Joxfield ProjeX - Computer 8

Joxfield ProjeX dealing a bit with the electric jazz flavour - From Numbers & Letters 3 Disc set (2010)

O'

Fire! Orchestra - Mighty Exit Version from Minor Big Band

Nevertheless - something to spend during Xmas..
To good to sleep around on Youtube...







And in January the Big Big Bad version of Fire! Orchestra will be present at Nef in Gothenburg. Yes!!!!

O'

Autumn Rain, Swans, Joxfield & Ornette

Just an ordinary Friday, a day off duty, an indoor day because the autumn rain in this Godforsaken city showers like it use to this time of the year. A good ol' Gothenburg Autumn Rainy Day.
Taking a slow, long breakfast, reading the morning paper, sipping the coffee, listening to music; the first CD of Swans' "The Seer", the 27+ minutes Joxfield ProjeX track "Mah No 1" from "Shimmering Mah No 1" (yes, download for free here: http://archive.org/details/ca310_jp), Ornette Coleman's evocative "The Shape of Jazz to Come" from 1959 - one of the first free jazz albums. And next to come... well, no idea yet.
Bring the umbrella!

O'

Oax Pick - Don Ellis - Indian Lady (1968 footage)

I'm not much of a big band guy, but when hearing Don Ellis' band in the very early 70's, the "Tears of Joy" album, I was stuck. His albums from the late 60's, early 70's are some of the best and pointing forward big band albums from that era in my opinion. And Don Ellis electrified his trumpet and modulated it years before Miles did. And Miles is a huge personal hero!
There are very few vids from that time. Here's a wonderful piece recorded live in 1968, "Indian Lady", from the "Autumn" album.
And the time signatures are as always - odd.
Enjoy!
O'

Mwendo Dawa - Live at Montreux - THE VIDS!!!

What a surprise!
One day I write a couple of words on Mwendo Dawa's live album from Montreux 1979, and the other day I find two clips from the same concert.
"Life is funny, life is free, got all them goodies come up to me..." (T Kupferberg)
Enjoy!




And anyone who wants to explore this great band, these great musicians, check the web of Susanna and Ove's own label, lj-records:

http://www.lj-records.se

O'

Oax Pick - Mwendo Dawa - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival

Mwendo Dawa - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival (Dragon LP 1980)

For me this was an important band in the latter part of the 70's, they belonged to the ones who opened up my ears for free music expressions. Me and TC3 used to go to the jazz club Nefertiti, drink some beer, listen to whoever was playing. Some of the bands were local bands of local fame and they consisted of marvellous musicians. Some of them made an extensive career, played abroad, and so.
In the beginning Mwendo Dawa was a big band, about 7 or 8 (or more?) members. Three drummers, two basses, Susanna on piano & keyboard and Ove J on tenor sax. For me the long solo's of Ove were the highlight of their gigs, often starting modest, but then turning into fire and free form wailing - and I really loved it. The band was always great, but for me Ove was the master.
From late 70's and on to these days they've recorded a huge amount of albums; Mwendo Dawa, other groups, duos, solos, whatever. Honestly I've only heard most of the MD's albums and not the rest. The albums are great, but never near the furious peeks of the band playing live. It can be my memory failing, but this is how I remember it. Here and there you can hear Ove's sax glow on the records, sometimes getting close to fire, and the band is a great band.
Of those five MD LPs I have in my collection this live album from Montreux is the one coming closest to my memories of them playing live at Nefertiti. It's mainly structured, the loose and free form moments are few. But, I strongly recommend it. It's recorded 1979 and released the year after.
The Band: Susanna Lindeborg (piano & keys), Ove Johansson (sax), Ulf Wakenius (guitar), Anders Jormin (bass) and David Sundby (drums)

O'

Swedish Azz & Gunnar Lindgren & Gilbert Holmström - Nefertiti 2012-03-02

Mighty Mighty Mighty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two days ago Oax n Yan, the infamous duo of JoxProX + MCN, the official president of the unofficial JoxProX fan club + Wolf, ehhr, The Wolf, took our long legs in direction to the legendary jazz-blues-freeform-whatever club Nefertiti to watch and listen to Swedish Azz, Mats G's and Per Åke H's band who pays and plays tribute to known and unknown treasures from the Swedish jazz scene of mainly the 50's and 60's and put it into context of today. This night they were guested by Gunnar Lindgren and Gilbert Holmström, two legends!
The concert lasted for maybe 2 hours, probably one of the 10 best concerts we've ever been at (and I'm talking about loads of concerts over the last 40 years).
The track above is the encore.

