The Squid's Ear Magazine

Davis, Anthony / Paul Plimley / Al Neil / John Kameel Farah

Past Piano Present | Live at Western Front 1985 - 2015 [VINYL LP with DOWNLOAD]

Davis, Anthony  / Paul Plimley / Al Neil / John Kameel Farah: Past Piano Present | Live at Western F (Western Front New Music)

Four innovative and creative pianists performing solo at the Western Front between 1985 and 2015--Anthony Davis, Paul Plimley, Al Neil, John Kameel Farah--compiled on this extraordinary LP, the 2nd essential archive from one of Canada's most important performance spaces.
 

Price: $19.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 24.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Anthony Davis-piano

Paul Plimley-piano

Al Neil-piano

John Kameel Farah-Disklavier piano, keyboard, electronics


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: Western Front New Music
Catalog ID: 004
Squidco Product Code: 21876

Format: LP
Condition: New
Released: 2015
Country: Canada
Packaging: LP
Recorded at the Western Front between 1985 and 2015.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Second in a series of archival releases, this album represents the work of four innovative pianists that performed at the Western Front between 1985 and 2015. The record features archival performances from the legendary Anthony Davis and Vancouver renegade Al Neil from 1985's PIANO series, as well as a Paul Plimley performance from the 1989 Vancouver du Maurier International Jazz Festival. Side B includes two pieces from Toronto composer John Kameel Farah, developed and performed during his 2015 compositional residency at the Western Front.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Perennially traversing the boundaries of jazz and classical music, Anthony Davis has charted his own path to become a major voice in American contemporary music. Renowned internationally as a composer, educator and jazz pianist, he soared to critical acclaim as a virtuoso soloist in the 1970s. Today, Davis is known as an award- winning composer of operatic works and film scores. Recognized as a "National Treasure" for his pioneering work in opera including X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X (1986). His most recent work, Lear on the 2nd Floor (2013) reimagines Shakespeare's most enduring protagonist.

Since 1975, Paul Plimley has been advancing the fields of composition and improvisation along a continuum of American and European music traditions. With a stylistic range that moves from explosiveness to introspection, Plimley's kinetic energy has made for remarkable collaborations with numerous celebrated musicians.

Al Neil's work in music is the beginning and the core of his artistic practice. In the 1950s he helped open The Cellar, Vancouver's first experimental jazz club. In the early 1960s his group, the Al Neil Trio, produced some of the most inventive work of its time, influencing the future of Vancouver's creative music scene.

Toronto pianist, composer and improviser John Kameel Farah occupies an expansive musical landscape, weaving together baroque motifs with Middle-Eastern modes and ambient minimalism. His solo performances exist between the worlds of the concert pianist and the electronic producer, exploring a range of musical sensibilities from Bach to Schoenberg and electronic music.

"This compilation album highlights extraordinary presentations of technical facility, compositional artistry and improvisatory savoir-faire on piano -with results that are stunningly original and personal." -Dana Reason, Ph.D


Artist Biographies

"Anthony Davis (born February 20, 1951), is an American jazz pianist, composer, and student of gamelan music. Davis is best known for his operas including X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, which was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1986, Amistad, which premiered with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997, and Wakonda's Dream, which premiered at Opera Omaha in 2007.

Davis was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He taught at Yale University and Harvard University, and has played with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1981, Davis formed an octet called Episteme. He also wrote the incidental music for the Broadway version of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. He incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian, and experimental music.

Davis has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or sideman with various ensembles. Such ensembles include those that featured Smith as bandleader from 1974 to 1977.

Davis is professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. His opera Wakonda's Dream is a tale of a contemporary Native American family and the history that affects them.

His opera Lilith (libretto by Allan Havis) had its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center in UCSD on December 4, 2009. The story is about Adam's first wife, set in a modern era."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Davis_(composer))
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Paul (Horace) Plimley (born 16 March 1953 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a free jazz pianist and vibraphonist. He is one of the doyens of the Canadian jazz avant-garde, a co-founder of the New Orchestra Workshop Society and frequent collaborator with the bassist Lisle Ellis. He is well versed in classical music and in all styles of jazz; he was one of the first and most convincing interpreters of Ornette Coleman's music on the piano (an instrument usually seen as antithetical to Coleman's music).

Plimley studied classical piano under Kum-Sing Lee at the University of British Columbia (1971-3). In 1978-9 he studied with Karl Berger and Cecil Taylor at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY. In 1977 he founded the New Orchestra Workshop (NOW), and he has been active in many of the ensembles associated with NOW, including the NOW Orchestra.

