quinta-feira, 14 de outubro de 2021

Paul Bley - Improvisie 1971

If Paul Bley is a river, this album represents the sludge at the bottom, but this is meant more as the sonic translation of a visual image than as a heavy insult. Some listeners may want to unleash the latter at jazz pianist and storyteller Bley when they hear the sounds of this, an example of his brief -- but not brief enough for him or anyone else -- flirtation with the newly invented synthesizer. This is also a messy-sounding, sloppily produced live recording of this configuration in which the only piano to be heard is that of Annette Peacock, an electric one of course. Drummer Han Bennink makes more noise combined than all of Bley's drummers, past and present, placed in a room and told they are not going to be paid. The first side of this album is an improvisation created by the trio, and Bley goes into great length in his autobiography about how sometimes improvising with the synthesizer simply meant trying to figure out how to get sound out of it while the audience waited. The appeal of the recording, besides Bennink who of course plays as if he is hanging out at home in his barn, will be the vividness of the crude synthesizer sounds, even at their cheesiest. This is another area where the bad production of this record, including a battle zone-type pressing, will inhibit enjoyment. The flip side is credited to Peacock but is largely more demented noise-making. Speaking of demented, the cover photo of Bley could be a shot from a mad doctor film, and also belongs in any serious collection of musicians smoking pipes while performing. AMG.

listen here or here or here

4 comentários:

RD disse...

Hard to say what game you are playing here, but what you print is not the All Music Guide review of this disc. Try this: https://www.allmusic.com/album/improvisie-mw0000249762

And your post got the title of the album wrong, too.

I think I've just lost all interest in your blog.

Madshoes Carlos disse...

Hey RD, thanks for your visit and comments. Yes, the title was wrong thanks for the alert, the review came from https://www.allmusic.com/album/improvise-mw0000909142, if it's good for you. Hope it doesn't chock you too hard as the content of the album is just the same which in the end it's what is important.
I'm so sad you lost interest in my blog, I'll try to live with it. Take care and enjoy it. :)

RD disse...

Ha! Love it - so we're both right! That is, as they say, what makes a horse race. I actually agree far more with Thom Jurek than the review you used (by Eugene Chadbourne) but of course I'd also say that much of EC's music sounds to me like a demented guy banging around in a barn. So we'll let your readers and listeners decide!

Madshoes Carlos disse...

Yes, we'll let them decide. Anyway, I agree with you about EC's reviews and music that sometimes are just outside the billboard, as you say around here. Take care. :)