Alchemia

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Alchemia
Live album by Ken Vandermark & The Vandermark 5

Publication
(s)

2005

Label (s) Not Two Records

Format (s)

12 CD

Genre (s)

Free jazz

Title (number)

59

running time

12:08:32

occupation

Location (s)

Alchemia Club, Krakow

chronology
Elements of Style / Exercises in Surprise
(2004) 		Alchemia The Color of Memory
(2005)

Alchemia is a jazz album by Ken Vandermark & The Vandermark 5. The recordings from March 15 to 18, 2004 in the Alchemia Club in Krakow were released in 2005 in a limited edition in a twelve-CD edition on Not Two Records .

background

The 12-CD edition Alchemia documents an engagement of Vandermark 5 in the Alchemia Club in Krakow, which was recorded there on five consecutive evenings. Dave Rempis (saxophones), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Kent Kessler (double bass) and Tim Daisy (drums) play with Ken Vandermark (woodwind instruments ). Marcin Oleś and his brother Bartłomiej Oleś joined Kessler and Daisy in the final jam sessions on March 17 and 18, 2004 .

At that time, the quintet Vandermark 5 was definitely the best known and most stable means of expression of the woodwind player Ken Vendermark. The group had existed in this form since 2002. The repertoire consisted of based on material they had played for years, as well as the development of new titles on stage and a number of cover versions . Each CD plays a set with two sets per night. In the recordings of the last two evenings, there is additional material in the edition that was created with the Polish musicians Marcin Oles and Bartlomiej Brat Oles. They played several cover versions - like Sonny Rollins ' "East Broadway Rundown", Ornette Coleman "Lonely Women" and Thelonious Monk's " Bemsha Swing " - and an abundance of free improvisations that are more spontaneous compositions.

Aside from the two jam session discs, the band plays 31 different songs, only two more than three times. This ensures a variety of materials. The tracks are mostly taken from the group's last two regular albums, Elements of Style / Exercises in Surprise and Airports for Light . There are a few select tracks from previous albums Acoustic Machine and Burn the Incline, as well as three tracks (the most played) from the following album, The Color of Memory .

Track list

  • The Vandermark 5: Alchemia (Not Two Records MW 750-2)

Day One: Monday, March 15, 2004, Set One

  1. Telephone (Vandermark) 8:36
  2. Other Cuts (Vandermark) 12:57
  3. Staircase (Vandermark) 10:45
  4. Strata (Vandermark) 13:43
  5. Free King's Suite: Meeting On Termini's Corner; Three for the festival; A Handful of Fives ( Roland Kirk ) 12:09

Day One: Monday, March 15, 2004, Set Two

  1. Outside Ticket (Vandermark) 11:03
  2. Money Down (Vandermark) 6:33
  3. Camera (Vandermark) 16:53
  4. Roulette (Vandermark) 4:33
  5. Cruz Campo (Vandermark) 10:31
  6. The Black and Crazy Blues [Encore] (Roland Kirk) 8:36

Day Two: Tuesday, March 16, 2004, Set One

  1. Confluence (Vandermark) 8:17
  2. Rip Rig and Panic Suite - From Bechet, Byas and Fats; Rip, Rig and Panic; No Tonic Press (Roland Kirk) 14:14
  3. Camera (Vandermark) 18:51
  4. Both Sides (Vandermark) 9:11
  5. Knock Yourself Out (Vandermark) 7:18

Day Two: Tuesday, March 16, 2004, Set Two

  1. The Cooler (Vandermark) 9:19
  2. That Was Now (Vandermark) 11:32
  3. Six of One (Vandermark) 22:48
  4. Silverlization / Volunteered Slavery (Roland Kirk) 10:42
  5. There Is the Bomb ( Don Cherry ) 11:04 am

Day Three: Wednesday, March 17, 2004, Set One

  1. That Was Now (Vandermark) 10:46
  2. Seven Puls Five (Vandermark) 8:13
  3. The Bridge ( Sonny Rollins ) 6:54
  4. Gyllene (Vandermark) 9:34
  5. Auto Topography (Vandermark) 12:58

Day Three: Wednesday, March 17, 2004, Set Two

  1. The Freedom Suite, Part 2 (Sonny Rollins) 6:20
  2. Telephone (Vandermark) 11:23 am
  3. Initials (Vandermark) 7:12
  4. Camera (Vandermark) 18:03
  5. Other Cuts (Vandermark) 13:36
  6. The Black and Crazy Blues [Encore] (Roland Kirk) 9:04
  7. Knock Yourself Out [Encore] (Vandermark) 6:47

Day Four: Thursday, March 18, 2004, Set One

  1. Money Down (Vandermark) 5:36
  2. Inflated Tear (Roland Kirk) 6:55
  3. Wherever June Bugs Go ( Archie Shepp ) 12:24
  4. Camera (Vandermark) 15:42
  5. Cruz Campo (Vandermark) 9:28

