''Zurich Concerts'' is a double live album by
Barry Guy and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra featuring recordings of two large-scale compositions, one by Guy, the other by guest artist
Anthony Braxton. The Guy work was recorded on November 11, 1987, at
Rote Fabrik in Zürich, while the Braxton work was recorded on March 27, 1988, at the same location. The album was initially released on LP in 1988 by
Intakt Records
Intakt Records is an independent record label, based in Zürich.
History
The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.Margasak, Peter (September 2013) "Intakt's Landolt Takes Long-Term Approach to Avant-Garde". ''Down Beat''. p. 16. In the ea ...
, and was reissued on CD in 1995.
Reception
In a review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, Thom Jurek wrote: "the attendees at these Zurich concerts were treated to the most intimate and prophetic of expressions in these two evenings. They were also given evidence of the very ground on which free improvisation and new composition stand linked to one another."
The authors of ''
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...
'' noted that "this is one of the few occasions when
raxton'scontact with British and European improvisors has seemed to yield a genuinely communicative music," and stated that "whereas Guy likes to work with existing sub-groups of the orchestra, Braxton layers compositions... in dense palimpsests."
CD track listing
;Disc 1
# "Polyhymnia " (Barry Guy) – 37:30
;Disc 2
# "Composition 135 (+41, 63, 96), 136 (+96), 108B (+86, 96), 134 (+96)" (Anthony Braxton) – 56:47
Personnel
*
Barry Guy – bass (disc 2), conductor (disc 1)
*
Anthony Braxton – conductor (disc 2)
*
Evan Parker – reeds
*
Paul Dunmall
Paul Dunmall (born 6 May 1953) is a British jazz musician who plays tenor and soprano saxophone, as well as the baritone and the more exotic saxello and the Northumbrian smallpipes. He has played with Keith Tippett and Barry Guy.
In the early ...
– reeds
* Peter McPhail – reeds
* Simon Picard – reeds
*
Trevor Watts – reeds
*
Henry Lowther – trumpet
* Jon Corbett – trumpet
*
Marc Charig – cornet
* Alan Tomlinson – trombone
*
Paul Rutherford – trombone
*
Radu Malfatti – trombone
* Steve Wick – tuba
*
Philipp Wachsmann – violin
*
Howard Riley – piano
*
Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips (born October 27, 1934, in San Francisco, California, United States) is an American jazz bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he moved to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972, he has been based in south ...
– bass (disc 1)
*
Dave Holland – bass (disc 2)
*
Paul Lytton
Paul Lytton (born 8 March 1947, London) is an English free jazz and free improvising percussionist.
Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began ...
– drums
*
Tony Oxley – drums (disc 2)
References
{{Reflist
1988 live albums
Barry Guy live albums
Anthony Braxton live albums
Intakt Records live albums