LISTENING ROOM… 25 OCTOBER 2002; “I WAS THERE…”
TRACKS
01. GLASGOW: AMM/ Prevost, Tilbury, Rowe/ ‘Tunes Without Measure or End’/ Matchless MRCD44/ ‘Tune 4’/ 06:38
02. BERLIN: ‘B.I.M.P.’/ Oxley, Wachsmann, Thomas, Wand/ ‘Floating Phantoms’/ a|l|l (A division of FMP) 001/ Track #2, ‘Line Out’/ 09:06
03. Dunmall, Edwards (not Rogers, as first programmed)/ FMP116/ ‘Hit And Run’ (first track), ‘Gaulstones’/ c.06:00 the first of 35:27
04.} Butcher, Edwards/ FMP 116/ ‘Dotted’/ 05:47
05.} ‘Spotted’/ 04:55
06. ANTWERP: ‘f.i.quartet’/ Robertson, Houtkamp, Van Hove, Vander Borght/ X-OR ‘field recording 11’/ Track 3, ‘for if ’/ 14:05
07. J. Bauer, Silva, Turner/ ‘Tone/ The Tradition Trio’/ a|l|l 004, the first 10 or so minutes of 51:21
08. L’POOL: Butcher, Robair/ ‘Liverpool (Bluecoat) Concert’/Limited Sedition 026/ Track ‘One’/ c.05:00
09. LONDON: Bailey, Turner/ Track 2/ Incus CD15/ c.08:00 of 15
10. LONDON Thomas/ first solo track/ 08:53 EMANEM 4205
11. LIO/ The last 4 to 5 minutes of the closing improvisation of some 33 minutes/ EMANEM 4206
Advice to
a newly wed man:
LISTEN IN GROOM… 25 OCTOBER 2002
I’M
HAPPY TO SAY:
01.
09:12
Monday, 15 May 2000
On Thursday (04), Hugo
picked me up on the street outside the apartment at about 1210 and drove me to Brussels
airport. A routine flight took me back to Glasgow. I took a taxi back to No. 36. The receipt (that I got without
asking for it) is for £15, signed, I
think, by S or J McCall with a tel: 07931 4041 64 (mobile?[or incomplete]) added on the bottom,
hand-written. Pauline was already checked in to the same room as I had
occupied for the previous weekend.
In the evening, we had a
very good AMM session (Messrs Prevost, Tilbury and Rowe),
[now released as AMM/ Tunes Without Measure or End on Matchless MRCD44; Tune 4 – 06:38]
02a.
…[05 November 1999 (Guy
Fawkes Night)] A ticket for DM 3.90
took me to Podewil, where I
encountered Alex Kolkowski with an unknown female companion. Also, before
or after sets, John Edwards, Pat Thomas, Tutta, Lukas, Matt Wand, Johannes Bauer,
Alexander von Schlippenbach and Wolfgang Fuchs (who told me that Radu
Malfatti is now residing in Vienna).
… I heard the Tony Oxley 4 perform
its first set. At the interval, I spoke to Pat …The second item, I found to be
quite brilliant!
[Now, 020415, some 29 months
later, I have received a present from Tony of the recent release of this
performance. The 4tet (TO, Phil W, Pat T and Matt W) is known as ‘The
B.I.M.P.’ These initials are not explained. The release is called ‘Floating
Phantoms’ (a|l|l (A division
of FMP) 001). The cover art is Tony’s
painting, ‘Score No. 4/ Gouache on paper,
64 x 74 cm.’ There are 5 tracks and the material lasts for 64:10. Along with the CD, Tony sent copies of a number of his
works, much indebted to Mr Alan Davie, still going strong
and over 80, so Tony told me recently; Track
#2, Line Out - 09:06] 15:44
02b.
…and I heard Paul
Dunmall play his set with John Edwards (and not Paul
Rogers, as in the printed programme.
[This was subsequently
released on FMP116/ Hit And Run as
the first track; Gaulstones – c.06:00
the first of 35:27.]) c.22:00
CN [= Contemporaneous Note]:
He (Dunmall)
plays the only circular breathing goose in captivity in Christendom. The Podewillers,
‘divels’ as they are, loved these Border and Northumberland bagpipes.
