First off let me state that I love the jazz avant-garde. My own credentials are knee deep in the funk and the noise of this genre. I mean after all ,I ve sat at the throne of the late pianist Don Pullen-where during a Village Vanguard gig he hit a tonal cluster with a fist and bled all over the 88 s. Saxophonist Charles Gayle once sat with me before a show eating baby food ;then literaly ran up on the stage splitting the atom with his density.Yet in listening to Kees Hazevoet s Unlawful Noise I m reminded of a joke by the jazz critic Francis Davis. He recanted that with bad avant-garde records they sound the same to the extent that no matter where you put the needle the music all screamed at you the same way.Hazevoet was apparently an important part of the Holland jazz scene . A first wave free player who later in his career collaborated with Williem Bruker and German blowhard Peter Brotzmann. In short Kees Hazevoet is the legendary type of figure whose music speaks of a generation ;including it s excess. His late 70 s disillusionment with the music world led to a career in the Sciences. The acclaimed biologist now resides in Lisbon Portugal. The music here offers me none of that rich bio-geography.It lacks the strength and conviction of the American black avant-garde;which was reaching its zenith.Although Louis Moholo is as usual in good form; Dyani is lost in the mix. Cecil Taylor (an obvious influence to Hazevoet) once spoke of free improvisation reaching a point where the music becomes a living organic whole. Hazevoet and Company just hint at a cell of pale comparison
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