11 releases from Alva Noto's back catalogue dropped in about a week ago on his NOTON label, including some of his collaborations with Mika Vainio (aka. Ø) . . . like this one:
Discovered with the utmost pleasure . . . Released back in 1972 and one of those rare timeless albums where everything about it is just perfect. (Discogs)
Thanks BN - I'll add that to my wish list in case it is still there in two months when my hold ends. I'm not so sure that I will be adding Doofy's album though!! I'd be interested to know the sales figures, especially at £6.30 here in the UK!
Last summer I was giving a lecture in Sydney and got accommodated at a pretty nice hotel for a couple of weeks. One morning at breakfast a jazz tune came on that was nicely played on guitar and was driving me nuts because I knew I had more than one version of it but could not for the life of me remember what it was called or who the versions I had were by. This was repeated several mornings in a row, until I finally asked the wait staff if they could identify what was playing. After a back and forth over several days they told me that someone in the kitchen had at an unknown prior date put an unlabelled mix cassette together (apparently meaning in this case dumping one whole jazz album and one whole classical album onto cassette and playing them in rotation) and none of them had any idea what the song was or what artist or album had originated it.
All of which is to say, maybe Doofy's album is for those people in that hotel in Sydney. And if they bought it they would at least have a track title for the next guest who actually listens to the muzak.
No, I did a cursory search and found there had been rather a lot of versions...never got around to listening to enough of them to narrow it down. I should check those though. I have versions by Count Basie and by Lyle Ritz.
The Basie version is the most popular one - and being that it was written by Neal Hefti that would make perfect sense. If you remember it as an acoustic version, then it could’ve been Gene Bertoncini’s version. Anyway, yes, there are a lot of versions, because it’s a good chart. It was regularly used for years as a way to end Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show every night.
The extraordinarily slim jazz and classical pickings on the carcass of the body formerly known as eMusic continue to diminish, but a couple recent eMusic releases of some note:
Thanks Soulcoal - I've added the jazz one to my wish list ready for when my latest hold ends in a couple of months, before I quickly go back on hold. As an aside - the rules on holds seem to have been informally relaxed a little, in terms of when you can go back on hold.
In what surely is another of the seven signs of the apocalypse, an actual new jazz release on a credible (small) jazz label has appeared on eMusic on its actual release date:
Interestingly, it does not show up on a search of the label or show up as an album under the artist, but the tracks do appear in the list of tracks for the artist, and if you click on a track, it takes you to the full album, which can be purchased. (click on the album photo to follow the link)
Here's an excerpt of a description from the songlines website/EPK:
“Gottlieb is one of those singers – like Rokia Traore or
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – whose voice can convey great power and
soul…Throughout, Gottlieb matches a warm voice and vocal control with a
singular compositional style. She reaches far and wide, but the music is
all of a piece.”
– Jon Garelick, Jazziz
“With the possible exception of John Carter no precedents
for [Falzone’s] work spring readily to mind…his prowess is no obstacle
to personal expression.”
– Nic Jones, All About Jazz
“Houle just solos his heart out…The effect is meditative and lovely.”
– Stuart Derdeyn, Vancouver Sun
“Winograd played with equal parts clarity and
breathtaking, practically Ivo Papasov-class speed. It was one of the
most thrilling shows of the year so far…”
– Delarue, New York Music Daily
Jerusalem-born, Montreal-based vocalist and composer
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has frequently set poetry to music. When she
decided to ask three of her favourite creative clarinetists to
collaborate with her on a new song cycle using poetry inspired by the
wind, she set in motion a process of discovery for them all.
Inspired by her grandfather Harry, a clarinet player,
Ayelet had in mind a song cycle with titles drawn from Christina
Rossetti’s poem “Who Has Seen the Wind?”, which she loved for its
evocation of a world defined by sound as much as sight. This cycle
(tracks 2-7) grew into a full set of music, with everyone contributing
compositions and arrangements.
Flowing effortlessly from texted songs to Ayelet’s
wordless compositions, where the voice is another wind instrument, the
quartet blends turbulent, contemporary electro-acoustic energies with
gentler, klezmer-inspired gestures and jazz-infused improvisations,
closing on a wistful note with François Houle’s lyrical arrangement of
Tom Waits’ “The Last Rose of Summer.”
I picked up live versions of most of these a few months ago (now gone, natch) but this is better as it's basically an expanded version of the vinyl version I've had for years.
