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Click on the panels for a better view or to download jpg artwork.
EVAN PARKER AND TRANCE MAP PLUS
Cheltenham 2018 [TomP remaster, 1CD]
Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, UK; May 5, 2018; broadcast June 25, 2018. Very good BBC Radio 3 live stream TS-File.
Mike Hobart, ft.com:
Evan Parker’s multi-faceted fluency, circular breathing and control of pitch and tone are rooted in years of study, yet his head isn’t stuck in the clouds. Laughing, he describes how his oboist grandson sends up Parker’s phonics, microtones and multiple lines. “Some people don’t hear them at all - they just hear a racket,” he says. “My grandson’s impression of my solo playing is to basically blow and wiggle his fingers. Of course, that’s what I’m doing - but it’s all about how you blow and how you wiggle.”
This coming Saturday he will perform at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival with Trance Map, a five-piece ensemble that sets Parker alongside electronics duo Springheel Jack, bassist Adam Linson and Matt Wright on laptop and turntables. “It all looks desperately up to date on paper,” Parker says. “Maybe it is.” It’s a project that is helped by a comfortable onstage understanding, he adds: “Two or three words from me, and that’s it.”
The Cheltenham gig will explore the aesthetics of the late British drummer and composer Basil Kirchin, whose experiments with found sound helped lay the foundations of ambient music. Kirchin made natural sounds sound like instruments and instruments sound like natural sounds, says Parker. With some pleasure he tells a story of fellow saxophonist Alan Barnes meeting Kirchin some years ago: the composer played Barnes two recordings - one of a whooper swan, and the other of Parker playing sax. Kirchin challenged Barnes: “I defy you to tell me which is which.” That is Parker’s kind of compliment.
In Parker’s view, free jazz is “a natural place for instrumentalists to go”. “They don’t want to be told what to do other than some polite niceties like ‘don’t play too loud’, ‘don’t play too many notes’.”
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Evan Parker in a collaboration with Spring Heel Jack (John Coxon and Ashley Wales) recorded live by BBC Radio Three at the 2018 Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
Thanks to TomP for sharing the show at Dime.
Thanks also to Lewojazz for the artwork.
Lineage:
BBC Radio 3 live stream TS-File
It did need a few edits and now it sounds really clear and powerful.
Audition CS5.5 unless indicated:
Removed all talk
Normalised volume
Corrected patches of phase inversion throughout
Corrected volume drops @ 10:05 and 23:45
DC offset correction (Nero)
Cross-mixed channels 99:1 ratio (Nero)
Flac tags (Tag & Rename)
Flac 6, decode check & md5 (TLH)
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
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Tracks have been arbitrarily split for easier access.
Track 01. Improvisation - Part A 7:37
Track 02. Improvisation - Part B 10:50
Track 03. Improvisation - Part C 12:55
Track 04. Improvisation - Part D 8:14
Track 05. Improvisation - Part E 8:50
Track 06. Improvisation - Part F 7:24
56 mins
Lineup:
Evan Parker - soprano sax
Matt Wright - laptop/turntables
John Coxon - electronics
Ashley Wales - electronics
Adam Linson - bass
Click here to order Evan Parker releases.
Click here to order Spring Heel Jack releases.