Monday, November 30, 2009

Arve Henriksen au Duc des Lombards


Arve Henriksen and Helge Sten live in Paris 22 November!

Procosmian Fannyfiddlers


This is a post for the ones among you who may be collecting all kinds of progrock. Procosmian Fannyfiddlers from Trondheim (Norway) have been playing since 1995, and have made 8 records on their own "Langt Lem Records" (*cough* describing the size of some men´s members, sorry about that). I have only heard "Requiem Fatigue", and even if the cover and the lyrics are putting me a bit off, the music is quite good! Progrock spiced with folk. Here are some song titles: "Crap in the ceiling", "Diaphragm of doom", "Carpe scrotum", "Dogging me, dogging you" and one with a message, "We are here to annoy you". Be warned.

According to their MySpace-site their previous albums are: GOLD (97) ... AND SILVERS QUALITY (98) FISTED LADY (99) THE ROLLING COURT MASSACRE (01) RETURN OF THE SWEATTY OWL (03) FATHER DOG (05) THE HORSE FROM HELL (08).

And here is "The horse from hell" (2008):

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Soft Machine (1969, Hör Zu SHZE908BL)


Saturday I ended up at a record fair again, and once more I brought home an old Soft Machine album. This time I got a German mixture of the two first Soft Machine albums from 1969 (?), and on the back of the cover we may read this on the fine gentlemen Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers: "Der harte Kern der Soft Machine: Michael, Robert, Kevon". (Click on the picture below if you want to read more).

The tracks:
- Hibou Anemone And Bear
- Dada Was Here
- Out Of Tunes
- As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still
- Dedicated To You But You Weren't
Listening
- Hope For Happines
- Joy Of A Toy
- Hope For Happines
- Plus Belle Qu'une Poubelle
- Why Are We Sleeping?
- Box 25/4 Lid

Film and book

On What´s Rattlin´ (check this forum!) I found info on the film "Separation" by Jack Bond, where you get a bonus movie by Mark Boyle and Joan Hills called "Beyond Image" (mentioned earlier in this blog, as it was shown in London), with music by Soft Machine (as on "Spaced").

Jean-Francois Drean and Philippe Thieyre have written a portrait of Robert Wyatt called (hold steady now) "Robert Wyatt" (Editions des Accords - ISBN 978-2-916944-02-9). It is not in stock at Amazon, but I think I´ll try the publisher!

Lean Left


Lean Left is Ken Vandermark, Terrie Ex, Andy Moor and Paal Nilssen-Love. Ken Vandermark usually offers a short comment after the shows on his Twitter when touring, and I believe this one is from Ljubljana.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Terje Rypdal: Odyssey


Today´s classic is Terje Rypdal´s "Odyssey" (ECM), a double LP from 1975. The band is Terje Rypdal (guitar, soprano saxophone and string ensemble (!)), Torbjørn Sunde (trombone), Brynjulf Blix (organ), Sveinung Hovensjø (bass) and Svein Christiansen (drums). Manfred Eicher and Jan Erik Kongshaug is involved, no surprises there, and the cover photo is by Giuseppe Pino.
I had listened to, and liked the sound of Rypdal before I bought this one ( with Jan Garbarek, in Dream and on the solo album "Bleak house"), but I immediately fell for this one, with Hovensjø´s rock steady bass and Sunde´s beautiful trombone. It´s almost a taste of Pink Floyd in here sometimes ("Atom Heart Mother" ?), but of course the main factor is the icy, clear sound of Rypdal´s guitar. Sorry, but I must have read too much about the Nordic wintery sound of the Norwegian ECM artists, and may almost see the glaciers move when I listen to this. Rypdal is not a hot blues guitarist, for sure!
This album has been out on CD, without the long track "Rolling Stone" (24 minutes), but I believe it is hard to get hold of these days. You may download "Odyssey" from iTunes and eMusic, but even they lack the missing track!

Friday, November 27, 2009

The Ex and Brass Unbound


The Ex is touring UK in January and February 2010 with Brass Unbound, who is Mats Gustafsson, Roy Paci, Ken Vandermark and Wolter Wierbos. Video credit: Emma Fischer.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Gilad Atzmon is producing Wyatt

Robert Wyatt seems to be working on a new record! Gilad Atzmon is interviewed in Norwich Evening News and they say : "This year Atzmon added the role of producer to his CV, recording and playing singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie's debut LP, Stalking Juliet, and is currently producing an album by Robert Wyatt". Glad to hear that!

