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From: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (Zorn List Digest) To: zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: Zorn List Digest V3 #362 Reply-To: zorn-list Sender: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Zorn List Digest Monday, April 2 2001 Volume 03 : Number 362 In this issue: - Skuli Sverrisson _Ceremonie_ Knit unravelling? interdisc. pieces Re: ruins recommendation question/tim berne personal ad Yoshide New Jazz Quintet Hextatic - V.N. Gaia, 30 March 2001 report St. Germain - Porto, 31 March 2001 report Tributo a Miles concert report, 31/03/2001 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 17:48:27 -0700 From: "Ryan W. Blum" <rblum@fas.harvard.edu> Subject: Skuli Sverrisson _Ceremonie_ Hi Everyone, I desperately would like a copy of Skuli Sverrisson's solo CD _Ceremonie_ on Extreme. It's not available at any of the places I've checked (GEMM, Other Music, Forced Exposure). Anyone have another lead, or--if worst comes to worst--could burn me a copy or rip it to mp3? Should I not say that out loud? Thanks, Ryan [NP: Bloodcount _Unwound_ disc 1] - - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 21:01:41 -0400 From: "Steve Smith" <ssmith36@sprynet.com> Subject: Knit unravelling? Dan and Skip and all y'all: True, there are rumors far and wide that the Knit is on the rocks. And the rumors are based on substance, in that there is severe financial woe down there on Leonard Street. Adding to the situation, no one really knows for certain what's going on, not the former employees, not the musicians, not the current employees - only Dorf. And Dorf is in denial. But I'll get back to that in a little while... Skip has heard that Dorf is in the hole to the tune of $11 million. That doesn't surprise me, although the highest figure I've seen in print is $2 million. One fact is that the Knit lost a ton of money in the contuined hassles over opening the new club in L.A. The delays meant that the club had to pay hefty guarantees to artists whose shows were cancelled. No way to make that money back, although the LA club is indeed profitable through the big pop bills that Skip mentions, as well as countless private parties and industry functions. Another fact is that the Knit spent way too much money on last year's Bell Atlantic Festival, some of the bills for which are reportedly still unpaid. A third fact is that sometime within the last two years, Dorf invited outside investors to sink money into the venture. Those investors now want to see a return on their investments, but the money is not there. Beyond that, all is conjecture - although there are currently writers at the Times and at New York Magazine working on investigative pieces. (I was interviewed for the latter.) One artist says that everyone who has a record on the label is worried that those master tapes are going to be lost to them forever. The label has been on hiatus since last fall, but suddenly someone at Koch tells me that there are new releases coming out in May. (One of this list's moles at retail or a one-stop might be able to confirm this.) Several longtime journalists are declaring the place dead already. One has basically said to me that it's about time - that the only people who play down there now are those who "suck and can't get a gig elsewhere." This tells me more than anything else that it's time this writer retired, 'cause he's tired, old and bitter if that's really his attitude. Another writer says that this proves what goes around, comes around. No writers who were actually part of the scene in the '80s are shedding any tears at all. To me, that's sad. Yes, the Knitting Factory has been a fucked up place. Yes, I myself was fucked as hard as any and harder than most. And yes, the artists and employees have been taken advantage of by Dorf for years. But what some folks, including many of the musicians involved, are missing is that the place is more than just a nightclub. It's got an iconic status now, like it or not. To people of our generation(s), the Knitting Factory has as much cultural weight as the Village Vanguard has to the generations that came before us. It's a place that artists from elsewhere aspire to play simply because of its reputation, because so much fantastic music has come from there. At its best, it's still a place where a lot of fantastic music from a myriad of genres can still be heard nightly. It's a democratic place where the newcomer may have to play at 11 p.m. on a weeknight, but at least he or she gets a gig in the first place. It's called "paying dues" and "building an audience." And there are few other places in town where that newcomer is going to find a stage available, period. Finally, for years it's put on the only reasonably progressive jazz festival in town, and more recently the only one where avant-garde musicians could work alongside mainstream musicians and commercial acts. That being the case, the absence of the Knit, if it comes to pass, will leave a big, stinky hole in this city's musical soul. To many musicians, what's happening at the Knit is justice. I can't say that I don't see their perspective, if their point