ECM Records
ECM is an independent record label founded by Manfred Eicher in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for music, the label has released a variety of recordings. ECMs motto is the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence, according to a 1971 review of ECM releases in CODA, ECM has been distributed in the U. S. by Warner Bros. Records, PolyGram Records, BMG, since 1999, Universal Music and its album covers have been profiled in two books, Sleeves of Desire and Windfall Light, both published by Lars Müller. The first ECM release was pianist Mal Waldrons 1969 recording Free at Last. The label has released recordings in the world music genre by artists including Jan Garbarek, Steve Tibbetts, Stephan Micus, Anouar Brahem, L. Shankar, Jon Hassell. The ECM New Series was created in 1984 to document Western classical works and it has released works by composers from the early to the contemporary. The series was initiated for Arvo Pärts record debut Tabula Rasa, which Eicher recorded and produced in 1977,1983, since Pärt and Eicher have built a strong relationship, all works premiere on recordings for the label and all are done in presence of the composer.
Keith Jarrett, better known as a musician, contributed together with Gidon Kremer amongst others to Tabula Rasa. He recorded several works by Bach, Shostakovich. Several of John Adams works from his minimalist period have been released through the label as well, including Harmonium, garbareks work with guitarist Ralph Towner draws on, and is as apparently influenced by, 20th century chamber music as by any overtly jazz-oriented material. The label has released unique works that fit into no obvious genre at all, in 2002 and 2004 ECM released a series of compilation CDs titled, rarum. Twenty of the artists were asked to compile a single CD of their work for the label. The typical ECM session is just three days, two days to record, one day to mix, after working as a writer for the Melody Maker Steve Lake first joined the ECM-staff in 1978. In fall 2012 the Munich museum Haus der Kunst opened an exhibition about the work of the label called ECM - A Cultural Archaeology and it pointed out the early jazz-focused years till mid 80s before the New Series was initiated.
In close relation with Eicher and ECM the exhibition was created by Okwui Enwezor, some of them, anyway, do have a long past with the label - even if their home is ECM or New Series. The physical catalogue of the exhibition was published by Prestel Verlag in German, another extended exhibition was displayed in Seoul, from September till November 2013. The label has a special relation towards film and directors, founder Manfred Eicher himself is a very passionate movie viewer and directed in 1990 an adaption of Max Frisch’s Holozän together with Heinz Bütler
Cornet
The cornet /ˈkɔːrnɪt/ is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is an instrument in B♭, though there is a soprano cornet in E♭. Both are unrelated to the renaissance and early baroque cornett, the cornet was initially derived from the post horn around 1820 in France. Among the first manufacturers of modern cornets was Parisian Jean Asté in 1828, cornets first appeared as separate instrumental parts in 19th century French compositions. This instrument could not have developed without the improvement of piston valves by Silesian oboe player Friedrich Blühmel. These two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented valves, though it is likely that Blühmel was the inventor and they jointly applied for a patent and were granted this for a period of ten years. Later, and most importantly, François Périnet received a patent in 1838 for a valve which is the basis of all modern brass instrument piston valves.
Up until the early 20th century, the trumpet and cornet coexisted in musical ensembles, symphonic repertoire often involves separate parts for trumpet and cornet. As several instrument builders made improvements to instruments, they started to look and sound more alike. The modern day cornet is used in bands, concert bands. The name cornet derives from corne, meaning horn, itself from Latin cornu, while not musically related, instruments of the Zink family are named cornetto or cornett in modern English to distinguish them from the valved cornet described here. The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica referred to serpents as old wooden cornets, the Roman/Etruscan cornu is the lingual ancestor of these. It is a predecessor of the post horn from which the evolved and was used like a bugle to signal orders on the battlefield. The instrument was once referred to as a cornopean, referencing the earliest cornets with the Stölzel valve system. The cornet was invented by adding valves to the post horn in 1814, the valves allowed for melodic playing throughout the register of the cornet.
