Miles Davis - Big Fun (2000 expanded edition - compi rel. 1974, rec. 1969-72)

An outtakes collection that's at least as good as the original albums it connects to, Big Fun spends just over an hour and a half offering up four magnificent slabs of electric Miles.  As originally released on double vinyl, it was bookended by two tracks from just after the Bitches Brew sessions, with one each from the On The Corner (link in list below) and Jack Johnson eras in the middle.

Other than Miles, I haven't put the usual musician names in the tags - not even half of them would fit in to the maximum space.  The late 60s - early 70s was a time when Davis would record and tour constantly, flit through new lineups at a Mark E Smith pace, and generally push the boundaries of jazz, fusion and Afro-futurist cosmic funk to ever further extremes.  

The opening track here, Great Expectations (with elements of Joe Zawinul's Orange Lady at points) starts out as a sitar-flavoured mid-tempo exploration that gradually dissolves into Silent Way-like ambience, before gathering pace again.  Next we're in the On The Corner mode of insistent funk for Ife, riding an indelible bass groove that occasionally trips over itself until the rhythm again falls away towards the end.

Go Ahead John, with the most compact lineup of Davis, the titular McLaughlin, Steve Grossman (who just died a month ago) on sax and the dream rhythm section of Holland & DeJohnette, dates from the Jack Johnson sessions.  For me it's easily the best of the four main tracks, with a groove that spins in zero-gravity thanks to the constantly panning drums and angry-hornet guitar solo.  This production, more than any other, locates Teo Macero at this point in time less alongside other jazz producers and more in a league with Plank and Czukay, or the Jamaican dub innovators.  Don't miss Lonely Fire afterwards though - I used to neglect it at the end - it lands back in late 1969 with a softly glowing ambience.  This reissue adds a further 40 minutes of Bitches Brew-era material, further fleshing out a time when Miles was constantly exploring sound, and still sounding contemporary today.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
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Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 
On The Corner
Agharta

David Tudor - Three Works For Live Electronics (1996 compi, orig LP rel. 1984)

Circuit-frying explorations by John Cage's major collaborator David Tudor (1926-1996), from a time when Tudor was moving away from the prepared piano in favour of prepared electronics.  This collection comprises Tudor's 1984 LP on Lovely Music, which was simply called Pulsers/Untitled, plus an extra piece.

Gordon Mumma was the original designer of the modulator system used in Pulsers, then developed further by Tudor.  All it does is trigger phase-shifted feedback into endless throbbing rhythms, which sound a bit like someone's left an LP of Zero Set out in the sun too long.  After a few minutes, this is joined by an equally warped-sounding electric violin part by Takehisa Koshugi, and the end result is endlessly enjoyable.

Untitled was originally conceived in 1972 for Cage's voice; in this 1982 version, Koshugi supplies the vocalisations whilst much wilder electronics are set off in a long chain of manipulation from the original vocal input.  Lastly, the 31-minute Phonemes is just pure electronics, chopped into tiny fragments and further sorted and modified into a bubbling soup of sound; it was given a speech-related title purely because that's what the end result made Tudor think of.  All three electronic explorations are highly recommended.

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Leo Smith - Spirit Catcher (1979)

Leo Smith (later Wadada Leo Smith)'s album following his ECM debut (link below) again featured Bobby Naughton and Dwight Andrews, and expanded the lineup. Spirit Catcher was released on the Nessa label.

With an actual drummer on board this time, the lengthy Images is a more propulsive immersion in free improvisation, or perhaps "collective composition" as Smith suggests - it's still structured as per his unique style.  The closing title track isn't quite as loose and free, but still features some particularly firey solos from Smith and Andrews.

In between is The Burning Of Stones, a fascinating composed work by Smith for trumpet and three harps.  The writing for harps is inspired by the sounds of the African kora and Japanese koto, while Smith improvises over the top. again inspired by kora music.  Highly recommended, unique music.

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Previously posted at SGTG: Divine Love

Steve Hackett - There Are Many Sides To The Night (1995)

Steve Hackett live and acoustic, from the Palmero Teatro Metropolitan in December 1994, supported only by keyboards from Julian Colbeck.  Steve's on sparkling form, and in jovial spirits, frequently teasing bits of his old classics (and even tracks from his time in Genesis) before claiming to have forgot them all.  He does open with Horizons, and touches on his earliest solo records (links below) with Kim and a re-arranged Ace Of Wands.  The rest of the set highlights his acoustic records as might be expected, plus a nice bit of Vivaldi, a blues where he drops the guitar in favour of harmonica, and a cover of Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
Voyage Of The Acolyte
Please Don't Touch
Defector

Anoushka Shankar - Live at BBC Proms, with Manu Delago, Gold Panda, Britten Sinfonia (2020)

Another broadcast from this year's Proms, recorded on Friday 4 September.  In the centenary of Ravi Shankar's birth, this concert showcased how one of his daughters, Anoushka, has brought Indian music and the sound of the sitar into the 21st century.