His work with Lisle Ellis is extensive, and includes the duo CD Both Sides of the Same Mirror (Nine Winds, 1989); When Silence Pulls, with Andrew Cyrille (Music & Arts, 1990); Noir, with Bruce Freedman and Gregg Bendian (Victo, 1992); Density of the Lovestruck Demons with Donald Robinson (Music & Arts, 1994); and Safecrackers with Scott Amendola (Victo, 1999). Most notable, perhaps, are two recordings for Hat Art: the collection of Ornette Coleman interpretations, Kaleidoscopes (1992), and (under Joe McPhee's leadership), a revisiting of Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite called Sweet Freedom, Now What? (1994). In May 2000 he recorded a live act at the 17th International Festival of New Music in Victoriaville, Quebec with John Oswald, Marilyn Crispell and Cecil Taylor. The album was released at Victo Records.

The still Vancouver based musician is a regular at the annual Vancouver International Jazz Festival."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Plimley)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Al Neil was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1924. An accomplished jazz pianist, during the l950s he was one of the founders of the Cellar Jazz Club and performed with artists such as Art Pepper, Conte Candoli and Kenneth Patchen. During the l960s and l970s he became known for solo and ensemble perfromances which combined music with texts, art assemblages, slides and prepared tapes, and in recent years, his collage works have been exhibited extensively. Al Neil's books are Changes (Nightwood Editions 1989), West Coast Lokas (Intermedia 1972), Slammer (Pulp Press 1981) and Origins (writings by and about the artist and his work: Western Front 1989). Although he has toured and exhibited internationally, he has always lived and worked in Vancouver. In 2003, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr Institute."

-Brunt Mag (http://bruntmag.com/issue1/neil.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"John Kameel Farah is a Canadian composer and pianist whose work embraces aspects of baroque and early music, experimental, contemporary classical, improvisation, middle-eastern music and forms of electronic music.

He studied composition and piano performance at the University of Toronto, where he received the Glenn Gould Composition Award twice during his studies. In 1999 he had private lessons with Terry Riley in California, and later at the Arabic Music Retreat in Hartford.

Farah continues to compose for ensembles and film, but largely focuses on live solo concerts, using a setup which surrounds the piano with synthesizers, as well as processing the piano through computer filters and effects. His music draws upon an interest in astronomy, history, mythology and painting. As a visual artist, his intricate ink drawings have been presented at solo and group exhibitions.

He occasionally presents his side-project, "Music for Organ and Synthesizers", looping and altering the pipe organ's sound in combination with analog and digital synths in various church settings, which has attracted great interest from electronic music fans.

Collaborations have included several scores for iconic Canadian choreographer Peggy Baker, and rising ballet star Robert Binet. He has also worked with astrophysicist John Dubinski, composing soundtracks to animations of galaxy formations and collisions in a project called "Gravitas". In 2010 he became a member of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, the oldest continuously active live-electronic performing group in the world. In Berlin, he frequently works with the Oriel String Quartet and the early vocal ensemble Vox Nostra.

Farah has casually described to his musical approach as "maximalist" in reference to the myriad of styles he draws upon in his overall musical approach. Also a visual artist, Farah has accompanied his concerts with live projections of his detailed ink line-drawings.

Since 2010 Farah has been based in Berlin, Germany. He has toured across Europe, the U.K and North America, as well as South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and Israel/Palestine. He has given concert-lectures at several universities and colleges in both Canada and Germany and has performed his work in some of Germany's most prestigious venues, such as Berlin's Volksbühne and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Kölner Philharmonie, and soon the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg."

-John Kameel Farah Website (http://www.johnfarah.com/about/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. Behind The Rock 7:20

2. Ripple Drops Magnified 6:23

3. The Piano Tuner 6:26

SIDE B



1. Fantasia 9:27

2. Fugue 8:12

Related Categories of Interest:



Vinyl Recordings
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Piano & Keyboards
Solo Artist Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Record Store Day
Physical Releases that include Download Codes
Top Sellers for 2022 by Customer Sales

