By Mark Corroto
What started out as one Midwest fans attempt to document the energy and life force of the early punk music scene has morphed into a 21st century reclamation of the unheard heroes of some very creative music.
Label chief Kurt Kellison of Atavistic Records probably had no idea his early filmmaking efforts, recording the live dates of bands like Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore as they passed through Columbus, Ohio in the early eighties would lead to a future association with the modernist saxophonist Ken Vandermark and point him backward. Kellison began with his sights set on New Yorks music scene releasing videos and recordings by Glenn Branca, Lydia Lunch, and Lee Ranaldo. His restless ears led him to the fringes of jazz and the likes of Elliott Sharp, Nels Cline, and Greg Bendian. His eventual move to Chicago in the late 1980s focused his attention on the local scene.
In music as in life, timing is everything. Atavistics opening shop in Chicago coincided with the flourishing jazz and experimental music boom that city has experienced. Kellisons documentation of that scene (along with Okka Disc, Wobbly Rail and Delmark Records) has acted as an excellent resource. As in the early punk music movement, independent recordings allow for giant strides in music making. No big labels to quash the creative motivations of new artists. Kellisons Atavistic punk label was a natural outlet for saxophonist Ken Vandermarks jazz vision which doesnt see jazz as ending in 1961 nor being confined to the North American continent. Vandermark, the recipient of last years MacArthur Grant, is opening up a new avenue of jazz and creating a new audience of jazz listeners not satisfied with commercial radio and MTV.
Enter John Corbett. The Chicago music critic has had a long association with Ken Vandermark and the burgeoning Chicago scene. Corbett not only writes about jazz (check out Extended Play: Sounding Off From John Cage To Dr. Funkenstein Duke University Press 1994), but is a music producer, music promoter, and music improviser. The Unheard Music Series, as Kellison tells it, is the sole province of Corbetts tastes. Corbetts mission is to feed the fire of searching music fans. The Unheard Music Series has multiple appeal. It satisfies those half-crazed music collectors who have been digging through vinyl bins for years to find free jazz and experimental music that was produced as a pressing of only 500 records. Corbetts mission is also to release radio archive tapes and yet unheard private recordings from artists like Joe McPhee and Chicagos Fred Anderson and Hal Russell. These three have been neglected by both the jazz historical revisionists, the tendency of most of us to be New York-centric, and
maybe more notable was the rise in fusion during the 1960s which forced much creative music underground. Corbetts efforts are focused on unearthing this wealth of talent.
As Kellison put it, for adventurous listeners ages 20-50, this music is the logical extension of who we are. As fans of Medeski Martin & Wood, Charles Gayle and The Vandermark 5 search out the root of creative music the Unheard Music Series is a natural next step. Hardcore fans rejoiced when this project was announced, but also those open to new worlds will find the music of the 1960s and 1970s free jazz scene and experimental sound artists. Corbett has worked with artists and record labels to reclaim tapes, remaster them, and repackage this music into CD form with original artwork or reproductions of the obscure original covers. The liner notes of the originals are reproduced and often updated with historical information and artists recollections.
For many listeners these will be an introduction to important yet under-documented musicians like Fred Anderson, Joe McPhee, and Hal Russell. For most it will be an introduction to new musicians (Sven-Ake Johannson), and sound artists (Guillermo Gregorio) or maybe valuable pieces to the puzzle of European jazz legends like Peter Brotzmann and Han Bennink.
As jazz historians seem to be shrinking the canon, ignoring important contributions and contributors, the unheard Music Series is setting out to reopen discussion (and ears) as to what creative music is.
Below is an overview of several of the series releases with links to full reviews. Access the Atavistic web site here, Unheard Music Series.
Saxophonist Joe McPhee opens Nation Time (40:50) by bellowing the question; what time is it? Nearly 30 years later the answer remains the same. This 1970 live quintet/quartet date mixes total energy music with blues/funk, to deliver McPhees free jazz with an ass-shaking message. The title track dedicated to LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) calls for audience and sidemen participation similar to an outing with Archie Shepp. McPhees music circa 1970 reveals the influence of not only Miles Davis (electrified) but that of Jimi Hendrixs blues and later James Blood Ulmer. Neither the electric piano nor R&B beats seem dated, nor a cover for McPhees freedom music. The response nation time is a confirmation of the rawness and determination with which he played with (and still does).
Sideman to John Coltrane and Albert Ayler and co-leader of the New York Contemporary Five (with Archie Shepp and Bill Dixon) and the New York Art Quartet (Roswell Rudd, Milford Graves, and Reggie Workman), Danish saxophonist John Tchicai played a very stoic form of free jazz, trading off power for creation. Willi The Pig (48:25) was recorded live in 1975 with Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer, German bassist Buschi Niebergail, and South African drummer Makaya Ntshoko. The recording (an LP that printed only in 500 copies) came in two parts and allowed for the fade-out of side one and the cueing of side two. This is a rare glimpse into the free jazz scene in Europe, circa 1975.
If you were sleeping on saxophonist Fred Anderson for the past thirty years, a recent downpour of his music is enough to wet your appetite. But if you cannot get enough, these previously unreleased recordings The Milwaukee Tapes Vol. 1 (70:25) are valuable booty. Recorded in 1980 with percussionist Hamid Drake, trumpeter Billy Brimfield, and bassist Larry Hayrod, Anderson extends Ornette Colemans concept through the largeness of the Chicago tenor tradition. A complete review of this disc can be found here Derek Taylor and another by Mark Corroto.
The 1981 recording of Heavy Days Are Here Again (35:38) may be the shortest of the Unheard Series but may be the European spark for the American return to jazz with a sense of humor. Bands like Jazz Passengers, Kamikaze Ground Crew, The Lounge Lizards, may have been inspired by , Han Bennink, and Willem Breuker. A complete review can be read here by Derek Taylor.
Released originally on the LIM (Live Improvised Music) label, the 1975 recording Waves From Albert Ayler (60:23) by the Swedish new thing musicians saxophonist Gilbert Holmstrom, bassist Kjell Jansson, and drummer Conny Sjokvist collectively known as Mount Everest Trio, could just as easily have come straight out of New York. Covers of Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Gary Bartz establish their credibility as a free power jazz trio and their original tracks are true barnburners. If you ever wondered where the young Swede Mats Gustafsson came from, its right here. These Swedes burn as loud and as long as any David S. Ware record in your collection and the mellow side tracks bleed Sonny Rollins all over the place.
Although there were two LP releases of the great European improvised band the Sclippenbach Quartet, none were reissued on CD. Hunting The Snake (77:04) recorded 1975 is a super-group outing before there were such things. Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Peter Kowald, drummer Paul Lovens, and saxophonist Evan Parker create music that has the feel (and sometimes the sound) of a wild fire. All four have become stars of todays European improv-jazz and this early date is certainly a must have for Eva Parker collectors.
Another supergroup was Peter Brotzmann with his sextet and quartet. The collaboration of fellow saxophonist Evan Parker, guitarist Derek Bailey, pianist Fred Van Hove, bassist Buschi Niebergall, and drummer Han Bennink called Nipples (33:27) has been out-of-print for 30 years. Read full reviews here by Derek Taylor and Mark Corroto.
Jazz drummer and visual artist Han Bennink has been at the heart of European improvised music since the early 1960s. Co-founder of the Instant Composer Pool (ICP) with Misha Mengelberg and creator of the Clusone trio, Bennink is revered as the ultimate solo drumming showman. Nerve Beats (47:05) from 1973 is a long out-of print gem. Read full reviews here by Nils Jacobson and Derek Taylor.
