ANTECEDENTES

progress from a purely scientific approach to a more emotional stance.

In the meantime, Butcher also engaged in countless duets with countless improvisers, notably the electroacoustic duets with Phil Durrant (playing only electronics) on Secret Measures (november 1997), besides joining the Austrian quartet Polwechsel in 1997 (replacing Malfatti) and resurrecting his acoustic trio with Durran and Russell for the live juggernauts of The Scenic Route (may 1998).

The Contest of Pleasures (august 2000), in a trio with French clarinetist Xavier Charles and

German trumpeter Axel Doerner, Tincture (march 2001), with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and percussionist Michael Zerang, and Equation (may 2002), with turntablist Mike Hansen and percussionist Tomasz Krakowiak, were emblematic of Butcher's pioneering role in subdued, spare, subliminal, free-form soundpainting. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Creative Music: The other side of British creative music

London in the 1970s was a strange place for jazz music. The influence of Derek Bailey (Britain's premier improviser) was gigantic, but somehow London developed a surreal and almost self- parodistic take on the whole "creative" scene. The British improvisers of this generation often flirted with folk, pop and rock music, emphasizing irony at the same time that they were embracing the most hostile techniques. The works of some of the most austere improvisers was actually British humour at its best.

Lol Coxhill, a soprano saxophonist of the Canterbury school of progressive-rock (a former member of Kevin Ayers's group) penned Ear Of The Beholder (january 1971), a chaotic mosaic of

fragments in the British tradition of the nonsense, inspired by the musichall, nursery rhymes, dancehalls, marching bands as well as free-jazz. An even more explicit tribute to street musicians,

Welfare State (1975), was his political and aesthetic manifesto: avantgarde music for ordinary

folks. Coxhill's humane and poetic approach surfaced even in his most reckless improvisations: the

Duet For Soprano Saxophone And Guitar off Fleas In Custard (1975), Wakefield Capers off Joy

Of Paranoia (1978), 11/5/78 off Digswell Duets (may 1978), the Floz Variations off the Johnny Rondo Duo (may 1980) with Dave Holland (on piano) and guitarist Mike Cooper, Distorted

Reminiscences off Dunois Solos (november 1981), the Variations pour Violoncelle, Contrabasse, Sopranino et Piano (Coxhill, bassist Joelle Leandre, pianist Steve Beresford, cellist Georgie Born)

off Couscous (september 1983), Alone At The Vortex (july 2000) off More Together Than Alone,

Music for Feathery Fronds off Out To Launch (april 2002), in a bewildering, disorienting,

superhuman variety of styles, ranging from nostalgic/subversive echoes of antiquated genres to cacophonous and chaotic streams of consciousness. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

The South African musicians who had flown to Britain following Chris McGregor's Brotherhood created an influential fusion of township music and free jazz (and a bit of jazz-rock). Alto

saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, who had written the Brotherhood's signature tune, Mra, recorded In

The Townships (november 1973) in a quartet with trumpeter Mongezi Feza and drummer Louis

Moholo, and Diamond Express (november 1973), with Feza, Moholo, saxophonist Elton Dean, pianist Keith Tippett and trombonist Nick Evans, albums of jams that relied on the infectious African melodies and rhythms while adopting open-ended structures.

Ditto for drummer Louis Moholo's Spirits Rejoice (january 1978), featuring tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, trombonists Nick Evans and Radu Malfatti, pianist Keith Tippett and bassist Johnny Dyani. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

British pianist Steve Beresford debuted with The Bath Of Surprise (1977), which included pieces scored for toy instruments, bath water, whistles, tubes, euphonium and ukelele (besides piano, guitar and trumpet), and then delivered the atonal duets of Double Indemnity (august 1980) with cellist Triston Honsinger. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

British clarinet and saxophone player Tony Coe was no less casual, Spanning a diverse spectrum of jazz styles. Tournee du Chat (april 1982), featuring the 17-minute The Jolly Corner, Le Chat Se

Retourne (1984) and the soundtrack for Mer de Chine (1987) revealed a surreal storyteller and a

painter of florid vignettes.

