Boustrophedon (Album)

Occupation

• Soprano Saxophone: Evan Parker
• Alto and soprano saxophones: Roscoe Mitchell
• Alto Saxophone: Anders Svanoe
• Clarinet: John Croft Range
• Flute: Neil Metcalfe
• Trumpet, flugelhorn: Corey Wilkes
• Viola: Nils Bultmann
• Violin. Philipp Wachsmann
• Cello: Marcio Mattos
• Piano: Craig Taborn
• Bass: Jabiru Shahid, Barry Guy
• Drums, percussion: Tani Tabbal, Paul Lytton

Boustrophedon ( in Six Furrows ) is an album of Evan Parker Transatlantic Art Ensemble, which was recorded in September 2004 at the Muffathalle in Munich and released on the ECM label in 2008.

The album

Evan Parker had already taken part in the 1970 album The Music Improvisation Company, the fifth release on Manfred Eicher's ECM label. In 1994 he took on a regular basis for ECM, first trio recordings with Paul Bley and Barre Phillips ( Time Will Tell, Sankt Gerold ), followed by the first production of Parker's Electro- Acoustic Ensemble, with whom he recorded four albums: Toward the Margins, Drawn Inward, Memory / Vision and The Eleventh Hour.

In 2004, the British Evan Parker and the American Roscoe Mitchell founded the Transatlantic Art Ensemble, with the Mitchells Composition / Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 and 3 has been recorded for the ECM. The band was composed of staff members of Parker's Electro- Acoustic Ensemble and Mitchell's Note Factory formation. In the same occupation was also recorded Parker's composition Boustrophedon in September 2004, consisting of six " Furrows " along with the introduction and finale. The title of the album - Boustrophedon - referred to in linguistics a notation with line by line, changing Direction: " Parker uses the back and forth analogy Both in scales up and down and in the flow back and forth in between the American and European musicians, " wrote Kee Malesky. The set name Furrow (English for furrow ) makes reference to this concept, which is in German analogy also called the sequence of movement during plowing furrows agile.

Boustrophedon includes written-out music for the musicians, specific instructions for the presentation and open areas that leave room for improvisation. Parker, who intends to adopt in their own words " the space between Gil Evans and Luigi Nono ," said:

The album begins with a brief overture of the ensemble, " an amalgam of flute, piano, flugelhorn " which reconciled the drummer Tani Tabbal and Paul Lytton in the first of the Furrows in which each of the players hits a transatlantic counterpart.

In Furrow 1, these are the flautist Neil Metcalfe and pianist Craig Taborn; lead in Furrow 2 Phil Wachsmann and Nils Bultmann a dialogue with violin and viola, which eventually leads to broad orchestral waves Furrow 3, in which increases the pace and cellist Marcio Mattos and Anders Svanoe meet on alto saxophone.

Furrow 4 is a feature for John Crofts Range clarinet and Corey Wilkes' trumpet: "Range Crofts clarinet seamlessly follows the dive -like accumulation of the previous section, by playing a solo dance -like, before the orchestra is decorated with colors ." As Wilkes enters the conversation, the classic sound turns towards a more influenced by jazz sound, in the Wilkes' trumpet mixes with the ensemble.

The bassist Jabiru Shahid and Barry Guy playing in slow Furrow 5 first alone, then in ascending lively ensemble playing. The lively Furrow 6 begins with the use of Streicherguppe before the soloists Evan Parker and Roscoe Mitchell occur; Parker has a solo on the soprano in circular breathing, which is above a string accompaniment; Mitchell brings Furrow 6 back of his rather gloomy presentation back to more traditional jazz sound.

The finale leaves the eleven players again successively occur in short statements.

Title list

• Evan Parker / The Transatlantic Art Ensemble: Boustrophedon (ECM 1873)

All compositions are by Evan Parker.

Reception Album

Boustrophedon was well received in the trade press; "This record, like its companion, goes a long way toward Reconciling contemporary jazz and classical music without selling Either short" ( Downbeat ), " Boustrophodon is therefore a giant step forward for jazz musicthat under lines the factthat it is a genre of music without limitations " ( Jazzwise ), " It's a triumph for Parker, who's known a few in his revolutionary career " (The Guardian), " Shimmering soundscapes and orchestral slabs are the setting for knockabout improvisations with bucolic flute " (Financial Times ).

Thom Jurek awarded the album in Allmusic 3 ½ out of five stars and said, cited by Parker in the liner notes passage from Samuel Beckett's story, The Expelled ( from stories and texts about nothing of 1947-52 ).

Henry Smith said in All About Jazz:

Mike Shanley said in Jazz Times: