Friday, 30 April 2004
0) 01/Walking on water
Bead (see below) Stop at:08:39
01 02/ Line Out Tony Oxley, pc; PW; Pat Thomas, p+; Matt Wand, sampler.
all 001(FMP) 991105 Berlin/ Total Music Meeting [IWT(Note 1)] 09:06
02 04/ 903/4 ISKRA1903 = Paul Rutherford, tb; PW; Barry Guy, b.
Maya9502 921005 Vancouver/ Western Front 11:40
03 03/ - E-A Ens. = Evan Parker; PW; Agusti Fernandez; Guy;
Paul Lytton; Lawrence Casserley; Joel Ryan; Walter Prati; Marco Vecchi
ECM1852** 0210-- 05:09
[** Theres are two other Electro-Acoustic Ensemble releases on ECM,
‘Drawn Inward’ rec.9812 and ‘Towards the Margins’ rec. 9605]
04 04/ (solo) EP Freezone 2000 (000730) 09:59
[private recording] [IWT(Note 2)]
05 3/ Double LIO
Rainbow
Emanem4206 010506 London (Conway Hall)/ FOTC IWT[N.3] 06:17
06 11/Zero+ josephson/PW/Lindsay/smith/blume
Balance Point 007 030418 Oakland ca 03:39
There will be some DVD material;
And, perhaps, some selections from material provided by Tony Wren (see below).
Note 1: IWT (I was there!) – From my notes:
Friday, (5): … A ticket for DM
3.90 took me to Podewil, where I encountered Alex Kolkowski
… Also, before or after sets, John Edwards, Pat Thomas, Tutta, Lukas,
Matt Wand, Johannes Bauer, Alexander von Schlippenbach and
Wolfgang Fuchs … I heard the Tony Oxley 4 perform
its first set. At the interval, I spoke to Pat and told him that
for me this was [outstanding]. 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’ (all (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 examples of his work, much indebted to Mr
Davie, still going strong and over 80, so Tony told me
recently.]…
[040214: And, of course, Mr Davie
became a central strand in the ‘horizontalization’ of the Berlin Total Music
Meeting in 2003, this being a means by which to ensure financial assistance from
the city fathers…]
Note 2: Re Appleby: On Sunday (30 [July 2000]) we breakfasted at 0830 to the accompaniment of birds at the nut supplies then checked out…[of our Morland village B&B]. We headed for the 0953 train to Settle, our plan being to enjoy the views there and back before the afternoon [FREEZONE] sessions. This plan did not come to fruition as the train, when it eventually arrived, was some forty minutes late. We did discover Malcolm Griffiths with Derek Watkins, bound for London via Leeds and York and there were others with connections to make. This privatisation of the railways has certainly made a massive [and incredibly negative (2004)] difference! So we returned to the Jazz field and bought our tickets for the day sessions. … We rose to the Royal Oak for refreshment before the 1330 – 1730 St Michael’s sessions with Evan and his Freezone cohorts. … We partook of the entire menu at St Michael’s – and there was a printed programme: Five sets, each starting with a solo, then a duo and ending with a trio.
(Paul Rutherford; Evan Parker; Phil Wachsmann; Paul Dunmall; Tony Levin)
1. PR; EP, PW; PD, PR, TL
2. TL; EP (ss), PD (ss); PW, PR, TL
3. PW; PD, TL; PW, EP, PR
4. PD (the pipes!); PW, PR; PD (ts), EP (ts), TL
5. EP (ss); PW, TL; EP, PD, PR.
Ten-minute breaks occurred between sets, except the final one, that was twenty minutes. The break minutes were generous and it was close to 1800 when the proceedings terminated. In the break after the second trio, one that I found quite exquisite, I spoke with Chris Trent who was recording all. He had been present to record when John Butcher and Gino Robair did their Frakture gig at the Bluecoat. He intimated that he would indeed send me a copy of his recording. I greeted PW and PR. We left after the show. It had rained and during one item thunder had clapped loudly followed by a short downpour. About 2030, we were chez nous…
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Some notes:
In my 1998 first edition of the new Grove’s Dictionary of Jazz, Wachsmann, Phil(ipp John Paul), British violinist, is the first in under ‘W’!
Seems that he was born on 5 August 1944 in Kampala, Uganda; studied music in England, USA and Paris (1963-9) and taught at Durham U., (69/70).
In 1971 he formed the group, ‘Chamberpot’… Webern… free improvisation… electronics…
Has worked with Derek Bailey (incl. His ‘Company’), Lytton, Malfatti, Oxley, LJCO, Fred Van Hove, Guy + Rutherford (Iskra 1903), Electric String Trio, King Ubu Orch (84).
Composed for film, mixed media – dancers, artists.
