Re: OT: Free Jazz/Avant-Garde Guitar/Bass/Drum Trios

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

One has to remember that the avantgarde scene is extremely small - if
measured in record sales. I was chocked once when getting the true
figures form a record label rep. But guitar has been used more than
since the early nineties, Rainer! I remember buying records by Eugene
Chadbourne in 1979. And Henry Kaiser's first outlet's by that time.

Paul Bley had a trio with guitarist Bill Connors and Jimmy Giuffre. I
bought an awesome record by them in 1977,
http://www.omnitone.com/store/123839.htm

A big leap for "jazz guitar" was Pat Matheney's releases (that I also
started buying in the late seventies) but this doesn't really sort
under "avantgarde". But there was of course Derek Baily early on.
James Blood Ulmer had guitar based trios with drums very early, Sonny
Sharrock too. Not sure trio format was released on records though. If
stretching definitions a little one could look at Last Exit as a
guitar based trio plus saxophone. At least that's what they sounded to
me live; Brötzmann not playing all the time as Sharrock, Laswell and
drummer Ronald Shannon Jacksson did. Jackson also doing "poetry
declaiming drum solos" quite a lot.

Also, "being avantgarde" it might not always make sense to record ones
music. I mean, recording music is not very avantgarde. It would just
turn out "a recording of an avantgarde event" which might be
considered rather lame compared to performing the act. This might
explain that there are not much records of avantgarde music, besides
the fact that the market is close to non existent.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com



On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 10:34 AM, Rainer Straschill
<moinsound@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Krispen,
>
> you said: "There must be more than this."
>
> No, there needn't be more ;). At least in the free jazz domain, the
> g/b/dr trio format is nothing that worked well with the historic and
> musical roots of that domain. With the exception of some very
> "special" projects, a) guitar didn't play that much of a role in jazz
> as a harmony/rhythm section instrument (as opposed to piano) - Miles
> Davis' post-Bitches-Brew 70ies albums being the important exception,
> or as a lead/solo instrument outside of rock jazz circles.
>
> The guitar started to gain some importance in more experimental jazz
> circles in (I think) the early nineties, but usually in a
> horn/guitar/drums format.
>
> Still, I have some suggestions to add - but both of them being
> one-time-only projects:
> Marc Ducret - L'Ombra di Verdi (and while you're at it, check out the
> work of Big Satan for some nice as/g/dr stuff!)
> Derek Bailey/Ruins - Tohjinbo, Saisoro
>
> (all of this recommended, btw, especially the Ducret album).
>
>           Rainer
>
>