San Francisco-based guitarist Henry Kaiser (1952)
adopted Derek Bailey's approach to creative atonal improvisation and Captain
Beefheart's approach to post-psychedelic timbric and rhythmic mayhem on
Ice Death (october 1977), featuring both solos and collaborations with improvisers such as guitarist Eugene Chadbourne and alto saxophonist John Oswald,
the duets of Protocol (december 1978), with the Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo and the Italian percussionist Andrea Centazzo,
the chaotic guitar duets with Fred Frith of With Friends Like These (july 1979), that was also his first experiment in using the studio as an instrument,
and finally the solo album Outside Pleasure (august 1979).
The double-LP album Aloha (september 1981) contained two lengthy solo showcases for his extended technique The Shadow Line, a vast catalog of abominable blues, jazz, rock and Indian mistakes, and the studio-processed Aloha Gamera (a remix ante-litteram).
Kaiser successfully wed creative improvisation and ethnic music on Invite The Spirit (august 1983), for a trio with Korean zither and percussion (Charles Noyes).
Instead the 27-minute It's A Wonderful Life, off It's A Wonderful Life (september 1984), began to display his twisted genius for composition, freely adapting elements of bluegrass, blues, rock, Indian and Japanese stringed instruments.
The hypnotic scales, the fractured melodies and the intricate tonal zigzagging
framed by neurotic tempos were closer in spirit to an acid-rock jam or to
a melodic fantasia than to Derek Bailey's blasts of noise.
Other notable pieces of bizarre improvisation were
the live duet with Bill Frisell, Last Of The Few (november 1985), off Marrying For Money;
the live duet with guitarist Jim O'Rourke, A Long Life Is A Slow Death, off Tomorrow Knows Where You Live (march 1991);
the 25-minute solo The Five Heavenly Truths, off The Five Heavenly Truths (august 1990).
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Henry Kaiser (1952), prolifico ed eclettico chitarrista di Oakland (California)
inizio' nella scia di Derek Bailey con album come Ice Death (october 1977),
raccolta di diciassette conciliaboli dadaisti fra la chitarra e sassofoni,
tromboni, violoncelli. Ogni brano e' una miniatura di emissioni
sonore del tutto casuali nella quale prevale il senso dello humour sulla
razionalita'. E' un'arte di dissonanze calibrate che si spiega in Blue
Dolphin, con i cinguettii di John Oswald al sax alto e i solfeggi isterici di
Laurel Spring, e in Wind Crystal, la piece piu' ardua e rarefatta, tutta
giocata sulle stecche delle chitarre.
Improvised (Music Gallery, 1978) e Moose And Salmon (february 1979 - Music Gallery, 1979) sono collaborazioni con Oswald.
Se l'album Protocol eccede nell'effettismo, il live Outside Pleasure
mette a frutto il repertorio di trucchi cacofonici in suite-delirio dai toni
clowneschi come Outside Pleasure (con i pizzicato e i crescendo piu'
psicotici della storia della chitarra),
The Stormy Present (con una serie agghiacciante di glissando
psichedelici) e The Farmer In Heaven (con vaghe reminescenze dei
balletti giapponesi), massacri armonici infestati da stecche e scordature.
Tali opere di transizione preparano il terreno
per Aloha, album doppio che rappresenta il vertice di questa fase:
The Shadow Line e' il suo assolo definitivo, capace di lambire uno
spettro sterminato di fonti, dai glissando hendrixiani alle distorsioni
psichedeliche, dai cluster pianistici all'alea cage-ana, con un intermezzo
elettronico da fantasmi. La suite dell'orrore Aloha Gamera e' invece
trattata elettronicamente in studio mescolando le caratteristiche stecche
assortite di chitarra con ogni sorta di ronzii e overdub, ma la concitazione
e' tale che, nei momenti di massimo clangore, sembra di sentire passi di
flamenco e imitazioni di clavicembalo.
Outside Aloha Pleasure (Dexter's Cigar, 1996)
combines Outside Pleasure and Aloha.
The cassette Mah Jong Hell (Mystery Tape Laboratory, 1983) collected
solo home demos with old drum machines.
Con la suite It's A Wonderful Life
(sul lavoro omonimo) la sua tecnica compositiva inizia a manifestare
palesemente tendenze centrifughe verso gli idiomi piu' disparati,
bluegrass, blues, rock, indiani e giapponesi.