Then I took a
taxi to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt
(HKW). My ticket for DM 45 got me
access to its Auditorium for JazzFest Berlin’s 2330 session with Thomas
Borgmann and Alliance (Ernst-Ludwig
Petrowsky (ELP), as; Michael
Greiner,d; ‘jayrope’,
electronics), very little of which I caught before returning to the foyer.
There, I came across Hamid Drake. He greeted me like an
old friend and took me down to the Bandroom.
And there I spoke briefly with Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee and, for
some time, with Peter [Brotzmann].
Also made the acquaintance of a very affable Michael Zerang. And
later, after I ran into Tobias Netta in the foyer bar during
the break, the same ticket got me and him in for the Peter’s Chicago Tentet (w. Mars Williams, ts,as,cl; Ken
Vandermark, ts; cl; bcl; Mats Gustafsson, bs, fl; Joe
McPhee, tp; Jeb Bishop, tb; Fred Lonberg-Holm, co; Kent
Kessler, b; Michael Zerang, d, pc; Hamid Drake, d, pc, Toshinori
Kondo, tp). The show ended at 0200. Afterwards, we drove about – Podewil (totally closed), bars (the ‘Paris’ was one), Imperator (Cecil’s haunt) and finally, Onion Fish, where Tobias had a ‘PXX’ and I had two glasses of Orvieto and we shared a cheese plate at
a cost of DM 35. Tobias drove me the short
distance home. It was 0600 when I got in.
02c.
Saturday, (6
November 1999): …By 1740 I was in a shared rehearsal room (DM 660- per month total rent) on Schwedenstrasse. …Here, Tobias Netta was rehearsing with two
women – a g and a b – and a fellow on d. The b was au fait with
Howard
Johnson. The g wore no bra
and silently mouthed her pleasures. Tobias had brought a bottle of cheap
Sauvignon Blanc with him and we
shared it, drinking from coffee mugs. I enjoyed the music, improvised and composed
(by g).
A train from Osloerstrasse
took me (DM 3.90) to Alexanderplatz from where I walked to Podewil, no great distance. I met Pat
Thomas and we went in for the performance of the first set … In the
interval, in the restaurant bar, Pat suggested to me that I should
take the ‘sacred seed’, black cumin,
to cure my coughing. ‘Our father’, as
he referred to his Dad, ‘had great success with it.’ Pat
and I chatted with Sven-Aage Johansson. On the subject of sleeping during
performances SAJ observed that one can always sleep easily to good music,
never bad!
John Butcher did an excellent
set with John Edwards, very enthusiastically received
[and subsequently released
as Tracks 2-5 (Knotted; Plotted; Dotted; Spotted!) on FMP 116 (mentioned above); Dotted
– 05:47; Spotted – 04:55] c.33:00
A chat afterwards with Tony,
his daughter and Tutta, Dieter and Jost The Taciturn, then John Edwards and John
Butcher …Then I took me by taxi home, calling at the garage store for a
supper supply, consumed to the accompaniment of the closing, gripping sections
of a play – Dead White Males – by one
Williamson,
on BBCWS that ended at 0100.
03.
10:45 Saturday, 05 August,
2000
…Around 1900 [on Friday 04
August] I used the tram tickets last chance to get over by the Zuid Pool, again on the number 10 tram. I walked by, where a small
crowd was gathering outside to closed doors. I walked on to the Hessian House and had a couple of bollekes there, one in (with pills), one
out on the sidewalk, looking at Engels.
I strolled back and it was past 2000. I encountered the regular German contingent and chatted with one
of them (Rudi). Nickelsdorf
had been a great success by all accounts. I paid for a ‘season’ ticket for this
the XXVII edition of the WIMfest, descended to the bar and got a glass of white
wine, ascended and wandered around the foyer and auditorium. I saw a few
familiar faces including Andre Goudbeek and Peter The Bass with whom I exchanged
greetings. Hugo turned up. We took up our position on the back row, right
end (seen from the performance area). Fred made his usual long Flemish introduction then pianist, Augusti
Fernandez, of Barcelona –
recently enjoyed by Hugo and I in Glasgow
– did a splendid solo set. Our black friend, Ngoy Diambi, had, by
chance, come to sit on the steps before us – it was a full house, about 150
people. We chatted with him in the interval, mainly on his Clifford Thornton
project. Hugo got me a wine. Next we had Lovens and Metha.
… ‘Lines’ rounded things off,
fortunately only slightly marred by the drunk. Theirs was a brilliant set.