Trumpets were slower to adopt the new technology, so for the next 100 years or more. The trumpet would play fanfare-like passages, while the cornet played more melodic passages, the modern trumpet has valves that allow it to play the same notes and fingerings as the cornet. Cornets and trumpets made in a key play at the same pitch
Free jazz
For the Ornette Coleman album see Free Jazz, A Collective Improvisation. Though the music of jazz composers varied widely, a common feature was dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop. Often described as avant-garde, free jazz has described as an attempt to return jazz to its primitive, often religious, roots. As its name implies, free jazz cannot be defined more than loosely, as many musicians draw on free jazz concepts and idioms, and it was never completely distinct as a genre. Many free jazz musicians, notably Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane, used harsh overblowing or other techniques to elicit unconventional sounds from their instruments, Free jazz musicians created a progressive musical language which drew on earlier styles of jazz such as Dixieland jazz and African music. Typically this kind of music is played by groups of musicians. The music often swings but without regular meter, and there are frequent accelerandi and ritardandi, Free jazz is strongly associated with the 1950s innovations of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor and the works of saxophonist John Coltrane.
Other important pioneers include Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Joe Maneri, some of bassist Charles Minguss work was important in establishing free jazz. Although today free jazz is the generally used term, many terms were used to describe the loosely defined movement, including avant-garde, energy music. During its early and mid-1960s heyday, much free jazz was released by established labels such as Prestige, Blue Note, keith Johnson of AllMusic describes a Modern Creative genre, in which musicians may incorporate free playing into structured modes -- or play just about anything. Defining the essence of jazz is complicated, many musicians draw on free jazz concepts and idioms. Many individual musicians reject efforts at classification, regarding them as useless or unduly limiting, earlier jazz styles typically were built on a framework of song forms with a set framework of chord changes. In free jazz, the dependence on a fixed and pre-established form is eliminated, Free jazz, especially during its inception, contains theme of both progressive musical language and gathering inspiration from the past.
The rejection of the bop aesthetic was combined with a fascination with earlier styles of jazz such as Dixieland jazz with its collective improvisation. This includes Ed Blackwells use of the West African talking drum, typically this kind of music is played by small groups of musicians, although some examples use larger numbers. For example, John Coltranes 1965 album Ascension, uses eleven musicians, other forms of jazz use clear regular meters and strongly pulsed rhythms, usually in 4/4 or 3/4. Free jazz normally retains a general pulsation and often swings but without regular meter, despite all of this, it is still very often possible to tap ones foot to a free jazz performance, meter is more freely variable but has not disappeared entirely. Previous jazz forms used harmonic structures, and even when improvisation occurred it was founded on the notes in the chords, Free jazz almost by definition is free of such structures, but by definition it retains much of the language of earlier jazz playing
Fontella Bass
Fontella Marie Bass was an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter best known for her 1965 hit, Rescue Me. Fontella Bass was born in St. Louis, the daughter of gospel singer Martha Bass and she was the older sister of R&B singer David Peaston. At an early age, Fontella showed great musical talent, Bass continued touring with her mother until the age of sixteen. As a teenager, Bass was attracted by more secular music and she began singing R&B songs at local contests and fairs while attending Soldan High School from which she graduated in 1958. At 17, she started her career working at the Showboat Club near Chain of Rocks. In 1961, she auditioned on a dare for the Leon Claxton carnival show and was hired to play piano and she wanted to go on tour with Claxton but her mother refused and according to Bass. She literally dragged me off the train and it was during this brief stint with Claxton that she was heard by vocalist Little Milton and his bandleader Oliver Sain who hired her to back Little Milton on piano for concerts and recording.
Bass originally only played piano with the band, but one night Milton didnt show up on time so Sain asked her to sing and she was soon given her own featured vocal spot in the show. Milton and Sain eventually split up and Bass went with Sain, he recruited male singer Bobby McClure, with the support of Bob Lyons, the manager of St. Louis station KATZ, Bass recorded several songs released through Bobbin Records and produced by Ike Turner. She saw no notable success outside her home town and it was during this period she met and subsequently married the noted jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie. Two years she quit the Milton band and moved to Chicago after a dispute with Oliver Sain and she auditioned for Chess Records, who immediately signed her as a recording artist. Her first works with the label were several duets with Bobby McClure, released early in 1965, their recording Dont Mess Up a Good Thing found immediate success, reaching the top five at R&B radio and peaking at #33 at pop. In 1979 the song was covered by Ry Cooder with Chaka Khan on Cooders album Bop Til You Drop, after a brief tour, Bass returned to the studio.