A founder of the label, ‘Bead’ in 1975
‘Wachsmann’s playing may be heard to advantage’, says Simon Adams, author of this Grove item, ‘on his solo album Writing on [actually, it is Writing IN, not ON!] Water (1984, Bead 23)
As it happens, I did one of my very few efforts at a review (dated 4th April 1986) of this release for the Canadian CODA magazine at the request of its editor then, Bill Smith. It appears in Issue 211 (Dec86/ Jan87) as one of six releases reviewed. I am including it here to give an example of the kind of review that I think is tolerable and that I would like to see more of (if we have to have them!) It includes just about all the information that can be gleaned from the release packaging. Contrasting with this comes the second paragraph, a lyrical appreciation of the material that avoids comparatives, either with the performers other extant works or with those of other performers. It reads like this:
‘To begin at the end of the list [i.e., with the most recent recording date/s]… based upon the information provided with the release, the BEAD Writing in Water of Wachsmann involved Brigitte and Gert Eckel (cover etching and design, respectively); Chris Green (who made the digital recording of the material on side one – Writing in Water (26:25) at its performance at the Actual Festival held – either on the 7th September or the 19th October, 1984, there being given contradictory information – at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London); Pamela Hiley (a dancer involved with the performances released on three of the six tracks on side two); Matthew Hutchinson (who is responsible for the preparation of the six tracks on side two, collectively titled Water Writing, (19:55)) They are: Prelude (1:37), Song (1:42), Violin Song (2:55), Monody Line with Squeaks and Footwork in Two Parts (5:10), Blurred Edge (6:04) and Melody (3:00); June Siddall (another dancer, involved with the performances released on two of the tracks of side two, one of which also involves Ms. Hiley); Danny Trebus (‘layout preparations’); Erika Wachsmann (who took the photograph of the principal which is reproduced in monochrome on the back of the sleeve); and the principal, Phil Wachsmann (violin and electronics)…
Fiddled excursions of Wachsmann – full with the flavours of time passed, which such an ancient instrument, developed to permit, encourage even, such subtleties of tone and diversities of timbre coupled with his electronic signal-fiddling, pointing up the delicacies, never dominating the product – positively seductive.’
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Out of the blue, on 30th January 2004 came an e-mail from Tony
Wren on the subject of Phil Wachsmann in the
Listening Room:
Hi Roger
I notice you’re doing a programme on Phil Wachsmann soon.
I don’t know if you’re in touch with him about unpublished live
recordings, or if you want to stick to the published discography.
But since Phil’s improv career really started (as you say) with
Chamberpot, it might be interesting to demonstrate that he and I still have an
ongoing musical relationship.
Among various things we have done over the past few years,
a trio in April 2002 with Howard Riley and
myself at St Cyprian’s stands out;
and a new quartet exists [a successor to my Quatuor
Accorde] called Quatuor Encorde, with
Charlotte Hug, and Marcio Mattos on cello –
there are recordings from April 2002 at
the Bonnington and Sept 2002 at the Red Rose, while hopefully there will be
some more material captured at our gig next Wednesday at the Red
Rose. We are also hoping to record at Phil's house a week tomorrow.
I will talk to Phil about this on Wednesday but it would be good to
know before then if you’re interested in hearing this stuff.
By the way, I got your e-mail address from Peter Stubley.
Hope that's OK!
Best wishes…
P.S.
I ‘Googled’ on Phil and one little item that turned
up is this, from:
A NEW MUSICAL DICTIONARY by Martin Davidson
This has been written over many years of intense
involvement with music. It was originally compiled a few years ago and sent to
a supposedly radical music magazine who obviously found it too radical to
publish. It is continually being updated as new items arise.
…
JAZZ: "Afro-American group instrumental
part-improvised music" (Peter Riley*), which quickly became a world music
in the true sense of that term. The most innovative, original, creative and
exciting music of the first two-thirds of this century. A handful of
practitioners are still managing to find something distinctive to create in the
idiom, in contrast to most contemporary Modern Jazz revivalists who give the
impression that they are miming to records of the old masters. (Someone like
Wynton Marsalis is living proof that jazz is virtually dead.) The name Jazz is
often used to describe many other areas of music that have little, if anything,
to do with it - from Joni Mitchell to Erik Satie to Frank Sinatra to Philipp Wachsmann.
…[!]
* Peter Riley is a poet/ bookseller in Cambridge who
recently (January 2004) joined Derek Bailey in giving a reading of some of his
words accompanied by Derek Bailey at the launch in London of the latter’s of
the Paratactile release 1116-2, ‘Poetry & Playing’. He also created the
wonderful book, ‘Company Week’ published in 1994 by Compatible Recording &
Publishing. It is a handwritten report on Company Week 1977.