Search for other titles on the label:
Western Front New Music.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Plimley, Paul Trio
Safe-Crackers
(Les Disques Victo)
Plimley, Paul / Lisle Ellis / Gregg Bendian
Noir
(Les Disques Victo)
Other Recommended Releases:
Smith, Wadada Leo
String Quartets Nos. 1-12 [7-CD BOXSET]
(Tum)
Since 1965 Wadada Leo Smith has developed string quartets influenced by a diverse set of composers including Ornette Coleman, Claude Debussy, Howlin' Wolf, Scott Joplin, Olly Wilson, &c. heard here in 12 Quartets from 3 major periods of his work, compositions exploring the African-American experience, with scores that leave room for interpretation and expression from his players.
Ex, The
All Corpses [7" VINYL]
(Superior Viaduct)
The Ex's first single from the Netherland unique and socially charged band The Ex of Terrie Ex on guitar, G.W. Sok on voice, Ome Geurt on drums and Bas on bass, starting a legacy of intelligent and pointed rock, improvised and experimental music that continues 40 years later, reissued as a 2020 Record Store Day release on colored 7" vinyl.
Futterman, Joel
Silhouettes
(Progressive Records)
This '93 solo concert at Norfolk Academy in Virginia finds free jazz pianist Joel Futterman reflecting on standards and jazz repertoire by inference & reference, improvising over 7 original compositions and Coltrane's "Naima", with moments of lyrical delicacy, savvy swinging sections, and reflective Monk moods, all filtered through his Futteran's powerful creative drive.
Blur, Rosco
Stable Chaos
(Red Toucan)
Rosco Blur's groove-based jazz album with a great set of players including Paul Plimey (piano), Dylan van der Schyff (drums), spirited music with the occasional sung-spoken lyric, an album that harkens to the world of Roland Kirk with a modern edge.
MusicWorks
#112 Spring 2012 [MAGAZINE + CD]
(Musicworks)
Canada's premiere new music magazine, with Philip Glass on the cover, plus articles on Jocelyn Morlock, Farah, D'Eon and Gill, and Olivia Block, and a 12 track CD of works by those and other artists.
Houle, Viviane
Treize
(Drip Audio)
Out free improvising vocalist Viviane Houle's debut solo release in duos with a veritable who's-who of Vancouver's finest improvisers including Peggy Lee, Jesse Zubot, &c. &c.
Smith, Wadada Leo's Golden Quartet
The Year of the Elephant
(Pi Recordings)



