The Squid's Ear Magazine


Bennet / Bryerton / Butcher / De Gruttola / Kaiser / Smith: Sextessense: A Tribute to John Stevens a (Balance Point Acoustics)


 

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product information:

Personnel:



John Butcher-saxophone

Aaron Bennett-sax

Jerome Bryerton-drums

Danielle DeGruttola-cello

Henry Kaiser-guitar

Damon Smith-bass


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Label: Balance Point Acoustics
Catalog ID: bpa011
Squidco Product Code: 6437

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2006
Country: USA
Packaging: Jewel Tray
Recorded at Bay Records Studio in 1999.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.
"Seems tribute albums are in the air over at Damon Smith's Balance Point Acoustics. Sextessense is "a tribute to John Stevens and the SME"-the title refers of course to the two albums Stevens recorded with the Derek Bailey, Kent Carter, Evan Parker and Trevor Watts line-up of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in 1973, Quintessence 1 and 2). Stevens was one of the prime movers and arguably the most important catalyst in improvised music as it emerged in late 1960s London, and his SME remains one of free music's mythic acronyms, along with AMM, ICP, FMP, LAFMS and LMC. It's fitting then that Smith's tribute should notch up a few points of authentic Stevens street cred by recruiting former SME saxophonist John Butcher, who joins a stellar cast of West Coast improvisers - Aaron Bennet-sax / Jerome Bryerton-drums / Danielle DeGruttola-cello / Henry Kaiser-guitar) and Smith himself on bass - on these nine, lean, mean workouts. It's rare to hear Butcher in the company of another saxophonist, so it's a special treat to hear him trade licks with Bennet. If the music seems pretty agile and spiky, altogether in a different ballpark from the more pared down stuff Butcher's been getting into in recent years, it's not surprising - it was recorded way back in 1999. You might wonder why it's taken so long to see the light of day, but you should certainly rejoice that it has."-Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic

Artist Biographies

"John Butcher's work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics.Originally a physicist, he left academia in '82, and has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians - Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, John Stevens, The EX, Akio Suzuki, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, Okkyung Lee, John Edwards, Toshi Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, Mark Sanders, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, and Andy Moor - to name a few.

He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.His first solo album, Thirteen Friendly Numbers, includes compositions for multitracked saxophones, whilst later solo CDs focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback.

HCMF has twice commissioned him to compose for his own large ensembles. Other commissions include for Elision (Australia), the Rova (USA) & Quasar (Canada) Saxophone Quartets, reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori (USA), "Tarab Cuts" (based on pre-WWII Arabic recordings, and shortlisted for the 2014 British Composer's Award) and "Good Liquor .." for the London Sinfonietta. In 2011 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.

Recent groupings include The Apophonics with Robair and Edwards, Anemone with Peter Evans, Plume with Tony Buck & Magda Mayas and a trio with Okkyung Lee & Mark Sanders.Butcher values playing in occasional encounters - ranging from large groups such as Butch Morris' London Skyscraper and the EX Orkestra, to duo concerts with David Toop, Kevin Drumm, Claudia Binder, Paal Nilssen-Love, Thomas Lehn, Fred Frith, Keiji Haino, Ute Kangeisser, Matthew Shipp and Yuji Takahashi."

-John Butcher Website (http://www.johnbutcher.org.uk/Biog.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Jerome Bryerton's artistic expression evolved from years of playing drums in rock, jazz and experimental groups. Performing solo or collaboratively, he's toured and recorded internationally with many notable improvisers. Jerome is also part owner of a large industrial silk screening operation in Chicago.

While some may perceive a factory to be the antithesis to the creative process, Jerome's imagination has been known to incorporate the errors of assembly line production into some of his art. Rejected test prints often made their way into many of his early canvases.

Strictly working within the medium of oil on canvas and applied with plexiglass. Jerome's dense, moody abstractions and marbleized colors have been said to evoke controlled chaos, blurred memory and decay. His influences range from Masters such as Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Luc Tuymans and Cy Twombly. Self-taught and skilled in improvisation, Jerome believes that everything starts with curiosity: if you're curious about something and you're willing to learn more about it, everything happens by itself."

-Jerome Bryerton's Website (http://www.jeromebryerton.com/about)
3/13/2024

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

"Henry Kaiser (born September 19, 1952) is an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale.

In 1977, Kaiser founded Metalanguage Records with Larry Ochs (Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Greg Goodman. In 1979 he recorded With Friends Like These with Fred Frith, a collaboration that lasted for over 20 years. In 1983 they recorded Who Needs Enemies, and in 1987 the compilation album With Enemies Like These, Who Needs Friends? They joined with fellow experimental musicians John French, and English folk-rocker Richard Thompson to form French Frith Kaiser Thompson for two eclectic albums, Live, Love, Larf & Loaf (1987) and Invisible Means (1990). In 1999 Frith and Kaiser released Friends and Enemies, a compilation of their two Metalanguage albums along with additional material from 1984 and 1999.

In 1991, Kaiser went to Madagascar with guitarist David Lindley. They recorded roots music with Malagasy musicians and discovered music that, he says, "changed us radically and permanently". Three volumes of this music were released by Shanachie under the title A World Out of Time. In 1994 he made a similar trip to Norway, again with Lindley, recording music that was released as Sweet Sunny North (2 volumes, 1994 and 1996).

Since 1998, Kaiser has been collaborating with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in the "Yo Miles!" project, releasing a series of tributes to Miles Davis's 1970s electric music. This shifting aggregation has included musicians from the worlds of rock (guitarists Nels Cline, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir, drummer Steve Smith), jazz (saxophonists Greg Osby and John Tchicai), avant-garde (keyboardist John Medeski, guitarist Elliott Sharp), and Indian classical music (tabla player Zakir Hussain).

Kaiser has appeared on more than 250 albums and scored dozens of TV shows and films, including Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World (2007). He was given a Grammy Award for his work on the Beautiful Dreamer tribute to Stephen Foster.

In 2001, Kaiser spent two and a half months in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant. He has subsequently returned for nine more visits to work as a research diver. His underwater camera work was featured in two Herzog films, The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) and Encounters at the End of the World (2007), which he also produced, and for which he and Lindley composed the score. Kaiser served as music producer for Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work as a producer on Encounters at the End of the World."

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

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

"Damon Smith studied double bass with Lisle Ellis and has had lessons with Bertram Turezky, Joëlle Leandré, John Lindberg, Mark Dresser and others. Damon's explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Visual art, film and dance heavily influence his music, as evidenced by his CAMH performance of Ben Patterson's Variations for Double Bass, collaborations with director Werner Herzog on soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Damon has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including: Cecil Taylor, Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra's Arkestra), Henry Kaiser, Roscoe Mitchell, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith, Marco Eneidi, Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and five great years in Houston, Texas working regularly with Alvin Fielder, Sandy Ewen, David Dove & Chris Cogburn, Damon will move to the Boston area in the fall of 2016. Damon has run Balance Point Acoustics record label since 2001, releasing music focusing on transatlantic collaborations between US and European musicians."

-Balance Point Acoustic Website (https://www.balancepointacoustics.com/damon-smith/)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. So What Do You Think About John Stevens? 12:00

2. Deep Six For The SME 8:00

3. Beckett (Sam) 7:42

4. Immeadiate Pasts 10:41

5. Click Piece + Sustain = 7:33

6. Has Duration 10:24

7. Implies Its Opposite 5:40

8. Six & One 6:47

9. Septessence 11:07

Related Categories of Interest:

Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improv, Free Jazz & Related
John Butcher
July 2006
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Sextet Recordings
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
Balance Point Acoustics.


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