Terry Riley & Don Cherry - Studio Session, Copenhagen 1970

This unreleased studio session from September 1970, recorded in Copenhagen, pairs minimalist composer Terry Riley with avant-jazz luminary Don Cherry who work with three European musicians handling various wind instruments, percussion and bass. This bootleg contains about 39 minutes of music divided in three distinct parts. Part one is a droney piece in the key of E and heavy on soprano saxophone. Part two where Riley is heard on organ sounds like an early version of "Persian Surgery Dervishes" with jazzy wind solos. Part three however is something really interesting: Riley forms a horn section with Cherry playing slow and plaintive horn lines while another woodwind player takes a wooden flute solo, this is where Cherry's influence is the most felt. Otherwise this is not too far from what Riley did during late sixties and early seventies, but its jazz influence is slightly more pronounced, especially the prominent texture of trumpet, saxes and flutes. If In A Silent Way used minimalist flavor for coloring jazz, then here Riley and Cherry use jazz color to confirm yet another way how jazz and minimalist music could be compatible.

Downloadable via Elasticrock blog.

Michael Nyman live at Charles' Church in Tallinn, Estonia on 29th November 2007

British minimalist composer Michael Nyman and his twelve member band gave a concert at Charles' Church (Kaarli kirik) in Tallinn, Estonia on 29th of November 2007. The concert was billed as the opening event of the annual Dark Nights Film Festival (Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival) in Estonia. For the night, Michael Nyman Band performed a set containing the well known compositions from Nyman's movie soundtracks. They opened with two numbers from The Draughtsman's Contract, "Chasing Sheep is Best Left To Shepherds" as well as "An Eye for Optical Theory", both with significantly more orchestral sound than on the original recordings. Pieces from Wonderland and Prospero's Books followed and these were among Nyman's most interesting pieces, each of them showcasing the composer's hypnotic, repetitive, rhythmically sustained and multi-layered scoring at its finest. Nyman also performed solo pieces from The Piano, including one of his most well known themes called "The Heart Asks Pleasure First". Finally the group rendered selections from Drowning By Numbers.

The sound quality was fair, but it left a bit desired in terms of clarity. The quieter songs sounded fine, but the more orchestrated pieces sounded a bit unclear. Although all the instruments were heard to some extent, some of these didn't cut through enough to display their tonal character in their whole. Given how Nyman's band with its twelve members can sound very orchestral for a group that one would expect to sound more chamber like, they certainly deserve better acoustics and sound balancing in order to make their sound more appreciated. Nonetheless, the public's reception to the performance was so enthusiastic that the band couldn't help it but play not only an encore, but three of them. First they played some more band pieces, and the final encore was yet another Nyman solo piano composition. All in all, a pretty good live concert.

Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract

British minimalist composer Michael Nyman's score for Peter Greenaway film from 1982, The Draughtsman's Contract is based on the repetitive bass motifs from 17th century composer Henry Purcell. The soundtrack album features one of Nyman's most well known pieces called "Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds", which is the opening number. This short piece has a memorable melody in C major scale rendered on strings and soprano sax carried by a bouncy bass rhythm. Aside the repetition of the bass lines and inventive use of counterpoint, Michael Nyman Band's instrumentation is also worth mentioning: they use saxophones combined with string quartet, brass instruments, electric bass and Nyman himself on piano, who also doubles on harpsichord. "Watery Death" starts with low brass tones and a soprano sax melody that seems to hint at the "Chasing Sheep" theme, and then turns into a sinister amalgam of clanging harpsichord, staccato strings and bubbly brass that indeed lives up to the track's title. "Queen of the Night", another classic Nyman tune is the most bass heavy track: the electric bass really has a rather rock-oriented drive to it. "An Eye For Optical Theory" focuses on the unique saxophone arrangements, whereas the closing "Bravura In The Face of Grief" has a funeral atmosphere, with sad progression ongoing for several minutes, before the harpsichord eventually enters for the final minutes, giving the ending section a very vivid edge. Recommended for minimalist/contemporary classical fans.

John Cale & Terry Riley - The Church of Anthrax

One of the most influential avant-rock ensembles, Velvet Underground, was very much influenced by classical minimalism, particularly by the work of La Monte Young. Terry Riley was also one of the early practitioners of repetitive avant-garde music. So it's logical that John Cale, the most gifted of the Velvets (who was sacked in 1968) would team up with Riley to make a record. When an avant-garde minimalist composer and an experimental rock musician meet to collaborate, you'd expect the results to be as drone-heavy as possible. Unlike Tony Conrad's meeting with Faust in 1972, this album is surprisingly jazz-influenced, but definitely not the kind of jazz-fusion you'd expect from Miles Davis, Weather Report or Soft Machine, although Church of Anthrax at times allows comparisons with the latter band's third album. A heavy street-smart feel carries the nine-minute title track with its rumbling bass-line and skittering drums setting a heavy basis for a melange of colorful keyboards and mesmerizing snake-charmer like soprano sax from Riley, culminating with tortured, yet subdued droning atonal guitars. "The Hall Of Mirrors In The Palace Of Versailles" follows and it appears to be a sedater affair, more in line with Terry Riley's work, the interplay between Cale's piano and Riley's sax is blissful. "The Soul of Patrick Lee" is pure John Cale track which, if Cale hadn't left the Velvets in 1968, wouldn't have sounded out of place on Velvet Underground's third, or even fourth album, the only track with vocals too. "March Ides" is possibly the most jazz-oriented piece, and quite idiosyncratic at that: pounding semi-ragtime piano sets the basis for the song and mingles with more skittering drum work, creating thus a quirky 11-minute improvisation. "The Protégé" is among the shortest tracks on this album, but it also seems the most repetitive, until the false sense of security is chased away by a burst of violent feedback that concludes Church Of Anthrax.

John Surman - Upon Reflection

John Surman, known for his baritone sax prowess, is also pretty good on soprano sax and bass clarinet. This is one of his solo recordings, where he plays all of these reed instruments, in addition to synthesizer. Most of the pieces are multi-tracked, with the exception of a few unaccompanied moments like "Caithness to Kerry" for solo soprano sax. Several tracks contain a lush, yet minimalistic and meditative synthesizer bed upon which layers of horns are added, to provide harmonic structure, melody or counterpoint. The opening track "Edges of Illusion" as well as the album closer "Constellation" are fine examples of jazz-tinged minimalist music with trippy synthesizer motives and languid low reed tones along with a more penetrative soprano sax voice. This isn't clichèd stuff at all, this isn't your usual New Age muzak with a cheesy soprano sax over waves of a cheesy Korg Triton, we're dealing with multi-layered, complex and quirky interaction between reeds and a keyboard. Some of the pieces like a jaunty "Prelude and Rustic Dance" are performed entirely on reeds. Surman is great on baritone sax and bass clarinet, and his soprano sax playing is a welcome alternative to all the smooth jazz triteness that is associated with higher pitched saxes. John Surman is not only a master on his several reed instruments, but he also has a unique and singular musical vision that is truly inventive.