First up is a half-hour-long collaboration between Anouskha Shankar and a friend of hers, the electronic musician Derwin Shlecker (who performs as Gold Panda).  Based on raga structure, the suite they perform together builds and flows beautifully.  The main part of the concert then introduces percussionist Manu Delago, a regular collaborator of Anoushka's, and also the strings of the Britten Sinfonia.  It was another inspired combination that expanded on Anoushka's compositions in fine style, with a good mix of material both propulsive and reflective (Flight made me think of the title track from Song For Everyone).  Recommended.

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Gianluigi Trovesi, Umberto Petrin, Fulvio Maras - Vaghissimo Ritratto (2007)

ECM gorgeousness from clarnietist Gianluigi Trovesi, with fellow Italians Umberto Petrin on piano and Fulvio Maras on percussion & electronics.  The starting point for this album's concept was a Palestrina madrigal in which the phrase "vaghissimo ritratto" appears; it apparently translates to "most graceful portrait".  A series of thematic "portrait" suites take in music by Monteverdi, Desprez and others, and even a rendering of Brel's Amsterdam, alongside tracks composed or improvised by the trio.

As can be expected from ECM, every note, every little sound from the instruments, and the occasional little electronic effects or bits of spoken voice all sound absolutely phenomenal.  Each musician plays with such refined subtlety (barring occasional dynamic flourishes from Trovesi - he almost sounds like Garbarek on Mirage) that the result falls somewhere between chamber music and beautifully mellow jazz.  Highly recommended for late night immersion.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
Gianluigi Trovesi & Gianni Coscia - In Cerca Di Cibo

Bernard Szajner - Superficial Music (1981)

Dark and eerie electronics from French musician, lighting engineer and instrument builder Bernard Szajner.  Regarding the latter discipline - remember the laser harp used by Jean-Michel Jarre?  Szajner designed it, getting the idea from a sci-fi novel.  Superficial Music was his second album, and for its first suite (same title) Szajner took some tapes from his first album Visions Of Dune and reversed them, slowed them down and applied sparing effects.  The result is a nicely queasy, almost industrial-sounding mulch.

Speaking of industrial music, that genre might've become infamous in some respects for overusing Holocaust tropes - but on the second suite here, Osweicim, Szajner was coming from a place of genuine familial suffering.  His Jewish parents managed to keep themselves and baby Bernard hidden during WWII, but his uncle Moszek "disappeared in Auschwitz".  The sonic output of this remembrance is ghostly, shimmering dark ambience.  After the album proper, this reissue adds a couple of brighter (but still minor-key) tracks recorded a year later - the subtle synth sequencing on Inverted Area is particularly good.

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Reich, Glass, Nancarrow et al performed by London Sinfonietta (BBC Proms 2020)

A programme of "pulsing cityscapes" from the London Sinfonietta, recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall sans audience on Tuesday 1 September.  Some wonderful, ear-bending sounds came out of this - as soon as the stately chords of Glass' Facades fade away, what comes next is a miniature for toy piano and toy boombox.  This piece is East Broadway by Julia Wolfe, one of the Bang On A Can founders - after her grand epic Flower Power earlier this year, it was nice to hear the contrast of something so brief and bizarre.

Orchestral arrangements of two of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies For Player Piano follow, with the expanded instrumentation really highlighting the fiendish complexity of Nancarrow's writing.  A spotlight for three more contemporary composers is next, with Tansy Davies' funk-influenced Neon, Edmund Finnis' renaissance/baroque-cut-and-paste In Situ and Anna Meredith's distorted bassoon piece Axeman.  The finale is Steve Reich's City Life, which more than ably demonstrates its title in the trademark pulse and orchestration, and in the sampled sounds from the streets of NYC.  These include voices used both in the style of Different Trains, where the cadence of the speech informs the melody, and in phased overlays like his early work Come Out.

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Rainer Brüninghaus - Freigeweht (1981)

First album as leader for German pianist Rainer Brüninghaus, perhaps best known in the 70s for working with Eberhard Weber; he'd go on to have a long association with Jan Garbarek.  This gorgeously autumnal record was taped in August 1980, and fleshes out Brüninghaus' piano and synths with flugelhorn (Kenny Wheeler), French horn and oboe (Brynjar Hoff), with the late Jon Christensen on drums.

Much of Freigeweht is built on minimal, cyclical structures which, along with the keyboard textures and the mellifluous brass (not least with Wheeler involved), make the album a must-hear for anyone who likes the early Azimuth sound.  Honestly can't pick a favourite out of these six long-ish trips into turn-of-the-80s ECM magnificence, but the two longest (Radspuren, and the closing title track with its false-fade towards the end) are particularly good for getting lost in.  Highly recommended.

