BARNEY WILEN: Un témoin dens la ville & Jazz sur seine (Doxy) 45 rpm, 12" Vinyl Record

Another in the great series for the label Doxy, of Jazz music, composed for French films.  Here we have a very young French sax player Barney Wilen, who became known internationally after working with Miles Davis, on his score for Ascenseur pour l'échafaud.  Un témoin dens la ville is a classic noir-like score to its film, which one can smell the alcohol from the streets of the right bank.   Well, it does have one of the great French stars, Lino Ventura (born in Italy I think, but still...) in a film I have never seen.  I must make note... but if it's anything like its soundtrack, it's a must.  Sadly, I don't know the other musicians on this recording, but this 1958 piece of wonder really reflects on what is on the above album cover.  The mood is tense, with moments of intense beauty.

Side two is Jazz sure seine, which is Wilen playing with various members of the Modern Jazz Quartet, such as vibe player Milt Jackson on piano and the great Kenny Clarke on drums. I'm not sure if this was originally made for a film track, but it clearly brings pictures in one's head.  The music is touched with a lightness that's superb.   This is a fantastic album that will melt your brain, and bring warmth to your soul.

À BOUT DE SOUFFLE Musique de Martial Solal (un film de Jean-Luc Godard) Doxy 45 rpm vinyl

Over the years, and especially on CD there has been many re-issues of the soundtrack to à bout de souffle.  Mostly various collections of French New Wave music throughout the late 20th century and 21st century.  But, I have to say the best is from the mysterious label Doxy, who issued this album sometime in 2015.  It's a single disc, but in 45 rpm, and one side is the score by Martial Solal, performed by the great pianist as well as with top-notch French Jazz musicians from 1958.  What makes this specific album unique is that on the other side, it's "Concert pour clarinet et orchestra by Wolfgang Mozart; performed by an orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. 

For those who are fans of the film, you know the Mozart recording is played in one scene, where Jean-Paul is in hiding from the police and he's with his love.   Now, as far as I can gather, Doxy is very much a bootleg record company that puts out fantastic out-of-print albums or recordings that somehow lost their copyright - nevertheless, this mysterious label has released incredible albums on vinyl, and always with wonderful packaging. 

So, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, I would buy this edition of the soundtrack, not only for the Mozart piece, but also the sound / mastering is great.  Not sure where they get the original sound source, it can be digital, but still, you're paying for their great curating taste.  Solal's music and performance are superb.  It mirrors the film's sense of wonder and adventure, and it's supreme French Jazz, which to me is über-cool.  

Moondog "The Viking of Sixth Avenue" (Honest Jon's Records) Double Vinyl Album

Moondog “The Viking of Sixth Avenue” (Honest Jon’s Records) Double Vinyl Album

The great thing about art is one never knows when they will confront genius. Moondog was a composer and performer who played his music on the streets of Manhattan. To be exact on 6th Avenue and anywhere between 52nd and 56th street from the late 1940s to 1972. An odd tourist attraction but he also had some positive attention from Charlie Parker, Leonard Bernstein, Steve Reich, Julie Andrews, Igor Stravinsky, and his future roommate Philip Glass. 

In appearance, this blind composer and musician wore eccentric costumes that resemble Viking uniform, including helmet. He would stand on a busy street corner, playing his compositions on his own hand-made instruments. Yet beyond all of that, Moondog’s music is extremely original, catchy, with beautiful melodies. On the surface, one can hear the sounds of the Native American, but mash-up with the textures and overtures of Bach’s compositions. Clearly he influenced both Reich and Glass, but overall Moondog made music for everyone. He wrote and performed pop, ambient, rhythmic compositions, as well as classical. In other words, an artist that is extremely hard to be defined, and truly original. 

Causally, Moondog can be seen as an outside music artist, because he did work on his music without proper schooling or music industry backing - although he did end up on a major recording label. Yet, his music is very much disciplined and not always eccentric. When you see the iconic vision of Moondog or hear stories about him sleeping on the streets of Manhattan, you get a sound in one’s head. And you do get that, but Moondog went beyond the cliché outside artist by making accessible music that anyone can enjoy. He’s avant-garde, but Moondog is also very much of a pop artist or composer. There are melodies on this album that will stick inside your head and heart. 

Honest Jon’s Records (label out of London, as well as a record shop) has released “The Viking of Sixth Avenue” which is a double vinyl album compilation of early Moondog EPs (from his own label at the time) as well as the rare 10”s. Some of the recordings are from the streets of Manhattan, as well as in the studio. All superb. In a beautiful way, the street sounds add texture to the Moondog performance, and in no fashion does the urban traffic sounds interfere with the aural delights of this genius and his recordings.  I suspect one is not going to find a more perfect album than “The Viking of Sixth Avenue.”