The song, Rescue Me, shot up the charts in the fall and winter of 1965. After a month-long run at the top of the R&B charts, the song reached #4 on the US pop charts and #11 in the UK and it sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Bass followed with Recovery, which did well, peaking at #13. The same year two more R&B hits, I Cant Rest and Youll Never Know. Her only album with Chess Records, The New Look, sold reasonably well, I had the first million seller for Chess since Chuck Berry about 10 years before
Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, born in the historic village of Bartonsville in Frederick County, Bowie grew up in St Louis, Missouri. At the age of five he started studying the trumpet with his father and he played with blues musicians such as Little Milton and Albert King, and rhythm and blues stars such as Solomon Burke, Joe Tex, and Rufus Thomas. In 1965, he became Fontella Basss musical director and husband and he was a co-founder of Black Artists Group in St Louis. In 1966, he moved to Chicago, where he worked as a studio musician, in 1968, he founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago with Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and Malachi Favors. He remained a member of this group for the rest of his life and he lived and worked in Jamaica and Africa, and played and recorded with Fela Kuti. Bowies onstage appearance, in a lab coat, with his goatee waxed into two points, was an important part of the Art Ensembles stage show.
With this group he recorded songs previously associated with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and his New York Organ Ensemble featured James Carter and Amina Claudine Myers. In the mid 1980s he was part of the jazz supergroup The Leaders. Featuring tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, drummer Famoudou Don Moye, pianist Kirk Lightsey, at this time, he was playing the opening theme music for The Cosby Show. Although seen as part of the avant-garde, Bowie embraced techniques from the history of jazz trumpet, filling his music with humorous smears, growls, half-valve effects. He appeared on the 1994 Red Hot Organizations compilation album, Stolen Moments, the album to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African-American community, was heralded as Album of the Year by Time. In 1993, he played on the David Bowie album Black Tie White Noise, including the song Looking for Lester and David Bowie were not related. Bowie took an adventurous and humorous approach to music and criticized Wynton Marsalis for his approach to jazz tradition.
Lester Bowie died of cancer in 1999 at his Brooklyn. The following year he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, in 2001, the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded Tribute to Lester. Carr, Fairweather, Priestley, the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Lester Bowie at the Art Ensemble of Chicago Lester Bowie discography and marketplace at Discogs Lester Bowie at the Internet Movie Database
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone, referred to as alto sax, is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s, and patented in 1846. It is pitched in E♭, and is smaller than the tenor, the alto sax is the most common saxophone and is commonly used in classical music, military bands, marching bands, and jazz. The alto saxophone was commonplace in music from the 1980s. The saxophone fingerings are all universal, so a player can play any type of saxophone. The range of the saxophone is from concert A♭3 to concert A♭5. As with most types of saxophones, the standard range is B♭3 to F6. Above that, the altissimo register begins at F♯6 and extends upwards, the saxophones altissimo register is more difficult to control than that of other woodwinds and is usually only expected from advanced players. By covering or partially covering the bell of the saxophone when playing B♭3, of note is Kadri Gopalnath, a pioneer of Carnatic music, plays a modified alto saxophone.
Some companies that currently produce saxophones are Buffet Crampon, KHS/Jupiter, Conn-Selmer, Selmer Paris, Leblanc/Vito, Cannonball, new alto saxophones range in price between €250 for lower quality student models to over €6000 for professional models. The alto saxophone has a classical solo repertoire that includes solos with orchestra, piano. Two of the most well-known solo compositions are Jacques Iberts Concertino da Camera, the alto saxophone is part of the standard instrumentation of concert bands and saxophone quartets. The alto saxophone is used in orchestral compositions. Several orchestral examples are listed below, georges Bizet features it in the Minuet from the second suite of music from LArlésienne. He includes it in his Suite No.1 and Suite No.2, maurice Ravel uses the saxophone prominently in his orchestration of Modest Moussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, most notably as the soloist in Il vecchio castello. Alban Berg uses the saxophone in his orchestral works, most notably Der Wein, Lulu.
