The Squid's Ear Magazine


Fields Freetet, Scott : Bitter Love Songs (Clean Feed)

Extended harmolodic free-jazz following the classic models of Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy using odd time signatures, beats, and quirky turn-arounds.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



João Lobo-drums

Scott Fields-guitar

Sebastian Gramss-bass


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UPC: 5609063001020

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF102
Squidco Product Code: 9391

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2008
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardstock Gatefold Sleeve

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Bitter Love Songs" is the first of Scott Fields' recordings whose goal is extended blowing in the free-jazz tradition. All but one of the tracks on this CD follow the classic free-jazz model that masters such as Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy established. Catchy heads set up improvised sections, fragments taken from the head or outro interrupt the solos, and finally the original head, a variation, or an entirely new outro closes the composition. In the Coleman tradition these compositions are harmolodic in that they don't follow chord changes.

In spite of his adherence to this now-classic style (2008 marks 50 years since the release of Coleman's début album "Something Else!!!!"), Fields does add his own twist. The compositions swing, but not in the traditional sense. Quarter-note walking-bass lines are avoided like the plague. When they do surface, they are quickly beaten back into submission by a dizzying array of odd time signatures, fractional beats, skips and stutters, and quirky turnarounds.

The music is also stripped to its core to produce a kind of free-jazz reductionism. Fields set aside his collection of specialized bows, foot pedals, and implements of guitar torture, and instead plugged his guitar straight into a thick cable that was connected directly to a small amplifier. Gramss left his bow in its case and plays every note pizzicato. Lobo spurned brushes, mallets, bamboo rods, and their like and in favor of sticks throughout. The idea, Fields says, was to create a monochrome musical world in which the focus would be on subtle shifts in time and pitch.

Fields had long thought about forming a Freetet and who might best fill the drum and bass chairs (he had settled on himself for guitar). The solution was provided during a series of gigs in Lisbon. For the release of his Clean Feed CD "Beckett" he had performed with musicians who were living in Portugal at the time. One was the drummer João Lobo. During the rehearsals for these gigs, and the performances themselves, he started to sense how well Lobo, with his quick wits and sensitive touch, would fit together with the power and determination of Sebastian Gramss, a bassist with whom Fields had played together in Cologne, Germany, where both live. His suspicions were confirmed when the three gathered in Germany first to explore ideas and later to record this CD."-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"Scott Fields (born September 30, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is a guitarist, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces (see 48 Motives, 96 Gestures and "OZZO"). He works primarily in avant-garde jazz, experimental music, and contemporary classical music.

Fields was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He started as a self-taught rock musician but soon was influenced by the musicians of the Association for the Advancement for Creative Musicians (AACM), which was active in the Hyde Park neighborhood in which he grew up. Later he studied classical guitar, jazz guitar, music composition, and music theory. In 1973 Fields co-founded the avant-garde jazz trio Life Rhythms. When the group disbanded two years later, he played sporadically but soon was institutionalized for an extended period. He almost quit music until 1989.

Since then he has performed and composed actively. His ensembles and partnerships have included such musicians as Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, John Hollenbeck, Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Jeff Parker, and Elliott Sharp."

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

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

"Sebastian Gramss (Cologne, Germany) is a German double bass virtuoso and composer of jazz and contemporary music. In 2013 and 2018 he received the ECHO Jazz award (national instrumentalist of the year).He studied double bass and composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and at the Cologne University of Music.

Gramss released more than 25 CDs under his name. He's been an inspiring and innovative presence in the world of jazz with his band UNDERKARL for the past 25 years, and recently with his new trios SLOWFOX (with Hayden Chisholm & Philip Zoubek) and FOSSILE 3 (with Rudi Mahall & Etienne Nillesen).

His bass activities include his solo works (Atopie), a long term bass duo series (started with Stefano Scodanibbio in 2008, and continued with Barre Phillips, Tetsu Saitoh, Mark Dresser, Barry Guy, William Parker and Joëlle Lénadre in over 50 concerts + recordings), several quartets and the international double bass orchestra BASSMASSE with 13 (and up to 50) bass players.

Gramss has composed for radio drama, movies and theatre and - among others - for choreographer Pina Bausch, and recently with/for the Ensemble Modern.

He teaches at the Cologne University of Music and University of Osnabrück, and gives master classes around the world. Extensive touring with his music has led him to venues and festivals all over the world, including Japan, India, Latin America, Russia, USA, Africa, and Australia.

He was the co-creator and the curator/ director of SAMUR (South Asian Music Residency) in India in 2016 and 2017.

International cooperations: Marilyn Crispell, Fred Frith, Sidsel Endresen, A. v. Schlippenbach, Tom Cora, Ensemble Modern, N. Wogram, E. Sharp, P. Kowald, Z. Parkins, Brötzmann, J. Tilbury, Conny Bauer..."

-Sebastian Gramss Website (https://sebastiangramss.de/biography/)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Yea, sure, we can still be friends, whatever

2. Go ahead, take the furniture, at least you helped pick it out

3. My love is love, your love is hate

4. Your parents must be just ecstatic now

5. I was good enough for you until your friends butted in

6. You used to say I love you but so what now

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Clean Feed
Trio Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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