I saw him play at the Klinker club in north London, may have been the last time he played in Britain before he died? He signed my CD and was a true gent. IIRC he had a tap dancer with him that night.― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:08 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:08 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm pretty sure his last gig in britain was a group thing with tony bevan, which I went to. I was 19 & didn't know much about improv (still don't!) and I thought it was amazing. I got there crazy early - it was only like my 3rd london gig - and talked to derek. Such a cool guy! He pretended never to have heard of himself, it was v funny. I guess you had to be there. Karen was cool too. She said something funny about michael nyman. The whole experience seemed really amazing and magical in a way that's kind of hard to place now.
I got really melancholy while typing that and I'm not sure why.
― On Being Blue (Da Ba Dee): A Philosophical Inquiry (wins), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 20:21 (eleven years ago) link
nice post, wins. i remember that bailey died on or around christmas day, which only added to the sense of melancholy surrounding his death, and for me, this gnawing feeling of loss (to music, to british cultural life) seems to only increase with time - as if a whole tradition, a way of life, was swept away with him. i miss him more than just about any other musician i can think of.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
Would've done AMM vs.:
http://www.emanemdisc.com/images/E4301.jpeg
Or Lenin vs Mao.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 February 2013 23:00 (eleven years ago) link
Feel like I should vote SME because they're more "jazz" than AMM, and AMM have inspired a whole lot of really horrible shit (the whole "eai" aesthetic/movement), but I'll probably vote AMM anyway.― 誤訳侮辱, Monday, 11 February 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― 誤訳侮辱, Monday, 11 February 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is wrong, it wasn't just AMM. That Keith turned up to a lot of it doesn't mean a great deal.
AMM, like so much free improv, are a mish-mash of jazz, serial music, chance procedures and all kinds of ideas that live outside those music circles some of the people involved came from initially, and I'm not just talking about the western avant-garde: if you look at what Bailey says about recording apes in a roundabout way what an Indian raga musician might suggest about his music as achieving an ecstatic experience with the audience or a higher being, and how that couldn't be mediated via a record (of course others were keen on records).
You can look at eai as dealing w/how a lot of those sonics generated via improv were recorded in the first place, how they are heard by subsequent generations and then played back at an audience that knows those records.
Another point of departure is company week where you had a dancer or a sound artist being invited along. Or Steve Beresford. Someone who doesn't quite have the chops or tech but brings other qualities that aren't whatever but will then be transformed. eai is a further departure because its so record based, with electronics too so that's where MEV and David Tudor (by all accounts a great pianist who gave it up) come in.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 February 2013 23:49 (eleven years ago) link
The Charlie Watts Big Band was actually put together by John Stevens, and had guys in it like Paul Rutherford with whom DB certainly didn't stop playing (not to mention that Chas produced the first People Band album back in '68) so I'm not sure that really had anything to do with it.
I saw them at Fulham Town Hall in '86. Bit of a mess but quite enjoyable.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 15 February 2013 09:37 (eleven years ago) link
Feel a tad guilty that so many DB fans here didn't actually ever see him live when I saw him 6 or 7 times and I'm not even a fan! Admittedly the first 3 occasions were attempts by me to work out whether I actually liked what he was doing or not (or "understand", if you prefer), the rest he was just there when I showed up to the gig.
― Le petit chat est mort (Tom D.), Friday, 15 February 2013 11:54 (eleven years ago) link
Interesting, didn't know about Stevens' and Rutherford's involvement with Watts. I read an interview with Parker where he said Charlie was always trying to get him to play more "out" in that band.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 15 February 2013 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
btw, here are four programs on improvisation, presented by DB.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 15 February 2013 20:25 (eleven years ago) link
Gah! Been looking for those! Thanks!
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 15 February 2013 20:29 (eleven years ago) link
Started watching them last week for the first time, its a model on how music docs should be done.
Not saying he wasn't nice in person but turn to his spiky comments on jazz and the museum in the 3rd EP..
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 16 February 2013 10:14 (eleven years ago) link
voted AMM, in a non-shocker.
― jon abbey, Sunday, 17 February 2013 01:59 (eleven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 28 February 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
ha, the Iskra 1903 reminder above reminds me that when Hughie Green did his big "Stand Up And Be Counted" meltdown on Opportunity Knocks at the beginning of '77, both Derek B and Paul R were in the studio orchestra behind him!
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 28 February 2013 14:33 (eleven years ago) link
Wow! (Though lost on anyone other than me, Marcello + few others)
― .... the rest look like Dudley Sutton (Tom D.), Thursday, 28 February 2013 14:35 (eleven years ago) link
That is awesome.
― Call the Cops, Thursday, 28 February 2013 15:21 (eleven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 1 March 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
c'mon who voted SME
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 1 March 2013 06:17 (eleven years ago) link
Lou Gare, founder member of AMM, passed away earlier this month. RIP.
This compilation w/some early unreleased AMM is now circulating:
http://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/2017/10/lou-gare-compilation-1965-1985.html
― heaven parker (anagram), Wednesday, 25 October 2017 11:06 (six years ago) link
Lock up yer daughters, the AMM boys are on tour.
https://noisenotmusicdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/l-r_eddie_prevost_john_tilbury_keith_rowe__pisa__mid-_1980s.jpg
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:29 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9AbMBDjCys
― fpsa, Thursday, 16 June 2022 16:52 (one year ago) link
Thanks for posting that!
― WmC, Thursday, 16 June 2022 18:01 (one year ago) link