Just followed Dark_Magus' link above to listen to the samples. I've been offered £50 credit to join eMusic. They must be getting desperate! I'm not sure that I could find enough for £50 credit - that is 119 tracks in the UK
Szun Waves are Luke Abbott, Laurence Pike and Jack Wyllie
Sometimes in improvised music there can be a distance between listener and players, a sense you’re sitting back and admiring their interplay and abstraction – but with Szun Waves’ second album, you’re right in there with them, inside the playing, experiencing the absolute joy the three musicians feel as they circle around each other, exploring the spaces they’ve opened up.
The three members already have sparkling pedigrees of their own. Norfolk’s Luke Abbott is well known for his explorations of the zones between pure ambience and the leftmost fringes of club culture. With Portico Quartet and Circle Traps, Jack Wyllie has been in the vanguard of UK fusions of jazz, classical and club music. Australian drummer Laurence Pike has likewise found a unique voice in improvised and experimental music-making, whether in the bands Triosk or PVT, or as a solo artist.
The trio’s musical relationship has grown naturally and steadily, and it shows. From Wyllie adding shimmering sustained sax notes to Abbott’s gorgeous ambient pieces in 2013, Szun Waves emerged when Pike was added to the mix, energising the sound but still keeping its levitational qualities. Their 2016 self-released debut album hit a natural groove – it was a “proof of concept” as Abbott says – and now they’re in a place of pure spontaneity: New Hymn To Freedom is a document of six entirely live improvisations – “no edits or overdubs” – and its title couldn’t be more apt.
three-track collaborative recording between Luke Abbott and saxophonist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet), recorded late 2014. Released via Buffalo Temple, September 25th 2015.
A nice little chamber jazz release from Shifting Paradigm label showed up on eMusic (around release date, no less), and at a great value, too ($2.99, about 39 min of music). It is also available on Bandcamp, but here's the eMusic link for the three people still subscribed at eMusic... ;-)
Jannik Giger assembled an orchestra out of various, small Found-Footage samples. What emerges out of disparate materials and incoherent sound textures finally becomes a fictitious orchestra, a homogeneous, independent and through-composed apparatus in a fictional space. Every single sounds on the record has its origin in the composed instrumental music The sources are ranging from Bernard Hermann (Vertigo) to Xenakis (Cello Solo)
Comments
11 releases from Alva Noto's back catalogue dropped in about a week ago on his NOTON label, including some of his collaborations with Mika Vainio (aka. Ø) . . . like this one:
Just posted
George Benson and Joe Pass have done memorable versions.
Anthony Burr & Charles Curtis - "Chamber Music: Alvin Lucier & Morton Feldman"
Jerusalem-born, Montreal-based vocalist and composer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has frequently set poetry to music. When she decided to ask three of her favourite creative clarinetists to collaborate with her on a new song cycle using poetry inspired by the wind, she set in motion a process of discovery for them all.
Inspired by her grandfather Harry, a clarinet player, Ayelet had in mind a song cycle with titles drawn from Christina Rossetti’s poem “Who Has Seen the Wind?”, which she loved for its evocation of a world defined by sound as much as sight. This cycle (tracks 2-7) grew into a full set of music, with everyone contributing compositions and arrangements.
Flowing effortlessly from texted songs to Ayelet’s wordless compositions, where the voice is another wind instrument, the quartet blends turbulent, contemporary electro-acoustic energies with gentler, klezmer-inspired gestures and jazz-infused improvisations, closing on a wistful note with François Houle’s lyrical arrangement of Tom Waits’ “The Last Rose of Summer.”
http://smironne.free.fr/NICO/do2000.php?page=a - BC
New Hymn To Freedom
The three members already have sparkling pedigrees of their own. Norfolk’s Luke Abbott is well known for his explorations of the zones between pure ambience and the leftmost fringes of club culture. With Portico Quartet and Circle Traps, Jack Wyllie has been in the vanguard of UK fusions of jazz, classical and club music. Australian drummer Laurence Pike has likewise found a unique voice in improvised and experimental music-making, whether in the bands Triosk or PVT, or as a solo artist.
The trio’s musical relationship has grown naturally and steadily, and it shows. From Wyllie adding shimmering sustained sax notes to Abbott’s gorgeous ambient pieces in 2013, Szun Waves emerged when Pike was added to the mix, energising the sound but still keeping its levitational qualities. Their 2016 self-released debut album hit a natural groove – it was a “proof of concept” as Abbott says – and now they’re in a place of pure spontaneity: New Hymn To Freedom is a document of six entirely live improvisations – “no edits or overdubs” – and its title couldn’t be more apt.
Luke Abbott & Jack Wyllie - ST.
Charles Hayward - drums, keyboards, melodica, whistle
Nick Doyne-Ditmas - electric double bass, FX
Bandcamp
- Jannik Giger at Bandcamp