is that what Dorf did was to take their music, their art, their lives, and turn it into a marketable commodity recognized around the world. Of course that's what he did. That, in a nutshell, is Dorf's genius, but for many of the artists, it reeks of someone capitalizing on their efforts, while they see little benefit themselves. Never mind that one partial benefit might just possible be the fact that without the reach of the Knit, many of these artists might still be unknow outside of New York City. (Obviously I'm not talking about the likes of Zorn, Frisell, Byron or Douglas...) I said as much in the New York Magazine interview, and I expect that a lot of friends are going to call me naive and unenlightened. So be it. The musicians have Tonic, and the writers... well, the writers will complain regardless. When I was doing the interview for New York, I told the writer that I wanted to go "off the record," and then I told him, in minute detail, the exact story of my tenure at the Knit, including its almost unbelievable denouement. As I got to the end, the writer was squirming. "Why is this off the record?" he asked. "This stuff is great! Why can't I use it?" "Because," I told him, "what's past is past and doesn't make any difference to anyone who will read this, but mainly because I felt that only through demonstrating to you exactly how fucked I got could you accurately put it into context when I tell you that I don't want to see the place fail, and what a loss I think it would be." The Knit may very well fail ultimately - this is supposedly a very big problem he's facing now. The vultures are circling, some of them drooling outright. Dorf keeps telling interviewers that things are "on hold," that this is a "slow down," that it's a temporary setback. And then he'll go on to talk about future plans as outlandish as anything he's ever attempted. To me, this is the surest bet that the Knit will survive. Dorf, I'm convinced, can make himself believe anything, and once he's convinced, he has an eerie capacity for convincing others to see things his way. And as long as he's convinced, the club has a chance. Interestingly, some musicians are indeed taking an interest in helping to save the Knit. Of course, it's the height of cynical self-interest for Wynton Marsalis to headline the club for the first time just days after the final episode of Burns aired. But look instead to the Vision Festival, where the artists involved - who've proven that they can succeed on their own - have chosen to hold their festival at the Knit to make a statement. Their PR materials are clear about this - they are saying that the Knit is worth supporting. Personally, as long as Ellery Eskelin can draw the sizeable and vociferous crowd I saw last night, and the Knit can sell out three nights of Shellac and book AMM and the Anti-Pop Consortium and even things that sell out even though I've never heard of them ;-) then there must be a plausible reason to wish for their continued survival. And maybe, just maybe, Dorf will emerge from this a humbler, wiser man, more grateful to those upon whom his success is built (and in this I count the employees as much as the artists). But I won't hold my breath on that last bit. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 19:18:11 -0600 (MDT) From: Matt Plummer <Matthew.Plummer@Colorado.EDU> Subject: interdisc. pieces Hello, I'm curious if anyone on the list can recommend some interesting interdisciplinary performances/compositions/colloborations (i.e. involving more than just music). I'm already aware of a few of the obvious ones, such as Glass/Wilson, etc. but i'm trying to dig up some more obscure stuff, possibly stuff involving improvisation. thanks, Matt Matt Plummer Coalition for Creative Music - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 02:06:36 EDT From: Fastian@aol.com Subject: Re: ruins recommendation question/tim berne personal ad - --part1_7e.131ba6ba.27f970ec_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/28/01 11:48:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, william_york@hotmail.com writes: > actually, while i'm on the subject of personals, if anyone is making the > trip to san jose from sf to see TIM BERNE/paraphrase on apr. 9, let me > know. > i'll pay for your gas and ride in the trunk or something (he cancelled his > sf show for apr. 10). > > apologies for the waste of space, and thanks in advance, > > wy The show is in Santa Cruz not San Jose. I'll be going there Monday morning to make a day of it. I'm coming from Santa Rosa so will be taking the 19th Ave/280 way to get there. You're welcome to come along. I can't believe how many good shows are coming in such a short time. I was amazed by Erik Friedlander's Topaz a couple weeks ago. Everyone in the band is a phenomenal musician. The same weekend as Berne is Rova's Rovate with a ton of musicians (Frith, Leo Smith, John Schott,many others), AMM on Sunday, and Harriet Tubman for several nights the following weekend. Brunos is also bringing in Ronnie McCoslin, Tony Malaby, and Vandermark's School Days all in April. How to keep up with it all will be the problem. And of course I already missed the Ruins as well as Sam Rivers. You can't see everything. Cheers, John Threadgould np Transatlantic Bridge-Territory Band 1 - --part1_7e.131ba6ba.27f970ec_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">In a message dated 3/28/01 11:48:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, william_york@hotmail.