Added 27 November, after comment from Gilad Atzmon:
"A minor correction... the album is a product of collaboration between Ros Stephen who takes care of the string parts and some compositions, Robert who sings and inspires and myself who take care of woodwind and musical production. a lot of other people are involved. I just mentioned it because it is kind of a collaboration rather than G produces Y"

The Scottish Play


Portland, Oregon´s Parenthetical Girls have chosen Glasgow´s great poet Ivor Cutler as the man, for their 10" "The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (if Occasionally Misguided) Tribute To the Works of Ivor Cutler" (Tomlab 2009). There are only 500 copies for sale, but you may download it from both iTunes and eMusic. Cover art by David Shrigley (Glasgow). The band do fine versions of Sit Down, Whale Badge, Doughnut, A Nuance, Over You Go, Going In A Field, The Best Thing and Everybody Got.

The best thing about being dead
is that you no longer have to say
"I wish I were dead"
The best thing about being alive
Is that you can still say
"I wish I were dead"

Ivor Cutler (my way of presenting it, hope it´s not far from Mr Cutler´s)

I have to admit I never heard about Parenthetical Girls until now, but this seems like a band worth checking out. See the video for "A song for Ellie Greenwich" (from an earlier album).

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Stian Westerhus in Japan


Stian Westerhus (Puma, Monolithic, Bladed, Crimetime Orchestra, Jaga Jazzist, solo and other projects) is touring Japan. twod444 uploaded three videos on YouTube, and it sure looks like Westerhus has started the Christmas celebration already.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Daevid Allen speaks


Gong is touring again, and The Scotsman talked to Daevid Allen (24 November 2009). Allen, who was in Soft Machine before they did their first record, claims that Brigitte Bardot hired them to play at a party, and that they played the same song over and over again. "We had no money so Brigitte took pity on us and hired us for her party. We played one song, We Did It Again, over and over for a joke. We did it again and again for an hour and the next day we were the darlings of France's hip set and that enabled me to go off and form Gong." I like Allen´s version, but I can´t find any info on Bardot in connection to the St Tropez concert, even if both Wikipedia and Graham Bennett ("Soft Machine. Out Bloody Rageous") mention it. Buy Soft Machine´s "Jet Propelled Photographs" (demos from 1967) with Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen, Mike Ratledge and Kevin Ayers, right away!

The video shows Gong in Germany earlier this month, with Steve Hillage, Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Theo Travis, Chris Tayler and Miquett Giraudy.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Trondheim Voices


Midtnorsk Jazzsenter uploaded three videos from Moldejazz, of Trondheim Voices with Marilyn Mazur, Jon Balke and Mats Gustafsson.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

A Saturday at Piksel 09


Saturday evening and another night at the Piksel 09 festival in Bergen. This night we even got to see boxers in action! I hereby steal some info from the Piksel site, and let them explain this for you: "A livecoding showdown – improvisation as physical interation with structure generators, two boxers are having an infight between themselves and the computer. Uppercuts and punches are the means to write software that can only defend itself with music. Artistic creativity and decisionmaking is done simultaneously in embodied and disembodied ways". The piece was called "He boxed regularly and was strong and very brave and always a perfect gentleman", and was made and performed by Iohannes M Zmölnig (AT), Georg Richard Holzmann (AT) and Michael Reinhard Pinter (NL). Quite entertaining stuff this, in front of a blood thirsty audience!

I also saw nice performances by Bjørnar Habbestad and Jeff Carey with electroacoustic "Respirator", and some noisy ambient (if that´s possible) by Oscar Martin, called "noish_VS_automata". After 10 minutes of Ryan Jordan´s "Psychoid" this old body had to transport itself outside the concert area. Minimalistic noise and strobe lights bang in the face was best experienced from outside (see video below).

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Ken Vandermark records


Ken Vandermark seems to release even more albums than Paal Nilssen-Love, but luckily they are quite often on the same records. I have hardly had time to listen more than a couple of times to the bunch I´ve got recently, but suggest this shopping list anyway:
The Vandermark 5: "Annular Gift" (Not Two 2009).
Ken Vandermark, Marcin Oles and Bartlomiej Brat Oles "Ideas" (Not Two2009).
Sonore (Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann and Mats Gustafsson!): “Call Before You Dig” (Okka Disk 2009).
Ken Vandermark, Barry Guy and Mark Sanders: "Fox Fire" (Maya Records 2009).
Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love: "Chicago Volume" and "Milwaukee Volume" (OK I haven´t heard this one yet, but still) (Smalltown 2009).

