I'd be more than happy to find it.

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