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">actually, while i'm on the subject of personals, if anyone is making the trip to san jose from sf to see TIM BERNE/paraphrase on apr. 9, let me know. i'll pay for your gas and ride in the trunk or something (he cancelled his sf show for apr. 10). apologies for the waste of space, and thanks in advance, wy</BLOCKQUOTE> The show is in Santa Cruz not San Jose. I'll be going there Monday morning to make a day of it. I'm coming from Santa Rosa so will be taking the 19th Ave/280 way to get there. You're welcome to come along. I can't believe how many good shows are coming in such a short time. I was amazed by Erik Friedlander's Topaz a couple weeks ago. Everyone in the band is a phenomenal musician. The same weekend as Berne is Rova's Rovate with a ton of musicians (Frith, Leo Smith, John Schott,many others), AMM on Sunday, and Harriet Tubman for several nights the following weekend. Brunos is also bringing in Ronnie McCoslin, Tony Malaby, and Vandermark's School Days all in April. How to keep up with it all will be the problem. And of course I already missed the Ruins as well as Sam Rivers. You can't see everything. Cheers, John Threadgould np Transatlantic Bridge-Territory Band 1 </HTML> - --part1_7e.131ba6ba.27f970ec_boundary-- - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 04:26:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Andy Marks <andywmarks@yahoo.com> Subject: Yoshide New Jazz Quintet Why haven't I heard about this before now? Someone here has to know something. Give us the scoop! OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ QUINTET: Flutter CD (TZADIK) "Japanese Free Jazz has a history that goes back to the '60s, and Otomo Yoshihide's latest project brings together some of the best Free Jazz players in Japan with noise musicians Sachiko M and the legendary Akita Masami of Merzbow. Beautiful arrangements, exciting solos and a kickass rhythm section make Flutter one of Otomo's most powerful and unusual musical statements. Features three bizarre covers of tunes by Eric Dolphy and Gerry Mulligan and four dynamic originals. Sine waves, drones, jazz and noise from one of Japan's most ubiquitous experimental musicians." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/?.refer=text - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 16:53:00 +0100 (WET DST) From: Ricardo Reis <l43384@alfa.ist.utl.pt> Subject: Hextatic - V.N. Gaia, 30 March 2001 report Greets, The place: - The Hardclub is an old factory near the river that was recovered to become a show place. It's a big building built in granit with two flors, the second being on wood, taking half of the first (plant area) like a big U shaped varanda over the 1st. Also has a view to the Douro river and Porto city and it is located in the Porto's wine store houses (here called Caves do Vinho do Porto). The concert: - Hextatic used to work with Coldcut (never heard of them but if it says something to any of you good). They work mainly with image having three projection screens over their heads. They mix image with music, being music sounds in repetive loops, voice fragments, drums, game blips and so on. The image compositions were very well blended with the sound support and sometimes they become so associated that you could fuse both senses. They used fragments from old BBC (60's and 70's) television shows, Amazonia documentary, computer games images (remember spectrum games?), sci-fi movies and they even mounted one theme around a Monty Python sketch. It was an enjoyable evening but I had to leave before it ended. They made an extended encore with all their stuff, improvising a little (know this because I was able to speak with a friend that stayed to the end). Ricardo Reis "NON SERVIAM" - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 16:53:27 +0100 (WET DST) From: Ricardo Reis <l43384@alfa.ist.utl.pt> Subject: St. Germain - Porto, 31 March 2001 report =09Warning: This message is cross-posted to the Zorn mailing list and Mariscada mailing list.=20 Greets, =09The place:=20 =09- Teatro da S=E1 da Bandeira, Porto. This is an old theater (if you picture an old italian opera house, three box floors you ain't very far) with an outer ring of access to the viewing places were was the bar. The decorum is mainly in heavy gold wich gives a decadent style to the place (much more if you know that the main use of the place right now is as an X-rated cinema...). Well, the chairs were gone and it was quite crowded with loots of different specimens from the urban jungle to see the show. The concert was under the "It's Amazing" iniciative.