John Cage/Steve Reich/Michael Tilson/Ralph Gierson - "Three Dances & "Four Organs) Vinyl LP (Angel Records)

I had this vinyl album when it first came out in 1976.  I lost it over the ages, but recently found it at my local record store 'Rockaway' on Glendale Blvd.  It's a fascinating to hear these two very different pieces on one album. "Four Organs" is what it is - four electric organs playing the same notes over and over again, with maracas keeping the beat.   Written in 1970, the cords get longer, as the beat stays consistent.  It's meditative, but also really captures the listener's attention.  For me, I love the sound of the electric organ and having four of them going on the same time, is my vision of aural bliss.  This is the original recording of this work, played by Michael Tilson Thomas (a big figure in Los Angeles classical world), Ralph Gierson, Roger Kellaway and the composer himself, Steve Reich.  There is a much more recent version of this work, and when I have time, I will compare the two. 

Side one belongs to John Cage. Thomas and Gierson on two amplified prepared pianos, and it's intense.  Cage wrote this piece, "Three Dances" in 1944, and it is punk like in its attack on the altered pianos. It's beautiful, yet very foreign sounding.  The interesting point here is that Cage looked beyond the piano keyboard to find or make new sounds out of the standard instrument.   Very rhythmic, with layers of sound on top of it.   To meditate and reflect.  The duo that never gets old. 

Varèse/"Amériques," Milhaud/L'homme et son désir," & Honegger/"Pacific 231" The Utah Orchestra Maurice Abravanel, Conductor (Vanguard)

What happens when three 20th century French composers come to America?  This is an interesting evening of recorded music, with a strong theme.  These trios of the titanic classical world come up with the impressions of America.   Edgard Varèse is almost an expressionist chaotic impression of his American city of choice: New York.  It's a complex piece, that really focusses on the wonder of what NYC must have been like for an European in 1922.  Noisy, tender, and obsessed.  It's a terrific piece of orchestrated music.

Darius Milhaud's "L'homme et son désir" composed in 1918, is what the composer called his 'plastic poem. ' Stockhausen-like to a certain degree, it is one of the best orchestrations mixing a chorus with a full orchestra.  The voices blend into the mix of the music as an instrument.  They're not reciting words, and I like the voice is being used as a sound.  To me, it borders on Exotica.  Yma Sumac is lurking somewhere in the orchestration, if not literally, then at least in my sense of hearing. 

The train like rhythm in Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231" creates the impression of a culture changing, and more likely it was when he wrote this music in 1923.  It's a beautiful world.  I like the optimistic impression of a world turning around, and the intensity of this piece is almost "Bolero" like, due that it gets faster and faster.  In my opinion, a dangerous piece of music to drive with - but it is a remarkable snapshot of a world going fast as one looks out of a train window.   So if it's not literally about America, it does detail the essence of speed, motion, and a sense of wonderment. 

James Ostryniec /Contemporary Oboe Three Aspects: Gunther Schuller "Sonata Oboe & Piano, Faye-Ellen Silverman "Oboe-Sthenics" Solo Oboe & Vladiir Ussachevsky "Pentagram" Oboe & Tape (Finnadar Records, 1982)

It is consistently an adventure when one wanders in the 20th century classical music section of a record store.  For the past three or four months, I have been fascinated with early electronic music, and this is the third album I have purchased with regards to Vladmir Ussachevsky.   The co-founder, and for twenty years or so, the director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.  I think of him as sort of the pre-Eno - the fact that he works with real instruments, but alters their sound and pitch by using a tape machine.   The other two composers here are a total mystery to me, but it's nice to see that a female composer here is represented, Faye-Ellen Silverman, who was a student of Ussachevsky.   The oldest piece of music here is Sonata for Oboe & Piano by Gunther Schuller.

The principal subject matter for this specific album is the Oboe, played by James Ostryniec.  To me, the only oboe player I know is Andy MacKay from Roxy Music - but alas, there are others out there - and they seem to be interested in 20th century composition.  This is a gorgeous album, and the oboe sound is one that is very lonely sounding.  Like one who craves the sound of surf guitar, I imagine that there are those out there who obsessed over the sound of the oboe.   Also I want to credit Rüstem Batum for the cool image of an oboe attached to magnetic/recording tape on the front cover.  The 20th century seemed so promising in the early 1980s.

Otto Luening/Vladimir Ussachevsky - "Tape Recorder Music" (Cacophonic, Vinyl LP)

Slowly and surely, this is becoming my favorite album in my collection of vinyl goodies. I have written about Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky before, on another album that was released in the early 60s.  "Tape Recorder Music" was recorded in 1952, and it's a remarkable album on so many levels.  Without a doubt, Brian Eno must have had this album during the early Roxy Music years.  Otto and Vladimir did was basically used real instruments - piano, flute, orchestration and put it through the tape machine to manipulate the sounds. Doing loops, echo, etc. Low-tech technique that keeps getting better.

On another level, the music on this album is really beautiful. Funny as well - especially with the voices mixed in one of the works.  It has a lightness, but the sound is fantastic. And again, listening to this album, I 'm reminded of the first two Roxy Music albums.   The Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center was a sound lab for Luening and Ussachecsky - and they used it wisely.   Historically this is a very important album, but the listening pleasure is also endless.  I really love it.