Below you'll find Gilbert's composition 'Fåglarna' (The Birds), here played for the second time ever (the first time was on Swedish national radio 1966). An abstract, wonderful composition.



The vids shot by some DaniOost (thanX for this cultural deed) who we didn't notice, but from the angle point of view it could have been us, because it seems to be exactly from the position where we sat...


O'

Oax Pick - Sun Ra Arkestra

Sun Ra Arkestra "Shadow World" West Berlin
Too good to be true. Just needed something bright for tonight.
Sing-a-long, boys n girls!

O'

Reflections on Keith Tippett's Ark, Fire! Orchestra & Stuff

13 days since Christmas Eve, the Christmas tree still looks great, not a needle on the floor.
Sitting by the kitchen table, writing some diary notes, looking out trough the window, the sky is all blue, it looks a bit cold outside, no snow, but a beautiful winter day in this normally rainy city.
The music that recently has been played is the 2LP version of Keith Tippett's Ark "Frames - Music for an Imaginary Film", a FANTASTIC album with as well FANTASTIC players (Keith Tippett, Stan Tracey, Elton Dean, Trevor Watts, Brian Smith, Larry Stabbins, Marc Charig, Henry Lowther, Dave Amis, Nick Evans, Maggie Nicols, Julie Tippetts, Steve Levin, Rod Skeaping, Phil Wachsmann, Geoffry Wharton, Alexandra Robbins, Tim Cramer, Peter Kowald, Harry Miller, Louis Moholy, Frank Perry - Homage to all of them!). Jazz (or "jazz?") composition can't be much better than this. It invites to improvisation and collective joy.
But the reflection goes: Why are there so few of them, these compositions for big ensembles? And I'm not talking Big Band jazz. Ok, it might be a matter of time, money and lots of grey hair (for the composer/director), but nevertheless, why are there so few of them?
Do I have any answer? Of course not.

Which brings me to next Fridays event at Fylkingen, Stockholm, where Fire! Orchestra will bring something to us. The core of Fire! (Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werlin) will lead (or maybe like Miles did, Directions by...) an ensemble of about 30 people coming from highly skilled improvisation, jazz, psych, etc scene of Sweden.
Where to put the expectations? Well, maybe a bit unfair to the involved (they're only humans, aren't they?), but the expactations might be a bit sky high, or at least close to the tree tops, the star of the Christmas tree, or where you put it yourself... Whatever it will be, I hope they record it.
And the two bums of Joxfield will be sitting there in the audience...
http://www.fylkingen.se/node/1556

O'

Jazz - Two In a Row - The Genius of Lars Gullin

Danny's Dream - Lars Gullin 1951-1954 (Metronome 2LP)

Manchester Fog - Lars Gullin 1954-1956 (Metronome 2LP)

Tired of harsh aural moments? If so, but still ready for some attention, concentration and some good music, here's what you should go looking for: Lars Gullin (1928-1976), the genius Swedish barytone sax player. As often with great musicians like these they lived all too short, but left footprints bigger than any shoes could fit into. Majestic!
I don't remember if these two 2LP sets have been released on CD, but they are not too hard to find on vinyl for ok price. Much funnier that way!
And it's not any coinsidence that Mats Gustafsson's band Swedish Azz pays their tribute to Swedish treasures like Lars Gullin, Lasse Werner, Färnlöf, etc etc.
They can't be wrong, can they?
O'

Oax Pick - Tarfala Trio - Syzygy

Tarfala Trio - Syzygy (NoBusiness Records 2011, 2 x LP + SingleSided 7")

Anyone who didn't think you needed some great music the days between Christmas and New Year? If so, you're wrong, very, very much wrong.
Here's a mighty majestic 2LP + ½ 7" album by Tarfala Trio - some of the best improvised trio music you can get these days.
Mats Gustafsson blows his horns, Barry Guy speak to his bass like he (or it?) was God and Raymond Strid, ahh, Raymond Strid, what a percussive master he is - whatever he can't do with percussion has not to be done at all.
Four side-long tracks (+ the single-sided 7"), recorded live in Belgium and released in a most beautiful package, including a 12" photo-book, by the high quality Lithuania label NoBusiness Records.
Yet another day has been aurally saved.
O'