=20 =09 =09The music: =09- I've entered when they were going for the second theme ("le batoun rouge" if i'm well remembered) and the floor was pounded by the jumping crowd literally. Everyone was excited and the musician (Ludovic Navarre at turntables, a tenor sax that also played flute, trumpet, guitar (this I remember the name, Alex), drums and perc) were digging well the all scene, amusing themselfs and giving great solo and cooperative playing. The themes were from St. Germain last album tourist and the performance was great (did I said this already?). the differences from the album were the extended playing byt the musics and their ability to solo on the theme, getting sometimes away from it and getting back, pushing you allong the know "sound landscape" without loosing view of it. This was indeed one the great concerts of this year on this part of the globe. They encored with "le batoun rouge" getting the most of it in a longer version and more colourfull one two.=20 =09After the concert: =09- Loduvic Navarre went on has DJ and the scene hold pretty well. It was amazing...=20 =09=09 =20 Ricardo Reis =09=09=09 "NON SERVIAM" - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 16:51:40 +0100 (WET DST) From: Ricardo Reis <l43384@alfa.ist.utl.pt> Subject: Tributo a Miles concert report, 31/03/2001 Warning: This message is cross-posted to the Zorn mailing list, Miles Davis mailing list and Mariscada mailing list. Greets, Saturday was held at the Coliseu, Porto (Portugal) a concert of homage to Miles Davis. It consisted in two parts, both supported by the Finish orchestra "UMO Jazz Orquestra". The place: The Coliseu dos Recreios at Porto is a concert room were several show's can be held. It shows it's age, with after some time hard chairs ;). Has several "layers" of boxes from were the show can be seen, I've got a place in the audiance (best sound conditions if my sources didn't deceived me). The music: First part: "Sketches of Spain" This was directed by Maria Scheneider (she was assistant to Gil Evans for several years) and the soloist (miles impersonificator so to speak) was Jon Fadis (has played with Dizzy and Mingus, being director of the Dizzy's United Nation Orchestra and, later, the Centennial Jazz Band). They played: "Concierto de Aranjuez", "Will O'the Wisp", "The pan piper", "Saeta" and "Solea". This was the part i liked best, with Fadis cruzing the trompet slowly, in the low register, climbing up to higher scales sometimes. I must say I've never heard the original "Sketches of Spain" but intend to fix that up shortly. It was pleasant to see Maria Scheneider conducting and on one of the tunes they resorted to a funny and well done "trick": a drum section was placed in the inside of a side-box. This resulted in a kind of feeling of hearing it from afar, kind of military on the street while one is inside the house. Anyway they knew what they were doing, that stuff goes right into your soul. part second: "Electrifying Miles" Dedicated to the Miles electric period had the trompet of Tim Hagans (record to Blue Note in 1997 "No words" (w/ Jonh Lovano, Jonh Abercombie and Hubsongs and more recently "Animation Imagination" and "Re-animation", and excursion to hip-hop) and conductor Kirmo Lintinen. Not being so that familiar with this Miles Period (my description of Bitchews Brew being of a dark sea storm were Miles trumpet is a lighthouse saving me from altering waves) had the pleasent effect of making me get more confortable with this period. i'm liking it more has time pass (maybe is like a Porto wine ahn?). the only real problem i've experienced during the concert was some un-easyness of being seated and thinking that this kind of music need another posture to be "digged" full-throttle. They played: a theme from "Du boop", Spanish Key from Bitches Brew,a composition from Wayne Shorter "sanctuary", a them called "fast track", and "Tutu". This was a great display of music and some at least the guitar player was getting way behond inside the music. speeding up and down, really showing pleasure on it (maybe there's something with guitar players, who knows?). encore!: well some folks couldn't wait to get out of the room (maybe electric miles is still to much for some?) but through diligent applauding (and well deserved) we got right to an encore. this last piece saw Maria Scheneider again conducting and Jon Faddis and Tim Hagans playing together. It was "My ship" from Miles Ahead and it was a lovely way to end the concert, by the alternate takes of the two Miles "impersonificators" of the night, they fusing at times the sound of their trumpets. The only hatefull thing about it was a jerk who keep it's mobile phone ringing some time at the beggining (those guys who do not turn off those crappy things of plastic should be thoughrougly hanged at the entrance of movie theaters and concert halls) and another in the end... anyway, i wished miles would be there to listen... The concert is roughly almost 2h and I've got it on MD (I will try to pass it to CDR). Anyone interested needs only emailing. On the Dave Douglas concert please wait, i'm working on it :). Ricardo Reis "NON SERVIAM" - - ------------------------------ End of Zorn List Digest V3 #362 ******************************* To unsubscribe from zorn-list-digest, send an email to "majordomo@lists.xmission.com" with "unsubscribe zorn-list-digest" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. 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