British progressive-rock hero and Keith Rowe's disciple Fred Frith developed a technique of brief vignettes that straddled the border between dissonant and folk music on Gravity (january 1980) and

the ranks of the improvisers. Through collaborations with guitarist Henry Kaiser, cellist Tom Cora, harpist Zeena Parkins, saxophonist Lol Coxhill, keyboardist Bob Ostertag and percussionist Charles Noyes as well as with fellow Henry Cow member Chris Cutler, Frith perfected a collage-style art that juxtaposed improvised jams and cells of composed music. Notable were the colossal jams with Ostertag of Getting A Head (june 1980) and Voice Of America (august 1981), and the folk- neoclassical-atonal fusion of Skeleton Crew's Learn To Talk (january 1984) with Cora. The compositional aspect also led him to compose chamber music such as Quartets (december 1992) and The Previous Evening (june 1996) that paid tribute to the USA avantgarde of the previous decades (such as John Cage and Morton Feldman). The 56-minute suite Impur (may 1996) was performed and improvised by 100 musicians in a large building for an audience that was

encouraged to wonder around. He also founded the trio Maybe Monday with Miya Masaoka on koto and electronics and with saxophonist Larry Ochs of the Rova Saxophone Quartet. Their

Saturn's Finger (july 1998) was perhaps his most mature venture into creative jazz, containing

three lengthy improvisations that sample ambient, industrial and exotic overtones. Another synthesis of sort was represented by the dance piece The Happy End Problem (2003). TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

British violinist Jon Rose, after debuting his "relative violin" theory with two volumes of Solo

Violin Improvisations (1978), experimented with numerous home-made instruments, mostly solo,

on Towards a Relative Music (may 1978), for electronics, vibes, gongs and even furniture,

Relative String Music (april 1980) for solo violin or sarangi, Devils and Angels (november 1984)

for amplified violin or cello. Then Paganini's Last Testimony (1988) for voice and violin marked the beginning of his mock neoclassical phase, continued with Die Beethoven Konversationen (june 1989) and 2 Real Violin Stories (1991). His surrealistic phase was highlighted by The

Virtual Violin (1990), a comic "opera" relying on a rapid fire of samples triggered by more or less

random sounds of the violin, and a series of radio works (that often sounded like Dada making fun of Dada making fun of humankind). The Fence (august 1996) was the first installment of the "Fence" series, two suites for giant string installations: the speech opera Bagni Di Dolabella (september 1993) and the sociopolitical radiodrama The Fence (august 1996). It was followed by

Great Fences of Australia (2002), on which Rose literally played very long wooden, metal, barbed

and electrified fences spread all over Australia like they were musical instruments. It all seemed to come together (John Cage-derived aleatory music, sense of humour, and free improvisation) on The

Hyperstring Project (august 1999), a study on counterpoint for violin and interactive software. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Creative music: Japan

The Japanese scene for free improvisers boomed in the 1970s thanks to a group of visionary musicians.

Japanese pianist Yosuke Yamashita formed a bass-less trio in 1969 that over the years featured alto saxophonist Akira Sakata and several drummers. The jams of the trio (and the pianist's stormy style) were captured on Live 1973 (july 1973), that contained a 19-minute version of Yamashita's

Ballad for Takeo (19:01) and a 22-minute version of Akira Sakata's Zubo (22:22), Clay (june 1974),

with his signature theme Clay, Chiasma (june 1975), Banslikana (july 1976), Arashi (september 1976), while Breath Take (july 1975) and Inner Space (june 1977) were solo-piano collections. In 1988 Yamashita formed a New York Trio with bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Pheeroan

AkLaff, documented on Kurdish Dance (may 1992) and Dazzling Days (may 1993).

Motoharu Yoshizawa recorded solo acoustic bass improvisations on Cracked Mirrors (july 1975) and then developed a cacophonous five-string bass for more disjointed works such as Empty Hats

(february 1994). The elegant style of percussionist Masahiko Togashi was documented on Rings (november 1975), on which he also played vibraphone and celesta.

