Leaf palm hand

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Leaf palm hand
Live album by Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley

Publication
(s)

1989

admission

1988

Label (s) FMP

Genre (s)

Free jazz , freely improvised music

occupation

production

Jost Gebers

Location (s)

Congress Hall Berlin

Leaf Palm Hand is an album of freely improvised music by Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley . It is a concert recording that was made on July 17, 1988 in the Kongresshalle Berlin .

History of origin

The American pianist Cecil Taylor, one of the central figures of free jazz , and the British drummer Tony Oxley met once in 1969 at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club when Taylor was there with his quartet (with saxophonists Jimmy Lyons and Sam Rivers and drummer Andrew Cyrille ) Recorded for the BBC but didn't play together at the time. In 1988, the founder of The Wire magazine , Anthony Wood, suggested that the two musicians should go on tour in the fall of 1988. “He knew both of them personally and knew that they were considered 'difficult' in the scene. He relied on the spontaneous creativity of the musicians, was aware of the emotional risks and prepared them independently for their encounter. ”The opportunity for a first concert of the two musicians arose as part of the concert series Improvised Music II / 88 , which Record label FMP organized as part of the EU Capital of Culture activities of West Berlin . A series of events was planned and realized around Cecil Taylor as the leading American free jazz musician, from a solo concert to duo encounters between Taylor and European instrumentalists to the large formation European Orchestra put together . The first musical encounter between Taylor and Oxley took place on the last day of the concert and they have been working together since then.

The music

On the stage in the congress hall, the concert grand and the drums were so far apart that the musicians needed acoustic monitors to communicate. But already “the first piano note electrified Oxley.” He understood the first notes as “an intuitive promise that signaled musical similarities.” According to Oxley biographer Ulrich Kurth, the communication between Taylor and Oxley “is based on musical similarities, which of course often can hardly be followed analytically in virtuoso and emotional ecstasy . ”Means of communication are, for example, topic and variation, call and response and motivic chain associations.

This becomes clear in the title track “Leaf Palm Hand”, a 42-minute tour de force . At the beginning Taylor introduces a motif cell in the low register of the grand piano, which represents call and response in octave intervals , which he continues until it " seems to ebb away in stochastic running fragments." further, against which Oxley sets pelvic sounds. "The structure of the following motif cells (4 ') initiates subtle interactions between the musicians, from which they draw a large dynamic arc", in which the tension increases further. “These increases often result from repetitive rhythm fragments in shimmering sound structures that reach a first dynamic climax after 19 minutes, with racing clusters and finely structured drum rolls .” After a decrescendo , in which the rapid pulse is maintained, “rhythmic ones appear again and again Figures that are reminiscent of familiar jazz terrain - and are immediately dissolved into clouds of sound. ”Both players now fall back on polyrhythmic structures that intensify communication. “After 31 minutes, a neoclassical passage follows , in which Taylor plays the piano almost traditionally and Oxley seems to be dissecting different sound areas of his drums.” Then both play rhythmically synchronized and together create “a kaleidoscope of iridescent sound surfaces. The end with its downright wistful memories of the increased movement (›lyrical clusters‹, fading cymbals) seems logically reached. "

The musicians had to give several encores ; one of them was "Chimes". This miniature, with its chromatic basic motif has two dynamic levels: "In an impressionistic -style chord during a large seventh in the middle register sets Taylor attacca . With single notes and octaves dynamic contrast, which acts like a lightning bolt" These contrasts attacks Oxley with sparse percussion sounds on, sometimes both find a common pulse.

Track list

  1. Stylobate 1 - 17:26
  2. Leaf Palm Hand - 42:20
  3. Chimes (Cecil Taylor) - 3:50
  4. Stylobate 2 - 3:23
  5. The Old Canal (Taylor) - 2:42

Unless otherwise stated, the compositions are by Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley.

Edition history

The album was published by FMP both individually and in a complete edition with ten other recordings, which were made in summer 1988 in Berlin from concerts with Cecil Taylor. In 2008 the album was reissued by the JazzWerkstatt label .

Reviews

Bert Noglik writes in the liner notes of the album: “They play very close to each other, follow one another's musical movement - almost like two migratory birds , which synchronize oscillation curves with biological instinct.” The album is not an attempt “to find the lowest common denominator but rather an opening from both sides based on musical identity, which can claim to manifest current sound awareness. ”…“ Breaking through the uniformity of rhythmic patterns, it was also possible to increase the feeling for continuity and intensity. "

Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the album the highest rating in The Penguin Guide to Jazz . Like the recordings made at the time with Derek Bailey , Tristan Honsinger , Evan Parker , Han Bennink and Louis Moholo, the album is an "excellent example of Taylor's adaptive skills".

Thom Jurek, who gave the album four and a half out of five stars for Allmusic , notes that there is no decline in the intensity of the interplay throughout the set. "It is one of the most melodic improvisations that Cecil Taylor has presented." In view of the new edition for All About Jazz , Brand Reiter states that it is music that is both relentlessly novel and strangely steady.

In his review for Amazon, Joe Pierre considers the album to be a “high point” in the series of Berlin encounters Taylor with European musicians from 1988, which FMP documented - Leaf Palm Hand is not a “study of contrasts, but of harmony” (so far one could use this term with the musicians).

literature

  • Ulrich Kurth: The 4th Quarter of the Triad: Tony Oxley. Five decades of improvised music. Wolke Verlag, Hofheim am Taunus 2011, ISBN 978-3-936000-48-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ U. Kurth, The 4th Quarter of the Triad , p. 174.
  2. ↑ Oxley was not included in the original plans for the series. See U. Kurth, The 4th Quarter of the Triad , p. 174.
  3. ↑ a b c U. Kurth The 4th Quarter of the Triad , p. 176
  4. ↑ a b c d e f U. Kurth, The 4th Quarter of the Triad , p. 178
  5. ^ U. Kurth, The 4th Quarter of the Triad , p. 179
  6. ^ Liner Notes
  7. ↑ Quoted from Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 8th edition Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 . P. 1269.
  8. ^ Review of AllAboutJazz