As a consolation for not noticing, that Ben Frost, Samamidon and basically the rest of Bedroom Community were playing last weekend, I did notice that (possibly) favourite Improv Jazz duo of Norwegian drummer Paal Nilsson-Love and American Ken Vandermark on Saxofon and Clarinet were playing the following - being the one just passed, namely Sunday.
Expectations were high, and I was pleased to see that the crowd counted about 30 people, a little more than I expected a lot more than I feared. Accompanying me was David, who acted as a last minute replacement, who’s expectations I am unaware of, but at least they must have been of the expectations for the unknown kind.
First up was a Danish improv duo of Drums and Electric guitar called BodaBoda duo. The guitar playing reminded me of the playing of Rauol Bjørkenheim, but with even more references to Heavy Metal. The players suited each other well and kept the bar high for the main act.
From set off Nilsson-Love and Vandermark raised the bar out over the roof, and filled the room with sound - Nilsson-Love often heavy on the cymbals, and Vandermark in a melodic mood. Playing three pieces, the two with Vandermark on Saxofon were the wilder ones, and the middle piece with him on Clarinet was the more quieter. Only for a few moments there was some of the inevitable slowing down and finding new direction, giving the listener a break if you wish… but overall it was clear that these players know each other well, and can follow each other without letting me know who is taking the lead.
I initially intended to leave the show with a copy of the first Dual Pleasures CD, given the fact that the second one has become one of my all time favourite purchases. However having recently put out two new improvised live recording, those were the only ones with the duo for sale. I got both the Milwaukee Volume and Chicago Volume (both Smalltown Superjazz) and both CD (each recorded live in the respectable town) resembles the gig from Copenhagen - however one minor concern is a printing error, resulting in the three tracks on the Milwaukee Volume is on the Chicago CD and vice versa.
I spend the last four days in Barcelona - I actually timed it to arrive there just after Sonar, but whatever - musical highlights was of a different sort.
To my great luck I spend some time on the balcony of my friend Xavi’s house, and an upstairs neighbour generously shared wonderful jazz records out his windows for me to enjoy while smoking cigarets and drinking canned beer.
Yesterday I went to Fundacio Joan Miro. I am not a big fan of the artist, but the museum was more or less in the backyard of aforementioned Xavi’s place in Poble Sec. I decided to block out the noise from the other visitors with my iPod and The wonderful dou of Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilsson-Love called Dual Pleasures 2. It was a great idea and one I will remember for future museum visits as I always skip the audio tour option anyway.
The permanent exhibition was what it was - I mean you can’t blame the guy for inconsistancy, but the highlight was the temporary exhibition showing the poetry and art juxtapositions between art writer and poet Jacques Dupin and among others Joan Miro.
Friday was a great day. 22 CDs arrived at my door. Not since my days in the record shop have I gotten so many CDs in a single day.
The reason for the bundle purchase is a little sad though. the online record store DotShop.se is closing down and is selling a lot of stuff on final reduction. Still I “only” ordered 17 CDs there, but apparently five other CDs that I ordered from other vendors decided to arrive on the same day.
I am yet to give them all a proper spin but so far the quality is really high - most of the stuff I had not heard before. There was a lot from Smalltown Supersound/Superjazz, a duet between Paal Nillson-Love and Ken Vandermak is especially promissing, A much anticipated Constellation debut from Land of Kush, last years Sand by turntabalist Philip Jeck, David Sylvian’s Blemish remixes, Pita’s Get Off and a lot more.
Well I know this post is long overdue - but I have been busy with losing my job and my mind and what else…
Fever sick from a throat infection, I made my way to Bimhuis to see what I had been looking forward to for months, in fact my expectations were ridiculously high, and with my condition in mind how could the quartet of Moppa Elliott (Bass), Peter Evans (Trumpet), Jon Irabagon (Sax) and Kevin Shea (Drums) not disappoint?
They could by setting the standard for how Free Bob should be played by a new generation of players, that takes there references from a lot of different places than jazz.
Consisting of two hour long sets, and the shortest encore I have ever seen, MOPDTK made there way through a number of band leader Elliott’s compositions and a few standards, one of which was said to be John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme “, but I am not sure. Nothing unusual i this, however the treatment the quartet gave these compositions was of an exploding kind, and most of the time letting them so loose that someone like me, who knows the songbook quite well, was unable to recognize anything.
As a band leader and composer Elliott takes a very humble position on the quartet, hardly ever bringing focus to himself, and playing next to no solos on the upright bass. On the contrary, drummer Shea was not shy of bringing attention to himself, not afraid of claiming his space and having the brass duo wait for him to blow off steam before they could kick in with a theme or a solo, only to take everyone by surprise, by when given space to go wild being almost silent and quite frankly a bit silly, culmination with leaving the stage behind a curtain only to return without trousers. This was to great amusement to the audience and the rest of the quartet, but hardly an unexpected turn for anyone who has seen Talibam! (Shea’s dou with Matt Mottel) live.
MOPDTK really got around and played loud uptempo and wild improvisation as well a beautiful thematic passages and more lowercase improv. It was not always the disciplined tightness that reigned and there were passages of less interest, but the high were incredible high, justifying the more dull moments.
Saturday night was full of great surprises. After having decided not to go out I changed my mind and went with Jacob to Korsakoff for the concert of photographer Dennis band which I have no idea what is called. We were 20 minutes late, which wouldn’t have bothered me, if it wasn’t for the fact that they were surprisingly great. My initial thought was Codeine with a more fragile vocal, but I am not sure that it does them justice - but at least that gives some kind of picture.