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Peter Seiler - Sensitive Touch (1987)

Peter Seiler's follow-up to his solo debut Flying Frames (posted last week) saw him develop a more ambitious and symphonic style.  According to the liner notes, Seiler delivered the master tapes for Sensitive Touch with the sly declaration "Warning - this is not New Age music!", and much of it is closer to his prog roots than anything on his debut, particularly the early highlight Mountain Peaks (Four Movements).

Elsewhere, a couple of really nice mellow tracks (Still The Same Sun and Reef Moods) show a bit of a Vangelis influence, and were highlights for me.  The only minor misstep comes with the title track - it just outstays its welcome a bit, there's still some interesting electronic effects in the background & intro.  As Flying Frames hadn't been released internationally at this point, the Sensitive Touch CD repeats two selections from it as "taster" bonus tracks - I've just left them in for the sake of completeness, and because they're (Grönland and Serengeti) my favourite tracks from Flying Frames.

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Gary Peacock has died

RIP Gary Peacock,12 May 1935 - 4 Sept 2020

After a six-decade career of phenomenal jazz bass, Gary Peacock has died at the age of 85. He released music both as leader and as a sideman to loads of great musicians, not least in the Keith Jarrett Trio which will be where I've heard him most.  Enjoy the ever-propulsive swing of the Standards Trio at SGTG here.

Suzanne Ciani, London Contemporary Orchestra et al - Pioneers Of Sound (BBC Proms 2018)

A fantastic feast for the ears from the BBC Proms two years ago, with music by some true sonic pioneers - and all pieces recorded in surround sound for maximum effect on headphones.  The concert starts subtly with an atmospheric piece of tape music by Delia Derbyshire, before bursting into life, and coming bang up to date, with Knockturning by Manchester-based sound artist Cee Haines (stylized as CHAINES).

Laurie Spiegel's music is featured next, but with no electronics as might be expected - Only Night Falls is a rare orchestral work by Spiegel.  The next part of the concert, and the highlight for me, returns to electronic music in stunning style, as Suzanne Ciani sits down at the Buchla synth for her Improvisation On Four Sequences.  It's a heady immersion in expertly-tweaked electronics, and for any connoisseurs out there of "radio presenters who can't pronounce Moog properly", you're in for an extra treat at the end of it.

The stage is then reconfigured for the two orchestras (one amplified with echo effects), electronics and turntables required for the epic finale.  Daphne Oram's Still Point was written in 1949 when she was just 23, and more than lives up to the Pioneers Of Sound concept.  The score was thought lost until some drafts emerged and led to a Proms premiere in 2016, then a full score was found shortly afterwards which at last allowed for the full performance captured here.  Next week - music from this year's Proms.

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Bill Evans Trio - Sunday At The Village Vanguard (1961)

Had this, one of the greatest piano trio recordings ever made, on heavy rotation these past weeks, and realised I hadn't posted it yet.  Two albums were assembled from Bill Evans Trio live recordings at NYC's Village Vanguard on 25 June 1961 - the other one was Waltz For Debby (see links list below).

Both can be slightly spooky records to listen to, with the knowledge that the 25-year old bassist was playing his final Bill Evans Trio show before a fatal car accident two weeks later.  Sunday At The Village Vanguard was thus arranged as a tribute to Scott LaFaro, bookended by two of his compositions, and highlighting his brilliant playing throughout.  As we just had Weather Report's debut album last week, here's Miroslav Vitouš describing how the 'bass as equal-stature instrument' sound of Sunday At The Village Vanguard influenced him in the setup of early Weather Report.  Bill Evans is naturally on top form throughout as a harmonic and melodic master, and Paul Motian is the backbone of this top-tier, close-knit trio.

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Bill Evans at SGTG:
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
The Blues And The Abstract Truth
Waltz For Debby
Undercurrent
I Will Say Goodbye

Peter Seiler - Flying Frames (1986)

Debut album from German electronic musician and composer Peter Seiler, who was in a prog band called Tritonus in the 70s before moving into scoring for radio, film & TV among other things.  He then began a solo career with Klaus Schulze's Innovative Communication label (although Schulze was no longer involved in running it by this point).

The good old Yamaha DX7 tops the list of Seiler's extensive hardware in the liner notes, which describe the music as "inspired by Peter's various travel impressions: landscapes, flights, city life".  So you can guess what kind of bright, punchy 80s electronica to expect here, especially in the uptempo tracks - a lot of this would make very good library music, an impression certainly not dispelled by that cover art.  My favourite track is probably Serengeti, nicely evocative of its title.

There's also quite a few guest musicians sprinkled around to keep things varied.  Sky Sight adds an orchestral string section to a Jean-Michel Jarre-esque melody; the lead guitar on Flugansichten and violin on Olli's Theme are nice touches; and the synths take a back seat for the gentle Cloudfields to feature piano, acoustic guitar and flute.   More from Seiler next week.

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