ner.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 16. Mai 2008
Neues vom Schlippenbach
Ins Abenteuerland
Nein, dies hier ist nicht
die mit Folk- und Ethnoklängen und handzahm säuselnder Sängerin
versetzte Melange, die uns neuerdings als „Jazz“ angedreht
werden soll. Dies hier ist die Essenz dessen, was sich in jahrzehntelanger
Auseinandersetzung mit den dynamischen Möglichkeiten des Free Jazz
hat erarbeiten lassen. Mit Risiko wird das Abenteuer der Kommunikation
gelebt. Was das bedeutet, verrät das Foto im Booklet, das augenzwinkernd
fragt: „Würden Sie diesen Männern ihre Musik abkaufen?“
Die ergrauten Fahrensleute der freien Improvisation sind der soeben
siebzig Jahre alt gewordene Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, der
Saxofonist Evan Parker und der Schlagzeuger Paul Lovens. Das erste Album
dieses Trios erschien 1972. Heute, 36 Jahre später, herrscht Gelassenheit
und Klarheit im Umgang miteinander: hier wird zu jeder Sekunde der Fortgang
des Ganzen neu ausgehandelt. Ben Young vergleicht in seinen anregenden,
das Faszinosum dieser Musik vermittelnden Booklettexte das, was hier
zu hören ist, mit einem trefflichen Bild: drei Männer, die
gleichzeitig Stein-Schere-Papier spielen. Bei jedem Hören entdeckt
man neue Wendungen, die später, anderswo vielleicht noch mal variiert
werden. Stets kann man mit Young fragen: „Wie sind wir dahin gekommen?
Zurück, noch mal hören.“ Und gleich noch mal!
ukr, Stuttgarter Zeitung, 27.5.2008
Suite des aventures du Schlippenbach
Trio, Gold Is Where You Find It scelle l’entente et découvre
au passage de nouvelles possibilités, offertes par quelques années
d’efforts qui auront forgé la maîtrise.
A Baden-Baden, fin 2007, Schlippenbach, Evan Parker et Paul Lovens remirent
donc le métier sur l’ouvrage, de progressions difficiles
sur lesquelles s’entendre mieux qu’ailleurs (ZDWA) en ruades
attendues mais toujours supérieures (Three in One). Différents,
quelques morceaux d’abstraction conseillent aux musiciens l’installation
inquiète d’une atmosphère à qui l’on
refuse tout développement (K. SP), ou la mise en place lente
d’une entente tripartite gagnée par la vitesse (Gold Is
Where You Find It). Définitif, si les 35 ans du Schlippenbach
Trio ne promettaient pas d’en prendre encore et de s’affiner.
www.lesondugrisli.com,
France
As this trio is decades into
its existence, readers and potential listeners might be forgiven for
thinking that the trio's collective music is losing some of its power.
This, however, is far from the case. There's kinetic energy about some
of the performances here but that sense is tempered by the group's distinctly
non-formulaic understanding of each other as musicians. The resulting
mutual understanding amounts to something far in excess of the number
of participants in terms of profundity.
It's interesting to note that Evan Parker brings only his tenor sax
to these proceedings. So great is his individuality on the bigger of
his horns that it seems like he's developed two entirely separate vocabularies.
This is no trivial feat when so many people seem to have difficulty
in mastering one, and here it manifests itself most overtly in agitated
lines, as on the opening in “Z.D.W.A,” where the group energy
is subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny and the music comes in fits
and starts all of which avoid anything disjointedly episodic.
”Amorpha” is something else again. Here the music moves
by stealth and the essential paradox is that in less than four minutes
the trio manages to cover so much ground. Von Schlippenbach comes into
his own here, though of course not in the sense of being in any way
removed from his compadres. As elsewhere the sense is of profoundly
collective music.
In defiance of any animal aggression suggested in a title like “Monkey's
Fist” the music again has about it a reflective air, albeit one
refracted through some rarefied prisms. Whilst Parker does nothing as
impertinent as leading the ear is drawn repeatedly to his lines, so
much so in fact that it takes a while for the subtleties of Lovens's
contribution to come through. When they do it's a pertinent reminder
of this music's power to move.