Check out kenvandermark.com, where you also may see Vandermark´s Twitter messages. On the Vandermark & Nilssen-Love tour of Europe, they seem to have attracted bigger and more ecstatic crowds, than they did in Bergen.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Shleep! Buy it, buy it, buy it!

Please listen to School of Seven Bells , who choose Robert Wyatt´s "Shleep" from 1997. Yeah! Check them out in "On the record".

Piksel09 f[re](e){op}[en]able


The Piksel09 festival is happening in Bergen right now (19 - 22 November). The festival site describe Piksel like this: "Piksel is a festival and community for artists and developers working with Free/Libre and Open Source audiovisual software, hardware and art". A lot of the festival is streamed, so check their site.

Yesterday I saw the dancing instruments of "Action Potential" ( top picture) and "Kunst und Musik mit dem Tageslichtprojector" (picture below). Real nice! Look for more pictures in my Piksel set on Flickr.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Fred Frith Workshop


Fred Frith lectures in Amsterdam in September 2007. "There is actually no such thing as an electric guitar"

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A touch of Wyatt

You will probably survive, and feel quite well too, even if you don´t follow these links:
- Pitchfork: Alan Palomo, frontman of Neon Indian digs "Rock Bottom".
- Baltimore City Paper: Max Tundra has got some resemblance to Wyatt, or not?
- The Guardian on rockers with beard. Yes, that´s an important topic.
- Kentucky.com on Jean Luc Ponty and "New violin summit".
- The Culture Vulture: Memorable moments with "Soup Songs" at the Leeds Jazz Festival.

Lindstrøm Mix


Fact magazine let Lindstrøm do their Fact Mix number 100. Lindstrøm has been listening a lot to Robert Wyatt, and this is some mix! You´ll find Robert Wyatt´s "Little Red Riding Hood" with songs by ABBA, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

Tracklist:
1. Joe Byrd & The Field Hippies - Kalyani
2. Jobriath - World Without End
3. Hall and Oates - Is It A Star?
4. Abba - Eagle
5. Tears for Fears - The Big Chair
6. Led Zeppelin - Bonzo´s Montreux
7. Robert Wyatt - Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road
8. Black Sabbath - Breakout
9. Uli Jon Roth - The Night the Master Comes
10. Ciledaknuf - Thgil Dna Ygolue

And then we´ll just have to expand this list too!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Radio Yonder


We have already mentioned bass player Mats Eilertsen in this blog, in a post on the wild people of Crimetime Orchestra, but here is his own album "Radio Yonder" (Hubro 2009). A quite relaxing, nice jazz album! Just take my word for it. All compositions by Eilertsen, except the Aha cover "Hunting high and low". Musicians: Tore Brunborg (sax), Thomas Dahl (guitar), Olavi Louhivuori (drums) og Mats Eilertsen (bass). Cover: Yokoland.
Download from eMusic.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Robot store, Bergen


The nice little shop Robot in Skostredet in Bergen is finally on the internet! They are going to be the main net salesmen of Smalltown Supersound/Superjazz , Tellé and Datarock/Yap. They will also sell the catalogues of +3db, Pica Disk, Ohm records and others.
The postage policy is like this: The more you order, the cheaper it gets.

Visiting Robot today, I finally got Peter Brötzmann and Paal Nilsen-Love´s "Woodcuts" (SMJZ 2009) too, and it´s sounding great. This is a live recording from Kampenjazz in Oslo autumn 2008. Cover design by Brötzmann.

Face Like a Lemon


Look at The Japanese War Effort´s sweet live version of Ivor Cutler´s "Face like a lemon", recorded at Fresh Air, Edinburgh's student radio station, on Wednesday 4th November 2009.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Rimbaud and Robert Wyatt

I have mentioned BBC3´s piece "A season in hell" in a previous blog post, and yesterday it was broadcasted. You still have 6 days to listen (probably less than 5 when you read this).
If you are only interested in Robert Wyatt here, jump to around 16.30, 19.15 and 22.25 in the 40 minutes long programme.
I you like this (as I do, no surprise there!) please check out Wyatt´s works with Michael Mantler, where he sings poetry (look for the Mantler albums here).