Day Four: Thursday, March 18, 2004, Set Two

  1. Pieces of the Past (Vandermark) 9:47
  2. That Was Now (Vandermark) 11:53
  3. Long Term Fool (Vandermark) 9:57
  4. Strata (Vandermark) 11:25
  5. Silverlization / Volunteered Slavery (Roland Kirk) 11:45
  6. The Bridge [Encore] (Sonny Rollins) 7:37

Day Five: Friday, March 19, 2004, Set One

  1. Conquistador, Part 2 ( Cecil Taylor ) 8:26
  2. Knock Yourself Out (Vandermark) 7:22
  3. Vandermark (Vandermark) 9:47
  4. Camera (Vandermark) 18:02
  5. Cruz Campo (Vandermark) 10:16

Day Five: Friday, March 19, 2004, Set Two

  1. That Was Now (Vandermark) 11:38
  2. Gyllene (Vandermark) 10:55
  3. Telephone (Vandermark) 9:49 am
  4. Ken's Final Speach 2:03
  5. Six of One (Vandermark) 22:49
  6. Other Cuts [Encore] (Vandermark) 13:42
  7. The Black and Crazy Blues (Roland Kirk) 8:20

Jam Session One, Wednesday March 17, 2004

  1. Free Jam 1 (BB ​​.Oleś, Bishop, Vandermark, M. Oleś) 11:35
  2. Free Jam 2 (BB Oleś, Bishop, Vandermark, M. Oleś) 5:17
  3. Free Jam 3 (Rempis, Vandermark, M. Oleś, Daisy) 12:27
  4. East Broadway Run Down / Elephantasy / Complete Communion (Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins) 11:17
  5. Theme for Alchemia (Rempis, Vandermark, Kessler, Daisy) 8:55
  6. Bemsha Swing ( Thelonious Monk ) 10:54

Jam Session Two, Thursday March 18, 2004

  1. Round Trip ( Ornette Coleman ) 22:50
  2. Free Jam 5 (Bishop, Vandermark, Kessler, M. Oleś) 17:38
  3. Free Jam 6 (BB Oleś, Bishop, Vandermark, M. Oleś) 12:26
  4. Togo ( Ed Blackwell ) 4:09
  5. Lonely Woman (Ornette Coleman)

reception

Steve Loewy awarded the album 4½ (out of five) stars in Allmusic and wrote that over the course of more than twelve hours of music the quintet cemented its reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting jazz groups of their time, as magic fills the air every night. It's hard to imagine that modern jazz is more convincing. The lively Polish audience greeted the group enthusiastically, and the musicians responded with exciting performances that sum up the band's condition at its best and point out the directions in which jazz is moving as a creative force. This music is difficult to categorize, if only because it relies on traditional concepts of melody and improvisation, but goes to great lengths to expand and deform the limits of appropriateness.

According to Michael McCaw, who reviewed the album on All About Jazz , there are so many different cross-border musicians performing in today's music world that it is extremely difficult to identify someone as the only person in jazz who has the greatest impact on today Music landscape has, like the giants that came before. But just as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane advanced the accepted standard for the sound of jazz and ultimately accepted concepts, Vandermark is making similar advances in performing and documenting music that is thoroughly modern and contemporary, McCaw noted. The box set of this group is an important document and not just a bloated discographically complete work. All in all, Alchemia can be compared with many great box sets with extended engagements by artists such as Art Pepper , Bill Evans or even Miles Davis ' Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel recordings from 1965: “Both document a group working through material - from set to set and from night to night - and at the same time consolidates stylistic, improvisational and conceptual ideas that are anchored in the jazz vocabulary of their time. Alchemia presents a band that has grown up. Through constant touring from club to club, The Vandermark 5 has created an identity that is as unique and relevant in modern music as Miles Davis was forty years ago. "

Also in All About Jazz, Andrey Henkin wrote that compared to the previous studio albums, the box set is characterized by the cover material, which comes from the limited Free Jazz Classics series and compositions by musicians such as Archie Shepp , Don Cherry , Sonny Rollins , Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor as well as loads of pieces by Rahsaan Roland Kirk . As good as Vandermark as a composer, his arranging skills could be even stronger, and he had a scholar's knowledge of underrated players like Kirk. Of course, certain sets are better than others, as are certain versions of a title. But to recognize this variance is something special. The two mostly free improvisation records with the Olés brothers also deserved special attention.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Discogs
  2. ↑ a b Michael McCaw: Vandermark 5: Alchemia. All About Jazz, August 25, 2005, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Andrey Henkin: Vandermark 5: Alchemia. All About Jazz, September 23, 2005, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  4. ↑ The Vandermark 5: Alchemia at Discogs
  5. ↑ Review of Steve Loewy's album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved April 1, 2020.