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With It's A Wonderful Life
Kaiser's compositional technique began to show a centrifugal drift towards
disparate idioms of popular and classical music.
palesemente tendenze centrifughe verso gli idiomi piu' disparati,
What sets apart Kaiser's improvisations is that they don't seem to belong
to any of the established traditions. There is little or no jazz in
It's A Wonderful Life, despite the free-form format. There are, on
the other hand, subtle references to the rock, bluegrass and blues traditions,
and not so subtle tributes to Indian and Japanese classical music.
The hypnotic scales, the fractured melodies and the intricate tonal zigzagging
are framed by neurotic tempos, giving the performance a very modern, urban
feeling. In fact, the overall effect is closer to an aicd-rock jam or to
a melodic fantasia a` la Mike Oldfield than
to Derek Bailey's guitar improvisations.
The delirious (almost heavy-metal) solo of Let's Drink adds Indian drumming and funky syncopation.
The Book Of Gold, instead, is a concerto for guitar noises, an austere
exploration of timbres.
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I dischi della prima fase della carriera di Kaiser contribuirono a ridefinire il
concetto di musica da camera in un'accezione piu'ampia.
Gia' in queste prime opere il jazz d'avanguardia di Kaiser non e' mai troppo
intellettuale o astratto e conserva sempre l'elemento umano, spesso sotto
forma di un'umorismo provocatorio.
Kaiser amplia il vocabolario della musica creativa di Derek Bailey
accettando contaminazioni con qualsiasi congegno elettronico e con qualsiasi
forma di gestualita', finendo per assomigliare piu' a Chadbourne che al
maestro inglese e finendo cosi' per imbattersi nella scuola progressiva rock:
per esempio
Who Needs Enemies (october 1983), in coppia con Fred Frith, e' un campionario di
duetti irregolari e di rumori assortiti.
La sua formazione era d'altronde quella di un ragazzo medio californiano,
cresciuto ascoltando i dischi della Magic Band di Captain Beefheart e le jam
"acide" dei Grateful Dead, e la cui filosofia musicale e' quella
delle radio alternative che, durante l'era hippie, trasmettevano musica non
commerciale a ruota libera, mescolando con disinvoltura i generi piu'
diversi.
Eterogeneo e caotico, fantasioso e divertente, il linguaggio musicale di
Kaiser fini' per incorporare elementi di tutte le culture, tutti arricchiti
dalla sua cacofonia virtuosa:
Invite The Spirit, ispirato alla musica cerimoniale Coreana,
in trio con Noyes e un arpista coreano (Sang Won Park),
e' uno dei suoi capolavori,
con brani da camera in cui le scordature piu' assurde armonizzano
con naturalezza con le atmosfere sciamaniche e confuciane del "sinawi".
Avvicinantosi sempre piu' all'ambiente del rock, Kaiser registro'
Marrying For Money (november 1985),
ristampato come Re-Marrying For Money (SST, 1989),
totalmente
improvvisato con un power-trio rockeggiante che rifa' il verso ai Massacre
e che sfoggia un fantastico
assortimento di stecche (Set Up), minimalismi grotteschi (Big Clock,
Java Jack), dissonanze violente (Too Late For Tears,
Tapping The Source) e superbi blues alla Beefheart
(Pigs And Battleship, Hairy Eyeball),
e si sublima
nel lungo delirio post-psichedelico di Last Of The Few in duo con Bill Frisell.
Con questo disco Kaiser approdo' a una maniera matura di applicare la sua
tecnica estesa di chitarra all'improvvisazione libera del rock.
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Kaiser's rock and funk souls rule on Devil In The Drain (february 1987 - SST, 1987).
Sugagaki for Conlon sounds like Frank Zappa (both the verbose guitar
solos and the band-like synclavier arrangements) mixed with some Weather Report
and some Herbie Hancock.
Dark Memory #4 is a three-part work: a dissonant keyboard study, a watercolor of atmospheric guitar tones, and a frantic Mahavishnu Orchestra-like fugue.
The haunting Roadside Picnic evolves from a subdued piano sonata to a polyrhythmic industrial nightmare.