The same considerations come to light on “The Bells Of St. K,”
where Parker gives the music its initial shape only for Von Schlippenbach
and Lovens to test the malleability of the form he's essentially created.
When the music comes home listeners might not be able to avoid the impression
of work in perpetual progress.
Nic Jones, All
About Jazz, USA, July 02, 2008
This recent Schlippenbach
Trio recording comes close on the heels of the last, at least in comparison
to the lengthy gaps between their previous meetings of past decades.
A natural question rests in whether it stands out substantially in the
group’s existing corpus? Arguable metaphors abound, but one that
keeps cropping up in my cranium is that of a miniature Zen garden. The
rake and sandbox are the same. It’s the furrows and patterns amongst
assembled grains that reflect the difference. Annotator Ben Young dubs
the trio the Three Wise Men and explicates on the near-telepathy that
exists between them. Both the ascription and the posited collective
extrasensory ability are evident from the opening “Z.D.W.A.”,
an improvised piece that harkens back to the ensemble’s free jazz
roots in its rapid deployment of controlled explosions. So too does
the closer “The Bells of St. K”, credited to Schlippenbach
and thick with slow rising tension. Other tracks carry the semblance
of individual composer credits, the overlap with spur-of-the-moment
improvisation in seamless.
Parker speaks solely through tenor and the focus is a boon for those
who prefer his granular vernacular on the larger horn. Sharply serrated
blowing interchanges with a feathery phraseology that finds him ferreting
at melodic fragments. Dry and cottony, tonal comparisons to Getz and
Marsh aren’t so confabulatory, though in Parker’s case the
abrasiveness of steel wool is within easy reach. His solo opening on
“Three in One” avoids circular breathing in favor of finite
phrase lengths and it’s another winsome deviation from the standard
playbook. Schlippenbach’s piano resounds with roiling rhythms
and decaying chord structures, balancing vigor with chamber detail.
His strings plus keys manipulations on the title piece create a cascading
percussive climate in collusion with Lovens. The drummer is his usual
dynamics-driven self, spending as much time on carefully-constructed
texture as velocity. Sequenced back to back, his “Slightly Flapping”
and “Amorpha” stack percussive minutiae into terse time
spans. The mix of short bagatelles and lengthier pieces mirrors some
of their work for FMP though the sounds here have a definite advantage
thanks to state-of-the-art studio clarity. The disc’s title suggests
a simple, but accurate reduction of the trio’s chemistry, a quantity
both conscious and unconscious catalyzed by a confidence in the longevity
of their particular context.
Derek Taylor,
www.bagatellen.com,
24. May 2008
Full frihet
Etter å ha tilbragt mer enn 35 år sammen som trio, så
vet disse herrene hva de snakker om.
Den tyske pianisten Alexander von Schlippenbach og hans landsmann Paul
Lovens på trommer har, sammen med engelskmannen Evan Parker på
tenorsaksofon, utgjort kjernen i den europeiske frijazzbevegelsen helt
siden 60-tallet. Det gjør de fortsatt i en rekke sammenhenger
og Schlippenbach Trio, som ga ut sin første plate i 1972, er
fortsatt like kompromissløs.
”Gold Is Where You Find It” består av 10 låter
som varer fra knapt to minutter til bortimot et kvarter. I all hovedsak
virker låtene som et slags rammeverk eller utskytingsrampe for
de tres ekskursjoner i et landskap de har skapt og fortsatt skaper gjennom
en kunnskap om egne og de andres ferdigheter og gjennom kjemien som
sjølsagt må være sterk etter at de har holdt ut med
hverandre siden begynnelsen av 70-tallet.
Ja visst er dette fritt, men det betyr ikke at de tre ser bort fra melodien.
De tre har sine egne idealer når det gjelder melodikk også
og ikke minst er det dynamiske aspektet av voldsom betydning for dette
uttrykket eller budskapet.
Vi snakker om tre ledestjerner innen den europeiske frijazzen og ”Gold
Is Where You Find It” er nok en bekreftelse på at Schlippenbach
Trio fortsatt har mye å melde og fortsatt sitter i førersetet
for europeisk frijazz.