Fred Frith and Chris Cutler


Here you get Fred Frith and Chris Cutler at Music Unlimited 23, Wels, Austria. I hope for more from that festival, where John Zorn and Maja Ratkje was playing too (added later: see comment on Zorn). Come on, dance to the music!

Nils Petter Molvaer Live


Quite good videos of Nils Petter Molvaer (trumpet), with Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Audun Kleive (drums), at Posthof Linz (2 November 2009). See more here and here, and buy "Hamada".

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Sidsel Endresen Jazz Sessions


Bergen Jazzforum invited Sidsel Endresen to choose her own musicians and do a Bergen Jazz Sessions on Friday night.
First we got a quite calm trio with Endresen and Håkon Kornstad (saxes and flutes) and Jan Bang (electricity and sampling), before a harder set with Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and Thomas Strønen (drumstick eating, electricity and drums) happened, and the whole bunch ended the show together. A great evening indeed, and a great listening Friday audience too.
Somebody uploaded some videos on YouTube too, that are not at all fair to the artists, but you get the general idea!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Vandermark, Nilssen-Love and another couple too


I went out yesterday with Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love in mind. The concert in Bergen was a double bill, and even if the the first act, Lê Quan Ninh (percussion) and Michel Doneda (sax), was doing some exciting stuff (what a mean percussionist!) they´ll have to excuse me for getting a bit restless towards the end of their concert. I was afraid I had to run for the bus before Vandermark/Nilssen-Love even started. I did not have to worry though, because Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ken Vandermark (sax, clarinet) did an intense but quite short set (45 minutes). Great if you ask me, but I think some of the people in the audience didn´t even realize it was over, and then the musicians were gone. I was happy still, and even got on the last bus home. Some more clips from the concert on YouTube (here and here).
Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love both play in several bands (OK, lots of bands), and they have several new albums on the market as usual. More on some of the albums in the blog later I guess.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

What's Rattlin' On The Moon?


A message to all Soft Machine fans: Moonjune Records are now selling Beppe Crovella's "What's Rattlin' On The Moon? - A personal vision of the music of Mike Ratledge".

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Resonance


dzgast uploaded several videos with KEN VANDERMARK «RESONANCE PROJECT» (October 31, Gdansk/Poland). Musicians:
Ken Vandermark: reeds (USA)
Dave Rempis: saxophones (USA)
Mikolaj Trzaska: reeds (Poland)
Magnus Broo: trumpet (Sweden)
Per-Ake Holmlander: tuba (Sweden)
Steve Swell: trombone (USA)
Tim Daisy: drums (USA)
Michael Zerang: percussion (USA)
Mark Tokar: bass (Ukraine)
Waclaw Zimpel - reeds (Poland)

Vandermark is touring Norway with Paal Nilssen-Love these days: Trondheim (11/11), Bergen (12/11), Stavanger (13/11), Drammen (14/11) and Oslo (15/11). Then they are off to Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, and Denmark (see places and dates here).

Charlie Darwin


Enjoy The Low Anthem´s beautiful song "Charlie Darwin", with a perfect video to follow. The video is made by Glenn Z Taunton and Simon Taffe for End of the Road Films. And it´s 200 years since CharlesDarwin was born too.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A season in hell

Please note: Saturday 14 November you may listen to Rimbaud´s "A Season in Hell" on BBC Radio 3, narrated by Carl Prekopp, with soundscapes by composer Elizabeth Purnell and with with poems sung by Robert Wyatt. I sure hope it will be available afterwards too, because I am at a concert again this Saturday evening.

British jazz, Krog, Lindström

- Petter Herbertsson has written a piece on the step from listening to Canterbury music to British jazz in the Swedish magazine Friendly Noise (and it´s in Swedish). See also the Wire´s primer British Visionary Jazz.
- The Independent on Sunday (8 November 2009) reviews Karin Krog´s reissued album "Joy" (Meantime Records) (an album that´s got lots of great reviews!), and writes: ""Mr Joy", the opening song of this 1968 album by Norwegian vocalist Krog, still sounds startlingly contemporary, like a newwave folk-jazz project referencing Robert Wyatt and early John Martyn".
- Swedish newspaper Gøteborgs-Posten (paper version 9 November 2009) interviews Jeanette Lindström on the cooperation with Robert Wyatt on the album "Attitude and orbit control". She tells she was very touched by Wyatt´s music, listening to him after recommendations from producer Göran Petersen. "I became happy and felt free by listening, and remembered that I could do just what I wanted to" (my translation from Swedish, no offence I hope) . After writing to Wyatt he immediately called back, and then she visited him in England to work. The Swedes!
Let´s have the piece on the web Göteborgs-Posten, OK?

