Marilyn Crispell, Mark Helias and Tyshawn Sorey

What a great piece of music performed at The Stone, NYC - July 29 2014!

By these fine musicians:

Marilyn Crispell - piano
Mark Helias - bass
Tyshawn Sorey - drums, percussion

Two "new" Soft Machine releases

One Soft Machine release coming up on CDs and one on green vinyl already out?

- "Tanglewood Tails" - 2 x CDs to be released in September 2014. Probably with material already released at least once?

- "Live at Royal Albert Hall in London on 13th August 1970". Green vinyl. Same as "Live at The Proms".

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain on YouTube

Lots of you may know about this already of course, but I believe I had my first visit to Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain´s YouTube Channel this afternoon!

Seems like they have a lot of interesting stuff, but I must admit I regret I didn´t work very hard on my French lessons in school.

- Patti Smith and Patrick Wolf x Artavazd Pelechian - Swans - Live at Fondation Cartier, July, 2014.
- Meredith Monk avec Katie Geissinger en Concert - Les Soirées Nomades, mai 2014.
- Jean-Pierre Drouet, Fred Frith, Louis Sclavis - Les Soirées Nomades, juin 2014.
- Fred Frith with John Giorno and Pauline Oliveros - Concert at The Fondation Cartier 2008.
- Lee Ranaldo Concert in the Garden of the Fondation Cartier 2010.

Cortex: Live! (Clean Feed 2014)

Another short message from me on a Norwegian jazz record you should check out:
Cortex: "Live!" (Clean Feed 2014).
I don´t know if it´s recorded live in front of an audience (can´t hear them), but it sounds fresh and alive and kicking.

You get some new music and some nice versions of tracks from their previous albums - "Gray Matter" from "Resection" (Bolage 2011) and "Endorphin", "Cerebrum" and "Hub" from "Göteborg" (Gigafon 2012).

The band is Gard Nilssen (d), Kristoffer Alberts (reeds), Ola Høyer (b) and Thomas Johansson (cor), and as they say over at Clean Feed - "Cortex plays new jazz with the tools and forms of the old one".

An earlier post on Cortex right here.

Karen Mantler "Business is Bad"

Karen Mantler performs "Business is Bad" on WNYC's Spinning On Air (April 29, 2014).
We could probably help her with the economy by buying her new album?

Karen Mantler (vocal, piano), Kato Hideki (bass guitar) and Doug Wieselman (bass clarinet).

More info on YouTube.

Rock Bottom For Forty Years

Today we celebrate that Robert Wyatt´s album "Rock Bottom" (Virgin 26 July, 1974) has been in this world for 40 years, and is still sounding fresh!

The personnel (what a gang!):

Robert Wyatt – vocals, keyboards, percussion, slide guitar
Mike Oldfield – guitar
Gary Windo – bass clarinet, tenor sax
Ivor Cutler – voice, baritone concertina, harmonium
Alfreda Benge – voice
Mongezi Feza – trumpets
Fred Frith – viola
Hugh Hopper – bass guitar
Richard Sinclair – bass guitar
Laurie Allan – drums

Nick Mason: Producer

Alfreda Benge: Cover (both original and 1998 re-issue)

The very same day that "Rock Bottom" was released, Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge got married. Congratulations to them on their 40th wedding day!

Common (Jimmy McGovern)

Over at What´s Rattlin´ i found some info on a BBC One aired drama called "Common", written by Jimmy McGovern, and with a soundtrack featuring two songs sung by Robert Wyatt, and with music by Adrian Johnston.

Several messages on Twitter on the case, seem to indicate that the songs were recorded for "Common", with no plans for release in any other format. Oh, come on!

The two songs seem to have been Paul Laurence Dunbar´s "The Debt" and Elizabeth Drew Barstod Stoddard´s "One morn I left him in his bed".

Or what? Do you have any info?

Videos from Moldejazz 2014

I was at the Molde International Jazz Festival 14 - 19 July without attending any concert this year!
I´m not proud of that, but blame it on my health. Here at least are some short videos uploaded by festival news magazine "Fire Flate".

- Sidsel Endresen (Artist in Residence), Erik Honoré and Jan Bang remixing Stefano Bollani and Hamilton de Holanda.

- Merriwinkle - Sidsel Endresen, Helge Sten and Christian Wallumrød

- Ingebjørg Loe Bjørnstad and Frode Haltli. Bjørnstad is singing in her glorious Norwegian Surnadal dialect. This is a song from their fantastic album "Hæm" (= Home) (Øra Fonogram 2013).

Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit at Moers 2014

Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit playing "Culius" at Moers Festival, June 2014.

