Search - Paul Bley :: Improvise (Reis) (Dig)

1971: A Space-Jazz Oddity

hj | London | 11/27/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It must have been a shock when cool jazz pianist Paul Bley suddenly turned up playing one of those new-fangled moog synthesiser things - an even bigger shock when he formed a trio with hip but mad singer Annette Peacock and even madder percussionist and Dutch free improv legend Han Bennink. They released the notorious "Duel Unity" album (still strangely unreleased on CD?) but what we do now have is an obscure live album from a 1971 European tour.

Just 35 minutes of music (split into two tracks). The music starts with some cosmic bleeping (to which everyone using early moogs succumbed). But you can tell Bley wants to get lyrical, Annette wants to get soulful and Bennink wants to swing. The spirit is willing but the technology is weak. The music splutters and keeps breaking down. Bley goes for Sun Ra-like bursts of staccato electronica, Annette turns the fuzzbox on her bass up to eleven and Bennink resorts to frantic free improv routines. It's all very primitive. A couple of times Annette tries to get an erotic ballad vocalese thing going but it soon peters out back into fragmented abstraction. What you have here is three talented and intelligent musicians who don't know what they are doing - which makes for fascinating listening. I've never heard anything even approximating the musical concept (if there was one) or the American/European mix of jazz, mainstream, free & rock. And the kitsch elements which probably would have sounded horribly dated not long ago now sound, dare I say, "postmodern".

This CD release is part of a reissue of the complete America label catalogue, a French avant garde label of the early 70s, rivals to Actuel/Byg (& similarly dubious). Lots of (new) trendy art work packaging which render the sleevenotes unreadable but decent sound quality.

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