Monday, November 9, 2009

All Ears 2010


Borbetomagus
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

The festival season of 2010 is approaching! The impro and noise festival All Ears in Oslo, is scheduled for 14 - 17 January. The program is not official yet. On the picture you see Borbetomagus playing at the 2009 festival. Some more pictures here.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

John Giorno


I heard John Giorno in Bergen in 1983, when he toured with William Burroghs, but missed him this time at the Audiatur festival for new poetry (link to Norwegian site). Thanks to the one who filmed John Giorno read "Just say no to family values" at the Landmark club.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Morning

Jeanette Lindstrøm recently put "Morning" with Robert Wyatt, from "Attitude & Orbit Control", on her MySpace page.

Steve Hamilton: "Night Work"


Steve Hamilton: "Night Work"
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

"Night work" by Steve Hamilton (Orion 2008) is a quite exciting read, and an OK crime novel. Theme: "somebody is killing people around me, and is it connected to me?" What makes the book stand out for me is that the hero (Joe Trumbull) is a jazz fan, and not only that, he digs free jazz! I didn't know anything about this book until the author commented on a post over at Free Jazz! Several places in the book, Trumbull compares his own life to Albert Ayler's, before Ayler was found drowned in a river.
Quite early in the story Trumbull needs some extra energy before he leaves his appartment: "I needed something huge, so I pulled out Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun. It's a blistering assault on the ears, with eight of Europe's strongest free jazz players going at it back in 1968 like it was the end of the world. Owning this album is probably illegal in many states". It's still legal in Norway, at least I hope so.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Unlimited 23

Unlimited 23 is happening right now in Wels (Austria), and that looks like an exciting festival! I hope to see and hear bits and pieces from these happenings. Spunk is there, and Maja Ratkje is participating in a John Zorn project and also working with Hild Sofie Tafjord in Phantom Orchard Orchestra. Canterbury heroes Fred Frith and Chris Cutler are on the program too.

Information stolen from here:

friday, nov. 6, starting at 7pm
spunk [maja ratkje, hild sofie tafjord, kristin andersen, lene grenager]
speak easy [phil minton, thomas lehn, ute wassermann, martin blume]
john zorns cobra „wels operations“ [ikue mori, zeena parkins, shayna dunkelman, sylvie courvoisier, okkyung lee, maja ratkje, kazuhisa uchihashi, fred frith, david watson, chris cutler, tony buck, noid haberl, makigami koichi]
ktl [peter rehberg, stephen o'malley]
dj l8@ the bar

saturday, nov. 7
afternoon @ different venues in town
phil minton & dieb13 @ im pavillon / 2pm
pamelia kurstin „thinking out loud“ @ im kornspeicher / 3pm

evening program @ schl8hof, starting at 7 pm
agra dharma [koichi makigami, sylvie courvoisier, ikue mori]
lotte anker & okkyung lee & lindha kallerdahl
phantom orchard orchestra [ikue mori & zeena parkins with sara parkins, maggie parkins, shayna dunkelman, maja ratkje, hild sofie tafjord]
fred frith & chris cutler

sunday, nov. 8, starting at 2pm
afternoon @ medienkulturhaus wels, galerie der stadt wels
ikue mori with mark nauseef, makigami koichi, kazuhisa uchihashi
zeena parkins "saw sun here" [zeena parkins, maggie parkins, sara parkins]

evening program @ schl8hof, starting at 6pm
lotte anker & sylvie courvoisier & mark nauseef
peter evans & okkyung lee
glacial [david watson, lee ranaldo, tony buck]
the ex 30 years party! [terrie hessels, andy moor, katherina bornefeld, arnold de boer]
dj l8@ the bar: christof kurzmann & andy moor