The most influential musician of this generation was probably guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, who became one of the earliest noise guitar improvisers, recording extremely cacophonous works such as Free Form Suite (may 1972), with his New Directions combo, and the brutal solo

improvisations of Action Direct (october 1985), Inanimate Nature (august 1990) and Three

Improvised Variations on a Theme of Quadhafi (december 1990), recorded just before his death.

Saxophonist Kaoru Abe (who died at 29) emerged through three albums of galactic live duets with Takayanagi: Kaitaiteki Koukan/ Deconstructive Communication (june 1970), Gradually

Projection (july 1970) and Mass Projection (july 1970). TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Noise jazz

The white San Francisco-based Rova Saxophone Quartet was the alternative and experimental alter- ego of the more famous World Saxophone Quartet. Formed in 1977 by Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley, on respectively baritone, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone it straddled the border between free jazz and classical music of the 20th century. Raskin had already founded several multimedia projects and worked with composer John Adams. Their first concert became also their first album, Cinema Rovate' (august 1978), highlighted by Raskin's chaotic and cacophonous 21-minute Ride Upon the Belly of the Waters After The Bay (december 1978) with Italian percussionist Andrea Centazzo, the noise strategy of the group was perfected on The

Removal of Secrecy (february 1979), particularly Ochs' 19-minute That's How Strong. There was

method in their madness, but it was not easily detected within the dense structures of their scores. After Daredevils (february 1979) with guitarist Henry Kaiser, and the transitional This This This

This (august 1979), with Raskin's eleven-minute Flamingo Horizons, Invisible Frames (october

1981) boasted another peak of their expressionist art, Voigt's 22-minute Narrow Are the Vessels. Ochs' 19-minute Paint Another Take of the Shootpop, off As Was (april 1981), was dedicated to both classical composer Olivier Messiaen and soul vocalist Otis Redding. Rova's style was becoming more accessible while still being abstract, absurd and atonal. After the live double-LP

Saxophone Diplomacy (june 1983), with a 24-minute Detente or Detroit, and the Steve Lacy

tribute of Favorite Street (november 1983), the Rova Saxophone Quartet sculpted the titanic jams of Crowd (june 1985), such as the 19-minute The Crowd, Ochs' 29-minute Knife In the Times and Raskin's 16-minute Terrains. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi. All rights reserved.

Black drummer William Hooker, who moved to New York in 1974, remained fundamentally faithful to the aesthetic of free-jazz (despite a passion for exoteric/spiritual themes), starting with the double-LP Is Eternal Life (may 1976 - Reality Unit Concepts, 1978), a set of collaborations with other improvisers (including tenor saxophonists David Murray and David Ware, notably the lengthy trio Soy with Murray and a bassist) and with Brighter Lights (Reality Unit Concepts, 1982) in a trio with flutist Alan Braufman and pianist Mark Hennen.

Drumming and poetry coexisted on the albums of his relatively traditional period: Great Sunset (1988) with Mark Hennen (piano), Lewis Barnes(trumpet), Charles Compo (tenor and baritone sax, flute); Lifeline (1989) for a quartet with piano and alto plus tenor saxophonist Charles Compo and trombonist Masahiko Kono; Colour Circle (1989) for a trio with saxophonist Booker Williams and trumpeter Roy Campbell; Firmament Fury (1992), in a quintet with alto saxophonist Claude Lawrence, tenor saxophonist Charles Compo, trombonist Masahiko Kono and Borbetomagus' guitarist Donald Miller; and Subconscious (1992), that documented a live performance by a sextet. Rediscovered by Sonic Youth's guitarist Thruston Moore for the rock audience, Hooker returned to a more abstract and free-form kind of creative improvisation in the main works of his prolific

middle age: Darkness (november 1992) and The Spirits Return (april 1994) on Radiation, by Hooker's band featuring Miller, electronic musician Brian Doherty, Compo, Kono; a duet with Moore (Sirius) and an electroacoustic duet with guitarist Elliott Sharp (The Hat) on Shamballa (1993); the 40-minute The Coming One and the 24-minute Big Mountain off Tibet (march 1994), with piano (Mark Hennen), saxophone (Compo) and guitar (Donald Miller); the 31-minute duet with Sonic Youth's wildly dissonant guitarist Lee Ranaldo Matches on Envisioning (april 1994). the 17-minute live duet with violinist Billy Bang Sweating Brain (june 1994) on Joy; the 51-minute