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Rempis, Dave / Avreeayl Ra
Bennu [VINYL]
(Aerophonic)
The first recorded document of longtime collaborators performing as a duo, Dave Rempis (alto & tenor saxophones) and Avreeayl Ra (drums & percussion), in a thoughtfully building and muscular sax/drum pairing of both meditative and joyful free playing, captured at Constellation in Chicago after months where both players were unable to perform in person; exceptional!
Johansson / Fite / Grip
Swinging at Topsi's [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Astral Spirits)
An evening of free improvisation recorded in Berlin at au Topsi Pohl in 2020 from the Swedish trio of Euro Free Jazz legend Sven-Ake Johansson on drums, Niklas Fite on acoustic guitar and Joel Grip on double bass, performing two extended and dynamic improvisations, and then settling into jazz standard form for "Isn't It Romantic" and "Out of Nowhere" sung by by Johansson.
George, Kazemde
I Insist
(Greenleaf Music)
A solid modern jazz album in the Blue Note tradition with a Latin angle, the title a reference to Max Roach's 1960 protest album We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, evoked through strongly melodic tunes composed by Brooklyn saxophonist Kazemde George and performed with vocalist Sami Stevens, keyboardist Isaac Wilson, bassist Tyrone Allen II, and drummer Adam Arruda.
Sharp's, Elliott Terraplane
Century
(zOaR Records)
An unflinching look at life in post-Reconstruction America, commemorating the anniversary of Nancy Cunard's 1934 collection of African-American writings, poems, and song lyrics titled Negro: An Anthology, from Elliott Sharp's Terraplane, with vocalists Tracie Morris, Eric Mingus, Mikel Banks, and instrumentalist including Sharp, Dave Hofstra, recordings from Hubert Sumlin, &c.
Jones, Jean Claude (JC)
Give It Your All - Wild Guitar Musings 2
(Kadima)
Active and informed improvisations on acoustic guitar from Jean Claude "JC" Jones, label leader of the Kadima Collective and also known as a double bassist, though his roots are in the guitar, which he has returned to with vigor since 2016, performing on lap-style prepared acoustic and prepared Spanish guitar, heard here in 13 concise pieces titled by single words.
Chansons du Crepuscule (Helene Breschand / Elliott Sharp)
Aube
(zOaR Records)
A collection of original songs and interpretations inspired by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, from vocalist Hélène Breschand, also performing on harp, electronics & field recordings, in a duo with Elliott Sharp, who creates grooves and instrumental environments on guitar, synth, bass, drum programming & electronics, each song beautifully fractured and rich in detail.
Dalibert, Melaine
Night Blossoms
(elsewhere)
French composer & pianist Melaine Dalibert's 6th solo album, works developed using an algorithmic approach to composing, such as retrograde sequences or cellular automaton, generating beautifully delicate patterns that he performs on instruments chosen for their tonal qualities, David Sylvian adding electronic coloring to the pieces "Yin" and "Yang".
NAD
dangereuXorcisms
(CKC)
A fun and lyrical jazz album that references a host of culture and style, performed in collaborations with the NAD core of keyboardist and "soundmaster" Nicola C. Salerno and guitarist Roberto Zorzi and artists including the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, presenting original compositions and eclectic covers from Ornette Coleman, Chocolat, and even Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive"!
Davies, Rhodri
An Air Swept Clean of All Distance
(Amgen Records)
First release on the Alt.Vinyl label in 2014, this album finds harpist Rhodri Davies performing on the same instrument as his prior album Wound Response, but here with no amplification, preparations or distortion, improvising through "tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms", in a compelling album of assertive and joyful playing.
Derome, Jean
Solo Souffles
(Ambiances Magnetiques)
The remarkably creative flutist & saxophonist Jean Derome often incorporates unusual instruments into his improvisations and compositions, including bird calls, harps, kalimbas, sirens, flower plastic wrappings, bells, &c &c.... on this album Derome focuses on those unique instruments and noise makers through 23 surprising pieces illustrating his incredible collection.
Hetu, Joane
Chorale JOKER: Les Lucioles
(Ambiances Magnetiques)
The Montreal-based Chorale Joker ensemble directed and conducted by Joane Hétu, Danielle Palardy, and Jean Derome, who are also participants, is one of the most unusual and fascinating improvising vocal ensembles active, heard here in a concert coordinated with Productions SuperMusique at Le Vivier, Amphiteatre du Gesu, Montreal in early 2020; indescribably fascinating!
Hall, Rob / Chick Lyall
Upward Fall
(FMR)
A set of lyrical, thoughtful and sometimes whimsical works from the Scottish-based duo of Rob Hall & Chick Lyall (Green Room Trio), who have been developing their musical language since 2003, drawing from a wide range of genres from Baroque chamber music to free jazz and folk idioms, their lack of boundaries lending itself to a uniquely diverse and embraceable music.
Futterman, Joel
Perception
(Creation Music)
A three part solo improvisation from pianist and composer Joel Futterman, also performing on Indian flute and curved soprano saxophone, each track a complete unedited first take with no overdubs, presented in the order performed, the first part a nearly 53 minute epic of powerful and consequential playing, from vigorous technical runs to beautifully languid moments; stunning.
Shipp, Matthew / Rob Brown
Then Now
(RogueArt)
Since their 1988 duo album Sonic Explorations and through a number of group collaborations, the duo of alto saxophonist Rob Brown and pianist Matthew Shipp have extended and evolved their uniquely astute and confident dialog, as heard in this magnificent 8-part studio album, a reflection on their compatibility and perceptive artistry.
Butcher, John / Thomas Lehn / Matthew Shipp
The Clawed Stone
(RogueArt)
Matthew Shipp (piano), John Butcher (saxophones) and Thomas Lehn (electronics) in a studio album recorded in France in 2017, a uniquely voiced collective trio of transformative improvisation, Lehn's additions and modifications blending perfectly with Shipp's solid foundations and Butcher's advanced technical expression, for an engrossing and expressive set of recordings.
Parker, Charlie
Selections From The SAVOY Recordings
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
The second of two volumes in celebration of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker's 100th birthday, here remastering his landmark recordings for the Savoy label in New York City between 1945-48, performing with jazz greats including Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Lewis, Curley Russel, Max Roach, &c. for some of be-bop's finest and best known compositions.
Parker, Charlie
Selections From The DIAL Recordings
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
The first of two volumes in celebration of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker's 100th birthday, here remastering his landmark recordings for the Dial label on the US West Coast between 1946-47, performing with jazz greats including Miles Davis, Lucky Thompson, Erroll Garner, Barney Kessel, Red Calender, JJ Johson, Max Roach, &c. for some of Parker's best known and essential compositions.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC