The Squid's Ear Magazine
The Squid's Ear Magazine
Victo 40th Anniversary Sale
   50 Albums At $10 Each until September 24th!




Favre, Pierre Trio (Favre / Schweizer / Mraz): Bird Food (Songs)

Captured in 1968 in Zurich and long shelved before its recent discovery, this early trio session brings Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, and George Mraz together in a concise, fiery set of attentive free jazz, balancing Ornette Coleman's title piece with Schweizer's compositions, where dynamic interplay and acute listening reveal a nascent yet fully engaged collective voice.
 

Price: $17.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units


EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs

Sample The Album:





Product Information:

Personnel:



Pierre Favre-drums

George Mraz-double bass

Irene Schweizer-piano

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



UPC: 0730706018503

Label: Songs
Catalog ID: SONGS004CD
Squidco Product Code: 37423

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2026
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels w/ booklet
Recorded live at Radio Studio Zurich, Switzerland, February 19, 1968
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

Pierre Favre is a Swiss jazz drummer and percussionist, born 2 June 1937 in Le Locle, Switzerland.

"When Pierre Favre began to explore new worlds of sound in drumming in the 1960s, he had already played with many internationally renowned Europeans and Americans as well as with prominent big bands. But it pushed him to an independent music. It all started in a trio with bassist George Mraz, then with Peter Kowald on double bass and from the start with Irene Schweizer on piano. "It is," says Pierre Favre, "a stroke of luck in a long, independent and yet joint development.

Searching for the melodic aspects of drums and percussion, Pierre Favre found his way to the solo. Together with Paul Motian, Fredy Studer and Nana Vasconcelos, he formed a percussion ensemble that increased the orchestral possibilities of percussive solo playing. "Singing Drums", a quartet with four percussionists, underwent a further transformation in the form of The "European Chamber Ensemble", a line-up with two percussionists, horns and strings.

In 2004, the city of Zurich honored Pierre Favre with the city's art prize."-Bert Noglik, Pierre Favre website

-Pierre Favre Website (https://www.pierrefavre.ch/pierre/)
9/15/2026

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

"George Mraz (born Jiří Mráz; 9 September 1944 - 16 September 2021) was a Czech-born American jazz bassist and alto saxophonist. He was a member of Oscar Peterson's group, and worked with Pepper Adams, Stan Getz, Michel Petrucciani, Stephane Grappelli, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Raney, Chet Baker, Barry Harris, Joe Henderson, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, and Richie Beirach, among others.

During the 1970s, he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet and The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and in the 1980s a member of Quest. He also appeared with Joe Lovano, Hank Jones and Paul Motian on Lovano's records I'm All For You and Joyous Encounter.

Mraz died on September 16, 2021, in Prague. The immediate cause of death was undisclosed, though he had battled pancreatic cancer in 2016."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mraz)
9/15/2026

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

"Irène Schweizer (born 2 June 1941) is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, in 1941. She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvising Group, whose members include Lindsay Cooper, Maggie Nichols, Georgie Born and Sally Potter. She has also performed a series of duets with drummers Pierre Favre, Louis Moholo, Andrew Cyrille, Günter Sommer, Han Bennink, Hamid Drake, as well as in trio and quartet sessions with others, including John Tchicai, Evan Parker and Peter Kowald. With Yusef Lateef, Uli Trepte and Mani Neumeier she performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967. One of her most enduring collaborations is with the improvising musician Rüdiger Carl (de)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ir%C3%A8ne_Schweizer)
9/15/2026

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


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:

May 2026
Jazz
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers
Contemporary and Composed Modern Jazz

Search for other titles on the label:
Songs.


Recommended & Related Releases:
McPhee, Joe
The Loneliest Woman [CD EP]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A rich and unusual interpretation of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" recorded in Boswil, Switzerland in 1981 with McPhee, Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, Radu Malfatti, Daniel Bourquin, &c., in its first-ever release.
Chevillon, Bruno
Etats Des Lieux
(Songs)
French double bassist Bruno Chevillon presents only his second solo album in four decades, using bowed resonance, grainy harmonics, percussive attacks, low pizzicato and carefully measured silence to engage the long natural reverberation of a Paris church, treating its stone surfaces, ambient sounds and returning echoes as active partners in a rigorous and deeply expressive acoustic improvisation.
Brotzmann, Peter w/ Peter Uuskyla / Peter Friis Nielsen
Flying Feathers
(FMR)
Blazing through a set of raw, high-intensity free jazz, Peter Brötzmann joins Danish bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and Estonian drummer Peeter Uuskyla for a ferocious trio session where roaring saxophone and tarogato collide with clanking electric bass and trance-like percussion, balancing relentless energy with occasional lyrical openings in this fiercely driven improvisational encounter.
Favre, Pierre / Sergio Armaroli / Andrea Centazzo / Francesca Gemmo
The Art Of Sound(s) (first visit)
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
A contemplative meeting of Pierre Favre, Sergio Armaroli, Andrea Centazzo, and Francesca Gemmo, exploring percussion, vibraphone, and piano in spacious improvised forms that privilege resonance over rhythm, weaving subtle dynamics and reflective timbres into an existential soundscape where silence, decay, and shimmering overtones converge in quietly radical dialogue.
Foussat, Jean-Marc
Abbatage
(Fou Records)
Originally released in 1983 as Jean-Marc Foussat's sole solo statement for the next 18 years, Abattage is a frenetic musique concrète collage of Synthi AKS & VCS3 electronics, tapes, voice, guitar, piano and field recordings, reissued in a deluxe remastered edition with 32-page booklet that restores the intensity and inventiveness of his groundbreaking debut.
Pellegrini Quartet
Luigi Nono Fragmente - Stille, an Diotima; Ludwig van Beethoven Streichquartett a-moll op. 132, First Visit
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Reissuing their 1995 release on BVHAAST, the Pellegrini Quartet presents a striking juxtaposition of Beethoven's late string quartet, Op. 132, and Luigi Nono's Fragmente - Stille, an Diotima, revealing a profound dialogue between structural innovation and expressive depth, where Beethoven's introspective lyricism meets Nono's fragmented, textural modernism, spanning 155 years of musical evolution.
Fennesz
Venice 20 (20th Anniversary Edition)
(Touch)
20th anniversary reissue of Fennesz's 2004 release Venice, as a deluxe version remastered by Denis Blackham, with new and extra tracks not on the previous CD or vinyl versions, in a DVD-format with a booklet of texts by Fennesz, Denis Blackham, and Jon Wozencroft, photographs from the 2004 sessions, and David Sylvian's original handwritten lyrics for "Transit."
Ayler, Albert
Summertime To Spiritual Unity, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Remastering and reissuing two tracks--"Summertime" and "C.T"--from saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1964 Fontana album My Name Is Albert Ayler with basssist Nils-Henning Orsted Pedersen, drummer Ronnie Gardiner and pianist Nils Bronsted; and his classic and passionate 1965 ESP Disk release Spiritual Unity with double bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray.
TOC (Orins / Cruz / Ternoy)
Did It Again [4 CDs]
(Tour de Bras / Circum-Disc)
TOC, the trio of Ternoy, Cruz & Orins respectively on keyboards, drums and electric guitar, celebrate fifteen years of free improvisation with this expansive 4-CD set of recordings from the 2021 Spontaneous Music Festival in Poland; Lumen in Budapest in 2021; the 2021 Festival la malterie in Lille, France; and reissuing their 2008 CD on the Circum-Disc label, Le Gorille.
Schlippenbach, Alexander von
Globe Unity
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Wild, nearly unprecedented and an exhilarating direction in European Free Improvisation heard in the 1st recordings from 1966 of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity band, a 14-piece ensemble that included young saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Gerd Dudek & Kris Wanders, bassist Peter Kowald, bass clarinetist Willem Breuker, trumpeter Manfred Schoof, &c.
Blaser, Samuel / Pierre Favre
Same Place, Another Time. [VINYL]
(Blaser Music)
Only the second vinyl LP of Swiss trumpeter Samuel Blaser's career and released on drummer Pierre Favre's 85th birthday, this is their second duo album, well reflecting the extensive collaboration and touring these improvisers from two generations of free jazz have made, bringing nuance, virtuosity and humor together through original free improv and two notable standards.
Lacy, Steve / Evan Parker
Chirps
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
The first reissue in three decades of the 1985 SAJ Series FMP album bringing together legendary saxophonists Steve Lacy and Evan Parker, both on soprano saxophone, for two extended improvisations of magnificent reed interactions and a final coda, performed live during Summer Music at Haus am Waldsee, in Berlin, 1985; an essential album of masterful musicianship.
Cherry, Don
Where Is Brooklyn? & Eternal Rhythm Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Reissuing two albums showing trumpeter Don Cherry's musical evolution through the 1960s, recorded two years apart--Where is Brooklyn from NY in 1966, and Eternal Rhythm recorded in Germany in 1968--demonstrating the development of his style from Ornette-influenced free jazz into music influenced by Northern Indian music and the percussion of Southeast Asia.
Schweizer, Irene / Hamid Drake
Celebration
(Intakt)