Luckily afterwards Aynouk convinced us to join the rest at the party at OT301, which was fun and cheap, and more or less everyone was there. The high light was however was not the cheap bear but the DJ’s who were great and played both Battles, Gang Gang Dance and Juan Maclean.
Sometimes you are reminded why you keep on going to concerts; that it is not just seeing these people, who made those records you have, in the flesh. It of course makes perfect sense when you go to a concert of improvisational nature, but what about a rock concert, where they are merely playing the tunes?
This was the fourth time I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and it was the fourth experience - if anything links the performances - it must be the desire to open up the music, to show how the songwriting and the songs are not static, but something that you can bend and shape, to fit the tour or even then mood of the night. Thus I think I heard the fourth live version (excluding recorded versions) of my all time favourite Bonnie song, Nomadic Revery from the 99 album I See A Darkness.
To me the concert started out rather peculiar with a song(?) that I have never heard before. The notable thing was that a simple sentence was divided between four voices forcing the listener to pay attention to get any meaning out of it. Naturally this reminded me of the approach by me and my friends in koordinat for our multiple voice poetry readings. The show continued with a gem from the Palace songbook; The Brute Choir, in a version not unlike the one found on “Greatest Palace Music” and I was already happy and texting Filip: “…and I never held someone so sweet”.
Next high was when Will Oldham (dare I write this?) put away his guitar and did a duet with the female singer and violinist for “what are you?”. Other highs of the concert was classics “Gulf Shores”, “Ease Down The Road” and “A Minor Place”, and newer songs “The Seedling”, “Cursed Sleep” and “Beware Your Only Friend”. But the most uninterrupted joy was the three songs of the first encore: “In Spite of Ourselves” as a duet with Susanna, already mentioned Nomadic Revery, and finally the devotional I’ll be Glad. The crowd wouldn’t settle for this and the show ended with another encore and the cover of R Kelly’s “Worlds Greatest, hmmm…..
I just got home from a weekend+ in London, my fourth time there and still I haven’t managed to visit the Rough Trade music store, or the now reopened Sound 323. However I did pick out a few records from the HMW’s jazz selection: Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda, George Lewis’ Sequel and a new Rune Grammofon release from Bushman’s Revenge lovely titled You Lost Me at Hello. The latter two I am still to hear.
However it was something entirely different that bears the legacy from this trip. Florent, my friend Denise’s friends at whos house we stayed played me this eighties disco track to me from Sheryl Lee Ralph, and for the first time triggered my interest in this/these genres of this period.
After two days of intense youtubing I have found a lot of wonderful gems mostly with the help of one fantastic channel held by the guy under the Chicagomack1 moniker - he has a huge treasure chest that I am still not even halfway through. Here are a few teasers, enjoy and go look for yourselves.
Sunday I went to this shady bar in Warmoestraat with Jacob and Marie for the sole reason that you are allowed to smoke in there and the beer is dead cheap. Everything else in there is awful and the crowd is somewhat suspect. However there I am - drunk as a bug - on my bar stool looking at the interior, and I discover this poster of and old renaissance panting and immediately fall in love. That my knowledge of art leaves a lot to be desired is nothing new, so it is no surprise to me when Jacob is rolling his eyes to my mentioning that: “it is by someone called Bruegel”.
So the following day I start investigating stuff on Wikipedia, and now at least I know who Pieter Bruegel was. Later that day I go to Concerto, the record store at Utrechtstraat to pick up a few things. I actually believe that my initial idea was to buy the new Gomez album, but I leave the store with Tim Hecker, Magnetic Fields and Nils Økland. The strange thing is that while the clerk is getting the CDs for me, I am looking at some of the price busters, and there in the middle of the table is the self titled album by Fleet Foxes, which I have seen a lot of times before, but only now realised, is using Netherlandish Proverbs; the exact same painting, as the album cover.
Like most recent years 2009 started with being all about the previous year - and all about getting those albums that I never knew or had time to buy/steal. But there has also been new releases and new concerts, and old songs getting a revival. Here are some Highlights and low points:
Tim Hecker beeing back with a new album called An Imaginary Country. It is a continuation of Harmony in Ultraviolet, but in my ears a little stronger and more refined - this is what he does no surprises, but he keeps getting better and must for sure now be The King of Glitch
Seeing Gang Gang Dance with Sonny on their only European show, due to the combustion of their gear later that night a Paradiso.
Seeing William Parker live for first time in the By Any Means trio.
Finding another critically acclaimed Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album boring, boring booooooring! - yes it holds a few good songs, but I think Will Oldham no longer deserves the status of being one of the few who’s albums I buy automatically
Singing Sufjan Stevens songs in the first spring sun with Filip, and afterwards trying out the theory that every song with a bird in it is a good song.
Missing Animal Collective because I was in Panama
Missing Goodiepal because I was tired
Missing Chris Corsano (again)
Listening to another crappy album by Anthony and the Johnsons for reasons beyond me? I don’t get it - I just don’t.
Listening to the Woman King EP from Iron and Wine all the time, and getting new favourites on it - it really is his best work so far - and by the way isn’t there a new album due for May?
Discovering Matt and Kim, and admitting that they might last longer than the one week that I predicted.
Trying tpo get “What Happened”, the new album from Emeralds. It doesn’t really seem to want to let me in, but I keep on trying - it seems to be worth it. I do however think that Solar Bridge is more my thing - so why haven’t I bought that?
