horgh, ouf, even by my standards that was a fairly long silence. funny thing is, the intense playlisting (as detailed in the previous post) actually continued for more than a week, on and off, taking in more than fifteen hours of b-lists, all mixed up in there and predominated by the latest batch o'boots... some previous old faves chucked in afterwards for good measure... and several albums played again (and again - like this one - not that i like to name-drop round here, but i was absolutely delighted to receive a comment from anne rhodes recently) - plus a couple of purchases, the aforementioned duo-double-disc with buell neidlinger for example, which really is extraordinary and, again, deserves a post of its own if i can only get round to feeling like writing it - and also this one (snapped up someone's unwanted copy) which is, of course, also very good indeed. the return of the 'tet... hey, just think, somewhere in a parallel timestream there may be a version of me who actually converts all these thoughts and ideas into actual posts. (terrfying thought isn't it)
ANYway... more on what i haven't been writing below; in the meantime (and here i'm acting on an eleven-day-old tip from mcclintic sphere - thanks again man) check this out, an upcoming event in (b's) music so nearly upon us i'm ashamed i've left it this long to plug it... though at the same time acutely aware that any readers who might happen to see this are probably relatively unlikely to just drop everything and fly to sweden for a frigging music festival [- which is a damn shame by the look of it, since that's one hell of a promising saturday night, having actually scanned through the list properly i am potentially right in there from (french pianist) sophie agnel (*1) on down, would be absolutely fascinated to witness ikue mori, especially solo; dunno anything about the next guy but then the trio with gustafsson (umeå's favourite son!) sounds great, might need to pop out for a few mins during the next one but would try and catch at least some of it; but fuck, then the chance to see joëlle léandre - and no disrespect to strid and houle - this is one serious night here, and if not all the names immediately shriek off the page at me it all still looks very very interesting right on down into the after-party... the large ensemble at 10pm looks pretty intriguing (unless it turn out to be overly influenced by anyone in particular... hope not, if you know what i'm saying) and mats solo would be great too i'm sure. (heard one of those solo releases a while back. yep, very good and compelling...) smegma... i know the name in a noise context, but i can't say i associate any memories with it so who knows. it's not exactly the kind of name you want to remember, now is it ;-) ]
BUT YES yes yes we'll go back to the top of that page and remind ourselves of what drew mcc's attention in the first place, namely the latest in a series of braxtonian one-offs around the world (and long may they sprout and promulgate and mingle):- to wit, twenty minutes of b's music interpreted by a local master of the rarely-encountered carillon - an instrument with which, funnily enough, i am already familiar since i first went to primary school right next to a (once?) very famous one, in bournville (*2), birmingham - our class had a guided tour of the playing room, whatever it's called, and peeked through into the belfry... anyway, what a great fucking idea this is, shame it couldn't be a bit longer - but we have to be realistic here ;-) let's just say, what a great fucking way to kick off the day's music. (or any day's music dammit!)
- and i could scarcely think of a finer location for it, if the truth be known... i just went into the photos from västerås, and reminded myself all over again what an image-capturer's dream it truly is... definitely an enchanted location... as many places in scandinavia are (in both cases), but even by those standards, mrs c. and i commented on what an extraordinary place this was, right away, and rented bikes the next day to get a proper look around... there are plenty more i can use on the blog (this was one), but as an aside, this always made me laugh - you have to look closely to see which country it definitely isn't:
***
yes, more - well, like i said the listening went on for quite a while and there was a lot of it - some of it came and went in a haze, much of it got more attention than that and some of it really made a great impression on me even first time round - like the duo concert with gunter "baby" sommer which must have been thrilling to witness... get over to TCF and check it out. erm, i still haven't polished off the revisit piece which analyses the thb sextet from saalfelden in rather closer detail - which is silly really as i've already written about half of it and the rest is more or less written out in my head - but it's the mood... not always there, these days (and the time ain't either - my last two weeks of late shifts, i had precious few mornings to myself *4). obviously this unresolved-plan status applies to many other posts too, as previously detailed, though in this case (at least) the sextet revisit will definitely be done, for reasons which will become clear on publication; i repeat, though in the past my associating the small brass with the role of melody-carrier in the jazz mainstream has led me to overlook to a large extent taylor ho bynum (and other important players such as wooley, kelley et al - not to mention some earlier masters such as wadada leo smith *5), two things about that: first, it was always only because someone else, or more than one person, was doing something equally elevated in discourse simultaneously and besides, those were the voices that needed to claim my attention at that time; later there has been time enough, as it turns out, to allow a love of the (free/d) trombone and some careful listening to some excellent master-teacher-students to nurture in me a love of the (free/d) small brass too: i now am pretty much in awe of this guy's playing. i mean, in terms of density you really are looking towards the great aacm masters and the st louis crew, the bag or whatever other names they may have employed, for comparison - or else only over to europe where everyone knows they take the arts deadly seriously, dahling. (*6) the point, finally: mr bynum is a very, very good player and really thinks about what goes into his music.
'nuff gushing... for one post - ! ha, once again, get yer arse over to sweden pronto, like that's gonna happen but i tell you what, if i had the readies and a free weekend, that is exactly where i would be on saturday for damn certain, wouldn't miss it - and i never even checked out the rest of the bill yet, in all honesty... i mean what's the point, only potentially torture myself, but...
* see comments
2 comments:
yeah, or rather no, i didn't actually do a very good job of plugging the festival did i. but then, that's not quite exactly the nature of the service i'm offering, as it turns out...
1. not that i've heard of her or anything. just, y'know, plenty of precedents for chick pianists deconstructing the history of their instrument (NB: for once you have just read derrida's word used in its correct context, i.e. accurately...), s.fujii, s. courvoisier, m. crispell and so on... in other words, what's not to like ;-)
2. where the famous cadbury's chocolate factory is still based (though of course it is no longer owned by the cadbury family, as of the last half-decade). bournville itself was (and apparently is) a shining example of a successful model village... very lucky to have attended primary school in such a place, we didn't live there... anyway, the carillonneur that i met as a six-year-old will have been trevor workman, now firmly established as a master by the looks of things... interesting :)
3.
4. and yes, ok, i wasted most of what little time i did get.
5. - as i openly admitted in those wide-eyed early braxtothon posts
6. ha, not in the uk they don't. entertainment is blurred into "the performing arts" over here just as much as it is in white america... literally just as much... i have observed this before... even posh people in britain usually cannot be counted upon to know anything about artistic appreciation or even to be able to distinguish art and entertainment in the first place. thatcher's tories, or were they major's by that point, famously dubbed their new "'culture'" seat in the cabinet the "minister of fun" - etc etc - they/we really are a nation of philistines. indeed the only reason we are not a constant worldwide laughing-stock for it is because the americans and australians are generally perceived to be even worse ;-)
soz about later-than-usual comments this time, not that anyone's counting i bet :)
any taker's for alan moore's "final comic", neonomicon..?
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