Tor Hammerø,
www.side2.no,
Norway, June 24, 2008
Vielleicht läst sich
die Klasse dieser Musik auch so beschreiben: kommt rein, guckt raus,
macht auf, passt. In Zuständen ziemlicher Erschöpfung bei
vollster Energieanspannung - close to the brink of exhaustion at full
range of energy sagen die Engländer dazu, zumindest sage ich das
- korrespondiert dieser fantastische oberfreie Triojazz - und es ist
Jazz im vollsten Bewusstsein des Wortes - kongenial dazu. Muss ich von
mir selber sagen können, stimmt daher. Stimmungsmusik also? Natürlich
- und ein Bekenntnis, diese Musik einfach mal als Popmusik zu begreifen,
bevor die Hochkultur einmal mehr zugreift. Dass das erste Album von
Schlippenbach, Parker und Lovens 1972 erschien, kann man sagen, aber
dann sollte man einfach hören. HÖREN, nicht zuhören!
Das geht auch mitten im Leben. Die Stücke? Je später, desto
doller. "Cloudburst" - Hammerstück. "Three in One"
- Waaah! Übrigens - Schlippenbach ist im April 70 geworden. Fröhliches
Altern alle miteinander.
By Honker, TERZ 07/08
Bill
Meyer, The Wire, London, July 2008
Interview
von Christoph Wagner, Jazzthetik, Deutschland, Juni 2008
Bei Pakistani Pomade, dem
Debut des SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO 1972, waren Paul Lovens, Evan Parker &
Alexander von Schlippenbach 23, 28 und 34. 35 Jahre später versprüht
das Trio den Charme zweier alter Mafiosi und des Weihnachtsmanns in
Zivil. Zuletzt waren die drei Veteranen auf Winterreise (Psi, 2005)
unterwegs gewesen. Gold is where you find it (Intakt CD 143) bezeugt
eine Lebenserfahrung, der das Erkennen und Wertschätzen wichtiger
ist als ewiges Suchen. Vielleicht ist es aber auch ein Koan. Die Drei
hüten jedenfalls ihr einmal gefundenes Rezept wie einen Schatz,
dem man Leben einhauchen muss, um ihn zum Glänzen zu bringen. Harmonie
und Melodik werden klein geschrieben, 'Amorpha‘ und 'Cloudburst‘
groß, das Wechselspiel von Dynamik und Binnenrhythmik erzeugt
eine eigene Harmonie des Miteinanders - 'Three In One‘. Tu, was
du tun musst, aber tritt dabei keinem auf die Zehen. Parker knattert
Tenor, Lovens rappelt Lovens und der Senior am Piano demonstriert einmal
mehr die Kunst des 'Gerade-Genug‘. Beim heiteren 'Lekko‘
ist er so jung wie das Jetzt und älter als Plinkplonk. Dass sich
der Auftakt 'Z.D.W.A.‘ als Zentrum für Demografischen Wandel
oder Zünd Die Welt An lesen lässt, sagt gerade genug über
dieses goldene Trio. [ba 59 rbd]
Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy, 59/2008
Freistil,
Österreich, August 2008
Reiner
Kobe, Jazzpodium, Deutschland, September 2008
“The trio that never
dies”. C’est ainsi qu’Eugene Chadbourne qualifie l’Alexandre
Von Schlippenbach Trio, cette formation née en 1970 et apparue
pour la première fois sur disque en 1972 avec Pakistani Pomade,
récemment réédité par Atavistic.
Dans le flot abondant et sans cesse renouvelé des parutions,
Gold Is Where You Find It n’est pas un disque parmi les autres,
mais la neuvième livraison en trente-six ans d’un trio
d’ores et déjà inscrit dans l’histoire en
tant que formation à la fois créatrice et emblématique
d’un courant important : le free jazz européen. Contrairement
à certains autres musiciens qui se rattachent peu ou prou à
ce courant, le pianiste, compositeur, arrangeur, leader Alexander Von
Schlippenbach, le saxophoniste Evan Parker et le batteur et percussionniste
Paul Lovens n’ont jamais vraiment coupé les ponts avec
le jazz et son histoire. Leur musique, improvisation d’autant
plus libre qu’elle se passe de la sécurité d’une
contrebasse, incorpore harmonieusement, avec un sens très sûr
des proportions et un immense talent narratif, des techniques étendues,
voire bruitistes, destinées à produire des textures inouïes
; c’est là leur versant « musique contemporaine »,
et les références subreptices à Monk, voire à
Gershwin - outre des passages surprenants à base d’accords
riches et classiques et même des lambeaux de mélodie )
sont leur côté « jazz » même si, prévenon
les novices, cette musique qui n’est pas d’un abord facile
réclame des oreilles aguerries.
