''The Enchanted Messenger'' is a live album by a fifteen-piece ensemble called the

Tony Oxley Tony Oxley (born 15 June 1938) is an English free improvising drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records. Biography Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by the age of eight, he first began playing the drums at s ...

Celebration Orchestra, led by English percussionist Tony Oxley, and with trumpeter Bill Dixon appearing as a featured artist. It was recorded in November 1994 at the

Haus der Kulturen der Welt The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of the World's Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and so ...

on the last day of the

Berlin Jazz Festival JazzFest Berlin (also known as the Berlin Jazz Festival) is a jazz festival in Berlin, Germany. Originally called the "Berliner Jazztage" (''Berlin Jazz Days''), it was founded in 1964 in West Berlin by the Berliner Festspiele. Venues included B ...

, and was released in 1995 by

Soul Note Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz. History Black S ...

. The album documents a realization of a 19-part graphic score by Oxley. The performance, which was preceded by two days of rehearsal, was also broadcast on Berlin radio and television.

Reception

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 ...

'' called ''The Enchanted Messenger'' "a superb large-scale composition," and commented: "It is possible to follow the course of this intriguing performance as it gradually dismantles its own initial premises and pushes out into areas of freedom which only the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra and Globe Unity Orchestra have been able to explore with similar conviction... Not an easy record to absorb in just one or two sittings, but one that repays careful and prolonged attention." Ron Welburn, writing for

Jazz Times ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

, stated: "The veteran Oxley directs his ensemble... to achieve powerful undercurrents in sound collage. Mobile units signify chance elements, and resulting timbres obliterate the boundaries between music, architecture, and abstract lithography... the stellar music all create is well beyond the merely iconoclastic." The Chicago Reader's

Peter Margasak Peter Margasak is a music critic, journalist, and artistic director of the annual Frequency Festival in Chicago, an event that grew out of his longstanding work programming the weekly Frequency Series for experimental, improvised, and contemporary ...

described the album as "a tour de force of large-scale improv."

Track listing

Composed by Tony Oxley. # "Section 1" – 5:35 # "Section 2" – 1:45 # "Section 3" – 2:29 # "Section 4" – 1:55 # "Section 5" – 3:27 # "Section 6" – 1:57 # "Section 7" – 2:55 # "Section 8" – 1:25 # "Section 9" – 3:57 # "Section 10" – 3:04 # "Section 11" – 9:34 # "Section 12" – 4:16 # "Section 13" – 1:04 # "Section 14" – 3:00 # "Section 15" – 4:39 # "Section 16" – 6:44 # "Section 17" – 4:02 # "Section 18" – 1:34 # "Section 19" – 5:01

Personnel

– drums, percussion, conductor * Frank Gratkowski – saxophone, bass clarinet * Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky – saxophone, clarinet * Bill Dixon – trumpet, flugelhorn * Johannes Bauer – trombone * Alex Kolkowski – violin *

Philipp Wachsmann Philipp John Paul Wachsmann (born 5 August 1944) is an African avant-garde jazz/jazz fusion violinist born in Kampala, Uganda, probably better known for having founded his own group Chamberpot. He has worked with many musicians in the free jazz id ...

– violin, electronics * Marcio Mattos – cello * Alfred Zimmerlin – cello *

Phil Minton Phil Minton (born 2 November 1940) is a British avant-garde jazz/ free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter. Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook' ...

– voice * Matt Wand – electronics * Pat Thomas – piano, electronics * Jo Thönes – drums, percussion * Stefan Hölker – drums, percussion *

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 1 ...

– drums, percussion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enchanted Messenger 1995 live albums Tony Oxley albums Black Saint/Soul Note live albums