the spit valve

Yesterday I learned that the great English trombonist and improviser Paul Rutherford died August 6 at the age of 67.

The third recording of solo trombone that I heard (after Albert Mangelsdorff’s Tromboneliness and Stuart Dempster’s In the Great Abbey of Clement VI) was Paul’s The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie (Emanem). Although I was very interested in improvised music, this was one of those records that I really didn’t get at first. Precisely for this reason, I kept coming back to it, and it wasn’t long before I found myself trying to incorporate elements of what I took him to be doing into my own playing. Eventually, of course, I came to realize that that recording is an essential document of improvised music, as are many others that he made, and for years now I have thought of Paul as one of the major influences on my own approach to the trombone.

I was fortunate to have several opportunities to play and record with him, in a group at the Empty Bottle festival in 2002 and with Globe Unity Orchestra in 2006 and 2007. Especially on those later occasions, it was clear that his health was not good. I was extremely impressed by the fact that he did not at all let that affect his commitment or focus on the performances we did then, and in talking with him it was obvious that his passion for music was undimmed. He played beautifully every time I heard him. I’ll continue to aspire to the things he showed me.

– was a lot of fun. Mars, Jason, Nate, Josh, Quin and Frank all did a great job with the 45-minute suite-like piece that I wrote for the occasion. Hoping to do it again before long in a different venue here in town.

My May 22 resolution is to start writing more posts on this blog. There, now it’s in public, so I have to do it.

As part of the Downtown Sound Gallery Series at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Gallery 37, on Monday, May 21, I’m presenting a set of new music for a new septet:

Jeb Bishop - trombone
Mars Williams - saxophones
Jason Adasiewicz - vibes
Nate McBride - bass
Josh Abrams - bass
Quin Kirchner - drums
Frank Rosaly - drums

The gig is at 7 pm at Gallery 37’s Storefront Theater,
66 E. Randolph St., across from the Chicago Cultural Center.

It’s free, but you still have to have a ticket.
You can call 312-742-8497 to reserve in advance
or pick a ticket up at the box office before
the show.

As Jeff put it over at Scratch My Brain:

The Lucky 7s CD, Farragut, is in the top 10 of WNUR’s Top 50 Albums of 2006 as selected by their DJs. It is also in their top 50 based on airplay.

Find out what the folks at WNUR already know.

Also, check out the Lucky 7s website for news about reviews in Downbeat, Jazz Times, Cadence, and more.

Some sounds have finally been posted at the sound clips page at jebbishop.com.

Via the website of English saxophonist John Butcher, I came across a couple of interesting essays recently:

One is a talk Evan Parker gave in Portugal, at the Jazz em Agosto festival, about John Coltrane.

I was intrigued by the idea mentioned there of improvisation as problem-solving (within what we could call a well-defined paradigm) versus improvising “as a test – the testing of the predetermined structures to their limit, to their destruction.”

The essay is full of lots of other interesting observations as well.

The other is an article by Dominic Lash about Derek Bailey and the idea of “language/vocabulary” as a metaphor for the materials improvisers use. I think at one time I had some sort of vague idea that I wanted to approach improvising with absolutely no preconceptions about what kinds of events, techniques, sounds, etc. to use. But I (now) don’t think that’s a useful way of conceptualizing it. To use a different metaphor, you have to show up at the job with a box of tools that can reasonably be expected to be useful for the job you are hoping to do.

[Re-posted from the old Spit Valve]

Recently I was asked to provide liner notes for a recording of a concert by trombonist Paul Rutherford, bassist Torsten Müller, and percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. The CD is called The Zone and it’s out on Konnex.

Writing about music is an enterprise that I have always found to be baffling and unappealing (I mean the idea of me doing it — of course there are folks who do it well), but I wanted to take a shot at it this time, because I’ve worked with all three of these musicians, and like and admire them personally and musically, and it’s a very good CD. So I came up with the text reproduced below, which amounts in part to a statement about how I view the issue of recordings of improvised music. Though, really, the observations could apply to recordings of anything. Anyway, before this post turns into me writing liner notes about my liner notes, here they are:

Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I got an envelope in the mail with a return address in Pittsboro, North Carolina, not too far from my hometown of Raleigh. The envelope contained a used copy of Brian Eno’s diary “A Year (With Swollen Appendices),” and nothing else. No name on the envelope, no note with the book, no indication of who sent it. As far as I know I don’t know anyone who lives in Pittsboro, and I don’t recognize the address. (My fiancée Jaki, the librarian, tried to track it down online; we got a name of “J.A. Wilson” for the address, but I have no idea who that could be.)

I was happy to get it, as the book is one I have looked at briefly before and it seems interesting to me. I’m not a huge Eno follower but I do enjoy much of his work. Besides the music of his that I admire (Here Come the Warm Jets, Before and After Science, Music for Airports, his keyboards on Roxy Music’s ‘Editions of You’), I saw a show of video-based works at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1985 that included a number of Eno pieces that I have remembered over the years.

Speaking of Music for Airports, it came in handy at the Hideout a few weeks ago when I was the invited DJ, an activity I know nothing about. My theme for the night was Jeb Bishop Plays Two Records At Once. (Actually, I hoped to play as many as four at once, but it turned out that I was limited technologically to two on this occasion. Though four may be possible if somebody hooks up the cords right.) Anyhow, Music for Airports works nicely with lots of other records. For example, side two, track two of Anthony Braxton’s Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979 turns out to be remarkably compatible with side two, track two of Music For Airports. (I got the idea originally because both Eno and Braxton use graphic titles.)

So I am looking forward to reading the book. It’s early enough in the year that maybe I can catch up with the current date and just follow along day by day.

Whoever you are, if you happen to read this, thanks for sending it.

There, I wrote a real blog post.

I guess I might have to change the name of this thing, as I see at least two other brass-related online entities called the Spit Valve, including some kind of page by Mark Isham.

If you visited my site before I redesigned it, maybe you looked at the blog over there. I didn’t bother trying to save those few posts here at the new site … I suppose they are floating around in the cache.