Aaaahh - A REAL Joxfield ProjeX Xmas Gift

Fridge Leftovers Comes Alive by joxfieldprojex

First came the rain, then the snow, just like an ordinary Swedish winter.
This is an un-released track from the infamous 2009 Novemeber Session at Camp Kolpebo. A week-long day and night session. The result became a lot of rough mixes of 4 hours of music, sounds & visions.
Four of the tracks found the daylight on the VoxLuxRabax album this year.
Find it for free here:
http://www.archive.org/details/JoxfieldProjex-VoxluxrabaxtinCanMusicVlr2011

One of the plans was also to record a kind of pop music album during that session, Captain Solar Disk Cocooning (in the Joxfield ProjeX way (which means not THAT much pop)), a collection of tunes mostly with vocals. 'Fridge Leftovers Comes Alive' is one of these tracks, a bit jazz influenced.
Yan: Basic pattern, bass, programmed drums, keyboard (including one of the few, but very appreciated moments when Yan flip the keys and becomes a real live musician, which he sometimes pretend he's not)
Oax: Words, improvised sort of melody, guitar, ebow
Recorded live over the basic pattern with just one overdub each.

Open your heart!






O'

Oax Pick - Tony Williams Lifetime

Emergency! - 2 LP (1969)

(turn it over) - LP (1970)

This is SO powerful. The perfect power trio of Tony Williams on furious drumming and whispering vocals, John McLaughlin on demon guitar and Larry Young on wild organ (love his science fictional chords like from outer space), including the bass pedals. On (turn it over) mighty Jack Bruce is added on bass.
The music is expressive in more than one way and often finds it climax when all of them 3/4 climbs the peak of madness. Pure music! Gee fer it!

O'

Jazz - 3 In a Row

Right now there's a lot of Jazz Moods circulating in my living room. The sounds from various vinyl LPs on the grammophone's heard.
A couple of weeks ago I had some opportunities to see 'n' hear the majestic reeds man Mats Gustafsson in various constellations: The Thing & Otomo Yoshihide, FTJ (with Joachim Nordwall) and Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentett + 1.
At the first concert I bought the all new 11" piece of plastic "Jazz på Svenska" by Swedish Ass. a quintett featuring Mats, playing their tribute to Swedish jazz giants of the 50's and 60's, Lasse Werner and Lars Gullin, bringing their classic jazz into new territories.



Inspired by that album I just had to check whatever there was to be found by the two guys. Lasse Werner's still on my wants-list, but for Lars Gullin I found a great compilation from his famous 1951 - 1954 era,



"Danny's Dream - Lars Gullin 1951 - 1954 - The Legendary Years", a two disc set released in mid-70's by the Metronome label. Maybe not too common to hear jazz from these years on my player, but this album is just as good as I thought it should be.



I've always had some favour of British jazz from late 60's and ten years on, mostly focusing on artists from the Canterbury Scene, especially Soft Machine and artists related to them, but also people like Keith Tippett, Mike Gibbs and so on. Tippett's Centipede double disc album "Septober Energy" has always been an outstanding one for me. When checking up more of what there was to find in Tippett's catalogue including bigger bands I jumped into his 1977 project Keith Tippett's Ark and the double disc album "Frames - Music for an Imaginary Film". The band consists of 22 persons, some of them know from the Centipede Gargantua effort, others from the British jazz nad free form scene of late 60's and 70's. The 80 minutes suite in four parts is a complex piece of music, varies from strict composition to open and free improvisations, and with Julie Tippett's voice here and there, like a well-tasting spice mix this album becomes one of Tippett's best ever.
When having a little chat with Mats G during one of the concerts we talked a bit about Tippett and his music. I told him I've seen the rare "Frames" album at Harald Hult's excellent record store Andra Jazz in Stockholm, but the price was scary, 1200 kronor (about 165$). Mats consider Andra Jazz being the best and kindest record store ever, but "yes, Harald is a bit expensive...". Next time I was there the album was gone, I didn't even have to bother about the price anymore (instead I bought, yes, Swedish Ass). A couple of weeks later I bought it through the sales service at Discogs for 500 kronor (about 70$) and when it arrived I just realised what I've already heard - the album is magnificent. Ogun Records, of course.
It has been re-released on CD, but right now, who cares? Recommended!
O'