Sunday 12th just gone saw the fourth gig this year of the concert series I run with Ross Lambert and Seymour Wright - ongaku: enjoy_sound at 291 Gallery in London. Assif Tsahar sent me an e-mail, after finding the site listed on the links section of a different promoter, and on the basis of that, we set up the first gig either Assif or Cooper-Moore had ever done in the UK. Although we weren't really familiar with the music of either man - bits and pieces here or there - organising a gig for them seemed like the best possible introduction.
We'd put gigs on for touring people before, Joe McPhee and Tetuzi Akiyama in January and June of this year, but this was the first time that we'd not placed them as individuals into groups of our own devise, and in organisational terms, the first time we'd been responsible for picking up from airports, accommodation etc. - as the only driver, it meant I spent the better part of 24 hours in car, not something I've done for some time, and evident from a couple of close shaves.
Promoting a gig on spec, as opposed to the invitation process that's served well for the past eight gigs entails a degree of risk - most gigs I go to I have an idea what the people playing sound like, even if that in itself contains a vast array of unpredictability in terms of approach or instrumental choice - Takehiro Nishide's use of construction works barriers, the A&Z of London, man-sized cardboard boxes and other found instruments, or just guitar and amplifier are part of a musical personality that I'm quite familiar with, despite the surprise entailed when he turns up with one of them or none, or all of them at a gig, I know who he is. In London's scene, it's fairly difficult to hear people you've never heard before - new people emerge, people tour, but the scene is small enough that they're probably playing with someone else you know anyway.
Assif Tsahar and Cooper-Moore's association goes back over ten years. This has led to their formation, although a duo, into what could be termed a band - they perform songs, have developed a mutual on-stage persona, stuff like that. In terms of London's improv scene, long-term groupings are rare, performing songs is even rarer, and this was the first time in nine gigs that any composed music had been performed at ongaku. Cooper-Moore, who's built instruments included flutes, a stringed instrument somewhat resembling an amplified-acoustic bass guitar/banjo, and a bowed piece of (I think) metal held in the teeth, using the mouth as a resonator, with a pick up placed to receive both the bowing and the vocalisation, has maintained the role of entertainer, something that has been largely eradicated from improvised music. While not playing, he would cajole the audience (who although not as big as we'd hoped - 40ish at a venue easily capable seating 80 - were very attentive and enthusiastic) into on-the-spot feedback at every opportunity - "what do you think?" " do you play an instrument yourself?" "have you heard this kind of music before?" - the last two questions particularly amusing when directed towards Tim Hodgkinson of Konk Pack. All of this betrays a history of playing free-jazz or improvised music extending backwards to much colder receptions, and less open-minded audiences, and a very different set of performance/audience expectations. The usual English mindset of "well if they don't know what it is already, they'll probably hate it, but I'll play the same anyway", was reversed - if someone didn't like what they were hearing, there was a fair chance they'd have to explain why before they were allowed to leave.
Although there was a smaller audience than we'd hoped for, we knew far fewer of them than usual - a few answered Cooper-Moore's third question "have you ever heard this kind of music before" with a clear "no", a sign that the presence of two Americans (even if one of them is Israeli) had drawn out people from elsewhere than the usual round of gigs, but left many regulars staying at home. London, although boasting a healthy free-improv scene, and a ( less) healthy jazz scene, doesn't really possess a free-jazz scene - most of the jazz is more mainstream, and the free-improv is usually just that, free-improv not free-jazz. Cooper-Moore and Assif Tsahar's presence in London therefore highlighted this division more than most others - the Vortex is the only jazz club that extends in this direction, and the economics of most improvised music clubs (including ours) make touring difficult - hence two gigs in the UK, but several weeks for both of them in different combinations around continental Europe.
