alec ramsdell wrote:
> Alex Locasio wrote:
>
> >Don't even mention Evan Parker in the same sentence as Kenny Gore-Lick.
> >
> >Parker is a genius. I think Peter Brotzmann's Machine Gun album should
> >be the soundtrack for any Marxist revolution. And maybe some stuff by
> >Cecil Taylor and Charles Gayle, too.
>
> Sounds good to me. The Schlippenbach Trio is amazing, definitely Alex V
> Schlippenbach is up there with Cecil Taylor for me. "Physics" and "Elf
> Bagatellen" are simply amazing.
>
> Do you know anything about Evan Parker's politics? I remember seeing a
> photo of him wearing a "Cole not Dole" pin in front of a record store.
>
> -Alec
>
> ______________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
"To my mind, another great misfortune of the new jazz was that its exponents from the very beginning tried to identify themselves with the political left. This was especially true of European musicians. The FMP catalogue proclaimed: "In the midst of capitalism, on the field of capitalism, playing against capitalism.." I remember what a shock I got in the mid-70's when I arrived in England after living in the USSR for 35 years. The Roundhouse, the most important venue of the time, staged a series of concerts of new jazz with all the receipts going to the Communists Party of Great Britain. I could understand that the musicians were dissatisfied with the attitude the establishment and the public at large had to their music, were forced to join the leftist movement, but here was the great paradox. On the one hand, the musicians considered themselves to be in the forefront of the counterculture and the anti-establishment. They were in opposition and it was exactly for this reason that they had leftist tendencies. On the other hand, they did not realize that where the communists, who they were supporting, had come to power the playing of free jazz was discouraged...though the musicians had taken this anti-establishment stance, they could not survive without the help of the establishment. They had to apply for grants and bursaries, but the grants were hard to come by and the exponents of new music had to play in dirty little pubs. Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, John Stevens, Barry Guy and many other fantastic musicians deserve to play on big stages in front of huge audiences." -Leo Feigin from "Russia Jazz New Identity ed. Leo Feigin. p186-7. 1985.
Feigin liked the fact that the Ganelin Trio, Kuryokhin and the others from the USSR were completely apolitical. Sam Pawlett.