After it, I spoke briefly with Phil Wachsmann …
10:31 Sunday, 06 August 2000
And that was when (Saturday,
05) Hugo
re-entered the house. We went out together almost immediately. We drove to Lier and direct to the Draaiboom, happily open! We had fried
eel for starters then ‘in ‘t groen’
for a main course! Downed them with the house white, as usual. We sat outdoors
in good weather. Then we drove over to visit Jefke [Hugo’s
father, sadly no longer of this world] in his institution – a very relaxed one.
… We stayed quite a while. Hugo walked to the local baker’s and
came back with three tarts and one éclair. This latter was consumed first by Jefke
and he followed up with two tarts; the strawberry one, I had. Hugo
went and got coffee. We were sitting with Jefke at his usual round table with
his two mates of newspaper picture fame. Five knights at the Round Table, Jos to my left. He spoke
a little but I learned that he didn’t speak English.
The other guy, almost blind and deaf on the right side, seated to my right,
remained silent. Both of them dozed for most of the time. I got a few seconds
of Deevee of Jefke when I had him
holding his head relatively high, and chatting in Flemish. Eventually, we took our leave of him and all and drove off
to MUHKA (Antwerp’s Museum of
Contemporary Art) where I got out and Hugo returned to house-moving. I
examined the three shows that had all been recommended to me by Rudi
of the German contingent. The James
Lee Byars/ Joseph Beuys (‘(F)olded,
crushed and crumbled - the whole sensual world to hold’) correspondence is
dead letters from the past given some immediacy by the quaintness of their
production all those years ago. The Eddy de Vos was not my bag and of
all his static, bland, monochromatical* paintings (no more, no less!) I
captured but one: a dog caught forever in that arched back position indicative
of a number two bowel movement – what was forthcoming perhaps encapsulated my
summing-up of this show! (* = not black-and-white,
but with that ‘feel’.) Then I turned
to Mona
Hatoum. I watched her wonderful, moving video (25 mins) then explored
the diversity of her imagination, every piece of which I captured for my
posterity. I thought this show was great! From there, I walked down to the Photography Museum, but it was closed
after 1700 so I did not get to see those ‘Crazy
Globes’.
…I was over at the Zuid Pool by 2020 in the evening. The
show was as per published programme, with illustrations by me.
…There
were three good sessions, and for the two nights, I did not miss a note.
[One of these was the
‘f.i.quartet’ – Herb Robertson, Luc Houtkamp, Fred Van Hove and Ivo Vander
Borght – was subsequently released by X-OR as ‘field recording 11’. My copy is
marked as example 476 out of 500. It comes from the Saturday sessions; Track 3 (of 3), for if – 14:05] c.47:00
Spoke with FvH
briefly, and Paul Lytton with his ‘encumbrance’,
Isobel,
and Augusti
F who introduced a lady friend, whose name I do not recall…
04.
Next day (Saturday (04 August
2001)), … Then we three drove on to the 1600 session at the Protestantse Kerk close to the University. Johannes Bauer played a
powerful trombone solo. Next, Fred Van Hove played a solo on the
church organ. It was a restrained proposal. Then there was a finale duet.
…We were back at the South Pole not much after 2030. I ran
into Rhodri
Davies almost immediately and had a chat with him and his co-musicians
before going up to the hot gods for their performance as Cranc: Angharad Davies (Rhodri’s sister), violin, Nikos
Veliotis, cello, Rhodri Davies, harp. ‘In the Tradition’ eventually followed
this trio comprising Johannes Bauer, trombone, Alan
Silva, synthesizer and Roger Turner, percussion.
[Released as ‘Tone/ The
Tradition Trio’ on a|l|l 004, all 51m 21s of it; the first 10 or so minutes]
(c. 57:00)
I spoke very briefly with Roger
before his show and again after it. …
05.
08:33 Friday, 03 March 2000
…In the evening, Pauline
drove us to the vicinity of the Bluecoat.
We park near the institution known as Wally
Wong’s, a large, fast Chinese
food joint. For four quid each (full rate) we heard, in the Sandon Room, the Phils Morton and Trumpets (Lucking) in duo
improvisations: 1953 - 2035 m.o.l.
After an interval, it was John
Butcher and Gino Robair. John, with whom I chatted a little
before the show got underway, is a master saxophonist exponent of free
improvisation. Mr Robair is a quirky American
percussion (and wider) performer.
John told me that he
and Gino
were to record in the next few days with Derek at Toby’s Moat. Together, for some forty minutes,
they created forms that I enjoyed greatly. There was a goodly maximum of
eighteen persons present, including the four performers and PhilM’s
Pat,
Alice
and Elliott
and a chap [Chris Trent] apparently along with the stars to record (coughs
and all!) Also present – Marion, … Neil Murphy and PhilH
were present, also Matt Wand and his partner. I had a chat with them in the
interval…
[Released under Braxtonian
titling as ‘Liverpool (Bluecoat) Concert’ on Limited Sedition’ as 026. Mine is
131 of 241 examples; Track ‘One’ – c.05:00] (c.62:00)
2251: Harry Seacombe on telly
mentions (the talking dead) the cinema at which he saw movies in his S. Wales childhood and remembers that it
was known as ‘The Bughouse’. This
brings back to me that such was our nickname for the Woolton Picture House
when I was a kid – and that is a cinema that still functions today.
06.
Yesterday (02 March 2001),
after the ‘Swan’, the ‘Queen Charlotte’ and ‘Cosmoba’ Italian meal then, at 1900, to October
[Gallery]. Saw ‘Tim the Tape’ there and entered. All tickets were sold out. But a
young fellow [nearby in the queue], heard my lamentations and he said that he
was picking up two though now only needed one. I bought the spare immediately,
for £6.50 [the] ‘reservation [in advance price’],
not £8.00 as would have been the ‘door’ price. [I have retained this ‘lucky’ ticket.] I saw Karen
and Alex
Ward in the ‘bar’. I had a
chat with Rhodri Davies – discussed Bangor
and Chris
Burn’s ‘Ensemblette’. Up to
gig. Near rear. Video.
[The duo with Roger
Turner ensuing from this gig is now (020415) out as Track 2 on Incus CD15, a copy of which I bought from Karen in the Birmingham Electric Cinema; c.08:00 of 15] (66:36)
Post gig, spoke to Steve
Noble and gave tape [of Konk Pack
at Liverpool Art College] to Roger
Turner. Thomas [Lehn] was very friendly. […(Hodg
distant…)] DB fine. Brief chat [with him] amongst others. Gave K.
the floppy. Will ring Monday re ‘Shanghai’.
Over to Queen Charlotte for drinks
joining/ joined by SteveN, TimT, Alex, Karen, Rhodri, Mark Wastell,
Roger T, Thomas L. To Holborn
[on foot, in light snow, then by Tube
to] Tottenham Court Road [where the
train was delayed and the platform became so densely crowded that I decided to
get out while I still could.] To Shaftesbury
Avenue [on foot in heavier snow where – in the shadow of ‘Ray’s Jazz’ – where I stood for what
seemed like an age, contemplating a death by slow freezing in the increasing
snow when] eventually a cab came. £19
to Earlsfield [with a driver – of Iranian (and other, unspecified)
descent, ‘born in this country’ - who
kept me alive by questioning me about the colonial history of Hong Kong…
07a.
Yesterday (04 May 2001), …
Pauline and I ate an early evening
meal and got going at about 1830 for the
Conway Hall, abode of the South Place Ethical Society. It is at 25, Red Lion Square, Holborn, the first time we had been
there. We went by train and tubes and were there at 1935. Both Evan
and Eddie
were on the door and Eddie provided me with my £40’s worth of tickets for everything
and one of £10 for Pauline.
Steve
Beresford was in chatty mood and we spoke for some time before the
proceedings got underway. He reminded me that Annie Gosfield is the
niece of Phil Silvers’ ‘Doberman’,
something of which we both agreed she could be very proud. We saw and greeted a
number of friends and acquaintances. The show is announced as by the yellow
pages - more accurate than the colourful flier handed out by Evan
in Le Mans – as ‘freedom of the city 2001/ - a festival of radical & improvised
music -/ in association with BBC Radio 3 and Jazz on 3/ London, Conway Hall –
2001 May 4-7’). It got going towards 2000, under the exhortation ‘Unto thine own self be true’ and between
two BBCR3 placards looking like cogs
of ‘Visit Spain’ posters. The
curtains parted and the manifestation on the stage was of a quartet of young
men crouched on the floor, faces barely visible and actions in producing
minimal sounds in what I discerned to be three movements, the middle of which I
surmised was ‘adagio’ by their
standard! They were Jamie Coleman, Alex James, Seymour Wright and John
Lely. …
Pat (Thomas, solo piano) came next. A short set, but a pleasure.
