The Squid's Ear Magazine

Russell, John / John Butcher / Dominic Lash

But everything now left before it arrived

Russell, John / John Butcher / Dominic Lash: But everything now left before it arrived (Meenna)

A live performance at the 2010 GIO Fest III in Glasgow, UK, from three of the UK's leading free improvisers--late guitarist John Russell, John Butcher on saxophones and Dominic Lash on double bass--a superb concert in five improvisations of incredible technical skill through both energetic and restrained passages, a brilliant example reminding us of the loss of the great guitarist.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



John Russell-guitar

John Butcher-saxophones

Dominic Lash-double bass


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Label: Meenna
Catalog ID: meenna-962
Squidco Product Code: 31796

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Japan
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at GIO Fest III, CCA, in Glasgow, UK, on December 10th, 2010, by Jim McEwan.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Guitarist John Russell, a leading figure on Britain's improvised music scene, passed away on January 19, 2021. Born in December 1954, Russell started performing improvised music in London in his late teens, and for many years he toured and gave concerts not only in the UK and Europe but throughout the world. Known as a Japanophile, Russell traveled to Japan for the first time in 2001, and subsequently visited the country many times, including as recently as 2018 and 2019.

British sax player John Butcher was born in 1954, the same year as Russell. Contrabass player Dominic Lash (also from the UK) was born in 1980; despite the generational difference, however, he performed numerous times with Russell and Butcher in trios and other formations. On December 10, 2010, the three musicians appeared as a trio at GIO Fest III in Glasgow. That performance is documented on this album. The CD sleeve features texts recounting memories of John Russell, written (in English and Japanese respectively) by Glasgow-based guitarist Neil Davidson, who performed at GIO Fest III on the same day, and sound artist suzueri, who met Russell on numerous occasions during his visits to Japan in 2018 and 2019."



"Dear Dom

I wasn't sure what to write so I started writing a letter to get a bit of flow going. You asked me to write about the recording you made with John Russell and John Butcher at the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra Festival 2010. I remember you and I spent months working out how to get the three of you up to Glasgow and that had been our solution. Recalling that is in turn a reminder of the hours we've both spent arranging tours and pulling together both tenuous and well established connections to make such things work over the years. Earlier in 2010 the skies emptied because of the volcano in Iceland but I managed to cross Europe regardless thanks to just those connections.

One of the other sets at that festival involved me playing with Aileen Campbell and Nick Fells, performing a piece where we wrote down in advance what we thought would happen in the performance, then we passed those instructions on in series; reading them as scores. I only mention that now because the task of writing about your improvisation after the fact stumped me for a while and I wonder what sort of block that is. Writing prior to improvisation feels somehow easier, now I think about it.

I prefer the promise that there will be improvisation over the report that there has been improvisation. It's there in the etymology of the word. And I was pleased to be able to say yes to the promise of the three of you travelling north for that performance. Which I would happily do again, even though that is now a deeply felt impossibility.

John Russell's presence and absence hangs in the notes throughout the recording. His clusters of notes picking out the geometry between you and John Butcher sound like descriptions of connections to me; coming from that particular binding gesture you can make in improvisation where the sound you play is there to connect more than to be out there on its own. The guitar is often a reflective instrument, you tend to gaze down at it, cradling it in your lap (if you're a sit down player, especially) and at the same time it resonates intimately at a volume supportive to the voice; it has a companionable quality. That is the abiding impression I have of John's playing; that he was hosting by way of playing.

What are you doing these days? A lot of what I've described above doesn't really happen any more because of the disease. Maybe it will come back. In the meantime I took a moment to imagine a performance by you and John Butcher and John Russell happening where I live now, in one of the village halls where you're more likely to hear ceòl mòr or win a raffle prize, or hear Gaelic songs inciting violence, organised alphabetically, from the 14th century. It feels like a question of going where the listening is good and the listening is good here. I chose to live where the music is connected at a deep level to hospitality and I'm glad to have found that in John Russell's playing and to be reminded of it now.

All the best,

Neil"-Neil Davidson, from the liner notes


Artist Biographies

"John Russell got his first guitar in 1965 while living in Kent and began to play in and around London from 1971 onwards. An early involvement with the emerging free improvisation scene (from 1972) followed, seeing him play in such places as The Little Theatre Club, Ronnie Scott's, The Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Musicians' Co-Op and the London Musicians' Collective. From 1974 his work extended into teaching, broadcasts (radio and television) and touring in the United Kingdom and, ever extensively, in other countries around the world . He has played with many of the world's leading improvisers and his work can be heard on over 50 CDs and albums. In 1981, he founded QUAQUA, a large bank of improvisers put together in different combinations for specific projects and, in 1991, he started MOPOMOSO which has become the UK's longest running concert series featuring mainly improvised music."

-John Russell Website (http://www.john-russell.co.uk/biography/)
3/25/2024

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

"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)
3/25/2024

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

"Born Cambridge, England, in January 1980; played bass guitar since 1994; studied with Hugh Boyd and Pascha Milner and at Basstech (London) with Rob Burns, Terry Gregory and others. Played double bass since 2001; basically self taught, with grateful thanks to Simon H. Fell. First class BA in English Literature from Oxford University (2002). Received MA Composition from Oxford Brookes University in 2003, having studied with Paul Whitty, Ray Lee and others. Received PhD from Brunel University in 2010, having studied the work of Derek Bailey, Helmut Lachenmann and JH Prynne and been supervised by Richard Barrett and John Croft."

-Dominic Lash Website (http://dominiclash.blogspot.com/p/dominic-lash_5.html)
3/25/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. I 9:32

2. II 5:13

3. III 7:44

4. IV 6:30

5. V 11:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Trio Recordings
John Butcher
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New in Improvised Music
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