The band according to Moers´ site: Thomas Johansson (tp), Mats Äleklint (tb), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Kasper Værnes (sax), Klaus Holm (sax), Lasse Marhaug (elec), Ketil Gutvik (git), Jon Rune Strøm (b), Christian Meaas Svendsen (b), Andreas Wildhagen (dr) and Paal Nilssen-Love (dr).

Police and drums

I found this policeman banging the drums in Bergen today. He looks pretty hard hitting!?

Creator: Bergen street artist Like.

Robert Wyatt admitted to the Degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa

Read the text of the oration for Robert Wyatt's honorary degree award, University of Kent, Canterbury (18-7-14) over at Simon Thompson´s "profsjt".

It´s ending like this: "In its turn, the University of Kent would like to record its appreciation of Robert's work. For his musical achievements and influence over the last fifty years, most honourable deputy vice-chancellor, to you and to the whole university I present Robert Wyatt to be admitted to the Degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa".

Le Monde de Robert Wyatt

Le monde de Robert Wyatt - création from Les Nuits de Fourvière on Vimeo.

In April we had a post on the concert "Le Monde de robert Wyatt" happening in Lyon 12 July 2014, and here is a Vimeo video on the making of it. With Craig Fortnam, leader of the North Sea Radio Orchestra, John Greaves, Elisa Caron, Pascal Comelade and Silvain Vanot. In French and all.

Any footage of the concert somewhere?

Arto Lindsay and Paal Nilssen-Love

What a duo! Arto Lindsay and Paal Nilssen-Love at Moers Festival and Roskilde 2014.

Blow Out! Festival 2014

Check out Oslo´s Blow Out! festival happening 13 - 17 August:

Wednesday 13 August:
Mats Gustafsson / Paal Nilssen-Love
Lemur
John Russell / Ståle Liavik Solberg duo
LSB

Thursday 14 August:
Lotte Anker / Pat Thomas / Ståle Liavik Solberg
John Wiese / Lasse Marhaug
Julie Kjær / Hanna Marshall / Rachel Musson
Nacka Forum

Friday 15 August
Klaus Holm / David Stackenäs
SAKA + Pat Thomas
Mette Rasmusen
Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit

Saturday 16 August
Andreas Backer / Ketil Gutvik / Emil Strandberg
Emil Strandberg / Sten Sandell / Patric Thorman
Nystrøm / Johansson / Storesund / Laihonen
Ketil Gutvik
The Ex

As if this is not enough, they have Blow Out! at Cafe Oto in London too (9 -10 August).

Håkon Kornstad at Spoleto Festival

Saxophonist and opera singer Håkon Kornstad doing "O del mio dolce ardor" (Gluck) at Spoleto Festival (USA June 2014).

More videos on his YouTube site.

Highasakite

A shout out to the Norwegian pop band Highasakite today, with two live videos from Rockefeller (Oslo) (more on YouTube) . I think several of you might like this band as much as I do.

Check out their albums "All that floats will rain" (Riot Factory 2012) and "Silent treatment" (Propeller 2014).

Musicians:
Ingrid Helene Håvik – zither, steeldrum and vocals
Trond Bersu - drums
Øystein Skar - synths
Marte Eberson - synths
Kristoffer Lo - guitar and flugabone

Syd Barrett on vinyl again

30th June Rhino released Syd Barrett's albums "The Madcap Laughs" (Harvest 1970), "Barrett" (Harvest 1970), and "Opel" (Harvest 1988) on heavyweight 180g vinyl.

Opel contains outtakes and alternative versions from the Madcap and Barrett sessions.

Robert Wyatt plays drums on "No good trying" and "Love you" on "The Madcap Laughs", and on Opel´s "Clowns and Jugglers".

Doctor of Music Degree

Robert Wyatt will receive a Doctor of Music degree from the University of Kent, in recognition of his contribution to music (18 July 2014)!

Wyatt has also received the insignia of Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Liège (Belgium) in 2009.

Nuart - Street Art - Stavanger

I was in the vicinity of Stavanger (Norway) this weekend, and was able to have a quick look at the city´s street art again.

Thanks to Stavanger´s Nuart festival (happening in September) you will find an impressive outdoor gallery here!

Artists from the top:
Dotmasters
Dotmasters
Eine
Niels Shoe Meulman
Herbert Baglione
Strøk
JPS

As usual, click on pictures for larger versions, and you will find more Stavanger photos on Flickr.

Building Instrument: "Alt e bra"

I already tried to convince you to listen to Building Instrument, and here Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Øyvind Hegg-Lunde and Åsmund Weltzien do "Alt e bra" ("Everything is fine") in an Oslo park.

This is a track from their eponymous 2014 Hubro release, and the video is by Saftflaske.

Mary Halvorson speaks

Let´s get a bit serious here, with Mary Halvorson breaking down free improvisation and demonstrating creating exercises.
Both videos borrowed from Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz Academy on YouTube.