Notons qu’après le disque inaugural, le trio n’a
plus publié jusqu’à Detto fra di noi en 1981 ; entre
temps, la contrebasse de feu Peter Köwald s’est durablement
jointe aux trois hommes. C’est ensuite Alan Silva qui a assuré
les bases et les basses au début des années 1980, et ce
n’est qu’avec les années 1990 que le vénérable
instrument a cessé de gronder aux côtés du trio.
Les passionnantes notes de pochette, rédigées par le musicologue
Ben Young, expliquent clairement ce choix : il est naturel, consubstantiel
à la musique car la basse a pour rôle de renforcer l’harmonie
et la pulsation, deux éléments secondaires, voire absents,
de la musique du trio, dont les éléments structurants
sont plutôt le jeu sur les dynamiques et le son.
Les questions de forme sont importantes en matière de free jazz.
Le mauvais free est informe, le bon est aussi construit qu’il
est libre, et c’est là son merveilleux paradoxe : une musique
improvisée réservée aux compositeurs de l’instant,
aux navigateurs qui aiment à larguer les amarres, à dévorer
les grands espaces mais qui, à tout moment, savent précisément
situer leur position sur la carte… Les formes empruntées
par le trio sont donc tantôt ultra-courtes - Elf Bagatellen [1],
les « Fuels » figurant sur Complete Combustion [2] –
tantôt longues et très développées comme
les deux sets live qui ont enflammé Amsterdam avec Swinging the
Bim [3] ou les concerts de 2004 et 2005 au Loft de Cologne (Winterreise)
[4].
Mais quelle que soit la durée des pièces, les musiciens
répugnent à s’attarder sur une idée, à
la répéter de manière obstinée : ce ne sont
pas des hypnotiseurs qui visent à la transe, mais des feux-follets
toujours aux aguets qui saisissent le moindre prétexte fourni
par un partenaire pour entraîner le groupe dans une direction
nouvelle : c’est pourquoi l’écoute doit être
attentive. Il n’est pas question ici de délassement mais
d’une suite de rebonds, de micro-événements qui
montrent combien écoute et partage sont privilégiés
entre ces artistes et exigent de l’auditeur une empathie qui lui
donne l’impression de participer à la création :
en cela, il s’agit d’une écoute active, voire recréatrice.
Ceux qui suivent les aventures du trio depuis longtemps seront donc
impatients de savoir ce que devient en 2007 la musique de ces «
trois sages » (ainsi que les qualifie le texte de pochette) et
offriront avec impatience à leur lecteur chaîne hi-fi ce
Gold Is Where You Find It qui leur promet des joies plus mémorables
que le film du même nom, pourtant embelli par la présence
d’Olivia de Havilland… Enregistré pour une fois en
studio, comme le disque des débuts, il propose dix pièces
majoritairement courtes (seules deux dépassent les dix minutes)
qui mettent à profit cette durée — cf « Three
in One » — pour visiter des dynamiques, des climats très
différents : le jeu torrentiel d’Evan Parker en anime le
début, puis une intervention minimaliste du pianiste dans l’aigu
vient en modifier radicalement le cours, et Parker jette à nouveau
un pavé dans la mare, propageant à son tour le feu dans
le jeu de von schlippenbach, dont on admire au passage la remarquable
technique très classique.
Dans les pièces plus courtes (« Lekko », «
Slightly Flapping »), une seule idée est exploitée
: comme toujours dans la musique libre, idée ne se traduit pas
par thème : le but est ici d’improviser autour d’une
pulsation régulière respectée par les trois musiciens.
Cette pièce permet, comme les autres, d’admirer une fois
de plus l’excellence instrumentale déployée tant
par un pianiste virtuose, au toucher profond mais jamais dur que par
le phrasé vif-argent du saxophoniste ou l’imagination coloriste
du percussionniste. Mais quelles que soient durées et idées,
on apprécie toujours l’incroyable variété
de la musique, le naturel avec lequel elle est exposée, la fusion
des musiciens, leur talent sans pareil pour vous saisir dès les
premiers sons et ne plus vous lâcher.