Circulasione Totale Orchestra x 3


Please check out Rune Grammofon's 3 CD collection of live recordings of Circulasione Totale Orchestra called "Bandwith". The recordings were done at festivals in Molde, Moers og Zürich. I attended the concert in Molde, and even if I usually say that free jazz is best experienced live, I think these recordings in fact make the music sound more organized and interesting than what I felt at the concert. For the price of one ordinary full priced CD you get 3 CDs,nicely packed in a cover by Kim Hiorthøy and a bunch of fantastic musicians (see info from Rune below)! Just buy it!
Frode Gjerstad (sax and clarinet), Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums), Morten J. Olsen (electronics and drums), Anders Hana (electric guitar), Nick Stephens (acoustic bass), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Sabir Mateen (sax and clarinet), Kevin Norton (vibraphone), Bobby Bradford (cornet) and Lasse Marhaug (electronics). Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (acoustic bass) are playing on disc one and two while Per Zanussi (electric bass) and Hamid Drake (drums) are playing on disc three.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Joe McPhee


Robert Wyatt and Stuff is sorry that we are a bit late with birthday greetings to Joe McPhee , who turned 70 on 3 November. Check out his discography! How about giving a rockin' McPhee a try, and listen to "Sounds like a sandwich" with Norwegian band Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing! They even do Zeppelin's "Whole lotta love". (The album is almost too cheap on iTunes these days, worldwide I hope). Love that album! On the video you'll see Joe McPhee with Paal Nilssen-Love at the 2008 Kongsberg Jazz Festival.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Famlende Forsøk


A couple of days ago I posted a video of the Norwegian band Famlende Forsøk (that I knew next to nothing about) on Wyatting, but I'll take a chance and let some of you foreigners see them too! They read some wild poetry (mostly in Norwegian), claiming in the beginning that they will perform some "pling plong music, while waiting for economic support form the state"!
This piece is recorded at The Henie Onstad Art Center 25 October. You may disagree, but I get some prog and Canterbury feelings here. The band name translates something like "fumbling and trying". I think I like these guys.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Unseen Academicals


It´s been two years since the previous Discworld book ("Making Money") and one year since the previous book for young readers (that´s me included) ("Nation"), and now Sir Terry Pratchett´s new Discworld novel "Unseen Academicals" (Doubleday 2009) is in the shops. This time Pratchett takes a look at football (foot the ball) the Discworld way, and it may sound unbelievable but the smoking, drinking and eating wizards are playing! The capital goes bananas (of course), and our team is in fact doing well (OK, that´s pushing it) with the help of the tactical genius Mr Nutt. Mr Nutt is in fact an orc (the real evil), but he is of course accepted in the end, as werewolves and vampires are. And why not?
I sniggered my way through most of the book (and added a few good laughs), and was happy to meet again some of the old Discworld figures like my fast food hero CMOT Dibbler (cheap rat on a stick, "And that´s cuttin´my own throat").

Read an interview with Sir Terry Pratchett in theTelegraph. He´s got Alzheimer, but I hope he will manage to write some more Discworld novels!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Two French Wyatt interviews

- Quobus 23 October: "Robert Wyatt : Barbe Rouge au pays des merveilles".
- Robert Wyatt : l'interview - lesinrocks.com - 26 octobre 2009.

Bergen


22 May 2008 Frode Gjerstad (alto, clarinets), John Edwards (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums, percussion) played at the Bergen Nattjazz festival. I can not remember why I was not there, but now I may listen to the recordings from the concert on the CD "Bergen" (FMR 2009). I guess touring artists experience a lot, and we may just guess the background for the titles "Waiting for Ryanair" (Part 1 and 2) (four tracks on the record).
If you are sceptical towards free jazz, you have got two recommendations in this blog in a short time, both of them great live recordings. Today "Bergen", and a couple of weeks ago "Reknes" recorded at the Molde Jazz Festival. Frode Gjerstad is central on both of these albums.

Fishing in Oslo



Sunday, November 1, 2009

Resonance


One of Ken Vandermark´s projects is Resonance. There are several quite new recordings to be found on YouTube, among them a concert held in Ukraina:
Magnus Broo: trumpet
Steve Swell: trombone
Dave Rempis: alto and tenor saxophones
Mikołaj Trzaska: alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Wacław Zimpel: clarinet, bass clarinet
Ken Vandermark: tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet
Per-Åke Holmlander: tuba
Mark Tokar: bass
Tim Daisy: drums
Michael Zerang: percussion