Sergei Rachmaninoff uses the saxophone in his Symphonic Dances as a soloist in the first movement, george Gershwin includes it in a few pieces, such as Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. Pierre Boulez wrote for 2 alto saxes in his composition Pli selon pli, benjamin Britten calls for an alto in his Sinfonia da Requiem and The Prince of the Pagodas. Leonard Bernstein includes an alto sax in his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, vincent dIndy enlists two altos in his opera Fervaal
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation is an American major record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. In 2004, Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group, craig Kallman is currently the chairman of Atlantic Records. Ahmet Ertegün served as founding chairman until his death on December 14,2006, the brothers had become ardent fans of jazz and rhythm & blues music, amassing a collection of over 15,00078 RPM records. He convinced the family dentist, Dr Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and recruited Herb Abramson, Abramson had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine. He founded Jubilee Records in 1946, but had no interest in its most successful artists, so, in September 1947, he sold his share in Jubilee to his partner, Jerry Blaine, and invested $2500 in the new Atlantic label. When interviewed in 2009 she attributed her reputation to the companys chronic cash-flow shortage, most of the problems we had with artists were that they wanted advances, and that was very difficult for us.
We were undercapitalized for a long time, the labels original office in the Ritz Hotel, Manhattan proved too expensive so they relocated to an $85 per month room in the Hotel Jefferson. In its early years Atlantic focused principally on modern jazz although it released some country and western and spoken word recordings. The union action forced Atlantic to use almost all its capital to cut and stockpile enough recordings to last through the ban and Abramson spent much of the late 1940s and early 1950s scouring nightclubs in search of talent. Ertegun composed many songs under the alias A, in early 1949 a New Orleans distributor phoned Ertegun trying to obtain Stick McGhees Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee, which was unavailable due to the closure of McGhees previous label. Ertegun knew Sticks younger brother Brownie McGhee, with whom Stick happened to be staying, so he contacted the McGhee brothers, Ertegun asked about artists royalties, which he paid, which surprised Columbia executives, who did not, which scuttled the deal.
On the recommendation of broadcaster Willis Conover and Abramson went to see Ruth Brown at the Crystal Caverns club in Washington and she was badly injured in a car accident en route to New York but Atlantic supported her for nine months and signed her. Her first release for the label So Long, cut at her second Atlantic session on May 25,1949 with the Eddie Condon band, was a major hit, reaching #6 on the R&B chart. Brown went on to more than eighty songs for the label, becoming the most prolific. So significant was Browns success to Atlantics fortunes that the label became known colloquially as The House That Ruth Built. The Clovers Dont You Know I Love You became the labels first R&B #1 in September 1951 and she hit #1 again in March–April 1952 with 5-10-15 Hours. After she left the label in 1961 Browns fortunes declined rapidly - within a few years was reduced to working as a cleaner and bus-driver to support her children. Brown eventually received a payment of $20,000 and founded a charity
Paul Butterfield
Paul Vaughn Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player and singer. After early training as a classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica and he explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he met Muddy Waters and other blues greats, who provided encouragement and opportunities for him to join in jam sessions. He soon began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop, the band was known for combining electric Chicago blues with a rock urgency and for their pioneering jazz fusion performances and recordings. While still recording and performing, Butterfield died in 1987 at age 44 of a heroin overdose, Music critics have acknowledged his development of an original approach that places him among the best-known blues harp players. In 2006, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the early members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Both panels noted his harmonica skills and his contributions to bringing blues music to a younger and broader audience, Butterfield was born in Chicago and raised in the citys Hyde Park neighborhood.
The son of a lawyer and a painter, he attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, exposed to music at an early age, he studied classical flute with Walfrid Kujala, of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Butterfield was athletic and was offered a scholarship to Brown University. However, an injury and a growing interest in blues music sent him in a different direction. He developed a love for blues harmonica and a friendship with guitarist and singer-songwriter Nick Gravenites, the pair were soon performing as Nick and Paul in college-area coffee houses. In the early 1960s, Butterfield attended the University of Chicago, both began devoting more time to music than studies and soon became full-time musicians. Eventually, who sang and played harmonica, and Bishop, accompanying him on guitar, were offered a gig at Big Johns. With this booking, they persuaded bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay to form a group with them in 1963 and their engagement at the club was highly successful and brought the group to the attention of record producer Paul A.
