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 | Paul BleyKnow TimeLabel: Justin Time | Jazz | June 7, 1995Format UPC Order # Unit Price |
Credits Paul Bley piano Geordie McDonald percussion Herbie Spanier flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet and trumpet Production Credits | TracksNo Title Duration Excerpts 04 Dialogue 00:04:43 05 Prologue 00:08:40 06 Evanessence 00:06:50 07 Seascape 00:05:06 08 Critical Mass 00:01:30 09 Soundings 00:03:16 10 Armoury 00:02:50 11 Cave Painting 00:05:30 12 Sympatico 00:03:53 13 Apparition 00:07:37 Liner NotesBirds Of A FeatherPaul Bley's relationship with Herbie Spanier goes back to the mid fifties, before Bley went to California. In fact, Spanier remembers a Carnegie Hall gig around '53 or'54 (Tito Puente headlined) with Bley, bassist Arthur Phipps and drummer Al Leavitt. But back to California. "There was a period in jazz when we were looking for something to replace the popular song form as a basis for improvisation", states Bley. From Montreal, he took with him Hal Gaylor, a five-string bassist, as well as drummer Lenny McBrowne. This was the rhythm section that eventually metamorphosized into Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins that Bley was to have behind Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. "Just before Ornette, I had been having some difficulties, and I thought it would be best to reduce the number of players, so I sent for Herbie Spanier", adds Bley. He sent Spanier a plane ticket to L.A., to play a duo with him, "totally free". The two used no written material at all. Both were pleased with the results, the only unfortunate thing being the loss of the duo's tapes from this period. Not unlike Bley, trumpeter and composer Herbie Spanier (b. 1929, Saskatchewan) is also verbally expressive. "What Zen says is `Put no head above your own', and I've done that all my life. I liked the idea of me, Geordie and Paul playing together, because we're the only people who can really do what we do." The three are very intuitive players, exercising taste and discretion as much as possible. Continues Spanier, "I used to lecture on advanced improvisation. I would tell [my students] they need not be concerned about any tempo, any harmonic disposition, or anything at all, but at the same time, don't not be concerned about these things. Above all, don't forget the dynamic of silence!" Spanier contends that most people have no idea what jazz is all about. For him, it's improvisation, and it's been around for centuries. "Just because they put a name on it doesn't mean a thing. It's gone through this [the present] stage, and it's going to get out of this stage." Spanier's outlook is that it's great to go for form, but the circumstances must be exemplary. In his compositions, he usually starts with a theme, which is expanded on, ("almost like a chart"), then the group plays on that; this would constitute the first movement. Then follows a space, then a second movement, with the leader offering a new theme. Percussionist Geordie McDonald (b.1944), while born in Toronto, spent his childhood in Montreal. His connection with Herbie Spanier dates back to the late 1950s, when the former was a twelve-year-old, sitting in with the trumpeter at Montreal's "A La Tête De LÂ’Art" club! Musically, he shares common ground with Bley and Spanier (at the session, very little discussion, but much interaction), the former being a sort of mentor, with whom he recorded for Italy's Black Saint label ("Sonar", 1983). McDonald brings to this recording his experience as a composer of new music, complete with bells, gongs, shakers - not to mention a Peruvian rain stick. Bley continues his West Coast story: "Herbie and I were very happy with [the duo], and we took a month long gig as a quartet, in a club on Sunset Strip in Hollywood, owned by Gene Norman, called the Crescendo Club. At the end of this time, I thought we were able to play without tempo and without anything, but we weren't able to free things up in tempo. And we really hadn't a clue how to proceed, until one night, Ornette and Don showed up ...". Coleman and Cherry were guests that night of the guys in Bley's quartet, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins. Billy had a musical procedure. The group played something written, without chord changes, but in time. Bley saw this as the solution. As Bley explains it, "You start improvising on A, then you take a trip. There were no sections; the tune itself was the section. You kept the spirit of the tune and you didn't play on the chord changes. You played the beginning of what that key was in, and just went to a bunch of different keys, using all kinds of contrasting matter, at which point you would return to that key". The clue was that the tempo was kept, and so from Bley's point of view, it resembled the music that preceeded it. The horns also played microtonally, which is what people thought was the revolution. As Bley concludes, "The real revolution was the form, and that was never to change back." - Jean-Pierre Leduc (Justin Time Records) |
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