As to the music, I was on the door for much of it, and separated by about 40 feet and wooden double doors from the players, but notable parts I caught almost in totality were Cooper-Moore's solo on his mouth-resonated instrument, which I think is called the diddleybo, and was one of the most fascinating things I've seen for a while - at times it sounded like a three foot long jaws harp. The trio set which Ross Lambert (guitar) did with the duo at the end further highlighted how far British improvised music has become removed from American free-jazz - there was a discussion of keys at the beginning, which was promptly ignored by Mr Lambert, and the first couple of minutes had the making of a train wreck, but over 30 minutes or so, there was a gradual shift into several musical areas neither European nor American. Assif's excited discussions about John Butcher and Derek Bailey in the car on the way to the venue also signalled that there's perhaps less distance between the recent improvised music traditions of both countries than has been admitted, no matter how superficially they seem unrelated.
Snagged a copy of their new CD, America, will post comments when I've had a chance to listen to it properly.
Posted by on October 18, 2003 11:55 AMNat, thanks a lot for posting the details on this gig & your experiences w/ Assif & Cooper-Moore. I had the chance to present Assif with Susie Ibarra about four years ago in Madison, Wisconsin & it was a great experience. Since then I’ve run into him at the Vision Festival the past few years & I’m always impressed with his sincerity & insights.
I think he’s received an undeservedly bad rap in certain circles with some folks dismissing him as a throwback skronk saxophonist without really paying attention the broader scope of his interests. For instance, people have criticized him for being an Ayler-clone, but that’s a comparison I don’t really hear in his playing or get for that matter. His decision to feature a large orchestra comprised mainly of students, emphasizing strings & brass & specifically devoid of saxophones, at Vision last year was a bold move & one that I really respected. His stated aim was to challenge the conventions of the Festival & he succeeded in doing so to the chagrin of some audience members.
Cooper-Moore’s got integrity & irreverence to spare and a satchel full of anecdotal stories that I’m convinced is bottomless. I can still picture him stage side at Vision in his ball cap & painter’s jump suit lying on the floor, hands clasped behind head, jovially heckling the performers. That sort of behavior from anyone else would seem insulting, but from Cooper-Moore it always comes across as endearing. His piano playing is truly underrated IMHO and it’s great to see him putting more recordings in circulation recently.
I’m really looking forward to hearing the new Hopscotch releases including AMERICA, as well as reading your comments on it.
Nat--thanks for the report. I don't know a lot about either musician so it's useful to have a little more info & anecdote. What I've heard of Cooper Moore was enjoyable--his work in Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble & in In Order to Survive. I've heard Tshar twice in very different settings--once in trio with Wm Parker & Ibarra, live; once on Hugh Ragin's Feel the Sunshine. Two very different occasions--the first was an exasperatingly one-note performance of late-Trane/Ayler shriek & wail, the other a dogged attempt to play "in the tradition", with a lot of borrowings from David Murray & James Carter--not disgracing himself but he sounded pretty callow next to Ragin. In neither case did I really feel I'd heard Tshar (or should that be "heard Tshar"). Can anyone report on his bigband efforts?
Posted by: Nate Dorward at October 18, 2003 8:43 PMNat, I wish all live reviews were like this. These loose boundaries between Europe and the US are always of interest to me, so it's refreshing to read this kind of perspective on the topic. Do you feel that Lambert was an appropriate choice for a guest sitting? I take it he didn't know Tsahar's music prior to the set?
Posted by: al at October 19, 2003 9:43 PMTsahar’s two big band discs (both on Hopscotch) are pretty neat. EMBRACING THE VOID, the earlier of the two, is more standard in instrumentation & features a modest phalanx of brass & reeds w/ traditional rhythm section. I hear echoes of Ellingtonia filtered thru Mingus & Contemporary Classical. It’s broken into ten convenient segments, each one a launching pad for one or two (& in one case, three) soloists. Transitions between parts are sometimes rickety, but overall the thing hangs together pretty well. It was recorded live at the Knit, so the sound isn’t always the best. Nice assortment of players though, including: Steve Swell, Taylor Ho Bynum, Ori Kaplan, Alex Harding, Craig Taborn & Tom Abbs.
THE LABYRINTH is the sans-saxophones band I mentioned above, just lots of strings, brass, clarinets, flutes & percussion. Tsahar once again cleaves the piece into ten episodes (what he calls ‘paths’) and scores each for soloist(s). The mood/feel is a bit more dour and stringent due to the proliferation of strings, but I like the wide dynamic shifts his arrangements coax from the players, several of whom are Julliard students if I remember right.