Rothchild. During their engagement at Big Johns, Butterfield met and occasionally sat in with guitarist Mike Bloomfield, by chance, producer Rothchild witnessed one of their performances and was impressed by the chemistry between the two. He persuaded Butterfield to bring Bloomfield into the band, and they were signed to Elektra Records, to better capture their sound, Rothchild convinced Elektra president Jac Holzman to record a live album. In the spring of 1965, the Butterfield Blues Band was recorded at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City and these recordings failed to satisfy Rothchild, but the groups appearances at the club brought them to the attention of the East Coast music community. Rothchild persuaded Holzman to agree to an attempt at recording an album. In these recording sessions, Rothchild had assumed the role of group manager, at the last minute, the band was booked to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965
Performance art
Performance art is a performance presented to an audience within a fine art context, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated. The performance can be live or via media, the performer can be present or absent and it can be any situation that involves four basic elements, space, the performers body, or presence in a medium, and a relationship between performer and audience. Performance art can happen anywhere, in any type of venue or setting, the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. Performance art is a contested concept, any single definition of it implies the recognition of rival uses. As concepts like democracy or art, it implies productive disagreement with itself, the meaning of the term in the narrower sense is related to postmodernist traditions in Western culture. The ideal had been an ephemeral and authentic experience for performer, the widely discussed difference, how concepts of visual arts and concepts of performing arts are utilized, can determine the meanings of a performance art presentation.
It therefore can include action or spoken word as a communication between the artist and audience, or even ignore expectations of an audience, rather than following a script written beforehand, some kinds of performance art nevertheless can be close to performing arts. Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and unconventional ways, break conventions of traditional arts, and break down conventional ideas about what art is. Some artists, e. g. the Viennese Actionists and neo-Dadaists, prefer to use the terms live art, action art, actions, as genres of performance art appear body art, fluxus-performance, action poetry, and intermedia. Performance art activity is not confined to European or American art traditions, notable practitioners can be found in Asia, Performance artists and theorists point to different traditions and histories, ranging from tribal to sporting and ritual or religious events. There are accounts of Renaissance artists such as itinerant poets putting on performances that could be said to be ancestors of performance art.
Western cultural theorists often trace performance art activity back to the beginning of the 20th century, to the Russian constructivists, Dada provided a significant progenitor with the unconventional performances of poetry, often at the Cabaret Voltaire, by the likes of Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara. Russian Futurist artists could be identified as precursors of performance, such as David Burliuk, abstract expressionism and Action painting preceded the Fluxus movement and the emergence of Performance Art. Performance art was anticipated, if not explicitly formulated, by Japans Gutai group of the 1950s, in the late 1960s Earth artists as diverse as Robert Smithson, Dennis Oppenheim, Michael Heizer and Carl Andre created environmental pieces that predict the performance art of the 1970s. Works of conceptual artists in the early 1980s, like Sol LeWitt, who converted mural-style drawing into an act of performance by others, were influenced by Yves Klein and the Earth artists as well.
In the 1960s a variety of new works and the number of artists led to new kinds of performance art. Kaprow had coined the term Happening describing a new artform, at the beginning of the 1960s, a Happening allows the artist to experiment with body motion, recorded sounds and spoken texts, and even smells
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, vocals, natural sounds like ocean waves, etc. or generate new electronic timbres. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals, synthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s, in the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in genres of pop, rock. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer, the beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as it is difficult to draw a distinction between synthesizers and some early electric or electronic musical instruments.
One of the earliest electric musical instruments, the telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromechanical circuit and this musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraph line. Gray built a simple loudspeaker device into models, consisting of a diaphragm in a magnetic field. This instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy, though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer. In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium, which used dynamos, and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, Cahills business was unsuccessful for various reasons, and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs. In 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the electronics age and he invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube.
This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films, ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to synthesizers. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art, in 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States, during the three years that Hammond manufactured this model,1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. Both instruments were the forerunners of the electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers
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