I spoke with him in the following interval. Then it was the turn of ‘Mass Producers/ playing two new pieces by
Caroline
Kraabel’ (perhaps seven months pregnant by Pauline’s estimation) and
her saxophonists, a team of twenty white-clad women. I recognised one as the
woman in ‘Random Viewers’. They
played ‘Performance for Large Saxophone
Ensemble 3 for 21 alto/ tenor/ soprano saxes plus voice’ and ‘PLSE 4 for solo voice (Maggie Nicols) and twelve alto saxophones’. Maggie
was in brilliant form. …
07b.
00:55 Monday, May 07, 2001
And a holiday…
Saturday (05), I made my way out alone to Conway Hall. The afternoon session (‘organised by Emanem’ as was the evening, too,) brought me – via the inimitable introductions of Martin Davidson, stolidly pushing his wares - Quatour Accorde (Tony Wren, Phil Durrant, Charlotte Hug, Mark Wastell). …I spoke with Mr Wastell. Veryan Weston, John Edwards and Mark Sanders came next.
Mark had rushed from looking after the kids – they were left with his parents – and relied upon Roger Turner for a drum kit. I spoke with all of these.
This session was rounded off by Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton (with whom
I conversed for some time), John Russell (we chatted a little,
he looked very good after a holiday), Paul Rutherford …and Roger
Turner ‘in various combinations’
(and I thought of Arthur Askey!) I wandered around in the area before settling upon a salad Nicoise at Pizza Express (99 Holborn, WC1V 6LF; Tel: 020 7831 5305; Head Office Tel: 020 8960 8238 – ‘Opening Times: Please ask staff for details’) with half a bottle of their house white. I wandered further after this repast. And found myself at the Cochrane Theatre on Southampton Row and examining the programme for the evening. Imagine my pleasure then horror upon discovering that they (Patricia Boyette, Peader Kirk and Phillip Zarrilli, directing and performing) were playing ‘Ohio Impromptu’, ‘Not I’, ‘Act Without Words I’ and ‘Rockaby’ but only for this very evening – a one off. Tomorrow it is the final show of a tour and that is in Cardiff! So these Beckett pieces remain unseen, unheard by me though it was difficult choosing between them and the evening performances in Conway Hall.
…The evening session comprised the Temorary
Brass Trio – Ian Smith, Gail Brand and Oren Marshall.
I spoke with Oren in the following interval and
he introduced me to a fellow tuba player from Norway, Borre Molstad.
Then it was Maggie, Caroline and Charlotte. Steve Beresford and John Butcher played next then it was ‘Strings with (and without) Evan Parker’. The strings were Chris Burn, Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Phil Durrant, John Edwards, Susanna Ferrer, Sylvia Hallett, Kaffe Matthews, Marcio Mattos, John Russell, Philipp Wachsmann and Mark Wastell.
Shortly after it was over, I took a taxi to Waterloo and the 2302 train home from Platform 18 (an unusually high number), ‘front four coaches’.
07c.
Yesterday (06 May 2001), …The afternoon session was Mick Beck (with whom we both spoke afterwards), Matt Wand (chatted briefly) and Paul Hession (with whom I spoke after his second performance of the day). They were followed by the Chris Burn Ensemble (with John Butcher, Matthew Hutchinson, John Russell and Mark Wastell). We ate at pizza at the Pizza Express.
Back for the evening session, ‘organised by Steve Beresford & Evan Parker’, we had the London Improvisers Orchestra ‘performing a (sic) free improvisations and pieces directed by Knut Aufermann, Steve Beresford (featuring Sylvia Hallett), Terry Day, Simon H. Fell, Caroline Kraabel… Dave Tucker and Philipp Wachsmann (featuring strings)’. …I’m sure Martin Davidson will put it out very soon as a two or three CD set, with definitive information.
And, of course, I must not forget to visit the web-site, open for the forthcoming twelve months! …
[Material recorded on 4, 5 6 May 2001 during this FREEDOM OF THE CITY festival has been released by Martin on EMANEM 4205 and 4206, 4CDs; Pat Thomas’s first solo track – 08:53 and the last 4 to 5 minutes of the closing improvisation of some 33 minutes by the LIO] (80)