Ce qu’apporte ce neuvième disque, au-delà de la
qualité exceptionnelle du son studio au XXIè siècle
(qui ne bénéficiera pas aux seuls audiophiles mais permettra
à tous de savourer la beauté du son de ces artistes),
c’est un champ de climats encore plus étendu, les précédents
enregistrement se situant parfois dans un spectre plus étroit,
plus agité. On jouira ici par exemple de moments de calme introspectif
et mystérieux (« Amorpha » ou le magnifique début
de « Gold Is Where You Find It ») que laissait déjà
entrevoir, par exemple, le début de Winterreise.
Les aficionados de longue date n’auront pas attendu les chroniques
pour acquérir ce disque : aux auditeurs aguerris, déjà
familiers de Cecil Taylor, du trio de Jimmy Giuffre ou des dernières
œuvres de Coltrane, on conseillera de poursuivre avec ce trio leur
ruée vers l’or, car ils le trouveront sûrement ici…
Laurent Poiget, Citizen
Jazz, France, 2008
[1] FMP 1991
[2] FMP – 1999
[3] FMP – 1998
[4] Psi – 2007
Le Schlippenbach trio s’est
formé en 1972, ce qui en fait le plus ancien des ensembles de
musique improvisée encore régulièrement en activité.
Toujours composé de ses trois fondateurs, soit Alexander von
Schlippenbach, piano, Evan Parker, saxophones et Paul Lovens, percussions,
il nous offre, avec Gold Is Where You Find It, un nouveau témoignage
sur une aventure musicale et humaine unique. Composé de 10 pièces
(dont seulement deux improvisations revendiquées !), l’album
conserve la fraîcheur des débuts et dispense toujours l’inaltérable
magie de ses prédécesseurs.
Philippe Elhem, FOCUS/VIF numéro 40, 3 octobre 2008,
Belgium
Geoff
Andrew, Jazzwise, September 2008, UK
Kazue
Yokoi Jazz Hohyo, Japan, Piano Trio 2007-2008 Special
Let's just get this out of
the way: the Schlippenbach Trio is one of the longest-active groups
in improvised music, formed in 1970 and working and recording fairly
regularly over the last thirty-eight years. Recordings like Pakistani
Pomade (FMP, 1972) were full of a combination of fierce acrobatics and
serious brawn that was a far cry from the contemporary Brötzmann/Van
Hove/Bennink trio, much less anything else on that side of the pond.
But in the years since "With Forks and Hope," certainly things
have changed in the trio's approach. On Gold Is Where You Find It, the
trio's newest disc and its first for the Intakt label, saxophonist Evan
Parker sticks to tenor, and his gruff sound gives the set a solid, foot-down
consistency, even as it's carried along by drummer Paul Lovens' pulsing
detail. The opening improvisation, "Z.D.W.A." begins with
slap tongue and damped percussive rattle; Schlippenbach's chords are
gauzy, light and almost hesitant, extrapolating a singsong progression,
piano-roll fragments and Monkishness erupting as Parker and Lovens apply
daubs around him. Unaccompanied low rumbles build into Jelly Roll Morton
four minutes in, then kaleidoscope into Indent-era Cecil Taylorisms
as Lovens enters with coppery thrash. It's a delicate elision of stylistic
approaches that's natural and almost seamless. Sure, the pounding rhythm-field
is still there, but Schlippenbach's integration of instrumental history
into a free, collective context is more audible than ever.
There's long been a push-pull between longer pieces and bagatelles in
the group's repertoire; indeed, pieces like "Range" (recorded
at the 1974 Moers Festival, partially issued on Three Nails Left, FMP)
were far too long to fit on an LP side. Yet the abovementioned Pakistani
Pomade included very short pieces, ditto the "Fuels" series
on Complete Combustion (FMP, 1998). This latest set includes six pieces
around the five-minute mark or under, valuable encapsulations of the
detail – there's that word again – in their music that range
from the playful tone rows of "Slightly Flapping" and the
clicks and pops of "K.SP" to the title track's miniature concerto.