The mood runs the gamut from the comic intermezzo
King of the Wild Frontier
to the Irish square-dance cum Japanese court ballet of If This Goes On,
via the
dreamy gamelan concerto of Free to Choose.
The only reference to his past life as a free improviser is
the intricate, quasi-raga out-of-tune guitar solo Lost Horizon,
one of his best ever.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx)
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Seguirono
Those Who Know History Are Doomed To Repeat It, in cui rivede alla sua
maniera la Dark Star dei Grateful Dead e brani di Beefheart;
Crazy-Backwards Alphabet (december 1986), con un quartetto rock (compreso John
French) che suona blues bianchi alla Mayall (Get To You),
cesella strumentali astratti e cacofonici (Dropped D's,
We Are In Control?) e di nuovo resuscita la baldanza sbilenca della Magic
Band (Lobster On The Rock).
Ha inizio cosi' l'era delle collaborazioni, tanto nel rock, e cioe' il
Live, Love, Larf & Loaf (march 1987) con
Richard Thompson,
John French e Fred Frith,
quanto nel jazz, con Popular Science (may 1989 - bozzetti surreali in duo
con il tastierista russo Sergey Kuryokhin).
Quest'ultimo e' un festival del
bizzarro allestito nel segno del post-moderno: Out Taco Sauce,
Sales Pitch, Electricity Vs Foods, Barking Dogs Vs
Minimalists resteranno fra le gag piu' riuscite della sua carriera.
Il quartetto non si ripetera` purtroppo sul mediocre Invisible Means (march 1990 - Windham Hill, 1990).
Kaiser e' musicista superficiale e giocherellone, pronto a qualsiasi esperienza,
anche se
scarsamente dotato in fase compositiva, che eccelle soprattutto nell'assolo.
I suoi momenti piu' felici rimangono probabilmente le solenni fantasie per
stecche di Aloha Gamera, It's A Wonderful Life e Last Of The Few.
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Heart's Desire (october 1989 - Reckless, 1990) documents a live performance
of Kaiser with a band that included industrial guitarist
Bruce Anderson and Grateful Dead's keyboardist Tom Constanten, the precursor to the
Siamese Stepbrothers (Cuneiform, 1995).
Hope You Like Our New Direction (Reckless, 1991) is, instead, another
display of his eclectic background.
Thankfully, Kaiser returned to his free-form noise guitar roots with
Tomorrow Knows Where You Live (march 1991 - Victo, 1991), duets with
22-year old Jim O'Rourke and solos of each
of the two (best is O'Rourke's droning Just as A Wall Of Quiet Flowing
Stands Near),
Acoustics (august 1993 - Victo, 1993), a quartet with O'Rourke, Oswald and violinist Mari Kimura,
and the 25-minute solo-guitar title-track of The Five Heavenly Truths (FOT, 1992).
Lemon Fish Tweezer (Cuneiform, 1992) is a
career retrospective (with, alas, rarities).
Kaiser and David Lindley recorded five albums of music from Madagascar (with
the help of Malagasy musicians):
A World Out Of Time Volume (Shanachie, 1992),
A World Out Of Time Volume 2 (Shanachie, 1993),
A World Out Of Time Volume 3 (Shanachie, 1994),
The Sweet Sunny North (Shanachie, 1994),
The Sweet Sunny North Volume 2 (Shanachie, 1996).
Eternity Blue (Shanachie, 1995) is a Grateful Dead tribute.
Passwords (november 1997)
was a trio with pianist Paul Plimley and cellist Danielle DeGruttola.
Wireforks (Shanachie, 1995) is duets with Derek Bailey.
The Mistakes is a rock band started by Mike Keneally.
Yo Miles (january 1998 - Shanachie, 1998) with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith (and a rhythm
section) is a collection of jams on Davis' themes.
Psychedelic Guitar Circus (Sky Ranch , 2003) is another collection
of (psychedelic-era) covers.
Through (january 1999)
collected duets with Italian guitarist Roberto Zorzi.
Sky Garden (Cuneiform, 2004) is another collaboration with trumpeter
Wadada Leo Smith, this time a double-disc recording split between more
Miles Davis covers and Smith's compositions.
Zakir Hussain, Greg Osby and John Tchicaiare among the guests.
Infinity Squared (july 2006) documented a live duet with percussionist
Andrea Centazzo (also on sampling).
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx)
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