Stamina that added Zeena Parkins' harp to the Ranaldo-Hooker duo on the live Gift of Tongues

(1995); the eight-movement solo-percussion sonata Heat Of Light (august 1995). The albums with Ranaldo were heavily influenced by his screeching sounds, just like the albums with Donald Miller were heavily influenced by his turbulent wall of noise.

Armageddon (february 1995) marked a change in direction, both because the improvisations

turned towards a more sophisticated kind of soundpainting and because the stylistic palette expanded dramatically, ranging from a dadaistic duet with turntablist Gregor "DJ Olive" Asch to the 16-minute free jam State Secrets for drums and two guitars. However, Hard Time (december 1995) was one of his most violent albums ever, featuring an electro-acoustic quintet with Donald Miller, electronic keyboardist Doug Walker, guitarist Jesse Henry and saxophonist Richard Keene. Nonetheless, the experiment with the turntable was continued on Mindfulness (august 1996), that featured DJ Olive as well as reed player Glenn Spearman, on Bouquet (april 1999), a cacophonous live jam with turntablist Christian Marclay and Sonic Youth's wildly atonal guitarist Lee Ranaldo, and on the live Complexity #2 (september 2000), containing the 41-minute Twelve Windows for ocean waves, drumming, electronic keyboards (Doug Walker) and turntable (DJ Olive). TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Noise percussionist Charles Noyes conceived some of the most cerebral improvised music on Free

Mammals (1980), for guitar and percussion, and The World And The Raw People (1983), solos

and duos with saxophonist John Zorn, trumpeter Lesli Dalaba and guitarist Henry Kaiser.

New York's white trio Borbetomagus produced hurricanes of free-jazz music for two saxophones (Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich), guitar (Donald Miller) and electronic distortion. Their delirious improvised bacchanals constituted a sort of "baroque" style of the ugly and the noisy. The devastating early "concordats" of Borbetomagus (april 1980) and Work On What Has Been

Spoiled (april 1981), the cacophonous symphony Barbet Wire Maggot (may 1982), perhaps their

most extreme statement, the abstract and grotesque soundpainting of Borbeto Jam (october 1981), that seemed to exhaust the expressive power of the "concordats", and Fish That Sparkling Bubble (march 1988), a ferocious collaboration with noise-meisters Voice Crack (Norbert Moeslang and Andy Guhl), had little in common with the traditional quest for "sound" in jazz, a quest for an atmospheric, romantic and, ultimately, pleasant sound. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi. All rights reserved.

Voice Crack, the duo of Swiss musicians Andy Guhl (percussion and bass) and Norbert Moeslang (reeds), made music with broken objects found in garbage cans and adopted the extreme

improvisation of free-jazz. Albums such as Knack On (october 1982) and the live Concerto for

Cracked Everyday-Electronics and Chamber Orchestra (may 1994) were Dadaist acts of

musical rebellion. TM, ®, Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Latvian collective ZGA specialized in playing found, self-made and traditional instruments in a percussive way, starting with ZGA (recorded between 1984 and 1988).

White wordless vocalist Jay Clayton created one of the most cerebral languages of free-jazz singing. She came into her own only much later than her counterpart Jeanne Lee, debuting with b>All Out (october 1980).

San Francisco-based vocalist Bobby McFerrin cut The Voice (1984), the first solo vocal album in the history of jazz music. His vocal style was among the most versatile since the days of Jeanne Lee and Jay Clayton, although the material had often the effect of turning his improvisations into

novelties rather than avantgarde. In fact, he later crossed over into pop and even classical music, returning to creative improvisation only with Circlesongs (1997).

17 FUSION