Some of these short pieces sound almost like they're extracted from
a larger whole: it's a demonstration of their ability to instantly locate
moments of complete empathy, within the briefest span. A rare thing,
indeed.
Clifford Allen, www.paristransatlantic.com,
November 2008
Enzo
Pavoni, Jazz Magazine, Italy, November 2008
Reiner
Kobe, Jazz'n'more, Zürich, November 2008
Ralf
Bei der Kellen, Jazzzeit, Wien, November 2008
Von „drei weisen Männern“
ist in den Liner-Notes die Rede – völlig zu Recht. Das seit
36 Jahren existierende Trio breitet sein Können hier mit dermaßen
uneitler Lässigkeit aus, dass es eine wahre Freude ist. Mit ephemeren
Gesten werden Free-Jazz-Haikus hingetuscht, dann karnevalesk aufgelegte
Verspieltheit in 102 Sekunden gepresst, dann wiederum nimmt man sich
eine Viertelstunde, um auf große, ereignisreiche Fahrt zu gehen.
Oder: Ein Gongglissando löst einen mehr gedachten als gespielten
Groove aus, über dem der Geist von Thelonious Monk schwebt. Wer
hier nicht fündig wird, ist echt verloren!
Klaus
Nüchtern, Falter,
Wien, 28.5 2008
More than 70 years old,
pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach is one more proof of Steve Lacy’s
adage that “free jazz keeps you young”. A professional musician
since 1962, Berlin-based Schlippenbach has maintained his level of creativity
in various contexts, most prominently in the trans-European Globe Unity
Orchestra (GUO) and his trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer
Paul Lovens.
Consistency may be another attribute of quality as well as metaphoric
youthfulness, since these CDs – one celebrating the GUO’s
40th birthday and the other recorded in the year of the Schlippenbach
Trio (ST)’s 35th anniversary – confirm that the pianist
and his associates are still on top of their game(s).
Taking them one by one, death and disagreements have taken their toll
on the GUO’s personnel, but the 15-piece aggregation – sans
bass player like the ST – holds to the high standards set by its
predecessors. Mixing older compositions with newer pieces, such as the
pianist-composed title track, solo space is given to every band member,
who range from GU veterans such as trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and multi-reedist
Gerd Dudek to newbies such as American trombonist Jeb Bishop and French
trumpeter/flugelhornist Jean-Luc Capozzo.
Some of tracks are practically bagatelles, with the real meat in the
more lengthy explorations. Still there is period charm in the rhythmic
punctuation, complete with screaming high-note trumpet lines –
likely from Capozzo – that enliven “Bavarian Calypso”’s
cacophonous polyphony. Plus “Nodago”, a reflective showcase
for Wheeler, who composed it, proves that the old Woody Herman-Stan
Kenton-style big band backing can be legit. Nonetheless, the late British
trombonist Paul Rutherford manages to counter nostalgia here with a
burbling multiphonic solo that contrasts contralto and basso tones.
A close cousin to the calypso is Steve Lacy’s “The Dumps”.
Thelonious Monk-like in its interpretation it features oomph-pah-pah
brass, slithering reed timbres and high-frequency rolling chording from
Schlippenbach. Here Dudek expels a continuously breathed circular soprano
saxophone solo with more grit than Parker brings to similar outputs.
Bishop’s slippery slide positions and tongued pressure layer the
backing along with Capozzo’s mouse squeaks and behind-the-beat
grace notes, which are given further impetus by Lovens’ cymbal
spanks and rim shots. In contrast, Dörner’s concluding knitted
capillary tones appear to leech sound as much from metal stress and
throat scraping as from what is pushed through the bell.
Another showcase, Wilem Breuker’s “Out of Burtons Songbooks”,
from 1973, makes obvious the GU’s early style-spanning. The processional
piano introduction could have been lifted from a chamber recital, while
Schlippenbach’s subsequent exchanges with Dudek outline the sort
of interdependent dissonance that seems a lot closer to Joe Henderson’s
and Herbie Hancock’s work for Blue Note, then contemporary European
experimentation. In-the-moment interface is thus left to Bishop and
bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall’s whack-a-mole-like duet, where smears,
vibratos and trills in all registers are immediately answered and intensified.