Having performed together a number of times in festivals both in Europe and Chicago, the duo of drummer Hamid Drake and pianist Irene Schweizer reveals the familiarity and confidence their history brings to their improvisations, both in intense exchanges and playful melodic passages, as heard in this exemplary 2019 concert at Jazzgallery, in Nickelsdorf, Austria.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Angles 4 (Kuchen / Haker-Flaten / Stahl / Nordeson)
Angles 4 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)
Martin Küchen reunites the Håker Flaten/Nordeson core of Angles 3 with longtime Angles 6/8/9 vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl, revisiting older compositions in a lean quartet setting where volatile bass-and-drum momentum meets metallic resonance around Küchen's stark saxophone themes, distilling the larger ensemble's power into a clearer, more spacious and sharply focused form.
Golding / Brice / Prevost
High Laver Levitations Vol 4: Sound-Out - jazz is dead, long live jazz
(Matchless)
Binker Golding, Olie Brice and Eddie Prévost reduce their earlier Secret Handshake with Danger collaboration to an elemental saxophone, bass and drums trio, bringing contemporary London jazz into Prévost's High Laver Levitations series through vigorous free improvisation where pulse, melody, resonance and abstraction continually test and renew the boundaries of jazz.
Lewis, James Brandon Quartet (Lewis / Ortiz / Jones / Taylor)
Omni
(Intakt)
Advancing James Brandon Lewis' "Molecular Systematic Music" into what he describes as a kind of twelve-tone gospel, this sixth quartet album joins his commanding tenor saxophone and compositions with Aruan Ortiz's incisive piano, Brad Jones' grounded bass and Chad Taylor's responsive drumming in spiritually charged music shaped by rigorous structure, lyrical force and deeply interactive ensemble dialogue.
Mattrey, Joanna / Camila Nebbia / Camilo �ngeles / Violeta Garcia
Heavy Handed
(Relative Pitch)
An international quartet of Joanna Mattrey on viola, Camila Nebbia on tenor saxophone, Camilo Angeles on flute and effects, and Violeta Garcia on cello and effects, developing seven volatile collective improvisations where breath, bowed resonance, abrasive attacks and subtle electronics move between fragile chamber textures, urgent counterpoint and dense, rhythmically charged eruptions.
Blaser, Samuel Quartet
Rosina
(Blaser Music)
Drawing on Italian folk melodies, family memory, and the legacy of Blaser's maternal grandmother, Resistance fighter Rosina Pierina Scarpioni, trombonist Samuel Blaser joins Russ Lossing on piano, Masa Kamaguchi on bass, and Billy Mintz on drums in a deeply personal quartet session of open spaces, raucous interplay, lyrical intimacy, and contemporary improvisation shaped by heritage, song, and identity.
Davis, Miles 3rd Quintet
Reference: Bitches Brew Live 1969 In Europe [2 CDs + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ALAY)
Documenting Miles Davis' 1969 "lost" third quintet live in Berlin, Stockholm and Rotterdam with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, this 2-CD set captures the post-In a Silent Way ensemble reshaping material headed toward Bitches Brew, balancing lyricism and abstraction through open forms, electric-piano clusters, volatile rhythmic invention and Davis' fiercely exploratory trumpet.
Putman, Matthew / Hill Greene / Francisco Mela
Bright Sun Outside
(577 Records)
Matthew Putman, Hilliard Greene and Francisco Mela reunite after Believe That Was Me for a second trio recording of spontaneous composition, balancing Putman's restless piano, Greene's fluid bass and Mela's drums and whistle in music that moves between abstraction, lyricism, turbulence and restraint, deepening a collective language rooted in free improvisation and attentive listening.
Fujii, Satoko Orchestra Kobe
After the Storm
(Libra)
Satoko Fujii conducts her 14-piece Orchestra Kobe through a four-part work composed during the pandemic as an optimistic vision of shared humanity, joining layered reeds and brass with Takumi Seino's volatile guitar, Keishiro Saito's bass and dual drummers Yoshikazu Isaki and Hiromasa Sadaoka in a sweeping progression from stately melody and intimate subgroups to dissonant mass, fiery improvisation and a jubilant final theme.
Fujii, Satoko
Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra [2 CDs]
(Libra)
A rediscovered 2014 live recording captures Satoko Fujii leading a specially assembled Bielefeld orchestra of professionals and young regional musicians through her monumental Shiki and works by Andreas Kaling, Natsuki Tamura, Luise Volkmann, and Fujii, blending conduction, written structure, collective improvisation, electronics, dual drums, and volatile large-ensemble energy.
Parker, Evan / John Zorn
Those Landings
(Tzadik)
Longtime friends and saxophone innovators Evan Parker on soprano and John Zorn on alto meet for their first dedicated studio collaboration, layering circular-breathed lines, multiphonics, whispers, cries and volatile gestures into five spacious works that treat the reeds as sources of breath, texture and atmosphere, balancing intimate beauty with finely controlled turbulence.
[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Play Monk [2 CDs]
(Otoroku)
After six albums reimagining Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright turn their transformative [Ahmed] project toward Thelonious Monk, atomising his compositions across two CDs into volatile, time-bending forms where piano, bass, drums and alto saxophone fracture and reassemble melody, rhythm and space through free jazz intensity, pulse and radical collective invention.
Niggenkemper, Pascal / Ensemble Tuvalu
D'Une Rive A L'Autre [CD+DVD]
(Subran Music)
Bassist Pascal Niggenkemper leads Ensemble Tuvalu in an immersive CD+DVD work inspired by the climate-threatened Pacific island nation, uniting brass, reeds, accordions, strings, voices, and resonant sound installations in a genre-crossing meditation on ecology, displacement, and community, with the audience surrounded by the ensemble in performance and the DVD capturing a live concert realization.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC