A
Gravity was my first encounter with Frith’s music, and it really put the hook in me; what reeled me in was hearing him improvise.
Free improvisation – putting it way too simply – combines the rhythmic and harmonic freedoms of post-bop jazz with rock’s amplification and energy (but without its beat). This music also has roots in the liberation-of-noise composers, particularly Edgard Varèse, John Cage, and Sun Ra. Electronic music, therefore, is another source, both for the technology (synthesizers and tape recorders and turntables are allowed to play), and for the destruction of equal temperament’s hegemony. Into this brew, free improvisation sifts a primitive, punkish disdain for traditional improvisation sounds and techniques. These musicians – many of whom possess entirely respectable academic and/or pop chops – tend to have a special fondness for alternate performance methods: instrumental preparations; devising their own instruments; playing on household items, junk, toys, and other so-called non-instruments.
Some of the most accomplished and exciting of these musicians – Shelley Hirsch (voice), Christian Marclay (turntables), David Moss (percussion, voice), Charles K. Noyes (percussion), John Zorn (reeds) – are fairly represented on disc. They’re also unfairly misrepresented (and far too often, unrepresented) journalistically. But that too shall pass, because this music – and its steadily growing audience – is here to stay.
Its ensemble has grown too. Today there are plenty of talented musicians who have a foot or two in this area – if you start checking them out, you’re bound to find some whom you’ll really enjoy.[1] They’re all bringing a sorely lacking excitement to the new-music scene, along with an eye-opening jigger of commitment and integrity. And one musician whom they all seem to admire is Fred Frith (guitar(s), violin, voice, and “home-mades”).
FOOTNOTE
1. A Partial Honor-Roll: Derek Bailey (guitar), Greg Bendian (percussion), Peter Blegvad (voice), Polly Bradfield (violin), Eugene Chadbourne (guitar), Anthony Coleman (keyboards), Lindsay Cooper (bassoon), Tom Cora (cello), Chris Cutler (percussion), Leslie Dalaba (trumpet), J.A. Deane (trombone), Bill Frisell (guitar), Tim Hodgkinson (reeds), Wayne Horvitz (synthesizer), Henry Kaiser (guitar), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Dagmar Krause (voice), Bill Laswell (bass), Joelle Leandre (contrabass), Anne LeBaron (harp), George Lewis (trombone), Arto Lindsay (guitar, voice), Fred Maher (drums), Phil Minton (voice), Ikue Mori (drums), Butch Morris (trumpet), Bob Ostertag (electronics), Sang-Won Park (kayagum, voice), Zeena Parkins (harp), Ned Rothenberg (reeds, flute, shakuhachi), Irene Schweizer (piano), Elliot Sharp (guitar, reeds), Sonny Sharrock (guitar), David Shea (voice, turntables), Jim Staley (trombone), Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass), Tenko (voice, guitar), David Van Tieghem (percussion), Roger Turner (percussion), David Weinstein (keyboards).
Links to:
SONIC TRANSPORTS: Fred Frith Essay, part 3
SONIC TRANSPORTS: Fred Frith Contents
SONIC TRANSPORTS: Contents
For more on Fred Frith, see:
Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition
Music: KALW Radio Show #1, A Few of My Favorite Things…
Music: SFCR Radio Show #6, Postmodernism, part 3: Three Contemporary Masters
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 