Still the GU’s 21st Century identity is made clearest on the pianist’s
title composition. Fabricating the piece from drum pops, brass plunger
tones, slurred reed chirps, zig-zag trumpeting and irregular triplets
from the piano, serendipitously its resolution involves members of the
ST. Schlippenbach is appropriately staccato and cross-handed in his
playing; Lovens wallops cracks, drags and crashes his percussion; while
Parker unleashes hummingbird-swift sliding, slurping and triple tonguing.
Trombonist George Lewis’ side-to-side slurs and doubled tongue
flutters extend the line still further.
Gold Is Where You Find It’s title tune provides an equivalently
definitive description of the 21st Century ST. Coupled with the subsequent
“K. SP”, it exposes the trio strategy of tick-tock wooden
drags and positioned licks plus cymbal pops from Lovens; echoing strummed
piano chords plus bowed, twanged and stopped prepared piano strings
from Schlippenbach; and squeezed irregular note clusters and unstated
squeaks and breaths form Parker.
Like the GU, the trio improvisations obliquely refer to antecedents
as well as the future. For instance, there’s a section on “Three
in One”, when Schlippenbach’s key-clipping is so obviously
Monk-like – the American pianist is an admitted influence –
that Parker’s continuously uncoiling chirps and split-tone asides
start to resemble the tenor saxophone styling of Johnny Griffin. Meanwhile
the pianist circles through a variety of chord and cluster coloration
as cascading high-energy feints and fills share space with wriggling
note clusters and off-handed patterns.
“Cloudburst” – not the Lambert-Hendricks & Ross
vocal showcase – in instead a moody nocturne where circumspect
tenor saxophone timbres meet rebounds, pops and temperate cymbal lacerations,
with the tune accelerating in andante increments, until it climaxes
in kinetic cadenzas from Schlippenbach as well as tough saxophone cadences
from Parker.
Finally there’s “Z.D.W.A.”, the impressive group improvisation
that begins this recital. Balanced on Lovens’ distinctive locution
of rolls and rebounds plus irregular cymbal shattering, the pianist
expresses himself in different styles and tempos. Moving from dreamy
romanticism to rolling stride in his solos, bass pedal pressure and
chord clusters gradually give way to playful double-timing. Similarly
Parker’s tongue-slapping and tone-scraping attain his characteristic
line-and-pattern extensions before downshifting with the others to cumulative
silence.
Extrapolating Parker’s composition title “Three in One”,
the Schlippenbach Trio has maintained its power over many years by sympathetically
amalgamating each other’s skills. What’s more, even with
a constantly shifting cast, the Globe Unity has performed a similar
task. Perhaps then it’s this organizational flair, along with
his choice of compositions, and situations that welcome new ideas, which
accounts for the pianist’s musical youthfulness.
Ken
Waxman, Jazz Word, November 2008
Michael
Rosenstein, Signal to Noise, USA, Winter 2009
Although the music of (3)
is coming from the same general Free-Jazz direction as Cohen’s
group, I found the results more satisfying.
The fact that the three veterans have been at it since 1972 may have
a lot to do with it. As alluded to in the liner notes, this trio’s
music has undergone a sustained natural evolution through the years
and, in addition to the growth of the band’s collective intuition,
they have also learned to avoid many of the pitfalls inherent
in totally improvised music. For one thing, nothing is allowed to go
on too long. Like Webern, who in contrast to his legions of slavish
devotees in the wake of the Second Viennese School, the trio has embraced
the virtue of brevity. As the notes indicate, the musicians seem to
have developed the happy knack of determining when a piece has gone
on just long enough. Also, the tracks (which are attributed to individual
members) may not all be outright compositions
in the traditional sense, are nonetheless differentiated enough between
themselves to provide a welcome sense of variety. Much has been written
about Parker before and I’ll only note that his playing here reinforces
the sense that he is one of the finest saxophonists playing Free Jazz
today. Similarly, Schlippenbach and Lovens demonstrate that they too
are among the best contemporary practitioners of this challenging idiom.
Recommended.
David
Kane, Cadence, USA, Jan-Feb-Mar 2009
Alexandre
Pierrepont, L'art du Jazz, France, 2009
Marc
Sarrazy, Improjazz, France, Janvier 2010
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