Both are worth hearing, but I actually prefer his earlier experiment with larger ensemble- THE HOLLOW WORLD. It balances four brass & three saxophones atop the percussion of Susie Ibarra & sometimes teeters on the edge of collapse, but there’s something about the combination & the way it’s realized that speaks to me.
>I think he’s received an undeservedly bad rap in certain circles with some folks dismissing him as a throwback skronk saxophonist without really paying attention the broader scope of his interests. For instance, people have criticized him for being an Ayler-clone, but that’s a comparison I don’t really hear in his playing or get for that matter.
I don't think he's a throwback, and he's a terrifically nice guy, but the first few times I saw him live I really did feel like he was very consciously emulating the work of older folks he respected. I wrote about him somewhere once and said that when you're listening to him, you can picture his record collection. But I do think he's gotten past that now, he's worked a lot of his strongest influences out of his system, and is probably gonna be doing some really strong work in the future. The one CD I have by him is Deals, Ideas & Ideals, a trio with Peter Kowald and Rashied Ali from a year or two ago, and it's quite nice. I had another one—a quartet with Ragin, Kowald and Hamid Drake—but that didn't impress me as much, and I wound up getting rid of it.
I can't really hold the obviousness of his influences against him, anyway—it took me years to work all the Raymond Chandler and Hunter Thompson out of my writing, and thank God I did it before I started getting published. Fortunately, I didn't discover Lester Bangs until after I was already publishing, so it was too late for him to destroy me, as he's destroyed so many other critics.
Posted by: Phil Freeman at October 20, 2003 7:14 AMI hear you Phil, but I think he’s come along way since his earlier recordings. SHEKINA on Eremite is definitely the work of a guy in thrall of his influences. And EIN SOF on Silkheart (w/ the same trio Nate was referring to) is also. But with HOME COOKIN’ onward I think he started coming into his own sound. The player he is today is much more individualistic & self-assured. One thing I’ve noticed more over the past few years is his affinity with drummers. He works very well with drums as primary foil (in much the same way that Fred Anderson does) and has managed to hook up with some of the doyens of the trap set (Drake, Ali, Murray, etc.).
On a side note I’d like to check out some of Phil’s Chandler-inspired prose. The hardnosed tough guy critic with a heart of gold.
Al,
We enjoy putting people in either difficult situations, or situations they otherwise wouldn't be put into if we weren't organising the gig. Ross had heard Tsahar's duo CD with Hamid Drake before the gig, but one CD doesn't equal familiarity. A fair amount of leeway was given in both directions for the trio to work, but in the context of this promoting activity, we're interested in that being the case. For those who don't know Ross Lambert's playing, he's on the 9! none(-t) Cd that I'm also on, and also Lucky Rabbit (duos with Seymour Wright, and a track with Ami Yoshida, Tetsuro Yasunaga and Utah Kawasaki) - but the only guitarist he talks about is James Blood Ulmer. We think very carefully about who we put on, and in what combinations, but that also includes putting on things that have a level of unpredictability before they happen.
I've still not had a chance to check out the CDs, but will offer more thoughts when I do.
Posted by: Nathaniel Catchpole at October 21, 2003 4:05 PMHi!
As to Assif Tsahar. This Sunday (October 26) he's going to give a gig in Krakow, Poland with
Mat Maneri on violin& viola and Jim Black on drums. I know some CDs with Assif but I have never heard him in this lineup. Have you? If yes, what do you think?
Zygmunt Gruntkowski
Posted by: Zygmunt Gruntkowski at October 23, 2003 6:22 AMZygmunt, I’ve not heard the trio yet, but they do have a new recording, JAM, on Assif’s Hopscotch label. Given each player’s track record, the combination sounds very promising. Please post your perceptions of the Sunday concert if you have a chance.
Posted by: derek at October 23, 2003 6:48 AMI've never heard Assif in that lineup but you can be sure that I'd be there just to hear Maneri and Black together. Sounds promising.
Nice site, btw. (3-cie Ucho)
Posted by: al at October 23, 2003 6:57 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................